Merry Christmas and may all of all faiths be blessed. May your Christmas have been filled with the blessings of family and friends, love and joy, fun and laughter, and true peace of spirit.
Merry Christmas to all.
Want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and all the best for the new year ahead. Family is a group of people that care about each other, so we qualify! Thanks for all the help and for making me feel welcome.
merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas, Late!
Mother Nature brought us wind for Christmas. We lost electricity at the house at 4:00 a.m. Christmas Eve morning and it was out for 2-1/2 days! Just got it back this evening.
CSA
Sorry to hear that CSA.
Hope you had a good Christmas anyway.
@the same mountainbike
Thanks, we had to change some plans, reschedule and postpone most everything. Many roads were blocked by trees and wires down. I’d been manning my emergency stand-by generator to keep some heat in the house (below freezing outside) and making sure we had drinking/cooking water and flushing toilets. It was getting old, but life is good, again.
CSA
Good to hear it’s all back together again and everyone’s safe.
Glad you’re back in operation. When I heard on CNN radio that California had a raging fire of 1200 acre threatening 30 homes I thought, haven’t they heard about the tornadoes and severe weather in the south and midwest? I think 14 people were killed and countless homeless. Really 1200 acres is nothing.
@Bing
"Glad you’re back in operation."
Thanks, Bing. Now we’re waiting for the freezing rain to start, along with millions of other folks. The generator could be pressed into service, again. :neutral:
I suppose we’re fortunate. If all else fails, we have an artesian well with an overflow that spews out several gallons of water per minute. I can dip 5 gallon buckets of water for flushing toilets out of the lake/canal. We have a fireplace and we’re surrounded by trees, not the best heat provider, but…
CSA
@“common sense answer” Sorry to hear of your weather adventures. Hope all stays safe and well for you.
In St. Louis and surrounding region we are looking at some historic flooding, some locations worse than the “Great Flood of '93”. I worked Red Cross disaster services, primarily on the radio for dispatch operations but also doing damage assessment, in '93 and again for the slightly lesser '95 flood.
I know I am mostly preaching to the choir here but please, please, please folks DO NOT DRIVE INTO HIGH AND/OR FAST MOVING WATER!!! It takes very little water to float and sweep away any vehicle. And you have no idea if the road is washed away under that water such your car dives into a hole.
There have already been a dozen deaths in only a couple days when drivers ventured into flooded sections of road.
It happens too fast to call for help or, in the vast majority of cases, to get out of the car and climb on the car roof.
As an aside, in such rains also stay the hell out of caves during such rains. I already listened live to the fire scanner traffic in my work the day in '95 when a group of untrained cavers were drowned in Cliff Cave during a downpour. And the fire rescue crews came close to losong some guys in the rescue efforts.
Don’t be a victim of high and/or swift flowing flood waters!!! Stay safe.
…still reading, still learning…
…praying for folks’ safety…do not make me learn of your demise in a flood!
Sorry about no paragraph breaks in the above post. I forgot to access the full site rather than mobile to type that epistle.
Yep as they say when seconds count, 911 is only minutes away.
“As an aside, in such rains also stay the hell out of caves during such rains”
Actually, it is probably a good idea to stay out of them even if it doesn’t rain.
A few days ago, a local Boy Scout leader was taking some kids on a hike through one of northern NJ’s wilderness areas, and after spying a cave, he decided to venture in.
Within moments, he was seized by a black bear, whose winter den he had stumbled into.
Luckily for the Scout “Master” his young charges rescued him, but he did suffer some significant injuries from the bear’s attack.
Who in his right mind would venture into a cave in bear country when those animals are just getting settled for their long winter’s nap?
Good grief!!!