Way too late for me. Golf maņana.

 

Good morning everyone.

Rain has been in full swing for the past 18 hours here. Not too heavy, but persistent. No wind yet, but it's coming. I think I'd rather have rain than wind. The news people around here tend to be alarmists and over predict what's going to happen, but if things are half as bad as they say it won't be any picnic.

I'm related to Clark of Lewis and Clark. I used to work with a guy names Lewis who was related to Lewis of L&C. I worked with him a lot because the lead thought it was funny that when we worked together we were Lewis and Clark.

Mom used to live in Avon Park. Talk about the middle of nowhere. There's a boat show in Mt. Dora that I've wanted to go to, but it's always when I'm in Australia. The Amphicars have crashed the show for years. I'm not sure the people that put the boat show on are all that happy about it, we just started showing up one year.

"Reduced" number at work today. It's the regular number except in the summer when they inflate it because of the summer schedule. The retriever was broke a lot of yesterday, plant maintenance said they'd fix it for good after we went home. We'll see how they did.

Okay gotta prepare for wheels. Ya I got awhile. Hope everyone has a good day and no storms in your life.

 

Hi.guys,

Wife's surgery this morning. Had to be up at O-dark-thirty to be here at the hospital at 0530. This should not be a difficult procedure and we should be home before noon. Will update you all later.

Have a great day!

 

A Grub? WTH was I thinking? Actually, I couldn't muster up the word I was attempting to describe his role, but one minute after I turned off the computer it dawned on me - I think a "scout" would be appropriate.

 

Mike - They fix the retriever?
Chris - Hope surgery goes w/o a hitch.

 

Thanks Norm! We're still in her surgical waiting room. Anesthesiologist has been in, still waiting on her Surgeon to drop in. They should be taking her back to surgery within the half hour. Hurry up and wait. You know the drill.

 

I believe they fixed it just in time for break. All this equipment is over 30 years old. It must be worth it to the company to have continual down time and repairs rather than to replace it.

Chris I must be recalcitrant but I completely missed that your wife was having surgery today. Hope it's nothing serious. Best wishes for her procedure and recovery.

So far just light rain. Maybe I'll fire up the big truck when I get home just in case of severe destruction, that way I can still get around. Not sure I could get Mom or Tiger for that matter up in the cab in case we needed to bug out. I am going to ditch the convertible in favor of the pickup. I still haven't figured out what his problem was last week but I have my friend's scanner, I'll just carry it with me, and if it goes into limp mode I'll clear the code right then.

Errands after work. Maybe.

 

Thanks Mike! Non-cancer related (at least that we know of) procedure associated with middle aged female issues. It should not be complicated or dangerous.

So much for Best Laid Plans though, her OB/GYN/Surgeon was called away to deliver a baby right before they were going to wheel my wife back. Not too bad a delay though, it was only about a 30 to 40-minute delay. She was taken back to surgery about 15-minutes ago.

 

Helene wind gusts at landfall estimated 150mph - 162mph (currently 105mph sustained expected to increase to 120mph at landfall)
Pressure dropped to 960mb (28.35"Hg, 13.9psi)

Tee-time 12:30pm

 

Ya, Helene is looking ugly, I'm seeing predictions of storm surge of 15 to 20ft.

 

Hi guys,

We are home from my wife's surgery. It all went well and she's doing fine. Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers they were all very much appreciated!

 

Good news! Now the puppies can help her get better!

 

Good to hear that it went well.

 

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your caring and support!

 

I bought one of these so the older dog could get into the back of the Jeep. It folds in half and I was able to stash it behind the drivers seat with a strap to keep it from falling over.

 

That's a good idea Kenneth, but the Deuce is about twice as tall as the car in the picture. I wouldn't want Tiger to ride in that anyway, it's just too darn loud.

We did about 80 wheels today. Not 132. The retriever kept breaking, and one of the robots was broke for awhile. The lead seemed nonplussed. We're working both Saturday and Sunday so that should help.

We're supposed to have 80 mile an hour wind until 8 tomorrow morning. The lead says we're working. But if we can't get in safely then don't try. Hm. I think Hurricane Stockbridge is going to spin up over night.

 

Chris - Happy to hear surgery went well.
Mike - Dollars to donuts your lead is a no-show tomorrow. Surprised he didn't instruct everyone to remain on-site & sleep in the hangar tonight (except him, of course). So much for the notion "...plant maintenance said they'd fix it for good after we went home."

 

There's a product for every situation.

 

Thanks Norm, I really appreciate your support, it means alot!

 

A long day I'll bet. Before I left to play golf I think they were finally getting to the point of rolling her into the surgical suite ~0830 I think? Yeah, that's a long day to get up, get ready, drive to hospital to be there by 5:30am, delay for a child birth. A rather stressful roller coaster ride - y'all will sleep well tonight.

 

Yes, it has been a long day, and we certainly should sleep well tonight! Glad that damn alarm clock won't be going off at 0400 again, that was like a bad flashback to when I had to do real work.

 

Helene
942 mb (27.82 inches)
Tropical Storm winds outwards to 310 miles
Cat 4, possible Cat 5 by landfall
Sustained winds of 130 mph gusts of 160 mph

 

I've set this GOES SAT to 48 hrs. Give it ~30 seconds to transfer data. Likely hundreds of thousands of users downloading this SAT loop.

https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOE...ength=48&dim=1

 

That looks incredibly cool, but not after you think about the devastation it's going to cause! My prayers for anyone who has loved ones in peril because of it.

 

That's an impressive storm and an impressive satellite.

I drove the truck to the polebarn and checked it out. I then drove the truck to the storage units and parked. Fired up the van. It is driving ok. I think it needs the planned tuneup. Drove it around some, parked in the polebarn next to my Monte Carlo. Walked to storage units, got truck, went home.

 

John - Glad you were able to get your vehicles moved to where you want them. You may need to get your future outbuilding on a fastrack plan???

 

I used to fish Cedar Key, FL (~once/month over 5 years), I've SCUBA cavern dived Genny Springs, Crystal Springs, canoed each river in & around Big Bend, FL including the Suwanee, blah, blah, blah. The saving grace about Big Bend is it is located on the North side of Apalachee Bay & is a "region" with very few towns and a very limited population. Think of a large swamp/marshland which extends from the coastline about 40 miles>50 miles inland about 60 miles in diameter. You need hip waders to walk through it - e.g. dismal swampland. The direct hit which should occur in about 20' - 30' will be absolutely devastating. Storm surge of most likely 20' above ground will rush in at least 60 miles - 70 miles inland. Anyone who lives there has hopefully evacuated. Tallahassee, is going to be devastated. I'm sure the hospitals, nursing homes, etc. have removed all residents/patients by now. I just looked at that updated satellite loop I posted above - looks like landfall is ~ 10' away. Flora/Fauna are like - WTF!

 

I just looked up high tide for Big Bend, FL. High tide is ~12:00AM. High Tide @ Big Bend is ~3.1' above MSL. Water which normally weighs 8.5 lbs/gallon @ 14.7" psi (1013 mb, 29.92"Hg) @ MSL will be far less dense @ 13.9" psi (960 mb, 28.35"Hg) meaning its far easier to raise a column of water and move larger more massive amounts water. Considering high tide is coming in, this means water will move further inland but then get trapped in the reverse outgoing tide as the water moves back out to sea. There's likely a far greater possibility bridges/roads collapsing from the outgoing tide as it rushes nearly all at once back out into the Gulf.

 

Yes , happy to hear the surgery went well also. Today it,s time for water training and i.m looking forward to it

 

Good morning everyone.

It's rained for two days. When I got in the car to go to Mom's, the hurricane was a Cat 1. After I took Tiger in the house and got back in the car, it was a tropical storm. Either way we've had a **** load of rain. We didn't get wind at my house as was predicted, which is fine with me. Now the weather person says it will be all over by 8am.

Norm I had the exact same thought. If he doesn't come in, what little respect I may still have for him will go right out the window. There were guys that came in from quite a ways away at 4, and there are several people in my area here now and we all live well farther south than the lead. If he's a no-show I'd be inclined to say something.

Chris hope you guys had a good night. It can be tough sleeping well after surgery. When I had my hip surgery I would sleep all day, then be wide awake all night, then get to sleep around 5 and then sleep all day again. The doctor gave me (I don't remember if it was oxycodone or oxycontin) and it made me sleepy. Once or twice I'd take it to help me sleep, even though I didn't have pain. I realized real quick that's a trap I didn't want to fall into. But I felt great when I woke up.

Glenn what is water training? Swimming lessons? Skiing lessons?

Kenneth you're awesome. Was it you telling me about some stuff that I could give Tiger to stop him from scratching? It's that time of year, and he needs some relief. I don't know what to give him. I thought about spraying some cortisone spray on his underside, but I'm afraid it would be toxic to him. Been that route with my boy years ago. I'd use permethrin to ward off ticks, and it gave him cancer.

We should take bets on how long it will take for the retriever to break down. It's easy for someone who is serious about his job to get up tight about the shortcomings around here. But you know what, it's out of my control. I'll just wait it out.

Hope everyone has a good day.

 

Hi Mike , it is training in warm water for my bad knees . Hope you have a good day also

 

Well I would have lost that bet. The lead actually showed up. Of course we don't have any work to do. I heard on the way in we've cancelled 110 flights so far. That number will go up so if the planes don't fly, they don't need wheels. He said we're going to do what we can.

Glenn will this include some sort of exercises when you're in the warm water? My knees get creeky sometimes. Really all I need is a hot tub. I'd never leave the house.

 

Glenn - Thanks for the well wishes for my wife, much appreciated. I had the same question about the "water training", but Mike beat me to it. We would call it a type Physical Therapy (PT) over here. I hope it helps with your pain and increases your mobility. I am starting Physical Therapy for my bad shoulder next week.

 

Hi , yes it is exercise to music in the warm water and I like it. Hope this will help a little .

 

Ray - How'd you make out at your Florida home w/ Helene?

 

Hi guys,

I'm not complaining after what's happened to all those poor folks in Florida, Georgia, and NC, but we've been getting hammered all morning with heavy, heavy rain and 20 - 25mph winds. I'm sure at least one or both of our routes out to a primary road are underwater. Good news is they usually don't stay flooded long after the rain stops. The rain is supposed to continue to be heavy here thru 7 - 8pm this evening. I've seen a death toll as high as 21 so far for those areas hit hardest by Helene which is horrible.

 

I was on one of those local News/Weather "Live" YouTube streaming videos this morning. Those things are weird. Not only were the local (Atlanta) weather forecasters deplorable (every other word was catastrophic, absolutely, completely, unbelievable) involving themselves with minor flooding (thus far) and street closures (thus far) and several downed trees (thus far), but the YouTube viewers were really weird. Some of the most outrageous comments i.e. hot chick, bend over, let's see 'em, what a rack, Jesus Loves You, flushing sins of the devil, my vagina is dry how about Atlanta? I'm smoking a Burrito Blunt. Insane. Many/Most claiming there's no flooding, it'll all be gone, life back to normal in 2 hours. I lasted about 15 minutes and was out of there.

I did notice how many of them including most of the weather personnel thought the flooding would subside by this evening. I'm thinking to myself - I think the real flooding has just begun and will continue well into and become much worse the tomorrow afternoon once all that rain starts moving through the rivers, tributaries & watersheds. Maybe not - but I'm thinking the flooding is far from over.

 

Agree, many areas will get worse before they get better.

 

Norm when I started reading I thought you were saying you were being interviewed by a news person on a live stream report. Then you said all the people on there were weird. I thought that was odd you'd call yourself weird.

Anyway I think I got the gist of it. You were watching a news feed, and the people making the comments were weird. I don't know how you lasted 15 minutes.

We're at 86 so far for the day. It isn't going to go much higher. Pitiful. We haven't had a normal day since that accident and that's been a couple weeks. I don't see this ending comfortably.

 

My father's late best friend and my godfather Phil, once he had a beer or two, could do a dead-on Jim Cantore impersonation, complete with wind-lean and holding up hand to block rain.