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AS: Interesting Times-the 2020 USA thread

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  • Happy Fourth of July, everyone!
  • Walter Cronkite's standard closing line from the old TV show that he hosted, "You Are There," seems especially poignant:
    What kind of a day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that altered the course of our times. And YOU WERE THERE!
  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host
    Happy Fourth everyone!!
    I'm leaving before long to celebrate (safely socially distanced) at D-U and her dear Hubby's home.

    Maybe next year their new house will be done, and we can use their swimming pool!!!!!
  • Happy Fourth all. We are staying home. No Fireworks this year between the virus and the danger of fire all are encouraged not to gather. But there is potato salad at the Image household. There has to be potato salad and watermelon, and red roses in a blue vase on the table.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I hope you all had as enjoyable a Fourth of July as you could, under the circumstances! :)
  • Thank you.
  • NicoleMRNicoleMR Shipmate
    Thank you, I did.
  • LydaLyda Shipmate
    My cat wants to go out, but I seriously doubt he would enjoy it with the full roar of illegal fireworks. :cold_sweat:
  • RuthRuth Shipmate
    edited July 2020
    My neighborhood sounded like a war zone from sundown till almost midnight, and there are still more than occasional bangs and flashes now, after midnight. The illegal fireworks have been getting worse in recent years, but this evening they reached a whole new level.
  • No public displays here, and only the occasional bang-boom in the neighborhood. (Certain kinds of fireworks are legal in Arizona for Independence Day and New Year's Eve.) I slept through it all.
  • Belated happy independence day from England's finest city (TM).

    My heart is a resident of the US of A, since I started a long-distance relationship with a guy in Chicago last year. Turbulent times, it seems to me, never mind interesting.....
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited July 2020
    Ruth wrote: »
    My neighborhood sounded like a war zone from sundown till almost midnight, and there are still more than occasional bangs and flashes now, after midnight. The illegal fireworks have been getting worse in recent years, but this evening they reached a whole new level.
    Oh, yeah. One of our dogs didn’t stop shaking, or leave my side, for two hours.

    It was a somewhat weird—and if I’m honest, depressing—Fourth for me. My wife and daughter are in the NC mountains, at the place where we always spend the Fourth, along with a good part of the rest of the summer. It’s very much our Happy Place. Son is in his college town. I decided to stay home, because of work obligations at the end of last week and the beginning of the coming week. I thought I’d be okay not being at said Happy Place, given that all the usual Fourth of July celebrations were cancelled (including the parade, which surely is the only one in the US with a pipe and drum band leading the way). But I found myself very bummed to be here and not there.

    I did try to make the weirdness and the sadness a form of prayer—a prayer for real and lasting change in this country, for movement from the old normal to a new normal in terms of justice and equity. It seemed a good way to approach the day.

  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    I did try to make the weirdness and the sadness a form of prayer—a prayer for real and lasting change in this country, for movement from the old normal to a new normal in terms of justice and equity. It seemed a good way to approach the day.

    @Nick Tamen that's a beautiful thought. May it be so.

    Since all the professional fireworks displays were canceled here, the sellers in the (hundreds of) fireworks tents were thrilled to be sold out. Dear S-i-L had a nice bundle of rockets and sparklers, and so did all their neighbors. We had quite a nice display last night!
  • Miserable. Loud and smelled of gunpowder all day. Safer and less muddy than a WW1 battlefield, but with many of the other unpleasant features.
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host, Glory
    Ruth wrote: »
    My neighborhood sounded like a war zone from sundown till almost midnight, and there are still more than occasional bangs and flashes now, after midnight. The illegal fireworks have been getting worse in recent years, but this evening they reached a whole new level.
    Mine too. It was worse than usual, and the perps seem to be blaming on the fact that we're in lockdown because of the pandemic, while all the civic displays have been cancelled.

    It wouldn't be quite so bad without the mortars. It sounded like a serious siege.

    @Nick Tamen, I'm sorry. I hope that you can be back there next year.

  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host
    Ahhhh! Petrichor! :blush:

    Our rainy season has been a dud. So happy to have a normal summer rain today!
  • Last night around 10:30 there were a lot of explosions in the small park behind my house. It was as if someone was using up all of their leftover fireworks from last weekend. At first I worried it might be gunfire, but it apparently was not.

    (A few years ago I heard a shot on a Sunday morning as I was getting ready for church. When I drove to church the road around the corner from me was closed off and there were a lot of emergency vehicles. It turned out to be a suicide. Since then I get a bit creeped out when I hear any sort of explosion out there -- how horrible to think that I might be hearing another suicide or a homicide. :cry: )
  • MooMoo Kerygmania Host
    Today we had the highest early-morning temperature I can recall. It was 73°F. I don't mind high daytime temperatures as long as it cools off at night.
  • Then you wouldn't like Phoenix. This morning's morning temperature (and the sun isn't even up yet) is in the high 80s. A cold snap -- it's been in the high 90s every day this week.

    Yesterday's daytime temperature was just under 110, although it's been around 115 for the past several days.

    I'm talking Fahrenheit, of course. Are we the only country in the world that still uses it? I understand that we were set to convert to Celsius years ago, but then-President Ronald Reagan was said not to be able to understand the concept and so the plan was scrapped.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Seriously???

    That puts his intellectual prowess almost on a par with that of the present incumbent ... :flushed:

  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host, Glory
    I was not a fan of Reagan’s, but I believe that he could read, and he took seriously the demands of his position.

    He also nominated Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to the United States Supreme Court, the first woman to serve there.
  • I was not a fan of Reagan either, but I do agree that he took the office seriously and accomplished some good.

    The story about Celsius may be an urban legend, but it's interesting.

    There is another story reporting that Reagan was photographed nodding off during an audience with Pope John Paul II -- but later the two of them met privately to map out the end of the Cold War.
  • I believe that Liberia still uses Fahrenheit.
  • In the high 90's all week here. No relief in sight however it goes down into the mid 50s at night so with windows open and fans it is comfortable to sleep. This extreme switch in the temperature annoys the tomato plants but I am thankful.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    I was not a fan of Reagan either, but I do agree that he took the office seriously and accomplished some good.

    His humor was sometimes apt. And, of course, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall".

  • The USA agreed to adopt the metric system in 1866, I think it was, but didn't mandate it. I don't know if that included the centigrade scale, but I would expect so. Canada is somewhat metric, but still displays a degree of agnosticism about it. (That would be a metric degree).
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    The UK was for a long time sort of bilingual about temperatures: the BBC would give them in metric but give the Fahrenheit in brackets afterwards.

    Before I lived in Canada, like many Brits, I tended to think in Fahrenheit in the summer (there was a headline in a British tabloid once saying "BRITAIN SIZZLES IN THE SEVENTIES", quoted by the wonderful American writer Bill Bryson, who found it hilarious); and in 2003 the first 100°-plus temperature was recorded in the UK in Kent. However, in winter, I thought in Celsius, as "below freezing" seems easier to think of when it coincides with zero degrees.

    There's a sort of bilinguality in Canada too: weather is measured in Celsius, but oven temperatures in Fahrenheit.

    Now that I'm back in the UK, we seem to have gone completely over to Celsius, but what the idiotic PTB will do once we've completely left the EU is anyone's guess. I wouldn't put it past them to go back to Fahrenheit just out of spite ... :cry:

  • Canada is somewhat metric, but still displays a degree of agnosticism about it. (That would be a metric degree).

    It's Canada. It doesn't matter much whether you measure weather in F or C :naughty:

    (Although I'll note that the USGS is finally abandoning the survey foot (differs from a standard foot by 2 parts in a million).
  • Canada is somewhat metric, but still displays a degree of agnosticism about it. (That would be a metric degree).

    It's Canada. It doesn't matter much whether you measure weather in F or C :naughty:

    (Although I'll note that the USGS is finally abandoning the survey foot (differs from a standard foot by 2 parts in a million).

    Most interesting about the survey foot - I didn't know that. A little background reading suggests that it's not trivial in some circumstances.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    {Copying over what I put on the Purg "Oops" thread.}
    This is just...wow...and possibly NSFW:

    "Out of Portland tear gas, an apparition emerges, capturing the imagination of protesters" (LA Times, via Yahoo).

    This is one of those iconic moments that will be in memories and history books, and on posters and t-shirts. And the reporter, Richard Read, really got that, and expressed it very well.

    **Don't miss this. Seriously.**

    May it somehow help, and may the person be safe.
  • I noted also somewhere a line of Mothers joined arms and faced the agents as well. God bless and keep them all safe. This is so disturbing. Never thought I was see this on US streets.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    Shades of the 60s and 70s. I miss a lot about those decades, especially the 70s.

    But not this crap.
  • And on top of everything else, it’s hurricane season again. Yes, I know it’s officially been hurricane season for a few months, but August and September are when we tend to get them.

    It’s pouring here right now. I’m hoping the power doesn’t go out.

  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Golden Key - that left me stunned. How do people have that kind of courage? Her, the Chinses man in facing up to the tank, the women putting flowers in gunbarrels? I've been involved in protest that ended up with people being clubbed by the cops (1991 Springbok tour of NZ), but the sole protester thing takes my breath away.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    Long ago, I decided not to get involved in street protests and such. No matter how peacefully they start, there's usually someone (protestor, cop, other) who does something stupid, and then Bad Things Happen. Plus the self-described anarchists (and others) who purposely mess up legitimate, peaceful protests.

    I wouldn't take well to being gassed, arrested, or jailed--and I can't run fast enough, far enough, dependably enough to get out of the way if things go bad. And I hate crowds.

    Plus I've sometimes felt a general, societal pressure to do street protests. But...well, the reasons above. Plus I don't feel the need for earning street cred.

    So I sign petitions, talk with people, post...but that's as far as I go. I *might* go as far as a candlelight vigil, but even those can go wrong.

    I think the right to protest is important. I admire some who do, particularly if they think first and take sensible precautions.

    I admire what she did.

    (On a practical note, given the circumstances and sitting naked on the street, I *really* hope she's gotten whatever antibiotics, antivirals, and the like that are indicated. Seriously.)
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    I thought of this thread when I was wandering down the main street of the city today and inadvertently ended up and the end of a small demonstration. I still don't know who they were* but I tagged along at the end.

    * if they had been white supremacists I would have waited before following them, but most were Maori.

  • It is 105 right now on my back deck. We just got word that there may be rolling black outs, and that thunderstorms tonight which may mean wild fires. I feel like I am living in a bad movie. I am fine normally with no power, I have butane camp stove, and solar mini fans, and lights as well as charger for phone. But if AC goes out I have a concern with it this hot. I guess I could always go jump in the lake.
  • It is 105 right now on my back deck. We just got word that there may be rolling black outs, and that thunderstorms tonight which may mean wild fires. I feel like I am living in a bad movie. I am fine normally with no power, I have butane camp stove, and solar mini fans, and lights as well as charger for phone. But if AC goes out I have a concern with it this hot. I guess I could always go jump in the lake.

    Maybe draw a bathtub full of water, as cold as you can get it? It might be of some use for a few hours, even if you have to get in and out of it to use evaporative cooling.
  • Maybe draw a bathtub full of water, as cold as you can get it? It might be of some use for a few hours, even if you have to get in and out of it to use evaporative cooling.

    It's currently 108º here in the Phoenix, Arizona, area. When the air is this hot, and the sun is beating down, the water coming from our pipes is luke warm, not cold.

    (We supposedly hit 117º yesterday!)
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Crikey! :flushed:
  • I went our to water my plants in pots and the hose was so hot I could hardly hold it. I had to get all of the hot water out before putting any on the plants. It is now 110F. Graven Image now inside and doing nothing, I tell you nothing that requires movement until the sun goes down. So far fingers crossed we still have power. I did remember to pull the car and mini camper van out of the garage in case we have to leave because of fire.
  • Crap. It's the lake for you!
  • Very unusual for Northern California thunder and lightening and rain Oh my. So far only one lightening strike wild fire on the other side of the county from me, and they have it contained. The dog does not understand why I do not want to take her on her morning walk. She just sits and stares at me. So at least it is cooler but very humid. I did go up to the lake yesterday evening, but it was packed with unmasked people so I came home.
  • Whereas in Arizona, we just aren't getting storms and rain. I believe we had rain once in March, once in July, and are sort of predicting that we might have rain again before August is over.

    July and August are our monsoon months. There's often a dust storm (or even a haboob) just about every evening -- fierce winds, lots of dust, followed by rain (with thunder and lightning). It just isn't happening this year. Much as I dislike rain (especially having an elderly dog who despises it), I know we need it.

    2020 just can't get any stranger (I hope!).
  • It's going to down as The Year That Wasn't.
  • It's going to down as The Year That Wasn't.
    Will we all wake up on November 4, find out that what we thought was 2020 was a nightmare, and applaud the election of Biden-Harris? Please???
  • Pigwidgeon wrote: »
    It's going to down as The Year That Wasn't.
    Will we all wake up on November 4, find out that what we thought was 2020 was a nightmare, and applaud the election of Biden-Harris? Please???

    Perhaps, but the pig will probably then embark on a manic frenzy of lunatic, destructive executive orders between then and Biden's inauguration. That's why even now, there needs to be a movement to impeach him again and remove him. From here on it's all about damage control.
  • MooMoo Kerygmania Host
    I had a nice experience today. I had noticed some carpenter ants around one of my windows, so I called an exterminator.

    He said it was a small problem, and he took care of it quickly. When I asked how much I owed him, he said "Nothing" The standard minimum charge is $150, and this was such a quick job he didn't feel justified in charging it.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    Awww, cool! :)
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Absolutely - what a total gentleman!
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