Storm Kings

First a correction - we don't have a choice for a 35 gallon garbage container.  Or even a choice  for a 65 at the moment.  AT THE MOMENT - 95 or nothing.  I would vote for nothing over two 95 gallon bins!  I say it's OUR call or we can look elsewhere!   Thanks for the phone calls and emails about this.  I agree, we don't need two 95s.

Did you know that 15% of recycling material is cardboard boxes?  I have so much I can't get rid of it.  I have crap sitting beside my house with nowhere to put it.  I think the city is reaching a crisis in large garbage pickup items.  No where to go with it.

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STORMS!  As I said yesterday on Facebook the storms are coming and the bow echo is forming - as predicted. 

Nice bow echo forming

This will become a DERECHO -  a widespread, long-lived, straight-line wind storm that is associated with a land-based, fast-moving group of severe thunderstorms. Derechos can cause hurricane force winds, tornadoes, heavy rains, and flash floods.  No tornadoes in round one this morning.

The only real question is this afternoon.  Where will the redevelopment take place and this afternoon is when the tornadoes could happen with a crap load of spinning going on.  Once the Derecho blows by how fast does the atmosphere recover and start to heat up the earth again. If we get sunshine hold on for later BIG twirly storms forming between 4 and 7 . . . somewhere.  There is a ton of moisture in the air with dew points raising all day into the low 70s.  It's going to get REALLY sticky.  A butterfly might flap his wings and BAM!!!!

I have my weather station updating every minute today  KWICOLUM2

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Here is a car you don't see everyday in Columbus!

I wonder if it can pull a trailer . . .FAST

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Saturday night I took Elwood home and got back to Columbus about 11:30PM.  Took a shower and with wet hair did not want to go to bed so I cruised my computer files looking for a photo to work on with some new knowledge I wanted to play with.

Found some files from Door County and a late night creation.

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We looked at the water tower and think it will do fine.  Lesson learned.  When replanting sedum - DON'T take the roots.  Just cut off some sprigs, take a few leaves off and plant. The area where the leaves are ripped off become roots.  So we are watering and nursing the rooted plants as the cuttings are doing fine.  All is well.  A small set back but confidence is high.

Back patio seems to be doing well except some cone flowers that the rabbits liked!

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I took this shot on State Street a few weeks ago right across from Noodles.

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I was thinking this weekend about why it's taking me so long to finished a few books I'm reading.  Then I realize I have four books going all at once and plans to start "1776" when the library gets it.  No wonder I'm so slow.

The one fascinating book is called Storm Kings and it's about the early tornado chasers.

In the 1750s Ben Franklin predicted there would be a HUGE settler vs. American Indian war but then the Revolutionary War happened.  After that ended people started moving west across the mountains and into the heavy heavy forests - but wait.  There were no Indians.  They had already had their war and lost to smallpox, measles, yellow fever and it wiped out 90% of the American Indians with entire nations  . . .GONE.  White Man Wins!

What they found was untouched wilderness but there was something very very odd and unexplained.

Settlers would come across wide paths of twisted trees with canopies completely gone.  They were called windroads in the 1790s and there was no explanation.  There are no tornadoes in Europe and the east coast does not have them.

There were no witnesses on what made these giant swaths of devastation.

Then - on June 5th 1805 one of the largest tornadoes, the first one ever witnessed, happened in Southern Illinois.   It was 2 miles wide and was on the ground for over 100 miles leaving devastation in it's path.  In fact it blocked passage through southern Illinois for over 50 years with two miles of twisted rotting trees 30 yards high.

For lack of any other word it was called a hurricane.

Storm King, Americas First Storm Chasers - Lee Sandlin.    

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I took this after a severe storm on Rock Lake in Lake Mills. It's the back side of the storm.

Want to figure out your BMI to see if you are over or under weight?

Weight yourself.  They take your height.   Multiple your height in inches by itself.  Then divide that number by your weight.  You will have a number like .03874838367  

Multiple THAT number by 703.

The result is

below 18.05 you are under weight
18.05 to 24.9 is healthy
25 to 29.9 is over weight
30 or more is obsess

Be careful out there today.