Mike's stuff » weather

Snowpocalypse

mike — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:59:04 +0000

We didn’t panic, but we did lose power for two days (and went through pretty severe gadget and internet withdrawal, probably more-so than heat withdrawal). Between the news, facebook, twitter, and everything else, the big storm (32.4 inches of snow here in around 36 hours) has been well covered, so instead of going on about it, I’m just going to post some photos from the big event (and a couple from the December snowstorm).

Spring is here

mike — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:45:51 +0000

Last week we had some beautiful weather, and the cherry trees along our driveway bloomed more fully than in the past few years. I took the opportunity to take a couple photos… just in time, it turns out, since two days later, half the blossoms have already fallen, and the trees are half green, half pink now.

Snow & Neighbors

mike — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:44:26 +0000

We had a pretty decent snowfall today… a few inches of really enormous snow flakes. Kathie and I had to take Max to the vet in the early afternoon, and when we got back we were shocked to see our driveway was completely cleared (via a snow thrower)! We parked, looked around, and saw our neighbor across the street (Brian) shoveling his walkway and asked him about it. As it turns out, after clearing his own driveway with his snow thrower, he made his way down the street and did 7 other drives! Our driveways aren’t exactly small either. What a nice surprise and nice gesture!! We usually subscribe to the “it will get warmer and melt eventually” method of driveway clearing.

The hawthorn trees at the end of our driveway looked very pretty with their red berries standing out against the white snow. I grabbed the camera to get some photos, but it was already raining pretty steadily so I only spent about 20 seconds on the attempt:

Revenge of the Wind

mike — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 07:55:00 +0000

I thought the wind last week was bad, when it shredded our patio furniture. The wind this week made last week’s wind seem like some wimpy, baby wind on training wheels. I guess they were calling this week’s event a “nor’Easter”, and it definitely packed a punch. Our patio table seems pretty insignificant when you look across the street at Scott and Sue’s newly redecorated home: (photo taken from our driveway)

Oops.

The power of wind

mike — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 18:48:00 +0000

Well, we had some really crazy wind last night as the cold front came in, dropping our temperatures from the 70s to the 30s. Not surprisingly, the wind blew all our deck furniture over to one side of the deck. Surprisingly, the nearly 8 foot long dining table, with a big (closed!) umbrella through it attached to a giant HEAVY base filled with sand decided to rip itself to pieces, depositing the giant glass table top onto the deck at high speed, and the rest of the table and much of the glass went over the side of the deck. It’s much easier to explain with pictures.

Table before (sorry, no pic with umbrella):

Table this morning:

Rest of table:

So, we spent the morning vacuuming the grass (how often do you hear that?) since it was completely full of glass, and cleaning the deck and walkway etc. Now we need to go table shopping.

Sneak preview of spring

mike — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:03:00 +0000

As anyone in Northern Virginia already knows, spring has made an early, but temporary appearance this week. Today’s high will be in the mid 70s (20 degrees above normal), and it’s a perfect day for working out on the balcony at work with a wireless laptop. Let’s enjoy it while we can, since it will be in the 40s this weekend!

The Verizon FiOS install went quite well. As predicted, the HD picture quality is generally excellent, although it does vary from channel to channel and show to show, probably depending on how the shows were originally filmed. Too bad we’re not too into sports, as the ESPN HD channels look amazing. The standard-definition channels look significantly better than DirecTVs. The digital video recorder leaves a lot to be desired after being spoiled by a Tivo for the last 5 years or so, but a software update from Verizon is due in a couple months, and a new Tivo Series 3 that’s compatible with FiOS but less expensive than their current $600 model is also due this year. Haven’t played much with the FiOS internet but will do so this weekend and try to switch everything in the house over from Cox internet.

Glad to say that chemo #8 was better than #6 and #7! Side effects were less severe and didn’t last as long. Interestingly, two days after I got my Aranesp shot for my red blood cells, the FDA came out with warnings about Aranesp. Fortunately the warnings seem to only apply to situations where the recommended dose is exceeded, but I’ll still be checking with my Oncologist about it. I’ve only needed Aranesp twice so far, and it’s likely I won’t need it any more anyway.

Let it snow…

mike — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 15:59:00 +0000

This morning we were hit with a surprise snow storm. It’s been snowing steadily (and heavily) for the last three hours or so. At least this is a very pretty snow, unlike the last couple that were mainly sleet, freezing rain, and ice pellets (yuck!).

Saturday’s side effects continued about as expected, but today I can tell that my tastes are starting to slowly improve, so I should be feeling mostly normal by tomorrow or Tuesday. Kathie and I are heading to Florida on Thursday for a long weekend to visit my mom and get a short break from the cold. We’re looking forward to some 80 degree weather, swimming in the pool, and relaxing.

Snowed In (50%)

mike — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 10:29:00 +0000

Well, it’s been almost a week since I’ve posted an update, and that can only mean one thing… I’m feeling better!

We got a heck of a winter storm this week – lots of sleet, some snow, and then a really thick layer of freezing rain on top. The end result is that our yard, driveway, and everything else is covered with a few inches of what could easily pass for white cement. We can walk on it (and jump on it, and slide down the hill on it) without the slightest chance of breaking through. It was relatively easy to back Kathie’s SUV out of the garage and up onto the snow/ice so we could get to work, but my car isn’t going anywhere due to the 18″ high cement drift (er… snow drift) blocking my garage door (hence the “50% snowed” in blog title) and the even higher wall of ice at the end of the driveway from the snowplow. Kathie’s 4,000lb SUV didn’t even break through the ice barrier covering the snow, just drove up onto it and skated across (which means a shovel ain’t gonna cut it either).

Schools have been closed Wed/Thu/Fri in typical Northern Virginia fashion. Temps are remaining below freezing for the next few days so my car keep relaxing in the garage until we can get some melting going.

Snow Wii

mike — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 01:50:00 +0000

We weren’t really expecting snow yesterday (forgot to check the forecast for a couple days), or we would have taken the SUV instead of the Acura when we went out for the day. The roads were snow and ice covered by the time we were on our way home, and we ended up having a little adventure. Driving along a road with a slight incline, we came across an SUV sideways across the road, spinning its wheels. We had no choice but to stop, and that was our mistake. As soon as our car stopped, it started sliding backwards down the road, then the front rotated around so we were sliding sideways! Eventually the car ran into the curb and stopped, but was stuck. The guy from the SUV had gotten his car oriented correctly, so came to help me push the Acura out while Kathie put it in reverse. We got it backed out from the curb, but then started sliding down the road again (while more cars were coming up towards us). Eventually Kathie was able to guide the car to part of the road with snow rather than ice, and we were able to drive back the way we had come from, and take main roads the rest of the way home. All in all though it’s nice to finally have some snow this winter! Now we’re ready for Spring to come

In more exciting news, Eric and Sundee in Tucson were Wii shopping this weekend and were able to get one for us too, so before long we’ll be playing Wii Sports, Raving Rabbids, and Zelda! We just need to be sure we have the new, stronger wrist straps so we don’t throw the remote into the TV!