24/7 Chat About Anything

[Happy Camper]

Hoping the with all the extra moisture we have had in CA, fires won't be so prevalent this summer.

 

[jacqueg]

Amazon sent me some stuff I didn't pay for (extra printer ink). I tried to contact their help desk but went round and round in the stupid automated chat (yes, AI -- if that's what it is -- has a way to go before it takes over the world -- unless it decides to bore us to death). If I just say fork it and keep the extras, do you think the Honesty Fairy will bite me? I don't want to get some overworked, underpaid Amazon employee in trouble either. Modern life and its dilemmas!

I think it all works out... Amazon recently delivered an order of mine to a wrong address - driver reported s/he delivered it to a residence - my address here is a UPS store in a strip mall! I got my money back, and presumably some random stranger got my stuff.

 

[maki2]

Hoping the with all the extra moisture we have had in CA, fires won't be so prevalent this summer.

I am sure a wet spring in California makes a big difference at this time of year. Hard to say how hot and windy the summer will be but I am sure there are some long range forecast predictions already posted for this coming summer.

I have not yet looked at the summer weather prediction for Northern Arizona. But it has been a cooler and somewhat windier than usual spring in my limited 4 year experience of that.

 

[Happy Camper]

Were they bad last year? The atmospheric river brought even more rain and snow to California last spring and winter.

I don't think they were terribly bad last year. TBH I'm just so happy not to have to listen to 24/7 drought talk here in Socal.

 

[VanFan]

I need to work a lot more this coming summer on improving my physical fitness and that most definitely includes my lung capacity!

Me, too! My back has changed the ways in which I can be active. Being less active, along with a couple of nasty bouts of (whispering now) COVID and some birthdays, has begun to impact my cardiac and respiratory functioning. Those changes have been sneaking up on me. Now I'm sneaking up on them by (slowly) ramping up my fitness while I still can.

To exercise my lungs, I've started using an incentive spirometer that followed my husband home from open heart surgery in 2012. For me, personally, it seems to be helping. I'm able to use my SilverSneakers benefits for water exercise, and have enjoyed a few of their short stretch band workout videos (van friendly), as well. Rocking out for an hour at a virtual senior dance party on GetSetUp (a SilverSneakers affiliate) curiously resulted in very little pain or fatigue! I found a free senior chair yoga class that feels about right, too.

I know you'll find what works for you. Just wanted to let you know we might be heading in a similar direction this summer.

 

[Frood]

Hoping the with all the extra moisture we have had in CA, fires won't be so prevalent this summer.

Generally makes for far less fire in the short term, but the explosive growth of fuel (typically faster burning fuel because of the explosive annuals growing, blooming, and then drying out) can lead to even worse faster moving fires in subsequent years. What really helps to prevent wildfire is consistent moisture and rainfall that will keep things from overly drying out.

 

[maki2]

Hooray, the 10 day forecast is not showing any significant weather events. No snow, no high winds, no significant amounts of rain and a warming trend. I am settled into a spot with good solar and views into the forest. It might not be heaven but it is plenty good enough for now. It was an easy drive to my new campsite, only about 30 miles on a good stretch of highway.

I will need heat tonight as it will be in the low 30s but I will wait a while longer and use my diesel heater cooktop to produce heat and dinner. I am going make a pasta dish as I bought a big bag of meatballs a few days ago, some bottled sauce, onion, red bell pepper, mushrooms, and I have some zucchini left to toss into it as well. Maybe I will even make some buttered garlic toast as I have two burner areas on my diesel stovetop. The pasta can sit on the simmer burner while I toast the bread in a little skillet. The second burner is lower heat but not individually controlled.

 

[vanbrat]

Sounds like a good plan to me

 

[maki2]

I was just browsing the news headlines. There is a strong possibility of being able to see the Northern Lights as far south as Southern California from today on through the weekend. There is likely to be a geomagnetic storm rated as “severe” creating this situation. My location will likely have cloud cover in the evenings but as it is an official Dark Sky area there could be a possibility to catch a glimpse of them. I imagine the local astronomer clubs will “keep looking up” this weekend.

 

[maki2]

Oh no!!!! The weather pattern in the Flagstaff area has already slid right into the typical monsoon season pattern. That pattern is around 11:00 am the sky clouds up and the chance of rain starts and does not end until 5:00pm. This monsoon season behavior pattern typically holds off until the 1st of July. Hopefully it is just a short deviation in the weather pattern. I am hoping for a sunny month of June so I can have nice weather for camping over by the Grand Canyon.

 

[maki2]

The enter non chance of rain just turned into a Graupel shower! Graupel is one of the many types of snow. The word is if Germanic origin and derived from the word for pearl barley grains. So instead of flakes the snow falls as small soft pellets. Not the hard ice pellets which are called hail. It is melting about as fast as it is falling.

 

[Happy Camper]

The enter non chance of rain just turned into a Graupel shower! Graupel is one of the many types of snow. The word is if Germanic origin and derived from the word for pearl barley grains. So instead of flakes the snow falls as small soft pellets. Not the hard ice pellets which are called hail. It is melting about as fast as it is falling.

Aww hail, that's not good...

 

[shadowmoss]

I have seen snow between Williams and Flagstaff as late as Memorial Day weekend.

 

[maki2]

^^^it would not surprise me to see that happen this year. I am just glad that I do have a diesel heater. But in truth it is easier to handle some cold evenings and early mornings than it is to live with afternoon heat in the upper 90s. But at least in Northern AZ there is some shade in the forests in summer to retreat into when the afternoons get hot.

 

[LargeMarge]

Weather?
.
We drove our ExpeditionVehicle from our Oregon workkamp gig to caretake my Nevada friend of a half-century after he had a titanium cage installed in his spine.
.
Our time consisted of tossing beer-cans in front of his granny-walker.
He trips, goes turtle.
"I can't get up..."
I could send you the video.
It's hilarious.
.
We scheduled four days.
We got trapped.
A couple-three inches of snow, followed by freezing rain, for eight days and nights, the pass to California... SHUT.
Almost ran out of beer.

 

[bullfrog !]

^^^Used to see that a lot at Mid Ohio track in the spectator areas at the motorcycle races! Lol!!!

 

[bullfrog !]

Well it’s getting hot in the desert and the crazy people are getting into dangerous situations. Thirty miles of hiking for a late middle aged fit woman in tennis attire, one 12 ounce bottle of water and a pampered large dog used to being hauled around in a car (Audi all wheel drive with no ground clearance, now stuck while trying to turn around) in 90 degree weather in remote desert is not an ideal situation. Even though her car had emergency service she was told to call 911. When I happened by she was still trying to get to California (delusional) and her dog was smart enough to be in the shade panting. After some water she turned out to be a dentist looking to see some natural beauty in the desert on a whim in her new all wheel drive car. I drove her back into a Tucson motel to contact someone to retrieve her car and get her and her dog rehydrated. Didn’t even get a thank you but they were pretty tired. If you go on the remote desert dirt roads at the minimum don’t drive any farther than you are prepared to walk. Be able to call for help but don’t expect to be found quickly. Always carry extra water. So much for my public service announcement.

 

[maki2]

^^^”common sense” perhaps that has never meant that most people make sensible choices, especially regarding safety, but instead the expression has always meant the exact opposite

 

[Morgana]

Well, @bullfrog ! , you have the thanks of a grateful nation, or at least a few dental patients (assuming she's any good at that
So easy to start feeling invincible when you're inside a car... and to start thinking of nature like an amusement park. I got lost once on some logging roads in Maine ("oh, when it's time to come back, I'll just turn left at the pine tree" ), sobered me up pretty fast.
I want to do that Ajo Mountain drive sometime (starts across the highway from Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument) but I'm a bit chicken. It's one way/unpaved after the first stretch so you're pretty committed once you start. I suppose it's pretty well patrolled and all, better than some random dirt road, but man there's a lot of dry & lonely space out there.
I don't know how good the cell phone coverage is once you get way out there either. So yeah, take LOTS of extra water ...

 

[maki2]

For your Sunday entertainment:
An interesting YouTube video from a history based channel. It describes from various accounts what was supposedly the very first cross country road trip from California to the East Coast in a convertible top, luxury, touring automobile by a family of father, mother and two children. They took along a spare parts and at times even a mechanic too. They did take the time to write ahead for assurance of being able to get fuel at towns they might pass. The most hazardous section was crossing Death Valley where there was not an established road or of course any towns for resupply. A very adventurous family but it was not the era of Old Wild West with serious the serious hazards of attacks from “bad guys”.