Araucaria Appreciation Thread

[frankifab]

Glad you're doing better Johnnie , I've also had stomach issues 2 weeks ago , it's always useful to have Imodiums 2mg to stop those " runny gut" issues
Have a nice Friday My Friend

 

[DantheManFL]

Hey John.

Well, it looks like our luck has run out. Milton will still be a hurricane as it exits the peninsula. I'm about 70 miles from West Coast, and 50 miles from East coast. Milton- what a stupid name.

 

[Araucaria]

Good Sunday evening Dan, Frankie, and Thad!

Dan, it looks like you're right in the path of Milton, and Orlando will get hit pretty hard. Do everything you have to to stay safe. I'm really worried about my ex and his husband, who live in a mobile home north of Tampa. He says they're going to evacuate to a nearby hotel, so they should be safe during the storm. But they're worried they might not have anything to go back to. Right now it looks like we won't have anything worse than tropical storm conditions where I live, so I should be OK unless the storm changes direction.

 

[Triple G]

Good morning, John and Dan.

I pray both of you will be safe from Milton.

 

[Araucaria]

Good Thursday morning, Gary!

Well, I'm still getting gusty tropical storm winds from hurricane Milton, as it's been going on all night. All in all, I've made out OK. Though I'm worried about my ex and his husband, and other friends in Tampa, as well as my cousin and her husband in Port Charlotte, in an area in danger of storm surge. Right now it's probably still too early to know the extent of the damage, since it's probably still too dangerous for news crews to go out and survey the area. There were tornados yesterday ahead of the storm, and an excessive amount of rain in Central and North Florida.

I hope Dan is OK, he's in an area close to where the center of the storm went through.

 

[Triple G]

Good afternoon, John.

That is good news. I am worried about my cousin in Port Orange (a suburb of Daytona). Which is close to the water. Called, but got a busy signal.

 

[Thad1527]

I'm glad you're OK. There were tornado reports from Palm Beach and Martin counties. And so many power outages!

It's clear and 52°F here tonight.

I stayed home today and am watching hockey. Utah at the NY Islanders, but my cable system is providing the TV coverage from Utah. I'm enjoying ads from Mountain America credit union and Jack in the Box, which hasn't operated in our area since a gruesome murder at their restaurant in Ridley Township years ago.

I'm going to a wild party tomorrow night. That is, if I don't kill the vibe. (Don't put it past me.)

 

[Araucaria]

Good Friday morning Thad and Gary!

Well, it was a bit of a wild night Wednesday and early Thursday morning with a lot of wind from Milton. I was guessing that some of the strongest gusts approached 70 mph, and it turns out I was right, with a 73 mph gust reported at the airport 4 miles away. But it turned out to be a pretty nice day, with a drop in temperature to the mid 80s. Right now it's 73, which I don't think we've seen since April.

As for the tornados, it looks like a couple of them went about 15 miles west of me. I was surprised that my emergency weather radio didn't go off, but it turns out the weather broadcast station was down. I saw some spectacular footage of a tornado that touched down along Alligator Alley west of Ft. Lauderdale. Supposedly there were fatalities from a tornado that hit a mobile home park in St. Lucie County about 70 miles north of here, but I haven't heard any more details. I know that in tornado outbreaks in the South and Midwest, they say that supercells which form well ahead of fronts can be especially dangerous. I suspect something similar happened here, it's just that the supercells formed ahead of the hurricane.

I'm glad to hear that Dan is OK, I just hope that the loss of power doesn't create any extraordinary hardships for him, that he has plenty of food, medicine, etc., and that he doesn't have to go out for necessities.

Gary, I know you're concerned about your cousin. But there could be reasons you can't get through. After previous hurricanes I've seen cellphone towers get overwhelmed with high call volume with everybody calling their loved ones in the area, and people calling out to tell everyone of their experiences. There may be so many calls that a lot of them don't go through. Also, the cell towers have to rely on stored battery power which quickly gets depleted with high call volume. If your cousin has a landline, the line could be down physically from the storm.

I haven't heard from my ex in Tampa yet, it's possible that he and his husband haven't gone back home yet to assess the damage. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that their mobile home didn't suffer substantial damage. I'm also concerned about my cousin and her husband in Charlotte Harbor, which was supposed to get a storm surge, which was even more likely when Milton took a more southerly course. Another cousin said they evacuated, but again, I hope they didn't have any damage.

 

[Araucaria]

I'm glad you're OK. There were tornado reports from Palm Beach and Martin counties. And so many power outages!

It's clear and 52°F here tonight.

I stayed home today and am watching hockey. Utah at the NY Islanders, but my cable system is providing the TV coverage from Utah. I'm enjoying ads from Mountain America credit union and Jack in the Box, which hasn't operated in our area since a gruesome murder at their restaurant in Ridley Township years ago.

I'm going to a wild party tomorrow night. That is, if I don't kill the vibe. (Don't put it past me.)

I like your idea of wearing an orange jockstrap to the party. You shouldn't kill the vibe, just as long as you don't say something like "y'all know Jesus?"

 

[Thad1527]

Oh, that "come to Jesus" moment.

It's a gorgeous cool day here. 67°F and sunny.

 

[frankifab]

Hello Johnnie , thanks for writing buddy
Have a pleasant and cool weekend

 

[PalacePaul]

Good evening, John.
It amazes me how you people can cotinue to live in such weather conditions... I'd be terrified!!
I hope you are safe and have a good weekend

 

[rmcrae]

Hey John!

 

[Triple G]

Hi John

Not a good day for our teams. Your s should have won by two or three touchdowns and USC lost by a missed field goal in OT.

The only bright spot was the Holy Men bringing the rath of God down upon Stanford: 49-7.

Our weather has cooled nicely. We will be dropping into the 90s now.

By cousin's phone is still out.

Hope you are still enjoying cool weather.

 

[Thad1527]

Hi John!
Friday's party was disappointing. But the rest of the weekend was low-key fun. It was OURfest weekend in Philadelphia, our celebration for National Coming Out Day. There was a parade Saturday, which was rather small-scale other than the 200-foot rainbow flag. Sunday was the annual block party, and the weather was ideal. The DJ outdoors at Locust & Quince was better than the one Friday night. I danced more!

Tomorrow? I do love a bargain, and the New Jersey Devils are playing a matinee game at 1 pm against Utah. Tickets on StubHub were cheap, probably because of the odd time and the unknown opponent (it's Utah's first game in NJ). So I'll be up early and on a morning train. (Cue Sheena Easton.)

Hope your weekend was joyful!

 

[Araucaria]

Good Wednesday morning Thad, Gary, RM, Paul, and Frankie!

We're in mid-October, how did that happen? It seems October had just started, and then I had to worry about Milton for over a week. The storm is gone, and oh, half the month has gone by. Speaking of Milton, everybody I was worried about is OK. My ex and his husband came home to an intact mobile home, and got their power back by Saturday night. And my cousin and her husband likewise came home to find no damage or flooding. I am very thankful everyone got through the hurricane safely.

Thad, it sounds like you had a lot of fun at OURfest, with the block party and all, and that you enjoyed the NJ Devils hockey game.

Gary, what can I say about Saturday's games? Those are the most frustrating games to watch, when your teams play well enough that they should have won, but don't. I hope you've been able to get through to your cousin in Port Orange, and he's alright. BTW, has it started to cool down where you are? It's cooled down here with lower humidity, with highs in the mid- to upper 80s, and lows in the low 70s.

I've had a couple of rather bizarre days dealing with my laptop. On Sunday I was scrolling through the threads here on Just Us Boys, going back and forth between my email, and had a couple of other things open. I had been having trouble with a frayed power cable, which caused the power supply to go on and off, which shouldn't have immediately affected the operation, but I suspect that it did. So all of a sudden it stopped responding to my commands, not clearing out what I was closing and not opening the new windows, etc. So I hit the emergency shut down key. But when I tried to reboot it, it would not come back on, I would only get a low battery symbol for a moment, and then it would go away. By Monday morning I wasn't even getting that. I bought a new cord at the Apple Store, hoping it would take care of the problem. It didn't.

So I got an appointment for the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store yesterday. The guy was able to to do something to force my laptop to start, and guess what? The first thing that came up once I logged in were a couple of pics I had downloaded from Just Us Boys, of guys showing off their erect penises, that I had in the background when my computer crashed! I immediately slammed it shut, so nobody in that crowded store could see it. I asked to take my computer to a place on the side to check it out. I closed out the porn pics, and then got the guy to run a diagnostic. He said there was nothing wrong with the hardware. But if the problems continued, it would be the software, in which case I would have to bring it in and have them wipe out everything, and reinstall it. My computer seems to be working OK now, so I hope I don't have to do that.

 

[Thad1527]

Ah, the "not safe for work" occurrence. Here's hoping for no other laptop troubles.

Monday's Devils game was worth the trip, with Jake Allen earning a shutout. Since the exhibition Flyers game I saw last month was also a shutout, maybe this is a trend for me? Next is Oct. 22, Washington @ Flyers...

Have a good Wednesday!

 

[Triple G]

Good afternoon, John.

This weekend has started off all wrong. Just heard that Don Q has died.

On the good side, I finally reached my cousin in Port Orange. She and her house survived with no damage.

The only game I am getting today is my Holy Men and they are heavily favorited. Looks like the game is a tossup.

Watched Florida State lose yesterday.

Last night we dropped into the 60s. Fall has fell.

 

[Thad1527]

Hi John!
Is the water heater still providing nice hot showers?

 

[Triple G]

Good afternoon, John and Thad

When I woke up Sunday it was 61F and I turned the heat on to warm the house for my shower. Had to add hot water to the cold for my shower. First time in six months.