Little Far North For Rednecks, But…

…hey, I guess it can happen anywhere:

State fire officials say a Woodside-area man was seriously burned last night in an explosion after he poured gunpowder into a charcoal grill and ignited it.

And imagine my surprise to read this:

Investigators believe alcohol played a part in the incident.

Guess they left out the part about “Hold muh beer….”

And yes, these are getting more and more difficult to categorize. I need more categories, but I suspect that the need will be bottomless, given the nature of the world…

I Hate When That Happens

And I’ll bet that the Norwegian whaling industry does as well. A whale was shot down while being watched by tourist whale watchers:

Jan Kristiansen, who represents the whalers, defended the shootings. He claimed the whalers were simply taking advantage of the nice weather, when the hunting is best.

“Many of the whaling boats had been tied up at the dock for several days, waiting for better weather,” he said. “When it finally came, we have to make the most of it.”

Kristiansen claimed that he and the other whalers “don’t have anything against the whale safari boats… but it’s important to get across that it’s the extreme opponents of whaling that travel out to see whales.

“We can’t prevent them from being against the hunt, and they can’t prevent us from hunting.”

He’s obviously never met American environmentalists.

And, yes, I did have trouble finding a category for this one.

Another (Frickin’) Sunny Day In South Florida

This should be cause for celebration, right?

Wrong. Why?

First of all, I hate the sun. I mean, it’s nice that it’s up there to provide energy and all, but I really don’t like it. It’s bright, I have to put on sunglasses, I have to slather myself with goop to protect myself from the rays, it makes it hotter here than it would be without it (which is hot enough, given the latitude). One of the things that I love about coastal California is that it is so reliably cloudy and foggy (and cool) almost every day, at least part of the day if not all day.

Second, the last couple weeks have been predicting rain every day. I look at the radar, and see thunderstorms all around, but they never make it here (the Gulf coast looks like it’s been getting drenched, though). It’s tantalizing. I see green blotches heading towards us, or standing right next to us, but not moving at all, and either they don’t move, or they move and dissipate before they actually get here.

Today, we were supposed to get Yet Another Tropical Wave that was supposed to bring us wind, and rain, and miserable (by the local standard–what do they know?–they like sun. And flat. And hot. And humid) weather, and yet, the sun has been shining all day.

I’ve filled the pool, I’ve watered the lawn, in vain, to attempt to cause some non-trivial precipitation, but no go.

One of the few things that I like about this God-forsaken (if an agnostic can use that phrase) land is that it gets thunderstorms. But not here. Not now.

[Rant Off]

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!