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Page 4 Shelton-Mason County Journal Thursday, July 27, 2023
starting at age 17. All
were used, save one, and
only two had any dollar value
when I finished with them.
All, however, have story
value.
No. l, 1977: A 1972 Volk-
swagen Super Beetle, which I
bought for $1,200 from used
car lot in the Spokane Val-
ley called Christian Brothers
Automotive. At some point
in the transaction, one of
the brothers asked whether
I was a Christian. Yes, I re-
plied. “Good,” he said, “we
like to keep sales in the fam—
ily.” I asked what the car’s
top speed was. The Christian
said, “As Christians, we be-
lieve in obeying the law, in—
cluding speed limits.” Within
a few months, the Rolling
Stones’ “Exile on Main St.”
cassette was at top volume
and in heavy rotation in that
car, and being a Christian
wasn’t.
No. 2, 1979: An Interna—
tional Scout Camper, with
fold—out sleepers on the side. I
needed a place to sleep alone
instead of the one-room
bunkhouse ~ because the
I’ve bought 10 cars in life,
Storiesofo
THESE
TIMES
other farmhand on the ranch
that summer in Republic in
Ferry County found President
Ronald Reagan enthralling,
and he couldn’t stop yammer-
ing about him. I also found his
offer ofa back rub suggestive.
Mel appeared three years
later on national TV, being
interviewed by Ed Bradley on
“60 Minutes.” Mel was openly
challenging his eviction from
the Navy because ofits ban
on gay service members.
No. 3, 1980: I remember
little about this car, except
it backfired often. A woman
followed me home from work
once, and upon exiting her
car, she asked, “Do you know
you have flames coming out
of the exhaust pipe?” “Yeah,”
I said. Those were not good
days.
No. 4, 1982: A Peugeot 504
sedan. I had no business own—
ing this car because it was too
finicky and too expensive to
repair. The spark plugs were
seated so deep in the engine
block you needed a special
socket wrench to reach them,
and the car wouldn’t start if
the atmosphere had so much
as licked its lips within the
previous hour. To start the
car, I’d often have to remove
the distributor cap to dry the
contacts, then hope it would
start before the battery died.
That car caused more frus-
tration than any I’ve owned,
but when it was freewheeling
on the road, with the sunroof
open and the stereo playing,
it was ajoy. It made the frus-
tration worth it, like raising
kids.
No. 5, 1984: A 1985 Ford
Escort, my only new car. I
bought it from Curley John—
son Ford in Monroe, Wash.
Mr. Johnson gave me $400
for the Peugeot as a trade-
in, even after I told him
rlives '— the automobile chapter
everything wrong with it.
That fussy and thoroughly
French Peugeot was never
driven off that car lot.
No. 6, 1994: A black, four-
door Volvo with sunroof. I
test—drove it with my 2-year-
old boy in the back. Alex
quickly fell asleep in his car
seat, which I realized was
the nonfactory option I had
sought in my next vehicle.
Nos. 7 and 8, 2007 to
2010: Two red Camry sta-
tion wagons. The first one
broke down on a city street. I
pushed it a quarter—mile to a
repair shop, where a dodder—
ing guy with long gray hair
opened the hood, grabbed a
can of compressed air and
pulled its lever. The nozzle
was pointed the wrong way,
so he blasted air into his face,
causing him to reel backward
and rap his head on the un—
derside of the hood. That car
didn’t survive the surgery.
The second Camry went in—
ert in Lynnwood while driv—
ing my oldest son to a Little
League game. I left the car on
the street, walked him to the
ballpark, called a tow truck,
had it towed to a shop where
the diagnosis was unhappy, so
I had it towed to a scrapyard,
where the woman there of—
fered to take it for free, which
was a sweet deal. I ran back '
to the baseball game and got
there in the ninth inning, giv—
ing as just enough time to set
a ride home with a player’s
odd parents.
No. 9, 2010: A 2004 Dae—
woo Leganza. A news colum-
nist with The (Tacoma) News
Tribune was the only one
I knew who had a Daewoo.
We actively wondered whose
would end first. His did.
No. 10, 2017: A 2004
Infiniti 135. I bought it in
July 2017 from a young fel-
low named Michael Bolton,
just like the character in the
movie “Office Space.” The car
is now totaled. An SUV ran
a red light and damaged the
front passenger door beyond
the car’s value. One week
later in a mall parking lot, the
driver’s side door got bashed,
bringing a renewed symmetry
to the vehicle. I don’t have to
worry about dents now.
I Contact Kirk Ericson, at
kirkkllmasoncountycom
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Good Samaritans
Editor, the Journal,
Perhaps the city authorities — particu-
larly those who attend church — could
speak to their church pastor asking them
to accommodate the homeless just like
Jesus said to do.
I might surmise that a few church pas—
tors and priests are aware of Shelton’s
park “tent city.”
I suspect Shelton pastors have some—
time in their long list of religious ser-
mons preached about the good Samari-
tan story where it’s recommended to stop
and help a man in trouble when others
wouldn’t. Have not these Shelton pastors
read the scripture in Luke 6:30 where Je—
sus says to “give to any man that asks of
you, and if any man lake from you don’t
ask for it back.” If the homeless would
simply ask the preacherman to sleep in-
side their church for the night, that prea—
cherman who claims to follow the teach—
ings of Jesus would gleefully open up the
church doors and help them, too, they
would accommodate a portion of their
parking lot for them to pitch tents and
actually practice what they preach.
Problem solved.
Also, it’s not just the homeless they
are dismissing. I find it interesting that
when the church has a problem they ask
SHELTON-MASON COUNTY
USPS 492-800
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County Journal, PO. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584.
Published weekly by the Shelton-Mason County Journal
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the congregation for money, yet when the
congregants have a problem, the prea—
cherman says to pray about it. Think-
ing: We have two large churches in town
competing with each other for who has
the bigger building, remodeling and add-
ing on rooms and such. Seemingly, they
don’t have time to be a good Samaritan.
Darrell Barker
Shelton
Auditor replies
Editor, the Journal,
Dear Mr. Anderson;
Thank you for your continued inter-
est in our elections system. The Elections
Department team works diligently to
update voter rolls with information regu-
larly provided from the USPS Change
of Address database and the Electronic
Registration Information Center (ERIC)
system. With that, I spend the better part
of my work week resolving specific “voter
anomaly” questions brought forward
by citizens and formal voter registra—
tion challenges. I also look into alleged
instances of voters voting in two states
in the same election based on informa—
tion provided by the Secretary of State’s
Office. You will find the summary stat-
ics for this work on the elections web-
site at masoncountywaelections.gov/
Owned and published by
Shelton—Mason County Journal, Inc.
The Journal is a member of the
Washington Newspaper Publish—
ers Association.
Publisher:
John Lester
previous-elections—results—data. Copies
of the current set of formal voter regis~
tration challenges are also posted on the
elections website.
Please stop by the Auditor’s Office
for a visit, and I will be happy to walk
you through how this important work is
done. It’s our job, and I think you would
agree that it is an example of tax dollars
well spent.
Steve Duenkcl
Mason County auditor
How the sun works
Editor, the Journal,
The sun, our life-giver and protector.
The sun’s relatively tiny core, because
of extreme pressure and temperature,
is a nuclear furnace that is emitting le—
thal ultra—high frequency energy. As
this extreme energy makes its way to
the surface of the sun, it loses much of
its frequency and at the surface the en-
ergy is radiated away in the form of solar
radiation.
Mostly, these waves carry energy with
frequencies in the range of radio to infra-
red through visible to ultraviolet.
The sun also throws off a constant
stream of plasma, which is a mixture of
electrons, ions, neutral atoms and other
traces of matter. The temperature of the
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upper layers of the sun’s corona is many
times hotter than the surface of the sun.
The plasma becomes energetic enough
to sail away from the sun’s gravitational
influence and as the sun rotates, a spiral—
ing curtain of this plasma spins out into
space and forms what is known as the
solar wind. How is this super-hot plasma
able to sail away into super-cold space
and stay hot?
The solar wind carries a magnetic field
along with it as it spins away from the
sun and thus forms a field known as the
interplanetary magnetic field. This field
balloons out into space and surrounds
the entire solar system, even beyond Plu-
to. The solar wind acts as a shield to help
protect the planets from high-energy ef—
fects such as cosmic rays and perhaps
other unknown effects.
Eventually the interplanetary field
begins to lose its velocity and starts to
cool down. It reaches the point where it
can no longer push back against the elem"
tromagnetic field and particle wind push—
ing in from the deep interstellar space
between stars and galaxies and :1 output/
input balance is achieved.
Scott Peterson
Shelton
see LETTERS, page 34
____________________________._.._.._____—.——————-——~-——------—
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Karen Hranac, Customer Service
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