utenzi

This storm system is certainly covering a lot of the Eastern part of the country. It's certainly not making kayaking any fun. But at least there's still some pretty things to look at despite the gloomy gray skies. And rain. :-(

For the first time in what seems like forever I woke up to a cool day that was going to stay that way. It's been months since I'd aired out the house and I lost no time in throwing open all the windows on my second story and many of the windows on my first floor. Please don't let any burglars know! It's so nice to have the temperature not leave the 60s and 70s. From when I woke up this morning to right now, 11pm, it's been warmer in the house than outside. Gotta love it. And in a few hours September arrives with Fall weather. LOL Actually here in North Carolina we don't get real Fall weather for a while yet but it's nice to have this down payment hanging over us for a couple of days.

We had some bad weather pass through Eastern NC today. Lots of really bad winds and rain just west of me, around Winston-Salem, even some reports of tornadoes. Where I am we only got some sporadic rain but what seemed to be a big funnel cloud passed just behind my house, as you can see below. Since the wind never got all that bad, I guess it was just a temporary downdraft that pushed upper level clouds down near the ground but it looked scary. The picture above was taken just about 2 minutes before the picture below, I lightened up the foreground a bit so you could see my backyard in the first picture. The second picture is more like what it really looked like. Yet within 5 minutes it all blew far enough to my east so that I couldn't see it anymore. The clouds loosened up a little while it was moving but it didn't blow apart. I don't know if that's good or bad, but like I said above---it was never all that windy where I was. I've had a few tornadoes pass near me whi...

Today was pretty hot and I finally gave in and turned on my A/C for the first time of the year around 8pm. If I hadn't, tomorrow would have been the final straw. Today got up to 90 but tomorrow is projected for 98. And the following days? 99, 101, and 99 again. It's going to be brutal--and since there's occasional afternoon thunder showers expected, steamy too. For yet another weekend, I'm toying with the idea of going to the NC State Zoo but if I do, it'll have to be as soon as they open 'cause it's going to be so damn hot. *whew* I'm sweating just thinking about it. Maybe I'd best turn that A/C down a degree or two. And since we're talking about hot and steamy, I just started watching this year's Top Chef competition. Since they're going into the final two shows I thought it was about time to start. Fortunately since it's a cable show (Bravo Network) they're rebroadcasting the entire season (several times) before they close t...

"Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun" I hate turning on my A/C before the start of June but I was very tempted today. Since it was going to rain in the evening I felt I had to do some mowing done this afternoon. The grass was pretty long since we've had a lot of rain in the past couple of weeks--and my lawn really appreciates the damn stuff. As for me, after being outside in the heat for over an hour I really wanted something more than just a ceiling fan--but I settled for a cool shower. It hit 90 today and it is supposed to stay in the mid 80s to low 90s for the next 5-7 days. It looks like my electric bill for June is going to spike a bit. *sigh* What do you think of that dog above? Lee and I saw her at Eno River last week. She's pretty old but still fetches sticks like a puppy. Her owner seemed quite proud of her energy level. Personally I thought she looked a little insane, but that makes her perfect for the Indian quote. I guess my mowing in ...

The past week we've been freezing our little nubbies off here in Eastern NC and now Monday and Tuesday have projected highs in the 70s. It's just too freaky. Overnight lows every day this week are higher than the high temps all last week. Mind you, I'm not complaining. I like it warm.... but 70s in January? In other news, my favorite team on The Amazing Race finished last on Sunday night's broadcast. That's just evil. It makes me want to eat enormous amounts of candy--which, now that I think about it, is how I always feel. But I'm more serious about it now. Where's those Smarties ? I finished watching the first 3 DVDs of Deadwood and all 7 episodes were excellent. I hope to get the rest of Season One from the library this week and start on Season Two the following week. Right now I'm half way through watching The Terminator 3 --I'll finish watching it before going to bed though I am rather tired. But a choice between sleep and exciting car chases w...

We've gotten a little rain in the past 24 hours. According to the rain gauge on the deck it's been 0.28 inches. As you can probably guess, it's not enough to help much. I did some kayaking this morning and took a few pictures. As you can see here, it was quite overcast. There were huge rainstorms south of us but I only got caught in a few slight showers. As so often happens, the rain avoided the lake and just fell on the regions around the lake. Weird. The picture of the left illustrates the gloomy gray sky--but it also points out how low the water is. Normally the water is up to the edge of those pine trees. Now the trees are 30 feet away and over 10 feet higher than the kayak I was in. The lake level is down 10'8" from where it was 2 years ago. On the plus side though, this area--due to the huge lake--doesn't have any watering restrictions. A couple hours to the West is Atlanta which is down to a two month supply of water in Lake Lanier. And where I live in N...

Today is a holiday here in the USA. Thanksgiving. I'm not celebrating it today but rather putting it off until Saturday. As a result, instead of a thanking post, I'm going to vent a bit about the weather. Deal with it! LOL Here in eastern North Carolina people were commenting about the weather a few weeks back. The reason for that is that for 6 weeks we had wonderful weather Monday through Friday and then we'd have cold and usually rainy weather for the weekend. It was getting to be quite remarkable but two weeks ago that trend ended. Since then we've had cold weather every day and most of those days were rainy and very windy. Nearly a third of those days had such bad weather that they received coverage on the national news. So, you might ask, what caused this trend change? I'm glad you asked!! Sure, some people will say it's global warming, or maybe God's wrath, or even that old excuse El Nina. Some or all of those might find some resonance in your mind bu...