Sunday, November 20, 2005

LOSTCast

The p-cast is half again as long as the original show! I keep looking for the skip button that TiVo has to hustle it along when they fall to talking and joking around. This last cast also had them
dealing with copyright issues. Couldn't play the song he wanted to end with and that they had gotten warning before. Good media issues.

Friday, November 18, 2005

Can't Wait

The holiday marketing seems to be working. Can't wait for Christmas to get things. Want them NOW.
Got a chain saw. Gas powered this time. The electric one was useless when we didn't have power after the hurricane. Gas ones weigh more, but we got the smallest one. It's a Husqvarna. Me too. Never heard of them, but the guy at Lowes said it was professional level. Going to work on the downed trees in the backyard so that it can be carted away by THE CLAW's 2nd or 3 time around. After that we're SOL.

Friday, November 11, 2005

More Post-Wilma

Random Post-Wilma observations:
1. There are SO many dead leaves on everyone’s lawns. Lawn maintenance crews are so used to blowing grass clippings in the street that when they do it with 'Wilma' leaves, the entire street is covered. STOP! There is no place for all of those leaves to go! Suck it up and rake them.

2. There is a huge 5 acre lot that the city is collecting the Wilma trees and vegetation. It now resembles a pyramid. There are 2 yellow backhoes working the material. Placing and tucking. Well, it is now terraced. It has at least 2 steps with a backhoe on each level. On the south side of the lot is a mountain of mulch. In the morning it is either smoldering with potential fire or steaming with water.

I wonder if the city will sell it to a mulch company. We cannot possible use all of that mulch and the debris pile has hardly been touched. Maybe we can get some money back for all of the work this is going to take.

3. With out trees along the canal down, we now have bright lights shining where they've never been seen before. And who is responsible for getting those huge branches out of the canal? How can it be done?

4. When the power was out and we had to rely on flashlights and oil lamps, we found that we had names for the different lights. 'Flicker' was the little tea light size Halloween safely light. It flickered like a candle. 'Cranky' was the no-battery flashlight that all you had to do was crank it up for a minute and it would last hours. 'Goosey' was a LED light that I bought from the DARE vendor at school. It has a goose-neck. 'Jim Beam' or 'Beamer' was the huge and heavy spotlight that could blind a person. Loved them all, but 'Flicker' was my favorite. It was the going-to-the-bathroom light in the middle of the night light.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Claw



Wilma has hung around much too long. It's been 2 1/2 weeks since she blew through and Tuesday was a milestone. "The Claw" came through. Our neighborhood has had a 6 foot hedge lining both sides of the street made up of downed tree debris. When first piled out next to the curbs it looked like a living thing, but weeks later everything is brown. The leaves are blowing in the streets and at night without any streetlights if feels like one is driving through a brown tunnel. The scraggly twigs stick out and scratch the car finish and sometimes you have to take turns with oncoming cars to get through narrow areas.


That changed Tuesday morning at 6:30 am. "The Claw" came. This event inspires crowds to gather and cheer. The trucks are huge and the giant arm reaches out and takes huge bites of debris. The operator delicately maneuvers each bundle into the huge truck and tamps it in. We had spotted “the Claw” early last week several streets over. It didn’t come to us and in fact seemed to totally abandon our area. What did we do to offend the monster? This week we were on the ‘good’ list.

Saturday, November 05, 2005

IB


So South Florida is recovering from Hurricane Wilma. Our street has 10 foot high walls of plant debris lining the street. I B seems to be burning it twig by twig on his patio in a chiminea/firepit. He leaves it burning totally unattended and drives off with leaves and branches piled up around the base of the thing. It shimmers with the heat it gives off and a trail of smoke curls up to the tattered screens drooping so far down it practically touches the top of it. I almost forgave him his IB title when he shared generator power with us, but he has again shown why he is an IB with this latest stunt.

Rose is a Rose is a Rose



Golly, everyone has my names. I thought I was unique, but even choosing a blog name showed me that everyone else is 'me' too. Where in the world is Iris Blue? Lilly Rose? Queen Bee?