Didn’t take long to stop wondering what to write about today. The valley between Denver and Boulder is notorious for winds coming down el-Dorado canyon. It turned epic today, after fanning flames sparked by it’s own downed power lines(?). We’ll see how the investigation goes. How ironic just the other day, we jailed the truck driver who started the last big fire over there. This is happening between 10 and 20 miles SW of here and looking real bad:
Whole neighborhoods burned to the ground.
Not sure how it could happen in a populated area with big streets and open areas like this. There were gusts over 100mph recorded. Talk about bad timing. It’s certainly awful dry. Now it’s black instead of brown – not up in the mountain forests – neighborhoods in the suburbs. It’s being called a firestorm – like WWII Dresden or Tokyo.
After repeatedly railing about “the Chinese virus” in response to trade and transportation issues for months, this POS even had time to help organize a fucking coup. Should be interesting to watch which way they turn and how hard they fall as one-by-one, down they go.
No, not here – it’s been disturbingly warm and dry down here at the base of the mountains. But the resorts are open and snow is piling up. Last week was good for them. Hopefully it will continue and Colorado snow will return to being a “good” thing for everybody downstream.
I’ll never forget all the fun I used to have skiing.
In appropriate fashion, PBS and NASA teamed up to present the most comprehensive, information-filled launch coverage program ever. It’s a long sit for anyone not totally fascinated by space stuff like me, but the important part is pictured below. Webb Is up, looking good so far, representing a new, comprehensive, information-filled future for space explorers the world over:
A German company came up with this great invention for a portable heater that runs on 12 volts and diesel fuel back around the turn of the century. They became popular additions to many OTR trucks, RV’s and garages everywhere. Then the Chinese started mass producing them for half or less what the Germans did after the patent expired some years ago.
Having grown up in a house heated with firewood, I’m always curious about things like this. We’ve been using kerosene burners to supplement the furnace heat here at 5712 all along. The issue with them is they need relatively expensive K-1 kerosene. Burning anything heavier clogs up the wick real quick. I have over 40 gallons of waste motor oil (WMO) I’ve been saving for some reason, so the cheap Chinese diesel heater looks like an interesting possibility for recycling some petrochemicals.
Dedicated commercial-grade WMO burners for heating large spaces can be had for a few grand. They are too big and expensive for my hobby applications. Of course it would be inadvisable to burn straight WMO in the Webasto, but I’ve seen indications people are burning all sorts of crap in them with varying levels of success. The issue is similar to wickage clog in the primitive burners: gunk buildup.
I set up a filter rig for the WMO process a long time ago. It’s a 3-stage system that takes any liquid run through it down to <1um particulate content after a few passes – probably cleaner than new, except for the dark tint. It makes a great fuel add for the diesels, especially since low sulfur diesel started ruining all sorts of diesel engine components. Just needs the soot filtered out before using in the fuel, so as to not clog things up there. After retiring and sending the Common-rail Dodge off to Phoebe, my WMO use rate plummeted. Then last spring I noticed the WMO barrel was almost full. I bet mixing my pristine filtered WMO with diesel will yield an acceptably clean-burning ratio in the Webastos at some as-yet-unknown concentration.
I had an epiphany one day after watching a Youtube video about the Chinese Diesel heaters. Building code here requires indoor-installed forced air HVAC to have additional external ventilation. I guess it’s just a better-safe-than sorry approach to people who don’t maintain their equipment. One of the 1st things done after we moved in was to remove the basement furnace vents. I prefer a carbon monoxide detector to a cold basement. it’s normally a few degrees colder down there, even without the vents. So there’s still a couple of blocked-off 6″ duct holes in the basement wall needing some Webasto tubing run through them!
It’s taken a month to gather all the bits and pieces, fab parts, do the welding, etc. I’ve been taking pictures and will post the rest of this story with another write-up soon as it is installed, tested and ready to go…
I’m not exactly familiar with JRR Tolkein’s work. But I can tell from this little snippet of his lesser-known writing, what a genius he must have been. Halfway through this long-forgotten letter, an allegory emerged for me. Our North Polar Bear has been doing much better this season, and the house is getting less broken, despite pandemic stress, long-distances and challenging health issues. Here’s my Letter from Father Christmas, to everybody:
The house at 5712 was turned upside down and seemed lost three years ago. Evil healer elves from Big HMO hurt Father Christmas and refused to admit it. Everybody doubted him, just like they did ever since the before times. Exceptional juvenile misdeeds left him known as a no-good, not to be trusted. He eventually learned the reason for his behavior and got better at dealing with daily challenges over the years.
The evil elves denied what they’d done and tried to hide it after Father Christmas told their bosses what happened. Official records and subsequent surgery eventually cleared that up, but it took a long time to penetrate their secret society. Even Father Time cannot turn that back, and no elves wanted any talk of the past. Now time is on nobody’s side. The good healer elves can no longer stop new sickness because too many people don’t trust them. It will take much longer to get things done correctly now, because liars have time for little else but covering their words.
Father Christmas has not accepted what happened to him, because the worst of the evil healer elves appear to have gotten away with it, so far. Until those truly responsible are held to account, true happiness seems unlikely ever again. Try to accept the suffering and overlook the dishonesty at it’s roots. And Do not attribute to malice, that which is adequately explained by stupidity. North Polar Bear is getting better, and we are a great team!
Everybody changed for some reason after the truth finally came out. Don’t be sad about the truth, regardless of it’s implications. It deters the worst of the wicked, and leads to a better place after they strike. Good healers outnumber the stupid by a wide margin and science always prevails. Let’s just hope the win still includes human beings some years hence.
I was afraid the sky’s color gradient might not come though, but the Pixel™ did not disappoint. That view across the backyard last week was a bit more pronounced in reality, but the cameras are just hitting really well nowadays. Those maple trees got several sessions of radical pruning in recent years to save the blue spruce, which probably almost died from being overshadowed before I realized what happened.
The quest for latest first snow on record officially ended last week, missing the record by 1 day at Denver International. But we haven’t had enough to measure here for months. I suspect that is the story in many places around the region. It’s been one or another level of drought for decades now in various locations statewide, based on the non-cyclical weather patterns we’ve been experiencing.
I would typically be down to once-a-month watering sessions on the trees, grass and bushes around the house in prior years. You need to do that in this dry climate to avoid “winter kill,” where even hibernating plants and trees can die from dried out roots. Still on weekly watering at the end of the year. Seems to be transitioning into a year-round activity at that baseline rate. Should be interesting to see what’s still alive around here in the spring.
Been averaging highs in the 50s-60s during what used to be the coldest part of the year.
‘Twas mid-December and the North Pole was hopping, As Santa was doing some holiday shopping. But he soon found out that he couldn’t get squat; Everything that he wanted was scalped by a bot…
Can’t really say whether or not things are looking up again this year.
This mutherfucker stopped pandering to any voter base a long time ago. At some point he realized legislative gridlock was great for keeping his name in the news. No such thing as bad PR, so the self-induced crises makes political popularity a game of pin the tail on the donkey for legislators unconcerned with anything but themselves. They’re quite happy to blindly pin failure anywhere it sticks, while Americans suffer in sickness and poverty.
Look up “Conflict of Interest” and find this cocksucker’s picture in most current references.
“Manchin says BBB risky for climate change.” Manchin and his coal-burning criminal enterprise are the biggest climate change risk – at least as far as the WVa hillbillies are concerned. We need more people working on adjusting the gullible hillbilly demographic’s political outlook across this country.
Meadows always seemed like a smarmy-enough POS to be a key player in the Trump criminal enterprise. Apparently he is just deceitful and traitorous enough to actually be at the center of the modern era’s biggest criminal government conspiracy. Not really knowing much at all about the in”duh”vidual, it’s not hard to think he’s alot smarter than Schmuck à l’Orange, but who isn’t?
“Trump has denied Meadows’ account, calling it “fake news,” and the former president was said to have been furious at the revelation about his health in the book.”
It’s all “fake news” according to the New York Turdherder. That is, except maybe OAN, Fox, Newsmax, etc. It would be fairly entertaining watching these cocksuckers wrestling each other in the legal mud if it weren’t so goddamned dangerous for the country.
Only thing missing is the swastika.
Lyin’ cocksuckers were in on it. Rot in jail, traitors.
The level of stupidity engendered in the GOP’s guise is just fucking unbelievable.
I call for Jerk-off Jimmy Jordan to rot in jail.
“Belief” in things like election fraud, migrant caravans, Muslim terrorists and ALL things religious and religion-focused is the issue. Politicians are gonna keep telling these idiots whatever they want to hear as long as there’s enough of them to win an election. Believe lies, get chaos. The call was made.
People were annoyed with your shyt before. Good luck in prison, mutherfucker.
Now we know why this little son-of-a-bitch always seemed oh so overzealous in his fawning servitude to dear leader.
