Where's WYK been, and what trouble is he making?

[wyk]

Reached 82* today here in Ireland. No one here has AC and the houses are designed to retain heat. There are very few soffets in most houses.
So I had to spray some water on the roof and mist up the garden some. At least it was dry enough to do that. The wife was confused by what I was doing.
When I started, it was 80* inside the house. I got it down to 76. So it helped a bit. I may have lived in Texas, but I rarely had to live with 80* indoors.
It was 100* today in London! They say it will be 102 tomorrow. Virtually no one, included many businesses, have AC in the UK. Good luck to them.
Mainland Europe is literally on fire....

 

[sawfun]

Reached 82* today here in Ireland. No one here has AC and the houses are designed to retain heat. There are very few soffets in most houses.
So I had to spray some water on the roof and mist up the garden some. At least it was dry enough to do that. The wife was confused by what I was doing.
When I started, it was 80* inside the house. I got it down to 76. So it helped a bit. I may have lived in Texas, but I rarely had to live with 80* indoors.
It was 100* today in London! They say it will be 102 tomorrow. Virtually no one, included many businesses, have AC in the UK. Good luck to them.
Mainland Europe is literally on fire....

Unfortunately, been there done that the last couple of years. I've read that the Rhine is low so shipping is affected. Italy seems pretty bad all around between the Po, lack of irrigation, political issues, and population loss. The south of France ain't look'n so appealing any more either. If the Alps lose more glacier, it could be curtains too. Oh well Putin will cure it with a nuke winter.

On the upside for more personally, the steroids they gave me two weeks ago have me able to walk again and even running a bit. A miracle, to some extent, as I could barely walk a quarter of a mile and at a sloths pace with a ton of back pain. I could barely put socks or shoes on. Yesterday a went for 5 miles and ran one of it. I hope this temporary fix can tell the doc,'s something.

 

[madhatte]

Much closer to home, Nisqually Glacier on Mt Rainier has receded so far it's barely visible from its road crossing. When I was a kid, it came almost all the way to the road. That's about a mile and a half distance in 30 years. It's fair to guess that all glaciers hereabouts are similarly curtailed.

 

[Captain Bruce]

Reached 82* today here in Ireland. No one here has AC and the houses are designed to retain heat. There are very few soffets in most houses.
So I had to spray some water on the roof and mist up the garden some. At least it was dry enough to do that. The wife was confused by what I was doing.
When I started, it was 80* inside the house. I got it down to 76. So it helped a bit. I may have lived in Texas, but I rarely had to live with 80* indoors.
It was 100* today in London! They say it will be 102 tomorrow. Virtually no one, included many businesses, have AC in the UK. Good luck to them.
Mainland Europe is literally on fire....

There goes the tourist season..............bring back BOND!

 

[CDElliott]

Reached 82* today here in Ireland. No one here has AC and the houses are designed to retain heat. There are very few soffets in most houses.
So I had to spray some water on the roof and mist up the garden some. At least it was dry enough to do that. The wife was confused by what I was doing.
When I started, it was 80* inside the house. I got it down to 76. So it helped a bit. I may have lived in Texas, but I rarely had to live with 80* indoors.
It was 100* today in London! They say it will be 102 tomorrow. Virtually no one, included many businesses, have AC in the UK. Good luck to them.
Mainland Europe is literally on fire....

We are projected to hit 111 degrees tomorrow in central Oklahoma. ;<(

 

[wyk]

Looks like we dodged a bullet down here in Wicklow at 83*. In Dublin, it was 92* in the shade yesterday.
We are used to it being closer to 65* during the day and 55* at night this time of year. Ireland is usually 50-55* most of the year.
People in Ireland will complain about the heat once it starts to touch 70*. I know, it's crazy. But the weather is so mild, they just are used to it rarely being 70*.
Also bear in mind we have sun here this time of year from 5AM to 10PM at our latitude.
The good news is the powergrid has no issues in this weather. The bad news is it's because no one has AC.
I am managing fine. It just feels nice and warm to me. But the locals are suffering, especially the elderly.

https://twitter.com/FireWicklow

 

[northmanlogging]

Looks like we dodged a bullet down here in Wicklow at 83*. In Dublin, it was 92* in the shade yesterday.
We are used to it being closer to 65* during the day and 55* at night this time of year. Ireland is usually 50-55* most of the year.
People in Ireland will complain about the heat once it starts to touch 70*. I know, it's crazy. But the weather is so mild, they just are used to it rarely being 70*.
Also bear in mind we have sun here this time of year from 5AM to 10PM at our latitude.
The good news is the powergrid has no issues in this weather. The bad news is it's because no one has AC.
I am managing fine. It just feels nice and warm to me. But the locals are suffering, especially the elderly.

https://twitter.com/FireWicklow

From my experience most of the houses had 1' thick stone walls are better, so it seems like heat shouldn't be much of a problem, though the newer construction looked like american style 2x6 and stucco
Texass seems to have a power grid issue no matter the weather... which I find ironic beings how texass oil is the big thang down there... oh yeah, corruption at the state gov level.

 

[wyk]

From my experience most of the houses had 1' thick stone walls are better, so it seems like heat shouldn't be much of a problem, though the newer construction looked like american style 2x6 and stucco
Texass seems to have a power grid issue no matter the weather... which I find ironic beings how texass oil is the big thang down there... oh yeah, corruption at the state gov level.

A bud of mine used to work with ERCOT. He said there were a lot of things goin on that would lead to something like what happened last winter. But he also said one of the worst things was the partner utilities that were meant to be producing energy for the grid would often keep their output lower, sometimes drastically lower than what was regulated to do. This meant that the frequency would vary more often than it should do, and that if there was an emergency requiring more power, the grid would be slow to respond, or non responsive. I suspect that played a role last winter. He also said he sent a letter about it to his manager and ERCOT anonymously because snitches get stitches

As for Ireland - out in the country where there are some very thick stone cottages, it's not so bad. The farm house I stayed in on the Waterford estate had nearly 2' walls at their base. This wasn't for protection or insulation, it was because they wanted it to last and engineering is hard, but stone and serf labor was cheap. It was built back in the early 1800's. That house stayed cool(ish) in the heat. Across the River Suir from that estate is the O'Donnel estate of O'Donnel Potato Chip fame. I've spent loads of tiem over there helping them with trees as well since all these folks tend to know each other. Their main house was built in the 1700's and had even smaller windows in the non renovated parts - really feels medieval in there. But in the cities, and really everywhere, its the same brick and mortar we got stateside, with a preference to using cheap cinder block outside walls with covering. With no soffits and small windows compared to the states, and tarmac and buildings everywhere, it must have been brutal in London at 100-102* for nearly 3 days.

Another thing to consider is the UK and Ireland are island nations. It is damp here nearly all the time. When it gets hot like 80*, it is also rarely below 60-100% humidity. It just drains ya like the heat in the south can do.

We had a front come in early yesterday, so it's cooled off nearly to normal temps here today. I actually was under the duvet last night. The wife was so confused about me. She was suffering, and the dogs weren't impressed, but I still have some of the Texas fortitude left and almost enjoyed it. Hell, I was out BBQ ing in it.

One of the last jobs I did over at the O'Donnells(which, btw, was during our last heat wave. It was 82* and 100% humid that day, and the locals were impressed with my stamina. I passed out when I got home :

 

[northmanlogging]

I found the inner and east side of Ireland to be very much like the Puget Sound area, mild to the extreme, though we did manage to get snowed on while in Co Kerry, which I thought was Skookum... the locals were unimpressed lol (Gurl friend not yet wifey McWifepants less so)
The west side you could tell which direction folks lived from town by which side their hair stood up on... does the wind EVER stop there?

 

[wyk]

Some of my favourite time in the PNW was working in the sound. I found Whidbey Island gorgeous. Also spent time in areas like Sequim and Ramapo I think it was. We planted thousands of Douglas Fir trees for Washington University. Or was it Washington State?

The last time I was in Sligo and Clifden, I got sand blasted at the beach. I was also in Galway for a short while. It's gorgeous, but I am not hardy enough to live that life out there. I am not a fan of wind. The east coast is where it's at. Though there are parts of Cork that are very nice in summer. Some of my best memories of Ireland are from Cork.

Here's a house a bud lived in that was owner constructed in Ballynahob, Cork:

My greyhound, the friend again in yet another house she rented that is a barn conversion in Cork county, and her horse and retreiver:

Yes, I did stand and stare a very long time before I suggested she cross her legs for a photo.

 

[wyk]

So an odd thing happened the other day. I was sharing my elementary experiences with a local, and he was like 'I am Irish, and there's no way we fight anywhere near as much as you did in school. So, you musta been pure trouble!'

And so, I thought...maybe I was trouble. But looking back, I didn't start most of the fights. Now, I didn't back down from a fight because, well, I was trouble. But in my defense, I didn't start most of them. Yes, many of them were over a girl or defending my brother or a friend, or maybe Star Wars vs Star Trek vs Buck Rogers. But when I really looked back, I recall many of the fights being with people I simply did not know, and many of which I could remember the fight(especially one that took place next to a school bus) but not the person I fought. Yeah, it was a long time ago, but you know what else was a long time ago? Desegregation busing. That's right, I got in fights with random kids at random schools that I was sent to due, at least in part, to the busing. No, not all fights were with strangers or because I was a stranger, but it sure as hell didn't help. When we arrived at our 'new' school, many of the local kids did NOT like us.

We were shipped from my ersatz suburb out in the middle of nowhere, to the inner city, which alone was a bit of a shock to me, and not least because it was nearly an hour commute. Since this took place during the 70's mainly, I got to learn a LOT of disco songs along the way during my nearly two hour daily commute at times. And that commute did change because I went to a different school nearly every year. Whether this was the way they intended it to work or not, that's how I got treated. What did happen was the local kids did not like us busers. Not one bit. I got in to so many fights, it was absolutely ridiculous. And god forbid any of the new kids learned I was Native American - that made it so much worse.

It also meant that any new friends I made in school - I could not play with or even see afterwards. These kids sort of became 'temporary friends' after you got used to moving to a new school year after year. This also meant that extra curricular activities were impossible - no joining any clubs or sports. My local school was oddly foreign during these times when I rode the bike down to it to get some tennis or baseball or meet old friends that lived on the other side from me. I suppose I could have maybe joined our local school activities, but I simply didn't know how at the time as my mother was also confused at what was going on. She actually complained about it in person, along with many, many others, to the school and assumingly their local politicians. It lasted for years still.

Looking back on it, it was all so odd compared to the experience a lot of other people got before and after. What a strange time in my life it was.

So yeah, segregating by desegregating, didn't work great for me. Supposedly it worked for a lot of inner city kids, though. So there's that...

 

[sawfun]

From what little I remember, desegregation didn't work that great for either side. I don't remember fights, just a lot of standoffishness. No friendships were made by anyone I saw or knew. Mistrust was big on the kids that were bussed. Forced racial integration is a tough road to hoe.

 

[northmanlogging]

Elementary for me was mostly in WY, so desegregation was both a memory, and a non starter, whole lotta whitey out there, and the natives where on reservations tucked into inhospitable areas way to far from any school worth mentioning.

I do remember getting into loads of fights, usually with the rich kids from the east side of town, who were bussed over, the west side had the new bigger school... The rich kids all formed a "gang"(no seriously, you could only be a member through invitation from the leader) and would pick on us "poor" kids and anyone that they thought looked, dressed, or acted funny mostly the special Ed. kids, which to be honest they shoved my ass in there for a year and a half because my brothers are all idiots, so it clearly ran in the family... anyway point being the special ed kids were my friends, and I had anger issues... so I took it out directly on the spoiled rich pricks.

But yeah most of the fights were over really dumb S, like being called some silly name or what ever. One of the more noticeable scars on my forehead is from a large chunk of ice being chucked at me... with a good deal of energy... because I ran over the nerdy kids homework with a bicycle... in my defense I was completely sideways on the ice and it was not intentional... but it is the first time I'd been knocked out lol.

Things got weirder at home though... couple of the kids in the hood were only there during the summers, and were unbearable douche bags... so there would be fights all the damned time, mostly stoked by the older kids. Personally I lost a tooth when dudes much older brother held me down while he kneed me in the face repeatedly (talkin like I was 9 and the older kid was 14-15) later that summer I broke several of his ribs as a repayment though so? I guess were even

The move to WA kicked of with me, long hair pierced ear, midwestern drawl... Not giving a S about what any of these hicks thought of me... the girls thought I was cute... so of course their brothers had to rough me up to show dominance or whatever... anyway 10 fights in about 2 weeks, before they figured out it would take a lot more then 5 of em at a time to put me down... eventually it sort of settled into a shaky truce, them realizing that I was related to 1/2 the town, and me being totally up for breaking noses lol.

**** got real in Highschool though, the hicks still liked to gang up on folks, 5-6 of em would rat pack you after school, so the outcast kids started bringing weapons, we were fine during school cause we could at least watch each others backs, but on the way home... you were on your own.
Anyway, Last fight I got in in school was 10th grade? I had been walking a paper route, and through that collecting payments which I would keep in my locker, but kids thought it was funny to open it up... so I started punching MOFO's in the face... that fight was broken up by the special ed teacher... a very short very sweet lady, that was friends with my Mom (remember brothers are both idiots lol) anyway, she was wearing a brightly colored jacket, that looked very similar to one my friend who is tall was wearing... so as I had the other kid in a headlock and working over his face... the teacher grabs me from behind... I elbowed her in the face thinking it was the friend of mine and I'd elbowed him in the belly...


Well, I split her lip wide open.... Later that night... she was at the house sipping homemade brandy with Ma.... probably the most awkward dinner I've ever had

Anyway, that paper route, and a summer a job tying and marketing Fishing Flies... bought my first guitar, and with it most of my anger issues evaporated... at least I wasn't looking for excuses to punch a prick in the face anymore lol.

 

[Fatherwheels]

From my experience most of the houses had 1' thick stone walls are better, so it seems like heat shouldn't be much of a problem, though the newer construction looked like american style 2x6 and stucco
Texass seems to have a power grid issue no matter the weather... which I find ironic beings how texass oil is the big thang down there... oh yeah, corruption at the state gov level.

Yes, old stone houses were great in that respect, they did not warm up
too quick or cool off too quick, mine had over 2 foot thick walls.
They also kept noise out much better than modern houses to.

I used to work in old buildings, never needed anything other than a t shirt
no matter what season it was, maybe I was tough back then.

 

[wyk]

OK, so surprise, there is a lot of anti soviet and Russian sentiment in Europe at the moment; leading to stuff like this:



But what caught my eye was they used excavators instead of explosives - cutting it down like a tree. Wow, that took some soviet era guts for sure.
I have mixed feelings. I mean, yeah, I can understand why they did it, and how it's happening all over Europe for decades now. But, despite what neoRepublicans like to think, the Nazis were bad hombres. So, hopefully something else goes up in it's place. I dunno.

 

[wyk]

Yes, old stone houses were great in that respect, they did not warm up
too quick or cool off too quick, mine had over 2 foot thick walls.
They also kept noise out much better than modern houses to.

I used to work in old buildings, never needed anything other than a t shirt
no matter what season it was, maybe I was tough back then.

That's something I forgot to mention - the eerie silence you have when inside one of those old stone buildings.

This is the farmhouse on the estate I work. On the right window you can get an idea of how thick the walls are.
The window sill is deeper than the counter is.

 

[madhatte]

!!!

whoah that's some sturdy construction

 

[wyk]

It's a pain to open and close those windows.

Here's another photo I have for some reason:

And the windows aren't even flush with the outside:

That's a thick ass wall.

 

[catbuster]

OK, so surprise, there is a lot of anti soviet and Russian sentiment in Europe at the moment; leading to stuff like this:



But what caught my eye was they used excavators instead of explosives - cutting it down like a tree. Wow, that took some soviet era guts for sure.
I have mixed feelings. I mean, yeah, I can understand why they did it, and how it's happening all over Europe for decades now. But, despite what neoRepublicans like to think, the Nazis were bad hombres. So, hopefully something else goes up in it's place. I dunno.

Excavators have been used to fall tall objects like that for years. We did a lot of demolition of brick, block and concrete silos like that when I had my first construction job and then when I went home and first started my business in civil contracting. It’s almost exactly the same as taking a tree down, you get the undercut in, the object goes over balance, then falls.

I understand the hatred of the USSR era, and how it formed Vladimir Putin’s mindset. And I say this as someone on the outside, looking in, insulated from the situation on the ground, but I feel like that anger could be directed to something much more productive. The USSR is a thing of the past, and while it still influences actions today it may be better to fight the battles of today than the demons of the past.

If I remember somewhat correctly, strategically Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, while members of NATO, are more or less designed to be nothing more than a speed bump for Russia while NATO ramps up to full speed and can mobilize to places like Poland and Finland to actually start to play ball. I would have to think they’d be the next places to go if Putin wanted to escalate this situation, albeit he’s not equipped or prepared to do so. Either way, I would think Latvia would have to understand as such and do like I mentioned above… Deal with the present instead of fighting demons of the past.

 

[northmanlogging]

This goes here... DMV with an electric vehicle?
https://delorean.com/