Hurricane headed my way
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I can't even get my head around all the damage there. It's just awful.
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Cannot imagine the mental effect of seeing one's home destroyed while wondering how to get food for your children.
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I think the fear is you have a home one day and if you're lucky enough to have your life you're trying to survive in a disaster zone the next and you have nothing.
It's strange how a person matures and their point of view changes.
I won't ever think of storms the same way after witnessing Katrina and the storm didn't cause that catastrophe. It was the failure of the levee system.
Hurricanes in Tampa when I was in my HS and college days meant you went to hurricane parties. We went to clubs in Ybor city during hurricanes many times.
Hurricane parties were a Florida tradition. Maybe people have become wise to the foolish of that.
I certainly have.
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NC is far worse but our area and State really got flooded and torn apart by wind. What a horrible storm.
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I tend to think death counts are low after disasters.
I bet a lot of people are missing any won't be counted.
I was just about to say we're having a common evening thunderstorm and the powner went out but it came back on as soon as I finished my second paragraph. Hurray.
Isn't it kind of sad that Biltmore is on top of a mountain and was impervious to the storm but Asheville drowned?
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Link to videoI want to be more like her!
(Other than the part about being able to leave and not leaving, but I should be this calm on a normal day!)
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Another storm has a high probability forecast (70% last I checked) of becoming at least a tropical storm and the making landfall on Florida's coast with one computer model predicting it hitting Tampa.
The last I checked it was predicted to have torrential rain but not relatively high wind.
I need to check again today but I'm more concerned about wind than rain. The municipal drainage system where I live at least is very good.
I just this morning cleaned up from the hurricane. I spent about 2 hours weeding, spraying down the house and carport, and then spraying down the porch side wall, and finally the porch with Dawn.
About 1/2 an hour of this time was spent meticulously cleaning the grate that covers the air conditioner intake. I had already vacuumed every under the grate.
The bottom metal directly under the grate was rusted and dirt had been blowing into the system. You can see daylight down there. I thought they had replaced that part.
RM cut a piece of some kind of heavy matting material for framing art to fit. We're tapping wood slats over that with the kind of tape you're supposed to use and we're going to cover over the rusted piece of metal and it will be seamless.
He already bought the right filter and we're going to put it in. It doesn't have a filter and hasn't for some time because he first ordered the wrong size and had to return them and order again.
He threw the old one away during this process. I don't blame him because it must have been worthless.
I'm the one who suggested we tackle this today.
We don't need to and have no reason to screw down the grate. I looked in there a couple weeks ago. I missed the rusted metal but the amount of dust was phenomenal and the grate was terrible.
I cleaned every single rectangle of it with a butter knife from both sides, sprayed degreaser on both sides, ran a cleaning rag through every rectangle, moved it to the carport, covered it with Dawn, , sprayed one side with a garden hose, flipped it over and sprayed the other side, and finally dried it in the sun.
I put it back as soon as I could so neither of would step in the hole.
I showed RM my fancy double lock, and told him about leaving the key in during the day.
He wanted one for the back door but I didn't agree for privacy reasons. I don't want him or anyone else coming and going next to my room and the bathroom.
I told him all his potted plants running in a line outside the porch parallel to the wall are going away.
He doesn't and I don't have any interest in constantly dragging them away from the wall and weeding between them.
Then maintenance will trim clean to the wall.
I told him my handyman and I shook hands on a price for the rock beds. They will be professionally done for $150.
There aren't enough rocks and I want new ones. I agreed that he can choose them.
I agreed to trim the weeds one time and he's bringing me brimh me sheers. I'm going to do it when it gets cool.
I'm still never weeding them again and haven't promised to trim them again.
All the rain has made them as tall as they can grow. They're past my knees. I did the work I did already and so for now I'm willing to make the weeds not detract from it.
We're almost done taping in the new bottom of the intake space. It will take us about 20 or 30 minutes to finish taping and put the new filter in.
My small Amazon order of 24 navy wash clothes and my bottle of free and clear laundry detergent I got for $4 with a $5 courtesy credit came today.
I'm washing the chemicals out of them now and should have enough time to dry them outside before sunset.
I've been using slightly different but both white wash clothes for the bathroom and as rags. It was a confusing system. Today every white wash cloth will be a rag for indoor cleaning. It's going to be much easier.
One of the reasons I did this is to get by with as few paper towels as possible. My mother didn't use them. They were considered a luxury. I however love paper towels.
I'm only using them in the bathroom at this point. They're hard to find but I bought 3 Sparkle brand triple rolls for around $7. I recommend them. This is the first time I've seen them for sale on Amazon or anywhere else and the triple rolls are a lot better than the double rolls.
I'd better end this now because my timer has already gone off to remind me to run the machine again.
Last time was a rinse. Now I'm going to run it on the long cycle with detergent, vinegar, and Fels Neptha. I shave off a reasonable number of pieces with a knife.
Did I mention I happen to be good at cleaning?
RM is doing a very good job too especially considering he has two broken ribs.
He cleaned his room and did as good a job as I would have done.
He's been known to let his room become a mess. I think he'd be the first one to admit it.
I clean the bathroom because I want to clean it the way I want it done.
He still doesn't like to do dishes. Once I put all his dishes in a yard bag and put it in.the back yard.
Then I had to take responsibility for doing that and it took me weeks to clean that disgusting mess and rescue those dishes.
Most of them were decades old Pyrex and could not be put in the dumpster. I won't make that mistake again.
Our weather will be much cooler by the end of this October. I keep reminding myself of it.
I hope everyone is having a good weekend.
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If you’ve been running your air conditioner for very long without a filter you’re going to want to clean the indoor coil. You’re losing efficiency until you do.
Wha kind of air conditioner is it? A whole house system ? Where is this intake you talk about?
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@wtg Eyewitnesses on the ground are reporting there are so many dead bodies piled up in Ashville that the stench is unbearable.
FEMA has offered $750 to survivers and is reporting that their budget is depleted.
There are multiple stores of FEMA making contact with survivors,.asking them what they need (they are things like baby formula, diapers, and water, btw), FEMA leaving and never coming back.
I personally have no confidence in the death toll numbers. I really don't.
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@Steve-Miller It's a whole house system we bought a little over a year ago. It had its one year service at the beginning of summer.
Interestingly enough, it had to be installed on a concrete slab to meet current code per high water risk. They brought it in a truck. I thought they were going to pour it.
All the ductwork is new. I think it's good. It's only that the company didn't replace a rusting piece of metal you can visualize as the square "floor" under the grate.
That piece of rusted metal was separating from the rest of the structure, the rest being in like new condition.
You could see daylight every place it was separated.
I remember them saying it wasn't included in the contract (seemed strange to me) and said they would send an estimate. They didn't send it.
I don't think we were happy it wasn't included and we certainly weren't happy they didn't send an estimate.
We had no more contact with them until they knocked on the door and offered to schedule the free one year service.
We should have fixed the problem ourselves immediately but for whatever reason we didn't do it until yesterday.
I'm sure the chain of events that led to us accomplishing it yesterday was realizing how dirty the grate was and lifting grate and seeing the dust about a week ago. I realized I was going to have to start with the vacuum cleaner and RM had the inspiration of how to fix the problem of the rusted plate while were waiting for return of the wrong filter to be processed
@Steve-Miller It's a whole house system we bought a little over a year ago. It had its one year service at the beginning of summer.Interestingly enough, it had to be installed on a concrete slab to meet current code per high water risk. They brought it in a truck. I thought they were going to pour it.
All the ductwork is new. I think it's good. It's only that the company didn't replace a rusting piece of metal you can visualize as the square "floor" under the grate.
That piece of rusted metal was separating from the rest of the structure, the rest being in like new condition.
You could see daylight every place it was separated.
I remember them saying it wasn't included in the contract (seemed strange to me) and said they would send an estimate. They didn't send it.
I don't think we were happy it wasn't included and we certainly weren't happy they didn't send an estimate.
We had no more contact with them until they knocked on the door and offered to schedule the free one year service.
We should have fixed the problem ourselves immediately but for whatever reason we didn't do it until yesterday.
I'm sure the chain of events that led to us accomplishing it yesterday was realizing how dirty the grate was and lifting grate and seeing the dust about a week ago. I realized I was going to have to start with the vacuum cleaner and RM had the inspiration of how to fix the problem of the rusted plate while were waiting for return of the wrong filter to be processed and the new one to arrive.
To answer your question, RM has replaced the filter on a regular basis since the unit was installed.
This is the first time it ended up not being replaced when it should have been and the dust in the grate and chamber building up to this level.
It was a blessing in disguise because it kicked myself into high gear to get everything done.
The air is clearer. The system keeps the temperature better. It's great.
I'm going to rest today except for carefully sheering the weeds in the rock gardens as low as I can reasonably get them.
All of it will be an almost zero maintenance landscape similar to what you see in Arizona when I'm finish
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Everything that's old is new again.
Another hurricane is headed my way.
This one will be a Category 3 hurricane when it makes landfall in Pinellas County.
They are saying it might be the worst storm to hit the Bay area in 100 years.
This is a euphemism for-- it might be the worst storm since the one that hit Tampa in 1921.
I feel numb.
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Steve, I accidentally cut part of my post when I was editing and can't get it back. I hope I answered your questions.
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@Daniel said in Hurricane headed my way:
Steve, I accidentally cut part of my post when I was editing and can't get it back.
I think you can restore your post to the previous version, and then re-edit it.
Here's a screen shot of one of your posts (done from Windows, so if you're on a phone or tablet it will probably look different). It's not the one you lost....when I did the screen grab I was on a different post, but you get the picture...
There's a little pencil icon that I've circled. If you hover over it, I think it tells you how many times it's been edited and if you click on it, it pulls up a window and asks if you want to restore the previous version.
don't know if that helps, but something you might want to try
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Thanks, wtg. Now I'm seeing what I was trying to it. The only real problem was I must have copied it and pasted it in the same post. I was trying to delete the tentative post but this is close enough. You're always so helpful. Thanks, again.
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Correction, the bottom post is finished. Very good.
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More information-- the last bad hurricane in Tampa before 1921 was in 1848 and before that they didn't keep records.
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