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Inside The Booth With Jeff Booth
Get behind the scenes access with Meteorologist Jeff Booth. He'll give you the inside scoop on the weather that affects the Miami Valley.
Click here to send your comments to Jeff about the "Inside the Booth" Blog.
Inside The Booth Blog
Breakin' Down
02/22/12
I spent much of my dinner break this evening working on my car. It actually sounds a lot more manly than it really was... but it did involve a socket wrench. I had to replace one of the headlights on my midnight grey chariot (or Dodge Neon). I noticed the light was out last night, forgot about it until dinner and decided to do something about it after I'd eaten.
That thing was a pain to replace. A co-worker, who's a little more mechanically inclined than I, helped me. After we looked @ the directions in the vehicle manual and tried unsuccessfully to follow them we realized that we'd have to deviate from the plan if we wanted to accomplish the task @ hand. We got it finished but @ 65,000 miles I can't help but feel that the old Neon is no spring chicken anymore.
I found my car's situation similar to the predicament I faced when I crawled out of bed this morning. For some reason my knee was killing me - so I don't know if crawling out of bed is the right term, we'll say I hobbled - it was basically throbbing when I awoke. It felt like I knocked it into something but I don't remember any such incident so I chalked it up to getting old. The scary thing is that it was affecting the same knee I had surgery on when I was 19... I instantly found myself running through a number of worst case scenarios in my head as a result.
After my wife looked @ it she said it just felt like it had locked up, recommended I take some ibuprofen and take it easy for the day. I still felt I needed to exercise so I did whatever I do when I'm hurt but still want to get up the old heart rate: I went swimming. Honestly I will admit I'm feeling much better than I did 12 hours ago.
Despite my speedy recovery I hate to admit that I, like my car, am subject to breakdowns. Today all I needed was a dose anti-inflammatory medicine, a half-mile in the pool and I'm feeling better - the biological equivalent of fixing a headlight. I can only hope that I can stay on "cruise control" for years to come... I have no desire to figure out what injury is analogous to a blown transmission anytime soon.
Where's Winter
02/20/12
I know this isn't the first entry this season talking about the warmer than average winter through which we're now living but it's just been so mild I can't help but revisit the topic. I, like many, have asked, "Where's Winter?" over the past few months. And there's a good reason for asking that question, it's been VERY mild.
So how mild has it been? Well if you go back to December 1st (the start of meteorological winter) and look @ the daily high temperatures we've seen more days w/ highs @ 50 or higher (14) than we've seen w/ highs in the teens and the 20s (10). That's crazy! It's especially interesting when you look @ the previous two winters in the Miami Valley. Both were long & cold. Winter 2010 had three major snowstorms in February and last year was just bitterly cold... for about the entire winter.
If you want to know why it's been so warm just look to the jet stream. It's a river of fast-moving air high in the atmosphere. It helps steer storms across the globe and separates cold air to the north and warm air to the south. Usually it dips pretty far south during winters in North America. This year it hasn't really dipped all that much; as a result the cold air that usually storms in off of the Canadian plains has been bottled up to the far north and has made very few visits to our area this winter.
But there are some areas that have seen that dip... repeatedly. Over in Europe and Asia folks are living through a BRUTAL winter. As a matter of fact, several hundred people have died from the cold this year. We're expecting a bit of a cool down in the long term forecast (nothing that bad) but it won't last all that long. And honestly it's far enough out in the future that there's plenty of time for the forecast to change. So while we're living through a mild, quiet and uneventful winter those on the other side of the world are hoping for an early spring. If you think about it, we've already gotten ours.
Who Wants Bacon???
02/17/12
I'm going to come out and say it: I looooove bacon! It smells good, it looks nice and it tastes wonderful. Were it not for its artery clogging aspects and high fat content I'd argue that it's the perfect food. And even w/ those flaws I still find it hard to fault the crispy treat.
I like the food so much that I once ate a one pound bacon sandwich. It was @ some restaurant off the turnpike in Michigan and was billed as a BLT but honestly there was a lot more B than LT (which is the way I like it). After polishing it off my jaw felt as if I'd been smiling for eight hours straight.
The restaurant chain Jack in the Box is hoping that I'm not the only one who feels so strongly about this breakfast staple (I'd argue it shouldn't be confined to just one meal but that's a different story altogether). It's started a "Marry Bacon" ad campaign urging customers to take their love for the favored pork product to the next level. It's even offering a first of it's kind frozen treat: the bacon-flavored milkshake.
Before you recoil in disgust think about it for a second... bacon tends to make everything taste better. It's great on hamburgers, rounds out a baked potato perfectly and is essential on a biscuit that's already dressed w/ egg & cheese. It only makes sense to combine the fried confection w/ a classic American invention. I'd argue it's right in line w/ the pioneer spirit that lives w/in the DNA of this great nation.
Now the restaurant doesn't actually blend ice cream, milk and bacon to make the beverage (although that sounds like a good idea). It actually uses a bacon flavored syrup to achieve the desired results. So what the main ingredient in bacon flavoring? As I understand it, mainly liquid smoke. Truthfully I've never tried the confection but I gotta admit it sounds like the perfect thing to wash down a BLT (w/ or w/out a pound of bacon).
As silly as this concoction sounds there are even more bizarre mash-ups that include bacon as the main ingredient. If you look hard enough you can find vendors who sell bacon soap. And what better fragrance to douse yourself with after a shower than bacon cologne? I have to admit this doesn't sound like to bad of an idea. If you're a guy (and you're not trying to meet a woman) why not ensconce yourself in an aromatic cloud that's also a pan-fried slice of heaven?
Whether or not I'll ever get a chance to try the bacon-flavored milkshake is still up in the air. I guess it all depends on if I ever visit a state that has Jack in the Box eateries. Seeing that I'm young I think it's a safe bet that I will someday. I just hope that when I finally do get to the fast food joint they're still offering the treat. I do know one thing, though: after slurping it down the best, and healthiest way to round out my experience would be to brush my teeth w/ bacon-flavored toothpaste and clean the cracks of my teeth w/ bacon floss (yes they make both of those as well).
Retiring Abroad
02/15/12
If you're near retirement and you're thinking of taking a vacation somewhere exotic you may be in luck. How does a month-long all-expense paid trip to Ecuador sound? That's exactly what an international magazine is offering. It's wants to promote the country as a retirement destination and hopes to find a candidate who is already thinking of living overseas.
If you win you'll get two round-trip tickets, a furnished apartment in Cuenca, Ecuador and $1500 for living expenses. Seeing that the average cost for a couple in the town is just over $900 (after rent) the winners will be able to live it up on their vacation.
While I have to admit I think this sounds like a blast I don't know how "future me" would feel about it. Maybe it's b/c I'm a meteorologist. Every day I look @ the different weather patterns that affect the area. In that never-ending search for patterns I tend to get locked into a routine of my own. @ this point in my life I welcome breaks in the monotony... as long as they're not to long-lived. Seeing that I feel this way now I can only speculate how I'll feel when I'm older. I hope to become more adventurous in my golden years but I'm not betting on it. When you think about it it's kind of sad; I'm predicting I'll be an old fuddy duddy and I probably won't retire for another 30 years (assuming I retire @ 65).
Also, how safe is Ecuador? I've never been so I don't know but when I went to New Orleans last year I felt like I had to be "on high alert" the entire time so I didn't get robbed. That was exhausting. I can't imagine going through that and dealing w/ a language barrier @ the same time.
But while I may be a wuss I know there are plenty of people who are not. And this contest may be right up your alley. If you're interested in relaxing, shopping and maybe even taking a Spanish class head to InternationLiving.com and enter by March 15th. Good luck and send me a postcard... don't forget to detail how safe it is down there. If my feet get a little itchy, and I can talk myself into mixing things up a bit, maybe I'll stop by for a visit.
Valentine's Day No Nos
02/14/12
Well, another year has passed which means another Valentine's Day is now here. That also means another guy (or more likely, lots of guys) is probably in trouble w/ his significant other for slacking off on this special day of romance.
I'll admit I took the easy route and got my wife flowers, as I do every year. I say it's the easy way out b/c it's not hard to go to a flower shop and place an order a few days before Valentine's Day. After that all you have to do is pick them up in a timely fashion. Before you start thinking I'm a lazy romantic keep in mind that my wife loves flowers. B/c of this fact I'll get them for her throughout the year from time to time when I'm @ the grocery store. But on special occasions I'll make a trip to the florist and have the experts arrange something special for my special lady.
I recommend all guys get their ladies flowers and/or take them out to dinner on Valentine's Day. There are a few things I do not recommend you buy for the special someone in your life. One of those goes back to a story a roommate in college told me. His mom's boyfriend bought her a 48-pack of toilet paper one year. Why? I don't know. Was it the extra soft, classy stuff? That I do not know either. I'll tell you one thing, though, I'd never try that w/ my wife... I wouldn't even want to know where she'd place those 48 rolls (probably forcibly) if I tried that one on her.
Recently I've seen commercials for a few gifts that I can't believe anyone would ever find romantic enough to give to their sweetheart today. The first is the hoodie-footie leopard print pajama set... complete w/ feline ears. While I'm sure this will keep your girl warm it doesn't really scream date night. I'd actually find it a little creepy if someone's idea of romance involved dressing up his lady as an endangered jungle cat.
Another one I don't quite get is the "Big Hunka Love" teddy bear. It's cute, it's life-sized but it's also a stuffed animal. I don't really see it as a Valentine's Day gift. In fact, I think I'd be upset if someone bought me a toy for Valentine's Day. I'd be even more upset when I found out the thing cost about $100! Of course when I looked it up on the company's website I saw that it was sold out so obviously my feelings are out of the mainstream's.
Honestly it doesn't matter what you get your special someone today. You don't even have to spend any money... as long as you give a gift that has some thought put into it. B/c ultimately that's what today is all about: thinking about and sharing time w/ the one you love. I hope you had a great holiday and if you gave any of the gifts I made fun of (excluding the mega-pack of toilet paper) I'm sorry if I've put you in the doghouse.
A Truckload of Snow... I'll Take 200
02/13/12
Throughout the night I've been tracking light snow as it inches closer to the Miami Valley. It's not expected to pile up but we'll definitely see a light accumulation by the time all is said and done.
Even though it's winter measurable snow has been a rare occurrence this year. In fact, we're in the midst of a snowfall drought. Since November 1st we've only seen 8.1" of snow fall out @ the Dayton International Airport (where the climate records are kept). That's an 8.5" snowfall deficit for the season and it's almost 15" less than what we'd seen this time last year (we'd seen 31.1" @ this point in Winter 2010).
While 2012 is shaping up to be the "year w/out winter" in the Miami Valley mother nature is even more confused up north in Winnipeg, Canada. W/ an average temperature of 12.6 (-10.8 C) the city has seen the third-mildest winter in 100 years. We'd likely be complaining if it was that cold here but for an area that depends on predictable seasonal changes that kind of temperature can be a nightmare.
Don't believe me? Just look to the Festival du Voyageur. The yearly party is so snow-starved that it's been forced to buy fake snow for it's annual snow-sculpting competition. 200 truck loads needed to be hauled in and a spokeswoman for the festival knows of only one other time in the contest's 43-year history when homegrown snow wasn't used. When parts of Canada are importing snow - in February - you know it's been a mild winter.
It doesn't look like there will be a change in this "warmer than average" pattern anytime soon. After light snow through tomorrow morning and a bit of a wintry mix in the south we'll hit 36 tomorrow and we're back in the 40s by midweek. As for Winnipeg, it will keep sunshine around and stay in the low & mid-30s over the next few days. If they have to buy any more snow this season I hope they're able to get it @ the duty-free. That would just add insult to injury if the town had to pay taxes on something they're usually buried in by this point in the calendar year.
Sorry I'm Late
02/09/12
We've all been there... late for work. As we get older it seems our lives only get busier and we try to put more and more on our plates. Sometimes in the mad dash to finish everything we get into the office a little later than we'd like. In fact, according to a new study about 16% of employees are late to work @ least once a week and 30% are tardy once a month. I find that first statistic a little shocking. 16% of employees are late once a week? That's 1 in 6 people... that's a lot!
Most of the time employers are pretty understanding if you have a valid reason for your lack of punctuality - just don't make a habit of it. I'm usually in on time but my bosses are pretty understanding when I'm not. They probably wouldn't be if I was so late I missed a news cast.
The most common excuse for an employee's delay has to do w/ traffic problems, oversleeping or bad weather. If I were a worker walking in late I'd probably refrain from mentioning that I couldn't get out of bed. @ least if you blame it on traffic or weather you attributing the issue to something beyond your control.
According to the aforementioned survey workers are pretty creative when it comes to excuses for being late. Here are my favorites:
1. Employee's cat had the hiccups - It should've held its breath.
2. An employee thought she won the lottery, she didn't - It would've helped seeing that she wouldn't need to worry about having no money and no job going forward.
3. One employee was late b/c he had a job interview w/ another firm - Hopefully he got it b/c something tells me he was going to need it.
4. Another employee had philosophical differences w/ showing up @ the office before 9:00 A.M. - His day started @ 8:00.
5. Even better than that there's a worker who felt his commute time was actually part of his work day - If that were the case I'd get a job that's three hours from home, that way I'd only need to work two hours a day.
While I like those examples I have to say one of my favorite excuses for being tardy came from a good friend of mine. He worked @ U-Haul when we were teenagers and he was habitually late. And it wasn't like he showed up five minutes... or ten minutes after his shift would begin. He'd come in an hour or two hours late... on a regular basis. One day he walked in six hours after his scheduled start time - @ that point you might as well just skip work altogether. When someone pointed out that he'd missed more than half his shift he simply replied, w/out missing a beat, "Dude, the line @ Wendy's was killer." Needless to say he didn't make a career out of his U-Haul gig.
If @ any point while reading this entry you found yourself saying, "Hey I think I heard about this study a month ago" you'd be accurate; the study was released in early January. But don't worry, I have a valid excuse for the tardiness of my commentary: I wanted to be ironic.
No Sweat
02/08/12
Now that we're safely into the month of February I'm noticing a trend that's bringing a smile to my face. Every day I try to get to the gym in order to increase the heart rate as I enjoy exercising. I don't know if "enjoy" is the proper word but I'm sure my future self will get some enjoyment out of the work I'm putting in now so you get the picture.
Recently, though, it's been a little difficult to get to the gym. Not b/c I've been feeling lazy but b/c it's been a little too crowded. You see, every year during the first month, month-and-a-half countless Americans are determined to get in shape and make a New Year's Resolution to that effect on January 1st. That's why a lot of us who go to the gym on a regular basis get frustrated this of the year. We live that promise every day and it's tough to fulfill it when there's an eight person waiting list for the Roman chair, treadmill or whatever other machine happens to be occupied (or free weights if you lift).
Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that people are trying to get in shape. It's just a pain that everybody happens to make their decision @ the same time every year. I probably wouldn't mind it so much if there was a steady stream of newbies @ the gym every month and the influx was stretched over a 365-day time period. But all @ once? No. It gets a little disheartening when I walk into the fitness center only to see that almost every piece of equipment is being used... every day. I might as well go swimming; except when I get to the pool it's even more packed than the gym. That and I've never been much of an aqua-jogger.
So why am I happy despite my inability to work out in a hassle-free fashion? B/c over the past week I've noticed the gym is significantly less crowded. That means things are getting back to normal and I can jump on the elliptical, rock out to Lady Gaga (or whoever else happens to be blaring over the speakers) and finish my workout in a timely fashion.
While it's nice to see this change I have to admit it's a little sad to see that so many have given up on their resolution less than 45 days into the new year. I truly hope that anyone who has quit is just taking a break and continues to find time to get, and stay, in shape. I'm even more hopeful they do it outside of the Monday-through-Friday 11:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. time frame.
Who's Hungry???
02/07/12
When it comes to eating I have to admit that I have more than a few weaknesses. No, I don't have sweet tooth... it's actually more of a meat tooth, and a salt tooth. I love bacon, steak and I've always been partial to chicken wings. I even have a great recipe for the bite-sized snack: Marinade wings in Italian dressing for 24 hours... if possible (three hrs. will do but the longer the better); bake in the dressing in a pan covered @ 350 for two hours; toss on the grill and baste w/ barbecue sauce to taste.
Despite my love for chicken wings I felt a little ill when I learned of the new wing-eating record set earlier this month. Takeru Kobayashi, known simply as just "Kobayashi" by fans, is a competitive eater known for his voracious appetite and his small frame. The 127 pound phenomenon reportedly ate 65 hot dogs in 10-minutes and shattered the 30-minute wing eating record on Friday. Kobayahsi downed 337 wings in that time frame besting the old mark of 255 and securing his place in the history books. Again, I love wings but that's disgusting.
This story raised more questions than answers when I first heard about it. For one thing, do they eat mainly drumsticks or the little two-boned wings? B/c drumsticks have more meat and that could skew the results. And what constitutes a fully consumed chicken wing? It's not as cut and dry as the hot dog eating contest which requires consumption of both dog and bun. If you have to eat the meat and all the tendons that come w/ a wing (drumstick or not) that's even nastier. And what does the 337th wing taste like? Something tells me it's probably close to how number 30 tastes: equal parts hot sauce, poultry and shame.
I find it hard to believe that there are people who are starving all over world and we turn eating into a contest. Even worse is the fact that these competitive eaters consider themselves athletes. I understand that getting ready for a big event requires preparation, or "training" as some call it. But if the only prerequisite for the competition is that you're a glutton, for both food and punishment, I don't put you in the same category as Michael Jordan, Mickey Mantle or Wayne Gretzky.
I shouldn't judge b/c I know I've overeaten more than once in my life. I've learned to recognize when I'm close to full but don't always heed the warning signs. I hate that feeling you get when you've had one too many pieces of sushi, bites of steak or bratwurst. I can't imagine undergoing two months (or however long it takes) of rigorous "training" just to feel like that after the contest. And as gross as I find these coompetitions I will admit that I am a little hungry right now. Of course I'll probably go home and have something healthy, like a salad... it'll way to long to make chicken wings the way I like them.
Super Bust
02/06/12
If you're anything like most Americans chances are you watched the New York Giants topple the New England Patriots last night. W/ an estimated 111 million people watching the contest drew the largest television audience ever. That's a little more than 1 in 3 Americans tuning in to catch the game... and that's not counting the people who attended the party for social reasons but didn't watch. If you missed it the Giants once again staged a fourth quarter comeback and took down the Patriots. It was a good game. The commercials, though... that's a different story.
Right off the bat the ads were lackluster @ best. From the dumb car w/ bright headlights that kill vampires commercial to the ridiculous polar bears peddling Coca-Cola I was NOT impressed. I'll admit that there were a few good advertisements but they were overshadowed by the steady stream of stinkers that polluted the airwaves. (And to revisit the start of this paragraph; vampires... really? Were a bunch of ad execs sitting around trying to be hip and one pointed out that b/c his daughter loves the Twilight series that vampires must be hot so they should therefore be the focus of this year's Super Bowl commercial? And who buys a car b/c it has bright headlights? But I digress).
Due to the sheer number of bad ads I find it hard to believe that this is the best companies can come up with. It cost an average of $3.5 million dollars just to show up @ the party... that's w/out the production costs. That means a single 30-second spot probably cost close to $5 million to get on the air. If I were the CEO signing that check I'd make darn sure the commercial would get people talking; and not about how dumb it was. Maybe ad agencies (and CEO's) just got lazy this year. I think what upsets me most is that the Super Bowl is the only TV show I watch where I actually want to see the commercials. Oh, well. I guess I'll just have to wait until next year.
Now that football season is over I have to admit that I'm a little sad. That means there won't be anything good to watch until March Madness... which means the ads I'll be subjected to will be that much worse.
Disclaimer:
Decent TV shows will still be available in Dayton primarily on the local newscasts and fine network programming provided by ABC22 & Fox45.
Yes, like many commercials this blog entry comes fully equipped w/ it's very own fine print.
Yet Another Contraversy in the Rodent World
02/02/12
Every February 2nd we turn to the burrows of our favorite furry forecasters and ask the almighty groundhog what the rest of winter will look like. And it wouldn't be a Groundhog Day w/out some sort of controversy in the rodent world... today didn't disappoint.
Legend has it that if the groundhog sees it's shadow during mid-winter the season will last six more weeks. If it doesn't we're in for an early spring. There's actually a little science behind the myth. Typically (but not always as we've seen lately) whenever it's bright and sunny during the winter in this part of the country an area of arctic high pressure is sitting atop the region. That arctic air, while cloudless, is bitterly cold. So the groundhog isn't really afraid of its shadow it's frightened by the cold temperatures. The thinking was that if it's that cold in early February warmer weather is still a good month-and-a-half away. While this may not be the best way to forecast long-term it's still fun to look ahead to spring when it seems so far away (again, in a typical year).
I look to three groundhogs every February 2nd. This year it's Rosie out @ the Boonshoft Museum, Buckeye Chuck in Marion and Punxsutawney Phil in PA. Most of the time these three can't come to an agreement regarding the mid-winter prognostication and this year is no different.
Rosie saw her shadow which means six more weeks of winter. Punxsutawney Phil agrees as he saw his shadow as well. Buckeye Chuck was the lone dissenter in this forecast. He didn't see his shadow which means spring is just around the corner. So which rodent(s) is(are) right? According to the Climate Prediction Center Buckeye Chuck has the best chance of nailing this forecast. That's b/c the CPC's one-month outlook is calling for a strong chance of above average temperatures here and throughout much of the Lower 48.
I've been looking at the long-range computer forecast models and other than plunging temperatures over the weekend of February 10th things look to stay relatively mild in the coming two weeks. All this weighs heavily in Buckeye Chuck's favor. I'm kind of disappointed b/c if Rosie would've been brought out around sunrise this morning there's a good chance she'd be calling for an early end to winter as well. That would mean our Ohio groundhogs could out-forecast their more famous Pennsylvania counterpart.
No matter how things shape up for the rest of the winter I have to say that if you like nice weather you've been pretty lucky so far. I wouldn't mind six more weeks of this but I'd be just as happy w/ a dose of reality, albeit an abbreviated one, that would come w/ cooler weather over the next six weeks.
What's the Marmot Forecast?
02/01/12
This time every year tourists and weather enthusiasts alike descend upon the small town of Punxsutawney, PA in hopes of gaining meteorological insight from a small, and visibly frightened mammal. That's right it's Groundhog Day which means Punxsutawney Phil will make his annual mid-winter prognostication regarding the coming weeks and whether or not they're likely to bring snow and cold weather.
Legend has it that if the groundhog sees his shadow on February 2nd we'll see six more weeks of winter. If he doesn't, we can expect an early end to the season. Dayton has it's own groundhog, Ivy who lives @ the Boonshoft Museum (but Rosie will be doing the forecasting this year as Ivy has other plans). There's even a groundhog in Columbus: Buckeye Chuck.
I could sit around and talk about famous groundhogs for hours but everyone is probably wondering whether or not the furry marmots will call for more winter or an early spring. I think it all depends on the what time the groundhogs wake up Thursday morning. Rosie and Buckeye Chuck will have less of a chance of seeing their shadows if they get up early as we'll have more cloud cover around in the morning. If Punxsutawney Phil sleeps in he'll likely miss his shadow b/c central PA will start out partly cloudy and watch clouds increase throughout the day.
Seeing that we've seen such a mild winter so far I have to admit that I don't think I'd mind if we had six more weeks of this recent weather. All kidding aside I wouldn't mind getting a snowstorm or two sometime in the next month and a half. If Rosie doesn't hit the snooze button maybe I should unplug her alarm clock... that way she'll have a better shot @ seeing her shadow and I'll have a better shot @ going sledding one last time this winter :)
What Month Is It???
01/31/12
If you were like me you probably loved the weather in the Miami Valley today. We had plenty of sunshine throughout the morning which gave way to some cloud cover into the afternoon but all in all it was pretty bright. The bigger story is the warmth, though.
We hit 61 in Dayton today. Temperatures like that are more common in the middle of April. As a matter of fact that's 25 degrees above the average high on the last day of January. It was also three degrees off the record of 64 set back in 1917. I think the sunshine made it that much nicer b/c usually when it's this warm this time of year it's pretty common to see rain as a weather system is typically dragging in both heat and moisture.
Honestly this system is true to form b/c as I type this we've already seen one bout of rain and another is on the way but it's falling when most of us are inside which means mother nature gave us a chance to enjoy what she had to offer earlier today. Other than that the only compliant I could have about the day was that it was windy but that's the reason it got so warm. Strong SW'ly winds are the driving force behind all the heat in the Miami Valley over the past few days.
I know there are some out there who wish it was colder and wish there was snow on the ground. While I understand, and even agree to a point, I have to say you won't hear me grumbling about the recent weather pattern; typically by this time of year we've seen about two months of brutal cold and a day like today is still a month away. And I won't be grumbling much about the 7-day as we have warmer than average conditions on the way for the coming week.
Driving Up the Price
01/30/12
There's an old saying that people "shop for a car for a year but buy one in a day". It's very apropos b/c w/ any big purchase the buyer will take his time, sometimes months, and do his research; or @ least he should. However when it's finally time to pull the trigger and make the big decision that's something that's usually done pretty quickly comparatively speaking. The hope is that you're the nearby salesman when that choice is finally made.
Speaking of new cars if you're in the mood for one I think I may have the vehicle for you: a 2005 Chrysler 300C. W/ 8-cylinders it's not quite a muscle car but it could easily bench press 300. It's also low mileage w/ less than 21,000 logged on the odometer. How much will such a hot rod set you back? Depends... if you're buying it from a certain ebayer you're only talking about a cool million for the aforementioned roadster. That's right... someone is hoping to sell a late model Chrysler for a million dollars on ebay.
But (out comes the salesman in me), this is no ordinary car! It was once owned and driven by a man who changed the world. The automobile in question is one President Barack Obama used to get around town. He drove nearly 19,000 miles in it before trading up to a 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid due to increased fuel efficiency.
Before you roll your eyes and call this seller crazy keep in mind that this wouldn't be the first time a world leader's former wheels sold for seven figures. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 1977 Peugot reportedly sold for $2.5 million last year. If you want to buy a car owned by a Pope you're looking @ spending anywhere from a quarter to almost three-quarters of a million - depending on which Pope owned it. Clearly there's an aftermarket for famous people's old cars.
I find it hard to believe that anyone would spend that kind of money on an automobile. I'm not going to call it a waste b/c people have a right to spend their money any way they want (I'd probably buy baseball cards and/or art if I had that kind of money to burn). All I can say is that if someone gave me a million to spend on a car I'd probably find one for less than $50K and pocket the rest.
Experts say that regardless of your politics the vehicle is definitely valuable and will likely increase in value in the future. But before you go out and spend a million dollars on it keep in mind that I can hook you up w/ a 2005 Dodge Neon that spent its formidable years on an island in the Pacific before moving to the Mainland... for half the price - even less if you're paying in cash.
Those same experts believe $1 million for the president's former Chrysler is likely a little high. All I know is if someone is willing to pay that much for it then the president's 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid is probably worth twice that. After all gas is only projected to go up in price which makes fuel efficient cars (regardless of their former owners) that much more in demand.
At a Loss
01/27/12
We've all misplaced our keys, the remote and even our wallet from time to time. While this is a pain usually such mishaps are little more than just annoying. Imagine losing something that's truly priceless. Sounds impossible to lose track of such an item but leave it up to Uncle Sam to find a way.
The record-keeping of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is being called into question after it was determined that more than 500 moon rocks and other specimens from space have turned up missing. Not only that but close to one in five Houston and Washington area researchers who had material loaned to them by NASA couldn't account for all of it during a recent audit. And if that weren't enough nearly half of the 400 moon rocks given to state and world dignitaries are missing as well.
Now I don't know about you but I usually keep a close eye on the whereabouts of my valuables. Maybe it's b/c I'm cheap or perhaps it's b/c I don't have very many of them, either way if it's worth something I'm keeping close tabs on it. I'd like to think NASA would treat material from the lunar surface w/ the same care that I treat a 1957 Topps Hank Aaron (which is really nothing more than a piece of cardboard) but I guess I'd be wrong in that assumption.
So just how rare are moon rocks here on Earth? Seeing that 841.6 lbs. of them were brought back to Earth during the Apollo and Luna missions they're pretty scarce. Just to give you a little perspective, more than 57,000 lbs. of diamonds are mined annually.
What gets me most is the fact that I'd LOOOOVE a moon rock. I've always wanted to travel into space but realistically I know it's probably not in the cards. The next best thing would be a piece, no matter how small, of the moon. I can only hope that the people who lost, or more likely sold, the missing material feel that way about it now that it's gone.
NASA feels that the the benefits that come w/ loaning out the material far outweigh the risks that come w/ losing it. As frustrating as it is to hear about the losses I have to say that I agree w/ NASA; I'm sure a number of people have been positively affected by the agency's generosity. I hope to be one of those people someday... hopefully @ a garage sale where I can score a moon rock @ a fire sale price.
Feeling S.A.D.
01/26/12
I don't know if you've ever heard of the term SAD but it's something some of us know all to well here in Miami Valley. The scientific name is Seasonal Affective Disorder but you may call it the winter blues or just the blahs. Basically when people don't see the sun for long stretches of time they tend to sleep more, have less energy and some get a general sense of depression about them. It's very prevalent in high latitude climates. I still remember a picture out of one of my meteorology books that shows a bunch of people somewhere in the Arctic Circle (like Finland) in front of a sun lamp to help combat the effects of a sunless sky.
I've always joked that winter in Ohio is also known as the "gray season" b/c of the long stretches of overcast skies that are so prevalent this time of year. I don't know about you but I definitely find myself in a worse mood when the sun is absent for days on end and that's kind of how I've been feeling lately.
It's been about 10 days since we've had a day w/ abundant sunshine (which is long but not too long) but I think what's getting to me is the seemingly non-stop rain. As of this writing we've picked up almost 2.5" of rain since the start of the workweek. In a given January we only see 2.82" of precipitation so that should clue you in on how wet we've been recently. I can't tell you how many times I've found myself cursing the recent weather, especially the rain, as I've been out & about lately.
Every day seems to be plagued w/ a never-ending barrage of water. And if it's not falling as water it's snow or turning to ice on contact. While I wouldn't mind it as much if it were snow (unless I had to keep shoveling it day in and day out) I gotta tell you that I've gotten my fill recently. I'm ready for a good stretch of dry weather. We haven't had 7-days of dry and nice weather since the first week of October. And honestly we didn't have too many of those in all of 2011. I don't know about you but I'm sick of it; and I worry about whether or not next year will be remotely similar to last.
I will admit that this winter really hasn't been to bad... yet. It's been pretty mild and we haven't had a whole lot of inclement weather so far. If it were colder I'd be talking about a number of major snowstorms by now but instead I'm complaining about the incessant rain. So I guess I should look @ the bright side. Of course it's been so grey lately that it's kind of tough to find that bright side... I'll blame my lack of optimism on Seasonal Affective Disorder.
State of the Forecast 2012
01/24/12
Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution says the president "shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union". Tonight the president made good on that promise and spoke to a joint session of Congress and to the nation. Seeing that he can talk about where the nation is headed the least I can do is give you the state of the forecast.
It's been pretty wild in the weather center lately. I don't blame partisan politics in Washington for that; I blame mother nature. From springtime severe weather to scorching summer heat to what is so far turning out to be the "Year w/out Winter" (unless you're in Alaska) it's been anything but "business as usual" for your First Warning Weather Team.
In fact just yesterday we hit the mid-50s but spent our Tuesday in the low & mid-30s. Career politicians and anti-establishment candidates can come together and agree that swings like this aren't fun and ruin the chances for everyday Americans to plan their days around the offerings of mother nature. Unfortunately we can't pass a bill to bar such extremes but what we can do is keep a windbreaker and a winter jacket in our back seat @ all times in the coming months so when mother nature changes her mind on a dime we'll be ready to change our wardrobe just as quickly.
On Friday we had an ice storm. Less than 48 hours later showers, storms and even a severe thunderstorm warning were reported in the Miami Valley. While the impetuous nature of Ohio weather isn't unheard of it's certainly unwelcome. Such drastic changes over such a short period of time are likely the reason mother nature's approval rating sits @ an all time low.
Hopefully she'll be able to settle these conflicts and we can all move forward w/ a pro-growth agenda in the coming months. Despite these recent ups & downs the state of the forecast isn't really that bad when you step back and look @ it. Brighter days are ahead and before you know it it'll be summer and we'll enjoy the sunshine and outdoor activities that come w/ it. Thank you and good night!
I'm Back!!!
01/23/12
Well, after a week off it's good to be back on the air. I didn't really plan on doing much for vacation when I booked it last month... I actually had to burn a few days so I didn't lose the time. Despite my plans to lay low and re-charge the batteries I ended up making a trip down the road as I headed to Mammoth Cave in Southern Kentucky.
I've never been to the park before but I have visited a few caves in my lifetime. I've always thought they were cool and Mammoth Cave DID NOT disappoint; it's the world's largest natural cave system and it lives up to the moniker. We did a few tours including the New Entrance Tour which starts @ the end of the park opposite the Natural Entrance to the cave. A long time ago a man bought some land hoping to discover caverns under it and sure enough he did. The entrance he made was the newer and that's how the tour got its name. It takes you deep into the cave system and into a big room known as Grand Central Station. From there we hiked back up through a few other passages before catching a glimpse of "Frozen Niagra" which looks a lot like a frozen waterfall (hence the name).
For some reason the park had a free tour the day we were there and we took the Historic Tour as well. That one was also really cool. After walking through a low ceiling cavern for a few hundred feet the cave opens up into gigantic room. When I say gigantic I mean it. It was probably 30 or 40 feet high and was about 1/4 of an acre. It was so big a basketball game could easily be played in there (if someone wanted to set up a court). From there we hiked back a bit into the dark and encountered a few other huge rooms. Here's an idea of how big it was: we learned on the tour that people used to have banquets w/ up to 400 people in one of those first few rooms back in the day. In short, it was awesome. We also took some time to explore the area and even headed to Bowling Green, KY while we were down there. Like I said, we had a blast.
Now that I'm back it's good to get back to work and on a side note I'll admit that while I love my kids dearly, I don't know how my wife does it... they're exhausting. I was ready for a break by about day four of my vacation :)
In the Freezer
01/13/12
As promised the cold, arctic air has taken hold in the Miami Valley. I'm sure I don't have to tell many of you but just in case you're reading from far away... it's FRIGID. I call this weather "hateful cold". That's b/c the weather is so bad the only way to describe it is w/ the word hateful.
Thursday we started the day in Dayton @ about 44. By midnight the temperature had dropped to 14. That's a 30 degree temperature swing in a matter of 24 hours. Whenever you have a change that drastic in such a short time it's not uncommon to see gusty winds coming w/ the changes; last night and today were true to form. In fact, even though we were in the teens throughout the day it felt like were in the single digits for much of those daylight hours and sub-zero wind chills were the norm overnight. I hope that last fact helps explain what I mean when I call the weather hateful.
There's good news and bad news in the weekend forecast. The bad news is that it'll stay pretty cold, if not frigid over the weekend. Saturday we'll see the low and mid-20s. By Sunday we'll get back above freezing for the first time in 72 hours and it'll get sunny. Low to mid-30s w/ sunshine will make for a pretty nice day and that's why Sunday is the pick day of the weekend. Even warmer by Monday but rain will move in so you'll trade in the scraper for the umbrella before you know it. Enjoy the weekend and the ever-changing ups & downs for which Ohio weather is famous!
Seeing Double
01/10/12
When I was a kid I always wanted a twin. A friend in my class had two older brothers who were twins and I thought they were lucky for a few reasons. For one thing they had a built-in best friend... who couldn't get sent home just b/c you got in trouble. Not only that but no one ever messed w/ them b/c if you picked a fight w/ one you'd be scraping w/ both. I also thought it would be fun to dress up in the same outfit and mess w/ people - I don't know if they ever did that but I would've.
If you think you're seeing more sets of twins over recent years you'd probably right. A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the number of twins born in the U.S. over the last 30 years has doubled. In 2009 1 in 30 infants had a doppelganger. By contrast only 1 in 53 children was born a twin in 1980. The increase is being attributed to better and more widespread fertility treatments over the past three decades.
When I read about these recent findings one of the first things that popped into my head was whether or not it'll be harder to star in a Doublemint Gum commercial now. It makes sense; w/ more sets of twins they're probably not in as high a demand in Hollywood. If you don't remember those ads they were the ones w/ identical twins frolicking through the outdoors enjoying the double freshness that comes w/ a stick of gum packing extra mintiness - looking back I think the commercials of the day may have had something to do w/ my wanting a twin brother.
I remember asking one of my friends mentioned above what his thoughts were on cloning humans when the United Nations backed such a ban a few years ago. He dryly answered that he had no problem w/ it pointing out that he, "Had a clone already." And just so you know those two have an eerie bond and aren't allowed to be euchre partners anymore b/c nobody can beat them.
Even though part of me wanted to father twins when I was younger I don't know if I could've handled it b/c it's hard enough following one toddler around let alone a pair of them. I'm sure as medicine advances we'll see more and more sets of twins born throughout the country though. If that's the case let me warn you against playing euchre w/ them... you'll probably lose.
Loving This Pattern
01/09/12
I don't know about you but I've been loving this recent weather. Thursday we hit 45 and it was sunny. Friday we got to 55 w/ more gorgeous weather. Saturday was cooler but we still hit 47 w/ plenty of sunshine. Sunday was awesome as well w/ a high of 42. Today we had a few more clouds but we still climbed to 46. Tomorrow looks even better w/ a high of 50 and sunny skies. If you're not sensing a pattern I'll fill you in... this is about as good as it gets in January.
For those of you who haven't been in Ohio long don't think this is common b/c it sure isn't. I can't tell you the number of winters I remember as a kid w/ day after day of highs @ or below the freezing point. Those days also came w/ lots of cloud cover so I'll take 40s & 50s w/ plenty of sun all day long.
While I love the warmer weather I have to admit that I enjoy all the sunshine even more. Another thing I remember as a kid was the long gray winter for which much of Ohio is famous. I used to call winter the "gray season" and had to wait until March or April before I'd see weather conditions like the ones we've recently had.
Last winter was VERY cold and I actually didn't mind it all that much. We had a lot of air off the Canadian plains moving through the area. That cold Canadian air is notorious for bringing us frigid, but bright, weather. W/ so much cold air in place we saw plenty of sunshine which is what made last winter's freezer box so bearable. But w/ the storm track so far north we're getting the best of both worlds and basking in the low-angled sunshine.
I wish I could take this recent weather pattern, make a xerox copy of it and extend it through the rest of the season. If it were that easy somebody would've probably figured it out by now. And there is an end to the sunny, mild weather on the horizon. A system moves through on Wednesday and Old Man Winter will make a comeback out behind it. By Friday we'll see highs in the mid-20s. We all knew it couldn't last forever but it sure was fun while it was here.
Don't Say You Weren't Warned
01/05/12
If you think about it disclaimers have a flash of genius within them. They give advertisers a chance to make something look as good as possible while absolving them of any wrongdoing @ the same time. One of my favorite examples of this are the commercials that tell you how you can get rich quick (through an invention, idea, etc.) and towards the end the announcer comes on and says something (really fast) along the lines of, "Results are not typical most people have no where near as much success w/ this program".
There are times these warnings can get out of hand though. One of those times is during a commercial for some new medicine. I can't tell you the number of times the reading of the "potential side effects" takes up more than half the ad time. That has me wondering how bad one's situation is that he's willing to risk shingles, blindness or any other of the plethora of maladies quickly rattled off just to feel better.
The other time these things go to far is when the commercial has tiny little mice type @ the bottom of the screen warning viewers NOT to do what the actors are doing on-screen. You'll see someone water-skiing on their "ultra thin" phone for some reason and the bottom of the screen will read something like, "WARNING: This is a professional stunt. Phone should NOT be used as a water ski".
I saw a commercial w/ just such an absurd warning on it the other day. It was for the Nissan Frontier. The advertisement has a truck doing tricks as it snowboards down a snow-covered mountain. The words "Fantasy. Trucks can't snowboard. Do not attempt." straddle the bottom of the screen. Really? B/c I can't tell you the number of times I've taken a pick-up into a half-pipe and had good results.
About halfway through the same truck begins doing a barrel roll as it crests a hill. @ that point the waiver @ the bottom of the screen reads "Or do barrel rolls. Do not attempt." Again, really?
Now I'm not stupid (even though some may disagree). I realize that these disclaimers are likely there for comedic effect... @ least partly. I'm sure that Nissan's marketing loved the idea behind the ad campaign, it's a great way to appeal to the younger demographic. But then the legal department stepped in and warned that someone may actually try to take their Frontier down a ski run so the company had better cover all its bases. I find that sad.
If anyone is dumb enough to try whatever stupid activity they see on television I kind of feel like they get what's coming to them. We shouldn't need to be told by an insurance commercial that it's a bad idea to fall off a house or streak @ a sporting event... common sense should tell us that! Chalk that up to litigation nation, though. Or perhaps companies try to come up w/ the most ridiculous disclaimer they can think of just to get us talking about a particular spot. And if that's the case congratulations, Nissan Frontier. You won.
I Have a Confession to Make
01/04/12
I was working out today @ the YMCA on the elliptical, something I try to do every day. I like to use the time to read the paper, my TIME magazine or whatever book I happen to be enjoying @ the moment. Regardless of what I'm reading the radio is always on in the background and I'm often able to tune it out and occupy my mind w/ the written word in front of my face.
Today I had to interrupt my near-daily ritual of scanning the news of the day b/c of a song that came on over the speakers in the fitness center. No it wasn't some rock n' roll classic that broke my concentration. It wasn't even one of the monster ballads from a big haired band that helped shape my formative years.
Nope. It was Katy Perry's: "Firework".
I know what you're thinking: How does a song that should be on his daughter's playlist cause a 35-year-old man to stop what he's doing and get swept up in the excitement of it? Trust me, I can't answer it. All I can say is that it's a catchy tune.
I don't know what it is but as the song crescendos it takes on the form of the power anthem that was popular when I was a kid. As a result it's great to work out too. I know the last few sentences may sound corny and could even cost me my man card but they're true. As I said, it's a catchy tune.
I will say that I have a history of enjoying pretty women vocalizing this genre of music. Back in the early aughts Christina Aguilera had that song "I Am Beautiful" which is quite inspiring as well. I remember driving through the backwoods of West Virginia w/ the windows down in the summertime jamming to that song on the radio. I was actually borrowing a colleague's light blue, newly released Beetle w/ dolphin stickers on the side. Looking back on it I probably looked pretty silly that day... but probably no sillier than a near middle-aged man belting out Perry's "Firework" on an elliptical @ the local YMCA. Sadly I don't think it'll get any better as I age.
No Resolve
01/03/12
In the past I've voiced unkind thoughts towards New Year's Resolutions but I still tried to make one every year. I kind of feel guilty in 2012 b/c I haven't come up w/ one yet. It's not that I think I'm so perfect that I don't need any improvement but I think I just ran out of time and couldn't come up w/ a viable one.
I'd like to pick up a new hobby - like learning to ride a unicycle - but I don't know if I have the time to bring a new activity into my life (or the balance if it were unicycling). I wouldn't mind joining a club but again, that cuts into the limited time I have already. Golfing more could be a fun way to achieve something in 2012 and even though I could find time for that I don't know how my wife would feel about it... understandably.
The best New Year's Resolution I ever had was to stop swearing... I think it was also the most short-lived. I've cleaned up my act, somewhat but mainly due to children or career (not a good idea to be in a habit of saying bad words in front of toddlers or the FCC) and not b/c I suddenly learned restraint or I was trying to do the right thing. I'm happy about the change I just didn't want anyone giving me "attaboys" that I didn't earn.
The laziest resolution I ever had was made in college when I decided to quit giving things up. I guess I just wanted to stop making promises to myself that I couldn't keep. It was actually a genius idea... albeit lazy.
As I embark on a resolutionless 2012 I'm thinking that maybe I'll take the year off and stay on autopilot. I'll continue to eat well (or as well as possible), I'll keep trying to exercise five days a week and I'll try to make sure I set aside time to spend w/ my family as much as possible. I know that I'll likely lapse from time to time but if I keep falling back into my routine I should be okay. And if that's the case then maybe one day I'll be able to give up giving things up... perhaps that college resolution wasn't such a bad one after all.
A Big Career Milestone
01/02/12
Ten years ago today I walked into work, sick to my stomach. @ the time I thought it was nerves but a few months later I learned it was likely tied to a listeria outbreak that was linked to the tainted lunch meats I'd eaten for breakfast. I had reason to be nervous, though. I was uprooting my family and embarking on a journey that I hoped would lead home but wasn't quite certain.
You see a decade ago I started my first full-time job in television. I'd been working in radio (and @ a restaurant) and when the opportunity in TV presented itself I took it. There were only a few problems: the job was down in West Virginia FAR away from home, it paid next to nothing and I had a wife and one-year-old child to feed.
I almost didn't take it b/c it paid so little but I didn't see a whole lot of advancement where I was @ the time and I'd only gotten a few nibbles from other TV stations so I figured if ever I was going to take the plunge that was the time to do it. I actually remember the moment I decided to accept the position. I was watching some advertisement that had Elvis Presley performing in it and the tag line was something like "Some of the greatest risks in life are the ones you didn't take." Looking back on it I know I didn't make one of the biggest decisions of my life based on a shoe commercial (or whatever the product was) I think I just needed an excuse to go for it.
As you can likely guess I did go for it and it turned out to be one of best decisions I've ever made. Even though my wife and I were poor as can be we found a small single-family home to rent and made it work. I learned A LOT @ that first job and made some great friends @ the same time. I also loved the area - West Virginia is Wild & Wonderful... beautiful as well.
Since taking that first job I've moved a few times - making it as far as the middle of the Pacific Ocean - and now I'm back home. It's hard to believe I've made it this far and probably wouldn't have believed you if you told me 10 years ago that I'd be where I am today - it's only after living through it that my path to get here makes sense. And for the record, I'm glad I took that risk so long ago and I hope I'm blessed to work in this field for another 10 years... if not longer.
Time for Vacation
12/27/11
I'm getting ready to take a few days off and right now it sounds pretty fun. I'm probably not going to do anything exciting but I'll get to spend some time w/ the family.
One of the things I love about the holidays is the fact that my kids are out of school (don't know how my wife feels by the end of their vacation but I like it, LOL). I don't get to see them as much as I'd like seeing that I work nights so it's nice whenever I have a day off or they do. It's even better when that time off coincides w/ one another.
I hope you've had a chance to spend some time w/ your family this holiday season and I hope that you've had some time off as well. It's kind of crazy how fast the holidays go but it seems like only yesterday that we were all gathering @ the Feast of Giving in Dayton on Thanksgiving Day. Before we know it we'll be halfway through next year but it seems like that's the way things go nowadays (and it only goes faster the older I get).
So enjoy the rest of your 2011 and I hope you have a blessed 2012. And if you're going out on New Year's Eve be extra careful and enjoy yourself.
Happy Holidays!!!
12/23/11
Just wanted to drop a quick note to everyone who reads this blog. First off, thanks for reading (I know how much of a time waste this can be). I also want to wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas / a Happy Hanukkah / a Happy Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year!
2011 has been a great, if not busy, year in the weather center and I look forward to another one in 2012. I hope you had a blessed 2011 and that tomorrow's prospects are brighter than today's. Thanks for everything!
And to my extended ohana in the islands: Mele Kalikimaka and Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!
Merry Christmas... Here's a Car!
12/21/11
As we march closer to Christmas the marketing gurus are ramping up their approaches to separate you from your hard-earned dollar. As I type the airwaves, both radio and television, are saturated w/ the commercials advertising the latest fads and the hottest sales - and I don't see an end to that until @ least Monday (which is supposed to be another big day for retailers).
One of the ads that's been getting a lot of air time encourages consumers to buy their loved ones a car... a Lexus, I think. I can't even begin to count how many times I've seen it but it's easily 25 this week alone. It got me thinking, who gets a car for Christmas?
I know of one person who gave his wife an automobile as a gift once... but that was for her birthday and he doesn't have any kids so he can afford such displays of conspicuous consumption. The ad campaign I've seen has more than one commercial where the couple involved is surrounded by children, often teenagers - which will eat you out of house and home - so I have a hard time believing there's a huge number of people giving such extravagant gifts this year. Obviously there has to be @ least a few or it wouldn't be cost effective to run so many advertisements encouraging the practice though.
I've always wondered if you get that giant bow when you buy someone a car. I'd think that if you're dropping that kind of money on a present the least the dealer could do is give you a nice pretty, oversized bow (kind of like how all sweepstakes winners get that giant check). And if you get the bow would you get a better one if you bought a more expensive car? B/c if my Dodge Neon gets the same pretty bow as a Lexus LS that just doesn't seem fair.
I also wonder if there are any tax ramifications for giving such a gift. Obviously if you buy a car for your spouse you needn't worry about that but if you get one for anybody else it could be an issue. Last I checked you're only allowed to gift someone up to $13,000 a year which means a $30,000 car could cost you even more once you cover the tax bill - the giver of the gift, not the receiver, pays the taxes. That last fact doesn't seem to make a lot of sense... on the surface - but when you look deeper it makes perfect sense: theoretically the person getting the money doesn't have a bunch of it so taxing him would be stupid... Uncle Sam might as well go after the person he knows can cover the bill.
Regardless of how the taxman resolves this issue I don't foresee myself waking up to a brand new Lexus (or any other vehicle for that matter) come Christmas morning. And honestly, I don't mind @ all - I have a car that runs so I don't need a new one. Now if someone wanted to surprise me w/ a new 80" TV that's a different story - I'd hope it came w/ the oversized bow... but I'd be happy either way.
Dreaming of a White Christmas
12/20/11
As a kid I always hoped for a White Christmas. Growing up in Central Ohio I quickly learned that more often than not that was a pipe dream. I can't remember many Christmas mornings w/ snow on the ground but I remember more than a few grey Christmases; too many as a matter of fact.
If I remember correctly one of the only times we had a truly good snowstorm around the holidays was back in 2004. That was great for everyone who was rooting for snow on Christmas but I'd moved to Hawaii about two weeks earlier so I missed out on all the fun.
So what are the prospects of having a White Christmas this year? As it stands now, not good. For one thing it's pretty mild right now and highs on Wednesday will hit the mid & upper-50s which means any moisture we see will fall as rain. By Friday morning there's a slight chance for a rain/snow mix in the far SE portion of the Miami Valley but we'll get into the low-40s by Friday so if we saw any accumulation (which is a big "if") it'll melt by the afternoon.
On Monday night it was looking like there was a slim chance for light snow showers on Saturday night but that part of the forecast has changed. Now it looks like any moisture we'll see will fall Sunday morning in the form of a rain/snow mix that won't stick. The bottom line: it's not looking like we'll wake up w/ much of a surprise from mother nature come Christmas morning. Don't call me a Grinch b/c if it were up to me we'd get a good 4-6".
Keep in mind we're still about five days out from the holiday so there's time for the forecast to change. Right now I'm not holding my breath but I am keeping my fingers crossed. I can find one positive in the dry forecast ahead: that's the fact that we'll likely see mild conditions and even some sunshine on Christmas day. That doesn't sound to bad to me b/c if we're not going to get any snow I'll take a "bright" Christmas over a grey one any day.
Knocking Out My Shopping List
12/19/11
I'm almost done w/ my shopping for the year and boy it's a good feeling.
I only need to pick up one more thing for my wife, a bread hook. If you're wondering what that is don't worry, so am I. As I understand it it's an attachment for our mixer that kneads dough. I was a little disappointed when I learned this. I was hoping it was more of a hook made of hard pretzel dough that could be substituted for a human hand if necessary. In a perfect world...
Once I knock this off my list I think I'm pretty much done. I still need to get a gift for my father-in-law but that doesn't count b/c he won't be getting it until after Christmas as that's when we'll celebrate w/ that side of the family.
This year's shopping hasn't really been all that stressful. For one thing my wife did most of the shopping for the kids and the rest of the family. She also told me what she wanted - which is why I have no problem openly discussing the above gift... she already knows she's getting it (that and she doesn't read my blog as she gets enough of me @ home already). I did get her a few things off the list but that's b/c I've been listening to the hints she's "dropped" over the past 12 months - seeing that she didn't remember to jot them down she'll probably be pretty surprised. Another thing that made my job easy was the fact that I did half of my shopping on-line so I hardly had to even leave the couch.
I like the fact that I'm pretty much finished but I'm also a little disappointed. I love going out on Christmas Eve and finishing up my shopping. For one thing I enjoy tapping into the last minute deals but I also like how empty the stores are. It's very relaxing when you have the bulk of the store to yourself.
So how are you doing on your holiday shopping? I hope you're almost finished... unless of course you like to hold off until the last minute which is probably how long I'll wait to pick up that bread hook.
Getting Ripped - Shirts in My Wardrobe You've Been Warned
12/16/11
I was reminded today of my muscular fortitude when I reached for an apple... or some other bodybuilding food. As I stretched across my torso I ripped open my shirt sleeve due to the extreme amount of stress my bicep and shoulder muscles were obviously causing. Apparently the "guns" became too much for the thin layer of fabric that was housing them and they burst though revealing my raw masculinity.
I can't say that I'm surprised. I've been talking up "Smith" & "Wesson" (the very apropos nicknames I've given my biceps) for some time now. I was a little upset @ first as I like this shirt but then I found a way to look @ the glass as half-full and not half-empty. You see I don't have a CCW permit and now that I have a tear in my sleeve I won't be guilty of concealing what's obviously a deadly weapon if I'm out and about @ the store - I don't know if CCW w/out a permit is a felony or a misdemeanor in Ohio but I know it's a crime... one that I wouldn't want to commit.
I think it's also a polite reminder to any would-be attackers not to mess w/ me. I may look wiry strong but the last thing I want to have to do is give an unsuspecting assaulter the business... even if he does deserve it. Now anyone wishing to do me harm will take one look @ my shirt, realize that I'm quite possibly a near perfect muscular specimen and take off running... tail between his legs.
There is the possibility that my shirt has just been washed too many times and it's worn down along the creases but I don't know if I buy that. My reasoning is embedded w/in a concept known as Occam's razor which basically says the simplest answer to a problem is usually the correct one. Another way of putting that is saying that the answer that makes the most sense is probably right. And let's face it what makes more sense: my shirt wore down and ripped when I reached for something or I accidentally flexed what's obviously a tree trunk of an arm thus destroying a perfectly innocent shirt? I think we all know the answer to this one.
Another Rainy Milestone
12/15/11
Over the past year I've discussed, more than once, how wet it has been and today we hit another milestone. It's now the second wettest year in recorded history in Dayton. So far this year we've had 54.68" of precipitation. That's about 15" more than normal. In an area that normally sees about 40" of precip all year that's a pretty big surplus (close to 40%).
Over the past year I've also complained about the incessant rain. I was walking through my backyard today and it was like a swamp. It's felt like that for some time now. What's worse is that I had to do some outdoor chores and finishing them up was awful - my shoes have a porous outer material which means my socks got wet and I hate the feeling of wet socks on my feet. W/ colder weather on the way my backyard swamp may turn into a backyard ice rink (in which case you won't hear me complaining about wet feet as I'll have focused my gripes on my injured hip).
The all-time wettest year on record (1990) in the Dayton area saw 59.75" of precipitation which means we still have a way to go before we get to number one. I'm happy to say I don't foresee that happening but I can't help but feel a little sad we won't make it to the top of the pack. My thinking is that if we're going get to number two we might as well set the record - after all second place is just the first place loser. Of course if the difference between number one and number two is about 5" of precipitation (as it stands now) I think I can overlook any shortcomings 2011 may have when compared to 1990.
My New Favorite Word
12/14/11
Whether you're a fan of the National Football League or not you've probably heard the name Tim Tebow recently. Be it praise or jeers he's been the talk of the NFL as of late and now he's even making it into the lexicon. The Global Language Monitor, an online barometer of the "hottest" vocabulary trends officially dubbed the man cool enough to get his own word.
"Tebowing" is the "act of taking a knee in prayerful reflection" according to the GLM. It's a signature move by the Denver Broncos starting quarterback and it's taking the nation by storm. Typically to be considered "tebowing" the gesture has to take place during a sporting event but people all over the world are striking the pose in front of famous landmarks, before band practice and just about any other circumstance of which you can think.
I'll admit I was never a fan of the guy when he was in college. I'm not a huge fan of Florida and HATE the Southeastern Conference of college football (even if it is dominant). To top it off the man beat the Buckeyes in the National Championship game back in 2007. Having said that I can't help but root for him now that he no longer is a threat in the SEC. It's not uncommon to hear about superstar athletes and what big jerks they are but he seems to be refreshingly optimistic and a positive role model. I'm not necessarily going out of my way to pull for the guy but I'm not saddened by his success either - which shows I've come a long way since January 8, 2007.
Regardless of how I feel about the guy I do have to say I think it's cool that he has his own word; it may be a little premature but time will tell. I have to admit I kind of wish I had my own word. But that's only if "boothing" meant you were doing something really cool. Knowing my luck, and past, it probably wouldn't though. "Boothing" could mean a lot of things... and most of them would be bad.
Turning incredibly awkward and sweaty when a pretty girl says, "Hi" to you could be one example of "boothing". Flexing one's muscles and looking weaker could also constitute "boothing". And if by falling into a giant hole, or down a hill, b/c you weren't paying attention you mean "boothing" you'd be accurate as well. You could even say one was "boothing" if he was writing an inane blog about nothing that not only wastes time but dulls mental acumen. Just in case you're wondering all of these have happened to me in some way or another.
And even though Tebow seems to be getting as much criticism as he is praise you can't deny the man the fact that he's been so inspiring he's made it into the English language. I may even have to adopt some of his practices each time I log an entry "Inside the Broadcast Booth". So w/ that I'll take a knee, contemplate and reflect upon the recent events that have shaped my life. Go team!
Here Comes the Rain
12/13/11
It's dry as I type this blog but that might not be the case when you read it (if you're reading it Wednesday morning). That's b/c rain is on the way and it's crossing Indiana as of 11:00 P.M. Tuesday night.
We're looking @ a few changes in the weather pattern. The first change will obviously be the wetter weather. It'll also get a lot warmer. The next couple of days will top out in the mid-50s as a matter of fact. Typically whenever we have a warm-up like that in December we're paying for it by dodging raindrops.
The reason is simple. In order to tap into that warmer air a southerly and normally southwesterly flow is needed. As the winds come out of the S or SW heat is transported w/ them, but moisture is as well. Usually what happens is a storm system pushes in and out ahead of it the winds shift to the S and SW. That provides a heat and moisture source. Depending on the position of the storm it's possible to see not one but two shots of rain. The first comes w/ the passage of a warm front; the second comes as the trailing cold front moves through. Both of those fronts provide the lift needed to "squeeze" the rain out of that air.
So yes it gets warmer but it's generally tough to enjoy the changes b/c of the accompanying rain. And then out behind the system - and the cold front - cooler and drier air works in. That's exactly what we'll see through Thursday afternoon and evening... conditions will change from warm & wet to cool & dry.
But keep in mind that "cool" is all relative in this instance. By the end of the week and into the weekend sunshine will take over and we'll end up in the upper 30s and low 40s. That's not to bad for mid-December. Quite frankly the upper 30s/low 40s w/ some sunshine sounds a lot better than the rainy mid-50s regardless of the month.
Murphy's Law Strikes Again
12/12/11
In the past I've used this forum to chronicle my distaste for the telephone. Before I get into my latest rant I'll revisit my feelings about this "wonderful" invention for which Alexander Graham Bell is so noted. It's not that I hate the thing, it's actually proved to be very useful throughout my life, it's just lost its luster as I've grown older.
The reason is simple: I like to relax when I get the opportunity and the phone always seems to interrupt my attempts @ said relaxation. I also like to eat. It's all too common that I'll sit down for a delicious meal that I or my wife have prepared, and no sooner do I get my napkin tucked into my shirt collar (I don't like stains on my clothing) when... you guessed it, the phone rings.
I almost feel like that example is some sort of poetic justice. When I was growing up I seemed to have the uncanny ability to call one of my best friend's houses whenever he was eating w/ his family. Often his dad would answer and I'd politely ask for my buddy only to be answered with, "Jeff, do you know what time it is?" I feel bad about it now but in my defense they never had a set dinner time. Sometimes they'd eat @ 5:00 P.M. and other times it'd be 8:00 @ night. As a result there wasn't a set time I could call and thus avoid interrupting their family dinner.
Today the annoyance the phone slapped me in the face when I was about to sit my toddler down for lunch. She'd been playing in the front room on a chalkboard easel doodling away when I told her I had something for her to eat. She was very excited but also had dirty hands so I told her we had to wash them first. I dragged a chair into the bathroom w/ me and turned on the water and she ran over, climbed onto it and began scrubbing away.
Guess what happened next. That's right, the phone started ringing. Now keep in mind the thing hadn't rang all morning. I probably would've been just as annoyed had it rang @ a less stressful time but that's something we'll never know. What I do know is that I was in the bathroom blocked by a kid on a chair washing her hands and I only had five rings to answer whoever was calling me.
I got mad, said a bad word in my head and then went about washing/drying Skye's hands as quickly as possible. Then I got to squeeze between the chair and the bathroom door before making a mad dash to the cradle that housed the beeping device that vexes me all too often on any given day. I chuckled to myself as I picked the phone and reflected upon how apropos it was that it started ringing during the busiest part of my morning.
"Hello" I said. No answer. "Hello" I repeated. A strange sounding lady finally answered and then I had to laugh out loud. She asked for someone who didn't live w/ me. That's right I got all worked up over a wrong number.
More Dumb Criminals
12/06/11
Thieves in New Mexico have sunk to a new low. Three men didn't necessarily rob a restaurant in the Land of Enchantment but they did try to take something from it. No I'm not talking about a dine and dash which is usually how people steal from an eatery. These guys left a diner w/ about a dozen rolls of toilet paper.
While I don't know why anyone would want to steal such a thing I have a guess... but something tells me that if you were in that bad of a spot someone would likely step in and help you out through sheer pity. I just think it's ridiculous that someone - let alone three grown men - would risk a ticket, or worse jail time, all for a roll of toilet tissue. I understand that Charmin is irresistibly squeezable but this is ridiculous.
A worker says the men weren't talking when they entered and appeared "messed up" so he kept an eye on them. But how "messed up" does one have to be to think that stealing toilet paper is a good idea? I've had a lot of idiotic ideas in my life - like thinking I was ready for another baby when I already had two kids well out of their toddler years - but nothing that stupid. (On a side note, my youngest was totally worth it but I couldn't help but feel I'd looked back on the sleepless nights that come w/ newborns through rose-colored glasses shortly after she was born).
So despite the trio's stupid idea they looked even dumber when they got caught (which I can only imagine was a fun conversation later when they were in jail and asked by a large man, "Whatca in for?"). It didn't take very long for the three to get caught either as police had already been watching the men before they went on their five-fingered rampage. The stolen items have since been returned to their owner... unused I hope.
Rain, Rain Go Away Already!!!
12/05/11
I don't know about you but I'm sick of this rain. It's early December, usually we're done w/ this type of system as they're more common in November (hence the term "Cold November Rain" popularized by Guns 'N Roses). But for some reason I don't think mother nature got the memo.
In fact, this is the second time in a week that we've seen a system produce @ least 2" of rain. This latest round of rain has dropped about 1.5" to 3.5" in the Miami Valley. Most of the rain fell through the heart and south of the area. The Dayton International Airport (where the climate records are kept) set a daily rainfall record w/ 1.95" (as of this writing) shattering the old record of 0.72" back on this day in 1977.
W/ this recent storm we also inched up one more spot on the all-time list of the wettest years on record in Dayton. So far we've gotten 53.85" of precipitation since the first of the year. That's a 15.41" surplus. That means we could go w/out rain for four months (or five depending on the time of year) and we'd still be running right around average. You don't have to be a meteorologist to know that's a lot of precip.
And as I mentioned we moved up a spot in the record books as well. W/ 53.85" of precip in 2011 we're officially in the midst of the third wettest year on record. This all coming off the sixth wettest November (5.81" last month) and the wettest meteorological autumn (September, October & November) on record (19.65" fell over that time period).
There's a change in the forecast, though. Cooler air is moving in as we speak and even though I'm not wild about the cold temperatures @ least cold air doesn't hold as much moisture so the drier air will be a welcome change. Of course I might not feel that way by the end of the week and over the weekend. We'll struggle to get to the freezing point Friday and Saturday and wake up in the teens on Saturday morning. I can't say whether or not that will make the drier weather any more bearable but I'll know by this time next week.
Hello Winter (Meteorologically Speaking)
12/01/11
It's official, winter is here... kind of. It's actually the start of meteorological winter - and it appears mother nature got the memo. The end of November saw the first measurable snowfall of the season and with a low of 23 this morning we had the coldest temperature we've recorded since March.
So what exactly is winter? Aside from the obvious (a season) it starts when the sun drops to it's lowest point in the sky in a given hemisphere. Our winter technically begins on December 22nd @ 12:30 A.M this year. That's when the sun will be directly overhead @ the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere. It's also when our neighbors south of the Equator officially start their summer. Confused? Don't worry, I'll explain.
You see, the Earth revolves around the sun but if you pay attention you'll notice that the sun is higher and lower in the sky throughout the year. The reason for that is b/c the Earth's axis is tilted @ an angle of about 23.5 degrees; if there was no axial tilt then the sun would always be directly overhead @ the Equator. This tilt gives some areas sunlight that's more direct while others experience rays that are more oblique depending on the time of year. That causes them to heat up or cool off and we experience what we call seasons.
So if winter doesn't technically start until 12/22 this year why did I say it started today (kind of). Like I said meteorological winter began today, not astronomical winter (which I just explained above). Meteorological winter runs from December 1st to February 28th (or 29th if it's Leap Year). If you think about it it makes sense. December, January and February are usually the coldest months in the Northern Hemisphere.
Not only that but it makes keeping records a lot easier. By designating D/J/F as winter three concrete months are given the honor of being the cold season. Imagine the logistical nightmare of keeping records from 12/22/2011 to 3/20/2012. We'd have to say temps were above(below) average for the last 9 days of December and the first 20 days of March - that's confusing when I type it out. Like I said it makes keeping records a lot easier. Also, December is typically when things start getting colder and March is usually when it starts getting warmer so it all falls into place nicely.
So happy first day of meteorological winter to you. I hope you enjoy the next few months and if you're already looking forward to spring I'm sure you're not alone. I'm not there... yet. I usually don't start looking forward to spring until the about mid-January. I like it cold during the holidays... a few weeks after that I'm ready for the sunshine and warmer temperatures.
A Week Later & I'm Still Sick :(
11/30/11
Last week I used this forum to lament how I was beginning to feel sick but I was convinced I could beat it. Here I am more than a week later and unfortunately I didn't beat it as the sickness continues to beat me. The good news is that I'm not really as sick as I was but the bad news is that I'm still feeling it a little.
I'm no longer contagious and I don't have the head cold and the "awfulness" I felt last week but I'm tired of the coughing and sneezing that comes w/ the "purge" through which my body is putting me. It's weird b/c I almost feel as if I'm having a bad allergy attack... for the past four days. I'm also losing my voice a bit (which many would argue isn't a bad thing). I'm actually kind of upset b/c usually when I get this sick my voice gets real low and I can do that movie trailer guy's voice - "In a world where infection and civilization clash..." Normally I get that voice for a week whenever I'm under the weather - so @ least that's a pleasant side effect (not this time, though).
I can say that it's nice to wake up in the morning and not feel like my throat is swollen shut anymore. I think it helped that I took a few days off of work for the holiday. Sure I was sick, which is never fun on your day(s) off, but @ least I had time to rest and get better.
That doesn't change the fact that I can't believe that it's the 21st Century and man can still get crippled by a simple virus that's so routine that it's actually called the common cold. If the thing had an exotic name (like dengue fever) then I wouldn't complain but a cold... come on! We can put a man on the moon but something as simple as a sneeze can knock one out for a week (if not longer); that's ridiculous. Of course I shouldn't complain b/c I was promised a flying car by now and I drive a Dodge Neon - that thing barely flies... when I've got the pedal to the metal.
I should be ready b/c I read somewhere that we may actually have found a cure for this everyday malady (or will shortly). If that ever happens I'll be the first to sign up; after a rigorous clinical trial by the Food & Drug Administration of course. I'm still a little pessimistic so I'll believe it when I see it. Of course if I had my flying car by now I could easily overlook any delays in its development.
The "S" Word is in the Forecast
11/29/11
This evening many of us saw something we've yet to see so far this season: accumulating snow. Honestly it's been a nasty three days in the Miami Valley (and right on schedule for my days off no less). Sunday we had a cold, nasty and sometimes heavy rain. Monday was a carbon copy.
Today we got a change, though. The rain wasn't as heavy but it was definitely colder and as a result that rain changed over to snow by mid to late afternoon. I guess it's only fitting that we get some snow. After all the heavy rain we've seen why not throw some snow into the mix? It only makes sense.
I don't know if you were outdoors today but w/ the wind, rain and (eventually) snow it got nasty. I was out hauling in firewood for only about five minutes and I needed gloves (which I wasn't wearing). My hands were beginning to get that "block of ice" feel that's so common when you go gloveless in the dead of winter.
The reason it's been so nasty as of late is b/c we've seen a stubborn cold front draped across the area. Along that front impulses of low pressure have been traveling bringing the bad weather with them. The good news w/ tonight's storm is that it's strong enough to get that front to budge. The bad news is that it's dragging colder air and snow out behind it.
So how much snow have we seen so far today? As of this blog, generally a 1/2" to 2". Some spots have gotten locally higher amounts, though. Botkins has seen 3.7" so far but they're the outlier. I'm predicting about 1/2" to 4" across the area (a few spots could get a little more, though). The north and western portion of the Miami Valley will get 2"-4", the heart of the area will see close to 1"-2" and the SE corner is expecting less than 1".
Keep in mind that the ground is still pretty warm which is why snow totals aren't higher (the first of it has already melted). That will help out the road conditions as well. Sure, slick spots are on the way but right now road temperatures are still above freezing in a lot of areas so the snow isn't sticking. By Wednesday morning that will be a different story and there will be a number of slick spots - especially in the north and western portion of the area.
If you don't like this winter weather you're in luck b/c any snow will quickly melt after sunrise Wednesday and we'll even see some sunshine by day's end. Of course if you don't like this winter weather you're also out of luck; this is the first storm of the season which means we're just getting started.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
11/24/11
While we should always take time to count our blessings it's nice to have a day set aside to do just that. Thanksgiving is a great day for many reasons. For one thing there's lots of delicious food - in my opinion you can't beat that. There's also plenty of football to watch which is another one of my favorite things. Don't forget the extended family who can help watch the kids if you want to sneak in a nap after loading up on tryptophan - I had to tie the last one to food b/c I think that's one of my favorites.
But more than that Thanksgiving gives ourselves as a nation a time to kick back and reflect upon how lucky we are. And there's a lot for which we have to be thankful. I'll tell you a few things I feel lucky to have in my life:
1. I have a roof over my head
2. I enjoy what I do
3. I have food on the table (my belly will attest to that)
But most importantly I'm thankful for my family and friends. Those are the things that truly make life enjoyable.
I guess I have another thing to my list: that fact that it's short which means it doesn't take much to make me happy. As I've gotten older I've found that my priorities have changed and the simpler things in life are what make it worthwhile. I hope your life is just as blessed and I hope your holiday is not only memorable but fulfilling as well. Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Not So "Super" Committee
11/22/11
Normally I shy away from talking about religion or politics but tonight I can't help it. There's been a lot of talk recently about the Super Committee in Washington and a lot of people aren't happy w/ it tonight. If you don't know what it is the Super Committee was tasked w/ coming up w/ $1.2 to $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next ten years. I don't want to get into what Baseline Budgeting is and how the money cut would likely have been reductions in the proposed increase of spending b/c I'd rather focus on how upset I am w/ the Super Committee... and Congress in general for that matter.
Instead of coming up w/ a solution to the debt problems that are facing our country the Super Committee, comprised of six members from each political party, decided to punt the issue to future lawmakers. Now I'll concede that the task in front of the body was a tall order to fill but that's what we pay them for... to make tough decisions. The fact that lawmakers couldn't even come close to an agreement speaks volumes to the reality of election year politics - in essence no one wanted to commit political suicide; even if doing so would likely benefit the country (which I think is the exact opposite of a leader's job).
One could argue that this was the plan when the August deal was hashed out in the first place. If no compromise was met then both sides have something to run on in the fall of 2012 and the president can run on the fact that he has a "Do-Nothing Congress" as Harry Truman did back in 1948. While I hope that wasn't the plan I can't help but wonder. Of course I've always been cynical of Congress (or any other nationally elected office for that matter). I think the reason is b/c I've never been able to figure out why it costs millions of dollars (even more depending on the office, state, etc.) to get a job that pays less than 200K (or 400K in the president's case) a year. If an elected official has to spend that kind of money to get job that pays a salary that will never come close to covering the cost associated w/ gaining said office there's probably something fishy going on.
And as if it weren't enough that no deal could be reached, now all of Congress gets to go on a nice long break. Actually, Congress' break started on Friday (11/18) and runs through this coming Monday (11/28) - that's a week-and-a-half break. The Super Committee "only" gets a long weekend... which is more than a lot of people they represent are getting in the first place. So in essence we're rewarding people who technically aren't doing their jobs... it makes me sick. Personally I think every single lawmaker should be stuck working every single day until they actually get something done. Something tells me that if our Legislative Branch was run this way not only would the Super Committee have come up w/ a deal by now but a number of our problems would have likely been fixed a long time ago.
"Sick" of This
11/21/11
I'm beginning to get a sense of dread I have @ least once a year. I've gotten it enough times to know exactly what lies in store for me over the next few days (if I'm lucky). I'm talking about the feeling of helplessness that comes w/ the first tickle in the back of the throat before you get sick. It's a dry tickle that is typically followed by a dry, scratchy throat, a stuffy nose and a lot of coughing & sneezing.
Even though I have a handle on what's about to happen I don't like it. I hate getting sick. It's never fun for a few reasons. For one thing who likes feeling bad? I've never been a masochist so living through discomfort has never been a hobby of mine. I also hate getting sick b/c I can't exercise and I'm stuck in bed for much of the day. It's nice to lie in bed if you're ill but eventually I want to get up and go into my living room so I can watch the better TV and catch up on all of the shows I've DVR'd or watch a movie. Getting stuck w/ the basic cable in my bedroom is fine if I'm in a pinch but if I have to watch TV all day I want all options on the table.
I'm even more upset b/c if I get sick this will be the second bug I've caught this season and it really hasn't even started. A few weeks ago I got a little cough and it turned bad over the weekend so I got plenty of rest and was just finishing the recuperation process when this most recent incident came along and joined my life.
I don't know where this steady stream of germs if coming from but I have a few ideas. It hasn't been bad here @ the office but something has been going around and that probably plays into the equation somehow. I also have three germ factories living in my house ranging from 2.5 to 4.5 feet in height - I'm sure they play their part in my compromised immune system. I feel guilty blaming them for this one though - I already blame them for everything else... whether it's a broken lamp or a messy living room.
I'm confident that if I have something I'll be able to beat it pretty quickly though. For one thing I've probably gotten it in some capacity before - it feels very familiar. I've also started taking some "super-medication"; I don't know what it's called but it's got elderberry in it and I've read rave reviews about that plant on-line (for whatever that's worth). But the biggest ace I have up my sleeve is called "mind over matter". I'm slowly convincing myself that I'm not going to get sick so my mind will come in and save the day. If that doesn't work the elderberry should pick up the slack :) - it's what I call back-up "mind over matter".
An Early Taste of Winter
11/17/11
I stepped outside this evening and I was smacked across the face by a round of cool, late-autumn air. When I drew a breath it almost felt like my lungs caught fire and I doubled over as if punched in the gut. That's when I realized it's time to get ready to push my furnace to the limit tonight.
As I type this it's already 26 in Dayton... and it's not even 10:00! Just to give you a little perspective 26 is the coldest it's been in Dayton since April 1st of this year (no joke). That means it's been 7 1/2 months since it's been this cold... yikes!!! Clear skies are around tonight and the winds are dying and those are the perfect ingredients for a chilly night in the Miami Valley.
So how low will it drop? Well, I've revised my forecast and I'm thinking we'll get into the low 20s w/ some spots getting into the upper teens. In my mind the teens are when we're officially into the territory you and I know as "frigid" (especially this time of year).
It sure didn't look like winter earlier today but tonight it's feeling like it. And the cool weather will stick w/ us tomorrow. It'll also be windy so our highs in the mid and upper 40s will feel closer to the mid-30s in the afternoon. A slow warm-up will persist into the weekend but it comes w/ a price. By Sunday we're back into the upper 50s but we'll also see some light off & on showers moving in through the day. While I'm not necessarily wild about the rain I'll take it... if it means we can stay away from the upper teens and low 20s.
Merchandising Run Amok
11/16/11
If Hollywood comes up w/ a successful movie it isn't unusual to see it become a franchise and a number of sequels and/or prequels are produced to further the story thus letting fans experience a little more of it. Fans can interact w/ their favorite characters in other ways one of the most lucrative being through the miracle of merchandising and licensing. One of the classic examples of this came out of the 1970s.
Back in 1977 George Lucas introduced us to the Star Wars universe. He owned the licensing rights to all of the characters and made a fortune. I have no idea what C-3P0 shampoo was (and why a droid would need it for that matter) but I know I had some and it worked like a charm. I also had almost every Star Wars figure and re-lived the movie (sometimes creating my own scenes) in my room countless times as a child.
There are times when, in my opinion, this practice can go too far. Last night I stopped by the store on the way home. As I was searching for some hair care product for my wife I ran into the newest line of Pro Beauty curling irons and hair dryers. Some marketing genius (and I don't use that term lightly b/c the idea will make a ton of money) thought it would be good idea to tie this product line to the new Twilight movie.
Now fans can "get Bella's waves" w/ the Sparkle Bella Ceramic Styling Iron. Have you ever wanted Esme & Alice's sleek 'dos? It's not hard if you buy the Sparkle Esme Straightener. Maybe soft curls are your thing; that's where the Sparkle Rosalie Ionic Steam Hair Setter steps in. And guys, you're not left out. If you've ever agonized over the fact that you can't get Edward's texture (who hasn't?) then you're in luck as the Sparkle Edward Ceramic Detailer is now only a credit card swipe away.
While I'm happy for Twilight fans for whom stepping out of reality is now that much easier I can't help but think this is going a little too far. For one thing, since when did vampires care so much about their hairstyles? Aren't they busy trying to find a fresh neck into which they'll bite? It makes me miss the vampires of old who were scary looking and had no fashion sense which led to a bad hairstyle (therefore making them that much creepier).
Not only that but why tie vampires and hair care products together in the first place? Why not try to license the Twilight characters to a brand of band-aids, or garden stakes? Or maybe Edward could be tied to a line of capes b/c that's what vampires wear. I'd even argue you could use the cast to hock garlic - I even have the slogan, "Tastes so good even the Twilight characters will risk eating it". But hair styling devices? I don't see it.
Ultimately, I get it. The Twilight series has been very popular w/ younger ladies so it makes sense to tie the characters to curling irons and ionic setters (whatever those are). But just b/c I understand it doesn't mean I have to like it. Now you may be thinking, "But, Jeff it's a double standard. There's no reason for lightsaber chopsticks or Lando Calrissian cologne" and you'd be right... almost. After all, George Lucas created the force and all those who wield it so who am I to question his money making decisions? Then again, maybe he's pulling a Jedi mind trick on me and clouding my judgement (if that's the case perhaps he influence the midi-chlorians in my hair in order to give me Edward's texture).
The Simpler Pleasures
11/15/11
It's often been said that the little things in life are what make it so grand. I was reminded of that earlier this evening. One of the guys who works in production is named J.R. He's 20 years old and still in school... a young man w/out a care in the world (relatively speaking).
Tonight I told him what he has to look forward too as he ages and has a family. So what was exciting me so much that I felt I needed to impart my wisdom on a young man 15 years my junior? The fact that I have to go shopping tonight on the way home from work. Normally this wouldn't be a monumental endeavor but tonight is different. That's b/c I need to get diapers and I have an in-store credit that's good for $5.00 off of a certain brand and a manufacturer's coupon that's worth $2.00 towards the same brand. There's nothing that says I can't combine the two which means $7.00 worth of compounded savings is putting a smile on this meteorologist's face. Sure $7.00 won't change my world dramatically (unless I use some of it to buy a winning lottery ticket... which won't happen) but like I said, sometimes it's the little things in life.
It's kind of sad that something as simple as saving dough on diapers can spark such a giddy response in me. I hope that doesn't mean that this is the biggest thrill in my life right now. I guess it's not necessarily a bad thing if it was though. After all if I had the same amount of what many younger people consider "fun" now as I did when I was 20 there's a good chance that I would not only be unmarried but my career prospects would probably be slim @ best.
Not only that but whenever I get together w/ my old buddies and we decide to "re-live" the glory days over a weekend I can't help but feel good when it's finally over. As I open my sleep-crusted eyes on the ensuing Sunday morning I'm often happy that the end of the weekend is near b/c that means I won't be staying up to late and eating to unhealthy and will therefore be "back to normal" w/in a matter of hours... 24 being the maximum.
When I told J.R. about what was making me so happy this evening he said he hoped he never gets to that point in his life. Whether or not he has kids is yet to be decided but something tells me that there will be a time in the near future when a comfortable chair after a long day sounds waaaay better then heading out w/ colleagues after work, when a long weekend with friends means an even feeling week @ work and when a late night snack can often mean an even later night attack of heartburn. We all get there, it's part of getting old; and it's actually not a bad thing... I think it ties to the self-preservation instinct that grows stronger as we move towards middle age. Of course I didn't have the heart to tell him all of that... deflating the bubble of youth-filled exuberance is a lot easier when you do it to yourself.
A Long Day in the Weather Center
11/14/11
I have a quick minute so I figured I'd update you all on tonight's weather. In short it was a long day in the weather center. Last night when I was giving the forecast @ 11:00 I talked about the threat for strong storms today w/ damaging winds being the primary threat.
This morning when I woke up I checked my voicemail and found that the forecast had changed a bit and that tornadic activity was possible in the area. So I jumped in the shower, packed myself three meals and got into work by 11:00 A.M. this morning. It was a good thing I got in early b/c a tornado watch was issued a short time later.
The bulk of the afternoon was spent in "hurry up and wait" mode as a line of showers & storms slowly moved closer to the Miami Valley. Our very own Andrew Michael was out storm chasing w/ the Severe Weather Alert Team (S.W.A.T.), a local storm chasing entity, over in Indiana so we had eyes on the ground and in the studio.
As the line developed a number of tornado warnings were issued in Illinois and Indiana and the storms were looking pretty nasty when these were in effect. There were a number of funnel cloud sightings and a tornado was even reported in Illinois. As the line of storms pushed closer to us it became a little less ragged and a lot more linear. Normally organizing storms aren't necessarily a good thing but in today's case it was actually positive. As the storms formed into a more defined line it became tougher for individual rotating storms to develop. As that happened straight line winds became the bigger threat.
After watching the day unfold this way I wasn't surprised that we saw severe thunderstorm warnings and not tornado warnings. As the storms came through large hail was reported and wind gusts up to 60 mph were expected as well. All in all it wasn't a terrible day but it had its moments. And as far as November goes today was out of character - we can blame the warm and moist air for that.
As I type this our tornado watch has been cancelled and the Miami Vally is in the all clear w/ no watches, warnings or advisories whatsoever. Hopefully you stayed safe and after more than 12 hours in the weather center I'm ready to go home and get some rest - let's hope we don't see another day like this until Spring of 2012.
What's In A Name?
11/09/11
As November rolls on we march that much further into cold & flu season. Regardless of when you get it (if you do) it's never fun. I consider myself a healthy person w/ a strong immune system but I tend to find myself under the weather @ least once during the cold half of the year. It's never fun which is why I feel for those who are chronically ill. I never got used to getting sick in Hawaii. It would usually happen towards the end of winter but the temperature was still in the 70s and low 80s that time of the year. It was always weird catching a cold when it was warm outside.
Regardless of when you catch a cold or get the flu Robitussin is usually in the sniffle-fighter's arsenal. Now the medicine cabinet staple is doing something to help those who get sick in the coming months and have an unhealthy sounding last name. Basically if your surname sounds like a cold or flu symptom you are eligible to get free cough syrup. For example if your last name is Fleming that sounds close enough to "phlegm" and bam! all those years of ridicule in elementary school are finally worth it.
I like the promotion but I'm a little disappointed I'm not eligible. Booth doesn't sound gross enough to get me a bottle so I'm not even going to enter. But if there's a giveaway from the phone company or a closing restaurant is liquidating it's bench-style table seating by offering it free to anyone w/ a similar sounding last name I'm all over it. I'll put my restaurant booth in the kitchen.
This whole campaign got me thinking. What if other companies adopted a similar marketing campaign? It would be great to have a name like Jeff Ferrari if a certain car company were to join the promotion. A moniker like Massage (I think that would be a French name) would be beneficial if one had back problems. Or maybe a bank could try to drum up some press by giving away some cash; I'd love to have the last name of Freemilliondollars if that were the case.
I don't think any such contests will ever materialize but one can dream. I do like Robitussin's newest publicity stunt though... even if it is a little discriminatory. I'm especially happy for the Todd Mucus', Angela Booger's and Phil Snot's of the world. Enjoy your prize guys... you've earned it.
It's Great Day to Be an American
11/08/11
Today we all had the chance (providing we met the age and registration requirements) to exercise in the great experiment that's known as democracy. If you follow politics - which I do, somewhat - you probably already know that off-year elections (general elections held in odd numbered years) typically have a low turnout. I've even heard of them referred to as the preseason football of democracy. The reason behind that is b/c the ballot lacks congressional races and a presidential candidate. As a result these off-year contests tend to get overlooked.
This year bucked the trend though. Voter turnout was expected to be as high as 50 percent in some local counties. Compare that to the normally low 38 to 40 percent who vote in off-years and you can call this election a successful one... regardless of how your politics lean.
I voted early this year. Not b/c of the convenience but b/c I was able to on one of my off days and I had nothing better to do. That and b/c I figured I'd be rushed if I waited until the last minute. In essence I didn't want to clutter my day any more than it normally is (so I guess I did vote early out of convenience).
I didn't always vote but as I've gotten older that's changed; now I never miss it. I don't know if it's b/c I want my voice to be heard, b/c I pay more attention to what's going on around me or if it's b/c as I've gotten older I've had to start paying for the services that government provides so I figure I should have a say in the matter. Ultimately I think it's a good thing that I'm more involved and I think the system works that much better whenever there's a high turnout.
I've often wondered if my earlier voting habits ever put me on some government watch list. Yes I know we have a secret ballot but when I was younger and I decided to hit the polls I'd often write myself in whenever it came to a race about which I knew nothing. I always felt an uninformed vote was worse than not voting @ all so I wrote myself in b/c I figured I could do the job just as well as any other joker. That normally wouldn't matter but I wrote myself in for president once and I can't help but think some strange, long-haired kid showing up in the presidential race may set off a few alarms @ the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Regardless of who and what you support I hope you exercised your right as an American today. I know people love to gripe about what's wrong w/ the world and I feel if you don't vote you have no right to complain. And if there's ever an election in the future and you're @ a loss for words as to who you should support (through indecision, disgust or just lack of study) you can always make me your write-in candidate... just in case you don't want the FBI to open a file about you.
People, People... Everywhere
11/07/11
Does it seem like traffic is getting worse each and every commute? Or how about the grocery store, is it packed every time you visit? In essence, do you feel like the world is getting more and more crowded by the day? If you answered "yes" you're not going crazy, there are A LOT of people on the planet. In fact, we just hit a major milestone as a species.
Last week, on Halloween, experts say the 7 billionth person was born. The day is largely symbolic b/c it's impossible to pinpoint the exact day we hit that number but I wonder if it was chosen b/c that many people is a scary sight. Think about it, 7 billion is 7000 millions... that's a tough number to comprehend. According to some estimates if you were to start counting right now and you didn't stop (to eat, sleep, etc.) you'd hit 7 billion in 200 years. That's close to 2 million hours of non-stop counting.
Just to give you a little perspective we didn't hit 1 billion people until 1800. In 1930 we'd doubled the population and didn't get to 3 billion people until 1960. By 1999 the world had 6 billion humans living on it. According to scientists the fastest growing nation is India which sees a new child born almost every second. That's about 30 million new people each year (which is a tenth of the current U.S. population).
So who was the 7 billionth person born? Again there's no way to know exactly who it is but the United Nations symbolically gave that designation to Danica May Camacho of the Philippines. That's a pretty high honor to bestow upon anyone and could bring about loads of undue pressure as she gets older - but on the flip side it does sound like a heck of a premise for a reality show. I got online and found I'm the 4,172,248,788 person on Earth and it kind of depressed me. That number is so uneventful it wouldn't even be considered for a show on deep cable.
As we watch our world grow more crowded w/ each passing year I can't help but feel that I need to own more land... w/ a reliable source of fresh water. Unfortunately that costs money and w/ a growing population resources are becoming that much more scarce... which means it'll be that much harder for me to purchase said land (which I can't afford in the first place). I better hurry to find a way to get it, though. By 2025 the population is expected to top 8 billion and I know it won't be mine (@ least it had better not be) so any thoughts of reality TV riches are likely out of reach.
Sweet Tooth
11/02/11
We all know we shouldn't to steal candy from a baby but is it wrong to take if from your kids... even if they're toddlers? I'm sure if you ask 100 people 99 will say yes - to both questions... thinking kinship somehow absolves one is a pipe dream. Recently there's been a lot of talk about the "Other 1%" but I think I fall into that category on this one (I'd rather be part of the 1% the Occupy Wall Street Crowd is protesting though).
Before you condemn me and call me a thief let me explain myself. My kids went trick-or-treating the other night and they got quite a haul... and the candy looks REALLY good. Normally I don't have much of a sweet tooth but when I'm surrounded by Sweet Tarts, Snickers and mini-Twix I gotta tell you I begin craving them a little more than I normally would.
So that gets me back to my original dilemma... I want to ransack my kids' candy stash. I think I need a list of pros and cons in order to make the informed, and ultimately correct, decision.
Pros:
1.) Candy is delicious
2.) Free candy is even more delicious
3.) There's tons of it in the house and it should be eradicated ASAP so as not to attract bugs (which will already be inclined to enter our house now that it's getting cooler)
4.) Candy can make children hyper-active so less of it will logically make them less hyper-active
5.) Sometimes things we don't want to happen do indeed happen b/c life is not fair - by taking their candy I could teach them this lesson and if you ask me a valuable learning experience is more than worth a handful of mini candy bars.
6.) There's so much candy in the house that my kids won't miss it so I'll get off scot-free
7.) If I eat some candy I'll be happy which may be the inspiration I need to write the next great American novel - if I deprived the world of that I'd feel guilty for the rest of my life
8.) Chocolate affects the pleasure center in your brain and I've heard a happy weatherman can stop inclement weather
Now to the cons:
1.) I don't know where the candy is hidden (although after looking at my "Pros" list I think I know why it's hidden).
2.) Stealing is wrong... even if it is from your freeloading kids
You'll notice that my "Pros" far outnumber the "Cons" tally. Unfortunately that last con well outweighs any pro I could ever present. Maybe I could "tax" their candy (as I like to put it) the next time I see them eating it. We all live under the same roof so we should all pitch in and this could be my kids' way of helping out around the house. Death and taxes are two things we can't avoid and the sooner they learn this the better - @ least in my opinion. That's it! I think if I don't eat some of my kids' candy I may actually be hurting them... in their formidable years no less. Who knows, maybe I'll get that novel written after all.
A Frightful Tale on a Frightful Evening
10/31/11
It was a dark and scary night. The evening began w/ a few light showers that quickly dissipated as the sun sank lower in the sky. That spelled an end to the daytime hours making way for a night that was sure to be filled w/ horror and treachery.
As the sun set the clouds had already begun clearing out and a waxing crescent moon pierced the sky w/ but a sliver of light. The winds blew and the leaves in the trees rustled. An owl could be heard hooting in the distance fending off any would-be intruders from its territory. Alone any one of these could be written off as just another common nighttime occurrence but the aggregate made the triad that much more terrifying.
Somewhere in a suburban neighborhood a pack of diminutives roamed freely. The marauding band of lilliputians, clad in make-up and mask, struck fear into the hearts of whomever was unlucky enough to come into contact with them... or so they thought. I wasn't afraid.
I planned on greeting the crew without delay when they approached my abode banishing them and their foul intentions, whatever they may be, in swift fashion. I sat on my porch, inconspicuously waiting & watching the troupe draw ever nearer. What could they be after? Was it glory, treasure or worse... vengeance? Whatever it was I was ready.
My pulse began to quicken as they turned the corner and entered my cul-de-sac. I live in a quiet neighborhood... not only was this sort of thing uncommon but it wasn't supposed to happen to me. Before I knew it the gang was one door down meaning whatever devious acts they had planned would soon include me. My heart began racing. The earlier sense of fearlessness that I had possessed had all but evaporated... if only I had a clue as to their plans. The not knowing was killing me.
Regardless of my desire for avoidance I'd soon be forced to confront my apprehension. The ensemble was marching up my driveway. Alone each would have been small and harmless. Together they represented an unstoppable force w/ only the most evil of intentions on their collective mind. Again, I longed to know what fate they had in store for me. Before I had time to process that last thought I realized the wait was over... they'd reached the porch. I prayed for forgiveness and braced for the coming horrors.
"Trick or treat" the crowd yelled; "Please give us all you candy" one of the smaller members whined. AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! They had come to strip my pantry of any and all sweets... a fate far worse than any I had anticipated. Oh, well. Maybe my pants will fit a little better as a result. - Happy Halloween!
Jackpot!!!
10/26/11
I'm not really that big of a gambler. I've been known to participate in an office football pick 'ems or "Big Dance" NCAA pool in March but that's about the extent of it (and sometimes I'll play the lottery... but that doesn't really count). I've only been to Las Vegas twice but both times I was on a layover and only pressed my luck w/ the video slots on one occurance. And I've only been to a casino twice in my life - I think I might have broken even between those two trips. I don't know if it's b/c I hate wasting money (and gambling does just that) or if it's b/c I figure I already have enough vices but the bottom line is that gambling doesn't really appeal to me.
I will admit that one new casino "gimmick" has got me a little intrigued. The Trump Taj Mahal is offering something known as the "Nip, Tuck and Lift Sweepstakes". The winner of the jackpot will walk away w/ $25,000 to put towards whatever plastic surgery procedures he/she deems necessary. A spokeswoman for the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City says it's a way of literally changing "the face of a typical casino promotion".
While the prize is a little unorthodox I have to say it's a good marketing ploy. Everybody has something they'd change about themselves if they could; it's human nature. If I could I'd get ab implants so I had a perpetual six-pack. Of course that would likely backfire as I got older and my gut got bigger - then I'd be stuck w/ a fat stomach that had half a dozen weird bumps on it (@ least).
But w/ $25,000 you could get a lot of work done. That's enough to pay for a torso augmentation, an eye tuck, some liposuction and still have enough left for a few botox injections so you can have those "Angelina Jolie" lips that are to die for. I don't know how much of that $25,000 you'd have to pay in taxes but if the work you get done gives you the confidence needed to climb a few rungs on the corporate ladder I'd argue the prize should be taxed @ the lower capital gains rate.
One can argue that this sends the wrong message. After all, shouldn't we feel blessed w/ what we have? While I concede that's a valid point I also live in the real world and understand how our psyche can affect our self-image. Of course I have to admit that my own feelings may be a little biased; my sister used to play w/ Barbies a lot and I think seeing her parade Ken around - in his fancy clothes and his awesome car - forced me to fall into the trap of setting up false expectations for myself.
If this promotion has piqued your interest you still have time to cash in. All you have to do is get to the Jersey casino, accrue enough points to enter the drawing for the prize and be playing when your name is picked and viola! A round of tummy tucks and calf implants for everyone!
While I'm not going to enter I know what I'd do if I won the $25,000 cash prize and it wouldn't have anything to do w/ changing my appearance. Sure I know I have flaws but I'm comfortable in my own skin. If I won I'd probably buy a life-sized replica of the flashy car my sister's Ken doll used to show off whenever she'd drive him around the basement. That'd knock the smug look off his chiseled face.
I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me
10/25/11
Normally I root for our morning meteorologist, Andrew Michael. When we're about to go wall-to-wall on tornado coverage we'll fist bump our wedding rings together and say, "Weather Team Unite!" Tonight I feel a little differently though.
You see last week the morning crew had a poll as to who's picture would be strapped to a pumpkin and launched into the air. I wasn't able to register my vote in time but @ I would've voted for anybody but Buck (Andrew's middle and nickname) - sorry Meghan & Dan, us weatherguys gotta stick together. Had I been able to vote I would've regretted it.
I'll explain w/ a picture of our weather center. Looks pretty normal. But look @ this picture. I've done my best to highlight a part of it (sorry, this computer only has "paint" and this is the best I can do). If you're wondering what I highlighted here's the close-up. It freaked me out when I walked into work on Sunday afternoon.
Normally I wouldn't have an issue w/ a photo of Buck (I have one somewhere in my house from his wedding) but this is a little creepy. I feel like he's Big Brother and I'm Winston Smith in the midst of committing a Thoughtcrime. It's only a matter of time before the Thought Police come bursting through the studio doors and drag me off kicking and screaming on the way to my eventual re-education.
That's why I wished I'd have voted in the poll. If he'd been chosen then maybe I wouldn't be frightened into surrendering my loyalty to the almighty Big Brother (symbolized by the face that's watching over the weather center). I don't think the cut-out would be as scary if it was a torso shot. But this is just a floating head w/ a "you can trust me" smile. The fact that he's got no body turns that nice smile into a devious grin... just waiting for me to let down my guard - then BAM! it's all over.
Despite the feeling of terror I get every time I look up I'm going to leave the photo up there. I can't help but think that it'll keep me honest. I better get going though. Typing this blog has left me w/ the feeling that mini-Buck is judging the idleness of my character seeing that I've gotten off-task so easily this evening.
Another Year Goes Down Into the Books
10/24/11
I sit @ my computer typing but not quite sure what I want to say. You see, I've had a lot on my mind this Monday. 35 years ago today I set foot into the world after taking my first few gasps of air and starting my life. I speak about it as if I had a whole lot of say in the matter, I didn't - and unfortunately I don't have a whole lot of control over the passage of time... otherwise I'd still be in my 20s.
It's not that I'm afraid of aging I just don't like it. I can be thankful that it hasn't gotten too bad... yet (but it's still happening). I wake up in the morning and my foot is sore, if I don't bend w/ my knees I may tweak my back and I don't even want to tell you what happens if I sneeze too hard. Actually that last one is a bit of an exaggeration but you get the point. It's not good when I hear a strange "pop" if I move my body in a certain way. And knowing what I know about entropy doesn't provide any comfort... b/c I know it'll only get worse!
It's not that 35 is particularly old but you have to admit it is a milestone. I'm halfway through my third decade on this planet (actually that does sound a little old). I could play the victim and ask, "How did this happen to me?" but I'm not that melodramatic. Besides, it would be stupid - I know how it happened... I stuck around.
While I'm not freaking out about it (too much) I still find myself in disbelief as I think about how old I now am. Here's how crazy it is: when I was about 17 or 18 I kept a journal. Not b/c I thought it would be cool to look @ when I was older or b/c I hoped to someday look back on my life and understand, step by step, how I became the man that I would someday be. No, I did it b/c of Bob Greene. He's from my hometown and he wrote a book called "Be True to Your School" that was based on a diary he kept when he went to my alma mater. Back then I figured by the time I was 35 I'd have made a few million dollars but I wrote about my everyday experiences just in case I hadn't. That way I could take those writings and publish my own book and hopefully fill in that wealth gap I (foolishly) thought I'd have covered by now.
Sometime before I left for college I took that log, sealed it in a manilla envelope and wrote on it that I wasn't supposed to read what was inside until I was 35. Why? B/c 35 was an entire life away from me @ that point. 35 was what "old" meant to me when I was that age. Now I'm here and I have to admit that I don't feel old (@ least not as old as my teenage self thinks I should feel).
I don't know what I'd say to my former self if I could go back and talk to him. I'd probably tell him not to be such an idiot before recommending that he cut his hair and he'd probably respond w/ some snarky comment that I can't publish in this forum. What I do know is that I've reached the age @ which my younger self would declare as officially old. But honestly what do teenagers know? They're just a bunch of underworked, spoiled kids who think they know everything but haven't lived enough to realize they don't know diddly.
Change is in the Air
10/20/11
Our Facebook Question of the Day is, "Today's weather is ________" and we're inviting viewers to fill in the blank. I can think of a number of adjectives that would accurately finish that sentence but unfortunately there are only a few that are suitable to repeat in this forum. The two best (clean) words that describe today are "nasty" or "crummy" b/c that's how it felt today when I set foot out into the elements.
The past few afternoons have been marred w/ rain, wind and cool weather making it feel more like late November or early December. They also looked a lot like that time of year w/ gloomy, dreary conditions and a general "awfulness" in the air.
It's not uncommon for Ohio to see days like this in October but as w/ any year the first few times we get them are tough to swallow. I don't know why that's the case. It's as if we expect it'll stay nice forever and somehow we get mad when it doesn't. I also think it's funny how people (myself included) act surprised when we start seeing weather like this... this time of year. It's not like October is immune to awful weather. I can remember plenty of Halloween nights that required long johns before heading out for a night of free candy.
I think it's b/c we get so used to the long, lazy days of summer that the mere hint of a change - no matter how inevitable - strikes a chord of blasphemy when we see it. I guess it goes back to the old adage that "things seem like they'll last forever... until they don't". Whenever I hear that I think back to high school, or college. Those were times in my life that seemed never-ending (in a good way) until it came time for me to walk and before I knew it I was on the precipice of a HUGE life change.
While the passing of the seasons typically don't offer such life-altering change they bring one nonetheless. And even though the fall season isn't over yet the past few days have been a painful reminder that they won't last forever. I'll admit that I don't relish the coming winter but change is something we can't control, no matter how hard we try (the harder we do the more frustrating it gets). Might as well just kick back, enjoy the ride and appreciate the highlights that are sure to come w/ the changing weather... after all it's not like we have much say in the matter anyway.
Canine Commercials???
10/19/11
If you run a pet food company what's a good way to grow your business w/out really expanding the customer base? Simple. Appeal to pet owners and their four-legged friends. It may sound crazy but it's already happening. In Germany an ad campaign recently featured "sniffable" posters to attract dogs and now a commercial in Austria is targeting the the animals themselves.
Last month Nestle, one of the world's biggest pet food manufacturers, began airing the first-ever spot designed especially for dogs. The ad uses a high-frequency tone to get Fido to stop what he's doing and look up @ the boob tube. It also features a pet toy "squeak" to engage any couch potato dogs that happen to be watching whenever it hits the air.
Nestle spokespeople say the advertisement helps support "the special one-to-one relationship between" pets and their owners. While that may be true let's face it, the intentions behind the promotion aren't that altruistic. The whole point of the commercial, as w/ any ad, is to separate the customer from his hard-earned dollar by making a particular product or service desirable. If the company really wanted support the bond between dog and dog lover it would have a campaign that strove combat the epidemic of canine illiteracy. Not only would that engage the dog's mind in a more positive way but it would keep it from spending endless hours in front of the idiot box compulsively eating chew toys... which have no nutritional value. And let's not forget, once you get a young mind hooked on TV it's tough to break that habit. I have three kids and I've witnessed this phenomenon firsthand. Sure, I can get my kids to do something more engaging but sometimes it's a bit of a struggle... especially if there's something on that they want to see. If my dog starts watching TV that's one more being I have to fight with in order to get control of the remote... that doesn't excite me.
The high-pitched hiss @ the beginning of the commercial is similar to a dog whistle so it doesn't affect humans. I'm sure that's valid but it doesn't explain why I got hungry the first time I saw it. No, I didn't want to eat the dog food itself but I'm not going to lie to you... the little steak nuggets that were part of the secret recipe looked pretty tasty.
In the end I have to admit that the idea is a novel one. I can't tell you how many times I've seen animals fill the role of pet owner ultimately taking care of their humans in unimaginable ways. This leads us to further spoil our furry friends and if that's the case it makes perfect sense for companies to target them... cut out the middle man. Maybe I'm jaded but I still can't help but feel this whole ad campaign is nothing more than a gimmick. Perhaps I wouldn't feel that way if the commercial - that was made for dogs - were shot in black in white instead of color.
Up In The Sky, It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Undulatus Asperatus!
10/18/11
If you happened to look into the sky earlier today and you thought the world was coming to an end you're probably not alone. We had a very strange and rare cloud formation roll through in the early afternoon and mother nature put on quite a show. My wife called them doomsday clouds b/c it looked like the world was coming to an end as they passed over.
The clouds are known as Undulatus Asperatus and their existence is still up for debate. A couple of years ago I read about these clouds when they were submitted to the World Meteorological Organization to be considered as a new cloud classification. The WMO is still reviewing them but if it accepts them into the International Cloud Atlas it would be the first new type of cloud in over half a century! The last time a new classification was accepted was back in 1951 when the WMO recognized Cirrus Intortus as a viable cloud formation.
Undulatus Asperatus are fairly rare and I've only seen them once before in my life. They look like the waves on top of a simmering pot of water... but moving in slow motion. The clouds form when relatively warmer & moist air moves over a shallow layer of cooler & drier air. This sets up a gradient that gets the wind moving pretty quickly @ the boundary (today the winds at that level were moving about 45 mph - they were only about 10 mph @ the surface). As those winds tear by the underside of the cloud they give it a rippled look and cause the undersides of the clouds to undulate as if they were waves.
The whole thing was really cool and reminded me of when I was a kid and something about the weather excited me. When I saw them today they weren't rippling as much as they were the other time I saw them but they were still memorable nonetheless. Hopefully you got a chance to see them and hopefully they didn't scare you if you did. Not only that but hopefully the National Weather Service gets the photos I sent them to the WMO and speeds up their acceptance into the International Cloud Atlas. I know I sure as heck believe in them :)
He's ALIVE!!!
10/17/11
I'm ecstatic to report that one of the great unsolved mysteries of my childhood could soon be explained. The Abominable Snowman, or Yeti has been the stuff of legend for centuries. He was a veritable fairy tale existing only in the accounts of local sherpa and others familiar w/ the Himalayan peaks. Now the Yeti may be more than a bedtime story your grandfather talked about when you were a kid.
A group of international scientists believe they've found proof that the famed creature exists. They claim to have found "footprints, a probable den and various markers that Yetis mark their territory with" in the Kemerovo region of Siberia. There's even a little bit of Yeti hair to throw into the mix for good measure. The evidence is promising enough for the researchers to claim they are 95% certain the creature exists. For those of you who watch a lot of court dramas that's beyond a reasonable doubt.
I don't know what it is but the Yeti, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and various other strange creatures but they've always fascinated me. Maybe it's the fact that something remains undiscovered despite how advanced we think we are or perhaps I just want to believe in strange and magnificent things. Either way the thought of a real abominable snowman roaming the high country, one I could possibly purchase and raise as a human someday, has me tickled pink.
When I was in college my roommate and I had a public access TV show named "Hot Carl". We were two idiots having fun talking w/ the good people of Athens. Sometimes we got into trouble for what we said or did and from time to time raised a few eyebrows (I even shaved mine off one show) but we had a good time. We weren't going to change the world other than our own little corner of it but it was a blast. One of the things that was always mentioned somewhere in the show was "The Mysterious Yeti". I can't help but wonder how we'd handle this story were we still on the air - I also can't help but wonder how guilty I'd feel if my life hadn't changed one bit in 12 years.
As always w/ any monumental discovery there are skeptics, or haters as I like to call them. They argue that this is all a publicity stunt to promote tourism citing that fact that the region in which the evidence was allegedly found hosts the "Day of the Yeti" @ the start of every ski season.
I can't say I buy that argument. We're talking about Siberia after all; the only thing I've ever heard about that region of the world has to do w/ harsh prisons... as if prison wasn't bad enough the threat of being sent to one in Siberia is somehow infinitely worse. If you're telling me people will begin flocking there in droves just b/c they have a chance @ seeing a mythical creature you probably think I still believe in vampires - which everybody knows are fake... probably.
Just A Phone Call Away
10/12/11
It's official: we, as Americans, are too connected. A new study by CTIA - The Wireless Association recently found that there are more cell phones in the United States than there are people. It puts the number of portable phones @ 327.6 million vs. the 315 million people in U.S. and its territories. Think about that for a second... there are almost a third of a billion phones that call the U.S. home. That's nuts! And it's not as if there are a few more phones than humans here, there's close to a 13 million phone overrun. Again, that's nuts!
I can think of a number of people who don't have a cell phone - many of them are neighborhood kids or nieces & nephews but about 20 of them come to mind and I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't need to strain too hard to come up w/ a similar list. That means that there are a number of people who don't just have one but they have two... @ least. What do people do w/ all of those phones and why do some of them need so many? It's gotta be a status thing b/c it's not like you're that much more accessible w/ each subsequent phone - if you keep all of them w/ you @ all times one is just as good as five.
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship w/ my phone. On the one hand it's nice to have in emergencies or when I forget what I need @ the store but on the other it's a bit of a pain. It seems like the thing never rings when it's convenient... my home phone exhibits this same trait but it's worse b/c whenever that rings it's never for me. Most of the time my phone rings when I'm doing something. I can't tell you the number of times it won't ring all morning only to go off when I sit down for breakfast, or to read the paper. It's gotten to the point where I'll grab both the cell and the home phone whenever I sit down to relax. Of course whenever I remember to do that both remain silent. It's only when I forget to keep my phones nearby that they ring... usually just as I'm drifting off into a peaceful, yet much needed, nap. Why anyone would want to increase the probability that they'd encounter a similar annoyance by throwing more phones into the mix is beyond me. Another thing that bothers me about cell phones is that if everybody supposedly has one how come I can never get in touch w/ people when I need too? What's the point of having a phone if you're not going to be accessible? Maybe people don't want to talk to me. Or maybe they're just in a dead zone... yeah, that sounds right.
And if one has multiple phones how does he keep track of all their different numbers? All I have is a cell phone, home phone and a work number; I get those numbers mixed up all the time. And don't even ask me the phone numbers of other people - that's one of the main reasons I have that portable phone to begin with... it doubles as a directory. As a result if I lost my phone, or worse if it got erased I wouldn't be able to keep up w/ many friends and family... unless they were on Facebook.
W/ over 325 million cell phones floating about the country right now I can't help but wonder how many more there will be in the future. Have we hit a critical mass or will these technological advances continue to proliferate? I can't help but feel that the latter is more likely than the former. After all, none of my kids have cell phones and I know they will someday. And someday my kids will have kids and something tells me they'll have phones as well... unless they become obsolete by then due to the fact that we've mastered telepathy and no longer need to talk much less use a phone - we may still need one if we want to get on the internet but by then we'll probably all be microchipped and thus plugged into the worldwide web 24/7. Regardless of what the future holds I'm certain of one thing: even if we had 10 phones for every human being in the U.S. I'd probably still have trouble getting ahold of someone whenever I needed too.
The Pirates Are Taking Over
10/11/11
There's been a lot of talk regarding modern day pirates over the past few years and now the scallywags appear to be gaining political clout in the European Union. The people of Sweden recently gave 7.1% of their vote to the country's Pirate Party which means the movement now has one seat in the European Parliament.
If you're thinking of going out, buying an eye-patch and a peg leg in an attempt to jump on the bandwagon think again. The Pirate Party's platform isn't centered around a jolly group of sea-faring plunderers. It actually wants to free up content on the internet. This includes deregulating copyright, ending the patent system and curbing internet snooping.
This raises an interesting dilemma. What should and what should not be free on the internet? It's a debate we've been having since Napster first offered it's file-sharing site in 1999. Napster has since become an online music store but in its early days it allowed people to share files w/ each other using nothing more than a computer, an internet connection and the click of a mouse. During the height of its popularity it had musicians coming down on both sides of the "free music" issue. A tech-savvy friend of mine likened the site to me letting him borrow a new album so he could tape it. I did a lot of that when I was younger but it required a little more legwork on my part. Now all one had to do was jump online, find a decent copy of the music they desired and bam! they owned the content w/in a matter of minutes.
@ the time I figured it was the record company's job to come up w/ a way to curb the practice and they have. Nowadays a lot of compact discs have orders encoded into them that make it so they can't be copied. If you buy the item through a virtual record store the seller only allows the music on so many playback devices. I think both of these developments are great solutions to the problem and can't help but feel that in the future companies will adapt to any new technology... however grudgingly.
As a kid I had no problem w/ the proliferation of free content that was taking over the internet. Now that I'm a little older I realize that if it were all free who would pay for it? That may sound like a dumb question but think about it. If no one is willing to pay for music will musicians still make it? Sure some will still create art for arts sake but those who aren't already wealthy will need to make a living @ it in order to keep doing it. If you didn't make any money playing guitar (no matter how talented you are) there's a good chance that sooner or later you'll put down your axe and go get a real job as the realities that come w/ adulthood become more numerous.
This is why I still buy cd's... I have no problem supporting the musicians I like. Regardless I think it'll be interesting to see how the Pirate Party changes the way we get content in the coming years. Maybe not as interesting as hearing "Arrrgh!" and "Aye!" delivered in a Swedish accent but intriguing nonetheless.
I'm Inventing a New Holiday
10/10/11
There's been a lot of talk about holidays this evening as it's Columbus Day but I don't know if this moniker really captures the true spirit of October 10th. Yes, today is the second Monday in October (when Columbus Day officially falls) but I argue that 10/10 is a day better suited to something else. That's why I'm taking it upon myself to invent a holiday.
No, it's not "Jeff Booth Day". My sense of self-importance isn't that inflated... that and b/c it's exactly two weeks before my birthday. IF we were going to declare a national "Jeff Booth Day", I'd grudgingly accept the honor, it would be better suited to October 24 - which is actually United Nations Day; but there are a number of compelling arguments as to why we should strip the organization of any such honor... see my blog entry from the fifth of this month.
In my opinion today should be set aside to honor a staple of American culture and thus called "Wristwatch Day"... heck, October 10th could be extended to the pocket watch as well. It's a fashion accessory that's becoming less important daily w/ the proliferation of cell phones and thus should be enshrined on the calendar so we don't forget the role it played in making this the greatest country in the world. Not only that but 10/10 is probably the most important number in the wristwatch community.
If you're wondering what I mean open up any department store circular the next time you get the paper. When you get to the watch section look closely. I'm willing to bet all of the watches and clocks are set to 10:10. No I'm not clairvoyant and it's not an accident. As long as you're guessing I'll point out that studio space in photography studios isn't cheaper after 10:00 @ night either.
Typically watches are set to that time in advertisements b/c it's more aesthetically pleasing - some stores even set merchandise to that time but don't engage the chronometer so it will remain inviting in the display case. Not only does that particular time look more "balanced" but it also makes the watch face appear to "smile" which makes it seem more upbeat. This last fact may sound like hogwash but consider this: the old time standard of 8:20 looks like a frown and is no longer in use. 10:10 "frames" the watchmaker's logo or brand name as well... again, the ad is more appealing.
Kind of funny something as simple as an ad for a Timex watch has so much thought put into it. I've even seen this rule upheld w/ digital watches even though it clearly benefits analog or "clock-face" watches. It makes sense though. If you're going to market and sell a product you'd better do all you can to make it as attractive as possible to potential buyers. If I used a watch (my cell phone has a clock) and I had to choose between two that were equally capable I'd go for the one that looked better in the ad/store - call me superficial but if all I need the thing to do is tell me the time I want it to do so as beautifully as possible.
Speaking of time the old adage goes that even a broken watch has the correct time twice a day. Does that mean if a timepiece dies @ exactly 10:10 it's somehow a little more correct? Probably not but I can tell you one thing: I'd trust one that stopped @ 10:10 waaaay more than that devious looking watch that had the misfortune of dying @ 8:20.
Gone Misssin'
10/06/11
One of the results of being an adult is that from time to time you're required to do something you don't want to do. Sure kids have the same problem but a lot of the time the stuff they don't want to do are trade-offs we'd gladly make... if only it were possible. Tonight I had to act like a grownup.
When I was younger I had a lot of friends and we all hung out @ my mom's house. We'd go other places from time to time but my home was usually the hub of a lot of our activities. Now that I'm older our house is a bit like that. There are plenty of neighborhood kids who often stop in on any given day and there have been times when as many as 10 kids were over... and that's before I count my three! It's no wonder our house can be a mess from time to time (we always make sure to include a few minutes of clean-up time before we send everyone home, though). Earlier this week something that's never happened before happened... something went missing.
My oldest has always been a saver. She rarely spends her birthday or Christmas money and as a result has amassed around $200 in cash. She keeps it in a wallet which has been floating around the house as of late. Somehow this week it turned up empty. We've searched the house w/ no luck and now my oldest is upset; worse than that, she's questioning the character of her friends.
How does that affect me? Easy. Now I get to be the guy who's calling a whole bunch of parents to tell them what happened... something I haven't relished doing. Even though everyone is innocent until proven guilty it's still no fun to call parents and tell them this story b/c in a way it sounds as if I'm indicting their child. I've been calling all of the parents who have kids that play @ our house so as to be as democratic as possible but that doesn't make it any easier.
I'm hoping the cash turns up somewhere that we missed during the last search or that my youngest found it and is squirreling it away somewhere. I also hope I haven't injured any relationships w/ some of the other parents in the neighborhood. No matter what happens in all of this my ultimate hope is that my daughter learns a valuable lesson about where to keep things of value... in a safe place.
Diplomatic Immunity
10/05/11
As a kid I went through various movie phases. For awhile I loved science fiction, then it was horror movies, after that it was action movies or comedies. One of my favorite franchises combined the last two genres: I'm talking about the Lethal Weapon saga.
It tells the story of a young cop who blurred the line between breaking the law and gettin' the job done (Riggs) and his curmudgeon of a partner who's perpetually one week away from retirement (Murtaugh)... and "getting too old for this 'stuff'". One of my favorite movies from the series is Lethal Weapon 2. That's the one about South African drug dealers who are able to get away w/ their actions via diplomatic immunity. It upset, and intrigued me as a child that someone could come over here and get away w/ just about anything all b/c he was a diplomat.
Turns out modern day envoys are taking that lesson to heart getting off scott free on another, lesser infraction. About $17 million of the outstanding parking fines in New York City belong to diplomats from various countries. Egypt has almost $2 million in unpaid fines while Nigeria and Indonesia round out the top three owing $1 million and $725,000 respectively.
Washington D.C. combats this problem by withholding aid from offending countries equeling 110% of the total fines owed. But this does little to help out the cities that contend w/ scofflaw countries as they don't see any of the money the U.S. Government saves @ the end of the day. Despite this fact they still have pay for the manpower needed to write the tickets, deal w/ the losses incurred when they're budget projections aren't met due to lack of payment and that's before they deal w/ the problems that can arise when someone illegally parks in a loading zone... or worse, in front of a fire hydrant.
That's why three New York City area Congressmen are proposing legislation to punish countries w/ representatives who ignore their parking fines. Under their plan if your guys don't pay... the State Department won't issue your country diplomatic license plates.
While I like the idea I have to say I'm a little saddened that it has to come to this. I mean technically a foreign diplomat is nothing more than a guest in our country. I've always been taught that it's polite to follow the rules of the house your visiting. If I smoked I wouldn't go over to a friend's house and light up w/out first making sure it was okay. Were I to stay for dinner I wouldn't feed the dog and I certainly wouldn't burp @ the table... that's just rude.
Not only that but the U.S. pretty much funds the United Nations. We cover about 25% of the U.N.'s budget (more than any other nation) and give it a place to call home. Despite all of that we have to put up w/ ambassadors who think they're too good for our laws... I don't like it.
That's why I support this proposed piece of bipartisan legislation. Well that and b/c I think it's highly unlikely that the next time a diplomat gets a parking ticket Lt. Murtaugh will be nearby to catch him rip it up and shrug his shoulders before claiming he was untouchable. It would be cool if it did happen though. Then the Danny Glover character could swiftly deliver a dose of street justice while informing the lawbreaking emissary that diplomatic immunity "Has just been revoked!"
Force of Habit
10/04/11
Like it or not humans are creatures of habit. Even if you live a life by the seat of your pants, w/ no planning whatsoever you're still a slave to your routine... in this case you're habitually in a state of flux and I'd bet if forced to stop and sit idly while the world passed by you'd go insane.
An unfortunate byproduct of our quest for normalcy in everyday life is the fact that while changes can be a source of excitement only welcome ones are. When faced w/ any sort of unwanted break we get anxious or antsy at worst and annoyed @ best... @ least that's how I react. The past few days I've been forced to deal w/ this flaw in my character.
I've found that the fastest way for me to get to work is to take Rahn to Alex-Bell to 741 and up through Moraine. On a good day I can make the trek in about 12 minutes but on average it takes me around 15 minutes to get to and from work. I've grown so accustomed to this route that once I start driving it I find it tough to break, even if I plan on it. There have been more than a few times I needed to stop by Kroger on the way into work only to find myself cursing my absent mind as I pass the store shortly before making a late detour.
You can only guess how bothered I was yesterday when I was forced to deviate from my intended course as I encountered some construction on Alex-Bell as I went on my dinner break. Driving in I noticed there was some construction but wasn't forced to find another way into work so I though nothing of it. This time I had to travel about 10 minutes out of my way to cover what usually takes 30 seconds.
Sure I was bothered but I convinced myself I'd remember said problem and take a less direct route, but faster than the detour, on the way home. However as I climbed into my car last night to head home my "autopilot" switch clicked on and sure enough I ran into the roadwork I'd vowed to miss. And even though I was annoyed @ walking into my home later than I expected I took solace in the fact that I wouldn't soon forget what was now the newest pet peeve in my life.
Or so I thought. Today on the way into work I jumped into my car, backed out of the driveway and headed in as I do everyday. The first five minutes of my drive were ones of ignorant bliss. As soon as I got to Alex-Bell I was confronted by a "Road Closed" sign. I cursed my horrible memory and took the detour into work (it would've taken just as long to turn around and use my alternate route). One thing I hadn't counted on was traffic and the detour was far busier during the middle of the day. I know it sounds like sour grapes but @ least it was a lot worse for those coming the opposite way.
As a result of my forgetfulness I took steps to ensure I'd remember tonight. As I type this there are three large pieces of yellow tape on the steering wheel of my car that all read "DETOUR Alex-Bell". I posted the warning signs as soon as I got into work this afternoon. Proud that I'd taken the necessary steps to avoid making the same mistake for the third time I'm now ready for the drive home @ the end of the night.
Of course I just looked up the construction project on-line and found out it was a 24-hour venture that started yesterday @ 7:00 P.M. and wrapped up this evening @ 7:00 P.M. So my efforts to avoid the construction site are all for naught. Now I'm worried I'll forget to take the tape off my steering wheel when I get into my car. B/c if I've inadvertently changed my routine, and added five minutes to my commute, I'm going to have a new pet peeve... and nobody wants that (especially me).
Record Breaking September
10/03/11
Normally I don't take requests on this forum. I just tend to write about whatever happens to be on my mind. But this afternoon I got a call from a faithful viewer and Facebook friend suggesting a great topic for tonight's blog so here you go, Randy!
You probably already know that September was a crazy month. In fact, w/ all the rain we got it felt a little more like April than September. We had six days last month that set or tied some sort of record on the books. That's 20% of the the month seeing a record fall on a given day... again, pretty crazy.
One September 3rd we got all the way up to 97. That day we ended our final and fifth heat wave of 2011 (the day before we hit 98 which was the warmest temperature in more than a decade). W/ a high of 97 on 9/3 we actually tied the record high for the day, a record that's been in place since 1913... almost a century.
The very next day a strong line of showers and storms came through dumping copious amounts of rain across the area. A total of 2.27" of rain landed out @ the Dayton International Airport (where Dayton's climate records are kept). That more than tripled the old record of 0.72" set back on 9/4/1953.
But we weren't done yet as we hit another record the very next day! On Monday, September 5th we tied the record for the lowest high temperature. W/ a high of only 62 we tied a record that was set back in 1994. Seeing that our high temperature dropped by 35 degrees in a matter of two days it's no wonder we had severe weather in the interim. And if you remember correctly Monday the 5th was Labor Day which means our long holiday weekend was record-breaking as well.
By the time September 7th rolled around we were still tapping into cool conditions. That day we only got to 61 which clobbered the old record low high temperature of 66 set back in 1956 when gas was only about 30 cents a gallon.
Cooler than average weather continued the next day on September 9th. That was another day when we tied the record lowest high temperature for the day. Our high on 9/9 was only 64 tying the old record set in 1979 (just in case you're wondering gas was 86 cents a gallon back then).
The rest of the month was relatively quiet... until September 26th that is. We woke up to very heavy rain and thunderstorms that morning. The middle portion of the Miami Valley experienced "training" thunderstorms - storms that continually form over the same area. By the time all was said and done 3.10" of rain had been collected in Dayton which shattered the old rainfall record of 0.90" set back in 1915. I'd argue the record is actually 3.42" but climate records will go w/ the 3.10" b/c they're kept @ any area from midnight to midnight standard time. Seeing that we're in daylight savings time the 0.32" of rain that fell from 12:00 - 1:00 A.M. doesn't technically count... something w/ which I disagree.
So that's six daily records that either came to an end or were tied last month. But it doesn't stop there. September 2011 officially saw 10.84" of rain fall destroying the September 2005 total. We got 7.37" for the month that year making it the previous rainiest September.
That's a total of seven records that changed hands... in one month. Ironically our October began in the record books as well. We only hit 49 that day giving us the coolest high temperature recorded on 10/1 since 1920 (back then the 18th Amendment to the Constitution was still in effect). So will this month be as record-breaking? It's tough to tell so early but probably not. Months like the one we just lived through are quite rare. We're also entering a quiet, but gorgeous weather pattern, that will bring above average (but not record breaking) temperatures and dry conditions. That's good news b/c it'll be that much easier to get out and enjoy what mother nature has to offer. After last month... we've earned it.
Where Does the Time Go?
09/30/11
Today I've been evaluating and taking stock of my life. Normally I would leave well enough alone, especially on a Friday - no reason to get depressed about the fact that I've yet to make my first million... still. Today is different, though. My oldest daughter turns 11 today. It's been a pleasure watching her grow up and turn into such a wonderful human being. She's smart, funny and an all around good person.
I'm a little flabbergasted, though. I don't feel like I should have an 11-year-old child. I'm not even 35 and I have a kid who's age is already in the double digits. That's crazy! A lot of guys my age have either recently started or are getting ready to begin their families. Meanwhile my oldest is more than halfway out of my house. Again, crazy!
Often I wonder how I was entrusted to look after someone so wonderful - actually I wonder why is more accurate... I understand how it happened (I got an A in biology). It just amazes me that the good Lord trusted enough in me to let me have one of his angels... not once but three times! Thankfully I don't need to know the reason to understand how lucky I am.
We're having a party for her tomorrow. That means that my house will be invaded by I don't even know how many pre-teen girls. It's a spa party. They'll spend time doing their nails, hair and even make some perfume. It all sounds very girlie to me so I'll probably run just enough errands to make it back in time for cake and ice cream.
Like I said earlier, I've spent the day taking stock of my life today and I realized something. Sure I haven't made my first million but w/ a beautiful wife who loves me, three wonderful kids, a good dog and an annoying cat I'm still one of the richest men on the planet. Happy birthday, Gail - I love you!
On My Toes Tonight
09/29/11
A round of fast moving showers & storms moved through this evening and it was a busy night. Normally it wouldn't have been too bad, we only had one severe thunderstorm warning. But as that line rolled through here our First Warning Radar decided to go on the fritz.
I got a printout of the warning but for some reason it wasn't showing up on the radar. As I tried to fix that glitch the radar itself just dropped off the map. Luckily we had a back-up so were were able to get the information on the air in a timely fashion but that doesn't mean it wasn't hectic.
So I called our weather service provider and we fiddled w/ the system for about an-hour-and-a-half. After several tries, the downloading & installation of a new program and some dumb luck we had the system up and operating again. The technician told me it was a mix of a couple of problems. One was a software issue the other was a "I've never seen this one" problem. He's now going to have to try and replicate the issue and then figure why it happened. While I hate to be the guinea pig it's good to help.
The good news is that w/ the new upgrades I'm told we'll be fine and shouldn't encounter the issue again but it got crazy in a hurry this evening. It was almost as if everything that could possibly go wrong did... in the span of a few minutes. Like I said, we were able to get all of the information on the air b/c we have back-ups in place. But tonight's experience underscores why Mr. Murphy shouldn't be allowed legislate. The last time he did he had a law named after him and tonight I realized how unjust it is - maybe we could challenge it in the Supreme Court.
All I Want for Christmas...
09/28/11
Well we haven't even gotten out of September and some people are already thinking about the holidays. Just this week the toy industry released the 20 "must have" toys for the coming season. You may say it's too early for that and I'd have to agree w/ you. We haven't even gotten through Halloween and we're already talking about Christmas? We still have to trick-or-treat, honor our veterans, stuff our gizzards full of turkey and pass out watching football before we can even think about Santa Claus.
That doesn't mean I'm not planning ahead. The other day I was relaxing and for some reason I began thinking about what I'm going to get my family members for Christmas. Although it doesn't always happen I try to buy gifts throughout the year so when the season rolls around it's not a major hit to the pocketbook. I'll still spend the same amount of money (if not more) but it doesn't sting as bad as when you start buying in the middle of summer (I already have one of my brother-in-law's gifts... he's going to love it).
But just b/c I'm looking ahead doesn't mean I need industry analysts telling me it's time to start shopping. I'm a meteorologist, my job involves thinking about the future... that's probably the reason I plan so far in advance. I'm okay w/ the stress that comes w/ that though, who's to say the general population is?
So what are the top toys this year? Let's Rock Elmo, Scene it? Harry Potter, something called Pocoyo Swiggletracks and the Justin Bieber Rockin' Tour Bus and Concert Stage.
I don't know what the Sesame Street marketers know but it seems like every year they produce one of the hottest toys. I guess the secret is Elmo b/c their hit toy always seems to be a new version of the furry, red monster. You'd think kids would catch on... obviously not.
Not to be a stickler but Scene it? Harry Potter technically isn't a toy... it's a game and therefore shouldn't be on the list. If you told me that Spongebob Squarepants was a popular children's game I'd call you a liar (unless it was the Spongebob version of Monopoly).
I have no clue what Pocoyo Swiggletracks are but they're for younger kids so something tells me they'll turn up in my house by the end of the year. My youngest daughter has grandparents who love to spoil their grandchildren.
And then there's the Justin Bieber Rockin' Tour Bus and Concert Stage. It lets girls aged six to eight imagine they're following the pop star around on tour. I don't know much about this one but I can already tell you I don't like it. I have friends who've been musicians and I don't think we should be training young children how to be groupies... or even putting the thought in their heads for that matter.
Like it or not the cat's out of the bag: the holidays will have come and gone before you know it... there's not stopping the inevitable. Experts say their list will "take some of the stress out of shopping" by letting parents and grandparents know what and what not to buy. If you ask me I think it will only up the stress factor... especially when they go shopping three months early only to find that the year's most popular toys are already sold out.
Keep Your Shirt On... And No Love Triangles!!!
09/27/11
If you're a fan of the traditional soap opera you might want to think twice about moving to Iran (as if you needed another reason). That's b/c the country has banned two of the staples that make the midday distractions so popular. As of now it's no longer permissible to show television programs depicting love triangles or half-naked men - although not specified I assume that means no topless men b/c I have a hard time believing the alternative would garner that many viewers. It's all part of a broader effort cracking down on "Western efforts to corrupt" the "population through the spread of immoral programs".
A few years back TV enthusiasts in the country were enthralled by a show called Forbidden Fruit. It was a soap opera that chronicled the lives of an old man, his wife and the younger woman for whom he'd eventually leave his wife. In today's Iran this show would never make the airwaves (as a result it would probably more popular than ever).
While I could go w/out the half-naked dude I can't say that I'd want to watch a soap opera that didn't feature a love triangle or two. Shoot, if the show was really creative it could have three love triangles in it... involving only five people (it's possible, I just diagrammed it). A soap opera w/ out a jilted lover caught in such a web would be like watching a Star Wars movie w/out a lightsaber duel, or going to a baseball game and not getting a hot dog. I'm not a huge fan of soap operas but if the major theme of one was centered around a well-adjusted marriage and a healthy family dynamic something tells me it would've been off the air before you knew it (way faster than it takes sands to fall through an hourglass).
There is a way around the "no love triangle" rule, though. I guess these triad trysts can be depicted if the show explicitly condemns them. This sounds like it could backfire. Who's to say some television producer wouldn't tell a steamy 58-minute story only to spend the last two minutes of the program talking about how evil and wrong it is? Sounds like I just found a loophole that will keep Iranian soap operas exciting for @ least one more season.
As I mentioned before, I don't mind the whole "no half-naked men" rule but it sounds like that could become problematic as well. What if someone wanted to broadcast a boxing match; would the pugilists have to be fully clothed? It's hot over there; I couldn't imagine boxing in the middle of the desert covered from head-to-toe in long pants and long sleeves. That sounds like a recipe for heat exhaustion if I've ever heard of one.
Speaking of recipes, supposedly the country banned cooking shows that illustrate how to prepare Western dishes earlier this year. That means a show starring a topless Charlie Sheen and his two girlfriends grilling hamburgers would be the epitome of filth on the nation's airwaves. Seeing that people always want what they can't have I think I just came up w/ what could be Iran's next breakout TV hit... and just in time for the fall season no less.
Water, Water Everywhere!
09/26/11
I don't know what time you went to bed last night or what time you woke up this morning but if you timed things just right you may have missed the rain... and there was a lot of it! There's a pocket of energy high in the atmosphere and an area of low pressure @ the surface that dragged up a lot of moisture leading to a WET Monday.
3-4" of rain were not uncommon in the Miami Valley this morning. The range was closer to 2-3.5" but that first stat is accurate in the hardest hit areas. The reason we saw so much rain is b/c of something known as training thunderstorms. No they weren't learning how to be a pain in the butt (they already knew how to do that) the storms are called "training" b/c they kept re-developing over the same place. Do that for a few hours and the rain gauges fill up in a hurry.
Our heavy rain got us into the record books a few times today. W/ 3.10" of rain on the daily climate summary we shattered the old September 26th rainfall record... a paltry 0.90". But we had more rain than that. Since midnight we've actually seen 3.42" of rain. But there's a wrinkle in the way the records are kept. The stations are looked @ from midnight to midnight... Standard Time. We're in the middle of Daylight Savings Time, an hour ahead of Standard Time, which means that the rain that fell from 12:00 to 12:59 A.M. is counted as yesterday's rain. Sounds confusing but when you think of it in that context it makes sense. I still think there's gotta be a way around this glitch but maybe this is the first time anyone has ever really looked into it @ any great length.
Regardless of how today's rain is counted in the record books one thing is certain: we're officially in the midst of the wettest September on record. Our rainfall total for the month is 10.31" which is a 7.57" surplus for the month and destroys the old record for September rainfall. In September 2005 we got 7.37" of rain but today's total put us over the edge by almost three inches.
It's funny b/c September is usually one of our wettest months. In fact until this year (when the National Weather Service re-calculated the 30-year climatological averages) September typically saw less rainfall than every other month. So far this September we've gotten more than an average August, September and October... combined! Looks like September 2011 will buck the trend and the year will continue to be wetter than average; so far 2011 has seen close to an 11" surplus in the precipitation column. While that's not enough to get me to build an ark... it's close enough to make me think about it.
Goodbye Summer 2011
09/23/11
You likely didn't see it but I'm willing to bet you felt it. This morning the sun was directly over the equator and while that may not sound like a big deal whenever it happens we mark a passing of the season. 5:05 sharp this morning was what's known as the Autumnal or Fall Equinox. That means that Summer 2011 is officially over... and it felt like it today.
If you stayed inside all summer or you were lucky enough to head up north I'll fill you in on the previous season: it was hot. We had 8 days w/ highs in the 60s, 17 in the 70s, 42 in the 80s and (get ready for this) 27 days in the 90s. WOW! That's a lot of hot days.
It's probably no surprise but we had a high number of heat waves as well. We had a total of five heat waves this summer. That's the most heat waves we've seen in a single year since 1999; another year w/ five heat waves. 1999 was very similar to this summer as well. Both years had an unusually long stretch of 90+ temperatures in mid to late July. Each year also saw its final heat wave in the beginning of September. It was kind of like deja' vu all over again.
The longest heat wave we had this year was from July 17 - July 24. That's an 8-day heat wave and it was the longest heat wave we've seen in almost two decades. In 1994 we had one that lasted 10-days but during the stretch of July 17 - August 2 we only had two days that didn't get to 90 or higher. And we didn't get much of a break seeing that we hit 89 and 88 respectively on our "off days". So we were very close to a record breaking stretch of hot weather and in my book we might as well have gotten there b/c it felt like we were there already.
But today that all comes to an end. Sure it's still possible that we could get back to 90 (in fact, we've been there as late as mid-October) but the chances are slim. While I don't want to say "good riddance" to Summer 2011 I have to admit that I'm not going to miss it all that much. The local electric company might... but I won't. And while it was hot in the Miami Valley this summer it, as always, could've been worse. The airport out @ Dallas Fort-Worth hit 100 or better 40 days in a row this summer - that almost sounds like a biblical plague. Kind of makes me sound like a bit of a wuss for complaining about our weather but I guess extreme heat is a little like beauty... it's lies in the eye of the beholder.
Pass the Remote
09/22/11
We're entering the fall season which means shorter days, longer nights, cooler temperatures but more importantly... the new television season! I watched a lot of TV growing up and while I was never wild about heading back to school the new fall lineup always took a little of the sting out of it.
One thing that drives me nuts about the new TV season is that if I'm not careful I miss some of my favorite programs. For some reason, even though they're programmed into my DVR, some shows won't record if I don't re-enter them into the queue every fall. It makes no sense b/c I'll have this problem w/ some shows but not w/ others... on the same network! As a result if I'm not vigilant I miss the wrap-up of the last season's cliffhanger or the set-up of a story that will unfold in the coming months. Unfortunately this happened last night w/ Modern Family; it drives me crazy... I like my stories, now I have to wait for the re-run.
Going through my DVR list over the past few days I've realized something... we have waaaaay to many kids' shows recording. The other night almost 3/4 of my recording space was filled w/ what? The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Dora the Explorer, Sesame Street... just to name a few. It's gotten to the point where my shows are getting booted in order to make room for this stuff.
As I perused the contents I found myself asking, "When did this happen?" I work hard, I pay taxes, I even balance the checkbook. Why are my TV viewing preferences @ the bottom of the list? All my kids have to do is their schoolwork and look cute... that does not give The Backyardigans the pull that's necessary to outrank The Simpsons... or Family Guy for that matter. Ask anyone who's gotten home after a long day only to find the DVR skipped their favorite show in lieu of iCarley, they'll tell you how frustrating it is.
Periodically I'll go in late @ night and clean out the DVR to make space for my favorite shows. Right now I'm a little worried that I didn't do that last night b/c if I get home and find my Thursday night programs (one of my favorite nights) aren't on my DVR b/c of Phineas & Ferb... I'm going to be pretty mad.
Is the Sky Falling???
09/21/11
Over the next few days it might not be a bad idea to keep an eye to the sky. Not b/c we're expecting rain (even though there is some in the forecast late in the week) but b/c something falling from the clouds could hit you. If you haven't already heard an obsolete satellite has a date w/ Earth sometime in the near future.
The craft weighs six-tons, that's 12,000 lbs., and its on a collision course w/ our planet. Scientists are telling people not to be worried as it's expected to break up into more than 100 pieces. Of those, only about 26 are expected to make it to the surface w/ the largest weighing about 300 lbs.
So when and where will it hit? That's a good question... which is what interviewees say when they don't know the answer. The satellite is expected to crash sometime between Thursday and Saturday anywhere w/in 57 degrees north latitude and 57 degrees south latitude; scientists admit that tracking space debris is an inexact science... ya think? They're giving us a three-day window and an impact zone that's millions of square miles large (if not billions), one that stretches from Canada to Cape Horn, South America... and then circles the Earth. Calling that inexact is like saying The Incredible Hulk had anger management issues.
The next question is, "Am I in danger?" That depends on your luck. There is a 1 in 3,200 chance that it will hit someone but the odds that it'll hit you are about 1 in 21 trillion (that's 21 w/ 12 0's following it). Despite this reassurance I can't say that I'm not @ least a little bit worried. I've never been that lucky and something tells me that if I was ever going to beat the odds I wouldn't be buying a winning lottery ticket I'd be getting pummeled by a piece of trash from the junkyards of space. What's worse is that if I did get hit I wouldn't get a souvenir out of the ordeal. The satellite is government property and it's illegal to keep or sell any part of it (I guess you could make a shirt saying, "I got hit by a piece of space junk and all I got was this crummy T-shirt"). But that's about it.
I'll admit I'm probably overreacting, scientists say that heavy stuff falls out of space all the time and people are safe. And it makes a lot of sense; most of the world is covered by water and there is a lot of empty, unpopulated land. Looking @ it that way the odds of getting hit by a falling lugnut are pretty slim. I'll still glance upwards from time to time over the next few days, though. I suggest you do the same - if you look up and see a raindrop that grows impossibly larger as it gets closer to you... step out of the way. Something tells me an umbrella won't offer much protection (you will lool a little like Wile E. Coyote in that split second before impact, though).
The Butterfly Effect
09/20/11
What does a hurricane have to do w/ your Halloween plans? I'll explain in a second but first I want to talk about something known as "the butterfly effect" in order to drive the point home. No, I'm not talking about that movie w/ Ashton Kutcher, even though it was fun to watch him grow from Kelso to Evan Treborn in the span of a few years, I'm talking about a tenet of chaos theory.
The butterfly effect basically highlights the fact that a small change in a chaotic system can result huge differences @ a later time. It gets its name from a theoretical example of a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the world disrupting the air flow enough that it creates a hurricane thousands of miles away sometime in the future. In essence it points out how everything is related and changing one little thing can have huge consequences down the road. It's also why forecasting the weather can be so hard: small changes in the initial state of the atmosphere can have very different consequences in the near future - I liken a forecast to an equation w/ five million variables, if one of them is wrong (and @ least one always is) then the end result could be a busted forecast.
So what does a hurricane have to do w/ Halloween 2011? It's not just any hurricane it's Hurricane Irene and what it did to the pumpkin crop in the Northeast. In short, it decimated it. In some instances pumpkin farms lost their entire 15-20K load of the would-be jack-o-lanterns. And the pumpkin crop was already in jeopardy in that part of the country. Between a late start to the growing season (heavy rains), recent rainfall leading to some oddly named fungus and an early season cold snap yields in the NE were expected to be low in the first place.
Now farmers are scrambling to stock their farms for the coming onslaught of "pick-your-own pumpkiners" eager to begin the Halloween celebration. In New York City there's talk that pumpkins could reach up to $15 apiece @ the local supermarket. As a result even though we're hundreds of miles away, and didn't even feel the effects of Hurricane Irene, pumpkins may be a little more expensive here in the Miami Valley. That's b/c farmers in the NE are now turning to states like Ohio, Indiana and Michigan to help cover their own shortfalls. W/ fewer pumpkins here there's a chance they'll cost more - and the fewer we have in our area the more they'll likely cost.
And this scenario doesn't even consider the prospect of running out of the orange, gourd-like squashes this season. It all depends on how much we help out our New England neighbors. But if I were you I'd get my pumpkin(s) early... just to be safe. B/c to me, a Halloween w/out jack-o-lanterns sounds a lot scarier than any haunted house I might visit this fall.
One More Reason I'm a Nerd
09/16/11
It's not like you needed another article of evidence chronicling my dorkiness but here you go. When I get off work tonight I'm seriously considering turning off my phone. I know a few of my co-workers are considering hanging out after work and I'm sure some of my friends outside or work are doing the same. I'm thinking about shutting off my cell b/c that way I know no one can bother me.
So what do I have planned that sets my friends on the back burner of my activity calendar? It doesn't involve my family (which isn't dorky @ all). I'm not planning on leaving after work to go anywhere exotic... or even to a change of scenery for that matter. And I'm not expecting to blow these guys off b/c I want to go play laser tag (or any other awesome activity).
I'm planning an evening to myself b/c of a television show. That may not sound like a big deal b/c I'm sure we've all canceled plans for a TV program. But I'm doing all of this for Star Wars: The Clone Wars... a children's show. Now before you laugh... in my defense, it's pretty sweet!
It fills in that critical time in galactic history (a galaxy far from ours) between Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Each episode chronicles the exploits of a young Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, a young(er) Yoda and/or the rest of the cast that comprises the Star Wars universe.
As geeky as this sounds I've been looking forward to this new season since the season finale in May. Yes, the show is a cartoon but it seems every season since the series began has done nothing but get better. And if history is any guide I'm in for a treat tonight. So while I haven't made up my mind I just want my friends to know that if you couldn't get ahold of me tonight (Friday 9/16) don't worry I am and was okay. I was just nerding it up watching history as it unfolded a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
A Sign of Things to Come
09/15/11
Well it happened for the first time last night. I was walking in the rain (thinking of Eddie Rabbitt and his hit "I Love a Rainy Night") and I realized I was not properly dressed. I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt and quickly found my teeth chattering.
It may not sound like a big deal, it was chilly last night - anyone wearing said attire would feel the same way. The thing is, it's a big deal to me. While I love fall and have grown to respect and tolerate the cold weather that follows it, I don't have to welcome the passing of summer as we march towards the inevitable.
Technically we've still got a little more than a week of summer left - it begins @ 5:05 A.M. next Friday - but mother nature is notorious for not knowing what season it is in this part of the country. Consequently last night felt more like an evening in early November; one where there's a chill to the air and after a good soaking rain there's also a dampness to it so it's a "wet cold" that just chills you to the bone.
So as I walked around the neighborhood last night w/ umbrella in hand I couldn't help but lament the fact that summer, my favorite season, would soon be over. Some may say "good riddance" to the summer through which we just lived but I don't look @ it that way. Sure it was really hot... but @ least it wasn't cold.
So what do I have against the cold? W/ it comes dry weather and there isn't enough sun to keep my spirits up. As a result I'm pale w/ flaky, ashy skin if I forget to moisturize (which happens more often than not). I also like to spend time outside and about the only time I want to go out in the cold is when it's snowing - it's always so peaceful walking out in the snow, you feel like you're the only person in the world (of course whenever there's a heavy snow I'm in the weather center which is a bad time to head outdoors for a stroll). I also don't like the fact that w/ the frigid weather comes the cold or flu I inevitably get every year.
Despite all of this I often find myself accepting, even enjoying, winter by the time all is said and done. Maybe it's b/c by mid-February there's a light @ the end of the tunnel so I'm feeling better about the whole season... I also think snow is pretty. But even though I know I'll eventually grow to love the coming winter I don't have to get excited about the first time it gets to cold to wear shorts... and right now I'm not.
Tackling the "Honey-Do" List
09/08/11
Yesterday was one of those days where I just wanted to stay inside under the covers all day enjoying the warmth of my bed; a grilled cheese and tomato soup kind of a day. Today was a little different. Sure I wanted to stay inside all day b/c it was gloomy but it wasn't as rainy so it was more of a "stay inside and get something done" kind of a day.
So what project did I want to finish? Actually I didn't have one. What project did my wife want me to tackle? Unfortunately it wasn't one, it was two. As a result my desire to be lazy was trumped by the desire to avoid having an unhappy wife.
The first chore was easy: turn off the fan in the attic. It's been a little chilly as of late and the attic fan makes it that much cooler around the house. All I had to do was strap on my head lamp, maneuver through the rafters & insulation and set the "turn-on" temperature a little higher and Bam! - one task done in like five minutes.
The second task was a little tougher and more time consuming. I had to install a cat door so the cat could move freely from our house to the garage. That will become its new destination whenever nature calls. We used to keep the litter box in a bathroom right off the laundry room. Unfortunately the most convenient entry into our house is through that same room. Sure people use the front door... but they're usually coming over for the first time. Our friends and family tend to use what's easiest and every time they walked into our house it stunk... b/c of the litter box.
Seeing that I didn't want my home to be known as the "stinky house" amongst my friends I decided to move the box - unfortunately we don't have a basement so our options were limited. My oldest daughter stepped in and volunteered to keep it, along w/ the cat's food, in her room. Then she went and got a bird and we didn't think it was a good idea to keep our feline's food right next to an animal it would look @ as food were it in the wild.
So we moved the food but kept the cat box in my oldest's room. Our bedrooms are all in the back of the house though, which means the same odor our guests encountered whenever they stepped inside was now back where everybody sleeps. To me that scenario is far worse than being told my abode is smelly by any of my friends. Enter the cat door to the garage.
I thought I could use a reciprocating saw to make the hole but it just bounced all over the door roughing up the paint. So I used a drill and made some holes, enough to get the saw through the door, and it was going great... until I had to make a turn. That didn't work and I didn't want to break the blade so I grabbed a jigsaw and even though it was loud it worked much better. Fast forward about a half hour and I had a fully installed cat door.
That was the easy part. Getting the cat to use it... that's a different story. We had a cat door in the screen to our lanai (porch) in Hawaii so the animal was familiar w/ the concept. I grabbed it and put it in front of the door but she was having none of it. So I sort of pushed her partway through and she successfully used it for the first time. The first thing she did was run around the house to the back door - her normal entrance and exit. After some coaxing I got her to use the door to get back into the house. She then hid and thus declared our training session finished.
When I stopped home for dinner tonight my wife had moved the litter box and I was a little worried the cat would be lazy and decide to keep using the spot she was used too. So I again showed her how to get in and out of the door but forgot to put her in the cat box (which is how you train them where to go).
As I searched for the cat in my garage I realized she was hiding under the car. I don't know if she moved or not when I went to get the keys but I started up the vehicle to make sure she wouldn't hide under there anymore and sure enough I found her, placed her in the litter box and was happy. When I opened the door to go back into my house the cat bolted out of hiding and ran through it... and not the cat door. Whether or not Calamity (my cat's name) learned to use her new door is a mystery to me (but @ least I finished my "honey-do" list). I'll likely find out how successful my teaching was tonight when I go to bed. If it still stinks back in the sleeping area... we've got some more training to do.
An Unpleasant By-Product of the Rain
09/07/11
I was reminded of something this afternoon as I headed into work. The rain fell around me, as it had all day, and that was when I realized that some people have no idea how to drive in this weather. It's been a long time since we saw an all day rain event which I think had something to do w/ the caution some of my fellow motorists were exhibiting. It's one thing to drive through a pop-up storm but it's another when the rain has been falling for hours... I think it affects our psyche and forces us to be more cautious.
@ least I hope that's the case b/c people have been driving like turtles all day long. Now I'm by no means a speed demon. Whenever I do push the posted limit it's typically by less than 10 mph. There's two reasons for this: for one I usually realize I'm going to fast before I get that far over the allowed speed; I also know that if you're caught going more than 10 mph over you're paying a higher fine which means you're more apt to get away w/ a lapse in judgment if you keep your delinquency in the single digits.
Despite the reading on my speedometer there's no reason for anyone else's to read more than 5 mph under the allowed speed (which I still think is a little too much) - something I was forced to confront on the roads today. Countless drivers were going 5 and even 10 mph under the limit... b/c of a light rain!!! Come on. I understand the need to be cautious but it's not like we were dealing w/ a torrential downpour... it was more of a nuisance rain. I'd even argue that traveling that slow is actually more dangerous b/c it causes a back up and that's when people begin to get impatient, which leads to accidents.
And if one is going to drive so slowly please do all of us a favor: do it in the right lane if possible. There's a reason why one lane is nicknamed the "fast" lane and the other is known as the "slow" lane. If people feel the need to drive 25 in a 35 mph zone they should get out of the way b/c some of us have places to be... and a limited amount of time to get there.
I hope the pet peeve I encountered today is more a result of the fact that we've been so dry lately so people were taken off-guard and decided to take it easy. I probably shouldn't get too upset though b/c winter will be here before we know it. With winter comes snow & ice and that gives people a legitimate excuse to ride the break pedal... which means 10 mph under the limit will be more of a blessing than an annoyance.
A Weekend for the Record Books
09/06/11
It's not uncommon to hear people, especially young ones, talk about the "epic" weekend on the way or "legendary" one that just passed. It's a great way to highlight what would be an otherwise mundane outing if only these youth had some real life experience under their belts.
I'm not trying to pick on young people but once you're a little older you have a different perspective on things. I'm sorry but the birth of any of my three kids trumps any of the wild parties I went to in college or any of the spring break trips I made to New Orleans. Call me crazy but one of those examples changed my life far more profoundly than the others.
Being the weather nerd that I am I want to point out that we just lived through a "mind-blowing" weekend... when it comes to weather phenomena. That's b/c on each of the three days over our long holiday weekend we set or tied a weather record.
Saturday was hotter than Hades as we hit 97. That didn't break but tied the daytime high. To give you some perspective 97 isn't all that common in early September. In fact that last time we hit 97 on September 3rd was back in 1913... almost a century ago!
Saturday night saw heavy rain and thunderstorms. Those lasted into the day on Sunday and by the time all was said and done 2.27" had fallen throughout our Sunday out @ the Dayton International Airport (where the climate records are kept). That clobbered the single day rainfall total of September 4th. The old record was 0.72" which means that w/ 2.27" on Sunday we more than tripled the old record set back in 1953.
And finally on Monday our high was only 62. Other than being a little chilly it may not seem like a big deal but it is. That number ties the record in Dayton for the lowest high temperature ever recorded in Dayton on September 5th set back in 1994.
So there you have it; mother nature had her own little historic weekend in the Miami Valley. And while this may not sound as exciting as the "monumental" (or possibly "groovy") weekends you experienced as a kid something tells me that in a few years you'll probably remember it a lot better than those rowdy weekends of your youth. After all, as I mentioned our priorities change as we get older. But more than that... time has a way of mellowing us out; mainly b/c we can't keep up anymore.
Welcome Chilly Weather
09/05/11
I realize that my last blog involved my pleading w/ mother nature to take away the heat but this isn't exactly what I had in mind. I don't know if you were outdoors @ all today but it was COLD! We only got to 62 today out @ the airport and that ties the September 5th record for the lowest high temperature. It's also the coldest afternoon high since May 18th or 110 days ago... but who's counting?
I think the most jarring part about the whole matter is the fact that we just lived through the hottest day of the century on Friday. The day after that we got to 97 and today we're struggling to claw out of the 50s. It's almost as if we went from summer to fall in the span of three days. I know that the Labor Day weekend is the unofficial end of summer but mother nature has taken that title a little too literally for my taste.
I will admit it felt pretty nice @ first when I stepped outside this morning. But once the winds kicked up it got cool in a hurry. The funny thing is that if we were to have a day like today in April or May you probably wouldn't hear me complaining @ all; I'd actually be happy about the warming weather. But seeing that we're looking @ an almost 40 degree difference in temperature compared to Friday it's a little tough to handle.
Even though the drastic drop in temperature is a shock to the system I will admit that it's nice to see 90 degree temperatures are out of the immediate forecast. So I guess, in a way, mother nature obliged my recent request. Of course they do say be careful what you wish for b/c you might actually get it. In this case we got the cooler weather and until I get used to it... it's going to be a little cooler than my thinned out, summertime blood can handle.
GO AWAY HEAT!!!
09/02/11
Well we're in the beginning of September and today was officially the hottest day of 2011. We hit 98 today which is a degree shy of the record set back in 1953. I will admit that it wasn't too humid and there was bit of a breeze but quite frankly that doesn't provide a whole lot of solace when looking back upon the day through which we just lived.
Let me put today into perspective. W/ a high of 98 it's the warmest temperature recorded @ Cox International (where the climate records are kept - which means it was hotter in the city) since July 30, 1999. That officially makes today the hottest day of the millennium! 7/30/1999 was more than 12 years ago and if you want to be exact it's been 4417 days since we've been this hot in Dayton. Not only that but it's been more than two decades since we've even seen 95 or higher in September in Dayton (we did that back in 1990). Seeing that we hit 96 yesterday and 98 today it's safe to say that air this warm in the Miami Valley is NOT common this time of year.
Summer officially ends @ 5:05 A.M. on September 23rd and while I don't want to say that I can't wait I will admit that I won't mourn its passing. To say it was a hot one is a bit of an understatement. Not only did we see the longest heat wave since 1994 (8 days in mid-July vs. a 10-day one in '94) but if we get to 90 tomorrow (I'm calling for 95) we'll see our fifth heat wave of the year. That's the most heat waves we've seen in one year since 1999 when we had five that year. It's interesting how this year parallels 1999. We had five heat waves that year w/ a prolonged stretch of above average temperatures (mainly above 90) in mid-July and early August. 1999 also saw it's last heat wave of the year in early September and I'm hoping our last one will be in early September as well.
As it stands now we'll cool off... for the foreseeable future. After tomorrow's heat we'll get showers and storms Sunday as a cold front comes through the area. Behind that front we'll see highs in the 70s by the end of the long holiday weekend. It's kind of funny; we'll feel like the dead of summer tomorrow but by Monday it'll start feeling a lot more like fall. We'll go from one season to the next (or @ least feel like it) in a span of three days. But that's weather in Ohio... I'm just hoping that we're witnessing summer's swan song b/c I don't know if my air conditioner can handle many more days on overdrive.
My First Ever Book Review... I Think
09/01/11
In the past I've used this forum to critique movies and other forms of entertainment but I don't think I've ever used it to review a book. There's a few reasons for that. For one thing I don't read many books. I do read a lot but usually the newspaper and Time magazine (along w/ other news products)... in essence I tend to consume a little too much news media for my own good.
I don't read a lot of books b/c I'm not a big fan of fiction either. It's not that there aren't any good non-fiction novels out there; I just don't have the time to go searching for such books. And I do like fiction but my time is so finite that I figure if I'm going to read I might as well learn something in the process.
I may have to rethink that opinion, though. I just got finished w/ Stranger in a Strange Land (the uncut version) and it was fantastic! Written by Robert Heinlein in 1961 it's the story of Valentine Michael Smith. He's a human who was born on Mars and raised by Martians. The story gets going once he returns to Earth. Without spoiling the plot I'll just say that there are a lot of people who want a piece of him and a few who become his "water brothers" (which is like being his best friend on steroids) through no planning of their own.
As the story progresses Michael discovers his humanity but he's able to look @ it through Martian eyes and sees the goodness and wrongness that surrounds all of us in everyday life. Through time he realizes he has powers that many humans do not possess... but only b/c they haven't even begun to know what's possible. I'll leave it @ and let you fill in the rest.
My wife actually got me reading the book. She started it while we were on vacation a few weeks ago. She's not a fan of science fiction but it was recommended by the New York Public Library as one of the "great 52 books to read". I do like sci-fi and I'm very happy she decided to check it out from the library. I have to admit that this isn't really a science fiction book, though. It's more of a story that delves into philosophy and humanity against the backdrop of a sci-fi premise.
I've got to warn you though... this is a long book. The uncut version is 525 pages but as you get into it you'll find it's tough to put down and I got through the story in less than two weeks (after starting it on my last day of vacation). If the length is a deterrent there is a shorter version. When the manuscript was originally published in the 1960s the author's editor made him cut out 60,000 words figuring no one would every want to read a book that long... especially if it were science fiction.
I feel that if you're going to start the shorter version you might as well bite the bullet and read the long one and watch the story unfold the way the author intended it. Either way I hope you take the time to read the book b/c it's a classic you'll know what I mean once you've grokked it in fullness. "May you always drink deep May you never be thirsty." If those last two thoughts make no sense it'll all make sense once you start Stranger in a Strange Land.
On The Prowl
08/31/11
We've all heard the term, "It's a jungle out there" but in parts of North Dayton some may be taking that term literally. Earlier in the summer we told you about a black leopard that was on the loose... it was kind of a scary story. After a brief hiatus from the news cycle the fanged feline appears to be free once again as it was recently spotted near North Main Street and Needmore Road.
Authorities don't know where it came from but believe it's someone's exotic pet. I'll buy that seeing that black leopards aren't native to this area (@ least the last time I checked they're not). What I don't understand is how someone can get a hold of such an animal. Something tells me you can't just walk into Pet World and pick one up. Not only that but if you have the resources to purchase such an animal one would think you'd also have the money and foresight to put in some sort of an anti-escape system so you could protect your investment.
Tonight we sent a reporter up to North Dayton to cover the story and she's a lot braver than I. That's b/c these animals are nocturnal, they're mainly active @ night. Seeing that this leopard is black it's sure to blend into its surroundings which would make it hard to know if one was sneaking up on you this time of day so it would be even tougher to mount an escape if needed. I don't know if pretty blond reporters are part of the animal's diet but I wouldn't want to take that risk.
I also worry that this thing will find its way down into my neighborhood. There are a number of wooded acres, full of deer, near my house which would likely make a wonderful habitat for such a cat. I also worry about the animals in my household. My cat seems to have the rule of the roost just outside my doorway. Something tells me there's only room for one dominant black cat in the area and I think Calamity would come up on the losing end of that fight.
Stealth Marketing
08/30/11
I've never been much of an advertising guru but I can recognize good marketing when I see it. Have you ever looked @ the FedEx logo? Can you see the subliminal arrow in it? If not click here and look @ the logo. Do you see it now? If not, click here and look @ the bottom FedEx logo the arrow is highlighted in green.
If you think about it this is a great idea. The whole point of FedEx is to deliver packages to people. Why not suggest to potential customers that the company is always on the move? One way it could do that is by dropping an arrow into the middle of the company logo... a logo that's on every van, every package and more than a few advertisements. Over time consumers may feel that the delivery company is that much speedier than its competitors and not know why.
When I used to work @ Johnny Rocket's I encountered another piece of stealth marketing. Next time you go there (if you frequent the restaurant) do two things. First order the Grilled Ham & Cheese sandwich, but add a fried egg and bacon to it... along w/ mayonnaise & mustard to it - but that goes w/out saying. After you order what I dubbed the "Super Duper Moon" sandwich when I invented it take a look @ the beverage your server brings you. If he's doing his job the "Johnny Rocket's" logo should be facing you. The reason behind this is b/c the burger joint wants its logo to be as recognizable as McDonald's, according to the dude who trained me. While I think it's a bit of a fool's errand to pretend that such a small "niche" chain w/ burgers that cost twice as much (even though they're @ least twice as delicious) could ever take down a worldwide icon... I like the "never say die" mentality.
People who watch Dayton's News Source and/or read my blog are smarter, better looking and just all around happier than those who don't.
Today I was bombarded by a nice little marketing ploy. If you ever pay attention @ the end of our newscasts you'll see that hairstyles are provided by Hausfeld's Salon. As a result I get free haircuts from the business. While I was little leery of not going to a barber shop @ first, the people @ Hausfeld's are very nice and I've gotten over my initial apprehension - plus, they really pamper you there... it's nice.
When I sat down into the chair this afternoon Colleen (the lady who cuts my hair) threw the cutting cape on me. As I looked @ it I noticed a hair care product logo on it. I looked closer and realized that the brand name was not only on my chest but it was sewn into my cutting cape backwards so when I saw it in the mirror it could be read correctly. Kind of like how the word ambulance is backwards on the front of the vehicle so when you look in your rear-view mirror you'll know what's behind you (just in case the flashing lights and loud siren don't tip you off). Anyway I was amazed @ the foresight of the company. Most people sit in their chair in front of a giant mirror for about a half hour whenever they get their hair cut. Why not subject them to a 30 minute commercial that they don't even know they're watching while they're seated? It's genius.
The whole ordeal got me thinking. I should start putting little subliminal messages in my weathercasts or blog @ the very least. As a result I put one in this entry. You may have missed it but if you go back and re-read the above paragraphs you'll probably find it :)
A Budding Meteorologist
08/29/11
I just saw a great video on our airwaves. It features five-year-old Jane Haubrich giving reports from Doylestown, PA as the effects of Hurricane Irene were being felt in that area. If you haven't seen it yet click here and you'll get a peek.
I know Doylestown is fairly close to New Jersey which got hit by Irene but the weather in the videos I've seen doesn't appear to be too bad. Having said that I need to point out that standing out in a hurricane and reporting isn't the greatest of ideas (even for a news crew). But like I said the weather doesn't appear to be too bad in her video so now I can point out another fact: it's adorable.
She appears very comfortable on-camera, especially for a beginner. I've seen some newbies in the industry who don't have half of the confidence she shows... shoot, I don't think I did when I started. Who knows, we could be witnessing the beginning of a successful career in broadcasting w/ this kid.
Luckily she's only five b/c that means child labor laws will prevent her from taking my job for @ least another 13 years. But once she goes to school and learns a little about what makes the atmosphere "tick" she'll give me, along w/ a lot of other meteorologists, a run for my money :)
Time Marches On
08/26/11
As the seasons inevitably march on the years tend to get marked w/ "I can't believe it's already..." moments no matter what the weather is outside. I find myself saying it @ the end of February just before the first blooms of spring begin sprouting. I also come to his revelation every Fourth of July and tonight I had a similar moment. Why? B/c high school football is once again alive and well in the Miami Valley.
This time every year kids begin returning to school after their long hiatus, mother nature begins dropping her first hints that the fall season is just around the corner and teenagers everywhere battle for glory every Friday night on the gridiron. I don't know what it is but there's just something about high school football. I never played and my school didn't have the greatest team when I attended but I still look back upon the games and smile.
I remember gazing out onto a field so bright under the lights that it almost hurt your eyes just to look @ it. I remember cheering on my friends hoping we'd be victorious. And it's hard to forget the energy present @ those home games. Even during a bad year they were all packed; people would go there to hang out w/ friends, enjoy terribly unhealthy food and watch the game unfold in front of them every other week. It was almost as if the game and the crowd merged into one becoming a living organism hanging on every play.
When I was a senior in high school one of my best friends was a Captain on the team. I don't remember our record that year but I do remember the team going into our arch rival's house and beating them. After the final second ticked every student who made the trip rushed out onto the field and my buddy just walked around it w/ a look on his face that wasn't quite happiness... it was more a look of satisfaction or accomplishment. And he'd earned it; hardly anybody thought we could do it but they pulled off what seemed to be an impossible task. I've since lost touch w/ that guy but I know he got the game ball and I'm sure he still has it, in a place of prominence... wherever he lives.
I can only guess what this year's high school football season will bring. I know the next 10 weeks will be quite transformational. Not only will the youth in the area (both athletes and non) get that much closer to adulthood but by the end of the season Nate and I will be tailgating in jackets and gloves as we march closer and closer to the beginning of the winter season. Right now that seems like ages away but it'll be here before you know it. Something tells me when it's here I'll find myself saying, "I can't it's almost Christmas!"
How a Hurricane Hundreds of Miles Away will Affect Our Weather
08/25/11
One of the big weather stories dominating the headlines is Hurricane Irene. As of this writing (10:50 P.M. 8/25) it's a Category 3 storm w/ maximum winds of 115 mph but gusts to 138 mph. It's less than 600 miles from the North Carolina coast and could make landfall there eventually pummeling the Outer Banks. From there the forecast continues to push the storm up the East Coast possibly hitting the Jersey Shore, Long Island and Boston.
Right now I agree w/ the fact that North Carolina, especially the Outer Banks, is under the gun. I'm still not sold on the prospect of a landfall over New York, though. The reason is that there's time for the forecast to change and these storms typically have a more pronounced re-curve as they move farther north. That doesn't necessarily mean this storm will, and I'd be preparing if I lived in the Northeast, but I'm still waiting to see what latest model runs are calling for heading through the weekend before I commit to the storm hitting that area.
One interesting thing is the fact that while Irene brings potentially devastating weather to the Eastern seabord it's impacts here are going to be far different. Right now high pressure is settling over the region. High pressure brings stable, sinking air and is responsible for the gorgeous day through which we just lived. In our area weather systems typically move from west to east. That means that our ridge of high pressure would normally move off to the east through the weekend (if not sooner).
But b/c Hurricane Irene is moving up the East Coast it'll act like a bit of a block to our area of high pressure. That means that it won't be able to go anywhere which means that our gorgeous conditions will stick around staying parked over us through the weekend.
Irene will have another impact on us. If you didn't know hurricanes are one of the ways mother nature controls the climate. They're great at transporting heat from the tropics to the north and bringing cooler air from the higher latitudes down to the south. As Irene moves up the coast winds in our neck of the woods will shift to the north. That'll start dragging down cooler and drier air @ the surface. But b/c the storm extends up into the atmosphere and winds higher up will have a northerly component to them, it'll also drag down cooler & drier air a bit higher in the sky. As a result our air mass will be cooler and drier than it otherwise would've been by the end of the weekend and we will be enjoying fantastic conditions over the next few days.
It never ceases to amaze me how complex and beautiful the atmosphere is. The unfolding weather picture is but one example of the awe inspiring field of meteorology. My heart goes out to those who are in the path of Hurricane Irene and if they do decide to evacuate they're more than welcome in the Miami Valley... an area that will see a positive outcome from such a terrible storm.
Granny Power!!!
08/23/11
I think I have a new hero. I don't know her name but I love her actions. She's a 90-year-old German woman who's not afraid to back down from a challenge.
Police say she was in her farmhouse using a walking aid when she spotted three would-be burglars, a woman and two men. Instead of throwing in the towel (which I probably would've done... and I'm 34) the feisty former farmer grabbed her cane and beat the intruders until they fled her home... hopefully crying in terror.
This is the type of story that makes me happy for a few reasons. For one thing it's nice to hear that the lady is still active. It's even better to hear that she's willing to exercise w/ those only a fraction of her age and that she won't let a few whippersnappers rain on her parade. But more than that I can't stand it when people try and take advantage of others; I love to hear about robbers, or any other crooks for that matter, who get what's coming to them.
What I love most about this story is the fact that a sweet old lady bested these law breakers. I can only imagine what went through their minds as a nonagenarian w/ a cane came rushing their way. I'm sure they fled due to reflex but I can't help but wonder if they decided it's probably not a good idea to let anyone know what happened when they finally had time to sit back and analyze the situation. That's the type of story you take to the grave.
Police correctly point out that while this was a courageous action it was also quite dangerous as this lady could've easily gotten hurt. While I'm glad she thwarted the wannabe thieves, and likely embarrassed them @ the same time, I agree w/ the authorities and I'm happier that she's safe. I will admit that I hope the next time an aspiring hoodlam plans on committing a crime he remembers the tale of "Super Granny" and thinks twice about it.
Gotta Love a Week of Doing Nothing
08/22/11
Well, it's been a little over a week and it's time to get back to work. If you've been watching recently (or if you read on a regular basis) you probably realized I wasn't busy doing much of anything on-air or on-line. That's b/c I was on vacation and boy was it nice!
I went to Michigan (great state... bad football team) last week and had a blast. If you look @ your left hand and focus on your pinky just past the fingernail (I'll wait for you to position your hand)... that's where I was. It's up near Glen Arbor and about 20 minutes NW of Traverse City. I was staying less than a mile from the Sleeping Bear Dunes Shoreline. This was just deemed the most beautiful place in the country by Good Morning America. I didn't go b/c of this fact but it was announced while I was there which was big news for the area.
This time of year Michigan is absolutely gorgeous! Don't you love it when highs get into the upper 70s and low to mid-80s w/ plenty of sunshine? We get days like that here in Ohio but Michigan gets A LOT of them throughout the summer. Just for a little bit of reference think back to today's beautiful weather. Had we seen a sky like that up in the Northern Lower Peninsula I'd rank it the second worst day of last week. That's b/c of the six full days I was there three or four of them didn't have a cloud in the sky.
Not only is it beautiful but when it gets hot up there it's not really all that humid so it's comfortable. Throw into the mix that you're surrounded by inland lakes and just a mile or so from Lake Michigan and it's no wonder so many people in this area love to spend part or all of there summers in that state up north.
As for my vacation I spend a lot of time @ the beach. I love the beach but for some reason time on it seems to go by WAAAY to quickly. I spent the day there on Friday and thought only two hours had passed but it was actually closer to five. Every time I go up there I realize how much I miss the water... it's nice.
All in all it was a great trip. I only got a few mosquito bites and a minor sunburn. Not only that but I got a chance to relax and watch the world go by... in front of a gorgeous backdrop no less. But I truly knew it was a great vacation when I woke up this morning. Although I was groggy... I was ready to get back to work.
Ready For A Vacation
08/12/11
Well, it's that time of year again... vacation time! I'm about two hours away from a week off and I'm excited. Once again I'm going up to the far northern portion of the lower peninsula of Michigan. I don't know if you've ever been to that area but if you haven't I recommend it highly.
If you've enjoyed the weather the past few days then you'd love Michigan in the summer. While they don't see weather like this every day, it rains from time to time, they see it more often than not during the high-sun season. Not only is there plenty of sunshine and comfortable air w/ lower humidity levels but if you're close enough to the lake you'll get a refreshing breeze so air conditioning is rarely necessary. It just about makes up for the long cold winter they endure in that state up north.
About the only complaint I have about Michigan (other than the fact that I'm a Buckeyes fan) is that there are a lot of mosquitoes up there. There's a lot of water up there, I heard somewhere that no matter where you are in the state you're w/in 50 miles of a lake. While I don't know if that's true I believe it b/c inland lakes are everywhere. As a result there's ample room for mosquitoes to breed. Honestly a little bug spray more than makes up for the annoyance. And even if a bug bite does sneak in it's well worth it given the natural beauty by which you're surrounded.
I don't have a whole lot planned other than going out on a boat on Sunday and hitting up some of the nearby beaches and neighboring towns. That's probably all I'll do which is fine by me. Quite frankly I have a week to figure it out. So after a few shows tonight I'm up @ 6:00 tomorrow morning and hopefully pulling into Glen Arbor by about 1:00 in the afternoon. See you a week from Monday!
- BTW, while I doubt you are, if you're reading this and thinking about robbing me while I'm gone... good luck. I don't have much worth taking and my neighbors are watching my place and one of them is a law enforcement officer w/ very loud dogs.
Tired of Wall Street's Mood Swings
08/10/11
I'm not in a hurry to retire but I'm beginning to think it's never going to happen. Over the past few weeks the Dow Jones Industrial Average has plummeted losing over 2000 points or 16%. Why then, I'm wondering, do we see those who get to ring the closing bell clapping and cheering @ the end of each day? I can understand if the market is up. I even get it if it's only off by a little. But when it slides 500-600 points (which it has in three of the last four days) the last thing I'd be doing is clapping. I know they're not cheering b/c the trading day is over, I can see it in their faces; maybe they're just cheering b/c they have too but that doesn't mean it's not a strange juxtaposition.
The recent swings remind me a little of 2008 but for some reason it doesn't feel as frightening as it was back then. I don't know if it's b/c I've lived through it already, b/c I've grown numb to the up & down roller coaster that's known as Wall Street or if it's that this seems to happen this time every year (or @ least for the last few years). Quite frankly neither prospect is appealing.
The emotional part of me wants to take any money I have invested towards retirement out of the market and hide it under my pillow. Logically I know that's a terrible idea so I won't do it. I also figure that it won't be fun to sleep on a pile of quarters. Either way it's no fun hearing that $2.1 trillion in wealth has been lost in the past few weeks.
The only silver lining in all of this (which isn't much comfort) is the fact that oil is dropping as well. It's down to around $80 a barrel. So how does that affect things? 70% of our economy is based on consumer spending. That means the bulk of it comes from people opening their wallets and buying goods and services. If oil is expensive, as it was back in late April and early May when it got to about $115/barrel, people are paying more for gas (we were @ about $4.15/gallon back then). That means they have less money to spend on other things which slows down the engine upon which our economy is based.
If you don't buy this theory then explain to me why the soft patch began right around the time the price of a gallon of gas peaked (that was also the time people were speculating it would get to $6.00/gallon by now). Looking back it's easy to see why we never hit $6.00 - the recovery began to sputter which meant investors weren't buying as much oil b/c they were betting on a global slowdown.
Here's to hoping that energy prices stay low a bull market the likes of which we've never seen begins sooner than later. I'm not confident that'll happen tomorrow but I know it'll happen. Hopefully if I ever get to ring the closing bell it'll be when we're in such a cycle b/c I don't want to stand up there in front of all those people w/ a giant smile on my face just minutes after my 401k took a terrible hit.
Another Busy Night in the Weather Center
08/09/11
Once again I've had a busy night in the weather center but this evening had a little more action than the last. If you were out and about today and liked the sunshine and the lower humidity levels you can thank the cold front that swung through here last night. Another one moved through tonight but brought another round of severe weather with it.
So far the major reports I've seen haven't been too bad. I got word of 1" hail near Cridersville and 1.25" just outside Auglaize county north of the viewing area. There was also some wind damage in southern Clark county about four miles north of Yellow Springs.
Storms began flaring up in northern Ohio and central Indiana in the mid to late afternoon hours. As they approached us the line lost some organization along its southern flank as our air w/ lower humidity inhibited development. There was enough energy in the northern Miami Valley around 7:00 P.M. as that line began working into the northern portions of Mercer and Auglaize counties which is right around the time our first severe thunderstorm warning was issued in the area.
That line continued to push into western Logan and northern Shelby counties and our warning was extended but other than some gusty winds Shelby didn't see much. Logan county got hit w/ heavy rain and possibly damaging winds - although that hasn't been confirmed yet.
The storms weakened for an hour or so as they continued to push to the southeast. But as they pulled into eastern Champaign and northeastern Clark counties they began building and appeared a lot more threatening, something I pointed out during my first hit on the 10:00 show. By the next time I was up in front of the camera this storm had a severe thunderstorm warning w/ it. That continued pulling off to the east and fizzled out after it passed through Columbus and by then our First Warning Radar was clear in the area.
Now I'm watching the skies clear from the northwest to the southeast. I like to think of tonight's storms as mother nature's "last hurrah" as we cap off what has been a terrible weather pattern for some time. The extreme heat and humidity are over... @ least for now. So how nice will it get? Well, for the next couple of days we're talking about highs in the upper 70s and lows in the 50s, something we haven't done since late June. There's still some rain on that 7-day but thankfully we're talking about much cooler conditions relative to the last month.
The funny thing is that whenever you're in the middle of something that lasts awhile it tends to feel like it's never going to end. If your child is having trouble sleeping there are times that you're convinced you'll never get a full night's sleep again. College was a fun time in my life and seemed like it would last forever until I graduated, entered the real world and the bill came due. That's what this recent weather rut felt like... never ending. Of course in the dead of winter I'm sure I'll feel the same way about the cold but in the meantime I'm going to enjoy what mother nature has to offer... for @ least a few days.
On Storm Partol
08/08/11
Tonight was busy, but not really, in the Miami Valley. We've had showers and thunderstorms throughout the evening. Earlier today they were strong and had severe thunderstorm warnings just west of the area. When they rolled into our neck of the woods they weakened and other than a single severe thunderstorm warning it wasn't too crazy in our neck of the woods.
As I watched these storms develop earlier today I thought it was going to be a dicey evening. Strong storms developed in Indiana and there was some definite rotation w/ them... enough to possibly spark a tornado warning. We had a similar set up yesterday but it was warmer. As I watched things tonight I was seeing rotation and there were tornado warnings w/ a few of of the cells... but just outside of the viewing area which doesn't warrant a cut-in.
As the night wore on a large complex of showers and storms continued to move closer to us. That system had numerous severe thunderstorm warnings and even a few tornado warnings as well. As I watched this I was happy to see they a weakening trend... especially after sunset tonight. That's actually a good thing b/c with the weakening trend the rain isn't as heavy and that means it's easier for the moisture to soak into the ground and recharge the aquifer.
However b/c the weather was bad as it crossed the Hoosier State it was an interesting night for me @ Dayton's News Source. I spent the evening w/ one eye on the radar and another on the latest computer forecast model runs. As I mentioned before it was busy, but not really. That's b/c I was monitoring the radar all night so I had a lot to do but as things got into the area they weakened so I really didn't have much to do @ all. This may sound strange but it makes sense to me. The good news is that after we get through this evening and tomorrow night the forecast will get a lot more favorable. Sunshine will take over and we'll see highs in the upper 70s w/ nighttime lows in the low 60s and even a few mornings in the 50s. After the July we just had that's fine by me.
Lucky Dog
08/04/11
Facebook is an amazing thing. It allows us to connect w/ one another in ways that would've seemed impossible just a decade ago. Not only that but it lets the user enjoy an inflated sense of importance on a daily basis. We get to tell people what we're doing @ any given moment or broadcast little inane snippets of our psyche that we're certain the world will enjoy all w/ the tap of a phone screen. How these posts are received is up for debate but each "Like" or comment that accompanies a particular post serves to validate our awesomeness.
Our network is made up of "friends" - people we know on various levels from lifelong pals to passing acquaintances. One of the ways we gauge our Facebook footprint is by the number of friends we have. Each time that number clicks up we feel a little better about ourselves b/c we're that much more popular. I have to admit I feel that way sometimes. Whether I'm getting a friend request from a long lost high school buddy or from someone I've never met it's always a thrill. And I never turn anybody down b/c I was always taught to be polite to everyone... even strangers (as long as they're not too strange). That, and I figure that the one requesting may be a viewer so it's good they're watching. I also use Facebook for weather dissemination purposes so it's good to accept friends b/c then I can give the forecast to that many more people.
As of now I have 623 friends - actually I have 622 b/c my wife is on the list but I think she joined more out of obligation. I'm happy w/ my number and I'm feeling pretty good about my Facebook reach. @ least I was... until I learned about Boo.
Boo is the known as the "World's Cutest Dog". While this superlative seems a little tough to back up w/ any sort of hard data the pooch does have close to 1.5 million friends on Facebook. That kind of makes me seem like a nerd for previously bragging about my 623. I know the dog is cute, actually he's adorable, but how does an animal go about getting so many fans? That's a lot.
Somehow the dog is even able to leave cute little messages to his throngs of adoring fans asking how his latest photos look and lamenting how he can never get a moment to himself when he's trying to hide. It's all very cute... until I realize that this dog really provides no real information and can't even understand the fuzzy comments his friends are leaving him. I could understand the amount of friends if the dog was on a cereal box, in a movie or a company's spokesanimal but Boo doesn't sell car insurance and as far as I know has never saved anybody's life... he's just another pretty face.
I know it's not a competition but for me... it kind of is (of course the dog is beating me so badly that calling this a competition is more of a compliment to myself and an insult to him). I don't know why it bothers me that I'm getting creamed so badly by such a cuddly puppy but what bothers me even more is that I find myself fighting the urge to hit the "Like" button on his page. Too late, I'm officially Boo's 1,447,799th fan.
Talk Abut a "Hot" Car
08/03/11
Every year thousands of cars are stolen in Ohio and even more nationwide. Unfortunately it's a fact of life in our society. As you can imagine some vehicles are more popular than others. The National Insurance Crime Bureau studies what cars are the most attractive to thieves and releases its top 10 every year.
You'd think some of the more sought after automobiles would include your BMW's, Porsche's, Lamborghini's or some other high performance machine. Well, if you feel that way you'd be wrong. In fact the most stolen car in Ohio is the 2000 Dodge Caravan (number 7 on the national list) and the car that's tops the list across the country is the 1994 Honda Accord (number 2 on Ohio's list).
I found this to be a little puzzling. I used to have a 1995 Accord and it was a nice car but I don't know if I'd risk a grand theft auto conviction just to get one. I feel the same way about the 2000 Dodge Caravan. Does this mean the Caravan is the perfect vehicle for the criminal on the go who has a family and a mind for safety? I guess even crooks deserve a five-star crash rating... if they're willing to pay for it.
The funny thing is that of the top 10 stolen cars in the nation and the state we're not talking about any of the hot rods we all wanted as kids... unless you had a penchant for a '95 Cutlass Supreme or a '91 Toyota Camry when you were a child. I mean seeing a Dodge Caravan atop that list is akin to a Ford Aerostar leading the pack in the 90s or a Buick Skylark in that same position in the 80s.
As I gaze @ the list of the most stolen cars I can't help but wonder how the movie Gone in 60 Seconds would look if the car thieves would've been after cars like the '98 Chevy Cavalier or the '97 Ford F-150. For one thing the movie would likely need a new title. And I don't think the director could've signed Nicholas Cage or Angelina Jolie to such a film. In essence had the motion picture highlighted the most stolen cars in the country it would've been called "Gone in 260 Seconds" and paired one of less famous Baldwin or Dillon brothers alongside Kathy Gifford.
Honestly, part of the reason I bought a 2005 Dodge Neon was b/c I figured that'd be the last thing a would-be convict would want to hot wire (that and it was cheap... which is why it's been paid off for a few years now). Turns out the coming years may prove me wrong. I hope it never gets to that point b/c if someone is willing to risk their freedom for a car w/ squeaky breaks along w/ the power and engine size of four go-carts strapped together then we're a lot worse off than anyone thought.
Another Hot Milestone
08/02/11
Well the broken record train rolls on and again I'm talking about the heat b/c it's making it into the news yet another day as we once again do something we haven't done in a long time. Today's high was 93 in Dayton but it was muggy so it felt more like we were in the upper 90s and low triple digits in some spots.
I'm happy and sad about that. Happy b/c I was calling for 93 last night and it's nice to hit the high temperature on the nose (even though I'm happy to be w/in three degrees). I was also calling for increasing humidity throughout the day and it's always nice when mother nature does what she's supposed to do. I'm a little sad b/c I'm sick of the extreme heat. Not only does it make it tough to do anything but I can hear the money getting sucked out of my wallet every time the air conditioner kicks on to keep the temperature in my living room on an even kilter.
So what's so special about a high of 93? Nothing really... @ least not on the surface. It's been so hot for so long that 93 feeling like the low triple digits is old hat by now and in some cases a bit of a relief. But with a high of 93 we are officially in the throes of another heat wave - big deal, we've had a lot of those so far this season. But therein lies the rub. W/ a high of 93 today we've now seen a total of four heat waves so far in 2011 which is a lot (and we're just starting the month of August).
Here's a list of this year's heat waves:
7/10 - 7/12 - 3 days
7/17 - 7/24 - 8 days
7/26 - 7/29 - 4 days
7/31 - 8/2 - 3 days
To provide a little perspective we only had two heat waves last year - and that was a warm summer. And some years we don't have any heat waves @ all. In fact, since 2000 we've seen six years, or half the time, that were heat waveless (which isn't really a word but you get the picture). Until this year the most heat waves we've seen in one season since 2000 is three. We did it in 2002, 2005 & 2007. That means that 2011 has seen the more heat waves than any other year so far this century.
The last time we had a year w/ @ least four heat waves was way back in 1999. Back then Y2K was one of the biggest fears on the minds of about half the country. Ricky Martin and the youth of America were busy "Livin La Vida Loca" (Livin' the crazy life). And The Blair Witch Project blurred the line between real-life terror and low budget Hollywood trickery. We had a total of five heat waves that year:
6/8 - 6/10 - 3 days
7/3 - 7/6 - 4 days
7/21 - 7/26 - 6 days
7/29 - 7/31 - 3 days
9/3 - 9/5 - 3 days
So our hot summer continues to find a place somewhere in the record books and we still have a month-and-a-half to go. I'm dreading opening my July electric bill but there's not much I can do about it so I won't lose any sleep over the impending hit my finances are sure to take. One thing I'm happy to report is that my 7-day forecast doesn't have a single day w/ a temperature of 90 or higher on it. We might get there on Friday but it'll be close so the optimist in me went w/ the upper 80s. The last time I had a 7-day that didn't have one day w/ a high of 90 or better was in late June. And I'll tell you what... tonight's 7-day looks gorgeous in my eyes.
July in Review
08/01/11
As we turn the page on July 2011 I'd like to be the first to say good riddance. It was hot... and muggy! I'm sure I don't need to tell anyone that but I just did. About the only way one could've missed last month's heat would be if he stayed indoors, in his basement, for the bulk of the month.
Let's recap our sweltering July. It started out pretty warm w/ temps in the mid-80s to 90 through the first 10 days. July 10-12 marked our first heat wave of the year when highs hit 90, 95 and 91 respectively. It was pretty muggy during that stretch as well.
After that we got a three day break before the heat and humidity returned. From July 17-24 we underwent our longest heat wave in 17 years. It peaked @ 97 on 7/21 and 7/22 and over that eight day stretch the coolest high we saw was 92... on the last day. The average temperature (high + low, divided by 2) during that heat wave was 84.7 degrees... which is WARM! In fact the last time we had an average temperature that high over an eight day period was in July of 1940. The July 17-24 heat wave ties for number 30 on the all-time list of longest heat waves in Dayton.
After that we got a break... kind of. The high on 7/25 was only 89. We were back @ 90 the very next day and entered another heat wave lasting 4 days until 7/29. During that scorching stretch we again got to 97 but it wasn't as humid so it was a little more bearable, but not much. 7/30 saw a high of 88 and we ended July w/ a high of 91.
It's safe to say that July 2011 was hot but now that the numbers are in it looks like it even made it into the history books. W/ an average temperature of 79.8 it's the 5th warmest July on record. Julys 1934 (1), 1936 (2), 1901 (3) and 1921 (4) are the only ones that rank higher.
But the record books don't close on the average temperature. The previous month also made it into the top five when it comes to the number of days w/ 90+ highs. It ties for 5th w/ 19 total afternoons topping out @ or above 90. Wow, I almost felt a trickle of sweat as I typed that stat. For a little perspective the year that holds the record for the most 90+ days is 1901 w/ 26 days; 1898 is number two (21); 1916 and 1934 are tied for third (20). We could've easily gotten to number two on this dubious list and seeing that the difference was only a degree or two I kind of wish we would've gotten there b/c it would've felt the same either way.
As I mentioned earlier I'm happy to see that July is over b/c I didn't get to do hardly anything outdoors last month and I don't like that. I swear if it's not raining for about two months straight or hotter than Hades for an extended stretch it's too cold to go outside in this state. I guess I can look @ the bright side... we're home to the Reds and the Buckeyes.
The real bright side is the fact that everything comes to an end... and an end is in the forecast. By the weekend it'll still be warmer than average but the humidity levels will be down. Beyond that the long-term forecast models (which, while not always accurate, don't do too badly picking up on the coming trends this time of year) are calling for a break in our persistent warmth sometime late next week. It will be a welcome sight but as much as I'm hoping it lasts I wouldn't be surprised if mother nature sneaks in some more blistering heat sometime before the summer ends.
Tying the Knot
07/29/11
Over the next few weekends you may notice someone is absent from our broadcasts. Andrew Buck Michael is our weekend meteorologist but he's off for a little while. Tomorrow he'll declare his love for the woman in his life in front of his family, his friends and his God when he gets married to his lovely fiance. Where he's honeymooning, I don't know (actually I don't remember) but I know he's looking forward to the next couple of weeks.
I've known Buck for a few years now and I would tease him when we first met asking him when he was going to settle down w/ his girlfriend and finally get married. He'd tell me I sounded like his mom but last summer he proposed and tomorrow the two will tie the knot. I'm looking forward to the ceremony and the reception as well (even though I still need to get him a gift).
I've been married for 11 years now and I'll take this time to offer some advice that's certain to ensure a happy, healthy marriage.
First off make sure you always treat your partner w/ love and respect - kind of like how you'd like to be treated.
Don't be afraid to dance w/ your wife and go see romantic comedies w/ her. It may not sound like fun but you'd be surprised - "You've Got Mail" was a lot better than it sounded.
Never go to bed angry. If you have a fight it's best to end it and make up as soon as possible. Don't let any sort of resentment grow b/c it'll only fester. Also, making up is the best part.
Even though they seem like it, flowers are not a waste of money. They make her happy and @ the very least you'll get a steak dinner out of them.
If your buddy calls you and asks you if you want to do something that sounds fun and you have to ask yourself if it'll make your wife upset... the answer is "Yes" and you should probably decline the invitation.
Breakfast in bed is always a great way to wake her up. Not only does she like it but it gives you an excuse to eat extra bacon and not get in trouble.
Season Tickets are never a good anniversary gift. Even if she's a fan she'd probably rather have jewelery or something like that.
Pick your battles b/c even though she's not always right sometimes you should just go along b/c it'll make her happy and if she's happy, chances are you will be too.
I don't know if Buck will read this or not but these tips have led to a happy marriage between my wife and I thus far so I'll stick w/ it. And the last piece of advice I'd offer to a young couple embarking on the journey of marriage is enjoy it b/c it's quite a ride :)
That's Airway Robbery!!!
07/28/11
If you're a frequent flier (which I used to be) you no doubt know how annoying it can be to get to the airport a few hours early, wait in that first line @ the ticket counter and then wait in another line so you can prove to someone (who will likely make you uncomfortable when he screens you) that you're not a terrorist. Yes, that's a big pain in the backside but the icing on the cake comes when you realize that you're out some $50 before you even get on the plane (and that's after you've already paid about $500 for a ticket). Why are you out this extra money, money that you'll have to come up w/ for the return flight as well? B/c the airlines are nickel and diming you, me and everyone else by charging baggage fees, extra leg room fees and whatever other fee they figure won't be too egregious and is therefore justified.
Now one can argue, "You don't have to fly" which is true. I've only been on a plane once in the past two years. But as I mentioned earlier I used to be a frequent flier and that's b/c I used to live on an island so the only way I could realistically go anywhere was to hop on board and take to the skies. That's one of the reasons this practice annoys me so much... I've had to partake in it more than I'd like to admit.
But what's really got my blood boiling is the newest "gotcha" from the industry. Even if you've been following the recent partisan bickering in Washington D.C. you may have missed the fact that lawmakers haven't been able to come to an agreement on funding the Federal Aviation Administration so the FAA is now in the midst of a partial shutdown. As a result the agency isn't collecting the 7.5 percent excise tax on each ticket as it normally does... @ least for now.
Sounds great, no tax; which runs about $42 on a $500 run-of-the-mill round-trip ticket. That means you should be saving some cash if you book sometime soon. @ least logically that's what that should mean. Instead airlines have decided not to pass the savings along to customers and they're charging what they normally would had the tax stayed in place. What are these carriers doing w/ the extra money? Pocketing it.
Technically the companies aren't raising the overall cost of a fare and say this is a way to recover some of the money lost due to the rising fuel costs. Come on! You and I both know that this is just another way to needle more money out of the consumer. In a world where I have to pay $5 for a packet of cheese and crackers or $25 for the first checked bag I shouldn't be surprised. Shoot some airlines would charge for water or using the bathroom if they didn't get so many complaints when they suggested it a few years ago.
I may not complain if my flight experiences were enjoyable but the amount of layovers, extended taxiing on the runway and overall sense of getting robbed just to get on board leaves me a little cynical. It's sad b/c I'm pretty easy to get along w/ so airline employees have been nothing but pleasant to me in the past. I know they tend to get lumped into the overall negative experience which I don't think is fair. And now people have one more reason to be upset which means these workers will likely get more grief from an already annoyed flying public.
I understand that w/ the rising price of jet fuel the profit margins of air carriers are getting squeezed and these companies need to find ways to stay in the black. But honestly this is terrible, it's a rip-off and they know it.
Why can't they just raise the overall price of a ticket? I already know a $500 ticket will likely cost me about $650 by the time all is said and done so just go ahead and charge me the $650 in the first place. Sure I won't be happy about paying more on the front end but I won't feel like I'm getting ripped off... and that's worth it to me. The reason this isn't common practice is b/c airlines get taxed more on the ticket price than they do on the fees. So I guess I'll keep on paying for pillows, blankets and whatever else someone thinks won't cause too much of an outcry. That is until I get my jet car. They'll be here before you know it and something tells me the pillows and the in-flight feature will be waaaay better than what we're being offered now.
Greatest Night Ever???
07/27/11
As I listen to the Reds broadcast on the radio about the only good I can find in what I hear is in-between innings... when the commercials air. I think the announcers are doing a fine job but unfortunately they don't have much good to highlight (unless you're a Mets fan). Therefore, right now it seems that the commercials are the best thing b/c @ least I'm learning about something that may help me out in life (or about a great deal).
One of the commercials I hear all the time is for a line of adult beverages. It's part of an ad campaign that begins w/ an older guy trying to get a group of young men ready for the night that lies ahead. In essence it's a coach before a big game getting his players riled up so they can go get a big win. The pep talk he's giving isn't for a game, though - it's for the adventure the evening is sure to bring. @ this point he tells his "team" to grab a frosted, ice cold beverage and get to what could be the "greatest night of your lives!"
While I don't necessarily like this commercial I remember it; so it's effective and I have to give it props for that. I find it a little depressing, though. Partially b/c it reminds me of my own lost youth but more than that the kids getting the pep talk are likely around 21-25 - that's how old they sound (and how old they're acting), it's also a key demographic for the product. That means that these guys are getting ready to embark on the most memorable evening of their lives and they're only kids. That's a young age to peak. I plan on living to be 100 (@ least) and if I reached the zenith of my life @ 22 I'd feel like the entire thing was a waste as the remaining 80% of it would be a slow march into oblivion.
And even though things have gotten more complicated I feel like my life has gotten better w/ age... much like a fine wine. Sure I'm not the wild man that some may argue I once was and I may have a lot more headaches (brought on by the pitfalls of life, not self-induced as they once were) but I feel healthier and more confident and comfortable in my own skin than ever. Yes, 21-25 was a fun time in my life and I wouldn't change it but there's comes a time when you need to grow up and sometimes that's a reward in and of itself. Not just that but if you were to tell me years ago that the greatest night I'd ever live through was about to happen I'd be forced into a "what do I do from here" moment the next morning. Knowing that my existence had reached its apex and it was all downhill from there I don't think I would've accomplished anything from that moment on.
Were I giving the pep talk in the commercial I'd highlight that this could be the best night ever but point out that it only gets better from here. @ least that's the hope b/c if I have to watch the Reds play like this for another 66 seasons I'm going to need the beverage pitched in the aforementioned commercial. But, as always, it could always be worse: I could be a Cubs fan - something tells me they'll be waiting @ least that long for the big win.
An In-Depth Look @ Our Heat Wave
07/22/11
All week long I've been blogging about this infernal heat and there's a good reason for that: it's been scorching. The heat has done a great job making everything as miserable as possible in the area thanks to a week of 90+ high temperatures. Seeing that I've stayed on the topic of heat all week I figured I might as well round things out the way I started them.
We're now on our sixth day of this heat wave which means we're officially in the midst of the longest heat wave of the century. Here's our high temperature trend so far this week:
Sunday: 93
Monday: 93
Tuesday: 94
Wednesday: 95
Thursday: 97
Today: 97
The last time we had six days in a row w/ 90+ temperatures was back in July 1999 from the 21st to the 26th. Highs during that stretch were 95, 96, 92, 90, 94, 92. I was living in Athens, Oh during this heat wave and it gets VERY muggy down there in the summer. It was dreadfully hot that summer and even though the streak of 90+ highs was broken here and there the warm, muggy air mass was in place for a few weeks. Heat indices were in the 90s and triple digits for about two weeks straight. We wanted to use our air conditioner as little as possible but I remember turning it on during that stretch of hot weather.
As I mentioned it was also very humid that summer but we got very little rain during that heat wave. One of my buddies remarked that it was so humid that he was convinced we'd get some rain if only somebody over in China would only boil a pot of water. That line has always made me chuckle b/c it captured the moment so well. This heat wave has seen some storms from time to time so @ least we're getting a chance to cool off a little... if only for a short while.
The good news is that our heat wave is coming to an end. Temperatures have peaked and they'll slowly moderate to about 90 by Sunday. After that we're in the upper 80s and still humid on Monday and finally back to the average high for this time of year by Tuesday. That's not a best case scenario but after this recent heat wave I'll take what I can get :)
The Heat Rolls On
07/21/11
My goodness! It was hot today. Sure it's been hot everyday this week but today was exceptionally uncomfortable. One of my buddies called me complaining about the heat yesterday and I regretted to inform him that today was going to be even worse... mother nature delivered.
Today's high was 97 out @ the airport in Vandalia (where the climate records are kept). It was even warmer in the city where the urban heat island effect is more prominent. Areas of downtown Dayton easily hit that triple digit mark. But as we've been saying all week it's not the heat but it's also the humidity. The heat index is derived by combining the heat and the humidity levels to get a "real feel" temperature or what it actually feels like to your body when you step outside. So even though we got to 97 it felt more like about 107... and even hotter in the city.
It was definitely miserable outdoors today but I want to put that 97 into perspective. It's been awhile since we've gotten that warm. Back on August 8, 2007 we climbed to 96. Go back a little further and we hit 98 on July 30, 1999. That means that today was the hottest day we've seen in about 12 years and it's officially the warmest day of the 21st century thus far. A high of 99 is a little more elusive as we got to that number back on July 14, 1995 (a few months before I started college). And the last time we hit 100 @ Cox International was more than two decades ago on July 16, 1988. You may not recall but that was an exceptionally hot summer. I remember it well - we didn't have air conditioning.
The good news is that it looks like our temperatures in this heat wave have peaked. We slowly ramped up to 97 and we'll slowly ramp down to 90 through the weekend. As temperatures fall we'll also see the chance for rain increase. While we have the threat for strong storms w/ gusty winds and torrential downpours @ least those will help to cool us off. What's better is that by early next week we'll be looking @ sunshine and highs in the mid-80s. That's closer to the average high for this time of year but after this recent stretch of scorching heat it might just feel like we're entering a whole new season. We're not, but if temps can stay out of the 90s for awhile... I won't complain.
The End of a Magical Era
07/20/11
I've been feeling like a broken record on the air as of late. That's b/c our weather pattern hasn't really changed all that much this week. It's been hot, humid and we've seen pop-up showers and storms in the afternoon. Some of those have been severe w/ strong gusty winds and all have had very heavy rains. Unfortunately our rain hasn't been all that widespread b/c we could all use a little of it on account of how dry it's been.
If you've been looking for ways to change things up during this heat wave I recommend you go see a movie. It'll give you a chance to cool off and let you escape reality for a few hours. I have the perfect flick for you to go see as well: the new Harry Potter movie.
I haven't read any of the books but I've seen all of the movies and each one has been pretty good. In fact, it seems like they've gotten better through the series. They actually make me want to read the famed heptalogy and that's a tall order seeing that I'm not big on reading fiction. I like to read but typically it's the paper or Time magazine or some sort of novel that chronicles something that actually happened.
I think it goes back to the fact that growing up I was never a great reader. I was slow and methodical in my reading, which is probably why I was good @ math - not a whole lot of words. Whenever I'd read a book for class I had to make a conscience effort to stay focused. There would be times that I'd stop myself in the middle of my homework and realize that I'd read a few pages and wasn't paying attention @ all b/c my mind had strayed off course meaning I'd have to go back and re-read them. As a result I used to hate reading and I think that might be why I'm not a huge fan of fiction - now that I really don't have to read anymore I figure that if I'm going to I might as well learn something in the process.
Now that I've seen all of the Harry Potter movies I have a picture in my head that I can follow if I ever decide to take up the books. I also know that the books are a lot more detailed so the intricacies of the story will come out when when I finally get through them.
Aside from making me want to improve my literacy rate I have to say that the Deathly Hallows Part II was very well done. It had action, great special effects and w/ Voldemort alive and well it fills in a lot of the blanks the early books intentionally left out (so as to advance the story in future outings). I also liked how it wrapped up the story. I can't think of any loose ends which is the sign of a well written work.
And there's something about seeing a big movie on the big screen. When you watch a movie @ the theater you almost feel like you're part of it, it's kind of like you're a spectator on someone else's life. If the picture is done well it's easy to get lost in it and only come back to reality when stepping out into the parking lot. I didn't get the 3-D Imax tickets b/c I missed the showing and didn't want to wait any longer to catch this flick. I hear it's worth the extra money and if I go see it again I'll likely spring for it (depends on what my wife wants).
Bottom line: this is a good movie and I recommend it to anyone who likes the franchise or even the genre. I don't have a clever rating scale made up but if I had to make one I'd give it 4.5 suns out of five. And as long as the sunshine and hot conditions continue to persist in the Miami Valley you might as well go see it. I don't remember any scenes taking place in the middle of the desert so you'll definitely be able to forget the heat wave we're currently enduring... if only for a few hours.
It's Not Like... It Is a Heat Wave
07/19/11
As we sweat it out in the Miami Valley I'm reminded of the old adage, "It could always be worse". You don't have to look too far for proof of this statement. Parts of Oklahoma City got to 100 or above today... makes our 94 seem almost tolerable. But that's not the half of it. W/ today's high Oklahoma City has had 29 straight days w/ triple digit highs. I just did a quick check of their forecast and not one day in the 7-day forecast dips below that 100 degree mark.
Now that we've demonstrated that it can always be worse it's time to complain about how hot it is here. It's so hot the temperatures are rising faster than the debt limit. It's so hot Charlie Sheen's "tiger blood" is boiling. It's so hot the egg I fried on the ground earlier it now a charred mess that's stuck to the sidewalk on my front stoop.
Normally I like to spend time outdoors but lately I've been hanging out in my house only leaving to go to my car or to walk across the parking lot heading into work (or wherever else I'm running my errands). While I'd love to get some fresh air the only time I can do it is @ night, and sometimes it's still a little to warm to do that! I feel like I'm catching a 'bout of cabin fever. I have a feeling when this heat wave finally breaks it'll almost feel like that first nice day after the winter ends and I'll want nothing more to do than enjoy what nature has offered me in the form of a beautiful day.
My two oldest are @ camp all week down in Cincinnati and I feel for them as well. The camp isn't in the middle of the city but it's definitely surrounded by concrete so it's a little hotter there than it is here. Cincinnati is going to get close to 100 before the week is over so I'm hoping (and pretty certain) a lot of their camp activities are going to be indoors or @ the pool.
As I mentioned earlier, it could always be worse and I just realized something: sure it's going to be warmer down in Cincinnati where my kids are but @ least they have access to a pool. So what could be worse? If they were @ home this week they'd be stuck indoors all day - and that wouldn't be healthy for anyone in my family. After all, if I had to spend the week watching nothing but "Zeke & Luther" or "The Micky Mouse Clubhouse" I'd go crazy... and it wouldn't be from the heat :)
I'm Sweating... SOOOO Much!
07/19/11
In case you haven't noticed... it's hot - you don't need a meteorologist to tell you that. Not only has it been hot but it's also been VERY humid which means it feels that much hotter. Yesterday and today we hit 93 degrees and with the humidity if felt like we were in the triple digits.
So far this year Cox International Airport (where the National Weather Service keeps the climate records) has gotten to 90 or higher 11 times. That's a lot seeing that we're just getting into the warmest part of the year. Last year we saw 90 or more 21 times (13 of those were in August and September... and we're still 13 days from the beginning of August). In 2009 we only recorded this feat 3 times - so that summer was a treat.
My forecast is calling for highs @ 90 or greater through Sunday which means yesterday appears to be the beginning of the longest heat wave we've seen in the area in almost two decades! That's pretty interesting seeing that our second heat wave of 2010 lasted five days... and I thought that was long. It was @ the end of August and into early September but it wasn't that bad b/c even though 2010 was muggy that stretch wasn't... so it was bearable. @ the time that heat wave was the longest one we'd seen since 2002.
As for this stretch of hot weather, it's looking like we'll hit @ least 90 eight days in a row. The last time we were that hot for that long was back in June of 1994 when we were in the 90s for 10 days straight! During that heat wave we hit 98 three days in a row... awful. Luckily our coming heat wave won't get quite that hot but w/ the humidity we'll continue to feel like we're in the triple digits. I guess the good news is that weather this warm this long isn't as common in the Miami Valley as you might think. But that won't provide me w/ that much comfort as I find myself covered in sweat for something as benign as walking out to grab the morning paper.
Feeling Strange Tonight
07/15/11
If you're feeling a little "off" tonight there may be a reason for that: the full moon is out and shining bright. According to The Farmer's Almanac tonight is actually the Full Buck Moon. No it's not named after our weekend meteorologist Andrew Buck Michael it's called that b/c this is the time of year antlers begin coming in on young bucks. It's also called the Thunder Moon and the Hay Moon. The Thunder Moon makes sense to me b/c thunderstorms are more common when it's hot and humid and July is notorious for that. I don't quite get the Hay Moon but maybe it's b/c we also have long days and lots of sunshine in July and as the old saying goes we should, "Make hay when the sun shines."
I've often wondered if the werewolf myth has anything to do w/ the "weird things happen during the full moon" theory. It suggests that it's possible for people to transform into something different and animalistic on nights such as these. Was this a way for our ancestors to explain why things get a little strange whenever the moon waxes full? It may be a stretch but it's worth pondering - either way the legend allowed us to develop such classics as Teen Wolf (and it's less touted but almost as great sequel Teen Wolf Too).
For all I've read I've never found a study linking strange behavior to the full moon. That doesn't mean the research isn't out there it just means I've never been able to find it. But if you ask any first responder they'll likely tell you they believe the hype. I remember when I used to have to do "beat calls" (call around to the dispatch in each county), when I asked if anything was going on it wasn't uncommon to hear, "No, but give it time... it's a full moon tonight" (if the moon was full that night of course).
I wouldn't be surprised if the full moon did affect us, though. It's possible for the moon to affect things on Earth so why not us? Of course if that's the case I'd expect to see weird things happening during the new moon as well b/c when the moon is new or full its strongest effects are felt. Either way I have to admit that I'm feeling a little strange tonight - honestly though, I feel a bit strange just about every night. But the difference between tonight and any other night is that if I do something stupid this evening... I have an excuse that's arguably valid.
Another Beautiful Day... Wasted
07/14/11
One of my favorite commercials right now is the Taco Bell advertisement w/ the dude telling young people who are on the brink of responsibility to enjoy their "spend less summer". It's for some giant burrito but the back story of the ad has the pitchman warning kids that soon life will set in and all sorts of unknown expenses will creep into it as they always do. Citing the "unforeseen purchase" he points to a hot water heater and says something like, "This... heats water!"
I like it b/c it seems to capture a simple fact of life: sooner or later it's time to grow up. It's not that uncommon to go from being carefree and youthful to having a family, house and a career before you know it... it happened to me. It was as if a whole lot of responsibility creeped up and BAM! jumped into my life. I don't mind the responsibility and, quite frankly, I wouldn't want it any other way but I find the commercial funny b/c it captures how life can sneak up on you... in a hurry.
I thought of this commercial and its message as I went out this morning to run my errands.
The other day I noticed my car was making a weird noise, kind of like a ticking sound but I only heard it when I was moving. I figured it had something to do w/ one of my tires and sure enough upon further inspection I noticed the rear passenger tire had some sort of a screw in it. Luckily I had purchased the "tire protection" warranty when I got a new set of wheels late last year (w/ my Christmas money - I wanted an IPad). Normally I skip the safety net and save some cash but for some reason I sprung for it this time... I'm glad I did.
So after a few days I was finally able to set up a time to get my car fixed and got there on schedule early this morning. As I walked in I was told it would be awhile. Turns out the office I was in lost power yesterday afternoon, had a whole bunch of back orders and it was going to be @ least a couple of hours before they could get to my vehicle.
I asked and was informed that it would be faster to drive across town and promptly did so b/c I had an oil change and a tire rotation I had to get @ another place (the original store could've done it but I wanted to take my car to my guy - better deal). So it wasn't until about 10:45 that my car started getting the attention it needed (almost an hour after I'd originally planned). From there I got my oil changed and by the time all was said and done it was 1:00 in the afternoon. I fell like I wasted this beautiful day.
Now luckily this whole ordeal didn't cost me very much so I wasn't hit w/ the "unforeseen purchase" - it's coming though... I'll eventually need new brakes. Today's ordeal still reminded me of the commercial I've been enjoying so much recently. Sure I didn't spend a lot of money but I spent the bulk of my free time... doing something I didn't want to do. And adulthood has a lot of that involved w/ it.
It seems the limited time we're given is constantly being eaten into by something. We either have to be here @ this time or there when it opens and very rarely do we get to just sit back and do what we want to do, which is sometimes nothing. And even when I have some free time I'm usually busy squandering it on something I'd rather not. If I'm not working on some chore around the house I'm taking care of some chore around town. Shoot, you think I want to spend a 30-60 minutes a day exercising? No, but I do it b/c I want to stay healthy and it balances out the effects of any junkfood I might be craving.
And here's the kicker: whenever I finally do get a few moments to myself I usually find I'm looking for something to occupy my time. Typically that involves another chore... something I normally wouldn't want to do but b/c I have nothing else on the docket I might as well get it done. So if you have kids who are sitting around this summer complaining that, "There's nothing to do" remind them that pretty soon they'll have too much to do. And after some time they'll get so used to being busy that they won't be able to get away from the hustle & bustle when they try.
If there are any kids reading this, here's what you have to look forward to. But don't worry, you still have time to be a grasshopper and play the day away. Even better you'll get to do that again someday - it's called retirement. That's when you get to have all the fun you want and you're the adult so nobody gets to tell you what to do :)
Talk About a FANTASTIC Day!!!
07/13/11
I'm sure I don't have to remind you about how horrible the weather has been around here lately. In case you missed it... it's been bad. HOT, HUMID and even stormy to start the workweek. The good news is that our heat and humidity took a break today and we saw the best day we've had in a long time. It was one of those days where one wakes up and swears he's feeling a little under the weather b/c the thought of spending the day indoors on such a nice day almost makes him sick.
We had lots of sunshine today but big deal... we've had a lot of sunshine as of late. The big game changer in today's weather was the fact that the air felt so comfortable. The reason for that is b/c it's less humid than it was earlier in the week. Our dew points, which are a great way to measure how much moisture is in the air, are low. When the dew point is low there's less moisture in the air and that means it's not as humid and not as muggy.
While it may be uncomfortable and smelly sweat is a good thing when it comes to cooling our bodies. On a dry, pleasant day if we're out exercising we'll sweat and that moisture evaporates off of us. As water evaporates it takes heat away w/ it (called "latent heat"). Seeing that sweat contains water as it evaporates it cools us off - I call it our natural air conditioning.
When it's humid we still sweat. But when there's a lot of moisture in the air it's already close to saturation and therefore evaporation rates aren't as high as they would be were the air dry. As a result that sweat just sits on our bodies and we feel uncomfortable. Seeing that our sweat can't evaporate our natural air conditioning doesn't work and that's when the heat and humidity begin to feel oppressive. That's the type of air that smacks you in the face as soon as you step outdoors and leave the climate controlled comfort of your home, business, etc.
I have good news if you like this comfortable weather pattern. The cooler temperatures and lower humidity levels will stick around tomorrow and it won't be too terribly bad on Friday. Of course it's summertime in Ohio and it won't be long before the heat and humidity makes a comeback in the Miami Valley; it'll be here just in time for the weekend - oh, well. I'm convinced that the muggy weather must have a time share in Ohio... it seems to vacation here every summer. Of course the state is beautiful this time of year :)
Mid-Summer Classic
07/12/11
As I watch the Major League All-Star Game I realize that I haven't written about the Reds in awhile. Part of that is b/c I haven't had many positive things to say and my mom always told me that "if you can't say something nice don't say anything @ all." But what if you say something nice are you allowed to follow up w/ something that's not so nice? And what if you're following w/ something that, while mean, is a valid point? My mom also said that I shouldn't lie and something tells me that even if the truth isn't nice @ least it's factually accurate and therefore should trump niceness any day of the week. I will use that logic to tell you how I really feel about the team (after starting out w/ something nice @ first).
One bright spot of tonight's all-star game is the fact that four of the players on the National League team are wearing Reds uniforms. Now one could argue that we should have fewer than four but I'm not going to get into that. What I really want to focus on is team's recent struggles... and they've had a lot of them.
The team is putting up great offensive numbers on the surface. It's in the top 10 in runs, batting average, on base percentage and slugging percentage. The Reds are actually 4th in all of Major League teams in runs scored. One would think that's enough to @ least have a .500 record. Of course we've had some issues w/ our pitching as we race for the basement in ERA and Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched. We also can't seem to win any one or two run games and the post season is filled w/ them. Awful.
We went into the all-star break (actually the Reds, I'm not part of the team... even though I feel like it as a fan) four games back in the National League Central Division. If Cordero hadn't blown those two saves in Milwaukee we'd be looking @ one game out of first w/ the Cardinals and Pirates right around the corner so first in the division would be very reachable, very quickly... if Cordero hadn't blown those two saves.
What kills me is that our starting pitching wasn't doing that well @ the start of the season but our offense came through and we won a bunch of games. Then our starters found their groove just as the offense fell out of theirs. Now things are coming together on those ends and our relief is having issues. It's all very frustrating b/c I've wasted half of the season following this team and it's not living up to its potential. If everything could come together the Reds would take off and run away and hide real quick. I think what's equally mind boggling is that I'm convinced it's going to happen any day and I've seen nothing so far to would suggest that.
What I don't understand is how they're in this funk when the team is essentially the same team as last year. Sure there have been some tweaks here and there but the pitching staff this first half has been very close to last year's. Other than a few different faces the offense hasn't changed much either. I just don't get it but being a true fan I can't help but feel that these guys are going to come back starting Friday night and go on a tear through the N.L. Central. Here's to hoping!
Musings From the Storm Center
07/11/11
It was a crazy day in the weather center. We started out hot and the temperature kept climbing. After hitting 95 we officially had the hottest day of 2011. Then some severe thunderstorms moved through the north and eastern half of the Miami Valley.
Those storms brought some very gusty wind along w/ hail and torrential rain. After they moved through our temperature had dropped by almost 20 degrees. Of course those storms came through early and that meant we had time to warm up and "refuel". And refuel we did.
@ the end of the 6:30 show I was tracking a new batch of storms that I suspected would likely grow severe. Sure enough they did and packed quite a punch. This second batch had a strong storm cell that had some definite rotation to it but no tornado was spotted and no warning was issued. Honestly, I was surprised but a little relieved that the storm didn't drop a tornado. Relieved b/c we didn't really have an environment that was favorable for tornadic activity. Our set-up was more geared towards a straight-line wind event.
As that second line came through we had severe thunderstorm warnings in the heart of the Miami Valley. This line brought A LOT of lightning w/ it as well. @ one point there were more than 30,000 lightning strikes recorded on our lightning tracker in west and central Ohio. I can't remember the last time I saw that many strikes and don't think I've ever seen it around here. Some of the lightning was cloud-to-ground but I know a lot of it was also cloud-to-cloud.
As I type this out I'm happy to report that the threat for severe weather is over for the night. Unfortunately we're not done w/ the heat. If we hit 90 tomorrow, which is what I'm predicting, then we'll be experiencing the first heat wave of 2011. We do have the slight chance for an isolated shower or storm but I don't think we'll see anything close to what we saw today. After that Wednesday and Thursday are looking just about perfect and after tonight I can't wait :)
Doggie DNA Dilemma
07/07/11
I've never been one for cleaning up after anybody. I think it's b/c I've been a busboy in the past so I don't want to play maid for anybody on my time off from work. I'm even more upset when I have to clean up after my pets. That's one of the reasons I didn't want a dog, I figured I'd be the one taking care of it... in all facets. I especially hate cleaning up after other people's dogs b/c they've been too impolite to do it themselves. Luckily I live in a cul-de-sac so everyone knows everybody and this isn't a problem.
An apartment building in New Hampshire is taking this disdain for delinquent doggie droppings to a new level. If you have a dog and live @ the Twin Ponds property its cheek needs to be swabbed so the property manager can have the pooch's DNA on record. If a little "surprise" is found on the grounds of the complex a sample will be sent to a lab, analyzed and the dog's owner will be issued a $100 fine for failing to clean up after Fido.
The technology, called "PooPrints" is made possible by the BioPet Vet Labs of Knoxville, Tennessee. Deb Logan, Twin Ponds' property manager says it's great and takes the "guesswork" out of tracking down any owners who let their pets cap off their incredible journey around the yard w/ the unwanted present that has ruined many a pair of shoes over the years.
While I hate dog waste as much as anyone else I have to say that this seems a little extreme. First off the fine is $100. I couldn't find out how much it costs to have the test made but a home DNA test for a human is about $79 (before shipping & handling) I'd think a doggie DNA test would be @ least that much if not more. @ $100 per fine it doesn't sound like this is all that cost effective. But if you're able to identify habitual offenders then the time you put into your detective work is probably more than worth it.
This also seems a little extreme to me. I mean employing these measures just to get to the bottom of a... well you know, seems like a lot of trouble. It has the stench of "Big Brother" invading my privacy all over it if you ask me.
I guess you can only be forced to clean up somebody else's mess so many times before you finally snap. @ that point you probably don't care about the moral or financial consequences as long as you can make whatever is bothering you stop. Apparently Deb Logan has given it a shining endorsement so who knows maybe property managers across the country will soon be scooping up this new technology and these types of complaints that are so common in condo living will quit piling up.
Running on Empty
07/06/11
I've never really thought to hard about my "bucket list" but I know there are @ least a few things I'd like to do before I die. I'm still young enough to get many of those done, and in a few cases too young to even try. One that I'm thinking I'm too old to do is go to Pamplona, Spain for the festival of San Fermin so I can witness the "running of the bulls" firsthand. By "firsthand" I mean actually participating in the tradition.
If you've never heard of the "running of the bulls" you likely see something about it every year in early July on the news. That's about the time a bunch of idiots are caught on camera running @ top speed chased by a pack of bulls and steers. You may think that using the term "idiots" is a little harsh but I kind of want to be one of those idiots... so it's okay.
The run itself is just over half a mile and begins @ 8:00 A.M. After it starts the pack sprints through the winding city streets ending up in the bullring. The whole ordeal takes about three minutes and I'm sure it's quite a rush. I don't know why I want to do something that clearly goes against my own survival instinct but I have to admit it kind of looks like fun. I also want to say I did it. I'd equate the running of the bulls to something like catching a wave @ Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu in the winter. Even after the years have passed and you're getting long in the tooth you can still brag about it to your grandkids and they'll be astonished that the frail old man before them was once straight up awesome.
As I mentioned I'm probably too old to live out this adrenaline-filled fantasy but this time every year I can't help but wish I'd been a little more wayward as a youth. I'm still old enough to try it but something tells me hoping to run a three minute half-mile in my mid-30s, when I could barely do it as a teenager, would be a little too much of me refusing to accept the inevitable. Also, I don't see myself up early enough to get to the starting line, much less the prayer @ the statue of Saint Fermin beforehand.
Of course I've always been told you should "Never say never" so who knows. I mean if 60 is the new 50 right now then someday 50 may be the new 30 and if that's the case I'll have a fresh set of legs upon which to run away from angry bulls (which could be the sequel to the popular game, "Angry Birds"). If not, I can always go and be a spectator when I'm retired. After all, seeing as much of the world as possible is on my "bucket list" as well.
I Made It!!!
07/05/11
A couple of months ago I used this forum to highlight my foray into the world of Youtube. I posted a clip that I hoped would make it onto the popular show, SportsNation on ESPN2. If you've never seen the program it often opens w/ a video sent in by a viewer who is doing something like shooting a basketball, making some sort of a trick pool shot, etc. and ends w/ them saying, "When I'm not (insert whatever they're doing), I'm watching SportsNation!"
About a month ago the show contacted me and said they'd love to use my offering once everyone got back from vacation. By the time that happened it was time for Wimbledon which takes a few weeks. Today I got the okay, though. An e-mail informed me that it would be on this afternoon. I got it late b/c I'm finishing up work on my living room before we get our new floor and I didn't have time to check my mail before I came into work but I still got it in time.
Anyway, I was informed that I'd be on @ 5:00 this afternoon. I was psyched... until I realized that ESPN2 was the only channel that wasn't working on the TV in my weather center. Luckily the digital ESPN2 was running so I was able to watch it in the sports office. Shortly after it aired our cable @ the station went out entirely so I think the universe is trying to tell me I should remain in the broadcast spectrum and avoid cable altogether.
Even though I'd seen it before it was nice to see the clip on national television. The two hosts seemed to like it as well even though one of them said he never trusts the weatherman. In his defense I kind of made fun of him during the bit. Anyway, my first shot @ Youtube made it into homes across the country so I'm happy that I accomplished what I set out to do. And just in case you missed it, here's a link to my ESPN2 debut:
http://abc.daytonsnewssource.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wkef_vid_1734.shtml
Enjoying the Fourth
07/04/11
I have to say that our Fourth of July holiday was darn near perfect this year. Sure we got a little rain in the morning but that kept it from getting too hot too quickly. There were a few showers and storms in the afternoon but I wasn't under one so in my book it was a great day. Last year the Fourth was HOT & HUMID. I was @ the celebration in Centerville and being on the blacktop made it that much muggier.
Even though I had to work it was still a nice holiday. I got to see my wife and kids in the morning before they headed down to Cincinnati for a party @ my in-laws. It was nice b/c when they left I had just enough time to sneak in a little nap. I was going to mow my lawn but sleep seemed to trump that chore.
After I woke up and got ready for work I came in and we grilled out on the early shows. I brought the hamburgers and hot dogs while others brought corn for grilling, a delicious pasta salad, watermelon and chips. It was all very good and I always like to grill @ work; it makes me feel like I'm not really working b/c I usually fire up the barbecue on my days off over the weekend.
The only thing that upset me today was a statistic I heard on the news. According to it only 58% of those surveyed knew the Fourth of July celebrated the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence back in 1776. That frightens me. That means two out of every five people don't know the reason for all of the celebrations today... that's ridiculous! What upsets me even more is that those who don't know what the Fourth means get just as many votes as I do and that vote is worth just as much as mine. Oh, well. I shouldn't dwell on it... I don't want to ruin an otherwise great day.
I don't know how you spent your holiday but hopefully you enjoyed it. I also hope you were safe and that you made the most of your three-day holiday weekend. Now it's time to get back to reality and take on the coming workweek. That shouldn't be too hard though... it's an abbreviated workweek and those are always easier.
Fire Up the Grill this Weekend
07/01/11
The long holiday weekend is upon us and that means one thing. Actually it means a few things but it means one thing I love will be happening: the barbecue will be fired up and delicious food will be eaten. I like hamburgers but I have to say that I have a hankering for steak, but I think all men do. It's almost as if steak is the red meat version of bacon: tough to say no to... despite the health risks that may accompany it.
If you're getting ready for a cookout I have some good news for you from the weather department. We'll stay dry for most of the weekend so the bulk of the backyard cookouts should go off w/out a hitch. The only hiccup in the forecast involves what will happen tomorrow in the Northern Miami Valley. There's a slight chance for pop-up showers and storms up that way but more will miss those than see them. After that we'll pick up the chance for showers and storms Saturday night into Sunday morning but most will be sleeping when those fall.
So what do you need to make sure your cookout is a big success? That's simple, good food. The following paragraphs will be devoted to a few tips that will spice up any grill. They're easy and w/ a little effort will make a big difference.
If you're making hamburgers I recommend getting the ground beef and making them yourself. The frozen patties aren't bad and are a little easier but if you shape the beef your burgers will be juicier. What I like to do is chop up an onion, throw in some worcestershire sauce and add some garlic salt to the ground beef before I make the patties. One thing to remember is that you shouldn't over handle the beef b/c then it'll want to fall apart. After I shape them I like to put them into the refrigerator or freezer to harden them up a bit before I throw them on the grill so they hold together better. Tastytown here I come!
Ribs are always a hit @ your backyard barbecue. I like to chop up an onion, take a few cups of chicken broth (enough to coat the bottom of your pan about a quarter to a half inch deep) and then place the ribs on a rack so they're outside of the liquid. From there I throw a rub on the ribs and top w/ barbecue sauce. After that take aluminum foil and put it over the top of the pan and slow cook the ribs @ about 250 for two to three hours - until tender. Once they're done cooking toss them on the grill and baste w/ barbecue sauce to get a great smokey flavor. Someone call the police b/c I'm guilty of assaulting your taste buds w/ deliciousness!
If you like chicken and you have some time I'd recommend you burn your coals until they turn a healthy gray. After that move said coals over to one side of the grill. Place your chicken on the other side well away from the source of heat and cover so you can slow cook your bird for about two or three hours or until it's no longer pink. Every so often baste your chicken w/ a sauce that's one part butter and one part hot sauce. I've had this before and it's very juicy and well worth the wait. Someone call heaven it's missing an angel... or @ least a chicken wing!
If you're a vegetarian, or not, I suggest you toss some green on the grill. Asparagus soaked in olive oil and topped w/ sea salt is always one of my favorites. You can also eat a grilled veggie burger but make sure you toast the bun b/c that always adds to the experience.
I hope you have a great weekend and more than that I hope you have a few great dinners. That's why I recommend you get out and do some 'cuing! After all, if you want a sure shot to the heart of flavor country the grill is just the thing to get you there.
Light @ the End of the Tunnel
06/30/11
A few weeks ago I wrote about a weekend project that I was doing around the house... actually it was more than a weekend project as I've come to discover. I'm happy to report that it's almost finished. Yes, it pleases me that we've been able to do A LOT in just 2 1/2 weeks but more than that I'm happy b/c my house is almost back to normal... or @ least the new normal.
I'm so sick of looking @ a room w/ no carpet and scant furniture. I'm tired of seeing plastic covering on my possessions and crumpled on the floor. But more than that I'm just tired... working on your house is hard. The good news is that I'm getting close to finishing my project and will hopefully have it done by next weekend.
For me there's even better news: I'm almost @ a point where I can do no more. I still have to glue down a corner piece of tile that popped up as I used a grinder to straighten the edge (couldn't use a wet saw so it was DUSTY... and my wife wasn't happy). I have a little painting to do as well. After that I'll get a floor scraper in to even out some of the bumps on the floor and then I'll cut some baseboards and install them.
Our cabinets still need to be installed as does the laminate flooring (which I bought today). I can't do any of those though, so I just have a few things left before my work is done. And what a glorious day that will be b/c then I can get back to just being busy instead of having nothing to do but work (both @ home and in the office).
Over these past couple of weeks I've realized something: as I've been focusing all of my energy on getting my house back in order I've been neglecting the things that help it run smoothly on a regular basis. I haven't been able to mow my lawn, pay my bills or even exercise (if my body truly is a temple I'd say it's more of a minor holy site right now). Thankfully my wife mowed the front yard today so my neighbors no longer have to witness the eyesore it was becoming. I also got all of my essential bills paid earlier today so I won't have to worry about any late fees. Of course I just said my "essential" bills are getting paid. That means that if my dentist is reading this all I can say is please be patient; the check is on the way - it's not in the mail just yet... but it will be.
Yet One More Use for Duct Tape
06/29/11
Seeing that I live in the modern world it never ceases to amaze me how some of the innovations we conjure up continue to find new life. All too often we'll see the introduction of some product and before we know it there's a new, and sometimes better, use for it. Skin So Soft is great. It not only moisturizes but also bathes the user in a soothing and relaxing scent. Said aroma almost creates an aura about a person that says, "Don't worry a bit... I'm trustworthy". I've also used it as an alternative to nasty smelling, but effective, mosquito repellant.
Newspapers enjoy multiple uses beyond their original purpose as well. Sure you can get all of the latest news events and fun games from them but did you know that if your shoes are soaking wet you can crumple up wads of the paper and shove them inside to dry them out? They'll smell funky afterwards but no worse than they would had you let the shoes air dry in the first place. I've never done it but I hear you can wrap sweaters in newspaper to keep moths, dust and dirt out of the picture. And I can't even begin to count the number of times I've used flimsy printed dailies to start a fire while camping or on a cold winter's day in my fireplace @ home.
Perhaps the best example of a product going above and beyond its original call of duty is duct tape. Not only is it a great way to effectively tape just about anything together but it also has a myriad of uses from fixing broken book binding to standing in for tweezers when an unsightly hair has popped up to patching clothing (although I don't recommend the last two examples).
Now healthcare is finding a way to exploit the many uses of the adhesive. A hospital in Rock Island, Illinois used red colored duct tape from the beginning of 2009 to the end of 2010. It found that if it made a three-foot square "safety box" on the floor adjacent to the entrance it could cut down on time, infection and more importantly money spent while dealing w/ patients.
Sounds simple enough but when the hospital began implementing the safety zones it found that doctors could effectively serve patients in less time while saving equipment @ as well. Turns out when a doctor leaves the defined area he or she will need to put on gloves and sometimes a gown... that takes time; and it costs money. But if a doctor is just making a quick observation that interaction can be done @ a distance and all that adds up to increased efficiency.
So just how effective was that little red roll of awesomeness? According to the results of the near two-year study more than $72,000 worth of personal protective equipment and more importantly 2,700 man hours were saved a year when a safe zone was defined just inside a patient's room.
So I guess it turns out that the old adage that duct tape can be used for "just about anything" is only proven truer as time passes. I might even take a roll next time I have to visit the infirmary. If I earmark my own little "safety zone" I might be able to save enough to offset the cost of a $12 aspirin... or whatever other "miscellaneous" charge I may incur.
Get Out of My Dreams... And Into My Car!
06/23/11
A recent study confirms what many have suspected for years... women are into men w/ hot cars. I'd like to start by saying that I can't believe someone actually thought it was a good idea to fund this research but hey, it's not my money (@ least I hope it wasn't). Regardless of where the cash came from Texas researchers concluded after surveying nearly 1000 men and women that the men who drive fancy cars and wear expensive clothing are more likely to be successful in short-term relationships.
The study found that when a man spends money conspicuously the fairer sex tend to think he's more interesting. Of course this only works for women who aren't looking for a serious relationship. The other finding in the data was that women looking for a long-term relationship tend to look @ flashy behavior as a bit of a turn-off.
Again, I'm surprised such a study had to be done but it does raise interesting points. I'd like to see a break down of the numbers by age group. I'd suspect that younger people and very old people who are newly single would be more open to short-term dating than most. On one end when you're young you're invincible and don't think much about the future; on the other if you're recently single after being in a long-term relationship for years the roller-coaster that comes w/ meeting new people and falling in love would likely be a reminder of lost youth.
Whenever I read about relationships I can't help but feel like I'm lucky. I have a wonderful, loving wife and a great family but I'm also happy I'm not on the dating scene... that scares the heck out of me. These recent finding also confirm something that I've suspected for years: I'm a stud! I say that b/c I didn't have a flashy car or nice clothes when I met my wife... and I still got her. My shear animal magnetism was more than enough to outshine the moped I rode and flannel/jean cut-off ensemble I wore while doing it. Now I can be found behind the wheel of a Dodge Neon, a vehicle many have called immaculating (which is one of the cleaner adjectives I've heard), and she still finds me attractive. I'd say I still got "it" but I'm thinking "it" never left.
As Seen On TV
06/22/11
Working in television it's probably no surprise that I'm a fan of the medium. Studies show that the average person watches about five hours of TV a day and I'd have to say that I'm well above average on that front. Now I don't necessarily sit by idly and stare @ the boob tube but I have it on in the background more often than not. In fact right now I've got the Reds on the TV in the weather center. On a side note I'm also listening to Marty & the Cowboy call the game on the radio and I'm typing away - if I could somehow work the newspaper into the equation I'd be tying all forms of media, past and present, together in one fell swoop.
One of the big complaints people have about TV is that they hate the commercials. Ironically they don't complain about the fact that broadcasts are free and cable is cheaper than it would otherwise be thanks to those very advertisements. They just fast forward through them via their Tivo and wondering why they can't find anything decent never stopping to think that maybe if they paid attention to the endorsements and bought the products being pitched networks would have more money with which to invest in quality programming... but I digress.
I don't mind commercials and I'll even watch a 30-minute one as I've been known to indulge in various late-night infomercials more than once in my life. It's likely the promise of an easy path to wealth that gets me but regardless I tend to get sucked in by them. I like funny, clever commercials but I also like the ones for the newest inventions, and we've all seen those promotions.
Whether a company is pitching a new kitchen gadget or some piece of lawn equipment that will revolutionize the efficiency of my yardwork I love those campy ads that promise the moon and more... typically for less than $20 ($19.99 to be exact - as if a penny of savings is the factor that tips my decision to buy said item in the company's favor). Regardless of how bad the commercial is one has to admit the products are usually pretty cool and typically very useful. They're basically "Why didn't I think of that?" ideas that somebody did think of and then turned inspiration into reality.
One of the things I especially like about those commercials is when you're told how awesome the product is and after the announcer has made his pitch he says, "But wait... it gets better!" Without fail it always does. Usually you're promised that if you're one of the first 100 callers or you order w/in a specified amount of time you'll get double the order or some other spectacular add-on. I don't know how much truth there is to that statement though b/c I'll see the ad again in the future and the same promise will be made. That leads me to believe that anyone, regardless of how long they wait to call to place their order, will get the "early bird" special.
And keep in mind that when you get the free gift it's anything but free. You'll be asked to pay a "separate processing fee" which sometimes is more than the object you're purchasing. It boggles my mind how it can cost $14.00 to process and ship a perfect meatloaf maker. The pan itself doesn't weigh more than a few pounds and I'd think a computer could process the whole order which should be next to nothing. But that's how they get ya! Of course if charging a little more for postage & handling makes it possible for me to get two alumawallets and a handy car keychain light for less than 20 bucks I'm not going to be one to spoil the money-saving fun.
Baby Talk
06/21/11
I want to start out and say that I love my kids and I love spending time w/ them. They're cute, intelligent (even the baby) and all around great people. I also like talking w/ them but not under every circumstance. Let me explain.
In the past I've been known to complain about how much I hate the phone. It rings more than I want it too and annoys me in more ways than I can fathom. Just today it woke me up twice, and my wife and kids are out of town... so I couldn't sleep in! Today I realized that I'm not wild about chatting w/ my toddler on phone either. Am I a terrible person for saying that? I mean it's hard enough to having a conversation w/ her to begin w/ but now we're throwing in a device that still boggles my mind by the fact that it even works in the first place... I can only imagine what goes through a young child's head when he/she picks up a piece of plastic that sounds and talks just like daddy.
I don't mind using the telephone w/ my other two kids b/c they can carry on a conversation but as soon as they get bored and stop talking I try to find a quick exit myself. I know it sounds horrible but I can't help it. Earlier my wife called me @ work and told me my youngest wanted to talk to me and then handed her the phone. I said hi and asked her what she was doing but she didn't say anything. She'll talk to me in person but on the phone she froze up and I was stuck talking to myself... for like five minutes. After awhile I didn't know what to say and wasn't even sure my kid was still on the other end so I may have been talking to myself about Elmo and Mickey Mouse for all I know.
It almost reminded me of times in the past when friends and family of mine have forced me to have a conversation w/ their pets - come on what the heck could they have to say? Now in my opinion talking to a baby on the phone is way better than talking to a dog but I find myself w/ the same sense of confusion and helplessness whenever I'm forced to do so... the only thing that makes it easier is the fact that it's my kid. I've had to talk to other babies in the past and just handed off the phone or set it down altogether. When I was accused of ignoring my niece/nephew I just told the offended parent that we were playing the quiet game... and I won.
The more I think about it the more I realize that I shouldn't complain. I'm lucky that I even have kids to talk to on the phone. Pretty soon they'll be teenagers and, phone or not, they probably won't want to talk to me @ all.
Go Back to the American League... Ya Bums!
06/20/11
When it comes to baseball I've always liked the National League better than the American League. As I've said in this forum in the past I'm a fan of the Reds, who are in the National League, so naturally I have a bias. But being a Reds fan I also followed the teams in the National League so I became more attached to said league. But more than that the American League allows the Designated Hitter and in my opinion that's cheating and goes against the original rules of the game, I guess I'm a purist. Of course I also like Divisional play b/c it allows more teams a shot @ winning it all - there's nothing pure about that but I think it's been good for the game.
Having said all of that I have to say that I HATE inter-league play. For those of you who don't know what that means it's when National and American League teams play each other during the regular season. I don't mind mixing the leagues during the the All-Star Game (but that's an exhibition game) and I don't mind it @ the end of the season (but that's for all the marbles and it's the way it's always been done). I'm just not a fan of it during the season.
Now my dislike of inter-league play is due to selfish reasons but that doesn't change my sentiments. It seems like whenever the Reds are rolling along on a hot streak inter-league play comes along and cools off the team. If it's not that it's the dreaded West Coast trip; seeing that the team is coming off of a successful away stint against the Giants and the Dodgers I'm upset w/ the former right now.
The Reds have done TERRIBLY in inter-league play this year. Earlier in the season they got swept by the Indians. I can understand why that was a tough series, not only was it in Cleveland but the battle for Ohio is always a challenge. But over the weekend they lost two to the Blue Jays, a team that isn't even that good. Tonight they drop their first of three to the Yankees. Once again I can understand why this one will be a tough series but going down four runs in the top of the first is going to hurt you regardless of who you're playing. It stinks and I'm mad!
Unfortunately for me we're just getting started. The Reds have two more w/ the Yankees before hitting the road to take on Baltimore and Tampa Bay. After that they come home and face the Indians one more time. So we're still looking @ 11 more inter-league games. Seeing that the Reds are only 1-6 w/ the American League so far this season I'm not very optimistic.
Dad's Day Is On The Way
06/17/11
This Sunday marks the day that's set aside for dads all across the country. Sure it's a made up holiday but it affects me in a positive way so it's not a bad idea in my book. I don't have any major plans but I will watch the Reds... hopefully they can bring home a win for all of the dads in the Miami Valley.
In the past when asked what I hoped to do on Father's Day I usually said something by myself so I can forget that I'm a dad... until dinner that is. But as I've gotten older that feeling has changed a bit. Sure I'd like some time to myself on my coming day but I've realized something as I've gotten older: if I'm all by myself too long I start getting bored... I guess I'm not that exciting.
So what's my perfect Father's Day? I'd like to sleep in waking up to breakfast in bed. Hopefully said breakfast will include food of a bacon-flavored nature. Then I'd probably want to relax and read the Sunday paper before the Reds game starts. Hopefully one of my girls will want to watch the game w/ me but if not, no biggie. After that I wouldn't mind playing in the yard w/ the kids before firing up the grill for a delicious meal that is of a steak-flavored nature.
So here's to all of the dads in the Miami Valley. They're one of the unsung heroes of the household. They fix your bike when the chain slips, eradicate a variety of "icky" bugs that plague the areas in and around our homes and even kiss all sorts of boo-boos and scratches to make them all better. Enjoy your day but watch out for rain if you're doing anything outdoors (apparently mother nature didn't get the memo... or she's mad @ her dad, who knows).
In Flight Experience; Rated PG-13
06/16/11
Did you hear the one about the children's author who got kicked off of a plane for using bad language? It sounds like the beginning of an awful joke but sadly it's not. Author and television producer Robert Sayegh was on his way to a wedding in Kansas City, Mo. when his connecting flight ran into a few setbacks. Apparently there was some problem w/ the overhead compartments and Sayegh wondered out loud what could be taking so long... using a profane word to punctuate his frustration. That's when a flight attendant overheard his four letter freak out, contacted the police and had Sayegh escorted off the flight. According to Sayegh the passengers around him didn't take offense to his expletive laced musings but that wasn't good enough. He was removed and booked on another flight back to his home in New York.
This story kind of scares me. I can understand why a flight attendant might have gotten mad but if the guy mutters something under his breath and his fellow passengers don't find it offensive it seems a little harsh to expel him from the flight. And who hasn't gotten upset during a flight delay... especially if he's stuck on the plane?
One time I was stranded inside the cabin for about 45 minutes and I almost missed my connecting flight which would've caused me to miss the next connector after that. While I may not have voiced my frustrations I definitely remember more than a few choice words running through my head. And I didn't encounter the delay b/c of weather or b/c the plane was late to land. The slow down was caused b/c there wasn't anywhere for us to park. That's what got me. I knew when my flight was leaving and arriving but the airport didn't? It even had an arrival gate specified on the ticket so it's not like we surprised anyone when we got there.
Maybe what's truly scary is that basically once the door closes we're all @ the mercy of the airline we happen to be patronizing. And after getting gouged to bring luggage, having to arrive almost two hours early to basically take off my shoes and not even getting the entire can of pop when the drink cart comes around I'm going to be a little upset if I miss my next flight or I'm delayed b/c of something stupid. I think just about anyone would have a similar reaction. Now you're telling me I'll be kicked off b/c someone in a position of authority doesn't appreciate the fact that I'm upset? That doesn't fly w/ me... pun intended.
Sayegh and the airline in question have both apologized for the incident but I can't help but chuckle @ the fact that the author of a children's book got in trouble w/ the cuss police. Something tells me this would've never happened to Dr. Seuss - if he did I can't help but wonder if he'd curse via some sort of clever rhyme scheme. Sayegh says w/ a new book in the works this isn't the way he wanted to drum up publicity for it. If I were him I'd turn this into a positive experience and write my next children's book on the problems that come w/ having a potty mouth. If he did I think it's save to say he's already proven he won't be @ a loss for words when he writes it.
Quarter Million Dollar Babies
06/15/11
In the past I've written about my children in this forum. They're not little angels but all in all they're good kids. Of course all parents seem to brag on their offspring; you don't really hear too many parents lament about how wretched their little ones are... unless they're teenagers.
Not only are my kids great but according to a new study they're something else: expensive. Sure we have to pay for clothes, food, toys, the various lessons/activities they're involved in, etc. but I never realized how much those expenses add up until recently. According to the Department of Agriculture's annual report a child born in 2010 will cost anywhere from $226,920 to $286,860 to raise... that's A LOT of money, more than the median home price in the U.S. All of my kids were all born in 2009 or earlier so I don't have an exact number on what it'll cost to raise each of them but I have a feeling it's still pretty high.
After reading the above figure I was floored. As I mentioned I have an idea of what I spend on my children but when I see the actual number I almost can't believe it. That's a lot of roller skating parties, birthday gifts and trips to the zoo. I don't regret having kids but seeing that I'll have @ least one in my house for 28 years of my life that comes out to roughly $20,000 - $25,000 a year over that time period. I have a feeling I could find a lot more productive ways to spend that money. My wife and I could go out to a myriad of nice restaurants on that figure. I could get a slate pool table, high definition projection TV, or just about any other toy I've had my eye on w/ cash like that on hand.
I'm a little curious as to how the Dept. of Ag. came up w/ $226,920 to $286,860 as the official number. I don't question the actual accounting practices of the agency I just want to know how they came up w/ a near $60,000 spread between the two figures. That's a pretty big number and comes out to a little more than a $3,000 difference per year.
Is the lower number for the parents who look out for deals @ the grocery, shoe and department stores? B/c if that's the case I can take solace in the fact that my kids will be "bargain" children. Of course if I was a child and I found out that my parents were scrimping on me to the tune of 3K a year I might get a little upset - looking back I probably could've been bought off w/ an Ipod or whatever the equivalent of one was when I was younger.
Now all of this talk of money misses one important point: children enrich our lives in ways that money can't quantify. Any parent will tell you the laughter of a young child is priceless. The smile on one's face on Christmas morning will melt your heart. But more than that having children teaches us valuable lessons about both life and ourselves. One thing my kids have taught me is that I may have more patience than Ghandi himself, and that my mom was right waaaay more that I would like to admit when I put my own behavior into context.
Regardless of the rewards children provide you have to admit that the cost of raising them is astounding... but I still think my kids are worth it (or maybe I'm just hoping they are so I don't throw away nearly 3/4 of a million dollars). Oh, and I forgot to add that the earlier number I quoted only factors in how much you'll spend through your kid's first 17 years of life. It doesn't even take into account the price you'll spend on college (better hope they get a scholarship). And for me it doesn't end there; I have three girls - that's three weddings I'll have to pay for. As I said they're worth it... or @ least they'd better be.
All Good Things...
06/14/11
I don't know about you but I've been loving the weather pattern that we've had over the last few days. It's been gorgeous during the day, comfortable during the night and just all around great from start to finish. Conditions like this are more in tune w/ something we'd see in the early stages of fall which in my opinion is one of the nicest times of the year... if only winter wasn't right around the corner.
I've taken the past few days as a chance to get out and do some chores, when it's nice it's that much easier to finish them. We had a nice stretch of weather to begin the month but it was a little warmer and humidity levels were a bit higher so in my opinion this has been the best three days we've had in quite some time and the fact that we had one of them over the weekend makes them that much better.
Not only has it been awesome during the day but the nights have felt fantastic as well. We've seen cool temperatures working in and that means we can open the windows @ night and let mother nature do the air conditioning for us. I call it "optimal sleeping weather" b/c it's easy to fall and stay asleep when temperatures drop into the 50s. It's even been a little chilly in the mornings and some of you may have even needed a light jacket.
As I mentioned this weather pattern reminds me more of early fall than the beginning of June. I grew up in Ohio and I don't ever remember things being this nice in on June 14th. It almost feels as if we've been experiencing a Michigan type summer. When I was younger I had family who lived in the state up north and I'd go up every summer @ least once or twice. I remember on cool nights opening the windows, turning on the fan and needing a medium weight blanket before falling into a deep, satisfying sleep. During the day it'd get warm but not too hot and not too humid... it was just great and this recent pattern has me excited for my vacation later this summer in the northern part of the lower peninsula.
But as the old adage goes "all good things come to an end" and unfortunately that's about to happen. Showers and storms will push in tomorrow sometime around late morning and into the early afternoon. Right now the threat for severe weather is low but we'll still have some raindrops to dodge and after that we're talking about warmer and muggier weather by the weekend. Oh, well... it was fun while it lasted.
Tearing it Up this Weekend
06/13/11
The title of this entry would suggest that I went out and got wild and crazy on my days off but I have three kids... I have no such luxury anymore. I'm also in my mid-30s and lack the energy to live through such weekends - the recovery time is just way too long.
I tore things up this weekend in my house. We live in a ranch that was built back in the 60s and have a dining room that NEVER gets used. It was a craft room but after awhile it became a dark area dedicated to storage... in essence it was wasted space. So for the longest time my wife has been saying that we need to knock down a wall and open up the kitchen, dining room and family room area into one giant space. I don't like doing this sort of thing - especially on my day off - so I've been putting it off saying we needed to get someone in there to let us know if we'd be taking out a load bearing wall... even though everyone we've talked too say it's not (I could tell it wasn't either).
Over the weekend my procrastination efforts ran out of time... pun intended. My wife finally decided it was time to take out the wall. I woke up relatively early on Saturday morning, started moving things out of our living area and got to work destroying stuff. One of my buddies used to gut homes for a living and another used to be an electrician and they were life savers on this home improvement project... and time savers as well.
We had the wall out and the carpet up in about an-hour-and-a-half or two hours. A few hours later my electrician friend came over and we had to reconstruct how the whole area was wired (again the house was built in the 60s... the wiring wasn't as straight forward as one would like). Once we figured this out he gave me a list of what to get @ the hardware store and said he'd be back to help on Sunday.
I gotta tell you that next morning when I went to the hardware store I felt like hot stuff. I got to walk through it w/ the big cart that holds lumber or in my case sheets of drywall... I was quite the stud (and I'm not talking about wall support). When I got to the electric aisle I was telling the guy what I needed and I sounded all technical... like I knew what I was doing. I had no clue what I was asking for but I sure as heck sounded like I did. It was as if I had the voices of Ed Harris and Gene Hackman, the spokesmen for the various hardware giants, cheering me on w/ platitudes from popular ad campaigns; I was ready for more saving and more doing.
The project is still far from finished. I have to smooth out the drywall seams, paint, get the ceiling patched up and then drop in a laminate floor. I'm confident we'll be able to get it done w/in the next few weeks, though. Like I said before I don't like doing this sort of thing but I'm glad we've started. It's cool to watch a project go from one phase to the next and I can't wait until it's done. Not only will I have a sense of accomplishment but we'll have done it for WAAAAAY less than the original quote. And to top it all off the larger space in the house is now screaming for a bigger TV... I won't feel guilty buying it b/c of all the money we saved.
Severe Weather Wrap
06/10/11
If you had outdoor plans this Friday evening chances are they were adversely affected by the weather. Strong thunderstorms ripped through the region from about 6:00-10:00 tonight and brought quite a punch w/ them. They brought strong winds, hail and LOTS of rain.
We had an interesting set up today. Starting out w/ showers and storms early in the morning things were dicey driving into work. After those moved out of here we had a lot of moisture sitting in place @ the surface. Then the sun came out and it got humid and muggy in a hurry. A lot of times when people see the sun popping out after showers and storms they think it's a good thing but if it happens too early it can be anything but. Today was one of those days.
As the sun warmed things up and the muggy air stayed in place we had plenty of fuel for any strong storms that would develop in the Miami Valley and things began bubbling up over Indiana sometime in the mid-afternoon. As those moved into our area in the early evening we had the perfect ingredients for strong storms. Every county in the Miami Valley except Mercer and Preble had a severe thunderstorm warning in it @ sometime or another tonight.
As I mentioned strong winds, hail and heavy rains were the biggest problems. Wind gusts of 60 mph were reported near Vandalia and near New Bremen. Hail got to the size of a quarter in a number of places and New Bremen saw it reach the size of a half dollar. We also saw minor flooding w/ all the rain that fell. North Dayton picked up some flooded roads and closed streets and Greenville got over 2" of rain today! Springfield and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base weren't far behind; both picking up close to 2" as well.
It was a busy night in the weather center but things are calming down as I type this. We're in for another round of showers & storms tomorrow but the good news is that the front driving these will move in in the mid to late morning and persist into the afternoon. If this is the case the best chance for severe weather will be off to the eastern part of the state. But it gets better than that. After this front pulls through we'll see a round of fantastic weather just in time for the end of the weekend. Highs in the mid-70s and A LOT less humid... I'll take that any day of the week! (Especially on Friday).
School's Out!!!
06/09/11
Yesterday was quite possibly the greatest day of the year for my two oldest children, it was the last day of school. I remember how giddy I'd be that day when I was younger b/c it meant that I had a couple of months of freedom. Oh, I always planned to do big things but they never materialized b/c I got busy doing nothing... but that's the beauty of summer.
I've blogged before that I love the season but it just doesn't mean as much to me as it did 20 years ago. When I was @ the Reds game over the weekend one of my friends put it very eloquently. Alice Cooper's "School's Out" was played over the loudspeakers. He quipped, "School's out for summer... but work goes on forever." I don't feel that way about my job but I did chuckle as I thought of all the times I've heard my kids complain that there's "nothing to do" during a hot summer afternoon.
I think the greatest thing about summer vacation as a kid is the sense of endless possibilities that come w/ that final ring of the bell. You're throwing away all of the junk you've been holding onto throughout the year and when the next school year finally starts (which is the furthest thing from your mind) you'll have a clean slate from which to work... assuming you didn't get held back. I don't know if my kids feel this way about their long break yet but I'm sure on some level they do.
So what do my kids have planned this summer? One of them is in Washington D.C. w/ my in-laws (or she's on her way, don't know if they've gotten there or yet). The other managed to invite herself over to a friend's house for a sleepover. My youngest hasn't quite figured out what's going on... she probably just thinks we're experiencing a warmer version of fall.
As for long-term goals my oldest wants me to work w/ her in math so she can be in the advanced class next year so I've got a little summertime project myself. I think the other hopes to beat "Kirby's Epic Yarn" (some video game) but if I can help it, time on the Wii will be limited. Right now I don't think either really cares what they do over the next 10-plus weeks b/c they have "No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks". After all "School's out for summer, school's out forever!"
The Curse Continues
06/07/11
Earlier in the year I talked about how I might be a jinx for the Reds. @ that time every recent game I'd attended resulted in one more for the Reds loss column and I felt I may be the reason. Over the weekend I decided to try and prove that theory was hogwash by attending game two of a three game series w/ the Dodgers.
Until Saturday my hypothesis was that maybe the culprit was actually the Reds t-shirt I got for free after filling out a credit card application outside Great American Ballpark. So I arrived @ the game wearing an aloha shirt (they've always brought me luck) and it was HOT! The game time temperature was about 91 and we couldn't get seats anywhere in the shade - I was already beginning to feel that bad luck was on my side.
After I went by the new smokehouse barbecue stand I took my seat and feasted. That was when I began to feel that things were starting to turn in my favor... despite the heat. I furthered that sentiment after Joey Votto hit a three-run shot to put the Reds up 4-1. It was a great game... until they took out Johnny Cueto and called in the bullpen.
After burning through a pitcher or two Logan Ondrusek came in and gave up a grand slam to Matt Kemp thus tying the game and giving up what @ one point was a five run lead. Then in the 9th inning reliever Carlos Fisher gave up a few more runs and could've kept the damage @ bay had he only played fundamental baseball and rushed to cover first base after a slow roller was hit into the infield.
Unfortunately it was a great game w/ a miserable outcome. What made it worse was that one of my buddies who attended the game w/ me is a Dodger fan. He showed up wearing a long sleeve button down shirt, khakis and a white stingy brim fedora - its hatband was Dodger blue. He looked like a scout and had we gotten better seats chances are people would've thought he was. I asked him if he was worried about getting too hot and he simply said that if he wore shorts he'd still be hot but he'd also get sunburned. Needless to say I was giving him grief during the game when the Reds were rolling and after the Dodgers took the lead he sat around w/ a smug look on his face and said nothing... in my opinion that was worse than any trash talking he could've done.
As the Reds underwent their late game implosion I couldn't help but worry that I might actually be their bad luck charm. While I hope that's not the case the evidence isn't lining up in my favor. Maybe I should just sit @ home and listen to Marty & the "Cowboy" call the game on my front porch - sometimes life doesn't get much better than that. It's also a lot cheaper... even though the barbecue isn't always quite as good.
Mini-Vacation
06/02/11
As I sit down to type this entry I'm eagerly anticipating the end of Game 2 in the NBA Finals. Once that's in the books we have newscast to do and after that I'm beginning a four-day weekend.
Why am I taking such a long weekend? For one thing I'm ready for a break after a BUSY May. But I also need to take my Memorial Day holiday and burn a vacation day. I have a lot planned over the next few days as well. Unfortunately I have to get up early tomorrow morning as my wife has volunteered for some end-of-the-year school party. While I tried to convince her that our toddler would love to go to said festivities she didn't buy it. So I'm getting up early - after having to stay late b/c of basketball... alas, my wife isn't budging on this one.
Tomorrow night my oldest daughter's school is having group night @ the Dayton Dragons game. I went last year and it was a lot of fun but it's always a good night @ 5/3 field. 5/3 is a neat park w/ a fun atmosphere. I was amazed by the size and intensity of the crowd the first time I caught a game there; you wouldn't think you'd see something like that for a Single-A team but they pack 'em in every night. I also like the view of the city from inside the park. All of this put together makes you feel like you're @ a bigger venue.
Saturday is kind of up in the air. I hope to go down to the Reds game and meet a few of my friends from Columbus. I'm still not sure how I'm going to get there, though. I could always drive but I don't want too b/c I plan on waking up in Dayton but going to sleep in Columbus. It's my mom's birthday on Saturday (she's getting up there in the years, lol) and my wife is going to head to town in the afternoon. I want to see the game but I don't want to drive to Columbus via Cincinnati. So I'm working on a scheme. I'll either have my wife drop me off somewhere on I-71 before my buddies reach that point so they can pick me up, take the bus down there or I'll bribe my neighbor's kid who's home from college for a ride to King's Island. If the last scenario plays out I'll be able to go to the park and then have my friends pick me up - that's the one I'm rooting for. Regardless of what happens I'm dealing w/ a complex plan that will be tough to pull off but I have a feeling I'll be able to get it done.
After that I'll be in Columbus for a few days and I have a feeling that by the time Tuesday rolls around and my long weekend is over it'll still have been too short. Wish me luck!
Time Travelers No Longer Welcome in China
06/01/11
As a kid I always wanted to figure out how to go back in time. It started out when I got grounded for doing something stupid and I wished to go back and warn myself that I was about to get in trouble. As I got older and began collecting baseball cards I wanted to go back to 1952 and buy a bunch of Mickey Mantle Topps rookies (along w/ other stars from that set). After a while I wanted to head back in time to see Jimi Hendrix perform. Now I'd like to head back to the past so I could bet the farm on United Airlines that day in 2008 when a false bankruptcy report came out and the stock dropped 99.92% only to bounce back 24 hours later (or I'd buy Starbucks back in the early '90s when it was only 3.5 cents a share - basically I'd use a time machine to help me get ahead of the market if I could).
After taking a few physics classes I learned that while time travel is possible, it appears we can only go into the future. I still refuse to believe that anything is impossible but one argument against time travel is pretty compelling: we can't do it otherwise we'd be invaded by tourists from the future. Seeing that time travel will likely never happen (@ least not in my lifetime) I have to enjoy the next best thing: fictional stories about the genre.
One of my favorite television shows as a child was Quantum Leap. My mom and I would watch it every Wednesday night. I also loved the Back to the Future movies and found myself rushing to see the newest time traveler movie whenever it came out on video (a lot of times they'd be poorly written and I could figure out the paradox that would make said storyline impossible).
Seeing that I loved the theme so much when I was younger (and still do) I was a little saddened when I learned that youngsters in China may never even learn of the concept via popular culture. That's b/c the State Administration for Radio, Film & Television in the country has in effect banned time travel in media.
The reasoning behind the ban is simple, "plots that revolve around the topic casually make up myths, have monstrous and weird plots, use absurd tactics, and even promote feudalism, superstition, fatalism and reincarnation." Okay so that's not so simple but the government also says that stories about time travel are "treating the serious history in a frivolous way, which should by no means be encouraged anymore." In essence the government doesn't want historical figures misrepresented in film and TV.
Regardless of how historical figures are portrayed banning the genre entirely seems a little excessive. If the educational system over there is as good as people say it is the country's citizens would probably figure out that Confucius wasn't a rapper or that the finest vases from the Ming Dynasty are made of porcelain and not earthenware; actually it may be a good thing that time travel stories are banned over there - those are two GREAT ideas and seeing that intellectual property violations are common in the People's Republic they'd likely be stolen from me otherwise.
And what about replaying re-runs and classic movies? As time passes history tends to get rewritten so one could argue that @ some point past shows/films that happened to be topical in nature when released will one day be barred as well. There are so many variables that I wouldn't be surprised if down the line the Chinese government rethinks its decision and wishes it could go back in time just to keep from making it in the first place. The sad thing is that if that day comes right now there'd be no way to even draft the script of that story.
The Heat is On
05/31/11
Well it's the last day of May and it's more than 20 days until the start of the long, hot summer season but it seems like mother nature did not get the memo. It was HOT today... again! Sunday we got to 88, yesterday it was 90 and today we climbed to 91. Again, it's not even the end of May!
Seems like we jumped right into summer w/ no warning @ all. Of course after the spring we've had I'll take the heat... if it means we're dry and the severe weather threat goes on hiatus. It has been a little jarring, though. I wasn't ready to turn on the air conditioning just yet but it's been working overtime the past few days w/ the recent heat.
If you're wondering whether or not we set any records over the past few days the answer would be no. Hard to believe but we weren't even close. The May 30th record high temperature in Dayton is 95 (we were five degrees off) and today's record high temperature is 97 (six degrees off that one). Both of those records were set in 1895 so they've stood for 115 years - and will make it @ least one more.
It is uncommon to see the the temps so high so early, though. Typically we get to 90 for the first time in Dayton in the second or third week of June. So right now we're a little ahead of schedule.
W/ a high of 90 yesterday we did something we haven't done in 23 years. May 30, 1988 was the last time we were this hot this early in the year. I remember what followed that summer... it was horrible. Ohio saw hot, dry weather for much of the summer and we didn't have air conditioning @ our house (my mom still hasn't gotten it). In fact, in Dayton there were seven days w/ highs @ 100 or better. We also had a bad drought that year.
So what does that mean for the coming summer? Not much. We still have a long way to go before this summer is recorded into the history books so there's a lot of time to see how things shake out. The long term forecast is calling for a good chance of seeing typical precipitation patterns in the area and below average temperatures. Of course I don't put a whole lot of stock in the long-term outlooks... they've been more wrong that right as of late. Tomorrow we'll see above average highs but it'll be a lot less humid so it'll feel much better than it has. Of course a few days do not set the trend. Like I said, it's a long season (one that we haven't even started). Only time will tell.
More Than Just a Day
05/30/11
I'd like to start off by wishing everyone a happy Memorial Day. I hope that you enjoyed the day off and got a chance to spend time w/ those who matter in your life. I also hope that you spent the day doing whatever it is you've been wanting to accomplish in your free time even if that goal consisted of doing nothing special @ all.
But as you sit back w/ your favorite food or beverage I ask that you stop and think for a moment why it is that you're enjoying this, the last Monday of May away from your job. Over the years thousands have made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of this great country. It's important to set aside time to remember those individuals... even though one day a year simply isn't enough.
Today may be a day of cookouts, get-togethers and swimming pools but the reason we're able to enjoy these activities is b/c of the fact that men and women are willing to put their lives on the line in defense of our freedom. We're lucky to have people who so believe in our way of life that they're willing to risk their own lives to preserve it... most of the time for complete strangers. Nobody forces them to serve, they just do it; and they're happy about it no less. On behalf of my family I'd like to thank those who step forward and answer the call to duty.
One of my favorite presidential quotes comes from Ronald Reagan. It goes: "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." That quote rings truer and truer every time I read it.
So as you celebrate your holiday I hope you stop for a second and remember those who have paid w/ their lives to ensure the next generation will enjoy the very freedoms we often take for granted. And if you actively serve or if you're a veteran I'd like to thank you for what you do and what you've done. I hope you had a enjoyable Memorial Day holiday... you deserve it.
Unofficially the Start of Something Special... Kind Of
05/27/11
It's unofficial, summer is here! That's right, w/ the Memorial Day weekend kicking off tonight we can unofficially welcome the season of long, lazy days and warm, muggy nights. I know we're getting close b/c my children can tell me, w/out thinking, how many days of school they have left. If I'm not mistaken we're eleven days away from the start of said extended vacation; my kids will argue they only have seven school days left... but who's counting?
When I was younger I always loved Memorial Day weekend. That's when the pool opened and the school year was so close to ending that the light @ the end of the tunnel was almost blinding. When I got to college I actually looked forward to going back to school b/c that meant that got to play "adult" again but I didn't have to cover any of my bills. Unfortunately I didn't realize that I was wrong until six months after I graduated - I'm still covering that tab... let that be a lesson kids: go for scholarships.
I still like this time of year b/c it's warm but as I've gotten older, summer has become just another season. It's almost as if the luster that comes w/ it has worn off a bit. And the sad thing is that were I retired I'd still look @ it as just another season. I'd have to go back to high school to regain the magic and you couldn't pay me enough to do that (maybe you could but it would cost you).
I'm sure there are ways to put the spark back into the season. I could grill out every night for a month. Or I maybe I'll give myself a summer reading assignment that I'll put off until the last week of August b/c right now it seems like I have "forever" to get it done (I've always wanted to read The Brothers Karamazov). I can also start looking forward to sundresses and the fact that I can finally start wearing white again... that should do it.
All kidding aside, I am excited by the fact that I'll get to see my kids a lot more pretty soon since they won't be in school. It'll also be nice to sit on the front porch and enjoy my breakfast while reading the morning paper. And I have to admit that I'm happy I'll get to work on my tan - that way I won't be so peaked and sickly looking and my white suit won't wash me out so much.
Tornado Recap
05/26/11
Well, I'm sure I don't have to tell you but it was another busy night in the weather center last night. In short, we got clobbered. Severe weather hit virtually the entire Miami Valley in the evening and then again in the overnight hours.
A tornado warning was issued shortly after 6:00 P.M. and we went into wall-to-wall coverage. This storm was strong and produced a tornado when it was tearing across Indiana. When it got to our neck of the woods it dropped @ least one tornado, confirmed by the National Weather Service, @ 7:10. The NWS says an EF-0 tornado hit near Centerville w/ 65mph winds. That makes it a very weak tornado but a tornado nonetheless.
When that cell was working through the area I have to admit that I was a little nervous b/c I live just north of Centerville in Kettering. Weekend meteorologist Andrew Michael and I were taking turns tracking the storm and when it got about 10 minutes away from my house I gladly let him take over b/c I had to send a text to my wife. This may not sound like much but I NEVER do that. I always tell her to listen for the sirens, watch us and take cover if they're activated. It's not b/c I want to be mean but the reason I've told her this in the past is b/c if tornadoes are on the ground I'm on the air and can't stop what I'm doing to make a phone call. Last night, though I made sure I found a way.
Honestly, I'm surprised only a weak tornado was confirmed w/ this cell. It strengthened as it passed through and looked very intense on the radar. Not only that but it brought LOTS of hail w/ it. We got reports of up to three inch hail and plenty of viewer pictures backed up those claims. Typically when you have a storm produce hail of that size strong tornadoes are not out of the question.
Then round two arrived early in the morning today when a squall line ripped through the area. Not only were strong gusty winds associated w/ this feature but another tornado spun up as it worked through Butler county. The NWS confirmed that tornado in Liberty Township earlier this afternoon. It was a strong EF-1 tornado w/ maximum winds of 105mph. This flipped over a car and tore the roof off of a house.
As if that wasn't enough we got another tornado warning earlier this evening after someone spotted one on the ground south of Coldwater in Mercer county. I half-jokingly told Andrew Michael yesterday that we'd get a tornado warning tonight as the parent low pressure system tracked over us. It's not uncommon to get a quick spin-up when low pressure moves directly overhead @ the right time and tonight was no different. The good news is that as that low moves east it's taking the unsettled weather with it... just in time for the weekend.
So it's been pretty busy over the past week and over the past month for that matter and the numbers prove it. I try to keep pretty good records and by my count we've had seven confirmed tornadoes in the Miami Valley in just over a month. That's pretty close to, if not more, than we saw all of last year! The good news is that our weather pattern is expected to quiet down over the next week or so. In fact we're about to enter a summer-like pattern by the end of the weekend. That means we'll go from feeling like spring to summer in the span of about four days. While that's a crazy change in a short period of time I'm hoping it sticks and summer decides to settle in for an extended stay.
Thank Goodness, We're Still Here!!!
05/25/11
I'm happy to report that the world didn't end and mankind is still chugging along. If you're wondering what I'm talking about I alluding to the Rapture. That's when the end times begin and all those who are true believers are saved. I wanted to talk about this last night but we had severe weather hit the Miami Valley so I didn't have the time I wanted to devote to such a topic.
According to biblical scholar Harold Camping the world was supposed to end over the previous weekend. Some believe he cracked the "Bible Code" and by his calculations the world was slated to end last Saturday, May 21st @ 6:00 P.M. (I assume local time, he didn't specify a time zone). Well you, like me, probably realized when you woke up Sunday morning that the sun was still shining. Good news... the world is still turning.
I don't know what it is about predicting the end of the world but people have been doing it for centuries. Back on the last day of 999 A.D. some thought Judgment Day would occur in Jerusalem. I don't know if anyone showed up for the party but I'm sure they did. Obviously that didn't happen but that hasn't kept people from predicting mankind's demise throughout the years since and each time they've been wrong... thank goodness.
The fascination behind knowing the exact day of judgment is beyond me but maybe I'm just a slacker. The only thing I figure is that as humans we're used to having some modicum of control in our lives. The end of time and thus our deaths are two things we have absolutely no control over no matter what we do and predicting when it all stops is a way of dealing w/ life's uncertainties (I hear some financial planners are great @ this).
But here's the thing: even if you could find out when you're going to die would you want to? A lot of people say yes and I can't help but wonder if I'd be in that category. But the more I think about it the more I feel that ignorance is bliss on this one. Think about it, if you knew you were going to die in 52 years and 245 days you might be like, "Cool that's plenty of time!" But as that number dwindled you'd likely grow more and more anxious about the coming event. On your last day there's a good chance you'd feel like you didn't accomplish enough and therefore wasted your precious time here on Earth.
I equate it to my summer vacations as a child. I remember the first day/week of the long hiatus was always filled w/ excitement. I'd think about all the cool stuff I was going to do and make all of these elaborate plans. And then life would get in the way and before I knew it I'd be counting down the days until I had to return and couldn't help being overcome by a feeling of dread. Then the first day of school would finally arrive and it was like all of my goals were for naught and that I'd wasted yet another summer. On a side note, I still haven't learned Mandarin Chinese.
That might be why I've always convinced that I'll live to 100 (@ least). It's long enough in the future that I'm not worried about it and if (or should I say when) I make it there even if I don't accomplish all I'd hoped to I'll be so tired and ready to call it quits by then that I won't really care anyway.
As for the Rapture guy, he's pushed the date of the Apocalypse back to 10/21/2011 (just 3 days before my 35th birthday... uh, oh maybe I won't hit 100). I don't put a whole lot of stock in it, though. Not b/c he's been wrong before but b/c Jesus told his disciples that no one will know when the end is coming in fact it's supposed to come "like a thief in the night". I know this b/c I consider myself a religious person which is great b/c even if the end of the world is in October I'll be okay - I've kind of hedged my bets (that's not the best analogy, I don't feel like I've really put anything on the line, but it's the best one that comes to mind).
And although it's been written that no one will know when the end of the world will be the scientist in me begs to differ. In approximately five billion years our sun will exhaust the hydrogen fuel in its core and begin its transformation into a red giant. It will eventually engulf Mercury, Venus and there's a good chance Earth as well (even if it doesn't, life as we know it will likely be over).
But honestly, I'm not all that worried about that either. B/c if we ever master the secret of immortality, and I opt into it, that's plenty of time in my opinion. When the sun begins the next phase of its life I'll be fine and I won't feel like I've wasted the "summer" of my life b/c if you ask me five billion years is more than enough time to cross everything off of your bucket list.
Crazy Night in the Weather Center
05/23/11
Well the title sums it up quite well. It was CRAZY tonight in the weather center and in the Miami Valley for that matter. We had multiple tornado warnings across the area. The first one rolled in just before 7:00 P.M. in Butler county. The next hour-and-a-half or so was very busy.
By the time all was said and done tornado warnings had been issued @ some time or another in Butler, Warren, Darke, Miami, Shelby, Greene, Clark, Champaign and Logan counties. That's more than half of the viewing area. A tornado report was registered in Miami County NNE of Pleasant Hill. And if that wasn't enough the entire area had a severe thunderstorm warning @ some point or another tonight and we got word of wind gusts to 77 mph up in Shelby county. In short it was busy.
A strong SSW wind pumped in lots of heat and moisture which is basically like pouring gasoline onto a pile of wood. The match we needed to spark a round of explosive storms came as a line of strong showers/storms tore into our area from Indiana. That arrived and since we had already "primed" atmosphere that energy was just waiting to be tapped into since the sun hadn't set. As the line pushed out of the area it weakened considerably due to the fact that things had cooled down somewhat. It's funny b/c if that line had hit a few hours later we may have missed the action altogether.
And to all the viewers we upset tonight w/ our wall-to-wall coverage I sincerely apologize. Unfortunately having an FCC license comes w/ responsibilities, though. It's our job to break in w/ critical information and when the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning anywhere in the area that falls into the "critical information" threshold. I know it's nice to watch the programming that ABC22 and Fox45 provides but that becomes secondary when people's lives are @ risk. I hope you understand and the good news is that we'll replay "Dancing w/ the Stars" tomorrow night before the season finale.
Mr. Sandman... Please Leave
05/19/11
For some reason every time I make it to about this time of night I begin to feel very slow and very sluggish... as if it were time for bed (or @ least a nap). I don't know why this tends to happen night after night but it just does and I don't like it. I find myself yawning, my eyelids getting heavy and my thoughts keep reverting back to how comfortable my bed would be right about now.
I'm truly @ a loss for words as to why I'm fighting back that gentle caress the hand of sleep provides... especially tonight. I already took a nap earlier in the day. My wife was volunteering somewhere, my youngest was napping herself and I had nothing better to do (actually I probably did but whatever it was it didn't sound better than sleep... but then again most things seldom do). That's when I decided to grab a quick 40 winks (we'll call it 20) and woke up refreshed before I took a shower and headed into work. So for all intensive purposes my body shouldn't be tired @ all b/c I took a quick "breather", as I like to call it, earlier this afternoon. Maybe sleep is like an addictive substance and after getting some earlier I'm hooked and need a little more just to get me through the day.
Or maybe I'm just lazy... but I don't think that's the case. It's weird, though b/c I know that in about 15 or 20 minutes I'll start waking up and then we'll do the late shows and when I get home I won't be able to fall asleep until the wee hours of the morning. Tomorrow I'll likely wake up earlier than I should and the cycle will begin anew. The body is funny like that. I'm not going to call it a flaw but it's pretty annoying either way.
I'd blame it on the fact that maybe my body is digesting its dinner but typically whenever I get sleepy post mastication it happens right after the meal (in Hawaii it's called a "kanak attack"). Thanksgiving dinner is notorious for causing this phenomenon. And besides, pizza and raw vegetables typically don't cause said problem.
I'd drink coffee but I hate it (and I'm hyper enough already). Maybe I'll just get up, walk around awhile and get the blood moving which will thus wake me up. I should probably e-mail this blog to my wife as well. That way she might just let me sleep in tomorrow morning and I won't find myself in a similar predicament 24 hours from now... actually I probably will but the energy of Friday will be enough for me to "power through" any sleepiness I may encounter; especially if I sleep in.
Back to the Future
05/18/11
The farthest west that I've ever made it is Hawaii. If you don't know, I lived there for almost five years before moving back home. I would've liked to have gotten even farther west and visited Japan, Australia or even some of the islands in the South Pacific (even though I was on an island already). Sadly I never made it... I guess I'll have to wait for retirement.
In the middle of the Pacific ocean there's a curious phenomena. It's called the International Dateline. It's the point where you automatically add or take away a day from whatever time it happens to be depending on which way you're going when you cross it. I'm sure you're aware of the various time zones in the country and around the world. In order to keep some semblance of uniformity in time keeping we use the International Dateline. Otherwise where would one day end and the other begin? When I lived in the islands I often wanted to call a business west of the dateline and ask them what I can expect to happen tomorrow since they were technically already there. I didn't b/c I found it a little pointless to learn an entirely different language just to make a prank phone call... it would've shown my commitment to the joke, though.
A small island nation in the South Pacific is deciding to intervene and do something about being a day behind it's neighbors. In December Samoa is going to move to the west of the dateline thus fast-forwarding itself into the future by 24 hours. Kind of gives a whole new meaning to a term we deal w/ every March: "Spring Forward".
The reasoning behind the change is to help out w/ trade between Australia and New Zealand, two of the country's growing allies in the business world. Right now Samoa is 21 hours behind the two countries even though a direct flight to one of the two only takes about five hours. Ironically this isn't the first time the island nation has switched sides (of the dateline that is). Back in 1892 it moved to the east side of it to facilitate trade w/ the United States and Europe.
The move makes good sense, too. What do the countries do if they want to do business w/ each other over the weekend? Depending on where the transaction originates it can mean a short weekend for either party involved. Of course if Samoa wants to trade w/ the Hawaii it's now dealing w/ the same problem but just in a different direction.
I find the whole thing fascinating. Samoa is slated to make the move on December 29th. That means that for all intensive purposes December 30th, 2011 will not exist in that country. Residents there will go to sleep on the 29th and wake up on New Year's Eve. What do you do if your birthday, anniversary, etc. is on the 30th? If I fell into that situation I'd skip the gift altogether and tell my friend/wife, "It's not my fault. There's a vacuum in the 2011 calendar that just happens to affect you/us in a negative way. I don't make the rules, I just follow them."
I'd also try to schedule all of the appointments I didn't want to attend on the 30th if I lived in the country. That way I could say I was there on time but the other party didn't show up and I was so offended that I've decided against the meeting altogether. That's when I'd point out, "You only get one chance w/ me."
When I looked up 12/29/2011 on my calendar I noticed another interesting fact: 12/29 is on a Thursday. That means the country is skipping Friday altogether and if Samoa observes the New Year's Day holiday then citizens will slide right into a three-day weekend. That's good b/c I'd be mad if I lost a weekend day... even if they repaid me w/ a holiday (observed). And are people going to lose a day's pay? Technically they're not working on that Friday but I'd think the country would have to somehow compensate its people if that's the case.
The island paradise still has plenty of time to figure out these questions. When the big day finally arrives I hope all those living there enjoy their short week and long weekend followed another short week. I also hope everyone there enjoys their trip into the future... make sure you call me from time to time and let me know what's on the way in my near future.
Grabbing a Meal on the Road
05/17/11
It's been a dangerous year for produce in transit in the Miami Valley. In mid-March a semi exiting onto I-75N overturned and spilled close to 40,000 pounds of watermelon on the side of the road. Less than two weeks later another truck had an accident and dropped its cargo... a load of lettuce in the same spot. Seven days later there was another problem, again in the same spot, that left the highway littered w/ another perishable, yet edible item. That time it was strawberries.
If you're reading this you might be thinking, "That's a lot of fruit/vegetables spilled in one area... over a short period of time!" It's almost as if the I-75 on-ramp from I-70 eastbound is the place that food goes to die, or @ the very least spill. Kind of like that point is the Bermuda Triangle of herbaceous eats or the nexus of living and dead plants - a portal, if you will, to the other side... for perennials that is.
One could just chalk this up to the fact that the area in question might just be accident prone. But this morning there was another wreck... this one littered cans of tomato sauce onto the parkway. It was a few miles south of the spot that had all the problems in March and April. That may lead one to believe I-75 is a cursed road when it comes to transporting food of any nature... especially fruits and vegetables or bi-products of fruits and vegetables.
While I know that last sentence sounds a little absurd (kind of) I still can't help but reflect on the odd nature of this recent chain of events. It's strange enough to have one accident involving food that gets strewn all over the highway... but four, in a span of about two months, sounds more than fishy. The shear improbability of the whole situation makes one wonder if there aren't greater forces @ work here.
Now sure, the explanation could be as simple as the fact that we live in farm country & have a manufacturing base in the area so truckloads of produce or canned sauce are likely to be numerous on our roadways. W/ more trucks carrying such cargo it's more likely that the area would see wrecks involving such items. Not only that but I-70 and I-75 are two of the busiest interstates in the nation. One is a 2100 mile stretch from west to east and the other spans about 1800 miles from north to south. If you have to get something somewhere in the United States chances are you may spend some time on one of those interstates. As a result one could argue that truck accidents of any kind, regardless of the cargo (i.e. non-food items) would be more common on one of those highways, not to mention on and around their interchange.
But as much as I like science I'm going to have to go against the facts and the statistics on this one. B/c we've seen so many food related crashes as of late there's only one logical conclusion: I-75 is hungry and it's stomach is located near Vandalia (where it meets w/ I-70). One could call me crazy but they'd be missing the obvious... food continues to be strewn about the highway in our area regardless of the weather conditions.
And I'll tell you another thing - if we see three more crashes involving salad dressing, mozzarella cheese and flour or some sort of pre-made dough, then my theory is as good as proven (or it becomes a "law" in scientific terms). If these new food items were added to the mix then we'd have enough for a fruit cocktail appetizer, salad and pizza dinner which as I understand it is I-75's favorite meal. Throw a beer truck cargo spill in the vicinity and I may have to quit my job and join Ms. Cleo on the psychic network.
From Swimsuits to Jackets... in 4 Days
05/16/11
It's funny, less than a week ago I was talking about temperatures that were about 15 degrees above average. @ the time I mentioned how we had a cool down on the way but it wasn't a big deal b/c if you don't like Ohio's weather just wait five minutes... it's bound to change. Staying on par w/ the norm in the state we're now talking about highs that are on the order of 20 degrees below normal.
Yes the roller coaster that is known as Ohio weather is in full swing and we're in the midst of a valley before we start climbing the hill to the next peak. If you need proof of said temperature ups and downs think about this: the high on Thursday was 86... today it was 50. That's a 36 degree temperature swing in the daytime highs in just four days! That's nuts.
It was so cold today that we almost shivered our way into the history books. One of my favorite weather records is the lowest high temperature on any given day. I like it b/c it sounds like an oxymoron - sort of like the world's smartest idiot - but it also puts the day into a bit of a historical perspective. Think about it, the lowest high temp. is a quick number that lets one see the extreme nature of the day during the actual daytime. A lot of the time when we hit an overnight low it's under clear skies. As those clear skies persist into the day the sun warms things up nicely so even though we may have hit a record low it's not necessarily an accurate representation of how the weather affected people. In essence, the lowest high gives us a better idea as to the "feel" of the day.
Today's record lowest high temperature is 49 set back in 1940. That means that @ 50 we almost had the coldest afternoon on a May 16th that we've ever seen in recorded history. In short, it was bad... and anyone who spent any time outdoors today knows what I mean. I'm actually a little sad that we didn't get the record. If we're going to be as close as we were today it pretty much feels like we were there already so we might as well have something to show for it. Now today ranks as just "another day" in the annals of history when it really wasn't.
I don't know about you but even though I'm a fan of amusement parks (the state has a few really good ones) this is one roller coaster I'm ready to see end. I'm used to temperature swings like this in late March and early to mid-April... not in May, though - which is why I'm sick of this weather pattern. Of course I guess like all roller coasters - temperature or otherwise - all I can really do once it starts is keep my hands and arms in the car @ all times and just sit back and enjoy the ride (which hopefully ends soon).
Happy Anniversary, Honey!
05/13/11
Today is a special day for me and my family. Sure it's Friday the 13th which some may say is a bit of a bad omen but it can also be a day of celebration. How, you may ask. It's simple: it's my wife's and my anniversary. We've officially been married 11 years... although I joke and say it seems closer to 20 - for my wife that is.
We had a great day... even though I had to work. We got to hang out this morning w/ our youngest and spend some quality family time together. While it would've been nice to have our other two around the youngest can really speak very well... so she can't talk back; and she takes naps - so we had the best of both worlds.
We had Penn Station for lunch, which might not sound like much but as I understand it Penn Station has been called the most romantic of all the fast food chains - Arby's comes in @ a close second. We also ate it while our youngest was catching some shuteye so we got to relax and talk and enjoy each other's company. And honestly, it doesn't really matter what you're eating as long as you're sharing your meal w/ someone about whom you care. Tomorrow night will be more of a celebration as we're going out for a romantic dinner - that should be nice.
It's funny how quickly life passes by but you don't really realize it until some sort of a milestone forces you to stop and think about it. It's seems like we spend so much time just living in the "now" that we don't really notice things are moving along, whether we like it or not. It's almost as if our day to day lives hit such a rhythm that time seems to stand still and we lose track of the forest through the trees. When we finally do kick back and take stock of our lives it's always nice if we can feel like we haven't been wasting our time. I can't speak for my wife but I can't think of a better way to have spent the last decade+ of my life.
So today is Friday the 13th and superstition says it's bound to be unlucky. I have to admit when we were planning our wedding the fact that it fell on the 13th of the month concerned me b/c I knew that would mean every now and then my anniversary would fall on this cursed day. Now that I'm a little older and a bit wiser I realize that's nonsense. In fact, right now I feel like the luckiest man on the planet and for that I thank my wife. I love you, honey! Here's to another great 11 years!
Early Taste of Summer
05/12/11
If you haven't noticed over the past few days it's hot... and muggy. After hitting 80 on Tuesday we hit 86 both yesterday and today. That's the warmest temperature of the year thus far. But more than that w/ three days in a row @ 80 or better this is the longest stretch of weather that warm since early October... or in seven months. It's funny b/c around a week ago we were talking about highs in the 50s.
But that's weather in Ohio. It seems like we go right from the cold, gray season into the hot, construction season w/ virtually no transition in between. When I lived in different areas of the country and people asked me what the weather was like back home I'd always tell them, "Really hot in the summer, really cold in the winter w/ about a month each of spring and fall... if we're lucky."
I can remember summers growing up when we'd get day after day of 90+ temperatures w/ heat indices into the triple digits. It was even worse b/c we didn't have air conditioning (my mom still doesn't have it in her house) so I'd find myself going over to the houses of different friends who were lucky enough to enjoy the climate-controlled comfort that central air provided. Every August it would get particularly bad and the cruel irony of it all was that by that time school was about to start so I'd get away from the heat... but I didn't want to go to school to do it.
While it hasn't been that bad lately we all know it's coming. In mother nature's defense we did have highs in the mid-60s and low-70s Friday through Monday so it was pretty nice... I guess that was our spring. Hopefully you didn't blink b/c you may have missed it if you did. While I'm not surprised that we've seen such a sudden change I would like to see a few weeks of sunshine and comfortable temperatures, in or @ least around, the low-70s. I think what upsets me most is that I've been expecting to see the nice weather, I do every year and did as a child, but sometimes it doesn't come... I hope this isn't one of those years.
I think I just need to come to terms w/ the fact that I live in Ohio and if I don't like the weather I should just wait five minutes b/c it'll likely change. And, no surprise here, we do have a change in the weather pattern on the way. After a few hot, humid days we're looking @ much cooler weather by the end of the weekend. The past few days we've been talking about temperatures around 15 degrees above normal. By the end of the weekend we'll be about 10 degrees below normal. Sounds crazy but that's weather in Ohio... anything but normal. I shouldn't be surprised, though - in my opinion, any state that can produce someone like me is anything but normal :)
Accidental Inmate
05/11/11
There's an old saying about a guy who's stuck in an all lady's prison - it's humorous and I'd love to repeat it but this is a family forum. I recently read about a man who found himself in a similar predicament... and it wasn't on purpose. Turns out an unnamed man inadvertently wandered into such an institution while looking for a shortcut to a nearby park. He walked through a metal door that closed behind him only to find himself trapped inside the Hilldesheim jail in Germany, a facility for women offenders.
Luckily a passing cyclist and the town's mayor happened to be in the area and heard the man's cries for help. They were able to get in touch w/ police and free him. @ first prison guards were reluctant b/c they thought the two were trying to help a prisoner escape but after one recognized the mayor the accidental inmate was freed.
The reason the man even found himself in such a jam was b/c the door he walked through had recently been repaired and it had a wobbly bolt which meant it didn't close properly. He didn't get inside the actual prison, only making in into a courtyard, and thankfully had no contact w/ any criminals. Prison officials took the whole thing in stride saying the incident was more "something to laugh about than get angry over."
While I see the humor in this story there are also a few things that leave me scratching my head. For one thing how can the prison be so cavalier about the whole thing? I'd be a little concerned that a complete stranger can wander into a place that's meant to keep people from leaving. If someone can get in that easily then logic would dictate someone can get out pretty easily as well. Not only that but if the door had been fixed recently and it didn't shut... that means it kind of wasn't fixed in the first place. The whole point of a door is to open and shut. Even if it can do one of those but not the other... it's still broken and any repair job that's been performed needs to be revisited.
I'm also a little confused that the prison guards thought the two Good Samaritans who happened to be passing by were trying to aid in a jailbreak. It's a women's prison and a man was stuck inside it; am I missing something? How could a man be an inmate in such a penitentiary? Was he feminine looking? Did he happen to be coming from a costume party dressed as a female? (Which is a nice way of asking if he was a cross-dresser). And even if one of these were a true scenario why did the guards have to wait for the mayor to step in to free the man? The last time I checked there's a real easy way for that man to prove he wasn't part of the "general population" of the facility. If the chest hair and beard stubble didn't do it... I'm sure he could have thought of something else.
The other thing that perplexes me is why the guy would want to leave in the first place. As an adolescent getting trapped in a women's prison was my dream and I'm sure there are more than a few men who'd love to find themselves in a similar bind. That leads me to believe that some part of this story might be fabricated. If you ask me I think maybe he did encounter some of the inmates and he only wanted out (revisit the adage mentioned @ the top of the post) after he realized his handful of pardons was worthless.
Canine Conundrum
05/10/11
We added a new member to the Booth family over the weekend. No, my wife and I did not (and will not) have another baby, we got a dog. I have to admit that I didn't really want to get another pet. It's not that I don't like dogs, I just don't want one. Dogs are a lot of work and I have a lot on my plate as it is already. In fact, sometimes I feel overwhelmed taking care of my own kids... the last thing I need is to throw an animal that can escape and run way faster than me into the mix.
I was promised that my wife & kids would take care of the animal, clean up after it, walk it and play w/ it. I was, and am, skeptical about this prospect but regardless of my reservations my wife & kids won out on this one and Sunday we went to the no-kill shelter on Wilmington Pike and got Nikki.
She appears to be a Shepherd / Labrador mix but she was a stray before one of the directors brought her in as a "foster dog" so no one knows for sure. She's all black which means she reminds me of the opening track of my favorite Led Zeppelin album ("Hey, hey mama said the way you move..."). We have a black cat as well and when we got both the workers @ each shelter said the animals were lucky b/c it's tough to adopt black cats & dogs b/c people are superstitious... so far they seem to have pleasant dispositions so maybe we're onto something.
Nikki is well-behaved and very calm and that's good b/c I get bothered by ill-trained canines... and I know all about them, my aunt has one. So far she knows she's not allowed on the couch, doesn't bother the cat and makes my kids happy so I'm starting to warm up to her. I'm also kind of happy she came w/ a monicker b/c the kids named the cat and she's called Calamity Clara Rosie Annele Snydecker Super-Flying Kitty Booth. We just go w/ Calamity, which is a good name, but if we would've let them name the dog chances are we'd be calling it Hello Kitty, Harry Potter or some other character in children's pop culture.
I do worry about what's going to happen the next time we want to leave town b/c w/ a cat it's possible to have someone come by each day and feed her. A dog is a lot different and requires a lot more responsibility. Here's to hoping everyone keeps to their promise and takes care of the animal as they claim they will. That way my role will be to have fun w/ the animal which is about all the responsibility I wanted when I agreed to get her in the first place.
Hellooooooo Nation!
05/09/11
I remember the first time I saw, or even heard about, YouTube. I was living in Hawaii and someone in the newsroom was talking about how kids were organizing fight clubs and one of the producers was trying to find out if it was happening on the island or not via the site. I wasn't quite sure what it was all about @ first but quickly figured it out. Since then I've been reluctant to join the site. I don't have anything against it but I think I'm just afraid I might do something stupid, put it on the site and get in trouble for doing so.
Fast forward a few years and enter SportsNation. It's a television show on ESPN2 that polls sports fans via the network's website and then airs the results every weekday. I call the show total brain candy b/c while it talks about sports, most of the time it talks about people's opinions about sports so it's more or less just a great way to let you brain kick back, relax and cruise on auto-pilot for an hour... it's great! I watch it everyday b/c I'm putting my forecast together when it airs and can leave it on in the background. I actually get mad when the station puts something else on in it's place... especially soccer. I'm used to getting my SportsNation fix @ a specific time every day and don't like it when someone or something breaks my routine.
So what do YouTube and SportsNation have to do w/ each other? Not much... on the surface. But if you watch the show on a regular basis you've probably seen that the producers @ SportsNation allow viewers to submit their own videos that open up the show. Well, I made one and had to post it on YouTube in order to enter it into the running. I made it cheesy... only way I know how. So w/out further ado here's the link to it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUN5zC9xFv0
I don't know if I submitted it correctly (a little confusing on the show's website... and I'm not very tech-savvy). Here's to hoping that the next time you see the above link you'll hear Colin Cowherd yell, "Helloooooooo, Nation!" shortly thereafter.
Hope Mom Has a Wonderful Day
05/06/11
We're officially less than 48 hours away from mom's special day. As always it crept up on me this year. I was driving into work on Monday and there was a commercial talking about the fact that Mother's Day was less than a week away. I couldn't believe it until I thought about it for a second and realized May 1st fell on a Sunday. That means that this Sunday is technically the second Sunday of May which is the holiday reserved for mom in the U.S.; and like 80 other countries in the world).
As a kid I always questioned why we had Mother's Day and Father's Day but no Kid's Day. My mom then informed me that I didn't have to work therefore everyday was Kid's Day. Now that I've gotten older and my kids have asked me the same question I give them the same answer b/c as always mom was right.
I never really appreciated what the holiday meant until I had kids of my own. Even though I love my children to death it's still tough raising them... I can't imagine how much harder it is for mom. Sometimes they're loud, messy or whiny and you just have to grin and bear it b/c unless they're doing something absolutely terrible you kind of have let them just be kids. In these moments I realize how much patience my mom had and the need for a special day just for her becomes clear.
When I was in college my friends and I would all start reminding each other to remember Mother's Day around the middle of April. That way we'd all know when to call and as silly as it sounds it actually worked. This is my reminder to you if it's slipped your mind up to this point.
So make sure you call your mom and tell her how much she means to you this Sunday. Tell your wife that you appreciate what a great mother she is to your kids. And if you don't have that option tell a mom you know how her kids are to have such a wonderful woman in their lives. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!
Super Mistake
05/05/11
I've never been a big D.C. Comics guy, I was always more of a Marvel man. Sure I enjoyed Batman (originally found in Detective Comics) and I even liked The Justice League of America but for some reason I always found myself reading Marvel over the rival brand. Truth be told I preferred EC Comics over all competitors but I think that's b/c I liked Tales From the Crypt, Weird Fantasy and all the others in the EC family - they reprinted them when I was younger and I was hooked. When I needed a "superhero" fix I typically picked up something like Spiderman, The Fantastic Four or The X-Men (they were uncanny).
I now have one more reason to dislike D.C. and it has to do w/ the most recognizable icon in the D.C. family: Superman. I liked his movies as a kid and loved the old '40s cartoon re-releases whenever I could get my hands on them but that's when Superman was a lot more innocent and more of a part of the fabric of what makes this country great.
That has all changed thanks to the most recent issue of his popular comic, though. In it Superman goes over to the Middle East to non-violently protest the regime in Iran. That causes the Iranian government to look @ these feats as an act of aggression from the United States. So Superman decides to renounce his U.S. citizenship b/c he doesn't want his "actions construed as instruments of U.S. policy." I can kind of see how the story was written to avoid controversy but that's kind of unavoidable when the headline is, "Superman Renounces U.S. Citizenship".
@ the risk of editorializing this is ridiculous. The guy's redeeming qualities reflect all that we strive for as Americans. He's kind and decent. He uses his power for good and not evil. The dude's uniform is red, white & blue for goodness sake! AND he's an alien (who gets his power from Earth's yellow sun); America was founded by people coming to this country to make a better life for themselves. But most of all he fights for truth, justice (and the American way). If you're going to tell me that Superman isn't American you might as well say apple pie is from Sweden!
I guess I shouldn't be surprised by all of this mess. Sometimes it seems like the only things that grab our attention anymore are those that are the most shocking. As a result that sentiment is often reflected in popular culture. I should've known the powers that be were out to tarnish Superman's legacy when he was made into a deadbeat dad in the movie Superman Returns.
I guess all that's left is to come up w/ the ultimate crossover and work Superman into a Tales From the Crypt story. In it the Cryptkeeper could spin the yarn of how a group of cynical writers killed an American hero.
Pitfalls of Parenthood
05/04/11
Anyone who's a parent knows how frustrating it can be @ times. On the flip side of that coin it can also be infinitely rewarding. Unfortunately tonight was one of those nights when playing dad was more like the former than the latter.
My oldest decided @ the beginning of the year that she wanted to play a musical instrument. She's in fourth grade and that's the year her school allows students to enroll in strings, she chose the violin. I don't know why she picked that one but it may have something to do w/ the fact that a friend down the street plays the same instrument - honestly I don't care what she plays I'm just happy she's getting involved in music.
When she first began lessons she seemed to play all the time which was good... that's how you get better. As of late she hasn't touched it. I don't think she picked the darn thing up all last month... @ least not @ home. I don't know why she's shied away from it, she's doing well but she might not be progressing as quickly as she'd like. Either way she's not playing it as much and it's beginning to frustrate me. I don't have a problem if she wants to give up the instrument... @ the end of the school year. That was the agreement, if she takes up the violin we'll pay for it - but she has to practice. Otherwise I feel like I'm just taking the $16.00/month it costs to rent the thing and blowing my nose w/ it (I can think of a better analogy but this is a family forum).
Well tonight I got tired of it. I went and told her how unhappy I was and accidentally dropped a bad word when describing said disappointment. Needless to say I felt bad about it... which sort of negated my point b/c she teared up and I apologized. She too apologized and said she'd start practicing more but I don't know if I can handle it again if she doesn't - I've had a similar discussion (just not as animated) w/ her in the past and gotten similar results.
After telling her that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results I informed her that I didn't want to be in the same predicament in a few weeks. She told me I wouldn't and here's to hoping she's right. B/c even if she does decide to put the violin down @ the end of the year I'll be a little sad but I will also be happy if she gives up after seeing her original commitment through to the end. Like I said being a parent can be both frustrating and rewarding but if I turn in that fiddle next month and I feel she's stuck w/ it the reward won't be the fact that I didn't waste about $150 over the past year it'll be the fact that my kid learned a lesson in perseverance and the rewards that come w/ it.
What's Up, Doc?
05/03/11
How much do you trust your doctor? I obviously trust mine w/ my life otherwise I wouldn't keep seeing him. Apparently some people not only trust their doctor but also trust a total stranger who appears to be an M.D.
Recently in Turkey police decided to pose as medical practitioners in to see how easily people would fall for a confidence scam. They went door to door, told residents they were screening for high blood pressure, and then asked them to take a pill. The reasoning behind the trickery is that gangs in the country were using a similar tactic to slip trusting homeowners a sedative in order to knock them out and rob them.
When I heard about all of this I couldn't help but wonder, "Who the heck is so gullible that they would fall for something like that?" Amazingly people @ 86 out of 100 houses did, no questions asked. That's crazy! Think about that, that's 86% of those approached. That's a low B+ on an exam... which many would consider a great effort. Maybe I can't believe it b/c as a meteorologist it seems like no one ever listens to me (yet they still ask what kind of weather we're expecting... go figure) - I think a lot of the time they just hear what they want to hear, though.
But back to the fake doctors - the last time I checked a blood pressure exam required a stethoscope and a sphygmomanometer... not a pill. That means that almost 90% of the people involved place so much blind faith in a physician that they'll flat out do what they're told... even if it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. If a doctor showed up @ my doorstep, told me he was screening for blood pressure and then asked me to eat something that'd be my first clue that something was amiss.
And this isn't the first time Turkish police have tried to pull a fast one on citizens in order to highlight the inherent dangers that come w/ being overly gullible. In one province officers arrived @ homes and announced through the intercom, "I am a burglar, please open the door". They were shocked @ the number of people who, against better judgment opened the door anyway. I don't even want to know how many would've fallen for the ruse if officials would've announced over the intercom, "I'm a doctor and a burglar, please open the door."
Wanting to Dry Out
05/02/11
I'm so sick of the rain it's ridiculous! I know we were in a drought last year and we needed some moisture but we've gotten way too much of a good thing as of late. In the month of April we had 18 days w/ rain somewhere in the Miami Valley. That's almost 2/3 of the month! I know they say that April showers bring May flowers (and Mayflowers bring pilgrims) but if things keep @ this pace it'll be too wet for those flowers to even take root.
Today we were in a different month but we had the same old song... more rain and gloom. I think all of this is affecting my usual high spirits. Not that I've been sad as of late but I haven't been as happy as I would've been had the last month been sunnier. I think I need to start drinking more milk w/ extra vitamin D as well. W/out the sun I've definitely been lacking it and I don't want to develop rickets.
It was nice to see a little sun this weekend but we didn't have enough of it. One nice day sandwiched between a week and a half of gloomy weather just isn't cutting it. I'm beginning to think the sun no longer exists and the government is using a weather modification machine to keep the cruddy weather around so we don't wise up. I know that's not true but when something is out of my control I tend to lean on absurdity when trying to make sense out of it - on a totally unrelated note I'm not a professional athlete b/c I was hit w/ a "mediocrity" ray on a field trip to a science lab in elementary school... ever since then my athletic prowess has been lacking @ best.
I also worry about all of this rain b/c the farmers can't get into the field to plant their crops. I was in Eaton over the weekend and couldn't believe my eyes as I drove past empty field after empty field on the way there. Usually this time of year things are @ least starting to sprout. I've been told that farmers will need about 10 days of sunny, warm weather to really dry things out and unfortunately that's not in the cards right now. That also worries me b/c I know that commodity prices are going up and w/ the lower yields we're likely to see in this area I can't help but wonder if that won't drive prices up further... which means more pain @ the supermarket.
Unfortunately we have more rain in the forecast which means I'll have to keep sitting under sun lamps and thinking happy thoughts. I know we'll dry out... eventually. Until then I'll have to try and find the bright side - w/ all this wet weather I have an excuse to avoid doing any yard work... and that's fine by me.
Royal Pain
04/29/11
So what were you doing this morning @ 4:00 A.M.? I was sleeping... and it was awesome! Some people set their clocks early so they wouldn't miss a moment of the pageantry that comes w/ a royal wedding. If you haven't been watching the news lately, and you've had no contact w/ any form of media whatsoever, then you probably didn't know that Prince William and Kate Middleton were getting married this morning (Eastern Daylight Time). For the rest of us who are part of the civilized world it's been tough to avoid.
Over the past few weeks it seems like everywhere I've turned I've been inundated w/ some sort of trinket or service tied to the royal wedding. I've seen things ranging from a replica of the engagement ring to a refrigerator w/ the couple's blown-up engagement photo on the doors to royal wedding barf bags (in both red and blue). There's obviously a market for all of this junk but it still puzzles me.
I'll admit that I'm not a big of a fan of all the hoopla. I'm not even excited about weddings between people I know let alone complete strangers I never have and never will meet. Oh, I'll go to the reception... that's my favorite part. But the wedding - not so much... unless it's fast. I've often tried to pull the "Oh I don't feel well right now" bit only to make a miraculous recovery just in time for the party - my wife doesn't let me get away w/ that anymore. When I got away w/ it I never felt guilty about it either... I got 'em a gift, took care of the admission price.
I'm a little confused by all the hype in this country as well. I have no ties to royalty and the main reason we have this country is b/c our forefathers wanted no ties to it either. It is nice to see two young people in love but that's @ like the mall or the park... not on my television set. And that gets me to another point: isn't six hours of coverage on all three networks a little excessive? That's 18 hours of television before you tap into the 24-hour cable news operations. All we really need is to have it on one channel b/c then anyone who wanted to watch could catch it and the rest of us who like wonderful syndicated programming in the morning could enjoy something else.
And I love how the news anchors talk about how a "commoner" caught the heart of a prince. The new queen's mom & dad run a successful business that's worth about $50 million (American). There's nothing "common" about that. If having $50 million makes you a commoner than my stature is so low calling me a "peasant" would be a compliment.
Who knows, maybe I'm just a little bitter b/c I wasn't invited to the big party. Either way I will say that I wish the couple a long and happy life together. And when you finally have a child I recommend the name "Jeffrey". It's done nothing but bring me happiness and will do the same for the next prince born into the royal family. And if the happy couple does use my name I better get an invite to the baptism... I really don't want to dedicate a blog complaining about the media's coverage of that one.
Grease the Wheels
04/28/11
I've complained before in this forum (and continue to do outside of it) about the high price of gasoline. Today I drove by a station and it was topping $4.15 a gallon... for regular! I haven't seen it that high since I lived in Hawaii (gas there was ALWAYS expensive... but that would've been sticker shock back then as well). I'm not happy about it either b/c experts say it's going to keep rising. Some analysts are saying it could possibly get to $6.00/gallon by summer! That's terrible and I think could lead to dire consequences throughout our, and therefore the global, economy. Maybe I'm just a doomsdayer but I'm not traveling as much and I'm spending about $100 more each month just on fuel which means I'm not contributing as much to the local economy and I know I'm not alone. That aggregate effect worries me... but then again I've been known to worry about the worst case scenario in the past. What irks me more is that we had to see oil get to a little less than $150 per barrel before gas got over $4/gallon in 2008. It's only @ about $112/barrel right now which means many of us won't be able to go anywhere if something doesn't change soon.
I didn't realize how bad it was until I learned one of the things people are doing as a result of high oil prices... they're stealing grease. That's right, grease... the stuff with which we cook. If you've ever worked @ a restaurant you've probably come across the dumpster that smells like french fries in the back. That's where the fry cook pours the excess grease once he's done w/ it. And if you've ever worked in a restaurant you've probably learned not to touch said grease trap... it's nasty and will ruin you clothes if you're not careful.
Turns out this vegetable oil filled pit is actually worth something (when full) and whenever the price of oil spikes the nastiest, yet most delicious smelling, part of the garbage area goes up in value as well. It's called yellow grease and was going for less than 8 cents a pound in 2000. Now it's running @ about 18 cents/lb. and more than just thieves see the value in it. Recyclers will buy it, clean it and sell it (it's used in a variety of products from biofuel to livestock feed).
It's so bad that recent heists have netted around 4,200 lbs. of liquid gold from six fast food restaurants in Nebraska (sounds like they should change the name from the "Cornhusker State" to the "French Fry" state).
How these people are stealing the stuff I have no clue. Getting away w/ stealing more than two tons of grease is no easy task... one that probably takes some planning and likely requires a cadre of conspirators to pull off. And where do you put all of the stuff? That much grease probably requires the rental of some sort of a moving truck and were I the rentee I'd be suspicious if someone returned my vehicle and it smelled like onion rings. Not only that but if I had a friend who was walking around looking greasy (and we weren't adolescents) and smelling like a frydaddy I'd start asking questions as well.
And if you are a thief by profession and you have to resort to rifling through the garbage area of a local fast food restaurant in order to make ends meet... in my opinion you've hit rock bottom and it's time for a career change. I mean there are far better ways to make money than stealing someone's nasty food waste in order to turn a quick buck. Heck @ 18 cents a pound you'd probably make right around the same amount of cash if you worked @ the very restaurant producing the grease in the first place! And if you were smart about it you could offer to take the grease off the hands of the eatery @ wholesale and then go sell it @ a premium making even more... and staying on the level while doing it.
B/c of this new twist in the saga @ the pump I have one more reason to hope the powers that be are able to enact policy that will curb the price of oil. I'm already mad that it's costing me more to visit the drive-thru but if I have to start paying more @ the drive-thru b/c someone can't keep his greasy hands off of someone else's grease I'm going to be that much angrier.
The Top 3 Pains in my Neck Right Now
04/26/11
From time to time I'll blog about the little pet peeves that are invading my life. Usually something has to stick in my craw for some time before I decide it's so annoying that it makes a list worthy enough to devote an evening of my writing to. Tonight is different for a few reasons, though. For one thing I can't come up w/ anything else about which to write - actually I've been focusing a lot of my energy on the forecast which looks to get dicey over the next 36 hours and this is an easy subject. I'm also tired which means that these little nuisances are that much more vexing. So w/out further adieu here are the top three things bothering me tonight:
1.) Printers
Why don't printer trays fit an entire ream of paper? I think it's a pain that I need to refill the darn thing twice as much as normal b/c of a particular design flaw. It seems like I can only get about 3/4 of a ream in there... tops. Maybe my printer can fit 500 sheets and I'm too dumb to figure out how but that would mean my colleagues suffer from the same predicament b/c I constantly find half-filled bundles of paper all over the office.
2.) The number "7" on my cell-phone keypad
Why is it that I have to hit the "7" key four times on my phone to get to the letter "s" when texting? That's the most one has to hit their keypad when dialing up any given letter in the alphabet. I know that the placement of the letter goes back to the years before we had text messages but it's 2011 for goodness sake! Seeing that my phone doesn't have a keyboard it's a bit time consuming to type out a text to friends or family. After all "s" is one of the most commonly used letters in the alphabet. It's only worth one point in Scrabble and it's a "freebie" in the final round of Wheel of Fortune which highlights its popularity. I'm not sure where it ranks but I'd have to say it's @ minimum in the top five. If anything @ least move over the letter "q" to the star or the pound key. Then I'd only have to hit "7" three times to get to the oft-used letter. It's not perfect but it's better than what we have now.
3.) Rain
I'm so sick of it. It was nice to see a little sunshine today b/c I'd almost forgotten what it looks like. Unfortunately we didn't get enough of it and there's more rain in the forecast. The good news is that we'll dry out by the end of the week but right now it's Tuesday... Friday is still a long ways away. I'm sure by then a new annoyance will come along and crack into the top 3.
More on that later.
Hope Everyone had a Great Holiday
04/25/11
I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. Whether you were observing Easter or Passover I hope you had a chance to spend time w/ family and friends.
This year's Easter was particularly great for me. Yes it was good that I got to spend time w/ loved ones but the weekend also saw the end of Lent. Every year I try to give up something and I also avoid eating meat (other than fish) of Fridays. And every year that's easier said than done.
If you've ever met me you probably know that I love to eat. I'm one of those people who eats to live but also lives to eat. So when you tell me I can't eat meat (my favorite part of the meal) it gets a little rough... even if it is only one day a week. What makes it even harder is that Friday is typically the day I go out and grab a bite to eat. It's kind of like a reward for making it through another workweek. I typically get the same thing every Friday night and I don't like breaking my routine. I also find it hard to fill up on the fish sandwiches that various fast food operators offer to the public.
Another reason Lent was tough has to do w/ bacon, it's one of my favorite foods in the world. There's something about that salty, fatty, nitrate-filled treat that's strangely addictive. That's what I gave up for Lent this year... and it was not easy. I did eat it on a Sunday or two @ the start of my 40-day fast but that's okay. I've been told by numerous priests that you can break Lent (or "feast" as they called it) on Sundays. I still try to avoid whatever I'm giving up but when the alluring aroma of frying bacon wafts into your room on a Sunday morning it's kind of tough to say "no".
That's why after the first Sunday I instituted a "bacon ban" in the house. My wife didn't make it easy, though. One night she made baked potatoes for dinner and countless mornings she made a wonderful breakfast that crispy strips of fried deliciousness would compliment perfectly. She did this through no fault of her own. I think she was just so used to my eating of the food that she assumed I'd be happy to have more of it if offered - I also think she didn't believe I could actually give it up for so long.
Yesterday morning my wife made another great meal. It was a sausage casserole w/ fruit but my favorite part... of course, the bacon - about 1/2 lb. of it. I didn't eat too much as I didn't want to shock my arteries that have gained some added space w/in them over the past month-and-a-half. I have more in my refrigerator so I know my forecast is calling for continued showers & storms w/ a 90% chance if bacon.
Happy Holiday
04/21/11
I want to start off by wishing every a happy holiday. Yes it's Maunday Thursday but I'm not talking about that one. Of course I want you to have a joyous holy holiday as we round out holy week but I try not to talk politics or religion... @ least not in this forum.
I'm wishing you a happy NH5D. No, I'm not talking about a new off-shoot of the swine flu I'm referring to National High-5 Day which comes but once a year every April 21st. Personally I don't think we really need a holiday to celebrate what I'd argue is one of the greatest ways to facilitate male bonding... the high-five - but I guess it's nice to give credit when credit is due. I can't tell you how many times I cheered w/ teammates or good friends via the open-handed slap.
I used to have a roommate and we'd high-five for no reason other than the fact that it was fun. And a proper high-five is not as easy as one would think. One has to be the high-fiver and the other the high-fivee. The best way to achieve this is to have one person hold their hand up high and the other hit the hand in an upward angular motion - I like to go w/ the 45 degree approach. This ensures the high-five produces the signature "smack" that's become synonymous w/ the classic non-verbal "right on" that the high-five has grown to represent.
Now I've complained in the past that the powers that be will make up a holiday for just about anything. There's Toothache Day (2/9) which I think is actually a day late b/c one of my kids was born on 2/8 and she can be a pain from time to time (more of a pain in the neck, though - which I guess is a little different). March 5th is Multiple Personality Day - I'm surprised there isn't more than one of these a year... that would really capture the true spirit of Multiple Personality Day(s). There's even a Fight Procrastination Day (9/6). I find it ironic that that one doesn't fall on December 31st, the last day of the year.
Some of these holiday's seem a little extreme but NH5D doesn't seem like a stretch to me @ all. In my opinion the high-five is more direct than a handshake, more personal than a tip of the hat and waaay better than the pat on the behind as a way of saying "good job". So get out there and slap some high-fives w/ a few perfect strangers... you'll feel better if you do. But before you go put your open palm and fingers on your computer screen. There you go, you just got a high-five from me... rock on, brother! Rock on!
Severe Weather Strikes
04/20/11
If you read this blog regularly (for one thing, sorry) you probably realized that I skipped last night's entry. As is customary I typically don't blog if a severe weather event hits the Miami Valley unless I get time... which usually doesn't happen. Last night was one of those nights where severe weather hit and I didn't have time to share my daily thoughts.
We had a strong line of showers and storms arrive in the area just before midnight and with it came strong thunderstorms and even tornadoes. The National Weather Service was busy today surveying the damage in the Northern Miami Valley and it has confirmed that two tornadoes struck that area late last night.
The first one hit the east side of Celina @ 11:40 P.M. and reached EF2 strength w/ maximum winds estimated @ 115 mph. As storms worked through that area they leveled a barn and tore apart the face of a popular discount grocery store. A lot of people reported hearing it and seeing it and luckily no fatalities or injuries were reported. The tornado had a path of four miles and even reached the far west side of Auglaize county before it dissipated. On a side note, that's the strongest tornado I can remember in this area since I arrived in the summer of 2009.
The second tornado hit @ 11:50 P.M. in Auglaize county. This one spun up five miles north of St. Marys and had a path length of 50 yards. The estimated maximum wind speed was 80 mph making this twister an EF0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. It damaged a roof and some trees as it ripped through the area. Again, thankfully no fatalities or injuries have been reported with this tornado either.
Even though it's bad to have severe weather of any magnitude hit the area as always it could've been worse. I'm sure you've seen some of the extensive damage created over the past two weeks w/ recent tornado outbreaks. Last night's storms were also A LOT stronger as they tore through Illinois and Indiana.
When they got to our neck of the woods we were seeing strong wind coming out ahead of that squall line. Those winds then encountered southerly winds and we picked up a little more shear b/c a warm front was draped across the area and when it all came together it was enough to spawn tornadic activity. All in all it was a crazy and a late night last night but we were here covering everything and the next time something like this happens you can bet we'll be on top of it once again.
Facebook Has Me Feeling "UnFriend"ly
04/18/11
As I type this blog entry right now I'm annoyed. I'm not upset that it's Monday or that we have a lot of days w/ rain in the 7-day forecast (I like sunshine and warmth). I'm actually mad that Facebook isn't working properly.
For some reason I can't log onto the site and every time I try it fizzles out and this bothersome screen keeps popping up telling me the connection has timed out. There's even a little symbol, an exclamation mark in a yellow triangle, on the screen to emphasize how important it is that I understand I'm not allowed onto said site. I don't know why that's the chosen symbol. It's almost like a "keep out" sign that uses a punctuation mark instead of words - is our society so ADD/ADHD that we're foregoing grammar b/c reading is too time consuming? But I digress.
The bottom line is that I can't get onto Facebook which means I can't connect w/ all of the random people I call my friends - this means I can't find out what they're doing and as a result I feel lost in a sea of hopelessness. It's not like I have anything really all that important to do on the site I just wanted to update the forecast... but alas, I can't. I think what bothers me the most is that I don't even like Facebook that much. I like the concept but the actual execution is where I take issue. The designers were quite successful in making the site which means that whenever I log onto it I spend waaaay too much time on it. As a result I look @ the whole thing as a big time suck... one that I unfortunately can't get enough of.
The problem I'm having w/ Facebook underscores a painful truth. I, and we as a society, am spoiled by technology. I use it so frequently that I'm used to it always working and working correctly. It's only when something is wrong that I perceive an actual problem.
I encounter the same situation when I'm dealing w/ a slow internet connection. This one drives me nuts. Call me impatient but when five seconds go by and the little hourglass is still spinning I get hot... in a hurry. The sad thing is that I would've loved it if I had a computer that could download sites in five seconds back when I first logged onto the net in 1995. I used to find a site I wanted to visit, click on it, walk away for about 10 minutes and it would be ready when I got back to the computer. When I wanted to hop onto another site I'd start the process anew.
But much like everything else technology only seems to gets faster... and better. Better is a relative term, though. The merits of being located @ any time by anyone who's tech savvy enough are debatable. I could go on for hours but I just checked Facebook and it's back up and running. I gotta go! (That's another good thing about technology... problems get fixed a lot faster than they used too).
Potato, Po-taht-toe, Tomato, Toe-mah-toe
04/14/11
I'm sure you've heard the old saying: no matter how much things change they always stay the same. I agree w/ that to an extent but I've found it's not always the case. From time to time something will come along and knock you're feet out from under you and you're left wondering how such a drastic turnaround is even possible. Certain beliefs become so entrenched in our day to day lives that to question them seems worse than blasphemy and proving them wrong is nothing short of heresy.
I encountered one of these "paradigm-shifting" moments earlier today as I read the paper. According to it Wendy's french fries have beaten out McDonald's as the better tasting-tater. In a recent blind taste test 56% of the participants chose Wendy's fries over McDonald's which garnered 39% of the vote. I was floored when I read this.
For one thing Wendy's fries were always kind of gross and bland; when I was younger if I wanted to make them tasty I had to smother them in ketchup or dip them in my Frosty (which is really good if they're hot and fresh out of the frier). I know that Wendy's has since changed its french fry formula but that was about six months ago. The fact that the fast food giant can make up so much ground in half a year is nothing short of spectacular. Usually a recipe change of this magnitude takes a good two to three years to catch on w/ the general public... and that's if it's coming from a local eatery; bringing down a titan in any industry can often take decades.
I was also amazed b/c for the longest time McDonald's french fries just seemed unbeatable. As a kid those were usually the happiest part of my Happy Meal. It was as if the gods had come down and served me a form of ambrosia... a greasy, salty taste of heaven served in a cardboard sleeve. Sure every so often a competitor would revamp the ingredients of their spud formula or one would change the process by which to prepare them but these attempts always fell flat. @ the end of the day McDonald's still had the best fries. These "reinvention" efforts were nothing more than a flash in the pan or a ripple in the frydaddy grease. It was as if nothing could touch McDonald's golden brown potato sticks which meant it was even harder to tarnish the Golden Arches.
I'll admit that every now and then I get a hankering for something different. Once in a blue moon I'll get some curly fries or waffle fries but that's just a way of dressing up an otherwise sub-par tater hoping to fool the general public... kind of like when a sitcom replaces one of the kids w/ another actor thinking the audience won't notice the difference (on an unrelated note Alicia Goranson will always be Becky Conner to me - Sarah Chalke, who is a great actress, just didn't cut it). Sometimes I find myself craving those seasoned fries @ Rally's but those are more of an exotic treat... still good but not an everyday standby.
So in short I've spent the day grappling w/ the fact that my world has been shaken to its very core. I think I'll make it, though. I'm even finding the silver lining in the whole matter: seeing that I've never tried Wendy's new fries I have an excuse to stop and grab an order from them and McDonald's and have my own little taste test @ dinner tomorrow night.
Oh What a Joyous Day!!!
04/13/11
When I stepped out the door this morning to take a walk w/ my wife and baby I couldn't help but grin from ear to ear. It was absolutely gorgeous today, that always puts a smile on my face.
In my opinion this was the first great day of the season. Not only was it nice and sunny but it was also warm, we hit 64. To top it all off the winds were light which made for a pleasant day from start to finish. It was the type of day when you find it tough to come into work and you're jealous of those who make their living outdoors.
As I ambled around my neighborhood I was reminded of my teenage years. Right around this time every year we'd have a day just like this. I can remember walking outside, feeling the sunshine kiss my cheeks and filling w/ exuberance b/c warmer weather meant that summer (and no school) was just around the corner.
I was always amazed at how big and blue the sky looked. After the long, cold and (worst of all) gray winter it was almost awe inspiring to see a sky that looked like it went on forever - not one that was stunted by clouds @ only a few thousand feet.
This was also the time of year it was finally getting warm enough to drag out the pits, set up the standards and start pole vaulting again. Track season always started in early March and while we always tried to get in some early season jumps it was normally too cold for that. As a result I'd have to spend time in the weight room... or worse running. But once it was nice my teammate and I could spend the afternoon vaulting until the sun started getting low, a chill began to settle into the evening air and it was time to head home for dinner.
All of these memories flooded back into my mind during my morning stroll. It's funny how a familiar sight can take you back almost 20 years in only an instant. Sometimes it takes a photograph, other times it's a home movie but today something as simple as the morning sky was able transport me to another point in my life. Seeing that I always had a wonderful time during the summer let's hope that history repeats itself and I'm off to the start of something great.
Not A Sensible Administration
04/12/11
Technically NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration but tonight I'd have to argue the acronym stands for Not A Sensible Administration. I'm sure by now you've heard that The National Museum of the United States Air Force didn't get the space shuttle it wanted when NASA made the announcement earlier today. If not, sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
This afternoon NASA awarded space shuttles to museums in New York City, Washington D.C., Cape Canaveral and Los Angeles. I can understand a few of these but not all of them.
I get that a shuttle is going to The Smithsonian. That's where D.C. is and that's a vacation destination for millions around the world every year. If you're going to visit the seat of the United States Government it doesn't hurt to have something as iconic as the space shuttle housed there.
Cape Canaveral is another one that I understand. Why not retire a shuttle @ the point where they all began their journeys into space? The space program is so entwined w/ Cape Canaveral it's almost as if one had to go there.
Los Angeles is one that, while I don't agree w/, I also see the logic in the decision. Granted I don't know what the City of Angels had to do w/ the development of flight, or space flight for that matter, but if I put myself in NASA's shoes I can see why it made the decision. I see it as more of a geographic thing. A lot of people live west of the Mississippi River and the population seems to be shifting westward. In NASA's eyes it probably seemed like @ least one of the shuttles should go to the West Coast to service that portion of the population - again I didn't say I agreed w/ it but I understand the line of thinking.
What I don't get is how in the heck New York City's Intrepid Museum landed a shuttle. Sure NYC is a popular tourist destination but what the heck does the city have to do w/ the history of space flight in the U.S.? Not only that but I don't see anyone going to NYC for the sole purpose of catching a glimpse at the space vehicle. It's almost like seeing it would be an afterthought... after visiting the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building.
It's also mind-boggling b/c D.C. and NYC are so close to each other. It's like a three hour drive between the two cities (if you don't hit traffic). If NASA knew it was going to retire a shuttle in D.C. why the heck would it put another one less than 250 miles away? That makes no sense. If you live in Missouri and you want to see a shuttle I'm sorry but in travel time D.C. and NYC are pretty much two sides of the same coin - it ridiculous!!!
Not only that but Ohio is the birthplace of man made flight and the space shuttle is the pinnacle of that journey. And the two biggest names in space travel, John Glenn and Neil Armstrong, both come from Ohio. Where did those astronauts train? That's right, @ Wright-Patterson!
Another argument for the placing of a space shuttle in the Miami Valley is the fact that 60% of the U.S. is w/in a day's drive to Wright-Patt. If NASA really wanted to give the majority of the American people the chance to enjoy the rich history of manned space flight Dayton is once again clearly the right choice. I would love to take my family to see one of these shuttles someday... but I don't want to have to travel to either coast to do so and feel that if I ever do go it'll be b/c I'm on vacation and one happens to be in the area.
Right now I have to say I've passed the "shock" phase and moved into the stage of "anger". I'm sure I'll grow to accept this slap in the face... someday. Until then I can only try to make sense of it. Unfortunately I don't know if this is the right forum to do that. It is a forum that gives me a chance to complain about things I don't understand... so @ least I know I'm doing my job. I just wish the folks @ NASA could've done theirs a little better.
Am I a Jinx???
04/11/11
If I were to pick a favorite professional sports team I'd have to go w/ the Cincinnati Reds. I try to watch them as much as I can and listen to the broadcast on the radio more than I should. In fact, once last season I went to a movie and brought my walkman w/ me just so I could follow the game. I've frequently scheduled my weekends around the game... even if it was a "throwaway". I've even witnessed the birth of each of my three kids and didn't cry once but when Ramon Hernandez hit that walk-off three-run shot in the bottom of the ninth to start this season I teared up... I wasn't even there.
In short I'm a HUGE Redlegs fan. Grilling out on my driveway during the summer w/ my favorite beverage in hand listening to Marty & the Cowboy make the call is one of the greatest things in the world. Whenever I find myself doing this I have to sigh and think, "It doesn't get any better than this."
So you can imagine the fear I had last Thursday when I witnessed the first loss of the 2011 season. I'm not upset about the fact that they lost; I didn't expect them to go 162-0 for the season and 173-0 to win it all... and didn't spend much time thinking about that one either. I'm more upset that they lost and I was @ the game. I don't take it personally though. There's no way the Reds planned on dropping their first game just b/c I was in the crowd. I'm actually worried that maybe I'm a jinx on the team (okay so maybe I do take it a little personally... but not in the classic sense).
I only say this b/c the last two Reds games I've been to saw my team come out @ the bottom of the scoreboard... and one of those was Game 3 of the NLDS!!! I also know that @ the first game I went to last season my hometown team lost... which was Opening Day!!! I'm pretty sure I went to @ least one home game in 2010 in which my team wasn't the also-ran... but I'm not entirely sure.
I truly hope this isn't the case. One of my favorite summertime getaways includes my going to The Queen City and catching a ballgame on a warm summer night. But if I'm bad luck for the team I'll have to forgo this much-loved activity. Of course I've also worn the same shirt to each of these losing outings. It's a Cincinnati Reds T-shirt that required I sign up for 10 credit cards in order to get it. Sure the thing dinged my credit score but it was worth it. Next time I get tickets I'll have to wear a new piece of Cincinnati garb and leave my old friend in the dresser. It'll officially combine two of my favorite pastimes - baseball and science.
If the Reds win we'll get to the bottom of this mystery. If not... it's probably me and as tough as it is I'm willing to do what it takes to win - even if it means staying home. After all, I'm a team player. But since that's the case I should probably be on the payroll... I'll even work for league minimum :)
I'm Free... And Don't Know What To Do w/ Myself
04/06/11
After being married for almost 11 years and being the father of three lovely children it's always nice to get a break. That's been the theme of this week... taking a break. That's b/c my kids are on Spring Break and they went down to Florida w/ my in-laws.
I was debating taking the week off and meeting them there but then I really thought about it. Yes it would've been fun, I would've loved to have gone to the beach to hang out w/ my kids. But had I gone, there would've been nine people, four of whom were children & two of those under one-and-a-half... staying in a three bedroom condo. When my wife asked, "Are you sure you don't want to go?" I dryly answered that it didn't sound like much of a vacation to me.
Now that I look @ it I'm sure it would've been fun. But since my family is thousands of miles away that means that I'm fancy free living the bachelor lifestyle. I'm staying up too late, sleeping in and eating food that's way too bad for me. In short it's pretty awesome. @ least it was... for about a day or so. My house is empty, albeit clean, and my cat is driving me nuts. And this was how I felt by Saturday (they left Thursday).
Not only that but I'm actually staying up waaaay too late. I'm trying to sleep in but when it gets to about 10:15 A.M. I kind of feel like I have to get up otherwise I'll just waste the day. As a result, while I should be well rested I find myself yawning by about 9:30 P.M. every night. And what's worse is the fact that my body is getting used to the schedule so I can't fall asleep when I get home @ night. The following mornings I'm up early, a little sleep deprived and start the cycle anew.
As for the abundance of bad food that I'm consuming, that too was great... @ first. I grilled out Saturday and Sunday and made more than enough to last me into the week. Unfortunately it was a little too good b/c I ran out last night so it's microwave cookery as far as the eye can see. Just typing that makes me feel like I'm rusting from the inside out (due to the high sodium content that comes w/ those microwavable meals).
So what started out as an exciting week has left me bored, tired and a Ramen Noodle packet away from falling apart. The funny thing is that whenever my wife leaves town w/ my kids I'm always psyched @ first but after a few days I kind of don't know what to do w/ myself. They say that married men live longer and I used to joke that it just seems like we live longer. But after just a few days w/out supervision I have to say that I can see why the former is true - if left to our own devices for too long we'll end up doing something stupid and end up in the hospital... or worse, in jail.
My family gets back on Saturday so I only have a few days to go. I pretty sure I can stay out of the emergency room. As for the clink... I'm trying my hardest and should be okay. Keep some bail money handy, though... just in case ;)
GO AWAY SNOW!!!
04/05/11
Old Man Winter sure is a stubborn codger. Like an unwanted house guest he keeps hanging around... long after he's worn out his welcome. A perfect example of this could be seen around 2:00 P.M. today. Yes, it was colder today than it was yesterday but I can handle that. I'm talking about the light snow flurries that were seen across the Miami Valley this afternoon.
While I don't complain about snow that much I will this time. That's b/c right around the time those snowflakes were falling we registered our high temperature in Dayton, 46 degrees. If you're doing a double take right now your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. We had snow flurries when temperatures were 14 degrees above freezing - curse you Old Man Winter!!!
So what the heck happened? It's actually pretty simple if you think of the atmosphere in three dimensions. Sure those flakes fell while it was above freezing... @ the surface; but what was happening higher up in the atmosphere? That gets us to the freezing level which explains why we saw that strange weather phenomena earlier today.
The freezing level is where the atmosphere hits the freezing point or 32 degrees Fahrenheit. A lot of times during the winter the entire atmosphere is below the freezing point so technically there is no freezing level. During the spring it fluctuates wildly depending on what's going on throughout the atmosphere.
When the freezing level is high precipitation that is frozen in the upper levels of a storm cloud has time to melt before it hits the ground. As a result it may start as snow but land as rain. Yesterday the freezing level was @ about 14,000' and other than some small hail (which I'll explain @ a later date) the bulk of our precipitation fell as rain.
Today, though, our freezing level was @ about 2,000'. As a result that frozen precipitation didn't have time to melt and turn into rain before it hit the ground. That's why we saw those light snow flurries and it also explains why those flurries melted on contact - as soon as they landed on a surface they encountered something that was well above the freezing point and thus their short lives as snowflakes came to a quick end.
While I'm happy those flurries instantly melted it was still a little disconcerting to see snow on the fifth day of April. We're almost two weeks into spring which means snow should be a distant memory. But Old Man Winter keeps hanging on. The good news is that there's warmer weather in the forecast but there are also thunderstorms on the horizon and right now it looks like the next time we see frozen precipitation it'll fall as hail... and not snow.
Marketing Geniuses
04/04/11
I've come to the realization that corporate marketing gurus are nothing shy of geniuses. Not only can they come up w/ the "must have" products year after year but they're successful enough to convince us, as consumers, that we actually need said item. What I find more fascinating is that companies have found a way to tap into the "youth market" which can turn the casual buyer into a lifetime customer.
When they banned "Camel Joe" b/c some argued he was a way to market to children I thought, "Oh come on, that's grasping @ straws". I may have to rethink that stance, though. My wife likes to garden and she was out and about @ the hardware store buying seeds last week w/ my youngest and ended up making a few impulse buys. Why? B/c the seed company decided it would be a good idea to put Mickey Mouse on a package of endive lettuce. What does that mean? It means we're buying Disney sponsored greens. And what does Mickey have to do w/ lettuce? Nothing, in fact the last I checked mice eat cheese... or peanut butter... or insects. I've never heard of the little critters munching on lettuce or other healthy greens for that matter.
Despite the lack of association between the pitchman & the product it was still a genius move on the part of the seed-packet company. For one thing we bought some lettuce we didn't plan on growing this year (we also picked up a few other packets of seeds we didn't plan on growing - I think they had Donald Duck or Goofy on them). But more than that the seeds we bought were like 20 or 30 cents more expensive. That may not sound like a lot but if you're buying 100 packets of seeds that's going to cost you an extra $30... just to keep your kid from crying. And what's one thing parents cherish? That's right... silence - again, marketing genius.
I've even seen it work on products for which kids would never line up. I've seen Dora the Explorer hawking broccoli w/ butter sauce, Star Wars characters on the bottoms of dress socks so they're more appealing to youngsters and then there's the infamous Spongebob Squarepants musical rectal thermometer (ironically Spongebob lives in Bikini Bottom). All of these products are things kids would really never want but the addition of a beloved cartoon character is enough to make them that much better - except for the thermometer... I can't think of anything, or anyone, that could make that product more appealing.
I think it'll be interesting to see if my toddler wants to eat the lettuce she picked out once it's fully grown in a few months. I'm sure she won't; maybe we should keep the packet so the food is that much more enticing when we have to cross that bridge. It could always be worse, though - she could've asked the cartoon character thermometer last time we were @ the drug store. B/c if it's a toss-up between fresh greens and that type of thermometer... I think the veggies win out every time.
A New "Superfood" Has Been Confirmed
04/01/11
Since I've gotten into television I've always tried to follow the news of the day. Even if I'm talking about weather I think it's good to be up-to-date on what's going on in the world. As a result I find myself reading about the latest studies and how they've found new ways for people to live healthier and happier every so often.
One caught my eye recently. In the past I've blogged about my fondness for bacon. It's a wonderful food that not only tastes delicious but also seems to have magical powers as it delivers a blissful state to those who snack upon it. I like it so much that I've given it up for Lent... and it's been, tough - I find myself walking through the grocery store and it's as if the cured salted meat is calling my name (alas, I cannot answer said calling; not yet @ least).
Considering my love for the breakfast staple that's grown so much in recent years I was happy to read a new study that actually found bacon is good for you. Scientists have been following a group of subjects for the past five years and they had some interesting findings.
Of the people participating in the study it was found that those who consumed bacon on a regular basis (@ least twice a week) had smaller waistlines as well as more pleasant dispositions than non-bacon eaters. Those who ate it more often than that (@ least four times a week) tended to have higher levels of vitamins critical for longevity and the ones who enjoyed the meat "hyperregularly" (@ least once a day) were found to get sick less and actually had higher levels of antibodies that fight everything from the common cold to much graver illnesses. Scientists couldn't pinpoint why eating bacon daily causes such super-immunity but they speculate it's related to an enzyme that's brought out of the food while frying it.
One man in the study was 102 years old and had eaten bacon every day of his life for @ least the last 68 years (couldn't recall how much he ate it in the war). This man not only had the body and muscle strength of someone in his 70s but had cognitive abilities that surpassed many who were in their mid-20s and early 30s. Researchers believed @ first that this had to be a fluke. That is until they found similar characteristics in a 95-year-old woman and an 89-year-old man who ate bacon just as frequently.
I was pretty impressed w/ the article but then I read that regular bacon eaters tended to have lifestyles that were filled w/ exercise, a higher level mental activity and had larger/happier families. It went onto say that those who enjoy the food also landed in a higher socio-economic stratum (regardless or race, gender, religion or creed). Needless to say I was floored.
So get out there and treat yourself to a fabulous meal this weekend. I don't care what you make but make sure it's centered around some fabulous, fresh, farm-raised bacon... it might just save your life.
Okay now that I've got your attention I hate to break it to you - April Fools!!! Sorry, to burst your bubble but if it's any consolation... I'm just as upset all this isn't true. I look forward to your correspondence :)
"Open" to the Possibilities in 2011
03/31/11
Around this time of year sports fans all over the world begin getting excited. They start talking about the "big day" weeks in advance anxiously counting the hours before the first pitch is thrown and get ready to welcome old friends back into their homes, cars or anywhere else a radio can pick up a signal... friends they haven't heard from in months. I'm talking about Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season. It's a day when despite what it says on paper and regardless what the pundits think everyone is equal. Everyone starts out in first place.
It's a metaphor for the time of year. Spring has just sprung. The grass is starting to green, the buds on the trees are in their infancy and the world begins to wake from a slumber that only a few weeks prior seemed never-ending. The season brings a change of mood in the air that's almost palpable. And just how anything seems possible @ the start of spring Opening Day is the time of the season when the record books are empty and thus the possibilities in the coming months are endless.
I don't know if it's the time of year, the excitement that comes w/ the unknown or simply the game itself but there's something about Opening Day that's just magical. For many it's their favorite day of the year. I can't say I'm one of those b/c I don't know if I have a favorite day. What I can say is that were I forced to choose, Opening Day would easily rank in my top three.
Opening Day 2011 seems extra special this year. If I had to guess it's b/c of the season the Reds had in 2010. Not only was it great but after a decade it was above .500, finally. It also saw the Reds make it to their first playoff berth in 15 years. But more than that the sweep in the first round of the National League Division Series left a lot of fans, myself included, feeling like there's some unfinished business that needs to be taken care of this year... today the long road to closure began.
So over the next seven months don't be afraid to sit down w/ your favorite beverage and enjoy a game or two... there's 161 more so you'll have more than a few chances. After all, hope springs eternal! It's Opening Day so all is right w/ the world... play ball!
MIA No Longer
03/30/11
If you've been watching our newscasts over the past few evenings you may have noticed I wasn't around during the late shows last night and the early shows tonight. There are two very different but equally good reasons for my absence. I welcome one more than the other, though.
When I woke up yesterday morning my back was VERY tight. I was having a muscle spasm and it kept getting worse throughout the day. I have no idea what caused it (other than the fact that it's just part of growing up) but it was terrible. I got into see my chiropractor who gave me an adjustment but I didn't have time to ice my back afterwards and the spasm hadn't stopped... so I was still in pain.
I walked into work yesterday afternoon and everyone looked @ me and asked me if I was okay, I said "no" and someone replied, "I can tell". I was trying to stand up straight but w/ no luck so if you looked @ me I was actually crooked. I did the early shows in pain but I tried not to let it show on-air (I looked terrible, though... so bad my wife laughed @ the absurdity of my posture). I decided to go home for dinner so I could ice my back and as soon as I got out of my car my wife told me my boss had called and that they were working on getting Andrew Buck Michael in to do the late shows. A few minutes later she called back and said, "Stay home and get better tonight... you looked crooked giving the weather earlier."
So I missed last night b/c I'm getting old and sometimes it shows. Luckily I'm feeling a lot better tonight. I got some rest, did some icing and had great swim today. I'm not 100% but I'm @ least 100% better than last night. I should be right as rain by the end of the week.
The reason why I missed the early shows tonight was b/c I was judging a cooking competition out @ Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and I've gotta say if I'm going to miss work I'd rather the cause be free food than being hurt/sick. Tonight's competition had a theme: Colorful, Healthy, Kid Friendly Entrees". Like the title suggests the entrees were to be colorful and kid friendly, but they also had to be good for you and couldn't exceed 400 calories per serving.
I've never been a big fan of healthy food but the four entrants could cook and all made some delicious food. Healthy pizza, homemade pasta, baked chicken fingers and spaghetti squash and meatballs were all served. The winning entree was the spaghetti squash dish which was fantastic.
The girl who won it is still in high school and her mom told me she reads cookbooks for fun. That's great for the family b/c they get gourmet meals on a regular basis (her younger sister joked that sometimes she'd just be happy w/ mac & cheese, though). Anyway, she loves to cook and hopes to make a career out of it and after trying her dish I think she could easily do it and wish her all the best.
The competition was tough to judge b/c everything was great! I'm just happy that it was all healthy b/c I don't need to add any girth to my waistline... b/c if I'm not mistaken a gut can exacerbate any problems one may have w/ his back.
House of Slytherin
03/28/11
As a kid I really liked the reptile house @ the zoo. Even though I always seemed to go when most of the creatures were sleeping, and thus didn't get a very good show, I still enjoyed the attraction. I think I was a fan b/c I had anole chameleons, tree frogs and even iguanas as pets. Some people don't like 'em - the scaly things creep them out.
If you're one of those people one place you might want to avoid is the reptile house @ the Bronx Zoo. Over the weekend it was shut down b/c of a jailbreak. Turns out an adolescent cobra somehow escaped and is now missing. Not only is the hooded snake scary looking but it's also deadly. Luckily they'll only attack if they feel threatened but zoo officials don't want to take any chances... hence the shutdown.
How does something like this happen? The whole point of a zoo is to allow people to see various animals by keeping them in captivity. One would think such organizations would be able to avoid instances such as these. Now I'm sure some would say, "But people break out of jail" and they do... but they shouldn't be able too. And those breaking out are people... so they have some sort of intelligence. I know animals are smart too... but not smarter than humans!
It's good they shut down the reptile house, though. I can just imagine some poor old lady walking through the halls only to come face to face w/ a cobra. That could lead to some serious medical problems.
The good news is that the snake isn't believed to be in a public area. The zoo director thinks it's hiding in what it believes is a safe place and will come out once it gets hungry or thirsty. Of course the fact that cobras can go months between feedings means the Bronx Zoo's Reptile House might be closed for a long time. I guess if these types of critters give you the willies now would be the time to go.
They Really are Smart Phones... They're Taking Over
03/25/11
It's a well known fact that our cell phones play a huge role in our day-to-day lives. For some a cell phone is actually an extension of oneself. I know people who keep their Blackberry, Android or IPhone w/ them @ all times and rarely stop to put the darn thing down... even when we're hanging out.
I didn't realize how much our phones control us until recently when I saw an interesting statistic. According to it people spend about 30 hours a month on their smart phones. Be it, texting, talking, playing w/ apps or on the internet they're spending about 1800 minutes a month engaging their phone. That's almost a full extra workweek on a device some consider a toy. And to top it off they're texting and apping about twice as often as they they actually talk on their phones... which is kind of the whole purpose of the thing in the first place!
I can't imagine what they're doing that whole time. I mean how many texts can you send? @ what point does "C u L8ter, lol" become not just redundant but annoying? I feel like a dork just typing it out for the purpose of illustrating a point. And I understand talking on your phone but according to said study people do that almost six hours in a given 30-day span. I rarely talk on my cell phone and my land line for more than 50 minutes a month combined! In fact when the phone rings I try to get off of it as soon as possible. Sometimes when I look @ the caller ID and realize a call to my house isn't for me I'll find whoever it's for and hand it to them so I don't have to waste time making small talk for half-a-minute.
I know I'm guilty of wasting time but this seems a little extreme. Now I will admit that I don't have a smart phone so I can't judge. Honestly, if I had a "watch the Reds" app I think I'd take advantage of it every chance I got. But the crazy thing is that if things are this bad now I can't even imagine what they'll be like in 15 years. When today's youth have kids of their own will they sit down to dinner w/ their families and plunk out text messages to each other instead of having a conversation? The very idea of sub-text in language would be lost (pun intended).
Maybe I'm just a dinosaur who can't adapt and therefore is doomed to extinction. Perhaps I'm just not cool enough to be part of the techno-culture. Either way I do know one thing: if I have an extra 30 hours to waste each month I'm going to do it watching TV... or playing golf. I guess I'm old fashioned.
Even More Pain @ the Pump
03/24/11
It's a bit of an understatement to say gas is expensive right now. There are ways to make it cost even more to fill up your tank if you're not careful, though. Unfortunately I found that out this weekend.
Let me take you back to Saturday. I was headed to Columbus to visit my mom w/ my two youngest b/c I hadn't been back there in awhile and I wanted to give my wife a chance to spend some one-on-one time w/ my oldest. As I trucked along Interstate 70 I noticed a billboard advertising a great price on gas on the side of the road. I made a mental note of it as I knew I'd need to fill up on my way back the next day.
Sure enough I stopped there on Sunday afternoon to fill up... and save a little cash thanks to the cheap price (about 22 cents less per gallon). I pulled the nozzle from the pump, inserted it into my gas tank, set the lock so it would fill if I let go and then walked away to wash the windshield of the vehicle. Seeing that we have a minivan it took me a bit to get the glass clean and when I was done I walked over to the pump and noticed it wasn't pumping, looked @ the price ($67.50 which is accurate when gas is this high), sighed and lifted up the gas line to get every last drop out of it. As I did that I knocked the cradle and saw the pump reset to 0.00. I didn't think anything of it and when my receipt didn't print I walked inside and got a copy of it.
As I was getting back onto the freeway I noticed that the gas needle hadn't budged and the re-fuel light was still lit. I stopped the car, made sure the cap was screwed on, continued my journey and finally called my wife when the problem hadn't been fixed. She'd never heard of it and I began to get angry b/c I figured I'd have to take the car to the shop.
@ this point I decided to take a look @ the receipt. It said the card type was AMEX (American Express) but I used a Visa and sure enough the last four numbers on my card did not match up either. I then thought back to the point when I accidentally lifted the cradle and watched the pump readout reset and I realized how much of an idiot I was.
When I got to the gas station I was in such a hurry that I didn't lift the gas nozzle cradle. Honestly I don't think I've filled up @ a station w/ that type of a pump in about a half a year... @ least. In order to engage said pump I had to lift the cradle, though. So when I was washing my windshield I thought I was filling up but I really wasn't. So I replaced the nozzle not realizing that I was leaving a fresh pump. I then went in and got the receipt of the last person to fill up before I had arrived. This got me a little worried.
I called the gas station and after explaining what happened - it took about 5 minutes - I was finally told that there shouldn't be any problem b/c once I put the nozzle back into the pump it should reset. I didn't like that answer and called my bank only to find out that the gas station had charged $21.60 onto my card. Whoever got there after me must have pulled up, realized they could fill up @ no charge and figured, "Hey, free gas!"
Unfortunately for me the station in question does not have cameras that record people's license plate numbers and when I called and explained the situation - again, it took about five minutes - the manager wouldn't void the transaction. Luckily my bank told me I could dispute the charges and I plan on doing that. Hopefully whoever got the free gas (free for him but it was on my dime) decides to "pay it forward" and do a good deed for someone else.
The whole situation got me angry, though. For one thing I had to pay for someone else's gas - I can't be too upset b/c I don't know what I'd do in the same situation. More than that I feel that I've spent @ least $21.60 worth of my time on the phone and I know the situation isn't anywhere near resolution. But the kicker is that when I finally realized what had happened I was 5 or 10 minutes up the road so instead of turning around I just stopped @ the nearest station to fill up b/c I didn't want to be stuck on the side of the road if I ran the tank dry. The nearest gas station had NOT gotten the memo on why gas should be cheaper and as a result I ended up having to fill up @ a higher price... the very price I was trying to avoid (22 cents more per gallon which was about $5.00 extra when all was said & done).
Too bad Seinfeld stopped making new shows more than a decade ago. Something tells me this could be an episode... and I'll bet the show's producers would gladly pay me $21.60 for the rights to the story.
Welcome to Severe Weather Season
03/23/11
Spring arrived Sunday night and it seems mother nature is in a hurry to get into severe weather season. Earlier today we had a round of severe weather tear through the Miami Valley. We've seen a little severe weather earlier in the year but this was a more classic set-up in which we had the sun pop out in the afternoon and then a line of storms develop in the P.M. hours bringing severe weather w/ it.
We got word of a little bit of wind damage tonight but the bigger issue today was hail. Most of the biggest hail was quarter-sized but 1.25" hail was reported in Clinton county. There were also numerous lightning strikes. We didn't have any reports of tornadoes even though there were tornado warnings in Indiana along w/ Central and Eastern Ohio. All in all it was a busy day.
Those storms had moved out by dinner and the sun had returned as a cold front had passed through the area and cooler air was working in behind it. But it hadn't cooled off in much of Indiana... it was very weird and counter-intuitive to a normal weather pattern. What happened was that those showers/storms flared up out along and ahead of the front. That along w/ rain-cooled air dropped the temperature in our neck of the woods in a hurry.
Out in Indiana the story was different. The state didn't have as widespread of an event so once the sun came out behind the front things dried out a little but the temperature stayed warm. Then an wave of low pressure (part of the complex parent system) moved across the area. B/c Indiana had only seen isolated storms the atmosphere was still "primed" for severe weather in that area this evening. That low tracking across the state provided enough lift to bring another round of strong storms to the region. But we had seen a dramatic change in the air mass in the Miami Valley so most of the storms just fizzled out as they arrived into the Dayton area, or shortly thereafter.
It was really weird to see the weather develop as it did today. For one thing after a cold front comes through it's uncommon to see severe weather behind it. It's also very uncommon to see temperatures upstream (typically west) of a cold front on the order of 14 degrees warmer than in the area that just saw the frontal passage (as was the case around 6:00 tonight). Even though I knew what was going on I still couldn't believe my eyes and I have to say that it was an interesting night to say the least.
As I type this I'm now watching for the threat of light snow as we're @ the beginning of a cold snap. Oh, well it just proves the old adage - If you don't like Ohio's weather just wait five minutes b/c it's sure to change.
Goodbye to a Great Newsman
03/22/11
The first time I met Patrick Conway Casey was over the phone. I was living in Hawaii and hoping for an opportunity to move back to the Mainland. As News Director @ Dayton's News Source he had a chance to provide that opportunity - luckily for me he was looking for a meteorologist. He was easy to talk too and we hit it off quickly. W/in a few months he'd brought my family and I home and I'll always be grateful for that.
If you've been watching any of our newscasts you've likely seen the tributes to Pat b/c over the weekend he lost a battle w/ brain cancer that lasted just over a year. Tonight he was laid to rest.
He was a funny man who LOVED the news business. It seemed as if he consumed it non-stop. He'd call me early in the morning if it looked like severe weather could be an issue later in the day and would sometimes send e-mails late @ night after such an event went through. He lived and breathed the news business and always wanted to be on top of the "big story" - whether it was weather, local or even a big national story he wanted to own it. He used to call them "big talkers". In countless meetings it wasn't unusual to hear him say, "Oooh, that's a big talker" when someone mentioned a good story that affected a lot of people.
He also loved sports and competition... @ all levels. He knew who was who in the pros, college and even knew all of the stars @ the area high schools. It was always fun sitting in his office and talking Reds baseball w/ him... especially last year.
Even if you didn't know who he was if you've watched our news over the past five years you felt his influence. From the stories we covered, the new faces that would pop up every now and then on your TV to the overall "feel" of our newscast; all were affected by Pat. He will be missed and my thoughts and prayers are w/ his family tonight. Aloha, Pat a hui hou!
Bring on the Warmth!!!
03/17/11
I'd like to start off and wish everybody a Happy St. Patrick's Day. I hope you had a great time... I had to work but I got to wear green which means I was festive and that's always fun. If you were out and about enjoying the celebrations you, like anyone else outdoors today, got a big dose of the luck of the Irish. In a word it was gorgeous today.
We had sunshine to start w/ some clouds rolling into the area in the afternoon and evening and w/ a high of 69 we officially had the warmest day of 2011. We did get to 63 twice in February but one of those days we had flooding rain and the other was kind of gloomy. So if you ask me w/ all the sun and comfortable temperatures not only was it the warmest day of 2011 but in my opinion it was also the nicest day of the year as well. I feel a little guilty, though... I didn't spend a whole lot of time outdoors - the time I was out there was enjoyable however.
If you think we had a colder than average winter you'd be right. In fact Winter 2010/11 made it into the record books. W/ an average temperature of 26.4 we had the 13th coldest winter on record. Our winter wasn't wetter than average, though. Typically Dayton picks up 29.2" of snowfall but this year we only got 24.5". That officially means that the Farmer's Almanac got the winter forecast right as it called for a colder and drier winter. The Climate Prediction Center was calling for a warmer and wetter winter... the exact opposite. I split the difference calling for a colder but wet winter. I went w/ the wooly worm f