37F’ing degrees. Wow. And damp.
Sleepy family needs to get up and ready,
more later.
—————————————————————————————–
ok, it’s later.
Still sore from my dancing exploits. Limbo contest at almost 53 years of age is a bit more than I was ready for. It does point out how we [I] tend to lie to ourselves about our physical conditioning…
This is why we prep–
23 people killed by tornadoes that ripped through Alabama and Georgia, destroyed homes and left over 40,000 without power
At least 23 people were killed when tornadoes struck eastern Alabama and Georgia on Sunday afternoon
Search for the missing continues into the night as rescuers comb through ‘catastrophic’ damage
Local media outlet reports that one of the fatalities was an eight-year-old girl in Beauregard, Alabama
Around 40,000 people have been left without power in Alabama and Georgia
Disaster can strike at any time. If it misses you, you can still be a help to your neighbors and community.
Tornadoes [fires, floods] and their destruction, are also why you should have some preps outside your home. Ideally separated from you by some distance, but at least in a shed or garage.
n
20f in the AM here in the Bluff City.
Unproductive weekend but I did get plenty of rest. Busy week ahead then off to Oklahoma to fix the MILs new PC and close on the retirement home.
RE: Tornados
Growing up in “tornado alley” and loosing my home at age 8 to one while still inside, gives me a special view of the subject. There are only two sure ways to survive a tornado.
1. Be somewhere else. Not that hard as tornados are very narrow but violent events compared to hurricanes or earthquakes. We had the bad luck to be hit directly in the late evening when it was too dark to see it coming. We did have a few minutes warning of severe storms on the radio.
2. Be in a shelter. Underground shelters are best but there are some commercial above ground units that should keep you alive. The problem is convincing yourself, and others, to take shelter. Since 99.999% of the people in an area under tornado alert will not be directly affected, the usual response is “Why should I spend ~30 minutes in a cramped, damp, nasty, stinky shelter when nothing will happen?”. My wife, for example, has claustrophobia and flat out refuses to enter a shelter.
In my case, my family was incredibly lucky to huddle under a huge cork dining table when the twister hit and one of the concrete block walls fell on the table preventing the winds from lifting it off us. Even after that experience my parents didn’t build a shelter in our next home.
My sister-in-law’s home was destroyed in the 1999 Tornado that killed 39 and injured almost 600 in Moore OK. She was lucky to be at work 8 miles away when it occurred. In that case, the path of destruction was about 200m wide and a couple of miles long.
We were visiting family in Oklahoma when an F5 hit Moore again in 2013 killing 24 and smashing a school to bits. We toured the aftermath and it was amazing how homes on one side of a street were just piles of splintered wood while those on the other side were almost completely intact.
The home I am buying next week for retirement, has a large (15×10) dry, clean, shelter under the garage extension. Besides storing prepping supplies, I will make it comfortable and well equipped to ride out any nasty weather. Another precaution is to register your shelter with the local emergency services so that in the case your home collapses on top of it they will know to dig out the entrance to check on your safety.
I live in central Alabama, near Montgomery. Sunday was strong winds and tons of rain from lunch to early dinner time. We’ve had lots of flooding in the last few days and this weekend’s storm didn’t help. Lots of local charities and churches are gearing up to send aid.
Interesting timing as I’m building 4 INCH bags for my family. Was actually thinking about re-arranging my emergency preps into portable/multi-kits. I think I have enough gear to make 2 4-person kitchen & medical kits, and enough TP to last us for almost a year. And about 4 months of canned/dehydrated foods; we are set for anything except having to bug out. Hence the INCH bags.
Guess I have new projects for the summer!
It is nippy out here, 37 F, in the sticks of Sugar Land, TX. I almost had to put on a jacket this morning in my 15 ft dash to the office front door.
https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/us/tx/richmond/77479?cm_ven=localwx_10day
So far it got all the way up to 41F here.
I’ve been hiding indoors all morning.
n
“So far it got all the way up to 41F here.”
I’ve been hiding indoors all morning.
Amateurs. Austin just climbed above freezing within the last hour or so. The $1800 parkas are out downtown.
I couldn’t get one of the spigots covered last night because the hose connection wouldn’t budge, but it was more of a big deal to my wife than it was to me. I wrapped the faucet in a towel so I could get some sleep.
The landlords only provided faucet covers in our last year in Vantucky, and we would have several days of hard freeze at least once every winter.
-6 F here today and tomorrow. Landlord’s proxy emailed a notice with some hints to minimize pipe burstage…
How can a faucet cover work? The faucet is the same temp as the surrounding air, there isn’t anything to keep in…
n
At least two ebola centers in Africa got torched last week, MSF has pulled their staff back, and “At least one person was reported dead in the late-night incidents in which the unknown attackers stoned and set fire to facility buildings. Ebola patients and staff fled and sought refuge in the community.”
Now authorities are pleading with people to get those patients BACK.
“…patients who are infected with Ebola are often hidden in the community. Even with the best treatment health center in the world, if patients don’t get to us in time, there is not much we can do.”
Butembo Mayor Sylvain Kanyamanda meanwhile pleaded with the community to assist authorities in the wake of the attacks. “Every normal person would seek to avoid death. So we call upon the population to help us find or denounce those who have fled from the center and continue to hide in their homes. Because they are a very serious threat of contamination,” Kanyamanda said.
Ah, a bit more:
“The World Health Organization called the attacks deplorable and said there is a great risk of the spread of the disease. During the attack on the facility in Butembo, four Ebola patients fled for their lives.
WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said three of the patients have since returned, while one is still missing.
“If you want, the positive note is that all of these four patients were convalescent, that means they were already getting better,” he said. “Hence, they had a lower viral load, which makes it way less likely for further infections.But yes, it is highly important to find those people, that last patient and then, of course, immediately start the contact tracing and monitor the contacts these patients might have been in touch with.””
https://allafrica.com/stories/201903020010.html
https://allafrica.com/stories/201903030007.html
Coming eventually to a sh!thole near you….
nick
Tiny amount of heat escaping through the house walls contained within the cover. The covers are basically Styrofoam blocks. Also the lack of moving air around the faucet will help to contain that little amount of heat. Personally a freeze proof exterior faucet is better as the valve mechanism is inside the structure and thus protected.
I have often wondered. If moving water is not supposed to freeze, as in let a trickle of water run, why do waterfalls freeze rock solid?
I thought this was parody, but you can’t parody the f’ing nannies these days.
Cleansing fire. Soon.
n
@Nick: A faucet cover slows the rate of energy transfer. It takes a lot of energy loss for water to freeze, so if you can slow the rate of energy transfer, you slow the rate of freezing. Not a long-term solution, of course. But it may be enough to protect a faucet for a few hours overnight, if the night isn’t extremely cold.
Better, of course, is to turn off and drain any exterior faucets.
Freefall: orbital rail gun pizza delivery
http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3300/fc03247.htm
“Captain’s Log. Twelve days before liftoff. Putting in supplies for the trip. It’s a lot of food. One last thing to figure out. How many days will it be at .5 meters per second squared acceleration before we’re moving too fast for the orbital rail gun to deliver pizza?”
Heh.
On Saturday nick congratulated someone on beginning the journey to self-reliance. The someone is in stark contrast to the mayor of some city in Georgia, I think Atlanta. This luminary said after the tornado(s) that the most critical thing was to get the Red Cross in ASAP with clothes and blankets and food and shelter because we have people freezing and their clothes were in a dresser which was pulled out of the house by the tornado.
If I were a taxpayer in that city, I’d wonder just what my tax dollars were going to. One of the premises for tolerating the necessary evil of government is support in case of disaster.
re ebola breakouts, of both kinds, I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
re orbital pizza delivery, Questionable Content already did that, years ago.
Maryland Sheriffs Won’t Enforce New Gun Law Say It’s A “Suicide Mission” For Cops
I have often wondered. If moving water is not supposed to freeze, as in let a trickle of water run, why do waterfalls freeze rock solid?
Moving water freezes, but very slowly due to the difference of having a small fixed amount of water to freeze and a comparatively much larger amount of moving water to freeze. Having a trickle of water going at the faucets is all about delaying the onset of the total freezing. If you are worried about a few hours then the trickle of water is probably ok. But days of freezing temperatures will require additional heating of some sort. And keep that wind off the pipe !
Better, of course, is to turn off and drain any exterior faucets.
Not around here. No faucet drains, no faucet cutoffs in the buildings.
And, we put our water heaters in the attics where they can do the most amount of damage when they unfreeze or burst.
re orbital pizza delivery, Questionable Content already did that, years ago.
Welcome back SteveF !
And no URL of the QC comic in discussion, no proof of prior art !
Except the google monster comes through:
https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3047
But Sam is getting pizza delivered to his space ship heading to asteroid belt of that space system. QC was about ground delivery of hot pizza. Hot carbonized pizza.
Wife and I finished watching the Netflix series “Travelers” last night. Three seasons, and the story was very entertaining up to the end. https://www.netflix.com/title/80105699 . According to the web site, “Travelers” creator and executive producer Brad Wright also created “Stargate Atlantis” and “Stargate Universe.”
We enjoyed the series – due to a recommendation of someone here a couple of weeks ago. (I’d search for the comment, but am lazy…)
They might have played a bit loose with some of the plot points, but it was an enjoyable series to watch.
Recommended.
Wife and I finished watching the Netflix series “Travelers” last night. Three seasons, and the story was very entertaining up to the end. https://www.netflix.com/title/80105699 . According to the web site, “Travelers” creator and executive producer Brad Wright also created “Stargate Atlantis” and “Stargate Universe.”
We enjoyed the series – due to a recommendation of someone here a couple of weeks ago. (I’d search for the comment, but am lazy…)
They might have played a bit loose with some of the plot points, but it was an enjoyable series to watch.
Recommended.
That was me. And I finished it also last Friday night.
And the ending was awesome. They also had the bravery to cut off the series at the end of season three. I wanted more but there is none coming. Always leave them wanting more !
Plus, the ground hog day episode was both horrible and awesome. Warning: many spoilers !
https://fanfare.metafilter.com/10509/Travelers-17-Minutes
Highly recommended.
Water trickling out of a facet is usually coming out of pipes in the ground well above freezing. Water over a falls is coming down rivers exposed to miles of open air and the source may be melting snow, lakes, or very cold rain.
The home I am buying next week for retirement, has a large (15×10) dry, clean, shelter under the garage extension. Besides storing prepping supplies, I will make it comfortable and well equipped to ride out any nasty weather. Another precaution is to register your shelter with the local emergency services so that in the case your home collapses on top of it they will know to dig out the entrance to check on your safety.
Does the awesome new shelter have a sump pump or is it located on top of a hill ?
And, we put our water heaters in the attics where they can do the most amount of damage when they unfreeze or burst.
Our water heater is above a closet with a bunch of valuable costume stuff, including my wife’s replica Playboy Bunny uniform which was authentic enough to put me on a watch list with Hef’s legal team. Finding a safer spot for the costume items is on my list of “to dos”.
Being watched by Playboy Legal isn’t all bad. I’ve met some interesting people and learned a lot about trademark/patent law.
I have often wondered. If moving water is not supposed to freeze, as in let a trickle of water run, why do waterfalls freeze rock solid?
Municipal water systems run at ground temperature. I forget the rule of thumb, but 10-15 feet down is a consistent temperature somewhere in the 60s.
Re: water (in winter): here in my little section of the Olympic Peninsual, the cold water in winter is very cold. Measures at 45-48F at night. Washing hands after ‘abulations’ is quite refreshing.
(*Added* – the water we get around here is from community wells, within a couple of miles.)
Re: “Travelers” – yes, the “Groundhog Day” episode was a bit intense. The entire series is recommended – highly recommended. Even the end/last episode was excellent – good ending of a story that I didn’t really want to end. I may watch the whole series again!
(I had to purposely ignore the various web sites about the series – because I didn’t want episode spoilers. I may go back and look at them now that I have finished the series.)
@Lynn — thanks for that recommendation!
Re: water (in winter): here in my little section of the Olympic Peninsual, the cold water in winter is very cold. Measures at 45-48F at night. Washing hands after ‘abulations’ is quite refreshing.
Clark County/Vancouver, WA was well water when we lived there so the water wasn’t that cold in winter.
Things may have changed since we left. The new indian casino in town couldn’t come to terms with the nearest municipality for sewer service (La Center?) so they built a septic field … right on top of the aquifer feeding Clark County’s wells.
Our water heater is above a closet with a bunch of valuable costume stuff, including my wife’s replica Playboy Bunny uniform which was authentic enough to put me on a watch list with Hef’s legal team. Finding a safer spot for the costume items is on my list of “to dos”.
Being watched by Playboy Legal isn’t all bad. I’ve met some interesting people and learned a lot about trademark/patent law.
I feel my leg being pulled.
Things may have changed since we left. The new indian casino in town couldn’t come to terms with the nearest municipality for sewer service (La Center?) so they built a septic field … right on top of the aquifer feeding Clark County’s wells.
Ugh. My septic field is 250 ft (horizontally) away from the water well. I tell people not to drink the water. Plus a number of wells on properties lower than mine were flooded when the river flooded three times over the last four years.
Thanks, but I haven’t been anywhere. Just busy.
@mediumwave, have you been reading the Lid for a long time? Did it start as The Yid with the Lid? I lost track of that blog at some point, and don’t know what happened to him. He was an early blogger.
n
nevermind, google says yes!
“Being watched by Playboy Legal isn’t all bad. I’ve met some interesting people and learned a lot about trademark/patent law.”
I feel my leg being pulled.
I was serious. I didn’t break any laws, but the person who made the costume broke a civil agreement she signed with Playboy Legal about not making the costumes. Apparently hers were too good for them to allow her to continue without intervention. She turned over her customer list as part of a *second* agreement to stay out of court.
The uniform is protected by a registration at the Patent & Trademark office, and the company renewed the registration within the last decade, before Hef passed. There isn’t anything Playboy can really do about my possession of the costume, but, apparently, they consider it to be their property through some weird interpretation of the law. I was told, among other things, not to openly sell it on EBay during a long, fascinating phone conversation I had with the person who started it all.
So much hassle over a fun gift for my wife for her corset collection. The bodice is a serious piece of hardware. We’ve done some kooky things at Halloween events over the years.
Now, I’ll go home tonight to find the water heater sprung a leak all of a sudden, a big hole in the side of the tank as if someone jammed a crowbar through the water heater.
I swear I remember touching on it with RBT before, during a discussion about copyright. Though, I’ll grant it may have been via email since I lurked here for many years before posting.
I want my global warming! Last night’s low was supposed to be 27 F. How about 24 F at 5 AM and then until 11 AM? It made it to 35 but is now down to 30.
I suppose this will be the year to cut the pear trees down. They were bearing when we moved here in ’93 but are now look 2/3rds dead. I’m guessing they were planted in the mid-80’s. With last night, tonight, and tomorrows lows, no pears for me.
The wind goes right through you.
The 72 watt halogen 100 watt equivalent bulb is working fine. The remote temp says 55F when it’s 30F outside.
Ok, I’m done whining. 🙂
I looked for small space heater a couple of years ago. I found a couple of models that plugged in to the wall… the whole thing…. about the size of a beer can. About 300 watts of heat. They had a thermostat and a small fan. Looked great other than the “auto shut-off after 12 hours” feature. A nice feature for an electric blanket, not one I want for a tiny space heater.
I need to go with Plan B. Insulate the building. Buy a baseboard heater controller and use a small ceramic heater set on low. That’s how I heat the EDC. I need to test this… blowing the breaker means no water.
Yeah! A Project! 🙂
The 72 watt halogen 100 watt equivalent bulb is working fine. The remote temp says 55F when it’s 30F outside.
BTW, I have bought my last halogen bulb for the five kitchen can lights. I can not find any more (I did not try very hard !) so I am going back to the 65 watt LED equivalents that I bought several years ago. The wife hates them because they are so bright but I like the reduced electrical usage.
Gear testing and reviews! We’ll be a prepper blog for REALZ !!!1!!!11
Who can review a pocket knife???
n
Being told by Playboy verses being told by a judge is a very different matter. People sell copyrighted material all the time. Openly on many sites. Not a big deal. I suspect the Playboy person was just trying to be obnoxious.
But, would it be worth the legal hassle, and cost, to prove you are correct? Too bad the legal system favors those with deep pockets and mere mortals such as yourself are left little recourse.
When my wife got in an accident a couple of weeks later I got a letter from a lawyer demanding $25K. Stated in the letter it was legally binding and I had to pay. I wrote back and told the lawyer only a court can compel someone to pay and as far as I was concerned he could take his letterhead and pound sand. I also wrote in the letter than any further contact from him, or his client, in writing, by phone, or in person would be considered harassment would be brought before a judge. I never heard back.
Insurance company only paid the medical bills and gave the lawyer and the client nothing. There was no damage paid for the person’s vehicle as there was no damage. She only bumped their bumper. But there was still $2K in medical bills. Insurance company said they never argue over medical bills as just paying them gives them protection. It was a scam, a winning lottery ticket to the lawyer and his client.
Need to review FLASHLIGHTS.
How about reviewing…
KNIFELIGHTS
Nope, no need to revisit the cheap vs name brand FLASHLIGHT debate…. NOPE!!
n
FLASHKNIVES????
@mediumwave, have you been reading the Lid for a long time? Did it start as The Yid with the Lid? I lost track of that blog at some point, and don’t know what happened to him. He was an early blogger.
This was the source for the article.
Ah, so instapundit is still reading him. I stopped a while ago, then lost track. Guess he’s still blogging, since 2005… that’s pretty long.
n
I am on my 10th ? 11th ? 12th ? Swiss Army Tinker knife. They are just freaking awesome. I’ve been carrying them for almost 50 years now. The TSA has stolen a couple from me and the Fleetwood Mac concert security tried to get the current one a couple of weeks ago. Kenny Chesney’s concert security was gracious enough to stash it for me last summer.
https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Swiss-Tinker-Pocket-Knife/dp/B00004YVB4/
Yes, I’ve broken several of them. I tend to use them for screwdriver functions as if they were a big strong Sears Craftsman Professional screwdriver. Or to use one of the blades for prying open a crate using 1x4s. Sooner or later, that abuse will catch up to your knife.
And, the big blade is covered in glue from opening shipping boxes from Big River and the like. Yes, it is dirty, it lives in my pocket and gets dropped all over the place. But, I can always buy another one plus I have two or three of them in my stash.
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (1,885 reviews)
”Who can review a pocket knife???
Need to review FLASHLIGHTS.”
In both cases, cheap Chinese (several of them) beat
none at all. Buy several. Test (carefully in the case
of knives) for reliabilty and usefulness for your purposes.
Or, to spend more money, but not a lot, look at
a Gerber KNIFE and an Anker FLASHLIGHT.
Or…
Yep. Victorinox Tinker ! I have a couple of them…
I have a larger one with a locking main blade.
Wish it had the Spyderco style thumb hole in the blade.
Added:
Here’s a deal on Tinker plus Classic (with little scissors)
for $28: B000VY2Y7M
Related:
I saw a news story about food donation requests for
whichever flood or tornado, and they asked for pop-top
cans because nobody had can openers. Swiss Army can
opener is difficult, but it beats several worse options.
rub the can gently on concrete until you wear thru the folded seal. Then lift lid.
I learned that on thar interwebs…
n
“Indie Sci-Fi Authors Are Upending Traditional Publishing, And It’s Turned Into A War”
http://thefederalist.com/2019/03/04/indie-sci-fi-authors-upending-traditional-publishing-turned-war/
“At their annual conference last year in Las Vegas, several authors raised their hands when asked if they were making more than $100,000 per month on Amazon. Dozens were making more than $10,000 per month, and almost the entire conference was making more than $1,000 per month on their books. If the industry were in as much trouble as establishment publishing likes to moan about, how did this happen?”
“The 20BooksTo50K group is focused on appealing to readers—and what most readers want out of science fiction is escapism and fun. The big authors of the past understood this, and that’s why we still hail so many of the greats like Frank Herbert, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Robert Heinlein. The classic stories have a vision that brings fun and awe to their readership. Modern establishment publishing stories are mired in literary traps and identity politics in order to impress elites, but most readers don’t identify with those kind of stories.”
I would say that at least half of the books that I read now are indies.
Hey Greg, turns out she doesn’t need a sugar daddy if they’ve got their hands in the cookie jar…..
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-04/aoc-chief-staff-funneled-1-million-campaign-cash-his-own-companies
“It’s really weird” several times in the article, but it’s not weird AT ALL if you assume they’re robbing the till….
n
I read mostly indie authors too, for fiction anyway. I’ve got trad publishers in my SBR, but they fall down the list…
Trad authors I do read,
Larry Correia (although he got his start posting on gun forums and I think was briefly self pub)
Jim Butcher
Seanan McQuire (and Mira Grant, her alterego)
and outside of a few one offs and the classics, that’s it.
n
To save your knife, consider a small prying tool like the Gerber Shard.
B077926SLG $8 now, but often cheaper.
Includes screwdriver and bottle opener functions.
Links on that page will lead to an assortment of tiny prybar tools.
A similar pry tool with added functions, including a minimal knife
sharpener, is the Lansky Roadie. It’s my favorite today.
B01M2WA1LA $6 at the moment.
Add: You can also rub a knife edge on concrete to sharpen.
There are worse options…
Being told by Playboy verses being told by a judge is a very different matter. People sell copyrighted material all the time. Openly on many sites. Not a big deal. I suspect the Playboy person was just trying to be obnoxious.
The person who made the costume told me that the lawyers would be watching EBay and selling there might be a problem.
I haven’t heard from Playboy’s lawyers directly, but, about 10 years ago, I did get an email from a “photographer” in New Orleans looking to borrow the costume for a shoot. The individual was vague as to how he knew I had one and how he got the email account, one I only use for EBay/Paypal.
Playboy Legal is based in New Orleans.
Got home tonight, and the water heater was intact.
But, would it be worth the legal hassle, and cost, to prove you are correct? Too bad the legal system favors those with deep pockets and mere mortals such as yourself are left little recourse.
The market has really gone cold for high end costume items in the last year. People don’t have the cash. I’ve listed other items not nearly as valuable, and more than about $50-100 is just not happening like it did 7-8 years ago.
“The market has really gone cold”
— I think this is true for almost everything. My wife’s business is half of last year at this time, and their margins went from really freakin’ fat, the razor thin on some things.
I’m having a heck of a time selling anything. I just today sold some industrial adhesive for about one third of where I started.
b
I want my global warming! Last night’s low was supposed to be 27 F. How about 24 F at 5 AM and then until 11 AM? It made it to 35 but is now down to 30.
@Paul, so what do you do with the chickens and emus in this cold weather ?
“The market has really gone cold”
— I think this is true for almost everything. My wife’s business is half of last year at this time, and their margins went from really freakin’ fat, the razor thin on some things.
I’m having a heck of a time selling anything. I just today sold some industrial adhesive for about one third of where I started.
I would say us too but the office manager closed a six figure five year contract last week while I was lazing around in Oklahoma. It was a replacement contract as their existing five year contract ran out March 1. They waited until Feb 27 to renew. They have used our software to design and run twelve LNG plants in Norway that cost ten billion dollars each. Nope, we don’t get a piece of that action.
The engineering conference that I went to last week had 450 engineers attending in 2014. Last year was 350. This year was 320. Not good, that trend is heading sharply down.
We have closed almost a million dollars in new contracts since the previous sales person left last Oct 2. But divide that over four years and that is not good. We need to close another million dollars in contracts this year to break even since we did not even get close to a million dollars in sales last year.
It was nippy outside for our 1+ mile walk tonight. 35 F with a 10 mph wind. However, the wife vastly prefers this over a nice warm August night of 90 F at 85% humidity. And no wind. I wore three shirts, a velour vest, and two hoodies. Plus a scarf and gloves. And long underwear under my sweat pants.