March 2019 Thread

[shades]

March means Mars’ month.

Mars is the Roman god of War and is identified with the Greek god Ares. Mars was the son of Juno and Jupiter and second only to his father in importance for Roman soldiers.

Until ~700BC March was the start of the year and the beginning of the war season.

[Bean]

War season?! I didn't even know there was such a thing! Did people defer their grievances against others until the weather started to perk up?!

I'm very happy that spring is nearly here!

[jolovespiggies]

that is really interesting shades hunni, thanks for sharing. I love Roman history.

hugs jo xx

[Bean]

Are you still standing, Jo?! We had quite a storm last night and I understand your area and South Wales got the worst of it. Hope it hasn't done any serious damage.

[3piggles]

Oh, no! Storms could be considered war, I suppose. I hope you still have electricity, Jo!

I think the idea was more to honor the gods, than to make war in March.

Got an even better picture of the fox. He was on the berm in the backyard, looking for squirrels.

In an additional note, Luke Perry died today. It seems so sad to lose someone so young, and I loved him in Jeremiah

[Bean]

Oooh your fox is a handsome devil, isn't he?! Fluffier than ours, but they'll need that extra fur in your weather!

Yes, I heard about Luke Perry, very sad for everyone who knows him or has enjoyed his work. I don't think I've seen him in anything since 90210, but did have a soft spot for him in that.

[3piggles]

Yes, winters here usually require much fuller coats They are beautiful creatures, that's for sure.

I was aware of Luke Perry in 90210, as he was the James Dean character, and was always on the cover of TV Guide. I didn't really watching him in anything until he and Malcom-Jamal Warner starred in Jeremiah, which was a Showtime show back in the early 2000s. We actually started watching because of Malcom-Jamal Warner, who was the son on the Bill Cosby show, and who grew up while we weren't watching. We got into the show, and really enjoyed it. I hope someone will show it again, now that Luke Perry has died.
www.imdb.com/title/tt0290966/

[Bean]

Oh I remember Theo - he's still very recognisable! Is he a good actor?

Jeremiah sounds like the kind of thing we'd watch - I'll keep an eye out for anyone running it.

[3piggles]

I don't know if the gas explosions that rocked a neighborhood in Methuen, Massachusetts, made your news or not. It was a major disaster. One person killed when the first house exploded, and the chimney to the house fell on a teenage boy getting into a car in the driveway. Otherwise, it was about displaced people who spent most of the winter in RVs or houses without gas for heat and cooking. They went without gas through Thanksgiving and Christmas, so it was a major problem.

The gas explosions were caused by old equipment and operator error. Someone testing the gas lines used WAY too much pressure, pressure even the newest lines can't take, and the old lines, some from early last century, definitely couldn't handle. That not only caused all the houses to explode, but the gas company shut off the gas to that whole part of the city, because all of the lines were compromised.

It was just announced that the gas company has over $95 million in claims against them for that oopsie with the gas pressure. I actually expected it to be more, and that doesn't include all the electric heaters, clothes dryers and stoves the gas company has to provide to customers without gas. That's probably several million more. Doesn't it seem as if it would have been less expensive, and a whole lot better for the company name, to have replaced the known old lines with new lines, long ago, and make sure that level of pressure couldn't ever be put through the lines? I've always known natural gas was dangerous, but never thought it would blow up a whole neighborhood!

This strikes me the way the companies that process credit card purchases from retail stores act when they get hacked, millions of people's private information is compromised, and the company says it's doing everything possible to make sure that never happens again. Why not make sure it never happens in the first place?

Vic and I are investigating encryption for our phones, as it's supposed to make it much harder for any known device to read our phone content, and steal personal data. Not sure we'll do that, but we want to know everything we can do to protect ourselves from identity thieves.

[Bean]

I understand that some people do work very hard to get round security measures, like it's a game or a challenge to crack, even if not to exploit people or companies. So although some companies do work very hard to keep on top of security, the threats change.

But I certainly agree that some only seem to put that work in when they get caught out for being slack, which is extremely poor.

We're having loads of repairs to our gas infrastructure at the moment. I think many of it is overdue, and that's rather worrying given how powerful and destructive a force it can be.

We had an incident last year where a workman accidentally fractured a gas mains. The explosion blew up the road and it could be heard miles away - you could smell the gas miles away too, it's amazing no one was seriously hurt.

[3piggles]

I'm glad no one was hurt. Gas really is an incredibly volatile element, and has to be handled with the utmost care. Having temporary workers because the regular workers are out on strike certainly doesn't help. Having inexperienced workers not supervised by experienced workers, to save money, doesn't help. Yet companies take all of those chances, and hope for the best

I don't know how many homes and businesses were damaged, closed, etc. I know the gas company provided a whole parking lot full of RVs, but RVs aren't much good in bitter cold, so their water supplies froze, there wasn't enough heat to keep them warm, and except for having a roof over their heads, they're weren't much better off than before. Whole houses were destroyed, but even where that wasn't the case, because the gas lines were known to be compromised, all of the lines and meters had to be upgraded, before anyone could move back into their homes/businesses. Some people just went, or refused to leave, but most were displaced for months. Always company promises that it would be finished next week, next week, always next week

Speaking of disasters, the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was around this time, so has been on the news. Billions of dollars were put into funds to help all the people who lost work because of the oil slick killing the fish and shrimp, and their boats not being able to go far out to see to avoid the oil slick. It seems very little of that money ever made its way down to those who needed it. The authorities who got the money to disperse claimed the people never submitted the correct paperwork. Same excuse used to keep native Americans from claiming their lands, no paperwork to prove ownership. Most of the shrimpers and fishermen are barely high school graduates. They probably received forms to fill out that they couldn't even understand. No resources to help them fill out the paper work, and of course, they needed to get the paperwork at the same time of day they needed to be working whatever jobs they could find, to support their families. Some things never change

It's my understanding, though that may have changed since I heard it years ago, that much of the Gulf where the oil spill occurred is not dead, and the jelly fish have moved in, so no other sea life is even trying to go in there

[Bean]

Oil spills like that are catastrophic. It's good to hear that that area is finally starting to recover.

It's awful that if money was made available, it didn't really go to the people most affected and most in need, but stayed lining the pockets of those who were protected anyway. As you say, some thing never change...

[3piggles]

Sadly, the two states hardest hit by the oil spill, Mississippi and Louisiana, are two of the most corrupt states in the country. I don't know if you ever saw the movie The Big Easy. It's about corruption in the criminal justice system in Louisiana, especially New Orleans. At one point, a new police chief and mayor in New Orleans said the corruption ran so deep, they didn't even know where to start to correct it. Despite a whole lot of exposure of the corruption in those states, they still imprison black males at a rate of almost 10-1 to white males who commit the same crimes, but get released on bail that's never offered to the blacks. The Southern Poverty Law Center is suing both states, and possibly Alabama, over their racist criminal justice systems. So it's not surprising, if the money went to the states, that it never got to the people who needed it. It was supposed to pay off loans, mortgages, and provide living expenses for the people whose jobs were lost due to the oil spill. Shrimping was big business along the Gulf coast, until the Deepwater Horizon incident

Temperatures are starting to get warmer. No leaps and bounds, just more in the 40sF, and less in the 20sF. At least overnight temps are still low enough to warrant opening the bedroom windows.

We turn our clocks ahead tonight, so I'll be totally messed up tomorrow. What was 8 a.m. becomes 9 a.m., so I have to get hubby to set my grow lights back to 7 a.m., so the plants and I wake up at a decent time Apparently Florida went to Daylight Savings time year round, and is now trying to get the federal government to make it the rule for all states. I really don't care which one they choose, just choose one and stay with it. Enough of this springing ahead and falling behind!

[Bean]

Oh your clocks change now? We don't go for another couple of weeks. You think we'd all synch up, if we are going to continue to do this silly time change, to help minimise the confusion! I'd certainly back sacking it off, it's always nice to get an extra hour, but losing one is always a pain.

I haven't seen The Big Easy. Is it worth a watch?

[3piggles]

The Big Easy is a police drama, but it epitomizes the extent to the corruption in the Louisiana criminal justice system. Mississippi is the same way. It's the good ole boy mentality, which put wealthy white men in charge of everything, their way, and they took advantage of everyone, at every level. I don't know if you'd enjoy the movie or not. It's kind of violent, though not too bad by some standards.

If you google The Southern Poverty Law Center, you'll get a lot of information on racism in the southern states and basically in the whole bible belt. It seems, where ever people claim to be the most christian, they treat others the worst, and try to force their ideas on everyone else

[Bean]

Oh I don't think I want to read about that now, what you've said (added to what I already know) depresses me enough.

Have you adjusted to springing forward?

[3piggles]

I totally understand, and have days when I just don't watch or read anything about the news, as it's so depressing.

I can't tell if I have adjusted or not. I tried going to bed early last night, so I would get up at a reasonable time this morning. Just falling asleep around 11:40 p.m., and all the grow lights came on. So out of bed, find the source, unplug it. The grow lights are supposed to come on at 7 a.m., to provide the effect of bright sunshine, and get me motivated to get out of bed. So this morning, since I unplugged the lights last night, it was still really dreary. Sun finally burned through this afternoon, once the last of the snow storm front moved out. I've counted on the grow lights to get me out of bed for over a year, so not having them working right has me all messed up. Hopefully, hubby has the automatic timers sorted, and the lights will come on at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning, greeting me with bright sunshine

It is time to look through the seed catalogues, and pick what we're going to plant in the raised beds this year. We've spent an awful lot on plants and flowers, but since we're retired and on a fixed income, we'll buy seeds and plant those outside. We have to get the raised beds prepared, which means no forgetting on hubby's part. If he puts black plastic over the raised beds and all the planters, that will warm the soil much more quickly than if we just let the warmth do it, so we should be able to plant the seeds sooner. Soil temp has to be at least 60F to start germinating seeds, and if we put the black plastic back over all the planters, once the seeds are planted, it will speed up the germination. We just want start with flowers. We'll have to wait for the seeds to germinate. Then we should have even better flowers and plants that we've had before, because we'll be able to thin out the best all but the strongest plants.

[Bean]

Hope your grow lights are back on schedule! They obviously do the trick for you.

I tend to avoid germinating seeds outdoors as the slugs love those tender little sprouts! Mind you, with a lot of flower seeds, they're cheap enough so you can just throw a load on and see what pops up!

[3piggles]

He got the grow lights in the bedroom to come on at 8 a.m., not 7 a.m. The ones in the living room came on at 8:30 a.m. Not sure about the rest of them He needs to get that sorted, as they aren't on long enough each day. Even with fake light, the plants need at least 6 hours per day. By the time we fall behind again, we should have the timing of all the grow lights sorted, lol

We don't have slugs, as we have raised beds lined with landscaping fabric, that keeps the slugs out. We have had problems with slugs, and with Japanese beetles, but not with slugs.

A pheasant visited us today. I posted the picture in Show Your Life In Pictures. Forgot I had the others in this thread. Little Squirrel Buddy also visited us, as their feeder was empty. He looked at me in the doorway, decided I wasn't the person who could help, and sat at the top of the back porch steps with his back to me, lol

[jolovespiggies]

that is a gorgeous piccy piggles love. foxes look so regal.

hugs jo xx