The value and importance of numbers...

 61 since '61 and 61 equals 61...  

Two records were tied last night in the Yankees-Blue Jays Game. Gerrit Cole tied Ron Guidry for the Yankees all-time season strikeout record, and Number 99 - Aaron Judge - ties Roger Maris for the AL single-season home run record, set in 1961 - 61 years ago! I don't know if there's a classier, more humble guy in all of baseball than No. 99. He's gonna have one insanely huge contract coming from somewhere next year. Good for him...

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When the sun comes up this morning we're gonna be hit with some pretty frightening visuals from yesterdays Ian landfall. This motherfucker will literally change the face of Florida forever. The power and fury of Mother Nature is truly amazing. It's gonna take a LONG time to rebuild the Sunshine State. Thankfully, we have great leadership here.

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There are now estimated to be somewhere around 61,000 

(yeah - I know. Coincidence, right) electric utility vehicles now staged and ready to go to work around the state restoring power and replacing the grid where needed. Crews from as far away as Nebraska and Wyoming are here to help. These are truly special people doing great work for the people of Florida. I have not seen a single truck here from New York or New Jersey, but I'll keep looking...
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This graphic showed up in a few different places on Fakebook yesterday. It purports to show the difference in size of the eyes of hurricanes Charley and Ian, with Ian's being something like 20 times larger around. I don't know for sure if it's legit or not, but that may well be the case - when Ian hit the coast of Florida yesterday, it was an incredibly well organized (if there is such a thing) storm of a magnitude that hasn't been seen in a long time. The coast of southwest Florida had been changed dramatically...

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If you're looking for a unique gift item for the 

special lady in your life, maybe you should take a look 

at the jewelry my wife makes. 

Click on this picture to see this bracelet in her online store.

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This is awesome. Fuck Mark McGwire...

 

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Just in case you've been wondering...

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Did you see the item I posted yesterday about that piece of shit Don Lemon from CNN trying to link hurricanes with climate change? What a fuckin' dooshbag. He got put in his place for a moment, but his real place should be somewhere down Ass-kicking Alley. Juss' sayin'...

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Three 'good' Catholic boys on our way to Sunday morning mass. 

I never did get my head around the whole religion thing, and I was even an 'Altar Boy' as were both of my brothers. In those days, we did what we were told to do, or we got our asses kicked. It was just that simple - 'Go worship God or I'll beat you senseless...' Go figure.

 

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As it stands here so far...

 

I probably won't be sleeping much tonight, but if I was...

 
I'd be thinking of Nicci. I think she now lives somewhere close to 

where Ian made landfall today. I hope her and her kids are okay...

Things here will look a lot different tomorrow...

 When this monster is done with us - the whole state - may be radically transformed.

I'm not a 'praying' kinda guy, but if I was, I don't know what 

I'd be praying for or who I'd praying to, 'cause isn't God kinda 

responsible for this kinda stuff? (Asking for a friend)...

I need some levity - can I borrow a cup of yours?

 

Shark swimming down a street in fort Myers...

 
For some reason I couldn't link directly to it, but you'll find the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OyiWyvnopGM

Florida Man is savage. And really pissed off at something. Jeez...

 

This happened last week. In the future, we'll probably relate to any episodes like this as 'pre-Ian' or 'post-Ian'. Either way, this dude musta been really pissed off at something this guy said or did...

A Florida man stabbed an acquaintance 40 times with a pair of scissors in an attempted beheading inside a convenience store. According to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, Edmund Clarke, 36, entered the location with the son of an elderly man he serves as a caretaker for.

Video of the Monday incident shows Clarke suddenly grabbing a pair of scissors he spotted inside the store and lunging at the victim as the bloody attack unfolds. Deputies said Clarke allegedly hacked away at the man in an attempt to behead him — and grabbed other knives he found inside the store during the incident.

Clarke’s 'alleged' assault How can it be called alleged when they got video tape of the assault?) lasted several minutes before cops arrived. The victim was rushed to a local hospital with severe wounds to his head, neck and torso.

The full story - with video - can be found here:

https://nypost.com/2022/09/22/florida-man-edmund-clarke-attempts-scissors-beheading-in-convenience-store/

The word of the day here in Florida is...

 

We're good at this shit down here...

 

Duke Energy is staging more than 2,000 utility trucks with 6,000 workers on an 80-acre site right here in The Villages to respond to outages throughout North Central Florida. Utility companies from other states and Canada are assisting Florida line personnel. 

Duke Energy trucks are also staged in the parking lot at Tropicana Field in Tampa in preparation for Hurricane Ian.

Close to 30,000 were already  without power in Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties as of midday Wednesday.

It's good to be brave and stupid at the same time...

 

Why is this Don Lemon jackass on TV? He is such a friggin' asswipe...

 

As Hurricane Ian approached Florida threatening to bring billions of dollars in damage and place millions of Floridians in immediate danger, CNN host Don Lemon spent an interview asking a hurricane expert whether climate change was to blame for Ian, only to be shut down, repeatedly. 
Lemon, who recently escaped a network purge of some of the most left-wing talent at the company, attempted to turn the conversation political. Rohme quickly shut down the line of questioning, saying that he would rather focus on the present circumstances of the storm, adding, 'I don't think you can link climate change to any one event, you fucking moron...'

(okay, maybe I added a little to his comment. My bad.)

- Photo and comment from DailyMail.com.

Calvin dares ya...

 

Yesterday, while I was at the store, I saw this.

 Meanwhile at Publix, they're proving that, in spite of the scary shit about to hit us, we still have a sense of humor...

Planning for the inevitable...

 

What Do When The Power Is Out During a Storm 

1) Get out the board games. Often, we are too caught up in the hustle and bustle to enjoy actual family time. Seize the moment and  enjoy a board game together - something like Monopoly with real money, or Slap Checkers, where you get to hit your opponent every time you take one of their checkers. 

 

2) Workbooks, puzzles, or coloring books are a waste of time. Play strip poker with your grandparents. They will definitely resort to cheating at some point.
3)Bring back charades!  Playing charades is one of the easiest ways I know to piss people off, especially when you never let them guess the answer. 
4) Get out some instruments and make very bad, very loud music. Perform your own personal concert, especially if you suck at it. Make sure the windows are open so the neighbors can share in the fun. 

 

5) Use your artistic skills and spend time drawing, painting, or crafting on each others arms and faces with indelible markers. This certainly was a highlight of our last family dinner
6) Play 'Hide the Salami. 
7) Make a comic book. You could do these individually or together as a family, but make all of the characters are naked or stoned, or both. 
8) Play hangman or tic-tac-toe. It's a kid's game, but if you play for money they can be pretty cut-throat. Try it.
9) Play trivia. Make your own questions!
Even better, make up bullshit trivia and make your family try to prove it's bullshit. 
10) Play Hide the Salami again
11) Get out a bottle of rot-gut rum. Play Do It Or Die. If they make a face when they do a shot, you get to punch them really fuckin' hard. (I just invented that game). 

 

12) Visit with friends. Get to know your neighbors. Take a walk, especially when the wind is over 50mph. See how long you can stand up. 
13) Embrace the opportunity for precious family time. Communicate. Tell your kids and grandkids what really pisses you off. Then throw them out of the house.
14) Sleep. Who says getting a little extra shut-eye is a stupid idea, especially after all the scotch is gone? 

 

15) Wake up and play Hide the Salami again. This time try hiding it with someone else. That makes it a long more interesting.

 

Waking up to better news

 Bad news is, Ian is gonna beat the shit out of 

most of the entire State of Florida... 

And this bad boy is one huge motherfucker - nearly 500 miles across.

 The good news is (at least for us here) is that it's now tracking well south of us headed towards the east coast, south of Orlando, which puts the eye somewhere around 50 or so miles south of The Villages. 

 

We'll still get Tropical Storm force winds and an absolute shitload of rain, but that's almost acceptable compared to what might have happened. The power will most probably go out at some point, so posts here may be sketchy at best, but I'll try to post updates as I can using my phone or tablet if cell service stays active. Good luck everyone, if you need me, I'll probably be doing this...

 

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Proof - almost as if we need it - that all decisions have consequences...
 

I have to throw in at least one topical/non-tropical item here. Two undersea leaks that began in the Russian-owned Nord Stream gas pipelines on Monday were likely caused by powerful underwater explosions, according to Swedish and Danish seismographic data.It is "very clear from the seismic record that these are blasts," Björn Lund‬, director of the Swedish National Seismic Network at Uppsala University told NPR in a phone interview. "These are not earthquakes; they are not landslides underwater."

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Has anyone done a study yet on how well the electric cars 

that everybody thinks we need (and can afford) perform driving through flooded streets? maybe now's a good time to do it here in the 'Sunshine State'. Juss sayin'...

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John usta say shit like this to Yoko all the time. It was a good thing, too, because she was probably the only other person on Earth who understood what the fuck he was talking about most of the time.
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