Friday Memes

Have a nice weekend!

Oh, The Things People Say

     Former HP executive Carly Fiorina the other day blamed environmentalists for California's record drought. She said that environmental groups blocked the construction of new dams and reservoirs over the past decade or so, which has only made California's water shortage issue worse. Apparently, it has nothing to do with the lack of precipitation.

     I guess Ms. Fiorina (a potential presidential candidate) doesn't understand that if those reservoirs had been built, they too would all be low right now. You know, due to the lack of rain and snow which has lowered the water levels across the state. Reservoirs catch and hold rain water and snow melt...they don't make rain. To put it in laymen's terms: if you have 8 empty glasses outside and it doesn't rain, and you add 4 more empty glasses and it doesn't rain...you still have empty glasses! Someone should show her a poster of the Hydrological Cycle, which can be found in every 6th Grade Science classroom in the country.

(Illustration from Trenberth et al., 2007, Estimates of the global water budget and its annual cycle using observational and model data, Journal of Hydrometeorology.)

     The sad part is that some people out there will hear or read Ms. Fiorina's words and actually believe them. They will blindly support her and push for more reservoirs, so they can have more empty ones to be concerned about, without regard for the real facts and evidence. The MOUNTAINS of evidence! Facing and acknowledging climate change and the fact that humans are causing it is too much for many to face, because it means they have to change how they live, which many are unwilling to do, regardless if it means leaving this whole mess to their kids and grandkids to deal with.

     However, there is silver lining to what Ms. Fiorina said. She has graciously given me some really good material for this blog. If she believes that environmentalists are to blame for California's water shortage, I wonder what else she may believe:

- That Narcotics Anonymous is the main reason that there is a drug problem in the United States.

- That if there were no Gun Control Advocates, than there would not be a gun issue in this country.

- That coal ash and chemical spills are good for rivers and streams.

- That polar bears are to blame for the ice melting in Antarctica.

- That if the poor had more money, than they would make all of us poor.

- That since sea level is rising, there really isn't a drought.

- That if we put more cars on the highways, traffic would get better.

- That if we all held our breath, breathing would be easier.

     Good grief. It just goes to show you, even a former CEO of a Fortune 500 company can be completely clueless. Someone should hire her an adviser to prevent this kind of crap.

Day 2

10:28am

The 2nd floor interior walls are in place and they are working on the beans and roof rafters now. The excitement from yesterday has not dissipated at all. 

Noon

Wow. Next up, roof tiles. 

Walls!!

SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM FOR THE LATEST UPDATES AND PICS!! 

9:23am Central Europe Time

Today, the house goes up. I'm so excited I may actually pee my pants. For real.

Check out that big crane they will use to put the walls in place. Reminds me of hanging roof trusses in my Bay Mills days.  The roof goes on tomorrow. Then they will finish the inside over the next month.

The scaffolding is set so as the prefab pieces slide into place, they guys can secure them.

Check back for more updates throughout the day! There will be many. 

10:21am

Well, that escalated quickly! 

Three walks up and counting. This is wicked cool.

11:09sm

First floor walls are up. Did I mention how cool this is?

2:06 pm

The 1st Floor walls are all in place, including the interior walls! They are now unloading all the materials needed to finish the ground level. 

You can see the pre-made walls for the 2nd floor on the right in the picture below. They are ready to when the 2nd floor goes up. 

The next truck is on its way with the 2nd floor walls and the rest of the materials. The fourth and final truck will bring the roof. 

We should be under roof by tomorrow. Crazy. 

4:49pm 

There has been steady activity all day, but the last few hours have been all inside work. I couldn't get in to snap photos. Not yet. But there is time for that later. The 2nd Floor walls are next in line. I will post picks in a few minutes. 

6:55pm

The Sun is going down here. This is how far we got. Tomorrow the house will be under roof. Check back tomorrow! 

Climate Hiccups

     Today I planned to finish my blog about Orkan Niklas, the big word storm that swept through Germany last week, downing trees, damaging property and wreaking havoc. That was the plan. But, i had to finish my taxes today. It snowed while I was doing that. Then it rained. Then it snowed again. Then the Sun came out. Then it snowed again. Repeat.

     There is a saying here in Germany: "April macht was er will" which roughly translates to "April will do whatever the hell it wants." Today was the perfect example of that. The clouds are moving in from the North now, but before it was from the East. In between it was from the West. Its hard to keep up! The Sunset was pretty spectacular for a minute. But then the clouds rolled in. And its snowing again.

     The house is supposed to get walls and roof tomorrow. No more, April! Do what you want when the roof is on. But please...be nice until Thursday!