It Had Been Brought to My Attention ...

... by my youngest daughter that I hadn't written anything new on this particular blog in a very, very long time and by golly - she was right! It has most definitely been collecting digital dust but I guess with everything else going on like trying to write two other blogs and occasionally do some honest-to-goodness reading in addition to all of the time I seem to spend at work, I just hadn't even thought about updating here.  Besides, I guess I figured I really didn't have anything of any interest to say either.  Not that something like that ever stopped me in the past of course but this time it did!

So anyhow, here it is, almost the first weekend in June and we're going to be going from cold enough to have to turn the heat back on (again) last Saturday to our first potential heatwave of the year.  Ah New England ... I love you in spite of your lousy weather but I would have loved you more had we actually had a spring of some sort this year!  Alas, no such luck.

What makes it even worse is that I have a wedding to photograph on Saturday - an outdoor wedding in a lovely park on a hill in Manchester which is in a part of the state where storms like to gather.  Even though I get the feeling that it's going to be hot and humid enough to melt fondant (something that doesn't melt easily at all!), I just really hope that we don't get any big thunderstorms blowing through.  I've heard it said that rain on one's wedding day is good luck but I'm thinking thunderstorms are overdoing it a bit!

This will only be the fourth wedding that I've photographed so I'm a bit nervous about it but I've almost got myself talked into not stressing about it and just doing the best that I can.  The nerves come from not wanting to mess up someone's special day but considering that everyone and their brother/sister/aunt/uncle/cousin brings a camera to a wedding these days, even if I mess up some of the photos, there will be plenty of others out there.

I  think I know what my biggest problem is going to be though ... as I was looking through some other wedding images today to perhaps get some ideas for photos, I found myself starting to tear up more than once so I think I can pretty much guarantee that I am going to get all teary-eyed at least once or twice during Saturday's ceremony.  Sentimental fool that I am, I no doubt will find it darned hard to look through a lens with my eyes all watery but I could bet you right now that's exactly what's going to happen!  Guess I'd best make sure I pack tissues along with my other photo supplies!

Anyhow, I think that's it for now, I figured I should at least pop over here long enough to toss up a new post and clear out the cobwebs so that Jamie wouldn't question me anymore about my lack of new material.  Kind of funny how I used to make sure to blog everyday and now I can go weeks and/or months at a time and not feel the least bit of guilt.  Well, at least over here, I still feel guilty about being so far behind on posts for The Distracted Wanderer and Travels With Nathaniel!

Speaking of which, I gotta go ...! 

What's New In Connecticut?

To be perfectly honest - not a whole heck of a lot! Well, except maybe that earlier the temperature gauge in my car looked like this:

Unfortunately, the tiny bit of sun that we had to go along with it went buh-bye a bit ago and temperatures are going to steadily make their way back down to where they normally are in January.  Hiss!  Boo!  Actually, a big "Hiss! Boo!" to the local weathermen who had said that the whole weekend was going to be sunny and mild and it ended up being foggy and drizzly.  How is that no one has sued a weather forecaster yet?  Surely there must be some sneaky lawyer out there who can build a case for dashed expectations and mental anguish for when nice weather is predicted and it's a total bust!

You would think that with all of their fancy-dancy Doppler radars and such that predicting the weather would be more of an exact science these days but alas, that does not seem to be the case and the best indicator is to still look out your window or - better yet - poke your head outside! And even then, there are no guarantees as Mother Nature is surely a fickle wench if ever there was one!

With the forecast definitely falling short this past Saturday, I set out in the drizzly fog to drive my cousin Amy and her niece Caitlyn up to Lexington, Massachusetts to see a bluegrass concert that Amy thought perhaps I would like. Based on the weather forecast, we thought it might be a good day to take a walk around the Lexington Battle Green so that I could get some photos for one of the other blogs I write (Travels With Nathaniel) but alas, it was like walking around in the tule fog out in California that sends a shiver down my spine whenever I think of it!  Of course, I think tule fog tends to be thicker but I'm sure Sandee knows what I'm talking about!

After our foggy stroll around the soggy Battle Green, we took a drive over to Saugus so that I could check out an enormous Chinese place that I'd driven by numerous times and never stopped at.  The Kowloon Restaurant has been a North Shore go-to place since 1950 - Barb can reminiscent about it with the best of 'em!  The food was okay though not good enough to make the drive up there for it alone - unlike the clam chowder at Newick's Seafood House in New Hampshire!  It might be worth a second try another time I'm up that way but we'll see!

After sharing a Pu Pu Platter, we made our way back to Lexington where the Gibson Brothers concert was being held at the National Heritage Museum.  The show was sold out but the venue has great seats all the way around and we found some good ones in the back of the auditorium where I could record a few songs with my iPhone and snap a few photos and not disturb anyone. Not that it makes for the best visual quality mind you but the audio is pretty good!

This song that I'm sharing was the last one that the reigning IBMA 2012 Entertainers of the Year played at the concert, a Loretta Lynn and Shawn Camp song called "Dying For Someone to Live For". It was their first time playing it on stage and I thought they did a mighty fine job with it. See? I've gone to enough concerts now that I'm starting to pick up the lingo!

All in all, in spite of the not-so-great weather it was nice day and at least I wasn't driving in a blizzard or dealing with sub-zero temperatures!  We usually get plenty of both in January so today I greeted the 56 degree reading on my car dial with a big smile and the knowledge that spring will eventually be here to stay - I just need to have some patience ... and the occasional hot beverage ... until it does! 

On the Other Side of Sandy

Wow.  What a weekend.

First and foremost, I am happy to say that Claire, Amanda, and I made it through "Super Storm Sandy" just fine and dandy as we sat warm and comfy in Walt & Juli's living room in their Salem home which was built in 1795 and has survived more than its fair share of storms over the years.  As the wind whipped around outside and whistled down the chimney, we were dry and warm, well-fed and quite happy to be sitting where we were.

Watching the news this morning and seeing the devastation along the New Jersey shore, the Connecticut coastline, and the streets of New York City, I am thankful that everyone I know is safe and sound  and suffered no catastrophic losses but I know that there are a lot of folks out there whose lives will probably never be the same as they assess the damage that this super storm wreaked.

Personally I feel somewhat like we've all dodged yet another bullet and I am very grateful for that as the news reports certainly made it feel like the end of the world was coming and even though I was hoping that once again the news media would be wrong and just whipping everyone up into needless fear and frenzy, there was always the underlying fear that maybe this time they were going to be right and the sky really would be falling.

Even though forewarned is certainly forearmed, all of this "Boy Who Cried Wolf" weather-forecasting is a bit much.  Yes - we all need to be prepared; no - we all don't need to be in sheer, bloody panic. And honestly, I don't need to see some news person and camera crew standing on the coast where the waves are furiously breaking over a seawall to grasp the fact that yes, we are having a storm and yes, the tide is higher than usual and things are getting dangerous.

Watching the news yesterday until I decided I'd quite had enough, I kept wondering whatever happened to responsible journalism and why we all have to see to believe rather than be able to use common sense to understand that it's not fit outside for either man nor beast. How do we get regular folks to stay home and away from dangerous areas when news stations are telling viewers to "send us your photos of the storm" and they're seeing news reporters standing out in the weather so why can't they?

I don't know.

Nor do I know where I'm going with this particular post as it was certainly never my intention to go from saying, "Hey, we're all fine here and heading home to Connecticut shortly" to grumbling about the media's coverage of Sandy but obviously I did!  I guess I'll chalk it up to the surrealistic feelings of the last few days and the slight twinge of guilt that I feel at not having been at work to help out there though I have no doubt that my co-workers did a marvelous job in keeping the City of Norwich and surrounding areas safe.

For now I'm going to pack up the car and we're going to head home - thankful that we have an intact home to head back to, thankful that we had wonderful friends who shared their home with us during the storm, and more grateful than grumbeful no matter which direction this post took! 

Weather and Wandering

I don't know about in your part of the world but when Summer arrived this past Wednesday, it brought with it a rather nasty heat wave filled with all the things I dislike the most about New England summers - haze, heat, and humidity.  Ugh!  Thankfully it only lasted three days - just long enough to be recorded as a heat wave in the annals of meteorology! - before some pretty severe thunderstorms blew through the region on Friday evening and cleared things out.

Even though some pretty impressive dark clouds rolled into town, we didn't get much to speak of here in Norwich but rumor has it that a lot of other parts of the state saw hail, lightning, and lots of thunder.  I was a little disappointed that we didn't get the big storm as I do enjoy a nice thunderstorm but as we all know, there's certainly no controlling Mother Nature!

The weather didn't really bother me too much as I spent the majority of the heat wave working but it certainly increased the number of 911 calls that we got - to no one's surprise at all.  I oftentimes wonder how we all managed to survive before the advent of air-conditioning and things like "cooling centers" that are quick to open when the temperatures reach a certain level.

I've got an air-conditioner in my bedroom as well as one in the living room along with several fans spread throughout the house so it doesn't get too uncomfortable at all in the house but I remember one summer long ago, when I was about 14 years old, when we lived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in government housing on Pease Air Force Base where there was certainly no air-conditioning and we kids didn't even have the luxury of a fan in our rooms.  It was about as oppressive as it gets with nary a breeze to stir the air so, in what was probably total desperation, I got out of bed, went into the bathroom, filled the sink full of cold water, and stuck my head in the sink in an effort to cool down some! I guess even back then I was blessed with a little bit of my ancestors' Yankee ingenuity!

Anyway, all weather aside - and I'm sure we'll have at least another heat wave or two before the summer is over - I wanted to mention that there's a new post up at Travels With Nathaniel  that you might find interesting even if you aren't going to be doing any traveling here on the East Coast. If you've got a moment, stop by Be Adventurous and Explore Provincetown at the Tip of Cape Cod Just Like the Pilgrims Did in 1620 ... Just Don't Take a Slow, Leaky Boat to Get There! and you might just learn a bit of America's history that you didn't know before - honest!

Baby, It's Hot Outside!

Now I know for you folks who live south of the Mason-Dixon Line or in Texas or other parts of the Southwest that 105 degrees may not seem that hot but for those of us who live in the Northeast it's pretty extreme. Extremely hot!

Even though my car thermometer showed yesterday's temperature to be a balmy 105 degrees here in Norwich, according to the weather gurus on the local news channels this morning the new all-time record was set at Bradley Field yesterday setting the official bar at 103 degrees.  Personally I'm in no hurry to see that record broken anytime soon!

As I know we all spent the winter complaining about how cold it was and that there was no place to put all of the snow that fell I'm not going to complain about the heat and the humidity. Instead I'm going to simply hope the heat wave ends soon and be thankful it hasn't caused any parking problems with my neighbors.  Hey - it's the little things that count, right?  

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to work where I'll be enjoying the air-conditioning all day!

A Thursday Thought

 

Oh sure, it's pretty to look at but right about now I have more than had enough of this thing we like to call winter!  You would think that as a New Englander I'd have a heartier disposition and ability to handle the cold better than I do but alas I think I spent too many years traveling around as an Air Force Brat and then on my own to have truly acclimated!  

I don't know about the rest of you but I'm more than ready to go from that above (yesterday's weather) to this below - and soon!

Please???

Talk About Bad Timing!

It hit 48 degrees at Bradley Airport, the official temperature center in Connecticut, yesterday and I missed it.  Never set foot out of the house as I felt like Death eating a small cracker when I was rudely awoken by my stomach at 6:15 in the morning.  I thought maybe if I went back to bed I'd sleep it off but alas, I still felt pretty lousy when I officially got up at 9:00.  Lousy enough, in fact, to cancel my planned outing with my mother and spend the rest of the day in my robe and jammies sipping tea and nibbling toast.

What a total waste of a day off with the temperatures above freezing in January.  Terrible timing on the part of my digestive system!  That's what I get for eating all healthy foods on Thursday, I apparently shocked my system too much!

Ah well, the forecasters said last night that today was going to be another very nice day before a storm moves into the region tomorrow.  They can't decide if it's going to be rain or snow so I'm going to hope for rain and expect snow!  I'll be at work for 16 hours so it won't be bad for me as even if it's snow I won't be tempted to go out and shovel it!  Plus there's no school on Monday so Amanda will have plenty of time to do snow removal should there be any.

In the meantime, I'm going to try to get out and enjoy the nice weather we've been blessed with today - I don't want to miss it two days in a row!

This Winter's Got Teeth!

This winter is proving to be one with a bit of a bite as we await yet another snowstorm that's slated to come into the region later this afternoon and leave 6 to 10 inches of snow in its wake. All I can say in regards to that is - UGH! I don't mind a little bit of snow every once in awhile and certainly expect it what with living in New England and all but does it always HAVE to snow when I have to go into work?!? Is that one of Murphy's Unwritten Laws?

Unfortunately I was not smart enough to have gone into a job like teaching that gets to stay home whenever there is a snow day and also doesn't work weekends and holidays. Oh no, I hadn't thought about that when I took a job in a career field that works 24/7, 365 days a year! Honestly, what was I thinking? Was I thinking at all? I think not!

What I think at this point, though, is that if this storm is as bad as the forecasters are predicting it's going to be (not that they've ever been known to be wrong, mind you!) then if they want me at work bright and early on Sunday morning then someone from work is going to have to come fetch me in a four-wheel drive vehicle - or sled dogs if need be as there is no way I am going to even attempt to take my car down the two massive hills that I live on. I need to seriously think about moving to flatter terrain if these sorts of winters are going to continue!

Ah well, in the meantime here's a picture of warmer days past that my friend Andrew sent me awhile back and gave me permission to use should I like. Pretty, isn't it?

So, how's the weather where you live?

Sunday Scenery

No Comments on Comments this Sunday as I was just too lazy to spend that much time writing the post on Saturday. Well, that and I was busy playing Rock Band with Jamie and that seemed like more fun! I'm sure you understand!

Instead I thought I'd post a couple more pictures from our recent visitor - Winter Storm Austin:

This is the view from my front door to across the street

Icicles on the roof of my house

You've heard of the Burning Bush, right?
This is it's cousin -the Frozen Bush!

Ah well, time to head over to work and hope that what little bit of a voice I've managed to recover is sufficient for talking on the radio. Well, either that or there won't be much that I have to say on the radio! We're supposed to get another storm today so I'm hoping it keeps people inside and healthy though chest pains and difficulty breathing don't seem to care what time of day it is or what the weather may be.

Here's hoping you have a healthy Sunday whether you're inside or out!

Back Up and Running ... Sort Of!

A big thank you to everyone who left me well wishes in my post yesterday about my back being out of whack- yet again! Being that the old cliché "misery loves company" is quite true, it was nice to hear from others who also suffer from the occasional problem with their backs, too. I read the other day that 75% of people have some sort of back problem or another and it's the number 1 reason for people under the age of 45 to miss work. Wow! Apparently I am in good company!

Thankfully I didn't miss any work this go-round though it made for an even longer 16-hour shift than usual as sitting is about the worst thing you can do when it comes to lumbar back problems. To that end, I spent a lot of time standing and pacing around the dispatch center in an effort to keep things more or less loosened up. It's times that like when I envy dispatchers who work in centers who have the adjustable-height consoles which are designed to let you dispatch while standing up. Unfortunately we don't have any such thing at American though Matt, my supervisor, is trying hard to get new consoles that can do that sort of thing approved. In the meantime, Renee gave me an empty box to put my keyboard on which did elevate it up off the counter and actually worked pretty well! It looked pretty makeshift but who cares?!?

Today I'm going to take it easy, try to get around to everyone's blogs, and stay inside and away from the hazy, hot, and humid weather that New England is throwing at us. Ugh! I'm sure the weather, and my back problems, have a lot to do with Hurricane Bertha that is bearing down on the East Coast. I just hope that she isn't the first in a long line of hurricanes this season but ya just never know. Everyone have a fantastic Tuesday!

Hurricane Bertha

Backing Up the Weather Forecast

The above is the forecast for the next three days here in Connecticut which probably explains why my back has been giving me some major grief since yesterday morning. Apparently we are in for one major drenching this weekend with rainfall totals varying from 2 to 4+ inches beginning this evening and continuing through to Saturday evening. The potential for flooding is pretty high as the ground is already saturated and there's no place for all that rain to go except into my cellar along with everyone else's, too. No doubt the local fire departments are going to be busy pumping out basements this weekend and I bet their backs ache almost as bad as mine does by the time they're done.

Whenever the satellite map looks like the above, there's a pretty good chance that my back is going to be doing what it has been doing since yesterday morning - hurting like nobody's business (as my old Gram B used to say) and making it downright difficult for me to get around without first taking a handful of pills which then makes it downright difficult for me to get around because I'm now drugged up and sleeping!

Needless to say, this has been pretty much a wasted day off for me as I managed to do absolutely nothing except limp downstairs and park myself on the couch with a heating pad behind me and my laptop in front of me! I'm hoping that things will have improved sufficiently by tomorrow morning so that I can get into work as I really can't afford to take an unpaid day off to lie about and do nothing again.

Even though this isn't the first time I've had weather-related back pain, I've yet to get this whole 'storm-induced' back pain thing down to a science. Does it just hurt like forty hells while the storm is approaching the region or does it continue to do so while the storm is raging and only dissipates once the storm moves out? This whole 'barometric body' stuff is truly a pain - in more ways than one!

Obviously I'm not the only one who suffers from severe changes in the weather though science is, of course, still hotly debating the topic. I found an Arthritis Poll on About.com where the question was asked: Does the weather affect your arthritis (changes in barometric pressure, rain, snowstorms)? Currently 3,021 people have taken the poll and of those, 2,203 people (73%) answered: Yes - weather changes severely affect my pain level. Only 84 people (2%) stated that the weather affected no changes while the 734 people (24%) remaining varied between moderate and minimal affects with changing weather. Naturally I'm in the 73 percent!

Apparently the increased pain has more to do with changes in the barometric pressure than anything else and while some people notice changes with a high pressure system, a good number of us notice the changes when a low pressure system moves into the region. Our current low pressure system started to move into the area early yesterday morning and, even without watching the weather on TV, I was able to tell that there was a change in the weather coming despite the fact that it was a beautiful sunny day. At this point I just wish this storm would get in here, do its thing, and move on out!

How about you? Does the weather affect how you feel at all? Do you knowingly nod your head when someone says that they can tell the weather is changing by the way they feel or do you still not believe it? Aching backs wanna know!

Winter Grumblings on a Sunday Afternoon

They're predicting some pretty nasty weather for later on today - snow and freezing rain and ultimately ice - everything that I absolutely hate to drive in despite of the fact that, as a New Englander, I've driven in all of it many times over. That doesn't mean I have to like it, though! Naturally this sort of weather never ever seems to hit us on my days off. Nope, it's another one of Murphy's Unwritten Laws that "Bad weather will always occur on days you don't have the option to stay home snuggled under a blanket eating popcorn and watching reruns of "Cold Case" on TNT." Or something like that!

The worst part is that this nasty inclement weather is supposed to come in later tonight and last through until the morning which means that I get to drive home in it at 11:00 p.m. tonight and then, after a mere eight hours, turn around and drive back to work in it at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. Add on the fact that I live on the side of two rather steep hills and it's enough to make a person think about calling a real estate agent to find someplace on lower ground or consider a complete career change and move to somewhere back in California! Of course, I have a pretty good deal where I'm living compared to the cost of other rentals in the area and I like my job so I guess I'm stuck for another winter in spite of my mumblings and grumblings to the contrary!

Oh well, it's that time of the year, isn't it? Let the bad weather driving games begin!

"Red Sky at Night"

************************

While Amanda and I were driving to Cromwell last night to meet up with Carrie & Mags, the skies were turning a beautiful shade of red as the sun set in the west. Amanda took some pictures from the sunroof of the car as we drove down Route 2 at 65 mph and all things considered I think they came out pretty good!


Whenever the sky is red like that, I always remember the saying "Red in the morning, sailors take warning; red sky at night, sailor's delight." that my Mom taught to me when I was just a kid. My Mom learned it from her father but the saying actually originated in the New Testament Book of Matthew, Chapter 16, Verses 2 & 3 when Jesus "... answered and said unto them, "When it is evening, ye say, it will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowring."

Normally, the saying proves pretty accurate when it comes to dusk (though not so accurate when it comes to dawn!) but in the case of this weekend, it was completely and totally off-base as we're being hit by the remnants of Hurricane Noel, the fifth hurricane of the 2007 season that has now become a huge coastal storm over the northwest Atlantic. It's about as rainy and windy as it can get out there today with predicted wind gusts of 65 mph along the coast! Had sailors been relying on last night's sky to determine their weather for today, I'm afraid they would have been sadly mistaken but it was awful pretty, wasn't it??

I've Got a Question, You've Got an Answer

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This has been a very strange week when it comes to the weather so I'm going to make this week's question short and sweet based on that. Here in New England we have had nice weather, we have had hot weather, we have had humid weather, and we have had fog - all since Sunday. August has had major rain with cold temperatures, chilly and windy days, and hazy, hot, and humid days with some really gorgeous days thrown in as a tease. It's been a veritable cornucopia of meteorological mayhem at times!

How about you folks -

What's the weather like where you're at?