A Little Shakin' Goin On
We experienced a taste of California on Thursday, April 24th. There were several earthquakes that happened that night to the next day, but Stacy and I only felt two of them.
First one was about 7:30 pm, I was standing in the bathroom, Stacy in bed, and a rumble along with rolling lasted for quite a bit of time. Things rattled but nothing fell and there was no damage.
A few minutes after and I went looking online for any reports because we were pretty certain it was in fact a quake. Stacy was certain and said it was a quake during the event. I knew it was also but still wanted to make sure since the only other thing it could have been would have been an oil train crash in town and possible subsequent explosion, so I wanted to confirm!
I did find information but it originally gave the location as in the vicinity of Hayden Lake, which is about 65 miles South of this area. Initially it was reported to be a 4.1 magnitude quake but a few days later it had been downgraded to 3.9 and the location pin pointed to the area of Lake Ponderay in Sandpoint, about 35 miles South.
Later that night, about 10:00 p.m., we were awoken by a sharp jolt quake, strong but just shake and done.
The next morning I looked the quakes up again on the USGS (United Sates Geological Survey) website and saw that there were actually several quakes from 7:30ish p.m. to after 1:30ish a.m. all in the area of the lake and down several miles in the crust. The 7:30 and 10:00 quakes were the strongest with the 1:30 a.m. quake being less so but in the same general area.
Of course this WAS news! Earthquakes in north Idaho? We actually didn't think they happened and in reading stories in area news sites we found out that although very rare, the last quake recorded was in the 1980's around here, they happen all over including the general area.
Turns out in southern Idaho, near the town of Challis, they have been experiencing a somewhat regular swarm of small quakes for quite a while. The stories said these local quakes "could" be foreshock quakes, but no one really knows and since starting this post and today, May 12th, there have apparently been no others. GOOD!
Dry here too!
For friends and family that live in California and continue to endure the history making drought in the lower southwest, it's been drought conditions in the northwest and here locally also! In the news just this morning it was reported about a 2 acre fire over the weekend in the area, it was said that moisture reading sensors used in the area forests are indicating severely dry; already!
Usually the highest fire danger is in late July, August, and early September in this area as the fall rains often start, along with much cooler temps, by mid Sept. During the last really time time a couple of summers ago, there were restrictions put in place for smoking cigarettes out in the open, operating chain saws, or any type of outdoor fire including Barbeques.
There is a lot of concern about forest fires here this summer. The area forest is obviously suffering with the drought and bug infestations due to such overall short dryer winters the past few years, with many standing dead trees. Across the border in Canada it has been somewhat worsened since they generally have received more rain / snow than here so there will be more dry growth that could burn. This mornings story indicated the Forest Service may put out fire restrictions for this coming Memorial Day holiday for the area campgrounds. Last summer there were the major wildfires that took out towns in Washington state and some just as severe in Canada above Washington. Nobody wants a major fire in this area.
International Visitor's Center
Last January while we were in town for the centennial reenactment, Stacy and I walked over to the International Visitor's Center in town. It's a rest stop with bathrooms as well as a place to get information on this area as well as places as far as Yellowstone, east and Seattle, west. For people traveling north into Canada, there's information on things to see and do for three western provinces. Well, we've been there on occasion and I had been talking with Stacy about volunteering to staff it as it is run entirely by volunteers. It happened to be open so we went in and while looking around talked with the person staffing the center that day.
She took our names and info and said she'd refer the info to the lady that's in charge of the volunteers saying we'd like to volunteer too. With Stacy's regular summer Boise trips and other things increasing in the summer we don't plan on any trips.
Right now, with Stacy's father in the shape he's in we both can't go at all as someone needs to be available to tend to him since Stacy's brother and his wife have proven to be little help and unreliable in his care.
So, since we can't go anywhere, why not volunteer a few hours a month at the Visitor's Center!
In late March we heard from and met with the lady running the show. Turns out she's an International traveler only in this area a few months a year now and only keeps up with the place on her local visits. She has decided she wants to sell and relocate out of the area, so she wants out now!
Because of our jobs and with Stacy's area reputation, she volunteers us to take over the operations of the center to the city, and it is the city that keeps the facility going in lights and water!
Stacy had a meeting with her yesterday and was able to talk her in to keeping her foot in the water and not just throwing it all to us which is good since we haven't even been there once for a shift yet. We will be going to a get together meeting in a couple of weeks with all the other volunteers at which time days and hours schedules will be hashed out as well as meeting everyone and everyone meeting us. We had asked if there was anybody who might be upset and in fact may want to run the place themselves but we were assured that none of the present volunteers want to take that role on. Well, neither did we!
We just wanted to be there a few hours a month on Saturday or Sunday afternoons!
We will have to see how this all plays out at the meeting, but right now, honestly, I'm feeling that phrase of no good deed goes unpunished!
24
With many of the usual TV series we watch winding down for the summer off seasons, we have begun to watch the old TV series 24 again. It has been working out well since Stacy's father likes the show because of it's fast timing and almost constant action keep him generally aware of what's happening.
We're 4 episodes into season 3, there are of course, 24 episodes since each episode is supposed to represent a real time hour of the series' 24 hour "day". At the moment and we watch 2 episodes each night when we get home with her father, then he goes to sleep and we'll watch a bit more of the programming I have saved on the DVR.
In watching the series again, and it's been several years since we have watched it through like this, it is interesting to see that in addition to being ground breaking at the time, there are many aspects that I don't think could be shown on TV now, were it a new series. Even last years shorter run "24: Live a Another Day" was a different take of these older shows as far as the villains go.
And as far as the lead character, Jack Bauer, he was quite the superman in these older shows! In one show he pulls out a piece of wood from his thigh, at least 4 inches long, and "an hour" later he's running and walking like nothing happened! Towards the end of season 2, he's stripped, tortured, burned, cut, and tasered to the point being actually killed in the show, only to be revived so he could continue to be tortured, but less than 2 "hours" later he's running and shooting like nothing happened! What a guy!
He's a, a, a, Superman!
We experienced a taste of California on Thursday, April 24th. There were several earthquakes that happened that night to the next day, but Stacy and I only felt two of them.
First one was about 7:30 pm, I was standing in the bathroom, Stacy in bed, and a rumble along with rolling lasted for quite a bit of time. Things rattled but nothing fell and there was no damage.
A few minutes after and I went looking online for any reports because we were pretty certain it was in fact a quake. Stacy was certain and said it was a quake during the event. I knew it was also but still wanted to make sure since the only other thing it could have been would have been an oil train crash in town and possible subsequent explosion, so I wanted to confirm!
I did find information but it originally gave the location as in the vicinity of Hayden Lake, which is about 65 miles South of this area. Initially it was reported to be a 4.1 magnitude quake but a few days later it had been downgraded to 3.9 and the location pin pointed to the area of Lake Ponderay in Sandpoint, about 35 miles South.
Later that night, about 10:00 p.m., we were awoken by a sharp jolt quake, strong but just shake and done.
The next morning I looked the quakes up again on the USGS (United Sates Geological Survey) website and saw that there were actually several quakes from 7:30ish p.m. to after 1:30ish a.m. all in the area of the lake and down several miles in the crust. The 7:30 and 10:00 quakes were the strongest with the 1:30 a.m. quake being less so but in the same general area.
Of course this WAS news! Earthquakes in north Idaho? We actually didn't think they happened and in reading stories in area news sites we found out that although very rare, the last quake recorded was in the 1980's around here, they happen all over including the general area.
Turns out in southern Idaho, near the town of Challis, they have been experiencing a somewhat regular swarm of small quakes for quite a while. The stories said these local quakes "could" be foreshock quakes, but no one really knows and since starting this post and today, May 12th, there have apparently been no others. GOOD!
Dry here too!
For friends and family that live in California and continue to endure the history making drought in the lower southwest, it's been drought conditions in the northwest and here locally also! In the news just this morning it was reported about a 2 acre fire over the weekend in the area, it was said that moisture reading sensors used in the area forests are indicating severely dry; already!
Usually the highest fire danger is in late July, August, and early September in this area as the fall rains often start, along with much cooler temps, by mid Sept. During the last really time time a couple of summers ago, there were restrictions put in place for smoking cigarettes out in the open, operating chain saws, or any type of outdoor fire including Barbeques.
There is a lot of concern about forest fires here this summer. The area forest is obviously suffering with the drought and bug infestations due to such overall short dryer winters the past few years, with many standing dead trees. Across the border in Canada it has been somewhat worsened since they generally have received more rain / snow than here so there will be more dry growth that could burn. This mornings story indicated the Forest Service may put out fire restrictions for this coming Memorial Day holiday for the area campgrounds. Last summer there were the major wildfires that took out towns in Washington state and some just as severe in Canada above Washington. Nobody wants a major fire in this area.
International Visitor's Center
Last January while we were in town for the centennial reenactment, Stacy and I walked over to the International Visitor's Center in town. It's a rest stop with bathrooms as well as a place to get information on this area as well as places as far as Yellowstone, east and Seattle, west. For people traveling north into Canada, there's information on things to see and do for three western provinces. Well, we've been there on occasion and I had been talking with Stacy about volunteering to staff it as it is run entirely by volunteers. It happened to be open so we went in and while looking around talked with the person staffing the center that day.
She took our names and info and said she'd refer the info to the lady that's in charge of the volunteers saying we'd like to volunteer too. With Stacy's regular summer Boise trips and other things increasing in the summer we don't plan on any trips.
Right now, with Stacy's father in the shape he's in we both can't go at all as someone needs to be available to tend to him since Stacy's brother and his wife have proven to be little help and unreliable in his care.
So, since we can't go anywhere, why not volunteer a few hours a month at the Visitor's Center!
In late March we heard from and met with the lady running the show. Turns out she's an International traveler only in this area a few months a year now and only keeps up with the place on her local visits. She has decided she wants to sell and relocate out of the area, so she wants out now!
Because of our jobs and with Stacy's area reputation, she volunteers us to take over the operations of the center to the city, and it is the city that keeps the facility going in lights and water!
Stacy had a meeting with her yesterday and was able to talk her in to keeping her foot in the water and not just throwing it all to us which is good since we haven't even been there once for a shift yet. We will be going to a get together meeting in a couple of weeks with all the other volunteers at which time days and hours schedules will be hashed out as well as meeting everyone and everyone meeting us. We had asked if there was anybody who might be upset and in fact may want to run the place themselves but we were assured that none of the present volunteers want to take that role on. Well, neither did we!
We just wanted to be there a few hours a month on Saturday or Sunday afternoons!
We will have to see how this all plays out at the meeting, but right now, honestly, I'm feeling that phrase of no good deed goes unpunished!
24
With many of the usual TV series we watch winding down for the summer off seasons, we have begun to watch the old TV series 24 again. It has been working out well since Stacy's father likes the show because of it's fast timing and almost constant action keep him generally aware of what's happening.
We're 4 episodes into season 3, there are of course, 24 episodes since each episode is supposed to represent a real time hour of the series' 24 hour "day". At the moment and we watch 2 episodes each night when we get home with her father, then he goes to sleep and we'll watch a bit more of the programming I have saved on the DVR.
In watching the series again, and it's been several years since we have watched it through like this, it is interesting to see that in addition to being ground breaking at the time, there are many aspects that I don't think could be shown on TV now, were it a new series. Even last years shorter run "24: Live a Another Day" was a different take of these older shows as far as the villains go.
And as far as the lead character, Jack Bauer, he was quite the superman in these older shows! In one show he pulls out a piece of wood from his thigh, at least 4 inches long, and "an hour" later he's running and walking like nothing happened! Towards the end of season 2, he's stripped, tortured, burned, cut, and tasered to the point being actually killed in the show, only to be revived so he could continue to be tortured, but less than 2 "hours" later he's running and shooting like nothing happened! What a guy!
He's a, a, a, Superman!
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