Tuesday morning, I had just opened a Link Log post when the electricity went off. It stayed off until about midday on Friday. We had furious storms all through Monday night and early Tuesday morning, but while the electricity has been off the weather has been mild and pleasant. Here are as many links as I've found while online from, once again, McDonalds. I don't plan to come into town to use the Internet again before the electricity returns, but who knows. The signal even at McDonalds has been weak and patchy; once again, a casual investigation of private connections in town (as you may know, McDonalds is located at a higher elevation than downtown Gate City) shows that they've been unreliable.
Books
Happy Pub Day, Sally Jacobs! By today you should be able to find Althea in stores everywhere...
Censorship
Scripture and other quotes on the subject:
Climate
While offline I've dug back through a stack of local newspapers, at the headlines of which I'd glanced before laying the papers aside to read during Internet downtime. It's been fun to read about the valiant efforts Kingsporters are making to stand their ground against the importation of--not poor people as such, not Black or Spanish-speaking people as such, but poor Black and Spanish-speaking people whose own towns wanted to get rid of them, a very different and less pleasant group. (Actually, regular readers may remember, there was an effort to organize a mission to help them, by which I was employed for the months it took the little mission church to give up hope.) A posh yarn shop has been opened! The antique and junk store has been reopened under new management! There is still hope that Kingsport may survive if its natives hold fast what is theirs, practicing vigorous discrimination against undesirable behavior without any ill will toward people who are not behaving badly...
But their wailing about their weather is so...poorly informed. The local newspaper is relying too heavily on censored news sources. Quirky and fun as Reuters is, I understand it's hard to remember that Reuters is in the censorship club, but they are. As a result the Kingsport Times-News has been documenting the misery of downtown Kingsport, but not reporting the weather news fully and accurately enough to give Kingsporters any hope of improving matters.
Has Kingsport been part of the horrific heat wave that's been reported from the Deep South and Southwest? Some Kingsporters seem to believe so. They have been looking at their Fahrenheit thermometers and seeing those three-figure temperatures. Tragically, they have not been shopping in Gate City, Duffield, Big Stone Gap, Wise, or Norton, nor have they been listening to music at the Carter Fold in Maces Springs, where we've been cooled by continual showers. I've noted just three rainless days (not separated by rainless nights) all summer, and felt that we've basically had one rain storm that's never moved on, but although window fans feel nice on damp days we've had one day when any reasonable person would have been interested in air conditioning. One. We've had record low temperatures, which, of course, in summer in Virginia means ideal temperatures for hiking, camping, and fishing--60 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit all summer long.
The fascinating El Nino / La Nina wind pattern has obviously had something to do with it, the Blue Ridge obviously being the point where northern and southern weather patterns meet, but do not be deceived, Kingsport, or Johnson City or Knoxville. If the heat wave had reached this far north youall would have had deadly heat, as distinct from the miserable heat you've had. There's nothing "global" about your warming relative to places, including places in Tennessee like Kingsport's official weather station, that are not necessarily either further north or higher up the mountains than you are. It is local warming. Turf up some pavement, plant more trees, walk instead of driving, garden instead of watching television, lose those "heat pumps" and use air conditioning only when you need it, and you too can enjoy summers like this one.
The heat officially broke in Gate City yesterday; this morning I woke up positively chilly.
At least that ought to be the link that records the records. Microsoft pushes desperately to get people to click on these things and then dillydallies about opening them.
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