Friday Follies - Let It SNOW Edition...

Joe said he needed to take a week off and take a rest at the North Pole...and who am I to argue with the Sarge, eh?
So, some of my friends are filling in...
(hey, we still got a BURN BAN in place, guys!)
Yeah, I'm about ready for winter....a good, old-fashioned McMurdo AFB kinda one...!
How's about you?

I hear that about 10K residents are without power AGAIN in Fort Wayne...
(it's been downgraded to under 8K now)
I'm REALLY starting to like councilman Mitch Harper's idea of BURYING the power lines.
But HOW best to it, from a cost-effective standpoint...and WHERE to do it where it will do the MOST good (and not just make a nice area look "nicer" )? The logistics of such an undertaking are pretty severe, but at least all the newer additions and developments don't seem to have this issue, so they become a non-sequitor to this fact.
It will be an interesting proposal...and an even MORE interesting project to implement.
We shall see...
-- In the meantime, back in the sweat box...
We've got more LINKS today than the anchor chain of the (retired) U.S.S. Kittyhawk, so let's get busy before it gets too hot to think.
*** Yepper...welcome to PHOENIX ARIZONA EAST, people...gonna go up PAST the century mark and slated to top out around the 105 degree mark.

Oh yeah...it's gonna be "TOO GEEDEE F$CKING HOT" outside today, so take EXTRA precautions IF you do find yourself OUT in this heat AND humidity. If you're INSIDE...STAY THE HELL PUT, set the A/C to 70 and pour a good TALL cold beverage with as little alcohol OR caffeine in it as possible.
Bring in the pet, too...no need for him/her to stay out in this, either.
(unless your pet happens to be a Bengal Tiger, in which case you might want to refrain from the above...purely for SAFETY reasons.)
What amazes me about this heat, is that there are some folks who think this is a "new" occurrence...not so.
((Caution - Educational alert - You may learn something.))

We had similar heat waves back in the late 1980s, the early-mid 1950s, the mid-late 1939s, and they DO have a WIKI for that one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_North_American_heat_wave
Them there was the New York heat wave of 1896, and here's the WIKI:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1896_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave
But we weren't the ONLY ones that suffered such things, as evidenced HERE with the "great stink" of London, back in 1858:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stink

And if you read history, you find that temperatures during the Battle of Gettysburg topped the 100 degree mark, as did some of the Revolutionary War battles fought farther south in NC and SC.

Imagine fighting in WOOLEN clothing in such heat...and managing to survive to tell about it.
And WAY back around 1500 A.D. most of Europe was sizzling due to the heat.
(didn't know that had "global warming" back THEN? Where were all the cars and factories contributing to it????)
So, even though such extreme heat is upon us, it's interesting to note that we've had similar situations throughout time.
Nature (and our planet) tends to operate in a cyclical fashion...what goes around comes around, as it were.
There was also the heatwave in NYC and Philly back in 1948, as well as the summer of "The Son of Sam" which was 1977, where temps soared way into the 90s and then there was....a BLACKOUT (sound familiar?).
Here's an example of how you dealt with heat waves in Philadelphia...circa 1776:
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/06/20/how-philadelphians-handled-heatwaves-in-1776/
You ladies out there might want to thank your stars for today's fashions rather than boned corset, long frocks and hoop skirts (and I'm sure the guys will too...LOL). That is, unless you're into the whole S&M gig.

Mechanical Air conditioning was pretty much non-existent until 1911, but the ancient ROMANS had their aqueduct systems that ran through the walls of houses to keep them cool.
And the Han dynasty invented a rotary "fan" (manually-powered, naturally).
The Tang dynasty had water-powered fan wheels later on.
Ben Franklin in 1758, conducted experiments to explore the principle of EVAPORATION to cool objects (he was on the right track and "getting warmer"...ironic, yes?).
But, you can see it ALL of it for yourself HERE:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_conditioning
There is the history and applications of A/C...long may it reign!

Now, for the "geeknotechies" out there, we didn't forget YOU either...here is the "nuts and bolts" as to WHY you feel comfy when you flip that switch and that cool air comes out:

http://home.howstuffworks.com/ac.htm
Everything you need (or care ) to know about your cooling system...it's a pretty interesting field of endeavor, and I speak from experience (another lifetime of mine).

Let's just hope that this is one of the typical cycles this old Earth is going through.
I mean it could ALWAYS be worse...like what was postulated in this TWILIGHT ZONE EPISODE (entitled Midnight Sun):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Midnight_Sun
*** As for the lovely Mrs. Bobby G. and myself...well, grocery shopping was "fun" - the Scotts in Waynedale suffered an outage and ALL the ice cream had been pulled from the freezers, so we booked back to the Walgreens at Southgate, and paid a bit more for two 1.75 qt containers of ice cream to replace that which we lost last week.
-- Wifey is headed up to the mall today for her hair appointment, and I always worry like a parent (well, MINE anyway).

It's not HER driving I fret about...it's ALL the idiots out there doing stupid sh*t because they can.
(and DO as the news will tell you)
Some people are dumb as rocks when it's nice out, let alone when we're in a heat wave...then they get working on that SPECIAL KIND OF STUPID...the type that gets others killed or injured, because they have to "get their drunk (or high) on"...before 9-freaking-AM!
-- What did get me laughing with the news, was that people on FOOD STAMPS can get MORE food stamps to replace any foods lost during the outage.
((...AHEM...))
No proof is required at the outset when going to the NSSA building, so who's to say WHAT was lost, HOW MUCH was lost and how SOON the fraudulent claims will come rolling in like a RED TIDE, hmm???
Wouldn't it be BETTER to open up the old trailers and hand out cheese, rice, powdered milk, and the like...the way they USED to do?
I mean NONE of these people seem to EVER "eat at home" (read cook at home unless it's grilling, because THAT is easy).
Well, some who try to cook at home fall asleep and burn the house the hell down.

The rest just bring in TAKE OUT...every single frigging day...the trash truck can tell you that much when they empty the BINS - 180 gallons of fast food trash, beer bottles, and cans for a "family" of THREE (one adult, two kids)...yeah, that speaks VOLUMES.

But, that's the way the gov't "takes care" of them...actually it's more like ENSLAVES them, and they're not even aware of it...that's the SAD part.

I suppose things could change for the better...just not today, right?
Hang in there, folks...that tunnel ain't THAT long or dark.
Keep cool this weekend...and DO take care.
Have yourselves a good weekend, despite the heat.

(that's what card and board games are for...lol)

Be well, make a difference to someone today, and as always...

Stay SAFE out there, America.