The Happy News thread

[WarpGirl]

I live in the one pocket of VA that gets rain every day! 10 minutes down the road, it's bone dry. The mountains are placed in such a way we have a freaky micro-climate. In some ways that's great, I just feel bad for everyone else! And my bones don't like it damp.

[panyasan]

I think it's more than just the Midwestern corn crop at risk. The local fields are shorter and tattier than they should be, too. On the news tonight they said two thirds of the country was in drought. And you really wouldn't want to try to feed any pasture animals on the grass we have in our area right now. I'm also seeing some trees dying, or at least going dormant early. Seems to me the hickory nuts are falling early as well.

I read a very interesting article about the drought making the world prices on food like grain and rice higher, which will effect the world economy. Hungry people are unhappy people and the last raise in prices of food were the beginnng of food riots in the Middle East and the start of the Arabic Spring. Also I read that the Chinese goverment is looking for ways to deal with this situation if the prices go up, so the Chineses families have enough food. They don't want unhappy, hungry people either.

[Weeble]

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Got 2.7 inches of rain in the last 16 hours. Needless to say I also lost power for about 12 hours. We are also to get more rain for the next few days. Hopefully much of it will soak in. This part of Michigan is mostly sand. Yippee

><((((º>mmmmm lots of worms floating by

[Alelou]

Congrats!!!

They were promising us a rainy, stormy day and I went out and got everything battened down in the (pathetic) sprinkles this morning, but it's bright muggy sunshine out there now. But apparently this just means it's more likely we'll have really nasty storms later.

[Weeble]

Alelou,

Apparently there was a funnel cloud just east of me. I haven't heard of any injuries (Thank God), but there are a ton of campers in my area. Keep your head down today

><((((º>mmm worms<º))))><

[Alelou]

Thanks. (Love the "mmm worms.")

[Kotik]

Needless to say I also lost power for about 12 hours.

Pardon?? Last time I checked we were in the 21st century. How the hell do you lose power for a massive 12 hours unless you were hit by a record breaking earth quake ??

I'm 38 and I experienced two power outtages in my life, adding them is one hour Where the heck do you live?

[justTripn]

Hi, WarpGirl said she missed me so I thought I'd drop a note to tell you what I've been up to. I see many of my Star Trek friends on facebook, but some I see only here, so forgive me if I repeat myself.

I've hosted foreign exchange students for two years. The second went home last month. I'm still playing hockey about once a week. I have transferred my obsessive energies to new obsessions. Now I "waste" about as much time each day at an International Fans of Carabao facebook page [Carabao is a Thai rock and roll band] and I used to "waste" here, except I shouldn't say "waste" because in both cases its been a very rewarding experience. This band has been making music nonstop for the past 30-some years, with 30-50 albums, depending on how you count and 500 plus songs. I love translating their songs into English. I've also become more active with Atheism. My boys are home alot even though they are all in college. They were all three here a minute ago and then they all ran off to a recreational soccer game, a championship. I can't go because my presence might jinx them--throw the oldest one off his game. Ahhhh!!! Just like old times, lol . . .

[WarpGirl]

Needless to say I also lost power for about 12 hours.

Pardon?? Last time I checked we were in the 21st century. How the hell do you lose power for a massive 12 hours unless you were hit by a record breaking earth quake ??

I'm 38 and I experienced two power outtages in my life, adding them is one hour Where the heck do you live?

We just had a tornado and were without power almost 10 days! The 21st century has it's drawbacks.

Welcome back jT, do drop in more please.

[Cogito]

Hi, WarpGirl said she missed me so I thought I'd drop a note to tell you what I've been up to. I see many of my Star Trek friends on facebook, but some I see only here, so forgive me if I repeat myself.

It is great to hear from you again, jT, and I'm pleased that things are going well for you. I hope you'll think of your old friends here from time to time.

[justTripn]

I do think of you! I will check in and catch up this week, if not with the fanfic with you people.

[Alelou]

Kotik, you live in a country that is tiny compared to ours. You apparently have no idea how many more miles of electric wire we have to run to provide power to everyone, how much space there is between places here, and how remote some of us are from each other.

Infrastructure has gotten short shrift in the US compared to Germany for the last twenty years, and Germany is also about a million times ahead of us in terms of solar, but certain things are simply a matter of scale, how many trees there are to fall, etc. Granted, our tendency to go for cheap overhead wiring doesn't help, but that's a profit-driven choice generally made by the utility companies. (My electric company is owned by a Spanish corporation; the other big one in our area is a UK corporation.)

10 days IS an awful lot to go without power, definitely the high end, but we've been without it for five here and neighbors of mine went even longer. Massive storms across entire states make it impossible to get everybody back up quickly. Just clearing the mess of trees off the roads so trucks can get in takes time. Getting enough qualified people and equipment to a widespread disaster takes time (you'll see utility trucks streaming in from everywhere, even from Canada). So those of us who live in more remote areas generally have to wait.

I suspect we also get crazier weather than you do, unless you have tornadoes and hurricanes and blizzards and ice storms regularly. Not that we all get them every year, but it's pretty likely to happen repeatedly throughout the applicable seasons, and "Tornado Alley" is not an alley at all, but a huge swath of the country.

Our Tornado Watch for tonight went down already, but I'm worried about my son and his sister's family in NJ tonight.

[Weeble]

Kotik,

It's quite common to lose power up here in NW lower Michigan. My feeds are underground but about a mile away it goes overhead. We don't pack 'em in as tight as you folks do. I have no neighbors across the road as it is on 1 square mile of state land. I have 11.5 acres and my neighbors north and south have 40 acres each. There is only 1 mailbox north of me for a mile and a half.

You have to get used to American demographics. Most folks live in or near cities. i prefer rural living I doubt there are 1000 people in my township of 36 square miles. We do have deer, bear, turkey, partridge and lots of fish.

My dog likes it too.

><((((º>><((((º> uh oh

[putaro]

I gotta say, US power companies are doing something wrong. I've lived in Tokyo 12 years and I've lost power for about a minute total outside of the Tohoku earthquake last year. Prior to that I lived in metro SF and metro San Diego and lost power about once a year on a regular basis. We get typhoons here (not as strong as hurricanes but much stronger than anything we get in California) and we never lose power. In our neighborhood all the power is coming in on overhead lines. So, yeah, I'll cut the power company a little slack when you're way out in the sticks, but not in the metro areas.

[Distracted]

We're in the middle of a medium-sized city, but we bought a gas generator after Katrina. It's saved the contents of our freezer and enabled us to stay in the house without getting heat stroke when the air conditioning goes out on several occasions since then.