Today's sky report

Last night, on my way to Blogstock 2005, I drove into the clouds. Heading east, the bank of fog rose ever higher until it completely subsumed my car. In a figurative sense, the evening brightened considerably as I met some other seacoast area bloggers. Loosely organized by Kreblog (http://www.kreblog.com/), we had Seacoast Perspective (http://seacoastguy.blogspot.com/) for a short while, Granite Rants (and future blogger, Mrs. Granite Rants) (http://graniterants.blogspot.com/) and Contagious (http://icontagious.blogspot.com/). They are a fine group of entertaining bloggers who make for an even more entertaining evening when you meet them in person. Some thoughts/observations:

* The Black and Tans had it over the Fuggles until Mrs. Granite Rants switched sides.
* They each seem to know what they want their blogs to be, even to the point where they have someone for which they write. I have to give this some consideration.
* Here's my awards (you had to have been there to win):
- Best Writing: Contagious
- Best Use of Photography: Granite Rants
- Best Political Diatribe: Seacoast Perspective
- Most Observant: Kreblog
* Due to my advanced age, I missed a lot of the cultural icons of the 30-somethings that were there. Red Dawn party? Hmmm...I think I must have been raising kids and keeping the TV off in the 80's and 90's.
* Mrs. Granite Rants should definitely get her blog going, as should Mrs. Kreblog. More fun for everyone.

It was a great evening which I hope will be repeated.

Today's sky report

This one should probably be called yesterday's sky report. I was outside all day yesterday at an Experience Rider's Course put on by the State of NH DMV and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (I highly recommend this to all motorcyclists, by the way). When I left my house at 8 a.m., it was 52 degrees and cloudy. When I returned home at 6 p.m., it was 48 degrees and misty. In between, it was never sunny, but it did brighten once or twice, almost as if the day didn't want to be so bad. But throughout the day, the rain come in cycles - it would start with almost a mist, gather strength and turn into a hard rain, and then fade to a mist again. The cycle repeated maybe 3 times. Fortunately, the riding suit I wear makes the wet, gray day bearable - that, along with long underwear - IN MAY!

Today's sky report

I came to work today, pool-less, on my propeller bike (the propeller describes the insignia, not the power train). As I looked up and around, I felt like I was in a cereal bowl. (I think I may have used this simile before.) The edges of the sky all around me were grey, but directly overhead it was blue. In the cereal bowl were tiny, shiny toys moving down the freeway. For fiber, we had the trees. Later on, I learned that the grey all around was caused by fog banks. The supermoist air smeared my face shield, rendering me myopic. I rode on, hoping the smear would disappear, but I fear that eventually I had to clear using what was near (my glove) . Oh, dear.

Today's sky report

What's with all this rain on the weekends? My "lawn" is a patchwork of multiple field greens and swamp growth and it has been thriving on the extra water in much the same way that Popeye bulks up with a can of spinach. It doesn't grow evenly all over; there's too much variation in the species. Just like how Popeye's arms and chest grew while his waist and legs stayed the same, there are some incredibly shaggy portions of grass next to low lying patches of moss. Only with the great equalizer (the lawn tractor) can I get any semblance of order out there. If I ever decide to move, I'm thinking of letting the "lawn" grow and selling the house as "a beautiful county home in a field setting".

Today's sky report

It never seems to fail. When I forget to cover the grill after barbecuing, it rains overnight. You don't want to put a cover on a wet grill because the resulting black vinyl hot-house is a perfect breeding ground for the rust ants. And then the next sunny morning, you say, "I will cover the grill when I get home. That will give it time to dry out from last night's rain. That will surely kill off any rust ants who have begun to nest in my grill." You become a liar when it rains on your way home. The grill sits through another rainy night, the rust ants cling to the grill and you worry about the cost of replacing the darn thing, even though you know it's good for several more years. It's sunny this morning with showers predicted for later in the day. The rust ants rejoice.

Today's sky report

I just feel like pointing out something I observed in the carpool this morning. At one point, driving south, there was a half-moon about twice the height of the trees on the horizon that was perfectly centered over the road. It was tipped upside down, like a crooked beret. Just sitting there. Framed by the trees on the side of the road. Just pointing it out.

And pointing things out, I can't believe a google of "carpoolguy" brings up a movie created by an "interactive, virtual entertainment studio" run by Corbin Bernsen and starring all soap opera actors. I mean, can't the guy stick to such dramatic hits as "Major League", "Major League II" and "Major League III - Back to the Minors"? Or "Gentle Ben 2 - Danger on the Mountain"? Why does he have to steal my handle?

Thanks to google and IMDB

Links:
http://www.carpoolguy.com/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000929/

Today's sky report

Darn. I went to irregular (less than daily) blogging because I was feeling too much pressure in trying to publish a daily sky report (see Today's Sky Report for Thursday, February 10, 2005: http://carpoolguy.blogspot.com/2005_02_01_carpoolguy_archive.html). So now I'm feeling guilty if I don't post at least once a week, which seems like it's Wednesdays. I guess I'm just not cut out for blogging. I have things to say, thoughts to share, but I don't always feel like writing them. I guess that's why I'm not a writer. Either that or I have nothing to say that others would read. Or that writing doesn't put bread on the table unless you are moderately or fabulously successful.

Hey, with the low-carb lifestyles of today, can we come up with a better phrase than "put bread on the table"?

Today's sky report

Smokin' hot outside today (80+ degrees), although due to overwhelming business commitments I was unable to experience it first hand. This morning was a nice ride in, carpoolless because I rode my bike. Bike to me does not mean two wheels with pedals and a chain. Bike to me means 1100 cc's of engine. It was reasonably warm (50ish) and very fast. I find that the bike makes a good traffic slice and dice machine which is part of the sport. It's gray out there now and rain showers may wash my bike and riding suit on the way home.

This is a relatively early day in the riding season for my first ride to work of the year. I have the 45/45 rule - it has to be at least 45 degrees for me to want to ride the 45 miles to work. I will ride at cooler temperatures, but not with the ambition of getting to work. I ride around the roads near my house in the cold weather, enjoying the open nature of the bike and dreaming of warmer days. I did manage to get at least one ride per month during the winter. January 1st was a beautiful 40 degree day.

Today's sky report

While I was out in a blizzard in Colorado skiing this past weekend, the warm weather conspired to melt the last remaining vestiges of snow. I had a pretty good pile going on the front lawn, where the snow blower would dump it's offerings, so I thought we'd make it deep into April with still some traces. Once again, I underestimated the power of a couple of 70 degree days.

Back to the blizzard - on the four day ski trip, we experienced a spring skiing day (Friday/Winter Park), a mixed sun and cloud day where the snow didn't really soften (Saturday/Breckenridge), a full on blizzard which dumped over a foot of snow (Sunday/Winter Park again) and a winter like day which kept snow coming (off and on) and the powder soft (Monday/Breckenridge again). Quite the variety but the whole long weekend felt more like winter than spring. I AM NOT COMPLAINING. Sunday in the blizzard was probably one of the nicest ski days I've ever had. The snow was falling all day, the trees stood silent sentinel in the gray light, and the powder was some of the easiest turning stuff I'd ever been in. We spent a good deal of time in the bowls and in the trees.

Today it's sunny but not too warm. Spring shows many faces in New Hampshire.

Today's sky report - ice out

When I left the house yesterday morning, there was still a tiny vestige of ice on the edge of the pond, like the ice cube that has almost melted in your cola, but won't quite give up. With the temperatures hitting 70 in Merrimack (cooler at the coast), the ice cube was gone by my evening arrival. So, the official ice out date for my pond is April 6th. I know that Lake Winnepesauke measures ice out as the first day the Mount Washington motor ship can traverse successfully from Wolfeboro to Alton Bay to Weirs Beach. I'm pretty sure my pond wouldn't even fill the Mount Washington's on board water supply.

Today's sky report

The sky presented an interesting phenomena last night. The carpool was heading east as the sun descended behind us. There was a large amount of cloud cover due to the dismal and dreary morning rains which had not quite cleared out. Ahead of us, and slightly to the right, it looked like strands of an incompletely formed colorless rainbow, almost as if the sky and the earth were pulling apart and the strands were the connecting tissue being stretched apart.

Today it warmed up to 60+ degrees - spring may actually be coming, although the snow still lurks in areas that don't get full sun. And, of course, the piles of snow created by the snowblower still run multiple feet deep. You wonder if the snow will ever completely melt, even though intellectually you understand the inevitable marching of the seasons.

Ice out for the small pond by my house looks like it may not happen until 1/2 way through April. I wish I had logged the ice outs for the other 3 springs I have been in the house. I believe last year it was around the 20th of March, but my aging memory doesn't really know. And last year, there was no carpoolguy blog in which to document this annual event.

We actually listened to a fallujah list artist this morning because it was better than the inane chatter which populates commercial radio.

Today's sky report

OK, so I'm a dope. I just did a nice report and while I was allowing pop-ups to enable the spell checker, I lost what I had typed (I didn't heed the warning). Anyhow, I was commenting on how nice the sky was in Florida. I didn't get on-line last weekend, but if I had, I would have reported a number of beautiful skies. Weather was in the low seventies - not hot, but it beat the heck out of the wet snow that fell in NH. What a nice surprise to come home to 6 inches of white cement for my snowblower to chew through.

Today was in the upper 40's. Plenty warm enough for a motorcycle ride, keeping alive my streak of at least one ride every month going back to 2002, at least. Not quite like the record of the guy at Sugarloaf who skied every open day since 1980, but not too bad. http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/17/skier.streak.ap/

Today's sky report

Just a head's up...the sky will change tomorrow as I head south to Florida. Can't wait for some warm weather. I love snow, really, but I've had a bit too much of it in the past few days and there's more on the way. If I get on-line, I'll give you a FL report.

Today's sky report

Yes, this is a sky report. It was beautiful out back this morning as the white dusting on the trees blended with the washed out blue of the rising sun sky. Later, on the way to work the sky rent a cloud bank and appeared as the jagged edge of torn cloth.

Today's sky report

It was a pretty interesting carpool this morning as we had a copy of the Spin Magazine's readers poll with us. It had some serious Fallujah list impact (see http://carpoolguy.blogspot.com/2005_01_01_carpoolguy_archive.html). For instance, the hotly debated Linkin Park was on the Worst Band list. So maybe they should be added to the Fallujah list (although since I'm controlling the list, they're still not on it). And if Modest Mouse makes the Best Breakout Act list as number one, should it still be on the list? I'm voting yes because they still sound kind of formalities and weeney. Finally, Franz Ferdinand, currently on the Fallujah list, shows up in the poll on the Best Single, Best Breakout Act and Best New Artist lists but also tops the Most Overrated Artist and Most Overplayed Song lists. Tie goes to the loser, they stay on the list.

If you read the above with any kind of concentration, you'll notice that the Fallujah list remains unchanged. Further carpool discussion shall ensue. Here's the list again:

Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Red Hot Chili Peppers
R.E.M.
Stone Temple Pilot
Alice in Chains
Smashing Pumpkins
Soundgarden
Franz Ferdinand
Modest Mouse
Tegan and Sara

The sky is getting brighter in the mornings, to the point where my recently smashed Ray Bans are sorely missed.

Today's sky report

It really was pretty, you know. The sticky white snow covered the trees and the ground and made the world look fresh and white. There was a day (when I worked for a utility) where a site like that would make me tremble with the fear of power outages and long work days, but I'm past that now. I can enjoy the beauty of a snowy day.

Today's Sky Report

I'm thinking that the sky report idea has become too much pressure. I'm beginning to feel guilty when I don't write one, and there are many days when I get too busy, or I forget, or I just have nothing to say. So, although I might still use the same title, the content of whatever sky report I write may have nothing to do with what I see when I look up.

Today, the snowflakes are as big as a snowball. I'm expecting fully grown snowmen to fall from the sky any time now.

Today's sky report

The sky had some high clouds, twisting like cotton. Underneath the New England sky, Patriots fans celebrated.

Today's sky report

Today's sky was cloudy, not unlike my brain after last night's eBrew. Last night's snow created wet and slippery conditions, spraying my windshield like that of a boat as the spray curls off the whitecaps on the ocean. Or something like that.

Today's sky report

It's not often that I would be able to say this here in New England, but the last three days have had very similar skies. Blue, blue and blue.