Gonna leave the Government out of this little thought-line,,, I wanna talk about prepping, and current events.

I was thinking,, if the Cumberland river were to break the 25′ mark here local, it would cover most of the access roads between Harlan and Barbourville KY,,, MOST ALL OF THEM.    We see 21 and 22′ most every February, and last week, it crested at 19′, which keeps it pretty tightly within it’s banks, with the occasional washout of lower roads along side it.  

If it were to see the sorts of rains that hit TN/NC/GA last week, in such a short time frame, the main roads, like 25E and 119 would be largely impassible,  Short stretchs exposed to the air, but larger parts.   And that doesn’t account the bridges.    I know a guy who could tell me more about that, and I am sure there are some smaller spans that wouldn’t hold, but there would still be sections taken down for the sheer fact “DEBRIS” being pushed by TONS of water at speed, are battering rams.  One too many oaks being propelled downstream could take out one support and the whole thing would cave like wet tissue.

How do you prepare for that sort of thing ?    I don’t want you to think long term, like ‘move to higher ground’ or such, I am thinking more, “weather man says this is that 1000 years storm, we’d better move the preps in the basement somewhere safe”. 

I ask this because I saw a vid of a debris wash coming down the side of a hill so damned fast, it covered 100yards in the space of 2 seconds,,,   The area was not in a creek bed or even along side it; it was a hillside coming down,   You can’t second guess that sort of thing, nor can you really predict it.   And if you can’t make that sort of prediction, HOW can you plan for it.    How can you prepare for it?    Keeping multiple locations of supplies?    The people that live in those areas are still suffering from Great Depression era issues.   In some cases (Hartford TN) the area RELIES on tourest activity to stay alive,,, No rafting companies, no jobs,   

And I haven’t been there to see, but have heard that this flood pretty much washed the Pigeon, FLAT,,, Not so much class3+ anymore.    Some of the highlight rapids are completely GONE!!!   

Think of it like this,,, (I don’t recall the name of the rapid, but it was a boil around a REALLY BIG FUCKIN’ ROCK,,,   Think mobile home size rock,,,,

GONE  

It’s now downstream somewhere or washed to the bank and no longer disrupting water to make rapids.

If that river is flat, the rafting companies aren’t going to draw like they did, and that means things close shop and Hartford becomes another Appalachian Ghost town  (like it does every winter,,,,)

Then there are stories of entire Neighborhoods gone missing,,, where they stood is now a ravine,,,

In an area that is KNOWN POOR,,, HOW do they rebuild?  CAN they rebuild,,,,

Don’t write them off,,, These are Scots/Irish,,,  Stubborn, tight knit even if they are bloodthirsty and ruthless,  

and if some of the stories I am hearing have even a 10% margin of accuracy,,, THESE PEOPLE ARE GETTING VERY PISSED OFF.

I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that some FEMA admin-types were found tied to a railroad crosstie and found floating facedown in the FrenchBroad near Morristown TN.

And I think that would be the milder application of “hill justice” (a very real thing, Don’t doubt it.)

I’m not going to go on an on about it,,, Shit gets me too pissed off at an already F!d up situation.    

(ok, so I lied, heres the government rant side)   Here it is, one month (minus) to November (s)elections,,, and the OPTICS are pure shit for the incumbants,,, Even the dedicated press is having a hard time covering and providing cover for it, and the ones that I have seen are spreading flat lies, or “oh, Look! Squirell!!” distractions.  

That tells me that either they are cocksure of themselves (as I mentioned in another post) or THERE WILL BE NO NOVEMBER (S)ELECTON CYCLE,,,,    Something is in the works, I can feel it

And I am not alone,,,, LOTS of people are starting to say things, ask things, and the answers given are NOT good,,, (8 billion to the KrainianKlownKar, along with our stock of Transformers and such, as well as breaking FEMA’s budget on “Refugees” from other countries.  ) We take care of the world, but can’t take care of our own?   Not good optics by any perspective.

vvvvvvvv  THIS vvvvvvvvvvv 

is my goal this weekend,,, No posts,,, unless something truly stupendous demands it.

Live

Learn

LAUGH (please,,, I need to hear some laughter)

LOAD.  

Just arrived home,,, chilling out, checked the battery voltage to make sure I am not overcharging batteries while await the arrival of my new Charge controller.  

While checking them, a drop of water splattered on me.

Huh? What?

look up,,, The whole rooftree line is damp,,,   I don’t think its FROM the Rooftree,,, I think its from a leak on the porch roof and the leak I am seeing is from condensation where that moisture has traveled UP the roof,,,   See if my thinking is correct here: If it were a leak at the ridgeline, it would be leaking when it rains cats and dogs (as it was last  Friday) but here it is, three days dry(ish,,, not rain, but high fog levels in the AM) and now I have this WET on my ceiling.  (and I know it wasn’t there Muhnday when I was up there checking on my ceiling fan,,,)

Shits gotta get fixed,,, I can’t have my house leaking inside, destroying itself,,,

Guess I get to do my least favorite thing and climb a ladder.   I really do not want, nor can I readily afford, a new roof.   Figured sheetmetal roof, good for 20+ years, right,,, here the house is only 10,,,  grrrrr….

Anywhoos,,,, keep livin’ keep learnin’ keep that laughin’ up, and don’t stop the loadin’. 

I’ll get my shit sorted out with a quickness, you can bet on that (even it means the kayakin’ gets set aside for a couple weeks,,, Sigh,,,,)

(different topic:   Brudda B’s Selkie is getting near done.  Some touch up work on that ‘floorboard’ to ‘pretty things up’, and then seal up her skin and test drive/Return to owner,,,,   I reek of resin: it clings to cloths (the smell, and the resin if you are sloppy) and Burnout noted he smelled it this mornin’.  )

With the Appalachans purt much f#*Ked!, at least a large portion of it.   Seeing the ‘response’ from that Blob from the Swamps of Maryland and Virginia,,,

then I see this

It’s our COUNTRY, not our government, we love.   AS IT SHOULD BE.

Its not a Democracy, It IS a Representative REPUBLIC (and if you need to look up what THAT means, you also need to look up your teachers from school and bitchslap the shit out of them)

The ANTI-American scum preaching about ‘Threats to OUR democracy” or “we have to pass this to save OUR democracy” are not talking about the constitutionally provided government; they are talking about a CABAL of self appointed busybodies that LIKE having power, and those ‘elected’ that are spouting this crap, know who has the levers of power and it ain’t the elected,,,,

I called them “ANTI-American scum”, and I meant it.   They have done everything they can to destroy this country, through every means possible short of lining the Cattle cars up and opening camps.   They call those on the RIGHT, Fascists, when every deed exposes thier words as lies, and fascist.  They can’t ‘convince’ us, so they try to replace us,,, NEVER understanding that given three generations, the replacements will be ‘just like us’,,, they may not  look like us, but the things that made and make this country great are rather intoxicating and contagious given enough time. I see it now with third generation Hindi. 

note: I said THIS COUNTRY, not this Government.     Were We to get back to the original ideas of what ‘this government’s ‘  role was, that intoxication and contagion would spread even faster.

What boils my ass the most about the current shenanigans is how the face of this anti-American coalition is so blatantly HATEFUL of the very people he supposedly represents,,,,   Its obvious his view on such is NOT that of a representative, but a presumptive king or something..

Kings USED TO lead thier armies into battle,   That is what LEADERS do.

SO,,, when this NOVEMBER rolls around, I am going to do exactly as TL states EVERY SWINGING DICK AND JANE  SHOULD DO.   Get out the vote, even though we know they are going to do everything in their power to nuetralize our voices, we have to use that last chance to yell: and in doing so, absolve ourselves of any guilt for what comes next.    This is the last chance to that box before things go to the last one.

Because, if this past 5 days is any indicator, what that CABAL has in store for us is gonna make the ghost of Hitler pale and fade.   Start looking for like minded peeps in your Local Gov and LEO services.   They are there, and probably feeling quite alone.    I will admit that this is an area I am sorely lacking in.    (I am also not ‘local’ and still get the hairy eyeball when I open my mouth, so there is that to contend with.  At least I have 12 years of building a reputation as “the goto guy”  for a lot of different reasons, and some that know me as such are in the local Gov, if only at the lower positions that actually do the work.)

WE ARE IT.  NO ONE is going to come save our sorry butts.  Putin is NOT going to be airdropping arms and ammo to the resistance, Israel won’t be doing any of that either; NO ONE IS.   WE ARE IT.

I’ve plenty of scar tissue to say ‘I showed up’,,, I have a feeling there will be more yet.   Don’t write off the slow ones either,,, some of them are tougher than nails and will keep on when all others have fallen to the side,,, 

`“I want that guy that did 10 years at BurgerKing on my side: he might be dumber than a box of rocks, but he’s tough and stubborn,,,: Henry Rollins (paraphrased)

Talking about the destruction in the area I was supposed to travel through this past weekend. 

And the travesty that exemplifies our current leaders pretend.   And oh, aren’t they JUST that, PRETEND,, Pretentiuous, and useless to the people: the “81 million” that supposedly voted them in>snark<

I can tell you, when ‘the leader of the free world’ says “we’ve sent everything we have, there’s nothing left” AFTER signing a spending bill that sends BILLIONS to some armpit country getting its ass kicked by Ivan, further pushing this world closer to Nuclear Annihilation,,,   

You think the people of the affected areas aren’t taking note?

You think the people with family in those areas aren’t taking note?

DID THEY EVEN THINK?

Sorry, the answer is just as obvious as the shame they should be feeling,,,, except they don’t understand that ‘Representative’ status that our government used to hold to: nopes, they are our LEADERS, not employees of the PEOPLE,,,  

And even with that definition in mind, where the HELL are they “LEADING” us???   questions answer themselves sometimes,,,,,

Ok, gotta do the J.O.B. as I can’t get mine arse to Hartford to help in clean up.   Its not a money issue or anything, its a health one.   I am allergic to molds, and the mold content after flooding like that ALWAYS sends my upper respratory tract into shutdown mode.   I’d be hospitalized in 24 hours if I went there: a casualty, not an asset.   I’ll send stuff as I can; thats the only way I can help those people right now.

LLLL!

Good day for a muhnday,,,   Work went well, only one goof up on my part: forgot to get measurements for a handrail on a walkway,,,    What can I say, mad scramble at the end, keeping an eye on 3 others with about as many braincells each,,,

Then I arrive home,,,   Ceiling fan is making some odd noises,,,   Figure ‘A’ight, its been up there for seven years now, stopped only to get cleaned off,,,,   Bearings gave up,,,”    And oddly enough, I have the replacement parts for it,,, (12vdc Ceiling fan for RV’s)

Shut her down, dig out the parts, pull the  unit off the ceiling,,,,   Nothing amiss that I  can see, replace the bearings anyways; I’m there now, may as well,,,

Then the light started failing and I went to turn on my desk lamp so I could see what the heck I was doing,,,   NO LOVE,,, NO LIGHT!!!  

WTELF?????

Jump up and hit the Info button on my charge controller,

NOTHING,,, No screen lit up, no info, nada,,,,

Turn on the inverter to see what it says: different circuit, same bank.

SSSQQUUUEEEELLLLL!!!!!!!!!

LOW VOLTAGE warning,,,, less than 9vdc,,,,  NOT GOOD!!!

Time to bust out the Meter and start digging; may be a blown fuse, or any number of other things.   

Nopes,,just a dead charge controller,,,  6 years oid: guess when the warranty expired?    Last month,,,   So right now, I am running on back up battery lamps to see, NO POWER in the house (a first for me!!!  I’ve always had power, even when the rest of the hollar was dark,,,) and I await a new charge controller via the ZON,,,, Friday is the earliest I can expect it.   With all the cloud cover we have been having, I went ahead and hardwired the panels to the battery bank to get them charged back up.  I won’t see anything until tomorrow; when I did that it was already failing light, but I did see the voltage start to trickle upwards a few points.   If this were high summer with clear skies, I would be very cautious of doing that.  Far too easy to overcharge them.

I guess you could say that my ‘new to me boat fund’ just got ATE,,,,  I’m hoping the batteries didn’t take a hit being depleted so low.   If so, thats REALLY gonna hurt,,,   Doable, but painful,,,

Me thinks it’s time for Dio to start researching (building) analog charge controllers,,, The option I took today may not be available next time,,,,   The only downside to that,,, RadioShack is no longer in business and the only source that I HAVE for parts like that, is online (Zon).  Grkkkk

(on a side note, I did repower the ceiling fan, just to see, and it was MUCH quieter, but still slow as heck, so I did fix something today,,,,   And I immediately powered it back off to eliminate the drain on the batterybank.)

Life off grid,,, Do not reccomend,,, (read my book, Outside looking in: its not so much a book for going off grid, more a dialogue asking “are you SURE???”,,,, )   I made the choice, and there are times where its pretty damned good, but there is a shit ton more work involved than just ‘flippin’ a switch’ like when I was grid tied,,,,

(((Oh, and surprise #2?   I ordered more Gelcoat for Lyssa,,, email came in today, saying it won’t be here until mid November.    Going to do some looking near the lakes and see if I can find someone local for such things.)

Yup, thats Bluejean in the water there.   I upgraded the phone too.  Thats the widescreen lense.  

And as you can see, that water is DEAD FLAT mirrored surface.    So little breeze that it didn’t even ripple the surface very often.    Considering two days ago, we were under a deluge with 30mph gusting winds.

I’ll tell ya this though.   I needed that short session on water.  I may not have done much (about 2 1/2 miles) or very fast, but my relaxation levels are ‘about right’ now.

This whole weekend getting shot to hell had me just a little frazzled.   Not that its anyones fault.   Just goes to tell me that there was some reason Universe didn’t want me in SC for a spell.  Dunno what that reason was, and I am sure I won’t like it when it finally reveals itself, but, Here I am, not where I wished to be.

Only where I am needed, for what ever reason.    So be it.

As for BlueJean,,, she’s no slouch, but she certainly isn’t a speed demon.   She’ll get you there, and drier than most of my other boats, but she will take her time doing it.    But she can carry ALL of my camp gear doing it and won’t show any signs of character change.  She ain’t goin’ anywhere out of my fleet.   I think I have said it more than once: BJ is the boat I would be willing to put my dad in for a first timer.   She is that forgiving.

The only reason I don’t take her out more often, is that forgiveness.   I get lazy and then switch boats to ones more lively; it takes a bit to re-adapt the sea legs.    Still, Lyssa is going to be in dry-dock for a couple of weeks while I work on her hull, so BJ gets to play.    I might even go ahead and do a camp out next weekend to make up (to myself) for this failed weekend. (I figure the highway and byways between here  and SIs’s house are going to be FUBAR’ed for a few weeks at least.  )

My usual domestics day, since getting out of town proved to be fruitless.   Mama-nature sure does know how to get her message across.    Mucho Mal Destruction all along the NC/TN areas.  I already posted a pic of I40 being washed out: Lord only knows how many backroad bridges were taken down,,,(I know of at least one)   Thats gonna take some time to rectify.

So I contemplated going kayaking, solo, again,,, and dammit, the desire is just not there today.  

Thats not to say I ain’t playin’ with kayaks,,,,

Three projects (Two definite, one will see about)   Finish Selkie for Brudda B.    Make Lyssa Mo’Mine….

I have to finish Selkie or I have no where to work on Lyssa.  Selkie has been taking up a lot of real estate on my porch this summer, and yah, I really need to ‘finish what I started’,,, and to be honest, it hasn’t felt like as long as it has been.   I started that ‘fix’ back in March!!!  Ho-shit!,,, gitbizzy dood!!!

Right now, I’m waiting for resin to cure so I can put on another layer of glass over the Ballistic Nylon I laid in the floor.   It’s all attached to the ribs ‘floating’ above the skin.   The whole point is to make it so Selkie no longer steals shoes, essentially becoming an entrapment point.   (there is a reason I am a barefoot paddler,,,)   This is probably going to be a three day process, but then, close up her skin, seal the seams, and she is done.  

And I could have had her done MONTHS ago, ‘ceptin’   Me got lazy,,,,   Pointing that finger right back at the culprit,,,  I know it, and I kinda feel guilty about it.   Is what it is, and you can’t change the past, no matter how much the lefties want it so.

As for Lyssa,,,   I already pulled that rear bulkhead (there is still one between the aft compartment and the cockpit.  not touching that one.) and now, I am slowly working on sanding off all the epoxy from the hull.   It worked, but, Even with the talcum to make it white, that shit yellowed something nasty.   She got ugly on me.   I didn’t really notice it until I had to do the repairs from last race, but the difference is GLARING.    Clean her off, and re-gel.   Make her shiny and bright again.     There are a couple of other things I want to deal with while she is in dry dock, but nothing as intesive as a hull makeover.

In the meantime, BlueJean is going to be riding high, and Lyssa takes her spot in the racks on the porch.   When Selkie is finished, I swap them out,,,,

Yes, there is a kayak on Buffalo 24/7 (unless its on the water being used) Sometimes two!!!   My Kayaddiction is strong!!!

as for that third project,,,,    Lizzy, the Nordkapp.    I keep tossing this one around, and I even started on it at one point, before Selkie needed repairs.   Lizzy has been hanging in the rafters all summer, in peices: Literally in peices.   Hatches and bilge pump removed, cockpit coaming cut free, and I started to work on making the cockpit opening something a bit more modern: Keyhole style, not that dinky Ocean cockpit that started causing me anxiety when paddling.

Problem being, I am not 100% certain my anxiety was all due to that cockpit.  Lizzy’s breed is ALWAYS described as “lively” or ” Demands attention”.  She is NOT a stable boat.   Only when loaded with gear (through 10″ hatch covers,,,,) will they settle down.  Not that I am even certain of that as I never tried her loaded like I load Lyssa; I have only the word of other users for such.    SO, I keep putting her on the back burner, considering my options, and one of those options is to retire her.    Selling is off the table now that the cuts have been made.  (not totally true: I COULD put it all back, but would need to get a matching deck gel coat to make her look good again.   I’m not worried about looks as much for the modifications, at least, not until I know one way or the other, if they worked.)

Then again, my skills have grown, and Lyssa, who felt ‘lively’ to me a year ago, is now my goto boat for everything (ceptin’ WW)   Maybe, finishing Lizzy will be that “Long Boat, highspeed cargo hauler” that I have been on quest for.   (guess I just made up my mind on that third project, eh?)

ANywhoos, y’all stay safe out there while the Political Zoo is off its leash.  Hopefully, things will start to improve after January of ’25,,, I won’t hold my breath that things settle after Nov 5th,,,,

L

L

L

L!