“Less wet” may be a better title. We appear to be getting a brief respite from the sogginess of the last few weeks. I don’t think I can ever recall so much rain in one month, particularly in June. It seems to have been raining constantly. We actually did have a few days without any rain, but not many. Today is one of them. There may be rain this evening already, though, and rain is anticipated to be with us all weekend. If the lawn is dry enough when I get home later, I may have to mow it. I doubt that I’ll be able to mow the lawn at my parents’ house this weekend. I suspect that it will be pretty high and thick by the time I can maw it if we don’t get a break from all of this rain!

It was 70 degrees outside when I left the house at 5:45 this morning. That’s just plain wrong for the end of April. There is a possibility that the area records will be broken today – 90 degrees for NYC in 1990. It sure felt hotter yesterday than it did on Sunday when I was up in the attic working out and also when I sat in my office at the PC. I haven’t put the air conditioners in downstairs yet and my office was a bit toasty. I expect that to be the case this evening, too. I’m not sure that it is worth putting the a/c in yet since it is supposed to be Spring again starting tomorrow.

At 7:44 EDT today Spring officially arrived. You wouldn’t know it, though, since there were snowflakes falling from the sky. Since it was above freezing, it only stuck to grass and dirt around here. It was all gone a little while later when the sun poked out for a bit. It is chilly today and not expected to warm up much at all. It should be more Spring like tomorrow.

Woot! It’s Friday and soon it will be another weekend. I have no major plans this weekend.  Of course, there’s the Saturday morning trip to ShopRite with my father. I also hope to locate and gather all of the papers I’ll be needing to file his income taxes. If I’m successful, I’ll spend some time getting it entered into TurboTax. I may get some fertilizer down on the lawn and do a little bit of yard cleanup. I don’t want to wait too long to fertilize since I need the new grass from last summer to be strong enough to withstand the dogs when I switch the “off limits” part of the fenced back yard to the section closest to the house. I then need to till that section, add dirt and amendments to try to get grass growing strong there, too. I’d like to remove the temporary fencing some time in the summer so that the dogs get the run of the entire fenced in area.

It is a dreary day with a light drizzle falling. It makes it that much harder to adjust to the local time zone and Daylight Savings Time. I’m back at work, having been here for about 5 hours now. I feel a bit better than I did yesterday, thankfully. My head is still stuffy, but I’m clearly on the mend. I think I can make it through the work day.

This morning the wind began to kick up pretty hard as I was heading out the door. I opened my car doors, placed my backpack on the back seat, and then leaned into the car to start it before walking to the end of the driveway to pick up the newspaper. Suddenly I heard a loud crack behind me and a thump. A fairly large tree limb had snapped off and fallen to the driveway about 10 feet from me. It wasn’t a log sized limb, but it sure would have hurt if it had hit me! I felt pretty lucky. The wind has continued throughout the day with some pretty nasty gusts. I noticed that we had a short power outage at home, or at least a blip, because the kennel cam set me an email that it had restarted and reconnected. It is still pretty warm outside for the middle of February, but I suspect that it will be cooling down over the next few days.

I decided to stay home this morning. When I got up at 4:00 AM it was snowing lightly and we had about 2 inches of powdery snow on the ground. The street wasn’t plowed, but they had salted it and a salt truck rumbled past as I peered out into the darkness. While having breakfast and checking the overnight email and newsgroup postings I had the news on and the predictions for our area didn’t look promising. They predicted 5 to 8 inches with heavy snow falling throughout the morning before turning to rain and freezing rain and back to snow in the evening. The afternoon commute looked to be as miserable or even more so that the morning commute. Hence my decision to stay home. I did consider heading in, but it seemed rather stupid when I can do pretty much all of my work from home.

At about 9 AM my neighbor’s son-in-law, who currently lives there with his wife and their daughter, started clearing the driveway – in his shorts! Amazing! I joined him, but not in my shorts. The walks and driveway are now cleared. It turned to rain while I was clearing the last bits. It is now raining fairly hard. Unfortunately, that means that clearing my parents’ driveway, which I’m about to head out to do, will be hellish. I’m going to bring the snow blower down, but I suspect it will be worthless and I’ll be clearing the heavy slush by hand.

Another Winter Storm Warning is up. The current information says that it will start snowing later this evening and continue through tomorrow evening. However, depending on who’s doing the predicting, we’ll see very little snow or we’ll see up to 8 inches of the stuff *and* possibly more ice on top of that. I really hope that they are wrong about the last part. Although I dislike snow, I hate ice. We have had a few storms this winter that involved ice and freezing rain. Our back yard is a frozen wasteland that the dogs (and us) have trouble navigating. I spread some dirt on it a few weeks ago to get some traction, but then it snowed. The dirt is now frozen into a new layer of ice. So, my fingers are crossed that we get either nothing or lots of snow overnight. If the latter happens, I’ll call in and work from home tomorrow. However, it is a tough call as to what “lots” means.

On the news at 5 AM today the weather forecaster (in NYC) was exclaiming how it was quite a bit warmer today and that the temperature would rise into the 40s. Really? At 6 AM, the temperature reading in my car was 17 degrees. That is no warmer than it has been for days. And, looking at my weather gadget right now, at almost 10 AM, it shows that it is 16 degrees Fahrenheit at home! Maybe it was warmer in NYC this morning, but it sure doesn’t look or feel any warmer in my neck of the woods. Here in Ramsey, where I work, it is also quite cold right now. I’ll be quite surprised in the temperature makes it above 30F today.

However, it *is* Friday today, which will make even the coldest temperatures bearable since I can look forward to getting extra sleep tonight. Plus, I don’t need to go to the office for 2 days after today!

Update: As of 2 PM, it has indeed climbed into the 40s!

The snow began to fall here at the office at about 10 am. It doesn’t appear to be falling as fast and hard as had been predicted, at least not here, but there are a few inches on the ground outside 5 hours later. The building is quickly emptying out. I thought about leaving early, but that would mean joining the nuts on the road that left early. My hope is that leaving at the usual time, in about 30 minutes, will find the roads a little less crowded.

Once I do finally get home, I’ll need to mix up some fuel for the snow blower to get the driveway cleared this evening. I probably should have done that yesterday evening, but I procrastinated. I did put the shovel out and made sure that I had the 2 cycle oil and gas ready. The snow blower is sitting at the ready.

Weather forecasting must be a thankless job, though it seems to me that forecasting is perhaps a step ahead of predicting the lottery numbers. I'm thankful that they were wrong, but how can a forecast for 6 to 10 inches of snow result in a dusting on the lawn and cars? Oh, and that means that there is absolutely no snow on the driveway and streets!

I just commented to Pennie that we seem to be having a whole lot of precipitation this Winter. Well, it actually just became Winter, so it has been a pretty wet late Fall and Winter looks to be off to a wet start. It is raining once again and is expected to rain again tomorrow and then again this weekend. The dogs don't care much for going out in the rain and I can't really blame them, of course.

It was back to work today, but it was very quiet. I expect more of the same the rest of the week. I'm looking forward to the long weekend...

Last Winter, 2006 to 2007, we had very little snow. It looks like this year won't be a repeat as we've already had a few snowfalls and it isn't event the middle of December yet. The forecast for tomorrow and the upcoming weekend don't sound promising, either. Tomorrow we are expecting a mix of rain, sleet and snow. The forecast is calling for a fair amount of snow starting some time in the afternoon for many areas North and West of NYC. I expect that it will be a lovely afternoon commute. The big one is expected this weekend. All indications are that it could well be a big storm starting either late Saturday or early Sunday. Hopefully, they are wrong, as they often are. Today was supposed to be sunny and in the 50 degree range. Well, it was 52 when I left the house this morning at about 6 am, but it is now windy, cloudy, and in the low 40 degree range.

Yes, it is most certainly Fall. I snapped the picture at the left on my cell phone the other day. It's a view of the courtyard of the building I work in showing the trees in their Fall yellow. It's been getting a bit colder, too. It was in the 30 degree range both yesterday and this morning, but we're at 62 right now and it is expected to be similar tomorrow. The days are growing shorter and we're going to be setting our clocks back this coming weekend - a week late, of course.

At least it isn't unbearably hot in the office today! I'm actually about to head down to the building I used to work in for a celebration of a co-worker's 25 year anniversary with the company. It's a good day for a drive!

Why is it that the management of this building can't get the heating and cooling system working properly? At the beginning of the summer, during those early hot days we were sweltering because the air conditioning system wasn't working. Once they figured out how to get them working, we alternated between being chilled by too much cold air and being too warm as it still wasn't cooling properly when it got particularly hot outside.

At the end of last week, the outside temperature got cooler. Today is the coldest day so far, with temperatures in the low 50s. It was a little chilly in here last week as I suspect that the air conditioning was still on. Today, I wore a long sleeved shirt, which seems sensible since it was cool in here and it is Fall outside. Today I am sweltering. The indoor temperature is near 80 degrees.

One day they will figure it out, I hope.

Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the weather changes. I took out the air conditioners in the basement and the dining room on Sunday afternoon. The ones in both bedrooms and my office are still in place for now, but none have been running for quite some time now. It has been nice and cool overnight and some nights even cold! Today is was in the mid 80's and the weather forecasters are predicting the same for tomorrow. I didn't think it was hot at all today, probably because it wasn't humid, but especially because it is cooling down early when the sun goes down. Nice sleeping weather!

It was an uneventful day today. I was busy at work and I worked out before dinner. Pennie made a nice dinner that hit the spot. I got caught up on newsgroups and such and now it is time for bed once again.

Yes, the heat wave continues. We may see some relief from the heat tomorrow, but not much as it will still be humid. I had my full workout this evening - bike downstairs, which was nice because of the a/c running down there, followed by my routine on the Soloflex in the attic. Yes, the attic. It wasn't all that bad up there because I opened all 3 windows and both attic fans were already working overtime to draw the hot air out. Plus, the sun wasn't out. For a while it looked as if we might see a storm, but it never materialized. However, it did cool things down just a tad and it was windy for a bit. So I sweated a little more than usual up there, but I survived.

This morning I decided to park under the building at work. I am in early enough to get one of those spaces, but it means a walk around the building to get in as the downstairs doors are still locked when I arrive and I need to use the 24 hour door with a pass code to enter. I was glad I did, though, as the car was only 86 degrees while the outside air temperature was 96. I'm parking there again tomorrow!

I'll be swinging by to see my parents after work tomorrow. Hopefully my father has been using the central air conditioner more than just a few hours in the evening. Mom doesn't generally mind the heat and they both get plenty of liquids, but extreme heat is still not good for them.

Or - What a Difference a Day Makes.

It started to rain ever so lightly late in the afternoon on Sunday. That was just about the time I headed over to see my parents. It kind of sputtered rain for a bit starting around 4 in the afternoon. My parents were doing fairly well, by the way. My father was reading his Sunday papers and Mom was lying on the bed. I spent a little time making notes on the latest bill from Visiting Angels so that my father could pay a more reasonable amount without having to wait for a credit adjustment on the following invoice. Mom seemed okay, though it bothers me every time I think of how far she has declined. She can't care for herself at all and she can barely communicate. I wish it wasn't so.

When I returned from seeing my parents, I started my bike ride to nowhere and then headed up to the attic to use the Soloflex. I was mighty sweaty when I was finished with the workout. It wasn't hot, but it was very humid. When Pennie fed the dogs and headed out into the backyard with them afterwards, the first period of heavy rain began. Timing is everything. We joked that it would probably be pouring again when I took them out later in the evening. In fact, it went back to a light drizzle for most of the evening and the heavier rain began at about 10. So, I lucked out for my 9:00 PM trip out to the yard.

I had the windows open all day because it was much cooler outside, but I considered putting the air conditioners back on due to the oppressive humidity. When I went to bed, much too late, I left the windows open and climbed into bed. It was not a good night for sleeping since it was so humid. I should have closed the windows and used the air conditioner. I didn't fall asleep until almost midnight and woke up a few times before the alarm beckoned me from the bed at 4 AM. I'm actually not feeling a lack of sleep, though.

The rain is continuing today. It was very light as I left for work, but has picked up in intensity for most of the morning hours. They predicted it would taper off early this afternoon, but I'm not so sure about that now.

I now understand the pain Pennie felt earlier this week when the hose burst and then the sprinklers were problematic as she attempted to water the back yard. late this afternoon I decided to spread some of the organic fertilizer that she got for the back onto the front you and then water the whole front with the sprinkler. Well, the hose that I picked up for the driveway side of the house is 75 feet long and I guess I should have gone for a 100 foot hose. I made it to the front yard after snaking it around my car in the driveway, but it couldn't reach to the prime spot for the sprinkler to hit both sides. That was okay since it turned out that the sprinkler didn't want to go to both sides anyway. So I got the hose from the other side of the house and worked my way up past the porch and hooked up a square pattern sprinkler we have. Then I got the other sprinkler that only does a half pattern and hooked it to the other hose. That got most of the front covered. I think I'll be getting a new sprinkler tomorrow.

Today was, of course, grocery shopping day. I picked up my father a little before 10 am and we headed to Cost Cutters first, since he wanted some hangers and Snapple Iced Tea was on sale pretty cheap. I picked up a big container of RoundUp to kill a slew of weeds in my parents' garden. Then we were off to ShopRite, which wasn't too crowded today - probably because nobody wanted to venture out in the heat and humidity! After getting his groceries put away I headed out to spray down some weeds. Hopefully the single application will do it. When I left there it was 94 degrees and really humid. At the moment, 9:40 in the evening, it is down to 77, but that way too warm for this late in the evening on June the 2nd.

Computer backups are almost complete and then I think I may head to bed early tonight. The forums will have to wait until tomorrow.

Well, the promised storms came through yesterday afternoon. At about 3 PM or so the sky turned black and the wind began whipping up. I'd hate to experience a tornado or hurricane as this was minor compared to either of those. However, it was enough to wreak havoc on the area. We didn't have any problems at home, but there were trees and power lines down all over. n other areas there was roadway flooding. I left the office at my usual time and headed out into a light rain, as the worst cell had passed over us already. I got within 5 to 10 minutes of home before I came to a complete stop. The road was closed and we were all turned around to head the few miles back out to 287. I debated taking local roads, but decided to get back on 287. It was probably just as bad on the local roads, but it took me 45 minutes to go the 4 or 5 miles to the 23 Exit, which was all backed up and was clogging 287 in both directions. Something was clearly a problem on 23 North, so I managed to bail and headed further South and exited in Montville, heading over the mountains - way out of my way - to get home. That was the best choice and wasn't a bad drive at all. Crossing 23 to get home I could see that 23 North was indeed backed up from further North and barely moving, so it must have been power lines and trees blocking the road. I was glad to be home and glad to see that we had no damage whatsoever.

After a night with not enough sleep because I was feeling entirely too warm in the bedroom, it is a much better day. The temperature outside is absolutely lovely, near 70, which is 10 degrees lower than predicted yesterday. It was close to 90 yesterday and my bedroom never cooled off enough for my taste despite having 3 windows open. As I mentioned yesterday, it was unbearable at work. They finally fixed the air conditioning by the end of the day, so today it is comfortable in here. Of course, the fact that it is cooler outside is also making a difference. I'm hopeful that it is still comfortable in here during the certain heat waves we'll experience this summer.

I did stop in to see my parents on the way home yesterday. Mom was in the living room with my father and seemed to be doing well. I held her hand for a little while as I talked with my father (and her, too), which she seemed to like. The house was pretty comfortable. I expected to find it very hot at my parents' house, but it appears that my father managed to windows and the ceiling fan pretty well. In the summer he'll drive me crazy by letting it get up to 90 in the house before turning on the a/c after 4 and turning it off before going to bed.

Tomorrow through the end of the week it is supposed to be cloudy with showers on and off. I'm good with 60 degree temperatures during the day and 40s through 50s at night.