Archived Posts
Sun, 29 Aug 2004
11:43 pm, September 4, 2004 - Oilcanning
I'm on a cell call with my friend Tom, who is weathering the storm in his Mims mobile home. Now that the wind is kicking, his trailer is shifting, twisting and bowing.
Tom tells me: "You can feel the floor moving beneath you like a rickety boardwalk."
The walls of his trailer are flexing with the changes in pressure. "Your ears will pop," he says.
Now, it is suddenly quiet there. That won't last long.
"Boredom and chaos, " he says.
Then, a squall hits there. "The rain sounds like something being dragged against the roof."
I'll try to keep in touch with Tom as the storm progresses. Now, for a look outside. I'll post more later, if the power holds.
11:14 pm, September 4, 2004 - Blowhard.
Frances was talkin' the talk, but she's slowed to the speed of a brisk walk.
She seems hesitant to tangle with the coast, keeping her eye out to sea. From the treasure coast north to the space coast, her feeder bands whip ashore, carrying intense squalls inland.
Central Florida is starting to feel it, the long wait is nearly over, here comes the rough stuff.
Our home, in rural east Orange, is on a wooded lot. I have a few tall pines that I worry about. These winds could arbitrarily toss a 60' pine tree, or three, on my roof. (I and my family are bunking in North Brevard, with family.)
I'm not too worried. I've lived in Florida throughout my life. The media frenzy feeds on itself. The weather center says look out, could be a real nasty storm. Local media says flee for your lives, before Frances erases the Florida coast.
Take sensible precautions. Be someplace safe. That is sound advice.
Don't panic. Always carry a towel with you.
Remember, Earth is mostly harmless.
The Vogon weather person has only one purpose at times like these:
To keep your butt in the seat in front of the boob tube, terrified of missing some vital bit of info that might save your miserable life.
It's about ratings.
Terror keeps viewers glued.
Keep informed, do what's needed, but don't let the local news guys and gals freak you out. They are bigger blowhards than Frances.
6:38 pm, September 4, 2004 - What clouds I like.
The eye of Frances is just off the treasure coast of Florida, to the south of us. Counties to our north and northwest are currently under tornado watches or warnings.
Today, I am in North Brevard, in Titusville. We're sheltering with my in-laws. Waiting for the weather to worsen is not a productive use of time, so I decided to waste time on the internet while I still can.
The winds are beginning to gust strongly enough to break a few branches. A few drops of rain have fallen, but no drenching downpoar, not just yet.
My associate editor, Tom, is riding out the storm in his mobile home, in north Mims. I stopped by his place earlier today, to wish him luck. Outside, as we watched the wind and clouds, a hawk glided above us. We watched five minutes, as the hawk dipped and rose, turning into the air currents that suited him: Not once did the hawk beat its wings or show the slightest effort to remain aloft. I ponder the effort it would take to set Tom's trailer aloft.
Hawks may enjoy this weather, but I'm not too keen on it. I don't like the looks of these clouds. If I had my druthers, I'd rather see cirrus clouds.
[...]
I will choose what clouds I like
In the great white fleets that wander the blue
As I lie on my back or loaf at the rail.
And I will listen as the veering winds kiss me and fold me
And put on my brow the touch of the world’s great will.
[...]
Waiting. Sandburg, Carl. 1916. Chicago Poems
I'll try to update later, if I have power and something worth saying. Stay safe!
P.S. Thanks to AND THEN..., for the 'cane blogging plug.
2:30 am, September 4, 2004 - Frances is taking her time.
I'm tired of waiting. Why is it always hurry up and wait?
I should have bought a cheap novel, to kill the time.
Yawn.
Is she here yet?
Nope.
Wish she'd just go away...
If wishes were horses, the French would have roast every night.
10:43 pm, September 2, 2004 - When kiting becomes an extreme sport...
A monster storm with killer winds is crawling towards the east coast of Florida. Frances will be our unwelcome guest this weekend.
Check out NOAA, for great images of this beast.
I don't know if I will post much during the storm, but perhaps...
A number of Florida bloggers are on the spot, providing much more than I have time to research. Check out Eye of the Storm, who is doing an excellent job at Frances blogging. (I'm not saying that just cuz I got a plug.) Mustang Bobby, at Bark Bark Woof Woof, is covering the storm well. Tommy at Sticks of Fire is sending good vibes our way.
2:30 am, September 2, 2004 - Watching Frances.
Charley wasn't enough: Now, the big storm is on the way. Currently, landfall is predicted at Vero Beach, south of the Space Coast. As we have recently learned, these predictions have a margin of error.
Many residents in the path of the storm still have debris at the curb, awaiting pickup. Unfortunately, this debris will not be picked up by municipalities, but by relentless winds that will transform it into a hail of deadly missiles.
I'll be roping my debris, bundling and staking it, unless a friend with a truck drops by. That won't take care of my neighbor's curb.
If we see any serious wind, it will be one hell storm of wooden spears, as the gusts toss conveniently sized branches: They have been sawn, stacked and are waiting on the roadside, as if to order for the occassion.
I'm more uneasy than I've been since the firestorms of '97, when I breathed the acrid grey smog and vigilantly watched the orange glow, to our west, growing ever closer throughout the night. We were spared, the firefighters stopped the blaze that threatened our rural neighborhood. That was the last time we packed our photos.
We could have some serious property damage from this storm. Our irreplacable items are going to be packed up with the family, in the van. I want concrete walls around my family, we'll likely ride out the storm with my in-laws. I pray for our safety, but also that we'll have a home when we return.
I have some measure of inner peace, a counterpoint to the worries of the approaching storm. All will be well. We scurry to make preparations, before having time to recover from the last storm. Still, all is well. We'll ride this out.
Nature's force is a reminder of the humility and awe that we should feel every day in God's creation. The respect that this storm demands is due every gopher tortoise, Scrub Jay and manatee.
Here are some storm related links:
National Hurricane Center - Tropical Prediction Center
National Weather Service Forecast Office - MLB - Melbourne, FL
Green and red and goes 90 miles an hour?
What is humor?
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.
E. B. White, Some Remarks on Humor, introduction
In other words: If you pick it apart, you are left with a mess.
I'll write more on the subject of humor when I buy another blender.
We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical.
I bought the new hard drive from Novatech Computers, in Titusville. It was Friday evening, almost 5:30 p.m., just before closing, when I made my purchase.
Now, I have XP fully installed and updated, though I need to do a lot more tweaking. I've got the latest in virus protection downloaded. Most of the security shields are up, but I need to test them as soon as I have the time.
Software installations proceed, but only a third of my programs are done. Scores of programs will have to be manually installed, extracting zips and creating shortcuts.
Recent e-mail from before the hard drive crash is permanently lost. I had downloaded a huge backlog of e-mail, dating from before Charley hit. Before I could sort, read, or respond to all the letters, they evaporated with the death of my drive. I'm sorry if I've seemed to ignore the mail. I still have to set up all my filtering and e-mail software.
It is getting there, slowly. I got the financial software reinstalled and updated the bank account balances. Try living without your check register for a couple of weeks. First, no power or phone, post Charlie, then when that got cleared up, the primary hard drive grinds to a halt, victim of a long period of heat and humidity.
Everybody here at home is very appreciative that I got our high performance system up and going again. I had to dump all of the motherboard's CMOS settings, since my box's maker had password protected it and failed to provide me with the password before the company folded like a cheap lawnchair. I discovered what settings would work best for my rig, as well as a few that definitely didn't work well. I even found one setting that prevented it from booting at all, until I had jumpered the reset pins on the motherboard to clear out the CMOS again.
While I was feeling cocky, I flashed the video BIOS with an upgrade. I'm living on the edge. My video processor is so overclocked that it can fry pixels faster than my monitor can serve 'em to me.
The fresh, new install of the OS has fixed a couple of minor issues. It has created others. I'll be surfing my registry as often as I'll be on the internet for the forseeable future.
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