Cool and clear at the BOL for the moment anyway. Should be clear all day. I’m more interested in Houston today though.
Yesterday we did have some time in the morning without rain. I was able to do some more cleanup in the dockhouse, and spray a cleaner/disinfectant/mold killer on most of the affected walls. The rain started and I went up to lunch and didn’t get back to remove some furring strips from the last wall. I didn’t want to soak that with virucide and then have to touch it, so that has been left undone for now.
While I was watching all the afternoon rain come down (about 3 inches), Houston got HAMMERED. Lots of wind damage, rain, limbs down, power outages, etc. Some really dramatic damage like high tension power lines knocked over…
SO today is in flux. Wife and kids were due to come up today anyway, and school and work have been cancelled.. but there wasn’t any power at the house and no indication of when it might be back on. There were also a lot of limbs down, and cleanup that needs to happen. I’m best suited for that, so I might swap places with my wife and kids. They come up here and do what there is to do here, I go down there and do storm cleanup.
I’ll take a gennie and most of the fuel I have here. There are plenty of places in Houston with power to pump gas and fill LP tanks, but it’s probably better to just bring what I’ve got. This storm caught us off guard. I haven’t done my seasonal hurricane preps yet, like running the gennies, rotating out fuel, and filling the extra jugs…
That’s assuming power is still out. I might head home even if power is restored, just to do the cleanup. It might even make sense for us all to be in Houston this weekend anyway, although my wife was looking forward to being up here, and we’re having family over for Memorial Day so she feels the need to clean and do more “getting ready.”
In any case, this storm reinforces the idea that disasters don’t happen on a schedule and you need a base level of preparedness all the time. All the stuff I have is in place, it’s just not as convenient or well laid out as it is at other times. And I’ve put off some maintenance that I should have addressed right away. There’s always something that needs doing, and never enough time.
But hey, we’ve got food, water, shelter, power generation, medical backup, and the tools to recover.
Because I stacked them up when times were better. You can and should do the same…
nick
3”” better than 5”
Oof. My wife was taking a nap. Apparently the dog joined her on the bed. She moved in her sleep, startled him, he bit her in the face. Tore an eyelid, but fortunately missed the eye. It’s exactly this freaky reaction he has – afterwards he was all licks and “let’s go play”. Um, no, let’s go to the emergency room. Decisions must be made…
Drwilliams, that’s not what she said.
Brad, it’s a pattern of behavior, right? Once is a fluke and these things happen but patterns are predictors.
I’m sorry, Brad.
Hope your wife recovers quickly.
Mr. Brad I hope Mrs. Brad gets better fast.
I have this site bookmarked for research:
UP Phone
It popped up on a pod-cast I was listening to. I have also seen a couple tries on crowdsourcing to make a simple untraceable phone. I don’t think they were successful. Sometimes I just want a small e-ink beeper that works on any cell network.
We older folks here remember the days of no cell phone, PCs, and internet. How did we survive?
Paper books.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/ev_charging_stations_become_prime_target_for_copper_thieves.html
Attacking vital infrastructure by removing copper conductors should be a felony with mandatory jail time. Set bail at 10x the repair cost if the damage.
Copper buyers should have the same penalties—when the gang bangers and meth heads bring those cables in there is no mystery where they came from.
Those devices exist. They are called beepers. Services are still around.
Beepers have advantages that cell based services will never be able to match. Of course, the masses can’t watch Baby Yoda on a beeper.
ok, up and moving, have talked to wife…
66F and overcast here at the BOL. Power, internet, etc…
Getting hotter and damper in Houston, no power, internet, etc.
Wife can’t get honda gennie to start… and the started battery died. No charging it without power…
So I’m headed home. I’ll get the dehumidifier set up here and grab a gennie and fuel, chainsaws, bar oil, etc. Probably stop on my way home and get a couple gallons of premix fuel, or at least the oil, and maybe an extra gas can or two if they are available.
After assessment, wife and kids might head up here, if they cancel school. It’s hard to get an idea of the power situation as the outage tracker is down.
Busy is as busy does.
n
@brad, hope your wife recovers. Tough decisions ahead, no matter what.
n
IIRC, @paul has a couple of these, and so do I. I also have an older version with hundreds (thousands?) of hours of use. Highly recommended at half price:
https://www.northerntool.com/products/batteryminder-plus-battery-charger-trickle-charger-desulfator-12-volt-1-amp-model-12117tc-167981?cm_lm=14070083&tp=i-1NGB-ES-7R2-3ZvPBY-1c-x2Gp-1c-3ZrNZr-lAPHsjevH6-28o4rC&om_rid=3279251768&om_mid=28584&HOT_MEM_CODE=&utm_campaign=eDeals&utm_source=Email&utm_medium=051724_WeekendSale&cid=28584&mid=3279251768&ogmap=EM%7cLOY%7cCH%7c%7c%7c%7c%7c051724_WeekendSale&ogemh=d8e5333eca30c6b578f30b7ca5e60e9b1a94e1d80e3ea139273168928b8db640utm_content&pi=eiRj5GEnn5RTIDxPx5Ow3I6u6RLwiAsKtymZgYau-vc
I have tested mine, and they work as well as needed. Just don’t expect desulfation from such a little unit. It will prevent sulfation if used frequently. And, at only an amp, it is a maintainer, not really a charger. Its computer does a real multi-stage charge profile, and will not drain a battery during a power outage. It is also temperature compensated, so it won’t overcharge outdoors in hot weather.
@brad, wish your wife my best, and a full recovery.
Scottish Green Party Expels 13 Members for Saying ‘Sex Is a Biological Reality’
There is no longer any doubt. We are living in a simulation run by aliens and owned by their equivalent of Comedy Central.
@Brad
Good luck and hopeful the eyelid fully recovers.
Years ago we had Schipperke that we got as a puppy. She really liked to play and had really sharp puppy teeth. She managed to cut my lower lip while playing and the cut required three stitches. About a week later she was playing with my son and the dog cut his finger requiring two stitches. We had a difficult time convincing the hospital that the dog was not dangerous and the cuts were just accidents. The hospital wanted to have animal control get the dog and have it destroyed as being dangerous.
I hope you told them in your best Mr. Ray fashion: UP YOURS!
Everybody wants to
runruin your life.I did, in so many words. Then farted as I left the ER. So there!
No. They aspire to be Rolf Gruber. If that means ruining you life – or watching Lisel loaded into a boxcar bound for the ovens — so be it.
Ze Kampfs are coming. Next pandemic for sure.
All the PLT rags are parroting the Harrison Butker story lie. The sheeple will just baa, baa, baa along with them. Every iteration from the lib-rags just embellishes the speech. This is the FUSA.
Game over, man, game over.
They‘re parroting TMZ, which is essentially part and of Faux News now. The flagship show was stirring the pot again last night.
Connecting the dots, going after Butker is part of the Taylor Swift backlash.
A while back, I got the annual Audible 30-day trial, get two audiobooks free ad. I logged int to my Audible account and downloaded a book on Quantum Mechanics and one on Relativity. Yesterday, I found some Mac software that converts Audible format to various audio formats and removes DRM. I dropped them into Apple Books in the audiobook section and they play fine. I prefer Books since it uses epub for ebooks which I load after scrubbing them through Calibre. I’ve mentioned before, I try to find manuals for all of my “stuff” and put the pdf’s in the Books pdf section to always have access to them.
Audible is great, and will stream to my Apple Watch, but you gotta go through Audible for access. I have plenty of non-Audible books and Books lets me consolidate them all. Everything shows up in Books through iCloud syncing, but is only downloaded to a device when you tap it, to save space.
@brad
Here‘s to a full and uneventful recovery for your wife. And oof. Decisions to be made, indeed. Hard dogs can break our hearts.
For folks who are interested, AKC.tv is broadcasting live the Cardigan Welsh Corgi National Specialty. Currently on lunch break. Should have a bit more today, and starts at 9 AM EST tomorrow. Will probably be available on replay.
A national specialty is a dog show dedicated to a special breed and sponsored by the national breed club typically. The Cardigan breed has a pretty tight knit community with a solid core of really excellent breeders who are intense about deepening their understanding about the structure and function of the Cardigan, and in improving the breed. Most of the Cardigans you see at dog shows are handled by their owners or breeders. At the National Specialty they may be handled by a friend or professional because of the distances traveled. I’ve got Alaskan friends who made the long trip Wilmington OH with their own dogs and a few of friends.
A National Specialty will also have other events than conformation – agility, rally, obedience, coursing, herding and other fun stuff.
Anyway. Nice thing to have on as background noise.
@nick
Yikes. I’ll stick with earthquakes and volcanoes and snow.
Hope cleanup is calm, productive, and as frustration free as such things can be.
“No. They aspire to be Rolf Gruber. If that means ruining you life – or watching Lisel loaded into a boxcar bound for the ovens — so be it.
Ze Kampfs are coming. Next pandemic for sure.”
No. They want to ruin your life. Feeling righteous simply avoids any need for self-examination of motives.
Heh, Google Fiber now offers an 8gig plan for $150/mo. Depending on ping and such, you could run a biz off that no problemo.
Headed home. Hope I have everything I need. If I don’ t post on time, it’s just lack of access. I should have cell data but who knows.
n
Elon’s code monkeys at twitter can eat shiite and die.
All twitter links now forward to x.com with a note about name change.
Click and it’s a one-way trip, with no backing up past the fireard link unless you know the special trick.
Special trick? Naw, just use Alt-Left cursor key. If that doesn’t work, right-click on the Back Arrow and select wherever you want to go from the list.
IDF Discovers Bodies of Three Hostages in Gaza
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/05/idf-discover-bodies-of-three-hostages-in-gaza/
You know how I can tell western society is hopelessly pussified?
Not one relation of all the people murdered, raped, mutilated, kidnapped, tortured, and worse on Oct 7 set up on the high ground over a US campus hamashole gathering and harvested as many for an honor guard as sight lines, ammunition, and time available allowed.
If my suggestions above don’t please you, next time you go there open it in a new tab. This always works, but you have to Remember it in advance.
That’s how organized crime handled things a few decades ago, except they would have done it up close and personal. Amazingly effective.
@JimB
Both times today it was opened by accident from my iPhone.
Middle finger gesture didn’t work.
Well, there you go, by accident. I hate it when that happens.
Hmm…doesn’t look all that bad in orange…
https://www.yahoo.com/news/scottie-scheffler-calls-arrest-a-big-misunderstanding-after-hes-charged-with-assault-what-we-know-about-the-golfers-incident-155204640.html
Though the ‘cop hanging onto the moving car’ seems to be not the brightest idea.
And sometimes you can learn from your erstwhile enemies
UT Austin alum. Sheffler feels at home in orange.
Every Sheffler or Jordan Spieth victory or even a close win at a major tournament is huge news here in Austin. Until the NFL expands to San Marcos, the only other pro level sport here is the soccer team.
And, please, I’m not going to call it a “football club”.
I decided to set up a couple of 200W solar panels to charge one of my “generators.” It’s about 5:30 p.m. Central, and I’m getting 160W out of a potential of 400W.
RIP Dabney Coleman
https://hotair.com/headlines/2024/05/17/rip-dabney-coleman-1932-2024-n3788606
Biden Admin Fast-Tracking Rule Changes As Trump Victory Becomes a Threat
https://hotair.com/headlines/2024/05/17/biden-admin-fast-tracking-rule-changes-as-trump-victory-becomes-a-threat-n3788591
Move the 10% remaining of the EPA to Helena, Montana , ban them from traveling by air and require all travel be EV’s so they can set the good example that they wanted to make of everyone else.
As a start.
Well, I’m at home, dinner is warming on the BBQ, I’ve had a hot shower but still smell like gasoline…
Got one gennie running- the honda 3000i. It’s running on propane and after manually adjusting the regulator, I’m getting good steady running, and I’m cooling down all the fridges and freezers. They were all still frozen, but the garage fridge was 42F. The chest freezers were still withing 10 degrees of 0.
Wife couldn’t get the honda started because she’d knocked the choke cable off the carb. That’s the only thing I changed before firing it up. I might have pulled the cord a bit stronger and faster.
New Wen inverter didn’t start before the battery died. I’ll look at it in the morning.
I should have brought home my gas lines and fittings. Even just getting the standby gennie running would give me 30A of 220 at a plug… without having to gas it up.
My old faithful generac needed some love but then it started. I couldn’t keep it running because too much gas was spilling out… The carb bowl is shot. Every year I have to drain and clean the carb, but it starts. Same this year, but it’s worn out after 25 years. The gas tank had 4 gallons of water, one gallon of gas. I had to drain the whole thing. The thermal pumping that pulls the air into the tank sux. That was my “feed the house” gennie so I’d like to get it back up if I can.I’m going to try to order a new carb. Amazon was on my street doing deliveries while people were cutting up downed trees.
Wife and kids went to the BOL. I’ll have a better idea of what’s happening here tomorrow.
Got some stuff out of the safe, in case someone decides they want to play Darwin games. I’m not expecting any trouble for a couple of days.
Phone seems to be working as a hotspot for now.
Tons of trees down, branches down, lots of stuff snapped off at 20ft up. Kinda strange to have the wind damage without flooding. I was not ready for a bid storm this early.
Time to eat, leftover lamb roast, and pasta.
n
BTW, if you guys have any Houston news or updates please post them. I’ll be checking in here, but not other places as much.
I’m particularly interested in infrastructure of course, with power restoration at the top of the list. I’m on the West side, inside the Beltway.
Also any issues with water supply.
nn
We only had a couple momentary power losses. We lost half a tree from the front yard, which I spent all day cleaning up and cutting up with the wrong tools. It will be another half day at least bundling and bagging. Some of it ended up in the street, but none of it fell on our vehicles.
We lost 2 full fence panels on the backyard fence, and 3 posts snapped off and will have to replace the whole thing. The next-door neighbor has already talked to us about it.
The total number of hispanic men dropping off business cards to help clean up is now 4.
I’m beat.
“What made last night’s storms in Houston go from bad to ‘historic’?”
https://www.chron.com/weather/article/weather-houston-storms-hurricane-19463574.php
Meteorologists confirmed Friday that last night’s storm was a “derecho,” or severe form of storm system defined by high winds and a long path of destruction.
According to my wife and friends, the southwest side of Fort Bend County never got any wind and just an inch or two of rain.
Looks like the storm went south on I-45, just like hurricane Ike except for the reverse direction.
“More than 500,000 in Houston area still without power Friday after storms”
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/power-outages-houston-texas-tornado-19462883.php
“CenterPoint reports that areas near Katy, Baytown fully under blackout.”
“A severe thunderstorm with high winds and at least one potential tornado spotted Thursday evening left in its wake more than 800,000 Harris County residents without power, plus thousands more in the dark across the Houston region. By late Friday afternoon that number had dropped to less than 600,000.”
I sat in the truck with a tiny little bowl of fire, and tuned around the radio, FM and AM. No news at all. One quick summary of “Houston had a storm and power is out for 700K…” nothing at all usable.
I noticed that during the big hurricanes too, nothing from our local “news” stations.
Wife says the FB groups are full of nonsense, and speculation, and unsupported statements.
I’m doing my post and shutting down for the night.
See you all in the morning.
nick
Missouri AG Investigating Kansas City for Doxxing Harrison Butker
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2024/05/17/missouri-ag-opening-investigation-into-post-doxxing-harrison-butker-n2639185
Fire the employee and send the incident file to Elon Musk with a note requesting appropriate sanctions (banned from “X”?), and prosecute under applicable laws criminalizing misuse of government databases. Send him to prison with a case of lipstick.
Demote his supervisor and ban him from any future use of government social media accounts. If he was informed of the action either before or after and did not immediately reverse it, fire him, too.
Require mandatory training for all city officials having access to government social media.
Now Butker needs to file a lawsuit.
50 tunnels running from Gaza to Egypt
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2024/05/17/idf-uncovers-more-than-50-tunnels-between-gaza-and-egypt-n2639221
Running guns and making the Egyptians billions of dollars from the Gaza “humanitarian aide” scam.
How many American hostages are missing after 7 months of FJB doing eff all but protect the soulless animal butchers and embolden the Jew haters here and abroad?
White House Official Demonstrates Which Digit He Prefers to Keep up His Bum
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2024/05/17/white-house-pressed-on-status-of-american-hostages-in-gaza-n2639224
Blinken reportedly auditioning for Paul Reuben tribute band
https://redstate.com/wardclark/2024/05/17/trump-said-to-be-planning-deportation-of-20-million-illegal-aliens-n2174336
Speed it up by deporting judges and their families first.
There is no logistical problem. Declare martial law. Push them back across the border into Mexico, and suspend all trade and money transfers to Mexico until every last one is gone.
Mexico can feed them the grapes and avocados they can’t send north.
Hey, hold on with the avocados, a guy needs his guac ya know…
@nick, lights on at night (somebody home, go elsewhere) or lights off (maintain the element of the surprise?)
>>Biden Admin Fast-Tracking Rule Changes As Trump Victory Becomes a Threat
Better to be the threat.
I’m sensing at the minimum a hung jury… and with it a five point bump in the polls for OHB.