Now, Irma

Just about the time that Harvey wanders off toward Tennessee, we look at the National Hurricane Center and see Irma forming in the Atlantic.

Oh, joy.

It's too early to tell where it's going, but this hurricane season ain't over by a long shot.

Harvey's Demise

We listened to rain all night, as Harvey moved out of Texas to the northeast, which means us. Schools are closed today, more out of a concern for flooding and what Accuweather is calling a "tropical downpour:  The school system doesn't want to move kids in this mess.  Winds are out of the southwest at about 20 mpsh.  It isn't bad at all.

Our CFDA family in southeast Texas took a huge hit.  In one way or another, the storm affected each and every one of them. Some lost property, some lost income and jobs due to businesses flooded.    There is no telling what the long-range impacts of Harvey might be, but it will take weeks, if not months to get a final tally.

Don't worry about PawPaw, we're high and dry.  Here is what Harvey looks like this morning, as shot from my garage.



Things should get back to normal around here tomorrow.  Harvey is moving off to the northeast and by tomorrow should be nothing more than a squall line and a memory.

Oh, Really?? (You Worthless Sonsabitches)

Right on cue, the media frenzy is clawing its way to madness..  According to Politico magazine, Hurricane Harvey is something special, (drum roll please), due entirely to global warming.  I shit you not.

In all of U.S. history, there’s never been a storm like Hurricane Harvey. That fact is increasingly clear, even though the rains are still falling and the water levels in Houston are still rising.

Really?  You dumb sonsabitches?  That's the nature of the beast, and I talked about it earlier today.  The water is probably going to rise for at least a couple of days. Everyone knows that but the author.  Then it really gets weird.

But there’s an uncomfortable point that, so far, everyone is skating around: We knew this would happen, decades ago. We knew this would happen, and we didn’t care. Now is the time to say it as loudly as possible: Harvey is what climate change looks like. More specifically, Harvey is what climate change looks like in a world that has decided, over and over, that it doesn’t want to take climate change seriously.

 Here, the author is showing both his ignorance and stupidity.  He might recall studying the great hurricane that sunk the Spanish Treasure Fleet in 1715.  Or more recently, the hurricane of 1900 that wiped Galveston island off the map.  They didn't name hurricanes back then, but Google is your friend.  More currently, the ones that I can remember were named (in no particular order) Audrey, Camille, Andrew, Ike, Katrina, Rita, and Gustav.  I remember each and every one of those, because they affected me personally.  Again, Google is your friend.

But, the author, being young and stupid, probably doesn't understand that hurricanes are a fact of life in Louisiana and south Texas.   I can't believe that the editors at Politico would make this idiocy such an easy target, but they did all it to publish.   They should still be slapping him around the copy room, picking apart this idiocy line-by-line.  I won't do that because I've already established the full dumb-ass-idness of his hypothesis.

Harvey was bad, no doubt, for the people caught in its path. I have people who were in the path, and my heart aches for them, but Harvey is no more proof of climate change than any other data point.  Harvey was bad, but it came ashore as a weak Cat 1, got stuck between two high pressure systems and dumped unbelievable amounts of rain.

Politico simply wants to make points with a bullshit theory.  The evidence does not support the hypothesis.  Politico is populated with dumpb sonsofbitches, and that's all you need to know about that.

The Left Unwinds

I'm seeing a bunch of this around the itertubes.    The left is showing that they are ust a bit unhinged.  For example:

I don't know how to tell them this, but the area that we're reading aout (Houston, or Harris County), went blue in both the 2012 and 2016 elections.   The mayor of Houston is a Democrat.  The US Representative is a Democrat.  Houston is one of the reliably blue areas of Texas.

The left is wishing death and destruction on their own people.  In the midst of an  epic disaster, there are no Republicans or Democrats.  There are just people helping people.

Harvey - The Best is Yet to Come

As bad as it's been around Houston (and it's a whole hell of a lot more than Houston.  Multiple counties affected, many of them rural.), there is a whole new challenge awaiting folks who live near the coast of Texas and Louisiana.  Harvey is fixing to move north.

Somewhere in that area, a little stream is flowing.  It's been getting a little rain, but it's okay.  Later today, it is going to get a deluge and try to absorb all the water that is falling from the sky, but suddenly it will have nowhere to go, and will start swelling, covering its banks, and become a flood.  All that water is still backed up on the coast, and the little stream is flooded, and it will start covering flat areas, like someone's pasture.

That pasture harbors life.  Fire ants, nasty little critters who inhabit the far southern US.  Those ants want to survive, so they will form floating balls, the ones underneath will drown, but the nest will survive and they'll float along the surface until they reach land, where they will colonize a new area.

Floating balls of fire ants.  Charming, just charming.  Other critters who inhabit the rivers, lakes, sloughs and streams are also on the move.  Their habitat has expanded with the flood water, and they're out looking for food or new homes.

Suburban gators.  What a lovely way to start the day.

All of east Texas is going to get a lot of rain today.  Along with all of Louisiana.  But the downstream water courses are all full, at max capacity, and all that water is going to stack up, with nowhere to go.  Here's a pic from rural Texas, about an hour north of Beaumont.

Normally, down that lane, about 200 yards, there is a pretty little creek.  Picturesque, it's a lovely place.  But, with all the water that has hit the ground, it's got nowhere to go.  And, today it will get a lot more rain.   Downstream, the folks that are already flooded will eventually see this water come across their areas too.  The flooding in south Texas and south Louisiana may last for weeks.

When I lived in rural Natchitoches parish, I was flooded out of my house twice.  It never flooded during the weather event, it flooded two days later under sunny skies, when ll the creeks, bayous, lakes and sloughs backed-up.

This ain't over by a long shot, and it might linger for weeks before the water starts to recede.

Harvey - Again

That slow moving migrant bastard Harvey is still meandering aimlessly.  He's driving the NOAA crazy.  Here's the latest cone.  It looks like he might quit destroying Texas and finally get a move on.

That looks like what a storm cone is supposed to look like.  It appears that he is finally going to get a move on.  The only trouble is that he's supposed to come right across us at 1:00 a .m. Thursday.

I really don't look for much.  According to reports I'm seeing right now, we're talking about wind gusts up to 25 mph and lots of rain.  At least my buddies in Texas will start to dry out a little bit.

When I left work today, the School Board was still trying to decide if we need to open school tomorrow.  I'll check their website later.

UPDATE** School is in tomorrow.  PawPaw will check again about 5:00 a.m. to see if I actually have t put my boots on.

DOUBLE UPDATE** They closed schools.  The wind is picking up and the rain is blowing sieways.  Tomorrow, I'll be watching grandkids and that's okay, I didn't have anything planned anyway.

C'mon, Texas

I've been hearing reports that looters and other n'eeer-do-wells are causing havoc in Houston.  PJMedia reports.

The highly acclaimed Louisiana Cajun Navy was forced to “stand down” in Houston Monday after looters tried to steal their boats and took potshots at them.

The Cajun Navy is a group of volunteers who go into flooded disaster areas and try to help.  Most of these guys grew up operating small boats in congested waters, so navigating flood zones is second nature to them.  During last year's flooding in and around the Baton Rouge area, they saved hundreds of people and collected tons of relief supplies.  They are people helping people, with no expectation of  reward.  Helping people is ll the reward they want.

“Looters decided to pose as people needing rescue and they attempted to overtake the boats and there were shots fired at the boats,” the post said. “I repeat they are all safe. Looters must have not wanted our boats in the water for rescues.”

In fairness, natural disasters bring out the best and the worst in people.  As law enforcement and first responders become overwhelmed, the looters come out, taking what they can steal.    The Texans I know, from Beaumont to Amarillo, are fine, salt of the earth people.  Generous to a fault, ready to help anyone who needs help.  Those are the people that I call Texas.

Parts of Houston ain't like that.  Some of those looters may have been Katrina trash that floated in after the deluge in New Orleans.  My heart goes out to the good people of Texas who are suffering an unprecedented disaster.  Houston my be the most diverse city in the US.  While the fine people of Texas are working through this catastrophe, some folks are trying to capitalize.  I'm sure that Texas will sort it out when the water recedes.

Houston, you have a problem.

Well, Rules are Rules

From my buddy Mike.  (I know lots of Mikes.)

Heh!

Drenched

The slow-moving disaster that is now tropical storm Harvey seems to have moved east overnight and is now camped on our doorstep.   The weather radar screen shot from earlier this morning.

Not much wind, just copious amounts of ran.  Most of the conversation centers on what is to come,   The general consensus  is that we're in for really crappy weather over the next several days

But, in the meantime, the government offices are operating, the schools are open and life goes on.  At this stage of the game, it's just rain, and we know how to deal with rain.

Houston, You Have A Problem.

Cultural reference there, but it's true.  Houston has a huge problem.  This image from earlier today.

No American city can absorb over 12" of rain in one 24 hour period.  I have friends in the Houston area, in Richmond, in Vidor, in Lumberton, and I'm worried about each and ever one of them.

This slow-moving bastard, Harvey is continuing to dump prodigious amounts of rain on the Houston area, and it's moving toward Louisiana on the I-10 corridor.  I hear from Facebook friends that the streets in Sulphur, LA are beginning to flood.  Harvey ain't voer by a long shot, and we've got to put up with his crap for three or four more days.

Which reminds me, I need to go put a raincoat in the car.

Saturday Shooting

The Peacemakers shot yesterday at the outdoor range at the church.  How many churches do you know that have a shooting range, right net to the rodeo arena?  Yeah, we're a cowboy church.  The rain held off, and while we prayed for our brethren in Texas who  are catching Harvey, we also took advantage of gentle breezes and cloudy skies to get a little shooting in.

That's Cookie in the foreground, and Squirrel Girl in the background, going head-to-head shooting 5-Card.  It's a fun match that simulates shooting from a card table.

Here, PawPaw in the blue shirt, vs Big Bill in the red shirt.  We're shooting doubles and it's a strategy game.  PawPaw is using two guns, one strapped on each hit.  Big Bill is using one gun, opting to  "take his time, in a hurry" to engage two targets.

And finally, a little informal practice.  That's Blue Eyed Belle on the right, then Fast Fred and Big Bill.  Just foolin' about with six-guns.

Yesterday was a great day, and we're hunkered down now for slow-moving Harvey.  It truly apears that he will devolve into a rainfall event, and not affect central Louisiana much at all.

Gluing Cards Together

In Cowboy Fast Draw, we play a game called 5-Card Draw.  Based on the cowboy legend of playing cards in a bawdy house, it's a fun game that's played like this:

Sitting at a table, holding a hand of cards.
Your revolver on the table in front of the cards.
On the command, drop the cards and engage two targets 15 feet away.
Your time is the time you hit the second target
If you miss a target, you get a 1.5 second penalty added to your time.
Whoever has the lowest score wins.

It's a lot of fun, and there are variations to the game.  Still, it's a fun match.  Tomorrow, weather permitting, I"ll introduce the Peacekeepers to the game.

There is video of us shooting it at Thorn Valley last year.   Jump ahead to about the 5:00 minute mark to get the part of the video where we're shooting 5-card.



To that end, I've just glued some cards together.  We've found that it helps to have the cards glued, because when the gunfighters go for their revolvers, the cards are likely to get scattered.

One of them is a pretty good hand.  The other, I don't know if I'd play.  If I had aces and eights, I'd probably just fold.

Hurricane Harvey

Sometime today while I wasn't looking, they upgraded Harvey to a hurricane.

They're still not sure where it's going, and some models put it going ashore in Texas then turning and re-entering the Gulf.  Wouldn't that be a kick in the ass?

But, they're pretty sure about the rainfall amounts, which look to be torrential.

That shows my acre getting somewhere between six and ten inches of rain.  My gunfighter buddies in the Houston area are hunkering down, prepping, and getting ready.

As mariners might say, we're going to keep a weather eye on this thing.

Edit to add:  They don't have a clue where this thing is going.

Geez!  Stay tuned for updates.

Here Comes Harvey!

The big news, weather-wise, is tropical storm Harvey.  It's supposed to come in tomorrow and dump copious amounts of rain on south Texas, but I've watched these things before and they tend to head northeast once they make landfall.  That puts us square in the path, here in central Louisiana.

The National Hurricane Center is predicting that we'll get six inches or so of rainfall, with the associated wind.  The forecast should firm up today and tomorrow, but it looks like we are in for a weather event.

This weekend might be a good time to hunker down.

Reminds Me Of A Gal.

Megan Fox, over at PJMedia, gives singles some good advice.

Forget About Divorce. Don't Marry a Hillary Supporter in the First Place

That's good advice, but it reminds me of a gal I dated in 2000.  We'll call her Margaret.  She was a high-class dame, lived in an upscale condo, but had no money of her own.  I met her at church.  After we had dated a few times, I came to know that she was a dyed-in-the-wool liberal.  She supported Al Gore over  George Bush

She was a pretty little gal, but after the election, I knew it would never work between us.  She was an urban liberal and  I am a redneck conservative, and as much fun as it was to peek through the looking glass, I knew that I had no business in her world.

I bailed.

The next month, at a Super Bowl party, I met the gal of my dreams.  You know her now as Milady, or Belle.  She is the love of my life, and I can't imagine living without her.

Everything works out for the best.  Just don't marry a liberal.

Who's a Nazi?

Who is a Nazi?  Republicans, evidently.  One former Democrat Senator actually came out and said it.

...former Democratic senator for Wisconsin Russ Feingold clarified what all this controversy about white supremacists and Confederate statues is really all about: Republicans are Nazis.

 That's odd, because I seem to recall from my history class, and from my experiences in the '60s that all Confederates were Democrats, the Jim Crow laws were written by Democrats, fire hoses were turned on civil-rights marchers by Democrats, and even today, the places where minorities suffer the most are run by Democrats.

I'm not into name-calling, but people in glass houses shouldn't throw rocks.  Someone might come along to correct the record.  Rather than go down a laundry list, we'll click over to Bill Whittle who did a masterful job a while back on the very question.



And, for those folks who think it is cool to punch other folks, be c very careful.

The Professor Nails It

Glenn Reynolds says it much better than I.

 As I keep saying, if the press and the political opposition — but I repeat myself — were just sober, straightforward, and honest they could beat Trump easily. But then, if they were capable of that, we wouldn’t have gotten Trump to begin with.

The press worked so hard to promote Trump during the primaries, so that Hillary wouldn't have to face a principled Republican candidate, and there were several good ones in the field.

Then, they worked hard to get Hillary her coronation (because she deserved it) and the nation under the rules in place at the time, decided that Trump was the lesser evil than Hillary.

Somewhere, the adults have to be in charge and the Democrats aren't showing me any adults, anywhere.  You want more Trump?  This is how you get more Trump.

Bored By Fake Drama

Kurt  Schlichter says he's bored by fake drama, and I guess I am too.  That sums up my feelings about the national news, lately.  Like many Americans, I'm more concerned about the day-to-day that affects me and mine.  

Statues:  I personally couldn't tell you what statues are within five miles of me.  Just couldn't tell you.  As far as yanking them down, I recommend that due diligence should require establishing ownership.  If it ain't yours, leave it alone.  If it is yours, do what you like with it.   Just establish ownership before you get yourself in trouble.  Americans have been pulling down statues for years.  Ask Saddam Hussein.  We pulled his statues down.  Or Adolph Hitler.  You probably won't find any statues of him standing.  We pulled them down.

Speaking of Nazis.  Yeah, they're bad.  Everyone seems to act like this is new news.  I thought we reached that consensus back in the early 1940s.  The thing is, though, that you can't say right-wing Nazi and be anywhere close to correct.  Nazis were socialists, which is left-wing.  Right-wing people are normally peace-loving folks who cling to their Bibles and guns.  I'm just saying.

Kim Jong-Un?  Spiled fat boy, crazier than an outhouse rat.  Meaner than a copper headed rattle moccasin.  His generals haven't figured out what to do about him, and those that are left (he's killed several) are too scared to do the right thing.

Speaking of generals, our Joint Chiefs won't lete Trump do anything stupid that hurts the country.  And, our Congress won't let Trump do anything smart that helps the country.  And, Congress can't do anything.  They've demonstrated that over the past year.  We need a whole new legislative branch.

In the long run, I suspect we'll be okay unless the sun goes out, which will happen over a large swath o f the country today.  Don't look at it.  Don't be scared, it will be okay.

But, for me, I'm going to focus on taking care of my family, doing my job right and helping as many people as I can.  Tonight I'll go to church and pray for our country in general.    I have two major projects in the planning stages and I'm simply bored with the constant news cycle.

DIY Sunday

Today was a day for those little DIY projects that crop up from time to time.

First, Belle needs a tiny little screwdriver to get into a tight spot on her sewing machine.  Elder son was consulted when he came over for lunch, and he came up with this elegant solution.

An apex tip out of  a screwdriver, a bottle cap off a soft drink, and some epoxy.

If that screwdriver isn't small enough to get into that tight space, none of them will be.  It's 24 hour epoxy, so it will be ready tomorrow, after curing.  It's small enough that Belle can drop in in her sowing kit, and it should serve her form many years.  homemade tools are always the bet, and we'll call this the micro-stubby.  Total cost, almost -0-.  The apex bit might  have cost me a quarter.

Next, we  considered the problem of wires hanging off a standard CFDA target.   If a wire is hanging down off the target, some jazzzbo is going to shoot it, sure as God made little green apples.   Many folks, and I have as well, simply use a piece of tape, and tape the wires behind the stand, but that's not real elegant.  So, we started brain-storming and came up with the idea of using PVC pipe.  Two zip ties, and the pipe is affixed to the stand and will easily accompdate CAT5 cable that runs the electronics.

 side view.  PVC pipe zip-tied to the stand.

Here's a view from the shooter's perspective.

I think that is going to work just fine to protect my cables from wax bullets.  It's lightweight, inexpensive, and easily fixed in the middle of a match, if need me.  It's a great DIY hack.  For the record, that's 36" of one-inch schedule 40, and two Harbor Freight zip-ties.  It doesn't get any cheaper than that.

Next, I needed a rope with an eyelet in it.  I learned to splice rope at my father's knee.  I haven't spliced a rope in almost three decades, but in just a few minutes, with a false-start or two, it all came flowing back to me.  Even with my tired old eyes, I managed to get a fairly nice eye splice.

Not too shabby for an old blind man.  I'm sure that a modern day rigger could find fault with it, but it won't be carrying a load, and I'm sure that it will suffice.  Some things we never forget.

Finally, the most pleasing DIY project today is that I was hungry for pork chops, and Belle induled me with her pork chops and rice.  With purple hull peas and cornbread.

Pretty good groceries, right there, and one of the big reasons why we do DIY projects for our ladies.  Because they know how to make pork chops.

It's been a very productive Sunday.

Saturday Morning

It's Saturday morning, and the news is utterly depressing.  The President fired someone and that person thinks that his being fired is double-plus-un-good.  Inagine that.  Most people who get fired think it is a bad thing.  I've been fired.  It sucked.

On a more local front, PawPaw got up this morning and fired off a couple of small engines.  The grass is cut.  Every bit of clothing I am wearing is soaking wet, but I know where the shower and clean blue jeans are.  This is a short-term problem.

Belle and I are going to the range in a couple of hours.  That is also good.

Talking at work yesterday, some of us were discussing the upcoming eclipse.  Here in central Louisiana we are going to have about 75% coverage.

One of the support staff (who happens to be blonde and female) commented.  "Well, that's all well and good, but I don't know if I can stay up long enough to see it."

But, today is progressing nicely.  It's time to jump in the shower, load the  guns i the van and get started with the fun part of the weekend.

Look what the association sent me this week.

This week was a very good week.