We’re doing well, even cool, in the PNW, but to our south, alas, poor California—and hugs to those dealing with the hurricane.
Hope you are all safe from the fires and the hurricane. 2020, what can we say?
by CJ | Aug 27, 2020 | Journal | 89 comments
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Things are pretty good in Southern California. The one fire I know of is almost contained. Unfortunately, California isn’t the only state with fires, so we’ve had to call for mutual aid from Australia; we helped them with their big bush fires.
A side effect is that about 30% of the FEMA Urban Search & Rescue Task Forces are, I expect, unavailable. Luckily, Laura hit between NOLA and Houston, but a couple more prospective hurricanes are starting to spin up in the Atlantic. An urban hit could be bad.
While we’ve been hotter than usual and more humid, the night temperatures have been low, so it’s just a matter of pumping out the warm air after sundown and sealing my home at dawn. I have only been actually hot a few hours, but the general warmth has been a bit enervating. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. Lazy days of Summer.
Arizona has had the hottest summer on record for here so far. Our summer monsoon has been a total bust, with less than half the normal rainfall. This coming week Tucson (70 miles from here) will finally be dropping below triple digit highs after a really rough July and August. We’d gladly take some of the rain from hurricane Laura. Weather forecasters are predicting rain associated with Pacific hurricanes Hernan and Iselle will finally infiltrate the area. Now we’ll have to worry about dry lightning sparking more wildfires. Fortunately our county has gotten a modicum of control over Covid cases, unlike the bigger cities. It’s still scary times.
Here in Tempe we are gasping for rain with another day over 110. We are gasping from hazy air from fires in AZ. They say storms Saturday and finally 102 ..sure hope so.
I should have included Death Valley in my weather report for SoCal, I guess. It got up to 130°F, almost 55°C, a week or two ago. A hundred years ago, it reached 134°F, 57°C, but some don’t consider that a reliable reading.
Linda, we’ve had a lot of storms off Baja. Isn’t that where your monsoon rains come from?
Walt, Arizona’s monsoon rains come from the south, south east, either from the Gulf of Mexico or up the Gulf of Baja. (Monsoon winds are a change of direction from the rest of the year’s flow out of the west.) This year’s monsoon hasn’t been productive because the high pressure over the SW has been blocking the moisture bearing winds from coming up from Mexico. Hopefully, that is changing.
Thank you. I thought Iselle might help, but I guess not.
The moisture does come up through Mexico. This year it has been staying East of us, in NM until recently.
I just ordered a “Giant Meteor 2020” bumper sticker. It’s all we seem to be missing at this point – and about midnight on New Year’s eve should be good.
If it ain’t one damned thing, it’s another?
Happily, no fires or hurricanes here, though storm Francis just blew through with 100 km/h gusts and blew over a few trees, since those are still in full leaf.
We’ve had the hottest summer, with the most consecutive over-30°C days, on record in more than 100 years, with last year as the runner-up, and a very dry spring ditto, when it’s supposed to be wet. That led to one large fire in a dry peat and heath-type nature reserve this summer which lasted several days, as the fire could go on smouldering in the dry peat underground: very unusual for the Netherlands – mostly we’re too soggy.
Climate change means we’re having to learn to deal with droughts and cloudbursts instead of constant gentle rain, and to hold onto water in the higher and drier eastern parts of the country, letting it replenish the groundwater and aquifer, instead of managing the runoff of the usual excess water. Decoupling rainwater runoff from sewers (preventing spillovers during cloudbursts), and leading that clean water into wadis, sunken parks and playgrounds where it can be held to seep into the ground or be released slowly is starting to become best practise whenever sewer or street renewal is planned.
Still much easier to deal with than fires and hurricanes, especially during a pandemic; I hope everybody can stay safe.
Fires to the north of me, fires to the south of me, smoke all around. We are far enough away (about an hour each direction) to be safe and sound. But close enough that on the news I see houses I delivered the lumber for burned down.
That’s what we do with rain runoff here in the flatlands of Texas, Hanneke. When we get these “supercell” thunderstorms, it rains like the dickens for like half an hour, and we have what amounts to flash floods. We have what we call playa lakes in our parks where the runoff is funneled by the storm drain system. We have the same problem you do — the land is so flat here that a 6-inch difference in elevation will collect water from a large area and flood if it doesn’t have anyplace to go. The city has all the playa lakes connected and they can pump water from one to another to level things out. We are classed as “semi-arid” here. When it rains, it rains up to an inch or more at a time. The saying goes, We only average about 16-inches (40.5 cm) of rain a year, but you ought to be here on the day it comes!
It’s wonderful when the roads in your area go through playas, so when it rains a lot you can’t go anywhere. (Some playas are 10 or more feet from bottom to rim. Water recreation areas!)
Ex-hurricane Laura (now tropical depression) just passed overhead, moving east. Gentle rain, so it’s nice.
We got a brief downpour here in south east Louisiana at about 8:30 AM. It had passed by 10:00 AM.
Here in Vegas, we haven’t had rain since March sometime. And we missed out on the monsoon entirely. To say it’s hot and dry is putting it mildly.
Northeast Ohio got a bit of rain and wind on the tail end, but mostly it’s just been hotter than usual and we get vigorous thunderstorms instead of “rain”.
I grabbed a book for a little maybe not so quick reading in prep for a colonoscopy in the morning. I hope I can be forgiven for quoting this passage I’m sure we all recognize, which seems specially significant this week. It just leapt out at me!
“A hani that sold us out. A hani like that. A kif like that gods-be son Skkukuk. Which is worth more to the universe?
“I shot her. We all did. Crew did it for me. Why’d I do it?
“Hearth and blood, Ehrran.
“For Chur. But that wasn’t why.
‘For our lives, because we have to survive, because a fool can’t be let loose in this. We have to do it, got to do something to stop this, play every gods-be throw we got and cheat into the bargain. Got to live. Long enough.
“What will they say about us then?
“That’s nothing in the balances. That there’s someone left to remember at all–that’ s what matters.”
Indeed. Parallels.
(And I hope I’ll be awake enough to shed this costume! Final prep begins at 0200!)
Oh, yes! Could we borrow Pyanfar for 2020? (Political rant redacted.)
Well, no. Pyanfar is no democrat. She’s definitely a pragmatist, something most autocratic leaders are not. I’ve seen enough of autocracy. Some of us really do believe in our Constitution, without an oath. Was it Ben Franklin who said something like: “Those who would sacrifice liberty for temporary security deserve neither”?
Good luck Paul, I got mine last week (the prep is no fun at all).
Because I have diverticulosis, it was a two-day prep. He found one small polyp at the far end, near the appendix, but although it went in for a biopsy analysis, he was very dismissive and says I’m good for 7 years. My father died of colon cancer, so I’ve gotten to go to the “rodeo” every 5 years. My biggest problem now is either the prep REALLY triggered-off my IBS, or they didn’t suck out all the inflating gas. I’ve got really bad borborygmi (borb-oh-rig-me), which would rather grumble loudly than be expelled.
Now, to get OUT of this hideous costume! Can’t wait another day! I think I’ll masquerade as my older, conservative cousin.
Sounds like a good result Paul! I had on tiny polyp (3mm, 1/10 inch) that the Dr called ‘a pimple’. I know penguins go for long times without eating, but 2 days of prep? Yeesh.
I’m so glad you both had good results. I confess to Crohn’s Disease, so I get to have colonoscopies more often than most. (Yes, on Entyvio, but those commercials are a bit misleading. One still gets flares that interfere with life in a bad, bad way.) Last time I got a CT scan rather than the camera – Yeah! Much easier prep. Plus it’s an immune system thing, as is my asthma & arthritis, so COVID-wise every day in court or out in the world is an adventure! [PUT THAT MASK ON! 6 FEET PULEASE!]
I’m angry at the way “big pharma” advertizes on TV. Firstly, I’m not going to ask my doctor about something I see! “Not my table.” I expect him to tell me if there’s something new on the market that would be to my benefit. Secondly, when the ad comes on, close your eyes, look away, or leave the room and just LISTEN to what it says–don’t look at all the happy, smiling people enjoying themselves at something that appears to be vacation activities. The two messages are dramatically different. Notice that you never hear these ads on the radio! I’m not at all sure, even with 1st Ammendment rights, the FDA/FCC ought to allow it.
Also note the page anna half of side effects and other disclosures that flashes up for 2 seconds in 4 point type. You don’t hear the ads on the radio because the manufacturers are required to disclose the potentially bad side effects, which would take much longer than the usual 30s radio spot, even with an auctioneer rattling it off. Definitely not my wheelhouse.
My dad had colon cancer, but that’s not what got him. He lived another nearly thirty years after undergoing surgery with colostomy and died at age 92. But I get to do the colonoscopy thing every five years myself. Beats the kind of surgeries he had to go through by ten miles.
As for all our other salads reading this, please check the American Cancer Society’s colon cancer page. Wakanda4ever: RIP great actor and kind person Chadwick Boseman.
Sorry to Hijack this thread, But, Happy Birthday CJ.
Beat the living dickens out of another year, did she?
Thank heavens for that; good news. Hope CJ gets to have a nice birthday dinner, even if the usual venues are -ahem- off the menu.
Birthday Felicitations to you, CJ! One hopes you are having a wonderful day.
Greetings and felicitations, and hopes for many more!
(I notice that it’s also the birthday of Feelthy Pierre and of Martha Wells – good company!)
Happy birthday to you, indeed, CJ… with many, many more healthy & productive years to come!
Happy Birthday, CJ!
Happy birthday CJ! I hope you had a nice day, even without the cruise or going out for steaks.
Would you mind posting a link to your Facebook latest posts page here?
I’m not on Facebook so I can’t comment there, but I would like to read the updates you post there.
Searching Facebook for Cherryh leads to 4 hits on your name, but the ‘splash page’ those show me don’t contain any posts, just a little bit of general information.
Then I have to make a Facebook account and log in to go on to your posts or pictures or whatever.
The same goes for Jane’s Facebook.
If I have a specific link to the postings-page (whatever it’s called) I can see the most recent few posts. At least that’s what happens when Tiny Kittens posts those links in their chat, so I hope it works the same for this.
Sorry I missed the birthday. I spent Sunday night, all day Monday and Tuesday, and most of Wednesday in the hospital. I just got home this afternoon. Not a pleasant stay, but better than the alternative.
No, it is NOT COVID-19 related. I fell Sunday afternoon, went to the hospital, they misdiagnosed the problem and sent me home. Went back again that evening, courtesy of an ambulance ride. The second ER doctor found out I was severely dehydrated, and commenced pumping fluids as fast as they could. After 6 liters, they found I was severely anemic, and gave me two units of red blood cells (first transfusions I have ever received. I usually donate and have 165 units donated under my belt.).
So, Happy Birthday, CJ!!!!
dang Joe, that’s an adventure. glad you’re ok
Take care, Joe!
That’s nasty; I hope the docs are able to figure out what happened and correct it.
Oh Joe, that sounds horrible!
I hope the second time around they checked you real carefully, including for hidden internal bleeding, since you apparently lost (or didn’t re-make) red blood cells as well as a lot of fluids.
It might be just the heat, taking away your appetite, and not drinking enough extra to compensate for the extra sweating, but to get this bad in someone who’s usually healthy enough to donate blood sounds scary.
Joe, that’s scary! I hope you have been correctly diagnosed and are on the mend. Please don’t make us wait too long for an update.