Halfway through 2025, that is.
A year has 365 days, and half of that is 182.5. July 2nd is day number 183 of the year, so the midpoint of 182.5 was technically the afternoon of July 1, Tuesday. Here in the Silicon Swamp, we're in the last days of the latest sunset of the year; the Sunrise/Sunset app I have on my phone (probably obsolete) shows our local sunset at 8:23 PM until Friday, July 4th, when it crosses the minute mark to 8:22 and sunsets get earlier until the winter solstice. The changes in sunrise and sunset times are slow this time of year. Sunrises started getting later back before the start of summer (solstice).
There's another thing that's going to change soon, possibly after this Friday's Independence Day. You'll start hearing talk about next year being the 250th anniversary of our founding - if you haven't heard it already. Many of you will remember the 1976 Bicentennial hoopla which was pretty much constant and everywhere (a few other weirdos and I referred to it as the Bison Testicle). The 250th anniversary is referred to as the Semiquincentennial, the Bisesquicentennial, or the Sestercentennial. Wikipedia also offers America250 or the Quarter Millennium.
Closer to today than next July, National Hurricane Center predictions have had an area spread across peninsular Florida from the Gulf to the Atlantic off North Carolina for several days. It was originally given a 20% chance of developing that bumped up to 40% yesterday. In both cases, that was said to happen in the next seven days not in the next 48 hours. Late today or tonight, that was changed to look like this, with none of the orange area (40% chance of development) over Florida or in the Gulf:
It's still rated at 40% chance of development, and the fact the Gulf of America
has had the orange blob removed doesn't mean it can't reappear there in the next
several days.
Our local forecast has shown this to be a rainy weekend since it first appeared on the 10 day forecast. It sure doesn't look like a good weekend for barbecue or fireworks shows. And the next SpaceX launch isn't until Monday night/Tuesday morning, July 8.
I couldn't take owning real estate in FL. I owned condo for less than a year, but I sold it because I can't stand HOAs. (What do you call a flock of Karens? An HOA)
ReplyDeleteBut later, when I was going to look for a house, the hurricane thing pushed me far enough from the coast that I wasn't gaining the benefits of living in Florida. Which is the coast. (The weather in FL sucks. Winters are are nice, but they really don't make up for summer)
We bought this house in '84 and one of the absolutes when we started looking was NO HOA. I'm not sure how many places are around that don't have one but there has never been an attempt to start one here.
DeleteAnd I'm with you on the weather. The other absolute was we'd look around after the daily thunderstorms and there had to be no standing water. It has held up. January is very nice, August is like the planet Crematoria in that Vin Diesel movie "The Chronicles of Riddick" only a little less hostile. A technological civilization couldn't survive here without air conditioning.
Central and North Florida not-on-the-coast have actual 4 seasons and tend to be well enough above sea level that the worst is trees falling.
ReplyDeleteHere in Gainesville, we are above the surrounding areas, basically a big hump surrounded by downslope in all directions. Which means the rains hit that micro-increase in the ground and tend to split around it. Weird, but whatever.
And overall Florida is the state you want to be in if a hurricane hits. Why? Because our building and utility and response codes get stronger every year. We learn from every partially bad to horrendous storm that hits us. Want a state that requires utility lines to be cleared of vegetation? Florida. Want a state that requires 150+ mph resistant glass in all new construction? Florida. Want the state that introduced hurricane straps that connect your house to your roof? Florida. Want the state that can build a road to a cut-off barrier island within a week? Florida. And so forth.
Other states like Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia and South Carolina get hit about as often and they can't seem to learn from their mistakes. Don't even get me started about New Jersey and New York and their continued inability to plan for things like hurricanes and blizzards and stuff.
Florida's also built a huge arsed monetary surplus stashed away for the next big ones.
Remember 2004? 4 big storms, thrashed us worse than Katrina did Louisiana, but because we aren't as corrupt (except for Broward County) as Louisiana, we came out the other side of 4 storms pretty darned well. Katrina, by the way, thrashed Mississippi far worse than Louisiana, and especially New Orleans. New Orleans mostly survived. Biloxi was flattened. So were most of the small communities up the Pearl River. But those places didn't get the press that NO got.
Seriously, if a quarter of the money designated to update and repair the levies had been spent on the levies, the levies wouldn't have failed. Instead, maybe a 20th of the money went to repair while the rest went into various people's pockets. And yet that wasn't reported by any news media, was it? Basically New Orleans did it to itself.
Miami learned big time after Hurricane Andrew. Super strong building and rebuilding codes, better preparations, far less corruption (the State actually went hard against anyone suspected of corruption, well, except in Broward County.)
It's not a coincidence that Broward is also the "bluest" county in the state.
DeleteRebuilding that causeway to Sanibel Island was really one of the most remarkable things I've seen. Given 27 days to repair the causeway, they did it in 15 days.
The thing that has sprung up since then is the part about requiring utility lines to be cleared. Before my surgery a few weeks ago, I'd notice on my bike rides that crews were working along every powerline, cutting back the over growth. Every above ground line, every day.
I've got to believe that saves a ton of work and expense in the aftermath.
I don't even remember which storm after Katrina it was, I just remember watching governor Jeb Bush doing some talks on TV and remembering similar talks from Louisiana and New Orleans. Comparing Jeb's preparation and Louisiana was like watching a SEAL team operation vs. the Keystone Kops.
Vegetation Management has been required by law in Florida since the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. Responsible utilities keep trimming year round, while others do so at the beginning of the storm season.
DeleteWhy can't Yankee states or Commifornia do the same when exposed to the same harsh weather every year? Yankee states have snow storms and blizzards that continually knock out power lines while California has extremely high winds and huge fires. Yet every year we hear about huge power outages up north due to trees falling on power lines while California never fails to disappoint.
As to JEB!, the press savaged his calling the president before every storm hit, rather than waiting days, weeks or never to call for federal aid. Love him or hate him, he did Florida right during disasters.
We moved to a condo on one of FL's barrier islands ~15 years ago when I retired; only because I wanted to be as close as possible to the GOA'a active coastal zone (full speed ahead, damn the Karens; I let my wife deal with them).
ReplyDeleteWe were hit by Helene (very high water ~1') - I stayed and Milton (just a big bag of wind, no water, no big deal) - my wife dragged me to her sister's further inland. The condo's only still dealing with the results of Helene 'cause of two very ineffectual boards.
Transportation to the mainland (if you can call it that; all of lower FL's just a sandspit) was resumed as soon as the gubbmint got outta the way; I understand their POV: they're mainly worried about non-occupied residences being broken into; the services, including waste, held up very well.
We keep a decent supply of non-refrigerator food that'll last well over a week: bread and crackers, salamis and cheeses, beer and bottled water (and carrots).
I don't need A/C though I know some who can't live without it.
Hurricanes? Eh!
Have a good 4th in spite of the weather, SiG.
ReplyDeleteU S A