Today's sky report

I've been viewing the last few day's skies through the skylight in the family room. This limited view was brought to me courtesy of a bad back - the first real "ouch" I've had with my back. I would love to have a story like, "...and then I lifted the car off the little girl..." or, "...I knew I shouldn't have tried to bench press twice my weight...", but the truth is, I was bending over to reattach an air cleaner on my lawnmower. What a warrior. Anyway, I stayed home from work today just to cement three days of boredom. I'd rather be bored at work - at least there's A/C at work, as Kreblog points out.

Today's sky report - first over 40

I meant to post this a few days ago...I had my first gasoline fill-up for more than $40. It wasn't so long ago when I could be aghast that the cost of a fill-up crested $30. As the prices spiraled ever skyward, I began telling myself that I should fill up more often, just to avoid the heartache of shelling out (what's that mean, "shelling out"? has it got to do with getting gas at the Shell station?) more than $40 for precious petrol. Of course, the best laid plans and all that, found me staring at the "get gas now, idiot" light on my way home from work. I convinced myself that I could wait until after I dropped Kreblog off at the carpool meeting place - no sense in involving him in what would turn out to be a robbery (he of the little Civic "I knew there'd be expensive gas someday" mindset). At the pump, I watched the digit counters fall. There was a brief moment where I thought I might make it - the tank might be satisfied with less than $40. That moment passed, and as the pump clicked, I opened my eyes to see $40.56. Oh, well, I might as well top it off. At $40.90 I was done. Not exactly the milestone in your life you want to pass. Not to give too much away, but I can remember when I first was driving, I could get gas for $.28/gal down on the major highway (no, I wasn't in a Model T).

The next day I rode my bike. Guess I'll have to post again when I have the first over 20 for that.

Today's sky report

For a while now, I thought it might be fun to go into Panera and give a false name. The desire comes unearthed from centuries ago when we used to be required to sign into the library during our high school study halls. Somewhere in the middle of the period, the librarian (Chicken Legs Wollney) would call out the names to make sure nobody signed in and skipped out. Of course we would fill the sign-in with all those great high school characters like “Dick Hertz” and “Mike Hunt”. Chicken legs would dutifully call out, “Mike Hunt. Where’s Mike Hunt”. At that point, the quiet in the library would be shattered by barely stifled laughter.

The deal at Panera wasn’t so much about embarrassing the bread DJ who calls out your name when it’s time to pick up your order. After all, they only take first names so while “Dick” might be fun, it’s just not that funny. So when Kreblog and I went to the local Panera’s for lunch, and I resolved to make up a name. I worked on it while we were in line, finally deciding on Rafael.

After a long time waiting for the rather new help to get my somewhat complicated order into the touch screen, she asked for my name. I replied, “Rafael”. She says, “Rafael……how do you spell that?” Duohh, not so quick on my feet, I missed the opportunity to say, “It’s spelled like it sounds”. Instead, I scrambled to make up the spelling which you are reading here. Lesson learned: don’t make up names you can’t spell. On the other hand, Rafael sounded really good and smooth when the deep-voiced bread DJ called it out. I even remembered it was a clue for me to pick up my lunch.

Today's sky report

OK, this may take a few posts to play out, but the carpool has come up with a new reality show. Fittingly, it's called "The Carpool". The premise is that there's a carpool (ours) that has an empty seat and wants to add a new member. The current carpoolers (Kreblog, Seacoast Perspective and I) will be the judges. We'll start with a suitably large contingent of contestants, let's say 12. They have to demonstrate a certain set of skills each week (to be described below). Each week, we'll knock one or two of them off (fewer if the ratings are high, more if the ratings are bad - less shows to air). So, here's a couple of contests, and feel free to chime in with one of your own:

Vanity Plate deciphering - Since NH seems to have the highest number of vanity plates per capita of any state in the country, each contestant will be asked to decipher some plates. For example, "RDSXGRL". The correct answer is "Red Sox Girl", but extra credit will go to the contestant that can also come up with "RD's Sex Girl".

Fallujah Music Radio Switching - Somewhere deep in the archives of this blog is a post about the music that the carpool doesn't like and an explanation of why it's called Fallujah music. Each contestant will be put in front of a radio and distracted by asking them questions. They have to successfully pick out the Fallujah songs and switch them off in the shortest amount of time. One wrinkle will be to see if they can identify the double switch - when they switch from a Fallujah song to another one.

I'll try to work up some more contests in coming posts, but feel free to suggest your own.

Today's sky report - More UFOs

Kreblog, err, "David" must have been sitting with an artist last week. An artist's conception of the Exeter UFO appeared with the follow-up article in Sunday's Portsmouth Herald. I particularly like the flames. You'd think with all the sky reports I've done, at least one skyward view would have harvested a sighting of a UFO. I guess I'll have to keep looking. At least I live in a fertile area for sightings. This is not the first time UFO hysteria has broken out in Exeter. Back in 1965, several folks saw a UFO: http://ufocasebook.com/Exeter.html.

And we're not done yet. These odd airborne craft are spreading to neighboring East Kingston: http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/exeter/08022005/news/55742.htm.

I'd better start working on what I'm going to say to the first alien to disembark...

Today's sky report - ezpass rage redux

So now the long lines at the tolls are the ezpass only lanes.  Open up another one, please - we're paying a premium to drive through (vis-a-vis the token users).  We deserve another lane just for us. 

On the positive side, it was very sweet breezing through ezpass lanes on the Mass Pike and the Tappan Zee Bridge on a trip to NJ this past weekend.  The TZ even had a lane with a high arching reader that let you blow through it at 35 mph.  Which we did...

Today's sky report

Seems a little quiet in the blogosphere this week. Do the computer electrons take vacations like the rest of us, kind of an HTML Holiday? Anyway, the sky report for today comes from Kreblog, who reported in carpool yesterday that the sky all around his house was orange after the thunderstorms blew through. Orange enough to cast an orange light on the cars going by, the side of his house and everything else in sight. Sounds like the same color as the UFO sighted in Exeter last week (http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/exeter/07292005/news/55154.htm). Hmmm…is Kreblog's name David?

Today's sky report

I have a two-parter today - a report from the eminently successful Blog 'n Brew and a short report from my ride home from that event. First the Blog 'n Brew: Once again, Blogmaster Kreblog corralled a bunch of us eCoast bloggers to meet face to face. While this may seem contrary to the general anonymity of blogging, it works real well. You see, bloggers are people who have a need to express themselves, which makes for great barroom conversation - lots of witty thoughts, overlapping, meandering, opinionated, personal, and just plain funny. Anywho, some of the same suspects were there from our last BnB, including:

Contagious
Granite Rants
Mrs. “I promised I’d blog but I haven’t” Rants

Missing in action was Seacoast Perspective who claimed it was his wedding anniversary but interestingly, hasn’t updated his blog in almost a month. I think he was scared to come. During the course of the evening, he was compared to other famous no-shows such as Snuffleupagus and Weapons of Mass Destruction. And joining us for the first time (for a B’nB) were:

4 Kids, Mom, and Dad
Lnotes
You Who?

After our last B’nB, I handed out a few awards in the post that followed (Prior B'nB Awards). Contagious, jonesing for recognition, asked that she receive another award after this B’nB. In fact, she had a specific request (my award). So here we go with this month’s awards (drum roll):

Best use of too much information (what a surprise) – Contagious
Most blog groupies - 4 Kids
Most broken blog promises – Mrs. Rants
Oldest last post – Lnotes
Best grasp of local music scene 10 years ago – Granite Rants
Most likely to over contribute for chicken and beer – You Who

And a special Blogger’s Appreciation Award goes to Kreblog, who not only hosts the event but who is also instrumental in helping many of us with our techie blog questions.

And now the ride home. I had taken two wheels to Blog ‘n Brew, looking to beat the heat of the day with a cool ride home. Leaving Paddy’s, I did my usual pre-ride fiddling and diddling around: unlock your gear, insert earplugs, put on helmet, put on glasses, put on jacket, zip tank bag closed, open zippers on jacket and so forth. It wasn’t until I got underway that I finally looked up and saw, A REALLY BIG AND ORANGE FULL MOON. Right then, I knew the ride home would be nice. I threaded my way around the edges of Portsmouth to Rt. 1A. As I headed east, the big moon was in my face and acting like a spotlight – it was bright enough that the scenery coming at me was darkened by the backlight. As I shot past Odiorne State Park, the trees and buildings cleared and I was left with the flooded salt marsh on one side (tide was in) and the ocean on the other. The moon created pools of light on both surfaces. It was easy to see where the phrase “moon river” originates when there’s a wide swath of moonlight streaming across the calm ocean to the beach in front of you.

Because it was summer, I was expecting a bit of traffic on 1A. Not to disappoint me, there were several cars just poking along enjoying the moon and the sea. With precious few passing lanes, I was unable to enjoy the costal curves as you can do in the fall or winter, but the relaxed pace suited the mood of the evening. I turned off the coast at the 101 junction at Hampton Beach and headed to Exeter.

I had expected the temperature by the beach to be significantly cooler. As I traversed the narrow lane of land between the marshes and the ocean, the temperature did cool off some, but it didn’t plunge as I had hoped. Not until I reached the exit by my home did the night air actually begin to feel cool. Thus chilled from the ongoing heat wave, I was able to sleep better.

Today's sky report

Today's morning sky was filled with sun and anticipation. The second in a series of Blog 'n Brews is tonight and who can wait?

Besides the second Blog n' Brew, today is also the 14th annual Ride to Work day (www.ridetowork.org). The idea behind this effort is to promote motorcycling as more than just sport. If motorcycling was used more often as a form of basic transportation, there would be less crowding on the highways, in the parking lots and so forth. Even though the Ride to Work non-profit is based out of Minnesota, I have to believe that this cause might a bigger deal in California or Florida where you can be assured of more days of sun and warmth than in NH. Although, let's not forget that NH has one of the highest (if not the highest) number of motorcycle registrations per capita.

Much like my first day on EZ Pass (see post below), I expected everything to be different on Ride to Work day. Instead of 50 cars to every motorcycle, it would be the other way around. As I mounted my bike for the ride and headed down my small road, I expected to be joining up with other motorcyclist as I got on to larger and larger arteries. We would ride as a pack, kind of like the road into Weir's Beach during NH's motorcycle week. As I reached the corner at the end of my road, all I saw were cars and trucks. Merging on to Rt 101, I was surrounded by cages (cars). Where were my biking buddies? Did they not know it was Ride to Work day? Do none of them have jobs to ride to? After about 5 miles, I saw one bike going the other way. I gave him a nod and a wave, which were not reciprocated - almost as if he didn't understand our solidarity in our work transportation. For the whole 45 minute trip, I may have seen 7 or 8 motorcycles - less than I see on a normal day. What gives? How are we going to change the world if people don't care? Could it be that everyone drove today so they could listen to NPR reports on the Bush's new Supreme Court nominee? They're missing a lot of fresh air…

Realistically, in NH motorcycles should be seen as a hobby or a sport and not as a form of transportation. I have ridden a lot of miles in all kinds of weather, and unless you live 10 or less miles from work, you are going to get wet, cold, baked, burnt or bruised. I generally ride with a full riding suit, which helps deal with changing weather conditions, but even so, there will always be rides where you will uncomfortable. Still, I remember as a boy, trying to justify the purchase of a bike to my mother by saying I could use it instead of a car. I didn't get the bike.

As a footnote to my EZ Pass Rage post, the system seems to be sorting itself out. They have moved the EZ pass lanes to the middle, leaving two lanes to the left for tokens (I'm not sure why they didn't figure this out earlier). Still, as I was approaching the lane this morning, a car was in front of me without a transponder. The man rolled into the booth, nothing changed or flashed and he drove on. Now that's a discount.

Today's sky report

Maybe I should call this one today's nature report. As I was leaving for work on Friday, I saw a (not so) little head peaking up at me from the culvert that feeds the pond to the right of my driveway. I had to look, so I stopped the car, got out and looked down into the culvert. Already thrashing through the weeds and cat-tails, making his way back to the pond was a very large turtle. Not being well versed in all things turtle (necks, soup, the rock band), I'm not sure what type it was. When I described the size (back bigger than a serving platter) and the pointy face to other non-experts, they indicated that it might be a snapping turtle. One on-line guide says:

Snapping Turtle
Size: 8 - 18½"
Habitat: muddy, weedy ponds and marshes
Food: scavenger, eats crayfish, small turtles, frogs, fish, and ducklings
Notes: won't bother you if you won't bother it, but stands its ground when provoked

That seems to fit the bill, given that the pond is rather muddy and weedy and there are plenty of frogs in the pond on which he/she can feast. In fact, it may be the power of suggestion, but could it be that the nights are getting quieter as the bullfrogs are picked off one by one?

On Saturday, as I was mowing around the house, I saw another turtle on the other side of the house (when I say I live in a swamp, I'm not kidding). This one was slightly smaller than the one I had seen the day before, and its back was cleaner, not having any of the residual pond scum on its shell that the previous day's turtle had shown. It made me wonder how far turtles travel and whether or not this turtle was related to the one by the pond. Whatever the relationship, it now sees clear that it will be best to keep our small dog inside or he may lose a nose to the snappers....

Today's sky report: EZ Pass rage

In case road rage doesn't have enough causal factors, the State of NH has finally opened their long-awaited and long-overdue EZ Pass system. As a dedicated carpooler and commuter, I signed up as quickly as I could remember all my license plate numbers (not that quickly). As the time approached for the grand opening, I began to hear of others who had already received their transponders. By last Friday, I was getting very anxious - EZ Pass was scheduled to start Monday (today) and I hadn't received my transponders. It was with great relief that I found the magic package had arrived Friday night. Of course, they only sent me 3 of the 4 that I ordered (funny how they knew to charge me for all four), which means I'll get a chance to interact with their humanless customer service (voice menu hell or email, take your pick). The transponders were quickly installed on all my vehicles and as I traveled through the tolls over the weekend, I dreamed of a day (Monday, in fact), when I would whisk quickly through the tolls, the envy of all the other drivers.

It was with great excitement and anticipation that I hopped in the car today, anxious to show off my new EZ Pass transponder to my fellow carpoolers. Unfortunately, it turned out to be bad karpool karma Monday. Seacoast Perspective called in kid sick and Kreblog showed up at the usual meeting place, but was unable to remove the key from his car. I think his car was jealous of my car and its shiny new transponder and retaliated by not letting him get out with the key. So, as Kreblog headed out to get his car fixed, I headed off to my first tollbooth, the luster of the moment dimming, yet not extinguished.

The ManchVegas merge was unusually bad this morning. People can't seem to get the hang of three gazinta two, no matter how long it's been going on. As I got through that mess without any changes to the exterior dimensions of my vehicle, I started getting excited: no more would I crawl throught the tollbooths. I was going EeeeZeee. Rounding the curve off of 101W to the Everett Turnpike south, images of flying began crowd my thoughts until I came crashing back to earth. The whole damn highway was stopped! Now, this has happened off and on over the past several years as they reconstructed the Bedford tollboths, but it wasn't supposed to happen today. Not on MY EZ day. We crawled, LA freeway style, minutes passing us by like sands through the hourglass or something like that. Signs continued to urge me left towards the EZ Pass lane, but the traffic never sped up. I was depressed right up until I could see the toll plaza and there it was!

A glow filled the horizon over the tollbooth. I could see the big sign over MY EZ Pass lane, at once inviting and taunting. But I couldn't get there as driver after driver zigged left and right in front of me. Could it be they had seen my transponder and were conspiring to keep me from sailing through? Were they all jealous because they still had to hold the heavy metal of the tokens while I electronically paid without ever rolling down my window? Could they just be a bunch of dopes completely unable to figure out how to deal with the changed traffic patterns?

Passing under the EZ arches was anticlimactic. The lane, once I could get to it, was completely empty. I found myself speeding up to 25 mph, although the recommendation was 10 mph. Not wanting to be the first EZ Passer to be arrested for blowing through the tollbooth, I tapped the brakes and there it was: "Go EZ Pass". Need I say more?

Today's sky report

Yesterday I did the border dance on two wheels. It sounds a lot more esoteric than it really is. I motorcycled between Maine and New Hampshire for about 175 miles. It went something like this: NH, ME, NH, ME, NH, ME, NH, ME, NH, ME, NH. I was not looking to take quite so many crossings, but I got lost a couple of times and deviated from my planned route. Which is why I like just exploring around...you come across so many scenes that whiz by that call for further inspection. Most of the time, you roll forward and try to process what you just saw (i.e. a beautiful view of a mountain, a bevy of boats on a lake, a nicely manicured lawn, an ice cream place with a sign that says, "no food") before the next scene intrudes on your brain. Sometimes I wish I could see in real time but process in slow motion, or that I had a mental TiVo that captured what I saw and indexed it for later retrieval. My mental TiVo works, it just lacks labels...

Steamy weather is back - what a spectacular Fourth of July weekend. Three days offering up the best weather you ever get in NH. It was warm, not hot, dry, not humid and sunny, not cloudy. The skies were smiling.

Today's sky report

Yesterday, the sky over looking the golf course (coincidentally called Overlook) was very gray. Occasional showers swept through, forcing us to stay in our carts and drink beer. Fortunately, no lightening was sighted, so we were able to stay out with nature, fending off bugs with our cigar smoke. I played my usual golf game, hitting just enough good shots to keep me coming back. The highlight of the day was near the end, when we began to play bumper cars with the golf carts. I'm thinking of starting a whole new racing series called NasCart - the carts would all be identical so it would be the driver's skill that would make the difference. Instead of a circle, we'd race across golf courses, plowing into ball washers and tearing across greens. The race would cover all 18 holes as many times as possible until the batteries ran out. Drinking would be required....

Today's sky report

Last night I was driving home right around sundown. As the soft summer sun sunk slowly and silently below the horizon, a massive melancholy moon made its mandated move into the sky.

Let me say it for you: Alliterations are alluring, and assonance can be absolutely amazing, but give it a rest, carpoolguy.

Today's sky report

This morning, the sky was woodgrained with knot-holes. That sounds interesting until you realize that the "sky" was actually the ceiling of my dentist's office. I've always enjoyed different shapes to stare at when people are working on me (dentist, giving blood), and this ceiling fits the bill. It would have been even better if he would open the curtains on the large skylights cut into the ceiling, but I guess when it's sunny, a gleam of light reflecting off a filling might temporarily blind him, throwing off his drilling and causing his customers great pain.
4 Speaking of lights, did you ever notice that all dentists use lights in the shape of an open mouth? Power of suggestion and all that.
4 Speaking of pain, there is no greater pain than climbing into your dentist's chair knowing you'll be there for a while and hearing on the office music, "And now, we will begin a commercial free hour of music here on WHOM". There isn't enough Novocaine in the world to have to listen to that ear syrup for an extended period of time. Even a Fallujah tune would be better.

Today's sky report

"Sponge cloud". That's it..."sponge cloud". Think about it.

Today's sky report

When I went outside this morning to walk the dog, I think I ventured into the middle of a Million Mosquito March. There were all these militant mosquitoes hovering about me, turning my body into their banquet. If I'm going to (be) their banquet, the least they could do is feature me as a speaker. You know, taking responsibility for your children, bzzzzz, bzzzzzz, bzzzzz. Being dissed like that incited me to smack a few of them around, in fact, flattening several of them on my arms and neck. I'd be worried about not being invited back to their next march, but I'm guessing they're still out there.

Today's sky report

Last night as I was driving back to my swamp from playing basketball, I ended up on a ridge in Stratham where you could look to either side and get a bit of a view. Now mind you, a view in the Seacoast is not what I'd call spectacular - no mountains or valleys, just swamps and other ridges - but it got me to thinking. Our last house was on the side of a hill that looked across at another hill with a lake in the valley below. Especially in winter, we had some pretty nice views, and you'd look off to the distance to collect those views. Where I live now (the swamp) also has views, but they're close up, like the pond in front of my house or the row of trees ringing our yard. Your sightline is very short. Since I am an inveterate day dreamer who enjoys staring out the window while I dream, I think the shorter sightlines are affecting my day dreams. I now think about things like expanding the area around me, instead of traveling to and conquering foreign lands. I need to move back to the mountains.

Today's sky report

The other day, there were rays of sun, as thick as legs, pouring through the clouds. It was as if they were trying to hold the clouds up, like the legs of a stool.

As the steam pours into New England, it's important to remember just how much we complained about the weather in May. Second coldest May on record, above average rainfall, only one weekend or holiday day with sun. It was miserable, so rejoice in the heat and humidity of today. And turn on the air conditioning....

Today's sky report

Today's report is going to be a little retroactive. After one of the longest periods of time with cooler than normal temperatures and a total lack of sun that I can remember (it had to be 8 or 9 days), I walked off the plane in North Carolina last Friday to see sun and feel the warmth of an 85 degree day. It's amazing how your spirits can lift just by the color of the sky and the temperature. My business in NC had me picking up a motorcycle I had bought and riding it north. Never satisfied, I found that the riding weather on Friday was too warm and sunny; my protective riding gear is not suited for the heat. Eventually, clouds occluded the sun and the ride became more bearable. I passed through an area where the rain had just swept through and saw about 50% of a rainbow. Rainbow gawking and motorcycling in traffic do not make a good combinations, so I never found the other half. I made Fredericksburg, VA by dark and stayed there.

The next day, I was out by 7 a.m. and riding in the relative chill of the sunny morning air. The first part of the day was perfect for riding - temperatures in the upper sixties or low seventies. Winding across the Virginia countryside, I could do nothing but smile. The views were wonderful and even the interstates were spackled with colored flowers. A prolonged stop in PA that afternoon allowed a thunderhead to catch up with me. I though I could wait it out in a restaurant, but eventually the desire to gobble distance overcame the lack of desire for riding in the rain. Setting out, the rain had lightened, at least for a bit. With the bike rolling at a fairly constant speed, I eventually caught the beginning of the front, and went through some lightening and thunder. This happened a couple of times, as did the heavier portions of the downpour. With each break in the moisture action, I scanned for rainbows, but alas, they were not evident. I eventually rode out of the rain and whatever parts of my person that were wet, dried off.

After a perfect weather day on Sunday (70's, sunny and dry), which I foolishly didn't ride in, I left for the final leg home. Another gorgeous morning, another afternoon rain event. Ride, rinse, repeat. Dry when I arrived home, I figured the lawn could use some of my attention. But when the sky went black, and the crackles and booms began, my plans changed.