Happy St Patrick's Day 2014

50 Degrees, 4 Seasons

A few weekends ago I went to the store in the morning, like I usually do, mostly Saturday morning because it is double coupon day.  When I got home my wife asked me what it was like outside.  I don't know, I said, probably 25ºF or so.  She got out her phone and looked it up, it was 2 - Two degrees!  I had gotten so used to cold by then I was that far off.  Today is in the mid 20's and I'm freezing outside!  I'm starting to have to think about the temperature every day.  Do I warm up the car or not?  Which jacket and how many layers do I have to wear?  Snow?.. Again!?

We've had just a few days above freezing recently and my internal, um, thermometer, I guess, is thrown out of whack again.  I swear, if it ever hits fifty degrees and sunny it will feel like summer.  That's what happens to people in Wisconsin in spring.  And also why we wear shorts when people in California or similar think they're freezing to death.  Perspective.

50 degrees - about 10ºC - to me, in Wisconsin.

• Summer:  Fifty degrees?  Never as a high, and only as an overnight low maybe early or late in the season.  And then it would be a great night for a fire pit in the back yard!
• Fall:  Fifty degrees goes from an overnight low to a high temp for the day, when you start appreciating those warm days of summer weather that may still show up now and again, if your lucky.
• Winter:  Fifty Degrees?!  Yeah, right.  Below zero wind chill factor sometimes.  You got about 6 months in Wisconsin, give or take, between normal 50 degree days otherwise, so you goddamn better get used to it.
• Spring:  Fifty degrees would be reason to rejoice.  Shed those jackets and sport the shorts!  At least until the reality that it isn't quite summer yet sinks in.  It is pretty entertaining to watch the occasional 'tough guy' who refuses to admit he's chilly.  Still, fifty means we can open the windows on a nice sunny day to air out the winter stir-craziness.

Yeah, still haven't seen 50º yet....  but hopeful.  We should get close a couple times this week.

S & BJ Day

Probably NSFW!

This And Thats

When we got back from Alabama I wrote a post every day for a week.  Since then I just haven't felt like writing much of anything.  I feel I need to write something, but the mood hasn't really hit me yet so we'll just have to see what comes out...

• I ordered my new glasses yesterday.  I've had trouble reading the newspaper for a while now so I was due.  The frames I picked out were only a hundred bucks, but the lenses I got were mighty expensive.  Oh well, it's something that I'll wear almost every waking moment every single day.
• I glossed over it, but we had a really good time with friends last Saturday night.  My wife puts a lot of work into cooking, cleaning and decorating for these things, but she enjoys it greatly.  I try to help where I can but staying out of her way is usually the most help to her.
• The weather has finally seemed to turn toward spring.  We have gotten above freezing once or twice in the last couple days with more on the way, so they say.  I'm still not convinced that we haven't gone into a new ice age and won't believe otherwise until I can sit outside in a t-shirt comfortably.  I kept my chin up about the lingering winter for quite a while but have finally succumbed to the exasperation everyone else has had for months.
• Which reminds me of the word snirt.  The term coined for the mounds of dirty black snow and dirt by the sides of the road as melting begins.  The ugly part of thawing out.
• Work continues to take up my life all week.  I'm still on mandatory overtime and will be for at least this whole month.  Probably the biggest reason I have been neglecting this space somewhat.  I've put in for a little time off this next quarter, I hope it gets approved.

I've been stuck at this point in writing for a while now, so I guess I'm done.  Good cheers to all and go Badgers!

Happy Mardi Gras

We had a Mardi Gras themed party with friends last night. My wife again put out a great spread of food, here is the king cake from a local baker.

Sorry, just not in the mood for writing today but I wanted to post this.  Terry got the baby.

In Like A-Lyin'...

It is only a few days from the beginning of March and we are much below the 'average' temperatures for this time of year.  Tonight's low is -11ºF with wind chills of up to -30ºF tomorrow morning.  I guess I'll have to warm up the car tomorrow - wait - I've been warming up the car every morning for months on end now, this is supposed to stop happening, right?

In fact, 11º is the highest we'll see until Sunday, they say.  And why not throw in some snow?  Not a big storm, just a little here and a little there for days on end.  After all, a fresh layer of snow covers all that dirty melting stuff and makes everything beautiful.  Right?

Okay, I'm starting to lose my patience with winter.  That's all I got.


If you want more, watch this short video about the water on our planet. It's worth the while!

Wild Child by Nightwish

After writing for here every day for a week I have taken over a week off.  Nothing new, except maybe one girl we know having an affair with a friend of mine then wanting a divorce from her husband with a baby on the way from her new beau and kicking her husband out of the house so the new guy can move in all in about 2 months time, no, nothing going on but for work keeping me busy with mandatory overtime.  So until I have more time and energy, know that we are well, and still holding out for springtime.

Here, enjoy two of my favorites at once, Nightwish performs the WASP song 'Wild Child.'

Alabama Beachcombing Bounty

The only thing left that I haven't shared from our trip to Alabama is the shells I collected on my walks along the beach.  I could have collected hundreds of the mid-size and smaller shells, but I mostly looked for unique, good quality shells. The picture above shows all that I brought home with me except the starfish.  And all but two shells are now on display in a vase on the hallway shelf - where cats cannot get into it.  I think it turned out pretty well.

Alabama Vacation Pic Dump

Well, everything I wrote about happened even if the order might be a bit fuzzy.  My brain is foggy enough on its own, but going back to work after a full week off has fried it pretty good this week.  Enjoy the pictures, I took the liberty of captioning them because, you know, I'm just that kind of guy!  And I captioned all 34 pictures, so it's like another, usual length, pictorial blog post!
Happy Friday, everyone.

All pics are after the break.

Alabama, Part 4

Thursday morning I took another walk on the beach before anyone else was up.  I gathered just a few more interesting shells and another starfish, this one would break on the trip home, though.  It was very chilly out and ice was everywhere, even in the pool.  We went out for lunch and had some leftover spaghetti for dinner that Dan had fixed us the night before.  Sand was all over the now-drying roads, also we saw water softener salt at the intersections.

 

And I finally got some more smokes and some whiskey for our last night.  We were running out of everything.  We had only packed supplies for 3-4 days but we did do a couple loads of laundry in the condo so we had clean clothes to wear.  In the afternoon, Kate and I checked out the indoor heated pool and hot tubs.

Friday morning we were finally leaving town.  Not that we wanted to, but it was time - past time to get back home.  Again I awoke early, early enough to catch the sun rise over the gulf.  We had a longer drive to the Mobile Regional Airport than it would have been to Pensacola but we didn't want to wait one more day to fly out.  Mom and Dan were gracious with our unexpected stay and drove us to the airport.  Again this airport seemed even smaller than Madison's and for some reason that surprised me again.

Thank you for checking out our trip to Alabama last week.  If my writing seems somewhat less than enthusiastic it is only because my brain is fried from trying to catch up at work this week.  Alabama Pic Dump tomorrow - but for now, Thank You Mom and Dan!