around the house | matching tracksuits

The wind came so suddenly, seemingly instantaneously, and it was so immediately intense, that we were sure it had to be some kind of mini-tornado. What's a F1 tornado's wind speeds again? The news report later classified it as only a thunderstorm, but I'm not convinced. It came up suddenly, the whole thing lasting no more a minute, then disappeared almost as quickly. There were lingering gusts, but nothing like what the main storm was like. According to the news:

Thunderstorms accompanied with wind gusts as high as 71 mph have caused power outages in areas of the Upstate and Western North Carolina.

As of 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, at least 25,000 customers are without power in the Upstate. More than 10,000 are without power in Western North Carolina.
WYFF News

Still, gusts of 71 miles an hour classify it as a EF0 tornado according to the Enhanced Fujita Scale. What would a EF0 tornado be? Isn't that just a not-tornado? Strong thunderstorm?

Whatever it was, it knocked out our power. K's phone only had 5% battery left, so we plugged it into L's computer to get a bit of a charge.

Fortunately, it's not a terribly hot or humid night, for the power company estimates getting the power restored some time early tomorrow morning.

The Boy took the opportunity to go to bed early, as did K. And the GIrl? She's not here. She's in Gainesville for orientation at the University of Florida. Yes, we looked at our finances, looked at the possibility of getting in-state tuition (do-able, but not this year), and decided it was the better option for our girl. A six-hour drive away, so she's close enough to be relatively quickly reached in an emergency and far enough for her to feel she's on her own.

She and I texted extensively this afternoon when she was making decisions about her class load for the fall semester. She's done AP Calc 1 and AP Calc 2, so her plan was to take Calc 3. She was getting advice from her advisor (because that's what they do) that she might consider re-taking Calc 2. "There's some stuff they go over that most AP classes don't cover" he/she (not sure) explained. "I looked at the Calc 2 syllabus," she texted me, "and I feel confident in everything on it." What to do? I explained that it's up to her: "If you feel you need to re-take it, re-take it. If you want to go for Calc 3 but are a little nervous about it, all universities have programs for assistance in subjects like math and English. You can go there and get help from some grad student, I'm sure."

That she was asking for advice was a little surprising. She's so strong-willed, so confident (she planned her entire high school academic course with no input from us, and she never really asked either of us for help or advice) that I took this to be another sign of her maturing. She's independent, yes. But independence doesn't mean doing everything solo.

If she comes hope during Thanksgiving break asking for help in Calc 3, it won't be me helping her. I'm no good in math. Truth be told, I never even took Calc 1. I tried it in college (liberal arts -- one or two math courses required for all), but I just got lost. It didn't help that the professor would fill a whole board with an equation and then stop and erase it all, mumbling "I don't think that will show what I want it to show," just when I was thinking, "Hey, I think I'm getting this..." That help will have to come from K. And since she won't be taking any humanities, I'll be out of the loop.

Also out of the loop has been the Polska countdown I always do. I have been taking a break from writing, posting only pictures because frankly I had nothing to say. And with a bunch of pictures, my countdown wouldn't format properly. But we leave in five days. I guess I should update the flag: we're going to Greece first, but I'm not too worried about that: it's still, first and foremost, a trip to family in Polska.

Repairs

Friday 06 June 2025

Sometimes I wonder if anyone ever goes more than a few days without something somewhere breaking. Usually it's small things that we can almost ignore, I think, but the medium and large issues seem to cluster up and hit all at once.

K's car required some work (issue 1), so yesterday I drove it to our Polish friend who's also a mechanic. He lives in the north of the county, right off the rails-to-trail project that runs through the county, so I usually drive the car up there and ride my bike back.

But issues never come alone: they always bring company. On the way back, I got a flat (issue 2). In the same tire that I'd just repaired. Or didn't repair -- what's the difference?

But issues never come alone: they always bring company. The ramp to Papa's room (it will always be "Papa's room") needs to be repainted (issue 3), which means it needs to be cleaned, which E remedied this morning. Upon returning home from Lowe's with the appropriate paint, I noticed a bit of wood sticking up from one of the knot holes. I bent down and dug it out with my finger only to discover that the entire knot hole had somehow rotted out.

Which meant I had to get a new 1x6 to replace it. Which meant a trip to Lowe's. Which is where we had just been.

Fixing the board was one of those projects for which the prep and cleanup took longer than the actual project.

But issues never come alone: they always bring company. While I working on this, L returned and informed me that her car stalled three times while driving home.

"And there's a weird emoji on the dash," she said.

"Probably the 'check engine' light," I thought.

I checked; indeed, I was right. I cranked the car. It started stalling immediately. It was as if it weren't getting enough fuel. Fuel pump? Clogged fuel filter? Not sure -- and of course I couldn't find the error reader that would have given me a little more information on the nebulous "check engine" light.

Summer Job

Tuesday 03 June 2025

The Boy is well into the "don't take pictures of me" phase. L is coming out of it -- she positively loves having her picture taken if you're using her phone so she can post them to Instagram, I talked him into this one with the excuse of wanting to send it to K.

The work itself is obvious: our deck needs a refresher of water sealer. We usually do it every two years, but we decided to give it a quick wash and a single coat this year.

No other pictures for the day because I spent a good chunk of it at the computer, working on this site and the other two hosted on this account. Two of them are for school: they're coming down since I won't be teaching English any longer. However, I don't want just to delete them: I might go back to English at some point. So that makes the process a bit more labor intensive.