Chewbacca Defense

Just need to fire up the otto pilot

Just watched a video by someone in the shipping industry, and he pointed out that when you throw a single screw ship hard in reverse, the stern will walk sideways and turn the ship (I had forgotten about that.) That also takes water water flow off the rudder, so it loses its effectiveness. He said in all likelihood if they had left it in neutral and steered (assuming they had rudder control) they might have been able to avoid hitting the bridge. There are pilings around the pier, and maybe they would have held up to a glancing blow. It almost sounds like a Titanic type situation. I've read that if the Titanic had not turned, it would have hit the iceberg head on. The forward 1-2 bulkheads would have been compromised but most likely the ship would have stayed afloat, or at a minimum stayed afloat long enough to evacuate to another ship Also, it looks like the crew in Baltimore dropped the port anchor in an effort to get stopped, which is a common practice.

Just watching a discussion on all of the issues/resignations within the Republican Party right now, and one of the people said "the Republican Party is so dysfunctional right now they wouldn't even be able to name a Post Office after Donald Trump" So true.... I think if the republicans could grow some stones and kick MTG to the curb, they would be a lot better off. Goetz has enough problems on his own, I don't see him rocking the boat too much if MTG is gone.

You could go through ANY spending bill going back at least the last 30+ years and find stupid stuff in there. Pork Barrel spending at it finest

Quite possible the "full steam" as evidenced by the large black smoke plume was them throwing it into full reverse to try to get slowed down if not stopped. Those big ships absolutely do not stop or turn on a dime. Also, they probably lost rudder control if they lost power. I think those ships are single screw ships, but if it was a twin screw, then if they only got one of the engines back on line, that would have caused the hard turn assuming they went full power reverse.

Beautiful day here today, but unfortunately I spent most of the day in the garage swapping out my water heater. I did find out today that my son is doing Ski to Sea, and I will be doing it as well, so it's gonna be father vs son racing this year. Looking forward to the challenge.

Up to .60" of rain on the day. This afternoon I'll be playing my first soccer game in about 6-7 months since getting a slight tear in my meniscus. Hopefully the rain lets up before then

That's crazy you had pneumonia and didn't know it. Glad you were able to get to the hospital and get things taken care of. When I was in college I didn't have insurance so I ignored the case of bronchitis I had until I woke up one morning and could not breath. I felt like I was drowning. My girlfriend at the time had asthma, so I managed to get a quick phone call to her asking her to come over with her inhaler. Luckily she had a key because I could not get out of bed. My vision was starting to grey out as I heard her pull into the driveway. I did a double or triple dose of her inhaler, and it opened up my lungs....and got my heart racing. In hindsight, I'm lucky I didn't do more harm than good with all those inhaler hits. She took me to urgent care and a chest x-ray confirmed pneumonia, and that was after the inhaler opened things up. I coughed up stuff I did not know could come from a human body. It took me a while to bounce back from that. Take care of yourself and get lots of rest.

My wife grew up in Corvallis at the time and said they could hear it and see the top of the ash plume. She said they got a dusting of ash from it at some point as well.

Go CATS Go! My son graduated from MSU, 4th generation (or maybe 5th) on my wife's side of the family. His Great Grandfather got a Civil Engineering degree after serving as a B17 pilot in WW2 then went on to take over the family ranch. His bail stacks were always very precise LOL. His brother was a Rhodes Scholar from there. My wife grew up in Corvallis and her mom did all her post grad work at OSU, and growing up in Georgia, I am a big UGA fan. My brother graduated from Clemson, so I like to root for them as well. I don't have any skin in the game in Washington, but following my tendency to align with the ag oriented school, I prefer WSU over UW.

Why would he need to do that? He's worth BILLYUNS!!!!! It's interesting (or maybe not....funny...that's the word I am looking for) that 30 different companies rejected his inquiry about them covering his bond. Why oh WHY would they be concerned about doing business with him? They could stand to make a cool $10M off the deal. I guess they could also be out almost half a billion dollars, so there's that.

How neighbourly of you to be so dismissive. Folks who have family and/or property in the area of concern are probably worried, and rightly so. I think @ShawniganLake checks both of those boxes, but f*ck him, he's just a Canadian right? He's too far north to count. The situation he is describing is still not good for the region as a whole, where we usually count on winter snow/moisture to snuff out summer wildfires. This year, that did not happen up there. What does that say about the vegetation up in that area that has not yet burned? Unfortunately the Border Patrol failed to stop the crappy snow pack conditions at the border. It's pretty bad up here in the North Cascades of Washington too, and while I haven't look at data lately, my telltale on the snowpack conditions (parking/carpool area for the ski area is about 200 yds from my house) shows that it is an absolute dumpster fire up there, especially after this past weekend. I can count on 1 hand the number of days the parking area was absolutely packed. Where I live, which is on the edge of the urban expansion for my little corner of Bellingham, I've never been concerned about fire. This year, I'm starting to get a little concerned especially with how dry it has been.

I would not mind that either, I was just looking at the snow water equivalent maps, and its looking pretty craptastic up this way.

Congrats! I didn't finish my degree until I was 47, which was in 2019 and I remember the incredible sense of satisfaction when I turned in that final project and got the grade back. I also remember that for about 2-3 weeks afterwards I would be chilling on the couch watching TV, and have these sudden panic attacks "Oh crap! What am I doing I need to be studying right now!!!!"

We sometimes have people confuse our English Cream Golden Retriever with a Great Pyrenees. Sometimes my phone even gets confused. My wife was down on the waterfront with the dog and actually had a couple argue with her that we actually had a Great Pyrenees and NOT a Golden Retriever. Our dog is AKC registered, and we know the breeder very well. We know what we have. Our doggo is not a fan of the heat either. She can handle 70-80 in small doses, above 80 its not happening unless we stay in the shade. On the flip side, it can be 10-20 degrees and dumping snow, and she will grab a bone and go out in the yard, lay in the snow, and chew on her bone like it is a sunny 70 degree day

Quite hot today…:fire and brimstone kinda hot

Topped out at 62 here today, beautiful day!

So how about 'ole Ken Buck?

Yes but....this was nothing but a photo-op for him, and autographing that poster of her? It's just....strange. Not to mention, it was one person, which is no doubt a tragedy for the families, but Trump showing up with them is nothing but political pandering. He really didn't need to do anything at all, and nobody would have thought anything of it. My nephew was a victim of a "mass shooting." He, along with 4 other kids in their late teens to early 20's were shot and killed, then their house torched by a "friend" who had been asked to leave because he was picking a lot of fights and causing a lot of problems with the group. So he left, came back and killed them. The M-F'er even shot their dogs. It made the national news for a news cycle, and of course dominated the regional news headlines for a long time. There were no Presidents, Governors, Senators or Representatives at the funerals. And that suited me just fine. We might have gotten some flowers from the state representative for the area, but I can't remember for certain. The family of one of the victims is very prominent in the area. Heck, my nephew (his dad was my half brother) came from a very prominent family. All of our Presidents, certainly in our lifetimes, have had to deal with mass tragedy. The most common response is at a minimum a private meeting with the family, and if there are any pictures (though I don't think there ever was), they are candid and from a distance. The President may also do a public speech on the tragedy. I've never felt that they (Democrat or Republican) were doing it for their own personal gain, until this little stunt.

Beautiful sunny day here with 50 degrees for the temp. A lot of clouds in the sky but there seems to be a break parked right over my house.

Probably a good time to do it. 98% of members will be out basking in the beautiful weather, and it will force a break for the remaining 2% who do nothing but complain about nice weather, or the timing of said nice weather.

I would normally be out this time of year, but I'm still dealing with an issue of having a little too much "ballast" to fit in my dry suit. It is already pretty snug with my height and the width of my shoulders (shoulders are actually the biggest issue). I can get into it, but I could just barely get back out of it. I suppose if I could do the "Mel Gibson Lethal Weapon dislocate my shoulder at will" trick it would be less of an issue. My goal is to get back into my dry suit by next January so I can do the Skagit River eagle watching kayak trip. Sounds like a lot of fun, but full cold water immersion gear is a must.

Can't help but wonder if we aren't already doing the same thing here in Whatcom County. Someone posted on a community FB group asking if anyone knew why the water level at the lake was so high. Just checked the level, and they already have it a 314 feet, which they usually don't try to achieve until mid-April. Its usually just shy of 313 feet this time of year.

Up on the hi-line, that's some rough country up there. My wife's uncle grew up on one of the reservations up in that part of the state, and was a basketball coach on the rez after he graduated from college. He told some wild stories about life up there. He said one time they were driving back from a away game, and a surprise blizzard hit them. Completely lost sight of the road, and had to have other coaches and team members walk in front of the bus to identify the edges of the road. They eventually made it to some random small town which opened up the school so they could stay there and keep warm. Edit: I was just looking at the map, and I knew he lived in Blackfeet country, and saw the town of Browning, and I remember him mentioning that as being where he taught. It's not too far from Cut Bank, which I remember hearing about regularly as a kid as being the coldest place in the lower 48. It seemed to always be either there or International Falls Can you imagine the lawsuits if something like that happened today? Lots of small almost deserted towns like that in Montana. Sadly some of them are starting to come back for what I would consider the wrong reasons. Folks building fancy vacation homes, and they don't appreciate the natural beauty of the state, or the amazing culture of Montanans. It is ruining the lives of many people who's family homesteaded the land they are now being forced to give up.

Unless you are a major corporation, own a private jet, or are amongst the .01% ultra rich in this country it looks like you don't really have anything to worry about.