Tag: WRUP

Who WRUP’d This Here?

What is up fellow human people of the world? It's the weekend and I'm not exceptionally busy... yet. But that'll change I'm sure. You guys watching the Olympics? I know there's a lot of controversy over the games in general and for a lot of real reasons, but I'm an Olympics stan. I don't care too much about sports overall but when the Olympic games roll up I'm glued to everything I can take in. Anyway, we're not here for that, but I do hope you're all enjoying the games. Sorry for everyone in Paris who can't travel anywhere they normally would because every popular route is blocked by stadiums and lines and venues. Read more

If It Looks Like A WRUP…

Hello everyone on a strangely cool July morning. Welcome to the WRUP once again. It's that time again. The summer Olympics have started and yeah I know it's an incredibly corrupt organization that has evolved over the decades to push people out of their homes and cost hosting cities and countries to pay extortionate amounts of money to build athletic facilities to be used for a very short time, but I do really love watching the games. Whether it's winter or summer. The opening ceremony was yesterday and it was really something to see. No stadium for the athletes to walk into, instead it was a river boat procession down the Seine with performances and celebrations happening all around. There was even a bit of metal opera performed by Gojira involving some pyrotechnics and theatrical set pieces. It ended at the Eiffel Tower with an epic laser show and the Olympic flame was lit on an old style dirigible balloon in the place where the first hot air balloon flight ever took place. The whole thing was amazing to watch and I look forward to seeing the games over the next 16 days. Read more

This WRUP is Smokin’

French Fire map, Mariposa CA -- Watch Duty Screenshot

It's hot up in here. Now I'm not saying Palm Springs hot, but today is supposed to get to 107 around here. Thankfully power is back for most of us, the French fire had it all turned off for what felt like forever. In reality it was probably just over 24 hours, but when it's this hot and there's no electricity to run a cooler or AC and you live in an old double wide mobile from the '70s it's as hot inside as it is outside except without direct sun.For some reason my generator isn't getting fuel either. I spent some time taking the carburetor of and cleaning fuel lines but no good. And i know it works because if I sprayed ether in the carb it would fire up and run a second. I may just need to soak the carb in some cleaner for a while because it seems like it's just not picking up fuel.

Yesterday was miserable for a lot of people. The French fire came basically right into the town I live near. It may have burned part of the high school I went to. I have two friends who's homes were just a few hundred yards away from it. All in all the fire is barely 900 acres as of the last update, but it's still only around 20 percent contained. Thankfully it's in an area now that doesn't threaten people's homes. The thumbnail there is a fire map, the red shows the affected area and the yellow represents areas still without electricity. As of this post that map was updated around 13 hours ago. It's still burning, but it's much slower moving now and there's a lot of air support on this one.

Here's hoping the fire crews are getting what they need because in this heat wearing 70 lbs of fire retardant gear while hiking all over the hillsides and rocks and through brush to manually dig fire lines makes heat illness a real risk. The app being used here to monitor this activity is called Watch Duty. It's completely free and shows live updates for fires anywhere you may be affected. You can even track aircraft in real time fighting the fires if you choose, but I wouldn't recommend that without being on WIFI unless you're data is truly unlimited because it'll eat through whatever mobile plan you've got really fast like that. In any case I'd highly recommend this app if you or someone you know lives in a fire danger area. Not a plug, just a credit where it's due.

For now though, let's get to the actual WRUP. Read more

WRUP On Fire

It's hot. Today is going to busy, of course and our first one over 100 degrees. I feel like I don't actually have more than a few minutes of free time any  longer and not for any good reason. Yesterday was a good slow day though so I took advantage. Anyway here's a WRUP. Read more