Are you traveling to see the eclipse? I am! A buddy of mine who lives in Tennessee north of Nashville called me five years ago and asked me, in an excited voice, “What are you doing in August, 2017?!” Well, if someone asks me five years in advance, I’m liable to agree to drinking poison and taking a rocket ship to the furthest comet. Instead, lucky for me, I agreed to come spend a long weekend with friends, smack in the middle of the path of totality. And sure enough: the day is almost here. Not a bad deal!
57 responses to “Pillow Squawk”
I saw a fireman fighting a car fire last week on I-696 and wondered where he was getting his water from. Since then, on my daily commute a little further down the road, I noticed a bunch of grass that had brunt and smack in the middle of it was a fire hydrant. When I noticed it this morning, I saw another hydrant a hundred yards beyond and then another. As I got to the walled portion of the highway, I noticed more hydrants spaced periodically in the walls.
I-696 is mainly a concrete walled highway and in three spots has a park for the Orthodox Jews to use to get to their house of worship. In the winter it is a nice respite during a snowstorm. However the planners of the highway (built in the late 80’s) were very concerned about fire, so that is why the hydrants. Ironically there was a bad accident this spring and a fire broke out. It got so hot that they still had to shutdown the highway for 10 days to replace the concrete in the road.
When we had a major rainfall (4.75″) on August 11, 2014, the drains on I-696 under I-75 failed and a 15 ft. deep lake formed. It took a couple days to drain. A lot of underpasses fill up when we get a lot of rain in a short period of time.
https://explore.org/livecams/african-wildlife/african-animal-lookout-camera
https://explore.org/livecams/falcons/falcon-nest-cam
God bless us every one. God bless the USA.
http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/news/4312932-another-study-finds-earthworms-hurting-maple-trees-minnesota-forests
Think they’re here to stay. Hope this does not offend.
Steve: I find it wondrous strange how many hundred-year storms are hitting in just a few decades. As usual the phrase doesn’t mean what we think it means when we first hear it.
Red R. of the North had one in ’97, and has had at least one since.
There are many blogs and forums on the InterWebNet (some might say way too many) devoted to political discourse, both civil and otherwise. A very small number of commenters here seem to feel that A&J is one of those. I do not. And I sincerely believe the vast majority of commenters here also feel that it is not and should not be. Hopefully, that small number can take a hint and restrain themselves.
Yes, TR, the phrase “hundred-year event” seems to be as misunderstood as “one size fits all”.
FYI:
https://www.sigmaxi.org/docs/default-source/Annual-Meeting-Documents/2017-solar-eclipse/total-solar-eclipse-guide_sigma-xi.pdf?sfvrsn=4
There has been discussion here of the solar eclipse and how to watch it. The hospital I work for sent a safety message to its employees and I want to post part of it here.
If you are buying glasses to watch it through, be sure they have the following ISO number: ISO 12312-2. These are the only ones considered safe.
Mark,
Amazon discovered that they had vendors that were counterfeiting the ISO approval number! Two different sets of glasses I ordered were recalled and refunded. Best way to be sure is to use an approved vendors list:
https://eclipse.aas.org/resources/solar-filters
That is why they are called THROW pillows. You want to throw them away. Great episode on the British Friends version on this.
eMb, that worm article was eye-opening; thank you. I would have thought that worms, through their castings, would enhance a forest just as they do for farming acreage. Do you think it is a matter of the trees getting too much nutrition in too short a time [compared to the fairly slow decomposition of leaves]?
Today is National Tell a Joke Day. I can’t top this (slightly edited) one, via @iowahawk.
What’s the worst thing Willie Nelson can tell you after you make love with him?
“I’m not Willie Nelson.”
I’m trying to wrap my head around why someone would go to the trouble of counterfeiting solar glasses and somehow getting them into the distribution channels. They’re not high-dollar items. I mean, no one bothers to produce bogus one-dollar bills!
So, are they just evil? Wanting to blind people?
Considering they are probably manufactured somewhere with a huge population, most likely expecting to make profits from the bulk. US was likely not the main sales target but somebody in buying thought they had a great deal. Hey, they counterfeit UL labels for electronic products and that’s why we get exploding gadgets and chargers.
For eclipse viewing were you plan to be:
http://amp.timeinc.net/time/4882923/total-solar-eclipse-map-places-view/?source=dam
where oops
This should make some people very happy, especially my wife:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/craig-confirms-hes-back-007-one-last-time-151030343.html
Well. who would of thought I’d make it to 64 today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38uSiYoP29Y
Happy Anniversary Old Bear and wife…going to bed, goodnight all
Happy Birthday, Debbe! I’ve got 10 years on you and I am still going strong (although, perhaps, a little slower)! Life is good.
From FB: https://scontent-dft4-3.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/20841085_10155720737317728_163284118744454475_n.jpg?oh=ddcaabc39c437ed28e88c1d7022472e6&oe=5A1950DD
https://www.facebook.com/simonscat/?hc_ref=ARTqW9yevkh1QXBrCH4DSZcWrspW97ME7VaTRrW0dDBeXfWTdWhKW058ozg7uFuuz9Y&fref=nf
Trucker, I stopped at a curb store in Deepest Arkansas to refuel recently and noticed one of the cashiers running a detector pen over a number of $1 bills. Like you, I thought no one would bother to counterfeit them and remarked such to the cashier. “Yes, they do,” she said. “We’ve gotten some of them.”
My only thought is that scanner and printer technology has reached the point where that is feasible. Someone else had told me not long ago that their business had been stuck with a $100 bill that displayed all the “safety” features of a legitimate note.