Writing

Back, starting about 1990 I dabbled with writing.  I've got rejection slips from some of the finer names in publishing, and eventually, Junior Doughty and I started a web magazine called The Frugal Outdoorsman.  I published over there for about five years and finally ran out of things to say.  One of the things I wrote was a poem, a take-off of Lindy Cooper's Seven Hundred Dollars and a .30-06.  I came from less affluent stock, so my poem was entitled Five Hunnerd Dollars and a Pump Shotgun.

Recently reader Joe Hecksel emailed me and asked that I post my poem on this blog.  Frankly, it's too long to post on a web log, but I did put it on my private server and anyone interested can click on the link below to view it, with my apologies and compliments to Lindy Cooper.  We miss your dad.

Five Hunnerd Dollars and a Pump Shotgun.

Thursday Morning

A gentle rain, a gentle breeze, and Isaac becomes a footnote in this area.  Maybe I'm mis-reading something but it seems that what fury it had was expended on the coast with little left for the interior.  Oh, it'll bring much needed rain and my ditches are running this morning but we've had worse from a typical summer thunderstorm.  It did give me the motivation to clean the back yard.  With grandkids scheduled to be here this weekend, that is a short-lived condition, but we've had not so much as a potted plant blow over.

Northern Mississippi seems to be getting the worst of it right now, and it would be improper to ignore the damage that's been done to the coastal areas, especially Plaquemine parish at the mouth of the Mississippi River.  Here in central Louisiana I'm sure that we had some limbs down, but at PawPaw's house, the lights didn't so much as flicker.

I've checked my answerting machines and the cell phone, all my email accounts.  No one has called me out, and the schools are closed today, so I'll putter around here today, probably spend some time at my work bench.  It seems that my biggest decision today might be what to cook for supper, and I'll take my cues from Milady.

Beef Stew

I decided to cook tonight, so I started plundering about, made a quick trip to the store, picked up some essentials, then called Milady and gave her a choice of three menus.  She picked beef stew.  Nothing to it, easy-peasy.  Stews are simple, they're basically meat and veggies boiled in gravy.

I found some little steaks in the freezer that I was afraid might freezer-burn, so I cut them up, browned them in a little oil, then took them out of the oil, added flour and made a roux.  After making the gravy, returned my meat and carrots to the pot.  They're simmering as we speak.  In another half hour I'll drop the potatoes that I've already peeled and chopped into the pot.  Let them simmer for another hour.  When Milady gets home I'll make a pot of rice.

This is the weirdest storm I've ever been through.  It seems that it's picking up a lot of dry air from the north and pulling it into the rotation, effectively killing the rain on the west side of the storm.  The center is somewhere over the Atchafalaya basin, southeast of Baton Rouge.

PawPaw is in the center of the state and we're just starting to get a little rain, coming from the Northeast.  It's  a fine, steady rain with wind gusting to 20 mph.  Not bad at all.  The wind is supposed to pick up tonight with gusts to 50 or 60 mph.  Obviously as I'm posting to the intertubes, I've still got electricity.  And air conditioning, and all the comforts of home.

In another hour I'll be eating beef stew and watching the weather deteriorate.  Who knows, I might even decide to cocktail?

Dirty Jobs

I finished my preparations and called my Captain.  Told him I was finished here at home, and asked if he needed any help.  He told me that they had it covered, but he'd put me on the list, if they needed any help, he'd call.  That works for me.

Most folks don't realize how storms such as this might affect people who aren't in the direct path of the weather.  My sister, for example, works for a nursing home.  They called her this morning and told her to pack a bag.  She'll be at the nursing home for the duration.  It seems that they have properties down south and if they have to evacuate, they need administrators, nurses, and direct-care folks on hand to take care of the elderly folks who can't care for themselves.

My youngest son, who works for the state as a Parole Officer, has also gotten a warning order.  In the event of a disaster affecting a state prison, they might have to get on a bus and move inmates from one facility to another.  If you're in the electrical grid business, you're on alert this morning.  As soon as the wind quits howling, you'll be in your truck going to a place where power lines are down.  Likewise telephone repairmen, likewise all the contractors that provide sewerage, potable water, or provide tarpaulins and temporary shelter.

I've seen casinos set up big tents and bring in portable kitchens, feeding all comers free of charge as long as they were needed..Whether a refugee who's lost everything, or a hungry fireman who's been helping at the local shelter, it doesn't matter if they're hungry.  Feed them.

There is a whole army of people waiting for the wind to quit blowing.  They hope that they're not needed, but they wait nonetheless.  This is a slow-moving storm and it's weighing on us in ways that some folks might not understand.  For myself, right now, I'm bored and doing laundry.  If the lights go out, I'll have clean clothes.

Waiting

If you're like me, you're completely tired of hearing about Hurricane Isaac, although it's a matter of claim if he's currently a hurricane.  He came ashore last night the second  time at Port Fourchon, after savaging Plaquemine parish.  As I read the Accuweather map, he's currently over Houma, LA.  According to Google Earth, it's 170 miles in a straight-line distance from Houma to my house.  As I also look at that map, the biggest on-shore flow should be around Gulfport, MS.  Those folks are catching watery hell this morning.  Say a prayer for them if you've got a minute.

Here on the homefront, I've pretty much finished preparations.  It's cloudy, humid, starting to spit a little rain. I spent the time since dawn straightening up in the backyard, putting away pool toys and tieing down anything that might blow away.  While I was accomplishing that, I noticed that the hummingbirds were jittery, even moreso than hummingbirds are normally jittery, so I re-filled their feeders.  Let them get all the calories they can before the deluge.

I've talked to Momma, she's fine, staying at a sisters house in town until the weather calms down.  The Dawg is rather concerned, he's been watching my preparations all morning and staying underfoot.  He's currently hiding under the kitchen table.  What amazes me about this storm is how slowly it's moving.  He's not supposed to be here until tomorrow, as a tropical depression.  The upside is that he'll drop enough rain so that the creek on the lease should be flowing for a while.

Evaporated

Overheard at a bar this week.

Barmaid:  Hey, Jim, I thought you were offshore this week.

Him:  Yeah, we were out for three days, then one of them sy-phoons blew up the Gulf and they evaporated us off of the rigs.

Waiting for Isaac

Here in Louisiana, we're really interested in Isaac, soaking up every word we can get. It looks like it will come ashore as a strong Cat 1 or a weak Cat 2 storm. Lots of information is starting to firm up, and they're getting the track nailed down. Now, it's a waiting game. First, this graphic from the Weather Channel.

That shows Isaac coming ashore sometime tomorrow evening and getting to central Louisiana on Thursday with 45 mph winds.  Not an altogether strong storm, but from all indications, a big one.  Here's another graphic from Weather Underground.

Basically, that 's the same graphic and we're in for lots of rain.  Our governor, Bobby Jindal, is already calling out the state Guard, getting ready to provide aid and assistance as necessary.  PawPaw has filled the vehicles, gotten the spare gas cans full of non-ethanol gasoline, and has given the generator a test run.

Hopefully, the electrical grid guys are on their game, cause sure as hell we're going to have a lot of trees down and wires dangling.  I hope that before they send crews down south to help with the damage we're about to sustain, they make sure that our lights stay on as well.  It doesn't make sense to send crews south when we're about to take a hit as well.

All indications is that this isn't a particularly strong storm, but it is a big one.  We're doing what we can to take care of ourselves.

Mauling

While we're watching Isaac and wondering where it will come ashore, it's instructive to understand that we're not always on the top of the food chain, as this photographer in Denali National Park learned.

The photographs in the recovered camera show the bear grazing and not acting aggressively. Spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin said the bear did not even appear aware of the hiker until the final photos, which show the animal looking toward the camera. A few hours after the attack Friday, hikers stumbled upon White's backpack roughly 150 yards from his remains, McLaughlin said. The hikers also spotted blood and torn clothing, and immediately hiked back and alerted staff park. Rangers in a helicopter spotted a large male grizzly bear sitting on the hiker's remains, which they called a "food cache" in the underbrush.

In the final analysis, we're just protein, Either for the worms or the bears, whichever gets to us first.

Where's Bobby?

The track on Issac continues to shift west, confounding the weather weenies.  One that I trust is Brendan Loy, over at Pajamas Media.  He's a weather nerd and although he admits that the models don't agree, but that there's broad consensus that the storm is unpredicable.  Now, there are warnings from Morgan City, LA  east to the Florida panhandle.  The storm track will clear up as time moves along, but now New Orleans is in the cone.  This graphic from WeatherUnderground tells us lots about the updated information.

  One of these days a major hurricane is going to come ashore, swamp New Orleans, continue up the Mississippi to Morganza and inundate the control structure at Three Rivers.  When that happens, the city of New Orleans is screwed.  The Mississippi will turn down the Atchafalaya, taking the shorter more direct route to the Gulf.  Fresh water will cease to flow in the lower stretch of the Mississippi and salt will encroach on the marshes.  New Orleans will become a shallow salt lake, a part of Ponchartrain.  The building structures that remain will provide shelter for snakes, gators, and will provide fine fishing for visiting sportsmen.

One of these days, not necessarily this week, but one of these days.  However, if you live in New Orleans this day, it might be time to check your bug-out bag, make sure the car is full of gas, and double-check your plans with family and in-laws.

Watching Isaac

Watching this morning's weather map for Isaac, I see that they've moved the track of the storm westward, having it now come ashore somewhere near Mobile, AL

That's interesting, although Florida will still get lots of wind, and the Republican National Convention, slated to start tomorrow in Tampa is all but postponed, Florida won't take the direct hit that the weather-weenies were predicting earlier this week.    Now, Mobile is in the spotlight.  It's important to remember that the science isn't settled and the computer models don't agree, and three days out this is all just a crapshoot.

At least one weather model has it coming ashore at the mouth of the Mississippi River, moving to New Orleans, stalling northwest of the city and dropping copious amounts of rainfall.

Wouldn't that be charming.  If I were a mayor of a major city on the Gulf Coast, I'd be dusting off the evacuation maps, getting the plans together, and keeping my staff close by.  Isaac's not done with us yet, not by a long shot.

Sunday Morning Dawg

I'm looking at the dog and thinking it's time for a haircut.

That's one fuzzy mutt.  We've got to make an appointment for him soon.

Well, Hell

Piddling around by the pool this morning I walked over to check my salt sanitizing system.  No lights on the little unit, so I checked the fuse, reset everything, then turned it back on.  No dice.  I took it apart, per the instructions and gave it a chemical cleaning.  Put it all back together.  Turned it on.  Nada, nothing.

Came inside and looked at the blog.  Blogs are good for lots of things, including such information as when I've done something, like installing a pool.  Turns out, we installed it in the spring of 2007.  I use an Intellichlor system, and a review of the literature tells me that it's warranted for five years.  Damn!  Out of warranty.  From the limited troubleshooting I'm able to do, it looks as if the system has gone belly-up.  Died.  Defunct.  Pining for the fjords.

Well, hell.  I'm not going to worry about that this afternoon.  I know how to run a pool without a salt system. Time to start saving my pennies for a new chlorine generator.

Watching Isaac

I bet that the Marines at Guantanamo are hunkered down this morning. Isaac is bearing down on Cuba and there will be wind and rain and crap blowing around.  It's gonna get nasty.  They're still not sure where it's going but that's to be expected.  Weather forecasting isn't an exact science, and although I'm convinced that the meteorologists do the best they can, they're still wrong enough  that they've earned the title Weather-Weenies.  Still, they try and they're the best we've got at this sort of thing.  The current map.

That's the five-day track and they're saying that it should minimally impact Cuba.  Still, the Marines are going to need their rain-gear handy.  They still expect it to slide up the western coast of Florida, citing concerns about steering troughs.   I do note with some relief that I"m not personally in the five-day cone and I'll take that as a blessing.

Shooting in Manhattan

Some guy went off on his former boss and shot him dead near the Empire State Building. 

A laid-off store worker returned to his old job near the Empire State Building and opened fire Friday on a former coworker, killing the employee and wounding several others.

But that's un-possible in mayor Bloomberg's New York, with it's strict gun laws. Ordinary citizens can't have guns, so this is blatantly un-possible. Fox News reports that police officers may have wounded some people as they opened fire on the gunman.

New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says at least nine people -- two women and seven men -- were injured in the incident, including bystanders caught in a crossfire as police shot and killed the gunman, identified as Jeffrey Johnson, 53.

That's just ignorant. Police officers shouldn't be shooting people who just happen to be on a street-corner. Especially in downtown New York. It will be interesting to see how many folks were injured by the shooter, and how many folks were injured by police bullets. Reports that I'm reading indicate that the shooter shot the fellow he was after, then turned and walked away. Police did all the other shooting. This is a debacle and Bloomberg is at the center of it. This won't stop him from calling for more gun control.

Police Quotas

It seems like the New Orleans Police Department is back in the news, this time over quotas.

On August 2, NOPD Lt. Carol Aldridge sent an email to members of her platoon in the 5th District. In the email, which FOX 8 obtained, Aldridge writes, "This is an order-1 bike, 2 businesses, 1 walking beat EACH TOUR OF DUTY! did you forget that this was a platoon directive? if you cannot accomplish this, you will be writing a 105 every day to explain why you saw no bicycles violating the law, why you had no time to do 2 business checks, and why you did no walking beat the previous day."

I love police quotas. It makes the public distrust us, it makes us look like we're idiots only interested in revenue enhancement, and it violates Louisiana Law. Oh, yeah, it's against the law to assign quotas to police officers in Louisiana.

No municipality or any police department thereof, nor any parish or any sheriff's department thereof, shall establish or maintain, formally or informally, a plan to evaluate, promote, compensate, or discipline a law enforcement officer on the basis of the officer's issuance of a predetermined or specified number of any type or combination of types of traffic citations or require or suggest to a law enforcement officer, that the law enforcement officer is required or expected to issue a predetermined or specified number of any type or combination of types of traffic citations within a specified period.

Now, I'll agree that supervisors have the authority to supervise their officers.  I'll also agree that a walking beat is a good idea, and business checks are a vital part of the policing business, as long as the businesses are closed.  Rattle the doors, look inside, leave a card.  It's good police work.  But quotas?  No, lieutenant, that's against the law.  It's bad police work.

Lieutenant Aldridge needs to get smacked by her supervisors and instructed in the laws of the state of Louisiana.  The very laws she's sworn to uphold.

Speaking of Isaac

According to the NOAA, he continues to churn along.  Not particularly fast, nor particularly strong, but churn away he does.

They're betting that he goes into the Gulf of Mexico, but that's yet to be seen. 
Storms tend to turn right when they hit land, and it looks like he's going to hit land in the form of islands and especially Cuba.  I'd bet that he turns right and heads up the east coast of Florida, but I'm no weather-weenie, just a hurricane watcher. 

Thursday Blahs

Not feeling it today, so a quick recap of Fox News main page.

  Romney wants to increase energy production, and that's a good thing.  If he can get unleaded gasoline back to 30 cents a gallon, I'll be sold on his plan.  Obama is agin' it, which tells me all I need to know.  Drill everywhere, drill now, that's my mantra.  We'll have enough unleaded gasoline when we're running it down ditches to control weeds.  Until then, we're not producing enough.

Janet Napolitano is being sued by her own people over her immigration policy.  She should be tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail, but that form of political expression has fallen from polite society.  Damn shame.  If more politicians were tarred and feathered occasionally, it might encourage the others to pay attention. 

The Stupid Party is tempting Hurricane Isaac to come ashore and ruin their convention.  I was listening to the Dennis Miller show, and he proposed that they conduct the whole convention on Skype.  They could do the whole convention in about a half-hour and show that they're serious about saving money.  Donate everything they don't use for the convention against the national debt.  I mean, c'mon, is the outcome of the convention in doubt?  Why bother?  Romney could still give his speech and look like he's partially serious about saving  money.

And finally, if you're old-folks, the government is going to penalize hospitals if you show up twice within a 30-day period.  Old folks shouldn't need to come back to the hospital.  That's the position of our government.

That's today's news, folks.

Winter

Milady told me yesterday that she thinks we're going to have a hard winter this year.  I'm not doubting, but I haven't seen any evidence at all.

Until just now.  I just saw a gaggle of about 15 Canada geese drop into our pond.  The third week of August is a little early to start the migration, yet I've got Canadas in the pond.

The National Weather Service gives no information on the matter.  I guess I should break out Old Richard's Almanac.

Active Shooter Research

Today, surfing gunnie stuff over at the Firing Line, we come to a question about active shooter scenarios.  I started Googling around and found a place called the Hard Tactics blog that has a lot of good research on active shooters.  If you're interested in such things, go an read.  There's good information there, and by linking to it, I'll be reading more from that site.

Beagles

I'm thinking about beagles tonight, for reasons I can't fathom, but little 12-inch tricolored, blanket-back beagles are on my mind.

We raised beagles for the better part of two decades and during the '90s I got out of the beagle-running business   They're great little dogs, smart, pack oriented, and deadly hell on rabbits.  There's really nothing better than a crisp winter morning, a pack of beagles and a rabbit cover.    With a small pack of dogs, a pocket full of 20 gauge shells, and a recent clear-cut, you've got a morning full of fun.

Beagles are susceptible to problems, but no so much that you've got to worry about them, they're fairly durable little dogs.  Keep the bloodlines clean, don't interbreed them and you don't have to worry about hip dysplasia. Keep the shots current and give them a worming twice a year, you're pretty much done.  Like with all dogs, heart-worm treatment and inoculation against parvo virus is a great idea.

Beagles are great little dogs, and I'm thinking about beagles tonight.