August 27, 2008
Hurricane Gustav following in Katrina’s Footsteps—EEK!
Almost 3 years to the day (!) it looks like another hurricane is following what Katrina did.
However, we’re still more than 72 hours from wherever it’s going to land so it could change direction. AT the moment however, accuweather and the NOOA (?) National Hurricane Center shows it on track to hit the gulf Coast from the western edge of Louisiana to part of the Florida panhandle. It’s aiming, so far, right into the offshore Louisiana oil patches, the heart being that little spit of land coming out of Louisiana that is the end of the Mississippi.
I went to Sprouts today and bought all the bulk stuff I’ll need for at least another month! NO, not because of sympathy hurricane preparedness. J I’m still cooking with the solar oven and can make another recipe without looking at the written instructions. Is this progress? (The answer is yes.)
We’ve had lots of rain this monsoon. The past month we’ve had some real soakers going to for than the usual monsoon 1-2 hours of hard rain. We’re ahead on our rain needs for this year in our watershed.
Oil went up a barrel because of the Gustavo situation. It’s been really low the past month or so, funning 112-120 dollars a barrel. Our gas is at 3.61 this week. DJA has been in the middling 11,000 range the past month or so.
August 28, 2008
Gustav is still on the move—may be a hurricane officially Friday or Friday night. It’s going a little west right now so that takes it west of NOLA (New Orleans Louisiana).
Hannah has joined the group of tropical depressions lining up across the Atlantic from Africa—there’s another tropical depression right west of Africa tonight and about 5-6 other possibilities lined up right across the middle of the map of Africa! Hannah, if it becomes a hurricane is expected to hit the East Coast anywhere from Florida up north according to my interpretation of the possible 5 day track at the national Hurricane center.
Senator Barak Osama made his acceptance speech for the Democratic nominee for the presidential campaign tonight. Yes, I’ll vote for him. A t least he gives lip service to knowledge about the problems we need to face in the next few years even if what we wants to do about them won’t be possible for everything we want to and need to spend money on. Energy shortages, alternative energy, climate warming problems, economic problems … And he also said we should be able to come up with some kind of common ground solutions for the things like gay marriages/unions and abortion …. He’s right about that, too. I believe that’s especially true about abortion and I’m a fixed, longtime supporter of Choice and the Roe v Wade decision.
The Republicans start in on Monday.
There’s a growing fear of Russia doing something to cut oil/energy supplies to Western Europe. We have sent humanitarian aid but on military ships to one Georgian port. That’s just one move in this little Georgian chess game. That little move with Gulf of Mexico hurricanes doesn’t bode well.
Didn’t they invent chess in that part of the world, the Middle East?
The news is more interesting than ever the past few morning when I’ve gotten up to read my portion of doom for the day!
Cheers,
shamba
Aug 30
Gustavo is officially a Cat 4 just going over the west end of Cuba. It intensified very quickly midday Saturday Aug 30. ………….
Had big lightning show last night but no rain here. Huge areas of the sky would light up behind the clouds at a time. It was like watching someone walking with a lantern behind curtains through a window.
Clouds are everywhere in the sky today and that’s not a usual sight here summer or winter. They all seem to be heading for some consolidation point. Yes, there is a chance for storms tonight. We’re up something like 3 inches on our yearly rain!
Gas here today for 3.61 and it’s been down that low for about 5 days now; this is probably as low as it’s going to get for a while since Gustave Hurricane at No. 4 is within 48 hours of central to eastern part of Louisiana coast. It just finished over Cuba and has entered the GOM. Landfall is expected around Houma and Morgan city at the last info I read at oildrum.com and one of the weather sites. I’ve also been reading this evening a few comments on the above website about Gustavo is really projected to move closer to New Orleans than it has been the past day or so. So, is this the stake in the heart of Southern Louisiana and New Orleans? We always need a port there but maybe not a big city. I guess we’ll know about that Sunday morning.
And the damage to the oil/gas stuff? I don’t want to think about that at the moment. I’ve read enough about that for one day.
Oil/Gas for 75% of GOM production has shut down and evacuated workers. NYMEX trading usually opens on a Sunday at 6 p.m. but tomorrow it’s opening like 3 -3.5 hours early. (I don’t know where NYMEX actually is, if it has a location. It may be a cyber exchange and “opens” in relation to the many stock markets around the world.)
Trading on Friday closed at $115.46. I imagine it will go up by a bit after trading opens
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
August 21 through August 23
Aug 21
--thought I’d try drying some berries or fruit of some kind haven’t done it yet though.
--Rep convention next week: Dems this weekend. Thank heavens all this political running will be over after going on for 2 years now. At least it will be over in 2 months.
Russians are digging in in Georgia, not moving out at all. WE signed missile shield thing with Poland and Czech government—Russians said they’d be very unhappy about that and they are showing it. Telling NATO they’ll no longer cooperate with them in any way at all! Not good the sounds of this
We are surrounded by the six THINGS, my six divisions anyway, that are coming together to get us in modern Western society. From left to right (yes, some political significance there) :
Climate change
Peak Food – agriculture, transport and prices and availability
Peak Resources—Mining, Forests, Water resources, many material related to manufacturing and production of all the goods we use
Peak Oil & Energy—, natural gas, electricity generation, gasoline, kerosene (Airlines fuel), heating oil, petrochemical products
Peak Money-SS, Healthcare costs,
Geopolitics & Politics—Iraq, Russian in Georgia.
Now that we’re surrounded they will all start to go up, in price and scarcity in availability …. Walling us in?
August 23, 2008
Got Mom’s blood work drawn this week and got her to see our dr, too. She’s only 96 lbs!! Her color and everything looks good, her hair looks good and her sense of humor is goo and she says she’s not feeling any pain anywhere. I’m always afraid weight loss means a form of her breast cancer has come back—but that hasn’t happened in past weight loss scenarios. She still dresses herself and gets her colors and patterns right. She asked me over and over, of course, how old, is so and so “gone”, why is she the last to die (!) and can she still take care of herself personally. These are questions she’s all asked me before so it’s no surprise. I’ve been seeing her more regularly and I sense she wants me to see her more often.
I now do what I never thought I would do with preparing food for myself; I get up in the morning and ask myself “What shall I cook in the sun oven today?”!! LOL! It’s so funny that this solar cooker has been the catalyst for being interested in cooking and fixing better food for me.
I went to the yoga studio last night to see the last installment of the Mahabharata—India’s epic poem that was put in this film form about 10 years ago. It was interesting and I could follow the main characters anyway in the story line since the second installment was shown almost a month ago. There were about 5-10 of us and we might form a small discussion group to talk about it. The whole Mahabharata is like 7 times longer than the Iliad or the Odyssey.
I figure the story with so many characters is like a Russian novel, you just have to keep going in the story and sometimes review the characters listed in the front of the book and you’ll understand more and more as you go along.
Monsoon has gone away and the heat is on today. Hopefully we will have one last round of monsoon storms that makes it here to the Valley of the sun before monsoon season is gone. It’s gone soon after Labor Day which is next weekend.
Cheers,
Shamba
--thought I’d try drying some berries or fruit of some kind haven’t done it yet though.
--Rep convention next week: Dems this weekend. Thank heavens all this political running will be over after going on for 2 years now. At least it will be over in 2 months.
Russians are digging in in Georgia, not moving out at all. WE signed missile shield thing with Poland and Czech government—Russians said they’d be very unhappy about that and they are showing it. Telling NATO they’ll no longer cooperate with them in any way at all! Not good the sounds of this
We are surrounded by the six THINGS, my six divisions anyway, that are coming together to get us in modern Western society. From left to right (yes, some political significance there) :
Climate change
Peak Food – agriculture, transport and prices and availability
Peak Resources—Mining, Forests, Water resources, many material related to manufacturing and production of all the goods we use
Peak Oil & Energy—, natural gas, electricity generation, gasoline, kerosene (Airlines fuel), heating oil, petrochemical products
Peak Money-SS, Healthcare costs,
Geopolitics & Politics—Iraq, Russian in Georgia.
Now that we’re surrounded they will all start to go up, in price and scarcity in availability …. Walling us in?
August 23, 2008
Got Mom’s blood work drawn this week and got her to see our dr, too. She’s only 96 lbs!! Her color and everything looks good, her hair looks good and her sense of humor is goo and she says she’s not feeling any pain anywhere. I’m always afraid weight loss means a form of her breast cancer has come back—but that hasn’t happened in past weight loss scenarios. She still dresses herself and gets her colors and patterns right. She asked me over and over, of course, how old, is so and so “gone”, why is she the last to die (!) and can she still take care of herself personally. These are questions she’s all asked me before so it’s no surprise. I’ve been seeing her more regularly and I sense she wants me to see her more often.
I now do what I never thought I would do with preparing food for myself; I get up in the morning and ask myself “What shall I cook in the sun oven today?”!! LOL! It’s so funny that this solar cooker has been the catalyst for being interested in cooking and fixing better food for me.
I went to the yoga studio last night to see the last installment of the Mahabharata—India’s epic poem that was put in this film form about 10 years ago. It was interesting and I could follow the main characters anyway in the story line since the second installment was shown almost a month ago. There were about 5-10 of us and we might form a small discussion group to talk about it. The whole Mahabharata is like 7 times longer than the Iliad or the Odyssey.
I figure the story with so many characters is like a Russian novel, you just have to keep going in the story and sometimes review the characters listed in the front of the book and you’ll understand more and more as you go along.
Monsoon has gone away and the heat is on today. Hopefully we will have one last round of monsoon storms that makes it here to the Valley of the sun before monsoon season is gone. It’s gone soon after Labor Day which is next weekend.
Cheers,
Shamba
Sunday, August 10, 2008
August 10th
Prepped: Picked up some sturdier measuring spoons and an easier to read cup measure marked down at Linens n ‘ things. I’ve also gotten some baking pans to work with my solar oven at the Goodwill near me. This Goodwill seems to have a great supply of various househoold and cooking things all the time.
Linens N things has some lovely things marked waaay down these days because of their business troubles. If you can get to one you might pick up some real goodies at much less than their usual price. I always liked to look in this store but I’ve been buying the last two visits. I picked up two useful little glass measure for small amounts under 2 tablesppons--it has metric measures and US measure. 00 cents and one I got for Sarah Multicats.
Also, got 4 bags of frozen vegetables from helping clean up apartment of friend--Mary alice--who has moved back to NJ. Also, got some papers towels and cleaning supplies from here. And some twine a good sized stapler, I only have two very small ones but they do work, and two roles of duct tape and one of packing tape and one electricians tape.
Cooked: Learned a simple rice and cheese dish that works well in the solar oven and made my own baked beans a couple of weeks ago. I used dried beans–so it was all from scratch. I was so proud of myself!
Storage: nonfat dry milk, more flour, canola oil. Rearranged small amounts of rice, lentils and split peas and pasta in a place where I will use them up first before opening something else.
Other info: K. didn't have to sell his car friend helped him to garage to get it fixed up and paid for it. whew! He's supposed to have some hours to work at a gallery starting end of august--we'll see. He sounds ok but kind of bored having to stay in the house so much because of his probation.
Ruth called, too. Daniel will be 3 this coming week! Levi's BD is on the 23rd.
Mom is okay; I had lunch with her yesterday.
cheers,
shamba
Linens N things has some lovely things marked waaay down these days because of their business troubles. If you can get to one you might pick up some real goodies at much less than their usual price. I always liked to look in this store but I’ve been buying the last two visits. I picked up two useful little glass measure for small amounts under 2 tablesppons--it has metric measures and US measure. 00 cents and one I got for Sarah Multicats.
Also, got 4 bags of frozen vegetables from helping clean up apartment of friend--Mary alice--who has moved back to NJ. Also, got some papers towels and cleaning supplies from here. And some twine a good sized stapler, I only have two very small ones but they do work, and two roles of duct tape and one of packing tape and one electricians tape.
Cooked: Learned a simple rice and cheese dish that works well in the solar oven and made my own baked beans a couple of weeks ago. I used dried beans–so it was all from scratch. I was so proud of myself!
Storage: nonfat dry milk, more flour, canola oil. Rearranged small amounts of rice, lentils and split peas and pasta in a place where I will use them up first before opening something else.
Other info: K. didn't have to sell his car friend helped him to garage to get it fixed up and paid for it. whew! He's supposed to have some hours to work at a gallery starting end of august--we'll see. He sounds ok but kind of bored having to stay in the house so much because of his probation.
Ruth called, too. Daniel will be 3 this coming week! Levi's BD is on the 23rd.
Mom is okay; I had lunch with her yesterday.
cheers,
shamba
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
jul 26-28 hot and still cooking ...
July 26,
Continued with solar cooking today: Lentils & Rice dish—I really like this dish—is cooking in the solar oven. I haven’t cooked this outside before so I’m unsure of the timing. At least an hour –that’s what I use inside—and a little more, I guess.
I’m also going to make some stock Today, I’ve decided. I’ve got too many vegetables in the crisper and I can’t make any soup without stock as I used the can of vegetable broth on the lentils. Still, one week until payday. But I have more than enough in the pantry to feed me if I do it right.
Stock: in an still simmering for ½ hour.
Lentils: after one hour, looking like the final product; needs about another ½ hour or so.
July 28, __ Decided I should be making trips to Sprouts Farmers Market store more than Safeway for regular food shopping. This is because of Sprouts bulk foods, of course more than anything else. Anyway, on payday Friday or over the weekend ,I’m going to make a shopping run there and see how much that runs me. I’ve been saving all my grocery receipts for the past 3 months. Of course, I’ve also been buying most of my extra/future food stocks from that money, too. I got some rolled oats today for less than half the cost of Safeways 2-3 lbs. containers. I just put the news ones in the old container though.
Continued with solar cooking today: Lentils & Rice dish—I really like this dish—is cooking in the solar oven. I haven’t cooked this outside before so I’m unsure of the timing. At least an hour –that’s what I use inside—and a little more, I guess.
I’m also going to make some stock Today, I’ve decided. I’ve got too many vegetables in the crisper and I can’t make any soup without stock as I used the can of vegetable broth on the lentils. Still, one week until payday. But I have more than enough in the pantry to feed me if I do it right.
Stock: in an still simmering for ½ hour.
Lentils: after one hour, looking like the final product; needs about another ½ hour or so.
July 28, __ Decided I should be making trips to Sprouts Farmers Market store more than Safeway for regular food shopping. This is because of Sprouts bulk foods, of course more than anything else. Anyway, on payday Friday or over the weekend ,I’m going to make a shopping run there and see how much that runs me. I’ve been saving all my grocery receipts for the past 3 months. Of course, I’ve also been buying most of my extra/future food stocks from that money, too. I got some rolled oats today for less than half the cost of Safeways 2-3 lbs. containers. I just put the news ones in the old container though.
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