#Moisture mitigation

[coastalrestorationca]

Water Damage Restoration: Recovering From Unexpected Disasters

Water damage can wreak havoc on your home, causing structural damage, mold growth, and health hazards if not addressed promptly and properly. In this guide, we’ll discuss the essential steps for water damage restoration to help you recover from unexpected disasters and restore your home to its pre-damaged condition.

Coastal Restoration CA Newport Beach CA (949)899-9242 https://coastalrestorationca.com/

[reasonsforhope]

As relentless rains pounded LA, the city’s “sponge” infrastructure helped gather 8.6 billion gallons of water—enough to sustain over 100,000 households for a year.

Earlier this month, the future fell on Los Angeles. A long band of moisture in the sky, known as an atmospheric river, dumped 9 inches of rain on the city over three days—over half of what the city typically gets in a year. It’s the kind of extreme rainfall that’ll get ever more extreme as the planet warms.

The city’s water managers, though, were ready and waiting. Like other urban areas around the world, in recent years LA has been transforming into a “sponge city,” replacing impermeable surfaces, like concrete, with permeable ones, like dirt and plants. It has also built out “spreading grounds,” where water accumulates and soaks into the earth.

With traditional dams and all that newfangled spongy infrastructure, between February 4 and 7 the metropolis captured 8.6 billion gallons of stormwater, enough to provide water to 106,000 households for a year. For the rainy season in total, LA has accumulated 14.7 billion gallons.

Long reliant on snowmelt and river water piped in from afar, LA is on a quest to produce as much water as it can locally. “There's going to be a lot more rain and a lot less snow, which is going to alter the way we capture snowmelt and the aqueduct water,” says Art Castro, manager of watershed management at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. “Dams and spreading grounds are the workhorses of local stormwater capture for either flood protection or water supply.”

Centuries of urban-planning dogma dictates using gutters, sewers, and other infrastructure to funnel rainwater out of a metropolis as quickly as possible to prevent flooding. Given the increasingly catastrophic urban flooding seen around the world, though, that clearly isn’t working anymore, so now planners are finding clever ways to capture stormwater, treating it as an asset instead of a liability. “The problem of urban hydrology is caused by a thousand small cuts,” says Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler Water Institute at UC Berkeley. “No one driveway or roof in and of itself causes massive alteration of the hydrologic cycle. But combine millions of them in one area and it does. Maybe we can solve that problem with a thousand Band-Aids.”

Or in this case, sponges. The trick to making a city more absorbent is to add more gardens and other green spaces that allow water to percolate into underlying aquifers—porous subterranean materials that can hold water—which a city can then draw from in times of need. Engineers are also greening up medians and roadside areas to soak up the water that’d normally rush off streets, into sewers, and eventually out to sea...

To exploit all that free water falling from the sky, the LADWP has carved out big patches of brown in the concrete jungle. Stormwater is piped into these spreading grounds and accumulates in dirt basins. That allows it to slowly soak into the underlying aquifer, which acts as a sort of natural underground tank that can hold 28 billion gallons of water.

During a storm, the city is also gathering water in dams, some of which it diverts into the spreading grounds. “After the storm comes by, and it's a bright sunny day, you’ll still see water being released into a channel and diverted into the spreading grounds,” says Castro. That way, water moves from a reservoir where it’s exposed to sunlight and evaporation, into an aquifer where it’s banked safely underground.

On a smaller scale, LADWP has been experimenting with turning parks into mini spreading grounds, diverting stormwater there to soak into subterranean cisterns or chambers. It’s also deploying green spaces along roadways, which have the additional benefit of mitigating flooding in a neighborhood: The less concrete and the more dirt and plants, the more the built environment can soak up stormwater like the actual environment naturally does.

As an added benefit, deploying more of these green spaces, along with urban gardens, improves the mental health of residents. Plants here also “sweat,” cooling the area and beating back the urban heat island effect—the tendency for concrete to absorb solar energy and slowly release it at night. By reducing summer temperatures, you improve the physical health of residents. “The more trees, the more shade, the less heat island effect,” says Castro. “Sometimes when it’s 90 degrees in the middle of summer, it could get up to 110 underneath a bus stop.”

LA’s far from alone in going spongy. Pittsburgh is also deploying more rain gardens, and where they absolutely must have a hard surface—sidewalks, parking lots, etc.—they’re using special concrete bricks that allow water to seep through. And a growing number of municipalities are scrutinizing properties and charging owners fees if they have excessive impermeable surfaces like pavement, thus incentivizing the switch to permeable surfaces like plots of native plants or urban gardens for producing more food locally.

So the old way of stormwater management isn’t just increasingly dangerous and ineffective as the planet warms and storms get more intense—it stands in the way of a more beautiful, less sweltering, more sustainable urban landscape. LA, of all places, is showing the world there’s a better way.

-via Wired, February 19, 2024

[jinwoosungs]

08/12/24; 09:40pm

sung jinwoo x fem.reader

{ request - drabble - 18+ thirst post }

[ minors don’t interact; by choosing to interact with this content, you have consented to viewing something n-fw despite the warnings. ]

anonymous asked: r u gonna hear me out if it's a sjw thirsty ask. k so… what if his neck's starting to hurt lately from being too tall, smh he always has to look down most of the time bc he's a tower and instead of healing himself like he always does, an idea came to his head: he makes you ride him. his face. for hours. to take the pain away. he says it's like an exercise. he does it until you're crying and shaking from (it all)

your legs were trembling, with jinwoo keeping his hands on your waist while forcing you to grind your slick heat against his hot mouth.

quite some time ago, jinwoo came home with complaints of his neck hurting so much. he grimaces while trying to ease out the kinks from his sore neck. when you appear before him, you asked if there was anything you could do to help with mitigating the pain.

you should have known something was amiss when jinwoo flashes you a wolfish grin, not disclosing how you could help him when he takes your hand and leads you back into your shared bedroom. it’s while you were in the comfort of your locked bedroom that jinwoo strips you of all your clothing. as his eyes rake down your naked form, he gets on the bed first while snapping his fingers, practically demanding that you straddle his face and suffocate him with your thighs.

despite how you felt the heat against your cheeks (further accentuating your embarrassment), the ache and moisture that was quickly beginning to mount was far stronger than any inhibitions you once had. so, with your body practically trembling with need for him, you climb on top of him and place your pulsating sex over jinwoo’s lips, barely putting your weight on him when the man suddenly snapped forward, burying his face within your soaked core.

you lost count of the sheer amount of times you had came on his tongue, feeling the wet muscle prodding and exploring at your center, drinking up each drop of your honeyed arousal like a man starved. with your legs practically trembling, you found yourself quickly losing focus-

yet still, jinwoo remained relentless.

his mouth was felt tracing at your pussy lips, lathering it with the evidence of your prior release with his tongue as you felt his teeth lightly grazing at your hardened bundle of nerves. your clit had long since hardened into a stiff pearl, and yet despite the slight pain you felt each time jinwoo brings you to heaven, you couldn’t help but crave for moremoremoremore!

time was lost when all you could feel-

all you could comprehend-

was the sheer amount of pleasure the shadow monarch had given you.

once jinwoo had his fill and finally removed his face away from your trembling legs, you were dimly aware of the way your thighs felt wet and sticky, your legs shaking at how they had gotten numb from how long your beloved had kept you in place. a lingering smirk paints his handsome expression when he leans down closer to you, his full lips still shining with the evidence of your release-

needless to say, such a sight was enough to make a painful pang shoot across your veins and into the spot between your legs, feeling your cunt aching once more. as if reading your mind, jinwoo lets out a growl of your name before surging forward, capturing your lips within his in a deep kiss, (making you moan as you tasted yourself against his lips.)

he manages to distract you with his heated kisses, and you were dimly aware of the shifting of fabrics when something velvety and hard presses into your thigh. your mind was still in a haze due to the onslaught of pleasure jinwoo had given you, making you momentarily forget about how thick his erection was straining against his pants the entire time he had been devouring you-

however, you quickly remember it all the moment jinwoo successfully thrusts inside of you, sheathing his cock to the hilt as you arched your back against the bed in response.

“j-jinwoo!” you gasp, hands already gripping at the ruined sheets below you. your lover’s dark chuckle was all you could hear when he works on tirelessly pounding into you, his stamina seemingly endless.

jinwoo’s eyes were dilated when he takes a hold of your leg and tosses it over his shoulder, pistoning his hips faster against you all while biting down on his bottom lip. the pleasure had taken over for him as well when he admits to you in a guttural groan, “my neck finally stopped aching… but now, it’s time for you to help my cock cease aching as well.”

feeling the way he slams his cock inside of you, the squelching sounds being evident of your sensitive cunt being pounded into, you could only manage to let out a whimper while burying your face within the pillows.

if it took him several hours of eating out your pussy to help his neck feel better, then you could only imagine just how long it would take for him to get rid of the ache within his pulsating cock-

however, you suppose you had already resigned your fate as being unable to walk the moment sung jinwoo was finished with you…

end notes: i was thirsty for jinwoo and finally did something about it 🫠🫠🫠🫠

all stories are written by rei; please do not repost, plagiarize, or translate my works!!

[gallusrostromegalus]

Does the weather in the Soul Society differ from that in the world of the living? As in, are there never Thunderstorms in the Seireitei because of the barrier? Are weather phenomena chased by the environment or by Kami and spirits or both? Do Zanpakutō influence the weather with their releases? As in, it stays frosty for a long while after Hyōrinmaru or there's a storm for a while after Sasakibe?

The weather in soul society is broadly better that in the living world because they don't have global warming, but often specifically worse because there are Kami and Zanpakuto other weird things wandering around doing unlicenced meteorology.

It's why Zaraki's mom has the position and title she does. She Who Rules The Sky By The Mandate Of Heaven was appointed to her job by Nobody Themselves because Shinso had told him that some of the Kami were getting rowdy and causing calamities. At least some disturbance is key for any environment, but this was excessive, so Nobody chose The Great Firebird, daughter of Wind and Flame and still burning with divine power despite being totally of the spiritual plane, to make sure things didn't get Too Rowdy. Being eagles, her brother Kikoo is only about two thirds her size and simply not in the necessary weight class.

The Seireitei in particular has fucked up weather, but not because of the barrier. It only filters out things above a specific threshold of spiritual power, so birds and clouds and spiders or whatever can pass through uninterrupted. Seireitei has fucked weather because it's:

1. A city, a thing that get notably hotter than the surrounding area

2. The only elevated feature for dozens of miles on a large flat plain

3. Is full of weather-effecting Zanpakuto.

The first two features lead to the Seireitei getting way more thunderstorms than the surrounding area- clouds catch on the city mount and heat spike, and release their rain and thunder. It also gets more intense blizzards for the same reason.

Zanpakuto, especially powerful ones with Bankai can effect the weather in say, their district of the city, but Seireitei is HUGE and Hitsugaya training in the 10th won't change the weather in the 7th (as much as Komamura wishes it would), but it will dry things out in the 11th, something Yumichika bitchea about loudly while applying more lotion.

The way elemental Zanpakuto effect the weather is somewhat counterintuitive though:

Hyorinmaru and other ice Zanpakuto suck a lot of ambient moisture out of the air for their attacks, or cause it to freeze out of the air into frost, so the air around the Hitsugaya and Rukia tends to be kind of dry.

Ryujin Jakka and Haineko can often increase the humidity because the rise in temperature will make any standing water evaporate. Until a certain point when they dry things out again by sheer heat pushing all the moisture into the stratosphere. Yamamoto often makes a little cumulonimbus over wherever he's training.

Electrical Zanpakuto are actually really important for weather mitigation, since setting off a lightning bolt on command is a lot safer than waiting for a random bolt to hit who knows where, and doing so reduces the overall ionization. Part of the reason Sasakibe gets along so well with Yamamoto is that the heat of Ryujin Jakka ionizes the air for Gonryomaru, making the latter's strikes more powerful.

Water Zanpakuto are a mixed bag. Some pull moisture from the air like ice Zanpakuto do, but others bring their own with them. Minazuki tends to make things humid because she has a body made of flesh that drinks water (Unohana frequently has to take her to the beach so she can drink and soak) and respirates it back out. Miss Fish can fog up windows for blocks around in under an hour just by breathing.

Wind Zanpakuto like Kazeshini aren't nearly as effective at changing weather as they are at combat, simply because it takes so much less energy to fuck with the volume of air in someone's lungs than it does the MASSIVE volume of a cloud.

[headspace-hotel]

Things of dire importance about Outside in no particular order:

butterflies and many other beneficial insects spend the winter hibernating in fallen leaves. Please try to avoid shredding them, burning them, or God forbid, sending them to a landfill.

fallen leaves make amazing mulch and compost and getting rid of them is Incredible Folly

it is fine and normal for your plants' leaves to be munched on a little bit by bugs. if you plant a native flower, there's probably a butterfly or moth species whose caterpillars eat it for food. The babies have to eat okay. It's natural! It's good!

mushrooms=good. It is not a problem to have mushrooms in your yard. Most plants are in symbiotic relationships with fungi, that's how they get most of their phosphorous and nitrogen.

At least in the USA, no mushroom will poison you just by touch (barring allergies or some sensitivity like that I guess?). Unless you eat them, mushrooms will not hurt you.

If you happen to have a stream running through or alongside your property, do NOT mow right up to the edge. Plant moisture-loving trees, shrubs and plants to form a buffer zone. This helps stop harmful chemicals and pollutants from going into the water, prevents the stream bank from eroding, helps mitigate the risk of flash flooding, and creates absolutely essential habitat for some of the world's most at-risk creatures.

Trees can usually be planted as close as 6-10 feet apart from each other, but large trees should be kept 25+ feet from structures and septic tanks. Landscapers regularly plant trees WAY too close to structures.

Most butterflies and moths depend on specific plants for food for their caterpillars, hence the importance of native plants.

Many important bees hibernate over the winter in logs and stumps. Logs and stumps are good!

Acorns are ripe when they have fallen to the ground, they are brown and their little hats have popped off. If you rummage around in leaves under oak trees in October or so, you may find acorns that have already begun sprouting. You can put it in a pot and grow a new oak tree. (Sprout side down-that's the root!) It's so easy it feels illegal.

This is not true of some oak species, specifically white oaks (the ones with rounded lobes on their leaves- that's the simplified explanation). Their acorns have to experience a few months of cold before they sprout, so they will sprout in the spring, not fall. (Edit: I got it mixed up, it's red oaks that need cold to sprout and white oaks are the ones that can sprout immediately! Oops)

SO MUCH STUFF is going to seed right around the time that the leaves are falling. You can gather seeds from plenty of wildflowers along basically any weedy path or roadside.

thats all i've got for now

[foldingfittedsheets]

Do you have any suggestions for how to clean a mattress that is too floppy and heavy to move from its base? It's a queen-sized latex mattress with no boxspring, just a very heavy-duty base. A couple years ago I tried to clean it with an electric hand shampooing tool and the whole process had me in a multi-day meltdown because moving it around was just so difficult and I felt so helpless. It has made me feel like I made a mistake buying such a heavy mattress and should start over with with a spring mattress, except I'm a really heavy person so I feel like springs aren't right for me. But at least I'd be able to physically pick it up.

Hopefully my advice isn’t gonna make matters worse but: you shouldn’t ever get to a stage of needing to clean a mattress. Invest in protectors because dear god we expect a lot from beds. Most mattresses are very heavy though I agree latex is like the heaviest dear god.

I’ve heard people say mattresses without protectors can double in weight over a ten to fifteen year lifespan. Dead skin cells, dust mites, dust mite corpses, and all the other things then can accumulate in beds. I think double is an exaggeration but it’s still a very real thing. So protectors! Waterproof! They’re your first line of defense! With good ones you can avoid ever needing to clean your mattress.

That said, shit happens. Leeloo had an accident one time on the very edge of my bed and it went over the protector boundary. Shoulda had my five sided protector on but it was getting washed. I opted to get a professional cleaner in to do the steam cleaning. Foams and latex are really touchy materials that can retain moisture for a long time and it’s really best left to professionals if they need to be deep cleaned.

If you’re at a stage where for whatever reason a new mattress is nigh, I love an all foam bed for heavier folks. Really dense foams like Tempur and Serta hold up extremely well to long term weight, whereas springs start to cave sooner.

You’re not silly for getting a heavy mattress, most beds are awful and flopsy to move around and the best we can do is our best to mitigate dealing with that.

[pineapplerightsideupcake]

My mom and I had a really interesting conversation about taking care of yourself and taking pride in your appearance vs performing femininity. I’d love the share the short version here.

- shaving is bad for you so stop. So is makeup. If you MUST do these things, find products that mitigate the damage done.

- skin care doesn’t mean retinol and anti aging, it means sunscreen and moisturizer.

- style doesn’t mean trendy or feminine. Butch lesbians are some of the most stylish people on earth. Style means that you’re expressing yourself with clothes that make YOU happy and are practical and comfortable. I personally love flowy floral print shirts but pair them with very masculine khaki shorts in the summer. In fall and winter I switch by wearing a lot of masculine shirts with yoga pants. I love big poofy sweaters. Don’t be afraid to mix what you want. Wear your favorite colors. Have fun.

- hair styles and color can be fun if you like to experiment or they can be practical and easy to maintain if you’re not into hair. Buy products that nourish your hair and keep it healthy and take it easy on blow drying/curling/straightening/otherwise damaging your hair in pursuit of style. There are no wrong answers as long as your hair is healthy and clean!

- bathe regularly and get in between the crevices. Just no soap inside you. In between your buttcrack isn’t inside, and neither is your vulva, so soap up! Find scent free and moisturizing or sensitive skin friendly products. Try not to use super hot water.

- drink water, sleep, relax, eat your veggies. Go for a walk! Turn off your screen sometimes.

- exercise and stretch because it keeps you healthy and strong, don’t do these things to be thin. The number on the scale doesn’t matter if your body moves well and your blood work is good.

Refusing to perform femininity doesn’t mean rotting. Wearing stained, smelly clothes, skipping showers, leaving hair to tangle and break- none of that is feminist praxis. Neither is an unhealthy diet or refusing to care for your body.

Feminist praxis is loving yourself. It’s taking care of your human body because it’s you and you deserve so much more than to be an object. You deserve health and pleasure and healing. You deserve self expression and comfort.

Think of yourself like a garden. Patriarchy demands you plant a sickly monocrop. The answer is not to salt the earth. The answer is to plant what you want and to thrive under the sun in defiance.

And if this sounds a bit too close to choice feminism, just remember it’s never bad to think critically about your choices. And that goes beyond just fighting patriarchy.

[pure-electric]

~an introduction to ecobricking~

hello fellow solarpunks! i've been interested in ecobricking for a while but i recently invested some time into researching them so here's a guide! it's a responsible way to sequester plastic from the environment, but making them is slightly more involved than just stuffing plastic in a bottle, if you want to use them for construction or weight-bearing projects like furniture. I'm mainly using information from GoBrik, which had the most comprehensive guide, but feel free to comment or rb with supplemental information.

FAQ:

Isn't it better to recycle plastic rather than ecobricking?

There are many plastics, such as food wrappers or packaging, that can't be recycled and end up degrading rapidly. Ecobricking sequesters those kinds of plastics from the ecosystem and also reduces the surface area exposed, which limits plastic degredation over time.

How do you use ecobricks?

You can use ecobricks in many applications, from furniture to structures. The long-term environmental impact of using ecobricks is still speculated on, but responsible upkeep mitigates their potential environmental impacts, which are still far less than the impact that plastic would have were it not sequestered.

How To Ecobrick:

Find a plastic bottle. The bottles that you use for ecobricking should all be the same variety, which will help in any building projects that you may choose to use them for.

Find some plastic! Make sure to wash and dry your plastic, as any food residue or moisture could make your brick moldy or structurally unsound. You can cut up larger pieces of plastic, like food packaging (think bags of shredded cheese or frozen berries, or the plastic bags inside cereal boxes)-- just pack em in. If you want to be fancy, GoBrik recommends making the bottom layer of your ecobrick all one color, for aesthetic purposes later on. But it's really up to you. Please avoid putting biodegradable material, such as cardboard or paper, as well as glass or metal, in your ecobrick-- it'll affect the density and preferred composition. Plus, you can recycle those!

Calculate the density! This is the only part that involves math, I swear. You want to aim for a density of about 0.37 grams per milliliter; it shouldn't be under 0.33 g/ml or it'll be structurally unsound. It's also good to aim for a density less than 0.7 g/ml, or your bricks might be too heavy to move comfortably. The equation is just the weight in grams divided by the milliliters of the container you're using, so, for example, if you used a bottle than was 1250 ml, you would be aiming for about 475-500 g of plastic (including the bottle). (a kitchen scale is great for weighing, and you can thrift them pretty easily) Of course, if you're ecobricking to sequester plastic and not necessarily to build, you don't need to worry too much about the density, but if you wanted to donate your ecobricks to a project in the future I would encourage you to try to keep track of density.

Cap your bottle tightly, leaving 1-2 cm at the top of the bottle (basically, you don't want the cap to bulge, because it will make the cap degrade rapidly and crack). Label them with the density of the bottle (if it's relevant) and the date (so you know how long the brick has been around so you can maintain it if needed)-- nail polish works the best. Keep them out of the elements (especially the sun) and off the ground until you plan to use them.

There are tons of ways to use ecobricks! I'll link a few ideas below.

https://ecobricks.org/en/build.php

https://ecobricks.org/en/modules.php

anways, happy bricking! i'll post a picture of my finished ecobrick when it's done (hopefully not soon!)

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecobricks

https://ecobricks.org/en/how.php

[techmomma]

One of the biggest reasons we lose potential jobs at this mitigation company?

Old white guy husbands.

For real, half of the cancellations for evaluations and mitigation are because the boomer husband said, after his wife called us, "Oh, no, I can do this myself." (Because, as mentioned previously, they don't want to pay the $350 evaluation fee. While having at least a six-figure job and a paid-off mortgage.)

Did he ever work in mitigation? No.

Does he know how? Not really but he can use a saw and knows how to use a wrench so that's basically the same, right?

Does he have instruments to detect moisture and mold? Nah but it'll be fine right? He can eyeball it. (No he can't and microscopic mold is probably already growing.)

Please don't let your boomer dads or grandpas or WHOEVER do their own mitigation after you've had a water leak (ESPECIALLY SEWAGE OH MY GOD DO NOT DO YOUR OWN SEWAGE DAMAGE MITIGATION), because none of this is even mentioning the fact that if their house was built before 2010 then they might be exposing themselves to asbestos, and if their house was built before 1980 they're almost DEFINITELY exposing themselves to asbestos AND LEAD. Save the poor asshole in your life from a wombo combo of mesothelioma AND lead poisoning. And maybe mold poisoning. The poor stupid bastards.

[us3rnam3-r3dact3d]

and my body remains (but the person is gone)

Chapter 2: that fire from within (i put it out to grieve him)

Ao3| 1.9k Words | David's POV

David comes to help.

TW: Blood, allusions to dismembered body parts, aftermath of trauma.

David was supposed to be taking a math final. He watched, out of the corner of his eye, as the clock on the dash of his sedan flipped over to eight o’clock. He knew he was going to miss this test the minute he’d gotten off the phone with his dad. He’d abandoned the uniform he’d laid out the night before, left his packed backpack by the door, and stuffed an empty duffel bag with enough clothes for himself and his dad to last a few days. 

Something was wrong with Asher. So he and his dad would take care of him. It was as simple as that. 

That didn’t mean, of course, that he didn’t have a spike of anxiety when his missing the final was cemented in time. David had made perfect scores on all of his math tests that year, beating out his ninety-seven average from last year. He hoped that Mrs. Hatchworth would allow him to retake the final without a penalty. These were mitigating circumstances, afterall. She was unempowered, so she didn’t understand the way that a crisis rippled through a shifter pack, but she certainly could understand a family emergency. 

Asher’s house was dark and quiet when he pulled up. Something had felt distinctly off since last night. David had woken just after midnight, pulled from a strange dream. He’d been running through the woods, searching for something. He could have sworn he heard Asher’s voice calling out for him. 

That crushing need to find him, to protect him, still stirred uncomfortably in David’s chest. The pack bond that tied them together pulsed with worry. David’s core bounced along with his heart, his threads reaching for Asher’s familiar magic. 

A few years ago, when their cores first emerged, Ash had expressed that it felt strange and foreign inside of him. He said that it felt like something had crammed its way between his ribs, leaving him too full. David felt almost the opposite. He had had a hole in his chest since he was a child, and when his core coalesced, that hole filled up. It fit perfectly inside of him, and despite Asher’s discomfort, his magic fit perfectly too. 

They were meant to be like this, he and Ash, their cores as familiar to each other as they were to themselves, too much and too little and evening each other out. 

There was a cardboard box sitting on the front porch. He stared down at it as he rang the doorbell, his brow pinched in confusion. It was one of those filing boxes his dad used for pack paperwork and kept piled up, unorganized, in the garage. It drove him crazy. Those things held on to moisture like nothing else. The cardboard of this box was beginning to crumble under the dark, viscous liquid that was pooling in its bottom. 

David knew what blood smelled like. He swallowed at the tang of metal forming in the back of his throat. He wrinkled his nose and stepped around it. 

His dad came to the door, his face creased with something heavy and uncertain. David’s dad was, considering it all, a pretty carefree guy. He looked so unnatural like this, stressed, on high alert. 

“Where’s your uniform?” His dad asked, looking over David’s sweats and t-shirt. 

“I’m not going to school.” David replied simply. He didn’t ask, he told. He thought that there was very little in this world that could stop him from getting to Asher in this moment. “Ash needs me, right?” 

His dad stared at him for a long, tense moment. For the first time in a long time, David was very worried that he’d done the wrong thing and that his dad was going to be upset with him. 

And then a smile, soft and dampened, broke out on his dad’s face. One heavy hand landed on his shoulder and pulled him into a tight, back-cracking hug. David’s dad was a tactile person, and he wasn’t afraid to show his love and pride through touch like some men were. David usually bristled when Gabe hugged him, ruffled his hair, pressed their foreheads together in pack-greeting. But now, he let his dad hold on as long as he needed. 

“I love you, David.” He murmured into David’s shoulder. 

“I love you too, Dad.” He replied. 

His dad tried to warn him. He didn’t give David any details, but he was a smart person. Something had happened to Asher last night, and he was changed. That much David could feel in the air of the O’Connell house. Something was missing that had been there before. Asher was changed and he might not be back to normal for a long time. He might never be. That was fine. David didn’t need anything from Asher, never had. All he needed was Asher there. 

Mrs. O’Connell was on the floor of Asher’s bedroom, the lavender fabric of her dressing gown spread around her like rippling water. Her fiery curls, the same as Asher’s, fell around her face and head in a halo. She was facing the shadowy space under Asher’s desk, piled high with unfinished homework and a few, half-built lego sets. Her hand was outstretched towards the darkness, her fingers twitching lazily. 

At first, David thought that something was wrong with her, but she jerked and looked up as he came in, magic rippling through her body and threatening to shift as she processed a new aura in her vulnerable space. Her eyes locked with David’s and her shoulders slumped. She sat up, drawing her dressing gown close and crossed her legs under her. 

“David,” she said softly and held a hand out to him. He entered the room slowly, mapped out his movements clearly so he wouldn’t startle her. 

When they were eight, Asher had fallen out of an orange tree in David’s backyard and snapped his leg in half. Mrs. O’Connell hadn’t let Asher out of her sight for weeks afterwards. 

David slipped his hand into hers, and she pulled him down to kneel next to her. Her hand rested on the nape of his neck and bent his back so that their foreheads brushed together. David had always found pack-greetings to be somewhat uncomfortable. Contact wasn’t always easy for him, especially with people he didn’t know or didn’t know well. The pack was family, of course, but he wasn’t close to all of them. It was easy and familiar with his dad and with Asher, who always seemed to be touching him somehow, somewhere. Mrs. O’Connell seemed to note his discomfort. She was as tactile as her son, always running her palm over his forehead, pulling him into hugs, pressing kisses into the crown of his head, even when he grew taller than her. But she kept her distance from David, respected his space. It was something he had always appreciated about her. 

So he knew, in this moment, that the contact was for her sake and not his. She held him there, exhaling as a weight left her shoulders. 

“Shifters like having their pack close by,” his dad had told him when he was very little, “especially when somebody is hurt.” The O’Connell’s stayed in their house for three weeks after his mom died. Asher was glued to his side the entire time. 

Mrs. O’Connell broke away, her face turned down bashfully. She looked back over her shoulder to the space beneath the desk. He followed her gaze. At this level, he could see what she had been reaching to. Asher was pressed tightly against the corner, his long limbs wrapped up into a tight ball. His shirt was torn and hanging off of him awkwardly. Blood was smeared over his face and hands. Not his blood. The same blood that David had smelled on the porch. 

“Aíne,” his dad called from the doorway. She didn’t look away from Asher. Neither did David. “It’s here.” She took her bottom lip between her teeth, her body tensing.

“I’ll stay with him.” David said softly. “I won’t let anything touch him.” 

Mrs. O’Connell’s gaze finally broke away from Asher and back to him. Her eyes held his captive for a long, tense moment. Finally, she unfolded her legs from under her and stood. Her hand came to his cheek and tilted his head up so she could press a kiss to his forehead. 

The door closed behind her. David let his breath out in a puff. 

He lowered himself fully onto the floor, laid out on his side, so he could meet Asher’s eyes. They were open and wild, something crazed and defensive in them. Ash looked so different, even from how he had looked the day before. Christ, it had barely been twelve hours since he’d seen Asher. He’d left David’s house around seven-thirty the night before to head home. David had been on him about reviewing for their math final. He should have driven Ash home. He should have gone with him. He should have guarded him against whatever had hurt him this badly. 

He blinked, squeezed his eyes shut. That was ridiculous. Asher was capable as all hell. He didn’t need David to look after him like a lost puppy. David was still getting used to the possessive thing in his chest that had come with his wolf. At least he’d stopped snapping at the other kids in school when they touched Asher or Milo. 

Ash seemed to be looking through him, eyes glazed and strange. David exhaled slowly and tried to calm himself. 

“Ash,” he said, his voice painfully quiet, “I’m right here. Whatever you need… whenever you’re ready. I’m gonna be here.” 

He extended his arm out, palm up, towards Asher. He mirrored Mrs. O’Connell’s vigil. 

Eventually, she came back, Mr. O’Connell with her. She knelt next to him, her fingers running through his short, dark hair. She smelled like blood. At some point, they both shifted. He found his head pressed against the warmth of Mrs. O’Connell’s coat. Mr. O’Connell stalked the room a few times before settling, sitting sentinel with his back to David and Asher, perched and ready for anyone who could enter unwanted from the bedroom door. David pressed himself into them, his core thrumming to the sound of pack, pack, pack. 

The afternoon sun had cut across the room by the time Asher moved. David was sitting in the warmth and quiet, so close to sleep. He barely contained the jolt that ran up his spine when cold, thin fingers spread across his palm. He opened his eyes wide. Asher’s were staring back, a bit clearer, a bit more his. 

“Hey,” he said softly, “hey, Ash. We’re here. When you’re ready.” 

It took hours, coaxing Asher out inch by inch, slow movement by slow movement. By the time the sun had set, Ash was pressed against him, head to toe, his head resting on David’s outstretched arm, his fingers curled tightly in David’s t-shirt. David moved just as slowly, left Asher the room to pull away or reject every touch. He didn’t, though. 

His shoulder ached from being pressed into the ground, his thigh numb from resting under his other leg. He was sweating from the heat of having two wolves pressed on either side of them, and Asher’s space heater of a body curled against his chest. He didn’t move, though, didn’t complain. 

As long as Asher needed him there, that was where he’d stay. If it meant he spent the rest of his life curled up on Ash’s dirty bedroom floor, it would be a life well spent. 

[coastalrestorationca]

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[pokemonshelterstories]

Do you have any tips for mitigating static from Electric-types in the winter? My Yamper gets really staticky and I know it's an inevitable side-effect of his type, but I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to reduce it.

I know it's not winter, at least not when I'm sending this, but I only recently found this blog.

plenty of things you can do for that! one of the biggest culprits for too much static buildup is dry air and fur. you should hopefully already be regularly brushing with an anti-static spray like elec-away, but baths with moisturizing fur conditioner will also help. keeping a humidifier in your house can also keep static buildup at bay.

i also recommend that any household with an electric type pokemon keep a static-discharge self-grooming pole. these poles will discharge static buildup when your pokemon touch them, but they also have gentle ridges (kind of like a grooming glove) to encourage the pokemon to scratch themselves. you can spray a little pheremone spray on it to encourage investigation. they can be a little pricey, but they're a great way to encourage natural behaviors while also reducing static shock!

[jonnysinsectcatalogue]

Square-Legged Camel Cricket - Tropidischia xanthostoma

In the darkness of a cave, the great crawling legs and thin antennae of this creature could be mistaken for those of a great spider searching for a meal. Fortunately, when the lights come on, a sigh of relief can be breathed knowing that this creature is merely a harmless Orthopteran. With how long those legs are, you can imagine the wide leg-span this insect could display while she clings to a cave wall. Its no wonder why this cave dweller is also known as a Spider Cricket (it does not shoot webs nor pounce on insect-themed supervillains). More accurately, this nocturnal friend is a Camel Cricket - of the family Rhaphidophoridae - which are known for their hunchbacked appearance, somewhat long extremities, and a lack of wings. The lattermost trait also means that they do not sing or chirp, and they aren't likely to stridulate either. As for those long extremities, this Cricket is a cave dweller and well adapted to a dark environment, relying on her stretched legs and antennae in order to interpret the environment around her. On the subject of those legs, they are the key to a successful identification! On the west coast (and going south) of North America, there are no other Orthopterous species that resemble it, but one should still make sure. All of the legs should be very long and the femurs and tibiae should be inspected. The former is lined with ridges that appear to square up the leg, and the femur is somewhat square in shape lengthwise. If you look closely, you can see fine hairs, ridges and spikes along the legs.

Although a cave dweller, this specie has retained its eyes, which is a surprise given that many cave systems may have no light source. This specie likely gets more use out of its eyes as a means to evade threats or when it ventures outside caves to streams, coasts and basements. This square-legged Cricket is likely fond of such locations due to the moisture and humidity levels. Alongside the mitigation of desiccating, the moisture is conducive for their growth and development for their whole lifespan. Speaking of which, the beauty in these images is a female as her blade-like ovipositor will tell you. Despite its sharp appearance, it isn't capable of slicing through cave stone to produce a suitable egg-laying location. Instead, eggs are placed wherever dirt is plentiful or into tiny crevices to keep them out of reach. The nymphs that hatch and explore will feed on vegetation and fungi within a cave environment. If such nutrition isn't available, they could also turn their attention to scavenging organic matter or chasing down smaller, softer insects. They're not likely to be actively predaceous, but those back legs aren't just for show. The adults in particular, are reported to be able to jump up to 30 times their body length using their dramatically elongated back legs! This aids not just in traveling long distances, but also in dispersal. All it takes is a good rainy day with reasonable humidity and you may find them leaping away to discover what awaits beyond their caves.

Pictures were taken on 2024 in Squamish with an iPhone 12 thanks to a dear friend. After pictures were taken, she (the Cricket) was returned back to the caves where she was found. Expect more posts covering this specie in the near future, including several videos.

[lilyblisslys]

Hi!! Asking on behalf of my lovely wife who doesn't use Tumblr (but looks over my shoulder lol). She's been on estrogen (no spiro) for over a year now and is hitting a point where maintaining erections is a bit difficult. She was wondering how you do it, and if you use t cream or something like that. We just lost our gender dr (they closed permanently) And we have been trying to figure out what to ask of our regular dr to help with her concerns while we continue the search for a new one (we are very rural). Thank you for your time! (Ps we both think you are beautiful!!) (Also if you are uncomfortable with this ask please feel free not to answer it)

Hey! So I don’t really have a hard time with erections, getting or maintaining. BUT I can offer advice I’ve heard from other people!

-The easiest option is cialis or viagra! I believe @boringkate has talked before about taking half a tab of cialis daily(?) to basically get normal pre estrogen erections back. Cialis and Viagra are both very commonly covered by insurance, or are otherwise cheap.

The alternative option is tgel-I’ve been using this to resolve pain when I do get an erection. I can’t speak to how regular GPs will react to this, because some people are dumb, but the way it will typically work is

-tell them you want a prescription for Tgel to mitigate erection issues or loss of dick growth.

-they will probably need prior authorization from your insurance; I haven’t had an issue with this, it just might take a minute to come in.

-they’ll give you a box of little 5g packets of gel. The prescription may say to use it all daily on your chest or shoulders; ignore that

-use half 1/3rd or half a packet straight on your junk on days you’re planning on having sex. Let it sit for 30 minutes and then wash it off. Make sure you wash your hands after, so you don’t accidentally forcemasc your partner 😅

-moisturize your junk after, because the alcohol will dry out your skin.

This should perk up your sex drive, potentially decrease dick loss, and give you more regular erections. It may also make you cum more; I’m not sure but I think this might increase pregnancy risk? Idk it does a bunch of stuff, experiment and see how you like it!

Feel free to dm me or send more asks if you have questions 👍

[todaysbug]

December 6th, 2023

Saharan Sandlouse (Hemilepistus reaumurii)

Distribution: Found in the deserts of northern Africa and the Middle East, from eastern Algeria to western Syria. Most common in the Saharan and Negev deserts.

Habitat: Lives in dry habitats; deserts, semideserts, steppes, and occasionally on the edge of salt lakes.

Diet: Usually herbivorous, feeding on the leaves of desert plants. Can also consume dead organic matter and microbes found in the sand.

Description: The Saharan sandlouse is unique in the fact that it has managed to colonize an extremely hostile environment for most crustaceans: the desert. Small herbivores are fairly rare in these dry climates, and so these sandlouses make up an extremely important part of the food chain in desert ecosystems.

A few different adaptations allow the Saharan sandlouse to thrive in its environment. In order to stay hydrated, they will absorb water vapour from the air or from damp sand and, to mitigate water losses, they have an absorbent rectal epithelium which absorbs moisture that could be otherwise excreted with their feces. This species has also developed parental care, and is the only one in its genus to have done so. Parents are monogamous, and construct deep vertical burrows in the sand. Both sexes are involved in caring for offspring, bringing their brood food and protecting their burrow. Saharan sandlouse usually produce only one brood in their short lifetime.

(Images by Leonid A. Neymark and Ferenc Vilisics)

[psalacanthea]

Vegetarian Pot Pie

hey whats up i made this for my friends and they said it was good, so I decided to write the recipe down while i still remember it (for once in my life), so I can make it again. I will share it with you.

This is rich, filling, delicious, but doesn't just taste like a sad chicken pot pie with no chicken. This is a proper vegetarian dish, and perfect for winter. Extremely cozy and nice. If u need something to make for Christmas but don't want to work all day, this is for you.

It does not have peas because I'm not a fucking MONSTER

...

Ingredients:

1 leek

1 sweet potato (I used white sweet potato, orange are too sugary for me)

1 large russet potato or 2 small-medium

1 large carrot or 2 small-medium

1 large parsnip

mushrooms of choice (i used pre-sliced baby bellas)

2 decent-sized cloves of garlic

sage

rosemary

thyme

parsley

cream (milk or a milk sub is ok too but it won't be as rich)

3 tbsp butter

3 tbsp ap flour

1 carton (or 2 cans) vegetable stock

white wine (i used chard but any other non-sweet white like a pinot grig would be ok. just no sweet whites, the root veggies are plenty sweet)

s&p

store-bought pie crusts (if you like suffering make it yourself!)

utensils:

1 pie pan

1 small pot

Strainer (you can use a slotted spoon to remove stuff if you don't have [or let it cool and use your fingers])

1 lg. saucepan

Knife

Spatula or Big Spoon

(steps below cut)

To begin you're going to want to enhance your vegetable stock-- store-bought veggie stock is boring and often too tomatoey, we want to mitigate that. Veggie broth doesn't have to taste dull!

Separate leek greens from whites. If your leek is pretty stumpy, you can use 2.

In a small pot at medium-high heat, sear the leek greens on both sides, and sautee 1-2 mushroom, sliced. Once the leek greens have been browned in spots, add 3/4ths cup white wine or so (you can eyeball it). Simmer until all the alcohol smell is gone from the wine (won't take long.)

If you feel inclined, you can also add any carrot/parsnip tops you might have trimmed off, to save waste. Keep in mind that these are both sweet vegetables, though, and that might change the flavor a little. Carrot greens tho would add a nice bit of freshness, and would be a fine sub for parsley.

Add vegetable stock, a sprig of thyme, rosemary, sage, and parsley (you can tie them together w/kitchen twine to make a bouquet garni, but if you're gonna strain the stock you don't need to)

You can also add bay leaf if you have like 3 containers of them in your spice cabinet for some reason and need an excuse to use them.

Turn the heat under the stock down to low, and simmer until it's reduced by about a third, maybe an hour (it can hang out while you do other stuff.)

Peel potatoes, cut into 1 to 1/2 inch chunks (small but not tiny). You should have about two cups. cube size is partially preference, but smaller chunks mean you can get all the flavor in every bite.

Do the same for the sweet potato, but reduce amount to a cup. You won't use the whole potato for this recipe, but they're SO good roasted wrapped in tinfoil and eaten plain with salt.

Scrub parsnip and carrot, cut into pieces that seem about the same as the potatoes, about a cup of each. (I don't peel my carrots don't @ me.)

Cut leek whites into half-circles.

If your mushrooms are not pre-cut, slice mushrooms until you have about a cup of them ready to go.

Please note, if you have extra veg cut-- just add it. Extra filling is no big deal you can just eat it by itself or add it to your plate of pie. No need to waste anything.

Squash and finely chop garlic cloves.

In a large saucepan on medium- medium high heat, add 3 tbsp butter and 3 tbsp flour, mix together as butter melts to form a cohesive mixture- a roux.

Cook until roux is starting to bubble. Add leeks, add carrots, mushrooms, and parsnips. Salt lightly to encourage moisture loss.

Sautee in the roux for 3-5 minutes or so until the veggies are starting to smell good and the roux is getting gold, then add garlic.

Cook for 30 seconds to a minute more, stirring constantly, until you can smell the garlic. Garlic burns easily!

Strain enhanced stock into saucepan.

Add potatoes and sweet potatoes.

Stir until the roux dissolves into the stock and it begins to thicken, and then turn down to low heat (you want small and regular bubbles, but not big glorpy ones).

It might not look like enough gravy, but we don't want a ton. It's a pie, not a stew. If you REALLY think it's not enough, your stock might have reduced too far. Add a bit of water if you must.

Remove leaves from 1 large sprig thyme, and add to filling. Remove leaves from and finely dice 1 sprig rosemary. Do the same for sage. Toss out the stems.

The gravy should still be thin-ish, but we're going to reduce it down more as the potatoes are cooked through.

Cook until potatoes are just barely fork-tender. Even slightly undercooked is ok. Taste gravy for salt and pepper. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add 1/3rd cup heavy cream/milk or so. Stir in.

Strip the leaves from 1-2 sprigs of parsley, finely chop, stir into gravy.

Taste again. Season again if necessary.

Let the filling cool. Try not to eat it all.

Unroll 1 pre-made pie crust, and put in the bottom of your pie pan. Try to make it even all the way around.

Now! The easy way to seal a pie (without egg wash) is as follows.

Fold down the edge of the lower crust so that it sticks out past the top edge of the pie pan.

Add filling. Get that shit as full as you can while keep that sticking out edge of the pie crust dry.

Place top pie crust over the pie.

Fold the edge of the lower crust over the upper crust, rolling them up together to make the crust edge.

Either with a fork or with pinching, make the edge crust look prettier.

If the edges of both the lower crust and the upper crust have been rolled inside themselves, you shouldn't have filling leakage.

Cut venting holes on top in whatever quirky design you want.

Stick in a 350f (177c?) oven until it's done.

I don't know how long, I don't measure those things. The crust will be golden brown and the filling will be bubbly.

the wine is skippable, yes, but it adds some acidity that you need. try a squeeze of lemon into your gravy if you don't use it.