Good evening, everyone.
Chris, the idea of both of you getting professional marriage counseling is very sound. Dianna and I have had a few sessions, and it helped solve some issues in our marriage. I hope your wife will see the wisdom in this and not be overly influenced by her parents. Whatever happens, it's out of your control now, so I'll just keep you in my prayers and hope God guides your wife in the right direction.
Corey, it sounds like your wife had lots of adhesions, which were the main cause of her pain. Surgery for endometriosis is tricky when the doctor is trying to fix the problem but maintain reproductive capacity. I'll be interested to hear what she has to say. Believe it or not, Minnesota is sort of its own tornado alley. It has the most tornadoes of any state outside the southern Plains states and Florida. You can thank North and South Dakota, which tend to be spawning grounds for the tornadoes that hit Minnesota. The relative fatality rate is low, however, probably because the tornadoes are more likely in the lighter populated areas of the state.
Matt, working in the heat like that is no fun. If you were starting to feel lightheaded, you need to double the amount of liquids you drank that day. The whitewater rafting sounds like a nice break. I used to do a lot of that when I was younger, including the whole Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. If you like whitewater rafting, that one should be on the top of your list.
Steve, nuking the spill is not in the cards. Supposedly, the Russian did this in the 70's, but that was on runaway gas wells located in Siberia, far away from anyone who would notice. It was apparently successful in only one case. Trying the same thing at 5,000 feet below the sea surface, and over one of world's biggest concentrations of gas and oil under extremely high pressure, would be a pretty foolish stunt. Even though the amount of oil coming out of the well is not small, it's still small compared to the entire Gulf and Atlantic Ocean basins. The chance of the oil escaping the Gulf is near zero, and any oil that got caught up in the Gulf Stream would be so diluted that it wouldn't even be noticeable. There are a lot of media types who are hyping this thing into a much greater catastrophe than it already is.
Jeffrey, our A/C hasn't been working too well with all this heat. I did finally change the filters. They weren't black, but they were completely stopped up with dust. I have no idea why get so much dust in this house. The filter change helped keep the house a lot cooler today.
Went to a Montgomery Biscuits game last night. The team won, which is a good thing, since we've lost five out of the last seven. I was soaked in sweat just sitting there. I don't think it got below 80 until about 10:00 pm. The ball park is located right next to the CSX mainline and the drill tracks for one of the biggest CSX yards in the Southeast. Here's a clue for those who believe the economy is really improving. Last year, I saw a train every five minutes or so. Last night, I saw one train in a little less than four hours, and that was only the yard switchers working the drill track. Certainly a good indication that car loadings have taken a plunge since last year, which shouldn't happening in an improving economy.
The high was 104 degrees today.
Our amateur radio club had a field day today, which means you set up radios with temporary antennas and generators for power, to practice for having to do this when the sh*t hits the fan. Getting those two 50' masts set up in the middle of an open field at noon was about as much as I could take. At least the two communications vehicles had a/c, so I could retreat there before I died. We had some pretty good band openings, and I was able to talk to hams from Arizona to Maine. We had over 400 contacts when I left at 9:00 pm. This is a nationwide contest to see which club or organization can make the most contacts, so we'll see where we place when it's officially over at 1:00 pm Sunday. Supposed to be just as hot tomorrow, so taking down those masts aren't going to be any more fun than putting them up.
