Yes, there are other things
6 Nov 2025 10:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ursulas_alcovebesides politics, but here is what is affecting me directly: With regard to the environment, PA scored a big win in the election. We kept PA Supreme court justices that are friendly toward conservation. That means there is a chance I'll still be able to breathe the air. Three area data centers have been announced. The Center for Coalfield Justice is holding informative sessions. Meanwhile, I will continue to worry if our local grid can even handle the new load. Power used to go out every time the steel mill fired up a burner., every Monday at 8 am. The mills are gone but we still have a lagging power system - consult your physics book if you need an explanation. Power will go out when they bring that shit online. In PA, several coal power plants that produced mercury emissions were taken off line. That puts additional pressure on the other electrical plants. Those plants are also often taken offline during severe weather like bitter cold or heat waves. Our predominant power plants are coal, nuclear, and natural gas. Grid operation is not going to work smoothly. In addition, other power plants that were supposed to go offline due to age, have been given the green light to go years beyond their obsolescence. That little political gem is thanks to the current regime but impacts Maryland and other parts of the eastern seaboard. So, yes, electricity may no longer be a given. (and we haven't even gotten into the nitty-gritty of aging capacitors and other expensive aging equipment)
There was a strange memo issued by Bill Gates. The only real thing he got correct was that climate change is real. My favorite climate scientist explains the rest, better than I can. The problem is that global leaders listen to Gates. Spoiler, his memo doesn't cover air quality at all.
https://youtu.be/9MmqKEkOtwo?si=YMmu6L8SeUMPWI69
Meanwhile, children and elderly starve. Food banks were already struggling with all the federal layoffs. Add to that all the additional ones that occurred last week from Microsoft to UPS to Amazon. Soon the airport will be closed without air traffic controllers. Currently, they are saying 10 %. My nephew out in CA got laid off in the tech sector. My neighbor works at the airport. I think pretty soon all of us will know people affected by the economy. (I'm being polite). The library is collecting food locally. Our governor made 5 million available from emergency funds and Mark Cuban made another million available for assistance. As my daughter put it, that covers Philly and Harrisburg, leaving Pittsburgh out in the cold. Obviously, it's not distributed that way, but it gives you a broad sense of how many people are being short-changed. Let's hope the partial payments to SNAP will help stretch those dollars further. The economy is the biggest factor to be worried about at the moment. Recession, tariffs, immigration abuse, and inflation all at once.
We've had a lot of solar storms lately, combined with Coronal Mass Ejections. It is theorized that a continued bombardment of solar wind and CMEs is affecting the earth's response in the way of earthquakes. At the moment Kamchatka is at the biggest risk of producing a very large earthquake in the 8.0 range. Also of concern is Campi Phligrei, the "burning fields" near Naples in Italy. The area houses a super-volcano. More and more studies indicate a phreatic explosion could occur. Land rise continues and peoples' basements are now coated with sulphur deposits from the fumes. More earthquakes continue in that area. I'm sure other regions around the globe will be dicey as well. See Stephen Burns for an explanation of this theory. https://www.youtube.com/live/Mtp0sri71QE?si=uSDmjpbRQp26yMLS
The fear factor is rising. I take this with a grain of salt, knowing that people have survived worse before. The 2026 garden plan may need to shift if the globe is put into another volcanic winter. Instead, I'm working on fall chores while the weather holds. See my latest vlog:
https://youtu.be/uye5dLWgBxg?si=WpY1ORQulNKdlkXF
There's also a sweater I'm working on, which I just ripped again. There were supposed to be 15 stitches, not 18 at the end. I'b so close to finishing! Last night, I worked on an appliqué crazy quilt. I stitched 4 more patches. It's a multi-year project. I have two going simultaneously. The pink one needs about 30 more pieces before I can embroider and add backing. The green one is no where near as far along. I kid myself into thinking that I am clearing the attic. The bits and bobs of fabric kicking around get incorporated and off my floor. Four patches doesn't even make a dent. My goal is 15 patches per year. They are all hand sewn. Sewing machine repair has been back burnered. My husband broke another tooth. Dentistry is going to cost us.
From a few years back:
Green Quilt
I'll post the complete sweater when I'm done. The roar of the wind has made me anxious to finish. My latest discovery is a homestead in Estonia. What they've done is inspiring.
https://youtu.be/QyNJSsuFUas?si=U_3bJISkA-eVsgZC
There was a strange memo issued by Bill Gates. The only real thing he got correct was that climate change is real. My favorite climate scientist explains the rest, better than I can. The problem is that global leaders listen to Gates. Spoiler, his memo doesn't cover air quality at all.
https://youtu.be/9MmqKEkOtwo?si=YMmu6L8SeUMPWI69
Meanwhile, children and elderly starve. Food banks were already struggling with all the federal layoffs. Add to that all the additional ones that occurred last week from Microsoft to UPS to Amazon. Soon the airport will be closed without air traffic controllers. Currently, they are saying 10 %. My nephew out in CA got laid off in the tech sector. My neighbor works at the airport. I think pretty soon all of us will know people affected by the economy. (I'm being polite). The library is collecting food locally. Our governor made 5 million available from emergency funds and Mark Cuban made another million available for assistance. As my daughter put it, that covers Philly and Harrisburg, leaving Pittsburgh out in the cold. Obviously, it's not distributed that way, but it gives you a broad sense of how many people are being short-changed. Let's hope the partial payments to SNAP will help stretch those dollars further. The economy is the biggest factor to be worried about at the moment. Recession, tariffs, immigration abuse, and inflation all at once.
We've had a lot of solar storms lately, combined with Coronal Mass Ejections. It is theorized that a continued bombardment of solar wind and CMEs is affecting the earth's response in the way of earthquakes. At the moment Kamchatka is at the biggest risk of producing a very large earthquake in the 8.0 range. Also of concern is Campi Phligrei, the "burning fields" near Naples in Italy. The area houses a super-volcano. More and more studies indicate a phreatic explosion could occur. Land rise continues and peoples' basements are now coated with sulphur deposits from the fumes. More earthquakes continue in that area. I'm sure other regions around the globe will be dicey as well. See Stephen Burns for an explanation of this theory. https://www.youtube.com/live/Mtp0sri71QE?si=uSDmjpbRQp26yMLS
The fear factor is rising. I take this with a grain of salt, knowing that people have survived worse before. The 2026 garden plan may need to shift if the globe is put into another volcanic winter. Instead, I'm working on fall chores while the weather holds. See my latest vlog:
https://youtu.be/uye5dLWgBxg?si=WpY1ORQulNKdlkXF
There's also a sweater I'm working on, which I just ripped again. There were supposed to be 15 stitches, not 18 at the end. I'b so close to finishing! Last night, I worked on an appliqué crazy quilt. I stitched 4 more patches. It's a multi-year project. I have two going simultaneously. The pink one needs about 30 more pieces before I can embroider and add backing. The green one is no where near as far along. I kid myself into thinking that I am clearing the attic. The bits and bobs of fabric kicking around get incorporated and off my floor. Four patches doesn't even make a dent. My goal is 15 patches per year. They are all hand sewn. Sewing machine repair has been back burnered. My husband broke another tooth. Dentistry is going to cost us.
From a few years back:
Green Quilt
I'll post the complete sweater when I'm done. The roar of the wind has made me anxious to finish. My latest discovery is a homestead in Estonia. What they've done is inspiring.
https://youtu.be/QyNJSsuFUas?si=U_3bJISkA-eVsgZC
