The "Über" Ranger Blog Show

Spent another day down at the “Chilkoot Mine” on Friday.. and panned another 104 pieces of plunder.. bringing me chest up to 204 pieces of gold. Sad I will be to see this place close down… if so… I will never attend another Cap-Ex again if that be the case.

Me plunder…

Dirka, dirka… still alive! The lightning didn’t get me — this time.

The view as seen here from Northeast Edmonton of the big thunderstorm that blew through yesterday. I was listening in on  the ham radio scanner during the storm, to say the airwaves were busy yesterday was an understatement. I started recording right after an oil refinery was hit by lightning, and an operations fellow was trying to get someone to call 911 in Sherwood Park — but all the lines were busy. (You can download the MP3 audio here – 5.7 MB).

Fire and police had over 200 calls , and much property damage was caused during the night even including the CN tower downtown.

Most people got their information about the evenings events on Twitter, and from the “phone a friend” option in other parts of the city to see where any possible tornado might be lurking. The Edmonton Journal in fact could not publish today’s paper as they are still without power, as many other parts of the city are still out today. The blog was off-line last night — unplugged the web server to make sure it didn’t live up to my signature line.

A city once bitten by a tornado (back in 1987).. is twice shy indeed… and #yeg is like a pack of gophers cranking their necks up all over the sky to look for them spinny whirly vortexy clouds of doom.

The top of a 40 foot spruce tree snapped off and landed on top of my neighbors Mitsubishi… denting his roof something fierce. A few other downed trees in the hood, and my Jeep TJ windshield cracked in half during the heat of the day.

Oh well, what are you gonna do? Uhm.. get the camera and a rain jacket and follow the next one that comes past this way… of course. Storms are way cool!

More Twitter & Related News Here:

blog.mastermaq.ca/2009/07/19/the-last-24-hours-on-twitter-storm-in-edmonton/

http://www.inews880.com/Channels/Reg/iReports/Story.aspx?ID=1116422

http://bit.ly/xImKI (Capital “Ex’odus Video)

P.S. – I was very sad to hear that Walter Cronkite passed away yesterday, on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing no less. We should name a crater on the moon after him indeed.