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Hurricane update
• Paul O. writes:
Hey Joe - loyal follower of screencaps and I think I remember your Dad is in Southwest FL (unless I missed an update)? Did he come through the storm okay?
Both my father, who has a place near Tamiami (41) & Marco Junction in SW Florida, and my mom up in Largo dodged a big-time bullet with this storm. Both were in Ohio, so they were fine. In my dad's community, the biggest issue was water in lanais.
To put into perspective how lucky my dad was, Screencaps reader Paul B., who lives near my father's place, evacuated with his family to a Woodsprings Suites seven miles to the north in East Naples on Tamiami, and here's what it looked like on Wednesday from Paul's hotel room.
Paul told me Wednesday he went outside to check on his car and ended up having to help rescue people on 41 who were in four-foot high water.
I haven't received an update from Paul, who was very nervous about his house. The last I heard he was heading home to check the damage and look for a shelter somewhere that might have electricity.
I read the first line of this email & thought for sure Jess in Alabama was tired of you guys rambling on about Hildee & other hot topics
• Jess writes:
Too many “commentators” or whatever you call them. It’s like the peanut gallery was given mics. (Also, I’m very glad Tua is able to fly back with the team)
Good for your Bengals, though!
All I could see in the Gmail preview was that first sentence. Then I open it up and here Jess is talking about the football game. Whew.
Here are my takes on the TNF experience:
Miss a day, miss a lot
• Guy G. in western New York learned a lesson this week. Gotta have the head on a swivel, especially during woodpile season:
I miss a couple days, and I come back to wood piles and belly buttons? I suppose that will teach me to drive to a work trip. Not that State College, PA has an airport, but at least on Delta I get WiFi to keep up. Had to go back and find out what’s going on! (I would have anyway. I don’t really miss any posts)
For Sean, my advice doesn’t really matter. We’re stacking a half cord in the basement at any given time in the winter. Sure it takes up space, but, we burn a lot! Jeff M. and JT nailed it, and building a quick shelter for it is perfect.
Because we burn wood for heat exclusively, that is not an option for us. We currently have 3+ years of wood on site, including the 12 cord just delivered. We don’t have it covered anymore, and haven’t increased our use, or had any loss due to rot. It is very important to get it off of the ground, so we have pallets stacked 2 high, to stack it onto.
Battery Daddy-- While I have one, it’s the Amazon knock-off. I had no idea that the real one had a name like that. As a 42yo loyal SC reader, I would reject that in my house on name only. Who was the executive that came up with that. We’re working on a new product at the shop, with some TERRIBLE names. I will continue to reject them, and call by it’s primary use if I have to, and move on. “Battery Holder” would have been much better. Smart idea though, and we love ours.
A lot packed in there. Do Hard Things is getting super compressed. Bills need to get on track, Mets are in the playoffs, work travel season has started, bow season starts Saturday, and still need to keep the wife happy. Time to step it up!
If you guys have follow-up questions about woodpiles, wood to burn, hardwood, softwood, wood in general, and surviving winter in western New York in the snow belt, Guy G. is your guy. You heard the man, he has 3-PLUS years of wood stocked up.
• Mike writes about wood:
Saw Sean’s post regarding the best wood pile set-up and some of the replies. This might not be the prettiest way, but it’s cheap and easy!
Couple cinderblocks, couple 2x4’s and a tree line. Don’t need a CAD drawing and a contractor's license to put this baby up. For me, now comes the fun part this weekend when I pick up the log splitter and the case of Busch lights.
• Tim G. in the 419 is in on woodpiles...via his father! Tim writes:
My 79-year-old father is a woodpile veteran. This is what he does with his 31 acres of woods in southern Michigan. Here are a couple of pics of his woodpile.
He burns wood for heat - about 7-8 chords each winter. He had some help splitting the wood but stacked it himself. Big-time stuff here! The other pic is of a round woodpile we did last winter. It's about 8' in diameter and is a little more than a cord.
The inside is full of wood as well. Notice the wood on top is slanted away from the middle so the rain flows away from the center. Very cool! Also three pics of woodpiles I took for him when I was in the Swiss Alps a few years ago with a corrugated tin roof.
Figured these people were woodpile experts :) We also use a tarp if we need it to dry quicker, but usually we split wood for a year down the road, which means covering it really isn't necessary. Most of our wood had been drying for 18 months by the time we use it. I was looking around my property tonight and I have 5 different woodpiles with about 1.5 cord of wood total. Guess the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree :)
Why do I have the feeling I could talk for hours with Tim G's dad about woodpiles? I knew Tim G's dad had a serious piece of property in Michigan, but I didn't know he was a woodpile master.
This is a bold claim
• Jason S. in Lynchburg, VA claims he has created a Pandora playlist that is BETTER than Yacht Rock:
Like you, I am a huge yacht rock guy. So much so that I curated my own playlist on Pandora.
However, I have discovered 70s greatest hits radio on Pandora. It’s yacht rock with some disco and soul/Motown mixed in. I consider it yacht rock +. Solid patio, garage, or work tunes.
Check it out.
Jason says you can find his work on Spotify under 'Jshoetn' and by searching for 70s Greatest Hits Radio.
Indy Daryl's work-from-home treadmill update
I needed to hear more about this whole lifestyle where work from home people are walking on treadmills, because in my own work environment, I'm not sure it's possible to type thousands of words and walk at the same time.
• Indy Daryl, possibly from his treadmill, writes:
After a week of using the treadmill under my desk I can say it is wonderful. I'm not walking fast (1.5 -2.4mph) and certainly not all day (generally 15-45 min each time, 5 or so times) but it sure feels great to move throughout the day. As for how I operate whilst walking, I have found that typing really isn’t that bad. Your hands are grounded on the desk and it really just feels like your legs are moving while the upper half is still.
Not for everyone, I get it, but man it has been good. Have found that even on days when I don’t run I will easily break 10,000 steps. There had been far too many days when it was 4pm and I had only amassed ~2,000. Was time for a change!
I guess at 1.5 mph it wouldn't be terrible to be standing and moving the legs. I might need a video of Daryl in the act to serve as a visual for how this all goes down.
What the *^$# is that?
• Jason in Far Nor Cal writes:
Yes, this is the time clock at my work. It’s a fingerprint time clock.
1. At first sight, I laughed out loud.
2. It doesn’t register my fingerprint so I have to use a number sequence.
3. As I was walking to my desk I had so many thoughts.
4. As I type this out I’m realizing this is a perfect group chat situation.
Keep up the great work. The bread and butter is seeing/hearing from the cross section of this great nation. It gives us people that live in a state where gas prices went up $.94 in about a week that there is hope.
And with that, it's time to clock into work. Get your day moving. Those lunch beers will go down much better if you hit it hard for the first four hours and then call it a day and week and September.
It's officially Halloween season. Remember, the inflatables can't go up until October 1. And could you savages keep it to ONE inflatable per property, please?
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com