The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

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Here's what it's like talking to my 81yo mom over the phone. I needed to get six mailing addresses for Christmas cards. After pleasantries:

I need Bob's address.
Who's that?
Bob. I need Bob's mailing address.
Todd?
No, Bob's. BOB'S!
Oh, Bob's. He's on, oh, what is that?...Over by Silktown Rd...Whitmore, I think.
Yeah, I need the address
Whitmore. Whitmore Rd. That's it.
Yeah, I need the whole address.
Well, let me look...
<starts thumbing through Rolodex)
Well, here's a card on Tall Bill.
I need Bob's address.
Bob's on Whitmore.
Yeah, I need his house number.
Who? Tall Bill's? I just saw his card...wait...
NOT TALL BILL! BOB'S!
Have you seen Tall Bill's music page?
No, I haven't.
It's on the computer. You can find it.
Ok, can I-
He's awful! He's pickin' and singin'. It's bad.
Ok, can I-
It don't even sound like country!
Tall Bill doesn't play country, never has.
Who?
Tall Bill! He plays blues and southern rock.
Who?
TALL BILL!
He's in Florida now.
<Tall Bill has been in Florida over 30 years>
Yeah, can I just get Bob's address?
Who? Tall Bill? I just saw his card...
BOB'S!
Well, he's on Whitmore, just past Silkrun.
Oh, Jesu-, never mind!
 
morning glory said:
It was on the UK news today that Aus may be set to get the highest temperatures on record since 1960 in the next few days. The highest ever maximum temperature for the continent stands at 50.7C, set on 2 January 1960 - says the Independent newspaper. Hope its not that bad where you are.
Click to expand...

We're forecast 43°C or 44°C for this week. Not looking forward to it. I've told hubby today that he has to have to BBQ up and running by the end of today so that I can cook outside in the morning. All our meals this week are cold soups. I don't think either of us fancies anything even vaguely warm.

rascal said:
Left sons place last night around 9.30 pm. Sky had a red tinge from Australian fires. Yip, we can see the haze from here.
Click to expand...
I had no idea it could be seen that far away. Sydney is totally surrounded by fires. Most of the Blue Mountains are badly burnt to the west and north of Sydney and the only other side, south, are 'our' fires.

The one close to where we used to live is nearly under control. All they could do was create an area already burnt to prevent the bush fire from burning any further. Now it is a case of waiting for it to run out of things to burn!

The one on the coast is still out of control but the coastal road is open again (as in getting to the coast rather than the one that runs along the coast). That at least means the main towns now have fuel and food again. They were running out of both but ironically had a mountain of fresh fruit and veg (but masses of 1 thing) that was going bad because it was growing and still being picked but they couldn't get it out. The road to the coast is very windy and steep. The sort of thing that lorries crawl up and cyclists go faster than the lorries (though we've yet to meet any cyclists on it it is the sort of road we cycled when cycling around the world and yes, we've overtaken (or rather undertaken) lorries going up hill before now on our expedition bikes when we were super fit). It's not the best road to drive and certainly not one you drive tired. The first time we drove it we passed a fatal road accident. Most are fatal because if you go over the edge, well there is nothing there to catch you until you hit the tops of the trees below.

But yeah, these fires are really bad. But the up side is that once all of this has burnt off, the place will be a lot safer because there will be nothing to burn for some years to come and many species of plants need the fires in order to self seed or for those seeds to germinate and regenerate the natural bush. It appears to be similar to what happened to Canberra a while back only this time it is Sydney that has the problem.

There haven't been any fires south of Canberra in the Snowy Mountains that were devastated all those years ago and they have had just as little water. It leaves you wondering/pondering the wisdom in preventing bush fires and not having areas that have been pre-burnt in winter to give barriers to massive fires like these. Back burning used to be common and created natural fire breaks that stopped the spread of massive bush fires like this.

Sadly there will only be more to come this season as we have barely started the bush for season yet.
 
Here's the forecast for my area for the end of the week. The time on red, is when you should not be outside uncovered period, 7:20am to 6:40pm for Thursday, even for 10 minutes. The UV is seriously high (off the chart and the scale goes to 0-15 here compared to the UK which uses the same scale but only the 0-8 range).

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Thursday I have an early morning medical appointment, but Saturday I'll just take hubby to the cinema. I can live with windows and doors closed but he doesn't close things properly poor remember that both doors need closing and the... So the house gets warmer than it should do. I've already got extra stuff in for the chooks to help keep them cool, but we're due chicks by the end of this week as well which we're hand raising. One bantam is sitting on 2 clutches that are a week apart and whilst she is an excellent mum, she'll not sit that long after the first chicks hatch, for the 2nd brood to hatch... So we'll have to remove the chicks as they hatch and the chicks she raises are usually close to feral anyway, so I'd rather hand raise all of her chicks just to ensure we can actually handle the bantams when needed (catching to dust down for mites and lice or to worm them etc).
 
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TastyReuben said:
In the colder months, I wear an ankle-length flannel nightshirt (like from 150 years ago - MrsTasty calls it my "sleeping dress").

A few years ago, the one I had was getting raggedy and had a rip way up the side, like a sexy dress. It came up a storm and I had to run out and get the trash bins before they blew away.

As soon as I got near them, the wind picked up and blew one of them out into and down the street, and I started chasing it, and just as I got a hold of it, another gust blew and forced my nightshirt up over my head, and the way it was cut, it got all tangled in my arms and I started fighting with it, but I couldn't get it undone, then I slipped and fell down, then the other trash can blew on top of me.

I finally managed to get an arm free and grabbed the trash can for support, rolled over and ended up straddling it and kind of half-walking/half-riding it back into the driveway.

My wife still says the single funniest thing she's ever seen is her bare-assed husband, in a dress, fighting with a trash can in the middle of our street in the middle of a storm.
Click to expand...

:roflmao:
 
morning glory said:
It was on the UK news today that Aus may be set to get the highest temperatures on record since 1960 in the next few days. The highest ever maximum temperature for the continent stands at 50.7C, set on 2 January 1960 - says the Independent newspaper. Hope its not that bad where you are.
Click to expand...

That's getting into Death Valley territory, where the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth was set at 134F, or 57.6C, at a place appropriately called Furnace Creek. I drove through Death Valley on a road rally. It was a mild 112 that day. That is not me in the photo below, but I like their sense of humor.

serveimage.jpeg
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
We're forecast 43°C or 44°C for this week. Not looking forward to it. I've told hubby today that he has to have to BBQ up and running by the end of today so that I can cook outside in the morning. All our meals this week are cold soups. I don't think either of us fancies anything even vaguely warm.


I had no idea it could be seen that far away. Sydney is totally surrounded by fires. Most of the Blue Mountains are badly burnt to the west and north of Sydney and the only other side, south, are 'our' fires.

The one close to where we used to live is nearly under control. All they could do was create an area already burnt to prevent the bush fire from burning any further. Now it is a case of waiting for it to run out of things to burn!

The one on the coast is still out of control but the coastal road is open again (as in getting to the coast rather than the one that runs along the coast). That at least means the main towns now have fuel and food again. They were running out of both but ironically had a mountain of fresh fruit and veg (but masses of 1 thing) that was going bad because it was growing and still being picked but they couldn't get it out. The road to the coast is very windy and steep. The sort of thing that lorries crawl up and cyclists go faster than the lorries (though we've yet to meet any cyclists on it it is the sort of road we cycled when cycling around the world and yes, we've overtaken (or rather undertaken) lorries going up hill before now on our expedition bikes when we were super fit). It's not the best road to drive and certainly not one you drive tired. The first time we drove it we passed a fatal road accident. Most are fatal because if you go over the edge, well there is nothing there to catch you until you hit the tops of the trees below.

But yeah, these fires are really bad. But the up side is that once all of this has burnt off, the place will be a lot safer because there will be nothing to burn for some years to come and many species of plants need the fires in order to self seed or for those seeds to germinate and regenerate the natural bush. It appears to be similar to what happened to Canberra a while back only this time it is Sydney that has the problem.

There haven't been any fires south of Canberra in the Snowy Mountains that were devastated all those years ago and they have had just as little water. It leaves you wondering/pondering the wisdom in preventing bush fires and not having areas that have been pre-burnt in winter to give barriers to massive fires like these. Back burning used to be common and created natural fire breaks that stopped the spread of massive bush fires like this.

Sadly there will only be more to come this season as we have barely started the bush for season yet.
Click to expand...

At the height of fires we could smell it in the air with the right wind. The world truely is small.

Russ
 
We did a 70 mile off highway vehicle poker run in the desert.
Every 12 to 15 miles their is a stop and you draw a playing card.
At the end those with the best poker hands win nice donate prizes.

It’s $50 buy in per hand and the money goes to a local charity. 750 poker hands sold and countless additional raffle tickets. Plus all kinds of other fundraising stuff.

We cooked this evenings meal for our group in the pleasant 65f Arizona night.
Our kids:
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Last night the entire poker runs dinner was catered out in the desert by the Salvation Army’s Southwest disaster unit.
I believe they received the proceeds and dinner tickets were an additional $12 too.
Fresh potatoes, cole slaw, seasoned chicken and casseroles, Brauts, franks, and chili.

I checked out their compact Mobil kitchen operation and the Salvation Army has it down pat. Out in the middle of nowhere they put on a good meal.
 
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It looks like the harsh winter is over here. The forecast indicates that the temperature will not drop below 20°C again this winter. It's a very pleasant 28°C at 19:30 this evening.
 
It's currently 30F/-1C with a windchill of 19F/-7C. Wednesday is supposed to be a lot colder, with real temps around 16F/-9C.
 
Dive Bar Casanova said:
We did a 70 mile off highway vehicle poker run in the desert.
Every 12 to 15 miles their is a stop and you draw a playing card.
At the end those with the best poker hands win nice donate prizes.
Click to expand...

detroitdad would be interested to hear this... he is an avid poker player
 
They've revised Saturday's temperature. I'm so glad I love Star Wars... we're at the cinema Saturday afternoon. I doubt we'll eat out though. We'll have some food sent to our seats during the film instead.

Thursday is now a cooler 42°C,
Friday is 40°C, but Saturday had been increased to 46°C. No amount of theses :heat: is going to express anything other than horror at that temperature.

I hope they are way off the mark and it gets changed yet again, soon.

35717

Forecasts of this nature are not going to help anyone or the fires at all.
 
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