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tintinntabuli · 1 year ago

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Green Industry News July 2023

Here’s all the Green Industry News from late Spring.

rbor Masters

Kansas City-based tree care services provider Arbor Masters has merged with Jennings Tree & Lawn Care (soon to be renamed Jennings TLC: An Arbor Masters Company). The merger is Arbor Masters’ most recent expansion following their purchase of Advantage Tree Services, an Arbor Masters Company in Iowa bringing its services to six U.S. states. The merger brings Arbor Masters’ headcount to a total of 168 employees across five states.

United Land Services

United Land Services, headquartered in Jacksonville, FL has acquired Greenway Lawn & Landscape, LLC in Casselberry, FL. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Greenway’s executive leadership team, Sasa Popovic and JD Nixon, will continue to provide branch oversight.

Since September 2020, United has completed sixteen add-on acquisitions, grown to over 1,200 employees, and established 20+ branches across several of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the Southeast. In addition, United has built a robust acquisition pipeline and currently has several acquisitions under letter of intent which would further enhance its presence in the region.

Bob Blandford, founder and CEO of United, said, “United’s acquisition of Greenway is another step in our long-term strategy of building density in attractive geographic markets while strengthening our ability to continue to offer high-quality landscaping services for our customers.”

Tendit Group

Tendit Group, a portfolio company of Osceola Capital, announced the acquisition of Phoenix, AZ based Legends Landscape Management (“Legends”), which significantly expands Tendit Group’s footprint and service offering in Arizona.

Founded in 2002 by Curt Peterson, Legends Landscape Management is a full-service landscape management company that specializes in landscape maintenance, irrigation system management, plant health, tree and weed management. Legend’s customer base includes property management companies, municipalities, homeowner associations, and apartment complexes.

Takeuchi

Takeuchi-US has expanded its North American dealer network with the addition of Ditch Witch® of South Louisiana (DWSLA). This location, near Baton Rouge, now carries the full line of Takeuchi excavators, compact track loaders, and wheel loaders. They will also provide equipment rentals, replacement parts, and serve as authorized Takeuchi equipment repair centers for customers throughout a multi-county area in Southern Louisiana. DWSLA also offers mobile solutions for Takeuchi sales, parts and service with a traveling sales team and equipment technicians.

Central Turf & Irrigation Supply

Central Turf & Irrigation Supply (CTIS) has announced the acquisition of two Greenleaf Turf Solutions (GTS) locations; one in PA and one in DE. The locations will continue to do business under the GTS brand, now as a division of CTIS, to ensure excellent ongoing customer service and business continuity. The two newly acquired locations will provide local Green Industry professionals with valuable resources for their business needs, while also continuing to maintain the important relationships built at the locations before the acquisition.

Triangle Chemical Company/United Turf Alliance

Triangle Chemical Company has recently joined United Turf Alliance as its newest owner. Based in Macon, GA, Triangle Chemical Company has locations in FL, GA, MS, and NC.

Triangle Chemical Company formed its turf & ornamental division in 2011. The division serves customers in the golf, lawn care, landscaping, and athletic facilities markets with eight distribution centers throughout the Southeast. Ownership in UTA will help the company continue to grow its T&O division through partnership with distributors around the country.

Mariani Landscape

Mariani Landscape has announced the acquisition of NJ-based Siciliano Landscape Company. Headquartered in Red Bank, NJ, Siciliano Landscape Company is a third-generation family-owned business long admired for their award winning design, installation and maintenance services. Siciliano is the 12th company to join Mariani’s “family of family companies.” Thirteen companies now comprise Mariani Landscape’s group of companies, offering market-leading landscaping services with local care.

Talbert Manufacturing

Talbert Manufacturing has announced it has been awarded a multiyear Sourcewell cooperative purchasing contract, #092922-TBT. The Sourcewell contract streamlines the procurement process for more than 70,000 government and education agencies as well as nonprofits in the U.S. Talbert customers can use the Sourcewell contract to purchase a wide range of trailers from lowboy lowbed to hydraulic detachable, mechanical detachable, hydraulic tail, sliding axle, tag-a-long, double drop, tilt, detachable, and more.

Customers benefit from Talbert’s Sourcewell contract by saving time normally spent on requests for proposal (RFPs) or invitations for bid (IFBs). This is because Sourcewell satisfies the bidding process by sourcing and qualifying vendors, then offering purchasing agents the ability to procure from ready-to-use, competitively solicited contracts, like Talbert, more efficiently at the best possible price.

KIOTI Tractor

KIOTI Tractor, a division of Daedong-USA, Inc., recently awarded 73 dealers across North America with 5-Paw status. Launched 15 years ago, the 5-Paw Dealer Excellence Program recognizes exemplary KIOTI dealers who provide top-quality buying experiences and premier service to their customers. Of all dealers across North America who achieved 5-Paw status, over 50 qualified as Certified 5-Paw Dealers and 20 qualified as Premier 5-Paw Dealers, which is the program’s highest possible honor.

ASV recently presented three dealers with Dealer of the Year Awards for 2022. Alberta-based Barda Equipment is the Large Market winner. CT-based Butler Equipment is the Medium Market winner, and Duffy’s Sales & Rental out of WI, is the winner of the Small Market category.

Yanmar CE

Yanmar Compact Equipment recognized three 2022 Dealer of the Year Award winners at its 2023 Dealer Meeting. Vermeer Midwest, who serves IL,IN, MI, and MO, received the Large Market award. Tennessee-based Chattanooga Tractor & Equipment was the Medium Market winner, and Hawkins-Graves, out of VA, won the Small Market category.

Jebsen & Jessen Technology – Turf & Irrigation (JJ T&I)

Jebsen & Jessen Group was honored with two prestigious awards at the Toro 2022 Partners in Excellence (PIE) Awards – the ‘Top Performer’ award and the ‘International Aftermarket APAC’ award. The Toro 2022 PIE Awards is an award ceremony that recognizes excellence and outstanding performance and accomplishments by top distributors.

The ‘Top Performer’ award was presented to JJ T&I in recognition of its outstanding performance in the areas of market growth, customer care, and financial health.

Sarina Shafiee, JJ T&I Regional After-Sales Manager, also received the ‘International Aftermarket APAC’ award, which recognizes the company’s and her commitment to performance excellence and after-sales service for its valued customers in the region.

Ewing Irrigation/Ewing Outdoor Supply

Ewing Irrigation & Landscape Supply / Ewing Outdoor Supply continues to grow its presence in TX with its newest location at 34150 US 290 Frontage Road, Hockley, TX 77447.

Ewing Hockley is the company’s 13th location in South Texas and its 41st in the state. It’s also Ewing’s first superstore in the state, featuring both the branch that just opened and a bulk materials yard scheduled to open within the next three months, Central Territory President Sean Wimble said.

Landscape Forms Landscape Forms, designer and manufacturer of high-design LED lighting, site furniture, structure, and accessories has announced an expansion of its 2020 lighting partnership with SESCO Lighting. SESCO Lighting, which is headquartered in the Greater Orlando area, represents Landscape Forms in FL, GA, AL, TN, and MS, and now has added SESCO offices in NC, SC, LA, and AR.An employee-owned business founded over 50 years ago, SESCO Lighting is the country’s largest lighting manufacturers’ representative company, with nearly 400 employees and 24 branch offices and specialty divisions that cover all aspects of a project, including lighting controls, field service, public sector and energy divisions, and distributor solutions.

Weller Brothers

Weller Brothers Landscape Professionals is planning a Des Moines, IA expansion in early Fall 2023. Weller Brothers Landscaping is in its 22nd year of business in the Sioux Falls, SD area and in its 5th year of business in Rochester, MN. In both locations, the company provides residential and commercial landscape design and maintenance services.The Des Moines branch will be managed by Matt and Anna Stadel, who are currently Landscape Production Manager and Landscape Architect, respectively, at the Rochester, MN location. The company will begin scheduling landscape design consultations in the Des Moines area in early August 2023, with plans to expand into lawn maintenance services within the following year.For the previous Green Industry News, see “Spring Has Sprung! Recent Green Industry News” Read More

#landscaping landscaper

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ausetkmt · 2 years ago

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The consequences of the British Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) were many, varied, and long-lasting. Working life in rural and urban settings was changed forever by the inventions of new machines, the spread of factories, and the decline of traditional occupations. Developments in transportation and communications meant life in the post-industrial world was more exciting and faster, with people more connected than ever before. Consumer goods became more affordable to more people, and there were more jobs for a booming population. The price to pay for progress was often a working life that was noisy, repetitive, and dangerous, while cities grew to become overcrowded, polluted, and crime-ridden. Industrial Landscape by KregczyEdmund Kregczy (CC BY-NC-SA)

The impact of the Industrial Revolution included:

Many new machines were invented that could do things much faster than previously or could perform entirely new tasks.

Steam power was cheaper, more reliable, and faster than more traditional power sources.

Large factories were established, creating jobs and a boom in cotton textile production, in particular.

Large engineering projects became possible like iron bridges and viaducts.

Traditional industries like hand weaving and businesses connected to stagecoaches went into terminal decline.

The cost of food and consumer goods was reduced as items were mass-produced and transportation costs decreased.

Better tools became available for manufacturers and farmers.

The coal, iron, and steel industries boomed to provide fuel and raw materials for machines to work.

The canal system was expanded but then declined.

Urbanisation accelerated as labour became concentrated around factories in towns and cities.

Cheap train travel became a possibility for all.

Demand for skilled labour, especially in textiles, decreased.

Demand for unskilled labour to operate machines and work on the railways increased.

The use of child and women labour increased.

Worker safety declined and was not reversed until the 1830s.

Trade unions were formed to protect workers' rights.

The success of mechanisation led to other countries experiencing their own industrial revolutions.

Coal Mining

Mining of tin and coal has a long history in Britain, but the arrival of the Industrial Revolution saw unprecedented activity underground to find the fuel to feed the steam-powered machines that came to dominate industry and transport. The steam-powered pump was invented to drain mines in 1712. This allowed deeper mining and so greatly increased coal production. The Watt steam engine, patented in 1769, allowed steam power to be harnessed for almost anything, and as the steam engines ran on coal, so the mining industry boomed as mechanisation swept across industries of all kinds. This phenomenon only increased with the spread of the railways from 1825 and the increase in steam-powered ships from the 1840s. Coal gas, meanwhile, was used for lighting homes and streets from 1812, and as a source of heat for private homes and cookers. Coke, that is burnt coal, was used as a fuel in the iron and steel industries, and so the demand for coal kept on growing as the Industrial Revolution rolled on. Coal Pits & FactoriesInternet Archive Book Images (Public Domain)

There were four principal coal mining areas: South Wales, southern Scotland, Lancashire, and Northumberland. To get the coal to where it was needed, Britain's canal system was significantly expanded as transportation by canal was 50% cheaper than using roads. By 1830, "England and Wales had 3,876 miles [6,237 km] of inland canals, up from 1,399 [2,251 km] in 1760" (Horn, 17). Britain produced annually just 2.5 to 3 million tons of coal in 1700, but by 1900, this figure had rocketed to 224 million tons.

Some protested violently at the advent of mechanisation, particularly skilled textile workers.

Manufacturing

The steam engine transformed industry, particularly one of Britain's biggest sectors: textiles. Spinning and weaving had been cottage industries centred around a single or a few households. A series of machines were invented which revolutionised how cotton was cleaned, spun, and woven. These devices were the flying shuttle (John Kay, 1733), spinning jenny (James Hargreaves, 1764), waterframe (Richard Arkwright, 1769), spinning mule (Samuel Crompton, 1779), power loom (Edmund Cartwright, 1785), cotton gin (Eli Whitney, 1794), and Robert's loom and self-acting mule (Richard Roberts, 1822-5). Mechanisation permitted the establishment of textile mills and factories where first water-powered and then steam-powered machines did work faster and cheaper than was ever possible by hand. By the 1830s, 75% of cotton mills were using steam power and cotton textiles accounted for half of Britain's total exports.

Some protested violently at the advent of mechanisation, particularly skilled textile workers. The period between 1811 and 1816 saw the Luddites, named after their mythical leader Ned Ludd, smash factory machines. These protestors were dealt with harshly, and the crime of damaging machines could lead to the death penalty.

Despite the turbulence in traditional ways, many more jobs were created by mechanisation than were lost in older industries. In 1830, one in 80 Britons worked in the 4,000+ textile mills across the country. The new jobs were quite different from those in the past. Factory workers had to very often perform repetitive tasks, and they were ruled by the clock. Previously, workers had often been paid for a specific project (piecework) and worked at their own rhythm. In the new factory system, a worker performed only one task in a series that involved many other workers. On the other hand, factory jobs ensured regular pay, something that seasonal agricultural workers, especially, appreciated the value of.

Agriculture

Industrialisation in Britain was dramatic, but this did not mean that agriculture declined. On the contrary, innovations and mechanisation helped make agriculture more efficient than ever and so able to feed the ever-growing population. In 1800, agriculture involved 35% of Britain's total workforce, and even by the end of the Industrial Revolution in 1841, 1 in 5 Britons still worked in farming. Machines countered Britain's relatively high labour costs, and they compensated for the trend of people moving away from the country and into the cities.

The Rotherham swing plough (Joseph Foljambe, 1730), winnowing machine (Andrew Rodgers, 1737), threshing machine (Andrew Meikle, 1787), reaping machine (Cyrus McCormack, 1834), and steam-powered flour mills all transformed harvesting and food production. Mobile steam engines were used to cut drainage trenches and pump out waterlogged areas to make them useful for agriculture. With the enclosure system, more common land was utilised for farming. Mass-produced agricultural implements were stronger, sharper, and longer-lasting than traditionally-made tools thanks to new metalworking machines. Scientists developed better fertilisers to increase yields. All of these improvements made food cheaper and helped many more people eat healthier diets, and so life expectancy went up, particularly regarding children.

There were negative effects of the Industrial Revolution on the agricultural sector. Jobs were lost, especially seasonal ones as farmers now hired machines at harvest time. Some labourers attacked the new machines that had taken their livelihood, notably during the Swing Riots of 1830-32. Land became more valuable, and so rents were increased, which led to many small farmers having to give up their farms.

Labour

There was a great increase in the use of female and child labour, particularly in factories and textile mills. One reason was that both groups were cheaper than male workers, another reason was that women and children had smaller and often more dexterous hands, which were advantages when using some machines. All three groups tended to work 12-hour shifts until this practice was reduced by law to 10 hours (in 1847). Children, on average, began working as young as eight in mines and factories, and so "at least half of nominally school-age children worked full-time during the industrial revolution" (Horn, 57). In the textile industry, women made up half of the workforce. Luddites Smashing Textile MachinesUnknown Artist (Public Domain)

The health and safety of workers were often a low priority for employers until laws made these an obligatory consideration. Lung diseases caused by coal dust were a common problem for miners. Working in the damp conditions of a textile mill had a similar negative effect on workers there. Factories were very noisy, and many workers suffered hearing loss to various degrees. Repetitive stress injuries were common as workers performed the same tasks all day, six days a week. Dangerous substances were commonly handled, such as lead and mercury. Machines were large, heavy, had fast-moving parts, and were prone to breakages, all of which could lead to accidents like lost fingers, limbs, or worse.

For many, the sight & sound of a train tearing through one's local countryside was the most visible & impressive result of the Industrial Revolution.

Successive governments were reluctant to restrict business owners in principle since it was considered possibly damaging to the national economy to interfere. Workers attempted to act collectively to protect their interests, but the formation of trade unions was resisted by employers and politicians. Indeed, the government banned trade unions between 1799 and 1824. From the 1830s, though, Acts of Parliament began to ensure workers had improved protection and working conditions. Trade unions like the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (formed in 1851) then grew in stature to ensure these gains in rights were not lost.

Transportation & Communication

For many, the sight and sound of a train tearing through one's local countryside was the most visible and impressive result of the Industrial Revolution. Trains were first used on short lengths of track at mines. In 1825, the first passenger train ran from Stockton to Darlington. The first intercity passenger line was opened in 1830. Running between Liverpool and Manchester and pulled by Stephenson's Rocket locomotive, the line was such a great success it led to the railways spreading everywhere. Trains also revolutionised goods transport since a single train could carry 20 times the cargo of a canal boat and reach its destination eight times faster. This made consumer goods and raw materials transported by train cheaper than previously.

From 1848, passengers could travel from London to Glasgow in 12 hours, a journey that would have taken many days by stagecoach. By 1870, Britain had over 24,000 kilometres (15,000 miles) of rail lines. People were more connected than ever before. Even the less well-off could buy cheap excursion tickets, and so seaside resorts boomed. A trip from London to Brighton by stagecoach took five days and cost £1.20 in 1830; ten years later, the same journey by train took three hours and cost 40 pence.

Businesses, especially food producers, could now reach new markets which previously had been too expensive or too far away for fresh produce to be sold there. No longer restricted to local markets where they were already well known, businesses invested in countrywide advertising inside the new bustling train stations. The railways created tens of thousands of new jobs. Steam was also used to power metal ships, which were faster and more reliable than vessels that used only sails. Dockyards were another significant employer. The rise of steam-powered transport perpetuated the success of the coal, iron, and steel industries. In 1850, 2.25 million tons of pig iron were produced in Britain, that compares to 70,000 tons in 1786. Sheffield became the world's major steel producer; the city had five steel manufacturers in 1770, but 135 by 1856.

Communication was greatly sped up by the railways. Trains delivered newspapers from one area of the country to the other on the same day. Trains delivered letters and parcels in 24 hours. The railways inspired the invention of the electrical telegraph, invented in 1837 by William Fothergill Cook (1806-1879) and Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875), so that train drivers could communicate with stations. Soon the public could send private messages, and journalists, too, used the telegraph to contact their offices, and so the delivery of news sped up remarkably. As the Industrial Revolution spread to other European countries and the United States, so more communication and travel opportunities arrived. Ocean-crossing steamships and intercontinental telegraph cables made the world more connected than ever before.

As in other areas of the Industrial Revolution, new modes of transport brought some negative consequences. Canals and stagecoach companies went into decline. Some people were obliged to give up their land to make way for the railway lines. There was more air pollution and noise, and the countryside was spoilt by the tracks, bridges, and tunnels built to allow trains the most direct route between destinations.

Effects on Society

The population of Britain rocketed from 6 million in 1750 to 21 million in 1851. The 1851 census in Britain revealed that, for the first time, more people were living in towns and cities than in the countryside. The populations of cities and towns like Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, and Halifax increased ten times over in the 19th century. More young people meeting each other meant marriages happened earlier, and the birth rate went up compared to societies in rural areas. London Housing by Gustave DoréGustave Doré (Public Domain)

Life became cramped in the cities that had grown up around factories and coalfields. Many families were obliged to share the same home. "In Liverpool in the 1840s, 40,000 people were living in cellars, with an average of six people per cellar" (Armstrong, 188). Pollution became a serious problem in many places. Poor sanitation led to the spread of diseases. In 1837, 1839, and 1847, there were typhus epidemics. In 1831 and 1849, there were cholera epidemics. Another effect of urbanisation was the rise in petty crime. Criminals were now more confident of escaping detection in the ever-increasing anonymity of life in the cities.

The education of many children was replaced by a working day, a choice often made by parents to supplement a meagre family income. There were some rudimentary schools, and some employers provided a certain level of education, but compulsory education for 5-to-12-year-olds and the institutions necessary to provide it would not come along until the 1870s. Literacy rates improved in the period, a development helped by the availability of cheap books made possible by economies of scale from papermaking machines and printing presses.

Consumerism developed with workers able to afford mass-produced goods. There were more shops than ever before to meet this demand, and the stock was more interesting, with exotic goods coming from across the British Empire. An urban middle class grew up, but the gulf between those at the bottom and the top, if anything, widened. Factory workers, for example, had few transferable skills, and so they were stuck at their level of work. In the past, a handweaver might have saved, perhaps over many years, to form their own business with their own employees, but that method of climbing the social ladder now became much more difficult to access. Capital might have replaced land as the great wealth indicator, but for most people, the Industrial Revolution brought a different way of living, not necessarily a better one.

This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication.

#The Impact of the British Industrial Revolution #colonialism #industrialization #capitalism #classism #consumerism #slavery #slavery for profit

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ecodweeb · 2 years ago

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Grieving with an EV: not out of range for a rural southern funeral

Death is never an easy topic to broach, but it is a fact of life that all of us will attend a funeral or visit a loved one on their deathbed. This is my memoir of the final days of my papaw's life, and what it was like relying on a fully electric Audi etron SUV to get me there.

My 94-year old grandfather was a World War II veteran, retired Greyhound mechanic, father of 5, grandfather of 4, great-grandfather to 6, and a widower since 1990. Always quick to share a story, he was known for his famous cracklin cornbread and drinking cold coffee. He loved his cats, turnip greens, and hearing about his sons hunting trips.

Wednesday, July 6, 2022

It was my first day back at work after coming home from the Southern GA campground (which was not the pleasant 4th of July we'd hoped for given a camper unrelated to our clan died in the wee hours of July 4). My dad called me and told me Grandpa was back in the hospital with an infected toe. This is the second time he's been admitted to the hospital, the first time was the last week of June for high potassium -- he was discharged the Friday we left to go camping. My dad sounded concerned and said he'd have an update tomorrow.

Thursday, July 7, 2022

My dad called and said that the infection was in his bones. They may have to amputate the left leg below the knee. He said if I could, I needed to come say goodbye to him because he likely wouldn't survive the surgery. I frantically re-packed my bags with the expectation to stay two weeks in the Memphis area. He was hospitalized in Oxford, MS - a good 1.5 hour drive away from Memphis - so I was going to have to drive to/from the hospital to see him. As I am loading the car I realize the rear tires are showing a cord. They need to be replaced immediately. My husband places the order thru his work and says I'll need to go get them from the distributer at 9am Friday and his work will put them on for me. I move around my work cases to other team members and lay down for a fitful nights sleep.

Friday, July 8, 2022

I went to the gym at 7 and did some lifting to help calm me down. I had no less than four meetings via Zoom to attend or host. I also have a strained relationship with my family, and I'm one to fret - so this wasn't going to be an easy day to keep my emotions in check. After the gym I went to the tire distributer and picked up the tires, then beelined to my husband's BMW dealership to have them installed. Our friend who is a service writer greeted me with a hug and said they'd get it worked in as soon as possible. He asked if I wanted to have the shuttle take me home, and I was OK to sit in the waiting area but my husband came around the corner and said to take his car home. So I did, and I was reminded how much I can't stand the lowering springs impact on the already harsh suspension of an electric Smart car.

About an hour or so later they called me and said the Audi was ready. I drove the Smart back up and plugged it into the public charger outside the dealership. Our friend the service advisor brought my car around and gave me another hug and told me to text him when I made it. I said I would, jumped in the car, and headed west. My first stop was the Electrify America in Statesville, NC which took me around 2.5 hours with traffic.

I managed to time it so that my first three meetings started right as I got in the car and during my charge at the Statesville station. The car finished charging before the meeting ended, and I had ample time to run into the McDonald's for a bathroom break and a burger since the next meeting wouldn't be for an hour. As I left the McDonalds, it began to rain. This would add a solid half hour delay in reaching the Asheville charger, but thankfully I was only there 10 minutes. My next long charge would be in Kodak, TN - which the rain added another half hour delay prior to arrival. The rain did let up just enough for me to plug in without getting wet.

Saturday, July 9, 2022

My next stop would be Cookeville, which is the half-way point give or take and where I go back in time as I enter the Central Time Zone. From there I stopped in Franklin (as Nashville was one solid red line on the map due to traffic), and then Jackson - which is where the rain finally stopped. I rolled into the Electrify America in Memphis just after 2am and made it to my friends house around 3:20am. I don't remember unpacking the car, I just crawled into bed and crashed hard. But it was short lived, I was back up by 8am to get back on the road to visit Papaw in the Rehab center of Oxford, Mississippi.

Sleep was deep but short. I was meeting my uncle David, his wife, my Aunt Louise, and her daughter Shannon at the rehab center at 11. Since I woke up so early, I drove down to Southaven Mississippi's Harley dealer and used the low-speed 24kW DC ChargePoint station there. It's off-network, but it works. I charged to around 90% and headed down to Oxford's McDonalds. The McDonald's has a 10kW Level 2 Blink station, I charged at it while I had breakfast for about 45 minutes before the family let me know they were close by. I drove the 2 miles to the rehab center and snagged one of the last two parking spaces -- the other taken by my family moments after I arrived. I haven't seen my aunt or her daughter in over 10 years, so there were hugs and light conversation about fostering dogs and foster failures (where you start fostering and then adopt the dog) as we made our way inside. We all masked up, washed our hands, entered our information into the computer and were given the 4-digit code to unlock all the doors of the facility. My other uncle, Barry, made it up about an hour after we got there.

We wandered down the hallway and found him laying in bed in his room. I suppose you should know that he'd been in the VA Home for about a year and in the first two weeks he fell and broke his hip. He has largely been bed or chair bound ever since that surgery. Boy did he light up when I walked in the room. As I'd find out later, this was one of his sharper days. He knew who everyone was, and his stories were coherent. We fed him lunch, and stayed with him as he slept and we told stories of our memories with him. We stayed up there 5 or 6 hours, and I hadn't eaten since I got to the McDonald's. Everyone decided to go to Olympic Steak and Pizza in Arlington, TN for dinner. Uncle David's wife rode with me, while David took Louise back to her house to let her dog out.

The ride to the restaurant was over an hour away, and we talked a lot about my relationship with my family along the way. It was really cathartic, in some ways, but it also made me feel like I'd missed out on so much too. Uncle Barry beat us to the restaurant and got a table, and shortly after we arrived David and Louise arrived -- Shannon needed to go home to tend to her own pets so she skipped dinner. The conversation was lighthearted, with everyone asking about my husband and my job and thankfully avoided topics like politics or vaccinations. After dinner we all hugged and said we'd see each other next week. I headed back to Wolfchase where I charged my car from 22-100% and then drove back to Midtown to hang out with my friends I was staying with. I was going to be spending a lot of time at Wolfchase, as I couldn’t even Level 1 charge the Audi at my friend’s home and the closest Level 2 was more than a mile away and always in use it seemed.

Sunday, July 10, 2022

I took my eldest cousin, Kristen, to see grandpa today. She’s not speaking with her dad (Uncle David) right now, and because she’s had so many not-at-fault accidents on the highway, she won’t drive long distances. I started the day out at the Whole Foods, hoping to top off my car and have breakfast. Their charger was powered off, I had to ask the lady at the front desk to throw the breaker for it. She did, and it powered up and I was able to charge at 6kW just fine. As I was getting plugged in, a retired police officer stopped and started talking to me about the car. He said his wife just got a Q7 and if they’d know these were a thing they’d have really considered it. After this conversation, I popped into the store to find a very sad breakfast buffet. I paid way too much for way too mediocre food, but I really wasn’t in the mood to eat so it was fine. After I ate I left and picked up my cousin from her apartment near Memphis State University (now called University of Memphis, but it’ll always be Memphis State to me). I told her we were going to stop at a Walmart in Collierville so we could get grandpa some deodorant and snacks.

We stopped at the walmart and we did get him deodorant, a table lamp, and some food -- mostly heat and eat “soup at hand” stuff, but I wanted him to try something new so I picked up some hummus (he hated it, but was really polite about not liking it). Grandpa was in good spirits today, his memory was better than the day before. He told Kristen that her sister was coming to see him and she’d been by a few days before. While we were there the nurse came in with his actual lunch, so we took turns feeding him. After lunch and watching some TV, Kristen and I decided we should go get our own lunch and head back to Memphis.

We ate at McAlister’s Deli -- which started in Oxford, MS -- and we had a pretty involved conversation about all the topics I don’t like: guns, government regulation, and conspiracies. At one point during the conversation I thought a guy in camo a few booths away was going to say something. I’ve never felt like I fit into this part of the world, not since I was a little child. Moments like this only reinforced that feeling. After lunch, we took the non-highway route back to her apartment and I dropped her off. She thanked me for taking her to see grandpa in my “fancy space car. “ I gave her a hug and I headed back out to Germantown to charge the car, again.

I used to work at the Best Buy that is in the parking lot next to where the Electrify America DC fast chargers are located. It was nostalgic to sit in a parking spot I used to park my Ford Taurus to eat lunch when I didn’t want to be in the breakroom some 20 years prior. Only two of the four stations at this location worked 100% of the time. One was always down, one worked some days with a phone tap and others it said available but didn’t recognize your phone or respond to a start request from the mobile app. Nobody else was at the charger this day, and my 40 minutes flew by. I stopped by Exlines Pizza and got myself “the best pizza in town,” then went back to my friend Jeremy’s home and settled in, preparing for the week ahead.

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

My grandpa had said that he wanted a slugburger -- a wartime era soy and hamburger or pork mixed burger that is a staple to northern Mississippi -- from the White Trolley in Corinth, Mississippi (where his sister lived). I decided that today I was going to work remotely from his room and get him that slugburger. So I left midtown Memphis and drove to Wolfchase Commons in Germantown to charge, then drove 90-miles to the White Trolley in Corinth, Mississippi for his burgers, drove 90 miles back to the chargers at Wolfchase, and finally drove down to Oxford to see him.

He never at the burgers. When I got into the patient area, his nurse stopped me in the hall and said “he’s in rare form today.” The lady in the room across from him closed her door, he’d apparently been yelling at her all morning. What I witnessed in the room this day broke me. He was having hallucinations, asking me if I’d seen the little grey kitten with the striped tail. He was holding a full on conversation with my grandmother who died over 30 years ago. He kept trying to stand up -- which he cannot -- and I had to sooth him back into his bed. I didn’t get much work done, I tried to do a troubleshooting session and one of the engineers didn’t show up and the one who did told me that he was going to pray for me and that (based on what he overheard as I was trying to clam grandpa down during our meeting) I should spend as much time with my grandpa as I could.

When I left I sat in the car and cried for a while. Finally I started the car and drove back up to Wolfchase to charge. There was a Rivian truck charging when I got there, but the other station was open for me to use. After charging I went to my friend’s house and went to bed, crying myself to sleep.

Saturday, July 16, 2022

It was Saturday, which meant “the family” (sans my parents who visited him M-F and took Sat and Sun off - in part because of tensions within the family about my parents care decisions, but I won’t go there) was going to visit him again. This time my younger cousin Stephanie, her husband and their three kids would be coming. I haven’t seen Steph in quite a while and was really looking forward to giving her a hug and seeing her youngest child for the first time.

They got there late, they live in Arkansas and had a lot of traffic on the way in. When they arrived, they brought Krystal burgers and my grandpa happily ate as many as Steph would feed him. Grandpa loved his grand kids and he loved his great grand kids even more -- when he could remember them. Dementia is cruel, erasing the youngest great-grands from his memory first. It was hard when he couldn’t recognize his adult kids, it was harder to see him not fully remember who is great-grandson was.

After our visit, we all went back to the restaurant we ate at the week prior. I asked if anyone wanted to ride with me to the restaurant, and Steph’s two girls yelled “WE DO” as they bolted for my Audi. I’d not spent a lot of time with these two since my mom had her hysterectomy in 2014 and I took FMLA to help care for her since dad was still working and messed up the days off for the surgery. The younger daughter fell asleep in the back of the car before we got off the highway that leads into Oxford, but the eldest sat up front with me and talked the entire hour-plus drive to the restaurant. I didn’t mind, she reminded me a lot of myself and I enjoyed listening to someone who had such enthusiasm and joy in their voice. After we ate at the restaurant, we all said our good-byes and I once again headed back to Wolfchase to recharge my Audi.

Sunday, July 17, 2022

I called an old High School friend and she said to come pick her up and we’d wander the city and talk. We ended up stopping by our old high school, which is now a church, and they let us wander around the place. We actually snuck into the closed-off portion of the place, what used to be the high school wing, via the unlocked door on the upper level of bleachers. The tenant before the Church was a college, and they’d done some big renovations to what were once good sized class rooms. It was incredibly nostalgic, and hard to believe it was the same place we spent more than half our school life in.

Afterward, we went shopping at the discount and outlet stores that were open. After several hours, we stopped at McAlister’s near her house for dinner. When we got to her house, I then got into a several-hours-long conversation with her husband about EVs, tech in general, and their camping adventures. I needed this day, it recharged my soul -- and I reflected on how thankful I was to still have friends in a city I’d not lived in for over 20 years as I recharged the car back at Wolfchase before heading to my friend’s for the night.

Monday, July 18, 2022

This would be the last time that I’d see my grandfather alive. I woke up early and headed to Oxford. Today the family was meeting with the doctors/nurses to discuss the long-term plan for Grandpa. I got there early enough to fully charge the battery from 59% to 100%. This was the first time I’d seen my dad this entire trip, but he and my mother had been on the phone a fair amount. Wounds weren’t healed, but we had a mutual situation to contend with. While waiting for the staff to arrive, I got an earful about “I wish I could fly, but they require you to be vaccinated and you can’t make me.” I decided right then and there that I’d had enough of my family and was going to go home on Wednesday.

The nurses finally met with us and basically said that they were going to try and give him a heavy antibiotic treatment to try and kill the bacteria infection in the bone of his toe. They stressed that if they didn’t see any response to the treatment within two weeks that they advised we set up hospice. We left the hospital going our separate ways and I called my mother-in-law for a shoulder to process this heavy information. We talked the hour or so it took to get to the charging station, where I charged up and then picked up another Exlines pizza and headed to my friend Ann’s house for dinner.

Ann is a dear and beloved family friend who I’ve known since seemingly forever. Her son and my Uncle (on my mom’s side) were best friends and went to school together. Ann and my Grandma (mom’s side) were close friends for a long time. Ann was like another mother to me, and I always make a point to see her if I can when I visit the city. Ann let me plug the car into her garage outlet (120v), so the car could top off a little bit while we hung out. I got her caught up on the drama of work, grandpa, my family, and life in general while we munched on the best pizza in town and polished off a bottle of wine. Again, this was much needed comfort during a tumultuous time.

Tuesday, July 18, 2022

While handling my work related meetings and situations, I kept looking at Petfinder in hopes I’d find a Siamese cat that could take the place of my beloved blind Flame Point Siamese who passed away in March. I got lucky, there was a Siamese cat in Senatobia, Mississippi. I called and the cat was still available, so I jumped in the car and went down there. I was told the cat was female and declawed, but the cat I met was male and fully clawed. Given the 45 minute drive, and the fact that the lady was like “the fact he’s a boy doesn’t change your interest does it?” I felt like if I didn’t take him, he’d be euthanized. So I adopted him.

Digger the cat would turn out to be one of my bigger regrets during this trip, but I didn’t know that he was going to mark territory despite being neutered because our ancient Lilac-point Siamese chases him out of “her rooms.” I digress, I did clear it with my friends that I could board a cat at their house for the day, and they agreed. I let Digger out of his carrier and he hid under their king sized bed in the spare room. I left him be to settle and my friends took me to the Midtown Concourse for drinks.

Wednesday, July 19, 2022

The Museum of Science and History (formerly the Pink Palace Museum) was hosting a show called “Rise UP” about the Stonewall riots and LGBTQ rights. I called a friend of mine who lives in Chattanooga and he said he’d love to see it, but he could only make the trip on Wednesday. So he drove in to town (Tuesday night actually, he stayed at an Airstream on Airbnb not far from where my friends house is), and we went to the exhibit.

The exhibit also had an incomplete history of LGBTQ Memphis -- which brought me to tears. They had shirts from MAGY (Memphis Area Gay Youth), and habits from the local order of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, along with a complete list of defunct Gay Bars from years gone by.

I couldn’t tell you how long we spent in the museum. We had to stop and I needed to sit to dry my eyes. For the first time in my life I saw my culture’s history on display in a positive light. I watched as parents - heterosexual parents - walk their children through the exhibit and explain things to them. Not even my friend from Chattanooga could keep his eyes dry during the tour.

After thoroughly crying and releasing a ton of endorphins, we hit up the gift shop where I bought a ton of stuff and had a very fun interaction with a Millennial and GenZ worker about AOL Instant Messenger.

Once we left the museum, I went back to my friend’s home to pack up my stuff as I was following my Chattanooga friend back to his house for the night before I drove the rest of the way home on Thursday. Digger the cat was not about to go back in his carrier. I spent the better part of 45 minutes pulling apart the bed and chasing him around the room before I finally managed to catch him (and get scratched to high hell) and get him in the carrier. My friend’s girlfriend told me that she almost came in the room to check on me given the commotion but said she didn’t because the last thing any of us needed was to lose the cat in another part of the house. After hugging everyone goodbye, we headed east towards Chattanooga.

My Chattanoogan friend drives a Chevy Bolt, so both of us had to stop and charge to get to his house. We stopped in Jackson, TN and then in Franklin TN and finally in Manchester before getting to his home. The stop in Franklin was at Nissan North America’s Headquarters, where we saw a Nissan Ariya SUV sitting at one of their charging stations. I didn’t add a lot of charge here, but this stop was mainly for the Bolt. I topped off to 95% in Manchester, arriving in Chattanooga with 66%.

My friend had to back the car down his extremely steep driveway. I’ve taken my Enegica motorcycle up and down this driveway several times over the years, but I just couldn’t seem to get the Audi down it... or back out of it. I had Tyler do that for me both times.

Thursday, July 20, 2022

I worked until 4pm and then packed up and headed the rest of the way home via Atlanta -- I did not have it in me to contend with the mountains and rain. I got home at 11pm and went straight to bed.

Wedsday, July 27, 2022

My dad called me and said that the doctors have advised that we transition grandpa into hospice. They said that he is in such bad shape they can’t move him from his bed or it will kill him. Any hope we had of hospice at home was dashed, he was going to take his last breath at the hospital. I was told that I needed to get ready to come back for the funeral -- they estimated 48 hours before he would be gone.

Thursday, July 28, 2022

I’d taken the Audi back to the dealer to have the rear cupholder replaced (out of pocket since they told me, only after they ordered the part, that the CPO warranty didn’t cover it). This was an in-and-out service, but they did was and vacuum the car for me. When they brought it up, I locked the car and then tried to unlock it with the remote so I could pick my driver profile and get the seats and mirrors set back to my settings. The car wouldn’t unlock. The battery in the keyfob had died once again. The service advisor replaced the battery on the spot -- making me take the key out of the rubber cover I keep it in -- and a new battery was put in. Once I got in the car, I noticed that the front arm rest was broken. This was salt in the wound for me emotionally. They got it fixed up quickly, and I headed home waiting for the inevitable news.

Friday, July 29, 2022

Before my dad called to tell me grandpa had passed, I started getting bombarded with pictures in text messages from everyone in the family. That’s when I knew he’d passed, and the call from dad confirmed it. Dad said that his older brother was driving down on Saturday from Iowa because he was about to have dental surgery when my dad called him. I was then informed that I was responsible for making the memorial slideshow/video that would play during the funeral and that everyone was going to send me pictures. There was no “do you mind,” this was an assignment and I was not thrilled with it.

Then came the argument in the group text about when the funeral would be. Many wanted to do it Sunday, and I refused. I had pushed off a tattoo session for over a month now, and I was going to get inked on Saturday and we would show up to Memphis sometime Sunday. They agreed Monday, then Tuesday, then Monday was set in stone. I dug out the old MacBook and began to use iMovie to make a slide show of the photos everyone sent me.

Saturday, July 30, 2022

I drove my Smart car (Gopher) to my tattoo appointment. Kelli worked quickly as she knew we needed to hit the road as soon as this was over. I really don’t like traveling with fresh ink, but I didn’t have much choice.

We were on the road by 2:30pm. We planned to drive until we got to the Cookeville TN area and then we’d get a hotel for the night. During my 3,700-mile motorcycle trip, I stayed at the La Quinta in Cookeville and we’d intended to stay there... except they had no vacancy. John found another hotel with a Level 2 charger near by, and we stayed there for the night. The ChargePoint charger was unable to connect to the network, but it worked with a tap of my phone and didn’t bill us for the charge.

Sunday, July 31, 2022

Before we went to bed I attempted to burn the slideshow to a DVD for the funeral home and the disc burner I had wasn’t working anymore. It was easily a decade or more old, so I placed a pick up order at the Walmart next door for a brand new DVD burner. We picked up the burner and some breakfast, then headed on towards Memphis while I burned DVDs in widescreen and 4:3 aspect ratios.

We stopped by the funeral home and dropped off the DVD. The guy said he’d call me if he had any problems with it -- thankfully he did not. After charging the car at Wolfchase, we stopped by my friend Michael’s home to pick up the floral arrangement his wife had made for us. She makes the most beautiful arrangements, and it made the car smell so nice.

After we got the flowers, we headed to the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. Why are we staying here? Well, my husband’s family has a Wildlife trust fund, and the hotel stay for this trip was being covered by the trust. We had arranged to meet with the Memphis Zoo on Tuesday to discuss funding part of their reptile cryogenics program - it was the highlight of the trip that I looked forward to since the Museum of Science and History wasn’t open on Monday or Tuesday so I couldn’t take my husband to see the Stonewall exhibit. My husband ordered the Jack Daniels package, which included a keep-sake cookbook.

After unpacking, we cashed in on the free charcuterie board and had a drink before my mom called and asked if we’d bring the flowers down to them and visit with my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousins from Iowa. So we drove down to their home in Byhalia, Mississippi and hung out for a few hours eating leftovers and sharing stories of years gone by. This was the first time anyone other than my parents had met my husband, and I’m happy that it went over much better than I expected. Around 11pm we headed back to the hotel for the night and to prepare for the big day tomorrow.

Monday, August 1, 2022

We woke up before 7am and were on the road by 7:30am to Corinth for the funeral. The memorial/viewing was to be held at the funeral home there, then we would drive to Pickwick, TN to bury him next to my granny. We stopped by Casey Jones Village in Jackson, TN for breakfast -- and I cried the entire way there. Casey Jones Village place holds a special place in my heart, it was one of my favorite places to visit as a child. Unfortunately, some things don’t age well: the breakfast was terrible, but not overpriced. The menu was extremely simple and nothing like I remember. The general store itself seemed to be less than half the size of what I remembered. They did have Level 2 chargers, which was a bonus, but we still ended up at the Walmart down the street to fully charge the car.

After leaving Jackson we made it to the funeral home. I was not exactly nervous about the state of charge and the driving I knew we had to do, but I would have felt better if we could have added some more range to the car while we spent half the day at the funeral home.

The service was great, lots and lots of great stories were told and all the flowers were beautiful. Everyone, and I mean everyone, met my husband. My mother, surprisingly, had no problem calling him “Chris’s husband,” where my sweet Aunt would stammer and say “Chris’s spouse” finally. Nobody made a scene about it. I got a lot of compliments on the video I made, and the staff at the funeral home thanked me for making a DVD that played.

We all loaded up into our cars and rode in procession from Corinth to Pickwick, about 25 miles, at a very slow pace. I was able to use my regen paddles to add a little bit of range back to the car. The grave side Military service was short and sweet, which was thankful given it was a very hot August day. Afterward, most everyone headed back to my parent’s home for dinner. John and I said we needed to go charge the car (since we had no way to do it at their house -- despite my dad being a welder, he doesn’t have a single 240v outlet we could plug into anywhere on the property).

The drive back to Wolfchase in Germantown was... stressful. There was a really, really strong headwind and I watched a 25 mile buffer drop to 10 miles in a short span of time. I ticked “avoid highways” on the nav system and that got us away from the highway with the headwind and we wound our way around western TN passing by the area my mom’s mother lived at for many years. We got on 64 (Summer Ave) and we hit turtle mode about two lights before the shopping center with the chargers. There was one other car at the charger, and we plugged in. I called my cousin and asked if her sister would stop and let me copy the video she took of the grave side service, but they were pressed for time and couldn’t. Ultimately I got that video from her via a shared Google Drive link and made a memorial DVD that I mailed out to all the surviving family.

We did not make it back to my parents house, instead we got dinner at the hotel (with a really cute chocolate duck dessert) and went to bed. It was a long, emotional day and I was ready to rest.

Tuesday, August 2, 2022

After a leisurely breakfast at the Peabody Hotel, my husband and I arrived at the Memphis Zoo around 11am and met with the head of the cryogenics department. They fed us a really great deli lunch while going over their program and its history in a PowerPoint. Afterward, we got a very cool tour of the zoo and saw the cryogenic lab.

The Zoo is working to restore the natural population of the Louisiana Pine Snake. We got to see the “snake factory” where they captive breed these snakes to release into the wild. I don’t like snakes, but their passion made me love these creatures and respect their place in the ecosystem.

After our visit at the zoo, we went back to the hotel in time to see the Peabody Ducks leave the fountain and march to the elevator to head back up to their roof-top roost for the night. I’m from Memphis and I’d only ever seen this once before. My husband attempted to get me the Duck Master package, which is where you get to lead the ducks, but both slots were already sold out for Tuesday.

Finally, after seeing the ducks do their march, we picked up my friends I’d been staying with and took them with us to dinner with the head of the crogenics program at the Memphis Zoo at the Coastal Fish Company located inside Shelby Farms. We had a wonderful dinner, talked about the Zoo’s work and non-work stuff, and just had a good time. One of my favorite parts of meeting potential grantees is the dinner (and, yes, the trust decided to fund their work).

We dropped my friends back at their house after dinner and returned to the Peabody to enjoy our last night in the South’s Grand Hotel. The Peabody has charging stations, but only the Valet can access -- my husband rode with him to ensure he plugged the car in correctly and left instructions on having to unlock the car and press the release button in the charge port before you can unplug the car.

We left at 9:30am after having one last breakfast at the hotel and stopped in Jackson for our first charge. My beloved husband drove the entire way home, since I’d been doing all the driving up to this point. I managed to sleep a little in the car, waking up at charging stops. There were no hiccups or issues charging on our way home, and we arrived home just after midnight.

Final Thoughts

I wish I didn’t have to make these trips. I spent the majority of July away from home, depending on public charging in a region of the country with very little infrastructure. Everything worked fine, and the only time I had any concern was coming back from Pickwick. Would I have taken a gas car? No, honestly I liked these baked in quiet moments to charge the car by myself. It allowed me time to think, process, grieve, and breathe. I don’t have a tally on the total cost of these trips, I do know the Electrify America charges total just over $291 and represent over 4,000 (probably closer to 5,000) miles of driving.

#blog #funeral #audi #etron #evadventures #2022

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nix-that-rad-lass · 3 months ago

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Another thing we’re facing here is one of the highest rates of new infections of STDs, notably HIV, HPV, Hepatitis, and other incurable ones.

We have abysmal sex ed. It’s shamed to get tested. If someone finds out you have one of these lifelong STDs, there is a solid chance you will be outed, abused, harassed, blocked from job opportunities, so on and so forth.

And this is covered up and pretended away.

Over 50% of new HIV infections in North America are in the Southeast US (AL,MS,TN,GA mostly, but also TX,NC,SC,FL,KY)

I did not know any of this until I started a microbiology class, which has multiple posters on these illnesses and their rates posted at the front of the classroom. It is not talked about. It is not well known.

There is SO much stigma about it still. About all STDs.

Southerners need help and empathy.

The Southern, especially Deep South, states are some of the most corrupt, mismanaged, inefficient, dangerous states for the average person. (From everything from shit Infrastructure to crazy taxes to inane wildlife rehab laws, SO many aspects of these states are ass backwards because of the corrupt politicians and top 5% of the population.)

There’s a post going around about road qualities in Appalachia, and how all those missing persons that conspiracy crazies wanna say were killed by cryptids more likely just... died because of dangerous roads in the mountains.

Poverty is insanely common throughout Appalachia.

Education is horrible.

The South has also been a favorite spot for the federal government to run sketchy and unethical experiments on unknowing and non consenting citizens. From the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment to the Vanderbilt Radiation Study in Tennessee, plus many others.

Don’t blame the average people here for the mistakes of our politicians. Please.

We are begging. For just a little empathy. A little less generalization. A little less humiliation.

Here is a video on the poverty of Appalachia.

https://youtu.be/p3O6bKdPLbw?si=Dd4KX3OQSf7su8Ge

youtube

So, this post started off well. This is actually valid criticism on stereotypes about Southerners that many people have engaged in.

... but then I read some more.

This individual is ashamed of not being born up north? That's some kind of internalized thing that's not going to be helped by people not making certain kinds of jokes.

Also, why spell "civilised" that way? That's a British/Canadian thing, not an American South thing. Interesting.

There aren't any mental health resources in the South? Here's a Trans in the South Guide that can help you find "affirming" medical providers. They even have funds to help children and their families "escape" the South due to the "emergency" (sure, Jan) situation there!

Here's Druid City Pride for Tuscaloosa - they offer lots of resources!

Here's a group of resources centers in Alabama!

I found all of those within a five-minute search in which I also finished up a purchase order for work, and I don't even live in Alabama!

It's "frustrating" to be trans? This one required a bit of a deeper dive.

Yeah, I'm sure it is "frustrating" to be trans when you have five sets of neo-pronouns, two of which are emoji pronouns. I'm sure no one wants to deal with that in the South... or, to be real, up here in the "Civilised" North.

I'm just tired sometimes.

#Youtube

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coderfortourette · 3 years ago

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Kentucky Can’t Insult the Police: Insults

Below is a list of all the insults Kentucky received in the “Kentucky Can’t Insult the Police” sketch. (Along with the initials of the state who said it)

NC - Oh, bless his heart.

GA - He’s just a little touched, ain’t he?

AL - It ain’t your fault you were raised wrong.

OK - You’re about as worthless as gum on a bootheel

AR - You’re lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut.

TN - You look about as lost as a fart in a fan factory.

AL - You’re as useless as a steering wheel on a mule.

VA - If you ever had an idea it would die of loneliness.

FL - The porch light is on but nobody’s home.

LA - You’re so dumb you could throw yourself at the ground and miss.

TX - I can hear your brain rattlin’ around like a BB in a boxcar.

SC - You’re as lost as last year’s easter egg.

LA - I got a tree stump in the swamp with a higher IQ than you.

TX - You probably couldn’t pour piss out of a boot with the instructions written on the heel.

GA - If your brains were dynamite, you couldn’t blow your nose.

NC - You didn’t get hit with the ugly stick you got whopped by the whole forest

AR - Your face would make a freight train take a dirt road.

TN - If I had a dog as ugly as you, I’d shave his butt and make him walk backwards

OK - You fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down

SC - I bet when you were born your momma would borrow a baby to take to church on Sunday.

MS - If you were an inch taller you’d be round

VA - You’re so full of crap your eyes are brown

MS - You’re about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.

23 insults - 6 appearance based -12 intelligence based - 5 “usefulness” based (aka, saying he’s useless + one from Ark I wasn’t quite sure how to categorize)

West V didn’t make an appearance, Florida insulted once, and everybody else insulted twice

(These numbers exclude New York’s insult, which is NE vs the Southern style of the rest)

So yeah, that was a horrible meeting for Kentucky. The only member of the South who didn’t insult him was West Virginia, and that’s because Ben forgot about his character. But even Gov was taken aback by these insults, and he wasn’t even the one they were directing the at this time.

There’s definitely some angst in there with how ready the rest of the South was to just listen to Florida and insult Kentucky.

#welcome to the statehouse #welcome to the table #ben brainard #wttt #wttsh

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rottenczar · 3 years ago

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Tag List

https://rottenczar.tumblr.com/tagged/

The World (I use modified UN geoscheme [x])

Africa

Northern Africa

Western Africa

Central Africa

Eastern Africa

Southern Africa

Asia

Central Asia

East Asia

South Asia

Southeast Asia

West Asia

Europe

Western Europe

Northern Europe

Eastern Europe

Southern Europe

Americas

South America

Central America

Caribbean

Canada

United States

AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE FL GA ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY + DC

Oceania

Polynesia

Melanesia

Micronesia

Media

Films Shows Games Art Animanga Music Photograpy Words Web Weaving

Animals

Cats Dogs Snakes Rats Bees Rodents Reptiles Bugs Amphibians Mammals Sealife

Personal Tags

Chat Tag Reply Tag Image Tag Vibes Tag Answered Ask Tag Work Tag Tragic Backstory Tag Vision Board

Seasons

Winter Fall Summer Spring

Concept Tags

Misc

I rebel; therefore I exist - (Camus) absurdism tag rolling the bones - dice mandarin, clementine, tangerine - citrus I know this is all very boring - (Wendy Cope) ode to a simple life internet poetry - for accidental wordsmithing the fish rots from the head down - generational trauma the nature of man

on God/religion

God is on the loose - (Mohja Kahf) God is all around us and his death was the life of the world - God is dead, long live the world (Mainlander) God is typing... God-shaped hole become as Gods queering the divine - An exaltation to the faith the eye of providence - the ever watching eye

on evil/the Devil

all right, I’ll go to hell then - Embrace damnation (Twain) evil is always possible - (Anne Rice) speak of the Devil

on love

cultivated love the sea that floods is love - (Elizabeth Smart) heart of stone ...you burn me... - (Sappho) the banks of familiar rivers - (A misread of Milosz) a horrible hunger - (Bela Lugosi)

on time

wormhole - time folds in on itself greener looking time - (dodie)

on death

no grave can hold my body down - I’ll crawl home to her (Hozier) dust to dust - earth to earth, ashes to ashes death was singing in the shower - (Tom Robbins)

on woman/girlhood

Babylon the Great - Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth (Bible)

on pain

the parting glass - So it falls that I should rise, and you should not It’s called: Freefall - (Rainbow Kitten Surprise)

on identity

growth is inevitable - it is the only way Identity is a vector - (Lee Lozano) αρχω - I rule

creatures/people

phlebotomists - vampires and vampires a merry life and a short one - (Black Bart) pirates double, double, toil, and trouble - (Shakespeare) witches smoky old pool rooms and clear mountain mornings - cowboys something wicked this way rides - witch/cowboy wizard council - wizards mechanical lifeforms - robots dr beaky and co - plague doctors

nature

deep deep down in the rivers bed - (Marinetti) I have loved the stars too fondly - do you love the color of the sky? - pretty skylines the flaming banner of the North - (Albert Laighton) aurora borealis a blanket made of stars - (The Chicks) the blue marble - earth selene - moon sol - sun swimming in chicken soup - (Kurt Vonnegut) ocean an ocean and then some - (Dan Egan) GREAT LAKES GANG

americana

the new American gothic American gothic

#nav #123

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koszmar-zycie · 5 years ago

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WHAT HAVE I DONE?! - No, really. Tag game!

Driven 100 mph - Nope! I hate driving, though local doesn’t bother me. Ironically, the cyberpunk lover in me adores cities, but overall I just hate driving. So I’ve never even gotten close. Ridden in a helicopter - Been inside before at air-shows and museums, but that’s it! I want to do the tour of the Grand Canyon, though. Gone zip lining - Never. Sadly, the only places I had the chance have been eh. The one at the island offshore would be neat though. Been to an NFL game - I don’t think so. Went to a college league one when they did a thing for my dad winning state Teacher of the Year once, though. Been to Canada - No, but it would be cool to see the north sometime. Otherwise I really just don’t care about Canada. At least the government. Some of the people are rad. Loads are not as nice as the stereotype. But there’s loads of rad nature and good people, plus they produced a butt-load of pro-wrestlers, so that rocks. lol Visited Florida- Only briefly. “Briefly”. Went from CA across the middle of the States to NC to visit my dad’s old home town. Then we all swung down through FL and along the southern border from FL back to CA. Florida was cool for the little time I was there. Much like CA going North/South, INCREDIBLY boring to drive through. Visited Mexico - No and no interest. Except for possibly seeing the old Yaqui valley where my mom’s people fled from the Mexican genocide of them. It *would* be rad to see her people’s true homeland sometime. Visited Las Vegas - Several times. Saw BITE. Saw Phantom of the Opera (HELL yes), and a number of other random visits. Usually passing, but sometimes to meet cousins who often go out there around Thanksgiving/Christmas. The Atomic Museum is really neat. Eaten alone at a restaurant - Not anywhere fancy, but a couple times for a spell. We’re talking Taco Bell or my local diner down the street, though. Ability to read music - Been playing brass since 4th grade, drums since 12th, and flute ambiently periodically. Treble clef. Though it’s still not as intuitive for me. I learn music mostly through ear. Ridden a motorcycle - I’ve always wanted to. My dad used to. Ironically I’d really prefer a zippy zoom bike, as opposed to a chopper or classic chunkyboi bike. Though I wouldn’t be opposed to a Harley or Indian. Ridden a horse - Yes! I fuggin looooooove horses! Gold Champagne is my favorite color for a horse, and Arabian horses are in my top three favorite breeds. They’re so unique and elegant looking. Stayed in a hospital - I don’t think so. Donated blood - No. I wouldn’ t mind, but I really don’t like needles, or the concept of draining my lifefluid. Been snow skiing - No, though I’d love to try! Been to Disney World - Nope. The one true Disneyland is about 15 minutes from my house though. Disney Land - As above, so below. It’s about 15 minutes from my house on an average day of SoCal traffic! Slept outside - I’ve been camping a LOT, so yes. lol Driven a stick shift - My dad tried to teach me once. It was not a wise idea. It ended fine, but it was a fool’s errand. I have no interest. Ridden in an 18 wheeler - Nope! Ridden in a police car? - Mmmmm. I don’t think so. Driven a boat - A lot. As a PADI diver, I’ve taken many ferries to the island so that I can enjoy the preserve/dive park. Also bee on a boat charter. Ironically, never a cruise. Eaten Escargot - No. Been on a cruise - Nope. :\ Run out of gas - Actually no. I’m pretty conservative with resources. Despite being friggin poor, I somehow do a good job of managing what I *do* have. SO luckily I’m naturally the kind of dude to keep a good eye on gas and take care of it before it becomes an issue. Been on TV - Yes. Lots of local stuff, thanks to marching band back in the day, and a number of little things as a kid when I attended invention fairs and other weird stuff. Eaten Sushi - I. Freaking. ADORE. Sushi. Seen a UFO - If you like UFO’s, just message me. I have MANY stories. And it’s just.... long and complicated. No joke. Been Bungie jumping - No. Though I honestly wouldn’ t mind trying SOMEday. Been stuck in the house for days - Honestly, I’m stuck inside most days.

Tagged by: @scatteredstoryteller

Tagging: @noxsden @nixalegos @stonestridernerd @foxfictioncentral @kiyi-ghale @coldironempathy @unabashedrebel

#random info!#these are always super fun ones #I love random fun ones like this!#thanks for the tag!

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scifigeneration · 5 years ago

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Earth’s 'boring billion' years of stagnant, stinking oceans might actually have been rather dynamic

by Simon Poulton

Vladi333 / shutterstock

Geologists have dubbed Earth’s middle age the “boring billion”. Occurring some 1,800 to 800 million years ago, it has long been considered a period when little happened on Earth in terms of biological evolution, climate, or the chemistry of the oceans and atmosphere. But emerging evidence now suggests that the “boring billion” may have been far more dynamic than that.

Our planet has been shaped by many monumental events. From the Cambrian explosion around 540 million years ago, when most animal forms appeared, to the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, the dramatic course of biological evolution is well documented by the fossil record. Similarly, from the glaciations of the most recent ice age, to much earlier “snowball Earth” periods, when the entire planet may have frozen over for millions of years, climate change has left a clear imprint on the geological record. But then we come to the “boring billion”, where the rocks appear to give us startling evidence for, well, not much really.

Geologic clock: if Earth’s history is plotted over 12hrs, not much happened between about 7 and 10 o'clock. Woudloper / wiki, CC BY-SA

At first glance, the Earth seems to have been stuck in perpetual stasis across this billion year interval. The planet was likely somewhat warmer than today, but there is zero evidence in the rocks for any dramatic change in climate. Oxygen in the atmosphere was stuck at a level much lower than we have today, and indeed much of the global ocean was entirely devoid of oxygen, leading to inhospitable seas that were rich in either iron or toxic hydrogen sulphide (the smelly gas released by rotten eggs).

While the first eukaryotes (cells with a nucleus) had already evolved, the pace of biological evolution appeared to have stalled. Until recently, the most advanced traces of life found at any time through this interval were tiny organic microfossils in aquatic environments, and if you went back in time on safari, you would be confronted by entirely barren landscapes.

All of this led the ever-mischievous scientist Roger Buick, in a seminal 1995 publication, to paraphrase Winston Churchill with the immortal line “never in the course of Earth’s history did so little happen to so much for so long”. Apparently inspired, the late palaeontologist Martin Brasier then coined the term “boring billion”, and it is this soundbite that has since become firmly embedded in geological consciousness.

But geologists have recently shown renewed interest in this time period (which forms part of what we call the Proterozoic Eon), and I would now argue that the “boring billion” is every bit as exciting and important to understand as anything that happened in the past 500m years of Earth history. If we do not understand periods of relative stasis, then what hope do we have for understanding times of monumental change?

Stinky oceans

So how does a scientist first get interested in all this? As is often the case, it happened almost by accident. While a PhD student, I spent my time thinking about mud at the bottom of the modern ocean, which tends to be full of the toxic hydrogen sulphide mentioned above. At about the same time, Don Canfield of the University of Southern Denmark started writing about stagnant, stinking, hydrogen sulphide-rich oceans during the “boring billion”. The idea captured my imagination.

Lake Superior rocks from the ‘boring billion’. Burns Cheadle, CC BY-NC

So, when an opportunity arose to work with Don I seized the moment and started to attack 1.8 billion year old rocks from the north shore of Lake Superior with some of the tools we were using to understand mud in the modern ocean. The results were cool – we did indeed find clear evidence for widespread stinking oceans devoid of oxygen.

But this was just the start. Since then it has become clear that oxygen levels were not static at all during the “boring billion”, and in fact geologists have found clear evidence for intervals of increased oxygen. (Why didn’t this prompt evolution on the scale of the Cambrian? Partly because we are still talking about relatively low levels. But there’s also huge argument among scientists over whether oxygen spurred early animal evolution, or whether the evolution of animals allowed oxygen levels to rise).

Fossil algae from 1.56 billion years ago. Zhu et al / Nature Communications

Paleontologists have also recently begun to identify a much richer tapestry of life across the interval, which includes an increase in the size of seaweed-like algae coincident with rising levels of oxygen. These fossils might not appear as dramatic as the early animals of the Cambrian explosion, but they provide a crucial window into the course of biological evolution on Earth, and help fuel the debate over the importance of oxygen in early evolution.

Against the backdrop of these advances, it is also clear that we have only just begun to piece together the enigmatic history of this fascinating time period. We need to look at the rocks with new techniques and new eyes to unravel the subtle clues that they hide. Likewise, new locations housing spectacular fossils are sure to be found. It is fair to expect that in 10 or 20 years we will have a profoundly different perception of the so-called “boring billion”.

About The Author:

Simon Poulton is a Professor of Biogeochemistry and Earth History at the University of Leeds

This article is republished from our content partners at The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

#science #earth science #geology #algae #oceans

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dailyaudiobible · 5 years ago

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11/23/2019 DAB Transcript

Ezekiel 45:13-46:24, 1 Peter 1:13-2:10, Psalms 119:33-48, Proverbs 28:11

Today is the 23rd day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It's great to be here with you as we as…well…as we end another week and continue taking steps forward. So, we’ll go back into the book of Ezekiel. We’ve been reading from the New Living translation this week, which is what we'll do today. And then will move into the letter of Peter, first Peter, that we just started yesterday when we get to the New Testament. But first, Ezekiel chapter 45 verse 13 through 46 verse 24.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for another week in Your word. And as the…the number of weeks…well it's been decreasing since we started this journey…but now we can count them pretty easily on our hands. And, so, we thank You for Your faithfulness to us and for the transformation that has been taking place since we set sail on January 1st. And as we say here on this week before things start to really really get busy for the rest of the year, we spend a moment of gratefulness. We are so thankful for Your faithfulYou’re Your faithfulness to us. So, we commit to being faithful to this journey until the end and to find out the things that You yet have to do inside of us before this revolution around the sun is complete. So, we thank You for another week in Your word and we look with anticipation, great anticipation for all that You have yet to do. We love You Father. We worship You and we pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website and that is home base and where you find what's going on around here. So, stay tuned and stay connected. Of course, if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, most of these things can be accessed from within the app as well by pushing the drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner. But yeah, stay connected and stay tuned to what is going on around here as we move into this next season of the year, kinda like the final season where everything gets really really busy. So, let's…let's stay connected in any way that we can and in any way that that that we will.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, cannot possibly thank you enough, humble gratitude is the proper posture. We wouldn't be here at all if we were not in this together, if we weren't throwing logs on from time to time on the Global Campfire. So, thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request or comment there are a number of ways to reach out. One of them would be to just press the Hotline button at the top of the app, the little red button at the top or there are number of numbers you can use. If you are in the Americas 877-942-4253. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 and if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to call.

And that is it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here next week, which is tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning everyone this is JoAnn Marie from Southern California this is specifically for Karla. Today is November 19th and I just heard your prayer and request for prayer. Heavenly father I lift up Karla. Father, from personal experience I know that you are with her though she may not feel it. Father God I know that you love her and cherish her. Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit will wash over this young woman. She’s right at the perfect place to receive your blessings. Karla don’t worry. Karla keep your eyes on Jesus. My friend used to say the saying, “fake it ‘til you make it.” So, grab your Bible, go through the Psalms and read them out loud. No matter if you believe it or not just do it. Heavenly father again I continue praying for Karla. Holy Spirit wash over her, hold onto her be with her. Father hear our prayers and comfort our sister in Christ who is crying out to you. Thank you that we can give you our burdens. Thank you that you’re hear every single prayer, that you catch every single tear and that we are not alone no matter how we feel. Your word tells us that you are with us. Your word is holy. Your word is true. You are not a God of confusion. You are a God of peace and calm. Father, we pray again in Jesus name. And Lord, we thank you for how you rescue us each day every day all day. Lord we love you and thank you for another…

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family I want to pray for the woman who called in today November 19th that at her wits and that feels like she can’t do it anymore, she can’t pray to God anymore, she’s lost faith in her relationship with the Lord. Her marriage, everything is crumbling. Mam, I prayed for you this morning. when I heard your prayer I got right on my knees to think of you because God was reaching to my heart for you. He showed me a vision of you being like spiritual gas tank pulling up to His heavenly station and your tank was on fumes and it was almost to the point where people had to push you into the gas station just to get to the tank. But I’m gonna tell you right now ma’am that God is coming for you in a mighty way. Ephesians 3:20, He’s going to do exceedingly great expect in things beyond anything you can hope, ask or expect. Jeremiah 29:11. You know that one well. He has great plans. So, I’ve been…I’ve been many times where you are before, feeling unloved, unworthy, unnoticed, invisible. God is coming through in this season to bring out his people who have been in the dark to bring them to the light. He is going to fill up your gas tank overflowingly full to the point where you can’t hold it anymore. So, don’t you dare give up because we’re praying for you, I’m praying for you, Jesus is interceding on your behalf. And He’s gonna come through right now at a time when you least expect it. Amen.

Desperately wanting to Jesus this is PG from NC. I’m calling to answer your question from Sunday, November 17. I’ll speak quickly. Yes, it’s normal to feel like you want justice, that you want all wrongs to be righted. It is. But it’s not the default for believers. We leave that to Christ. Now, you’re trying to control your words, your attitudes and your actions and that’s not really possible. James will teach us that though tongue is a wild thing that can’t be controlled, and we know that our facial expressions will follow words. But how do we do it? Well the good thing is that the word also says that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. And the good news is that you and I can build up our hearts and minds and train our Spirits. So how do we do that. DAB every day. Don’t just listen, read along, participate. The other thing is we build our Spirits, we train our Spirits by worship out loud. Don’t just hum, don’t just listen, do it out loud. The other thing is by thankfulness. Gratitude is an attitude, but thankfulness is an expression. Express thankfulness to the Lord every day when you get up and then when you lay back down. And call or text two people every day and thank them for something. The other thing is prayer. Now let’s be honest. God doesn’t need to hear a lot of what we have to say but we need to hear what he has to say. So, it’s a lot more listening than talking. But one of the things you can do is you can pray for those who despitefully used you but not conviction, condemnation all those kind of things. Pray blessings, pray repentance, pray mercy. Pray for their families. Bless them in every way. And in doing that you will build yourself up, train your spirit. Out of that abundance your mouth will speak, and your face will match it. Hey, this is PG from NC and just like Brian I love you and I’ll be here tomorrow.

Hey everyone, is Karen in St. Louis. I am asking you guys to please pray. My last besty passed away on Sunday, which was my birthday, but she is in glory with the Lord, no more pain, no more suffering. We had been friends for almost 40 years. And, so, if you would please pray. A couple of things. Her family are not believers and so she was actually responsible in kind of a weird way back when we had gotten out of the record business and then she was working part-time at a record store where she invited me to go to a church where this guy who was in the worship team that worked at the record store was bugging her to go. And I was ready to go because at that time I was in adult children of alcoholics and the Lord was really drawing me to Him. In any event, just pray that I would be a light in the darkness. I pray that the gospel would be given at her funeral. And then we also have a couple of friends that were in the record business with us. We’ve gotten reconnected with them through Facebook years ago. They are both very of evout…devout and radical atheists and in the course of the years they too both have cancer. So, if you would pray that I would be able to continue that relationship with them, that the Lord would be drawing them to him, and I just thank you so much for all of your prayers. And I want to pray for all of those that are dealing with extreme brokenness. It is so hard to see, and it can rock our faith, but God is faithful no matter what. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Jill. God bless you all. Bye-bye.

Hey Daily Audio Bible, this is Micah in Awe. Today I heard Karla call in struggling with depression. You said you were heartbroken. The Scripture talking about the oil of joy came into mind. So, I looked up the Scripture. It’s Isaiah 61. I’m just gonna read it now. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor in the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit, that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified. So, yesterday I was studying hard words of Missouri. I’m a woodworker and I read that oaks are one of the hardest woods in Missouri because the way that they age. So, this is God telling Isaiah to tell us that we will be called oaks of righteousness. That means that we will stand firm. Just like to encourage you. Stay firm. Stay believing in the Lord. Stay reading the Scripture. God’s gonna deliver you from this and am asking him right after this. I’m praying for you that he pours out the oil of joy over your life. I’ll talk to you later.

Hello dear Hanging On this is Jeanette. I heard your prayer and I want to extend a hand…a hug from a fellow believer in Jesus. There’s been a lot of things that I’ve done that haven’t been in anybody’s interest in the past, but Jesus hasn’t left us even when we can’t feel his presence. He gives us the times to regret what we have done but he doesn’t leave our side. And, so, I want to step forward. My own mother has suffered this sort of loss, her first child. And I’ve been praying for her very much recently. And what the father showed me was Jesus being with her in that room where the abortion happened but the whole room was surrounded with Holy Spirit fire and Jesus accepted the spirit of that young child into his arms to be carried up to heaven. And He laid His hands on my mother’s womb and He said, “I forgive you, I love you, you are my child.” He was very angry at all the circumstances that had driven her to that sacrifice of the child to that situation that put her in such terror, and He covered her with His grace. And it doesn’t matter where you’re standing right now but I know that His grace is poured out for you in the very depths of His heart and the very depths of heaven call out that He loves you because He gave himself on the cross for you. And no matter where you go, no matter what you do there’s a child waiting for you up in heaven who will be in your arms. If you are in tears than just…

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havekiddoswilltravel · 6 years ago

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Everyday Black History: Educational Guide to Incorporating Black History into your Homeschool Year-round

February is Black History Month and I would love to encourage all educators, parents and adults in general to incorporate these best practices into their daily lives throughout the year. My definition of educator is very broad. If you have a sphere of influence to speak into the lives of future generations, then you’re an educator as far as I’m concerned. I believe in intentional education and thus we should never limit an entire group’s history and contributions to 28 days.

- Be intentional in your read alouds, independent reading and book list choices. Make sure that you incorporate books that provide a well rounded perspective on history, literature, geography, language arts and even math.

- Diversify your homeschool social media feed. Connect with, read works by and learn best practices from other homeschooling parents and educators of colors.

1. Follow My Reflections Matter and incorporate their diverse resources to your educational plans.

2. Check out Negra Bohemian a self described: a free spirit redefining motherhood through a socially conscious, faith-led and wandering lifestyle.

3. Check out Trippin’ Momma to be inspired by a single mother who’s recovered from domestic violence and is exploring the world on her own terms.

4. Follow Dr. Kira Bank and her work on Raising Equity.

5. Follow my friend Sarah’s adventures in her blog and be inspired to take adventurous trips with your kids to destinations like Dubai, Hong Kong and Kenya.

6. Follow The Spring Break Family and be encouraged to take adventures with our kids even if they’re not homeschooled.

7. Check out Our Kitchen Classroom and learn how to connect food with culture - travel.

If your a Christian, read this: No Days Off...

“This February, lay down the burden of ambassadorship and let Black History Month be your swimming lessons. May it be a reminder that each stroke forward transforms our weaknesses into strengths, powerlessness into purpose. We’re not treading water. Kingdom ambassadors make new wave moves. Look back and see how God is moving us forward.”

Additional resources Click on bold sections for more information:

- Learn about Racial Identity from Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum.

https://youtu.be/l_TFaS3KW6s

- Check out 100 Read Aloud Books for Black History and Beyond.

- 30 People from Around the World.

- Learn the truth about the Green Book by watching this documentary.

- Have your preconceived notions rocked by A blessed Heritage’s writings on faith and black history.

- Host a Black Living History Wax Musuem event at your school, home or community.

- Black History is American History.

- Race: The Power of Illusion.

- Read about why Martin Luther King JR. Day is not a day off and start planning your service project for next January.

- Why we shouldn’t forget that U.S. presidents owned slaves.

Published on Feb 2, 2017

"When you sing that this country was founded on freedom, don’t forget the duet of shackles dragging against the ground my entire life." This how poet Clint Smith begins his letter to past presidents who owned slaves. In honor of Black History Month, Smith offers his Brief But Spectacular take on the history of racial inequality in the U.S.

Learn about the musical, historical and African roots of Puerto Rico’s Bomba.

- Watch online Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Movement.

- 28 Ways to Celebrate Black History Month by the NAACP.

- Watch and be inspired by: Black Made That.

- Meet The Fearless Cook Who Secretly Fed — And Funded — The Civil Rights Movement.

- Watch Kevin Hart’s Guide to Black History on Netflix.

- Check out Wu-Tang Clan's GZA shows his genius in Liquid Science on Netflix.

- Add diverse puzzles by Puzzle Huddle to your bookcases.

- Decolonize your family bookshelves and learn more about awareness by following The Consious Kid.

- 28 More Black Picture Books That Aren’t About Boycotts, Buses or Basketball (2018).

- 5 Reasons You Should Celebrate Black History Month.

- Beyond The Painful Chains Of Slavery: Phillis Wheatley, The First Published Female African-American Poet.

- Continue learning throughout the year with various subscription options of the Because of Them we Can boxes.

- Check out Black Then for a wealth of information.

- Check out Story Corps:

StoryCorps’ mission is to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world.

- Diversify your podcasts. A friend sent me this pod cast and I had to share: Black and White: Racism in America.

Exposure to Black Theater and Arts.

- Check out my review of Hamilton.

- Go watch Black Violin.

- Go see Alvin Ailey - American Dance Theater.

- Diversify your holiday traditions and enjoy the Hip Hop Nutcracker or the Urban Nutcracker.

- Exposure to the history and sounds of Gospel music.

- Singin’ Us to Glory: The Life and Legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer.

- Black History Month is a chance for white parents to learn how to talk about racism.

Pin for later:

- Incorporate Black History Sites into your family travel. This has been a huge way for us to incorporate our story into our learning. These are some of our favorites or ones on our bucket list:

1. National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.

You can read more about my family’s trip to this history packed museum by clicking here.

2. The Tuskegee Airman National Historical Museum in Detroit, Michigan.

3. The National Underground Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

You can read more about my family’s road trip to the freedom center by clicking here.

4. Frederick Douglass National Historical Park in Washington, DC.

5. International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, NC.

6. Martin Luther King, JR Memorial in Washington, DC.

7. Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, MO.

8. Museum of African American History in Boston, MA.

9. North Star Underground Railroad Museum in Ausable Chasm, NY.

10. Visit Martha’s Vineyard and learn about the Polar Bears.

- Check out this blog post with a large list of destinations to include in your Black History Travel Bucket List: Must See Destinations to Learn About Black History.

- Study the history of Soul Food and host a Soul Food Feast for family and friends.

The Soul Food Born of the Harlem Renaissance.

Read An Illustrated History of Soul Food with your kids.

This is a great video of the celebrates African American food and chefs.

- Teach the history of the Harlem Globetrotters and then enjoy a game.

- Take a #foodies road trip to some of America’s top Soul Food Restaurants which are full of history, music and culture.

1. Sylvia’s Restaurant in Harlem, NY.

2. Amy Ruth’s in NYC.

3. Luella’s Southern Kitchen in Chicago, IL.

4. The Coast Cafe in Cambridge, MA.

5. Roscoes Chicken and Waffles in Los Angeles, CA.

6. Busy Bee Cafe in Atlanta, GA.

- Provide opportunities for your students to read, memorize and recite black poetry. Some of our favorites are.

Let America Be America Again

Langston Hughes, 1902 - 1967

Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free. (America never was America to me.) Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed— Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above. (It never was America to me.) O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe. (There’s never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”) Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars? I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek— And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak. I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one’s own greed! I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean— Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers! I am the man who never got ahead, The poorest worker bartered through the years. Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream In the Old World while still a serf of kings, Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, That even yet its mighty daring sings In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned That’s made America the land it has become. O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas In search of what I meant to be my home— For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore, And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came To build a “homeland of the free.” The free? Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay? For all the dreams we’ve dreamed And all the songs we’ve sung And all the hopes we’ve held And all the flags we’ve hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay— Except the dream that’s almost dead today. O, let America be America again— The land that never has been yet— And yet must be—the land where every man is free. The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME— Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again. Sure, call me any ugly name you choose— The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives, We must take back our land again, America! O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath— America will be! Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain— All, all the stretch of these great green states— And make America again!

Still I Rise

Maya Angelou, 1928 - 2014

You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? ‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries? Does my haughtiness offend you? Don’t you take it awful hard ‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines Diggin’ in my own backyard. You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise. Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.

Lift Every Voice and Sing

James Weldon Johnson, 1871 - 1938

Lift every voice and sing, Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise High as the list’ning skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won. Stony the road we trod, Bitter the chast’ning rod, Felt in the days when hope unborn had died; Yet with a steady beat, Have not our weary feet Come to the place for which our fathers sighed? We have come over a way that with tears has been watered. We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, Out from the gloomy past, Till now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast. God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way; Thou who hast by Thy might, Led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee, Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee; Shadowed beneath Thy hand, May we forever stand, True to our God, True to our native land.

From Saint Peter Relates an Incident by James Weldon Johnson. Copyright © 1917, 1921, 1935 James Weldon Johnson, renewed 1963 by Grace Nail Johnson. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.

Dreams

Langston Hughes, 1902 - 1967

Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow.

From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes published by Alfred A. Knopf/Vintage. Copyright © 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated. All rights reserved.

About Ruth: I’m a wife and mami of 4 active and globe-trotting kiddos. I’ve always loved a good adventure and truly believe that it’s possible to travel with kids. Join me, as I share our adventures and inspire you to get out of the house with your kiddos. Whether you’re planning a family vacation, a road trip or a trip of a lifetime to an exotic destination, I’ll share insights, trip reports and information that will inspire you. Check back often to stay up to date on things to do with kids at your next travel destination.

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kgstyr · 6 years ago

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So if y’all for some reason want to hear about my Hurricane Florence story, then you’ve come to the right place. I raveled with my mother and eldest sister on our evacuation journey, while my sister and her husband and kid stayed home.

I’ll put it under a read more if you don’t want to read all of it, but just know it was a wild ride. And plz do me a forgive bc my memory is kinda shitty and selective so im prob missing great moments.

We left on the September 13th a little after 10 in the morning, but before we had even left, the outer bands of Florence were bearing down on us and we had already lost power.

We rode through the town of Swansboro, were the water was already high enough to lap the bottom of the tiny bridge into the town (even tho its low to begin with) even tho it wasn’t going to make landfall til the next morning.

/Now for all of you who don’t know about hurricanes, they usually only last 24-36 hours. It lasted for over 4 days. When hurricanes linger like that, it only makes it worse, even though Florence was only a category 1, it felt more powerful./

We kept driving, past Jacksonville, but until we got past there, I can’t tell you how many times the radio went off for Tornado Warnings (at least 4) up and down the coast of NC within an hour or so. I’ve been through a number of Hurricanes and Tropical Storms, but hearing all those warnings were a bit unnerving. Flood warnings started popping up as well, and as hard as it started raining I believed it happened that fast.

We drove up there pretty much without incident (we are direction illiterate, so almost without incident) up to the city of Pinehurst/Southern Pines, and stayed up in a hotel there for about 3 days. The first day was p good, we chilled up there- the drivers were aggressive as FUCK like run you off the road- it was real pretty with tall Carolina Pines and worldstar golf courses, just like country club on steroids.

The bed was kinda uncomfy and the window leaked a lil bit, but otherwise the first night was a good rest after a long day of driving.

But the next morning (or two, days get away from me), we went to the lobby to rent the room for another night, only for them to tell us that they had booked our room that day, so we had to leave. We were mad as hell, but we couldn't fight it given as we were in unknown territory, so we packed up our stuff and got ready to leave- only to tell us that they had gotten mixed up and that we could stay another night.

Needless to say, we were not happy about having to unpack, then repack, then unpack again.

When they said Florence was slow moving, y’all don’t understand how slow. usually, when hurricanes hit land, they may slow down for a bit, but they speed up and are usually carried out by the jet streams or approaching fronts within a day. It moved slower than 6 mph: ppl can walk faster than that.

The second day, it started raining where we were, and at first it was sporadic outer bands, but soon it become constant with fluctuating torrential downpours. By the end of the second day, the rains and wind had picked up enough to knock out the power to out hotel for an hour or so.

And the same thing happened with the hotel the next morning: they said they had booked our room, but then apologized and said that we can stay. This time at least we didn’t pack up before that.

Now, we went up to the Sandhills to get away from the flooding on the coast, but it came to us. The rain was pouring, and not letting up, and we went under a flash flood emergency nearly continuously from the second day onward, and evacuations across the county were in effect. After the third or fourth day, we decided to leave the area bc all of the water that was rising and evacuations.

After we had left the hotel area, we passed the town of Aberdeen, and we ended up pulling over at a gas station to look at the map (remember: direction illiterate family here) and that’s when I told my mother the famous line

“We should go back to Aberdeen, Mama.” Saying that we knew our way back home

But she decided not to, saying that we couldn’t go back because of the weather. We tried to travel south a lil bit to skirt around an area that was flooded, but we ended up getting pushed down way father south than we anticipated due to impassable areas and flooding, and we ended up on the outskirts of Rockingham. After riding around for hours, trying to find a way out, we ended up at a shelter for the night at the local high school because conditions had deteriorated to an unsafe level, and we were directed by some very nice highway patrolmen to where the shelter is.

None of us had even stayed in a shelter before, so it was a new experience for all of us. The people running the place were nice, but damn some of the ppl were annoying.

I now hate cots, and my Mama and sister hate them too. I really couldn’t sleep on it b/c of the steel rods in my back (scoliosis) and Mama has bad arthritis, so it wasn’t a pleasant night.

It got worse when Rockingham and the county started experiencing massive flash flooding in the middle of the night, and we were up half the night listening to the weather and keeping an eye out just in case we need to evacuate from the shelter. It became a lil more nerve-wracking when evacuees from other counties (like Horry, SC) were transported to our shelter. It was semi- peaceful at the shelter til like 10 other people were brought in.

I had said this several times by this point, but while we were trying to rest on horrid cots, I told Mama: “We’ve should’ve gone back to Aberdeen.”

Long night short, we were semi- kicked out in the morning, and we packed up our stuff and loaded up the car again, having made a soft plan the night before to head to the next town of Hamlet.

We were so tired and fed up and ready to go the hell home that when the car didn’t start, we all started hardcore panicking, and me and my mama, at least, are not panicky people. At first, we thought the car had gotten flooded from all the rain, but after a quick look around we concluded that that was not it, unless someone had just poured a bucket of water on our engine.

After several minutes of pulling each other’s hair out, we found out that the car just needed some oil. Either the long ride up the Sandhills had burned it all and we had rolled it in on fumes last night, or my sister didn’t exactly tell the truth when she said the car was fully oiled up.

Probably both, but that’s not the point (she is a special gurl no hate plz she tries her best).

After that, we stopped at the nearest Burger King in Hamlet and we tried to plot a course home, this time, trying to shoot straight up towards Asheboro and then going around Raleigh and coming home, because by this point other ppl from my hometown that had evacuated to Raleigh had come home from that route.

We left about 11:30-ish. We got as close to Asheboro as the city of Candor (google map it im bad at distance) and then got stuck on this loop for hours between Rockingham and Asheboro.

Literally at least 6 hours. A good chunk of that was trying to get to a town called Candor. We never found it nor made it.

At this point we were all at our wits end, screaming and yelling at each other (out of love ofc) because we are all so bad at directions that we can’t follow a straight line-

We stopped for dinner at somewhere, I can’t remember where, I think at Rockingham again, and then-

“We should go back to Aberdeen.” I say, and Mama laughs and asks why in hell we should go back. I told her that we had stayed in that area for multiple days and that I knew where the hotels in that area (Aberdeen, Pinehurst, Southern Pines, etc.) were-

It was nearly 6, and we were tired and exhausted and running low on money, so Mama agreed, because she didn’t want to spend another night in a shelter.

And, like I said, we couldn’t turn onto a straight line, so we got lost trying to find a hotel, but by a stroke of a lucky piece of my memory, I remembered where a Holiday Inn Express was in the city of Southern Pines, and we managed to find out way there in a darker-than-expected city.

It was about 8:30 at night, and we were ready to just fucking perish when me and my sister went into the lobby, and asked the front manager if a room was available.

She said no, because a large part of the city had lost power itself and everybody in the town had crowded into the hotels. I felt my stomach drop just a tiny amount because we had been through direction illiterate hell to get there, just to not have a room for the night.

We asked her if there was any other hotel with a vacancy, and she checked and told us the nearest vacancy was in Durham, well over a hundred miles away. My sister, ever the conversationalist, ended up asking her if there was any way we could just crash in the lobby tonight. She said sure. So, we went out to tell Mama that we could stay in the lobby, and we got what we needed for the night to rest in the lobby.

We fully expected to be in the lobby all night, but then the desk lad left for a bit and told us that even though she wasn’t a housekeeper, she could clean a recently vacated room for us that night. We even got it for cheaper since we couldn’t afford the full price.

Lemme tell you, that was the quickest I’ve ever fallen asleep on a bed, and it was a gucci pillowtop bed too like 4 feet into the air, much better than the first hotel. Breakfast was a bit sparse, but that was understandable since power was limited throughout the city. We thanked her repeatedly for what she did; she had no obligation to actually get us a room, but she pulled a rabbit out of her Miracle Hat and gave us a good 8 hour night of deep sleep.

“See?” I said. “We should’ve gone back to Aberdeen.” My new favorite meme. Even though it was the next town over, it still counts as Aberdeen, right?

Over breakfast and leading up to our checkout time, we plotted our way home, and we headed out and started driving home at noon. And since we can’t follow our own directions, it was a tense few 10 miles or so before we got out onto open highway.

It took us a while, because our car is an older car and can’t get up the Sandhills that well, but we started seeing flatter land, and it was a blessed sight.

Mama saw a sign for the city of Benson, and she turned off the exit to go towards that city because she knew her way home from there.

Except like 300 feet from where she turned, the right front tire blew out. WE were nearly halfway home, and our fucking tire blows out. At the very least, I am thankful that it blew out 300 feet onto the exit and not 300 feet back, because if it had blown out on the Interstate we would’ve more than likely have crashed and killed bc no modern safety features on this old piece of beautiful junk.

We managed to roll it into a gas station on the left on the rim, the tire pushed inward and leaving the metal exposed, and that’s when we all had a coming to Jesus moment because back in Rockingham? Filling up the oil was a simple fix. Tire blowing out? We couldn’t do that on our own.

My sister went into the gas station to ask the clerk to call a nearby mechanic, while me and mama refilled our snacks then sat outside on a patio while we waited. Not 15 minutes later, an old, hunchbacked man came into an old, black truck that looked like it needed some repairs itself to check our tires.

Thank goodness that it was only hat one tire than had blowed out, having somehow been slashed all the way around. My sister, the socialite, told him about our harrowing journey up til that point, and I’m sure he could see the complimentary American Red Cross blankets strewn across the backseat along with everything else.

He only charged $40 for a used tire, a bad lugnut, and labor, which was amazingly cheap. He would only take $40, and he did a pretty damn good job because the ride was much smoother after that, and he even pointed out that the tires were misaligned. We got back on the highway, and started driving again.

The hills had started to flatten out when we got into Wayne county, and the trip was winding and calming down from all of our experiences earlier, but then we started to see signs of actual damage from Florence, not just rain and flooded roads.

It started out as just some snapped tree limbs, then smaller trees, then shingles and metal ripped off roofs and large trees snapped in half- and the smell- if you’ve ever smelt like, water mold or water that wasn’t were it was supposed to be (out of its basin), it was rancid and ripe, and not even rolling up the windows could keep it out of the air. I’ll never forget the smells.

The road was brown along lower areas, signs of recent standing water, and it was really visible as we went by Goldsboro. We didn’t go into the city because we had heard about the flooding, but we could literally smell the destruction.

It continued all the way thru Kinston, the smell of water mold and downed trees and damaged structures- we had to stop in New Bern to get some groceries because there were no more stores open after that stop to our city, and we went into a Food Lion in New Bern. There wasn’t much in there, but we got a few Pepsis and things, along with a tiny styrofoam cooler.

There prices were a little high, so we didn’t buy as much as we had planned on- plus their store was getting rather bare.

Someone stole a bottle of alcohol while we were in there, and that made us get the heck out of dodge super fast. Around that time, we had been passed by a fleet of 21 police cars/ SUVS heading towards New Bern and past it, lights on but no sirens.

We saw a few scattered in New Bern, Havelock, Newport- to stop the rioting and looting from earlier from happening again. When the news says people are looting these cities, they really are. New Bern had a lot of side roads closed, the road was a bit raggedy, and you could see what the constant winds did to the siding and roofs of structures.

Also I think one of those cops caught a guy we saw deliberately run a red light. Justice does work, people.

New Bern was bad, Havelock was worse. Nearly all of their side roads were closed, and over half of their street lights were off, which was not good for driving at like 10 at night. We saw cops lining a side street, and we just assumed that they were doing criminal shenanigans down there.

Plus I forgot to mention, frogs were everywhere. It was too dark to see them, but you could hear them for several counties in standing water. They were having frog orgies, I guess.

We knew the Newport River in Newport had flooded, so when the smell of river flooding was ripe, we knew where we were at. A lot more trees were down, and the road was dirty and brown with tree branches brushed to the middle lane or the side of the road, from what we could see in the dark.

My city looked like someone took a fucking AOE chainsaw and went down the street and cut all the trees but with bad aim. The closer to the waterfront, the more it was obvious that there was damage, as quite a number of houses had gaping homes in their roofs.

The sister that stayed told us that the day after the storm, it looked like a bomb went off in the city, and even though they had gotten the worse of it off the roads and stuff by the time we got back, I believe that. The structures along the waterfront were flooded with the storm surge, and the cites across the Sound bore the brunt of it.

The power came back on for us just a few hours before we arrived home after 5 days of being gone, so it seems like we have perfect timing for that. Before the power started coming back on, it was like the county was a third world country Africa-style (still kinda is!) with the roads flooded making them cutoff from the outside world.

When people say they need donations, they need them. I’ve never had to go into a church to get a hot meal, but now I have. I’ve never slept in a shelter to get away from a natural disaster, but now I have. I’ve never gone to a store to scrounge around for food to restock our nearly empty shelves with, but now I have.

We didn’t get it nearly as bad as Wilmington, or Fayetteville, or Lumberton, but in the grand scheme, all the cities were affected in some way.

Speaking of Lumberton, at the first hotel we met a very nice and polite black woman from the city of Lumberton, who said she lost everything in Matthew and was praying she didn’t lose everything this time. If she lost it all in Matthew, hen she probably lost everything including the kitchen sink this time as well. I hope there’s something left for her.

Also my Laptop broke (stupid Microsoft updates) at the first hotel on teh first night.

My apartment building sustained some damage (I wouldn’t call it major, but definitely some repairs are needed). It’s 2-story, and I’ve spent an hour today picking up some shingles and paint chips that had flown off the roof and onto the front side. Nobody else was gonna do it, and I didn’t want little kids to step on one with a nail in it and hurt themselves, and plus I wanted to help.

The wood for the balcony for the second definitely needs to be replaced, actually most of the balconies will need to be replaced, and the porch and lawn lights needs fixing bc many of them are bent or gone. A couple of apartments need extensive repairs in the back, and the trees that have snapped needs to be picked up- and the potholes need to be filled as well, but we’ve all been complaining for over 10 years to get them fixed and they haven’t been solved, and now there’s more- part of the sidewalk/driveway is gone somewhere.

The park across from us needs to have the trees picked up off of it, and it needs to be inspected so it’s safe for the kiddos. It could’ve been a lot worse if Florence hadn’t weakened, if it had stalled any longer.

IDK why u read all of this but for that I give u smooches. I guess this is just why I won’t be evacuating again unless its a Cat 5 barreling down on my ass because this was just 2 stressful 4 my frag ile ass. I guess if you wanna know more u can dm me but hey im just tryna survive in a third world city in America like the best boi i can be.

Just wanna shoutout the hotel desk girl who got us a room, the old tire man who spared out thin wallets and speedy service and that lady from Lumberton who I hope at least is somewhere warm and safe because GOTDAMN was our shelter cold as hell, like I felt like it was a solid 40 degrees in there. Plus all the little peeps along the way who helped us out in minor ways.

Also did I mention ppl driving in the Sandhills are rude and aggressive as hell? Yes? Well, I’m saying this again. They are the kind of ppl to road rage ur ass.

Just keep the smaller cities in the wide circle of Florence’s thot circle of destruction.

Yeet dabs

~Jek

#hurricane florence #hurricane florence story #hurricane florence 2018 #tropical storm florence

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racingtoaredlight · 3 years ago

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THE DEGENERATE’S GUIDE TO COLLEGE FOOTBALL TV WATCH ‘EM UPS 2021: WEEK ONE, TIME FOR THE GOOD STUFF

This is by far the best “opening” slate of games we’ve had in at least a couple of decades. The great thing about having a bunch of cross-country, inter-conference, top 25 matchups in the first week of the season is that we’ll all have a clear expectation of every team involved and will mostly have those ideas flipped over by the end of the month. Answers to questions but wrong, you know?

That’s ok because, really, the whole college football season is that same cycle over and over. And we love it, don’t we folks? We love it more than dying unfulfilled and for no reason with nothing at all to show for it in the larger scheme of the world. College football is a metaphor for life which is just an elaborate metaphor for college football.

Blah, blah eastern times and websites. There have already been approximately one million games played this week with a few FCS over FBS upsets and, upsettingly enough, Kansas was not one of the losers. Whooooooooo! Let’s get it on!

Saturday, September 4

Fordham at Nebraska 12:00pm BTN

Fordham +46.5 might be the safest bet you can make this week.

ULM at Kentucky 12:00pm SECN

What can you say about Kentucky being favored by 31 over anybody except that it seems incredibly overconfident. They aren’t ranked in the top 10 so I assume they either skip Bama this year or don’t play them until October.

Temple at Rutgers 12:00pm BTN

In real time the scheduling is fine but these first handful of games feel like a punishment for me crowing about the general quality of this week’s matchups.

Tulane at 2 Oklahoma 12:00pm ABC

These are the games that come back to win Heisman trophies for Oklahoma QBs later in the year. If the Sooners don’t beat the spread (-31.5) they probably shouldn’t keep their ranking next week.

Holy Cross at UConn 12:00pm CBSSN

If you can still get UConn -4 anywhere don’t. Holy hell that’s bleak. 4-points at home against Holy Cross. It’s getting real close to time to turn the lights off on the Huskies football program.

Colgate at Boston College 12:00pm ACCN

If the Toothpastes can just score more than 7 they will have outperformed expectations. If they score more than 7 and hold BC under 60 they will likely have beaten the spread. Chomp ‘Em, Colgate! (I don’t think that’s really their motto but it should be.)

Western Michigan at Michigan 12:00pm ESPN

I could’ve sworn Michigan played last week and lost but maybe I’m just used to that.

Stanford vs. Kansas State (in Arlington, TX) 12:00pm FS1

There have been times over the last 25 years where this would be a matchup befitting of a premium neutral site but this is not even close to being one of those years. Definitely not in week one, at least.

19 Penn State at 12 Wisconsin 12:00pm FOX

Nobody will ever make it make sense that Penn State still has a football program, let alone a football program that puts some of the best athletes into the NFL year after year in a post-Sandusky world.

Army at Georgia State 12:00pm ESPNU

I can’t be the only one that thinks if the troops put together a football team with the best training and facilities available they’d still get their asses handed to them week after week like they do in illegal wars of aggression.

Fresno State at 11 Oregon 2:00pm P12N

Kayvon Thibideaux didn’t make the list of “freaks” this year in the Athletic and I can’t tell if I’m just wildly overrating his abilities or if there was some weird oversight due to him announcing that he’ll be playing more standing up on the outside than with a hand in the dirt. Anyway, he’s fun to watch when he’s just pinning his ears back and rushing the QB and Fresno State throws a lot so this could be worth a few minutes of entertainment in this weird in-between time slot. Though, be warned, early kickoff Pac-12 games do tend to suck.

Lafayette at Air Force 2:00pm Stadium

Air Force favored by 42.5. You don’t see that often.

Rice at Arkansas 2:00pm ESPN+/SECN+

A beautiful reminder of the old SWC. Nothing else. And that’s probably not enough reason to watch this. Arkansas is probably pretty bad but I have trouble believing Rice is going to keep it within 20 of anybody on the road.

17 Indiana at 18 Iowa 3:30pm BTN

B1G’s plan is to prime the polls early so their teams seem better later on. I’m not falling for it. These are two shit teams that will only look good within the context of the B1G.

14 Miami (FL) vs. 1 Alabama (in Atlanta, GA) 3:30pm ABC

Miami’s starters are about as old as an average NFL team’s and they’re still gonna get run over by the Bammers. The Canes do actually have a decent stock of pro prospects right now but a lot of these guys were on the field against UNC last year watching as the Tar Heels put up 3,492 rushing yards. So it’s a bunch of middle aged mid-round prospects against a shiny new crop of future stars. Bama should just get an auto-bid for the playoffs at this point until they prove they don’t belong anymore. I’m calling it now: it’s fine, I had a bunch of chores to do around the house anyway.

Marshall at Navy 3:30pm CBSSN

Ah, the AAC. So dear to my heart. I hated everything Navy did last year but last year was a mulligan anyway. This year might be, too, in the end but for now we can pretend it’ll go off without a hitch.

Miami (Ohio) at 8 Cincinnati 3:30pm ESPN+

The Bearcats are the darling of mainstream coverage if you’re looking for a playoff Cinderella. Which usually means they’ll lose three games in the regular season and won’t even make it to their conference championship.

West Virginia at Maryland 3:30pm ESPN

Wait, is this a conference game now? A future conference game? I won’t be paying close attention to realignment. This should be a rivalry of some sort but I can’t quite put myself at ease with WFV in the ACC and Maryland will never belong anywhere but the ACC.

UMass at Pitt 4:00pm ACCN

Pitt being favored by 35.5 feels like a trap.

Louisiana Tech at Mississippi State 4:00pm ESPNU

LaTech must be sliding backwards as a program judging by the +23 line. I got nothing else here.

Montana State at Wyoming 4:00pm ESPN+

I’m intrigued by the screaming amateurism that this game projects. I won’t actually watch it but the way it will look like a 4k remaster of a game from the 60s is appealing on a spiritual level.

Central Michigan at Missouri 4:00pm SECN

Fuck Missouri.

23 Louisiana at 21 Texas 4:30pm FOX

The line has moved heavily towards the Ragin Cajuns since it opened. Texas is still a solid favorite but there is something here that I have not been paying attention to so if you want to dig a little you might find some relatively easy money.

Northern Iowa at 7 Iowa State 4:30pm ESPN+

Iowa State, #7 in the preseason. What a weird fucking time we live in.

San Jose State at 15 USC 5:00pm P12N

Clay Helton is still the coach at USC. That’s crazy. This program has been sleepwalking through the last decade and they’re still able to pull a #15 ranking because they only have one or two teams on their schedule with a relatively equal talent level.

Gardner-Webb at Georgia Southern 6:00pm ESPN3

Campbell at Liberty 6:00pm ESPN3

Liberty’s QB is this year’s unheard of draft prospect that every self-styled draft expert/prognosticator on god’s green twitter is touting as a first round pick. I don’t have an opinion on him because I generally feel gross watching Liberty do anything.

Nicholls at Memphis 7:00pm ESPN+

Go, Tigers, go. I don’t actually have any expectations calibrated for this year’s Memphis squad. I saw Kenneth Gainwell made a 53-man roster for the Eagles and couldn’t remember him being anything other than a freshman. Time is cruel.

Missouri State at Oklahoma State 7:00pm ESPN+

If Oklahoma State can’t hit for at least 60 in this game they aren’t real and I hate them.

Monmouth at Middle Tennessee 7:00pm ESPN3

Ah, Monmouth, Monmouth! These chips are too spicy!

Texas Tech vs. Houston (in Houston, TX) 7:00pm ESPN

The future of the Big 12 is the SWC, as it always should have been. Well, I mean, aside from the SWC’s tentpole programs. Ah, fuck, it’s so weird and stupid.

Syracuse at Ohio 7:00pm CBSSN

I still love CBSSN but no thank you.

Southern at Troy 7:00pm ESPN3

Fading fast.

Oregon State at Purdue 7:00pm FS1

Fading faster.

Norfolk State at Toledo 7:00pm ESPN3

I’m evaporating.

Central Arkansas at Arkansas State 7:00pm ESPN3

Eyes are closing.

Eastern Illinois at South Carolina 7:00pm ESPN+/SECN+

Snoring softly.

Baylor at Texas State 7:00pm ESPN+

Snapping to just to talk about how evil Baylor is in general, aside from the horrifically cursed athletics department.

Akron at Auburn 7:00pm ESPN+/SECN+

Back to sleep.

Abilene Christian at SMU 7:00pm ESPN+

Snoring loudly.

5 Georgia vs. 3 Clemson (in Charlotte, NC) 7:30pm ABC

Ah, shit, here we go! It is party time! On paper this is an insanely good “opening” week matchup. But this is also the game that I most had in mind when I wrote about how kind of useless this week’s games are for the season going forward. Clemson is in the DJ Uiagalelei era now and even if he’s better long term than I suspect him of being, he’s still bound to be raw against a Georgia team that might actually have more overall talent than Clemson right now. But if he shows out he’ll be an immediate Heisman darling until he starts throwing lawn darts for a few weeks in a row. It’s fun but meaningless.

NIU at Georgia Tech 7:30pm ACCN

Trash.

Northwestern State at North Texas 7:30pm ESPN3

Crap.

UTSA at Illinois 7:30pm BTN

Garbage.

William & Mary at Virginia 7:30pm RSN/ESPN3

Funny if William & Mary wins but probably just miserable all around.

Florida Atlantic at 13 Florida 7:30pm SECN

I don’t often fall into the trap of daydreaming about mascots fighting but an owl fighting an alligator is too good to pass up. There are owls of some sort pretty much everywhere in the world so they have to cross paths in nature with a gator every so often. If you have any videos of an owl winning these fights, please share them.

Southern Miss at South Alabama 8:00pm ESPN+

Hell, yes. I can’t fully explain why this shitbox gets me a little bit excited but it does.

Kent State at 6 Texas A&M 8:00pm ESPNU

Always root against Jimbo. Don’t always bet against him but definitely always root against him.

Montana at 20 Washington 8:00pm P12N

Now this is interesting brand building to me. I don’t think there’s much here for UDub other than an expected win but Montana has been a pretty good team in I-AA over the years. If they can run closer than the +24 they’ve been given it could boost their profile quite a bit.

Duquesne at TCU 8:00pm ESPN+

I’m not falling for this one.

ETSU at Vanderbilt 8:00pm ESPN+/SECN+

Vanderbilt is a 21-point favorite and I am telling you, gentle reader, that is a mistake.

16 LSU at UCLA 8:30pm FOX

UCLA hasn’t been a top talent draw on the West Coast in the last 20 years for whatever reason. This is what I meant by USC sleepwalking. It feels like, to me, going to school in Westwood and playing home games in the Rose Bowl would be a bigger draw than University Village and the Coliseum. But maybe being able to walk to games is important to recruits. Whatever, LSU is going to fuck the Bruins up right there in the Rose Bowl so that’s not gonna help anything.

Bethune-Cookman at UTEP 9:00pm ESPN3

This is as close to a bodybag game as UTEP can get, at least where they’re the favorites, but I will say this for BCU: their uniforms are usually pretty cool.

New Mexico State at San Diego State 10:30pm CBSSN

This is that real MWC shit. Lovely to me for reasons I have not been and never will be able to articulate.

Arizona vs. BYU (in Las Vegas, NV) 10:30pm ESPN

This game is Mormon as hell. If you know any Mormon football fans then they probably have an interest in this game. Bless ‘em, nobody else will have an interest but readers of Moroni sure as hell will.

Nevada at California 10:30pm FS1

Hmm. Maybe. I doubt I can sink much time into it but I do like the overload of different dark shades of blue threads involved here if nothing else.

Utah State at Washington State 11:00pm P12N

And here we have a ton of red, depending on alternates and whatnot.

Portland State at Hawaii 11:59pm Spectrum PPV

A historic showcase for the run & shoot but I don’t know what either offense is supposed to be right now.

Sunday, September 5

9 Notre Dame at Florida State 7:30pm ABC

Notre Dame is only favored by 7. Did FSU get a huge influx of talent that I totally missed or is the line just something nice in honor of Bobby Bowden? From what I know of these two programs from last year, the Irish should be at least a 3 TD overdog. Was Ian Book really all that great? I thought he was a good QB but I am thoroughly confused by what’s driving the odds on this one.

Monday, September 6

Louisville vs. Mississippi (in Atlanta, GA) 8:00pm ESPN

Yehaw. What a weird way to close things out. Why aren’t the UGas and the Cocaine Tigers playing in this slot? The racist south is favored by 10 but, off the top of my head, I don’t think they’re actually any better than Louisville. Whatever, there’s close to a zero percent chance I even remember this game is happening.

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