Posts from — November 2022

So this morning I went to check Twitter on my iPad and nothing new downloaded on the app. I checked using Safari and nothing downloaded. It works on Android and Windows.

Elon Musk has thrown a tantrum and cut off service to Apple because Apple won’t advertise on Twitter after Elon allowed all of the banned people back on and started backing Republicans. Tim Cook has to protect his Brand and his shareholders. This guarantees that the Twitter App will be gone from the App Store.

Yes, it’s the time of year when the Sun dies and must be re-born through an elaborate ceremony that involves some form or type of sacrifice, such as finding gifts for people you can’t stand and smiling brightly as you receive yet another gift based on an urban legend that you actually like truly stomach-wrenching color combinations.

Of course there was a time when the Solstice sacrifices were more visceral and the evergreen was covered in things that pleased only ravens and such, but we have put all that behind us by opting for the possibility of electrocuting one another and causing chaos on the power grid.

What a brilliant idea: moving a large supply of pre-kindling soaked with highly flammable resins into your house, loading it down with petrochemical-based ornaments, lacing it with heat-producing electrical devices, and surrounding the base with cardboard boxes and tissue paper. You just can’t have a traditional celebration without a proto-bonfire in your living room.

I do think that followers of Mithras might want to curtail their typical birthday service in light of Mad-Cow Disease, but global warming will certainly make the services in the oak wood in traditional druidic robes more comfortable.

When you put up your stocking on the mantel and put out the turnips for Gouger, Rooter, Tusker, and Snouter as well as the pork pie and sherry for the Hogfather, you can rest assured the Sun will come up, because it just slipped around back to return the lager it rented.

Enjoy! You have nothing to fear, except that sniveling little creep with the camera/phone at the office party or the eggnog that was put out rather early causing you to suspect that the bits on top aren’t nutmeg. [The pictures probably won’t appear on the ‘Net and the brandy will surely take care of the salmonella.]

A Calendar of Coming Events

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Yesterday was the First Sunday of Advent which means you should have made your Christmas Pudding and Why Now? is pleased to present the Fifty-sixth version of the Gävlebocken, The biggest Christmas Goat in the world [now on Twitter @Gavlebocken].

From Steve Bates of Yellow Doggerel Something in the comments from 2006:

Why build a giant goat of straw,
Which most of us would scarcely note?
Some, though, defy the very law,
To vandalize the Gävle Goat.

In some years, they used wayward cars;
In others, flaming arrows smote.
This year’s survives, although with scars…
A fact that gets some people’s goat.

A webcam and some watchful eyes,
A flame-retardant second coat,
Should save it… unless Dubya spies
The thing, and claims it’s his pet goat!

– SB the YSS

If your celebration involved the death of a turkey, thank you.

People have more freedom to gather in person this year than under the misrule of the TFG so emergency rooms will see injuries involving serving forks and carving knives again. The price of fuel has been dropping and even in my outpost of minimum civilization the only noticeable shortages are breakfast cookies in one grocery store and sports drinks in another.

As is traditional the WKRP Turkey Drop and/or the original recording of Alice’s Restaurant.

(A day late as I was working on getting the starter changed in my Honda. The fastest way of dealing with it is pulling the engine, but I no longer have a hoist. We took off the exhaust pipe and a wheel to reach the bolts during 40°F/4°C days.)

I started doing this 18 years ago after the American electorate committed an act of supreme self destruction and gave the Shrubbery a second 4 years to screw things up. It would appear that people are becoming aware that Republicans just can’t help themselves and attempt to destroy the nation every time they are given a chance to sit in the Oval Office.

Clinton left the Shrubbery with budget surpluses and the Shrubbery left Obama with the Global Financial Crisis. Obama left Trump with a growing economy and Trump leaves Biden with a crippled economy and over a quarter million dead Americans.

As long as I can I will respond to the important things: the World Cup, the Iditarod & Yukon Quest, Tour de France, and tropical storms.

Politics are the static on life’s radio, so you have to deal with them. You try to ignore them until you can no longer hear the music.

Because FIFA sold the World Cup to Qatar this year I won’t be covering it. Greed is destroying many of the best things in the world.

It was afternoon and I was on my way to a chemistry class. I had stopped for a drink of water when the news came over the speakers in the classrooms.

For those who weren’t alive at the time: remember what you felt on September 11, 2001 for a taste of November 22, 1963. It was a massive change for the worldview of my generation and it marked the beginning of a period of disruption and decline in the civility of American society. Arthur had died and Camelot fell.

At his inauguration John Kennedy made the point: “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”

The colors of my world will never be as bright as they were on November 21, 1963. Now we have COVID-19 and the Trump MAGAts…

A probable electrical surge took out my workhorse 8-year-old HP printer with brand new cartridges in it. I is extremely doubtful that the cartridges will work on current printers. Another unexpected ±$100 expense.

Progress on replacing the starter is slow based on temperatures in the forties and forecast 32°F/0°C overnight. Yes, you can get Freeze Warnings, and even snow in Florida.

I was bummed because none of the people I voted for won, but things weren’t that bad for the country.

I was minding my own business reading tweets and blogs Saturday morning When a guy in a U-haul truck came through my drive way at 11:42AM CST and pulled down the coax cable connecting me with the real world outside of Xanth. A call to the Internet provider resulted in a tentative 5PM appointment on Sunday. I got lucky as an appointment opened up at 11AM and a new cable was connected and working in 20 minutes. I was informed by e-mail that the charge would be $75. Naturally U-haul guy didn’t stop and tell me what had happened. (I have cameras around the house)

Then the car had issues and wouldn’t start. As the battery seemed to go out every 5 years, the battery needed changing based only on the time, so the $150 wasn’t wasted, but that wasn’t the problem. Based on the collective best guess $75 dollars later I have a new starter coming on Wednesday.

I am already looking at a $275 car insurance renewal payment in a week, so Christmas is going to be sparse this year. After fifteen years things are bound to break. If I win a lottery I’m buying an electric vehicle that isn’t a Tesla.

Position: 34.3N 84.3W [ 9:00AM CST 1500UTC].
Movement: North-Northeast [015°] near 23 mph [37 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 30 mph [ 45 kph].
Wind Gusts: 40 mph [ 65 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1001 mb ↑.

Currently about 35 miles [ 55 km] North of Atlanta, Georgia.

This is the last public advisory issued by the National Hurricane Center on this system.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

One hundred and four years ago at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 the guns fell silent. The Great War, The War to End All Wars, was over…for a couple of decades.

The red poppies of Flanders fields became a symbol of that war and the veterans that returned from it. Known as Remembrance Day in much of the world, the poppies will be in evidence. Remembrance Day observances have more in common with the American Memorial Day as a day to honor those who have died in war.

First called Armistice Day in the United States, the name was changed to Veterans Day, and its purpose changed to honoring those who are serving, or have served in the military. The change was made to avoid a conflict with the existing Memorial Day observance that goes back to the Civil War era.

A heart felt salute to everyone who managed to survive basic training. We can hope that sooner, rather than later, there will be no need for another generation to put on uniforms.

Position: 30.7N 84.3W [ 9:00PM CST 0300UTC].
Movement: Northwest [320°] near 15 mph [24 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph [ 55 kph].
Wind Gusts: 45 mph [ 70 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 992 mb ↑.

Currently about 20 miles [ 35 km] North of Tallahassee, Florida.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

This storm has a huge wind field, the biggest I remember for a Florida storm since I’ve been tracking them (1995 onward)

At Noon CST the center was over Great Abaco Island

The 6PM CST update for the map is wrong. I’ll post when it’s corrected.

Position: 27.0N 78.9W [ 9:00PM CST 0300UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [285°] near 13 mph [20 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 75 mph [120 kph].
Wind Gusts: 90 mph [145 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 485 mph [780 kph].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 25 miles [ 35 km].
Minimum central pressure: 980 mb;.

Currently about 20 miles [ 35 km] North-Northeast of Settlement Point, Grand Bahama Island.

Currently about 75 miles [ 125 km] East-Northeast of West Palm Beach, Florida.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the Northwest Bahamas, including the Abacos, Berry Islands, & Grand Bahama Island; Boca Raton to Flagler/Volusia County Line, Florida.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Bimini in the northwestern Bahamas; Hallandale Beach, Florida to Boca Raton, Florida; Flagler/Volusia County Line, Florida to South Santee River, South Carolina; North of Bonita Beach to Indian Pass, Florida; Lake Okeechobee.

A Storm Surge Warning is in effect for North Palm Beach, Florida to Altamaha Sound, Georgia; Mouth of the St. Johns River to Georgetown, Florida.

A Hurricane Watch is in effect for Lake Okeechobee.

A Storm Surge Watch is in effect for North Palm Beach to Hallandale Beach, Florida; Altamaha Sound, Georgia to South Santee River, South Carolina; Anclote River, Florida to Indian Pass, Florida.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]