Let Sleeping Dogs Rant

[TBoneTX 45,572]

Friday ES report, see man:

 

Nothing at the ES, but the church thrift shop nearby yielded the take, see man:

 

 -- 2 "Mr. Coffee" pots, t-shirt for Mini-B. = $2 + half a buck, steal man

Total = $2 + half a buck

[TBoneTX 45,572]

Thrilling Friday non-ES report, see man:

 

Got to Favorite Medium-Sized Town at noon, travel we man.

Hit ES and thrift shop per above, q.v. man.

Breakfast/lunch/din-din was at good Chinese buffet, ingest we man.

We consumed Many (2+2) plates heaped with beef/chicken, ingest we man.

Went next door to Tractor Supply to buy miu-litter, contiguous man.

 

Went to FST, long time since last visit man.

Went to favorite FST restaurant to buy full cherry pie for Two Guys week, incomparable man.

It came straight from the kitchen, unparalleled freshness man.

We had brought an insulated bag along, keep from melting in Many00-degree heat man.

 

Went to FST supermarket, destination not an option man.

Bought Many (2x2x2x2) Powerade Zero grape on sale for $1 each, plus more, serendipity man.

 

Upon sweaty return to casa, considered ways to not take multiple showers, financially savvy we man.

After servicing indignant miu, set haircut appointment, enough time to stow groceries man.

Got all hairs cut, unfortunately no $pecial$ man.  

Returned to casa to watch local TV news about ######## hurricane, approaching man.

Considered mow-lawning, too tired and can probably do on Saturday if no rain man.

Finally showered, highly necessary man.

Took late-yet-highly-necessary and uninterrupted siesta, zzz we man.

A pretty good Friday, conclude we man.

 

No party with the rubias, exhausted we man.

We have itineraried Many (2+2) ESs and an MS for Saturday, itinerary we man.

And this was/is our thrilling Friday, report we man.

[TBoneTX 45,572]

Saturday ES/MS report, see man:

22 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

We have itineraried Many (2+2) ESs and an MS for Saturday, itinerary we man.

We attended all of the above, attend we man.

 

The 2nd ES and the MS yielded the take, see man:

 -- Many (2x2x2 +2) NIP boxes Kleenex; 1/Many'rd large jug Tide; NIP bottle rubbing-alcohol = 

        $Many ($2x2x2x2 -2), deal man

 -- insulated bag for 2 drinks = free, heavenly man

Total = $Many ($2x2x2x2 -2)

[TBoneTX 45,572]

Thrilling Saturday non-ES/MS report, see man:

 

Hurricane to hit on Monday not far away, such fun and Texas weather Many man.

Very hot day with ominous rain-clouds and intermittent strong wind, not from hurricane yet man.

After ES-ing, finished grocerying, place not as mobbed as one would expect man.

 

Returned to casa, treated/lunched demanding miu, de-groceried, and inspected lawn & weather, see we man.

Lawn, sadly including back yard, distinctly needed mowing, sigh man.

We couldn't put it off till next weekend because of impending hurricane, too much rain/grass-growth man.

Skies highly threatening with thunder and pre-storm winds, who knows when rain would cut loose man.

 

We hastily prepped mower, added side-discharge chute, and mow-lawned with intensity, intense we man.

Side chute kept mower from bogging down, functionally savvy we man.

We mowed almost all back yard, one part not that needy man.

We mowed all front yard, all parts needy man.

It was actually rather not-uncomfortable because of wind and clouds, but would we make it man.

We didn't bother using the blow-leafer to dispel debris, too windy man.

 

Not half-of-half an hour after we finished, the clouds burst, cloudburst man.

It rained like an illegitimate male child, build an Ark man.

We off-cooled under ceiling fan, then showered, good feeling to finish before downpour man.

 

Breakfast/lunch/din-din (at Many [2+2] p.m.) was a large bowl of Tuna Glop, ingest we man.

Zzz-ing miu was unaware of the opening of the tuna can*, oblivious miu man.

     *one of those recently procured from supermarket clearance bin, financially savvy we man

A magnificent siesta was then taken, luxuriate in zzz we man.

 

We have pretty much what we need for the hurricane, conclude we man.

First hurricane rain bands supposed to start by Sunday afternoon, whoopee man.

Landfall to occur wee hours Monday, whoopee man.

Torrential rain/strong wind to occur first half of Monday, whoopee man.

If the power goes out and we are incommunicado, this is why, see man.

Failure of the power to go out is known as a power innage, this too possible man.

 

Rant, see man:

Why do clocks with supposed battery backups always reset to factory settings when the power goes out, huh and  man?

 

Two Guys week starts Sunday eve, Two Guys man.

 

And that was/is our thrilling Saturday, report we man.

[TBoneTX 45,572]

Thrilling Sunday & Pre-Hurricane report, see man:

 

Did not leave the casa all day, optimal Sunday man.

Finished all chores, de-chored we man.

 

Breakfast/lunch/din-din (at Many [2+1] p.m.) was modified* Tuna Glop, ingest we man.

     *onebag microwave rice, onecan tuna, onecan Cream of 'Shroom soup instead of peas man

A wonderful siesta was taken thereafter, zzz we man.

 

Got several rounds of outer-band rain, but literally the calm before the storm man.

Hurricane to be at least a Cat 1 at landfall, could be worse but still sucks man.

Landfall supposed to be 1 a.m., hitting us thereafter man.

We are on the dirty side, yuck man.

Many -- si man, Many -- inches of rain are forecast, build an Ark man.

Many-mph -- si man, Many-mph -- winds are forecast, hope for no projectiles through casa windows man.

 

Had we not told ex-Mrs.-T-B. of the impending hurricane, she'd not have paid attention, no and  man.

In the past, ex-she man has walked by us precisely when the TV weather report was on and asked, "Is it going to rain, huh man?"  man.

Weather-forecasting in Ecu = stick your hand outside, and if it gets wet, it's raining, si and  man.

Ex-she man has never overcome this, no man.

 

Mini-B. is here, Two Guys week man.

 

We are certain of power-outages but unsure for how long, si and no man.

 

Happy Columbus Day (again) in Poland, oj tak!

 

No party with the rubias tonight, no man.

And this was/is our thrilling Sunday, report we man.

[Ontarkie 14,294]

I heard from Tbone, they are all safe but no power. Damage was a shared back fence. Hopefully his freezer can keep cold and not have too much food spoiling.  He's not looking forward to the sun coming out. I don't blame him about that. The sun has been overcast the last few days and it makes a big difference. 

It may be awhile before he gets back online to share his nightly updates. 

[Neonred 3,576]

18 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

 

 

Got several rounds of outer-band rain, but literally the calm before the storm man.

Hurricane to be at least a Cat 1 at landfall, could be worse but still sucks man.

Landfall supposed to be 1 a.m., hitting us thereafter man.

We are on the dirty side, yuck man.

Many -- si man, Many -- inches of rain are forecast, build an Ark man.

Many-mph -- si man, Many-mph -- winds are forecast, hope for no projectiles through casa windows man.

 

In Florida  we consider a Cat 1 to be the equivalent of an afternoon thunder storm, just lasting a little longer.

 

Nothing to get excited about, except for the TV weatherman that wants you glued to their channel.

 

18 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

 

We are certain of power-outages but unsure for how long, si and no man.

 

 

Hope the generator is ready and gassed up.

 

 

Be safe my friend.

[Ontarkie 14,294]

Tbone is holding up, the Ex brought over a generator so he can run a fan and the fridge. Hopefully not too much actually spoiled. Mini-B tested out he milk and it fine. The line men were working a street over, but the recording he gets says it could be several days before power is restored. Hopefully that is not the case as he is melting. 

[mam521 2,108]

The Houston metro is pretty deenergized.  We have a whole home generator which is nearing 100% ROI as it's run solid for 48 hours now.  We purchased after winter storm Uri and are not sad about it with how terrible the power is in these parts.  It's run for long periods of time in the past, but never quite this long.  Centerpoint, our electric provider, hopes to have a million people back energized by the end of today.  Entergy, the other provider to the more northern parts of the metro (The Woodlands and Conroe areas) seem to be faring a bit better and have managed to knock a huge chunk of the outages off of the list.  

 

Normally a Cat 1 wouldn't be a big deal, but one of the local meteorologists had a chat going with one of the NHC meteorologists to try and understand why it was a such a challenging and seemingly damaging storm.  The NHC guy noted that Beryl was poised to become a Cat 2.  6 more hours over water and it would have been.  As a result, it had a closed off eyewall and was chalked full of energy as it was beginning rapid intensification.  The storm hit us with a lot of momentum and didn't lose much energy until it was north of the metro.  

 

Hubs was here during Ike, which came up the Houston shipping channel as a Cat 2.  He said the sustained winds during Ike were higher with less extreme gusting due to the sustained winds.  Beryl's sustained winds weren't as high but the gusts were bad.  You can see a lot of the trees took torsional forces as they've busted in a twisted, spiral pattern.  The other challenge was a lot of the toppled trees are old growth pines that are these towering sticks with heavy tops and a limited root stalk.  These big, heavy, sappy trees just toppled right over.  

 

I watched a pine topple right onto the neighbor's house and smash through the second story when we were coming into the edge of the first side of the eyewall.  The winds were super intense.  Thank goodness they weren't upstairs.  The tree landed right on top of the baby's nursery - on the crib!  The limbs have apparently penetrated the second story floor and are in the kitchen.  This isn't an isolated incident, either.  Reports like that are coming in from all over the place.  

 

After the storm, we went and cleaned the yard and assessed any damage.  I have a very old, very large oak in the back yard that I'm always a bit concerned about.  I do have it serviced on a regular basis by a competent tree company to ensure it's health.  It dropped some limbs, but did well otherwise.  The other trees did the same.  We pulled out the backpack blower and cleaned up the front of our house and the elderly neighbors as well so our yards don't look like a war zone.  There were a lot of small bits and sticks that came out of the trees.  We cleaned out the debris in the drains so if we get thunderstorms, the street will still drain.  All in all, about a dozen over sized contractor bags later, we look almost like nothing happened.  

 

Anyway, now we're stuck in high temps with high humidity and heat advisories.  The lines for fuel and ice are long.  People are looking for propane, too.  We went out to grab some things from HEB this morning since they are a Texas chain that run proper backup generators at all of their stores, enabling them to actually stock meat and dairy (we've accumulated a number of teenagers and other squatters because we have a generator so we're feeding the army and providing coffee to those who murder without it) when other stores cannot.  The line up to get ice was already down the length of the store and we got there half an hour after it opened.  The lines for gas stations have been hours long and are clogging up intersections, making it hazardous.  There are no traffic lights and anyone who's driven in Houston knows people severely lack in driving knowledge and etiquette - its every person for themselves!  

 

Hopefully the linemen don't pass out and die in their PPE in the bucket trucks.  Lots of outta towners mobilized, yet again, to come save Houston's proverbial behind.  I'm still surprised at how ill prepared some people were for this one, especially after the storms in May that took out the power for a week.  I'd warned one of my colleagues who's new to Houston and relies on prescription medication for a heart condition on Friday to make some preparations.  I received an e-mail from her yesterday, thanking me for giving her the heads up not to panic, but to prepare.  She got her meds on Friday, ahead of the mess, as suggested, and has been able to hunker down and ride it out.  

 

So, hopefully TBone and mini man have made er through, basically unscathed!  

[Ontarkie 14,294]

1 hour ago, mam521 said:

The Houston metro is pretty deenergized.  We have a whole home generator which is nearing 100% ROI as it's run solid for 48 hours now.  We purchased after winter storm Uri and are not sad about it with how terrible the power is in these parts.  It's run for long periods of time in the past, but never quite this long.  Centerpoint, our electric provider, hopes to have a million people back energized by the end of today.  Entergy, the other provider to the more northern parts of the metro (The Woodlands and Conroe areas) seem to be faring a bit better and have managed to knock a huge chunk of the outages off of the list.  

 

Normally a Cat 1 wouldn't be a big deal, but one of the local meteorologists had a chat going with one of the NHC meteorologists to try and understand why it was a such a challenging and seemingly damaging storm.  The NHC guy noted that Beryl was poised to become a Cat 2.  6 more hours over water and it would have been.  As a result, it had a closed off eyewall and was chalked full of energy as it was beginning rapid intensification.  The storm hit us with a lot of momentum and didn't lose much energy until it was north of the metro.  

 

Hubs was here during Ike, which came up the Houston shipping channel as a Cat 2.  He said the sustained winds during Ike were higher with less extreme gusting due to the sustained winds.  Beryl's sustained winds weren't as high but the gusts were bad.  You can see a lot of the trees took torsional forces as they've busted in a twisted, spiral pattern.  The other challenge was a lot of the toppled trees are old growth pines that are these towering sticks with heavy tops and a limited root stalk.  These big, heavy, sappy trees just toppled right over.  

 

I watched a pine topple right onto the neighbor's house and smash through the second story when we were coming into the edge of the first side of the eyewall.  The winds were super intense.  Thank goodness they weren't upstairs.  The tree landed right on top of the baby's nursery - on the crib!  The limbs have apparently penetrated the second story floor and are in the kitchen.  This isn't an isolated incident, either.  Reports like that are coming in from all over the place.  

 

After the storm, we went and cleaned the yard and assessed any damage.  I have a very old, very large oak in the back yard that I'm always a bit concerned about.  I do have it serviced on a regular basis by a competent tree company to ensure it's health.  It dropped some limbs, but did well otherwise.  The other trees did the same.  We pulled out the backpack blower and cleaned up the front of our house and the elderly neighbors as well so our yards don't look like a war zone.  There were a lot of small bits and sticks that came out of the trees.  We cleaned out the debris in the drains so if we get thunderstorms, the street will still drain.  All in all, about a dozen over sized contractor bags later, we look almost like nothing happened.  

 

Anyway, now we're stuck in high temps with high humidity and heat advisories.  The lines for fuel and ice are long.  People are looking for propane, too.  We went out to grab some things from HEB this morning since they are a Texas chain that run proper backup generators at all of their stores, enabling them to actually stock meat and dairy (we've accumulated a number of teenagers and other squatters because we have a generator so we're feeding the army and providing coffee to those who murder without it) when other stores cannot.  The line up to get ice was already down the length of the store and we got there half an hour after it opened.  The lines for gas stations have been hours long and are clogging up intersections, making it hazardous.  There are no traffic lights and anyone who's driven in Houston knows people severely lack in driving knowledge and etiquette - its every person for themselves!  

 

Hopefully the linemen don't pass out and die in their PPE in the bucket trucks.  Lots of outta towners mobilized, yet again, to come save Houston's proverbial behind.  I'm still surprised at how ill prepared some people were for this one, especially after the storms in May that took out the power for a week.  I'd warned one of my colleagues who's new to Houston and relies on prescription medication for a heart condition on Friday to make some preparations.  I received an e-mail from her yesterday, thanking me for giving her the heads up not to panic, but to prepare.  She got her meds on Friday, ahead of the mess, as suggested, and has been able to hunker down and ride it out.  

 

So, hopefully TBone and mini man have made er through, basically unscathed!  

Glad you all made it through.  Makes total sense why it hit so hard now. WE had over 100 tornados go through, not near us and the rain was crazy enough.

We have been talking about generators. We really need either the whole house type or one big enough for the fridges, freezers and reptiles. Bonus if we can also charge things.

[mam521 2,108]

7 hours ago, Ontarkie said:

Glad you all made it through.  Makes total sense why it hit so hard now. WE had over 100 tornados go through, not near us and the rain was crazy enough.

We have been talking about generators. We really need either the whole house type or one big enough for the fridges, freezers and reptiles. Bonus if we can also charge things.

The whole home was an investment, but I'm confident that it will have 100% paid for itself by the time we get power back.  We're at 59 hours and counting on this thing with this storm alone and I am so relieved we can essentially live life like normal.  Other than the additional teenagers that are hunkering down. Hubs figures it will cost us about $90/day in natural gas.  Even running a smaller, less efficient generator off of gasoline is more expensive because the price of gasoline or propane is more than our natural gas.  

 

But, when we think about if we left town, hotels, meals, fuel, etc with 4 animals and 2 kids in tow plus having to ditch the entire contents of the fridge, it's not such a bad deal.  Rooms around these parts were price gouging with LaQuinta charging $600/night for those who could get one.  Most people have had to bail to Austin or Dallas.  Some have even gone to San Antonio.  

 

A transfer switch with a trifuel generator could work well enough, too.  Less cost, maybe can't run everything, but still a far better solution than nothing. The transfer switch is nice because you can then just flip the breakers for inside that you want and don't need extension cords. If you have natural gas, you can get the gas company out to give you a tie in and just run the generator on it.  

 

Yeah, insurance will typically give $500 to replace food but not only is that insufficient, especially with meat prices these days, but replacing everything is challenging and a pain in the rear when everyone is in the same boat.  Can't replace hunted meat until next hunting season, either.  

[Ontarkie 14,294]

43 minutes ago, mam521 said:

The whole home was an investment, but I'm confident that it will have 100% paid for itself by the time we get power back.  We're at 59 hours and counting on this thing with this storm alone and I am so relieved we can essentially live life like normal.  Other than the additional teenagers that are hunkering down. Hubs figures it will cost us about $90/day in natural gas.  Even running a smaller, less efficient generator off of gasoline is more expensive because the price of gasoline or propane is more than our natural gas.  

 

But, when we think about if we left town, hotels, meals, fuel, etc with 4 animals and 2 kids in tow plus having to ditch the entire contents of the fridge, it's not such a bad deal.  Rooms around these parts were price gouging with LaQuinta charging $600/night for those who could get one.  Most people have had to bail to Austin or Dallas.  Some have even gone to San Antonio.  

 

A transfer switch with a trifuel generator could work well enough, too.  Less cost, maybe can't run everything, but still a far better solution than nothing. The transfer switch is nice because you can then just flip the breakers for inside that you want and don't need extension cords. If you have natural gas, you can get the gas company out to give you a tie in and just run the generator on it.  

 

Yeah, insurance will typically give $500 to replace food but not only is that insufficient, especially with meat prices these days, but replacing everything is challenging and a pain in the rear when everyone is in the same boat.  Can't replace hunted meat until next hunting season, either.  

We have natural gas, looked again at one at Costco tonight. Still can't make up our mind what would be better. I do like the ideal that you can live like normal. 

 

Very good points about hotels, eating out and food replacement. Plus there is no way we could bring all the critters to a hotel. We have more than just cats and dogs. 

[mam521 2,108]

12 hours ago, Ontarkie said:

We have natural gas, looked again at one at Costco tonight. Still can't make up our mind what would be better. I do like the ideal that you can live like normal. 

 

Very good points about hotels, eating out and food replacement. Plus there is no way we could bring all the critters to a hotel. We have more than just cats and dogs. 

Oh come on...hotels are totally chicken friendly!  😂

[Neonred 3,576]

I've lived in SW Florida since the mid 1980's so I've been through a few hurricanes and have my system worked out fairly well.  At one time I thought about a whole house generator but the prices had gotten stupid crazy high, and we don't have natural gas so that means a buried propane tank.  I just figured it wasn't worth it for an event that happens less often than every 5 years or so.  I do have a decent electric start 9000/7000 watt generator that will run the well and/or the hot water heater and/or the variable speed A/C.  Some years ago we added a mini split A/C to our large master bedroom that I ordered to run off 120 volt ac.  Two years ago we lost power for 4 days after Ian and I used a 2000 watt inverter generator to power the mini split and the refrigerator.  That worked so well because that little generator (it's a generic of the little Honda generators) is so quiet and ran both the bedroom A/C and the refrigerator for 9 hours at night on only 1 gallon of gas.  The one thing I really missed was TV as we use TV over internet and couldn't keep up well on the local news, just listened on the radio.  Solved that problem.  Got a small $18 TV antenna from Amazon and I can pull in all the local stations.  

 

Since the last storm I've purchased another inverter generator just in case.  With the big generator I backfeed the house at the kitchen stove or dryer.  Worked well last time.  The worst is the big generator is just so noisy.  I've also added boots and a better LED lantern to my hurricane supplies.  We are on several acres so a couple of chain saws are always ready to go.

 

The cleanup after the storm is horrible and after Irma I had a pile of debris 6 or 7 feet tall that ran 150 feet.  That takes a while to gather and months for the county to collect.

 

We are keeping our eyes on the tropics as the season has only started.

[Neonred 3,576]

On 7/8/2024 at 4:56 PM, Ontarkie said:

I heard from Tbone, they are all safe but no power. Damage was a shared back fence. Hopefully his freezer can keep cold and not have too much food spoiling.  He's not looking forward to the sun coming out. I don't blame him about that. The sun has been overcast the last few days and it makes a big difference. 

It may be awhile before he gets back online to share his nightly updates. 

 

On 7/9/2024 at 8:24 PM, Ontarkie said:

Tbone is holding up, the Ex brought over a generator so he can run a fan and the fridge. Hopefully not too much actually spoiled. Mini-B tested out he milk and it fine. The line men were working a street over, but the recording he gets says it could be several days before power is restored. Hopefully that is not the case as he is melting. 

Good to know he and Mini-B are OK, and glad to see the Ex is still taking care of them!