Posts from — March 2011

This year it is the Southern Route, that actually goes through Iditarod.

OK, so tomorrow is really a parade and the real race starts on Sunday.

The 62 teams in starting order: [Bib 1 is no longer used, as it is considered Susan Butcher’s bib and is carried during the parade by an honoree who isn’t racing.]

1 DeeDee Jonrowe (2)
2 Ray Redington, Jr (3)
3 Trent Herbst (4)
4 Allen Moore (5)
5 Newton Marshall (6)
6 Kristy Berington (7)
7 Kris Hoffman (8)^R
8 Zoya DeNure (9)
9 Robert Bundtzen (10)
10 Martin Buser (11)
11 Melissa Owens (12)
12 Bruce Linton (13)
13 Nicolas Petit (14)^R
14 Bob Storey (15)^R
15 Jodi Bailey (16)^R
16 Lance Mackey (17)
17 Aliy Zirkle (18)
18 Angie Taggart (19)^R
19 Kelley Griffin (20)
20 Dallas Seavey (21) [Read more →]

Is That A Light

Hurrah!

[Editor: I’m using this Excise rerun because I have been putting all of my non-sleeping time into finishing up the rehab and I can now see the end.]

Friday Ark

It’s the curse of the blogger.

I’ve been spending 12+ hours a day finishing up the rehab on an apartment that my Mother manages, and I can finally see the end. This has been going on for months and nothing seemed to change until this week.

Which is important because this Saturday is Susan Butcher Day and the start of the Iditarod. Mardi Gras and Florida’s legislative session start next Tuesday, so there will be things I want to talk about.

New Zealand has made the end of search for survivors official, and they have shifted to the clean-up needed before the rebuilding can take place.

The Middle East is still a mess, and despite the American Media’s efforts to ignore it, the demonstrations in Wisconsin continue while new demonstrations have started in Ohio.

Obama continues to side with the Republicans in hopes they will vote for something, anything, he proposes, while they continue to ignore him, knowing he is willing to move to the right of the Tea Party to “strike a bipartisan deal”.

Obama is talking about some level of intervention in Libya, but refuses to do anything about Wisconsin, while the Wisconsin senate Republicans are considering using bounty hunters to bring back the absent Democratic senators. I wonder when the Reps will decide to launch airstrikes on the motel the Dems are living in.

I heard a few minutes of Talk of the Nation in the car on the way to get more drill bits, and they had a caller who was arrogant in his ignorance. He didn’t care that the information he was spewing was flat wrong about the Obama administration’s decision to stop defending the “Defense of Marriage Act” in court. It would be nice to think that the US fell because of a diabolical plot, instead of the ignorance of millions of its citizens.

The Local Puppy Trainer had an interesting little piece about a local government contract: County tries to save money in sewage plant demolition

FORT WALTON BEACH — Okaloosa County Water and Sewer Director Jeff Littrell has proposed using in-house crews to demolish the old Garnier’s wastewater treatment plant on Essex Road in Ocean City.

The move could save the county “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Littrell said Tuesday.

The county had budgeted about $1.5 million for the demolition to be completed by a private contractor.

“We think it’ll come in significantly lower than that,” Littrell said.

Littrell goes on to note that there are massive amounts of recyclable metals in the building, including large motors that the county might be able to sell as used. If the motors can’t be sold that way, they still contain huge copper coils. He also mentioned the stainless steel piping and fixtures in the facility that are premium recyclables.

Poor Mr. Littrell just doesn’t get it – not giving out that contract will cost the county commissioners campaign contributions, and I have no doubt that the selected contractor has already sold the recyclables and is just waiting to pick them up to pad their profit [no doubt, charging the county the cost of hauling them off to a construction debris landfill].

Sure the water department can do the job cheaper, but they aren’t as “efficient” as the private sector.

Note the wording of that Republican mantra: “The private sector is more efficient than the government.” They don’t say “cheaper”, they say “more efficient”. I’ve seen a lot of attempts at privatizing government functions over the years, but I have yet to see one that provides the same level of service as the government at a lower cost beyond the second year.

Both Central Florida and the Texas Panhandle are dealing with huge fires caused by low humidity and strong. variable winds.

Florida:

OAK HILL — Central Florida’s first major blaze kicked off the annual fire season this week by scorching more than 16,000 parched acres, destroying three structures and sending one firefighter to the hospital.

The Iron Horse Fire, straddling the Volusia-Brevard county line, has moved swiftly since Monday through rural areas between Oak Hill and Mims. Dry brush and foliage, from hard freezes this winter, provided fuel.

In Volusia County, flames left charred ground and tree trunks burned at least 20 feet upward. Naked palmetto bushes looked like blackened pieces of ginger root twisted on the ground.

Texas:

(CNN) — Texas firefighters were making significant progress Tuesday against wildfires that have consumed at least 78 homes and, at their peak, were burning the length of a football field every minute.

Sustained winds of 40 mph, gusting to 60, combined with 2% relative humidity in some areas to cause the grass fire conflagration Sunday, said Mark Stanford, chief of fire operations for the Texas Forest Service.

On Tuesday, however, firefighters had all 21 remaining fires at least 50 percent contained, Stanford told CNN Radio.

Crews want to have them fully contained by Thursday, he said.

“Friday will be another bad day for us,” Stanford said. “Not as bad as Sunday, but it will be a very high fire danger day across that region. So we want to make sure that we’ve freed up all of our fire resources so that they can respond to new starts we may have.”

The Florida fires are being fueled by the vegetation killed by the hard freezes they had down there. The Panhandle of Texas has been experiencing single digit relative humidity. It is shaping up as a very bad season, and it just started.

From TV New Zealand’s Live Updates:

5:43pm Supt Dave Cliff says the confirmed death toll has risen to 160 this afternoon. The families of those still missing went on a tour of the CBD sites where USAR teams are working today.

5:38pm Civil Defence Controller Steve Brazier says five journalists have had their accreditation revoked for breaching the cordon.

5:30pm The Red Cross has announced details of its emergency grants.
From tomorrow, people living in their homes without power or water or sewerage, or people forced to leave their home because of damage or because they have no water or power or sewerage can apply for a grant of $500 for single people (per household) or $1,000 for couples and families (per household).
Bereavement grants of $10,000 are available for the next of kin of confirmed deceased.
People from overseas affected by the earthquake are eligible to apply for these grants.

In addition to the damaged and destroyed buildings, people are dealing with gale force winds which are filling the air with dust and debris. The beaches are all closed because of the contamination caused by the destruction of structures and the sewage system.

People are adjusting, with students being placed in other schools and universities for at least a semester, while their schools are rebuilt or repaired. The ANZAC spirit is still there, and life will continue.