March 1st - Roll Call Friday

[BarbaraRose]

Just got home. Drove up to Lake Elsinore to see the hillsides full of CA poppies blooming everywhere! It was cloudy when I left here but the sun came out just as I arrived up there. Took a ton of photos so will post some once I go thru them all. One man I talked to said he has lived in that area a very long time and has never seen so many poppies blooming around there before.
I also signed up for a bus tour out of Palm Springs in a couple weeks to see the wildflowers in Anza Borego area. So that should be fun!
I stopped at Walmart and was walking in the crosswalk as I was leaving. There was a large pickup truck stopped so I was walking in front of it when all of a sudden he hit the gas! I put my hand out (reflex!) and he stopped just as my hand touched his truck. I know he saw me walking in front of him and he did it on purpose! Geez! Scared the crap out of me! He just smiled when I glared at him.

I remembered "Rabbits" right after midnight...

Have a good day!

[Bethers]

Karen, I'm going to go with that! So I'm good this month now.

[Irmi]

Good evening from warm and sunny FL!

Sue, I meant to post shortly after you did and when I saw your post, I said Rabbits. Actually were my first words spoken so hope it helps. I had an appointment with my cardiologist (can't believe I have to go to one of them) this morning and I had lost weight and my BP was lower than before, so we were both thrilled.

Shirl, our Discover Card contacted us to let us know we had charges on our account they were pretty sure weren't made by us. So they sent us new cards but we had to contact all the companies that we have automatic payments made on that card. What a pain in the butt. I feel for you.

Barbie, what a scare! Good grief!

The weather in Ocala is still warm and sunny so we sit out a couple hours everyday. There is a cold front moving in next week for a couple days but the day time lows will be in the 60's. Back to jeans and a jacket.

[snowball]

I think I talked to myself but not positive was playing some on the phone so no clock but I did say Rabbit's after I knew that it was after 12 haha I like Karen's idea.... especially when in a few days it will be even later before it's midnight... AZ of course doesn't change time but when the day light savings time is on it's the same as Pacific daylight time gets confusing for sure
I actually checked my battery water today try to do it on the 1st but doesn't always happen it's also heartworm day if I remember in an hour. played games today played a new one called nine something nine play perhaps... different was fun took awhile though but think it was because of learning a new one. tomorrow going to go to craft fair perhaps shower then on to Parker and wall mart ugh why I am doing that on a Sat is anyone's guess... so many people going or gone. Alice is busy supervising the building on her van... someone wanted something to do so he is constructing and she is helping... Kerry bought her trailer and when she can move into the van then they will make the trailer road worthy It was cloudy sorta today but lovely warm weather... up in the 70's can do that just have to be more watchful
sheila

[MandysMom]

Judy, check the weather, a good size storm headed in on Tuesday with rain through Thursday ! Been on news here last few days, calling it another atmospheric river.
Velda

[Cudedog]

Judy, check the weather, a good size storm headed in on Tuesday with rain through Thursday ! Been on news here last few days, calling it another atmospheric river.
Velda

Oh my. I'm not sure I like the sound of another "atmospheric river". Already pouring with rain here at my house, even as we speak.

The water level behind Oroville Dam has risen ten feet (!) in only two days. Preliminary water releases (via the power plant & etc.) have begun, although the water level doesn't reach the actual floodgates until 815 feet. Current "storage" behind the dam, over two million acre-feet. That's a lot of water up there behind me.

Current inflow into the reservoir 23,499 cfs (cubic feet per second). Current releases 6,778 cfs. Thus the lake continues to rise.

Keeping my eye on the Feather River as these water releases continue to ramp up.

I think I'll go out later to be sure the gas tank in my van is full, just in case I need to go for a "drive". I think I'll throw some dog food in there while I am at it.

Anne

[BarbaraRose]

I assume they got that spillway fixed and in working condition? I hope you don't need to evacuate, but good to be prepared just in case. Gonna be a rough spring up that way this year again.

[Cudedog]

Gonna be a rough spring up that way this year again.

Maybe, maybe not. "Spring" here usually lasts about three days or so. There will be one final, cold, rainstorm (temps maybe in the 50's) a couple of days after the storm is over temps will often jump to the low 90's.

Instant summer.

I assume they got that spillway fixed and in working condition? I hope you don't need to evacuate, but good to be prepared just in case.

Thanks for asking.

We are all hoping that it is fixed, and in working condition. LOL. It has yet to be "tested", meaning that the water level behind the dam has not been high enough - yet - to be let out the flood gates, and then on down the spillway.

Thus, the newly (last year) completed "reconstruction" of the spillway (it was torn out and totally rebuilt, at around the cost of a billion) has yet to have any dam water run down it.

Oh, yes.

It has been reported that "hairline" cracks (whatever that means) have developed on the surface of this new concrete.

DWR (California Department of Water Resources) tells the public that this is "absolutely no problem" and that "it always happens" (this is the same organization that told the public that the emergency spillway was "perfectly safe" an hour or so before 180,000 people were evacuated, because it was about to fail).

So, of course, we all should trust DWR. Absolutely. Hah.

Feds Ask State to Explain Cracks in New Oroville Spillway Concrete
https://www.kqed.org/news/11633422/feds-ask-state-to-explain-cracks-in-new-concrete-on-oroville-spillway

"Robert Bea, a professor emeritus of civil engineering at UC Berkeley and a veteran analyst of structure failures, said that DWR's letter leaves "a lot of uncertainties regarding the implications of the reported micro-cracking."

Bea, who heads a Berkeley-affiliated group that has issued several reports this year highly critical of DWR's management of the Oroville facility, added that cracks in the concrete surface are potentially serious and require urgent attention.

"Cracking in high-strength reinforced concrete structures is never 'to be expected,' " Bea said in an email. Even small cracks could increase stresses in the concrete when it is under "service loading" -- for instance, when large volumes of water hurtle down the structure at speeds approaching 90 mph.

The cracking also "develops paths for water to reach the steel elements embedded in the concrete and accelerate corrosion," Bea said. "Such corrosion was responsible for the degradation and ultimate failure of the steel reinforcing in parts of the original gated spillway"

Probably the spillway is ok. Maybe. I hope.

If it keeps raining like it has, we are probably going to find out in pretty short order.

Anne