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| SeraphineBlackheart
SeraphineBlackheart
[13607706]
[2010-04-19 18:53:12 +0000 UTC]
"Here be monsters."
(Poland)
# Statistics
Favourites: 1351; Deviations: 841; Watchers: 375
Watching: 361; Pageviews: 96003; Comments Made: 24357; Friends: 361
# Interests
Favorite visual artist: Leonardo da Vinci, Jan Matejko, StanisΕaw WyspiaΕski, Artur GrottgerFavorite movies: Good ones.
Favorite TV shows: Same as with movies.
Favorite bands / musical artists: Those who play rock, metal, reggae, blues - you get the picture?
Favorite books: Sci-fi, fantasy, horror, criminal stories, humour.
Tools of the Trade: Various graphic programs, pencils, rapidograph, quill pen.
# Comments
Comments: 1952
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Thanks for the watch really appreciate it :3
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No prob. Herd as many llamas as you can.
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Hello archerblack, I hope you are fine sweetie. It's beenΒ ages since I haven't written to you. I'm fine, just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten you. I always wish the best for you and your family.Β Β
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It's okay, I know you rarely visit dA. I know that you often hand on G+.
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Β Β I have aΒ Twitter account now, twitter.com/Miss_Krieger_ and a TumblrΒ misskrieger-lunafantasma.tumblβ¦Β just in case you are also there sweetie, let me know 
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I was, but I'm not any more.
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I'll get to your other messages a little later. I'll be busy the rest of the week. I'll likely get to them on Saturday.
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And I'm replying on Sunday XD
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And I'm replying on a Monday! XD
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And I'm back on Saturday!
I hope that the weather won't be too much of a nuisance in your area. Technically Pensylwania is not in the path of Florence but it doesn't mean that it won't influence weather further north and deeper into the land.
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I'm here on Saturday too! XD
We already got rained out by Gordon a few days ago, but they're keeping an eye out Florence too. By they time that it hits inland, the hurricanes just become huge rainstorms.Β
We had more landslides and flooding across the region thanks to the remnants of Gordon.
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And I'm on Sunday!
Yeah, but the ground is soaked with water, and if you had landslides after Gordon, you may have even more after Florence.
In Europe's mainland we get the orkans (at least that's what we call them in Poland), which are classified as hurricane or cyclonic winds but are caused by atmospheric pressure differences between Atlantic Ocean and the mainland (so they do not evolve and grow like Cyclones and they do not look like ones, but an orkan can form from remains of a Cyclone). They're very destructive and can bring intense rains, pretty much the same as hurricanes and cyclones, so we get ripped off roofs, topled trees and all that. Though we build differently than in the USA (you have "light" constructions so your damages are more extreme, we have "heavy" constructions which limits the damage).
This is exactly what I was thinking about when I asked you about the influence of Florence - you may not get the main event... well maybe not as extreme as we could have it in Europe (because Europe is pretty small compared to America, so the strength of the winds decreases slower than over the mainland America). Still, with the amount of water in the ground, any rain can be bad.
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And I'm seriously late! XD I've been sick and irritable, but I have energy to check my messages now.
Yeah, there were more landslides after Florence, but they haven't affected anywhere near our direct location. The slides happened across other parts of the county. There was a train derailment that occurred near Downtown Pittsburgh and the officials made a declaration that the soil in our county is highly unstable.
Wow. I never heard of orkans before. But at least your side builds your structures relatively sturdy to withstand it. The US is too cheap to go that route. :-/
We build things quickly and cheaply as possible.
Our area doesn't really get extreme weather damage like the Midwest, coasts, and South. The biggest thing that happened was the road collapse months ago.
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Well, I've been busy with "family stuff" and it looks like it'll be going on for a while now too (damn inheritance issues).
Hopefully they will find a way to stabilise it (the simplest but slowest would be planting trees - they would bound the soil with their roots, but it only works in some types of terrain).
And it's a great policy in general, but it doesn't work in every location - some states should build sturdier than others. Sometimes light and flexible construction is even better, for example in places with earthquakes. But in places with tornadoes and hurricanes heavy, sturdy construction will be better (with solid window shutters too).
In Poland we mostly have heavy construction houses because of our climate and because of the fact that it is how we've always build our houses. Even those made of wood are heavy. We can't have too light construction due to winters and possibility of spring floods. Recently modern technology allowed us to built lighter because we can now insulate thinner walls better, but people still prefer brick and concrete walls because they're more solid, especially now that the tornadoes become more common in here.
That road collapse however must've cause some problems even if it didn't damage any houses: people use roads to travel and I wonder how many people couldn't get to work or home because of that one road?
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I hope that your family stuff isn't too dramatic or otherwise troublesome.
Our soil is clay-based. Even hillsides with plants fall. The other problem is this area is getting heavier storms more than it ever has in the past. The climate is definitely changing. They're predicting the floods, landslides, mudslides, and heavy rains will be the norm. It's nearly a tropical rainfall now.
They just have to build according the geographical location and how its weather behaves. (Both of which will change at some point.)Β
But wow, tornadoes are no joke either. Yeah, the Earth stands still for no one.Β
The road collapse did demolish the apartment complex that resided directly below it. The police evacuated everyone before it became a massive tragedy. Only some units remain the rest were reduced to mud and rubble.
A LOT of people were affected by the road collapse. It was a main throughway.
It started off as a small dip in the road:Β cbspittsburgh.files.wordpress.β¦
The same night it collapsed:Β cbspittsburgh.files.wordpress.β¦
Thankfully there were a few other roads that led around it, but for businesses below, it was brutal. They've been trying to repair the area, but rubble from the upper hill has fallen on the road a few weeks ago.....
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It's inheritance issue. It can be solved privately on in court but we're not there yet. So far the widow hasn't even asked my dad to renounce his right to inheritance, but she will have to because according to Polish law, she, grandma and uncles siblings (my dad and aunt) have equal rights (since he had no kids of his own that could inherit after him). If she wants to inherit everything, other inheritors would have to renounce their inheritance. Since uncle's wife wasn't liked in the family that'd be a tall order, so it looks like it'll end in court. My uncle's wife however is now putting a dog and pony show of how loving wife she was and how grieving widow she is now (she's counting on everyone forgetting that she was neglecting my uncle when he was ill).
I'm not surprised, the changes are visible everywhere. Your local authorities will have no other choice but to artificially stabilise the ground somehow.
Yup. And our own actions don't help either.
Wow. I take the building was light-construction, not heavy brick and concrete work?
Ouch! That's a large hole in the road. Not the biggest ever, but it's impressive.
Like I said, the only way I can think of is to stabilise the ground somehow, otherwise it'll just continue to slide over and over again.
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Oh dear....
It's always a riot when troublesome people try to paint themselves innocent when there's stuff to be earned.Β
I hope that it can be settled peacefully in the courts.
XD Pennsylvania doesn't have enough money to do something like that. We live in one of the US's top 5 states with the worst infrastructure. There's road work everywhere all the time and the roads are still horrible. There's new roadwork every day that it's the norm around here. I'm actually really sick of Pittsburgh because of the perpetual roadwork. (They dig holes in the road and then leave a few days later. Nothing was wrong with the roads before that anyone noticed, but when something is reported, it never gets done.)
I suppose we should just let the changes/entropy happen.....
These were older apartments and they were utterly destroyed. (I guess they were though.)
Indeed. Naturally, that messed everything up for the local businesses, regular traffic, nearby homes, etc. It was a big mess. The people in those apartments lost everything.
I suppose there's a way to make that happen, but PENNDOT is really cheap with their materials. They can't even patch potholes efficiently or salt the roads in time for ice storms.Β
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Peacefully or not, it will be settled eventually. Although I believe that my uncle's wife is now having an epic guilt trip over his death. But knowing her it won't stop her from fighting for the inheritance. In the end I do not care if it will end up peacefully, I just care that it does ends.
It sounds awfully lot like Poland. Only we get money from EU for our infrastructure and it got a lot better, but there's still a lot to do. One of the things that get done recently is the central heating system for the houses. In my district/borough (I don't know which one applies, I guess you can use both names) a great number of houses lack connection to the central heating system so they need to use old fashioned furnaces which produce a lot of smoke which in turn ups the smog levels especially in the winter. So the city has this program of connecting houses to the urban heating system but the problem is that the pipelines go underneath the pavements and streets and that means a lot of digging. On top of that, the city wants the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praga-P&β¦ " ?praga-north<="" a=""> to be restored to its former glory because it fell into disrepair over the XXth century. The district is one of few parts of the city that actually survived the Nazi bombardments so it has great historical value, but it is in poor shape, especially the parts with smaller streets, but with the Metro being built, the smog prevention program and the renovation program things are about to change, unfortunately these changes tend to be loud and bothersome.
Or you can fight it. Are there no federal programs to help secure people's safety? I mean land slides are dangerous.
Age doesn't matter as much as type of the building, even if it was older it could still be light construction. If the landslide didn't damage the construction, the building can be cleaned, dried and people can still live in it. But if it was damaged, then it has to be demolished because it's not habitable.
That reminds me the great flood in 1997.
Our own road repair crews have the same problems. It's not all money issue. The pot holes cannot be filled until it is warm enough (if they will fill them too early the patch will not hold). And we have the same problem with salting and not just in Warsaw but all over the country: every year the local road services get surprised by the winter because they only start to remove the snow and salt the streets after the snow storm passed, and they can last whole nights or days.
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I suggest this: Do what I do when family drama erupts. If it doesn't effect you directly, don't invest any emotions or effort into it. It will save you much sanity and stress. Well, I suppose it's good that she feels guilt about it, but again, if it doesn't directly have any effect on your life, don't put much thought into.
Hmm, now that you mention pipelines, that's probably the reason for all of the roadwork and digging here. But the fact remains that Pennsylvania is one of the states with the worst infrastructure.
But I suppose that you can look at it this way, if it's going to lead to better living conditions, the inconvenience will pay off one day in the far future.....
There are federal programs to help protect/help the public, but I hear people say that they provide the bare minimum or only partially help. But I guess it's better than nothing.Β
But what I meant by entropy was natural entropy. It's only going to get worse from here on out. Landslides are dangerous indeed, but they can't even pave roads the right way. And they're just going to raise the prices on the licenses, tolls, etc again.Β
It's a lose-lose situation.
From what I recall, the buildings were completely destroyed. I don't think that they accounted for landslides. They just might now that it's happening more often.
There may be more great floods the way that this is going. But the Earth sits still for no one. Earth/nature is always changing.
Pfft! There are potholes still across the city even during the spring and summer seasons. They had more than enough time to fix the problems. And there's also the issue of sinkholes (which don't happen often, but still.....)Β
There's a hole in the road just outside our apartment building and I'm hoping that it's not a sinkhole or something.Β
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Oh, I do that, normally I can't be bothered to find time to seek any snorts to give, but sadly it does affect me personally: I am my father's sole heir. Even if he just waive his right to the inheritance, there's still little ol'me in line. And this whole mess may just as well last well into next year. My dad wants to give the "grieving widow" time to the New Year, if she doesn't do anything, he will initiate the inheritance procedure in the court.
Yeah, well, she had the guilt trip for whole of two weeks, she's back to being an insufferable harpy now.
If I get my facts right, Pennsylvania used to be a mining state (or still is?), therefore it didn't have big industry therefore the infrastructure wasn't as well developed as in some other states.
Yeah, I mean I already have central heating system in my place so when it comes to living conditions I gain nothing, but in the end it will improve the air quality. Or at least it's supposed to.
It's a bit like with EU funds. The EU gives money but a state needs to invest some of its own money too.
Oh. Well, rest assured, your road problem is not uncommon. In Poland we have this issue with roads too. We lay a perfectly even road or street, and the next spring there are holes in it. Why it happens? Simple: winter. In this climate (and Pennsylvania has similar to central Europe, or at least that's how it looks like) no road will last because the difference between summer and winter is too great. We can't use asphalt for cold climates because we have hot summers, and we cannot use asphalt for hot climates because we have cold winters. But we have to use something, so we use a mix, but the hot climate asphalt dominates because it's easier to fill some holes than have to deal with runny asphalt in the middle of the summer.
Hopefully they will. And maybe some other safety measures that would minimise the damage.
Yup. It's a swim or sink.
If it was a sink hole wouldn't it collapse already?
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Oh dear. I don't know what to say about this one.....
Ah, well, that's to be expected. Can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Yep. That's exactly it. The mining has likely done a number on this place. It's probably irreversible too. (At least, I wouldn't be surprised if it was irreversible.)
Hmm, well, it may or it may not. I suppose the good thing is that they're trying to find a solution.
It's a frustrating mess regardless. I heard that someone invented a material that lasts longer than the standard stuff, but the state actually turned him down. www.youtube.com/watch?time_conβ¦
I guess they have to make money somehow. :-/
Hopefully. At this point, no one knows I don't think that they even know.
Is swimming even worth it anymore?
Most likely. It's likely just another big pothole.
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