Monday, March 19, 2012

Bye Bye, Winter!

24 comments:

  1. End of Winter must be right up there with Howard Dean, eh?

    Bill--I suspect that there is indeed a decimal point error, but it was in a figure I found and didn't (my bad) double-check for total US power consumption. Didn't sound right. But we have lots of square miles sitting around not doing very much.

    Fairly good trip to San Jose for shopping and late lunch with Naomi. Saw snow on the higher parts of the Coast Range, which means a substantial storm. This one has dropped six or eight feet of snow on the Sierra Nevada, and gave Fresno a record one-day's rainfall for March (1.35 inches), which ought to bring the snow pack up to about 50% of normal. Not good, but with remaining water in the reservoirs from the previous winter we should be OK. We saw several partial rainbows, and encountered one big cloudburst while driving.

    I purchases an inexpensive "butler's friend" (AKA two-pronged cork remover) and tried it today; it works well, with no chance of tearing the cork to pieces as a corkscrew can. Some people say it can push a plastic cork into the bottle, but I had to deal with a natural cork. The story goes that it is called a "butler's friend" because the butler can use it to remove the cork undamaged, sample the contents of the bottle, and then return the undamaged cork to the bottle, with the master none the wiser.

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  2. Woke this morning, and turned on the A/C whilst I got dressed. . . . Was absolutely overheated in the bedroom -- felt like I was smothering. With the heat *off*. . . . So, on the last day of winter, ran my A/C for at least ten minutes. Is this what global climate change means?

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  3. And traveling mercies to listener.

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  4. More light today which is good and bad. In more light, the cat doesn't have as much paint on him as I'd feared. And the kitchen floor has more. Got busy with the Goof Off! Gonna take some time, though. Also working on my hands, fingernails (top and bottom). Will be getting water later today.

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  5. Today I need to take Cat Girl to the vet for her shots. Wonder how much she weighs--she's a lot thinner than she used to be.

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  6. Apparently she weighs 6 1/2 pounds--as opposed to 11 pounds, which is what she weighed 3 years ago. She's lost a lot of teeth, and can't eat the crunchy food as well as she used to. I guess that's why she kept stealing the special soft food I was putting down for Brady.

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  7. When Sheila lost pretty much all her teeth, I just moistened her kibble with chicken soup if I had it, or water. Gave her a headstart. . . .

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  8. Was hanging clothes on the line, and leaned up against a Hemlock. Now am covered with the sweetest spiciest Hemlock sap! Wonderful farewell to Winter. . . .

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  9. Yeah, the vet recommended something along those lines. I had to stop at Target to pay a bill on the way home, so I used that opportunity to get her a couple of cans of soft cat food. The one actually came in a plastic container with a cellophane (?) pull top, so I put that in the carrier with her on the way home. She snarfed down quite a bit of it.

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  10. To anyone who's on Facebook...

    Could you do me a favor and "like" my comment here? I think if it gets some "likes", that could increase the chances that the comment is actually seen by the intended recipient.

    http://www.facebook.com/RogerEbert/posts/262346530519790

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  11. Several of the pouch cat foods (I like Whiskas best) smell *really* wonderful. I figure if it smells wonderful *to me* when I open it, it must be nice for da kitty, too. . . .

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  12. Bill Thomasson3/19/2012 08:08:00 PM

    Alan: "But we have lots of square miles sitting around not doing very much."

    Yeah, I keep hearing that. Why does it remind me of, "We need to open up the useless Arctic National Wildlife Refuge"? <grin>

    Although I'm sure we can find places to put some of these, which is all to the good. Just don't think it's a panacea.</grin>

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  13. Bill Thomasson3/19/2012 08:13:00 PM

    Weather trumps climate. Climate change may increase the odds a bit, but you need to average over so many years it's hard to tell how much. I'd rather rely on first principles -- the more CO2 in the atmosphere, the warmer things will tend to be on average. Especially near the poles.

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  14. Back again in the same day! Tired, but both meetings were worthwhile.

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  15. Hope you meant a nice Eastern Hemlock tree and not a poisonous herbaceous hemlock plant! :-)

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  16. Water's all heated for the last bath of the winter. . . . BBL

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  17. First peeper of the year tonight. Tradition is (here) first peeper, then four days later, the the last snow of the year. Don't think that's going to happen this year, lol! Just don't.

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  18. Bill Thomasson3/19/2012 10:24:00 PM

    On Saturday one of the people in my book discussion group said he didn't think we'd see any more snow this year -- although Chicago has hid snow in April! We'll see.

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  19. Bye Bye Winter...whatever you are...

    Today's high temperature at Burlington International Airport reached 79 degrees. This is a new record high temperature for March 19th. The previous record high temperature for the date at Burlington was 66 degrees... which was set in 2010.

    Today's high temperature at Mount Mansfield was 62 degrees. This is a new record high temperature for March 19th. The previous record high temperature for the date at Mount Mansfield was 50 degrees... which was set in 1968.

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  20. By the way, I passed the same ice falls today that are shown in the photo out front. There was almost nothing left of the ice this morning. I bet it's gone now.

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  21. Bill Thomasson3/20/2012 12:39:00 AM

    Yes, you need to keep a balance. And it makes sense to do the scan before reaching a decision. But my feelings are with the NYC oncologist -- this could be a good time to stop the treatments.

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