09:46 – I’m still hard at work on designing new science kits for later this year and early next, not to mention roughing out documentation for them. For the time being, we’re in reasonably good shape in terms of finished-goods inventory on all three kits, although we’ll start another batch of chemistry kits this coming weekend.
Meanwhile, I’m staying indoors as much as possible. It’s miserable outside. The high temperatures haven’t been bad–typically mid- to upper-80’s (~ 30 to 32C)–but the humidity is hideous. Since the first of August, our rain gauges have registered more than 14 inches (~ 36 cm) of rain. (The official total at the airport is 10.32 inches, but we’ve gotten more.) Just as I do every summer, I think about how nice it would be to live in a cooler climate.
Yeah, but the winters would be awful.
Who cares about winters? I seldom leave the house anyway, so snow and ice aren’t an issue for me. I’d like natural gas heat and a wood/coal stove for backup. I’m a lot happier when it’s 0F outside than when it’s 100F.
My ideal is probably something like Köppen Dfa/Dfb, which is what I grew up with in northwestern Pennsylvania and coincidentally is the climate of High River, AB, which is where Heartland is filmed. Actually, that climate category is also available not far from Winston-Salem, in the North Carolina mountains up around Asheville. Which oddly enough is close to Boone, with its (literal) rainforest climate.
Dave seems to have escaped the summer heat, but even friends and family in northern Michigan have said this has been a really uncomfortable summer. It certainly has been the hottest summer on record for Indiana. Right now, it is 82°F out my back door with 85% humidity. The ground—including concrete—is wet, and it did not even rain. All that moisture—which normally would be dried out by noon—is from crossing the dewpoint early this morning. I have never lived through a more miserably hot summer.
By weekend, temps should recede around here to daytime highs of the lower 70’s and overnights of around 50. That will be much more tolerable, and maybe signals the beginning of that early fall the old-timers have been predicting. Nuts are falling from trees like crazy, and that is a full month ahead of schedule. In the meantime, the humidity here is just unbearable.
And here is an economic consequence the schools have caused. Indiana switched to a new system where school starts the first week of August, and vacations are one month at a time spaced throughout the year. No more 3-month summers, like in my era. The local swimming pool closed in mid-August—even though we continued to have record-breaking heat. And the local soft-serve ice cream stand, tells me they are going to be driven out of business by this change. Their revenue dropped off dramatically with the month-early start of school. Normally, August is their best month, but except for a few customers for lunch, they might as well close. Our genius-level education system is not satisfied with turning out ignorant students; they have to drive businesses into bankruptcy, too.
I thought the new normal was two weeks for each vacation. I don’t know because the Smallville schools only made a slight calendar change by extending the fall break from two days to five days. However school here still started early in August this year. The local school year ends within a week of Memorial day.
I think we should keep to the more traditional schedule though. I think we should restore the one punishment for school kids that might get past our politically correct betters. That is the dreaded summer school. I think that kids who don’t meet grade level expectations and aren’t retained should be required to attend summer school.
I loved summer school. There were all kinds of optional courses that weren’t offered during the regular school year.
Me, too. And in my summer school, they allowed you to read books uninterrupted, as long as you got through the workbook at a reasonable pace. Teachers only lectured for about 10 minutes in the morning, and the rest of the half-day was yours.
This one-month-at-a-time vacation is playing havoc with the people I know who have younger school-age children. With both parents working, it was easy to get college kids to babysit for the whole summer, but now finding a sitter for just one month has got them scrambling. So far, neither of the two couples I know who are in this situation have found anyone willing to take the job for only 1 month.
Here’s how dumb US schools are. One of my daughters wanted braces as she entered 10th grade. During the school year, with normal doctor/parent excused absences, she exceed the “official number of excused absences” by half a school day because of brace adjustments. She got straight A’s that year, but still had to go to summer school to make up time missed. Did I mention the straight A’s. She had to attend a class for two hours for most of the summer on a Saturday. She read books the whole time since there was nothing to make up. I went in person and wrote the principal and the school board. Their answer was “too bad, we have a zero tolerance policy on absences.” Didn’t matter that she got straight A’s for the year.
I don’t think any of my babysitters were college kids. The ones that were kids were high school kids. My wife knows a couple of high school age kids who would make suitable babysitters for our daughter who is a toddler. There are lots of high school age kids we wouldn’t trust for the job. For that matter there are lots of adults that we wouldn’t trust to babysit our daughter. But still I think it’s something a teenager should be able to do.
I think part of the trend toward zero tolerance policy is because of cultural changes in how parents react to news of misbehavior of children. My best friend and his wife were at a parent teacher conference when the teacher said that their middle school age boy was guilty of the typical mild misbehavior you expect from a normal boy. They looked at her like she was full of organic fertilizer. The teacher started getting defensive when the parents interrupted. The parents desperately wanted to know how the teacher got their son to behave so well. I gather from that story that the average parent now reacts to accurate stories of misbehavior by their little darling with complete denial.
Well, our friends have more than one kid involved. One has 2 kids, one just learning to walk, with an older brother in 2nd grade; the other family has 3 kids, one in 3rd grade, another in 1st, and a toddler of 4. Always risky not to have a near adult supervising for all-day sitting, when 2 or more are involved and one or more is not self-sufficient.
One couple had an adult nanny take care of the kids until this year, but they cannot find anybody at that level of experience, who wants a job only for a month, three times a year.
mratoz’ story is just insane. The reason for the make-up is because the schools do not get money from the government, if kids do not show up for school for a preset number of days. Fortunately, around here, they cannot flunk kids for any reason, so being ordered to attend summer school would be ignored by any kid who had A’s and no work to make up. The school would just have to suffer financial loss and stuff it.
See, the whole damn system is insane; everything, from the financial infrastructure to the civil infrastructure to the mis-education systems to corporate, bankster and Wall Street shenanigans, is way messed up. This stuff they do to kids and their parents over the past forty or fifty years? I have come to reckon that it is deliberate; the with-malice-aforethought planned long-term strategy of destroying the American nuclear family and replacing it with Our Nanny the Almighty State, from womb to tomb. Make us all wholly dependent on the Leviathan bureaucracy.
And as illustrated here, when you go to the authorities/bureaucrats to complain you are totally blown off at best or insulted and threatened. Zero tolerance my ass; they have zero tolerance for some things but not for LOTS of other things, don’t they? Hypocrite leftist scum for the most part, coming from the leftward side of fascism, usually. It wouldn’t take much to get them into nifty brown uniforms and jackboots.
This system has to come down, all the way down. Anything less is pissing up a rope.
As for climate stuff, I really don’t know how our host stands it down there in the tropics, having grown up in, at least, Pennsylvania. I had enough of heat and humidity in east Texas and southeast Asia to last me several lifetimes, not to mention the damn bugs and venomous reptiles. And in the case of the Carolinas and Virginia and Maryland, way too close to Mordor On The Potomac.
Northern New England and the Maritimes for me, but if I was thirty or forty years younger I would definitely consider the Rocky Mountain states and western Canadian provinces, also Alaska. Ice and snow are my friends; heat and bugs and rattlesnakes, gators and cobras are not.
Dave B wrote:
“For that matter there are lots of adults that we wouldn’t trust to babysit our daughter. But still I think it’s something a teenager should be able to do.”
Don’t misunderstand me, but I don’t like kids. It must be obvious because I’ve only been asked to babysit a child unsupervised once: my elder nephew for a couple of hours in January 1977, when he was four months old. Babysitting is a job that would drive me nuts, definitely a woman’s/girl’s job.
RBT wrote:
“Who cares about winters? I seldom leave the house anyway, so snow and ice aren’t an issue for me. I’d like natural gas heat and a wood/coal stove for backup. I’m a lot happier when it’s 0F outside than when it’s 100F.”
Sorry to be a pedant, but if you rarely go outside what does the temperature/humidity out there matter? Do you have to shovel snow in W-S? You could probably multiply that by a factor of ten in Alberta. And you’d have to get rid of all your guns, assuming the Cannuks would take you. IMHO Ashville looks the better option. Do they have tornadoes there?
OFD wrote:
“And in the case of the Carolinas and Virginia and Maryland, way too close to Mordor On The Potomac. ”
If the cops found my Barry Manilow collection and deported me to the US I’d want to live on or near the coast, where it was warm to hot in summer, which means the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland or southern California. I like the beach, and I like the, ah, sightseeing. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan looks nice, and it’s on the coast, sort of, but I bet the winters and the bugs would be pretty bad.
If you chose a spot very close to the big lake, neither bugs nor winters are bad. Within a half-mile of the lake, precipitation is moderated somehow, and the constant breeze off the lake is too much for the bugs. I went to summer camp there while growing up, and unless you get into the woods at night, mosquitoes are not a problem. Seldom a need for air-conditioning near the lake, either.
Get away from the lake and you had better have a good snow-blower and 4WD, because there is as much snow as in Minnesota.
And it is DARK at night in that part of the country when there is no moon, and Lake Michigan requires a wet suit for me, as it is way too cold. Same was true when I lived on the other side of the lake in Chicago.
Man this website is super-slow tonight. Taking well over a minute for every one of my posts to be accepted.
Same here. My posts are taking 30-45 seconds.
[snip] Didn’t matter that she got straight A’s for the year. [snip]
Back in 7th grade I went through a series of surgeries, and missed quite a few days of school. One day the principal called my parents in for a conference. The conversation went something like this:
Principal: Young pcb_duffer has missed 29 days of school so far this year.
Mom & Dad: Yes, we know it’s a lot, but he’s kept up with all his work.
P: But we have no record of him having a tutor.
M&D: Why would he need a tutor? He has the highest grade in every one of his classes.
P: Because state law says we have to fail him if he missed 30 days and hasn’t had a tutor.
My mom & I recognized the “I’m going to stomp on everyone in this room!” look on my dad’s face and quickly hustled him to the car. I still wish they would have waited until the 30th day to say something, because my dad would probably have burned the school down. In the end, doctor’s appointments were scheduled for school holidays, after school, etc, and I came to school sick a few times, too. Great fun.
Yep, it’s this site; others I have open have been fine. This has been wicked slow for hours for some reason.
Miles Teg, if you’re ever forced to flee Oz, consider moving to the Florida panhandle, a/k/a Lower Alabama. Warm weather, beautiful beaches, and all the extras that entails.
Do Florida panhandle ladies have the same lovely accent that their Alabaman sisters have? If so, you’ve sold me.
Northern New England and the Maritimes for me, but if I was thirty or forty years younger I would definitely consider the Rocky Mountain states and western Canadian provinces, also Alaska.
Dunno, Alaska and Canada might be too much of a good thing. But give me real weather. The best climate I ever lived in was in Mass. just south of the New Hampshire border. Hot summers, cold winters with piles of snow, pleasant springs and stunning autumns.
I’ve visited California, and can’t imagine how anyone can live in such a boring, unchanging climate. Seasons are like a clock, marking off the passing of time. Without them, I feel lost. But then, my wife thinks I’m a bit strange for enjoying a raging thunderstorm.
Miles Teg, if you’re ever forced to flee Oz, consider moving to the Florida panhandle, a/k/a Lower Alabama. Warm weather, beautiful beaches, and all the extras that entails.
Being a resident of TN I was informed that to cross the state line into Alabama I was required to bust out a tooth and break a taillight. May have something to do with the football rivalry. 🙂
But seriously, I have spent some time in Alabama and it is really quite a nice state.
Do Florida panhandle ladies have the same lovely accent that their Alabaman sisters have? If so, you’ve sold me.
Indeed they do from my experience. And many of them were very nice looking ladies indeed. Some were even driving new tractors. 🙂
can’t imagine how anyone can live in such a boring, unchanging climate
Having lived in Hawaii for two years that indeed was one of my chief complaints. Having come from Oregon where you had real seasons, Hawaii has none. Every day is the same. Boring.
Weather outdoors affects indoors. For example, I’ve been working a lot down in the unfinished area of our basement. It’s nice and cool down there, but the humidity is so high I end up dripping sweat after just a few minutes.
The gun issue is one reason I’d like to have a paired set of places on either side of the border.
Might I suggest a dehumidifier for the unfinished portion of the basement. We have one, and it works great. The one we have has connector for a short length of garden hose so that the water drains into the sump so that I don’t have to constantly empty the tank. (I’m assuming that the hole in the basement floor where the sump pump goes is called a sump.)
[snip] Do Florida panhandle ladies have the same lovely accent that their Alabaman sisters have? If so, you’ve sold me. [snip]
Yes, indeed. The natives (and I’m one) typically have a ‘southern’ accent, as do the vast majority of the summertime tourists. You will hear a leavening of other accents among the people who move here, and especially among all the military folks who get stationed here. There are quite a few military bases from Pensacola – Panama City, and others in southern Alabama (Ft. Rucker) and southern Georgia (Ft. Benning, Moody & Robins AFBs, USMC logistics facility in Albany). I’ve always maintained that kids who are military brats have the most neutral accents. They’ve been exposed to so many different accents between their playmates and their regular change of scenery that it flattens out everything.
Dropping the humidity in the unfinished portion of your basement will also inhibit mold growth and improve the shelf life of anything you’re storing there. If you’re storing science kit related stuff there, a dehumidifier might even be a tax deductible business expense. (I am not a lawyer or tax adviser, so I don’t give tax advice.)
Yeah, I actually thought about putting in a dehumidifier. We had one years ago, and when it died we never replaced it.
The other advantage would be the unlimited supply of distilled water. Water from a dehumidifier isn’t potable, but it is by definition distilled. As long as I kept the air filter clean and washed off the condensing coils frequently, the water it produced would be more than good enough for making up kit solutions. I was thinking about buying a water still to provide DI water for the kits, but this’d kill two birds.
Perhaps northern Vermont or New Hampshire? Forget the Vampire State.
Rain, drizzle, showers, and t-storms up here today and through the weekend, looks like. Warm and very humid, as we watch the leaves turn and scatter about underfoot, as though it is already Fall. But…two more weeks of summuh!
Mrs. OFD off to Kalifornia again tomorrow early, for another week, then home for a week, then off yet again out there for three days. This puts a little dent in our moving operations this month, natch. Not a lot I can do while working 50 hours a week and commuting ten. Maybe if I don’t sleep….
Ray wrote:
“Having lived in Hawaii for two years that indeed was one of my chief complaints. Having come from Oregon where you had real seasons, Hawaii has none. Every day is the same. Boring.”
You obviously didn’t spend enough time on the beach.
Dave, perhaps you should move out to Calif. Save traveling time for the Mrs.
RBT wrote:
“The other advantage would be the unlimited supply of distilled water. Water from a dehumidifier isn’t potable, but it is by definition distilled.”The other advantage would be the unlimited supply of distilled water. Water from a dehumidifier isn’t potable, but it is by definition distilled.”
Isn’t distilled water potable? What’s it got in it that makes it unhealthy to drink?
You obviously didn’t spend enough time on the beach.
Yes, I did. But even that got boring. Too many tourists that made it crowded. On the east part of the island I could find some isolated beaches but the problem is there were not enough tourists of the female persuasion. There was not a lot of surf on those isolated beaches.
After awhile you get fed up with the high cost of everything. The locals don’t like white skinned people because we are not spending money like the tourists. You are basically living on a rock and to get anywhere requires a plane trip or boat trip. Five hours to fly to the mainland.
I like to go places and see things. On the main island you can only go so many places. The fresh pineapple, as in the guy in the stand would go pick it for me, was excellent and a welcome treat. Mango, Guava and Papaya were enjoyed all year round.
Living on the economy was just a real challenge due to the expense of everything. A nice place to visit but living there sucks in my opinion.
Bacteria, mold spores, and protists, mainly.