Month: September 2018

76F and drippy wet. Puddles sat all day yesterday despite the sun and highs around 100F in my driveway. It did get nice in the shade by evening with a steady breeze. We’ll see about today, NOAA shows us in the heavy rain band.

Our political situation is becoming more tenuous. The rule of law, once a mighty hawser, is now just a frayed thread. Unelected time servers have decided they know better, and refuse lawful orders from superiors, after working to diminish those same superiors. The one thing the Trump candidacy and Presidency that is undeniable, is how it is revealing the true power structure of DC.

Time is getting short.

n

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added—- Nationwide test of the Emergency Broadcast Network, and the Wireless Emergency Alert this afternoon!!!!

WASHINGTON – The Federal Emergency Management Agency, in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) on September 20, 2018 (primary date) or October 3, 2018 (secondary date). The WEA portion of the test commences at 2:18 PM EDT and the EAS portion follows at 2:20 p.m. EDT. The test will assess the operational readiness of the infrastructure for distribution of a national message and determine whether technological improvements are needed.

This is the fourth EAS nationwide test and the first national WEA test. The WEA test message will be sent to cell phones. Previous EAS national tests were conducted in September 2011, 2016 and 2017 in collaboration with the FCC, broadcasters, and emergency management officials in recognition of FEMA’s National Preparedness Month.

Let people know, so they don’t freak out!

74F and saturated. Humidity should be better later in the day, but not that much.

Boy I’ve got a lot to do. I’ve already given up TV, and rarely find time to read except at bedtime. I don’t know where the time goes.

Oh, right. 5 hours at school yesterday. Several hours at soccer tonight. Birthday parties this weekend. Association meetings….

And work.

It’s a great life if you don’t weaken.

n

77F and dripping wet, so yesterday was an aberration and not Fall….

Will be gone all morning. Have to help teach some science to fourth graders. Measurement.

Wish me luck!

n

71F and saturated this morning, here in Houston. Must be fall.

A quick scan of headlines shows just the same stuff as always.

I’m headed out to do a pickup today. I’m just hoping it doesn’t rain all day.

It’s good to be home, but there is even more work to be done. Entropy never sleeps.

n

Still early but it looks like this will be another beautiful late summer day in Chicagoland.

I am flying home this am, so I’ll miss it: 🙂 Just a few hours, mostly spent waiting, and we’ll be 1000 miles away. A golden age, and some people can’t wait to destroy it. Fools.

n

Beautiful Chicago morning, sunny, comfortable, blue sky.

I’ve got a couple of hours to get all of us ready and to the right place. Then as few hours as we thought we could have, but still far too many. This will be a long day.

It seems a bit strange to me that I can’t easily find more pics of the hurricane. Or Boston. You’d almost think they weren’t a big deal.

n

65F and clear, headed for 80F.

There has to be more to the story in Boston. I’m thinking human error, or sabotage.

Some folks got really lucky on the coast. Some, not so much.

Time to start my day.

N

75 and wet here.

Hurricane Florence now downgraded a bit, and due late in the day. Still nasty though. Remember, it’s a GOOD THING when it comes in at less than predicted (although it has real costs when they get it wrong.)

I’ll be traveling this afternoon and evening, wish me luck.

Naturally, as soon as my ebay sales are picking up, I need to put them on hold for a few days….

Oh, and Friday the Thirteenth is on a Thursday this week…..

n

73F and damp here in the swamp.

On this day, foreign terrorists murdered thousands of our citizens and allies as they went about their lives. It happens that I was only a few miles from Ground Zero working at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. It was a turning point in the national consciousness and in my own.

I still can’t talk about it without tears and anger. OFD would say that’s probably PTSD,. but if so, I’m no different from millions of others, and what millions do isn’t a disorder, it’s normal.

I remember watching the towers fall, getting every bit of cash I could out of the machines in the lobby of our venue, and heading to the grocery store. We bought a week’s worth of food, topped up the rental car gas tank, and returned to our hotel. Then I sat numb in the chair, watching the news feed on PBS, the only channel still on the air as their antenna wasn’t located on top of the World Trade Center. The only comms device that was working was my Skytel pager which allowed me to send email to friends and relatives. I carried that thing for years afterward, just on the strength of that experience.

We ended up driving toward home in our rental car. I’ll forever be grateful to Hertz for their response to the attacks. They told us “Get home safely, and let us know where you leave the car.” This is in stark contrast to the green and white company that told my co-workers that if they took the car out of state, they’d be charged with grand theft.

The murderous attack on 9/11 still is taking lives as first responders and ordinary people get sick and die from their exposures on the day.

NEVER FORGET. NEVER FORGIVE.

nick