Our electricity went out last night a while after midnight. I am typing this on the battery using dialup, so I must be brief.
We are huddled up under a lot of covers waiting for the power to be restored. The electric company says there are 11,000 like us in the same pickle. So who knows when we'll get another cup of hot coffee?
Needless to say, posting will be light.
[Nothing more until the thaw]
At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe.
We are in a new phase of a very old war.
30 comments:
We are huddled up under a lot of covers ...
You're both red-blooded
Americans. I'm confident that you'll figure out what to do.
This week my neighborhood was 3 days with no electric power due to storms and the fall of 150 trees in Mexico City. Two days ago I was freezing and, due to the raining, I couldn’t take my common warming half-an-hour walk. I had to put my cold feet on hot water! Mexico must be far worse than the U.S. as far as electric failures is concerned...
Three words. Generator and Woodstove. They are a must in any rural setting. Until then, hang in there guys, and stay away from the stove no matter how tempting it may be..
Spackle's right. In fact just the wood stove and you'd be in luxury. And a half cord of wood would last weeks.
Whew girl, sorry to hear about that! I went though that a while ago and it was NOT FUN. Hoping it's back on SOON.
When time permits, check out survivalblog.com. There's years of information on various types of personal preparation, including some excellent articles on electrical loss in winter. In the meantime, enjoy the dose of Global Warming you're experiencing.
Stay warm. Sorry I can't send a St. Bernard with a cask of spirits but I have neither to send and anyway it'd be Spring by the time it arrived from Texas.
Have just read on survivalblog.com:
To my readers on the East Coast that are presently digging out from 15+ inches of fresh snow: I trust that you were stocked up on food and had alternative sources of heat and light, with plenty of stored fuel. Most of you, I suspect, were so well squared-away that you were able to help out
your neighbors. Congratulations on a successful dress rehearsal.
As always, your enfant terrible!
I know the feeling---after Katrina we were without power for 6 days! The weather however was hot, with no air conditioning. Hope you get up and running soon. Isn't it amazing how we have become so dependant on electricy.
Blogging by candlelight? :-)
I'll take hot without AC over cold without heat any day.
Sorry to hear of your discomfort and I trust your local power company is not run like the government. That said, I will reinforce what some others have mentioned above - shame on you two for not having backups and being prepared for these things. Woodburner, gas fired heater and lantern, camp stove, long life food stock, small generator to keep the freezer going etc. All of us north of the Mason Dixon line should have all these things or most of them at the ready.
Dont think D&B are young pioneers hope all is well.
Dang - our side of the County still has power, so we didn't need the generator we have. Wish I could send you some power. Unfortunately, we are trapped behind half a mile of undrivable driveway for the duration.
We watched Groundhog Day on Blu-Ray last night. Quote:
"Winter, slumbering in the open air, wears yet upon his lips a dream of spring". (Coleridge)
It's coming. My first seeds (lettuce, spinach and baby bok choi) are starting.
OK: this may be a little out of topic but today, when editing my blog “The West’s Darkest Hour”, I got an ad from Google in my very editing page: How to convert to Islam. Believe it or not! Google: the same company that owns YouTube and that had a “bug” when searching “Islam is...” that Spencer so much criticized in his blogsite recently.
Wow! If westerners are not crazy as goats, what are they? No kidding. This is why all white nationalists blogs are not run by Blogger but by WordPress (which doesn’t seem to have a “hate speech” thoughtpolice like the monster company Google/Blogger/YouTube).
Every time my confidence grows stronger and stronger that only a psychological analysis can delve really deep into the whys of this psychosis (what I intend in The Return of Quetzalcoatl): a psychosis that according to Takuan Seiyo only affects the white people, except the Polish and other Central Europeans who still believe in Christendom.
Have any of you who have blogsites in blogger received ads of “how convert to Islam”?
Jesus...!
Chechar, that's more than just a little bit disconcerting.
@ Chechar
Note that Google now has a formal relationship with the NSA. Google also has a toolbar through which you can conveniently access all the files in your computer. But I wonder: can Google too?
The Baron’s and Dymphna’s predicament illustrates the monstrosity of what’s going on in the West, excepting perhaps the German speaking and Nordic countries. Not only are the taxes many times those of the medieval serf, but you get very little value for your taxes. Instead of investing the tax money in infrastructure projects that are genuinely beneficial and upgrade the productivity of a nation – i.e. a modern electrical grid -- Western governments use the tax funds on socialist social engineering, subsidies to imported Third World colonizers, and in America’s case, insane Don Quixote projects like bringing democracy to the Muslim world or fighting birth control in China and Africa.
Takuan Seiyo: Note that Google now has a formal relationship with the NSA.
It should be noted that Google's involvement with the NSA (National Security Agency), is a direct result of the Chinese hacking assault upon them. In that regard, I hope for some sort of substantial findings about China's routine invasion of government and corporate systems world-wide.
China's constant pirating and intellectual property theft needs to be halted even if it requires planting some exceptionally destructive viruses on their government mainframes. That said, it serves Google right for their collaboration with China in order to suppress Freedom of Speech and other fundamental liberties in that forelorn country.
We aren't just talking about Internet content filters either. Imagine a policeman pulling you over and being able to read your last five emails. That sort of thing, emkay?
Google is a direct beneficiary of America's capitalistic free market and arose from the very core of free enterprise, here in Silicon Valley. For them to turn around and assist in suppressing the rights of those unfortunate enough to live under China's totalitarian thumb is a slap in the face for all free people who helped them get off the ground during their infancy.
It is especially hypocritical for Google to do this while supposedly maintaining the informal corporate slogan of "Don't Be Evil". What a load of horse hockey!
For those who are interested in the NSA, please consider reading James Bamford's "The Puzzle Palace: A Report on America's Most Secret Agency".
An excerpt:
NSA is located in Fort Meade, Maryland in twenty buildings with a dozen acres of underground computers. In 1978 it controlled 68,000 people to listen in on the world's communications, analyze satellite eavesdropping systems, and develop and break codes. Numerous listening posts are spread around the globe, and 40 tons of classified documents are sent to the shredder each day. [Emphasis added]
The NSA was created by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1952. So secret was this agency that its sheer existence was classified as top secret and the seven-page presidential memorandum bringing it into existence was stamped with a code word that was itself classified. Supposedly, its original charter still remains classified.
Someone I know used to work with the late Seymour Cray, inventor of the supercomputer. Over beers one time he told me that the passages in Tom Clancy's book about the NSA having a basement full of Cray computers wasn't an exaggeration. After reading "The Puzzle Palace", I can believe it.
@Zenster
What worries me is not the NSA helping Google, but the (unpublished) possibility of Google helping the NSA. Note that the Patriot Act etc. has made of the War on the Undeclared Enemy a war on the privacy and civil liberties of every American.
As to Chinese cyber attacks, it's just a tip of the iceberg. The entire iceberg is constructed of technology pilfered, freely given or putatively licensed by American companies, approved by top American patriots like Bubba Clinton, and executed by Chinese tech/engineers/scientists educated at American universities and often with years of working experience for top American technology companies. When I write that we are ruled by a demented elite, I mean it literally, not just as a stylistic flourish.
@ When I write that we are ruled by a demented elite, I mean it literally, not just as a stylistic flourish. – T.S.
One of the sentences by Silvano Arieti that I treasure the most is that the understanding of schizophrenia gives us the key to understand other sort of mental disorders.
I agree. Even socio-political suicides can be understood within this light (the trauma model) once we grasp the underlying principle.
Hey D & B,
I am sure that it is no picnic that your regular life has been disrupted by the storm. OTOH, I can't think of two other people I know that are more able to cope with a disruption such as this than you. Hunker down and brew some warm toddies over the fire.
Here on L.I. we were bracing as we watched the dump to our south. However, nary a flake! The storm seemed to magically veer off just south of L.I. which was fine with me!
Zen - Isn't the Puzzle Palace years old? I think I read it a decade ago.
Takuan -
"Not only are the taxes many times those of the medieval serf, but you get very little value for your taxes. Instead of investing the tax money in infrastructure projects that are genuinely beneficial and upgrade the productivity of a nation – i.e. a modern electrical grid -- Western governments use the tax funds on socialist social engineering, subsidies to imported Third World colonizers, and in America’s case, insane Don Quixote projects like bringing democracy to the Muslim world or fighting birth control in China and Africa."
I somewhat agree... When ever the Feds want more money they tell us that our infrastructure is falling apart and then load the bill up with B.S. Obama has recently said that he wil "freeze spending" on discretionary projects for the next 3 years. I propose that not another tree or roadway landscape improvement be funded for the next 10 years by the Federal gov't... If individual communities want nature trails, street trees, local monuments or parks that they pay for them themselves. This is not the purview of the Federal gov't and I resent sending tax dollars to D.C. for this.
Funny how the 08' budget for transportation was 68 Billion dollars (keeping in mind that Congress and the Senate was controlled by the Dems at the time) and we still have failing bridges, tunnels, electrical distribution, water delivery etc...
What we do have is a "turtle tunnel system" in FL courtesy of the American taxpayer. We also have (and all my GOV friends are welcome to come to my area and experience the grandure of the Federal largess,) a 1.3 mile, 2 Million dollar "nature trail" paid for out of the 08' transportation budget! It is nothing more than a dog bathroom...
I would much rather that the Federal gov't paved and maintained in good order our transportation system. Driving across the BQE in Brooklyn is like trying to attempt a moon landing! The terrain is so uncertain that one doesn't know if the car tires will explode! This is a Federal road (US 495) and a main artery in and out of NYC and L.I.
When our elected representatives, like John Murtha D PA, are called on this as he has been for his multi million dollar airport that accomodates less than 200 passengers a day, we are told that we just don't understand how things are done. The truth is that we do understand how things are done and we don't like it.
I forgot to add in a P.S. that I deleted one of my latest posts because I had mislinked reference to Silvano Arieti to another GoV chapter (this is a note for those who read posts only in their emails and might have been misdirected to the wrong chapter).
Babs, just curious: have you ever lived in Mexico City? (I happen to know a guy that we nicknamed “Babs”).
4th and last post in this thread.
Chechar - I have never lived in or even visited Mexico City.
Babs was the name of my dear dog, probably the best friend I ever had, that died several years ago. I took her name as a nic for the internet. I still have a picture of her on my frig.
Islamic Google ads are not the result of some evil intentions by Google. It's an irritating consequence of artificial intelligence.
Counter-djihad blogs are peppered with references to islam. Google naturally detects this and pushes the seemingly related ads.
Who else advertises islam apart from... islamists ?
What I'm wondering is whether all those automated ad systems have an opt-out mechanism by which the site publisher can ban some specific ads which contradict his purpose. All print media reserve the right to do this. It's a needed feature on the Internet.
I think Google have an opt-out system. I know some other advertisers have opt-outs.
Looks like Baron & Dymphna are still overwhelmed by the climate change situation. I really hope they're in good health and on their way to be dug out.
Not unrelated and somewhat ironic, the Danish Cold War Museum is closed due to the cold weather. We're not hit nearly as hard as the US, though.
Hope your power is back on soon!
'Firewood, canned food and ammunition', that's what I got for Christmas.
Oh, and a copy of 'Ted, White and Blue' by Ted Nugent. Let it snow!
Dymphna & Baron:
It's been nearly three days now, and still ya'll MIA. I'm worryin'. I sure do hope the two of you are prepared to be without power this long -- or have a real good plan B.
Southern Wolf, please go ahead and send that dog on up to Virginia; he might still be needed there this spring.
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