It’s been a tough week, fire-wise. That gas line explosion out in San Bruno looks pretty scary. Vernon, I hope you’re OK out there. And now it appears that the wind fueled wildfires out in Colorado may sweep through Boulder. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. Best of luck to everybody.
A federal judge has ruled that the military’s don’t ask, don’t tell policy is unconstitutional. Well, duh. My one question is, nobody’s figured this out before now?
The NFL season officially got under way last night, with the Saints beating the Vikings. Say what you want about Brett Favre, but, on behalf of all us Walter Mitty geezer types, I have to say there must be a little part of you that enjoys seeing the old guy out there playing. Since he’s already broken George Blanda’s interception record, you have to wonder if he’ll go ahead and switch to placekicker when he can no longer manage at QB.
Irish Fest begins today here. Why September? No idea. But it’s a time when those of Irish descent can gather and drink beer (as opposed to, oh, every other weekend of the year). Unless you happen to be an Irishman that gets high blood pressure from drinking beer, and you’re hoping to outlive your lovable but short-lived forebears. Then you have to content yourself with sobriety.
In order to watch the SU game tomorrow, I was forced to add the DirecTV SportsPack. In order to help mitigate the cost, I dropped the HD Extra package. I’m looking at other ways to save money as well. For instance, with True Blood ending on Sunday, I thought about dropping HBO. But then Bill Maher starts up again in a week or so, and of course the new Steve Buscemi show starts this month, too. I could drop Showtime, but I like Weeds and The Big C, and Dexter will start again soon, too. So, not much I can do there. Sucks to have to pay so much money for what amounts to a handful of shows, and I’m not really watching as much teevee these days anyway (have I mentioned I’m really digging the Kindle), but well, whattya gonna do? Maybe when I move I can make some changes.
Oh well, time to get this very long four-day week over with.
Watching Netflix on my iPhone. Damn skippy.
Since you’ve got HBO, check out “Hung” and TIVO “MadMen” while you’re watching. Then you can skip the commercials and watch Madmen which is about amoral guys who’ll remind you if someone you knew as a kid who were all about selling you more shit.
I am getting up a little late today because I was up until the wee hours watching the coverage of the gas blast which was about 15 miles south of me. I was on the other side of town so I did not hear or see anything. I have a friend I did some work for who lives very nearby and my early misreading of the map made it look like it was right up against her property but this morning I realized I was looking at it ass sideways so I think she was not in the burn perimeter. However, no one has heard from her.
Unbelievable video. What you don’t see in the linked article is that what happened is that a 30″ high pressure gas pipe installed in 1948 :omg: broke and gas poured out and ignited in a massive explosion sending an ongoing flame as much as 1000′ in the air and backfiring into all of the houses along the line in short order. As much as six hours later you could see live footage of foundations with nothing left but gas pipes still emitting flames. I am going to go out this morning to review how to turn off the gas at the street in case of emergency.
🙁
I’m glad to hear you’re OK, Vernon. Hate to be a worry-wart, but when we didn’t hear anything from you over night or this morning….
So glad you’re ok, Vern. I, too, was worried about you until I heard where it was exactly. Unbelievable sadness. Sending the college kid to Denver for the weekend. He sounds awful and they’re evacuating very close to him. :fire:
Vern, I am so glad you’re OK. I hope your friend is also.
Thanks, guys. I was slow on the uptake because when I first saw someone say something on FB, I just assumed it was another Cali wildfire. Sad how you can get used to that. I noticed it when an old friend who has moved to Denver made a comment about Boulder and San Bruno. When I went upstairs and turned on the TV, I got wind of what had happened and watched a bit and then came back down to Google/find out more details and realized that our mutual friend was very close. I called my Denver friend to try to reassure her that I thought Kass was going to be OK but she told me no one could reach her. She proceeded to tell me she worked in Boulder and had many Boulder friends. Then I found out the fire there was advancing on the town. Sheesh!
I went back upstairs and couldn’t tear myself away and had troubled sleep. I should have pecked out something on my :omg: iPhone sooner.
From Nate, via the contact form:
Vern- I didn’t really know how bad the fire there was til I just watched the news I tivoed from earlier. I’m really glad you’re okay and hope for the best for your friend. The really lucky thing about the Boulder fire is that no one’s been hurt.
The evacuation warning yesterday was just preventitive and was limited to a narrow part of north Boulder, fortunately not needed.
They’ve had up to 800 fire fighters working through the night and I think they’ve really got it knocked down. Little smoke that I could see today and now the winds dying down.
I got the word a little while ago that my friend is OK with no problems. Is it just me or is it disaster du jour these days?
It never seeems to end.