I mean, we have them in my area because we have no choice. I live next to the ocean, so you can't really have anything below ground... it's actually illegal to have a basement where I live according to the housing codes, since it'll flood if you so much as look at it funny. I don't even have to dig a hole that's as deep as I am tall for it to start flooding, which is kind of sad.
^ Same where I am.
It's fun, isn't it? I live at the highest elevation in my entire town, so my street and house rarely if ever actually get flooded... and I live a whopping six feet above sea level.
When Hurricane Sandy was incoming a few years ago, I was on a trip to visit a college up in Burlington, Vermont. I got home from the visit, turned on the TV, and the mayor of my little podunk Maryland town was on the news talking about the preparations for the storm--at the time, we were slated to be the area that was going to be hit directly, with thankfully didn't end up happening--and how they'd already issued an evacuation notice and had the National Guard called to prohibit anyone from entering the city who wasn't a resident. Some places downtown, which are actually below sea level, had houses where the entire first floor flooded out even though we got only really got grazed by the storm. Needless to say, we drove about 25 MPH over the speed limit the entire drive home so we could bunker down, since the only ones home were the two dogs and my older brother who had the flu.
But hey, that's living at the beach for you.
I mean, we have them in my area because we have no choice. I live next to the ocean, so you can't really have anything below ground... it's actually illegal to have a basement where I live according to the housing codes, since it'll flood if you so much as look at it funny. I don't even have to dig a hole that's as deep as I am tall for it to start flooding, which is kind of sad.
Holy macaroni does your water management suck.
Seriously.Half the netherlands is 16 feet below sea level and we dont have flooding problems.
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It's pretty common in the US. Especially in the south. Look up how many times New Orleans has had to be rebuilt because of floods.
I don't want to get too political here, but one of our biggest hurdles is that conservative governments tend to take a "leave people alone and let them sort things out for themselves" kind of approach. While there's some good things about that idea, in practice what happens is that the people with enough money to sort out their own problems just leave disaster prone areas, like flood zones. So the people who end up living there are the least able to change their situation and they get ignored. Then the next time a hurricane or big flood comes through they lose everything. The local government ends up declaring a state of emergency and goes into huge debt cleaning everything up. It takes years to recover from, and then the cycle starts over.
Compare that to a city like Chicago, which used to be prone to flooding, but in the early 1900s the city government decided to do something about it. They undertook one of the most impressive feats of civic engineering the world has ever seen. They spend years using manual railroad lifts to put entire city blocks up on jacks, build new foundations underneath them, and lower them back down again. They lifted the entire city by as much as two stories in some places. They built in flood breaks, water and sewer transportation, and a subway system. They did all this without disrupting anything about day to day life other than diverting traffic flow.
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Watermanagement is not a luxury for us. We have to. Otherwise we loose half the country.
The last great disaster was in 1953, when a combination of a heavy storm surge in combination with a spring tide made for the highest sea level in decades.
The dikes broke in numerous places, causing 1836 deaths in the netherlands.
It caused the netherlands to take a good look at the way we protect our country from the water. We build the Deltaworks, which is a name under which several large projects were build.
Raising the level of all our d%!&s, building several surge barriers across major rivers, and the Oosterschelde kering, which allows us to block several sea arms off at once. (The Oosterschelde kering has been named one of the seven modern wonders of the world)
The importance of water still has a large effect on the country. We even have a separate semi-government, solely for water, the Waterschap. We elect officials for the regional and country wide council by having official elections for them.
We dutch like to complain a lot, and can spend way too much time talking about things to reach a concencus, but water management is one of the few things we as a country agree on.
To be fair, my home is technically "supposed" to flood. My town is built on a barrier island about a minute out from the coast and we're meant to absorb the brunt of the blow from hurricanes and other inclement weather, and so there isn't a whole lot of priority on dealing with water management for the bunch of idiots who decided to build a resort town on an island meant to take the hit from natural disasters. I can't say I entirely disagree with them, to be honest. Typically we just get a fair bit of flooding from rain, but that storm was an absolute monster and we had some waves that careened so far over the sand dunes that they almost crashed directly onto the city streets. Our beaches were pretty much destroyed and had to be re-created by pumping sand off the ocean floor, so our usual protection from really terrible flooding--that being the beach and sand dunes--was either destroyed or circumvented by the storm itself. The island is about a mile wide at its widest point, so there isn't much we can do about waves coming in over the beach. Typically we get some light flooding that might cause a little bit of property damage, that just happened to be an anomaly. It's the second worst storm we've ever had, the worst being a northeaster that blew through in the 70s. To give you an idea of how bad it was, we used to have a train that ran into the city and we also didn't used to have an inlet... and now we don't have a train and we do have an inlet. The bright side is you always get your money's worth out of flood insurance.
Also, our basements will flood without all of that, mostly because I live on a mound of sand. There's just far too much water in the ground for you to dig a hole for a basement. The mainland is fine, just... not us.
I'll try to post tonight or tomorrow been sick since Wednesday. Actually since last Sunday but I did not realize what it was till Thursday. Terrific start to the year so far...
Hope you get to feeling better Shining Host. Illness is a crummy way to start the new year but it seems to be the popular choice. I think I will just shoot for hung over next year.
There is next to no flooding in my state, Oklahoma. Some places get a little bit. We have tornadoes though. Lots of those. Oh and due to the oil industry we have added earthquakes, that was new and freaking sucks. Swirling vortexes of death descending from the sky, meh that is normal and if you do not live in the normal pathways easy to avoid. Sadly I no longer live in the safe zone :(
But the earthquakes. That honestly bothers me more. Probably because we did it to ourselves. Though our weather is just confused. The best analogy I have heard is that when Mother Nature says "You cannot have all the season in a week" Oklahoma responds with "Hold my beer."
Bright sunshine and heat one day and then there can be hail in the same week. It honestly is really confusing.
Soren why would you pick that as your place of residence? That sounds like madness!
That is after sprain ing my ankle two weeks ago so I am in a really terrific mood not to mention a bunch of other unmentionable b&+!&@~+ taking place right now...
Hehe, that sounds so familiar. Sorry you are having a crummy time.
I am the clumsiest and unluckiest person I know. It sounds like you could be my spirit animal :) You could be my spirit animal. You seem nicer than Murphy. Murphy is a mean spirited creature.
Murphy, that f$&$er...
You get it! He is a monster. But I suppose he is my monster.
I haven't gotten it since Tuesday, I blame Murphy.
Not the 'it' I was referring to but that sucks.
I didn't choose to live here, it's my hometown. I attend college in Pennsylvania which is where I live most of the year, but I spend summers and the holidays here with my family. I've lived here my whole life for the most part, but as for why people originally decided this was a great place to live I have no idea. My grandmother's uncle used to own a very large portion of the island and oversaw a lot of the construction on it, but as for why it was done originally I couldn't say. Probably because the mainland doesn't have a very good beach? That's my best guess.
Pennsylvania's a lot better about the flooding but they have pretty awful winters. My campus is covered in about a foot or two of snow for several months at a time and they never buy enough salt to keep the sidewalks free of ice. Freshman year I had a professor who sent us an email, after we had all arrived at class, that he was cancelling class because he was currently in an ambulance after he slipped on the ice and fractured his hip.
I graduate this year and I'll likely be moving to either Boston or Seattle, so there's that.
Humans have always picked weird places to live. To close to the ocean, on cliffs, places with dangerous storms, near volcanoes. Humans are a strange creature. But beaches are a lot of fun, in short bursts.
It seems to be a universal thing that no is ever prepared for the snow and ice. I have no idea what that much snow looks like. We get a little snow and then ice. Though this winter has been blissfully simple. Summer will most likely suck.
Not the 'it' I was referring to but that sucks.
Ah oh. Alright.
Humans have always picked weird places to live. To close to the ocean, on cliffs, places with dangerous storms, near volcanoes. Humans are a strange creature. But beaches are a lot of fun, in short bursts.
It seems to be a universal thing that no is ever prepared for the snow and ice. I have no idea what that much snow looks like. We get a little snow and then ice. Though this winter has been blissfully simple. Summer will most likely suck.
Top of my list is deserts. Why would anyone ever choose to live in a desert? Humans are not built for that kind of environment in any way.
I will find the being near an active volcano to be rather odd. But the desert is definitely a weird choice. We are not built for a lot of environments but humans are very stubborn. In defense of the desert dwellers it can be pretty there.
Volcanoes arent that weird a place to live. Volcanic ash is incredibly fertile, so when we started developing agriculture, they were great places to live.
You just had to hope the volcano is dormant.
It is the lava that concerns me. But that is a far point about the marvelous agricultural options. Silly me forgot that one. The desert does not have that boon.. Not sure what the boon is.
It is the lava that concerns me. But that is a far point about the marvelous agricultural options. Silly me forgot that one. The desert does not have that boon.. Not sure what the boon is.
Great tan?
Checking in.
Bit hung over but I'm here
Finally feeling better, updates tonight.
Bit hung over but I'm here
About the same, actually.
Getting ready for a day of packing. I would rather be hungover but I am here
It is not amazing. Frankly it sucks but getting to that point can be a lot of fun.
Last night was actually the first one I've ever had. I usually drink quite a bit of water in order to avoid them, but I didn't bring any. This morning was less than pleasant.
Still, nothing some Advil can't fix.
I don't get hangovers. I just wake up really early and hungry as a dragon.
I usually spread out my drinking. But we had the new years party of my work on friday. Cool party, great food, great band. But my co-workers really know how to drink, so my beer kept being refilled and refilled and refilled and refilled....
And of course, hangovers have gotten worse the older I'm getting :(
The trick is to drink a bunch of water throughout the day before you even start drinking.
That, and have some food in your stomach.
Yesterday, I erroneously neither of those things. I've got a good alcohol tolerance--and I didn't really drink that much, either--but I just had a wicked headache this morning.
As for harder stuff, it really varies on what it is and how it tastes more than anything else. I can handle vodka but I can't stand it on its own, I have to have it mixed.
I did that new years. I was a pirate! I had my alcohol before breakfast since a banana five hours earlier does not really count. That whole night was a bust.
I have found that my alcohol tolerance has gone down the older I have gotten. Not sure if I is because I do not test it much since I only really drink maybe twice a year or if it is just a random thing. But I can afford to get a pleasant buzz at bars now. Fifteen shots would probably land me in the hospital now but that was what it took for me to get drunk at 21. And that is not cheap if you are drinking in public.
Also whiskey is disgusting and only fit for cooking with, though rum or wine is much better for the culinary stuff and for the drinking.
Guess I'm more of a heavyweight. I usually don't eat beforehand because it's easier to get drunk lol.
I can count the number of drinks I take in a year on one hand each year. :-)
I had a real good meal beforehand. But now I know I wasnt feeling so crummy because of all the alcohol. I've managed to catch another cold, so that must have been brewing yesterday, because today my nose is running and my ears are blocked from the snot build up higher up in my head.
Fun times.
As for what to drink, I do like my beer, but harder stuff is no problem. A good cocktail is great, but in the winter a good islay whisky will go down just fine.
I'm working on getting my bartenders license. I really like mixed drinks, the tastes and the culture and the history, but I've yet to find a single beer I like. And I've tried.
Nat that is because beer is disgusting. Horrid really. The only 'beer' I like is reds apple ale and I only use that to cook. Luckily all the alcohol content is cooked out of my various foods or I would have a problem :)
wohoooo and it has developed into full blown flu :(
wohoooo and it has developed into full blown flu :(
Ugh that sucks...
I'll give it another day in case someone else wishes to chime in and then I'll move us along.
I've had enough time in the spotlight. I'm all for letting Soren do the driving here.
Wait no, I didn't put any skill points in Drive! We're all gonna die!
I honestly cannot think of anything. Not sure it is the migraines fault or if Soren and Grumble have that brilliant of a job. Brain so foggy!
All good for now, onwards!