Cop Car's Beat

Surprise!

Stu offered to send some rain, to help with the wildfires that were burning in our part of the world. He did better than that. He sent us snow! That's being a good friend. Hunky Husband had told me to expect snow over-night; but, I could hardly believe him. He was right!

 

The only flowers that we have abloom are the Daffodils, Narcissi, Ice Plant, and Creeping Phlox (our tulips are about ready to bloom). Since the Ice Plant and Creeping Phlox are under the snow, I'll show how well hidden are the Daffodil and Narcissus blooms, and then when they are out of hiding five hours later. The forked stick will someday be a Catalpa tree.

I had wanted to post about the unusually early spring we were having 1/2 a month ago, but was just too wrapped up in volunteer work. Here are a couple of the photos that I took on March 11, 2016 showing trees abloom at least four or five weeks earlier than normal.

 

We had a little, female Downy woodpecker (no photo) fly into the sliding glass door in our breakfast room, last evening. It was quite the impact! When I checked out the noise, she was all spread out on the porch floor - panting heavily, but otherwise looking like a goner. An hour later, she had picked herself up, fluffed herself up, and flown off. What a pleasant surprise!

Smokey here

We were inundated by smoke last evening - quite thick. Fortunately, the wind shifted to blow it away from us within about 20 minutes. It turned out that the fire is about 40 or 50 miles SSW of us.

It is March in Kansas - meaning sustained and gusty high winds. The winds, of course, are no respecters of state lines. A wildfire that started in Oklahoma, blew into Kansas. It is currently being reported that more than 169,000 acres (about 264 square miles or about 4050 square meters) have burned.

WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) -- Governor Sam Brownback has declared a State of Disaster Emergency for an area of south-central Kansas threatened by major wildfires.

A wildfire that began in Oklahoma on Tuesday spread into Kansas and burned more than 169,000 acres.

A statement from the Kansas Adjutant General's office early Thursday declared the fire "under control" in Comanche County, but not yet in Barber County. It added voluntary evacuations have ended in the Lake City and Sun City communities.

Barber County's sheriff earlier called for voluntary evacuations in Sun City and Medicine Lodge. But the Adjutant General says the fire "went around the town on the north and south sides" of Medicine Lodge.

U.S. 160 reopened Thursday morning between Coldwater and Sun City Road in Barber County, after being closed all day Wednesday.

The Kansas Adjutant General's Office said two houses on the north edge of Medicine Lodge have been destroyed by the fire, and "the remaining 800 to 1000 homes and business structures are in danger."

American Red Cross shelters have been established to support Barber County, should they be needed. It is at 619 North Main in Pratt. A second shelter will be established at Chaparral High School at 467 KS Highway 2 in Harper County, but it was not yet open as of 10 p.m. Wednesday.

Medicine Lodge Hospital was also evacuated as fires continued racing through the county. Staff and patients relocated to Harper County.

Update of 3/24/2016 1915GMT -

Latest report is that over 400,000 acres have burned.

 

Update of 3/25/2016 2130GMT -

Kansas Forest Service: Wildfire Is Largest in State

By The Associated Press

MEDICINE LODGE, Kan. — Mar 25, 2016, 4:32 PM ET

 

Though some progress has been made to contain it, the persistent wildfire that spread north from rural Oklahoma into a sparsely populated section of Kansas is the largest one in Kansas history, officials said Friday.

At least 620 square miles of land in Oklahoma and southern Kansas have been scorched in the fire, which started Tuesday. It destroyed at least one home in Kansas, but no serious injuries have been reported.

...

A separate grass fire that hit near the Kansas town of Burrton, which is about 30 miles northwest of Wichita, burned about 22 square miles before it was controlled Thursday. One home was destroyed and several head of livestock were killed.

The St Louis Post Dispatch reported, yesterday, that the smoke had reached St Louis MO.

 

Google Doodle that I missed - Hedy Lamar's 101st Birthday

Parking - as the pros do it

Fifty-five years ago, I lost a point or two on my driving test in Bellevue, Washington, for being slow at parallel parking - not bad, just slow! Now, scratching my head, I can only remember parallel parking once within the past 25 years - at the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita. I did not cover myself in glory, but I didn't have to take a cab to get from my car to the curb. Now, for the past two years, I've owned a car that will parallel park itself - if only it ever had a chance. I had the salesperson demo the capability when test-driving the car, but that was using the pillars in a building-overhang in the parking lot as stand-ins for parked cars.

Well, that was parallel parking. I do claim that, 55 years ago, I was expert at backing into parking spots in the parking lots at Boeing and at University of Wichita. Still...professional drivers put me to shame - not only now, but when I was at my best! In the video, below, I disagree with the "amazing" part. pros do this sort of thing every day - several times each day!

 

 

Thanks to Ronni, of Time Goes By for posting the video which enabled my stealing it.

 

P.S. I note that the pro driver takes his/her time at it. Thankfully, no one was timing the event!

Just a Fad!

I would give credit if I knew how. The graphic was included in an email from Jono Anzalone.

I note that we are already going back to smart/dumb terminals connected to the mainframe (now called the cloud). I didn't much care for that type of computing in 1975. Why should I like it now?