Barren down the hatches ?

[Wolfman]

Uh-oh. Erika could be trouble. Danny broke up from high altitude wind shear, will Erika have the same fate. We hope so. If not, I might have to barren down my hatches Sunday night. It takes me about a half hour to close up all house openings with my aluminum accordion shutters. My steel reinforced garage door is rated for 130 mph winds. Last big storm was Wilma, ten years ago. We will see what happens.

[Bucmonkey]

How long have you lived down here? Rain event at best...

[Wolfman]

Live just south of Fort Myers in what is called Unincorporated Lee County. I think we'll just be getting heavy rains. At any rate, we will have plenty of time to prepare. This is my den window when it is barrened down. It was taken after Wilma passed by in 2005. Note the shrubs blown down--the wind was from north to south.

[Felix]

meanwhile I'm in the U&L and this part of the country is pretty much on fire

Portland seems immune to the smoke that almost every other city in this part of the country is experiencing......I've never seen anything like this and I've seen lots of fire seasons......nobody left to fight them so they're importing talent from other countries.....

[Roger_the_Shrubber]

BigO,

It's 'batten' down the hatches.

And Erika may be a problem, but not until about 2 more days. Then we"ll see.

[Moving Sale]

BigO,

It's 'batten' down the hatches.

Good grief, update your spreadsheet.

[Atomic Punk]

BigO,

It's 'batten' down the hatches.

I guess you missed some of the things that went on here.

[Felix]

What ever happened to jtr?
He hasn't been here for a long time....

[Y2K]

Oh my...
30 years at the same house,,,
0 earthquakes, 0 tornados and 0 hurricanes
Don't need and special equipment other than a concealed carry permit
Rack me I guess....

[Y2K]

What ever happened to jtr?
He hasn't been here for a long time....

I have that idiot on Facebook ...why..
Because a trainwreck is fun to watch..
Miss Conduct is another one..sit back and enjoy the show.

[Diego in Seattle]

meanwhile I'm in the U&L and this part of the country is pretty much on fire

Portland seems immune to the smoke that almost every other city in this part of the country is experiencing......I've never seen anything like this and I've seen lots of fire seasons......nobody left to fight them so they're importing talent from other countries.....

Sunday I took some relatives to downtown Seattle, and one couldn't see from Alki Beach to the other side of Elliot Bay. The winds have now changed & blown it all out, but I would imagine that the dry side is now close to being asphyxiated.

[Dinsdale]

Portland seems immune to the smoke that almost every other city in this part of the country is experiencing......I've never seen anything like this and I've seen lots of fire seasons......nobody left to fight them so they're importing talent from other countries.....

Huh?

I spent last week in the Boise area (Meridian). Then I got a couple days R&R at home.

The Boise area was freaking bad. The Portland area was much worse. Saturday was the worst day... but I went golfing anyway. Couldn't see the hills a mile away. Smelled pretty strong, too.

But if by "immune," you meant "gets it to some extent every year," then you nailed it. That Gorge thing ensures it.

As far as not enough firefighters -- if certain factions weren't boondoggling the government tit, there would be a l0t more resources to combat fires that actually matter. But certain entities profit from battling a 10 acre "blaze" in a meaningless, remote chunk of desert that's burned 30 times in the last 100 years. Apparently, it's not profitable to remember that the prairie has always burned down, and in the past, if it wasn't threatening anyone's home or livelihood, no one gave a shit.


Here's a view from last weekend. That's downtown in the background (that you can't see a couple hundred yards away -- glad we're "immune").

[Goober McTuber]

BigO,

It's 'batten' down the hatches.

Chug down another bottle of pills, you fucking freak.

[Wolfman]

Monday looks like it might be interesting here.

[MuchoBulls]

How long have you lived down here? Rain event at best...

This area has had more than enough rain over the last month. Even Tropical Storm force winds are going to bring down a good deal of trees if this one hits.

[Bucmonkey]

How long have you lived down here? Rain event at best...

This area has had more than enough rain over the last month. Even Tropical Storm force winds are going to bring down a good deal of trees if this one hits.

No worse then the afternoon T Storms...

[Mikey]

For once...we're not the ones getting smoke.

I have a road trip tomorrow, though, to California City and Visalia. Supposed to be over 100 deg in both of those places. I have to leave at around 4:30 to make sure I'm in Cal City by 8:00.

California City...as they say, this could only happen in California.

Nat Mendelsohn had a dream. A city that was going to rival Los Angeles, in three hundred and twenty square kilometers of Mojave desert paradise, centered around a beautiful -- though not native to the desert and artificially watered, of course -- park, complete with a 105,218 square meter artificial lake.

Seen on a map it might seem as if perhaps Mendelson's dream came true, for hundreds of miles of named streets cut through the desert area known as California City, ending in cul-de-sacs, and looking much like a large suburban community has been built. It is by this metric of its geographical size, that California City can lay claim to being the third largest city in California and 34th largest in the nation. However, on closer inspection one quickly notices something missing: houses.

There is absolutely nothing lining these streets, no houses, no electric grid, nothing. The roads form an empty ghost-grid, a mirage of suburbia still waiting to be filled. Seen from above it looks almost like the remnants of some ancient culture, ritual lines cut in the desert, similar to another California desert phenomena the Blythe intaglios.

Mendelson's plan was like that of a number of real estate developers in the 1950s and 1960s. Operating under the idea that the fastest way to riches was through owning land, developers bought vast tracts, laid them out, and subdivided the land into tens of thousands of small house plots, with the plan to sell each plot as a paradise to some young family hoping to buy their dream home. Often it worked and these formed many of the sprawling suburbs that exist today. But in the case of California city, it never quite caught on. Among the reasons are that in clearing the area for development it lead to an increase in dust storms.

But California city isn't entirely empty. As of 2008, fifty years after Mendelsohn, California city has a total population of 14,556, living in a small town to the southwest of the vast empty grids. It also contains the massive California City Correctional Center a 2,305-bed prison, an Air Force base, a Honda testing facility, and a nearby boron mine, California's largest open-pit mine. The area has also become a popular location for dirt bikers and off-roaders.

The town may still fill up yet. California City is the 12th fastest growing city in California, and National Recreational Properties has hired Erik Estrada of CHiPs fame acts as the town's media spokesperson.

The city also has its own website where you can "Talk To" the city. Among the local clubs and organizations it lists one the "CALIFORNIA CITY OPTIMIST CLUB" but their website, like the city, is still under construction.

[Wolfman]

Now it looks like Erika wants to pay a visit to my place. We'll be ready. Likely not a hurricane, but some stiff winds and a lot of rain. Worst that can happen is a prolonged power outage. Full report as needed.

[BSmack]

How long have you lived down here? Rain event at best...

Give that man some bode.

[Wolfman]

Rain is correct. Upper level wind shears really wreck the intensity of tropical storms and that's a good thing for us here.

[Felix]

I left Portland on Friday and it was nice....the office I work in is right across from the Lloyd center....when I got home it was nasty...fucking smoke socked in the valley due to an inversion....can't speak for the weekends but from Monday to Friday it was really nice in Portland.....