Blastfurnace 2023

[Armybrat 40840]

39 minutes ago, Gardner Barnes said:

I’ve been watching this project on 360 for the last few months and I’m legit impressed at how these guys can do road work in this shit.

 

14 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:

While simultaneously being dressed for December.

Not to mention these guys working downtown on a high rise in Rainey Street… (from the Austin Skyscraper forum).

 

 

[HenryJames 66048]

 

[Storm the Field 5294]

19 hours ago, gmr548 said:

I’ve noticed mosquitoes are significantly less bad in Houston this summer. It’s too hot and dry for them to really thrive.

So there’s that.

 Mosquitoes need standing water to lay eggs in. On the unlikely chance a puddle were to actually form somewhere these last few weeks, the eggs would probably be hard-boiled.

[Storm the Field 5294]

3 hours ago, Armybrat said:

 

Not to mention these guys working downtown on a high rise in Rainey Street… (from the Austin Skyscraper forum).

 

 

I've noticed a conspicuous change in what construction workers wear the last 2 summers. Never really paid much attention, but feel like most of my life, you'd see guys out on job sites just wearing regular shirts and hard hats. Now they make sure to cover up every inch of exposed skin. Long sleeve quick-dry UPF fishing shirts. Neck gaiters up over their mouth and nose, and they have those shrouds attached to their hard hats that cover from the brim to their shoulders.

Edited August 4, 2023 by Storm the Field

[Armybrat 40840]

1 minute ago, Storm the Field said:

I've noticed a conspicuous change in what construction workers wear the last 2 summers. Never really paid much attention, but feel like most of my life, you'd see guys out on job sites just wearing regular shirts and hard hats. Now they make sure to cover up every inch of exposed skin. Long sleeve quick-dry fishing shirts. Neck gaiters up over their mouth and nose, and they have those shrouds attached to their hard hats that cover from the brim to their shoulders.

They learned that from the landscapers.

[Orange&White 5526]

Not to worry, fellas. Relief is in sight!

 

[Storm the Field 5294]

Current long-range forecasts for Houston area have the next 9-10 days being absolute scorching hell, but they're hitting the hopium hard for the 3rd week of August.

[YGIFS 19450]

13 minutes ago, Storm the Field said:

I've noticed a conspicuous change in what construction workers wear the last 2 summers. Never really paid much attention, but feel like most of my life, you'd see guys out on job sites just wearing regular shirts and hard hats. Now they make sure to cover up every inch of exposed skin. Long sleeve quick-dry UPF fishing shirts. Neck gaiters up over their mouth and nose, and they have those shrouds attached to their hard hats that cover from the brim to their shoulders.

Noticed that, too.  I would imagine all those reflective surfaces up there make it 10x worse than anything we can imagine in our yards.  God bless those guys especially since once they got down off the job, they are afforded almost no legal protection and shit on by a huge portion of our state.  Because you know...all of us dying to work 500 feet off the ground with an ambient temp of 125 degrees.  

But yeah, the mosquito thing is really pissing me off.  I've got two neighbors, one in town who is lazy as shit and one out of town, and both of them have errant sprinkler heads that just leave pools of water in nearby planters or just low-lying parts of the yard.  Sits there for a couple days and makes a mosquito sex club.  They keep saying they'll have their yard crew look into it.  Six weeks later.  Fucking amateur hour.

[Fudge Nuggets 19190]

3 hours ago, HenryJames said:

 

That guy needs his ass beat again.

[zman13 179]

This ain't good:

Parts of South America are sweltering under abnormally hot temperatures – despite being in the depths of winter – as the combination of human-caused climate change and the arrival of El Niño feed into extreme winter heat.

Southern Cone countries including Chile and Argentina have experienced summer-like conditions as a heat wave, beginning in July, pushed temperatures higher than 38 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) in some places – dramatically above average for this time of year.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/04/americas/south-america-winter-heatwave-climate-intl/index.html

[InkaUtexas 25919]

4 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Noticed that, too.  I would imagine all those reflective surfaces up there make it 10x worse than anything we can imagine in our yards.  God bless those guys especially since once they got down off the job, they are afforded almost no legal protection and shit on by a huge portion of our state.  Because you know...all of us dying to work 500 feet off the ground with an ambient temp of 125 degrees.  

But yeah, the mosquito thing is really pissing me off.  I've got two neighbors, one in town who is lazy as shit and one out of town, and both of them have errant sprinkler heads that just leave pools of water in nearby planters or just low-lying parts of the yard.  Sits there for a couple days and makes a mosquito sex club.  They keep saying they'll have their yard crew look into it.  Six weeks later.  Fucking amateur hour.

Hit the yards with Round up in the figure of a big FUCK YOU. Or accidentally kick a sprinkler head about 10 times. 

[YGIFS 19450]

I would but they both have those nest cameras that send motion alerts to their phones.  I'd offer to just fix the sprinklers for them, but it would offend their masculine sensibilities since both guys once pulled some of their own weeds four years ago.  Fucking white people...   

[atomheartbevo 89659]

 

[Deej 76768]

7 hours ago, HenryJames said:

 

Fuck you, Avery. 

[UpperWestside 6163]

My God those temperatures are just insane to think about. I remember years ago having three-a-days in college and we had one practice around sunrise, another in the afternoon and one more in the evening. We stopped for water constantly in the middle one. That Texas summer is nothing compared to the scorched earth one you are now enduring. 
 

Today here it almost hit 80 in Manhattan. It felt like fall. When this place hits the upper 90’s you would think the world is coming to an end.

[mchookem 16330]

4 hours ago, UpperWestside said:

Today here it almost hit 80 in Manhattan. It felt like fall. When this place hits the upper 90’s you would think the world is coming to an end.

90s here in Denver and obviously very low humidity...yes, small talk with the natives inevitably includes comments about omg the heat! at which point i always just say 'yeah, well, i'm from Texas' and they immediately laugh 'oh this probably feels great to you!'

why yes, yes it does 😎

sorry guys 😒 last summer our pool (in Allandale) got up to 92* just before we left end of June... i'm betting that sucker is 95* and losing at least an inch of water daily! almost makes me feel sorry for our buyer. almost. 

[InkaUtexas 25919]

Spent the afternoon at the river (San Marcos) checking out the wildlife, collecting plants for my ponds, sipping cold beers, and doing a bunch of nothing. No worries at all. Went after to get some Korean bbq, sat outdoors, hydrated, then stopped at our favorite bar for a night cap. 

Not a bad day. Off to water my gardens and if there is a slight breeze it is nice. I tend to work outside on the patio until the temps hit 100, move to the indoor office for the afternoon, and try and get to the river every afternoon. We cannot beat the heat, so just trying to figure out ways to enjoy my life and deal with it. 

[Jersey Man10 3528]

It’s been hot as balls.

[Born to Run 6569]

Noticed that, too.  I would imagine all those reflective surfaces up there make it 10x worse than anything we can imagine in our yards.  God bless those guys especially since once they got down off the job, they are afforded almost no legal protection and shit on by a huge portion of our state.  Because you know...all of us dying to work 500 feet off the ground with an ambient temp of 125 degrees.  
But yeah, the mosquito thing is really pissing me off.  I've got two neighbors, one in town who is lazy as shit and one out of town, and both of them have errant sprinkler heads that just leave pools of water in nearby planters or just low-lying parts of the yard.  Sits there for a couple days and makes a mosquito sex club.  They keep saying they'll have their yard crew look into it.  Six weeks later.  Fucking amateur hour.

You should go cap off those sprinkler heads. Takes a couple minutes and when shit starts dieing they might actually call the irrigation guy.

[dogbreath 434]

https://www.ksat.com/weather/2023/08/04/comal-springs-have-only-stopped-flowing-once-in-recorded-history-could-it-happen-again/

[Hawndoh 2386]

I'm slightly worried about kids, particularly middle school kids, who are about to return to school and play football.

Many of them are not particularly athletic. They've spent all summer inside playing video games, and they're about to put helmets and pads on and run around in this heat, many times with some old coach that still thinks thirst is a sign of weakness.

Could be pretty dangerous.

[Armybrat 40840]

September 2nd at DKRTMS is going to be interesting.

But we are skipping it.

[Guest]

Guys, it will all be over next Tuesday, August 15:

 

Followed by the next day:

[HenryJames 66048]

[Post Oak 20213]

This heat has finally broken me.  Wife and I are talking about moving to North Carolina. I'm almost to the point of buying a piece of land in the mountains sight unseen.  

We are probably going up over Thanksgiving break to scout it out. 

[atomheartbevo 89659]

27 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

Some higher deity is pissed off at us.

[mchookem 16330]

25 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Some higher deity is pissed off at us.

 

[Gatorubet 30235]

22 hours ago, Storm the Field said:

Current long-range forecasts for Houston area have the next 9-10 days being absolute scorching hell, but they're hitting the hopium hard for the 3rd week of August.

Grid gonna hold up or nah?

[txduck87 985]

This heat has finally broken me.  Wife and I are talking about moving to North Carolina. I'm almost to the point of buying a piece of land in the mountains sight unseen.  
We are probably going up over Thanksgiving break to scout it out. 

This is us as well. Two more years til the last kid graduates from high school and we headed to western North Carolina. Been here since 1977 but I’m done not living life 5 months out of the year.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Post Oak said:

This heat has finally broken me.  Wife and I are talking about moving to North Carolina. I'm almost to the point of buying a piece of land in the mountains sight unseen.  

We are probably going up over Thanksgiving break to scout it out. 

Lol. That's us too... or at least me. Wife is still torn on family stuff given we have a younger kid.

I think the Triangle makes the most sense, but I loved my visits to western NC. Wife booked a trip for us to go up in November for 1.) vacation and 2.) just get a feel.

NC seems like the best mix of being most similar to what I'm familiar with as far as culture, being warm in the summer (which I actually do like), not too cold in the winter, and also being an easy drive from beach and mountains. Plus, I hear it actually fucking rains in the summer.

[InkaUtexas 25919]

Western North Carolina is beautiful. Surf in the summer, ski in the winter, all within an easy drive. 

With everyone leaving we won't have anyone bitching about the weather on this forum! 

 

[Post Oak 20213]

We definitely have family responsibilities to consider.  Although I know my folks would move in a heartbeat.  

All our family lives within about 3 hours of each other and it's nice.

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

2 hours ago, HenryJames said:

The Gods hate Texas.

[Storm the Field 5294]

The duration of this god awful heat has been the real kick in the pants. It's been hot and dry as fuck for over a month now, and we're about to kick it up a few notches to really punctuate everything these next 10 days before having any hope of relief. 

Not long ago, a big chunk of the USA was experiencing hotter than average temps. Nationwide heat wave, but it broke down and moved on in most places after a week or two. Looking around at random cities, 90% of the country is back to their typical August weather patterns (no doubt complaining how sweleteringly hot it is at 88 degrees). 

Meanwhile, in Texas and Louisiana:

 

These are the times that try men's souls.

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, Post Oak said:

We definitely have family responsibilities to consider.  Although I know my folks would move in a heartbeat.  

All our family lives within about 3 hours of each other and it's nice.

Something similar regarding distance, but no way would anyone else move. It would essentially be pulling up all roots and starting over somewhere new.

The fact that I've lived in this state for four decades and am seriously considering just up and leaving based on weather alone (there are certainly other aspects of Texas I take issue with) sounds crazy to me. But that's how insane this heat has gotten. I'm tired of planning so much of my life around the weather. 

"Oh, I don't want to do that until after the sun goes down."
"Nope, not parking here, let me see if I can find a shady spot instead."
"I'll get to those house projects in October when it's not so damn hot."

It be one thing if it was a heat "wave." But this shit never ends.

[Storm the Field 5294]

Houston supposed to hit 103 or 104 today and expected to be 100+ every day through next Tuesday. It'll be considered a huge relief if the current forecast holds and we get some days of "only" 97 and scattered showers 8/16-20. 

We'll almost certainly officially end up hitting >100 more than 20 times this Summer. By comparison, it never happened in 2021 and only 6 times in the "miserable" Summer of 2022, which now seems like a joke compared to 2023. 

Last year, it was 90/74 on the first Saturday of August. 

[MissingInAction 25067]

Anyone else taking cold showers at 9 pm? It's the best part of my day.

[Post Oak 20213]

My cold water is still hot at 9pm

[UTGrad98 2272]

12 minutes ago, MissingInAction said:

Anyone else taking cold showers at 9 pm? It's the best part of my day.

I dont have cold water. Everything that comes out of my shower is scalding hot no matter where I move the dial. And this is at 7am every morning. 

[Surly Bevo 24908]

In DFW this summer clearly won’t hit 1980 or 2011 for “100 degree days”. We actually have a pretty good ways to go to even catch last year (we are at 28 days and last year had around 40 at this point) BUT this just seems so much worse. It’s not just that is it 100 or 101. It’s 105, 106, 107 etc it’s 85 or 86 by 8:30 in the morning. Just drudgery.

[Fudge Nuggets 19190]

1 hour ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

The Gods hate Texas.

Do you blame them?  I don’t. 

[ztejas 43422]

Some of you are probably having a better Saturday than helping your mother assemble an above ground pool.

Herman would not have been pleased with my piss color just now. 

[Okie State 3818]

It's hot as fuck.

[ztejas 43422]

1 hour ago, ztejas said:

Some of you are probably having a better Saturday than helping your mother assemble an above ground pool.

Herman would not have been pleased with my piss color just now. 

We got done laying out the liner and orienting it and everything and I told her I'm done for today (I already had to relevel all of the crushed granite that it's sitting on among other things - this wasn't like "step 1") I'll come back and assemble it tomorrow and she goes:

"Do you think the liner is okay just sitting out in the sun like that?"

"You mean... like it's going to be when it has water in it?"

She's wanting to put the cover tarp for leaves and shit over the liner until we come back to assemble it. Because apparently that material is impervious to the heat in a way that the fucking pool lining that's designed to sit in the sun all God damn summer isn't. 

(And yes I went and put the damn cover over the liner)

Edited August 5, 2023 by ztejas

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Out doing photography, figured I would walk the train tracks like usual. It’s a bit warm. About 200 yards into it I added that idea to my list of poor life decisions.

[Fudge Nuggets 19190]

 

From the metal thread, but seems more appropriate here.

Edited August 5, 2023 by Fudge Nuggets

[jimmyjazz 45920]

We've put north central California on the list.  Maybe somewhere within 30 minutes of Sacramento.  I've been there, it's not exactly a hotbed of culture and activity, but it's two hours either direction to SF/Napa and Lake Tahoe, which seems pretty compelling.  Weather is good, reasonably hot in the summer, not too cold in the winter.  Should be all kinds of good produce in the area.  Moderately low earthquake risk.

Any thoughts on how stupid this is?

[Post Oak 20213]

Sounds nice

[Gatorubet 30235]

1 hour ago, ztejas said:

We got done laying out the liner and orienting it and everything and I told her I'm done for today (I already had to relevel all of the crushed granite that it's sitting on among other things - this wasn't like "step 1") I'll come back and assemble it tomorrow and she goes:

"Do you think the liner is okay just sitting out in the sun like that?"

"You mean... like it's going to be when it has water in it?"

She's wanting to put the cover tarp for leaves and shit over the liner until we come back to assemble it. Because apparently that material is impervious to the heat in a way that the fucking pool lining that's designed to sit in the sun all God damn summer isn't. 

(And yes I went and put the damn cover over the liner)

At least crushed granite sitting in the sun is cool to the touch…

[Gatorubet 30235]

48 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

Out doing photography, figured I would walk the train tracks like usual. It’s a bit warm. About 200 yards into it I added that idea to my list of poor life decisions.

Left work early yesterday and was home by about 3:30.   Changed clothes right away and went outside and mowed the front and backyard. Nope, not a riding mower. Temp was apparently 98 and humidity about 61.

Not one of my better decisions as it turned out.