Kitchen Fire

This was stupid.  I was heating a candle in a pan of warm water, to melt the wax.  But I was not paying attention to it.  I was in another room, working on the computer and listening to the Lady Raider's basketball game. 

It was near the end of the game.  I wanted a drink, walked into the kitchen. As I did, I could see the reflections of flames.  I did not panic.  I shut the electric range unit off, and moved the pan off the electric eye. I got out the baking soda and doused the flame.  I was distressed: I have a microwavable "kettle" to heat up water, and the handle melted.  The range top is a mess. And the smoke in the house is slow to evacuate.  I have the stove fan running, and have opened the windows so air can get in or smoke can get out, but it is a slow process.

I have kept the cats on the floor, where there is less smoke.  I have stepped outside from time to time  to get fresh air.  I will not go to sleep until most of the smoke has been evacuated.  As I said to begin with, this was stupid.  I will be okay. 

Except for the smoke, the damage is minimal.  I am blessed that I discovered this fire before it got out of hand.

What I am surprised about is that usually if I am burning something when I am cooking, one or more of my cats tells me about it. None of my cats told me about this. It is not their job. I just need to be more cognizant.

Cooling Off

Our nights have really been cooling off lately, which makes the evening so pleasant. I have sat outside earlier than later, and have enjoyed being outside. One of the hallmarks of the South Plains is that the nights do cool off, and at various times throughout the summer, later in the evening, I have been able to sit out and enjoy the cool night air, or open the house and enjoy the cool air.

I have opened the house earlier than usual, but only, for safety and security reasons, opened the windows a few short inches, in a locked position. This limits the amount of cool fresh air coming in, but it is by far safer.

I know that if someone wanted to badly enough, they could break into my house with everything closed and locked. I also know that if someone wanted to, they could jimmy the windows open even in the open/locked position.  But the noise and time required to do so would be much more than if the windows were fully raised, and someone could just cut the screen and shimmy their way in the house through the window.

But, I do appreciate the option of opening the windows slightly, and letting the fresh air cool off the house.

Weather Stories

As I have mentioned, I spent a great deal of time watching The Weather Channel http://www.weather.com/ this past week.  I would not say that The Weather Channel is my new best friend, but maybe I resumed relationship:  When there are serious weather events, I spend a lot of time watching The Weather Channel.  I check in with The Weather Channel almost every morning, and frequently get my news flashes from The Weather Channel. 

I do not think that their weather reporting is better than any other service. But they do continuous coverage during a serious weather event,  and sometimes, that is what I want. (When CNN  http://www.cnn.com/first started, they did continuous coverage of the news, and I liked that, too. They still do some for breaking news coverage, but not like they did.)  I do not watch much of the other programming on The Weather Channel.  Most of it does not appeal to me. 

I was impressed, during the coverage of Isaac, about a comment one of the broadcasters made:  Paraphrasing, the gist of his comment was New Orleans is low lying country, the storm was going to produce a lot of wind and rain, and no matter what precautions and preparations were made, there WOULD be flooding. Well, duh! Finally someone on The Weather Channel was honest and real.  A lot better reporting than sometimes in the past:

I do not recall anyone reporting, before it happened, that they foresaw the danger of the levee breech in Katrina in 2005 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina. There were plenty of people, after the fact, who talked about having forecast or predicted such a disaster. Maybe they did, maybe they did not. No matter. It happened. I have the sense people let their guard down, since the storm had passed, and this added to the problems.

In my opinion, in 2008, The Weather Channel downplayed the seriousness of Ike http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ike, which was "just" a category 2 hurricane.  But forces converged and Ike literally destroyed parts of Galveston. Storm surge, tides, wind and rains again compiled a devastating force. 

In 2011, Hurricane Irene http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Irene was followed as it churned up the Atlantic Coast.  The coverage was good.  However, at one point, it highlighted on battening down and preparing New York City.  When the impact on New York City was nominal (no flooded subway system, Manhattan was not flooded) it was if the broadcasters took a collective sigh of relief and disappointment (no major catastrophe to report).  It seemed to me that they then under-reported the impact as Irene continued on into New England and Canada, until the horrific impact became known, and provided headlines again.

I understand that The Weather Channel is not just providing a service reporting the weather. They are looking for headlines to increase their viewership in a very competitive media market. So the disasters are the stories they want to report.  The reporters seem to really get excited about being able to report weather stories that include danger and disaster.  The reporters seem to express concern for the survivors and victims of these storms, but they also seem to be pumped about reporting the serious conditions, and indeed are looking for that to report.

Reporting possible weather disasters has to take a fine edge:  Certainly people need to be warned. However, if watches and warnings are frivolous or continually inaccurate and problem situations do not materialize, people will stop taking the warnings seriously, and eventually ignore them.  Calling for evacuations is a drastic step to take; yet, ignoring these evacuations orders repeatedly proves that people end up in harm's way, and emergency responders then put themselves in harm's way to rescue those who ignored evacuations orders.  Evacuations are costly to individuals and communities, and some people may feel they do not have the resources. And, many people feel it just can not happen to them, be it a tornado, earthquake, flood, hurricane or snowstorm. 

In my mind, the most responsible tact to take is a factual reporting of the weather conditions, and reminding people that they can not prevent weather. Their preparations should be to protect and take care of themselves, what ever that involves. And, no matter how good weather predictors try to be, they are not perfect, and unexpected weather conditions can occur with no warning.  Weather just happens.

Football Safety Measures

College football has instituted a rule that if a player loses his helmet, he has to sit out at least one play, and can not play if he is injured. Tonight, I am watching Texas Tech vs. Northwestern State on TV.  There have been several incidents of players losing their helmets.  The announcers are talking about the teams trying to figure out how to glue the helmets on the players' heads.  They also are talking about buckling the helmets on tighter or using two chinstraps.

I understand intellectually what they are saying.  But it seems to me, they have missed the point. If a player is hit hard enough to have his helmet leave his head, then he needs to be checked out.  What is the point of instituting a safety rule, and then devising ways to circumvent the rule and the intent of the rule.

Danger and Concern

A few weeks ago, because Sake had seemed to be off her feed,  I bought some chicken liver and cooked it up for the cats (boiled it.).  Sake chowed down, Haiku was eager to eat it, and Taki was repulsed (hmmm, she has generally been nondiscriminatory about what she ate.)

I have continued to offer cooked liver to the girls.  Even though Sake's level of interest has declined, I still offer it, because she is not much interested in anything else. I still offer other cat food varieties, and tuna, so they have some options. Haiku still wants treats.

All the cats think that whenever I enter the house from being out, it is eating time. I should ignore them, but that is very hard for me, so sometimes, I give them a few treats.

A while back, I had some liver in cartons on the counter, getting ready to cook it. Haiku did something she almotst never does: she jumped on the counter in front of the stove top.  I have worked to teach the cats the stove top is off limits, and they usually obey, even though they get on other parts of the kitchen counter. That frightened me.

Tonight, I was cooking up a batch of liver, and I was very concerned one of the cats might again jump up to the stove top. Not one did for which I am grateful.   I do not want to have an accident with any one of the cats.

Can You Believe This?

I am embarrassed by the comments the Lubbock County Judge, Mr. Head made recently. http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2012-08-24/head-wont-resign-regrets-comments-cause-negative-publicity-community

Can you believe this?  An elected official in Lubbock County with this kind of paranoid, conspiracy theory thinking and comments.  I am sorry. This is way out of line, way out of hand.  No such thing will happen if President Obama gets elected.  However, Mr. Head is part of the good old boy white politician network in Lubbock. He probably feels very justified at saying what he did, although he later tried to soften it by saying his comments were "taken out of context."  What context makes paranoid conspiracy theory comments correct political commentary? 

I think he needs to be recalled or impeached.  I am not sure which is correct for a county judge.  I am sorry to admit that I used to think Mr. Head was a reasonable man, and did a good job for Lubbock County  I no longer think that way!

The Cats and Weather

Sake is laying under the foot of the bed tonight. That is where she lays when she does not like the weather: wind, thunder and lightning, are usually the biggest culprits. She and Haiku have actually gotten into the crates in the closet when the weather has been seriously bad.  I leave the crates available to them.  I do not think Taki knows what to do. Maybe, thought, she would follow their example. She has learned from their example about other things. Including that she does not have to eat, just because some other cat is eating. She has lost a little weight (which she needed to do) because of this. She is still over weight, but she is not eating just to eat.

I hope the storms tonight are not too bad.  But, I am glad my cats can take care of themselves to some extent.

Escape!

I was in and out last evening, hand watering the shrubs, vines and trees in my back yard.  I read outside for a while, and even had a snack outside. At some point, as I was going in and out, Sake escaped!  I did not see her. I did not have the inside light on, so only had the outside light, and in the dimness, it was easy for her to get out.  I am not sure when she escaped. I stayed out reading until close to midnight, and then, moved my stuff inside. As I was making my second trip to move stuff inside, Sake showed up at the door. I was surprised.  But thankful that she returned, safe and sound.

Tonight, she wanted out, and I used the harness and leash for her. She did not try to go far, and was not out long before she wanted in. Later in the evening, she wanted out again, but again she stayed close by, and the noise from the neighbors drove her inside.

Sake used to be very bold and brash, and faced down dogs and what have you.  She has become much more conservative and mellow.  In some respects, I am sorry to see that change, but in other respects, I am glad she now has some discernment about the dangers she did not realize before.

Tornado!

Tonight, we are under a sever thunder storm watch and warning, and even a tornado warning. At one point, the warning indicated the tornado may track towards south Lubbock, but it stayed in south Lubbock County.

Sake, Haiku and Taki were visibly upset. At one point, when I checked, Sake and Haiku were in the crates in the closet.  I made a mistake, I did not have a flashlight with me, and I disturbed both of them. They left the crates.  But that reassures me that they know where to go for the safest place. Taki disappeared, I am not sure where, but I know in the past when I have called her, she comes. I hope she would in the face of a fearsome storm.  Even after I disturbed them, Haiku and Sake hung around the closet. And, I have to think they all try to find a place to hide. Anytime there is any kind of storm, even snow, Sake lays under the overhang at the foot of the bed.  I am not sure how safe that is, but it is better than nothing. 

I have my emergency kit in the closet.  I put my bag in there, so hopefully, if something happens, I would have it with me, and my paperwork, money, credit cards, etc.

A storm reporter has related that his windshield has been broken out by the hail.  I was impressed that the reporter interrupted his broadcast to warn people that they needed to take shelter.

At one point, I closed up  the house, but have now opened the front door and window near the entrance, that is protected by the front stoop.

We may have more tornadic activity or severe storms tonight.  I will continue to monitor the weather situation. Sake and Haiku are hanging around in the bedroom.  They have been through this before.

It is not raining very hard now, and I checked the rain gauge, which indicated .5 inch of rain.  That is great!  My lawn, shrubs and trees need the moisture. I hope we get more tonight, without the hail or tornadoes.

The Night Air

The night air is wonderful. It is a gorgeous night. I was sitting outside, reading. And really enjoying it. There was a time when I would have stayed out as long as I wanted to: all night even. When Mack was alive and fearless about protecting me. When my neighborhood was safer.

My neighborhood is not scary, but it does not feel as safe as it once did.  While I sit out late, I do not stay out into the wee hours. And, I will admit, there have been neighborhood noises that have driven me inside.

To be honest, as I reflect on things, I do not think I would feel very differently about my safety in other parts of the city, or even of the world.  I just do not feel the world is very safe any more.

Maybe I have read too much about crime, am steeped too much about crime during the day (especially at work) and know how bad people treat people.

I wish my mind was different about my safety.

A Top Shelf Kitty

Haiku likes to get on the top shelf in the garage.  And, when she does, she does not come down when I call her. Consequently, I have to limit the times that I allow her in the garage, because if I am going some where, I would not be sure I could gather her into the house.

When she is on the top shelf, she talks to me when I check on her.  Sometimes, she acts very restless, and paces back and forth.  I bring the step stool into the garage, and try to get her down.  Usually, she stays further back from the edge of the shelf when I do this, than when she is pacing.  As if she is resisting my bringing her down, or she is afraid I will drop her.  So, then I just have to leave her alone, but check on her and encourage her to jump down.

Her access is simple:  she jumps onto the car hood, and from the hood to the car roof. From the roof, she jumps to a side shelf, works her way along the shelf, and gets jumps diagonally to the end shelf.  From the end shelf, she usually jumps down onto the car hood.  I wonder if she has to work up her nerve to jump down. She does not seem to hesitate to jump up, though.

Sake used to do this, but jumping has become more difficult for her, and she does not do as much jumping as she used to.  Actually, neither does Haiku, although she still does more than Sake. 

So far, Taki does not do as much jumping as either one.  She has started jumping from the bed to the dresser in the spare bedroom, but that is as far as she jumps.  She gets on the sofa and the bed. She climbs the cat tree, but that is less than 5 feet high, and the shelves are only a couple of feet, or less, apart. She did, once get on the top shelf in the garage, and I chronicled her disastrous jump down.  I no longer let her go into the garage. She is still too young.  And little.

Haiku, however, is one top shelf kitty.

Things That Go Whomple in the Night

When the printer on the computer is turning on or off, or sometimes, getting ready to print, it makes a series of whomple noises.  Last night, I did not turn the printer off.  I frequently forget to turn the printer off.  I should.  I should turn many more things off at night: it would help decrease the electric bill.  But, I do not do that.

Sometime during the night, I did not look at the time, I heard the printer cycling through its whompling noises.  I thought that maybe one of the cats had jumped on it, and hit one of the control buttons that would cause it to recycle. That happens frequently.  I should have arisen to investigate, but I was not frightened or particularly concerned.  Although maybe I should be. I read a lot of murder mysteries in which home invasions occur, randomly or purposefully.  I work with psychiatric prisoners who do home invasions as crimes regularly.  My home has been broken into, and objects stolen. More than once. I should have been more concerned.  I consciously was not. 

This morning, when I came to the computer to do some work, the reason for the printer to recycle and whomple became obvious to me:  sometime during the night, the electric power to this part of the house had shut off and turned back on.  This happens often.  I do not know why.  I can tell it happens, because the television connected in this part of the house resets the channel, and the volume is reset to very low.  I had to fix that this morning.  This to me explained the whompling!

My Fault

I am a stacker.  I have stacks of stuff on the dining table, and it needs to be put away.  I have all kinds of stuff stacked on and around the computer desk.  Tonight, Haiku got on the turntable, stacked with a book and lots of papers. As she tried to jump off, she slipped, hit some stuff on the desk top proper, knocked over my tea, and disappeared.  I went looking for her, and she did not want to be consoled. She was not hurt, except, I think she was embarrassed.  I petted and held her briefly, then put her down.  She came back into the computer room, then left, and went looking for something to do in the bedroom.  I cleaned up some of my mess tonight.  I really need to finish cleaning up the mess.  It is dangerous for the cats.

A Spring Ritual

I usually purchase gasoline for my vehicle at the same place I do my major shopping, or at a locally owned station down the street.  Both are known for having the lowest prices in town. Sometimes, I purchase gasoline from a local supermarket, where the price of gasoline is usually within a cent or two of the lower priced vendors.  None of these vendors is more than a mile and a half away.

At least once a year,  though, I purchase gasoline at the local convenience store, which is only about 7 blocks, or less than a half mile, from the house.  This is the day I purchase gasoline for the lawn mower.  I am very nervous about driving around with a container of gasoline in the vehicle, although I only purchase a gallon, and it is in a government approved container.  So, I go to the closest vendor of gasoline, no matter the price. Today, the price was within a cent of what I would have otherwise paid.  But the cost difference on a few gallons of gasoline is well worth my peace of mind.

Burning Off

Today dawned a foggy day in Lubbock. Fog is not the norm for this part of the world, but it obviously does occur from time to time.  Today, by 10 AM it was still foggy, although, from time to time, the sun was visible through the fog.  So, it was apparent that the fog would "burn off" at some point, and we might even have a fine sunny day.

Well, that is what happened.  I went to lunch a little before noon, at a local restaurant, and when I left a little after 1 PM, it was a gorgeous, bright sunny day.  I had thought, if the day was at all pretty, that I would get some work done in the yard. Well, low and behold, I was able to accomplish everything I had planned to work on today!

While I was working, I decided it was a pretty enough day, that I would go kayaking.   I knew the water would be cold, but the gorgeous warm sun would more than make up for that.  I even called friend and left a message about my plan, in case she wanted to join me.

Well, after I finished the yard work, I looked up and saw storm clouds to the west.   I went inside to check The Weather Channel, and while I was waiting for the programming to return from a commercial, my weather radio sounded an alert.  This part of the country was under a severe thunderstorm watch.  Which may or may not mean we will have a storm. But, it does mean a storm could occur very quickly, and in addition to possible rain, thunder and lightning, a severe thunderstorm watch means we could experience hail and strong winds.  Well, the lake I planned to kayak at is small, but I had no desire to be on any lake if such a storm blew in.  I cancelled my plans, and left a message with my friend to that effect. I could already tell the wind had changed, an indicator we might experience a storm.

I was right to change my plans.  Less than two hours later, when I would have still been out on the water, it started to rain.  The drops were big and heavy, sounding like hail, but they were not. However, I could hear the thunder, although I never did see lightning.  The rain came in spurts, drops that barely wet the ground, then it stopped. The thunder was intermittent.  There was hail up to quarter size, but very little, at one point.   It was a wise decision not to go kayaking.

Weather Chasers

There is a winter storm brewing in the North Mid-West, and moving to the East.  The Weather Channel http://www.weather.com/newscenter/nationalforecast/ storm chasers are out and about. Their verbal reports seem to reflect an excitement that leads me to believe that they relish the opportunity to get out and report on these storms.

I can understand.  Storm chasing is an adventure that can be almost or truly risky behavior.  Any storm can be dangerous.  Add to that, storms contribute to a charged atmosphere, even if an electric storm is not involved.  The whipping wind, the heavy fog, the blinding snow can all add to a sense of excitement and/or mystery.  Crashing waves, flying debris, slashing rain can create a sense of havoc and danger. These are but some of the weather phenomenon that contribute to the emotional sense of the adventure. 

Last winter, there were a LOT of storms.  This winter, there have been few, so far. But that could change.

And, there have already been tornadoes this year, although it is early for tornadoes.

I am grateful for the weather predicters.  They may not always be accurate, or even correct, but they give us what warnings they can to help us to prepare for severe weather.

Evacuation!

I am watching the Weather Channel airing a story about people caught in a flood, who did not evacuate when told to do so.  I understand this.  I think my tendency would be to want to stay in my home with my creatures.

But, I see this, over and over. People do not evacuate, then the situation becomes critical, and these same people call emergency services to be rescued. Their expectation is that emergency services workers will put themselves in peril for their poor judgement.  I have to wonder how I would behave in such a situation. I do not know.

The Cat on the Top Shelf

Haiku likes to get on the top shelves in the garage.  I have seen her leap from the roof of the Vue to the shelf on the west, and from the shelf on the west to the shelf on the south. The last several times she has done that, I have gotten on the step stool, and brought her down. However, in the past, she has also been able to get down by herself.  I think she is still able to do so, but, sometimes, I need her down sooner, such as the morning I let her and Sake into the garage before I went to work. When I needed to leave for work, I had to get Haiku down. 

Sometimes, when we are in precarious situations, we need help.  Sometimes, we do not. Sometimes, observers think we need help when we do not.  

Irene, the Hurricane

I spent a lot of time watching The Weather Channel http://www.weather.com/ this past weekend. A major hurricane, Irene, went up the East Coast and into the Northeast.

I was impressed at all the precautions that the various government entities took.  Much of it was centered around New York City, but of course, that is where the population concentration is.  But every area hit by Irene had ample warning that this was a serious storm, and precautions needed to be taken.

After the hurricane became a tropical storm and the event seemed anti-climactic, the government entities emphasized the need to be cautious about flooding and power outages.  Whether or not that was heeded, who knows. 

The precautions that could be taken, were, I believe. I am not sure how anyone could have prepared for the flooding and damage from the flooding in the mountainous areas, except for maybe some sandbagging and evacuations. 

The federal government jumped on the need to establish emergency recovery services. I am impressed by that.

I do not think that there was any overkill in the preparation phase of this natural disaster event. And, I see the emergency management agencies working to do what they need to, to help the victims of this storm.

Hurricane!

Tonight, a major hurricane, Irene, is making its way along the Eastern sea coast. The entire sea coast is on some kind of alert. All kinds of emergency alerts, procedures and evacuations have been ordered. There is a large amount of pre-emergency emergency preparedness and disaster relief coordination in effect.

Have we learned our lessons from Katrina and Ike?  We can not prepare much for tornadoes, except to build storm shelters. We can not prepare for earthquakes, except to build earthquake sustainable structures. We can not get totally out of the way of hurricanes, but we can batten down the hatches, evacuate the vulnerable, close entities such as underground transportation vulnerable to flooding, evacuate susceptible skyscraper areas, put holds on outdoor activity, remove materials susceptible to the wind, and have plenty of emergency supplies on hand.

The East Coast is doing this.  This is an expensive proposition, but the unprepared alternative will cost even more.  I am thankful we have a government who understands its responsibility to protect the citizenry.