Weekend Plans Post: The Summer Begins
A few years back, Colorado failed to have a summer. Oh, we had a June, July, and August. It just rained. Like, every day. It was cold. Most years I put my hoodies away and I only need to keep one in the guest bedroom closet for the off chance I go up to the mountains or out to a night baseball game. That year, I dug out a couple from the storage bin because I usually needed one when sitting in the basement after sundown. It was regularly in the 70’s during the day which meant that it was regularly in the 60’s (and sometimes 50’s(!)) at night.
So far this year, we’ve had it rain every day and I’m vaguely irritated that I put all of my hoodies away.
It’s still only May, I tell myself. (Heck, the Stanley Cup still going on.)
We have a day, here or there, where I say “man, this weekend is the weekend where I’m going to set up the air conditioner!” but then it rains again. Then I’m in the basement again wearing my ragged hoodie. And now I’m wondering if this summer is going to be another no-show.
Given that last weekend was the big Memorial Day weekend that was chock full of events, friends, shared meals, and miscellaneous get-togethers, this weekend is the “maybe recuperate a little” weekend. A trip to the various PetSmarts and Whole Foods for the weird one-off things and the usual haunts for the usual errands. And, maybe, Maribou and I will even have a date on Saturday night.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Featured image is “It Looks Like It’s Going to Rain” by andyarthur. Used under a Creative Commons License.)
Signing up for a jujitsu seminar. Looks like I’ll be able to share a private lesson with a World Champ. Not bad for the price. Might even get a pic 🙂Report
The way it’s been snowing up there I was wondering if Maribou was doing some northern snow dance thing. If I could bottle some 90 degree days and send em to ya I would.
Ami is a sun bunny, she just goes and sets in full sunlight and soaks it up. Summer is her element. I spent to much time in the death ray that the drifter in me wants to travel north for the summers.
The agave cubes turned out to be at least edible, not a every day eats, but maybe twice a month max. The flowers are about to bloom, so my plans are to harvest a few of those at several stages and see how they taste. It’ll be a pretty good trick because they are at least 15 feet up on the stem. That’s a pretty good reach, even with a pole saw.
Over several months I developed a process to use modern powder in a 1851 Colt replica. I can utilize the same powder as my modern bolt rifle and it is wholly unaffected by high humidity.Report
Helping a friend install some flooring tomorrow. Champions League final tomorrow as well–may end up watching it on delay, but we’ll see. Desperately hoping Liverpool blow Tottenham off the pitch as I don’t believe my delicate Arsenal psyche could handle THAT TEAM winning a Champions League! Rest of the family are heading up to Denver sometime Saturday to attend Denver CultureCon (formerly ComiCon).Report
Still at my parents’ house in Illinois.
And will be here a while longer because the MO/AR flooding has cancelled trains for the day I was to go back home.
The good news is that I don’t have to be anywhere in particular, so I can just extend my visit instead of trying to book a flight and then beg the one person I know in the DFW area to drive me the 100 or so miles into East Texas where my car is. The better news is I was able to get a ticket (hopefully for on a train) for a week later.
I have called/e-mailed the people who need to know. But I also admit I’m somewhat at loose ends – my dad wound up in the hospital (nothing serious: cellulitis was starting in an injury and his doctor was being cautious) so I’m mostly alone and without access to a car these past few days.
I did get out to a bookstore today to get a couple supplemental books to read, and I did bring extra yarn but yipes, this has been a minor-league cluster.Report
Few people appreciate just how few railroad crossings there are on the Mississippi. When the last big floods hit in 2011 there was serious concern that some of the big eastern power plants that run on western coal — Scherer in Georgia is the biggest of them — would run out. Eastern and western coal are not, in general, interchangeable. Different levels of sulfur, different mercury compounds, different content in the ash — the scrubbers and ash recycling are tailored to specific coal types.Report
On yesterday’s bicycle ride, none of the creeks/rivers were showing any signs of rising water from snow melt. According to Denver Water’s supply report, June 1 is the median date for the end of the melt; this year it hasn’t really started. The Denver Post quoted experts saying this year’s white water experiences on the Colorado River will be the best in more than 20 years, once the melt actually gets going.
The federal Bureau of Reclamation says the snow pack is sufficient that they will be releasing 9.0 million acre-feet from Lake Powell this year — well above what the Colorado River upper basin states are required to deliver — putting off the lower basin water emergency for another year. (Apologies if that’s politics.)Report
Yesterday’s weather was apocalyptic smoke. In the morning it was very Blade Runnery with the red sky. In the evening, buildings and trees over 5-600 m away were completely invisible. On the Air Quality Health Index, a 1-10 scale, Edmonton supposedly topped out at a 76. I don’t even know what that means. I feel like I smoked a bunch of cigarettes though.
Now it’s just somewhat hazy. and hopefully this weekend will remain breathable.
There’s a banquet for the skating association that Mr. T works with (we will skip the AGM, but attend the banquet).
There’s a music in the park thing near us that might drop by with the kids. There’s laundry laundry laundry to do.Report
Oh wow. Fires in Alberta? I didn’t even realize that was happening given that so much of the US “lower 48” territory I am familiar with is *drowning.*
Are you having drought up there, or is this just a typical fire season?Report
It’s worse than usual for this time of year, I think, but it’s not abnormal to have fires this early.
As I understand it, there’s kind of an early fire season when the snow has melted but the trees haven’t really absorbed much of it yet, and a late fire season when the trees are starting to run out of their snow melt reserves.
Last year we got lots of smoke from BC’s late fire season…Report
1. In Oklahoma we often have a late-winter fire season, and another one in the summer.
2. The local-to-where-I-am-now (central Illinois) weather caster JUST commented that “we’re getting a little haze coming in from the fires in Canada” and I was like “whoa, coincidence” given I just heard about them from your comment like 25 minutes ago.Report
I hadn’t known about the flooding. I hope you’re at least safe where you are.Report
oh yeah, my parents’ house is nowhere near a floodplain. My dad is a geohydrologist and he made really sure of that when he bought the place!Report
Has beetle-kill gotten that far north?Report
Mountain pine beetle used to be just in BC, but they spread over the Rockies about ten years ago, and are now pretty far East in the boreal forest in Alberta – likely to reach Saskatchewan fairly soon.
I’m not sure where the current fires are vs pine beetle affected areas.Report