09:15 – The first day of summer, and it’s coming in around here like a ferocious panda. Highs for the next week or two are forecast to be in the mid- to upper-90’s F. I blame global warming. Either that, or it’s just hot.
With it being so miserable outside, Barbara and I spent yesterday working indoors on kit stuff. We’ll do the same today, after she finishes cleaning house and I finish the laundry.
Oh, definitely global warming – that’s why we have a high of 59F today
“Highs for the next week or two are forecast to be in the mid- to upper-90’s…”
My condolences. It rarely gets like that here, and only for a day or two at most. Right now it’s 66, overcast, and we’re expecting possible t-storm activity.
Mrs. OFD called last night and is in Albuquerque for a day, staying in an adobe Air-b&b house where it’s 100 outside but only 70 inside those foot-thick adobe walls, without using the A-C. Today she’s driving to El Paso and will stop along the way at a little store she’s been to before and replenish our supply of autentico chile powders and suchlike. Muy bueno, amigos!
I may try to do some outside grunt work today and then move inside if it starts pouring; I’d like to make a reasonable dent in the to-do list this week before the days of the consuming locusts arrive starting Wednesday.
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads. I know it’s a Hallmark Holiday(tm) but I appreciate the recognition anyway. Especially in today’s anti-male environment.
Got the geni running on open choke, and the lawn mower too since it was fouled. Carbs don’t work so well when full of sand. I’ll be adding in-line fuel filters to both machines.
Still need to change the oil in the geni, but at least it’s running well. Maybe I’ll get the chainsaw running today.
My gift from the kids was an extra 3 hours of sleep (after first being woken with a kiss and well wishes, which I loved).
The weather is currently 91deg w/70% RH for a misery index of 104. And it’s overcast so that will only get worse if the sun comes out.
As part of my preps I’ve been trying various things that are supposed to help one cope with the heat. I like the gel filled bandanas that you soak with water, and drape around your neck. They do help cool you as they have a specific evaporation rate, which slows that down. The problem with evap cooling in TX is our high RH. Yesterday sweat was literally streaming from the end of my nose. It’s hard to stay well hydrated working in conditions like that. Just drinking water can get you hospitalized, see also water poisoning.
I also have an evap cooling vest, designed for construction workers, firefighters, and race car drivers. I got it cheap at a thrift store. I haven’t tried it yet, but as we say down here, “I’m fixin’ to.”
A lightweight ‘boonie’ or outback style hat, with a mesh top (the cylindrical part that holds up the crown) helps too. You get shade and still have the breeze to cool your melon. I have a cloth one in camo and a leather Aussie one.
There is a LOT of info on prepping for the cold weather, but very little dealing with hot. The kind of disasters we get down here are most likely to come during warm months. It seems like there is a “cold will kill you but heat, well suck it up p#ssy” attitude in prepping culture, but heat will kill you just as dead.
It just occurred to me that my light headache and mildly hungover feeling this morning is an indication that I’m still dehydrated and my electrolytes are out of whack. I’m gonna drink a glass of water and take my electrolyte replacement tablets.
Got Gatoraid? Got ORS or the stuff to make it? Got Pedialyte? (Should have them anyway in your med supplies, diarrhea kills thru dehydration. Ebola anyone? Cholera? Water bourne disease?)
Basic stuff, but it will kill you if you get it wrong.
WRT that, I feel compelled to explain why I thought my campfire experience was relevant. Basics will get you killed. I didn’t TEST USE my preps. I put several fire starting methods in that bag [’cause 2 is 1 and 1 is none] but I assumed that I didn’t need to actually USE them because I’ve used a lighter, and matches, and I’ve build lots of fires. I never tried making a fire with THESE though. Turns out that the mini-Bic was hard to hold, got super hot, and was misery itself. Turns out that even brand new wooden matches are only good as tinder, not firestarters, if the wind is blowing. And I’d skipped on the tinder as un-necessary, after all, I’d never needed it before. I’ll be adding a tube of dryer lint, or vaseline cotton balls, or a stick of fatwood to each bag. I will TEST the first 2 (often recommended on prepper sites) myself. I like the idea of the fatwood because it won’t evaporate or leak and can be split into tinder. One prepper even has it in his flight carryon bag, as it is “just a stick” and not regulated by TSA.
Moral of the story, USE YOUR PREPS. I assumed I could use the pieces in combination, because I’d used them separately, but they were really suboptimal. I’d further assumed that an often recommended prep didn’t apply to me, because I could forage for tinder, or use whatever was at hand. There is a reason accelerants are recommended. You have limited fuel, limited time, and conditions may be far from ideal.
Don’t assume, test. The simplest things are the base for everything else. Make sure you have them nailed.
nick
111F in Vegas yesterday with the forecast the same for a week. Soon it will be over a 100 24/7 for a couple of weeks.
Regarding the vaseline/cotton ball thing, I’ll warn you from experience that you should go light on the vaseline. If you use too much and end up with a greasy cotton blob, you’ll find that it’s harder to get burning than if you don’t saturate the cotton balls.
@RBT– thanks! That is EXACTLY the kind of thing I’m trying to say.
Unless you tried it, you wouldn’t know that, and you think, “vaseline and cotton balls, how hard can it be?”
nick
I found that out on a winter-camping trip while I was in college, where I was lucky I didn’t literally freeze to death. My “waterproof” match case turned out not to be. Fortunately, the girl I was with had functioning matches.
I’m always leery of advice from experts, many of whom I suspect are armchair authorities. I almost tossed one book across the room after reading that it was easy to make a fire. Sometimes, sure, but when your life depends on it it’s sometimes not so easy. In my text, I say that making a fire may turn out to be the hardest and most important thing you’ve ever done.
Hell, starting a fire even in the house here with our woodstove is sometimes a bit of a challenge. Imagine attempting it in a heavy sleet storm out in the woods where it’s a vital matter of life and death. Now picture guys are tracking you and trying to kill you, too.
Hmm, post got eaten. Too many links?
nick
Key to making a fire is to have multiple methods to do it: matches, lighter, flint, tinder, etc. Our Aviator Survival vests always had flint, matches and most of us stuck a Bic in.
I read this, yawn. Somebody alert Oburcula. Oh wait, probably Black on Black hatred. Cue the crickets.
” Our Aviator Survival vests always had flint, matches and most of us stuck a Bic in.”
Yo, homie, what else was in that vest?
I had that, an AF knife, a .38 revolver, iodine tabs, salt tabs, and my dad’s old mini-edition of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, which, naturally, I can’t find now. Though I do still have his mini-edition of the KJV New Testament.
Incidentally, no spare rounds or reloads or speedloaders or any of that neat stuff with the basic six-bullet load for the S&W .38.
They sent me to the aircrew survival course in the Philippines just before promoting me to enlisted air crew gunner on the choppers and C-130 gunships for my last six active months working for Uncle on his SEA plantations. Boy, did that suck. Almost killed my ass right there.
“Oh wait, probably Black on Black hatred. Cue the crickets.”
” ‘It’s real scary that black people want to kill each other over nonsense.'”
Been going on a real long time. Where’s the Reverends Jackwagon and Sharpless? Oh wait–if they do show up, it’ll be to spew their anti-gun rubbish again. Obercula is probably already on the case with his speechwriters and teleprompter, if he even cares at all. Detroit and Chicago are lost cities; it wouldn’t surprise me if ISIS sleepers detonated a dirty nuke in one or both.
But hell, the media are still focused on that skinny little worm piece of shit who hit the church full of unarmed black people. They’re covering it from every possible angle to play up the rayciss and white hate stuff again. The kid’s “manifesto” mentions reading stuff from the Council of Conservative Citizens, based in Georgia, and they’re one of the tiny handful of organizations that publishes the horrific ongoing series of violent black crimes, most of it directed against each other but a shocking amount of it against white people that never gets reported otherwise. But of course they’re rabid maniacal rayciss Klansmen, etc., etc.
Unfortunately, this is probably a clue about the blowback to come; violence will end up being directed at moderates and innocents on both sides, rather than the actual perps on both sides.
Well at least nobody here is a moderate.
Whenever I see “gun violence” in a headline I automatically substitute the word “gang violence”.
Love the way that article conflated 2 incidents in 2 different cities. Also note the “women and chillins were there” wailing. NOT involved, but it was a party that “families” attended. SO WHAT. It only emphasizes the lack of compassion of the black attackers. And of course the ever present “semi-automatic weapons”. Keep hoping all the drones hear the “automatic” part and miss the rest.
nick
We carried a radio with built in beacon, mini flare gun, plus the stuff you mentioned. I don’t remember the nomenclature of the radio, but it xmit/recved on emergency freqs and had a homing beacon. Oh, yeah, signal mirror and light beacon. We trained on the use of everything in the vest.
No flare gun or radio for us. Tough chit, I guess. I don’t remember if we had a signal mirror or radio beacon thing; I carried one of those OD green angle-head flashlights anyway. And though this was verboten at the time, several grenades. I was mos def gonna ditch the M60 and belts of ammo if we were going down over wottuh, though. My philosophy at the time was that the best offense was also the best defense and I was gonna be as offensive as possible, esp. after seeing my guys get hit from ambushes.
Well, no t-storm here so fah today; it got kinda dahk for a while, then a light shower, and now it’s nice and humid and buggy out there. Lake Champlain Fathers Day fishing derby going on all day and derps walking by in lots of camo stuff. That must really fool the fish out in the middle of the ocean-like lake here.
I dunno ’bout y’all but lately I been catching a fair amount of ‘tude off the younger gun and fishing males. Not directed at me, per se, just sensing it. I suspect it’s a testosterone-display thing, but not sure. Somebody might get smacked sooner or later up here.
Hey, Colonel Atoz;
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/06/dean-weingarten/nevada-expands-concealed-carry-permit-reciprocity/#comments
Yay! I guess Dirty Harry Reid was asleep during this one. Maybe the Koch Bros. put a mickey in his Ensure. I think he is brain dead after the treadmill mugging.
Grrrr! Somehow someone got my American Express Plum card number (for biz) and tried to charge some shit. AMEX called right away after refusing the charge. They are sending out a new card Monday. I’ve got a lot of biz stuff setup to auto-debit and now have to change it all. At least AMEX is on the ball.
“At least AMEX is on the ball.”
Good to know. I should know better than to ask this, but is there any chance of ever catching any of these assholes?
“I think he is brain dead after the treadmill mugging.”
The guys on the blog are saying that the folks who get to decide this stuff with the CCW in Nevada on their own hook are a private group of LE types, which is kinda weird.
Not only the profligate Greeks should be put to the sword, but also the greedy bankers who loaned them. They should take it on the chin.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-22/verrender-its-not-greece-being-bailed-out—its-the-banks/6562330
Agreed, Mr. Miles_Teg of Oz; I’d love to kick the chairs out from under the banksters and the sons of bitches who claim to run Europe from Brussels.