Short answer? No.
I’ll need help remembering what I’m looking for and how to look. I joined the Dope only in the last year, right after the switch to Discourse.
You aren’t ‘Granny Hawkins’. And by the way, Now we are. But not here.
Oh, you two!!
Hey, Granny! How ya been? Out lookin’ for Bigfoot in all the wrong places?
You are a bad, bad, bad man, Mister Fish
I’m still hunting that thread
Quit wastin’ yer time. But that was good advise.
As predicted, another shitty storm here in southern Maryland. Less than an inch of snow towards the end of the night/early morning, and it was sleeting an hour ago. I’m in a meeting now so I can’t check, but it looks like it’s either sleet or freezing rain now.
Snowing again here in Chicago, but just a few fluffy flakes, and the worst of the cold is easing – it’s supposed to be over 32 by Monday!
Lots of good thoughts and positive energy for you, Beck, and everyone dealing with snow and cold where it shouldn’t be found.
I used to think Canada was a great country, except for extreme weather, and that things would be great if we just towed the whole country a few thousand miles to the south.
Looking at this Texarkana weather, I’m not so sure about this southern towing. That’s pretty hard on the engine. Voids the warranty. And the weather in mid-south Ontario has not been terrible, just some frigid nights. We do not yet have big problems with crocodiles, hurricanes, C.H.U.Ds or chupycabras so are counting our blessings.
Canada is a better country than many, and I love it. I love Canada enough I think it should be doing a lot of things better. Time to stop settling for some comparison to others and to make a bigger difference.
For the first time EVER, the state of TEXAS was under a winter storm warning and temperatures were below freezing over the entire state.
In my experience, snowmen and hot chocolate are wonderful for the first magical day or two of snow. Then it quickly descends into tedium–dank, cold, complaint-ridden (“I’m cold!” “I’m bored!”) tedium.
Is it OK to say I envy you your proximity to family, Beck? I miss my kids and my siblings something fierce, but between me being high-risk (as are you) and them being high-risk, getting together was just too risky.
And I have to ask: why the heck are YOU doing the floor-mopping when there are plenty of able-bodied Wreks to do it? Your talents are best reserved for Bigfoot footprints, reading to grandwreks, and Meezer diplomacy.
Nellie, they do NOT care one wit for my nice bamboo floors that I paid way too much for, btw.
And mopping is not hard. I kinda like doing it.
I remember ages ago Dave Berg cartoon in Mad magazine where a family is watching through a big picture the snow coming down and all are saying, “It’s snowing!” Above them are thought balloons of their anticipation.
- Younger son is thinking of sledding down a hill.
- Middle daughter is thinking of ice skating in a pretty costume and being admired.
- Older son is thinking of skiing.
- Mom is thinking of wet galoshes in the mud room and tracks throughout the house.
- Dad is thinking of shoveling the driveway by hand.
I’m from Arizona. Snow is something you drive for a few hours to play in for a day, maybe two days if you can find a nifty lodge, then drive away from.
OK, then. As long as you’re doing well, feeling energetic, and are not troubled by Lefty’s dramatic mood swings, I’ll quit nagging at you.
P.S. What happens to bamboo floors that don’t get mopped on the regular? Do they warp? Turn into cheap vinyl? Trip unsuspecting Meezers?
I’m watching the news right now, and they are talking about something like this 10 years ago, and how the power grid was recommended for an upgrade. And they were pretty cagey about saying whether that took place or not. Or I’m not paying attention. I’ve got a fire to tend to.
Also, Ted Cruz is catching a butt-load of flak for flying to Cancun with his family. Now, I think the guy is a High Order Scumbag, but I don’t get the outrage. He warned people this was coming and got the hell out of Dodge before the shit hit the fan. It’s not like he’s gonna DO anything to help, and that’s 4-5 less people to tax the resources. I don’t get it. Whatever.
I can’t find anything about Cruz warning people about the possibility of another power outage (He wasn’t in office in 2011, when the last big power outage hit.), but I’d love to see an article saying he did. All I could find was that last year he mocked California about its power outages.
But why the hatin’ on ol’ Ted? Well, he’s criticized politicians who left town during crises and called them “hypocrites” for doing so. Also, political leaders shouldn’t be getting the hell out of Dodge" before the shit hit the fan." They should be where their constituents are struggling, and they should be fully engaged in what’s going on. And this is the same guy who recently advised Texans to “just stay home and hug your kids.”
Most politicos would say he screwed up. However, he’s got another 3 years and nine months for people to forget all about this, and voters have short memories.
That’s what I was referring to.
Bamboo floors discolor if they get too wet. I do not like that discoloring.
And, yes, I’m trying to do what I can around here. Mostly I’m inept and in the way.
The girls have really stepped up to take care of this privately owned insane asylum.
I’m lucky I have them.
In a sense, you’re right, he might not have done anything useful if he’d stayed, but that’s because (a) he’s a Republican, and (b) he’s Ted Cruz.
You have to remember that it didn’t used to be a fundamental difference between the parties, but it’s become one: the Republicans don’t believe in government to the point where they actively want it to fail, and since they don’t want it to work, they can’t be bothered to learn how it’s supposed to work.
So a normal Senator from either party back in the day, in a crisis like this, would first of all, understand his/her state, and know a great deal about the particulars of it. Such a Senator would be able to interact intelligibly with FEMA and other relief agencies, ask sensible questions about what they were planning to do to help, and see if they were missing anything that someone more familiar with the state would see more clearly.
And if you’re that Senator, your office is going to get an abundance of calls from constituents that need help, and have let your staff know what they lack - power, water, whatever - and your staff can see where those calls are coming from, what sort of distress is happening in what places, and compare that with the FEMA plan to see whether FEMA’s plan is leaving people out.
And of course, if you’re a U.S. Senator, you have enough pull that FEMA etc. take your calls.
So that’s what a Senator can do. And even in this day and age, most Republican Senators would actually do that. But probably not do it nearly as well as they used to. Especially if they’re winning votes not by proposing programs that will help specific groups of citizens (which isn’t the GOP’s thing anymore, outside of tax cuts and dereg) but simply by attacking Dems as socialists and ranting about ‘cancel culture’ and whatnot.
Anyway, I can’t speak to what the actual Ted Cruz can or can’t do to help. But in past times, any U.S. Senator could have played an important role in a situation like this, and any Democratic U.S. Senator still would be able to do so. A shame Texas doesn’t have one.
Yeti he ain’t no Bigfoot.