11:38 – Barbara left early to drive down to Winston, where she’s running errands and meeting friends for lunch.
One of things I like about this area is the reliable rainfall. We’re not quite literally in a temperate rainforest, but almost. The usual definition is at least 55 inches (140 cm) of rain annually, with no dry season and moderate temperatures. Sparta averages 52 inches (132 cm) of rain annually, but otherwise fits the definition. The rainfall is also pretty evenly distributed, with an average of two days per week with measurable precipitation, averaging about 0.5 inches (1.27 cm) each. When we were looking at homes in next-door Ashe County, I asked our realtor about droughts. His response was that they’d had a dry spell ten years or so ago, but shortage of water wasn’t generally much of a problem there. If anything, the converse.
We had 2 inches (5 cm) of rain yesterday, bringing us up close to 30 inches year-to-date. Our electronic rain gauge says we’ve had only 21.52 inches YTD, but relative to our physical rain gauge it reports only 70% to 75% of what we actually get. So, while much of western North Carolina is in abnormally dry to severe drought conditions, those of us in the Blue Ridge up near the Virginia border are doing fine, as usual.
What that means in terms of prepping is that I’m comfortable with 30 days’ worth of stored water. Even if we couldn’t get water from our well, we’d be fine until the next rain came along.
We’ve lived in our current place for about seven years, and seem to have had a lot of little power outages. I’m surprised how many given that our electric lines are buried. I may simply be more sensitive to power outages since I work from home and it seems like I’m here all the time. I don’t know if I’m just noticing it more because I’m home all the time. Has anyone else noticed this trend?
I live in what used to be “the country” but is now just a ritzy suburb. Given the age of the power lines and the aging infrastructure, we have very few outages.
Folks in newer, ritzier neighborhoods seem to get outages a lot more frequently. As it happens, putting power lines through back yards, out of sight, makes it much harder to trim trees & keep the squirrels from shorting them out. I suspect similar conditions apply underground – if they can’t see them to maintain them, it’s harder to do preventive maintenance.
How many power outages are caused by critters chewing on insulation? Flooding of conduits?
After 10 years in Vegas I can say the power is very reliable.
A plane carrying Hillary! and The Donald is about to crash. Who gets saved?
The country.
The power company here says that underground lines are more expensive to string, and more difficult (hence, costly) to maintain. I fact, the Public Service Commission here in Florida says that if you want underground utilities, you have to bear the extra costs of installing them. The one cost savings comes after a hurricane or other big storm, when the linemen don’t have to restring everything. And of course after a storm you usually get power back a little quicker because there is less repair work to do.
Speaking of weather, I’ve always wondered about the accuracy of forecasts – comparing the forecast to the actual temps.
It turns out that someone is doing that, according to my local weather blogger (here in WA). See his post here http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2016/06/who-provides-best-weather-forecasts.html .
He says go to http://www.forecastadvisor.com where they keep track of weather forecast accuracy. Perhaps those complaining about their weather dweebs being inaccurate/guessing should look for a different weather forecast source.
Or, you may just like complaining about the weather and weatherdweebs.
(Weather Underground forecasts are the best in my AO.)
“A plane carrying Hillary! and The Donald is about to crash. Who gets saved?”
“The country.”
In which case either the runners-up now enter the campaign, i.e., Commissar Sanders vs. one of the RINO morons; or….Obola declares a “national emergency” and stays there. OFD would not consider this “saving” the country, other than that Field Marshal Rodham would finally be kaput.
No t-storm here yet but the sky looks kinda funky; we shall see.
“A plane carrying Hillary! and The Donald is about to crash. Who gets saved?”
For just a second I was glad… 🙁
Forgot to mention a couple of finds this weekend.
Foxfire vol 1 and 2
a slide rule instruction manual
250 embroidered US flag patches
a beautifully seasoned Griswold #9 tite top baster (cast iron) (missing lid)
2x good medical reference books
nick
putting power lines through back yards, out of sight, makes it much harder to trim trees
That does not seem to be a problem with our local utilities and especially TVA. The are aggressively cutting trees, either down, or chopping so much out the tree looks horrible. I had a tree in my front yard that in the easement for the power lines. Came home one day and the tree was gone, nothing but a stump left. Found out the power company cut the tree down and I called and asked them why. They said it was under their power line and had to go. I then asked them to come remove the one foot high stump they left. They said nope, the stump was my problem because it was on my property.
The pine tree that was in the neighbors property, but not in the easement, had the entire side of the tree removed. Apparently any limb with X number of feet of the power line must be cut off at the source.
There was also a plan floated around that any tree that was taller than the distance of the base of the tree from the local power line would be cut down. That wound up in a lawsuit and got shot down. However TVA is allowed to do so for the high voltage lines. A 100 foot tree must be more than 100 feet or more from the high voltage line or it will get cut.
Quiet, serf! We’ve had just about enough of your snark! Back to the plough!
Next time you see a TVA guy up on a ladder, shake it so he falls down, whack him with an axe, then declare that the stump is yours to do with as you wish because it’s on your property.
And don’t hesitate to come to me next time you have a conundrum. Outside-of-the-box thinking, that’s my specialty.
I like the way you think!
Next time you see a TVA guy up on a ladder, shake it so he falls down
They use boom trucks which are a little difficult to shake.
Outside-of-the-box thinking, that’s my specialty
Any other ideas. Driving the truck away is not an option as that is considered grand theft. I suppose I could cut a hydraulic line but even then the bucket would only drop slowly, well not real slow, but not fast enough to create a stump.
Just finished the “13 Hours” movie on the Benghazi caper:
1.) Don’t get stuck in a badly secured compound in an urban ‘hood located in a Turd World shit-hole surrounded by musloid scum.
2.) NV and IR devices are extremely nifty to have on hand, but wicked expensive, still, for us civvie losers back here. Back in ancient times in SEA we had what were known as “starlight scopes,” which sucked and made everything dark green with lotsa shadows but were better than nuttin’,
3.) If you ARE stuck in some shit-hole site somewhere under gummint auspices and you’re surrounded with no way out, don’t, for heaven’s sake, count on said gummint to lift a fucking finger for your sorry ass.
4.) And, if you plan on be-bopping around the landscape toting weapons, ammo, plates, NV and IR gizmos, helmets, etc., etc., regardless of climate, you’d better be in damn good shape, not only C-V, but weight-carrying and agility/flexibility. i.e., you should be able to pass the Army Ranger and Marine Recon courses at MINIMUM.
Needless to say, few of us in our 60s come anywhere near this standard, and will likely have to find other specialties. Mine is medieval epic, lol. No, seriously; look at intel, co-intel, commo, gear maintenance, weapons repair, customization, food production and distribution, tools and mechanical stuff, etc., etc. Support roles. And maybe taking the watch on a regular basis and doing REMF patrols around the houses and ‘hood.
What sucks, is when things get to this level of shittiness, we’ll probably be in our 70s and 80s and barely able to wave at the warrior-heroes as they surge off to battle. (make sure you’re waving the right flag, though, as the citizens of Maryland learned during our War Between the States, for example…)
Speaking of musloid scum….
http://takimag.com/article/scary_families_gavin_mcinnes/print#axzz4CuKAmWwi
Don’t drive it away, then. Just raise the jacklegs, or whatever they’re called, put a brick on the accelerator, and drop it into gear before jumping away. It’s not theft, so it’s not against the law. You’re home free!
No, that’s reckless endangerment. And vandalism.
But those jack legs don’t look to be even. Help ’em out. The one side looks to be a little low relative to Hawaii, so raise that side. Lower the other to compensate. Then you’re doing something perfectly reasonable to help the poor fellow out.
“It’s not theft, so it’s not against the law.”
I just bought you a ticket for the Clue Train. We live in the U.S. Everything is against the law if they say it is. Just being alive is against the law.
But I still like the way you think!
Now see? Officer JimL just showed where it was against the law, but then he went and ruined it by doubling down on it.
Weather Underground forecasts are the best in my AO.
For any tropical system forecasts, I use the Navy’s site.
http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/tc_pages/tc_home.html
We are having rolling lightweight t-storms in this AO, and intermittent monsoon-level showers that last for ten or fifteen minutes. Not a lotta wind this time. More showers expected tonight and probably off and on until Friday, mixed with sun, so the raised beds, containers and yard will be a jungle again.
Mrs. OFD due back from central MA on Thursday and then home for ten days, before heading out to Denver, Chicago, TX, etc. And after all that, Ireland and northern Nouveau Brunswick. We hope to take a long weekend together in September somewhere and I hope for us to take another one in October. We are badly overdue for a break like that.
Mine is medieval epic, lol.
Mine is one way drone flights carrying a kilo of Octanitrocubane for delivery to Cankles snatch-tank.
Yeah, but can a human tongue detonate it?
Huh, got .75″ rain in a couple of minutes.
Helped with the high temps.
n
6pm PDT 106°F 16%rh partly cloudy with t-storms and lightning in the mountains. If it’s dry lightening strikes it will just make things worse for the fire fighters. A little rain could help a whole lot. Erskine fire at 45,000 acres and 45% contained.
http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4806/
It’s miserable out. Wonder if I could sleep on a raft in the pool.
Mrs. OFD and I can’t understand how youse guys out West and in the Southwest manage to live in that stuff; I told her you just get used to it, and forgo the a-c, even, so you can. I managed it in east TX several times and SEA twice, and I guess if I had to live in it ALL the time for my whole life, I’d just get used to it. If I was dependent on the a-c and the juice failed, that would suck pretty bad. Seems like anytime there are long-term and massive heat waves, hundreds of people die.
110 quite often in SEA w/100% humidity, day in and day out, night after night, while humping weapons and ammo and radios. Each time I went over, I’d lose 40-50 pounds the first month, easily. From 215 to 165.
Wife tells peeps out there about our winters and our ice and cold temps and they can’t believe we live in it, so once again, YMMV. But I’ll take coldness over hot any day; we can always get warm; but you can’t always get cool, can ya?
That’s true, and logical and all, and I even used to say it myself.
No way in hell I could live with the cold though. My hands ache so bad with cold, even holding a cold can of soda is painful. My knees and hips get stiff and painful to the point where it’s difficult to stand up and walk.
In contrast, when I lived in AZ I felt like my knees were lubricated with a hot oil bath, and my hips never hurt. I could rock climb all day without hand pain (other than from exertion and abuse.) Vegas was similar, but the air con is set colder there so there was more change and more opportunity to feel the difference. In AZ, we kept the apartment at 83F and it felt cool.
Of course, there are issues with the heat and humidity, and they are getting worse for me with age.
No matter where you go, or what you do, it’s always somthin’….
nick
From the Religion of Peace Strikes Again Department:
http://news.sky.com/story/1718871/at-least-31-killed-in-istanbul-airport-attack
Not to worry; that sort of thing can’t happen here….oh wait.
I know one thing; I sure wouldn’t wanna be any of the perps that get caught by the Turkish authorities. That would be yuuuuuuuuuuuugely unpleasant.
From the Religion of Peace Strikes Again Department:
It seems O’Canada is going the Obola extreme route. I wonder if any of those Syrian refugees are Mooooooosliiiiiim.
Report: Adult Refugees Enrolled In Canadian High School, Harassing Young Girls
Here’s the Obola ticket:
The first lady’s meeting heralded an announcement that the ‘Let Girls Learn’ initiative would be extended in Morocco on Tuesday with more than $100million of foreign aid to transform secondary education in the country.
I wonder what’s the primary religion in Morocco? It wouldn’t be 98.7% Islam would it? Fuck America! Let’s send our tax dollars to a shithole.
tRump 2016! “I’ll spend your tax dollars on *American* Mooslims, dammit!” ™
“I wonder if any of those Syrian refugees are Mooooooosliiiiiim.”
Naw, they’re Roman Catholic Republicans. And they come here outta love. Let’s bring in more millions of them; they come here outta love for Western nookie. And they don’t even ask nicely, bring flowers around or ask mom and dad’s permission. I’ll be sure to mention this little nooz item to Mrs. OFD via email right now; we knew Fredericton as a lovely English-style capital city in NB and now it will be turned into yet another Turd World musloid shit-hole, evidently. And not all that fah from Great-Grandma’s cottage on the northeast coast, either. Shit. I’m beginning to really, really hate the sons of bitches who make these decisions.
From the Little Machines Beat Big Machines Department:
http://magazine.uc.edu/editors_picks/recent_features/alpha.html
AI running on a RaspberryPI beats fighter jet jockeys. Amazing chit; OFD wonders if MrAtoz can load up the AI on his drones via RaspberryPI boards and use them to run exercises against some air force or other….
“Fuck America! Let’s send our tax dollars to a shithole.”
That’s right, amigo; $100 million that could have been used, oh, I dunno, maybe to help people in THIS FUCKING COUNTRY??? Lots of whom are outta work now, thanks to the banksters, politicians and financial speculators? I gotta quit looking at these links from MrAtoz; I really wanna go out there and murderize these fuckers.
Someone will pipe up from somewhere that gee whiz, OFD, this is one way we can DEFEAT the muslim radicals; educate their GRRLS! Yeah, watch what happens after the rich idiot lawyer Moochelle and the complete imbecile from Hollyweird, Streep (who’s been a total moron for decades on shit like this) leave the country. The musloid jihadis will hit a few schools and burn them up with the kids inside. While firefighters refuse to save them; I think we’ve seen this movie before.
The return of “Clock Boy”. Remember him? Nine months in Qatar. I wonder what he was doing all that time with his crazy father? I know the FBI doesn’t give a shit. Probably created an AR-15 machine of murder with a million round “clip” and infinite firing rate.
I only mention this because I’m off to Dallas for a day on Thursday with MrsAtoz and guess where “Clock Boy” is starting his journey around ‘Murka? Where’d the travel money come from? Obola grant or sumpin’?
“I know the FBI doesn’t give a shit.”
Hard to say; the Feebies MIGHT give a shit but they’re totally fucking incompetent douchenozzles. They’d fuck up a soup sandwich, ditto the CIA. Losers. Where cometh the travel funds? Your tax dollars at work, no doubt. Drop a Hellfire on ’em, MrAtoz. See how Clock Boy evades that.
And from the Fun Times This Fall Department:
http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2016/03/how-the-us-ends-up-in-a-civil-war.html
Especially interesting is how the robocalls could really stir the shit nationwide:
http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/
(scroll down a couple of stories, also interesting)
Imagine a few musloids running this caper, simultaneously with REAL suicide-vest attacks in shopping malls between Black Friday and Xmas. Along with a few dozen shooters from any of the musloid sleeper cells that got across our wide-open joke of a southern border over the past couple of decades, at least.
From the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic-Norse History Department:
http://listverse.com/2016/06/28/10-overlooked-facts-about-the-anglo-saxons/
Who brought into the world, eventually, via the early modern English, the concepts of law for the common man, independent liberty, the finest language and literature of the human race, and the agricultural and industrial revolutions, while also ending slavery.
while also ending slavery.
Hey! Lincoln ended *all* slavery h8tr! Get yer facts right.
tRump 2016 “I’ll be sworn in on the Lincoln Bible just like Obola”
Well.. a SUV was fire bombed outside a mosque here last night.
Lots of hand-wringing by government and local officials with apologies to the mooslim community..
“Police are investigating an apparent hate crime after a 4WD was fire bombed outside a Perth mosque overnight.
Worshippers reported hearing a loud bang outside the Thornlie Mosque and Australian Islamic College on Tonbridge Way at about 8pm last night.
They rushed outside and found a burning Toyota Prado and anti-Islamic graffiti sprayed on the walls.”
I thought the graffiti summed it up nicely… lol.
_Legion of Despair: Book Three in The Borrowed World Series (Volume 3)_ by Franklin Horton
https://www.amazon.com/Legion-Despair-Three-Borrowed-World/dp/1530236290/
Book number three of a three book series. I purchased the POD (print on demand) version in trade paperback. There may be more books in the series past number three, I do not know. The story certainly continues past that point but there was not a cliffhanger ending. I will buy more books in the series if more become available.
Basically, the plot of the series is that ISIS sends 100 small teams of operatives to destroy valuable infrastructure in the USA such as refineries, electric grid auto-transformers, bridges, dams, and internet peering points in one night. Life in America immediately transforms for worse as the electrical grids and communication grids die and the various governmental agencies seize the remaining automobile and truck fuel. Food immediately becomes scarce as the stores are cleaned out and there is no fuel for the trucks to resupply them.
The level of violence in the book is simply amazing as our protagonists are walking, riding, and walking to their respective homes 200+ miles away from Richmond, Virginia where they were attending a conference. The journey home takes weeks. My former USMC son believes that most people have less than three days of food in the house based on his experiences with his fellow Marine’s families. That does not bode well for national shortages of food and fuel to get it around the country.
Even getting home was not kind to our surviving protagonists as their homes are very subject to people looking for food and weapons. That RV park down the road gets pretty rough when people are starving. Or coming down off their Prozac, meth, etc. Or the local gang looking for things to steal in a world without the rule of law.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (68 reviews)
OFD wrote:
“From the Religion of Peace Strikes Again Department…”
No! You’ve got it wrong. Some Latin Rite Catholics, Hindu schoolgirls and AnarchoLibertarian atheists conspired to set up ISIS.
The return of “Clock Boy”
Yeh, took a clock, removed it from it’s case and put it in a another case. Apparently impressed the hell out of Obuttwad who is apparently one stupid MOFO. My take on it is clock boy was doing a dry run to see if he could get a bomb into school disguised as a clock.