Happy F-ing Birthday, BLOWHARD !!

[GSGregg]

It slipped by me by a day, but Nov. 30, 2011 was the night that totally uncharacteristic 100-mph winds ripped up Southern California, and I'm pleased to note that so far this time around there isn't a trace of anything similar.

Yet.

I had just brought home a 6.5-foot steel utility cabinet and hadn't secured it to the back of the house; with the contents including a pair of cylinder heads, a spare bench vise, and a few heavy-gauge extension cords, why should I have to, right?

Anyway, when the real shit started, all I could do was sit in the dark (power poles ripped out of the ground) and listen to the sound of that cabinet being blown around like a cardboard shoebox as it bounced from the back wall of the house (chipping up the stucco) to the left side of my 1967 Chevy Impala (jacked up and defenseless with the rear axle completely disassembled so I couldn't even drop it and roll it anyplace) to the spare Chevy Six engine (resting solidly on lumber rails and therefore an effective doorstop) and the old Frigidaire electric kitchen range (which isn't in as nice a condition now as it was) holding down the yard. Needless to say, I was pissed.

What DID need saying, or at least deserved consideration, was how much worse it could have been. I'm about thirty miles from the nearest beach, so no flooding---hell; as I recall, it didn't even rain! Thinking of what was endured by the people near our (USA) Atlantic coast who were at the mercy of Hurricane Sandy sort of puts MY gripe into perspective.

But I'm still pissed. issed:


GSG

 

[sleepy]

Ah yeah. This year, just rain rain rain on and off for the last several days, but so far it's mild rain.

It's just that I needed it dry for a couple of more weeks...

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

i vaguely remember that. ignorance is bliss, i guess. anyway, when all was said and done, what became of the cabinet and the cylinder heads?

my stepdad's cousin and her three kids lives two blocks off the ocean on long beach island, NJ, one of the places that got hammered by sandy. i'm almost afraid to ask what became of the house. i'm sure the people got out, but who knows how the house fared or their little rabbit farm. feeding the bunnies fresh dandelions was one of my favorite activities when i was over there.

anyway, weather science seems to be saying that with the rise of global temp, storms will become less frequenct but more powerful. so most of us are probably going to be ducking and covering for the rest of our lives until govt is forced to do a technological quick fix. but i digress on to one of my pet subjects, sorry.

happy anniversary, gregg! :)

 

[sleepy]

I hope the rabbits were cared for.
It makes me sad to think of dependent creatures potentially abandoned
to the fates. Curiously, I was on the bus just yesterday and they have something called "Metro T.V." with two monitors on each bus with the sound piped over the speaker system, and they ran a segment on the topic of
planning for pets and what to do in the event of an emergency.
Things like stocking a storage of emergency pet food, adequate hygiene supplies, and leashes and pet containers needed to transport them safely,
and to make arrangements with nearby friends who can look after them, though that would probably be impractical in the event of a Sandy.

I'm assuming that if you have a pet container for each animal, that you could drop them off at the shelter and they would be cared for in the container while awaiting your return, though I have a serious mistrust of municipal animal shelters and their bosses.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

bah, i have some pics of the bunnies from about three years ago but i can't find them just now... what the frack did i do with them?

side note: the way that rabbits chew food is totally fascinating to me, which is kind of why i became their slave at hunting down dandelion greens for them in order to watch them chew. it's similar to how piggly-wigglies operate:
my sweet guinea pigs - YouTube

 

[GSGregg]

.....what became of the cabinet and the cylinder heads?

No harm to the heads; they're ~53-pound lumps of cast iron (Buick nailhead) and the valves are out, so they didn't get bent. The cabinet, however, didn't fare as well.

Even with the heavy stuff on the floor/bottom shelf, it got blown onto its side and its front (don't know which was first, but that's probably irrelevant) and then one of the impacts distorted the main box, allowing the doors to unlatch and swing open. Then, the doors got hyper-extended when the thing rolled, sprung the welded-on hinges and bent the (hardened, I think) pins; I still haven't tried to straighten everything. It's on its side, tucked up close against the back of the house with a tarp over it, pretending to be a bench. (The tarp is over the 'bench', not the house)

.....storms will become less frequent but more powerful.

More powerful? I'll buy that before I will 'less frequent'; seems like every time I turn around, there's some Atlantic dervish threatening to launder some local civilization.

Happy anniversary? Heh-heh.....Thanks, Ike, but not one I'd care to celebrate again

 

[Itchigo]

I think the question we ALL want to know the answer to: Was the Impala ok?

 

[GSGregg]

A few gouges in the paint but not much real damage to the metal; it's needed paint for a long time but now the preparation will be more 'intense'.

 

[faralos]

what with all those bunnies becoming airborne
it must have been a real 'hare raising experience'!
I hope they are all okay though

 

[faralos]

Ike Savage that is a real cute video!
That 'fluffy' one on the right just made my day
he eats like I do... nonstop!
(put it in front of me then remove your hands lest I bite you!)
reminds me of me eating spaghetti

 

[sleepy]

Just asking GS. Was the utility cabinet a walk-in cabinet like a small Tuff Shed
and was there a brand name for it? Was it from Home Depot, Lowes, etc.?

I'm wondering because in my future prospects, I have been looking at Tuff Shed structures as a utility workroom (or a small hideaway...), though that's only wishful thinking for now.

 

[GSGregg]

sleepy;

No walk-in; just the basic four-shelf (three plus the floor) upright light-gauge steel 78" x 36" x 24". Doors are almost full length top-to-bottom and the left door is held closed by the right one, which has the handle and latch bars that extend into slots at top and bottom. From the fun I had wielding the hand truck, I would guess it weighs approx. 100-120 lbs. Maybe more.....I don't know, as it's much too clumsy to put on my bathroom scale.

It's not new; a friend bought it from his employer years ago, and it was given to me after he passed away.

 

[sleepy]

A cabinet, but not a closet.
I totally misread that...

 

[GSGregg]

Do you actually have room for anything like a Tuff Shed, living in an apartment?

 

[sleepy]

Nooo, but I'm pipe dreaming of better places at the moment.

 

[GSGregg]

Getting a 'crib' where you can keep your shed.

 

[sleepy]

It's really hard to find workman supplies in L.A.
Potash. Ceramic and glass materials. Basic chemicals and solvents.

All the phone book seems to list is for stuff like beauty parlors.
It's like looking for a true pro instrument with good voices in L.A. and the only thing I can find is a consumer-grade Casio or Yamaha entry level product with terrible voices. The good stuff is hard to find in L.A. for some reason.

 

[GSGregg]

Don't know much about that; I had already given up keyboarding (let the real players play) by the time synthesizers went polyphonic. Back in the Jurassic age, I played a fender Jaguar while at the bench of a C-3 owned by the lounge we worked at, and it was loads of fun, but when I graduated to 'real' music my chops were woefully insufficient. My sticking with guitar was appreciated by all.

 

[GSGregg]

HA!!! Speaking of Blowhards, Craig Ferguson, who often 'complains' about not having a house band like his boss (Letterman) does, has Richie Sambora on tonight---band and all. (CBS2 Los Angeles now!)(PST)

 

[sleepy]

Well that's fine, but I'm still burned out by Hollywood.
I would have settled a thousand years ago, but the folks got some really stupid rules which I cannot abide by.

 

[faralos]

you mean that famous town:
Holy weed?
we have Hollywood only to show people that you CAN have it all
and have a place to put it too! gotta' love a faux pas town!