Category Archives: Weather

Yawn…

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Zzzzz. That’s what I tried to do last night. A storm front came through and thwarted that idea. Weather changes give me head congestion. That equals mouth breathing, dry mouth, tossing and turning and little, if any, sleep.

In addition to an hour or so of sleep overnight, I’ve a sinus headache. Zzzzz. I’m just not my usual perky self today. I’ll see y’all Monday.

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Well, that was interesting!

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I was sitting here at my desk, just futzing around, when the weather came for a visit.  At first, it was just rain, a little hail. Pea-sized mostly.  Then…Bang! A golf-ball size piece hit the side of the house just a few feet from where I was sitting.

Our town has an automated weather-warning system.  If you subscribe, it will call your home and/or mobile phone and give you a warning.

It did.  A Tornado Warning had just announced and a tornado or funnel cloud had been reported just a few miles from us by an observer.

Scurry time! Mrs. Crucis started rounding up the cats. Our two have their personal cages that go into our shelter with us.  The shelter was clogged with stuff that had accumulated since our last tornado warning… rifle cases—hard and soft, full ammo cans, a pair of crutches from somewhere, pillows, a plethora of stuff.  I begin tossing out stuff, like the pillows, to make room for the cats. Mrs. Crucis went through the house gathering flashlights and batteries.

I turn on my 2-M Ham Radio handhelds—dead batteries!  I hadn’t used them in a while. (Note to self: check HT batteries regularly and recharge.)

I turned on the TV and we watched the reports.  Mrs. Crucis and I have weather apps on our android phones so we can monitor the radar personally.  The problem with the apps is that the radar plots are on a 5-minute delay. I wonder if I buy the commercial app if it will show radar real-time.

That’s another item on my to-do list.

With all the scurrying around, the storm passes us by. We received heavy rain, some hail, and a reminder of Spring-time weather here on the plains.

It’s all over now.  My servers (including this blog) were off-line for a half hour.  It anyone tried to connect with my blog and couldn’t between 5:30pm and 6:00pm Central, that’s why. I pulled the plug.

The radio just announced more funnel clouds to the west across the state line.  It looks like it may be a long evening.

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Light Thursday

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When I woke up this morning it was already 80 outside.  I checked the WeatherBug on my android phone and saw something new.  A fire alert!  The forecast today is high temps near 100, humidity around 25% and lower, plus strong winds, 15-20mph with gusts up to 35mph.  All the right conditions for a flash ground fire.
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In Illinois, a man is facing jail sentences that could send him away for the rest of his life.  His offense?  Recording  the police in a public area. 
There’s just one thing wrong.  It’s not against the law.  The First Court of Appeals, ruling on a number of similar cases, has just affirmed the right of people to film and record the police and government official in public places. 

Appeals Court Rules It Is Not Illegal To Film Police

Americans still being arrested for recording cops as a consequence of mass hoax 
Despite the mass hoax still being promulgated by both the mainstream media and local authorities across America, the First Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that it is not illegal for citizens to videotape police officers when they are on public duty.
“The filming of government officials while on duty is protected by the First Amendment, said the Court,” reports Daily Tech.
“The filming of government officials engaged in their duties in a public place, including police officers performing their responsibilities, fits comfortably within these principles [of protected First Amendment activity].,” said the Court. “Gathering information about government officials in a form that can readily be disseminated to others serves a cardinal First Amendment interest in protecting and promoting the free discussion of governmental affairs,” stated the ruling, adding that this has been the case all along, and that the right to film police officers is not just restricted to the press.
The case cited several examples where citizens were arrested for documenting acts of police brutality on recording devices, including that of Simon Glik, who was arrested after he filmed Boston police punching a man on the Boston Common.
Another case involved Khaliah Fitchette, a teenager who filmed police aggressively removing a man from a bus in Newark. Fitchette was arrested and detained for two hours before police deleted the video from her cellphone.
The court ruling also made it clear that bloggers who report news based on their recordings of police have equal protection under the law as journalists.
 There’s more at the website.  It’s a good read.  Of course, the Chicago thugocracy is still charging Michael Allison with five counts of “wiretapping” for recording police officers in public.
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Obama had to eat some crow.  I hope he enjoyed the taste.  After weeks of bragging that his “jobs” plan was just about ready—just as soon as he finished his vacation, he scheduled it to be announced at a joint session of Congress for the same evening when the Republican debates to be held.  Just a coincidence?
Except the all-powerful Obama forgot one thing.  To have a joint session of Congress, he has to get the leadership of the two Houses to agree.
Boehner, in a rare display of guts, refused.  He said that no one in the White House had coordinated the event with him and that night was already taken with the ‘Pub debates.  He gave Obama a list of alternative dates. 
Obama chose the evening of the NFL season opener, the Packers vs. the Saints.  Somehow, I don’t think the residents of Green Bay, WI will be watching Obama.
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Dick Cheney has been making the rounds of the talk-show circuit.  He’s been on Rush and Hannity, maybe Laura Ingraham too.  The Republican establishment in DC is not amused.
Heh, heh!
I think Colin Powell was the first. Ahhh. And, Powell claims to be a ‘Pub but he voted of Obama.

Powell deserves every embarrassment Cheney exposes.

Well that was an interesting morning.

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The car doc decided he needed my car all day so I got a ride back home.  About a half hour later, I started to receive weather alerts.  Raymore has an automated system that calls residents and repeats severe weather and tornado watches and warnings.  The first I heard of the impending weather was that automated call announcing a tornado warning!  

Then the sirens went off.

Mrs. Crucis was out running errands. I called her just as she was leaving the Closet to come home.  She tried to call the Daughter but she didn’t answer. The g’kids are out of school now so they were probably out somewhere.
Daughter called from her neighbor.  Cell coverage is out. They dropped their landlines a few months ago and now have only cell phones.  With cell coverage out it makes you appreciate underground land-lines. No SMS texting either except for my Android phone.  My texts are going out through our internet connection which is up and never flickered throughout all of this.

By the time Mrs. Crucis got home, reports of tornadoes and funnel clouds were on TV and the radio.  The Sprint Campus where I once worked was under lock-down and everyone moved into the interior storm shelters. A tornado was reported to be on the ground along Metcalf Avenue near the Campus. That was amended later to be a funnel cloud.

I have a weather app on my android phone.  I loaded that and watched the NWS radar loops.  There was a hook developing right where our house was marked by GPS.  Fortunately it was a funnel cloud and didn’t touch down as far as I know. I did hear from neighbors that there was some tree and roof damage occurred in and to the west of Belton.

According to radar, we here in Raymore, were right on the edge of the darkest red area.  I looove that app.  I could watch the actual radar returns on a 3-minute delay.  I pointed out the radar hook to Mrs. Crucis and we grabbed the cats, stuffed them into their carriers in case we needed to run to our bolt-hole.

It’s now passed.  The storm line has gone further north and there are now reports of tornadoes to the east around Sedalia, MO, 60-70 miles to the east.

Missouri has really been hit the last few days.  Historically, storms seem to pass around KC rather than over. Not this time.  If that funnel cloud over us had been on the ground, it would have torn right up through the middle of KC following US 71 and I-435 north.

It missed us…this time.