Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Lunch / Heat / No Ice / Smoke - Solar

Cheese substitute?
Well its a little crunchy, but not bad at all. Problem is that the Cheez-Its go good with peanut butter and just for snacking so they are hard to keep around. I guess each time I buy a box I could save some back in a baggy and only use them for sandwiches though. I have about enough left for one more sandwich. I think I'll try Cheetos for today's lunch though. The mayo was compliments of Chick-fil-A and my family saving stuff like that for me. The Jalapeno wasn't so good because they haven't been refrigerated since I opened the can a couple of weeks ago and then put them in a peanut jar. They are like Vlasic pickles (They just need to be kept cold!!!) I've come to the conclusion that buying tuna in packets isn't the most economical way to go because there is more in a can, the cans cost less (at least down here) and I can easily eat a whole can in one meal. Now Spam and other canned meats is a different story.

Heat advisory until Thursday goes like this.
... Heat advisory in effect until 7 am CDT Thursday...
... Excessive heat warning is cancelled...

The National Weather Service in Midland/Odessa has issued a heat
advisory for the Presidio valley... The Big Bend area... and Terrell
County... which is in effect until 7 am CDT Thursday. The excessive
heat warning has been cancelled.

* Temperature... day time highs 110 to 115. Night time lows 75 to 80.

* Heat index... 105 to 110.

* Impacts... sunstroke... heat cramps... or heat exhaustion is
likely with prolonged exposure and physical activity.

Precautionary/preparedness actions...

If you plan to be outside... avoid prolonged exposure or strenuous
physical activity. Drink plenty of non alcoholic or non
caffeinated beverages. Wear lightweight... light colored... loose
fitting clothing... a hat to shield yourself from the sun... and use
sunscreen to reduce possible sunburn.


Humidity is staying in the mid to high 20s and not the usual 6% or so which doesn't help a bit!

To add insult to injury the damn ice company that is supposed to supply the Legion keeps bringing too little ice and selling it all down south so the truck just whizzes past the legion. They are out again and no telling when they will get more. Could be days or even a week which means if you want ice then you drive 22 miles to Study Butte. Looks like everything here is going to be Cowboy cold like it or not because I can't make a trip down and back every day for ice. I may fire the fridge back up and at least keep a few sodas in the freezer (Which doesn't freeze anymore on the hot days.) Which days aren't HOT?

The smoke is back today and the mountains are once again just silhouettes and the heavy smell of smoke is back. Boy! Am I really loving this place more all the time! NOT!!! Anyway the smoke in the air is effecting the solar panels so I've been having to run the generator some to make up for it. It looks like running the swamp cooler most of the night is going to have to stop to so sleeping may be a problem except in the wee hours of the morning.

I scrounged up some antibiotic samples and am taking it in hopes it will help me get over this crap. (What ever it is) I still feel like warmed over death and some around here tell me I look like it to.

And Life in Terlingua goes on....

11 comments:

  1. Earlier this year I changed my plans about making a trip down your way, then the fires, and now the heat. Don't think I will be back this year at all. Of course it still hasn't rained here and over 100 degree temps are becoming the norm.

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  2. DD, I guess most of Texas has their own share of problems now, but I don't think you'll go wrong by not coming down here unless things change drastically. No chance of that happening in the near future. (according to predictions) At least last year we got a really nice day once in a while, but that sure hasn't been the case so far this year. I'm wondering if all the chard and blackened areas where fires have been isn't absorbing more heat and causing the higher than normal and prolonged heat spell?

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  3. Back in the days when I sometimes had no refrigeration I still could not do without my spam. Two can easily eat a 12 oz can at a sitting but it was too much for one. I would open a can and have it straight from the can then the remainder I would slice thin and fry out as much of the fat as possible. Sometimes they would get to bacon crispy. I found they would keep several days that way. The problem was that I liked them so much I never got to run a test for very long.

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  4. Of, I like fried Spam and have used it for bacon before by over cooking it. Never thought that it would stay good that long. I'd have one of the small cans polished off in two days easy doing it like that. Thanks for the tip. I'll try it. Of course I'll have to fry it up early in the morning while is not too hot.

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  5. It'll Du temp 111, Strong wind out of the northwest seems to be helping with the smoke and humidity is now down to 4%. Too bad that northwest wind isn't cool air and maybe carrying some rain with it. ;)

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  6. I love tuna sandwiches with sour cream potato chips on them!

    Have you looked into Ramen noodles with jerky? Saw this in a youtube video at about 8 minutes in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMrq8mQ4xPQ&feature=relmfu

    Also I have been wondering with as low as your humidity is, could you make a solar dehydrator and dehydrate left-overs of bigger meals to rehydrate like some of the back-packers do? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN-bLfWF3C8 or this web site http://www.backpackingchef.com/index.html

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  7. tffnguy - Sorry to hear that you're still feeling ill. :-(

    Very glad to hear that you're eating some tuna - good Omega 3 oil in that - and sardines.

    You gotta think about getting more "fresh" food in you, especially when you're not feeling well. Your body needs all the help it can get to recover. By fresh food I'm talking about things like tomatoes, oranges, avocado's, etc. Know they're probably expensive, but you need some goodness, not just the full feeling :-) They will take the heat - and perhaps you could just keep them in an (uncooled) cooler box to help them with the heat a bit.

    Hope you get to the VA clinic in Odessa soon - am worried about you...

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  8. The full moon was sure pretty shining through all the smoke tonight. It is 12:30 at night and may now be cool enough to sleep...Nite.

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  9. TFFNGUY

    It will rain soon. I did a "Fosters Lager Rain Dance" in my driveway.
    What I do is I drink a Fosters Oil Can and circle a rock I picked near "John Wells place" and sang, 'When the Levee Breaks, By Led Zepplin". I then sang "Who Will Stop the Rain by Creedence Clearwater Revival"
    That'll give you guys a downpour by September.
    Just you watch. I used some of my South Texas Gris,Gris (I borrowed that from a Cajun)

    I did this last night while under the full moon last night, and the nieghbors called the cops on me?

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  10. judysquiltsandthings, Good links. Thanks. I may have to work on a solar dehydrator and think I could rig up a vacuum packaging system that would run off of 12 volts and not take too much electricity.

    Dani, the antibiotics are working and I'm starting to feel better. I'm eating tomatoes as fast as they are getting ripe. ;)

    Yeah Frann, I'd intended to take a picture of it coming up, but forgot until it was too high. It still looked awesome then though.

    CC, if we don't get some rain out of that then nothing will do it. Hope the cops didn't take you to a loony bin. ;)

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  11. Oh BTW, I had the swamp cooler running on low at 9:00 last night and checked the humidity. It was down to 4% and the exhaust air (Air coming out of the cooler) was 64 degrees. It almost felt like refrigerated air. At 9:45 I noticed the air wasn't near as cool so I checked the humidity again and a pocket of humid air had come in and the humidity was up to 22%. Exhaust air from the cooler had gone up to 71 degrees and it kept going up to 74 as the humidity got higher. It was still 89 degrees in here and even with the air from the swamp cooler blowing on me on low it was too warm for me to get to sleep. I didn't have any cover on so started getting a few bug bites on top of that. Evidently not conenoses, but what ever it was wasn't too fun to get bit by. I guess it was probably after 1:00 before I finally got to sleep and it still wasn't too cool then.

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