Thursday Housekeeping

Shawn sent over this video from Thailand, made by some friends of his in a band called Flow: Drugs against War.



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I received a request this morning to post a piece from a woman named Barbara O'Brien. Her blog is www.mahablog.com. A blog that purports to make the world safe for liberalism...Now I will do it, being a nice guy and everything but the last time I wrote about mesothelioma I got a cease and desist from those jerks down in Orlando so I do so a bit timidly. Here goes:


Environmental Damage Caused by Tornadoes

The recent tornadoes in the South and Midwest left behind acres of tangled, shredded debris — building materials, trees, cars, refrigerators. They also left behind some potentially serious environmental hazards.

Faced with challenging cleanups, states are relaxing some environmental protection regulations in the affected areas. Missouri, for example, is temporarily lifting some restrictions on what can be discarded in landfills. The state also is allowing residents in affected areas to burn vegetative matter on their own property, but only with the permission of the local fire department. Burning is an obvious way to quickly clear a pile of debris, but indiscriminate burning of made-made materials could release a poisonous stew of toxins into the air.

Toxins already released by the tornadoes are a bigger worry. These include asbestos, lead paint chips, gasoline, oil, and battery acid. A contractor cleaning up an Alabama site found the area contaminated by highly dangerous polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), leaked from damaged electrical transformers. 

Asbestos appears to be the biggest concern, especially in neighborhoods with older homes, schools, and commercial buildings. The massive storms ripped asbestos insulation out of walls and smashed asbestos shingles, tiles, and other building materials into dust. 

Asbestos is a mineral that breaks into tiny fibers. If breathed into the lungs the fibers can cause a host of severe illnesses, including the deadly lung cancer mesothelioma. However, the effects are not immediate. There are people receiving mesothelioma treatment today because they breathed asbestos as long as 40 or 50 years ago. 

State and federal regulations require that asbestos removal can be done only by specially trained and licensed contractors, who wear respirators and “hazmat” suits. But with such widespread damage, it’s expected that many people will plunge into cleanup work without calling in experts to find out what hazards might be present. Some states are telling residents to at least wear high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) masks and heavy gloves when working around all tornado debris. 

There were scattered reports of broken sewer and gas lines after the tornadoes had done their work, but more damage could be done by the cleanup. In some communities ruined building materials are being heaped along roadways, right on top of residential sewer lines. Eventually heavy equipment will be brought in to haul the debris away. Older lines in particular might be crushed, causing another kind of biological hazard and possibly compromise drinking water.

Most of the storm damage was in residential and farming areas, and it’s hoped that lingering environmental hazards will be isolated, and few. It may be weeks or months before the full extent of environmental damage is known. 

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I dig the new world map I have placed on the blog, replacing the feedjit map I had been using. It seems like it is recognizing more hits, even though it does not tell me exactly what post the people are reading like the old one did. If I made any money at this I would actually spring for a pro version that could give me far greater demographic analysis. Kind of sexy looking widget. Blog went over 13,500 views last month, increasing by another thousand. We are blowing up in Tajikistan...


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Went over to our friend's Beth and Leven's home to play hearts the other night and had fresh sockeye cooked in papillote or parchment paper with orzo and an arugula salad. Our meal was cooked by our wives and was extra delicious, the salmon being spiced by a special cumin rub. It stays wonderfully moist in the paper. We used to cook in paper a lot and I would like to do more of it.


Then the girls made "by the book" mint juleps, which exceeded every possible expectation.

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Ken Seals took me to the first Padres/Braves game last week, the one where the Pads came up with an 11 to 2 victory. Maybe the best seats I ever sat in, right behind first base. Stopped at Lefty's first for a chicago dog and a slice of thin crust sausage pizza. Really good. Ken mentioned that we certainly wouldn't look out of place, two guys eating dinner together in the rainbow colored Mission Hills neighborhood. 


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Our friend D's wife is out of town so we went out to dinner in Temecula last night and decided to try the Gourmet Italia restaurant.  I must confess that it may have not been the place I was looking for. The meal's result can be called mixed. I was sick all night, staying close to the throne, but it could have been lunch, who knows?


We started off with a poached pear salad with gorgonzola. Here is a cell phone picture.

I thought it was a bit strange how all the ingredients were segregated on the small plate, which did not lend itself to easy mixing. The beautiful red pear (soaked in port) was delicious.


I decided to stay light and had gnocchi and pesto, which was also great but tasted very fattening. I don't want to know how much butter or cream.


Leslie and D had filet's a signature dish and things started to spin out of control. Hers came tiny, his was huge. she wanted medium rare, got medium, I heard the swarthy cook in the nearbye kitchen swearing in italian, she got her bristles up, finally they brought another one cooked the way it was supposed to be.


Vibes were a little funky by then. Tried to turn it around with homemade canolli and creme brulee. They were both good althought he creme brulee was a bit sunken. D said that creme brulee either comes out custard or pudding and we both liked the custard type and this one was very eggy.


We had a decent Barbera, fairly expensive, nowhere near as good as the one we tried at Cucina Urbana. Will probably give the place another try.


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My radiator gave out the other day, 14 months after the last one died. The chinese piece of plastic junk split a seam. Two months out of warranty, the good folks at Pro Tire Automotive replaced it and didn't charge me a cent. Not the first time they have gone beyond the call of duty. Thanks, fellas.