respublica

I miss the sun

It's been almost a week since we've had any sun and with its loss came really cold temperatures and too much wind. The wind has wreaked a bit of havoc on our outdoor Christmas things, but worse it did something to our front storm door. We now can't open it at all. The strong wind around Thanksgiving must have slammed the door in such a way that the lock jammed. Yes, our storm door has a lock. But we have no key. We've spent the last couple of days forgetting we can't get out that door and then backing up to go out the kitchen door.

It's a small thing, but when you're dragging out Christmas figures and lights it gets to be a pain. I'm going down to seminary maintenance now to see if they have a key to this storm door. It will be a nightmare if there is no key because this is a big, heavy glass door.

Wind is not fun.

Taking on MoDOT

This is one of those news stories that made me stop and cheer. It's about time. "A state lawmaker from eastern Missouri is criticizing what he calls the state Department of Transportation’s (MoDOT’s) incompetence, for its handling of the Veterans Day winter storm."  State Rep, NIck Schoer of O'Fallon wants MoDOT to examine how other states handle snow, including the chemicals they’re using. Schroer says the agency wasn’t ready for the storm.

If you remember that cold, wet, icy, snowy burst of winter weather during afternoon rush hour, you'll remember how many accidents and hours it took for drivers to get home. Meanwhile, those drivers heading east related that when they finally got into Illinois they found the roads very drive-able. And yet, MoDOT responds to Schoer's comments with all kinds of excuses and talk of how much they did.

I've said the same thing as Rep Schoer for some years. It only takes living in Missouri for a bit to realize MoDOT does not get its roads free of ice and snow like Illinois does and, probably many other states. On this blog I've practically begged MoDOT to go over to the Collinsville IDOT headquarters and learn what they do to the winter roads that Missouri does not.

Here is a post I wrote on just this issue from the past February.

The weather today is disrespectful

It's early morning on Halloween (also Reformation) and the weather is dark and the temperatures are just above freezing. And it's windy. We're in a state of flux around here while we try to decide what to do about trick or treating on campus. So many of our seminary kids are quite young. Toddlers and pre-schoolers. This makes having them out in this weather debatable. So until things are decided there's this bit of truth:

St. Louis decided to dress as December for Halloween.

Hurricane aftermath

While following the reports of Hurricane Lorian and seeing images of the devastation down in the Bahamas, it got me to wondering just how difficult it must be for an island to repair its damages. Puerto Rico by many accounts is still in the process of recovery after two years. Some blame the US for allocating money but not dispersing it to Puerto Rico. But money is only the beginning. I mainly wonder what kind of construction equipment, wood, steel, heavy machinery, manufacturing business that island has to make the work of fixing roads and homes and businesses go smoothly. Or must they wait to have those things shipped in from other countries.

The same thoughts are with the Bahamas. If all recovery depends on things being shipped in, it could be a long go for them as well.

Some stories scream for updates

The hurricane approaching the Florida coast could be really awful or move slightly east and be less damaging. But by all accounts, there will be high winds and lots of rain in any event. Along with all the stories about residents leaving or stocking up on food and water comes this lady, Brittany Vidal, in Jacksonville who has wrapped her house in black plastic held in place by duct tape and 300 sand bags. She hopes this barricade will do some good after other plans in the past did not.

I hope when this is all over, we get an update on how this all worked out.

The prediction

The Farmer's Almanac is predicting a miserable winter, a Polar Coaster of freezing, frigid, frosty, temperatures. "This winter will be filled with so many ups and downs on the thermometer, it may remind you of a 'Polar Coaster."

As if last winter wasn't bad enough. But I'm glad to say there are skeptics who believe, "While this forecast trends around this time every year, the more than 200-year-old almanac shouldn't be given too much weight on its own."  As a CNN weather meteorologist said, "It's difficult enough to do a five-day forecast, We're really good at the day of and the next day, (and) we're better at temperature a ways out than precipitation. But to forecast out that far in advance ... even the science behind our long-range forecasting is sometimes not that solid."

Wettest year ever?

Weather guy at KSDK, Chester Lampkin, wrote this morning that St. Louis is on pace for the wettest year on record. "No year has recorded more rain through August 14th than 2019."

I believe it and that includes the snow we had this winter which seemed to come constantly.

This is August

It's not supposed to rain in August and especially not as much rain as its been dropping. The grass should be dry and browning, but, no, it's green and growing.

More bad weather on the way

This has been a scary year for weather. High winds, ice, snow, torrential rains all worked together to bring down trees, cause accidents, and make just doing things difficult. Now we hear that tonight we stand a good chance of experiencing large hail, damaging winds, flooding downpours and tornadoes.

Frankly I don't believe any of us here can bear one more downed tree. Trees are lovely, but boy do they cause problems when they fall without warning. Our campus security camera by the chapel caught the most recent huge oak falling Saturday night during a wind and rain storm. It slowly, almost in slow motion, began listing to the west as the huge root ball slowly raised up out of the ground. Then slowly, slowly the tree dropped to the ground.

What was odd was that it fell to the west when the winds were coming from that direction.

The chapel tree

Yesterday a tree company came and cut up and hauled away, the big Oak tree which fell next to the chapel during the Saturday night wind storm. I got a few pictures before they began and that tree was massive and came right out to the ground. It's just amazing it did not hit the chapel windows.

The root ball, huge