Standard Mischief

Dry Ice.

When I was driving across country, I remember seeing dry ice for sale at say a Wal-Mart in the middle of Nowhere, Montana. I figured that if you drove 60 miles to stock up on food, it would be worth it to buy a chunk of dry ice to make sure your ice cream stayed frozen until you got back.

A few years after that, I started seeing it for sale around here. I mean, it’s always been available, but you’ve always had to go to some special store somewhere out of the way, with odd hours and pay twice as much.

Anyway, it was surreal to be in the midst of a crowd of people, carts all overflowing with perishable goodies in advance of a big storm, and I was the only one buying dry ice. What is the logic behind stocking up the fridge in anticipation of a big storm that might limit your mobility and cut your utilities for a few days?

In any event, I had the “12 items or less” checkout lane virtually to myself.

Three slabs of dry ice were wrapped in newspaper, placed in a soft sided lunch size cooler, which was placed in another larger cooler and padded all around with foam and towels. This worked very well, as I’d estimate from the initial 17 pound purchase shrunk less than a pound per day.

Instructions on the bag directed me to not put the dry ice directly in a working fridge. I put the cooler in the garage, figuring any liberated carbon dioxide would sink to the lowest level, and if needed I could always open the garage door to refresh the oxygen. I never needed to, but it’s something to think about if you store the stuff in an airtight area also used as living space

Almost everything attached to Hanna has rolled northwards by now. While I had the computer unplugged there for most of the storm, I plugged it in during a lull to catch the nexrad radar image. Unfortunately, the tubes of net were down for a bit, but we’re back. The lights didn’t even flicker for me but there are thousands in the area without power. Still, I think we got off easy.

For Isabel, which hit overnight, I lost power at 10 pm and was up at 2, watching the power transformers explode in the distance with a bright flash of purple. We had quite a bit of lighting then, but none that I saw today.

I have to admit feeling a bit silly after all that effort, but the prep didn’t take that long and the weather people can’t even tell me reliability if we’ll get an inch of snow or 6, so I suppose it was prudent. There are issues with my camera, so the photos of the Magic Amulet of Mainline Power will have to wait a bit. Seems like it worked though.

I walked into a supermarket to get myself a toll booth RFID tag yesterday and was bowled over by the crowds. Who knew that grocery shopping was the thing to do on Friday night?

While I’ve been busy with my life, Hanna made ready for her trip up the coast. I’ve kept myself pre-prepared since Katrina so I’m OK, but I did run out and fill my car’s gas tank and a few other low-effort preparedness efforts that I’ve previously detailed here. I wrote that post almost two years ago, and I got some great feedback in the comments. Suggestions like keeping paper plates and plastic flatware around so you don’t need to boil water to do dishes and making sure you’ve refilled your prescriptions are good tips too.

Since we always seem to get stuck with a “boil water” order after a big storm, I went and filled the big pot with water. Since there’s plenty of space in the fridge, I stored it inside there. The water itself will store more “cold” than the air that it displaced. The freezer above is packed with frozen plastic water bottles, same idea.

I’ve just finished filling the tub with water. I’m going to shut off the main valve in a bit trapping several gallons of potable water in my pipes. Any needed water for flushing will be dipped out of the tub. I can live with that for the next 12 hours or so. by that time Hanna will have moved on up the coast and we’ll have clear skies.

I also got a Magic Amulet of Mainline Power. If power stays on long enough, I’ll upload a photo or two.

Remembering Isabel, a tropical storm from 2003, I lost power for four days. That storm ran inland and slowed over the area. We got a lot of lighting with that storm. I remember staying awake all night watching the lighting strikes take out the power distribution transformers with gigantic purple flashes. Hanna is predicted to keep moving and stay together. Looking at the Nexrad on the tubes of web, I’m not seeing the lighting we had last time. The winds are higher this time around, but with a little luck the juice may stay on.

Wow, I go away for a few days and there’s over 300 posts alone in my rss reader’s “guns and libertarians” category.

Sarah Palin is the reason for many of these, and there’s been some gushing from both sides. Quotes like “even less experience”, “she’s a Heinlein character come to life”, “pandering to disgruntled Hillary supporters”, “Awesome”, “he is not thinking “outside the box,” as some have said. More like out of his mind.” Wow.

I particularly like the ones that compare Obama’s experience to Sarah Palin’s. I can’t wait until they go head to head in the debates. Oh wait.

There’s plenty of chatter about how Palin isn’t going to appeal to the far left PUMA faction, but those people completely miss the point. Flat out, Sarah Palin has got the bitter and clingy vote all wrapped up. If bitter/clingy is the new “soccer mom”, the race is over.

I remember what Kevin said last April about Obama’s biggest gaff:

…

Here, nobody saw anything wrong with what Obama said, in Hollywood, on Millionaire’s Row, at a $2,300-a-ticket fundraiser.

Mayhill Fowler didn’t.

Marc Cooper, editorial coordinator for Huffington Post didn’t.

Amanda Michel, another HuffPo editorial layer didn’t.

Editor Roy Sekoff didn’t.

Ariana Huffington herself didn’t.

But millions of Middle Americans did, and they’re not newspeople or politicians.

This was not a story dug up by Obama’s opposition, this was a story released by his supporters – none of whom recognized the bomb that Obama had built and that they were dropping.

…

It’s also worth noting that Marko got the VP prediction all wrong, both cases, and yet he also got one right.

… I mean, Hurricane Gustav just roared through, but when you google yourself up a New Orleans radio station’s website, and up in the “masthead” it’s got a logo that says “24/7 Internet Broadcast”, you would figure that when you click on that logo you somehow get a little closer to that stations streaming radio feed instead of getting referred back to that station’s home page.

Update:

http://www.fox8live.com/www/Video/wvuehigh.asx

local streaming TV – FOX 8 (opened okay for me in Kaffiene media player)