Something Random

[ArAfGo]

An excellent summary, Chewy509, and that point in your last paragraph about the number of firearms already out-and-about is quite significant. That one has been a thorny issue in my brain since I first started giving this apparent dream idea full thought processes.

Now, I suspect that a good island to go to in these deep waters (I've already jumped off the very, very high board [you know, the 'jumping off point']) - - - so I have jumped into deep water and need an island and maybe Wikipedia is a good island to pause and study what they have gathered.

Wait 'til you see their "References" & "Bibliography" lists.

Still, spending too much time studying the works of others isn't going to help achieve the impossible. The homework is good, but actually coming up with valid ideas to achieve this lofty goal is what I am about here. (I know, some of you think I'm just floundering around and will drown. Heh! Isn't there a yummy fish named 'flounder'?)

 

[jtr1962]

After hearing Trump's inauguration speech I was reminded of this:

Grand Moff Tarkin : The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I've just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.

 

[sedrosken]

I bore witness this afternoon to something that will likely be a once, maybe twice in a lifetime event for my neighbors -- accumulating snow. It's still snowing. Some of my neighbors had literally never seen it before.

 

[jtr1962]

Lots of parts of the south got more snow than NYC had. And there were blizzard warnings also. This is a first in my lifetime. Reminds me of the movie The Day After Tomorrow.

 

[sedrosken]

That movie came out when I was a kid and it gave me nightmares.

It's all going to melt today it looks like -- we're supposed to get up to the mid 40s today when the sun's out. Shame. I could have done with a bit more of a break.

 

[ArAfGo]

I bore witness this afternoon to something that will likely be a once, maybe twice in a lifetime event for my neighbors -- accumulating snow. It's still snowing. Some of my neighbors had literally never seen it before.

This brings back a partial memory; and I use the vocabulary "partial" because the year escapes me. But I was on leave when on active duty and returned to Miami where I had done my high school years and one of the mornings out of maybe just a few days I had there, it actually snowed in Miami and my cousin was a notary public (I think the word is 'public') and so she notarized a copy of the Miami Herald for me that had a big front page thing about snow in Miami. It might have been the first time, but I'm not sure. Well, "first time" for when humans (us western type humans, that is) were living in that area. I'm rather sure that was in the early 70s. I carried that notarized front page around with me at many duty stations, but lost it at some point and maybe when I had to be sent back to the States under medical supervision. Personal belongings can get lost when that sort of thing happens. I suppose that Miami snow thing would be logged on some web site on the Net now, but I just saw your post, sedrosken and I'm not in great condition for doing that Net Check stuff. Had a kind of bad day at the hospital today. In fact, I kind of escaped from them and I think they tried to call me a few hours ago, but they know I have no trouble paying my hospital bills, so they won't be too worried about money. The admin folks there don't much like me, so I reckon they were only trying to call about today's bill. That director there really, really dislikes me.

Sorry, the topic is snow. That was snow around that airfield area? Wait 'til there's snow down in the Everglades! Now that will really be something. Snow in Alligator Alley!! Them alligators will freak out.

We're having an odd warm spell in this area of Japan that started a few days ago and looks like it will go on until the end of the month. This is the Kanto area where Tokyo sits. But I and my family are spread out over the western hills of Kanto and we shouldn't be getting this warm stuff these days. And dry, too. Saw the two main rivers today on the way to the hospital and they sure aren't flowing with lots of water. Dry non-humid weather in winter is not good.

 

[Mercutio]

There's a foot of snow in New Orleans right now.
I also found out how much worse the new windows are in my apartment compared to the old ones. My back bedroom was 55 degrees with the thermostat at 68. I wound up stapling a bunch of blankets over the windows just to get the temperature up inside. It's been as low as -12, so it's not like this should be a common occurrence but I am not happy at all about it.


One of my friends had a baby last week and while I don't normally share pictures I take, I was exceptionally proud of this one. The baby is about seven hours old.

 

[jtr1962]

Very nice picture!

Regarding the windows, cellular shades (the double cell type) would help. Or if you don't care about light get 1" foam insulation board and put it in front of the window. Surprised new windows would be worse. Are there any air leaks? Sounds like it could be a botched installation job.

I turned the heat off in my house in the beginning of March last year. Temps got as low as 50 on some of the colder days. My house generally holds about 15 to 20 degrees above outdoor ambient temperature. With a heated mattress pad 50s indoors is semi-tolerable for me.

 

[sedrosken]

Yesterday was the first time all winter I'd turned on my heat aside from testing to make sure it wouldn't burn my place down a couple times -- got some scary dust-burning smells but other than that, no issues. That was just because it had dropped below 54 -- I'd been tolerating upper 50s in the early mornings and late evenings since roughly the middle of December. I have a very old, very inefficient electric central heat installation, so I limit how much I use it.

 

[ddrueding]

We've had a total of about 35 hours of snow on the ground here this winter. Crazy to think that ya'll might beat that.

 

[Mercutio]

Regarding the windows, cellular shades (the double cell type) would help. Or if you don't care about light get 1" foam insulation board and put it in front of the window. Surprised new windows would be worse. Are there any air leaks? Sounds like it could be a botched installation job.

My theory is that there must be an air gap somewhere but I don't particularly want to look for it right now. I don't see any places where I can see light from outdoors; I briefly lived in a (new) home that had its foundation buckle and it was immediately obvious where the problems were. The windows are still a problem either way. I went from double pane to single and there's a huge difference in temperature within ~1m of either of the windows I have, possibly as much as 10F. I'm sure the building owner cheaped out, which is insane given what they're charging new tenants here.
I'm told it's now cheaper to actually live in Chicago than it is to live where I do.

We've had a total of about 35 hours of snow on the ground here this winter. Crazy to think that ya'll might beat that.

But climate change is a globalist conspiracy to reduce human population and prevent the second coming of Jesus! Something like that.
The winter of 2024 was so mild where I live that I didn't wear a coat in 2024 until December.

 

[sedrosken]

Oh but it got cold! The globe can't be warming! It's a environmentalist hoax because they want to take away my gigantic skullcrusher family-hauler truck (where I constantly keep my brights on because fuck the vision of everyone else on the road, I need to see for the next mile!) and gas stove! And that's if I even believe in a globe anymore, because flat-earther-ism is in!

</s>

Unfortunately, this is how a large portion of the main demographic down here actually legitimately thinks.

 

[jtr1962]

My theory is that there must be an air gap somewhere but I don't particularly want to look for it right now. I don't see any places where I can see light from outdoors; I briefly lived in a (new) home that had its foundation buckle and it was immediately obvious where the problems were. The windows are still a problem either way. I went from double pane to single and there's a huge difference in temperature within ~1m of either of the windows I have, possibly as much as 10F. I'm sure the building owner cheaped out, which is insane given what they're charging new tenants here.
I'm told it's now cheaper to actually live in Chicago than it is to live where I do.

I didn't know anyone was even still making single pane windows now, much less that a building owner would be dumb enough to install them. Really, that's Trump level stupidity. Now to mention I'm pretty sure it's illegal under the building codes virtually everywhere in the country.

Nowadays 3 and even 4 pane are starting to get mainstream.

I noticed a huge difference when we got rid of our 1950s era single pane windows in 1994 in favor of double pane. I think our annual heating oil usage dropped by like half.

 

[Mercutio]

I didn't know anyone was even still making single pane windows now, much less that a building owner would be dumb enough to install them.

This is Indiana and if there are only two states where something is legal, one of them will be Indiana.

I was treated to a bunch of my Tampa friends dealing with the low-40F weather posting their "cozy vibes" outfits, the sweaters and stocking caps they never wear, yesterday.

40F here and I might very well still have a window open.

But for real, Global Warming was a branding issue. It's technically correct on a global scale, but since many dimwits can't see anything beyond the community where they lived, the terminology shifted to "Climate Change" specifically to address the "If it's getting hotter, why is it still cold sometimes?"-people. Like Jim Inhofe, who brought a snowball onto the floor of the US Senate to refute the idea of that the Earth is getting hotter. Yes really. Look it up.

It'll be hilarious when the gulf stream collapses and ocean currents that normally take centuries to change instead happen in a couple decades. Nothing bad will come of that at all. It'll be even funnier when the "currently hostile to the most benign concepts of immigration" advanced economies of the global North and West watch the people living in huge chunks of Asia and Africa swelter and die and some staggering percentage of biodiversity just vanishes due to changing conditions. But like 20 billionaires will be really happy, and that's what really matters.