Game Over

Ski Valley is done (or at least my small part of it). I got to work yesterday after a ten-minute snow & ice scraping of my car, and the trailer was gone. Jaime was working on Unit 60 (the last of the cooperative owners), and Jim didn't even make it down because he was onto the next job. I read the latest issue of Wired magazine while I did my work for the day, and later Jim met me in K-Mart plaza to give me my final pay ($100).

Other notes from the day:

• Ben & Jerry's Schweddy Balls ice cream is very good!
• My cat rocks.
• There is nothing like Ragu with angel hair pasta & ground beef. Mmmm...
• I took down my a/c from the window. The apartment is noticeably warmer already.
• We are supposed to get nearly a foot of snow today! I thought it was only supposed to be a dusting.

Deluge

It's raining cats & dogs today! I woke up to the soothing sound of a downpour on my roof, and after getting dressed to run out for half & half and pie, I took a few pictures of the morning:

 

You can see where the drops hit the roof of my car. It was coming down super-hard when I snapped this, and as I left the house a local outdoor cat sprang out from under my stoop.

Hurricane Irene

• Just a lot of rain, and a bit of wind filled today's grey day due to Hurricane Irene (downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it reached Massachusetts).
• TV was Friday's latest "Thundercats" and a lot of Bianca de la Garza talking about the weather.
• I also read the amazingly perfect for kids of all ages "Marineman" comic book series. I need to get the trade paperback for a few of the kids.
• Mac & Cheese and ground beef for a late lunch.
• ...And I just bought one ticket to see Ivy at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton for Tuesday September 13th!

Heat Wave

Today is the second day in New England of the humongous heatwave that has been plaguing the USA for over a week. I had yesterday off from work so the only time I experienced it then was the drive to and from Dad & Ma's for dinner. And today the drive to work was fine, but the drive home was oppressive. I'm just glad I had a half-day, and that I drove home at noon and not during the evening rush hour.

Here is a capture from the Weather Channel just a little while ago:

 Yes, that says 101 degrees at 2:21 pm today!

(And on a side note, I am also extremely disappointed that we, 

the United States of America, 

currently have no way of getting our own stuff into space).

Thunderhead

The 'skies above' at 4:30 pm today outside my front door!

Tornadoes

Yesterday evening a couple of tornadoes ripped through the southern half of Massachusetts. Since my family and I all live north or Route 2, we were relatively unaffected. I left Dad & Ma's to drive to Sarah's to watch her kids while she went to a meeting (which ended up being cancelled), and except for the moment I got into the car, and the moment I got out of it, there was such hard rain coming down that traffic was going 45 mph on the highway.

Sadly, 3 people were killed (including a woman in Brimfield who had a refrigerator fall on her), and Springfield was devastated. The path of the tornadoes was basically Route 20, and they wreaked havoc in many other towns, including Southbridge, Sturbridge and Charlton. Governor Patrick declared a State of Emergency, and it will be some time before clean-up is completed. The National Guard has since been put in place, and power was cut in many neighborhoods.

Severe thunderstorms hit the entire Central MA area off and on all night, and as I drove home, there was a beautiful sunset in the rear-view mirror, and a spectacular and dazzling lightning show all the way home on my 20-minute drive.

Weather or Not

It's supposed to be above freezing (40's and maybe even low 50's) most of the week, so I am going to try to spend a lot of time outdoors. Hey Spring, get'cher damned ass over here!

Sub-Arctic Chill

I woke up at 6 am this morning to the portable space heater humming along. The only issue: it's set to go on if the temperature goes below 60 F. I got out of bed to feed the cat, and sure enough, the gas heat had gone dead. ZOINKS!! It's -6 F outside, and I have no gas heat. Oh well, I dealt with it, made coffee, and watched "The Office" and the news (some poor 50 year-old woman froze to death overnight after a fall in her driveway). Then at 7 am the power went out - noooooo! It was time to bundle up and read in the sunlight coming in through the stove window. Thankfully Jean Marie (my aunt/landlady) called with heater instructions, so I was able to get that back up at 7:30, and then the electricity came back on at 8. Life is back to normal! I wasn't worried for myself, I could always escape to my parents' house. I would just hate to leave Sabrino behind to fend for himself in a cold dark apartment. He's such a good cat!