Random Travel Ramblings...

Insights From Lower Alabama...


So after a sort of lazy semi-rainy day spent nursing a headache and lack of motivation here on the Farm, I find myself this morning less than 12 hours from being able to stand in the sand on Panama City Beach Florida.

It's been a while since I've been to the Gulf coast to stay...about two years after going at least once if not two or three times each and every year for most of my life.

I'm just liable to strip off my clothes and just lay down in wallow like a dog in the sugar white sand.

OK...Maybe not...

But Still...

Everybody including Missy the Turbo Pup is pretty excited about the prospects.

The weather is blowing on through to the east this morning and it looks like we will have at least three or four days of excellent fall Florida weather with little chance of rain in the process.

And the Atlantic and tropical Caribbean has managed to piss Owl Gore and all of the sniveling, tie dyed, booger eating, tree hugging, patchouli stinking, eco-friendly hurricane alarmists off.

The reason being that there has only been one land falling Hurricane/Tropical Storm so far this season in the US (knock on wood) and there is nothing on the satellite right now which could possibly ruffle our feathers and run us off the beach in the foreseeable future

Now back to the Beach discussion after that lovely piece of political commentary...

For the uninitiated, the Gulf waters this time of the year are still at a temperature of a warm bath, and I brought my surf rods and surf fishing tackle and hope to feed the local fish some pieces of Squid and Shrimp and maybe even catch something worth cleaning and eating in the process.

If not, there is plenty of fresh seafood available to cook in our kitchen or we can go out and let someone else cook it. I may even take an offshore fishing trip depending on the opportunities available and if I can get up off a lounge chair long enough to get to the Pier.

All of that said, I guess I will go now and try to get a few hours sleep before packing the Turbo Pup's lockers and sea chests in the car and heading south later this morning.

Regard's Y'all...I'll drink a Frozen Drink with a little Umbrella in it for you if you want me to...let me know...

Today's Tropical Weather Tip

Tropical Storm "Maria" Pretty Far South...

I'm sitting around this afternoon pretty much just picking my nose and scratching my ass trying to get focused, and in the process my review of the local and international weather maps I noticed something which might be of interest to you in the next 7 to 10 days.

Check out this map showing the present location and predicted path of the 13th storm of this season--"Maria":

That path...Ladies and Gentlemen...is pretty darn far south toward the equator for this point of Longitude on the map.

That path could take this storm...even only as a tropical storm rather than a Hurricane...over places like Trinidad & Tobago or even Aruba if it doesn't swing north like predicted.

And if that storm continues Westward from that low Latitude for long enough then we might better be remembering a storm called ANDREW.

Of course it's yet to be seen, but I'm just saying...

(And I reserve the right to say "I told you so" in a couple of weeks...)

Good Night Good Morning Irene

The Yankees Are Sweating Bullets...


Everyone that stops by here regularly knows that me and my family have dealt with hurricanes for the past nearly 200 years in south Alabama.

Without any FEMA or Salvation Army or other Government/non-Government help.

Yet in spite of more than a dozen substantial Hurricanes passing over or near where I live over the past 51 years and 11 months, I'm still here today.

Now don't get me wrong here Ladies and Gentlemen...I'm not asking that anyone get hurt or that there be any substantial property damage, but still...

I have to take a slight bit of enjoyment watching all of the Big City Liberals up in New York and DC and Boston--those same people that are always looking down on us living here in the south offering advice on how to live our lives and "tutt-tutting" while wagging their fingers--offering advice and federal assistence where generally none was needed or asked for historically.

All I have to say right now about this weekend's weather forecast for New England is this:

LOOK OUT FOLKS...BECAUSE HERE COMES IRENE

I want you to show all of us Rednecks and Hillbillies down here how ya'll do things up NORTH.

(See you Monday if you're still alive and still have power and phones...)

Heh...

Bad Weather Predictions

I'm Starting To Get Worried...

This is sort of an off the wall rant/discussion this morning but I hope you will indulge me and take it for what it's worth.

As a result I'm going to feel free to say "I Told You So" within the next six or eight weeks, but because I'm an Injuneer rather than a Meteorologist you will also excuse me if I'm wrong.

Here's the deal.

Unlike the Global Warming/Climate Change Zombies, my understanding of Thermodynamics also allows me to understand that Tropical Weather...specifically Hurricanes...is Nature's way of re-distributing heat energy from the Equator/Tropical Latitudes to the Polar regions of the Earth.

And this year's lack of any substantial Tropical activity--we're only up to five storms with Emily recently--means that the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean waters are SUPER WARM right now.

All it's going to take is some lower level low pressure to get the thunderstorms going and some favorable upper level jet stream winds which will not blow the tops off of the storms and I think that people living on the coastal areas everywhere from Texas to Virginia had better be on the lookout for one or more exciting Tropical Weather events in the near future.

And the "Cape Verde" season is getting fired up now on the Calendar so you have to look near (the Gulf/ Caribbean) and far (the shores of West Africa) for the source of bad weather developing.

I didn't read this anywhere so you can take it with a grain of salt...but I know what I know and I'd be buying stock in Plywood companies, Tarps, and portable Electric Generators right now if I were you.

Just sayin'...

I'm "Anemometerless"?

Suffering From Weather Forecasting Withdrawal Syndrome...


My regular readers probably remember that seven weeks ago today the Turbo Pup Compound was bombarded with not one but two massive hail storms which came through within a couple of hours of each other. (We had another exciting afternoon today with severe storms all around us and a couple more inches of rain coming down.)

Besides beating most of the little "gravelly thingies" off of the shingles on my roof, the earlier hail also made mince meat out of my freshly planted garden and destroyed a bird feeder and finally...

IT BROKE THE ANEMOMETER ON MY WIRELESS BACK YARD WEATHER STATION.

Seriously, it broke two of the three little "wind cups" off of the body of the weather vane telling me the wind speed and direction.  Since that day I've been blind to what the wind is doing unless I actually walk outside and stick a moistened finger into the air stream.

So any way, I went to the trouble doing the original installation to design and build a 20' tall mast for the weather station components including a relative humidity sensor, a digital thermometer, and a self clearing rain gauge module, and although the rest of the system still works I don't want to abandon the wind speed measurement capability because that singular function is probably the most interesting thing it tells me unless we get 4 inches of rain in 15 minutes some day.

For some weird reason the manufacturer sells all of the replacement components...EXCEPT the anemometer... so I guess that later this summer I'm going to be forced to buy another entire system from them to replace the Hail damaged component.

If I hold out and play my cards right I have a birthday coming up in September--Pat gave me the existing system as a present for Christmas a few years ago--and now I have my eye on a similar upgraded compatible system by the same manufacturer which will work in parallel with the existing components and will allow me to connect the incoming data stream to one of my spare laptop computers.

Before you know it I wouldn't be surprised if representatives of NASA and NOAA could be stopping by my house and Jim Cantori with the Weather Channel would come calling to get free copies of my local weather data base and interview me on "Storm Stories" some evening.

Until then, I have to go now and continue my shopping and weather metrics system design efforts...Y'all have a LOVELY day now...If you will...

Stupid News For The Un-Informed

Twisters (Tornadoes) Don't "Target" Population Centers


I've spent at least half of the past couple of days yelling at the idiots on the Television who are apparently reading from the same script written by Owl Gore and the Global Warming Zombies freaking out about what should be considered to be NORMAL spring weather in the Midwest.

While it is a horrible fact that the statistical odds are that over a million year period that every single square inch of our planet will probably see a natural disaster...earthquake or flash flood or wildfire or hurricane...

...It is also a well known fact that the United States experiences Tornadoes at a rate MORE THAN FOUR TIMES that of Europe or any other country/land mass in the world.

Almost EVERY YEAR...

Not just, as the idiots on the TV news would have you believe...

...not just THIS YEAR.

It's like this, Ladies and Gentlemen...

I grew up in lower Alabama living with both Hurricanes and Tornadoes, and FEMA was a figment of Jimmuh "Smile When You Say That" Carter's imagination and Owl Gore's Greenie Weenie Zombies were still sucking their thumbs and toes in their playpens.

I've been through three Hurricanes and a half dozen tropical storms, and I've been at ground ZERO in two Tornadoes where the sky turned green and the rain came in horizontal.

And I don't look forward to it but if I live another 25 years I'll probably see at least another couple of Hurricanes and tornadoes in the process.

BUT...

All of this current media hysteria just makes my eyes roll back into my skull and drool to slide out of the corner of my mouth.

Face the facts...with live on a planet spinning around the sun through the solar system at breakneck speed under the forces of gravity and operating under the vaguely understood principals of a science we call physics.

And our little slice of "atmosphere" within the bottom twenty miles of the surface of the planet contains the oxygen we need to live and breath...but it also contains water vapor and energy in the form of temperature gradients--thereby producing a dynamic "heat engine" effect where the hot areas and the cold areas try to get together and average everything out in the end.

Thus when you get a bunch of cold dry air running up against a bunch of warm moist air...KABOOM...

A local TORNADO!

And on a regional basis IN THE SUMMER...HURRICANE  everybody jump in your car and evacuate!!!

It's just that simple, and religion and political and education and socio-economic/race/gender issues be damned...it will grab your trailer or your car or your house or as a minimum YOUR ASS and grind you up and tie you in a knot if you happen to be unlucky enough to be in the storm's path.

Weather doesn't care what political party association the President or the Congress has at any given moment.

Weather also doesn't give a crap if you regularly attend church or you donate to the March of Dimes and the United Way and build houses with Habitat for Humanity.

GOT IT?

OK...That will be all...for now...

Lucky To Be Alive

Counting Our Blessings...


This morning and early afternoon finds me on an emotional roller coaster attempting to keep things moving professionally, while at the same time trying to assess the damage from last night's rain/hail storms and get a few things cleaned up after the furry subsided.

The basement floor is a mess but pretty much dried out except around the edges and in corners, but Pat's carpeted office floor is most likely going to be a total loss because the carpet and pad was a bit old and stinky to begin with and the water I'm pulling out of it with a shop vacuum is the color of swamp water.

Outside, I still have a few tomato plants standing but the hail and water onslaught probably killed half of them and even my new Azalea plants had the blooms beat off of them and stems broken completely off by the hailstones.

Just when I start to get all cranky and feel sorry for myself I catch another news story on TV about the things which went on over in Alabama and down in Georgia and in places nearby here in Eastern Tennessee yesterday afternoon and evening.

We were within a few miles of at least two separate funnel clouds last night, so I guess that I should be happy I still have a roof over my head...all-be-it a damaged set of roof shingles

I have three roofing companies scheduled to come look at my roof in the next few days, and in the mean time I guess I'll go climb up there myself and see what's going on.

No leaks as far as I can tell so far, but I can't believe that my shingles weren't torn up based on the other damage I see on the ground.

Regards Y'all...

Winter Weather At The Turbopup Compound

19 Degrees And Still Falling...(Snow and Temperature)


We got a pretty good little snow storm here starting about noon Sunday. 

In a way it was nice because we had bought a Christmas tree Saturday and were in the process of decorating it as the snow fell.  Being from the south I've only had a few seasons with a true "White Christmas" so it's sort of neat to see snow on the ground during the holidays

The real part of the storm started falling around dark and looking outside it's still coming down lightly and the wind is blowing things around.

I'd guess maybe 4" total so far but it's hard to tell because the first part melted because everything was warm from the mid 50's temperatures yesterday.  That bit of warmth will hopefully save us from a major power outage and keep the insanity on the roads and turnpikes to a minimum.  I hate it when the weather is bad and people have to set out on the highways and airlines to travel for the holidays and someone ends up hurt or dead in the process.

I haven't ventured outside since the storm started but maybe I'll get on the parka and ski bibs and wander around after sunrise and take some pictures and put them up here on the blog.

I wish I was back somewhere sitting in the Sun in Florida or on our Little Island down on the Georgia Coast right now, but in the mean time...

Y'all stay inside and put an extra log on the fire and let things melt a little before you head out if you can.

Sunshine 1...Taxes 0

Summer-like Weather Has Me Mentally Paralyzed...


Well, I looked at my taxes for a minute this morning.

That is, if you can call walking past the stack of files sitting ominously on the Dining Room table as "looking at."

I had to move them out of my office last weekend because I kept piling other stuff up on top of them and sorting them around accidentally and then after losing one or two of them spending a half hour panicking.

I did manage to open up all eight of the giant pneumatic valves in the new batch and didn't find anything surprising, so I'm promising myself I'll buckle down and get four of them torn down, soaked in solvent, rinsed off, and put back together with new o-rings and seals and out of the building tomorrow, BUT...

right now it's time go sit on the deck in the sun with the Turbo Pup and smoke a cigar and yell at make faces at the guy with the leaf blower.

Downhill Conditions Improving

New Afternoon Snow Elevates Spirits...


Surprisingly enough we picked up probably another inch or two of snow mid afternoon yesterday as the temperature started it's plunge down to the current reading of 22 degrees F on the back yard weather station.

I was in a cooking mood since there was no way I could get Pat and the Turbo Pup to venture out in the car, so I produced a late morning Brunch and then scrounged around in the fridges and freezer and pantry and found that I had the ingredients for a Moroccan Beef Stew I've cooked once before called Tagine (click on the link for the recipe) which features tomatoes and carrots and cinnamon and cumin and Chickpeas and I used Beef Tenderloin tips and a couple of older Tenderloins which I cut up into bite sized pieces.

Served over Couscous made with butter and chicken stock instead of plain water, and I'd put the dish up against anything found in any Mediterranean restaurant I've ever been to.

While the stew was cooking down I put back on the new ill fitting so called "long underwear" and "waterproof" top garments and wandered down the street for the purpose of generally being nosey and taking a few photos.

Here's my ancient mailbox...circa 1963...on the far right sitting in the snow at the end of the drive:



That sucker is mounted in a METAL DAIRY MILK JUG buried in the ground and filled with concrete. (There's no way I'm digging it up and putting in a new post and box, but I may get energized enough when it stops snowing this spring to grind the old silver paint off and install a new finish and street number.)

Here's a look down the street nearby...



and one of the small "mini-farms" nearby which haven't sold out to be turned into subdivisions (If we ended up maintaining a presence in knoxtown I want to move over there...)






On a sad note I found this somber sight of this year's Christmas Tree laying in the brush pile in the back yard...




and then I found a couple of happy snow covered fellows down the street which made me feel a little better...



I guess I'll go now and do some work fussing with stupid income taxes, then take a nap in anticipation of polishing up the skis on the sled and trying to stay out of the newspaper and off the evening TV news.

The Weather's Here

Wish I Were Beautiful Was 20 Years Younger


OK, we officially have a winter storm going on outside my back door.

The forecast has bounced all over the chart today, steadily rising from the 4" to 6" range this morning to a high of 8" to 12" around dinner time, then settling back to 7" to 11" right now...looking at the deck we've already had a couple of inches and they say most will come after midnight.

Toss on top of that the predicted extra 3 or so inches tomorrow and this will probably set my personal record for the second or third largest snowfall outside a building I owned.

Of course the "Blizzard of '93" in Atlanta is still the record for me and will hopefully continue to be if I have anything to say about getting the hell out of here and back to the Georgia Coast sometime in late 2010 or early 2011.

I like snow still, don't get me wrong...I used to love it and pay money to travel to ski slopes and ride cabled contraptions to the top of mountains so I could slide down on a pair of expensive rented planks, but with my bad circulation in my legs and torso and 50 years of mileage on the rest of my body a good snow once or twice every ten years is about all I need to feel fulfilled in life.

You know you're getting old when you see a "snow event" as they call it on the Weather Channel as an annoying inconvienance or a "Photo Opportunity" rather than a good reason to miss school or work and run around outside like an idiot doing cartwheels and getting soaking wet and risking frostbite.

Since everyone at my house works from home, and since this storm hit on a Friday it really doesn't provide anything but a little drama and an opportunity to try out the new snow shovel and sled tomorrow.

Twenty five years ago I'd already be outside walking around in the stuff as it comes down tonight, but more recently we've had three or four small snows in the past two winters that I didn't even put on shoes and leave the house until most of it had melted.

I guess that there's a time for most everything in life, but these day's I just look for some Spanish Moss draped Live Oaks, a little beach sand, and warm coastal breezes and leave the frozen powder to the youngsters.

New Forecast

Caught Without Water Proof Pants...


No, I'm not talking about "Depends" or other "Adult Diaper" products...the water I'm worrying about could be infiltrating from the outside because I just noticed that the Weather Nerds and Computer Models have updated the forecast here in Knoxtown to include somewhere between 4 and 8 inches of snow falling Friday night.

I take that to mean we will at least see two snowflakes in my back yard, with the possibility of suffering power outages and having to slog through two feet of stuff to make it to the bank or post office if they're still open when the "winter weather event" arrives.

Regardless, I guess that we'll run out for drinks at happy hour, then come home and after I cook dinner I'll be forced to retire to the basement workshop to fine tune the details and drill some holes and drive some screws into the raw assemblage which is taking shape as a home made adult sized snow sled.

I'm pretty pissed that I have managed to buy Pat a set of water resistant ski bibs while I'll be running around shivering, soaking wet because I currently don't own a pair of jumbo sized bibs--the old pair were victims of the house fire--although I do have pretty good gloves and a nice parka.

The emergency supply cabinet is in good shape however, with fresh batteries for the flashlights and drinking water and lamp oil for old fashioned lamps with wicks and there's five gallons of gas for the generator and an extra 40 gallons in the Suburban .

The only thing we're missing is a fireplace, something that almost every other house on this street has but our previous owner apparently didn't want or appreciate when the house was built.

A good fireplace is worth it's weight in gold when weather like this approaches with the peace of mind that you know that you can stay warm and at least boil water if someone is having a baby for coffee and other hot drinks or just to wash your arm pits. Our house on St. Simons even had a fireplace which we used a few weeks out of each year.

Any way, wish us luck and pray for snow instead of sleet and freezing rain and we'll probably be no worse the wear come Monday.

Regards Y'all...photos to follow...

I Bought A SNOW SHOVEL?

Just Shoot Me I Guess...


I went out yesterday and did something I SWORE that I'd NEVER, ever, Ever, EVER do no matter what, but early in the process of spending our second winter owning a house in a city at the northernmost latitude I've ever lived in I felt compelled to do it.

I came home from Home Depot with two bags of sand in the trunk and a Snow Shovel laying in the floor of the back seat.

The sand was purchased to add weight to the ridiculously light back end of our
Chrysler 300 (which is also rear wheel drive,) but I felt better when I rationalized that the sand will do double duty in June this spring when things finally thaw out because we can add it to the beach area in the Turbo Pup Pool Compound.

The bad news was that they were out of their $8.00 per bag "Ice Melt" stuff, some of which I had used earlier on our driveway in order to rescue the car from it's parking place in the grass.

I'm resolute that as soon as they get another shipment anywhere in Knoxtown (Lowes, Home depot, and the grocers were all out of it I heard) I'm going to buy an entire tractor trailer load pick up a few hundred pounds of the stuff in anticipation of needing it to be able to get to the grocery store to buy bread, peanut butter, and toilet paper later this month.

(I wonder how the left over stuff would taste on the rim of a Margarita glass...Roy?)

And does anyone but me think that I'm too old to be involuntarily learning this "Winterization Process", and thereby see a basic problem with this picture in general?

Let me explain.

Here you have a guy (that would be me) which spent most of the first 42 years of his life waiting to go on vacation...where?

Not sitting around in snow in Ski Apparel.

Not sitting in front of a slot machine in Las Vegas or Atlantic City.

Not sitting around or playing golf in the Desert in Arizona or Southern California.

Try sitting around with his feet in the sand, hand wrapped around a cold adult beverage, looking at the OCEAN.

Then FINALLY, realizing a lifetime of dreaming, I was fortunate enough to be able to give up just Vacationing and spend most of the next SEVEN years of my life actually LIVING on or near the beach on the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

Fast forward to TODAY, AND I find myself not only not sitting in the sand...but ACTUALLY BUYING sand and hauling it around in my car trunk, and BUYING giant shovels which are good for nothing but shoveling WATER...

FROZEN water.

Problem is...I don't want to SHOVEL W A T E R.

I want to wade in and lay in and swim in water.

L I Q U I D Water, preferably in it's WARMER forms.

That said, all I want to know is...

Who's idea was this Frozen CRAP any way?

Frozen Out Of My Own Driveway

Mother Nature Laughs At Global Warming Zombies...


So we sat around most of the day yesterday waiting on the predicted "winter weather" to arrive and all it managed to do until about 3 PM was spit and sputter and produce maybe a dozen snowflakes in my yard.

Then I walked outside about 3:05 and it was sleeting lightly as the temperature at the back yard weather station rose toward freezing, then things turned to snow shortly thereafter and the temperature started to slide back south on the thermometer.

Then of course the inevitable happened and I managed to break the only #8-32 tap available in the building which I was using to cut threads in some holes in the steel back plate of the latest PLC control panel, so we ran out the door to the bank and Home Depot and on the way home stopped at our local watering hole for some drinks, fried green tomatoes, and "naked" chicken wings for dinner.

Things kept going down hill but since they had closed schools early and a bunch of people had already left work we ended up arrogantly sitting around talking to our friend "Barber Bob" (who has actually trimmed my hair a little twice in the past two years.

Then we headed home and things were fine on Kingston Pike but the streets in our neighborhood were getting a little slick and when we got to our driveway we discovered that it was impossible to make it up past about the half way point.

I tried it forward.

I tried it backward.

I tried driving with two wheels on the grass but without positraction all I ended up doing was making a wound on the grass I'll have to repair when things finally thaw out--probably in March.

So the good news is that we don't have to worry about sliding down the driveway if we have to go anywhere in the next week, but the bad news is our car is parked off the street in the edge of my front yard as a target for the asshead vandals to put a cinder block through the windshield or beat with a baseball bat.

OK, we really don't have that kind of crap going on here in this area of West Knox but still I hate leaving things to temptation because in my experience many people generally lose their mind when it snows and the aforementioned kids will be out of school, unsupervised, and some won't be able to resist getting out and risking life and limb driving around doing nothing (except denting my fenders.)

...more...

Good God, I just re-read what I just wrote and realized I've officially become an old curmudgeon...without even trying.

That said...everybody better not act up...don't make me come over and beat you with my walker...

21 Degrees F In Knoxville

47 Degrees F on St. Simons Island...


Who's idea was this--leaving Our Little Island--any way?

We STILL Have Katrina "Victims" FOUR YEARS Later?

And We're Spending Tax Money Encouraging Them To Move Back...


I hate the fact that the leftist liberal NBC network bought my formerly favorite "The Weather Channel."

I say that today they might as well rename the stupid thing this...

"When Weather Kills Poor Folks Because Conservatives and Republicans Deny Global Warming Climate Change Channel."


Of course that name is hard to print in TV Guide and in online/TV listings...but still...

Seriously...hasn't anyone but me noticed the continuing slide by "The Weather Channel" into being a "Oh My God" there's wildfires and earthquakes and tornadoes and Hurricanes network?

Of course for years they've prided themselves in throwing Jim Cantori and Mike Sidell into the eye of each season's hurricanes but these days, particularly this quite Hurricane Season, they seem to just want to manufacture stories about potential future man made "Superstorms" while harping on past storms and the associated GOVERNMENT ENCOURAGED man made stupidity that caused loss of life and property damage.

For instance, while waiting for my latest dose of "Local on the Eights" I just had to wince my way through a "pseudo-weather story" about the four year anniversary of the liberal, sniveling, booger eating tree hugging pinko commie socialists' favorite storm...

HURRICANE KATRINA!!

Remember Hurricane Katrina?

How could anyone ever forget Hurricane Katrina...the storm conjured up by Karl Rove and George Bush to wipe out people too lazy to watch TV or listen to the Radio while electing stupid Governors and Corrupt Black Mayors and Congress persons.

...taking a big breath here boss...

So any way...I didn't really give a crap about today being the "anniversary" of that storm which legitimately smacked the hell out of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, but then they tossed out a bunch of facts that to this very minute continue to make my head spin near orbital rotational velocity and over pressurize at dangerous levels.

For instance, did you know that:

1. To date FEMA has generally wasted some part of over 7.8 BILLION taxpayer dollars in the state of Louisiana under the guise of "Hurricane Recovery Funding?"

2. To date FEMA has spent only 3 BILLION of innocent bystander's dollars in the state of By God Mississippi--while they really did take the brunt of the storm?

Or how about these Apples...

A. There are still about 1,668 "families" living free in FEMA trailers in Louisiana today...down from over 120,000 right after the much maligned inadequate government/BUSH response...

AFTER EVERYONE WAS TOLD TO GET THE HELL OUT BECAUSE THEY WERE MOSTLY LIVING BELOW SEA LEVEL IN 2005.

B. Mississippi has managed to run all but 441 of the government incapacitated dead beats out of FEMA housing after have 48,000 living in linear residential facilities (trailers) right after the storm actually made A DIRECT HIT ON THEIR AREA.

Now...

here is the coup de gras that caused me to start foaming at the mouth and spitting and throwing things at my TV screen...

The new kookie Weather Channel "Bimbo du jour" News Lady proudly reported that the City of New Orleans was recovering and the population was back to 77% of the "Pre-Katrina" levels...although rents were much higher and the Federal and State "authorities" were continuing programs to assist the residents in returning to their homes or home town (I'm paraphrasing of course.)

OK, let me get this straight...

We're paying for people to return to a city which exists below sea level--protected by taxpayer funded pumps and levies--while we also pay for many of these same people to live for free in taxpayer provided trailers while they wait on taxpayer funding to cover their rent so they can move back INTO A FLOOD AND HURRICANE PRONE AREA?

What?

Who?

When?

Where?

You'll have to excuse me because I HAVE TO GO FIND A COOLER FULL OF ICE WATER NOW AND SOAK MY HEAD.

That will be all...for now...dammit

Owl Gore & The Global Warming Zombies Celebrate

The First "Cone Of Death" Of The "Official" 2009 Hurricane Season Is Upon Us...




Anybody but me notice it took until mid August???

The Weather Nerds Aren't Actually "FORECASTING"...

They're "BROADCASTING"...


OK Ladies and Gentlemen...(taking a big breath)

I just saw where the so-called "Experts", to the dismay of Owl Gore and the hysterical, sniveling, booger eating eco-friendly, tree hugging man made global warming crowd...

just down graded their predictions for this year's Atlantic Hurricane season.

GASP!!!

You can read the story here:

And here's the money statement...

"This is the quietest start for more than a decade. The last time a storm didn't form until August 5 was back in 1992," Klotzbach said.

This from the exact same stupid partisan government sponsored idiots rocket scientists who always try to tell us what is going to happen next year when they can't tell me if it is going to rain here on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River next week.

And the lamestream media never covers the retractions and reductions like they cover the next storm that kills "the disenfranchised" or displaces "working families" or disproportionately affects "minorities."

I'm so pissed off about this global warming CRAP that I'm thinking about posting about it every SINGLE DAY until the end of this "Hurricane Season" just to remind what few readers I have of how ludicrous the whole "prediction fascination" and "government control of the weather" phenomena is.

Based on our experience living on our little island on the Georgia coast earlier this decade...I'll have to laugh my ass off when the western Atlantic and the Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico lights up like crazy and we get a huge number of storms in a close procession through October...thereby proving that man/womankind isn't in control of and has no effect on the weather and our predictions are mere news stories and political fodder for the idiots and paid politicians in our society to debate.

dammit...

Houston...We Have A Problem...

Let The Previously Silent Media Begin Their Frenzy...


I was just doing my daily scan of the weather including that in the tropics and I had to pause when I found this image:




You can go here: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/east/tatl/loop-wv.html to find the latest water vapor loop images and see for yourself.

IF these areas actually manage to develop into storms, just sit back with me and watch the balance of the lamestream "professional" Media and the wild eyed people over at the Weather Channel (recently purchased by NBC and converted into a Global Warming shill media outlet)start going ape shit and crack out their tired old well worn "climate change" and man made global warming stories.

That's exactly what the US House and Senate needs is a bunch of dead black Jamacians or a new batch of homeless Cubans to help push their stupid Crap and Tax "Cap and Trade" bill through for Obama Rama Ding Dang.

Idiots...

Everything But The Kitchen Sink Paint

Professional Loafing Ensues...


I'm proud to tender this photo of the exterior of my new French Door...

And here's a peek at the entire compound we call "The Redneck Riviera North"...


Besides the deck and pool as you can see there's a beach and even a board walk along the fence to keep your feet out of the sand when going to and coming from the pool.

(I know, I know, I know...most people do this kind of thing when they're 21 for their kids but I ain't had no kids so I wait till I'm almost 50 and do it for my little Missy theTurbo Pup.)

And, finally, I give you a Top Secret photo of my "Global Warming/Climate Change Monitoring Station" installed and working, but without all of the ship's mast embellishments like rigging wires and provisions for flying a flag.

The whole thing is hinged on a fence post so I can raise and lower it to work on the wiring and clean the bird dropping off my equipment. It has an anemometer, thermometer, relative humidity sensor, rain gage, and a 900 Mhz wireless transmitter that communicates with a receiver/display station in my office.

I'm considering firing up my web cam and doing my own evening Internet weather broadcast from my desk...naked.

Well...on second thought...maybe not.