Today's sky report - ice out

I missed it. I was out west skiing in Colorado, fighting blizzard like conditions on Sunday and I missed "ice out" on my little pond. There was nothing solid left on the surface when I got home on Monday, March 27th. Last year, ice out happened about a week and a half later: http://carpoolguy.blogspot.com/2005/04/todays-sky-report-ice-out.html.

It still doesn't seem like spring. The trees are just starting to lace up with the buds that let you know you'll soon have shade. The big decision for the coming weekend is whether or not to take the snow tires off the cars. There's always a chance of snow, even into April. If I take them off, we're guaranteed at least a 6 inch snow event. I'll probably leave them on…..

Today's sky report

You know how in those movies like Independence Day and War of the Worlds there are always these large spaceships hovering over the earth?  With the wind this morning, the clouds were moving like a whole convoy of alien spacecraft across the sky.  Duck and run for cover.

Today's ride report

When the forecast for a Saturday in March says sunny and in the 50's, you have no choice but to get out on your motorcycle. Fortunately, my friend had called me up during the week and told me he could use some help on his lake house in Nelson, NH. Good excuse for a ride.

I headed west from Exeter around 9 a.m. Although the thermometers were reading around 50, when you're booking 65+ mph on the big highway, the breeze saps your body heat bit by bit until 50 doesn't feel so warm. Traffic was surprisingly heavy for a Saturday morning, and the strong winds made the ride challenging. Inevitably, as you passed a truck or car, a gust of wind would push you towards the car and the surprised look on the drivers face as he/she noticed the biker coming sideways towards them. The ride goes by fairly fast until you get to Bedford. That's because the road narrows to one lane each way and traffic lights take hold. The good news is that the blast of 50 degree air slows down so you body begins to reheat a bit.

As I rode west from Bedford, I began to notice more and more snow on the sides of the road. Apparently winter ends earlier at the coast. By the time I hit the top of Temple mountain, it felt quite cold, even though the bank thermometer in Peterborough read 52 degrees (drenched in sunshine and not traveling 65 mph).

Nelson is a small town (population about 600) whose greatest feature is Lake Nubanusit. The lake is also in Hancock, a quaint NH town also in the middle of nowhere. These towns lie a bit north of the great connector, Rt 101. For Nelson, heading west on 101, you get off in Dublin, the town with the ridiculously low speed limit and home of Yankee Publishing (Farmer's Almanac), and head into Harrisville. On the way from Harrisville to Dublin, you begin to appreciate good highway construction, mainly because you are no longer riding on one. The frost heaves create dips and bumps, cracks and ridges without regard to patterns or logic. Sometimes you ride fast and stand on the pegs to diminish the jarring. Other times you ride more slowly, trying futilely to avoid the worst of the bumps. No such luck.

The key question when you ride into Harrisville after being away for a few months, is "will the Harrisville General Store be open or out of business?" The store has had a few incarnations, most recently as a coffee/sandwich shop with a minimum of groceries and a fine wine selection. Last fall, on a ride to the area, it was open and populated by locals. This Saturday, when a cup of coffee would have warmed my insides, it was out of business. No signs to say opening soon or sorry we can't make money in the out of the way location.

After skirting by Harrisville Pond, you come to the road to the lake. The first few hundred feed are paved, or what passes for paved in frost heave season. After that, there are a couple of miles of dirt. In the summer, these roads are wonderful. They keep them flat and hard, with just enough gravel on the surface to induce a bit of drift at the right speeds (that would be in a car - bike drifting is for the truly adventurous or the Supermoto racers). In the winter, the frozen dirt works fine for plowing and driving. Not so much in the spring. The base was still hardpacked and solid, or at least you thought so. The problem was that there was a greasy layer of melted mud on top of the hardpack. Navigating this mess required intense concentration. You continuously looked for the line that was the flattest, but you needed to stay away from ruts. And nothing sudden, or you'll be wiping large brown patches off your black and red riding suit. No sudden braking, no sudden acceleration, no sudden turning moves. Keep it in a high gear and coast along.

Good fortune was on my side, and I made it into and later, out of the camp without incident. I briefly eyed the frozen lake, thinking that it might be safer to ride across that rather than exit on the not so frozen mud, but visions of sinking motorcycles filled my head and I decided otherwise.

The ride home was a bit warmer, and once I got off the mud and the frost heaves, mostly uneventful. I did notice that the fork seal on my left fork had blown and I was oozing oil down the tube, no doubt from the pounding of the bumpy roads. Something for the mechanic to make some money on, I guess.
After I got home, I parked the bike and pulled out the bucket and hose. A pile of dirt on my driveway gave evidence to the trip I had taken. The dirt will wash away, but not my memory of a nice day on the bike - 164 miles.

Today's sky report

Today's sky dawned red, as in Red Sky.  Several months ago, I sat through a conversation with Kreblog, Granite and some other bloggers about the cold war era movie, "Red Dawn".  Most of what I got out of the conversation was that if you go into the mountains to fight the Russians, you need to yell, "wolverines" when you kill one, or something like that.  So I needed to see this flick but until this past weekend, I hadn't noticed that it was playing on any of my channels.  I'm not currently hooked into Netflix and nobody actually gets in the car to go to the video store anymore, do they?  But this Sunday night, I saw that it was playing opposite the Oscars.  Sweet relief.

The movie has several logical holes in it, but you look past those (as you do in any good movie) so you can enjoy the plot and the characters.  There were parts of it that seemed a bit contrived, and some of it just didn't make sense, but I did enjoy it.  Especially when they yelled "wolverines".  I'm now in the Red Dawn club, at last. 

Today's sky report

Heard on TV tonite:  “Lease an all new Saturn Vue for only $189 per month.  Residency restrictions apply.”  What is that?  You gotta live in this car to buy it?

Today's sky report

Driving home last night around 9:00 p.m., I worked out the following haiku:

Bright moon light reflects
On freshly fallen white snow
Drive without headlights

I left them on until I got on my street, but it is fun driving without them.

Today's sky report

It must have been the intense concentration that comes from listening to British accents. There was some undulating static on the generously provided (by Kreblog) podcast of the Ricky Gervais show for the carpool this morning. Oddly, the static seemed to ebb and flow with the striated shadows caused by the low sun coming through the trees on the highway. Fffft, ffft, ffft, ssss, ffft, ssss, ffffffffft....

Today's sky report

Today's rising sun revealed a tilted cloud formation. It appeared as if a table had lost a leg and a big orange ball was rolling off. Later, we saw a cloud that looked like it was leaking; a meandering tail hung below the puffy whiteness.

Even the WMUR news pixie is getting into the act. At 6:30 a.m., with the WMUR Hampton camera pointing seaward, a beautiful sunrise came on the screen. The news pixie exclaimed, "Look at that gorgeous sunrise. I just love a pretty sky." Amen, pixie, amen.

Today's sky report

Actually, this is yesterday’s sky report.  On the commute in to work, we were crossing the Everett Turnpike before we cloverleafed on, and Kreblog said, “Manchester better look out – there’s a comet heading its way. “  Sure enough, there was a long fairly thin cloud with a dark, rounded face that looked a lot like a comet.  I had never really seen a cloud like that before, so driving took a backseat while I craned my neck to see.  The only thing the comet was missing was a leering face which would have let the ManchVegas residents know how it felt about taking out the city.

 

And in another cloud laded coincidence, later that day, I was driving south (on the Everett, again) when I saw a perfect herringbone cloud.  Now seeing herringbone clouds isn’t so amazing, but this one was actually in the shape of a fish, as if a dead fish had been sent skyward and left to die.  Maybe the fish was taken out by the comet.

Today's sky report

As I was driving west from NY into NJ on Saturday evening, the phrase "cloud stained sunset" came to my head.  As in, "an orange light glowed from the cloud stained sunset".  I'm not exactly sure where in the trip I was, or what I was looking at, because after the phrase popped, I was determined to remember it.  I said it out loud a couple of times and kept thinking about it, because I liked how it sounded and the mental images it could evoke.  These days, it takes a really concentrated effort to remember things - I can't just assume that things I see or think will be retrievable later on.  Fortunately, it came back to me the next day, and I was able to roll it off my tongue a few more times until I was pretty sure I would remember it.  I began trying to use it in a sentence, one that could start a story or a blog post.  Of course, I cannot remember any of those sentences today, but I'm sure I could make one up again if I needed to…."He rode into the cloud stained sunset, his new life just beginning."  After I thought about the phrase for a while, I wondered if I had actually created it or whether I had just read it somewhere.  Fortunately, a Google search only found one reference and it was in an article from 2000 copy of Southern Living.  Pretty sure I didn't read that.  Cloud stained sunset. Rock band name, anyone?

Today's sky report

It occurred to me today just how old you must be when your fast food franchise discussion morphs from which one makes the best french fries to which one makes the best salad.  By the way, if you don't need to have your chicken topping hot, the answer is Wendy's.  And stay away from Subway - their salads are basically a pile of that shredded lettuce normally thrown on your sub, with anything else you want added (how about a roll and some roast beef?).

Today's sky report

Hey Mr. Moon, all bright and shiny in the sky, how about getting in touch with some of the municipal governments in the area?  I'm thinking you could save money for the towns by having them turn out their street lights when you're at your best.  Your sharp silver shadows from last night are still playing on my brain's screen.  And it's amazing how yellow you turn just before sinking below the horizon.

Today's sky report

After a couple of weeks on hiatus from blogging, I’ve received some pointed emails from friends who normally give me grief for being a blogger. So I figure it’s about time to put a post out there and get back into the habit. Between Christmas and New Years, I got to experience the somewhat warmer skies over Orlando, FL. Having been to Key West as recently as October, I foolishly expected that I might be able to repeat that idyllic time with balmy temperatures in the low eighties and gentle trade winds. Not so. Orlando in late December is warmer than our NH winters, but bring a jacket. At the beginning of our week, it was reaching the fifties and breezy enough that the words “wind-chill” had to remain part of our vocabulary. Towards the end of the week, I did get to break out the shorts, but not until the last day could I qualify a feeling as “hot”. In fact, one day we got up extra special early (or “ridiculously early” as quoted by the ticket sales woman at Universal’s Islands of Adventure) to be first in line for a major attraction, and I found myself dealing with ice on the minivan windshield. Oddly, the car rental companies don’t include ice scrapers as part of your rental package. Finally, I got to put my AAA card to good use.

It’s good to be back to the predictably cold skies of NH. January, cold like it should be and not some tease of the warm weather. Hmmm, today’s high was in the 40’s with predictions in the 50’s later this week. Are we in Orlando, Dorothy?

Today's sky report

I've been giving some thought to what the best Christmas sky would be.  It's easy to say you want a white Christmas with snow on the ground, but when you get up at the crack of dawn to open your presents, what do you want to see when you look outside?  I'm thinking about a perfectly clear sky, where the sun rises like the star it is, showing purple at first, followed by orange and then turning a brilliant blue.

Forecast for Christmas in NH: Some sun in the morning with increasing clouds during the afternoon. High 43F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. 

Today's sky report

The dark sky comes early on the shortest day of the year.  Welcome to the winter, where the nights get colder and the days get longer.  That seems kind of weird, but it's true.  Long straight lines of gray gauze-infused clouds pulled my attention towards the orange spot where the sun sunk below the horizon.  Behind me, it grows darker and darker.

Today's sky report

OK young lady in the black Volvo 960 sedan, I see that you don't have an EZ Pass transmitter on your windshield.  And, yes, I DO wonder why you're in the EZ Pass lane, without one.  But, DO YOU HAVE TO STOP?  Were you just trying to make sure the camera got a good shot of your license plate?

And you guys with your tokens, don't forget, time is almost up.

On NHPR's "The Exchange" this morning was the author of "In Praise of Slowness".  I DO have to learn how to chill.

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.