Letters... We Get Letters... (And MORE Pissin' & Moanin')

One of the greatest things about blogging... mebbe even the BEST thing, aside from the "unburdening"...  is the people ya meet and the friends ya make.  Every once in a while a total stranger will take the time to write and say nice things and those moments really DO brighten a blogger's day.  Like this:

Dear MSgt. Buck,

It is a pleasure to write to you for the first time.  My name is Michael and I am from Atlanta, GA.  The reason I am writing is because I just visited your blog "Exile in Portales" today.  It was my first time doing so and I am darn glad I did!!  To tell you the truth, I was mucking about on Google searching for cigar-related items and it directed me to your blog.  So far I have not had time to read all your postings but hopefully I will soon.

I understand you are an Air Force vet and that your sons are in the "family business."  One of my uncles served in Vietnam with the Army and my granduncle was in the Pacific during WWII so my colors run deep.  I just want to say "thanks" for serving our country and I truly mean it.

Now back to cigars -- I am a fellow cigar man myself and have done so for eleven years.  My granduncle loved cigars and when he visited my late aunt he would always have one in his mouth.  I finally had my first one when I was eighteen and so far I LOVE it!!  Every time I have a good cigar I always think of him.

Thank you for your attention and I wish you a good day.

Isn't that nice?  (And I've been known to accept bribes, too)

―:☺:―

Now about that "unburdening"... there's this from an exchange I just had with an Occasional Correspondent:

I'd take a day or three of your rain and so would everyone here on THPoNM.  We are drier than dry and lost another 45K acres to wildfires this weekend.  It's getting beyond obnoxious.

On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 9:54 AM, (Occasional Correspondent) wrote:

(me, quoted) Happy Monday!  I'm ready to kill someone or break something... the damned wind, like that dog, just won't QUIT.  Note: (snipped)

You just made me really laugh.  Out loud.  I’d almost trade you some wind for the rain that Just Will Not Stop.  I think I’m starting to grow webs between my toes.

I exaggerated the size of this weekend's fire... it was only 25K acres.  From our local rag:

Officials estimate a fire Saturday on the Curry and Quay county line burned 20,000 to 25,000 acres.

Karen Burns with the Clovis Fire Department said the number is a rough estimate and officials will get a better figure in daylight.

Five structures were burned but there were no injuries, she said, with 22 fire departments fighting the blaze from Curry, Quay and Roosevelt counties and West Texas.

[...]

While the blaze was at its peak, with vortexes that rose as high as 40 feet, Jones said officials closed State Roads 268, which runs north of Melrose, and 288 which runs east and west to intersect with State Road 209.

Still, 20~25K acres and a home or two ain't no small potatoes.  We continue to labor under these same conditions today, i.e., high winds, high temps, and low humidity...

I know: bitch, bitch, bitch.

(CNJ staff photo: Sharna Johnson)

Good To Go!

I'm just in from the day's errands, chief among which was an appointment with my eye surgeon for a routine follow-up just to "make sure" there are no issues that would prevent tomorrow's scheduled surgery.  I received a clean bill o' health and a cheery "See Ya tomorrow!" from Dr. Watterberg.

We are MOST pleased.  So is Dr Watterberg, for that matter... and she told me so.  Did I ever tell ya she's VERY good at what she does?  No?  Well, I'm tellin' ya now... and this IS an endorsement.

―:☺:―

I returned from The Big(ger) City™ via Cannon Airplane Patch, where I got my tri-annual  haircut, did some light shopping, yadda, yadda.  My route back to P-Ville took me through part of the area that burned off in yesterday's fire and I am MOST amazed a lot o' people didn't lose their homes.  That was one hella fire from the looks o' things.  An immediate and most obvious result of the fire is an absolutely incredible amount of dust... the worst I've seen in the eight-plus years I've lived here on The High Plains of New Mexico.  The wind is up again today and the blowing dust reduced visibility to about a half-mile or less on parts of NM 467.  It's pretty danged bad out there.

New To Me

Another tsunami video, courtesy of The Mayor.

New Shocking Video Of The Japanese Tsunami by timbarracuda

It's like the whole damned Pacific Ocean dropped in with evil on its mind.  My feeble lil brain just can't grasp the magnitude of this catastrophe, even with the evidence right before my eyes.

True

There are other and similar 'toons at the usual source.  Apropos of the situation in Japan... The Second Mrs. Pennington sends this along:

Last night Junko said that in Tokyo they are having rolling blackouts, gas rationing, and food is being bought up to the point there are no eggs. 

There are things one doesn't hear on the news, aren't there?  I haven't turned my teevee on as of yet this morning so I'm unaware of overnight developments at the Fukushima nuclear plant.  One continues to pray and send our best thoughts to Japan.

Tsunami Relief

The Air Force and the Navy are stepping up in a BIG way... from the AFA's Daily Report:

Airmen Press On with Japan Relief Efforts: The Air Force has delivered 107.5 tons of relief supplies and emergency equipment to Japan since last week's earthquake and tsunami pummeled northern Japan. USAF tankers have offloaded more than 29,900 gallons of fuel to keep the aerial lifeline going, reported the Wall Street Journal, citing Air Mobility Command sources. Five days after tides raced across the tarmac at Japan's Sendai Airport at the tsunami's epicenter on March 11, special tactics airmen from Kadena Air Base on Okinawa succeeded in clearing the airport's runway for use as a staging area, with an MC-130H making the first landing on Wednesday. HH-60 crews flying from Yokota Air Base near Tokyo aided in establishing a forward refueling area at Yamagata Airfield near the disaster zone to facilitate the quick turnaround of US and Japanese search and rescue helicopters. While aiding the Japanese, Yokota and Misawa Air Base are still recovering from the earthquake. C-130 and C-17 airlifters earlier this week delivered 19 generators to Misawa to restore power there. (See our earlier coverage) (AFPS report by Cheryl Pellerin) (Kadena release) (Kadena report by TSgt. Aaron Cram) (Yokota release)

From the linked American Forces Press Services release:

WASHINGTON, March 16, 2011 – Fourteen U.S. Navy ships and their aircraft and 17,000 sailors and Marines are now involved in the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts in Japan, a Defense Department spokesman said here today.

Marine Corps Col. Dave Lapan said the military effort has included 113 helicopter sorties and 125 fixed-wing sorties, moving people and supplies, helping in search and rescue efforts, and delivering 129,000 gallons of water and 4,200 pounds of food.

The USS Tortuga, with heavy-lift MH-53 helicopters aboard, has completed loading 273 Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force troops, 93 vehicles and equipment for delivery tomorrow in Onimato, he said.

The USS Blue Ridge, the command ship for Navy Vice Adm. Scott R. Van Buskirk, commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet, is scheduled to arrive tomorrow and is expected to remain in the area, Lapan said.

The USS Essex, USS Harpers Ferry and the USS Germantown -- with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard -- “will remain on the western side [of Honshu] rather than transit around to the east because of the at-sea debris field and the radiation hazard,” he added.

The hazard was created by tsunami damage to reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Some Navy airmen and sailors participating in relief missions off the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan were exposed in the past few days to low-level radiation, and 17 crew members underwent decontamination procedures, Lapan said.

The Reagan and its escort ships have moved north, but remain in the vicinity, he said.

I laughed last year when the Navy changed their motto from whatever it used to be ("Row, Row, Row Yer Boat?") to the current "A Global Force For Good." I'm thinkin' no one in northeast Japan is laughing at that motto this week. This is yet another case of the US military stepping up... within hours... to help the unfortunate of the world, no matter where they may be. We're like that.

It's Always SUMTHIN', Part IX

Pretty soon we'll have all our major systems replaced here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington, as it seems like I'm running out of things that break and/or wear out.  Last night it was our furnace... the blower motor quit blowing.  And the blower motor is indeed gone, as verified by Andy the RV Doctor a few minutes ago.  I suppose this sorta thing is to be expected, as nothing is forever... especially where machines are concerned.  The good news is the furnace should be repaired by tomorrow evening.  The BEST news is the furnace waited to fail until the weather warmed up considerably.

But Hey!  This is all small stuff compared to events elsewhere in the world, eh?

―:☺:―

Speaking of those events... Blog-Bud Deb sends along a link to a NY Times feature with a series of before and after satellite images of the Japan tsunami devastation.  A couple o' screen caps:

Before

After

What makes these images unusual is you can slide the cursor over the images for the before and after contrast.  I'm still having difficulty comprehending the extent of the damage; the continuing teevee coverage of this event has been heartbreaking.

Honor

Occasional Reader Rob sends along a link to an article in The Telegraph (UK) titled "Why is there no looting in Japan?"  An excerpt:

The landscape of parts of Japan looks like the aftermath of World War Two; no industrialised country since then has suffered such a death toll. The one tiny, tiny consolation is the extent to which it shows how humanity can rally round in times of adversity, with heroic British rescue teams joining colleagues from the US and elsewhere to fly out.

And solidarity seems especially strong in Japan itself. Perhaps even more impressive than Japan’s technological power is its social strength, with supermarkets cutting prices and vending machine owners giving out free drinks as people work together to survive. Most noticeably of all, there has been no looting, and I’m not the only one curious about this.

The answer is simple, really.  The Japanese have a culture of honor, a culture where the concept of "shame" still has meaning.  It's actually beyond meaning, it's a way of life.  One simply doesn't do something/anything that would bring dishonor on one's family or close associates.  In public, anyway, private behavior can be quite another story altogether.  There are exceptions to the honor code on the fringes of Japanese society... every culture has its outliers... and crime most certainly exists.  But the national fabric is very much on display in this case of extreme adversity.

Disagree?  Want to amplify on my comments (and they prolly require amplification; we are ALL about brevity in these pages)?  I welcome your opinion and/or discussion, as long as it's civil.

I Can't Look Away

Longtime Gentle Readers (all three of ya) know that I have an affinity for Japan, what with having spent nearly five years of my life there... arguably the best parts of what passes for a life, too.  Said affinity makes it incredibly difficult and painful for me to watch the horrendous images and stories of the earthquake/tsunami unfold on my teevee, yet I can't look away.  I was pretty much glued to the tube for the whole weekend, or at least until that point in time when CNN began to repeat themselves, as they invariably had to do.  I still can't seem to get my head around the sheer magnitude of the devastation: entire TOWNS erased from the face of the earth; a 30-foot wall of sea water racing three miles inland; thousands dead.  It's nearly incomprehensible.

On a personal note... The Second Mrs. Pennington advises me that our/her friend Junko and her family (who are in Tokyo) are all OK.  Life in Tokyo is pretty much day-to-day, except for the 300 planned rolling blackouts.  Which brings up the possibility of melt-downs at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant but I don't wanna go there.

Let's go here, instead... a couple of pics from Former Happy Days... in Tokyo, 1991:

TSMP and her best friend Junko

YrHmblScrb at bedtime 

More and similar photos here.

From NOAA

A stunning graphic of tsunami wave-heights from last night's Japanese earthquake, as captioned at NOAA's web site:

Tsunami Wave Height Model Shows Pacific-Wide Impact

Model runs from the Center for Tsunami Research at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory show the expected wave heights of the tsunami as it travels across the Pacific basin. The largest wave heights are expected near the earthquake epicenter, off Japan. The wave will decrease in height as it travels across the deep Pacific but grow taller as it nears coastal areas. In general, as the energy of the wave decreases with distance, the near shore heights will also decrease (e.g., coastal Hawaii will not expect heights of that encountered in coastal Japan).The second image shows the depth of the Pacific Ocean floor. Notice the similarity between areas of low wave height and deeper areas of the ocean.An animated view can be seen here.

The legend only goes to 240cm, which is roughly seven and three-quarters feet.  We KNOW the tsunami that wrecked the coast at Sendai and beyond was much higher than that.

Disaster

I'm up at this hour and watching coverage of the horrendous news from Japan.  It looks like the Tokyo area hasn't been hit hard by the earthquake, variously reported as either an 8.9 (CNN) or 8.4 (NHK).  I have CNN on my teeve and NHK World streaming video on my PC.  The tsunami damage in Sendai is extensive, with the airport completely engulfed and a lot of farmland completely inundated.  The live video coverage has been extensive and quite good, as far as production values go.  I've never seen live footage of a tsunami before and the effect of the wave is mind-boggling.  The damage is going to run into the billions of dollars, the human toll is largely unknown at this point.

I watched the Japanese prime minister's brief comments a short while ago, and the good news is there is no damage or incidents at Japan's many nuclear power plants.

Well, damn.  NHK's stream just went down; I imagine their servers are getting hammered or perhaps they've lost power.

My best wishes go out to the Japanese people.

This Just In...

"This" meaning me, as in just in from running the day's errands.  I broke a vow of sorts by going to Wally-World on a Saturday and it was a zoo, as it always is on the weekends.  But we had pent-up demand because we stayed indoors during our recent... ummm... cold snap, if you can call sub-zero wind-chills a "snap."  I used to enjoy going to the zoo once upon a time but that was a zoo of an entirely different sort.  Well, I suppose that's open to debate...

One of our local radio stations had a van set up in the parking lot and was blaring music out for the entertainment of Wally-Worlders as I arrived on the scene.  I had to laugh at the logo on the side of the van as I walked by... "ALL the greatest hits!"... boogieing as I was to the sounds of the Beach Boys singing "I Get Around."  Yup, all the greatest hits from damned near 50 years ago.  I looked around the parking lot and observed not one single soul who possibly could have been alive when "I Get Around" was in the Top 40.  Except for me, of course.  It sucks when the Oldies station plays music the deejays spun as you waltzed around your high school gym...

 Then

Now

We could be doin' an outdoor Happy Hour today as it's 63 degrees outside, as we speak.  But I don't wanna, sez my Inner Child... mainly because I DON'T want to look at the much-too-slowly thawing ice lake (see above) that would be close to hand as we sat on the verandah.  Out of sight is out of mind, if you concentrate.

Concentration would be required, too, as the memory of hauling six gallons of water in from the outdoor tap is still fresh in my mind.  It's amazing how much water is required to do a small sink full of dishes, consisting mainly of three coffee cups, three beer glasses, and assorted dishes, plates, and silverware.  It will also be amazing if I don't succumb to food poisoning over the next few as I've resolved to rinse out each glass and cup immediately after using said vessel.  We WILL economize on dish soap, however... not to mention the fact we'll be eating out a lot more than usual, too.

And so it goes.

Damn Part II, or Worse Than I Thought

I didn't go out yesterday.  There was no need as I was stocked up on all the important stuff and it was just too damned cold out, anyhoo.  But I did order a pizza last evening.   As I was taking delivery I happened to look down, upon which time I scared the livin' Hell out of the pizza guy with my very emphatic and menacing "FUCK!" exclamation.  He stepped back a bit, still clutching the pizza box and looked at me with a wide-eyed "fight or flight" expression, the best I've seen lately.  "It's not YOU," sez I... "it's THAT!"  And this is what I saw:

It looks for all the world like I have a busted water line and it looks pretty bad, don't it?  So, whereas I THOUGHT our freeze-up yesterday morning was my fault for not leaving the tap running, it wasn't.  It was something one whole helluva lot worse.

Andy the RV Doctor will be dropping by for a house call tomorrow, once it warms up and we can see exactly where and how bad the break is.  

Sigh.  It's always SUMTHIN'.

Our New Ice Age

Occasional Correspondent Lin sends along a link to a Daily Mail article that features this photo as its lede:

The Mail sez...

The image was released by the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Association (NOAA) on the day half of North America was in the grip of a severe winter storm.

The map was created using multiple satellites from government agencies and the US Air Force.

The Mail also has quotes from AlGore claiming that yes, all this snow IS due to AGW.  What a prat he is.  But, that said... and it's a given... the article also has some pretty cool winter weather pics if your winter reality ain't good enough for ya.  The salient point: it sucks to live in Chicago.

Moving Day

Well, I have to check out of my semi-posh digs in a lil over an hour, so there's just enough time to get one last looong shower (unlimited hot water, yanno?) (when there IS hot water) (which, to the HIE's credit was all but seven hours of my approximately 90 hour stay), pack, and hide the bodies.  We're up to 22 degrees at this hour, on our way to a whopping 38... which will be the first time we'll find ourselves above freezing since Monday afternoon.  We are grateful for small favors.

We'll be back a lil later today, hopefully without tales o' woe concerning the state of El Casa Móvil De Pennington.  That said, I'm prepared for any and all eventualities.  Coz I'm good like that.

Update, 1130 hrs:  Well, we have water:

Sorta.  My water line to the coach is free and we have COLD water... but no hot water... in the kitchen, and nothing in the bathroom.

Worse... everything that COULD freeze DID freeze.  Even my soap:

The furnace didn't reset during my absence... as I figured it mightn't... and it is freakin' COLD inside El Casa.  The furnace is blowing hot air now and we should be back to some semblance of normal within an hour or two.  

In the words of John Howard Payne:  "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."

It's Not ALL Beer 'n' Skittles at the Holiday Inn Express

There's been no hot water all day and the public spaces are very cold, with the front desk staff all bundled up in coats and such.  It seems the central boiler system went on the fritz and an emergency call has been placed to the contractor.  My room is all cozy warm because all the rooms have an individual heating/AC unit... but we would like a shower.  The prognosis ain't all that rosy, tho.  The front desk lady told me "We hope to have it fixed today."  Well, I hope so too.

Speaking of showers and such... we've prolly spent an aggregate six hours soaking in the tub since our arrival here at the HIE.  This one fact is edging me ever closer to a fixed address with amenities I've lived without for too long now.

More of the Same

That cartoon guy should be sayin' "My Buddy Ed In Florida," not "brother" and we don't have very much snow.  Other than that, the sentiment is apropos because the cold is the story... from the Portales News-Tribune:

National Weather Service meteorologist Annette Mokry said the high in the Portales area Wednesday was 8 degrees, breaking the record for Feb. 2 lowest maximum temperature, 21 degrees, set in 1996.

Mokry said Wednesday night was expected to have a low of 7 degrees below zero, and a wind chill advisory for the Eastern Plains would remain in effect until 10 a.m. Thursday.

We prolly made that low... it was five below when I turned in last night and about the same when I woke up just before 0900 this morning.  I get the print version of the local rag courtesy of the HIE and the weather has been front-page news for the last few days.  This really is extraordinary.

This is more extraordinary, though:

Portales Police Deputy Chief Lonnie Berry also said there hadn’t been many wrecks, but power outages were giving officers a lot of work. When stoplights went out, officers had to direct traffic until temporary measures such as stop signs were put up, and then monitor the intersections.

Both Parker and Berry said their officers check on frail or elderly residents during power outages.

Berry said his department was preparing locations to shelter people in case of power outages Wednesday night.

[...]

Power went off but soon came back on at Portales Junior High and Lindsey-Steiner Elementary schools, he said. The electricity at Brown Early Childhood Center was out for an extended period of time, however.

Fowler said Brown had problems with spikes in power coming into the building before school started on a two-hour delay. Classes were canceled, and Fowler said all students were back with their parents by 11:30 a.m.

Way t'go, Xcel... you asshats.  One wonders how Xcel Energy would handle something like an ice storm or a similar emergency.  There have been more than a few way too damned many power outages in the city over the past several days and it's just been cold; we haven't had an ice storm or any other catastrophic event.  The power situation here is nothing other than ridiculous... we won't mention life threatening. 

Weirdness in a Couple o' Flavors

Forgive us our preoccupation with the weather, Gentle Reader.  I, speaking as a majority of one, feel quite like I'm overcome with a mild form of temporary insanity.  We're just past the noon hour and only recently nudged ourselves over the zero degree F mark, and only by two insignificant ticks of the thermometer.  The wind is still doin' her wild banshee act and the windchill effect makes outdoor activities of any sort problematic if not life-threatening.  That's NOT hyperbole.

Here's a view of the tundra-like landscape from my hotel room window:

Dang.  You'd think we were in Irkutsk or something.  Not that I've ever been there... but Siberia does come to mind.

Speaking of minds... it works in weird ways.  For some strange reason I've had this stupid '80s techno-pop confection running through my brain ever since I opened the curtains this morning:

"View from a bridge" (the song) isn't anything like a view from my window (the reality) nor is it a "view from the fridge" (a former reality, in a manner of speaking).  I told ya the mind works in strange ways, didn't I? 

I mentioned late last night I was gonna have to go over to El Casa Móvil De Pennington to check on things and stuff, retrieve some beer, yadda, yadda.  But I can't make myself do it.  Nope, we will not venture out in two-degree weather with unholy and gawd-awful wind chills.  Life isn't at stake here, no one is gonna die if I don't go out.  So I won't.  "And you can't MAKE me," adds my Inner Child.

This Is More Fun Than I Want

I'm about to declare this to be the worst winter in P-Ville, ever.  I know it beats anything I've seen in the eight years I've been here... including a record low temp for yesterday's date, to wit:

There's not much doubt we'll set another record for February 1, too.  This is what the conditions were at 2135 this evening:

I did a screen cap at that time because that's when the power came back on... after a three hour outage.  It was about five degrees when we lost power, with winds in the 30 mph range.  Even well-insulated buildings cool off pretty quickly in those conditions.  I was wonderin' if the power was ever gonna come back about midway into the second hour.

The power outage also means I'll have to mosey over to El Casa Móvil De Pennington sometime tomorrow to reset the furnace.  I'm not looking forward to that lil adventure, believe me, and I'm a lil bit apprehensive about what I'll find.  The ol' RV has never spent a sub-zero night without heat before; The Deity At Hand only knows what interesting things I'll find.  But Hey!  I need to fetch more beer and cigars, anyway.  I've already consumed what I thought was gonna be a three-day supply of both.

As I said in the title: this is more fun than I wanna be havin'. 

Not To Flog a Dead Horse, But...

Baby, it's cold outside.  Everywhere.

Home Sweet Home

So we're safely ensconced at the Holiday Inn Express, kicked back, enjoyin' a Sammy Adams Winter Lager (which is actually a bock, but who's counting?) and a Drew Estates Dirt Torpedo, while patiently awaiting Pizza The Hut to arrive with dinner, supposedly within the hour.  Because they ARE busy tonite.

I was pleasantly surprised when the desk clerk asked me if I wanted "smoking? or non-?" this afternoon, laboring as I am under the impression that ALL hotel chains in these United States surrendered to the anti-smoking Nazis long ago.  Well, surprise.  HIE didn't run up the white flag and we are most pleased.  They will get my future bid'niz when I'm either (a) driven out of house and home by Ol' Man Winter or (b) find myself in a strange city for no apparent reason.  Huzzah, and all that.

I thought I did a pretty good job of packing for my short stay, remembering my meds, the Kindle, the charger for my cell phone, the cigar cutter, a three-day supply of beer, yadda, yadda.  And clothes.  Can't forget those.  But there's always sumthin', no?  In this case it's a bottle opener, as the beer I drink does NOT come in twist-cap bottles.  HIE to the rescue, again.  There was a bottle opener at the front desk and it was put in my hot lil hand minutes ago with instructions to return it "when you're done."

That might be a while.  Life is good.  And warm.