Today's sky report

It's practically balmy today, as the temperature on the house thermometer had warmed up to minus 5 from yesterday's minus 6. The cold helps me appreciate that I get to overnight my car in a garage. When I pulled out yesterday, the car thermometer started off reading 21 degrees. As I drove along, it was like watching an inverse pinball machine as the digit counter fell: 20, 18, 17, 14, 13, and so on until it hit a low of minus 4.

The cold weather made me feel sorry for the guy that delivered the propane to my house yesterday morning. He's in and out of the truck, trudging across the back yard dragging the heavy hose. I had snowblown a path for him, so his trudge was a little easier, but working outside on a day like yesterday must be brutal. Maybe I can give him a break by pitching cash into the furnace instead of the propane. With the cost of fuel this winter, it might be cheaper.

Today's sky report

The drive to work today started before sun was above the seacoast horizon, but along the way, the big orange orb popped up and made its inevitable appearance. Remarkably, the sky was completely void of clouds. When there are no sky dwelling shapes to attract your attention, you are left to consider the colors. The sky showed exceedingly orange edges bleeding into a gray-blue ceiling. As the morning marched on, the gray became more blue squeezing the orange down past the horizon. Shortly before arrival at work, a small cotton ball cloud took up residence just over the horizon.

Today's sky report

Today, we're going to report a smoke-free sky in honor of the clear air at the Red Hook Brewery during last night's Blog 'n Brew. And speaking of clearing the air, I was one of those few people who read Kreblog's post on a 5:30 p.m. start who's eyes saw 6:30. I really didn't focus on the start time because I was off getting a battery for my watch so I could manage the end time better.

Anyway, we had a small but effective showing, with Granite Rants, Contagious, Lnotes, Seacoast Perspective and, of course, Kreblog. The conversation darted from topic to topic, covering all kinds of current and non-current events. The tall IPA's quenched our thirsts and fortified our opinions. There was some talk of theme B'nB's in the future, although the fez idea may be difficult to pull off (just where DO you buy a fez?). For a group of people who practice the solitary skill of blogging, their conversational skills are outstanding. Can't wait for the next one.

Today's sky report

It's pretty interesting how the pace of posting picks up just before a Blog 'N Brew is to be held. Witness recent posts by Granite Rants and even lnotes after some fairly quiet periods. You Who? and Seacoast Perspectives are holding out to see who can be the one with the oldest current post.

There, I've posted, too.

Today's sky report

Uggh…what do you get when you combine a turkey hangover, a four day weekend of eating and drinking, a cloudy, foggy Monday and work? A reason to stay in bed. Unfortunately, the paycheck calls and you roll through the fog hoping that your brain will break clear before the weather does.

Last night's sky report

What a crazy cloud across the moon last night as it lay on the horizon for us to contemplate on our trip home. Kreblog said it looked like the smiley face from Walmart, scaring us both into believing that perhaps Walmart now had superstores on the moon. Because the cloud dissected the moon with a thick, dark line, my take was that the top half of the moon was trying to ascend while the bottom half wanted to stay anchored near the earth. This lunar tug-of-war cause the moon to split apart.

Today's sky report

Does anything say "November in New England" more than a cold wet gray day? The leaves are off the trees (not counting the oaks) and the moisture can't seem to formulate much more than a mist. Makes you hope for snow.

Today's sky report

The jagged edges of the slice of blue between the grey bowl sky and the low horizon clouds appeared to have been made by a "Pull to Open" strip.

Today's sky report

I don't care how many high-def, MTV quick-cut, sepia warm and glowy Christmas commercials they throw at me on TV, it's not really Christmas until I see that little animatronic Santa sliding down the snowy hill in the top of a Norelco razor.

Today's sky report

I got hijacked by the weather this weekend. I'm not a big planner, but I usually start the weekend with an idea of things I want to do, and if the weather is at all cooperative, it often includes some kind of ride on my motorcycle. With a forecast of good weather on both Saturday and Sunday, I got the bikes ready for a possible Saturday ride, with Sunday as the fallback. Well, the fine day on Saturday saw me raking leaves and other sundry fall tasks, to the point where encroaching darkness caused me to come inside. About the only good thing with Daylight Savings time is that if your cocktail hour starts at or after dark, you get to drink earlier in the day.

No matter then, there would be Sunday for a ride. Except that the fog began to roll in on Saturday night and got progressively thicker and wetter. By Sunday, there was rain and motorcycle plans were out. The bikes got pushed back to their storage spots, waiting for another chance. The rain kept falling and by Sunday night it was rather heavy at times. And then, rarest of rare, we had a thunder and lightening storm in November. The fog, which was still around, glowed eerily as the lightening lit it up. Weird weather imitating weird science.

Today's sky report

A few posts ago, I wrote about how bad luck seems to be happening in my wake (http://carpoolguy.blogspot.com/2005/10/todays-sky-report_10.html). Nothing actually happens to me, it's just that the places I go are affected after I leave. So, it shouldn't be hard to guess where I was the week before last. Not Cancun, but close. I spent a wonderful 5 days in Key West and a couple of nice days in Miami Beach. Of course, with the active hurricane season we've had, I guess I should have expected some wind and rain trauma. We were fortunate that Wilma stalled out a bit (sorry Yucatan), and allowed us to complete our vacation without changing our travel plans. I suppose we should have gotten out of Key West when they called for evacuated of tourists, but our hotel said it would be o.k. if we stayed until the next day (as we had planned). Once the tourists were out of the way, they told the residents to hang around a bit more, so our drive out of Key West (top down, Mustangin' north), was uncrowded and unpanicked. Miami Beach was a bit grayer, but still warm and the ocean was a wonderful 85 degrees. Payback came as we left the 85 degree and partly sunny day in Florida to arrive in NH at 42 degrees and rainy. Ecch.

If you see any reports about Brown's Lobster Pound burning down, I was there Sunday.

Today's sky report

I've been a little busy with vacation and the inevitable crush that comes when you get back to work, so I haven't posted in the past week or two. However, today's morning sky compelled me to rev up the old sky report to provide a description.

I got down to the end of my road this morning and looked left to see if the traffic was clear before turning right. On the horizon, there was a cloud bank, dark and solid. Farther up in the sky, was a set of wispy clouds, appearing like a pulled apart cotton ball. In between was an angled funnel-shaped cloud, giving the appearance that the sky was collecting the wispies and dropping them into the funnel to produce a solid cloud cloth at the other end. As the sun was rising, this whole cloud bank manufacturing apparatus was brilliantly back-lit. I've always wondered how those cloud banks were formed.

Today's sky report

After a solid week of solid gray, I'm ready for a change. Fortunately, my planning corresponded perfectly with the weather. I'll be leaving gray NH for sunny Key West very early tomorrow. It's a lot of fun to jump into a metal cylinder in one climate and step off in another. Shed that raincoat; put on those shorts...you're in Florida now, sonny (or is that.. "sunny Florida now"?).

I feel kind of bad complaining about the weather when all I've gotten is wet. Many western NH residents have lost their homes, roads or bridges. And I can hear them in Seattle: "7 days of gray? He doesn't know anything about gray."

Today's sky report

I'm starting to get this feeling that there is bad karma associated with the places we passed on the motorcycle tour mentioned in my last post. We were at Lake George the day the tour boat sank. And now I see that Rt 123 in Alstead is mostly gone, a road that we traversed twice in our journey. Floodwaters did the damage. All I can say now is, look out Hancock.

Today's sky report

I spent a long weekend cruising around NH, VT and NY with my motorcycle posse.  Before we go any further, I just want it on record.  Yes, I was in Lake George on Sunday (morning) and No, I had nothing to do with any boats sinking.  My bike doesn't possess that kind of a wake.

Anyway, the trip was slightly planned, in that we picked a meeting place for Friday and we know in what general direction we might want to head.  Beyond that, the five or us made decisions on the spot, such as what road to take, when and where to stop for lunch, gas, dinner, lodging and who should lead and who should follow.  Given that even the most anal/rigid ones of us were going with the flow, it all worked out well.  I'll give some credit to the fact that it was an absolutely gorgeous weekend weather-wise.  You don't really care when you stop or where you go when the sun is shining and there are twisty roads in front of you.  The rest of the credit goes to the fact that we've all known each other for 35 years or more, and there are very few surprises in the group.

The images and impressions that stayed with me include:

• There is tremendous amount of farm land in western VT.  We stopped for lunch at a little general store south of Middlebury and 4 out of every 5 vehicles that stopped in were trucks, real trucks not suburb trucks.  There were also a good number of farms, especially dairy farms, in eastern upstate NY. 
• New England doesn't hold the northeast monopoly on twisty roads through mountainous regions.  NY holds it own.
• Man, those lakes in VT and NY are big, especially Champlain and Lake George.  I've spent a lot of time on NH's largest lake, Winnipesauke and it may have more surface area than Lake George, but it's not as long.
• Lake Placid is a tourist trap.
• Lake George is a tourist trap with waterfront.
• Manchester, VT, is a tourist trap with "outlet" stores. 
• Crushed beer cans make good holders for motorcycle kickstands on soft ground, so when you have four friends coming in on bikes, you'd better get busy.
• All the TFQ (too f'ing quaint) towns aren't in VT...NH and NY have their share.

I've managed to get some nice rides in with most of this posse over the past several years, and it's always fun.  It's one of the reasons I own a bike.

Today's sky report

I may not be posting too much on this site, but I did put in a couple at http://cooleratthecoast.blogspot.com/. I figure this is a good place to write about events in the seacoast area. Enjoy.

Today's sky report

It's just not the same at Panera anymore. It used to be fun to go in there, make up names, and wait for the bread DJ to call you out. You only had to know how to spell the name you made up (see my previous post: http://carpoolguy.blogspot.com/2005/08/todays-sky-report_18.html).

Today, hoping to have more fake name fun, I went back. This time, I planned to give a name that was easy to spell, yet which still might garner some kind of reaction. Waiting in line with my lunch partner, it was agreed that she would give a guy's name and I'd use a girl's name. Imagine my surprise and disappointment when I learned that they no longer depend upon names to match you to your repast. They now have the vibrating, light-flashing coasters popularized by chain restaurants that refuse to take reservations (the Outback, for example). So, I dutifully placed my order, at the same time struggling with my disappointment over the new and not-so-improved paging system. After she punched everything in, I was delighted to hear her ask for a name. Rather than ask her about the redundancy, I simply said "Sue". She never missed a beat as she punched it in. No eye contact, no quizzical look, no barely suppressed giggle. Nothing. All the fun of fake names is gone. I debated for a minute leaving my order on the counter for a bit, hoping that they would call me out, but hunger took first place over humor, and I picked up my order shortly after the lights flashed.

Incidentally, my lunch partner chickened out on giving a man's name.

Today's sky report

Reports of last night's riotous Blog 'n Brew were circulating in carpool this morning. After hearing the tales of mirth and merriment, I can't believe I selected basketball over beer. I'm sorry to have missed another opportunity to hang with such a fine group of literati (blogerati?). However, I still intend to hand out a few awards, as has been the tradition:

Seacoast Perspective: The Glad You Finally Made It Award
LNotes: The Welcome Back Blogger Award
You Who?: The Do Free Chicken Fingers Match the High Epicurian Standards of My Blog? Award
Contagious: The Anything Worth Doing is Worth Doing to An Excess Big Second Toe Award
Raising Two Kids: The Can't Wait to See Your Revenge Award

Granite Rants: The Why Would Anyone Go to South Dakota on Vacation? Award

Mrs. Rants: The Still No Blog Award
4 Kids, Mom, and Dad: The Shortest Time to an Engagement Award
Kreblog: The Simply the Best for Organizing These B'nBs Award
Carpoolguy: The You Better Show Next Time Or You're Out Award

Hope I didn't miss anyone, but I'm sure you'll let me know. See y'all in November, I hope.

Today's sky report

In a departure from my usual rants or wry observations, I thought I'd publish a ride report today.  My buddy called me up on Friday to run an errand for him.  The errand required a trip over to Lake Nubanusit in Nelson, NH, and the forecast for the weekend was beautiful, so of course I said "yes".  I left Sunday morning early on DBZ (my BMW motorcycle).  While the sun had been up for a while, it was probably 45 degrees or less at my house when I departed.  Several layers under my riding suit (the 'stitch) kept me warm, along with the grip heaters on the bike and my winter gloves.  I decided to pound the highways on the way over, taking 101 west until I reached Dublin and then turning north to the lake.  For most of the ride, the sun warmed by back and made the early temperatures bearable.  The air was still and I didn't get involved with any road crazies, which is rare when you're riding. 

In Harrisville (north of Dublin), I pulled into the local general store for a coffee and a bite.  This little general store has been under several owners in the 25 plus years that I have been venturing over to the lake.  The current ownership incarnation has the emphasis on sandwiches and other deli products, but they also had coffee and various rolls and breads.  I chose a wonderful blueberry scone to go with the so-so coffee, and sat outside at a table on the porch while I sipped the coffee.  The one downside to riding a motorcycle for those of us who are used to driving around with a beverage is that you can't do that on a bike, especially when you wear a full-face helmet.  You could also look at it as an upside, because you get a chance to stop and relax when you want something to eat or drink.

Leaving Harrisville, the road to the lake soon turns to dirt.  In that area of the state, the dirt roads are even smoother than the heaved-up paved roads.  My back, just a couple weeks from the visit to the emergency room (see Today's sky report for August 29), appreciated things smoothing out. 

The lake was serene and clear.  I wish that my errand required a trip on the water and I wished that I had more time to spend there, but before long, I was back on the bike headed east.  I resolved to return without touching Route 101.  So, here are the towns you hit in avoidance:  Nelson, Harrisville, Hancock, Greenfield, Francestown, New Boston, Goffstown, Manchester, Hooksett, Candia, Raymond, Epping, Brentwood, Exeter.  Some of the roads were awful - heaved and bumpy.  Some of the roads were wonderful, recently paved and beautifully curved.  For most of the duration of this route, you get an appreciation of just how beautiful this state can be.  Fields, mountains, swamps, horse farms, forests, rivers, lakes, small towns, city views, people in churches, a road race, a drag race, all there for your viewing.  All of it on a 75 mile trip.  Hope my buddy has another errand when the leaves get more colored.

Today's sky report

Remember when you were a kid, and you used to play shadow tag? In this variation, you never actually had to touch another individual to say "you're it", you merely had to stomp on their shadow. Of course, this game is easier in the morning or evening when the shadows are longer, than at noon when it's probably easier to reach over and touch someone than to stomp underneath them with your feet.

Anyway, last Friday I was riding westbound on my two wheeled Beemer (affectionately known as Das Beak Zwei or DBZ) rather early to meet some folks for breakfast. In fact, the sun was just beginning to crest the seacoast horizon. As I rolled up and down the small hills of Rt 101, my shadow would appear and disappear in front of me. With the low angle of the sun, the shadow appeared huge at times, stretching out to 30 or 40 feet. Depending upon my direction, it might be on the right or left or out in front of me. Once, when it was on my left, I got passed by a car that drove over my shadow head. Made me think of shadow tag.