All posts by djones

spelling, weather

I’m Back …

4 Comments

Since I wussed out and went to bed early last night, I know you have been waiting with baited breath for this post. You can now breathe. I am here. {*grin*}

And did you know that the built in spell checking in most browsers doesn’t grok “wussed out”? But it does grok grok and is happy to suggest wusses! I therefore conclude that the people who write the spell checkers are Heinlein fans with little exposure to everyday language. Now that I have insulted the all-powerful spelling Geeks, watch for the number of mis-spellings here to rise exponentially. I’m already preparing a burnt offering to appease them.

Since it is nearing noon and the temperature is finally close to hitting double digits (i.e. 10), I think we should celebrate. After all, this is supposed to be one of the warmer days this week, so a little

is in order to keep our spirits up.

We only got a dash of snow yesterday, less than 3 inches, but I loved it because it was dry powder snow. That meant when I walked out to get the paper Sunday morning, every step made that characteristic squee-scrunch that happens with powder snow when the temperature is near single digits. Made me want to traipse around making more squee-scrunches in spite of not having my coat on and wearing these moccasins in the sub-zero wind chill.

Note that Jenners feared I might wear these in public clear back here. (Just to allay her fears, no one else was out in the cold and snow at the time.) It was fortunate that we didn’t get more snow or the open toe design modification would have failed when packed with snow.

The weather forecasters are predicting we won’t reach 20 for the high until Friday or Saturday, so most of the snow we have will sit and glow in the brilliant sunlight. I love that blinding glare when it is clear and cold and snow covered. I suppose I’d better enjoy it today since tomorrow is supposed to be interesting*. At least it is not forecast to be the blizzard conditions forecast for the areas to the south of us.

Time to get some more work done. I need to get some stuff finished for the Scout committee meeting tonight and then get busy. Don’t eat any yellow snow.

*Issued by The National Weather Service
Denver/Boulder, CO
11:35 am MST, Mon., Dec. 7, 2009

… WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM THIS EVENING TO 5 PM MST TUESDAY… 

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN DENVER HAS ISSUED A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SNOW… WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM THIS EVENING TO 5 PM MST TUESDAY. 

SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 4 TO 8 INCHES ARE EXPECTED ACROSS THE PLAINS OF NORTH EAST COLORADO BY 5 PM MST TUESDAY… WITH THE HIGHER AMOUNTS OVER LARIMER COUNTY AND THE FAR EASTERN PLAINS. 

rant and rave, weather

Five Rants and Raves

6 Comments

Since Angela seems to have dropped off the face of the earth in recent weeks, I’ve decided to temporarily suspend the Friday High Five. We’ll see what the new year brings to determine if it returns.

Today I want to rant and rave a bit instead. To set the mood, let’s begin with a little Stray Cats for visual inspiration

followed by this important admonishment

Rant – The wind and the cold has Molly the dog pacing the floors and being a real needy girl. This is despite the fact that we went out for a five mile walk in the 4 degree wind chill today. It was cold enough that we were the only people out walking. The gusty wind out of the north had both Molly and I walking sideways to keep from exposing our faces when we headed north. (And Molly put her big bushy tail between he legs to keep warm when we faced south. I unfortunately am missing that appendage.)

Rave – There looks to be a good college football game on tonight. I am already beginning to suffer withdrawal as college football heads into the bowl season.

Rant – The weather forecast says it will warm up to highs near freezing for the next few days, but then fall back to a series of days with highs in the mid-teens. I really want this to be one of those years where Christmas is 70 degrees. I don’t think the weather is going to co-operate.

Rant – The bird that kept clunking into the bedroom window this morning, hoping to come in out of the cold. It got Molly all excited and made me get up and shoo the bird on its way and calm Molly down. It sat there in the bush and looked so cold just a few inches from my face in the pre-dawn light. I had to wave my arms and jump up and down to finally get it to depart.

Rave – The stark beauty of the outdoors the last couple of days as Molly and I walked. There is something absolutely wonderful about the stark windswept plains when it is frigid that makes my heart soar. (And getting home to fix a warm bowl of soup – priceless.)

mama kat, writer's challenge

The 60’s Return

8 Comments

This week’s Writer’s Challenge from Mama Kat offers these finger tickling topics:

1.) Verse by verse, dissect a favorite song you had in 7th grade.

2.) List 5 must have gifts you are purchasing for a loved one this Christmas.

3.) Open letter to Santa Claus.

4.) Describe how you would celebrate the holidays if it was totally up to you and money was not a factor.

5.) Book review time! What winter read has you snuggled in and turning pages?

So off we go to the writing races.

#1 – I did this before in a different context, but to refresh your memory, one of my favorites from the psychedelic 60’s was In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly. This was my anthem in the late sixties and early seventies. Even today, it is not an uncommon occurrence to find me listening to the 17+ minute original version of the song. But the lyrics? Well … it is with a deep sense of guilt and quasi-shame that I admit to loving a song that runs for 17+ minutes with these lyrics:

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, honey,
don’t you know that I love you?
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, baby,
don’t you know that I’ll always be true?

Oh, won’t you come with me
and take my hand?

Oh, won’t you come with me
and walk this land?

Please take my hand!

-Repeat-

~solos~

-Repeat-

So there you have it, a song that it is eminently OK to not listen to the lyrics in any detail. It is hard to explain how moving and powerful this song is to me, how evocative of a certain mood and time, and then to have to present those rather pointlessly pitiful lyrics is the ultimate letdown. The only analysis I have of the one complete verse is to love and be true – which is pretty good advice.

#2 – This is a non-starter since we aren’t planning on any gift exchange this year. I suppose I could reply nothing five times in a row. {*grin*}

#3 – My open letter to Santa:

Dear Santa:

Please bring peace and joy and a cure of want to all those you touch in your journey. Any other gift is superfluous.

Thanks,
       Dan

#4 – A trip to somewhere nice and sunny, staying in luxurious surroundings. Golfing daily in the morning and then to the beach or the forest or even just sight seeing and shopping in the afternoon, followed by going out each evening to a new and different place to dine. The best of all worlds and a complete escape from real life. (Hawaii comes to mind, but I am sure there are other destinations that offer similar amenities and beauty.)

#5 – Right now I am re-reading some of the Wodehouse tales featuring Jeeves. I always find them wryly amusing and fun to read. On the detective side of things, I am reading some ‘new to me” books by Elmore Leonard (Tishomingo Blues) and Janet Evanovich (To The Nines). Somewhat less than my normal fare and completely lacking in my beloved Sci-Fi, but I’ve been reading less the last few weeks than is my normal wont.

weather, winter

Ol’ Man Winter

6 Comments

Today was on track to be another glorious late fall day – the sun was shining, temperatures were in the 50s, it was calm to breezy. Then Ol’ Man Winter opened his gaping maw and turned on the wind machines. By the time Molly and I got out for our walk, the temperature was dropping 8 degrees a hour and the wind was blowing to drop the wind chill well below freezing. It caught me by surprise, but in retrospect it should not have. The weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow involves snow and large northern cold front settling in. As a consequence, it is supposed to be in the low 20s tomorrow and then drop into single digits as the night closes in. Winter is supposedly on its way. Now all we have to do is see if the weather critters are right.

Speaking of weather critters, am I the only one thinking of writing a “truth in weather critters” application? Since the weather forecasts generally come out in 7 day blocks  and are re-issued each day with new (and often a very different forecast for a given day), my thought is to capture the weather forecasts so one could have a little applet that not only gave you the prediction for tomorrow, but the associated trend line in how the weather critters are changing their predictions. I realize that if you live in SoCal, this is utterly boring since the forecast is always sunny except for those ten days a year when it says partially cloudy and the one day a decade when it says snow. But how about those who live where there is real weather. Doesn’t it irk you to have the weather critters change their forecasts after you have made your plans. Don’t you wish you could hold their feet to the fire? I sure do sometimes. Maybe even add a retrospective feature to show what the weather was and how close or far the weather critters actually were.

Time to get back to checking on the batch of turkey soup that the last of the holiday bird is fleshing out. Think cold and snow and we’ll see if the weather critters get it right.

service, weather

Go Monday!

6 Comments

Today the weather turned nice in the afternoon after being breezy and cool all morning. I walked down to the courthouse to get my license tags for my pickup truck (the old ones expired today) and then around the park for a bit. It was 60 degrees and sunny and calm. Slightly unseasonal weather for this time of year, but boy was it nice! I got back to the house about 4:30 and immediately re-tagged the truck so I wouldn’t forget.

It was then that another shining example of small town service occurred. This morning I had sent an email to the local fiber optic company about a pair of consumer unfriendly oddities in their digital PBX setup for the phone service here at the house (based on their fiber).  Dave, the telephony guy, and I hashed it out via a couple of emails and got all working fine well before noon. This evening as I finished up with the license plate re-tagging, the front door bell rang. It was the owner of the fiber optic company just stopping by to make sure his people had solved the problem and done so to my satisfaction. Can you imagine getting that kind of service from one of the baby Bells? I can’t. I always suspect this is closer to the big company view:

Time to get ready for the football game. It should be a good one.

And by the way – I made it! A post every day for NaBloPoMo!