ahead of the norm... maybe

well, well, well... there is a forecast of 4-8" of snow here locally by sunday night, with another 2-4" on wednesday.

the average snowfall west of the cascades is 2.3" per year. methinks that this coming week will change the curve a little bit.

musing on a (un)natural occurrence

for the past ten or so years there has been talk of global warming. the term has been rephrased by the media to now be "climate change". (you know, kinda like "anti-abortion" becoming "pro-life".)

there are articles and news stories frequently discussing the warming temperatures in the polar regions which are now melting.

um, i seem to remember from my history and science classes back in the dark ages that there used to be glaciers which covered most of the northern hemisphere. here in north america the glacier covered all of canada and much of the midwest during the pleistocene era aka "the ice age".


it seems to me there had to be some "global warming/climate change" in order for the glacier to melt 11,000 years ago.

this process has been going on for millenia. last night i read a news article on one of the swiss news sites regarding some finds in the swiss alps. remember otzi, the iceman discovered in the alps in 1991? well, there have been continued expeditions into the alps on both sides to try to locate additional finds.

on the swiss side there have been a few hundred artifacts discovered from the neolithic age, the bronze age, the roman age, and the medieval age. there are gaps of hundreds and thousands of years between the finds. why? how about the passes have been unpassable due to snow and ice, which then melts enabling people to use them. currently there is a melt allowing archaeologists to comb the passes for artifacts. they have found some pretty bitchin' things. some of which are 1,000 years older than otzi.

there is a natural cycle to the warming and the cooling of temps on this planet. science has determined that the planet has continually had periods where it is covered in ice and periods where it is not. are we responsible for the current rate of warming? possibly.

i think people are forgetting history. we need to adapt to the changes. we also should continue to endeavour to keep it green and lower the pollution levels.

a basement kitteh

as seen on good morning, america, august 23 2006.

Pampam and Jason kept getting huge water bills. They knew beyond a doubt that the bills weren't representative of their actual usage, and no matter how they tried to conserve, the high bills continued. Although they could see nothing wrong, they had everything checked for leaks or problems: the water meter, outdoor pipes, indoor pipes, underground pipes, faucets, toilets, washer, ice maker, etc., all to no avail. One day Jason stayed home to do his work, but kept hearing water running downstairs. He finally got up to investigate, and stumbled onto the cause of the bills. Apparently this was happening all day long while Pampam was sleeping and Jason was at work.

(no subject)

while in line at the grocery tonight i struck up a conversation with the guy standing behind me. you know, talk about weather turns to other things. he mentioned it was cold and had just come back from san diego. since i lived in san diego the conversation continued.

not sure how much of what he had to say is true, but even partially it shows the impact of the stupidity of the mortgage companies and their lending practices.

this guy claims to own a window installation company. he mentioned having been in san diego the last two weeks. evidently his daughter and son-in-law live there, in addition to having a work contract to install replacement windows in homes in chula vista/otay ranch that were foreclosed. something to do with the money from the feds allowing B of A to purchase materials from out of state tax free to repair houses mortgaged by countrywide.

he said that before leaving san diego yesterday he had a holiday luncheon with sixty of his employees... and laid them off. he is now down to eighteen employees for whom the company can no longer afford to provide health insurance. a year ago he had over nine thousand employees.

he told me of having had so much business nationwide for supplying windows he was earning $5M/year. developers were putting up houses left and right with no regard for the viability of the creditworthiness of the buyers. now those houses are standing empty. now he is no longer receiving the volume of orders for windows.

he also said that his son-in-law had called to tell him that the five bedroom house they were renting with four other couples, on a street in eastlake filled with empty houses, had the rent increased to $2800/month. this guy said he told the kid to call the owner back and tell him he would pay $1500/mo. the owner reduced the rent to $1800. perhaps this is true. perhaps not.