Augs 27, 28 and 30

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