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Showing posts from September 22, 2024

Commercial Items Identified on my Commute

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I see a lot of interesting commercialitems on truck on I-75. When you make the commute many times you start to see the same items over and over again. Sometimes it is huge equipment tires, sometimes heavy equipment of different types. I see these huge blocks of aluminum going North. I think about what the mill must look like and where it is going. And how much aluminum foil a block like this will make. Using the Tesla Full Self-Driving (supervised) allows me to look for these things on the highway. The FSD also helps me through the crazy stop and goes. Easily over 70MPH and then sudden traffic at dead stops, frequently. I see accidents every trip. It is amazing there aren't more. A side note- aluminum foil has a shiny side and a dull side. The reason why is that the foil is folded as it goes through massive rollers. The shiny side is the side that faces the steel roller. The dull side faces itself - aluminum.
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Hurricane Helena (after the storm)

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The storm has passed as they do. In my location we were lucky. Although we were on the projected center path just a few hours ahead of the actual path, the storm path went to the east and we were largely spared. Yes, the electric went out, we had flooding, and trees down. But we missed the worst of it here in Gwinnett County Georgia. Of course, we are concerned about all the others who were not as lucky. My lake (Canary Lake) overflow sluice at maximum. Any higher and we would be looking at dam erosion. It was close. The overall level of the lake went about three feet over our normal maintained level. Most of my dock is underwater. No major damage and the water is receeding at the moment.
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Hurricane Helena (Before the Storm)

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It is before the storm, Hurricane Helena. Its raining now as it has been for a day or so. The storm gets here in about 10 hours. They are calling for 60-80 MPH winds in Atlanta! I have done my due diligence. I have gas for the generator, all the cars are charged and fueled. I have the chainsaw at the ready. I ran the truck last night to be sure. I am glad I insisted that we install hurricane straps to the rafters of the house when I was having the soffit/roof work done last year. My shitty contractor kept saying "you dont need them". I hope we don't need them. Most of the older homes around here don't have them. A hurricane strap is a metal bracket that ties the rafter/truss to the wall. Otherwise they are just toe-nailed and gravity holds the roof on. Once the wind gets under the roof gravity is no match for the wind and the whole roof structure blows away. This will be bad.
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