The Storm Prediction Center first put us in a "Moderate Risk for severe weather then gave us a VERY rare High Risk category. Were they ever right. SC had 17 tornadoes and 40++ million dollars damage. These storms were very fast moving and had multiple tornadoes in the long lived supercell thunderstorms. It went from lightly overcast to dark enough to turn on the security lamps, and then there was golf ball sized hail and 75 MPH wind. The sky was this dark purple green. I was not amused. being a storm chaser, being THE CHASED! The sky was smeared over and there was no storm structure visible in these storms.
We had a minor repeat of this stuff on Friday night April4, while I was at the radio station. The worst here went through Jalapa, SC and did some damage.
Powell
Monday, April 7, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
In to the new year we go
Well the new year has come. 2007 ended on a wet note, but we need well above normal precipitation for some time to work on this drought. Had some more rain, and the coldest temperatures of the winter season. Here on Alpha Martha the low one morning was 13. We are now in another warm spell. The middle part of the country has had this warm weather, but with a large tornado outbreak. Tornadoes in January in Illinois is execptionally unusual. The system that is spawning this outbreak is tempering and that is a good thing.
I am going to be a cooperative weather observer for the National Weather Service. They will be installing stuff on Friday. I have always been a weather watcher. I took and passed the NWS Advanced Skywarn class. Steve Naglic at the NWS office said I could teach the course.
I took Snoppy the so called Chihuahua mix back. There is more Terrier in him than anything. I figured he's mostly Rat Terrier. I saw an article on them in Dog Fancy. Yep, one of the dogs in the picture is his spitting image. Jolene was not unhappy that he went back. IF he had been housetrained, and IF Jolene would have played with him inside, I might have considered him. Rat Terriers can be difficult to housebreak. Also I have to leave Jolene's food out at night for her. Snoopy would eat on her food also, and then left me little "presents".
I am now also writing letters. In the Yahoo FPC (Fountain Pen Collecting) there is also a writing list. I hope my writing gets better as time goes on. IF I have fountain pens, I need to actually use them. I hope it will make my writing better. It's too easy on a computer. The hard choice is what pen and ink when you put ink to paper.
Sunday I got my brother to assist me in getting rid of some of the small trees that clog up parts of my yard. I especially wanted to get the jumble out of and around my 2 Sugar Maples. Note: raw Sugar Maple sap tastes like very watered down sugar water.
Powell
I am going to be a cooperative weather observer for the National Weather Service. They will be installing stuff on Friday. I have always been a weather watcher. I took and passed the NWS Advanced Skywarn class. Steve Naglic at the NWS office said I could teach the course.
I took Snoppy the so called Chihuahua mix back. There is more Terrier in him than anything. I figured he's mostly Rat Terrier. I saw an article on them in Dog Fancy. Yep, one of the dogs in the picture is his spitting image. Jolene was not unhappy that he went back. IF he had been housetrained, and IF Jolene would have played with him inside, I might have considered him. Rat Terriers can be difficult to housebreak. Also I have to leave Jolene's food out at night for her. Snoopy would eat on her food also, and then left me little "presents".
I am now also writing letters. In the Yahoo FPC (Fountain Pen Collecting) there is also a writing list. I hope my writing gets better as time goes on. IF I have fountain pens, I need to actually use them. I hope it will make my writing better. It's too easy on a computer. The hard choice is what pen and ink when you put ink to paper.
Sunday I got my brother to assist me in getting rid of some of the small trees that clog up parts of my yard. I especially wanted to get the jumble out of and around my 2 Sugar Maples. Note: raw Sugar Maple sap tastes like very watered down sugar water.
Powell
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
NOT a White Christmas here!
Cloudy, and low 50's. The rain in Georgia is marching this way. As of 8 PM there has been a light shower in the area a few hours ago. At least we have had 3 inches of rain so far this month. We won't make up the remaining 20 inches below normal, or at least I hope NOT at once. One of our recent rains was 2 inches, and it all soaked in. Then we had few very cold mornings with one morning in the upper teens.
For Christmas I have a little 4 legged visitor. Snoopy, a white with some reddish tan markings is a foster from the Newberry County Animal Control and Care. All of the other little dogs got fostered out for the holidays. I took him with me. He's listied as a Chihuahua mix, but naaaaah! It's more like Jack Russell Terror , I mean Terrier. He's a pretty good boy, but he needs to learns some manners. He learned SIT immediately. but he needs to learn other things. He's sleeping with Jolene. She accepts him, but she will NOT play in the house. He does. DOES HE EVER! But they both go a mile in the morning, and when I had more time to spare away from the radio station we've done 2 miles. He goes back Thursday or tomorrow if they are open. I worry about Jolene missing him.
I got a big surprise from the radio station. I got a nice bonus check in my regular paycheck. The nearly 30 years at Bellsouth they never gave us anything, and neither much at my other part time places. Yes, I am very grateful.
I am glad that Christmas is over at the radio station. Christmas music can get tiring over time. Well, there is next year.
See you all in a later chat.
For Christmas I have a little 4 legged visitor. Snoopy, a white with some reddish tan markings is a foster from the Newberry County Animal Control and Care. All of the other little dogs got fostered out for the holidays. I took him with me. He's listied as a Chihuahua mix, but naaaaah! It's more like Jack Russell Terror , I mean Terrier. He's a pretty good boy, but he needs to learns some manners. He learned SIT immediately. but he needs to learn other things. He's sleeping with Jolene. She accepts him, but she will NOT play in the house. He does. DOES HE EVER! But they both go a mile in the morning, and when I had more time to spare away from the radio station we've done 2 miles. He goes back Thursday or tomorrow if they are open. I worry about Jolene missing him.
I got a big surprise from the radio station. I got a nice bonus check in my regular paycheck. The nearly 30 years at Bellsouth they never gave us anything, and neither much at my other part time places. Yes, I am very grateful.
I am glad that Christmas is over at the radio station. Christmas music can get tiring over time. Well, there is next year.
See you all in a later chat.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
80 Degrees in December ?
We've had a bit of rain a week or so ago. Enough that water is flowing very slowly in Sandy Run Creek. It had been dry for months. Trees were ablaze with color, but not have faded to bare limbs except for the Willow Oak in my yard. The leaves are mostly brown with some yellow, and they are falling like snow. Right now we are in a spell of record breaking high temperatures. They have been hovering around 80 degrees. One more day of that, and by the weekend we will be below normal again. On my walks with Jolene the GSD / Sheltie mix, you can tell it's winter. It's that "winter" smell. And the last few days you can smell the sap from the evergreen trees. It's beginning to smell a bit like Christmas.
We might even get some rain toward the end of the week. The chance is not great, but we need it. It seems we will end up 2007 well over 20 inches below normal in rainfall, and the bad part is, the latter part of 2006 was also dry.
Well, there's not much new out this way.
We might even get some rain toward the end of the week. The chance is not great, but we need it. It seems we will end up 2007 well over 20 inches below normal in rainfall, and the bad part is, the latter part of 2006 was also dry.
Well, there's not much new out this way.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
BRRR ...turnin' C-c-c-c-cold
It's Wednesday night and it will be even colder than last night. Down on Alpha Martha, temperatures dropped to around 25 degrees. My older thermometer said 20. I am not so sure I believe it got that cold, but 25 seems right for here. Leaves were dropping like snow from some trees on the morning walk. This evening at 8:30 PM, the temperature had dropped to 38 degrees. BRRR! I guess I won't get to see pretty leaves on MY Sugar Maple, but I did find the Grand Daddy tree. It was down by the creek, Mechanics Creek to be exact. I have not seen one that big down here, but the wonderful red orange color gave it away. I verified what it was by taking a picture of it in zoom mode on my new digital camera.
Wow! You can get 8 megapixels pretty inexpensively now. I chose the i830 Polaroid as it has the most reasonable lag time. It's better than most, and for under $100, though the 1 gigabyte SD card for another $18 took care of that. I got another set of NiMh batteries to go with it. It does fairly well, as I took a picture of Jolene, and had an 8 X10 made and the picture was superb. I was actually blown away by the picture quality, and of course Jolene is a beauty herself! I don't know if I have mentioned her before, but she's a 45 pound mix of German Shepherd and most likely Sheltie. She was badly abused as a pup and also missed a good bit of puppy socialization time. She was terrified of men, and was so bad, that though Pets INC normally doesn't put down healthy dogs, she came close until I started working with her. When I moved out here in January I took her, as no one wanted her. I worked her hard to get better socialized. EVERY man we came across had to pet her, and we made many trips to Tractor Supply Company. That is one of her favorite places, and the staff there saw the improvement in her. She will never get over the puppy trauma, but she's a world better than before, and of course I'm the Alpha Daddy. I have to be the calm assertive leader, if only for her. No laughing from the Peanut Gallery, either! You could say I'm the “Jolene Whisperer” ! I think I am repeating myself a bit, I also took her to the radio station for a couple months, as when I brought her to Alpha Martha she showed some signs of separation anxiety. So after a 5 months I left her home for short times. Now when I go to WKDK to work there is no problem. Of course a radio is left on WKDK and she hears familiar voices, Heather Jimmy and me. Works for me, and she often is in a regal pose on “her sofa” when I come in.
On my walks, I see and smell the smells of fall. Because of the dryness, the colors this year are very muted. So far we have had just under 18 inches of rain this year. 50 inches is normal. It doesn't look promising for a break in the drought any time soon, either.
I am afraid the last of the 5 kitties have departed. The last one actually was Jolene's friend, and more social to her. I'm guessing the age about 5 months. A pretty, and talkative grey and white one. I haven't seen the little devil for about 2 days and that's abnormal for that one. I had named the cat Pat, for either Patrick or Patricia. I had just gotten Pat social enough to me to maybe pick the kitten up and carry Pat to the house. I am afraid a coyote may have had a snack, and Pat wouild have thought the coyote was a friend to play with.
Wow! You can get 8 megapixels pretty inexpensively now. I chose the i830 Polaroid as it has the most reasonable lag time. It's better than most, and for under $100, though the 1 gigabyte SD card for another $18 took care of that. I got another set of NiMh batteries to go with it. It does fairly well, as I took a picture of Jolene, and had an 8 X10 made and the picture was superb. I was actually blown away by the picture quality, and of course Jolene is a beauty herself! I don't know if I have mentioned her before, but she's a 45 pound mix of German Shepherd and most likely Sheltie. She was badly abused as a pup and also missed a good bit of puppy socialization time. She was terrified of men, and was so bad, that though Pets INC normally doesn't put down healthy dogs, she came close until I started working with her. When I moved out here in January I took her, as no one wanted her. I worked her hard to get better socialized. EVERY man we came across had to pet her, and we made many trips to Tractor Supply Company. That is one of her favorite places, and the staff there saw the improvement in her. She will never get over the puppy trauma, but she's a world better than before, and of course I'm the Alpha Daddy. I have to be the calm assertive leader, if only for her. No laughing from the Peanut Gallery, either! You could say I'm the “Jolene Whisperer” ! I think I am repeating myself a bit, I also took her to the radio station for a couple months, as when I brought her to Alpha Martha she showed some signs of separation anxiety. So after a 5 months I left her home for short times. Now when I go to WKDK to work there is no problem. Of course a radio is left on WKDK and she hears familiar voices, Heather Jimmy and me. Works for me, and she often is in a regal pose on “her sofa” when I come in.
On my walks, I see and smell the smells of fall. Because of the dryness, the colors this year are very muted. So far we have had just under 18 inches of rain this year. 50 inches is normal. It doesn't look promising for a break in the drought any time soon, either.
I am afraid the last of the 5 kitties have departed. The last one actually was Jolene's friend, and more social to her. I'm guessing the age about 5 months. A pretty, and talkative grey and white one. I haven't seen the little devil for about 2 days and that's abnormal for that one. I had named the cat Pat, for either Patrick or Patricia. I had just gotten Pat social enough to me to maybe pick the kitten up and carry Pat to the house. I am afraid a coyote may have had a snack, and Pat wouild have thought the coyote was a friend to play with.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
The 18th
This is my late mother's birthday. A nice warm day, and I went in to Newberry early to walk a German Shepherd at Newberry County Animal Care and Control. Patti, well, she was more than overjoyed to see me. She was leaping around and trying to kiss me and jumping up. It took at least a couple minutes to get the leash on her, and AWAY we went. She has tons of stored up energy. She needs work, and if I could have run, I'd have worn some energy out.
On the early morning walk, I was looking at trees, and yes, I CAN tell it's fall. It SMELLS like fall. The Sweet Gum trees are changing color, either due to the season, the extreme dryness or both. Most oak trees have not any color showing. Some of the Winged Elm have dropped leaves and have yellow leaves also. The Sugar Maples I talked about earlier still show green. A very occasional Red Maple leaf is red. Some of the grasses that my grandmother used to call "broom straw" has turned brown.
The weather forecast is calling for rain, and I hope we get some. I hope the entire Southeast gets some substantial rain, as the drought is having profound shortages of water in many areas. Mechanics Creek is still flowing as of this morning. I have yet to see it flow much, but it has been that dry. Sandy Run Creek has run dry.
There is rain in Georgia, and I hope I get home and walk Jolene before it gets here. I don't like walking in the rain that much, and I can use an umbrella and Jolene doesn not get to.
On the early morning walk, I was looking at trees, and yes, I CAN tell it's fall. It SMELLS like fall. The Sweet Gum trees are changing color, either due to the season, the extreme dryness or both. Most oak trees have not any color showing. Some of the Winged Elm have dropped leaves and have yellow leaves also. The Sugar Maples I talked about earlier still show green. A very occasional Red Maple leaf is red. Some of the grasses that my grandmother used to call "broom straw" has turned brown.
The weather forecast is calling for rain, and I hope we get some. I hope the entire Southeast gets some substantial rain, as the drought is having profound shortages of water in many areas. Mechanics Creek is still flowing as of this morning. I have yet to see it flow much, but it has been that dry. Sandy Run Creek has run dry.
There is rain in Georgia, and I hope I get home and walk Jolene before it gets here. I don't like walking in the rain that much, and I can use an umbrella and Jolene doesn not get to.
Monday, October 15, 2007
October 15 ramblings
Fall is definitely here. The weather, however went from HOT to cold, and now on October 15 the temperatures are slightly above normal. That strong cold front that came through last week had virtually no rainfall with it. A couple mornings were rather cool with a skirting of near freezing, but only a hint of frost, however. Rainfall is only a slight threat later this week, and the long range outlook is for dryer than normal precipitation.
On the morning mile walks, it smells like fall. Leaves are falling from the trees but that's due to the extremely dry weather. My Sugar Maple has dropped leaves, but the ones on the tree have not a bit of color on them. This is a volunteer tree and up and down Sandy Run Creek road I can see an occasional Sugar Maple in the woods. Sugar Maple trees are not native, so someone SOMEWHERE planted some and the seeds propagated far and wide. While walking this morning I noticed the white flowered weed, I mean, uh, wildflower is blooming again. It has little white blooms about as big as a medium sized fingernail, and is round. I call these a “Micro” daisy. There's a yellow version that is blooming, but not as profusely as the white ones. They aren't as big and as abundant due to the dryness.
According to reports, the leaves are just starting to turn in the North Carolina mountains. I will be going to Black Mountain this weekend to Full Moon Farm and the last Howl In of the year. Jolene likes to go now, and she has a couple of boyfriends up there. She also is now socialized enough to enjoy all the different people she gets to meet.
I mowed around the radio building. There was a lot of grown up weeds, and I also stirred up a lot of dust. I also need to get in there and get the radio room cleaned up and set up for fall and ham radio stuff. There's a lot of equipment that needs to be restored. I need to replace all the capacitors in the Viking Valiant I that was originally Claude Ragsdale's. I remember him talking on it from his General Store in Blair, SC. That radio has not seen power applied in well over 30 years. Lets hope it does work after all the capacitors get replaced. I wouldn't dare fire it up without those new caps. I don't want to destroy the transmitter!
On the morning mile walks, it smells like fall. Leaves are falling from the trees but that's due to the extremely dry weather. My Sugar Maple has dropped leaves, but the ones on the tree have not a bit of color on them. This is a volunteer tree and up and down Sandy Run Creek road I can see an occasional Sugar Maple in the woods. Sugar Maple trees are not native, so someone SOMEWHERE planted some and the seeds propagated far and wide. While walking this morning I noticed the white flowered weed, I mean, uh, wildflower is blooming again. It has little white blooms about as big as a medium sized fingernail, and is round. I call these a “Micro” daisy. There's a yellow version that is blooming, but not as profusely as the white ones. They aren't as big and as abundant due to the dryness.
According to reports, the leaves are just starting to turn in the North Carolina mountains. I will be going to Black Mountain this weekend to Full Moon Farm and the last Howl In of the year. Jolene likes to go now, and she has a couple of boyfriends up there. She also is now socialized enough to enjoy all the different people she gets to meet.
I mowed around the radio building. There was a lot of grown up weeds, and I also stirred up a lot of dust. I also need to get in there and get the radio room cleaned up and set up for fall and ham radio stuff. There's a lot of equipment that needs to be restored. I need to replace all the capacitors in the Viking Valiant I that was originally Claude Ragsdale's. I remember him talking on it from his General Store in Blair, SC. That radio has not seen power applied in well over 30 years. Lets hope it does work after all the capacitors get replaced. I wouldn't dare fire it up without those new caps. I don't want to destroy the transmitter!
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