It’s True!

Sad – but true.

I did some digging last night, then paid attention to the 11:00 news. Get this: On Feb 11 our local temp got up to 32 degrees twice that afternoon. Not over, but up to. Going back, the last time we were ABOVE 32 was Jan. 27 when we hit a whopping 37.

Looking ahead, we are now not predicted to exceed “thawing” until, well, we’re not. The forecast only goes out to March 7 and the weather prognosticators are hoping we’ll get to 31 on consecutive days in the middle of next week. If I have my arithmetic right, that will be 39 straight days (at a minimum) below freezing. That’s just what I dug up on a local weather almanac site.

Local news weather guy laid this on us last night. This February’s average temperature (I think averaged hourly readings) has been 12.3 degrees. That makes this the coldest February in the history of ever, or since 1884 when those types of records were kept, by almost 0.5 degrees.

For the last 3 days the average of the high and low temps will be 7, 6.5 and 13.5, meaning that the overall average temp for the month is likely to drop ever so slightly. Yay. We set a record. Now ask Mother Nature to cut it out. The folks up in Caribou, ME or International Falls, MN might be used to this kind of stuff but even we hardy north-easterners have our limits. Hope this isn’t hurting the golf courses.

If I’m doing the arithmetic right again, we have only 7 weeks of bowling left. My highest ever full season average is 196. After last week, I’m sitting at 190. My pre-season goal was to try and match that prior high average. But to pick up 6 pins of average this late in the season, I’d need to beat my average by 50 pins or so a week – meaning I’d have to shoot about 207 – 212 average for the last 7 weeks. Not impossible, but certainly a challenge. In 8 hours, we’ll see if I’m up to it.

Christening coming up for grand daughter #2 (Cecily) next week. I’m sure there will be pictures a plenty coming out of that. Should have the whole fandamily together, we’ll have to see what kind of group effort we can put together.

Better run, got 3 clients that would really like to see some finalized reports this week. I’d like to get them off my plate too, because there’s 3 more behind them. Good to be busy . . .

If March is going to come in like a lion

He’d better be packing a parka and muk-muks. I’d really love to go back and look at the records, but this MIGHT be the first February on record where we’ve never seen a temperature above the thawing mark. The odds of us seeing anything above 32 in the near future? Check these out:

What we’re looking at through the weekend

and into next week.

That one, oh so brief respite? March 1st. Two days ago the forecasters were hoping for as high as 37 (woo-hoo!) but they’ve apparently tempered their enthusiasm some what.

The sad part? Looks like we’re in for at least another 6 inches of snow next week. Not a surprise in these parts, we’ve had back to back 24 inch snow falls in March here. Even had 10 inches one Mothers Day (and BOY, was THAT a mother!)

Only 4 or 5 weeks of bowling left and my mind is already starting to turn to golf – but a couple feet of snow in the fairways goes a loooong ways towards squelching that. Some years you can sneak out in early April or even March and get in some warmer upper rounds. But this year the courses may need time to dry out. NOT a good thing with Spring Fever starting to kick in. I guess I can hang out on the roof and hack at the icicles and ice dams I’ve got. If I fall, there’s plenty of padding to fall into. Might even be fun.

Enough of this freezing!

-8 this morning,. At 6:30 am. Had to go snow blow the driveway because it was actually warm enough to snow Thursday. We hit double digits – woo hoo. but at 8 below, with a nice breeze, wind chill probably was -30 or so. Sure made the shower feel good this morning.

I peeked at the 10 day forecast. High temperature guess is 28 Saturday (2/21), but sadly nothing above freezing (or should I saw thawing?) for the next 10 days. I realize we live in the snow belt (80+ inches so far this winter), but these repeating cold snaps are really unusual. We’ve set or tied at least two local records for cold in the last week.

Don’t get me started on the roads. It’s so cold even salt isn’t effective. Combine fine, dry snow with a bit of a breeze and temps around 0 and the nooks and crannies in the road that provide traction get filled with snow. That turns into ice. On my 24 mile drive to work one morning I passed at least 12 cars off the road – some in VERY interesting positions. Glad to have 4 wheel drive.

Long way of saying – good lord am I ready for spring! Bowling has been fun this year – I’m even doing ok, but boy, am I itching for golf. Can’t wait.

Plus – we have a camper! Already have reservations for 3 trips this summer. Makes the anticipation that much worse!

Trying to get some culture up in here

Must be winter doldrums setting in. Just getting the urge to get out and do something. So last week we went and caught a performance of: Little Shop of Horrors

Which was preceded by a visit to the same theater to catch this years version of “A Christmas Carol” in mid-December. On the spousal units birthday. (Admittedly, only 2 days after my own, so no biggie there)

Then – I heard an ad on the radio yesterday (25 minute drive in to work turned into 45 minutes with all the people afraid of snow flakes around here – which is pathetic for a city in the snow belt) that the Preservation Hall Jazz Band was playing at another local auditorium (Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theater – guess were I’m from!) with the local philharmonic orchestra.

Got hold of the spousal unit for confirmation and scored us some 3rd row center balcony seats – on the aisle for 8pm Saturdy night. Valentines Day no less. Sure glad I didn’t opt for the chocolate tasting/hockey game the night before.

Considering our penchant for visiting New Orleans (4 trips!!), it’s odd that we’ve yet to visit Preservation Hall. I mean, it’s on the same street as one of the entrances to Pat O’Briens, and we’re n there 3 – 4 times each time we visit. Maybe they felt sad about that and are coming to visit us instead? Ya, suuurrre.

At any rate, it’s good to get the opportunity to go see the band.

Had another opportunity to get some culture a couple of weeks ago too. The band Rush is playing here this summer. The spousal unit and I have been a fan of theirs for years (too many to admit). The last time we saw them live was 1980-ish – so we were kinda due. Only problem? Concert was on a school night at an outdoor venue about an hours drive from home. What was even worse? It was on a Wednesday night. That’s golf night. So? I somehow missed the opportunity to get tickets. I’ll feel better if we have a rainy night at golf – then the concert would have been miserable. With up to 12,500 people there and only 3,000 or so seats under a roof, it could really suck in the rain. A rainy night golfing is better than a rainy night at an outdoor concert.

Anyhow, I’m assuaging my guilt with the Preservation Hall show. On Valentines Day. Breaking our decades long agreement to not do anything special for that fake, made-up holiday. Maybe I can leverage this into some Karma points for a little lee-way in the future – like an extra golf outing. Wait – does Karma work if you have to connive your way into it? Hmmmm . . .

All I’m gonna say about that

Caught a teeny bit of the Tom Brady interview re: 11 of 12 balls being a little soft during the AFC championship game. No sound (was at the bowling alley) but I did notice that one of the ads scrolling on the screen behind him was sponsored by Gillette (his team owners company). The product they were pushing? The Gillette Flexball razor. Now THAT’s irony.

That’s too many times Belicheck’s (if I spelled it wrong, I don’t care.  I have that little respect for the guy) team has been implicated in actions detrimental to the integrity of the game. Whether he has knowledge of the actions or not – as head coach he (and the whole chain of command between him and the guy that takes care of the football) must be held accountable.

In “Bountygate” Sean Payton was suspended for a year, his defensive coordinator was banned for life.  There were other penalties against the Saints organization as well. That’s the minimum that should happen to Belicheck and his chain of command.  The commissioner kinda set a precedent there.

Sadly, the Patriots won’t be disqualified from the Super Bowl. Playing with doctored footballs didn’t win them the game. But the fact that they did doctor the balls to give themselves an edge in their most important game of the season to date – well, it just demonstrated their lack of respect for the integrity of the game.

Not really a fan of Pete Carrol either, but I hope his Seahawks beat the crap out of Particheats (Cheatriots?) next week.

They forgot it’s a game.

Testing, testing . . .

Day 3804

I’ll be blunt.

Holy shit!  It’s been like forever.

A couple of posts ago (about 9 months) I mentioned that it was time for me to get back on the FitDay train.

Well, I did. It can be tedious, recording every morsel one consumes in a day.  But it helps me to be accountable to myself on just what I AM eating in a day.  Those calories are insidious little things.  They sneak up out of no where and latch on to the inside of your belt, making everything seem tighter.  So far so good though.  Down 4 lbs in 4 weeks.  If I could ratchet up the exercise I could trim another 1/2 lb a week, but job demands just suck the life out of the week.

Wasn’t bad before, I worked right across the street from my YMCA.  I could hang at work till 5:30 then wander over and take in a spin class.  But we’ve moved.  My little 4 mile, 10 minute commute (12 in a blizzard) has transformed into a 30 minute, 23 mile trudge across the county to our ‘new to us’ facility.  Best EMC chamber on the east coast, but the product safety lab is definitely still a work in progress.  Probably will be forever, given the warehouse like condition of the area we have to work with.  So, the YMCA membership is cancelled.  I stay up too late working on things to get up early enough to hit the morning work out routines, get out of work too late to hit the evening ones.  Slowly breaking myself in to using a tread climber at home, but that’s a habit I am finding hard to instill.  I shall persist.

Spring time (in about 23 months!) wI’ll break out the bikes and start having some fun workouts.

In real news, we’ve added 2 grand kids to the mix.  Firstest grandson Logan was born September 5th, the second (and last) kiddo for Zach & JIll.  Then their cousin Cecily Ann was born Sept 9th.  Everybody is doing fine and the kids are growing like weeds.  The requisite pics:

 

Here’s all 3 – Avery across the top (3 yrs), Logan vertical on the left (2.5 mos) and Cecily kinda snoozing on the right (4 DAYS younger than Logan)

 

 

Uncle Eric with Avery & Logan (in MY chair!!)

Avery holding Cecily

Cecily snoozing, again

 

What else has changed since I was last here?   We got a camper, little teeny Starcraft that theoretically can sleep 4, but you have to be VERY good friends.  Already thinking about trading up one size to one with a better floor plan.  We’ll see.

Traded in my mini SUV to get a truck that can tow the trailer too.  Know what happens when your used to a 170 horsepower mini suv and you step up to a 300 horsepower truck?  You get tickets to the policemens ball, that’s what.  Got my first ticket TWO DAYS after I picked up the truck.  60 in a 40 on the expressway passing through downtown.  I kinda stepped on the gas to pass a slowpoke and went from 40 to 60 before I knew what hit me.  Of course, I popped up over a little rise just as I settled into the left lane and you can guess what I saw hanging out in a wide spot in the breakdown lane.  One of NY States finest.  All hot to trot to give me a ticket.  Oddly enough, that one is still pending.  The trooper couldn’t make the first court date due to some other trial he had to testify in, so my new court date has been moved to March 18, 8 months after the ticket was issued.  I’m going to read up on the 6th amendment and see what’s considered a “speedy trial”.

About 6 weeks later I got another one (52 in a 35) taking a short cut to bowling.  That was a local cop, I live in his town, he wrote me up fora 2 point failure to obey a traffic device, rather than the 4 point speeding ticket I’d earned.  I just plead guilty one that one and paid it.  Oddly enough, I wasn’t late for bowling after that either.  But I did find a new short cut.

Some of you know I’m up here in the snow belt.   while areas south of Buffalo were getting buried under up to 7 feet of snow, we missed the worst of it and soldiered on through about 18 inches total.  No – we did not miss any work days, and only schools in the worst hit areas had snow days.  We were fortunate in the timing of the snow.  The drive home was a cast iron bitch, but the worst was over by morning and our stellar road crews did their usual bang up job of getting the roads ready.  Y’all want some good plow crews, pay taxes like we do.  It would boggle your minds what some of the larger towns in the area pay for snow removal. (6 figures for sure, 7 in the larger towns)  We’ve paid for the right to laugh at southern cities that shut down for 2 inches of snow.   Heck, our trucks might not even go out for that little bit.  The residual salt takes care of most of that.

 

Aaaaaanyhow.  Better go file some reports before my clients take their pound of flesh out of my tender southern bits.

Peace Y’all.

 

Anniversary

Day 3652

As of 6:30pm EDT Aug 22, 2014, I will have completed 10 years of being smoke free.

Might even get off my butt and resume blogging on a regular basis again.

In news besides the decade of non-tobacconess, I should mention that BOTH daughters-in-law are very, very preggers. Jill, who is expecting her 2nd, is due around Sept. 3. Kelly who is expecting her first, is due around Sept. 13. But Kelly has been having some difficulties with high blood pressure of late and is under orders to stay out of work, lay low and not do ANYTHING. (just short of bedrest only for her)

If her B.P. doesn’t behave, her OB may bring her in and induce her. She’s now 37 weeks along, so the baby will be just fine popping out a little early. That brings up the possibility of the girls having their babies on the same flippin day!! Wouldn’t that be neat? Downside is that the hospitals are 90+ miles apart (one here in Rottenchester, the other in Syracuse). Going to make for a lot of driving next month.

Golf this year? Best handicap year ever. Single digits, here I come!
Bowling? Starts in 2 weeks. Might even have 2 or 3 weeks of overlap. Won’t know what to do with all this recreating going on.

Oh – we got us a little camper too. Trying to get out as much as we can before all the camps close up (Oct 15 seems to be a common goal). Got to knock off as many different campgrounds as we can, all in search of a few favorites. I see a canoe coming next . . .

With any luck I can keep y’all posted.