Our own little Kiwi Thread ! page 78

[zoebird]

It's nto as extreme as the media makes it out to be. Most everyone is fine, just without power for a couple of days. It happens pretty much somewhere every year. There was this massive snow storm that suddenly hit PA a couple of years back, and people were stranded on the roads in rural PA (farms -- both "english" or "modern" and amish -- lining the road), and basically everyone went out to the cars and gathered people up and brought them indoors and shared food and everything. It took about 4 days to actually clear the road, but everyone was safe and sound.

Media made it out to be this great human tragedy etcetcetc. Yes, it was an extreme storm and a BIG traffic jam, but no one got killed or died from exposure or starvation or anything.

Same here with sandy. True, Manhatten is not used to being under water up to their knees (which means everything underground is flooded), but lower level living people had places to go -- many of them just up stairs to neighbors. Others went to shelters that had been set up on higher ground. And pretty much everyone was warned to have up to 5 days of food available.

My family checked in. My sister (western PA) never lost power and while her town has some flooding, they didn't have any. My parents (eastern PA), last I heard, had been out of power for 25 hours, but were fine. No flooding in their basement, and they have plenty of food and water. Water is fine in their area, but they still have bottled set aside. I heard from them yesterday (dad recharged his iPad and emailed from the car), and I would wager that power will be back on today if it's not on already.

NYC is still going through clean-up, of course, but so far people aren't dying. Thankfully, this isn't another Katrina. What a disaster that was. Still haven't recovered from it, And yet, it gets hardly any news at all as to the real extent of it.

[NZ primal Gwamma]

NYC is still going through clean-up, of course, but so far people aren't dying.

Thrilled to hear that your family are ok Zoebird. It is such a worry when family are so far away.
I thought that 50 + people had died so far. Did I get that wrong ?
Anyway it sounds awful and I am sure some people are suffering, however it is wonderful during natural disasters how people come together and help each other out.

[Lizzielou]

I had wondered if that was the case Zoe, it seems that the US can have such extremes of weather as the norm each year. I know that there were a few kiwi's interviewed on TV who were in the US and they were saying that it really wasn't as bad as some of the storms they'd experienced in NZ. Helps to have a little perspective. I'm glad your family are OK.

Given the pathetic response to Katrina I'm not suprised there is so little news coverage. The authorities should be ashamed of what happened there (of course thats assuming we got the true story of what happened?).

[JoanieL]

Katrina was a fail at every level. Bad information. Slow response time. I've talked to people who even though they were on higher ground for Katrina, still get tears in their eyes when they talk about it.

For Sandy, as of 1pm EST, 5.9M still without power.

Weather.com is reporting 47 dead on the mainland US, one death in Puerto Rico, and 69 dead in the Carribean.

[Lizzielou]

69 dead in the Carribean.

Yet we've heard next to nothing about the Carribean. Media!

[NZ primal Gwamma]

Good lord, that IS awful. However its wonderful that people pull together in times of need. Hopefully there will be lots of BBQs, and the masses can be fed !!!
The next issue will be the sanitation aspect. Heres hoping that low lying water can be pumped out, before this becomes a problem.

[JoanieL]

Small city right across the river from Manhattan. Hoboken. About 50,000 residents. Sewage system overwhelmed. Streets still flooded with sewage-y water. That would scare the crap out of me - no pun intended. And the train that goes under the river to Manhattan will be closed for about five days. Not life and death so far, but sewage in the streets could cause some illness to the very young, the very old, and people with compromised immune systems.

[seaweed]

QUOTE]Yet we've heard next to nothing about the Carribean. Media! [/QUOTE] +1

not too much going on in the deep south. me and my 11 yr old went to the kids halloween party at the pub yesterday avo which was a hoot. she went as a pretty vampire lol we googled and found a pic of a lovely blonde girl with hell long wavy hair with a flower in it and gothic makeup so i copied the makeup and hair for her. i dont have any red lipstick so we couldnt do the blood dripping out the mouth. just went with tasteful dark purple. she borrowed one of my lbds and a pair of my long black boots. i was gonna put the steel boned corset over the top but she has no boobs so she reckoned it gaped too much. she looked very demure till she snarled and scared a few old men lol it was kinda entertaining how all the little kids went in out of it costumes and all the teens or nearly teens went gothic.

been training today way too hard and i hired the treadmill!!!!!!! too exciting. i am waiting for a burly man to come around and manhandle it out of the exhubby's car for me so as i dont damage it.
priscilla was my precise fear on the pig front. i wouldnt have wanted to eat her but i am not deluded enough to think it is better if someone else eats her. then i get all staunch and have to make sure i am present when they get shot so as they dont suffer and it all gets too stressful. so i problem avoid and dont get any piglets. now one of those teacup pigs they get in england could be cool.

looking forward to the pic of rachel and gwamma with the new hairdo!

[NZ primal Gwamma]

I couldn't allow anyone to eat Priscilla either, so she has gone to a good home. The farmer has to lock her up for a few days once a month, because when shes in season she gets growly, grumpy and bites people !!! LOL
Not my problem any more - thank goodness.
We had ostriches years ago, Lesley and Lou (named after my mum and MIL). Put a pea sized brain into an 80 kg bird - nothing but trouble !!!!! Our youngest was about 5 at the time we had these stupid bloody things. She is a wee bit of a risk taker, and was always climbing the fence into their paddock. No amount of scolding would stop her. The damn things have claws on them longer than our fingers, and would disembowel a grown man with one swipe !!!! So they were sent down the road. I couldn't eat them thou, we sold them on. Bloody bloody stupid things.
Don't ever get ostriches.
Oh this has got me thinking. We have had a pet eel - Elrick. (He disappeared from the creek one day. I think the Old Maori neighbour caught and ate him !!!!), pet rats - poppy and bruce. Bruce had the biggest set of bollocks any man would have been proud of !!! Then there was JD and JB the alpacas, (Jack Daniels and Jim beam), numerous dogs, cats, sheep, calves, cows, axylotyls.... the list has been endless. The things we do ay ?...........

how exciting about the treadmill. I am keen to get back into my excersize, but I am struggling with these wedding preparations. I shouldn't be spending all this time on MDA !!!! LOL, althou one is allowd whilst having a coffee break ??????????

[seaweed]

I couldn't allow anyone to eat Priscilla either, so she has gone to a good home.

lol you see. that is so difficult to find for a huge pig. i prob would have ended up having to dig a hole, act natural and feed it chocolate while someone snuck up behind with the some really gnarly big calibre gun. say the last rites and have a funeral. In nomine padre et fillii et spiritus sanctus and what a waste of pork!

i've never had ostrich. nice feathers and eggs. you can make the 20 egg chocolate cake with an ostrich egg. i tend to stick with eating the normal farmed animals unless they are a game animal, then anything is good. alpacas i never understood the point of from a $value pov. we went to an A&P show once and they had some fancy pants stud alpaca there which my middle daughter led around all over the place. it was worth $45K. i nearly fell over. i think merinos have much better wool and i've never heard of anyone eating one so i was mystified. the only good rats are dead ones in my book too. so just pet cats, dogs and ponies here.

with exercise, slow movement and hit the weights hard once a week. so if you manage to do some kettlebelling every now and then and just keep moving doing the wedding stuff and avoid the cake tin, you will be sweet. go for a stroll after dinner maybe every now and then even with gwampa. or an early morning swim in your beautiful pool. my plan is to do a hill program on the treadmill for 20 mins a day for the first week. i still have to walk the dog and train so we shall see. it is doable and i have distractions to make me want to run lol