OT: Bob Stockler

[Bill Campbell]

On Thu, Jul 15, 2004, Fairlight wrote:
>On Thu, Jul 15, 2004 at 06:06:21PM -0400, after drawing runes in goat's blood,
>J. P. Radley cast forth these immortal, mystical words:
>> Mark Luljak propounded (on Thu, Jul 15, 2004 at 05:46:31PM -0400):
>> 
>> | Winds were sheer-force in excess of 70mph (I've read as high as
>> | 80mph), so mathematically it was the equivalent of going through about
>> | a category one hurricane.
>> 
>> Should that be "shear-force"?  And whichever way it's spelled, what does
>> it mean for any kind of force to be measured in speed units?
>
>Actually, I believe you're correct on the spelling.  My mistake.  Usually
>I'm not prone to those.  Oops.
>
>It's not that the force itself was measured in speed units.  You'd have to
>measure in PSI or something as applied to the surface of something.  The
>wind velocity was measured in units of speed.  The amount of force that
>applies is relative to it though.  To venture deeper than that, I'd have to
>defer to my wife, the engineer.  *chuckle*  I've heard some cool stories
>about Tacoma Narrows and other mishaps.  :)

I've been across the Tacoma Narrows bridge many times, but since
``Galloping Gertie'' collapsed, the main problem today is that the traffic
on route 16 is horrendous a good part of the time.

>My main point was that it wasn't rotational wind like actual tornadoes or
>hurricanes, but omni-directional.  Guess I phrased it poorly.

The rotation of a storm won't be seen locally over a short period of time
(unless it's a tornadoe of course).

...
>Note to self:  Next residence will be no further south than Oregon or so.  :)

I was talking to a customer yesterday, and bitching because I thought it
was pretty hot here, about 80 degrees.  He was on the Outer Banks of North
Carolina, and no sympathy for me at all.  I have become a total weather
wimp after 20 years in the Pacific Northwest where it never gets very hot
or very cold.  I'll gladly take the occassional earthquake in lieu of say
hurricanes in Florida which periodically lead to runs on flat house paint
in the hardware stores.

We do have quite a few power failures here on Mercer Island.  Enough that I
have Puget Sound Energy on my speed dial, and a 3kw generator out back to
keep the computers running.  It's been a long time since I had to run it
specifically to charge its batteries and give it a monthly workout.

Bill
--
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