Howdy folks! It's another juvat Monday! But, as usual, this is getting written on Sunday.
As such, some of this post could be old news to some readers, e.g. Cletus or STxAR. Being in the same area of Heaven (AKA Texas) they may have seen some of the wonders about to be revealed to the rest of our loyal readers.
First, one may notice that the color of the font is different. Our beloved blogmaster, having decided (wisely) to make some changes to the blog, sent me some HTML to setup the approved fonts and their color. However, despite having 20+ years as a webmaster and teaching that to HS students, I could not get it to work in blogger. When I copied it into the HTML page of the post then went to the text view, blogger translated it into gibberish. Perhaps there's a supersecret HTML page for style sheet level settings? Who knows?
But, on with the show. This morning about 0400 Mrs J woke up and brought the GP's (Great Pyrenees, wonderful dogs) in from outside. Apparently a large thunderstorm was about to strike. Myself, still wrapped in the arms of Morpheus, knew nothing about this until lightning struck pretty close to Chez Juvat (e.g. the bright light and loud bang were nearly simultaneous).
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| That was the lower level of the storm, Cloud to Cloud lightning was pretty spectacular. |
Realizing that there was little I could do now that the torrential downpour had commenced, I rolled over and went back to sleep. Having been a tad sleep deprived recently, and frequently, by one of the other adopted dogs, a hyper Golden retriever. Seems he won't use the doggie door to exit the abode and do his business, he requires someone to arise and let him out in the back yard. He then arouses the GP's, they all do their business, spend a bit of time with them, barking at spirits of the night, or the wind, or something then after an hour or so (aka just as soon as I get back to sleep) starts pawing and howling to be let back in.
Yes, I'm tired and cranky.
In any case, due to the storm, Mrs J made the executive decision to let the GP's sleep in the garage. A compromise since it's neither outside in the wet and lightning nor inside the house where their mortal enemies, the Cats, reside.
It's still dark when the alarm goes off and I arise. It being Sunday, we regularly go to the 0730 Mass. As there's also an 0900 Mass, we choose the early one as that puts a limit on how long our long winded Priest can lecture us. Not that he doesn't push it to the limits, but it is somewhat disconcerting to him when he's not done and the doors are flung open and the next group of parishioners start making their ways into the pews.
He's learning, slowly, but learning.
Back on story, juvat!
Aye, Sarge.
As I said it's dark, it rained very hard and we have a dry creek that our access road crosses that I'm concerned is no longer dry and possibly flooded. I talk to Mrs J and say that for safety sake, maybe we should go to the later Mass. I can tell from 40+ years of being schooled on her body language that even though she said "Okay", she did not mean "Okay".
What to do?
I dress, grab my raincoat, sprint to the truck, drive to the wash and, lo and behold, no flowing water. I rush back to the house and issue Mod 1 to the Morning Op Order and off we go.
Finding an empty pew this morning was surprisingly easy, and it was the visiting Sri Lankan Priest saying Mass. Nice guy but with a strong accent that you really have to pay attention in order to understand his sermons. I suppose that's a good thing.
By lunchtime, the skies were clear blue and little wind. Quite lovely Spring day.
Onward with updates on a couple of other ongoing projects.
I really thought I was going to be finished with the Piklar triangle Saturday. The triangle itself is complete, However, late in the project, negotiations were reopened about the details. Adding a slide was agreed upon by all parties.
Said slide was constructed, mostly. A couple of attachment braces were made.
Then I decided to get a bit fancy as the slide is plastic covered particle board. The slide portion looks pretty good, but the sides reveal the ugly particle board. I cut some 2x4's to fit the sides, but forgot one other measurement, the width of the triangle it rests upon.
So....Negotiated with Mrs J for another trip to Lowes later today to find some edge banding or quarter round molding to finish it up. I'm not going to say "Shouldn't be hard", as I don't want to tempt fate, but...
Finally, I had a lot of entertainment overhead Rancho Juvat Saturday and Sunday.. Seems the Airport was hosting "Formation School" and at least 4 WWII North American T-6 Texans were in attendance. Pretty sure they used my house as a rendezvous point or a turn about a point practice reference.
Damn, I wish I was rich!
One more Weather Update. MBD and The Rev's house flooded last night. 8" of rain in about an hour. Fortunately a group of student's The Rev deals with came over to build dams around the house. Good to have friends.
Peace out y'all
* Get it? Weather and Texans?
Radial engines provide the best symphony juvat, especially those Pratt & Whitneys. I also like the early 8AM service, with a 9AM service the minister can't talk very long......... :)
ReplyDeleteNylon, Well...ministers certainly "CAN" talk very long, but the following services tend to impair that ability such that they "MAY" not talk very long.
DeleteMe, being pedantic!
;-)
juvat
I truly hope your preachy priest doesn’t read this blog. Otherwise he might find some topic about richness.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it’s easy when there’s “enough” to provide for the necessities plus some of what we want.
I guess I am rich because I want what I have and my needs are filled.
I look at what I have earned, and know I am overpaid, not in currency, but family, friends, and a life beyond my wildest dreams.
Skip,
DeleteAgree Completely. Just wishful thinking on my part, or maybe thoughts of a long ago youth.
juvat
I have a friend in Grapevine, TX (I think that's the name), and he posted yesterday that he got only about 3 1/4" of rain Saturday night.
ReplyDeleteWe have one Liturgy (Mass) on Sunday, 10:00 a.m. Not because we are a small parish, but we can only have one Liturgy per Altar per day, it must start before noon (Vesperal Liturgies are another matter because after Vespers it becomes a different day Liturgically), and a priest may only celebrate one liturgy per day since you only take the Eucharist once per day. We technically could have 2, as we have 2 different church buildings on the property, which means 2 Altars. But that also means we would need 2 choirs, or at least enough people who can carry a tune and willing to go to an earlier service to sing the responses, and enough servers to go around.
We did once have a Liturgy in each for our parish - the main priest had to fly out of SFO at 1000 so he had one in the smaller, older church starting at 0730. ran an abbreviated service by shortening everything where possible, and since it was early there weren't many for Communion. His wife was the choir, myself and one other were the servers. He managed to trim it down to about an hour and a quarter from the usual 2 hours.
Joe,
DeleteI've always heard that "Necessity is the Mother of invention", I guess a corollary would be "Necessity is also the Mother of Schedule Flexibility". Evidently we were in the southern edge of that storm, sounds like your friend might have been on the northern edge. I updated this post with news from College Station where the center of the storm was. MBD and The Rev got schwacked pretty hard.
juvat
Ah, the Texan. Love that bird.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the adjustment brackets I did a double take, oh, that's red paint on the tarp, not blood.
I took a peek at your html, won't do that again. Are you still writing the post in Word then pasting it in? What method are you using? Inquiring minds and all that.
Sarge,
DeleteNo, I'm writing it in the Blogger compose view, have been for quite a while. I only go into the HTML view if something get's screwed up. When I tried to enter the code you sent me (in the HTML view) every time I went back to compose it didn't take and when I went back into HTML, the code I'd entered, by hand or copied either way, was gibberish. Tried it several times, no change.
juvat
You have to put that code in first, in the html viewer. Delete the crap that's already in there, then go back to compose. Start typing at the start of the bogus text (after which you can delete the bogus text). Anyhoo,, that's how I do it.
DeleteSarge, I'll give it another try, but I think that's what I did. We'll see.
Deletejuvat
I saw your example, you're close.
DeleteYeah tried it again after reading your comment. Still garbled it up. I'll try again tomorrow. Take a screen shot of the code before pressing enter and then after it render's it. We'll see what we will see.
Deletejuvat
I have always thought T-6es look an awful lot like SNJs.
DeleteStB,
DeleteNo real coincidence there. Interesting article on the variants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_T-6_Texan_variants
juvat
Had to chuckle at the GP and Retriever antics during the storm(s) early Sunday am. Mrs. Cletus was awakened by a warm lick on the nose by our retriever as he entered the forbidden zone of the bedroom to be part of the family during the event(s). Lightening is his nemesis after we had a flash/boom lightening strike which raised the hair on all of us.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the formation flying certification, only saw one flight of four this past Friday afternoon. Did hear 'em off the distance throughout the weekend. Coolest thing I've witnessed the day prior to a certification clinic several years ago was an SNJ-6 and Yak 52 making passes down the T 82 runway wing tip to wing-tip and exiting in a left/right climb. They put on a real show that day. Both pilots were "old" and "bold", with the SNJ pilot commanding a full grey crew cut. That was the only year I've seen the Yak at the clinic. I was really jealous of the SNJ pilot as I've sported a crew cut (aka flat top) since I was a kid, till baldness came upon the scene.
Cletus
Cletus,
DeleteThe fun never stops when you live in the country. Last night's prime showing was a skunk on the back porch with the GP's howling like dervishes at it. Fortunately, they never got sprayed, but it took us a while to get them away from it. They spent the night in the garage. The other dogs who like to go out and do their business in the middle of the night (even though we have a doggy door they can go out and come back in and that they don't like to use) wanted to go out on the porch where the skunk was last seen. So, they were unhappy and vocal about their unhappiness. Fortunately, once it got light enough to see, I did a walk around and could find no sight of the striped kitty. Neither could the dogs when I let them out. Gotta love it.
I need a nap!
juvat
Yikes Juvat - I completely spaced that you might have been in the path of that. Glad it was not more severe.
ReplyDeleteNice to know pastors and priests have the sane foibles across all denominations.
THBB,
DeleteYeah, It's also nice for pastor's to have good relationships with their congregation. Comes in handy when you need a bit of help. MBD is handling the insurance process as we speak.
juvat
Talk I can't understand while I'm sitting down? I'd fall asleep...
ReplyDeleteRob,
DeleteI'd heard that you also needed a bit of extra sleep. Happy to help.
juvat
I hope Texans are better at driving in the rain than here in Colorado.
ReplyDeleteWSF,
DeleteTexans flying in the rain? No big deal.
Driving on the other hand....
juvat
I was sending good thoughts and prayers your way when I saw the radar maps for the nastiness that was headed your way. Also for the folks in southeastern OK and western AR and just about all of Louisiana. ooked like a lot of folks were in the "to be schwacked" line. Glad all are safe, even if a bit damp....
ReplyDeleteAdd-ons and changes...every carpenter's nightmare!! :)
Suz
Suz,
DeleteLast first, I think I've finally got it finished. We're babysitting tonight as LJW needs a little "me" time with the Girls. Mrs J and I will be down at their house so why not bring it by?
We and MBD and the Rev learned a big lesson. Home owner insurance apparently doesn't cover flooding. You need flood insurance for that (a separate policy). We were headed to CStat anyhow this weekend, but now there's a bit more pressing reason. It was a bad storm. Just glad my family is OK.
juvat
Mrs. Andrew and I, due to medical problems that are exasperated by pressure changes, hate the pressure waves in front of storms. But we both love rain storms, the heavier the better, and thunder and lightning, the heavier the better. Caveat - as long as we're not out in the storm. Bad storm arises? I'll open the door so we can see and hear the wonderfulness, and then, because of said pressure issues, both of us go into hibernation mode and fall asleep to the wonderful sounds of God's artillery.
ReplyDeleteOf course, if one of those storms sneaks up on us and unloads a direct hit right overhead, we'll all lift off the bed by about 6 inches and Kegan (the dog) will, while sleeping, bark really loudly then wake up and look sheepish.
Love storms. From inside a building. Or parked safely in our van. Otherwise? Blah.
Beans,
DeleteI'm ok with rain from a storm. (As long as it doesn't flood our road out). Thunderstorms? Well, flying fighters kinda weans you away from that. First, the fighter is designed to be maneuverable. Hence it doesn't take much air pressure on any given control surface to change your direction. Great when you're trying to gun the other guy. Not so good when your trying to make an instrument landing at your base and you don't have a lot of fuel left after trying to gun the other guy, who's now on your wing, praying that you get him down on the first approach because he kinda sorta went a bit below RTB fuel level. I was NEVER in that position, not ONCE.
It's also not so special when you're flying instruments and your head is above the roll axis of the jet. Hence when you roll the jet to turn, the fluid in your ears moves even more. Can cause you to believe that the aircraft is tumbling end over end. Definitely not a fun feeling. Do I need to jump out before I hit the ground or is this just my imagination. Again NEVER had that problem not once.
It's also not so fun when the weather guesser said the weather's going to be fine, so you set a RTB fuel level based on that. You're headed home to Kadena AB Okinawa Japan after having reached that lower fuel level only to have the Supervisor of Flying declare the field is at instrument level visibility and as such a much higher fuel level is when you should RTB, but that was gone in the midst of the last fight. Since there's no real alternate field to land at, you pray that you get a break in the weather as you make the approach, because as difficult as it is to control an airplane in a thunderstorm, it's even more difficult to control a parachute in one. Again, I've NEVER been in that circumstance, not ONCE.
No, Beans, I don't like thunderstorms, for a few reasons. not even inside a building.
juvat
My dad was the same way.
DeleteAnd I am, when driving or on a boat. Something about a mega storm pummeling the living snot out of you when you're 20 miles from shore in a 20' boat.
Beans,
DeleteEverything you've told me about your Dad indicates to me he was a Fighter Pilot, not a Pilot of Fighters. I would have liked to have met him. We could swap a lot of stories, some of which might even be true!
juvat
When I occasionally attend social events at my wife's Protestant church, I am taken aback at the long-windedness of the pastor. It's not unusual for her to arrive at 0900 and come home at 1300... meanwhile, my papist self has a 7 minute attention span for a sermon during mass, after which it's bloody well time for the profession of faith, chop chop.
ReplyDeleteGen. Patton appreciated brevity in a sermon. The story goes that he told a long-winded Chaplain that everything important could be said in ten minutes. At the next service, he pulled out his pocket watch and fixed the Chaplain with his trademark grim look. The Reverend finished the sermon on the dot.
DeletePD,
DeleteHoly Mackerel (a Catholic saying), 4 hours! Lord knows, my Sunday bladder doesn't have a 4 hour range. Maybe 1.5 if lucky. Depends on the level of coffee pre-Mass, of course. Could be quite a bit shorter, never longer. 4 hours would be pretty close to my definition of H.E. double hockey sticks.
:-)
juvat
Don,
DeleteWould've loved to have met that man. No BS, comes out firing all weapons. In my Humble Opinion, he was a Fighter Pilot, which is different than a pilot of fighters. Mission first, last, and always. I like to think I was one also.
juvat
Crusty Old TV Tech here. Good story there Dr J., especially the last bit with the AT-6's. We see some CAF birds from Ellington overhead on "good flying weather" days, always look up at the sound of Pratt or Whitney! We got hammered last night too, though not as bad as your kin in the Brazos Valley. Prayers for a swift recovery from water ingress.
ReplyDeleteWe had a funny one. The A/C went offline, just the condensing unit, not long after a big KA-BOOM! near hit by Thor's bolts. In the morning, did the necessary on it. Turned out to be a GFCI feeding the condensate pump had tripped off from that near stroke's EMI, and eventually the condensate rising level tripped the high-limit float switch. Easy fix, after 2 hours of checking out every other blasted thing in the system (d'oh!). Tornado warnings blaring on the cellphones. Puppy dog getting scared from the KA-BOOMing, and jumping in bed, poor little thing.
COTVT,
DeleteYeah, MBD and The Rev's house was pretty well inundated with water. Seems CStat's drainage system isn't up to the load. All their flooring has to be pulled and replaced. They had rented out the house this weekend for a big A&M football game. (It's one good way to pay for the mortgage). Unfortunately , because of the damage, they had to cancel the guest's reservation. Fece's occurs. We're headed over this weekend to help with the cleanup.
Yeah, our GP's were a bit more mellow this morning after being allowed into the garage as opposed to trying to stay warm and dry on the porch. The KA-BOOMING kept a certain retired Fighter Pilot awake also, so the Pup is in good company.
juvat
Glad y'all missed the 'fun' we had up here. One tornado, hail, 5 inches of rain, and plenty of lightning...sigh
ReplyDeleteOld NFO,
DeleteYeah, we got off comparatively lightly. Got friends in town that own a ranch in Cherokee. He said they got 8 inches Saturday Night/Sunday morning which caused some severe flooding. Then there's MBD and The Rev. Headed to CStat soon to see what we can do to help them.
Glad you're "OK".
juvat
INRE GPs being great dogs, Lilyana has decided that she is going to eat the interior of my car, when she goes places with Brenda. Silly Beast!
ReplyDeleteStB,
DeleteYeah, the younger of the two is a terror to cardboard boxes. He went through several when he was in the Garage. So far the cars appear safe. We'll see.
juvat
Our Priest learned the hard way a little brevity when the post-mass clean up team interfered with the next mass prep team. He was more concise for about a month or two, but at the school mass (kids do the singing, readings, collection) he got off script and really tried to reach down to them, but had a 35 minute homily. So mass didn't get out until 10 minutes before the Spanish mass. He may be used to 4 hour masses in his native Tanzania, but he's losing parishioners.
ReplyDeleteTuna,
DeleteYeah, I'd have a problem with a 4 hour mass also.
juvat