@QMS
They should have made for the Marquesas. But they were, ironically, afraid of cannibalism. I'm reading another book about HMS Wager and what happened to them. Learning about what it was like to go around the horn in the 1750s or so... DANG!

.

glad to hear you have survived the storms so far
it sounds a bit hairy

Read the Essex novel a few years back, being interested in
maritime history. The biggest takeaway for me was how the
mate made really bad decisions to head west in the lifeboat
rather than heading east to Chile after being attacked by the whale.
Against currents and a further distance to boot. Not smart. Plus he
lost more crew in the process. Ah well. The path of least resistance
is usually better in my experience. 50,000 nautical miles teaches
one certain lessons.

Thanks for the OT!

@Lookout
We basically try to keep everything all charged up. I hate oil lanterns, but the freshly charged battery on our light had run down after a few hours, so we lit up the lanterns.

We had more wind and rain last night, but the power stayed on! It's weird going from drought for most of the year, to more rain that we normally get in December.

I hate long outages. I'm glad you haven't had one for a while. When I first moved here, there was an outage that lasted two or three weeks. It was because transformers blew up in a windstorm (of course) and no-one in the USA made parts for these old transformers anymore. The parts had to come from Russia! Luckily, the cold war was ending by then. Sheez.

Look like y'all are still in an atmospheric river. Keep the hatches battened.

Little battery power stations sure are handy during outages. I bought a small one recently for $150. I also have a larger one down by the freezer and floor heat system. Fortunately it has been awhile since we had a long outage.

Keep your head down and weather the storms! Thanks for the OT.

@usefewersyllables
dang. Dang! I'm glad the power stayed on. Your tales of DIA are spot on. I can remember flying in there during a normal day and it was still windy! Hah.

Here in the PacNW we are having trouble because there is (or was, that might have changed in the last couple of days) little snowpack in the mountains. Basically late fall and early winter have been way too warm. Today, however, we are down to 42 here, so I'm pretty sure it's snowing up in the mountains. And that will help stop the flooding since snow stores water much longer. And might even help with finally ending the drought!

Have a great weekend!

throughout the windstorm, so that is a good thing. They even shut down DIA for a while at the peak of it, so that was downright breezy even halfway to Kansas.

Officially, DIA's highest wind gust was 58. But just couple miles west of there, at Rocky Flats, a gust of 106 was recorded. They often underreport wind strength at the airport, to keep the airlines happy- everybody already knows that flying into Denver is a turbulencepalooza even on a clear, still day. So, your guess is as good as mine.

The biggest effect locally was that all the snow-melt salt blew off the sidewalks. Made it look like somebody took a broom to them overnight. And there's a pile of leaves about 3 inches deep at our front door, which is in a little alcove here at the apartment complex. Funny...

High of 48 today, and back up into the upper 60s and even low 70s for the rest of the week. Winter in the Rockies- it is going to hurt, once it finally gets here...

@QMS
'International law, foundations and norms are a sham today.'

Exactly. Maybe they've always been a sham? Or, more likely, only parts were a sham. Now it all seems to be. BUT, we can celebrate at the 'new' Trump-Kennedy Center, right? Right? *gag*

As for what to do locally, I'll just keep growing food, do my best to educate and be educated, share books... I doubt it helps much but, whatever!

.
rhymes with New Orleans, memes and dreams.

Just for the 'political' themes,
something scrambling into the cranial cavity this AM

International law, foundations and norms are a sham today.
Between the EU attempting to steal Russian assets, US flexing
military dominance in the Caribbean and Israel destroying the concept
of peace in the middle east, we have entered into a civilizational unbalance.

While billionaires load space with cosmic debris, earth bound populations
suffer from scarcity and climate upheaval. What kind of deal is this? Not good
for the masses, for sure. What can a humble dweller do to improve our lot?
Perhaps an internal resolve is the best reaction to circumstances.

Worthy of consideration perhaps. Weigh-in if you care to.
Q

@fire with fire
Those spots happen a lot around here, so many valleys, and mountains. Maybe that makes microweather happen at your place? Here in the Seattle area, the forecast for Seattle never matches the rest of the area. But that's what we see on TV, the radio and so on.

I'm glad you got power back and sorry you were at the edge of the gale force winds. As I know, that situation sucks!

I have a nerdish habit of checking the National weather Service website for a feature called Forecast Discussion. I don't follow some of the terminology, but I like to see the logic behind the forecast. Last night at about 6pm or so, I checked in to see if there was anything about the dry wind revving up in my neighborhood. There was a brief passage about the chance of breezy conditions -- nothing about damaging wind. At about 7:30 the lights went out as the wind howled on for another hour or so. But it stayed dark for seven hours.

At 7am I went to a grocery store to replace the ice cream that had melted. Life is all about priorities. I noticed that the streets and parking areas around the store had very little clutter from the wind, unlike the street where we live, cluttered with tree twigs and leaves and such.

Seems like I was on the unlucky edge of the gale force winds that knocked my neighborhood back to the 19th century.

TV news this morning covered a few isolated incidents of damage but there was no mention of any black out. I deduce micro weather from a big blow of wind. Trump strikes again.

@enhydra lutris

And I can't blame them. Which sounds strange, but living on the Puget Sound, learning of all the abuse the whales took (and take), I can't blame some of them for fighting back.

Glad you liked hearing the Fairytale of NY again. I too am not enamored of all the 'normal' Christmas songs, so I'm trying to highlight a few different ones.

We've got to do our last shopping tomorrow, or maybe this afternoon if we can get the driveway cleared in time. Dulche la Leche sounds good! Your neighbors are lucky!

The weather here hasn't been good, but it hasn't been aful, let along scary.

Read about the Essex more than once in various places and sources. One must expect that, whales aren't stupid, ya know. Makes me think of the Orcas that were attacking yachts in the Med, and, iirc, northern pacific.

Thanks for Fairytale of NY, first time I've herd it so far this season. Beats the shit out of most other xmas music, especially carols, especially in latin.
OTOH, there is this:

Just back from the last bit of shopping, raw matrials fof the jars of Dulce La Leche that the neighborw will be getting instead of the usual plate of cookies this year. Actually, a lot less work and much more treats per unit.

be well and have a good one