macrobursts

in

(This is not about my newsletter, but about this week’s storm): Hellacious damage in nearby town reinforced how lucky we got ( I do not, unlike several people in the area – tourist traffic now including storm tourism – stop to take photos of others’ misery for my own use).

Anyhow, it seems that the cause all of the devastation wasn’t a tornado but a “macroburst”:

A macroburst is an outward burst of strong winds at or near the surface with horizontal dimensions larger than 4 km (2.5 mi) and occurs when a strong downdraft reaches the surface. To visualize this process, imagine the way water comes out of a faucet and hits the bottom of a sink. The column of water is the downdraft and the outward spray at the bottom of the sink is the macroburst. Macroburst winds may begin over a smaller area and then spread out over a wider area, sometimes producing damage similar to a tornado. Although usually associated with thunderstorms, macrobursts can occur with showers too weak to produce thunder.

Outages continue, though they’re making restorative progress. Useful site: poweroutage.us. – I’m in the orange county above the red one. Like I’ve said, we’ve had power since 1400 on Tuesday. Estimates for rest of area range from later today to this weekend – though excessive heat and scattered storms today might throw a spanner into those works.

outage

in

Update/202206141337: We again have the power; we’re lucky: sounds like it might be at least a week for some people.

Power's been out for a couple of hours, estimated to be restored by 1400; some gnarly storms heralded by so many phone alerts late last night and early this morning… writing this by the light of one of the thousand and one (only a slight exaggeration) lantern-inspired flashlights in an array of colorful colors found when I cleaned out my mother's apartment, the thrum of the neighbor's generator / neighbors' generators and my snoring dogs accompanying... office didn't flood: victory is mine…

stream deckery, day one

in

First full morning with my 15-button Stream Deck: skeptical of its utility at first but once I figured out profiles and made one for Obsidian, the productivity value became obvious; will add a post once I figure out how I'm going to use it fully. Also: returning the iPad Pro in my work setup, likely open also to Obsidian for online writing and such. I love Drafts, but in the interest of consolidation mental or otherwise, I'm trying to stick to Obsidian for everything. Wish it had better iOS integration, though: I'm not technically/codingly savvy enough to make my own useful widgets and shortcuts.

(un)intentional unintentionality and other afternoon adventures

in

Taking the Sunday opportunity to write something here not only because the subject matter is on my mind but to test out and get used to typing on my new Logitech Ergo K860 keyboard and obliterate not only most wrist pain but my speedy hunt and peck typing of the last 30-odd years.

Might slow me down – not necessarily a bad thing.

Anyhow:

Learning, as I tinker with my day during K's summer break, that my problem is not with being bored (though I do get bored) but rather with periods of unintentionality or, to be more specific, with periods of unintentional unintentionality: while I'm fine with intentional unintentionality – I can add a layer of intention – watch a movie, drink with Lenny in RED DEAD II, WHERE ARE YOU LENNY?! etc etc – it’s those periods of unintentional unintentionality, those times when I'm at the mercy of others, when I'm at the apex of my status as – in my therapist's words – a sheep dog without sheep, those times when my happy pills work overtime to obviate the existential miasma of indecision and pacing – Kirby in tow, from one end of the house to the other – endemic to said lack of sheep, that prove themselves dangerous and fertile ground for the rabid chihuahua in my head to run rampant with its invasive thought-fuckery.

Solution: try to be more intentional in periods of unintentionality and/or learn to go with the flow more in those periods of unintentional unintentionality.

I think I'll be able to get used to this keyboard - though I still need the slight lift from the Apple Pencil box to make it work better for me. Intriguing.

damned if you do and damned if you don’t / meanwhile, in T1D frustrations

in

Without fail and without regard to bolus ratio (the exception being when I take too much and crash myself into the 50s and have to bring it up which then puts me right back where I started) or the amount of basal insulin circulating through my system, my blood sugar spikes at 2100 and doesn't come down – again no matter the amount of basal or bolus or even a bedtime corrective dosage – until I wake up the next morning and give myself a corrective dosage which brings me down into the green without fail and which similarly ends up causing me to crash back into hypo territory on the morning run.

Next experiment: giving myself half of my dinner bolus with the meal and half a couple of hours later. Prediction: it will work for a couple of days then return to damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you don't. Alas.

(Also: starting up a new category here for T1D-life writings and etc. Will probably go with T1D though the temptation to call it TFD as I always do is strong.)