Nerf/NIMBY Culture, 2.0

     Or maybe it's The Horrors Of Capitalism, Part Whatever, as expressed by people with computers, smartphones, automobiles, kitchen gadgets and abundant food, none of which is the product of a non-capitalist economic system.

     There's a chemical plant in Crosby, Texas that has already had a few explosions and which will have a nasty fire.  There's no getting around it.  They brew all manner of chemicals at the site, twenty miles away from downtown Houston and most of them have to be kept "very cool" to prevent explosions.  Commercial power failed, but they had a backup generator; when water got to it, they transferred the stuff to diesel-powered refrigerated storage, but the water kept on rising.  By that point, Arkema was in contact with local authorities and they evacuated a mile-and-a-half radius around the site.

     Also by that point, my Facebook feed was blowing up with people bemoaning Arkema for being so "negligent" and comparing the situation to the Fukushima Daiichi reactor mess.

     This is way off; Arkema in Crosby is a firecracker to the Fukushima hand grenade.  Moreover, engineers working for the Japanese power company that operated the reactors had identified the risks (far more probable than the flooding in Texas) and recommended measures to prevent bad outcomes.  The operator made very few of those improvements.  Arkema had two levels of backups for keeping their chemicals cool.  It's a lower risk and better prevention.

     Then the location was criticized. Facebookers asked, "Why did they put the plant on a flood plain?"   They didn't; you can pull up the maps and the site isn't even on the 500-year (0.2%) flood plain.  Others, taking the generic chem-plant photos used to illustrate web news stories as on-scene images, griped at the "lazy" company putting a dangerous plant right along the water (it isn't) or in a residential area (it isn't).

     This isn't a good situation and no doubt Arkema will be rethinking locations; they're going to lose this plant and all the product stored there and it may not be covered by their insurance.   It's hardly criminal negligence to fail to plan for fifty inches of rainfall in a few days in a place that normally gets that much over the course of a year.

     Most Americans live within thirty miles of a hazard as dangerous as the Arkema plant, if not more so.  We fertilize farm fields with ammonium nitrate and anhydrous ammonia, we build high dams, pump natural gas across the continent in huge pipelines, etc. etc. With modern conveniences come modern hazards and when they crop up, it takes only minutes to do your homework instead of playing Chicken Little on social media -- but few people bother.

     It took me a minute last night to pull up a map of the Arkema locations near Houston and find the one near Crosby; it was a couple of minutes to get a flood plan map and compare the two.  This morning, I spent maybe five minutes reading updated news stories on the situation and reviewing articles on the Fukushima Daiichi reactor catastrophe to get a sense of the relative scale.  Information has never been so available in human history and yet the bliss of ignorance still appeals

     Bliss is over-rated.  Be uncomfortable.  Do the easy homework.

"The Tick" Is Back!

     Amazon has brought the beloved -- or least least well-liked -- superhero back to television for the third time.  Yes, bad men, beware: the blue salmon of justice is swimming upstream yet again!  For a parody superhero who began as the newsletter mascot for a chain of comic-book stores (back when we still called them that), he's come a long way.

     He's just as charmingly askew (and slightly dim) as ever.  I was initially concerned; the pilot had a few (only a few) rough patches, with both The Tick's costume and The Tick himself a little off-model.  They have more than fixed it in the remainder of the series,* which is as surreal as both of its predecessors (animated and live-action, the latter with Patrick Warburton in the title role) while somehow managing to plant one foot squarely in reality.

     Tam and I are three episodes into the first half of the season.  Half-hour cliffhangers, six episodes have been released and another six will be released this Fall.
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* And were good enough to hang a lantern on The Tick's costume changes -- in the second or third episode, reluctant sidekick Arthur gives him a quizzical look and remarks, "You look...different."  The Tick shrugs it off, as you might expect.

Teacher? Me?

     Unlikely as it seems, I have to get to work early today, because I will be teaching a couple of classes on using a computer-based audio recording system I recently installed.

     I'm hoping to make a few converts to using the software to do basic editing and level-correcting functions.  For years, we have been using it ("Audacity," shareware if it's for home use) as no more than a digital cassette-tape recorder, when it can do quite a lot more.  But I'll be happy if I can just get users comfortable with the simplified hardware we've put in place, a two-input, high-quality USB analog/digital interface and microphone preamp.  The previous system used a small sound-reinforcement-type mixer, with upwards of a hundred knobs in an 18" by 24" space.  It was thought to be a little daunting.

Things I Don't Need To Comment (Much) On

     A short list of stuff that I have noticed but don't need to go in any depth or detail about:

     The ongoing natural disaster in Texas -- and now moving into Louisiana.  It is indeed awful.  When radar last week showed a storm about the size of Texas moving into Texas, nobody thought it was going to be minor.  Getting a yard of rainfall over a couple of days is the stuff of nightmares and Texans are coping amazingly well.

     Nazis, neo-Nazis and nitwits cosplaying their ideas: still bad. Thuggery is no fit basis for a system of government.  Communism: still not a viable way to run a large-scale economy, let alone a government.  On a small scale, an electorate dedicated to making a participatory system of government work can make pretty much any of them work -- but systems in which a small, empowered "elite"or "vanguard" run things inevitably become abusive.  How many times does our species need to run the Stanford Prison Experiment at nation-state scale before we fully grasp that?

     The Presidency is still a train-wreck.  Didn't vote for him, didn't vote for his big-party opponent.  I'm not terribly surprised at how things are turning out and I don't think they would have been any less messy, though differently so, under Ms. Clinton.  We're probably looking at the new normal and I will once again remind readers that while Presidents can routinely ruin your day, Congress can -- and does -- routinely ruin your decade.  WW III and similar fantasies aside, which one ought we be keeping a closer eye on?  I'm happy they all watch one another and if you think it's a circus now, wait until the mid-terms.

     Much closer to home: Touch-typing. Still working on it.  I added a wrist rest a few weeks ago and it helps.  It's nice to be able to watch the screen as I type but not quite habitual yet.

Viginti Epitonii

     Twenty Tap is back -- and it is as if they never closed!  A small kitchen fire ("...flames less than an inch high...") near the end of February managed to crawl up the wall, get into the ceiling and required the Indianapolis Fire Department to squelch.  Afterward, a combination of inspections, permitting and kitchen remodeling (presumably in aid of preventing future congflagrations as well as updating the equipment) kept putting off the re-opening.  Thursday last, they finally threw the doors wide (after a couple of days of trial-running for family, friends and returning staff) and the place was packed!

     Tam and I visited Saturday evening, after a day of window-shopping (at least for me) at the Indy 1500 Gun & Knife Show.  I had a pork bahn mi (basically a barbecue sandwich with a salad snuck in) and she enjoyed a steak salad.  It was the dinner hour, just gone six, and they were hopping busy -- despite which, service was as fast, attentive and pleasant as ever.  I'm happy to see 'em back.  This is one of the places in Broad Ripple where you can show up during the slow hours, get a bit to eat, and write on your portable device.  We've both missed it.

Diesel Over Steam

     We all know that modern, efficient diesel-electric drive systems replaced steam as the prime mover of locomotives, but did you ever wonder why?  A large steam engine is fairly light and simple for a given horsepower, especially compared to a diesel, and that goes much more so for early diesels.  

     It turns out Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the WW II Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, is one reason.  In 1908, while an ensign and in command, he managed to run a destroyer into a mud bank (or possibly a sand bar, accounts vary) and was court-martialed, given a letter of reprimand and, perhaps not coincidentally, shunted off to the submarine service.

     U. S. Navy submarines burned gasoline at the time and it was about as bad as you might expect: volatile fuel vapors, occasional exhaust leaks, and every problem you might imagine from a brass-lamp-era automobile, only underwater and on a larger scale.  In 1913, after having worked his way up though the command of successively larger and more complex submarines and then command of the entire Atlantic Submarine Flotilla, Nimitz spent the summer in Germany, studying diesel engines.  He liked what he saw and the U. S. Navy began to go diesel, beneath and above the waves.

     Nimitz managed to get his career back on top of the water and continued to rise; meanwhile, in 1932, "U. S. Navy opened a competition for the development of a light-weight diesel engine, more suitable to submarines than any currently in production. While the number of engines which might be purchased for submarines was too small to justify the investment, there was a large commercial market waiting in the wings: the railroad." (Italics mine.  Found at World Submarine History Timeline and bring your lunch, you'll be awhile.)

     A World War slowed changes to civilian infrastructure but afterwards, the big diesel locomotives came roaring in.  If Ensign Nimitz hadn't found a mud bank to get stuck on, barely before the first Model T had rolled off the assembly line, it might have taken even longer.

Y'know What I'm Eating?

     Chorizo sausage, cooked up with a fire-roasted Hatch chili, green onion, black olives and scrambled with three eggs, split between two people.  It's darned good!

     Adding some diced Manchego or Iberico cheese to this right before serving would be delightful.  Wish I'd thought of it before I sat down and started eating.  Next time I will.

"It Won't Shut Off!"

     Yesterday, I texted Tam as I was clearing up my workspace before heading home.  Twenty Tap -- which has an excellent kitchen to go with those twenty taps -- reopened the day before yesterday and I was hoping to go there for supper.

     Kind of in passing, I asked how the new air-conditioning was working.  As we texted, Tam was wondering through the house and, finding her cat on my bed, she'd sat down and petted her.  The cat was curled up tight and almost shivering--

     Which was when it dawned on Tam that she was feeling pretty chilly herself.  And that she'd never noticed the air conditioning cycling off since the new installation was done and the techs had left, five hours earlier.

     While texting, she tried all the usual things -- turn the the thermostat up and wait, then when that did nothing over the course of several minutes, flip the switch from "Cool" to "Off" -- and yet the fan played on, still pushing cold air.

     I called the HVAC company and got the after-hours robot.  I've used it before and they are usually quick to respond; I left a detailed message and within five minutes, the on-call service tech called back, asked the usual questions, and decided he was headed my way, pronto.

     He arrived a few minutes after I got home, looked over the work, tried a few things at the thermostat, and said, "Looks like you're getting a new thermostat.  I don't know why we don't just routinely put a new one in on jobs like this.  They tend to fail."*  He proceeded to install a nice new thermostat, checked that it was working, remarked, "This is why we have that warranty," and left without any paperwork at all.

     So that was an interesting coda to the air-conditioning adventure.  Cats and resident bloggers are all comfortable now.

* * *

     My profound thanks to everyone who has hit Tam's Tip Jar to help out with this unexpected expense!  We're all happier when she can be maintained at the proper operating temperature.
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* Why?  I didn't ask, figuring I had probably pulled him away from dinner and questions would only slow him down, but in our case, the thermostat was likely as old as the air-conditioner and got dinked with quite a lot yesterday when the installers checked their work.  Tam says she could feel the bimetallic element klonk over, but the contacts may have been stuck. There was at least one broken wire and by the "make it work and go home" approach to service work, what you do is reterminate the wiring, stick on a new thermostat and count the problem solved.  At least that's how I would have done it. 

HVAC Techs Are Here

     Right on time and ready to swap coolness for dollars -- just like in the big city, though ours will be an objectively measurable sort of coolness.

     Speaking of cool, the weather has done just that.  Pretty comfortable sleeping last night.  I am not fooled.  This is Indiana.  It'll get sticky-hot again, by and by.

Cool Air: $2600

     The A-coil in the air-conditioning system here at Roseholme Cottage has had a slow leak for at least three years now.  Each spring, that has caused it to super-cool, freeze up and it has taken an expensive topping-up to get it running again.

     It happened this Spring.  It also happened yesterday.  This morning, we had the HVAC tech out and he say's it's the A-coil, the one that lives in the ductwork above the furnace and chills the air.  Good news and not: you can still get them.  You can still get the R22 refrigerant this 20-year-old system uses, too -- for another couple of years.  But this whole thing is going to be an unloved orphan in a few years, if the phase-out proceeds as planned.     I could roll the dice, the current Administration isn't friendly to this kind of EPA meddling; but they're unlikely to be in place forever and the companies that make this stuff are mostly giant multi-nationals: R22 -- Freon plus a little of this and a dash of that -- is going away.  It's time to get away from it before everybody is having to and the price goes up.

     Which means Roseholme Cottage needs a new A-coil, a new outdoor unit and some fancy copper line.  And I'll be out $2600.00, American.

     Not fun -- I'm still feeling the pinch from the price of the car I bought a few years ago -- but it was not great sleeping last night and miserable trying to get ready this morning in the heat and humidity, despite open windows and electric fans.  It's got to be done.  What if Tam melted and I had to buy the Internet a replacement?  Way more expensive!  Besides, I've read the H. P. Lovecraft story and I'm not goin' out like that.

     This is actually a pretty good deal compared to the going rate in Indianapolis at this time of year.  They start work tomorrow morning.  Should take about half a day.

Faux-Glazed Pork Chops

     Last night's dinner was a last-minute thing: I was thinking I hadn't had pork chops in a long while.  It turned out the market had some nice shishito peppers, and this and that...  It all came together okay:

Tamara Keel photo

      That "glaze" is just the pan juices.  Started with the pork chops seasoned pretty heavily with chipotle sea salt, alderwood-smoked salt, black pepper, chili-mango mix and smoked Spanish paprika (bittersweet). Started on both sides in a little bacon fat (and I should have seared the edge fat), then just a little Pinot Grigio poured in and covered. Let it go for a least 15-20 minutes over medium-low heat. You want it just barely bubbling. Add wine as needed; you want to keep a little liquid in the bottom of the pan. Turn and give them another 15+ minutes, maintaining liquid level, and then turn up the heat. When it gets hot, add the shishito peppers, turning as needed. You'll be deglazing and adding liquid often. Cook until peppers are done -- they puff up a little and may even "pop." I used a 10" non-stick saucepan with the clear lid, very handy for this kind of cooking.  To serve, the pan juices get poured over the plated chop and peppers, which have added a tiny hint of heat.

     Why Pinot Grigio?  Chance.  Walking toward the checkout, I decided a little wine would help the chops cook.  Looking for white wine, I saw the Pinot Grigio and had vague memories of it being flavorful and having a little "edge." After I'd eaten dinner and was cleaning up the dishes, I chanced to look at the wine label: "Delicate floral aroma...overtones of citrus, pear and apple...."  So let's make that "lucky chance."

     This is actually low-effort cooking: the asparagus has a little olive or sesame oil on it, and is microwaved for 4 minutes plus or minus with some fresh garlic, salt, and a couple of slices of red bell pepper.  The neighborhood grocer's sells it made up, ready to cook.  The tomatoes are just quartered, sprinkled with "Italian seasoning blend" and allowed to sit for five minutes.

Please Bite The Sun

     The way things are going in this country, I'm forced to conclude that it's either Peak Stupid or people have simply lost their flipping minds.  So if you're part of the problem, out raising or meta-raising hell over stuff most people don't even notice over the ringing silence of empty factories and the hot hum of  angry minds all around, go ahead, look right at the eclipse; those stories about it being bad for your eyes are probably just a leftist conspiracy or a capitalist plot.

     ...Or maybe, just maybe, as you start to glance skyward, it'll dawn on you that not everything is the result of some wicked, ill-defined Them, and you'll look away.

     But I doubt it.
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     Title borrowed from a Tanith Lee novel about a character who wants to grow up but can't quite manage to, and modified to fit.