• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Hurricane Harvey

Lucille

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I was just fixing to move away from the coast to a more inland Texas location, thought I would never have to deal with another hurricane. I hate them, so much work, so much worry.
It appears that there will be serious flooding in my area. Here it is August in Texas and I will likely lose electricity and it will be hotter than you know where until they get it fixed.


On the other hand, I have nice neighbors, bottled water, flashlights, and some freshly made tollhouse cookie brownies to share if we all decide to watch movies until the electricity goes out.

Hopefully it won't be too bad :(
 
When we had power out here for four days, the one thing I would have KILLED to have had on hand were one or more battery powered fans. We just could not sleep at night because of the heat. Could not open the windows, because that would have just made it worse to allow all that humid air inside.

I tried using the UPS systems for the computer gear with some regular AC fans, but that didn't work for very long. So I found one that is supposed to last 40 hours on 6 D sized batteries, if I remember correctly, and I bought a couple, just in case.

Hope things don't get rough for you.
 

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I'm guessing right now you couldn't find a generator for sale in most stores along the gulf coast.

I have one, 6500W, which was a lifesaver after we had a summer storm in July a few years back that clobbered our power for four days with temps over 100*F afterward. We couldn't run the A/C but having cold drinks and fans made it bearable - not to mention we didn't lose any perishable food.

Bear in mind if you do run a generator it has to be guarded 24/7 or it will end up stolen quickly.
 
Looks like it is developing a pretty distinct eye....

Batten down the hatches....
 

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It does look serious. I'm glad now that I had some extremely expensive tree work done in the back yard, having a large dying tree that overhung the house taken down.
I always feel sorry for the dogs during hurricanes, the forceful winds and rain must be scary to them but they still have to go out there a couple times a day.
Of course they may be happy later if the electricity goes out because then they will get to have all the tasty meats and casseroles in the deep freeze.
Fortunately I learned to can last year so there is quite a bit of stored canned food that will be fine as long as the house is not flattened by some neighbor's tree.
It is literally a matter of weeks before I had planned to move, I had hoped to never deal with another hurricane but as they say, never say never.
 
Of course they may be happy later if the electricity goes out because then they will get to have all the tasty meats and casseroles in the deep freeze.

You can find an upside to most situations if you look, this is one of them for the dogs;)
Good luck Lucille!
 
Yeah, definitely looking like a huge rainmaker for coastal Texas....
 

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Now this is what you call a very well defined eyewall for a hurricane.
 

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BULLETIN
Hurricane Harvey Intermediate Advisory Number 22A
NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL AL092017
700 PM CDT Fri Aug 25 2017

...EYE OF CATEGORY 4 HARVEY APPROACHING THE COAST BETWEEN PORT
ARANSAS AND PORT O'CONNOR TEXAS...
...CATASTROPHIC FLOODING EXPECTED DUE TO HEAVY RAINFALL AND STORM
SURGE...

SUMMARY OF 700 PM CDT...0000 UTC...INFORMATION
----------------------------------------------
LOCATION...27.8N 96.8W
ABOUT 35 MI...55 KM E OF CORPUS CHRISTI TEXAS
ABOUT 50 MI...80 KM SSW OF PORT OCONNOR TEXAS
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...130 MPH...215 KM/H
PRESENT MOVEMENT...NW OR 325 DEGREES AT 8 MPH...13 KM/H
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...941 MB...27.79 INCHES

Yikes! Category 4!
 

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This is definitely not going to be a fun weekend. :ack2:
 
With all the hype from the news people I expected a lot more adverse weather by now. So far there is a bit of lightning, some rain and light wind, no flooding anywhere I can see in my neighborhood. So not a big deal yet.
 
Hopefully that will be the worst that you go through with this. How far are you from the actual eye of the storm?
 
Three hours later, about the same, just some rain which is draining off well. The winds are not high at all. I am about 160 miles from Rockport, the little city where Harvey made landfall.
 
Thank you I am fine. I don't know whether in the next few days it might start to rain or bring other issues but as of now it hasn't rained for hours, the wind is minimal. From media reports this storm was going to be a deadly tiger, so far it has been a baby kitten here.
 
Well, I hope they just blew this all out of proportion. Although I have to admit, looking at the weather radar, I guess I was expecting this would be pretty bad too. Maybe they just don't make hurricanes like they used to? :shrug01:

I really do hope this turns out to be a nothingburger. But in their shoes, I guess I would have over-hyped it too, rather than down playing the danger.
 
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