Been blown out.

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Biddlin

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I've been without lights and heat for 36 hours. A small, by my standards, rain storm blew in Wednesday night about suppertime. My lights flickered and then cold and darkness ensued. I have a couple of oil lamps and a box full of votive candles. I had a well stocked pantry. My ancient fireplace was poorly designed and does a much better job of scenting the air than heating it. Thursday morning at 6am, it was 50 degrees f. in my living room. In pitch darkness and a pouring rain I made my way to the detached garage, fumbled from the side door to the front and managed to disengage the automatic lift. By the time I got the garage open, I was wet and filthy and to go back and change clothes before driving the car. I managed to get to the nearest fast food drive-thru joint that was open and ordered three egg sandwiches, two large coffees and a large tea. Keep in mind, it's raining, windy and damned cold. I kid you not, they gave me iced tea. Throughout the day, after finding a couple of blocks of ice to try and save some of my perishables, I was finding ways to feed my little household, hopeful that at some point the power would be restored. I finally gave up and ordered a pizza, hoping that the driver would be able to see the house. An hour later, the young delivery man arrived and as I was giving him his tip, " Man you guys must be the last block in the city without lights. Everywhere else has been on for hours." Thanks, Skippy, that helps, I thought.
I was eyeing my neighbor, who been smart enough to find a big sheet of metal and make his breakfast with a cutting torch, in his carport, when a power company pickup pulls up in front, along with a bucket lift truck and ten minutes later, I've got lights.
What I'm thinking about most this morning as my house warms and I sip my coffee, is all those people who didn't even have a roof over their heads and how sh*tty that is. A guy died on the steps of Sacramento's city hall last night. So when I finish my coffee and breakfast, take a hot and change into clean warm clothes, I'm gonna go downtown to the shelter and give a few bucks and a couple of coats.
Hope you are all safe and warm.
 
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I drive through skid row in downtown Los Angeles every day. I give what I can, when I can. I prefer to give my clothes directly to the homeless rather than to Goodwill

skidrow.jpg
 
WavMixer said:
I drive through skid row in downtown Los Angeles every day. I give what I can, when I can. I prefer to give my clothes directly to the homeless rather than to Goodwill

skidrow.jpg
Click to expand...
We have a wonderful charity here called "Loaves and Fishes." They are a very good, private charity that provides a number of services without judgement.
 
Living deep in the forest on a dirt road, with long and dark winters, I've equipped the house I built 20 years ago, to deal with power shortages, because they happen almost monthly. Gaz stove, slow burning wood stove, generator for the well water pump. I could semi comfortably withstand a week blackout or more, if fuel is readily available for the generator. Weather won't get better anytime soon, that you can count on, climate change and all. Averages at the end of year are pretty similar, but wind, rainfall, temperature difference are more and more violent, extreme.

Whenever I find a piece of clothing I haven't wore for 4 or 5 years, to the local clothing depot it goes.
 
I do a lot of pro bono and heavily discounted IT work with local charities. It is hard to imagine what it would be like to be homeless. We just had a couple of weeks of record cold weather here. It was not above zero (Celsius) the whole time. Talking to some of them while working at the Helping Hands shelter it can happen to anybody much faster than you would think. Many of them have mental and addiction challenges but there are many that just had really bad luck. Society isn't really setup to help those people turn their luck around. It seems set up to keep them down. Places like Helping Hands gives them access to a phone number and an address so they can open a bank account, reliable internet access, etc. It is impossible to get a job with out those basic things.
 
We're up and running, for now, but just heard from a former coworker that her farm, a few miles away on the Cosumnes river, is under about a foot of water.
Location, location location, like the real estate folks say. X marks my place.
Biddlin's place.jpg
This year Morrison Creek is about 4 feet deep and six feet wide, perhaps ten times the flow of last year. Being at the bottom of the slide, we get the benefit/threat of all the rain falling upriver.
Later, this spring, the melting snow from the Sierra Nevada's is likely to overfill our inadequate reservoir system. The phony drought restrictions we have lived under for almost a decade now did nothing to save water, there is still nowhere to save it. In most California counties, residential rain barrels are against the law, agricultural interests having secured the rights to every drop that falls from the sky.
 
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You are truly legendary you Blues Man from Northern Californ-I-A...Bo Biddlin who likes a Spiddlin.(y)


;>)/
 
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