Vote Early... Never know what might slow you down on election day! :) Santa Fe, NM, October 2012 by divineorder
This is coming to you direct from the Whole Foods Market in Santa Fe, NM. Here today using their free wifi because we took a huge bite out of our monthly data pie watching Democracy Now! Expanding the Debates and a few action-smaction shows on the internet.
Cold Nights Ahead For Homeless
We rode our bikes on the sidewalk a little ways to get to WFM safely and a guy I assume is homeless (carrying his sleeping bag on his shoulder and Occupy Santa Fe has been gone from the park across the street for some time) left the sidewalk and walked into the street to give us room before we could dismount and let him pass. I apologized to him but he looked at me all wild-eyed and quickly moved on. He had much whiter hair than I do and looked like he could be Albert Einstein's older brother-- estimate between 70 and 80. Daytime high is down from 70's to 50's today, hard freeze of 24 expected by morning. Brrrrrr.
Seeing him brought the plight of the homeless and unemployed millions in this country to mind once again, and after those few years living down at the coast I think about how close I came to being homeless myself.
When we arrived at Whole Foods saw the following cover that drove the point deeper:
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'Perfect Storm' or 'Frankenstorm' ?
So what about this approaching storm, which looks quite serious in the following graphic?
Credit: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/...
Hell it looks downright ghostly--is it possibly a freeking "Frankenstorm" on the way in time for Halloween?
Here's a funny for you, making fun of all the hype we see whenever a big weather event is possible:
Frankenstorm to Slam NYC
They are calling this storm the Perfect-Perfect Storm or Double Perfect. Meteorologists across the Northeast are “giddy with excitement” because they will on camera with their apocalyptic forecasts for the next five days.
“I’m getting a new haircut, buying a new suit and working on all sorts of new graphs and models and, well, this kind of armageddon-like storms are what I live for. I love when there’s a potential catastrophic event,” said a NYC meteorologist. ”My wife says I’m a lot ‘friskier’ during these storms. I love ‘em.”
President Obama was also quick to react. He reportedly said, “Look, if this storm hits New York and the Northeast a week before the elections, I think we’ll have to postpone the election until January or whenever my poll numbers go up, whichever comes first.”
Republicans are speculating at that President Obama has sent “hurricane drones” to create the monster storm. ”We’re holding Congressional Hearings on the storm on Tuesday,” said Representative Issa of the House Oversight Committee.
WWN has looked that computer models. Even though we can’t read these maps, we are giving predicting that there’s a 83% chance that the storm will hit New York City and a 100% chance that it will hit a building with the name “Trump” on it.
HAHAHAHAHA Donald Trump. Hey Donald, you gonna like this October surprise?
Why Prepare for "Frankenstorms or Snowmaggedons"
LOL, Snowmaggedons is what my sister-in-law calls all the TV hype surrounding a big snow storm where she lives in Ann Arbor.
Okay the article was snarky, and yeah, maybe not real funny to some of us who have experienced the aftermath of our crazy weather in the era of Climate Change.
Since we don't watch TV we miss a great deal of the hype surrounding weather.
And we have experienced the frustration of getting all prepared for a tropical storm/hurricane and having it turn away and cause no damage.
However, we have also seen first hand the destruction caused by Rita and Ike, and its really nothing to joke about.
These days we divide our time between Santa Fe, NM, the Texas Hill Country, and travel the rest. We have taken to living like a storm is imminent, having extra food water and supplies stored in our two dwellings, our truck camper, and even in our compact car.
Now you may say that's a little overboard, but it costs us very little in time and money to be prepared.
Hurricane Rita and The Interstate Parking Lot
While we were traveling by bus and camping in bush camps in Namibia some years ago when we got an email from a Houston teacher friend telling us how disgusted he was to see the US Gov behaving like a third world country during and after Katrina.
By the time we got to Botswana we discovered emails saying that our little shangri-la at remote Smith Point on Galveston Bay was ground zero for hurricane Rita. Rita turned and hit Smith Point a glancing blow, and we we returned from Africa we were relieved to discover that we had 'only' $10,000 worth of damage. Others were not so fortunate. We had expensive insurance and it was covered, mostly repaired within a few months of the storm.
Before Rita hit my cousin who lives in Houston scooped up her elderly parents and headed to Austin to weather out the storm as my family had done several times when I was growing up. Thousands of other coastal residents had the same idea and the Interstate turned into a reality show. What normally would have taken around 3 hours turned into 8 for my relatives, but for others it turned into a bloody nightmare.
Being Prepared in the Age of Climate Change
Recently Rocky Anderson gave a sobering description of what we are facing:
The most important issue in terms of the long term impacts on the greatest number of people -- an absolute tragedy in the making -- is the climate crisis.And our nation -- although every science academy in the world agrees that this is a huge problem with horrendous consequences -- our government continues to abdicate its highest responsibility to provide international leadership on the climate crisis. And the most tragic part of this is the window of opportunity was very, very small the last 10 years to do anything about it, to save our children and later generations from experiencing the most catastrophic consequences of climate change. And we still fail under Barack Obama, who promised to do otherwise. We still fail to provide that essential leadership internationally, and the consequences will be horrendous. Later generations will look back and ask what in the world were the American people thinking to allow these people to continue to violate their responsibilities, and to continue drilling and caving into the fossil fuel industry the way our federal government -- both Republicans and Democrats -- are doing.
Ready for Your Own Personal Survivor Episode?
Every two years we camp in our own little dome tent in four southern African countries, but we are not survivalists types by any means.
Rocky Anderson is not alone of course in his estimate of where we are headed on this planet. Last year we heard Bill McKibben speak here in Santa Fe and our level of concern since then remains quite high about Climate Change.
Some Things We Do
My wife, kossack Jakkalbessie wrote this in a comment this morning:
hurricane bag always ready (1+ / 0-)
We no longer live on the Texas coast, but still have the Hurricane Bag we put together when we lived down there.
If fire or any other disaster broke out at our house, grab that one bag and you at least have all your important papers with you.
Ours has our insurance policies, passports, extra cash, income tax records, copy of wills, power of attorney and things like that. We also have a memory stick with photos of our many power tools we have accumulated during our years of remodeling.
When we go on vacation out of the country, it goes to my mother-in-laws house for safekeeping.
Gives you some peace of mind.
by Jakkalbessie on Thu Oct 25, 2012 at 12:40:16 PM MDT
We keep
'solar blankets' around which are metal film with a plasticized back that has helped us weather extreme cold more than once when we were out camping and the temp lower than expected.
We keep food and water purifier in our vehicles. I even keep water purification tablets in my day pack when we are out biking for the day.
These are just a few examples of what we do. Given the crazy weather possibilities these days, we don't think we have gone overboard, but that we are merely being prudent.
Ideas for Being Prepared
Of course you probably know many sources for how to prepare for storms and other disasters. We really like the extensive and though provoking prep lists made available on the web by our 'socialist' government /snark :
Credit: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/...
Hurricane Preparedness - Be Ready
Two keys to weather safety are to prepare for the risks and to act on those preparations when alerted by emergency officials. These are essential pieces to the Weather-Ready Nation.
Refer to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) ready.gov/hurricanes for comprehensive information on hurricane preparedness at home and in your community.
Highlights on how to prepare and take action are available below:
Gather Information Plan & Take Action Recover Resources
Halloween less than a week away, are you ready? :)
Whether its Hurricane Sandy, a Frankenstorm, or some other real weather threat to you and yours, my wife and I want to encourage all kossacks that have not already done so to take some basic prep precautions for the climate change weather we face in the coming years.
Oh, & BTW, have you voted yet? Have your friends? Family ?
With all these electronic voting machines what happens if the electricity is off for a day or a week from a big storm? ?
Hope all will consider early voting and get others there as well!
What'll you do ? What prep thingies have you done that you would be willing to share?
Your comments below appreciated!
7:06 PM PT: Jakkalbessie just suggested I add this re valuables, tools, etc... that if you are a person who has some things that are very important to you, ie family photos, family Bible, etc. start gathering them up if you are in one of the possible landfall areas. We have had friends on the coast that had their houses wiped out by Ike and a friend that lost her house to a wild fire in Bastrop and they both lost things that they wished they could have gotten out with them and in hindsight wish they had been more prepared...