Still, overcast but not more than a few spots of rain. Transplanted the remaining currant bushes except 2, which still have their leaves rather green. One of the bushes had layered itself. Cut the plant off & planted it experimentally. Limed another strip. There will be just enough lime for the remainder of the vacant patch but not for where the bushes have been. To do the whole garden would need a cwt. or somewhat over. Collected another sack of dead leaves. [Total on facing page: 8.] Added a little to compost heap.

7 eggs (actually 8 but one broken).

Today was one of the most beautiful snowy days I’ve seen in Boulder. My office on the east side of the city faces west towards the Flatirons, a strange and beautiful cropping of Rocky Mountain foothills that jut up and tilt towards their “fourteener” kin. Today, as I looked out after a cold ride to work and even colder walk from car to building, I smiled one of those memory-inspired smiles. It is as if the cold snap in the air and sparkling white atop pine and rooftop alike threw a part of me back to when I was young, tramping through the Michigan snow and feeling the quiet solitude that seeing beauty at that age brings.

And then, when I left work it was another recognition altogether. It was a feeling of duty, of hassle, of perseverance above all else, of  just making it through the constant bite and threat of it, the cold. The cold. The halls of our house, whichever house it ever was, were always drafty with it – the winter chill that could keep me awake at night, the bitter insults that rattled the walls beneath to keep me awake at night, the regret for past and fear of future that kept me awake at night, the quiet solitude that never knowing what to expect at that age brings.

When I face the icy cold, a rare type of winter weather here in Boulder, so often I catch myself taking on a funny automatic stiffening of my spine, hunch of my shoulders, and set to my face. If I am not careful, every obstacle becomes another reason to resent the world, another force against which to tighten for fear of the blow, for fear of the layers of skin and heart and breath that may so easily be broken by the cold snap, deadened by the frost. So many things stiffen with the weight of the cold. The trees, the locks, my jaw.

I have heard that our sense of smell has the most power of all the senses to conjure memory, to unwind wounds, to bring calm or raise the flags of danger. But today, I am in awe of the power of weather to destroy, to nourish, to uplift, to oppress and to recall. It is a beautiful power  even if the things which it conjures are not always so beautiful.

I had a lovely day today, back at work, feeling so, so much better. After biking to and from work in the sunshine, the clouds were rolling in and the air was getting thick. It was spitting just a tiny bit when I hopped on the bike to meet friends for dinner, and by the time I was tucked in to the booth, the sky had opened up and poured. D. even reported hail! By the time we were done with dinner and drinks the rain had stopped and it was just perfect for a ride down to the Treme to hang with J., R., and friends. On my ride home I stopped to take this picture of a basketball backboard on a power pole. I wish the hoop was still there. When I ride this street during daylight hours, there are always a bunch of kids hanging out on porches or tossing footballs in the street. The hoop would surely fit in here. But that would mean playing in the street, which seems to have fallen off the kid-approved list. Which is too bad, because there’s space there, right outside those doors, to play in the neighborhood with the other kids in the neighborhood. But the streets belong to cars, I guess. And sometimes to bikes. Not tonight, though. As I crossed Julia, headed toward Central City, a private security guard slo-o-owly drove by. He stared at me intently through the window, as if he didn’t quite believe he was seeing me. I can’t really explain what the look felt like. I just know that I hardly ever, ever feel unsafe biking home, but for just a second tonight, I did.

Okay, last one for today.  Strong upper-level wind is surfacing nicely during the last hour central/western Metro area.  The stubborn easterly flow out of the Gorge just won’t give in on the far eastside near the Columbia River.

The main reason I believe we are getting a lot of mixing down is the dewpoints in the 30s and temps in the 60s!  That’s pretty dry air considering we are just south & east of a warm conveyor belt of heavy rain moving into the north Coast Range and western Washington.  Also notice the pathetic 7 millibars EUG-OLM gradient.  That only gives peak gusts 25-30 mph at face value.

Strongest wind should be in the next few hours as the cold front approaches.  Hope we don’t get any surprise 50-60 mph gusts!

Oh, and it looks really wet the rest of the week.  Many inches of rain in the mountains and an inch or two the next few days in the lowlands…yuck.

Chief Meteorologist Mark Nelsen

Summer has finally returned to Cape Town (no doubt its all thanks to Alessandra HERE) and to Camps Bay in particular.

I headed over to Caprice yesterday  for lunch (as one does when the sun is out) and took a table outside. I prepared for that familiar view and instead i get slapped with this little f**ckery.

This is just not on folks. There are several of these ugly ass makeshift cubicles placed on the grass all the way down the beach all of which are covered in advertising for Bokomo. Don’t get me wrong..i have nothing against Bokomo, but whoever gave the go ahead to put this kak on Campers is an asswipe.

The damn things don’t even work properly. The doors have blown off and rocks are now holding them closed and there were empty Castle beer bottles inside. (im guessing that was Louis though..)

“Wrong Start” is more like it. Come now Bokomo..do us a favour and stop messing with the view hey.

On a completely seperate note , i have another pic i felt must be shared of this chap power walking in a speedo toward Clifton.

Photo credit: Hoodie

Im at a loss for words buddy.

You are special in so many ways.

613 // November 16, 2009

Snow fell this past weekend in Denver – some of the aftermath.

Tonight I was invited to eat some very tasty food for dinner. Unfortunately, I will go back to Ise for rehabilition after work. I will have to eat dinner in Ise. I am a little sad.

This morning I rode my bicycle from the station to school in the rain. My hands were very cold and wet. Tonight I will look for my gloves. Now that it is Winter, I need to wear my gloves while riding.

It’s the first snow here in Topeka, KS, and I love winter.  I love all the seasons really, and I’m fascinated by science learning because we can explore what we observe.  The weather does not have to be at our comfort level in order for us to explore what kind of effect today’s weather will have on tomorrow.  No, not because the roads may be slick or because I may be put out (trying to drag my patooty out of bed earlier) but because this snowy winter will be beneficial for the spring plow & sow.  I hope this is not the last snow, but the first of many.

I suppose this is why I could never truly be a pessimist: I have Hope.  Not hope in any Diety per se, but hope that we (mankind) can someday find Nature’s balance between our knowledge & our intuition.  It is the Human Condition to understand both Science and Philosophy.  It is unnatural to put a Wall between the two, when we homo sapiens are both.  So when I catch another thread about Creationism v. Darwin’s theory I wonder: aren’t we done with this bit yet?

I mean, seriously,why couldn’t God have given us Evolution?  I personally think it was the other way around, but that’s my belief.   Can we move on and accept that It is what It is no matter if It was Created or not.  Religion is to the World stage as Opinions are to you and me.  Isn’t it enough that we are here?  Think about the Experience of life, and not so much about Who or What it came from.

I had the pleasure of listening to Dr. Richard Jackson, of UCLA, speak in Topeka in October, and he shared plenty of new information on Nature’s role in human health and wellness.  Dr. Jackson is an advocate for walkable communities and limiting urban sprawl, but our group spent almost two hours discussing how & why to get children and adults outdoors away from the TV (and here I sit at the other Zombie Box).  Our group mostly consisted of folks from KDHE, and one of the points we discovered about society today is that parents do not know how to be outdoors.  This fact is one that is quite disturbing to me as an educator.  Part of my professional duty is to educate parents as well as their children, and I cannot stress enough how simple it is to spend 30 minutes outdoors with your children, everyday.  Do not fear your neighborhood; it takes good people to make a neighborhood good.  As to what to do with your children once you do get to the park or to the backyard: explore.  No toys necessary.  If you do have a backyard, or even a balcony: garden.  While I understand there are some neighborhoods, even here in Topeka, KS, where one should not take their children outdoors, I’ve seen some poor slums thrive with children outdoors in the afternoons and evening hours.  Parents, if you need to relieve stress for a moment go outdoors with your children.  Grow flowers.  Grow herbs on a balcony.  And all you brown thumb naysayers I tell you this: growing a plant, or a garden, is as simple as caring for pets.  More simple, really.  And its food.  It is this inter-dependent relationship we Humans have with Flora & Fauna that make our existence truly unique, as a creature on this Earth.  Savor Life.

I thought you might appreciate this picture of a Chinook arch over our Church in Calgary. Quite something, eh?

New Greasy Oil Sticks (2009) photo: JParadisi

     This morning my husband stood on our deck, and announced, “It’s blustery out here, Winnie the Pooh.” He doesn’t usually call me Winnie the Pooh, he was just showing off his limited knowledge of literature. He spends 10 hours a day reading the squiggles, marks, and symbols that pass for doctors’ handwriting,  so sitting down with a good book isn’t something he considers enjoyable. Maybe, if the hospital ever gets the physicians to agree to computer order entry, my husband will read my blog. However, that he doesn’t allows me to write about him without causing marital conflict, so it all works out.

     The wind was blowing in forceful gusts. I don’t know why, but it made me restless. Maybe it’s a catalyst for connecting with my anima. I remember, years ago when I rode horses, that when the wind blew, they became twitchy, and raced around their corrals. I suited up and went for a run along the Willamette River, thinking about the horses.

    Outdoors, the air itself was warm and tense. Fallen autumn leaves blew on the pavement in swirls, like tiny tornadoes. It felt like the sky was about to tear open and burst with rain, thunder or even fire itself. It made me think about pregnancy and birth, and the ripeness of a fruit that can no longer contain its seed.

     Creativity feels like that.

     This evening, as if they were omens, my pregnant neighbor stopped by with a box of cookies, and the package of oil sticks specially ordered from New York arrived at my door. The dozen greasy sticks of bright colors are just what I need to finish the new painting I’m working on. I can hardly wait to get back to the studio.

It’s the sort of day that would put a smile on Emily Dickenson’s face. And I can’t help but feel a little “under the weather”, especially with the drizzly final touches on over 4 inches of rain. Soggy. Yesterday’s band practice was the same as it’s been for the last month plus. Me, Shane, and Twitch, jammin’ in the basement. We didn’t hear a peep from our singer (former) Torix and bass player Stanley. And still haven’t 36 hours later. I’m a little worried for Stanley. I hope he’s alright. Torix, well he’s not committed to us on Sunday practices anymore since we parted ways, but with another gig coming up we all assumed we’d be practicing as a unit yesterday.

Ah well. Tis the lifestyle of the band I guess. I fear it’s falling apart, but I have a little faith that the extent to which it will fall apart is the extent to which it has.

In a little over a month, I’ll be on my way to Mexico where—hopefully—it will be nice and warm. For those math geeks out there:

Mexico + Warm Weather = BATHING SUITS

And, if you will:

Stephanie + Bathing Suit = GOOD GOD!

So am I concerned? Uh…YES. Enough to do anything about it? Weeeellll…

If by “anything” you mean dish out hundreds of dollars in membership fees to join a gym that I’ll stop going to after about a week—then, nope.

If you mean I’ll undergo some drastic liquid diet that will only serve to make me crap my brains out—then, nope.

If you mean head to the salon for a faux tan in the hopes of at least not blinding the locals with how white I am—yeah, I might do that.

Because the good people of Mexico deserve that much.

Creo que lo a que más tardaré en acostumbrarme de Maastricht, si es que alguna vez lo hago, es a lo temprano que anochece. Una de las características de España es que el sol se pone realmente tarde; en verano puede llegar a ocurrir a las 11 PM.

Veamos cuándo suceden el ocaso y el alba en tres ciudades:

Maastricht

Barcelona

Avilés

¿Alguien puede confirmar esto?. Creo que en realidad la diferencia es mayor porque Avilés se hace de noche (de verdad) más tarde mientras que aquí lo borda y a las 16:45 ya no ves nada.

~

The most surprising thing to me here, in Maastricht, is the really early sunset. One special feature about Spain is that the sunset takes place very late, in summer it could be around 11 PM.

You can see two examples in this post: Barcelona (world-renowned city, it’s near to Jordi’s home town) and Avilés (my home town).

¿Cómo es en tu ciudad? ~ How is it in your city?

For the first time, it actually feels like winter has arrived. We had a snow in early October, but it was still so warm that it promptly melted the next day. But today there is a bite in the air that reaches me even sitting at my desk at work. My short-sleeved shirt actually feels like a poor choice. Out the one window I’ve got a good view of, all I’ve seen are grey skies as far as the eye can see. There is light coming from somewhere, but  it is so muted it might as well be from another galaxy. There’s something about this time of the winter, the transition from fall, where everything looks really, really dead. No bright, Technicolor trees, just a whole lot of greys and browns and crunchy wilted death.

Cheery. I know. People tell me that all the time.

I like extreme weather, it always puts me in the mood to write, but the rest of the day? Bleh, I’d rather do without, thanks. I have a bright yellow paper cut out sun attached to one of my cabinet doors that I made a few weeks ago when I just couldn’t take the grey storming skies a moment longer (this after two weeks of stormy skies. A girl has her limits). The sun is my bright spot all day long. I love it. I am thinking of making more papercrafts to stick to my doors.

Speaking of my work desk, my plant finally committed suicide. Or was it murder? I think it got attacked by mites, though how the mites found their way up four floors and into my cubby I have no idea. I threw it out last Friday and now it’s just me and my succulent garden, half of which looks really pathetic, the other half is thriving. I’m thinking of uprooting the pieces that don’t seem to be doing well so that the others can thrive even more. That makes me sad, I really like my succulents.

Especially the lambs ear and the tentacle monster. Thankfully those two are thriving. It’s the other ones that look grim.

This infrared satellite image below gives us a great glimpse of current weather patterns across the US today. There is a low pressure system over the central US that is generating some rain showers, but no severe weather, although there may be some flooding along the Iowa/Missouri border. Additionally, there is persistent rainfall over Washington State, which has led to the National Weather Service’s issuance of a flood warning for that area.

Latest Satellite water vapor imagery

Below, the 300mb wind plot shows the strength of the low pressure system over the midwest, as it is advecting warm southern air to the northeast, and bringing in cool air from Canada into Texas.  This cold air advection will likely lead to below-freezing temperatures for much of central Texas tonight.  However, the northeast should expect warmer, more mild weather in the coming days.  Additionally, notice the strong jet streak whose exit region lies directly over Washington;  the converging air at this location is contributing to instability in this area, and thus encouraging continuous rainfall.

300mb NAM model

The temperature map below clearly shows where the fronts lie in the midwestern pressure system.  As the low propagates eastward, the warm sector will move north, bringing warm air into the upper midwest and the northeast, keeping temperatures above freezing overnight.  Conversely, the cold front (the temperature gradient extending from central Texas to Iowa) will sweep east, bringing cooler air through Texas, and likely making temperatures dip below freezing tonight.

850mb temperatures

I went on my second date with Ray.  Will see him again on Saturday, to go to Poulsbo.

I was in such a funky shock over the news about my friend in Taiwan, not to mention funkified by insomnia last night, and a somewhat manic spell in the middle of the night, that I left him after about an hour.  I got to the Goodwill from the bowling alley, and the emptiness of it all swept over me, I went back and was happy to see him still at the bowling alley.

Something about old men talking for hours about what their ex-wives did to torture them… had that with Richard, broken record.  They need a blog to which to spill it all.

I just sat there suffering while he went on about it, and then the guy on the other side of us chimed in with his horror story about his wife leaving him and how she comes back when he’s asleep and makes sandwiches, and raids him.

Well, isn’t that just ducky.  Ray hasn’t even asked me what I do for a living.  He hasn’t asked me if I have children.  He just goes on about his house and his truck and his cat that he hates, and his ex, and his neighbors.

We’ll see how Saturday goes, not my most wonderful day, today, rain is pouring down, the guy whose wife makes sandwiches thinks he can do my porch for me, but nobody wants to work in the rain.

Only about a month until the solstice.  Solstice is important to me, signals hope.

The Met Office has issued three weather warnings today. More severe conditions are expected in the coming week. Are you scared?

Very wet and windy conditions are anticipated with widespread rain and strong winds gusting at 60mph at time. Winds at up to 100mph were recorded at the Needles on the Isle of Wight today.

On Saturday, four teenagers were killed in a car accident in Birmingham due to severe weather. The car hit one side of the road and shot through the front wall of the garden, said a local resident.

In Essex, a tornado wrecked 60 homes on Sunday. “It was devastating. Whole roofs were rocking from side to side and chimneys came crashing down,” described Adele Ashdown, from Benfleet. In Devon and Cornwall, 10,000 homes faced a black out as the power line was down.

The great storm of 1987 killed 18 people with winds of 115mph, leaving a trail of destruction estimated at £1.5 billion. This weekend’s storm has been the heaviest storm of the year so far. “We have had gusts reported of 72mph at Culdrose in Cornwall and 71mph at Plymouth,” said Byron Chakcraft, Met. Office.

The Environment Agency urges people to stay in alert. “We may issue flood warnings for possible sea flooding around parts of South Wales coast and possible floodings for rivers across Wales. So we urge people to remain vigilant,” said Jeremy Parr, Flood Risk Manager of The Environment Agency.

But, what if we cut the crap for a moment… how does that small storm compare to any flood that happened this year in Asia? What are real catastrophes? We journalists just love sensationalism too much sometimes…