Tuesday, 23 February 2010
I judge my day pretty darned unremarkable. Dredging….
Ummm.
Here’s a photo from this day in 2007, three years ago. This spring is running later—no periwinkle (Vinca minor) in bloom yet—that I’ve noticed….
Monday, 15 February 2010
Weather is not climate. We can have (and expect) weird weather, which does not relate to climate change.
Just so’s ya know, when you hear the blather broadcast by the media or read some internet sources….
Today’s weather, well, sunny and cold—although some meteorologists predicted we’d get more snow. I’m just as glad we had sun and no daytime precip.
Sunday, 14 February 2010
Only in the shade (below magnolias, behind buildings), and going fast—that’s the extent of the snow today. A weather change is swooping in from the west, and in the next twenty-four hours, I expect all of these remaining bits will be liquified….
Saturday, 13 February 2010
Great fun to walk the neighborhood as the sun burns through the snowfall and the breezes knock clumps of white off branches and utility lines…. How much of the snow will have disappeared by nightfall?
Friday, 12 February 2010
By mid-afternoon, we could see the weather change, and the big fluffy flakes began to fall. The ground stayed warm enough that we made it to the Big Eighty-Four celebration, up in Buckhead. And home again, after. We played taxi, glad to have our 4×4, and especially glad that most people avoided driving.
* This is a peach tree, BTW….
Sunday, 31 January 2010
With our own eyeballs, we could check the aftermath of the snowstorm that came through Kentucky and Tennessee the other day/night. I guess the deepest snow was along this stretch. Thankfully (and as we’d hoped), the Interstate was clean, clear, and dry, although sometimes the side streets were white with compacted snow.
We left Richmond (Kentucky) at 8am, eyeing the snow-crystals glinting on the trees and shrubs. Of course, as the sun brightened and the temps rose, that decoration melted/evaporated.
This was the pretty kind of winter, which we especially enjoyed through our somewhat smeared windows at seventy-ish miles per, without cold penetrating hands, feet, or noses.
Two things we did en route: 1) listened to July Flame, Laura Veirs’s new album, and 2) JCB tutored me in why the TD (JCB says the initials I propose stand for “tablet device” not “that device”) is a breakthrough—it is more multipurpose than prior machines that kept the machine from being between you the user and accomplishing what you wanted (you don’t need to know crap about printer drivers any more, I’m lead to believe).* We both decided, however, that we really want to hold/use it, before making final judgment.
* Kirk says it better than I…. Even Nobelist Paul Krugman is thinking about how the TD fits into his personal techological pantheon….
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Southern Michigan is being cold right now, but, thankfully, sunny—for now. Cold means a high of something like 20°F.
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
D’s super salad—grapefruit and avocado over baby spinach, with a scrumptious dressing.
Second day in a row of lusciously warm weather, accompanied by the prediction that the rain is coming.
We got in some porch time with the neighbors this evening, enjoying the fading warmth.
Friday, 8 January 2010
Early post today, and the topic must be the weather.
Cold. Sunny. Cold. Dusting of snow. Cold. Windy, too.
In some shady places, the snow was driven on when it was still slushy and has now become icy. Actually, some not-shady places, too.
As I strolled, my body immediately remembered the waddle-walk, with baby steps to keep your center of gravity over your feet.
The sun makes some places rather pretty, like this scenic neighborhood landscaping wall.
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Sunny. Cold. Still, we snuck out for a walk in the mid-day sunshine.
I couldn’t tell if this was intentional, in the sense of making a statement, or to merely keep the football from rolling away….
Perhaps the more important question is: does it make any difference?
Leaving that aside, this cold, because of the looping jet stream, gives just too much darned ammunition to the simplistic types: how can there be Global Warming when we’re having an extended cold snap?
The answer: “complex systems.” Systems in that changes in one part affect other parts. Always. And sometimes in ways that are difficult to predict using models that have a simplified variable list (the complex part).
But you know that!