Christmas storm

[ex-khobar Andy]

I lived in Buffalo for 25 years and still have many friends there so I have been following the news of the Christmas storm. As far as I can tell all my friends are safe with (mostly) the power still on and OK inside with warmth and food.

There is coverage from the Buffalo News which for once has a topic apart from the Bills who could go all the way this year. There is a story of an elderly woman who ran out of medically needed oxygen while her son was trying to get her to hospital, and died in the street. Her son had taken seven hours for a journey which normally took ten minutes. Two total strangers, outside whose house she died, opened their house so that she could lie on the floor in some dignity, and she stayed there for a day until emergency services could get to her.

And there is a story of a young refugee Abdul Sharifu from Congo who went out to get supplies - possibly for a neighbor, no-one is sure - and did not make it home.

Most people are good people. We deserve better politicians.

[Burning Petard]

Weather report from the I95 micro climate just South of Wilmington DE.

Totally missed us again. We seem to be in a weather hole that just does not get really hit by anything. Not many years ago the eye of one of those very destructive hurricanes was shown on the map to have gone right over my location. Never noticed anything, not even heavy of rain.

This time we were forecast for heavy local flooding (most of the entire state of Delaware, Including the Wilmington area, is less than 30 feet above mean sea level) and 2 inches of rain in about 12 hours. With dropping temp leading to ice on the roads followed by high winds, gusting to 50 mph.

We actually got about 1.5 inches of rain, over 14 hours. The temp did not start dropping from about 50 until after the rain stopped and the wind dried the roads long before it got to below freezing. That nite the temp dropped to 8 degrees locally, colder than it was ever during last winter. Many reports of water pipes freezing, but mostly that problem was easily controlled with space heaters and heat tape, or letting a water faucet run slowly. But it has been warming gradually and it will be above freezing today. No reports of trees down or power outage locally.

Electric heat on my utility bill. I am keeping the thermostat set at 64 during the day, bundled up in sweat pants and sweater, even wearing a knit hat on my head. I live in an apartment and the windows really leak. Yeah, I know, I could tape up plastic sheets but most of the walls in three rooms (everything but closets and bathroom) is mostly window. I am too lazy.

I do appreciate how lucky I am here with this weather.

snailgate.

[Methuselah]

We have a weekly siblings Zoom session. Most of them live in the Frozen North, from coast to coast. They started complaining about snow, wind, and cold. I live in sunny LA. My story was that we had Christmas lunch in my son's backyard. We had to move into the shade because it was too warm in the sun. A brother still in Cleveland said "You had to say that, didn't you."

[BoSoxGal]

We had a warm gusty rainy day Friday but the temperatures plummeted in the evening and the weekend was bitterly cold. Hardly any negative compared to what folks in the rest of the country endured so I’ve got no complaints whatsoever. It’s terrible to see so much senseless death especially folks dying in their cars or walking around in the blizzard - it seems like some folks just don’t have a lot of sense why would you consider driving in such weather and risking your life?

[Jarlaxle]

Friday was wet, wild, and windy. Weekend was COLD. (I recall Saturday morning was 2 degrees.)

[Econoline]

We have a weekly siblings Zoom session. Most of them live in the Frozen North, from coast to coast. They started complaining about snow, wind, and cold. I live in sunny LA. My story was that we had Christmas lunch in my son's backyard. We had to move into the shade because it was too warm in the sun. A brother still in Cleveland said "You had to say that, didn't you."

Congratulations to your brother for managing to say the *POLITE* version of that!