Posts Tagged ‘storm’

Quick Thoughts Under the Fedora: Glenn is Right, Where’s the Solar lights?, Small Signs, Rewards of Persistence and Choices and biology.

Posted: March 15, 2023 by datechguy in under the fedora
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Yesterday we got 20″ of snow, in some hillier parts of town the snow total was as high as 31″. I wasn’t worried as I had an excellent Ariens snow blower to clear the driveway so my wife the nurse could get to work.. At least not until the power went out and I discovered that no matter how hard I pulled the cord, without the electric starter I couldn’t get it going.

If nothing else this confirms Glenn Reynolds advice today: “IF YOU CAN AFFORD ONE AND HAVE SPACE, YOU SHOULD REALLY HAVE A GENERATOR”

There was one thing that confused me yesterday. Quite a few of my neighbors have solar panels on their houses as they are subsidized by both the feds and the state, yet when the power went out they lost power too.

I thought the whole idea of solar panels is you generate your own electricity? What the point in having them if they don’t give you power in your place when all the other power is gone?

I always offer the 3rd Mystery of Light of the Holy Rosary (The Proclamation of the Kingdom of Heaven) both for my wife and to notices the works of God all around me. An example took place yesterday.

After I finally dug enough to get my car out so I could take DaWife to work I headed down to road in the hopes of finding a place with power that I could sit down, eat and maybe charge my laptop. On the way I noted a woman walking in the snow who is a friend of mine that I take to Mass on Fridays outside of Lent (during lent my church adds two Friday masses). When I circled around she was there waiting saying “As soon as I saw your car I knew you would circle to pick me up.” She was walking to the nursing home where she words leaving almost an hour early to get there in the midst of the storm.

The irony is that if DaWife had not asked me to drive through a McDonalds and the line hadn’t been the length of Cuba delaying us I would not have been at the right place to give Claire a lift in the storm.

Don’t tell me there’s no God.

After I dropped Claire at work I noticed, to my surprise, that the local Longhorn’s Restaurant was open. I pulled in and was seated at once. Apparently one maître d’, a manager, a cook and a server made it in and they were making do. Shortly after I came in a party 9 was seated and within 10 minutes tables and booths around we were filling despite the warning that it might be 10 minutes before the server could get to them.

I got something quick and small as they had enough work and I asked the maître d’ how they would handle it. He answered: “As best we can, but on the bright side the tips will only be split two ways.

I suspect those who made it in had to put in effort to do so but they will also reap the financial rewards from their hard work. That’s how it should be.

Finally I noticed this story first at the NY Post and then at Redstate concerning the “Trad Wife” movement.

a trend on TikTok began emerging that gained traction very quickly. It was women simply posting their daily lives as traditional housewives. They cooked, they cleaned, they looked nice for their breadwinning husband, and they took care of the children during the day.

Feminists are of course up in arms. Apparently equal rights for woman doesn’t include the right to choose to stay at home and raise your children yourself.

You would think feminists whose goal was to rise on the cooperate ladder would be happy to have less competition for that coveted “diversity hire” position that companies are tying to fill, but perhaps the real problem is that this skit from the BBC is more than a just a skit.

Did you notice that all the women in that skit were childless?

On a closing note. Massachusetts has paid maternity leave and one of our leads just came back to work after having her first child. She is liked and well respected at work but when I talked to her, she said that after spending the time with her son that the leave allows she wishes she was in a position to stay home with her son permanently.

No amount of political theory can counter millennia of biological urgency.

I don’t mean to gloat but…

Posted: December 21, 2009 by datechguy in personal
Tags: ,

…how light were our snow amounts? My oldest did the front walk and sidewalk using a broom because there wasn’t enough for a shovel.

Ok Maybe it’s gloating a little but after last year we had that coming.

Sometimes your roll comes up; just a dusting

Posted: December 20, 2009 by datechguy in local stuff, oddities
Tags: ,

A few years ago at Foxwoods (my last time there) a fellow at the Craps table was dropping $100 chips on the 15-1 single roll line table. (most people play $1 on that line)

For those of you not familiar with the game, in addition to all the other bets there are single roll bets. You can bet on a 3 (as he was). If the three comes up on that roll it pays 15-1. If it doesn’t then you lose.

Since the odds of getting that 3 are 16-1 Gambler’s fallacy not withstanding most of the time you lose, but for whatever reason that fellow managed to hit on the third roll from and walked away with $1200 ahead after only a minute or so. I’ve been to foxwoods maybe a dozen times in my life and this is the only time I’ve seen it happen.

I live in Northern Worcester County Massachusetts. When a snow storm comes through almost invariably we get the majority of the snow as compared to Boston and the cape, but once in a while the storm comes more from the sea than from the land. In those cases like today’s storm Boston and the Cape get nailed and we get off much easier. Even rarer is the case when we get off with practically nothing.

Yesterday I was all ready. Bought a new shovel, ice melt, went to the 4 p.m. mass instead of the 8 a.m. as I normally do, parked the cars strategically in the driveway and kept track a weather.com. The indications were the snow would start around 5 p.m. (No snow) , then 7 (no snow), then 10 (no snow). When I went upstairs at 11 and still saw no snow I was pleased since my oldest was getting out of work at 11. I fully expected to wake up a fair amount on the ground and a lot of work shoveling to do.

Instead when I looked outside this morning there was barely a dusting on anything. Snow is coming down but not all that fast. In the hour I’ve been of bed not even an inch has accumulated.

It doesn’t happen often but it looks like I’ve rolled that 3. I think I might buy a lottery ticket at Romano’s this morning, gambler’s ruin not withstanding.

It’s quite a change from last year.