76F and 99%RH at 830am. That’s pretty cool, and means we may have turned the corner into Fall.
Even a cat1 hurricane will wipe your community off the map if you’re not built for it. Cat5? Well, we live in an age of outrage over the tiniest slight, the 24/7 news cycle, and the amplifying power of social media. Doesn’t mean that SCIENCE is nothing but exaggeration. F4, richter scale, cat scale-all defined by stoic guys in lab coats long ago.
Talking with the kids and looking at the headlines from the Bahamas, (which we’ll see for one or two more days, then they’ll get a handle on the press), oldest asked where the preps would be to keep them safe if we lived there. I told her we’d prep differently if we lived there because the threats are different. We’d have evacuated.
Take a few minutes to REALLY think through what Abaco is like right now, and in two weeks. Those people aren’t able to go anywhere. There is NOTHING there for them. Imagine a city with all the bridges destroyed, and no power or water. Lots of cities in the US are essentially islands.
Add people in the surrounding area shooting any infected trying to leave as a plague takes the city.
[Insert clever segue] to ebola– not an omnibus, but just a few quick headlines from allafrica.com
- Congo-Kinshasa: Ebola Drugs ‘Saving Lives’ After Clinical Trials(Deutsche Welle)
- Congo-Kinshasa: Update on Ebola Drug Trial: Two Strong Performers Identified(WHO)
- Congo-Kinshasa: Breakthrough Trial Shows Ebola Is Now Curable(RFI)
Why is that important
- Uganda: One Ebola Case Confirmed in Kasese District(Monitor)
- Rwanda: Rwanda, DR Congo Agree on Joint Mechanism to Fight Ebola Outbreak(New Times)
- Congo-Kinshasa: Ebola’s Spread to New Area Shows Flawed Response – Aid Workers(Thomson Reuters Foundation)
- Uganda: Government Accuses Medics of Fleeing From Ebola Patients(Monitor)
It’s still spreading.
9-Year-Old Tests Positive For Ebola in Uganda
“The health ministry has confirmed that the blood sample of a 9-year-old Congolese girl was drawn and sent to the Uganda Virus Research Institute for testing and confirmed positive for Ebola virus on August 29. In July following the completion of the recommended 42 days without any new Ebola case since the first Ebola cases in June, Uganda had been declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organisation.”
–US airports are hiring ebola screeners.
–Africans are showing up in the border crossers from Mexico
and now I’ve got to make some waffles, because life needs to go on.
n
this is how ebola spreads in africa–
–this family was back in July.
n
Africans are showing up in the border crossers from Mexico
Wealthy or, possibly, terrorist sleeper agents.
We don’t see “Joe and Mary Sixpack” Africans for now.
It isn’t like Southern Europe where the situation we helped create in Libya makes that entire section of the Mediterranean a human trafficking playground.
The video may be available elsewhere, but I haven’t gone looking for it.
https://assets.infowarsmedia.com/videos/f002b574-b8e9-486a-8f7e-d76d247877ce.mp4
It’s a long segment, featuring Matt Bracken, and has a LOT of video from the Bahamas. Matt spent a lot of time in the affected areas and has relevant comments too.
If you are squeamish about Infowars, watch it muted.
n
It’s a long segment, featuring Matt Bracken, and has a LOT of video from the Bahamas. Matt spent a lot of time in the affected areas and has relevant comments too.
In a year, the Bahamas will be futher along towards recovery than sections of New Orleans are today.
In a year, the Bahamas will be futher along towards recovery than sections of New Orleans are today.
After the recent “rain events” the city investigated why one drainage canal in particular was overtopping its banks. Turned out there was a car carcass clogging up the works.
The car may have been washed into the canal during Katrina. Stop for a moment and contemplate the fact that the canal may not have been inspected for fourteen years! Further investigation revealed that there may be as many as 20K tons (yes, tons!) of debris in that one canal.
The New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board is not known for its competence or its probity.
The Bahamas have the advantage of at least at one time being administered by the Brits.
@MrAtoZ, this one is for you ! “I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter”
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-sexually-identify-as-an-attack-helicopter
And we have a new gender choice, Helisexual !
Schlock Mercenary: domesticated T-Rex ?
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2019-09-08
A T-Rex named Fluffy-Winkle ?
Geez. Does that make 218 genders now?
97 F here in the Land of Sugar. I am ready for winter.
https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/us/tx/sugar%20land/77469
97 F here in the Land of Sugar. I am ready for winter.
Oh heck no!
Just get down from pushing 100F every day. Push 90F on a Sunny day.
97 F here in the Land of Sugar. I am ready for winter.
Be careful what you wish for. The tree above our patio is dropping leaves already, signifying that Winter will be ugly.
Hot/dry is the preference of the tree. I never know until Memorial Day if it is going to come back.
The last time the tree dropped leaves this early, we had four inches of snow right after Christmas in Austin.
If you are squeamish about Infowars, watch it muted.
The other day at work, I had to stifle the laughter while listening to Dennis Miller’s podcast.
Miller dropped an off color Epstein joke, and I was surrounded by snowflakes, unable to share.
To be fair, one of the snowflakes clued me in to this clip on Friday. She asked if the guys in the Bears gear were the original performers in the skit.
“Yup. George Wendt and Robert Smigel, creator of the sketch.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUnLwM1JfKI
I have grapevine leaves on the front deck. And a few hands full of Red Oak leaves. By the back door, the Hackberry is starting to shed. The Elms are starting to change color.
Nothing is shedding much.
I’m hoping I get a repeat of last year… when the Red Oak wet serious about shedding, we had a week or so of South wind. With the usual North wind at that time of year, two feet of leaves in the front yard.
It is what it is. Mostly pretty darn good.
I never know until Memorial Day if it is going to come back.
Sounds like my Arizona Ash. Stupid thing leafs out late February and we almost always have another freeze. The new growth falls off and this year it was the last week of April before it made more leaves. Then again, the last freeze being 18F or 13F, I forget, hard freeze for here, I’m surprised it lived.
Sounds like my Arizona Ash. Stupid thing leafs out late February and we almost always have another freeze. The new growth falls off and this year it was the last week of April before it made more leaves. Then again, the last freeze being 18F or 13F, I forget, hard freeze for here, I’m surprised it lived.
The tree we have is some kind of Ash, but I don’t recall the arborist calling it an Arizona Ash.
We had it trimmed almost too late last year because the big “alphabet” services company in Central Texas sent out a trimming crew who left most of the sucker growth in place, and we had to go back and forth with them over the bill before we could get another company out to actually do the work.
Never again “alphabet” company. They were the incumbent tree company taking care of our big oak, but we found someone honest and local as a replacement.
ABC Pest Control? I applied for a job there waaaaay back in 1985 or so and Bobby or whatever his name is, you see him on the commercials, came across as a total dick. Might have been a great job anyway.
Not sure what is sucker growth…. from the roots? Lawnmower. Just saying. Pruning? I cut the the stuff off that hits me in the head to a few feet higher. I figure the trees know what they are doing. But that’s me.
Heirloom Diseases
Well. I poked around and found the company’s web site and downloaded the User Manual.
The maker prices them at $115 on their site. Shipping, etc, who knows. $45 delivered on eBay seems like a win.
This is really interesting. It’s almost like the X-10 stuff but decentralized and over Ethernet and not AC wiring. X-10 had a central controller that handled many switches/dimmers. This has a controller for two outlets. Just on and off, which is fine.
All you need is Ethernet…. and behold! Ubiquiti UniFi units have an Ethernet port. So wi-fi from the UniFi in the house to the UniFi in the Feed Shed and a gizmo plugged in that can control two outlets. Like maybe an automatic porch light again. It may not do Dawn to Dusk and dim to 50% at 11PM but close enough. Esp with an LED flood sucking 10 watts and not a 100 watt halogen flood.
Many grins. 🙂
The hardest part seems to be the default address is 192.168.1.10 and I’m running on 192.168.0.xxx but once that is fixed, it’s all good.
Yeah. I’m crazy.
Heirloom Diseases
I read somewhere a few days ago that the bedbug problem is somewhat caused by the temp washing machines are allowed to run. Seems the 110 max for “energy conservation” isn’t hot enough to kill bedbugs. You need 130. I think that was the number.
And it doesn’t matter what the water heater is putting out, the new washing machines temper the temperature.
Because “we know better”.
Not sure what is sucker growth…. from the roots? Lawnmower. Just saying. Pruning? I cut the the stuff off that hits me in the head to a few feet higher. I figure the trees know what they are doing. But that’s me.
I don’t take chances with our big oak since I figure it is easily $20k of value of the house.
I always have the tree crew take care of the big Ash while they’re out since it isn’t much additional once the labor is on site.
I’m from Florida. Keeping the trees trimmed and free of sucker growth is one of the keys to avoiding hurricane damage.
Yes, Austin doesn’t have hurricanes, but the winds in the Winter months can get crazy enough to make me worry. Living in Florida most of my life, in tropical storm force winds (40s), I’ve seen untrimmed trees tip over into houses and, in one case, root systems crack a swimming pool like an egg on the way down.
@greg,
the tree issue is complicated. This article (pdf) about a study at UF has a bunch of recommendations based on review of hurricanes.
I was looking for the article in Coastal Contractor that I read years ago, about how “horse-tailing” trees makes them more susceptible to wind damage. (removing all the ‘sucker’ growth) but I haven’t found it yet.
I left mine alone and they all came thru Ike, while my neighbor had his done and lost major branches.
n
the tree issue is complicated. This article (pdf) about a study at UF has a bunch of recommendations based on review of hurricanes.
We always get a certified arborist involved. In Florida, we had a guy who graduated UF and was a true native. The new guy here in TX went through TAMU’s program.
We lost trees to drought and the immediate puckered sphincter neighbors’ overuse of atrazine, but never a storm.
(Yup, another couple of MacDill ontractors. Husband – a make work job with a Vet quota, something with infrastructure software, ex White House cannon brigade — ten hut!. When drunk, wife bragged about unpleasant things she did to other humans at Gitmo on the [big tech consulting company] payroll. Creepy to the max.)
Lesson learned about atrazine. I don’t fertilize the grass here generally, but I did put some down in the sunny areas of our yard this spring, well outside the drip lines of the trees. It was great until the drought and 100 degree days hit in Austin this summer. We’ll see how things come back when the rains return.
Sarah Hoyt has some observations about low flow toilets, clothes washers, and dishwashers that don’t clean… appropo the discussion we had here a few days back.
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2019/09/09/once-is-happenstance/
TL:DR
She half suspects it’s intentional.
n
Sarah Hoyt has some observations about low flow toilets, clothes washers, and dishwashers that don’t clean… appropo the discussion we had here a few days back.
We have a low flow toilet that works, but, installed, was about 3x the cost of standard issue model at Home Gimpot. High end Toto. Looking at the flush mechanism, it is obvious the inevitable valve replacement won’t be $20.
Of course it is intentional, especially with cars. Home appliances are a side effect since the control freaks in the Department of Energy bureaucracies who set these standards don’t have an “off” switch.
When our washer died a few months ago, we bought a bottom-of-the-line replacement. Reason: here, the washer tends to stay with the house, and we knew we were about to sell, so…
The damned thing has a default cycle that takes nearly four hours. How that can possibly be any sort of efficient, is beyond me. I understand that a bit of soaking time probably helps, but four hours? Seriously?
Our new machine for the new house will be a couple of levels better. You can get decent machines, that just means: don’t go for the cheapest models. There’s a reason they are cheap.
The manual Speed Queen that we got is essentially a commercial pay laundromat machine, with the relevant consumer and residential approval stamps. Sturdy, simple, repairable (with 10 year warranty) and not at all cheap.
Laundromats don’t make money while your clothes are in the machine (so they are fast.)
Laundromats don’t make money if the machines are broken (so they are sturdy and fixable.)
Laundromats don’t make money if your clothes don’t get clean (so they work.)
If they eventually regulate all the usefulness out of the consumer versions, I’ll end up buying commercial and bypassing the payment mech.
n
If they eventually regulate all the usefulness out of the consumer versions, I’ll end up buying commercial and bypassing the payment mech.
I saw a story within the last year to that effect. Whether or not Speed Queen intentionally degrades the product to make more money, their parts suppliers have a lot of motivation to cut corners.
Our current washer/dryer set is Kenmore Elite, bought back when that meant something. The washer has two chronic problems which I know how to resolve, but the movers dropped our Sony tube TV on the control panel, putting a big dent in the metal which drives my wife nuts.
Washer still works, however. All analog controls so a big dent in the panel doesn’t matter.
I will concede that we need a new washer, however. About 15 years ago, my wife and her friend took it upon themselves to try fixing one of the chronic problems themselves instead of waiting for me to work down my list. Needless to say, the body of the washer hasn’t been right since then, missing too many screws from the disassembly attempt, making resolution of that chronic problem an all morning job wrestling with sheet metal.
(It didn’t occur to them that the washer body simply tilted off the base after removing two clamps and wasn’t intended to be disassembled to reach the interior. Again, the curse of the medical license is that I’m the only one who speaks truth to power — friends and family are useless if I need the hard truth communicated to the spousal unit.)