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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 9, 2023 12:12:00 GMT -5
Yesterday, towards 17h30, I'm reading at home when a bright flash outside lights up the room and I hear a big
BOOM! KZAAAAP!!!
It's raining lightly, but there is no thunder so I doubt it's a lightning strike.
*Flash!* KZAAAAP!!!
Again? What in tarnation??? I go to the window, and through the trees in front of the house I see a massive fireball accompanied by a third and final
KZAAAAP!!!
There's heavy machinery on the road where I saw the fireball, so I wonder if someone has a weird way of making asphalt or something. I go out to check things out, and it soon becomes clear that a neighbour rented a backhoe; the guy handling it accidentally hit the power lines and broke the nearest pole. The power lines hit the nearby trees (including the 14,400 V wire), and according to my lineman son the three instances of massive shorts were probably due to the system trying to reconnect itself twice before a breaker gave. The broken pole now looks forlorn, half hanging from its wires and half resting on the nearby trees. The fire brigade was there in a matter of minutes, and then people from the power company. The neighbour, thankfully, wasn't hurt in the least.
So... No power for the evening, but a lot of respect for the people who came in despite a massive downpour to repair things in a matter of hours. Plus, that explosion was awesome!
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Post by Icctrombone on Aug 10, 2023 5:47:58 GMT -5
Yesterday, towards 17h30, I'm reading at home when a bright flash outside lights up the room and I hear a big BOOM! KZAAAAP!!!It's raining lightly, but there is no thunder so I doubt it's a lightning strike. *Flash!* KZAAAAP!!!Again? What in tarnation??? I go to the window, and through the trees in front of the house I see a massive fireball accompanied by a third and final KZAAAAP!!!There's heavy machinery on the road where I saw the fireball, so I wonder if someone has a weird way of making asphalt or something. I go out to check things out, and it soon becomes clear that a neighbour rented a backhoe; the guy handling it accidentally hit the power lines and broke the nearest pole. The power lines hit the nearby trees (including the 14,400 V wire), and according to my lineman son the three instances of massive shorts were probably due to the system trying to reconnect itself twice before a breaker gave. The broken pole now looks forlorn, half hanging from its wires and half resting on the nearby trees. The fire brigade was there in a matter of minutes, and then people from the power company. The neighbour, thankfully, wasn't hurt in the least. So... No power for the evening, but a lot of respect for the people who came in despite a massive downpour to repair things in a matter of hours. Plus, that explosion was awesome! Wow, I would love to see video of this.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 10, 2023 7:11:21 GMT -5
Yesterday, towards 17h30, I'm reading at home when a bright flash outside lights up the room and I hear a big BOOM! KZAAAAP!!!It's raining lightly, but there is no thunder so I doubt it's a lightning strike. *Flash!* KZAAAAP!!!Again? What in tarnation??? I go to the window, and through the trees in front of the house I see a massive fireball accompanied by a third and final KZAAAAP!!!There's heavy machinery on the road where I saw the fireball, so I wonder if someone has a weird way of making asphalt or something. I go out to check things out, and it soon becomes clear that a neighbour rented a backhoe; the guy handling it accidentally hit the power lines and broke the nearest pole. The power lines hit the nearby trees (including the 14,400 V wire), and according to my lineman son the three instances of massive shorts were probably due to the system trying to reconnect itself twice before a breaker gave. The broken pole now looks forlorn, half hanging from its wires and half resting on the nearby trees. The fire brigade was there in a matter of minutes, and then people from the power company. The neighbour, thankfully, wasn't hurt in the least. So... No power for the evening, but a lot of respect for the people who came in despite a massive downpour to repair things in a matter of hours. Plus, that explosion was awesome! Wow, I would love to see video of this. I didn't have a camera, but I found something similar online: (Now I feel frustrated because there were only three zaps here).
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Post by Cei-U! on Aug 10, 2023 9:44:36 GMT -5
Hey, where's this month's "Spend Your Allowance" game? I'm jonesing here!
Cei-U! I summon the four-color monkey on my back!
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Post by Cei-U! on Aug 11, 2023 13:10:40 GMT -5
Man, am I pissed at my family. My sister has been in the hospital for a week and nobody thought to tell me until this morning. What the f is up with that?!?
Cei-U! I summon the WTF!
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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 11, 2023 13:58:20 GMT -5
Man, am I pissed at my family. My sister has been in the hospital for a week and nobody thought to tell me until this morning. What the f is up with that?!?(...) That sucks, man. Also, I hope it's nothing too serious (although the week-long stay is troubling).
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Post by Cei-U! on Aug 11, 2023 15:07:45 GMT -5
Man, am I pissed at my family. My sister has been in the hospital for a week and nobody thought to tell me until this morning. What the f is up with that?!?(...) That sucks, man. Also, I hope it's nothing too serious (although the week-long stay is troubling). Kay's bone cancer has returned, so she's in the hospital for radiation therapy. The doctors don't want her traveling to and from home until she's stronger. Anyway, she called a little while ago, apologized for asking the family not to tell me, and promised to explain why when I go see her early next week so it's all good... or as good as it can be when your big sister has bone cancer.
Cei-U! I summon the relief!
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Post by driver1980 on Aug 11, 2023 15:14:27 GMT -5
Thoughts are with you and yours, Cei-U!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 11, 2023 21:04:22 GMT -5
She didn't want to worry you... You're obviously good people, in the Cei-U family!
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Post by Icctrombone on Aug 12, 2023 4:01:15 GMT -5
Sorry Kurt. I'm praying that God heals your sister. I hate cancer.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 12, 2023 16:31:17 GMT -5
I just bought a pair of tennis/walking shoes. I honestly can't remember the last time I owned a pair. I've got eight pairs of cowboy boots, a pair of hiking boots and a pair of slip-ons that I almost never wear. Number two son graduates from law school next May. That means another trip to D.C., which means a LOT of walking. So I'm going to try to start walking in the evenings as soon as the damn weather cools down (so probably about a month).
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Post by wildfire2099 on Aug 12, 2023 17:39:04 GMT -5
I just bought a pair of tennis/walking shoes. I honestly can't remember the last time I owned a pair. I've got eight pairs of cowboy boots, a pair of hiking boots and a pair of slip-ons that I almost never wear. Number two son graduates from law school next May. That means another trip to D.C., which means a LOT of walking. So I'm going to try to start walking in the evenings as soon as the damn weather cools down (so probably about a month). I think I can count on two hands the amount of times I wore something that are not sneakers in my whole life...couple weddings, funerals and job interviews.... perhaps a bit more when I was a kid and didn't have a choice. Funny how different such basic things can be.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 13, 2023 2:39:20 GMT -5
I think I can count on two hands the amount of times I wore something that are not sneakers in my whole life...couple weddings, funerals and job interviews.... perhaps a bit more when I was a kid and didn't have a choice. Funny how different such basic things can be. I'm pretty much the same: from my preteens until my early thirties, I wore sneakers pretty much exclusively (with the obvious exception of formal occasions). I still mostly wear them now, although in the winter, depending on the weather, I tend to wear waterproof hiking boots/shoes as well.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,069
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Post by Confessor on Aug 13, 2023 14:28:49 GMT -5
I don't know if anybody can help me with this...
I have a vague memory of watching a TV documentary back in the 1990s that mentioned a Mafia legend or myth from the '40s or '50s about the heads of a number of organised crime families being gathered together at an out of the way restaurant or bar as part of a truce. This gathering was in a pretty out of the way place, like in the desert or something -- could've maybe been Nevada or similar?? Perhaps these were Las Vegas crime bosses? Anyway, the whole thing was a set up orchestrated by a rival Mafia family and while all these dons were gathered together in one place they were murdered in a hail of machine gun bullets. The bodies were quickly disposed of (I think they were buried out in the desert) leaving no evidence whatsoever for the police to find.
On the documentary I recall that various experts were trying to decide whether there was any credence to the story at all or whether it was just a Mafia legend.
I swear I've heard this story. Does it ring a bell with anybody else?
I ask because J. Michael Straczynski used a similar scenario as the background to a Spider-Man story in the early 2000s and when I read it I remember thinking, "oh, that's that Mafia legend that I heard about on that documentary." I just re-read the comic today and decided to look up some info about the myth and I can't find anything online about it at all. Yet I swear this is a "real" piece of Mafia folklore.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 13, 2023 16:51:59 GMT -5
I don't know if anybody can help me with this... I have a vague memory of watching a TV documentary back in the 1990s that mentioned a Mafia legend or myth from the '40s or '50s about the heads of a number of organised crime families being gathered together at an out of the way restaurant or bar as part of a truce. This gathering was in a pretty out of the way place, like in the desert or something -- could've maybe been Nevada or similar?? Perhaps these were Las Vegas crime bosses? Anyway, the whole thing was a set up orchestrated by a rival Mafia family and while all these dons were gathered together in one place they were murdered in a hail of machine gun bullets. The bodies were quickly disposed of (I think they were buried out in the desert) leaving no evidence whatsoever for the police to find. On the documentary I recall that various experts were trying to decide whether there was any credence to the story at all or whether it was just a Mafia legend. I swear I've heard this story. Does it ring a bell with anybody else? I ask because J. Michael Straczynski used a similar scenario as the background to a Spider-Man story in the early 2000s and when I read it I remember thinking, "oh, that's that Mafia legend that I heard about on that documentary." I just re-read the comic today and decided to look up some info about the myth and I can't find anything online about it at all. Yet I swear this is a "real" piece of Mafia folklore. I'm pretty familiar with Mob history and that doesn't ring any bells at all. There were a few instances that feel a little bit like that, but not all that close. The Castellammarese Wars saw a number of bigwigs killed, but that ended in 1931 and there was no big massacre. Albert Anastasia killed both Vincent and Phillip Mangano, but nobody really knows where. After 1931 and the set-up of the Five Family system and the Commission there were really no major wars of the type that had been before that.
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