An Eminent Threat

A strange sound awakened me today and it was somewhat like when raccoons have invaded the basement. Groggy, I stumbled out to find my father doing the dishes so I assumed that’s what I heard. While de-installing Nvidia’s latest and buggy beta drivers, I looked out my window and notices a sizeable branch down on the backyard maple tree.

Then I really looked at it.

A full third of the tree had gently fallen on an abandoned old shed.

It looks like rot spread deep and the excessive moisture in the valley helped accelerate the decay. Further splits are developing and that’s very bad news.

With the entire weight of the tree leaning in one direction, it puts the house in jeopardy. Also threatened is the power line so it would be a catastrophe when it falls. We are going to have to have someone come cut it down ASAP. One stiff storm wind could take out my side of the house.

It has been quite a week and it’s only Wednesday.

One Day Later

The flooding has subsided in Yucatan valley leaving mud and debris in the fields. Unfortunately, two waves of storms may hit the area between now and Tuesday morning. So far they have dumped significant amounts of rain in Iowa, but the NWS is warning things could get as bad as 2007 by tomorrow. So I've got the radar on autoupdate and watching the first wave of rain approaching. Thankfully it is fading in intensity for round one.

However it is not like we can afford any more rain. Mudslides worry me even more than flooding in Houston County ever since what happened in Brownsville six years ago. Right now I'm debating getting some more stores in before tonight's storms. If weather and transportation permit, I'll get some photos of the aftermath..

Oh and to the people searching for Lanesboro flood pictures getting routed to my Yucatan posts and the old 2008 photos: Sorry I don't have any from 2013, Google isn't the best for finding what you want these days. Try DuckDuckGo or Bing for better search results.

Videos of the Yucatan Valley Flooding

I took a few videos with my trusty old Canon PowerShot S1 IS to give an idea what it is to see flood waters up close and personal. Unfortunately the wind picked up and you can’t quite get the full audio experience. Rushing waters are loud and something you don’t forget once you’ve experienced them. One thing that can’t be conveyed is the awful smell of flood waters. That too is unique.

This was taken at a flooded over county road and gives a good idea of the strong currents of flood waters. At the end you can hear a tree or trees falling from it.

The second video is from the intersection of County 4 and State Highway 76. When we passed this coming home it was closed. So was Highway 16 out of Houston and 43, leaving 44 the only main route open in the county -- and it is under construction!

More Flood Pictures

My neighbor Randy, my dad, and I went out to get another look at the flooding at Noon. Much to our relief the waters were going down in Yucatan valley from earlier in the day. They had gotten higher when Randy went out mid-morning, so there was cause for worry.

Going up the road past the local Girl Scouts camp revealed that a lot of water had crossed over that road leaving debris behind. My father moved the smaller chunks out of the road after we stopped.

The South Branch of the Root River jumped its banks in many places wreaking havoc on fields and roads. The water in the photos above covers a field. Notice the trees, dead and alive, swept into the water to be left behind.

Yucatan Is Flooding

There isn’t going to be a lot of text for this, I took these pictures shortly after 5:00 AM. Large amounts of rain has produced flooding and I need to go check on things again soon. Houston County in Minnesota is not a safe place to travel right now and people need to stay at home or seek higher ground if needed.

UPDATED 6:30 PM

I’m copying this from the National Weather Service storm report because links move around when they update. Suffice it to say that things are not good:

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LA CROSSE WI
407 PM CDT SUN JUN 23 2013

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0405 PM     FLASH FLOOD      HOUSTON                 43.76N 91.57W
06/23/2013                   HOUSTON            MN   EMERGENCY MNGR

            STATE HIGHWAY 16 CLOSED 2 MILES EAST OF HOUSTON. STATE
            HIGHWAY 76 CLOSED BETWEEN CALEDONIA AND HOUSTON.
            PRELIMINARY ESTIMATE IS 2 MILLION DOLLARS IN DAMAGE.
            STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARED FOR COUNTY. 20 TOWNSHIP ROADS
            CLOSED. WIDESPREAD COUNTY ROADS CLOSED.

Riceford Creek is over its banks, this is Creamery Drive at the intersection with County 4.

Standing water is merging with the flooding near the intersection. Further North, the junction of Riceford Creek and the South Branch of the Root River is rising rapidly. Both are out of their banks. There is at least one mudslide near there.

Summer Has Arrived

Hot and humid weather has at last arrived in southeast Minnesota. Hopefully it will help the late planted crops, but a lot of farmers in area valleys accepted crop insurance payouts rather than plant. At least the corn is visible and we'll see if it can get to "knee high by the 4th of July."

It's been a long week due to my health. Allergies, wet weather aggravating my back, and problems sleeping combined to keep me at low ebb. I probably had a cold or other bug on top of all that to make things annoying. Yesterday was the first day I was up to doing anything real and grocery shopping took that out of me. I swear it wasn't sticker shock -- there were actually some bargains.

So I’m Thinking of Building an Ark…

…Not because I want to or have been commanded to, but because the rain keeps coming. There is a large amount of water standing in the fields around the county, flash flooding between Caledonia and Hokah last night, and the promise of another round of intense storms this afternoon. It’s reminding me a little of 2007 when the floods hit.

So far there hasn’t been anything quite to that level. However, the ground is past saturated and fields in the valleys are mostly unplanted. I did see some corn planted in higher elevations around Caledonia at least. What little thought toward a garden has been negated by the cold and wet spring we are suffering from. The farmers have far more to worry about though.

The Internet service has been going in and out the last few days and I suspect water is getting into the lines or repeater boxes somewhere. That’s trivial compared to how damaged the driveway is getting. A few more storms and we’ll be able to compete with the Grand Canyon for tourists.

Ah, There You Are Spring!

At long last we broke the 60 F mark today. This tied a record for the region set in 1951 according to the National Weather Service. I’m feeling slightly better so I’ll venture out to hike the driveway to the mailbox in a bit. Oh and there is sunlight coming out of a blue sky too. My thimble runneth over!

It has been a long, hard winter and I’m glad to see it finally end. Maybe people around the area will start cheering up. For awhile now it has seemed if everyone was either on edge or gloomy. Yesterday at the clinic there were a lot of comments about doubting spring would ever come only partially tongue in cheek.

Oh and the  right front brake has been fixed on the car, though it will be necessary to replace the other side soon. At least we don’t have to worry about braking anymore. Trying to down shift and not stop doesn’t work so well once you are in the city.

The world might end tomorrow (doubtful), but at least there is sun today.

April Hail

This is supposed to be the season of April showers to bring forth May flowers, but what does April hail bring?

We had quite a storm here last night with two rounds of hail involved. The entire area was hit by this according to Channel 19 and I feel sorry for anyone outside at the time.

Fortunately the car is not dimpled from I can see this morning. This is despite the gale force winds driving the hail that made a din that I’d never experience before. Later rain reduced the cover somewhat leaving a well salted yard under the gray skies of today.

More rain, freezing rain, and snow are in the forecast to make things even more fun. It will be hostile weather until Sunday rolls around with 50F temperatures again. Have they executed that groundhog out East yet?

Saw Two Sundogs Today

So of course, I did not have a camera along. My hands are too shaky too take pictures using a cellphone, so you will have to accept my word on this happening. They were equidistant from the sun on either side and fairly bright. It was if a rainbow had tried to form and forgot the arch only leaving the supporting pillars on both sides. The arcs visible in photos at the Wikipedia entry on sundogs were not visible at all, which made them even more surreal looking.

It was an interesting day that was capped off by seeing this coming home from running errands and getting groceries. Due to hitting a hardware store that actually has plastic model kits and supplies for that hobby, I’ll be getting back into that pronto. Funny, I dreamed last night that I needed to put shelves up in the weight/hobby room for built models. This was an unusual occurrence, so it should help me keep to that promise.

Dry in the Breadbasket

Forget about the fluctuating temperatures this winter because there is something more problematic going on with the weather. There is a serious lack of precipitation to alleviate the drought that has been going on since last year. Take a look at the map and you’ll see the heartland which produces most of the wheat, corn, and soy beans is not doing well.

Not a pretty picture, is it?

Locally, things aren’t great, but could be worse. The fields near creeks and rivers fared well, but those farther out varied considerably this past growing season. Even though we are near two creeks, quite a bit of the corn was underdeveloped. Farther west things were a lot worse in Minnesota.

The map tells me food prices will be going up with even more pain at the grocery store than just the inflation we have been experiencing. Lucky for me I’m attempting to downsize my body so less food isn’t a problem. But to families raising children this is a real concern.

Hopefully the weather will get more unpredictable and do something to relieve the situation. If you are interested in following the drought, check out the National Drought Mitigation Center page for it. It is regularly updated, hence the screen capture above to catch the moment.

Survival and Pants

Looking out the window, it appears the world did not end the other day. While I see a fair amount of snow, there is no where near the amount that was forecast for the winter storm two days ago. There have been no sightings of giant wolves or of an immense serpent, so Ragnarok hasn’t happened either.

I have always wondered what people who are terrified and panicked by end of the world theories/rumors do the day after it doesn’t end. All those plans put off, belongings given or sold to others, and bills unpaid have to be a big a slap to the face as the failure of the planet to go up in flames. How about facing friends and neighbors?

So life goes on, the wheel in the sky keeps turning, death and taxes still can’t be avoided, and there still isn’t much on TV worth watching.

We hit –4 F last night and it really feels like winter now. Trudging up the driveway to catch a ride yesterday was a cold endeavor, but I handle it better than I used to. Between the weights and the meditation methods, my body has decided it can circulate the blood after all. Yesterday was fun going out with friends to browse movies and pistols, then playing D&D. I didn’t get to do anything other than a small amount of role play during the session, which was good because I wasn’t feeling too well anyway.

Today is a bit tougher and I’m trying to work myself up to weight training and getting one last movie review written for the year. The collapse in blog traffic still isn’t explained and this is the lowest it has been in years. Google probably demoted me in searches for some arbitrary reason. All of that is automated through algorithms and is highly impersonal. It won’t stop me from posting as I have anymore than the increasing traffic had changed my habits.

Yesterday did have some bad moments, though. Two pairs of pants, one only a couple of months old, tore in the crotch. So there went the money I was saving for a big purchase early next year. I could only afford to replace the jeans and will try to figure out if I can somehow mend the khakis since they are so new.

Pants have been an illustration of why inflation has been bad for some time. The fabric used in pants has gotten thinner and thinner with the stitching actually ripping through it in some cases. Formerly good brands like Wrangler and Levi have become low quality and I don’t know if any good quality jeans are out there these days. It’s hard for me to view pants as disposable when I’m paying $20-25.

So if you are hoarding for disaster, you better buy a lot of jeans in order to survive, since they will fall apart under duress more than they used to. I wonder if I can duct tape the khakis…

Hurricane Sandy

There are so many rumors flying around that it will probably be days before it is all sorted out, but Sandy has done a number on Lower Manhattan and parts of New Jersey. Reports of people trapped in a subway station haven’t been verified and a false rumor about the Stock Exchange being flooded out has been debunked.

I’m keeping up through Yahoo’s live blog, which is constantly updating. Blizzard conditions in West Virginia have been reported, showing just what a monster the storm has turned out to be. 4.8 million people without power in 15 states and Washington, D.C. was reported by Weather Underground, but I have to raise an eyebrow at the number of states – it could be possible though.

A hospital has been reported on fire and another one’s backup generator failed. Tisch Hospital, I believe. Water is rising still and making rescues difficult, if not impossible, in areas.

I’ll be praying more for the people in the path of Sandy. What a mess.

UPDATED 10-30

The morning has brought more news and it looks like at least 15 people died in the storm. Bridges in NYC are open for the most part and people are assessing the damage. As bad as this was, it could have been far worse. Right now it sounds like most of Long Island is without power and cell phone service is down in Manhattan. Communications with relatives are going to be difficult for people.

What worries me is that we haven’t seen the true flooding yet in the states affected. The coastal surge did a lot of damage, but all the rain dropped into rivers, creeks, and streams will cause flooding outside the coast communities in time. Having seen what large amounts of localized rainfall can do this concerns me greatly. Three towns in New Jersey are underwater after a possible levy break and that is an example of how this storm will continue to do damage.

Of course, Mayor Cuomo is already using the storm for political purposes to push for new building codes due to AGW, what a shocker. Not even 24 hours have gone by since the storm hit.

It looks like Halloween is pretty much done for the kids of the Northeast and possibly into parts of the Midwest. Between widespread power outages, snow storms, flooding, and assorted damage there is no point in even trying.

You know, it has been a strange month in my life and I expected it to be. I did not expect other people to get hammered this hard though. While I’m used to hardship, most people in the U.S.A. are not so this is going to be extremely difficult for those affected by Sandy. Prayers and aid for them are needed right now

Paul Ryan will be in La Crosse, WI at the GOP campaign HQ on Copeland Avenue to pick up donated supplies for the relief effort. 1:15 PM is the time I’ve been given, so if by chance anyone in the area reads this before, bring emergency supplies there if you can. That’s assuming anyone reads this in the first place!

A Hail of a Night

It was another restless night, but at least this time the weather was overtly causing it. Around 1:30 AM a hail storm hit the house and hit loudly. You know the comic book sound effect “SPANG!”? I heard that quite a few times.

This morning revealed dents on the car hood, which just adds to the expense of getting it repainted. Hopefully, we will finally get it into the shop on Friday if it can be lined up. Also taking damage was a junk locust tree by the mailbox. One of its limbs broke and partially fell in the driveway entrance.

I dragged it around as much as I could, since it is still attached and far too out of reach to saw. Not that I am up for sawing something that thick! It was all I could do to cut the four and two inch diameter branches off to keep them from being run over.

Independence Day 2012

It is scorching hot and getting worse with a high of 101 F predicted for this afternoon. Being ill and on antibiotics that prevent being in sunlight, I will not be making it to the parade in Eitzen yet again. We may fire off a few fireworks later tonight, though.

I often think of how much was sacrificed to found this country and then maintain its freedoms. Another Pat, but not a Patrick, I know posted about this on her blog today. One has to wonder if anyone is willing to make those kind of sacrifices these days.

Over at the Telegraph, I ran into this column by a Brit writing that the United States was Britain’s greatest gift to the world. I cannot argue with that or his reasoning for why. Too much is taken for granted and modern people have forgotten just how bad it once was – and could be again.

Maybe it is the illness, but I am having trouble feeling positive about the future of the nation. Things are not going well in any facet of our culture and it looks like we will be finding out if any of the strengths that our founders had still remain in us. Hopefully, I will turn out to be wrong about this.

Huffing and Puffing and Blowing…

…but the house is still standing. Though I did get to witness rain being blown through the air conditioner.

At 7 AM we had another round of severe wind from storms this morning and branches are down all over the property again. One small tree/bush is broken at the base in the small windbreak – which has had a literal meaning this year.

Not worth it to take pictures this time and I see that damage is far worse elsewhere again. One fascinating thing is how the grass was blown flat in the somewhat overgrown West yard which took the brunt of the storm. That is a new one for me.

I should go out and see what the damage is on Highway 16 locally. We’ll see if time and schedule permits – not to mention if weather allows. More storms are in the forecast for today and tomorrow.

My being a human barometer meant that I did not get much sleep last night due to pain, but sadly I lacked the wisdom to realize what it meant. I should have checked the weather instead of whining to myself!

It is time to think of planting some fast growing trees farther out to create a better wind break. This mini-break isn’t going to hold up much longer.

Hopefully the weather will be nicer up North at the Renaissance Festival tomorrow.

Can’t Think of a Title

After a barely functioning Saturday, today turned out better. Even the daily crossword puzzle was solved in just over 12 minutes. Still feeling puny but got out to church and to a birthday part for a child of friends. Scored leftovers, so it was a good day.

It probably helped I went to bed at 9:20 PM last night.

Today I learned something new. A person can hit the snooze button every ten minutes and still fall into a deep enough sleep to dream during each interval.

It is so humid my eyeballs fogged over. This is going to be a rough week with mid to high 90’s predicted and heat indexes well above 100 F. But the media it playing it up like it is some amazing heat wave when I remember stretches of true 100+ weather in previous decades.

I’ve figured out what movies I’ll review next and it will be nice getting back to a more traditionally vague format.  The Battle of Britain will be followed by Thirteen Days.

Speaking of movies, Netflix has changed their fees and I was looking at a 60% increase for the package I had subscribed to. With low bandwidth, I went to the two DVDs for $12 option instead. Not happy with this, but the streaming revolution isn’t really happening thanks to the movie studios. I’m beginning to wonder if it ever will.

At least I’m slowly catching up on popular movies I had no interest in seeing at the theater. So far, most have not impressed me.

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was bad. It came off as a parody of the previous films and Harrison Ford is way too old for this kind of thing.

Quantum of Solace destroyed all the momentum from the reboot, Casino Royale. Not content to fumble things, it turned into a poorly written and edited left wing conspiracy fantasy. Ian Fleming must be rolling in his grave. It is just a very bad film on many levels, despite having a good cast. A true waste of talent.

Inception has cemented my being a fan of Chris Nolan. He is what we hoped M. Night Shyamalan would become as a director. I knew it would be heavy on special effects and that didn’t interest me. The idea of manipulating dreams did, however. What surprised me was how sentimental the film was. Well worth watching.

I’m bemused by how my evaluations of films and TV series confuse my friends. There is no question that I dance to a different drummer and employ criteria that aren’t the norm. But if I manage to annoy everyone at some point, I’ve done my job. Or just had fun annoying them. It’s a tossup.

Oh before I forget, I have an animated film out of Ireland to recommend. It is called The Secret of Kells and is a lovely piece of work. The animation style is unique and fits the minimalist story very well. In places it was absolutely haunting and I really liked the ending. Good for older children and up, younger children could be frightened by the violence.

A Mighty Wind

With the 100 degree weather yesterday came a break from the misery late in the evening. The only problem is the break also broke trees. The National Weather Service summary has a list of all the damage reported from the high winds that swept through. The animations show a faint bow echo ahead of the rain and that’s where the worst of the winds were for us. When it hit, I thought the air conditioner was going to be shoved into my room it was shaking so much. In fact, it has never shaken during any storm. Power was out for several hours starting at 10:30 PM. With the heat and humidity in the house it made for uncomfortable sleeping.

Things were far worse in other places in Minnesota and Wisconsin, so I can’t complain. Not exactly a good start to the Independence Day celebrations.

Photos of our rather unimpressive damage:

Scattered branches and twigs litter nearly all of the West  and front yards.

How these branches missed the antenna, I don’t know. Not that it made much difference when the power went out.

The maple tree out back has taken a beating this year. The big limb drooping is damage from the earlier storm that spawned a tornado in La Crosse.

Biggest damage was to this Asian Elm which was slated for being cut down anyway. While a lovely tree, it has wet wood, a bacterial infection that can spread to other trees. That dark stain on the right side is from water continuously being pushed out through its vascular system.

Amazingly, most of the branches in the East yard came from trees in the West yard. The cottenwood and oak trees were the main victims.

Riders on the Storm

Well, the weather refuses to stop being a topic of discussion. There may be various traits defining Midwesterners, but talking about the weather has to be a dominant one.  Why? Probably because we get all seasons here – sometimes in the same day.

Driving home Saturday night was quite interesting since it was in a torrential downpour the likes of which I’d never driven in before. I thought the storm in Nova Scotia I drove in back in 2005 was impressive, but this topped it. Visibility was blizzard like with ten feet being the norm from Hokah to Yucatan. At first, I thought I’d gotten myself into hail, but it turned out the rain drops were simply huge. In the reflected glow of the headlights they looked like luminous hailstones. Thankfully, there were not or the car would be a mass of dents right now.

The drive also was the first time I’d experienced the Subaru Outback hydroplaning on all four wheels. With it being such a reliable mountain goat and with new tires, it was surprising. Good thing I’ve had a little experience steering a boat.

The current forecast is for heavy rains and potentially severe weather today and tomorrow. Yay. Like the garden needs to be more saturated than it already is. We are going to need a monster truck to navigate in it at this rate.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to edit the screen captures from Citizen Kane between storms today. It’ll be an even bigger task to weed them out, since I took far too many for a review!

In Which I Write About Non-Disastrous Weather

It is nice to talk about the weather and not be complaining. The sun is shining and it is around 65 F out as I type this out.  Or more accurately, typo this out – thank you Windows Live Writer’s spellchecker. A week ago we were suffering from high 90’s and hit 100 on Tuesday with humidity to match.  Today is supposed to hit 75 F with 51% humidity which makes it nearly an ideal day, especially since it isn’t raining.  I’ve had enough rain this year to make me think I live in Seattle.

Snooky, our resident white cat, is wanting me to hold her again. This happens many times a day and she can get quite persistent about. The suggestion to go play outside was ignored, so I’m ignoring her in return.

But back to the weather! It has been a strange year with spring barely making an appearance and the transition to summer being abrupt. So it is nice to have temperatures as low as we are having at the moment. Well, nice for humans, not so nice for plants in the garden or crops in the field.  We hit 48 F for a low yesterday and are seeing lows in the 50’s.

From what I’ve been reading, wheat and corn crops are in trouble this year, so expect shortages and price increases. The wet and low temperatures have set back planting badly in the Midwest, while drought and flooding down south are adding to the woes. Not quite disastrous, but worrisome nonetheless.

Last year, I didn’t get to enjoy summer very much thanks to my health and I’d hoped for a better year in getting outside. So far that hasn’t worked out between health and rain. On good days it rains, on bad days it is sunny out and it seems I can’t win. I am turning into a literally whiter shade of pale.

At least the mild temperatures will allow some more time in painting miniatures and models upstairs in the un-air conditioned work room!