Comments on: More Pain

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 03:44:59 +0000

PJ, Fort Pickens stayed in Federal hands and helped to maintain the blockade on Pensacola.

They used to swab out the cannons to insure there was no smoldering powder left before reloading.

Badtux, if you head down to south of LA you will encounter the same pests and the earthquakes.

In Alaska, Steve, anyone who had a wooden instrument of any kind had to keep them sealed up with a source of humidity. The standard method for guitars was a plastic garbage bag with a damp sponge inside. I kept a water pan on top of the radiator, but my cubicle mates wouldn’t ensure there was water in it.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 01:33:12 +0000

“Give me the dry heat of California that dries out our mountains and makes everything flammable and dead and makes the drought even worse….” – ellroon

… and cracks harpsichord soundboards. Don’t forget that! In my neck of the woods, only the coldest weather we ever get (one winter it got down to 5°F here… no, that’s not a typo; it got that low 20-something years ago) evokes household heat that dries soundboards out that much. I was lucky the crack was in a noncritical place; it could have been really bad news.

I used to be sure that I preferred hurricanes to earthquakes because hurricanes in our century give one some lead time to get ready. But as the flooding gets worse every new hurricane season, I’m less certain of that advantage…

PJ, a harpsichordist who moves from the Pacific Northwet [sic] to Houston usually has no cracking problems at all!

By: Badtux

Badtux — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 22:05:51 +0000

The reason for the wool uniform jackets is that the black powder rifles spit out sparks along with bullets thanks to the poor powder quality of lowest-bidder powder providers (yeah, they had that lowest bidder problem back then too, other than the Confederacy which had a powder works owned by the government). So if you were on the front rank you were getting constantly showered with sparks. Wool doesn’t readily burn, while cotton does. So thus why they wore heavy wool jackets over their lighter cotton shirt when going into battle.

I am definitely awaiting the rainy season being promised… as for earthquakes vs hurricanes, you also have to deal with wingnuts there in Florida. Those are pests far more annoying than the coyotes we have to deal with out here in the West.

By: paintedjaguar

paintedjaguar — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 17:17:45 +0000

Before I moved to the notoriously soggy Seattle area, I noted that their annual rainfall was actually no greater than here on the Panhandle Gulf Coast. Unfortunately, the Gulf Coast still manages to have depleting aquifers as well as not infrequent brush fire conditions. Growing a lawn here is just an exercise in hydroponics — nothing underneath but sand, so constant watering is mandatory but middle class Floridians love their lawns.

There was a Union base in Pensacola, Florida during the Civil War. The wool uniform jackets in the Park museum look to be about a quarter inch thick…

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 02:34:09 +0000

In reply to hipparchia. I am so tired of the mold and mildew on the North side of every house in the neighborhood, and the fungus on my mailbox. I still prefer hurricanes to earthquakes.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 00:27:55 +0000

Actually it would have happened a couple of years ago.

yep! and I would have helped with that one! 🙂

Give me the dry heat of California that dries out our mountains and makes everything flammable and dead

and people STILL ask me why I choose – CHOOSE, mind you – to live in hurricane alley. 😉

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 20:42:00 +0000

The thing about having thunderstorms when you have 100+ heat indexes is there is no point in using an umbrella as you are already soaked, and the rain is cooler than the sweat.

Trust me, Ellroon, if there was any way I could send you half or more of our rain, it would happen immediately. Actually it would have happened a couple of years ago. You should be seeing more rain in SoCal because of the El Niño, but that doesn’t really help with the drought.

By: ellroon

ellroon — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 16:01:06 +0000

I don’t know how you cope with the humidity and heat. Give me the dry heat of California that dries out our mountains and makes everything flammable and dead and makes the drought even worse….

You have rain, you say?