Both of us are suffering from the fires, which are still going on, though not as thick smoke as before, just a general haze. Sore throats, up high, back of the nose. I spent yesterday in bed, rare for me, even if I am sick—I just slept and lay there staring at the telly, not even wanting to eat, mostly…I’d eaten way too much on Monday.
But over all, it was a great time. And I’m up and about today. We had ordered a small rollabout cabinet for the kitchen, and that had come, so Jane was happily putting that together. It will help us keep things more orderly, as in—more cabinets to help us clear the counters of things that need to be in shelves. And it moves, which helps us reconfigure our (very) shotgun (narrow) kitchen to suit the task.
And while the sky is kind of murky yellow-grey this morning, there IS rain coming this weekend, which will help end this mess, I sincerely hope.
We had a great time. Thank you very much for the fishy dome—we need to rig a feeder pipe we can use to bait it to get all of the rascals in, but they are one by one exploring it. We just haven’t caught them with a camera yet.
It’s back to work, now, with confidence we can get this book finished, and with good ideas oncoming. We had a nice visit with our publishers, and they’re on board with our ideas, and we’re happy.
So back to work! Everyone’s home and safe, and all’s well with the world!
It dawned on me that the cabinet was the package I took to the basement…..90 some pounds….are you leaving it in the basement, or did you haul it back up the stairs to assemble it?
The package you kindly took to the basement was the sewing table to replace the one we are now using in the kitchen as a cabinet. The other that arrived is another kitchen storage.
Ah….I see….
ReadyGuy and I are home (arrived at 13:10) after overnights in Twin Falls and Kingman. Weather is sunny but with rain clouds building and shedding some virga in the mountains to our east. Temperature is 88 degrees and I expect the high to be no more than 91. We have NO smoke, visibility is in excess of 40 miles, with just a little water haze. We ran out of smoke about halfway through Nevada travelling south down US 93 through the Great Basin. Except for Las Vegas, the traffic was tolerable, with little to no stop and go. ReadyGuy tried his darnedest to get a ticket when the Lamborghini and Bentley he was following dumped speed and he didn’t decelerate quickly enough, but evidently the Sheriff was fixated on the Lambo in the lead… Total mileage 4,127 miles.
Lol!
We’re recovering. Cruddy is when you’re too done in to go to the store after the meds to make you feel better, but I think I can patch together something useful out of the medicine closet, (too big to be a cabinet) and make do until tomorrow. THen I have to go to the store: we’re out of eggs.
I hope you both feel better soon.
We arrived home safely yesterday afternoon. Flights were pretty uneventful; even the turbulence was more subdued, except both virgin air pilots decided that smooth landings were over rated: they both banged down with considerable authority upon touchdown, with one managing an impressive bounce. Oh, and they evidently couldn’t decide which gate they wanted our Launceston flight to leave from; they changed gates twice.
Still, we are home, safe and sound, and with a relatively good nights sleep under our belts.
Quel rain! Off and on, with some very heavy patches, since last week. Most unseasonable. Parts of the far side of the island have been cut off where the rivers (normally tiny streams) went OVER the bridges, tried their darndest to wash out the road entire, and brought down chunks of the mountain as well. This year we’ve already had 3 hurricane scares and undoubtedly have more to come because of El Nino. Possibly just as well I stayed home. Still, we got final approval and activation on the new solar panel system; it’s trippy to go outside and watch the meter go backward (as long as the a/c isn’t on).
I don’t know about Ignacio, there’s one about due south of us, the second one in the lineup, that looks to be wound up pretty tight. Full Disk
Here’s a good East Pacific IR loop today showing typhoon Jimena following Ignacio, and winding up much more, suggesting it’s more powerful.
http://www.goes.noaa.gov/dml/west/nhem/epac/rb.html
Ignacio is closer, and looks to be on more of a direct track for Hawaii, but is not as strong as Jimena. I hope to see it take a more northerly route. OTOH, Jimena is strengthening faster and I hope it peaks before it gets into Hawaiian waters. Jimena also has more ocean to cross and deflect into. The ones that seem to cause us the most trouble are the ones that start to pass S of the islands, then take a sharp northerly bend and come up the inside; they are the strong ones that scare Oahu and ran over Kauai (Iwa and Iniki).
One hopes not to have a direct experience of the type of storms that keep mariners out of the Southern Ocean!
Watch out for Ignacio, Chondrite! Due about Monday.
I’m very tired of El Niño already. We’ve been running 50-60% humidity in SoCal from the tropical storm spin off, storm after storm after storm. I know that doesn’t sound like much to those of you in 90F-90% areas, but I have a friend who moved to Reno because he couldn’t stand the humidity here (sinuses). I think I’d rather have the storm head straight for me and gods-be-feathered rain. I am on a hilltop…so far.
CJ, if the fires continue, I’ve found a fan pointed at an almost-dripping terrycloth towel pulls out smoke very well. It’s not a HEPA filter, but it’s a lot cheaper.
I’m also with you on the medicine closet. At this point, I’ve given up trying to get to the perfect diet docs want. For one thing, I doubt I could hit Calorie-Protein* and “perfect diet” targets–all those fruits and veggies have Calories and no protein (mostly). So my personal compromise, which I do not recommend, is to take a lot of supplements and concentrate on the Calorie/Protein* targets.
*However, I saw (BBC?) an interesting preliminary study, with only 20 participants, testing whether the USDA MDA for protein is low. Current is 0.8g/kg (~36%g/lb) of weight daily; they tested 1.6g/kg (~72g/lb). Essentially, they were upping protein big time to see if something happened, using the common (Costco sells them) protein shakes. It did. Among older adults, the extra protein preserved muscle mass. So I’m provisionally going to ~50% lbs (~1.2g/kg weight). (I have operated for some time on the idea, due to special conditions, I need vitamins and protein over calories or fat.) The take-away I’d like to leave with everyone is, consider significantly upping your protein target.
Also, the study did not support the idea that a steady, few-hours to few-hours, protein diet is necessary, which is good news for us intermittant fasters. But it’s a very, very small study.
Lamborghini! I think I’ve probably told this story here before: if anyone remembers, whap me on the nose with a rolled up newspaper. So, I was going Reno to Mammoth on US 395, an absolutely beautiful scenic highway, two lanes (one each way), skirting the Sierra Nevada. Up to Lee Vining (2000m+), down along the eastern Sierra Nevada toward the LA basin. Highly recommended. But, due to time constraints, I was traveling it at night. Out of Carson City(?) I pulled onto 395 with a car about a quarter-mile ahead, taillights clear.
This is somewhat…mercenary? If I see a ball of flame or sparks replace the taillights, I slow down, fast. Likewise if they disappear–poof!–instead of blink-blink, right-left. (The peaks are to the right, the crevasse to the left.) Likewise if I should see them in a parabolic arc, falling. If I see brake lights, I know to slow down. If I see brake lights and the tail rise, I know to slow down fast. Otherwise, he lets me know what’s about to happen. It’s not like I can stop him going at his own pace, right?
But, I keep getting in a bit of trouble. He doesn’t hit his brakes, but I sure have to! Well, I’ve got a manual, too (I think smugly). I still get into trouble–not serious, but quite often. Finally, we get to Lee Vining and their very low speed limit lets me catch up. I’ve been following–well, understand that a dump truck is to a Lamborghini as a Lamborghini is to a Lotus Europa! My life, what there was of it at the time, passed before my eyes.
We’ve been running 50-60% humidity in SoCal from the tropical storm spin off, storm after storm after storm.
Mostly 35-40% in my particular area (northwest valley) – it’s bad when it goes over 45%, though, and we’ve cleared 50% several times. I think the monsoon’s sneaking in through the low desert, as usual. (Got sprinkled on, briefly, Tuesday morning, but the stuff cleared out, so it’s back to Normally Hot.)
I read a news article a couple months ago, perhaps about the same study, that also recommended we double protein intake. But then perhaps it’s well to remember what the “M” stands for.
It’s the end of August and highs here have finally gotten down from the 100’s to the mid-90’s. It’s odd when you think, mid-90’s, that’s cooler!
So we still have a ways to go here before it gets anywhere near cool. It feels like it’s unusual to still be this hot, or to have had temps above 100 for so long, but…the last 5 to 10 years, that has happened a few times. …Global warming, not for sissies….
Therefore, I suspect we are in for a warm fall and winter here. It can vary. It can be in the 70’s on Thanksgiving and Christmas day, for instance. Or it can be near (or occasionally below) freezing.
I am still hanging onto a new sweater I haven’t worn since I got it a few years ago. Fond hopes it’ll be cold enough to wear it, but not *too* cold. But I might have to head north to do so!
Without A/C, it’s still very much swim shorts and flip-flops weather inside my house. Heh. The Gulf Coast is supposed to be “temperate” instead of “sub-tropical,” but I think whoever decided that hadn’t lived here in the summer!
It is good to hear people got home safely from Shejicon. — CJ, I hope you and Jane feel better soon. Get some good rest!
Just come across the Red River and we can oblige with freezing rain and all of the other nasties.
Hmmm… Roll cabinet next to dishwasher. Insert clean plates, bowls and silver. Close cabinet. Roll cabinet out of room. Use newly free space for kitchen items which cannot be hung from a rack. Hmmm….
Got home Thursday about suppertime. The smoke in the air, from WASHINGTON fires we were assured, was bad until I got west of the Okanagan valley. I took a side trip up to Field, in Yoho National Park to see fossils and it was so smokey you couldn’t see the Walcott Quarry site up on the side of the mountain.
All in all a successful detour as park visitors got to crack open some trilobite fossils (not Burgess Shale trilobites of course, these are younger ones from the Cranbrook area)
Yesterday was spent trying to find out why the engine warning light came on just north of Coeur d’Alene. Failing catalytic converter is the verdict…sigh.