Massive Flooding In The US Leaves Many Dead.

[BIAD]

With concerns for Ninurta and Grace, I saw this and thought I should post it.

Virginia Flooding

[Mystic Wanderer]

Do they live in VA?   For some reason I thought it was Kentucky, but I might be thinking of K-dog.

I hope Nin comes on soon to let us know he and Grace are okay. But, from the way he described where he lives, it's on a mountain, so hopefully they are high enough to have not been close to the raging water.  It could be that his power was affected though; it might take some time to get it back on.

My prayers go out to all those people who lost loved ones in this tragedy.

[Mystic Wanderer]

Update:  I have Nin as a "friend" on Face Book, so I went to his page to see when he posted last, and he had one up from yesterday, so I assume they are okay.  

[guohua]

Update:  I have Nin as a "friend" on Face Book, so I went to his page to see when he posted last, and he had one up from yesterday, so I assume they are okay.  

Thank You For That Update. 

[Ninurta]

We're fine as frog hair - and that split 3 ways, which is mighty fine as hair goes.

Some of the water is up around here, but I've seen it worse. Nothing up in the house or anything - the basement isn't even flooded.... I suppose. I don't go down there, on account of there's things down there. Monsters always live in the basement if they can't find a convenient closet, and I've got no doubt the giant spiders keep them run out from under the bed.

I went out to town yesterday, and there IS a big chunk of road missing on the other side of the mountain. The roads here wrap around the sides of mountains so that it's either straight up or straight down from the road bed. On the other side of the mountain, it looked like the creek had washed out the mountainside from underneath the road bed in a place where the edge of the road IS the mountainside, with no shoulder at all and hard top right to the drop, and consequently a large chunk of road collapsed into the creek 20 0r 30 feet below and washed away. Looked like a big dragon took a bite out of the road clear to the yellow lines and erased about 20 feet or so of one lane so that two way traffic has to squeeze into one lane at that point until they get it fixed.

There's another spot near the top of the mountain, on my way to work, that's going to collapse the same way If they don't patch it up pretty soon. About a foot of the edge of the hard top is already gone, and there's a big crack in the center of the road where the ground beneath is being undermined. That's not so far to fall, though - only about 4 or 5 feet. the creek bed is shallower up there because there isn't as much runoff on the top near the ridges to cut it any deeper. All that mountain side to gather the rain and funnel it into the streams is lower.

I'm in the southwestern part of Virginia. If I went 16 miles or so west I'd be in Kentucky, and if I went about that far to the northeast, I'd be in West Virginia. The elevation here at the house is about 1450 feet above sea level, and the top of the mountain where I work is about 2200 feet above sea level. It's not quite like where I was raised, which started at 2200 feet ASL and went up to about 4600 feet.

In the late 70's, there was a flood here that washed the town away. Just POOF! and it wasn't here any more. Some folks said that it did about 4 million dollars worth of improvements to the area. They've since rebuilt, but there aren't any houses down in town any more - just a court house, a Wal-mart, and a couple of other businesses. Big Sandy and her forks ain't got much pity when the rains come, and we've had a lot of them so far this year.

Between the rains and AlGore's Global Warming, this place is starting to look a whole lot like the Amazon, so I feel right at home here now. I dunno what AlGore is skeert of - this is getting to look more like paradise every day, thick dark green everywhere, not a desert in sight. Maybe the giant spiders are a little offputting to him - we got some GIANT Huntsman spiders here that my baby sister calls "tarantulas". Surely it ain't the bears - they mostly mind their own business, unless you've got trash set out or leave the dog's bowl on the porch.

All in all, life just don't get no better than this, the occasional sinking road aside.

[guohua]

It's good to know you're OK.
I Hate Spiders!!

[BIAD]

...In the late 70's, there was a flood here that washed the town away. Just POOF! and it wasn't here any more.
Some folks said that it did about 4 million dollars worth of improvements to the area...

  There's no need for that!!

I'm just happy you, yours and the mountain are fine, mate.

[BIAD]

Update:  I have Nin as a "friend" on Face Book...

Are you sure you wanna use the word 'Friend' when it comes to Ninurta...?!
He's a cantankerous old-bastard who would be quite happy living in the forest and
never meeting another soul again!

Hell, even the bears can't make friends with him. I'm sure if you tossed him back into
three centuries ago, he'd have been fine wandering the wilds of America's great forests
and living off the land.

Or... maybe I'm stereotyping a man who sadly is a rare person these days.

(Jeez, I'll pay for this!)

[senona]

It's good to know you're OK.
I Hate Spiders!!

And spammers.






Glad to know you and Grace are okay Nin!!

We're fine as frog hair - and that split 3 ways, which is mighty fine as hair goes.

I'll just take your word on that one.

[Mystic Wanderer]

Update:  I have Nin as a "friend" on Face Book...

Are you sure you wanna use the word 'Friend' when it comes to Ninurta...?!
He's a cantankerous old-bastard who would be quite happy living in the forest and
never meeting another soul again!

Hell, even the bears can't make friends with him. I'm sure if you tossed him back into
three centuries ago, he'd have been fine wandering the wilds of America's great forests
and living off the land.

Or... maybe I'm stereotyping a man who sadly is a rare person these days.

(Jeez, I'll pay for this!)

Well, you see, down here in the South it is considered impolite not to "friend" your family members.  So, since Ninurta adopted me as his "young'un" way back when we were on HH, I figured I better add him to my family list.
I just hope he doesn't expect me to come visit during family reunions or holidays; I don't take too kindly to big spiders. 
Now, I can handle the little ones, but those big ones would have me turning into my ninja warrior alter ego and I might hurt myself! 

@"Ninurta"
Please forgive me, Daddy, but we'll just have to visit here on the inter-web...  this one doesn't have spiders crawling on it, as least, not the live ones.

Glad to hear you and Step-Mommy are okay.  

[Ninurta]

Update:  I have Nin as a "friend" on Face Book...

Are you sure you wanna use the word 'Friend' when it comes to Ninurta...?!
He's a cantankerous old-bastard who would be quite happy living in the forest and
never meeting another soul again!

Hell, even the bears can't make friends with him. I'm sure if you tossed him back into
three centuries ago, he'd have been fine wandering the wilds of America's great forests
and living off the land.

Or... maybe I'm stereotyping a man who sadly is a rare person these days.

(Jeez, I'll pay for this!)

Oddly, you aren't the first to tell me I was born 300 years too late... and I'm inclined to agree! This isn't the same place I left years ago, exactly, but it's close enough for government work. The most annoying thing in this modern age is that I can step outside my front door and actually see another house where another person lives - and that's way too close together, if you ask me! I'm considering investing in a pair of snake gaiters so I can get a bit farther back from the beaten trail and into the deep, dark green.

[Ninurta]

Well, you see, down here in the South it is considered impolite not to "friend" your family members.  So, since Ninurta adopted me as his "young'un" way back when we were on HH, I figured I better add him to my family list.
I just hope he doesn't expect me to come visit during family reunions or holidays; I don't take too kindly to big spiders. 
Now, I can handle the little ones, but those big ones would have me turning into my ninja warrior alter ego and I might hurt myself! 

@"Ninurta"
Please forgive me, Daddy, but we'll just have to visit here on the inter-web...  this one doesn't have spiders crawling on it, as least, not the live ones.

Glad to hear you and Step-Mommy are okay.  

S'ok - the family reunion was last weekend, just 30 miles down the road, and I missed it, too. BTW - that "Ninja warrior" thing? You inherited that from me...

The hate for spiders - that's hard to tell... I don't much like 'em, but I'm not alone in that.

Funny story:

Last Halloween, at work, they decorated the place up with Halloween-ish themes. Some of the decorations were realistic looking plastic spiders about 2" across (that's "about 2.54 cm across" for the metrically inclined). So I adopted one of the l'il bastards to decorate my desk with, and when Halloween was over, I brought it home for safekeeping. Ya just never know who's gonna tray and snatch yer spider!

So anyhow, when I got home with Wilmer (yes, I named it), I spotted a little bitty nail in the wall over the head of the bed where apparently a picture used to hang, and so I hung Wilmer on it with a paperclip strategically placed under his body so you couldn't see it, and walked out, thinking no more about it. Now, Grace had been in the kitchen cooking at the time, and didn't know Wilmer had a new home... and I forgot to mention it. Some times, I just assume way too much...

... a bit later was one of the few times I've ever heard Grace actually shriek.

That's saying something for a woman who charged out of the house cussing at a SWAT team that had their guns drawn down on me, yelling like a mad woman 'cause she thought they might shoot me! Spiders, well, they're another matter. She might let them eat me!


.

[Mystic Wanderer]

@"Ninurta" 


 

 

I'm pretty much the same way.  I can stand up to people, but spiders are an entirely different matter!

Did I ever tell you I'm not afraid of Aliens?  

[Night Star]

Well, you see, down here in the South it is considered impolite not to "friend" your family members.  So, since Ninurta adopted me as his "young'un" way back when we were on HH, I figured I better add him to my family list.
I just hope he doesn't expect me to come visit during family reunions or holidays; I don't take too kindly to big spiders. 
Now, I can handle the little ones, but those big ones would have me turning into my ninja warrior alter ego and I might hurt myself! 

@"Ninurta"
Please forgive me, Daddy, but we'll just have to visit here on the inter-web...  this one doesn't have spiders crawling on it, as least, not the live ones.

Glad to hear you and Step-Mommy are okay.  

S'ok - the family reunion was last weekend, just 30 miles down the road, and I missed it, too. BTW - that "Ninja warrior" thing? You inherited that from me...

The hate for spiders - that's hard to tell... I don't much like 'em, but I'm not alone in that.

Funny story:

Last Halloween, at work, they decorated the place up with Halloween-ish themes. Some of the decorations were realistic looking plastic spiders about 2" across (that's "about 2.54 cm across" for the metrically inclined). So I adopted one of the l'il bastards to decorate my desk with, and when Halloween was over, I brought it home for safekeeping. Ya just never know who's gonna tray and snatch yer spider!

So anyhow, when I got home with Wilmer (yes, I named it), I spotted a little bitty nail in the wall over the head of the bed where apparently a picture used to hang, and so I hung Wilmer on it with a paperclip strategically placed under his body so you couldn't see it, and walked out, thinking no more about it. Now, Grace had been in the kitchen cooking at the time, and didn't know Wilmer had a new home... and I forgot to mention it. Some times, I just assume way too much...

... a bit later was one of the few times I've ever heard Grace actually shriek.

That's saying something for a woman who charged out of the house cussing at a SWAT team that had their guns drawn down on me, yelling like a mad woman 'cause she thought they might shoot me! Spiders, well, they're another matter. She might let them eat me!


.

Bahahahaha! I would have killed you! OMG, I hate spiders sooo much!

[BIAD]

(A boring Limey's view on the situation commenting from a country that doesn't have big indigenous spiders)

This might something to do with a resignation to the realities of animate and inanimate objects.

Logic demands that the reality of when a human that pulls the trigger of the firearm, then the  bullet
will not 'find' it's target, it will simply travel along the course that it's forced to by the direction the
barrel was aimed.

If nothing impedes it's course and the person has aimed the firearm accurately at the wished-for
target, then the bullet will strike that desired target.

Most humans accept this and even though we have built-in survival demands that make us turn to
the option of 'Fight-or-Flight', in our hearts we're all resigned to the notion that the 'thunder-stick'
makes a noise and then you're suddenly either injured or dead.

One cannot out-run a bullet, but a spider...?

Well, you can flee from a spider and visa-versa. You can lash out from the moment you see it
and destroy the hairy-legged, beady-eyed intruder. Maybe some would quietly back-out of the
situation and leave the wrong-limbed monster that probably clambered over you last night
while you slept.

The rationality that you out-size the sneaky-bastard that's been watching you for God-knows
-how-long in your OWN home, is lost in most cases and we seem to immediately perceive that
the crouching arthropod with it's wicked fangs and tapping foot -has the upper-hand.

The bullet has no cunning or fear that hones that cunning, it's an inanimate object that gains no
pride from out-witting the target it speeds toward. The human who controls the firearm can be
negotiated with by utilising threats or pleas.
He-or-she speaks the same language that even when human words can sometimes fail, emotions
have powers beyond mere utterance.

But a spider...?