Jump to content

Brisketexan

Legacy Members
  • Posts

    48386
  • Joined

  • Days Won

    262

Everything posted by Brisketexan

  1. I just count on the systems to be both overwhelmed and irreparably disgusted by all the porn on my phone. Swamp 'em with lotsa tig ole biddies, that's my plan! I don't know if it works. But hey, tig ole biddies!
  2. We're already turning America into the American Australia. Greenland will be just fine.
  3. But here's the thing...in terms of having adequate overall supply for immediate fire suppression, that's NEVER been an issue. Even a primary water storage reservoir that's only at 10% capacity is gonna have more fire than a fire department could distribute in a month. It's kinda like how it doesn't matter how many apples are on the trees in Yakima, under contract to be delivered to my HEB. If I want an apple right now, the ONLY thing that matters is the supply of apples on the shelf at my HEB. If my HEB has 100 apples, and I suddenly have a need for 5,000 apples, it doesn't matter whether or not HEB has a contract for another 100,000 apples to be sent by truck in the coming days. Today, I can only immediately obtain what is there on the shelf. And no HEB maintains 100,000 apples on the shelf. It would be insane, they don't have the space. They don't have the space for 5,000 apples. Grocery stores keep maybe 1,000 apples on hand for daily purchase. That's how the supply works. California has water woes (every Western state, including ours, does). But those woes have nothing to do with the ability to fight a fire in emergency conditions. The people who are saying that it does are either idiots, liars, or both. And in this America, the answer is almost always "both."
  4. ....until your hiring pool starts to fill with the product of an education system that says "math is for libtards, Jesus is the answer." It's not about your kids, or my kids. It's about the commonwealth. And we're setting a torch to it. A high-functioning society needs educated people coming out of a functioning education system. The alternative is to build a lot more prisons, which are a cost sink both economically and socially.
  5. Yep. A water supply HUNDREDS of miles away, when there was ample water in LA's overall reservoir system. The reason that LA couldn't dump a combined 4 billion GPM on the fires was not because LA had no water. It was because pipes, systems, and physics....which dictate that no place on earth could put 4 billion GPM on fires at once. It's like complaining that you can't fill Lake Michigan with your garden hose in 10 minutes. No shit, sherlock. Your hose might be plugged into the entire Atlantic Ocean, but the diameter of that hose is gonna dictate how fast you can get the ocean to Lake Michigan.
  6. What I still don't get are the cries about "DEI DID THIS!" - promulgated by multiple posters on this board. I get that you don't like DEI. I get that you think it leads to hiring people who aren't the best for certain aspects of the job. But in THIS situation....nobody can point to a single element of the response that was actually negatively affected by a hiring policy. 80 mph winds, fire that consumed hundreds of houses within minutes of starting, and the winds continued so it couldn't be fought from the air for over a day (the only way to truly get a handle on a massive fire like this). The LAFD coulda been made up of Billy the Buff White Fireman Straight Outta the 1950s, it coulda been made upn entirely of lesbians with multiple questionable piercings....both groups would have done exactly what WAS done: fight a rear-guard action, help people evacuate, etc. And they hydrant/pressure issue: dude, Americans are dumb as fuck. It's elementary engineering and hydraulics (how much water and pressure can you get through a certain diameter pipe, how quickly is the reserve of water drawn down, etc.). It's all basic math. And the situation is pretty much the same wherever you go: drop a fire fed by 80 mph winds, tearing through dry conditions, into ANY urban area in America, and the firefighting response and capabilities would be the same: limited tank and hydrant capacity. We don't build water delivery systems to handle fighting a thousand house fires at once. We just don't. And practically speaking, we can't. There may indeed be some room for criticism as to vegetation management for fire prevention purposes, but again....in these circumstances.....I doubt it would have helped much. What's fascinating is not just that this became hyper-politicized, but that it's focused on two issues that don't exist/had no influence at all: "DEI" and "they shoulda had massive amounts more water storage and hydrants." We are a dumb, dumb, DUMB country.
  7. Say what you will about the algorithms.....they KNOW SOME SHIT. Cooking clips, fishing pages, and lotsa curvy women. Tell me why I should hate social media again? I get a recipe for a crabcake sammich, see someone fighting a beautiful roosterfish on the fly, and then connect with a gal whose page says "I'm middle aged, but soft in the right places - do you think I'm pretty?" Well, yes I do. I'll be right over with a crabcake sammich.....then maybe we'll go fishin'.
  8. My Xmas gift from the kiddos was a note.... "It's in the mail on the way to Austin, but it's coming from Ukraine so it will take a little while. Destroyed BMP from the Battle of Kyiv, chopped up and recycled by creators from Bucha. One of those pieces is now yours." Pretty solid fucking Christmas gift.
  9. But then where will I get a steady stream of gals with rather ample assets trying to connect with me and share their "link to spicy content?" HUH? Didja think about THAT?
  10. It is a Swabian sausage, you philistine. See if I let you eat my Swabian sausage, you ingrate.
  11. I'm gonna try making some stuff that we had on our trip these past coupla weeks. Including this, which was surprisingly fantastic: https://www.hengstenberg.com/recipes/recipe/swabian_lentils_with_spaetzle_and_frankfurters A PERFECT winter dish. The vinegar makes it.
  12. Yep, a lotta choppers can carry that much or more. Would seem to me that having a bunch of military Chinooks or Sea Knights (yeah, the marines down in SD still fly 'em) rigged to handle buckets would be a good plan. I'm sure that's already part of the plan, but those birds are the ones with real lifting capacity, and choppers give you more precise drops.
  13. Cooking is part of my zen/meditation routine. I don't get to engage in many simple, creative endeavors. Stirring a roux is relaxing, rhythmic, even spiritual. Hand me a beer. Let me engage in a defined activity for 45 minutes, with a gratifying result. Amen.
  14. Yeah. I have been remiss in my my "spend time with the old man" duties. My job is demanding, time is short, all of the bullshit excuses.....none of which matter. Will be changing that post-haste, especially now that he's losing his big-picture mobility.
  15. Fortunately, he lives literally five minutes away, in a one-story house. But...we all know that his time there will end. There will come a day when it's not safe for him to be there alone. Not sure when that will be. But, we probably need to start thinking about options, and getting him on waiting lists.
  16. Yeah.....I need to get my dad a fall-alert watch/bracelet or something like that. He is alone there in his house, and if he fell, I might not know for a day. I need to just have a check-in with him EVERY DAY, and that's going to be something new to add to my routine as well. And, getting out was important to him - he'd go to the grocery, and just walk the whole place for his steps, maybe pick up a couple of things. I still want him to do that, even with Uber. So, going to have to build some new routines.
  17. So, Bruin, here's the deal..... First, I'm beyond grateful that you have a home to return to at some point. You are one of two families I know in the evac zone, and you both still have your homes. But....you are parts of communities that have lost so much. Meaning that each of y'all may actually be uniquely situated to help us help your neighbors. You will be able to return, and be boots on the ground to see what your neighbors truly need in the coming weeks and months. And that's when you call on us. Most of us are Texans, meaning we've either personally or had family have to recover from a disaster, and we know it's a long game, and we know that the wounds last a long, long time. So...I'd sure like it if we could be a resource for your communities in that respect.
  18. Sigh. Have reached that point with the old man. Right before we left for Germany a couple of weeks ago, he had a slight fender-bender. But his story about it, and how it happened, was confusing. Then, one of my wife's friends (who lives down the street from my dad) called her to share with her that she had concerns about his driving - he'd seem confused in their small sub-area, had gone out an entrance drive, etc. So, I was going to have to have a tough call with my old man when I got back. Well, I was back in town and up and running yesterday (even though I feel like shit - brought back a respiratory infection with me). Got in touch with my dad....and he took the lead. Said he had more to tell me about the accident. Turns out, it was his fault, he tried to change lanes without looking adequately (which happens), but he voiced that in just the last month or so, he feels like his vision and reflexes have declined....so he probably shouldn't drive. So he'll need my help to get the car into the shop for repairs, and then to figure out what to do with it. And then, "I guess I'll need to start taking Uber." I told him that YES, and that's GOOD AND FINE. So, tonight, I'm going to make sure his app is set up, and maybe we'll even take a test trip to dinner and back. But it's hard, of course. He's an independent man, and stubborn like all of us. But god bless him, he's an engineer, and he sees shit pretty matter-of-fact from a safety standpoint. And when he realized the data said he shouldn't drive anymore, he made the decision himself. I'm really proud of him for that. But what killed me was him telling me that he was so sorry for asking for my help, and imposing. He and my mom always tried to NOT be a burden, to NOT need my help, so he's sorry that's changing. I told him to stop that -- and that one of the things I've realized is that needing help doesn't mean you're a burden, or you're imposing, or you're a problem. It means you're part of a family and a community. I need help sometimes, and it's hard for me to ask for it and accept it because I'm a problem-SOLVER to the core of my being (he's the same way). But we need to get over that shit. It's okay to need help, and to ask for it. It's what we do. I'm headed over there tonight to see him. I feel pretty shitty about how little help I've been since my mom died. This shit is hard.
  19. Feeling blah after travel (went to the doc, have an upper respiratory infection). Wearing a mask (I’m not a dick), I hit MT Supermarket for some soup fixings to make an Asian chicken soup. Made it, it’s great, no pics. BUT…I decided to try this stuff: I never do canned stock, but we just got back yesterday and I’m tired. This shit is for real. Legit chicken stock. A real richness, good flavor. I’m actually going to start keeping some on hand.
  20. They do it because we’re called to be in community. It is our very nature (it’s also why we tailgate and go to games instead of just watching them all at home alone). The first problem is…needing to be around other people is a real thing, but other people sometimes suck. The second problem is particular to faith communities: it’s the PERFECT place for abusers to hide (“a devoted man of god who believes in morals and goodness wouldn’t do anything bad!”)…kind of like being a cop is the ideal job for violent psychopaths. The problem is that both, at what they are intended to be/at their best, are incredibly helpful and important for humanity (I hate cops…but I also know and believe that we need cops, and I actually want is to have cops). Nevermind the horrific lurch to the abusive and cruel right that American “Christianity” has taken in recent decades to make it even worse.
  21. If you need us to pick up the slack and take care of the missus…@MissingInAction is always willing to step up.
  22. Yeah…flip that script. When we had young kids, wifely libido was not great. May of 2020- seriously, I can pretty much pinpoint it - a menopause-ish shift happened….and damn. I had a hard time keeping up with her for a while there. Was a nice later in life transition.
  23. As did the GLO. Say what you want about Jerry Patterson, he believed in the GLO and its mission.
  24. I mean…she SAID she was Sami…I wasn’t scrutinizing things that hard. The pungent smell of all the reindeer had my mind aflutter.
×
×
  • Create New...