We have also started the kitchen remodel, our living room is full of all the kitchen stuff, and our carpenter is stuck in a massive traffic jam on I-90, with a lot of sirens. Someone is having a much worse morning, so let us be sorry for that person and just keep shifting boxes…..
Remember Smokecon? The skies are like that. We’re getting smoke from everywhere…
by CJ | Sep 5, 2017 | Journal | 43 comments
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I just finished looking at reports of the wildfires in Montana, Idaho and Oregon and wondered how much smoke there was in your neck of the woods. My brother lives in Wyoming, so I need to check on him and see how things are going there. Take care, both of you (and kitties) And good luck with the kitchen remodel!
Ash is in the air, falling out of the sky, west of Portland. Last evening I thought the plants in my “shadehouse” were infested with “white fly”, but it was just ash.
Ick, a smoky mess. The vog is coming back for another visit, and even through 2 1/2 weeks on the mainland helped temporarily shut down my allergies, they are returning. We usually spend Labor Day weekend with our gaming buddies running campaigns from early afternoon into the night; this year it was all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We had a great time, but now comes the cleanup, and dispersal of friends home.
Our kitchen remodel disrupted the kitchen for nearly 3 weeks, but I was doing a lot of the work myself. Hopefully yours will go much faster and be wholly satisfactory.
Have heard from fellow blogger in Seattle and a cousin slightly east of there that the smoke is pretty bad and that air quality is the pits. Hopefully, the weather she was talking about that might blow in will blow in and blow the smoke out.
Yay on starting the kitchen remodel.
Last evening I was marvelling at the wierd yellowish-gray color of the sky well before sunset. Then I was inspired to grab my camera and go into the backyard to snap a picture of a blood red Sun above the trees.
Letters to the editor in the Oregonian are pretty adamant that this passle of kids ought to be required to spend a couple years working on rehabilitation, i.e. planting, fixing trails, cleaning watersheds, from the damage they caused. Some want it extending to the parents.
Being required to wear shirts that say, “I did it.” front and back until it’s back to normal?
We now have no sink but fridge water/ice and range still work. No cabinets. No flooring. But we are making progress.
PJ, I have no idea why the spam filter didn’t like your comments, but I freed them.
Thanks! It was a surprise to me.
I understand they’ve identified a suspect (or suspects) in one fire’s origin. Kids throwing fireworks off a cliff into a dry forest….do they teach rational thinking in schools these days, or do they not seem to understand the consequences of throwing ANYTHING that’s burning into a dry tinderbed? If this teenager is truly the one who caused this fire, he has a very long and arduous road ahead of him, and hopefully never forget what misery he’s caused to a lot of people.
Hi from Adelaide, South Australia. I’m a long time lurker and CJ fan.
On the subject of floods & fires, I was bemused at Houston’s rainfall during the recent deluge being measured in feet. Our annual rainfall is about 23″, so it’s a lot drier here.
@Gabbee — The 51+ inches of rain that was reported for Houston during Hurricane Harvey broke all previous records for North America, and a local weatherman said our annual total rainfall for Houston is around 55 inches. So in only a few days, we got that equivalent. Believe me, that’s terribly unusual. However, it’s normal for us to have heavy rains in Houston any time of year, alternating with lots of sun. Our humidity is always high, and we say it’s “muggy” out. Our winters can get down to the teens rarely, but usually, 30’s Fahrenheit are about where our winter lows are. We can also have mild 70’s weather in winter here. But in summer, our highs are typically in the 90’s to 100’s (F) here. (The Wiki page for Houston’s weather should give averages, highs, and lows.)
Hurricane Irma might well exceed Harvey’s rainfall for Florida, and is expected to remain at tropical storm force or maybe Cat. 1 hurricane force when it reaches Georgia, after traversing the Florida peninsula. — Folks in Houston (and anywhere along the Gulf Coast) can sure sympathize with our Florida and Caribbean island neighbors.
Also, Hurricane José is headed on roughly the same track, though they’re hoping it’ll veer northward. It may deliver yet more rain and wind to the same islands and Florida just as they are getting up from Irma.
This is going to be a very, very strange hurricane season. — I noticed news reports over in India were following what’s going on here and comparing it to storm activity there recently, but I haven’t seen what they concluded. It’s very useful to do the comparison, and Houston, for instance, has a sizable Indian and Pakistani community, so there’s a chance for trading info back and forth that way too. If the cross-fertilization of ideas turns up anything useful, that’s great. I realize Australia gets its share of activity too.
Irma’s expected to make landfall tomorrow morning in Florida, now passing north away from Cuba. — Please take care, everyone.
People, both adults and kids/teens, can often be awfully unthinking and uncaring. It sometimes seems rare to run into someone who _does_ think and care. My less optimistic side can have a very jaundiced view of human nature. Yet my more friendly and naive side still really likes people, and my optimistic or more fair sides hasten to point out there are plenty of good, thoughtful, caring people around who go unacknowledged every day.
I also have a feeling not a lot of kids get much parenting at home or more than the class subject at school, and then they’re often left to their own devices (including literally, these days) for social and emotional support. This means only the more caring and thoughtful kids are likely to use their brains, hearts, guts, etc. in any given situation. Er, not just kids; make that, adults too. And even the smart/good kids can make screwball mistakes. (I seem to recall several less than stellar examples from my own childhood and adolescence. Hmm.)
This is not to defend some twerp(s) or jerk(s), whatever his (or their) ages, who did not engage their brains before whatever it was that started one/several forest fires. It’s only explaining how prone humans, especially young humans, can be to doing really danged thoughtless stuff.
And eegads, given the recent examples of adults not using their brains, hearts, or guts lately in the news…. Just…ugh. No wonder some kids don’t think.
My more misanthropic, curmudgeonly side says it’s a wonder some kids do outgrow their lack of thinking and develop sense…but that would, yes, apply equally to adults. (Ouch.)
(Wow, do I sound sour.)
OK, look, there are lots of good, smart kids around in among all the less standout ones. I’ve seen this too, both in person and online. Some kids can be really, really super. Heck, some of ’em could be in charge and we might be better off. (It’s very funny how, since around when my generation grew up and after, that we somehow expect kids/teens not to be responsible, thoughtful, caring, or intelligent enough to be good leaders or do a good job on their own. My dad’s and grandparents’ generations were _expected_ to be responsible, even as young kids — and surprisingly, some (many?) did so.) — That’s what the “space cadet / boy/girl genius” trope in sci-fi and current novels/videos gets wrong, often. (Present company very much the exception).
For the kids/teens who caused the damage? Public service doing cleanup, replanting, other rehabilitation would be a super idea. Get them to _see_ the impact their actions have on Mother Nature, people, wildlife. Heck, have them do service with old folks homes, homeless shelters (youth, women, men), so they _see_ the impact there. Caregiving. Candystripers. Helping out with pets at a veterinary clinic. Babysitting. Something. Things to get through the big idea that they will (very soon) have to be responsible for their own actions, and those actions impact everything around them, and — they will at some point also be responsible for other people’s wellbeing, as older siblings, or as new young parents, or as family or friends responsible for caring for loved ones. (My parents did a pretty good job in many respects raising me, yet I was not prepared for what a huge emotional burden (worry) it put on me when I found myself solely responsible for a loved one’s wellbeing, essentially the head of the family. Oh, I could be fine about my own place in life or my cats, but another human being, someone I loved dearly, to be fully responsible for her life and happiness? Oh, wow. That was a huge thing for me. I thought I was prepared. I wasn’t, emotionally, it caught me so off guard how much that got to me.)
So I’d argue in favor of any kids/teens having to learn real responsibility and cause and effect with things like that. If you really and truly have to care for not only the family pet, but someone who truly, deeply matters to you, a friend or family member, whoever; or some other person or animal or thing truly important to you — You’re more likely to mature into a thinking, caring, responsible adult. (And one who’s danged impatient with the state of things nowadays.) — Hmm, and…I’d say some of those kids/teens will be in for a shock, but will need some careful management and love and friendship, mentoring, so they don’t get overwhelmed by the enormity of it and just give up in despair, or try their hardest but then burn out. I’d say that’s also a big risk. They need mentors and they need a lot of love to get past all the crud in the world and the difficulties of being responsible, of leading others and oneself.
Hmm…I could use some in that regard too. — The past couple of days have seen me lift up out of a long blah and unhappy period in which I was not productive. Progress of a sort the past couple of days, and much more needed. — Still have to see my storage space; that may be a tough blow. Still have to get to the store, but aha, I think now there’s a good chance of getting food and supplies. And…packages delayed since before Harvey have begun to arrive. Others ordered after are due in one or two weeks from now. (And man, is my fridge bare; but the pantry is OK and the freezer is, well, it could be fuller. But I should be fine after restocking.)
Boys will be boys and girls will be girls, but the goal is to get adults.
OSP says no charges have been filed yet, and what level those may be will be decided by “intent”. Possibly it was intentional, but I don’t suppose it’s surprizing that the kid was 15, “the smaller one”, and there were giggling girls on the scene. However, that’s just criminal charges, there’s also civil liability. On that intent isn’t important, and they were all caught on camera.
Another author on a panel at another con remarked on her blog that at the panel she got the comment from a young attendee that her books had too much about consequences and not enough action and adventure. The attendee preferred books with lotsa action and adventure, and that consequences were boring. Am I sensing a trend here?
Preachy books are always boring and irritating.
In good children’s literature the morality is quietly there in the background, but there are no obvious or explicit ‘lessons to be learned’. It’s the same with TV and movies.
I don’t know, I always rather liked:
Wheel of Morality, turn, turn, turn!
Tell us the lesson that we should learn.
___
Concerned about Lynn Abbey.
The hatches have been duly battened. My condominium community has opened the doors of some of its vacant units to evacuees from farther down the peninsula. We discovered that we’d forgotten to dispose of a pair of confiscated charcoal grills, so we’ve acquired a couple bags of charcoal. If we lose power for any length of time we’ll be grilling the contents of our thawing freezers out in the parking lot. My parents are temporarily determined to ride this out in their own (manufactured) home; I understand their reasoning, but I’ve got a couple of strong, young men on call when it comes time to carry them up to my 2nd-floor unit. AJC.com (whoever they are) has designated Leesburg “the safest city in Florida during a hurricane,” so I’m hopeful that we’ll emerge on the other side of this in an appropriate number of pieces.
Entirely too many Associates are in harm’s way recently! Please, all, stay safe, and if needs must, pack up and evacuate.
Thank you!
AJC.com is the Atlanta Journal Constitution, a fine newspaper, I expect, with a fine website, I know.
Stay safe!
As a lately discovered but reflective Aspie, I’m as, if not more, aware of how this little touch of Autism has given me a mind that functions slightly differently than “neuro-typical” people as any of said people. For examples, my mother never understood it of my father, nor did I until about age 65. I’ve had my share of “run ins” with, being run over by, people who assumed “all people are created equal”, literally–“If you don’t feel the way I do, it’s your fault.” So, yes, I understand that people may not have the willful control of their behavior that the neuro-typical culture is build around, e.g. the legal system, which, for another example, has so lately come to (almost?) accept homosexuality is a similar effect of brain development, not willful.
One of my differences is a virtually non-existent “tribalism instinct”. Like most autistics, I’m very self-contained. I’m not a “joiner”. Can’t remember the last time I had any interest in watching a football game. Listen to classical music on the radio, never in concerts. (It extends to empathy, which on introduction in high-school seemed an “interesting” concept. If I can’t rely on empathizing, I can still sympathize and rely on, for example, the Golden Rule. It’s good enough in most cases, and as good as I can do. I can’t feel what WOL’s going through as if it were happening to me, just can’t.)
The same thing applies to churches and religious traditions. Which is NOT to say I don’t believe in religious experiences, just that they’re like pine boxes, one to a person. Whether in the science of the physical, or in the metaphysical, I observe there are ways the Universe always acts. It’s how I make sense of the omniscient, omnipotent, “God”. God is a verb! God is the act of the Universe existing.
Hence, “Rogers’ Second Law: Everything you do communicates.” (Be careful! It’s a two-edged sword.) In the present case, it can be put quite succinctly, “Consequences will not be denied.” Postponed, perhaps. Caused to fall on others, perhaps. But never without existance!
And THAT for your “climate deniers”. “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!”
Not talking about “moral of the story” or preachy bits, talking about characters dealing with the consequences of their actions. The “mopping up” that goes on after all the action and adventure is over. It’s the difference between the “action and adventure” of being in the tornado, versus the consequences of the tornado happening — i.e., the months of hard slog of having had your house and the place where you worked trashed and having to put your life back together piece by piece, and all those other “boring bits.”
Most action and adventure movies/books never deal with the consequences of all that action and adventure. They never deal with the bit where real life sets in and people have to pick up the pieces,clean up the mess, bury the bodies, and otherwise cope with life after whatever it was. For instance, the movies/books never show the real life consequences of shooting people. There are several federal and local agencies that tend to take exception to it. Ditto with starting big fires and blowing stuff up.
Jerry Seinfeld once said that the reason Superman has a secret identity is to prevent people from suing him. “Thanks for saving my life, Superman. But you know, you broke through the wall in my living room, and somebody has to pay for that to be fixed. My insurance doesn’t cover acts of superheroes.”
As grumbly as I am about recent DC movies (Wonder Woman being an exception), they do show one thing well: that after a superhero battle, someone has to clean up the destroyed buildings, and there are likely to be a lot of ‘normals’ hurt in the crossfire. The old Superman comics often showed him helping in that aftermath.
WOL, Chondrite, and others: that was one thing I loved about Andrea K. Höst’s Touchstone trilogy. The trilogy itself (Stray, Lab rat one, Caszandra) was good, with a lot of adventure (with personal consequences, like needing to spend time in medical, recuperating after getting hurt, and dealing with nightmares; as well as social and some societal consequences); and I really liked Cass’s voice telling it. It’s written as Cass’ s diary, which is not usually a form that I like, but please don’t let that put you off trying it.
The first three books tell one complete and exiting story, starting small but building up step by step to the big ending in book 3.
But then she wrote a fourth book, called Gratuitous Epilogue, which is just that: telling how the people we’ve come to know and care about in the trilogy go on with their lives after the adventures are over, building their new world, developing ‘civilian’ interests, settling down.
People who only read for the action and adventure can stop after book 3, but people who get invested in the book-people and want to know how they get on with their lives once the war is over love the fourth installment.
It made the whole series into a treasure find for me, and part of my comfort reading shelf.
Yikes! Folks in Florida (as well as Cuba, Puerto Rico, pretty much all the Caribbean Islands) and clear up into Georgia — Please do be careful. I would not wish anyone to go through what I did during/after Ike, or what most Houstonians and others have gone through with Harvey. (I was very fortunate there, but don’t know about my storage space yet.)
@threadbender — Please be safe and evac you and your folks if you need to. I am sure you are too well familiar with how bad a hurricane can be. With Irma rated even worse than Harvey, just…I don’t wish you and your parents and condo neighbors to have to go through that. OTOH, if you’re ready to ride it out, yeah, those grills are a really good backup plan. So is a generator, but I’m sure it’s too late to do that right now. So please batten down the hatches extra tight sealed, and I hope y’all do fine. — I do know that with less than 48 hours before landfall, likely, it’s too late to bug out and be caught on the road in a storm. Very bad idea, that. Safer inside a strong building, preferably on the 2nd floor. (I’m still impressed how well my new apartment and the complex did during the storm.)
—–
Consequences: Hmm, there are always consequences, mostly unforeseen, and so much of life is completely outside our personal control. (See above re acts of nature.) I would rather story characters _do_ have to deal with unforeseen and lasting consequences, rather than to get the giant reset button at the end of the episode, or have not much change after the current chapter/episode’s climax. After all, that was why there was a plot climax: things just changed, now the adventurers, whatever color hats they wear, have to deal with the new situation. Some of ’em may even change _permanently_, and that’s fine. Cleanup? Yeah, sometimes literally. — And I like Chondrite’s point of even in a fantasy or superhero setting, stuff happens, things change, but somebody has to deal with the aftermath.
—–
Paul has a good point about, not everyone thinks, feels, or reacts the same in a given situation, because that’s built into our personalities and our biological makeup as individuals. So are things like social and emotional maturity, besides physical maturity. Kids grow up at different rates and along different paths. One kid may think/feel one way while another thinks/feels very differently, even if they reach the same conclusion. (And I’d say that’s the real difference between male and female thinking, or straight and not-so-straight. The way we get there is somewhat different, but the conclusion may be the same; or maybe not. That, rather than less capable or fit for a given task, because there’s a lot of overlap in ability.)
I _think_, by the way, that the local kids and teens are _still_ out of school due to the aftereffects of the hurricane. I’m not a parent, so not entirely sure, but I did hear some older kids today before the usual end of the school day. That means a full week (at least) for most of Houston’s kids to miss school and have to make up with extra days later or cram it all in somehow in an already tight teaching schedule. At least where I am, the kids can enjoy it around here. Not so for kids in much of the rest of the city and outlying areas still. Heh, sympathy for the parents and kids alike.
What I’d ordered before the storm is finally here. (Yay, juice, Cokes, some canned food and spices. Er, and yes, other stuff, not so necessary.) What I ordered after should be here by the end of next week. — That leaves a pre-order of Space Camp (the 80’s movie) on blu-ray, due around the end of this month. My DVD copy is, alas, either gone or in storage, and so may be salvageable or not.
Re different people different reactions;
I often have to sit down and ask myself, “Now Tommie, why did you do that”?
@Blue Cat Ship — I think you must have Schrodinger’s storage unit — the things that may or may not be there, may or may not be ruined. It sounds like one big Fibber closet full of probability.* Hopefully, you will open the unit at the point where everything you need to be there will be there, and it will all be in unharmed condition.
* https://youtu.be/h9FGC68YcwM
I hadn’t really considered that Schrödinger and Fibber McGee might be related, but (haha) I could see how that could be. I’m hoping to get to my storage space next week for a look. No telling what happened.
If any extra cats suddenly manifest into existence in there, though…eeeeee, I dunno! (Hmm, however, I suppose even trans-dimensional spontaneously generated cats need homes, though. But in which dimension?) … Oh dear, things just went all timey-wimey. (Timelord Cats?! The mind boggles.)
Edit 1: That just reminded me of an old book title, but I don’t recall the author: The Coming of the Quantum Cats. I want to say Larry Niven or Jerry Pournelle, but I can’t recall. It’s been too long since I’ve read it, and now that makes me want to read it again. I’m puzzled that I don’t recall what happened in the story.
Edit 2: Frederik Pohl – My apologies to all three authors. – I see that book is not available in ebook format, so I’ve ordered a used book, as it’s out of print. 🙂
Holy cats, as if three (THREE!!) hurricanes in the Caribbean weren’t enough, Mexico just had a hosemonster quake about an hour and a half ago. Not cool, Nature, not cool.
Awful, but not unlikely to be related, from what I understand. The giant pressure differences together with the loads of extra water which provide both lubrication and pressure can make slippage more likely to happen now, if it was building up to that.
All those climate sceptics have no idea of what they are unleashing on themselves and the rest of the world, and are *still* whistling in the dark – Rush Limbaugh just called the early warnings about hurricane Irma a plot to sell bottled water and batteries in local stores! Please please please do not listen to such idiots if you’re in the possible path of such hurricanes, but prepare yourselves and/or evacuate when your local government and weather scientists warn you to do so!
@CJ, I posted something long with multiple links, so you can check it in the moderation queue and see if you want to allow it.
Here’s a link about the 3% of published scientific studies over the last decade that came to conclusions that cast doubt on climate change (38 papers in total): the studies were *all 38* found, upon replication to verify their results and conclusions, to contain errors biasing their conclusions away from climate change.
When those errors were corrected, even these 3% fell into line with the results of the other 97%.
It’s unlikely to be related – the epicenter of the quake was in the subduction zone south of the Isthmus of Mexico, off Chiapas and Guatemala, some distance offshore. There’s a small plate there, the Cocos plate, which is being overridden.
Okay. I thought an effect like this flexing of the earth’s crust in Texas by 2 cms might have had some effect in the region.
I have no idea of how those faults might be connected, or how pressure gets distributed along them – apparently not.
I wonder if you might be right, Hanneke, that all the hurricane activity in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico might have some effect on plate tectonics, earthquake activity in TX and Mexico. Maybe it’s subtle, but still, it seems proximal and “coincidental” in that it’s happened at about the same time; therefore, not so negligible.
A Weather Channel meteorologist said yesterday that three or four storms occurring simultaneously has happened before, but not such severe ones.
I’d seen (and heard via YouTube) Rush Limbaugh’s comments, and the man’s grossly irresponsible in what he was saying. Any Gulf Coast native should be able to tell you just how real a hurricane is. If he’d ever been through one, he would not have proven himself so dangerously foolish as to imply it’s not serious or is somehow a conspiracy. IMHO, he reached a new low there.
Florida is about to get about what we got here with Harvey, wow, now two weeks ago. Most of the Caribbean islands have just been through Irma’s worst. My profound sympathies for folks there. Y’all are in for a very rough ride over the next two days and the cleanup afterwards.
Adding to my comment about Rush Limbaugh: I did not know — he lives and works in *Florida* , and he said what he did. It turns out, today he left Florida until the storm passes. So he told all his listeners not to take the storm seriously, as though it was all a ploy by others to scare people and get them to spend money on supplies…and then he leaves to save his own posterior. (I didn’t know he was based in Florida. That’s how little attention I pay to him. But I see there’s a lesson there to be better informed, even about a guy like that.) I don’t have good words for a person who’d act like that. (And I’m going to quit fussing about it.)
No, make it FOUR! There’s an active area on the Sun that’s spitting out CMEs (Coronal Mass Ekections) that are lashing exceptional Auroras.
And now for something completely different – and then I’ll stop “spamming” you for a bit, and let others get a word in edgewise 😉
I just read this article from the september edition of National Geographic about how my tiny country helps feed the world, and it made me so proud of our farmers I just had to share it.
We were taught in primary school that our farmers are very good at their jobs (in a practical, matter of fact sort of way – boasting tends to be considered un-Dutch), but to see it applauded and explained in a world-renowned magazine like that is something special – so this is my uncharacteristic squee about it.
I thought that after sharing my worries and a bit of tentative hope with you like I did above (at length, if it’s allowed out of the spam filter), it’s good to end on a happy note, looking to the future with a sense of positivity.
Wow — the US may be a breadbasket, but we should still take note of good farming practices. We have miles of arable land, and have used it to sprawl our farms and do things cheaply (sometimes at a detriment to the environment!), rather than work on intensive farming methods.
If you didn’t know that plate tectonic things were going on in Mexico, the volcanoes around Mexico City would be a big clue.
I’ve seen articles about the “soil-less” farming going on in big cities like New York, which are not on any kind of scale yet, but they happen in windowless areas in basements and buildings built special where they grow large quantities of fresh veggies in small areas without soil, under light controlled conditions very scientifically to supply local restaurants and stores. It is a thing now, and people are taking notice. The Netherlands is showing that same idea scaled up and how profitable it can be, which is what is going to get people’s attention. Unfortunately, the US is like, sustainable? Meh!, profitable? Now you’re talking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm-43FXxv-I
Hanneke, that article was impressive. If other countries did even a portion of that, it would help alleviate world hunger, allow storage and feeding a country’s own people (including those who can’t support themselves), and export of food to neighboring countries or across the globe. If other high-tech / industrialized countries did this, they’d improve significantly. Countries with cold or arid climates could do farming indoors like that. Even poor and less industrialized or technically advanced countries could use techniques like that to boost their people out of the disadvantages they face. And countries in environmentally endangered or precious global ecologies like in the Amazon and others in the tropics, for instance, could do farming like that to avoid cutting down forests or other natural resources. Hmm. If only they’d take the lesson. Dutch people *should* be proud of their farming skills. That’s impressive. It’s particularly welcome when so much of the news lately seems so filled with bad decisions and worse character. It’s so good to see something good happening.
Lots of countries are using vertical farming. A site near me claims to get 16 acres of yield from their 1/8 acre warehouse, using solar panels and LEDs to light the plants, on racks plant over plant over plant…. Not hydroponic, but aeroponic, misting the roots.
If you go to YouTube and search for aeroponic or vertical farming, you’ll find they’re in many major cities: NYC, LA, Sinapore, Tokyo….