I wasn't paying attention in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Laura, but it seems that 39 kidnapped or endangered children have been found in Georgia.
How was this not the biggest story reported in the US? What is the national media doing that this story isn't being covered wall-to-wall?
The problem is that it doesn't reflect unfavorably on President Trump. And that is the mission of the national media. Anything else, including child trafficking, is third page material.
If you are ever in a natural disaster, whether it be tornado, hurricane, wildfire, whatever, there are a couple of things you need to know.
Help is coming. But, it's three days out. You need to have whatever you need in a three day supply.. Whether it's gasoline, or food, or tobacco, or whatever. Three days.
This is not your wife's fault, or your kids. Their world is upended and you are supposed to be the adult. Act like it.
A plan is essential, ever if you intend to hunker down and ride it out.
Your vehicle is probably your greatest asset. It has air conditioning, a radio, and is able to charge mobile devices. In extreme heat and humidity, an hour sitting in the car with the A/C is priceless.
Don't forget your pets. They're hot and uncomfortable too. We'd put Beau (our little dog) in the back of the SUV wen we'd sit in there to cool off. He loved it. He'd sleep for an hour. He was comfortable and with his people, and that's all a pet wants anyway.
Check on our neighbors. They may need something that you have. I do more loaning, or giving, during emergencies than any other time. That is what we're put here for, to help other people.
But, remember: You are on your own for three days.
Back in my single days, I dated a vicious bitch named Laura. A hot redhead that lured men to destruction. I had the good sense to leave her alone.
Belle and I laid down on Wednesday, August 26th, expecting a hurricane.
We were woken rudely at 4:30 am on Thursday, August 27th, when my CPAP machine quit working. The electricity was off. We got the day started by looking outside at the howling wind. At daylight, we had a lull, and I got out the Coleman stove and set it up in the garage. Belle will have coffee every morning, come hell, high water, or hurricanes.
Laura came onshore near Cameron, LA as a Category 4 hurricane, the worst to hit Louisiana inn 150 years. She cut a swath of destruction across the western parishes of Louisiana I have heard nothing from Cameron parish, which is little more than swamp land. Yeah, folks live there, but they are very resilient ad self-sufficient. The storm hit Lake Charles barely diminished. I have heard estimates that about 80% of the structures in Lake Charles sustained major damage.
The storm moved into Allen , Beauregard, Vernon parishes at a strong Category 2 hurricane. That is unheard of. I heard from the lady who speaks for the Beauregard Elliptical Co-op.. They have 40, 000 electric meters in the parish and none of them were operating. Transmission and distribution lines are down. Rebuilding will be a multi-week event.
Rapides parish, my home, fared little better. We were basically thrown back into the late 1800s. But, as soon as the wind quit howling, you could hear the generators crank up. With no electricity and temps in the high 90s with 100% humidity, life got miserable very quickly. However, your car has A/C and is able to charge mobile devices.
Our electrical company, CLECO, undertook a Herculean task of rebuilding thousands of miles of electrical service lines. They called in crews from adjacent states and got to work doing hard, dangerous work. in challenging conditions. Communities pulled together, clearing roads, cutting downed trees, and helping neighbors.
I'm fortunate. We sustained very little damage (a fence is down). And we were without power for only 39 hours. Our lights came on at 9:00 pm, Friday, August 28th. Power is slowly being restored across the parish, but for some folks, this will be a multi-week event.
All the family is safe, and everyone has electric power to their homes. A lot of Louisiana is hurting right now. This has been a total disaster for lots of people. I heard an estimate on the radio that places the damage at between five and nine billion dollars. I fear that's low. Many of us who got lucky sustained damage that no one will never know about.
I have internet service for the time being. We'll see how long that lasts. Life gets a little bit more normal every hour.
Democrats’ Unprecedented Embrace of Gun Control
The party is betting that support for restrictions is more likely to attract moderate voters than turn them off.
But, on the other hand.
Nearly 5 million Americans purchased a firearm for the very first time in 2020. NSSF surveyed firearm retailers which reported that 40 percent of sales were conducted to purchasers who have never previously owned a firearm.
Gun sales are booming, at an all-time high. And, a sizable number of those sales are to people who have never previously purchased a firearm.
The American people are looking for security right now. The Democrats would do well to shut up about any type of gun control. But, if they think it's a winning message, they should go for it.
Everyone is focused on Hurricane Laura, a major storm in the Gulf.
She's expected to make landfall around midnight tonight
I'll spend the day in storm prep, putting things away. I don't expect any major problems, simply because we'll be prepared for major problems. It's not like we've never seen a hurricane before and I'm far enough inland that it should be significantly weaker by the time it gets to us.
This will be the first storm since I've retired. This one will be different, because I worked through Rita and Ike and Gustav. This time I'll be home.
Tropical Storm Marcos, thankfully, fizzled yesterday. It got caught in some wind shear and fell apart. It's dumping rain on Mississippi and the Florida panhandle, but its threat as a storm is pretty much over.
Not so with Hurricane Laura. Everyone remembers the 2005 hurricane season with the twin disasters of Katrina and Rita. Everyone focuses on Katrina because of the damage it did in New Orleans, but in terms of intensity, Rita was the bigger storm. She came ashore along the Louisiana/Texas border and wreaked devastation in her path.
Laura is following that same path. Below is the National Hurricane Center's 5-day map of wind speed probabilities.
This map will change over the next several days, but it looks like this storm, if she intensifies, will cut pretty much the same path that Rita cut back in 2005. We;ll have to keep a weather eye on her for the next several days.
After we caught that raccoon last week, we thought that maybe we had solved the problem. Not so mun. We started noticing more evidence of another thief, so I set up the game camera. Sure enough
That 'coon seems to have startled the cat. So, the question becomes; Is that the same coon as last week. I don't think so, for a couple or reasons. First, I hauled last week's varmint eight (8) miles from the house in a straight line distance. I doubt last weeks 'coon has found its way back here. Seconnd, it would take an extremely retarded raccoon to fall for the same trick twice.
I'll haul this one off to reunite the family. Hopefully, we've seen the end of our varmint infestation, but I"ll keep the camera set up for another couple of days, just to track the transients.
You see, that's the problem with hurricanes. We're not really sure where they are going, until scant hours before they get here. Oh, the weather-weenies do the best they can, but weather is an inexact science.
For example, here is the weather map I saw when I got up this morning at daylight.
Then, here is a graphic that our state rep put out just a few minutes ago.
The difference in those two tracks is that one of them is a near-miss for my area, the other one takes the storm right over my house. It's a huge difference and we really don't know yet. They're pretty sure that it's coming ashore at about noon today, but after that, it's a crap shoot.
We're watching the twin storms, Laura and Marcos, and the tacks are beginning to firm up. According to the National Hurricane Center, Marcos is expected to get here first, with landfall on Monday
Just about the time the wind stops blowing, we have to set up for Laura, which is expected here on Thursday.
This is going to be an interesting week.
Grandson Quinton is a member of the 139th Regional Support Group, LANG. He just got a call from his boss, ordering him to saddle up and report for a possible activation. He's dropping stuff in the duffel bag right now, and will report about noon.
Shit's fixing to get real around here.
We're watching these two storms, Laura and Marcos, and it appears that they will get here nearly simultaneously. The interesting thing is that they are coming o so closely in time. Right now, it looks like one Tuesday, one Wednesday. And their cones overlap in interesting ways.
That blue dot in the middle of the screen is my house. Yeah, this might get real interesting real quick. 2020 ain't working out like I would have liked.
Drinking coffee at sunrise, I checked the National Hurricane Center to see what the storms are doing. Both Laura and Marcos are now considered named storms, and predictably, their tracks have changed, each slightly to the west. They will change again as they get closer to the US, and we'll start to have a better idea by tomorrow afternoon. Keeping an eye on these two are a good idea.
The club will be conducting the Monthly Match this morning, and I'll be doing prep work in another hour.
Shooting with friends is a great way to begin the weekend, and I really look forward to our monthly matches.
It seems that an election in New Jersey has been invalidated by a Superior Court judge, who ordered a do-over.
On Wednesday, State Superior Court Judge Ernest Caposela ruled that the election for a Paterson City Council seat had been irreversibly tainted. A new election has been ordered to take place in November.
Democrats and the liberal media (but I repeat myself) tell us that voter fraud is a myth. I have seen it, in person, and I have worked to make convictions. It is my express opinion that people found guilty of tainting an election should be summarily taken out and shot on the front lawn of the courthouse. Elections are too important for such chicanery, and the perpetrators should be executed immediately as a subject lesson to the general population.
The boys asked for it, so I made a pot. Quick, filling, stick-to-your-ribs. Total cooking time, about 40 minutes.
Pore Man's Beef Stroganoff
Ingredients
2 lb good ground beef.
1 bag frozen seasoning blend (onion, bell pepper, celery_
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
2 cans evaporated milk
1 can original Rotel
1 bag egg noodles.
Cook it
In a large dutch oven, brown your ground beef, when the beef is almost done, drop in the frozen seasoning blend and saute with the meat. Drain beef mixture if necessary. I generally use 90/10 beef and don't need to drain. Add the other canned goods. Simmer on very low while your noodles cook.
In a separate pot, boil your noodles. When the noodles are done, drain and add them to the beef mixture. Stir it all together and call the crowd.
We're not under a hurricane watch yet, but the Weather-weenies are glued to the two storms working their way through the Caribbean.
At this point, it's too early to know exactly where they are going to landfall, or even at which strength. No reason to panic, but plenty of reason to have a plan. My firm bet, at this point, is that we'll probably get a little rain ext week.
It seems that Goodyear Tire has gotten Woke, telling employees that they can war a BLM logo, but MAGA hats are forbidden.
On Tuesday, a Goodyear Tire employee leaked a diversity training graphic claiming that “Black Lives Matter” and “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride” (LGBT Pride) slogans are acceptable while “Blue Lives Matter,” “All Lives Matter,” “MAGA Attire,” and “Political Affiliated Slogans or Material” are unacceptable. Conservatives condemned the double standard, and President Donald Trump called for a boycott. Goodyear responded by disavowing the graphic but doubling down on the hypocrisy, claiming that asking employees to refrain from making political statements is entirely different from allowing “forms of advocacy” involving “racial justice and equity issues.”
Of course, President Trump jumped into the fray, and the media was asking inane questions about it yesterday.
When I was buying tires for the state o Louisiana, the Goodyear Eagle was the standard tire for police cars. Goodyear had a contract with the state to provide speed-rated tires The standard at that time was the P255/65R15 and Goodyear would sell them to state agencies for $25.00 apiece. Mounting and balancing were another $10, so I could buy a whole set for $140. It was a great deal on a great tire, and I bought hundreds of sets during my decade as a fleet manager.
If Goodyear believes that BLM< Inc is not a political organization, they are sorely mistaken. BLM is an organization with stated political goals, many of which are radial, leftist goals unsuited to a free society. It would be one thing if Goodyear had a policy disavowing all political satements on the shop floor, but it appears that they have chosen sides.
And, they may well learn the meaning of that other political phrase": Get Woke, Go Broke.
Over the past several days, Belle and I noticed that a varmint was paying us a night-time visit. Things would be re-arranged on the patio, and we were going through a lot of cat food. A lot more cat food than our single feline could use. So, I set a trap.
Lookee what I found on the patio this morning.
This one is mightily upset. His dignity has been heartily offended. But, how many raccoons can say that they've taken a ride in a pickup truck? This morning after coffee, I drove him to an undisclosed location and offered him a second chance. When I opened the gate, he didn't hang around long enough to bid me farewell.
This is the second raccoon that Belle and I have had to deal with. The first one was so big that the cage was filled completely with 'coon. This one weighed about five pounds. I suspect that he is a yearling.
