Today's sky report

Hey, if there’s a rainbow when the sun comes out while there’s rain moisture in the air, how come there’s no “snowbow”?  I thought of this yesterday as I looked out the window while the sun lit up the clouds and the snow kept falling.

Paradox

There’s a pair of ducks who have taken up residence in my pond.  It’s not the first time and I’m guessing that the pond is a kind of highway motel on their way to whatever winter haven they travel.  But the weather has been so unnaturally warm off and on for the past few weeks, that I think they’re just waiting to see which way they should be heading.  If they follow the wing of geese that went over yesterday, they’ll head southwest.

Today's sky report

I wanted so much to like Carpoolers, the new sitcom on ABC Tuesday nights.  I mean, I am one.  A carpooler.  I spend at least 90 minutes a day (most days) with two other guys driving to and from work.  We talk about a lot of different things and it’s always amazed me how well we all get along given that our ages are each about 10 years apart (I get to be the old one).  A lot of what goes on in our carpool (which will stay in carpool), is thought provoking, funny and mostly entertaining.  We’re at our best when we’re inventing things, and you can find a lot of our best ideas in Kreblog’s excellent blog.

First, I have to admit I’ve only seen the first episode.  A vacation during the height of premiere weeks has given me a serious case of DVR backlog.  But I made it a point to watch the first episode as soon as I could and now I’m thinking I’d have been better off going to bed early.  The four characters were broadly drawn, with some classic sitcom personalities (the philandering divorced guy, the p-w family guy, the insecure guy and the young newlywed guy).  Done well, these personalities can lead to a successful run.  But the Carpoolers all seemed shallow; maybe it’s the fact that it’s only been 22 minutes of TV so far and you can’t reveal much in the way of complexity, but I’m not holding my breath.

I think what disappointed me most was the scenes in the car.  While we’ve been known to break out into song together (it’s a little hard because of the age differences – I can’t remember any words to songs written after 1979), we don’t cry.  There’s no crying in carpool.  And we don’t get real explicit about our certain parts of our private lives (who’s on top?  Ewwww!).  It also seems weird to me that these guys all work at different places and that there is special parking for carpoolers.  That must be a California thing.  Here in the east, we all work together and we park with the masses. It would be way cool, however, if the FE Everett turnpike would install a carpool lane.  We’d be pretty lonely, but we’d shoot through.

What does work for me is the funny scenes of other carpoolers.  Old carpoolers not moving with their blinker on.  Rich carpoolers eating sushi.  Chuckle. Chuckle.  And the kid, Marmaduke, has his comedic moments, or maybe that should be moment.  Interviewing on-line without pants.  Nice.

I will give Carpoolers a few more rides before I kick them off my DVR list.  They’d better develop some more creative plot lines and flesh out some interesting characters.  I have read that Rebecca Romijn will be making a guest appearance later in the season.  Wouldn’t mind having her in the carpool….

Today's sky report

Um, wait until next week.  The carpool hasn’t left the ABC park and ride yet.

Today's sky report

Hey. They stole our lives.  Watch "Carpoolers" on ABC tonight at 8:30 p.m.

Today's sky report

Angry weatherman continues: “Hey, why is it so friggin nice today when I have to be inside with all these damn computer models?”  Or, “Earthquake and a hurricane in Hawaii?  Can’t the weather gods arrange it so they only get one at a time?  What the heck!”

Today's sky report

Scattered showers today, like the thoughts in my brain.  One thought I’m beginning to coalesce - we need angry weatherpeople. As in, “I can’t believe it’s going to rain today.  What the heck?  Haven’t we had enough rain?”  Or, “You know, if the temperatures are going down, somebody better ante up for my heating bill.”

Today's sky report

I realize I’ve been kind of a non-blogger for quite a while, but I didn’t want to let April 15 get too far behind me before I declared it the official “ice out” day for 2007.  Yes, the ice on the pond is finally gone for good.  We had a lot of melting the week before April 15, but at night, the ice was reforming.  Finally, one morning, it wasn’t there, but a mallard duck was.  So that was ice out.  Unfortunately, ice out was followed by water in.  We had worse flooding than last year’s Mother’s Day floods.  This time the water completely covered the basement floor and was 3 inches deep in some places (yes, I used a ruler to measure).  The only good news is that I was more prepared this time with my own surface sump and almost everything up off the floor.  Two 100 year floods in two years.  Hmmm, how long does that mean I’m covered for?

Today's sky report

With the hysteria dead from the Daylight Savings Time change, the real takeaway is how the sky changed during the morning dog walk.  I went from being able to actually see sun, to seeing the beginning of sunrise.  Today, strawberry sky with blueberry clouds.  Not unlike the fruit on my cereal.

Today's sky report

I’m sure I’m not the first to observe this, but email is like a never-ending snowfall.  If you don’t keep shoveling it into the “deleted” folder, it will bury you.  And if get behind, you’re forced to use the electronic equivalent of a snow blower….the “delete all” button.

Today's sky report

The birches bowed to the ground under the weight of yesterday’s ice. As the wind began to blow, the clicking of the tree branches sounded like hundreds of broken wind chimes. The crunch of the frozen ground underfoot drowned out all other noise. Winter has arrived.

Today's sky report

The ice is on the pond, again. Maybe this time it will last. This sure has been a weird winter so far. Riding my motorcycle in 70 degree weather in January doesn't just seem wrong, it is wrong. Wrong, but enjoyable.