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Richmond Under Darkness It's the little things.... When one goes without electricity for several days, and what's worse, local businesses go without electricity; then you can expect... Water contamination. The treatment plant was shorted of electricity, pumping stopped, water got contaminated. We have tap water restored, but telling how long until it's drinkable. At least I can bath, a necessity in this heat. I've even taken to taking midday cold water soaks, to cool off. I'm usre it's not that bad (the contamination), but one wants to be aware. Large sectors of Richmond (almost everywhere except downtown) are yet without electricity. This means that at stoplights everyone is on the honor system. Some intersections have sawhorse/sandwich board stop signs, meaning that everyone at that intersection should stop, then proceed in order of arrival, as in a four-way stop. Some drivers obey the laws of first come first go. Others are too impatient, or mindless of such courtesies. And many intersections don't even have the signs. Another affect of no electricity is that almost everywhere is closed. All of Carytown, most of the malls, most anything not directly on a main drag, grocery stores are few and far between (few are open), there are long gas lines (several blocks long) to the few open gas stations. And supplies are running out. Beer is a dwindling commodity. There is no more ice, flashlights and batteries are hard to find, and munchies (chips, cookies, candy and cakes) are going fast, few fastfood restaurants are open and fewer nice local/fan restaurants. And lots of us don't know anything about what's going on. No electricity cuts off TV and radio news, unless you've got either run on batteries (remember a dwindling commodity). I plan to buy a Sunday paper. Much of what I might learn has already been conveyed by word of mouth. "Don't expect electricity for days." "Don't expect clean water for days." Heh, and don't give up! Well the last one is mine. It's bleak. It's particularly bleak in my "hood." We are near town, but low on the priority list. West-enders may get power before us. In spite of the poor families, with children and infirm adults. "Chin Up", I say! Go out and do things! Talk to your neighbors and help them if you can. And call VA Power and demand, no, report the outage. But also report that trees are down on their lines, and their lines remain uncleared of those trees; even when a pole remains dangerously bent over from the strain. Call 12 on your side, and report/ask about facilities/utilities and when service will be restored. I'm lost. It's like living as a hostage, a hostage of circumstance. It is not a good feeling! Thanks DaaLee, for letting me at your puter! And the A/C and chill brews and snacks were nice, a reprive from my lack thereof! Soon enough things will return to normal. It is nice to find shelter, yet after the storm! Peace Yo! Awwa \A/
Aw My brilliant new Ph.D. husband (he defended his thesis on the 9th - yeah!) fixed my laptop, so I am pretty much back in the loop now. Thank you all for the well wishes. We sure are going to need them! :) Labor, right now, is worrying me less than the idea that a real live human being is going to be here very shortly, and I am going to be responsible for her. (Birth takes one day, if you're lucky - parenthood is forever! urp) Yes, I think it will help to think of you in a cheerleader outfit Jimmy, though my childbirth class teacher might be a little concerned about me if she found this out. LOL. We didn't get much by way of the hurricane either. Rainy rain and a breezy breeze. Supposed to be sunny tomorrow. I did have a funny moment trying to haul my 9-months-pregnant self from the parking lot into the doctor's office today, uphill, against the wind and in slippery flip-flops. (the only shoes I can get on my feet these days, besides fuzzy bedroom slippers) My cartoon thought balloon would have had a lot of #$%^& in it. Hard business, cleaning up one's language before one's daughter can really hear her. Speck, I'm thinking of you in dealing with the Lyme disease diagnosis, I am really glad they caught it early. Friggin' ticks and Wisconsin while we're at it! Glad you are feeling better. We have had this forum for over a year now, a happy thought. And I still haven't gotten around to redesigning it. Hahahaha
coop Just a report from the Lurking Zone. Isabel was a major dissappointment. It blew through here (Western PA) last night, and I guess it is still dragging it's tropical ass through, because it's still raining, but mostly just a little gusty wind and heavy drizzle. I wanted to see cows flying past the window. Ah, Coop, I don't know what to say. What do people say? I know 'break a leg' is not appropriate here. Maybe just 'Good luck'. Good luck. Sum pore kidd is gonna flunk skool cause he didnt git a Speek and Spill. (such is the cost of creating art, but the artist cannot be bothered by conscience! Hack away, Jimmy!).
jeffron x  It was quite awhile ago I was asking for a Speak & Spell or Speak & Anything in here. I was willing to pay $75 for one on Ebay if I had to. I wanted to hack them for music. I just got back from the thrift store. I found it for $2. Batteries included. I'm so happy I could throw this thing through a window.
jimmy when my grandmother went into labor with my aunt and uncle (twins), it was during an especially bad blizzard in Wisconsin. My grandparents were living on Okauchee Lake at the time and since the snow plows couldn't get down all the little dirt roads to where they were, my grandpa had to put her on a sled and drag her out to the highway so they could get her to the hospital... You're not in the storm path, though are you Coop? Well, hopefully you'll have a lovely calm day for the arrival of your mini cooper. But somehow stormy (but not too stormy) seems appropriate for new life arriving. Wind and rain and chaos with bolts of lightning sparking new creatures.... Like the beginning of life on earth, ya' know whadda' mean?
Miss Speck and the Giant Librarians This just in from the Awwa Weather Center... ticker... ticker... ticker.... Here's what the National Weather Service has to say. WoW!  Richmond is somewhere between the "A" in "VA" and "8PM Thu." Okay, so that's not so impressive. But it could get rough here. Winds are expected to be in the 60 to 75 MPH zone, possibility of tornados, severe huge hail also possible, and of course, rain, rain, rain! You guys just got back from enjoying "Burning Man." Well I'm about to experience the, "Very, Very, Very Wet Man!" I've taken out the trash, and after trash pickup tomorrow morning, I'm gonna secure the rollaways (trash cans), between the apartments, to minimize their likelihood of becoming hurling objects. I have a few flashlights handy (note to self buy extra batteries), extra liters of diet soda in case the water fails, lots of food in the fridge, gas in the car tank, made plans to close and secure doors with wedges as parts of the house falls off. The one thing that worries me is... whereas, when hurricane Andrew blew through, my Eastern exposure was a big field (allowing maximum exposure to winds and rain), that same municipal driving range has built large corrugated steel shelters (for those who would drive golf balls in the rain), which might block some of the incoming winds. Then again, they might dissolve like so many house of cards, sheets of deadly ballistic steel, driving themselves into the rear windows, of mine own, and adjourning apartments. Ah! Sweet anticipation! But for severe, rationality shattering pain, none is so great an attention getter! Coop, yours may come a bit sooner than expected, though I hope not! As I battle the onslaught, I shall endeavor to persevere, thinking of you braving a baby midst the tempest! I leave you with a poem I wrote in '87, about a hero facing unbeatable odds. "Storm Hero" He went on As the raging storm went on He continued to meet the battle. He fought As the waves battered the shore As the clouds surrendered their torrent. He vanquished As the storm relented It could not last forever. As the sun came out As the peasants shout The Storm Hero dried his soul. Peace Y'all! Awwa \A/
Aw Oh, no Speck! That sounds so horrid. I'm so glad it didn't get any worse. *gasp* Coop, I'm so nervous for you! I'm wishing you the very best for the birth!
Anna I've had a lump in my throat since I heard, Speck. I'm glad you're feeling better.
jimmy Well coop, I'm sorry to hear that you're under house arrest, I hope all's going well for you. How exciting that you're gonna have a mini cooper soon, though! I'm back from my travels and most sad to be here. Well, mostly sad to be here. The Tenderloin is just not so pleasant after spending a few weeks in the beautiful rainforests of Costa Rica listening to frogs and monkeys and birds and bugs. It doesn't smell as nice here as it did there... sigh. I miss my hammock slung between two palm trees on the beach. Quiero mango en leche. sigh. And to make things worse, my friend Ali who I went to Burning Man with and to Costa Rica with, is still there for another week. damn her. having fun in a foreign land without me. harumph. The only nice thing about being back so far has been seeing my boyfriend and my cats. It's so hard for me to come back from visiting a place for only 2 weeks. I'm just gettin' started then. Ah, well. someday when I'm rich.... Burning Man was fun, but not quite as good as last year as far as the art and such was concerned. Although I did love the glass blowers and the chandelier way out on the playa. There were lots of neat things, but like Chief said, the theme was not so great. And Costa Rica right after B Man was just what the doctor ordered. I went from burning desert sands to tropical end of the rainy season wetness. It was so nice to feel hydrated again, and to feel like my skin wasn't going to crack off. sheesh! Costa Rica is oh so very beautiful. It's like paradise. and the people there are very simpatico. and beautiful too. sigh. So I've been officially diagnosed with lyme disease, my lab tests came back positive unfortunately. The Department of Public Health had to interview me about where I got it, etc. Damn Wisconsin. I told my mom that I'm never coming to visit her in the summer again. Only winter visits from now on when everything is cold and dead there. I feel better now that my month of antibiotics is over with and my symptoms seem to have disappeared. Luckily they caught it early and I only had to suffer for about a month and a half and it only went to the second stage where I just had a rash spreading around my body and an insanely stiff neck/blinding headaches (although that may have been some form of viral meningitis) and not the third stage where I would have started hallucinating and having facial paralysis and other shite like that. egads! anyhoo. i'm back.
Miss Speck and the Giant Librarians My thoughts are with you, Coop. And on that wonderful day, if it helps to imagine me in a cheer uniform waving my pom-poms and shouting "gimme a breath, gimme a push!", then by all means...(I am perfectly sure this wouldn't help.) I'm really happy for you. Yesterday, bored, I decided to cut up a few symphonic pieces, alter them and then paste them back together. hollow men .65 mb Quoting someone on livejournal: "Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe."
jimmy Best of luck Coop! Shield your eyes from the depression that follows: This is just messed up: Cheney still trying to claim "ties between Hussein and al Qaeda" Even Wolfowitz says: Iraq had no part in 9-11 or Al-Qaeda. Cheney spends time trying to link Iraq to 9/11, then when asked about Saudi Arabia's ties to al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 hijackers: "I don't want to speculate," he said, adding that Sept. 11 is "over with now, it's done, it's history and we can put it behind us." Uh, so I guess we should just ignore any links to *other* countries that may have attacked us, right? Sen. Joe Biden: Instead of killing Medicare drugs, skipping the tax cut for the top 1% for one year would just about fund the president's $87 billion Iraqi request. If Mr. Bush considers these lower taxes for the wealthy untouchable then who instead will make sacrifices? Hah, great picture
chiefwagonburner hi kids, just wanted to let you know that Miss Charlotte is not here yet, and that I have not crawled into a hole. My iBook is feeling sickly and waiting for some replacement parts before I can use it again, and on bedrest I am not supposed to be sitting up to use this computer... (shhhh) It should be baby time within a week or so; I know it's early, I may be induced due to my blood pressure issues. My doctor is kind of impressed that we have made it this far. Be good, all :)
coop 
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