Category: Weather

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What is this? Ice and water from the sky?

The sky opened up yesterday.

Pea sized hail, thunder rumbling, and suddenly heavy rain.

It was great.

The pup wasn’t thrilled, but also didn’t act afraid of the thunder. At one point he was lying next to the slider with his nose against the screen sniffing the air.

When the hail first started, he poked his head out, investigated a couple of hailstones then came back in to lay down in his favorite spot.

I’ve had dogs that were totally freaked out by thunder. This guy was completely nonplused by the strange noises from the sky.

After the rain stopped, we both went outside to try & figure out why there was a helicopter circling around our local area. I thought perhaps there’d been a lightening strike that started a fire. 

But after a few minutes of circling, the helicopter flew off and there was nothing else. Brief light rain and fresh air saw us into the evening.

The pup was a little bummed that we didn’t get to play ball as we usually do. 

Thunder was one of the concerns I had about moving back to the East coast with Jesse. Perhaps it won’t be a problem if I choose to make that move.

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Rainy day blues

It’s a rainy day.

Last night there were a couple of warnings about mud slides and potential evacuation orders due to the Bridge fire back in September. 

On this side of the mountains I was far less concerned. As things are turning out, we’re not getting a ton of heavy rain, it has been more moderate, just continuous.

The dog has refused to go out.

I think that’s funny as heck because he loves the snow but a little rain is beyond the pale for him to deal with. 

Every single time I’ve asked if he wanted to go out he’s just laid down and looked at me like I was insane then gone back to sleep.

I suspect that he’s going to demand that we both go out for our usual walk. His thinking is probably, “If I have to get wet, the so do you!”

It wouldn’t be the first time he’s played that card.

I am happy that it is not freezing. If this storm lasts as long as it’s expected to there would be a ton of snow.

I’m sure that Mother Nature is saving the big snowfall for the end of February so we can have another frozen March & April. That happens every other year or so.

The solar panels should be nice and clean tomorrow when the sun comes out. I was about to hose them off this saves me the water. I’m calling it a win.

 

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Happy February, It’s a beautiful day

It’s in the 50s here on the mountain. The snow we had last week is melting fast, but I’m not putting my snow shovels or snow thrower away just yet.

February and sometimes March have been known to throw us curve balls and drop feet of snow on us at the darnedest times.

There are a few things that I’ve noticed this year. The dog never developed his super fluffy coat. The leaves on the maple and apple tree hung on for a really long time before dropping, and the cottonwoods and maple tree are already budding.

It’s thus far, been a mild Winter here. But there’s still a month & 1/2 to go.

I often think the trees and the animals are better predictors of the weather than we are with all our technology.

The various tax forms should be available now, and that means I’m going to be working for the government sorting all this bullshit out. I’m still working through all the tax nightmare left behind by the passing of my other half, and the COVID era. Apparently the accountant really fucked up the filings from 2019 on… So yipeee! I get to spend a ton of time unfucking the mess.

I wish Trump would just do away with the IRS already! There are so many things I could say about them. Most of it boils down to just the plain weird stupid shit about our tax code.

Chief among some of this is why is the tax code so damn complex? Why do we have an entire industry built around dealing with taxes that the fucking government takes right off the top, they know how much they’ve taken, then they jump us all through hoops where we file in terror of making a mistake then they always find mistakes that cost us more.

Why the fuck don’t they just send us a bill? Better yet, go to a flat tax, Even better… Stop taxing us altogether!

I’m annoyed about it.

I hate that over the past four years so much of our tax money was literally wasted on endeavors that did absolutely nothing for the American people.

I’ve also come to reject the premise that taxes allow us to have a safe and productive nation. 

That is absolute bullshit.

With our taxes going up over the past 16 years, I submit that we do not have a safer more productive nation. In fact I would say it’s exactly the opposite.

Maybe I’ll do some real research and then podcast about it.

In the mean time, I’m going to breathe, and see what I can do about enjoying this beautiful day.

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Snow Day

The weather reports were all conflicting.

Some reports said, 2 – 4” and other reports said 18” thankfully the snowfall this morning was less than 2”.

It’s still snowing off & on but not really accumulating. I got my workout today from shoveling snow.

Jesse is annoyed, he really likes his walks, but I wasn’t feeling up to it anyway. Instead we’ve played ball and we’ve played in the snow. He likes laying in fresh snow and challenging me to bury him. It’s sweet and silly and makes him smile.

Honestly, it makes me smile too.

There is more snow forecast. Perhaps tomorrow there will be new stuff to play in. As of this writing, it’s snowing lightly, more of a dusting. Radar says there’s a heavy front coming through. But this wave is only supposed to last for an hour or so. I guess the real question is how many of these waves we have left.

I’ll have to get him and myself out for a walk tomorrow before we both go stir crazy. I know, It’s only been one day, but it doesn’t take long for either of us to get cranky.

 

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Fire & Ice

I woke up to 6” of unexpected snow yesterday morning. I’d been worrying about the wind and red flag fire warnings.

My day was consumed with snow removal and I’ve been taking down Christmas decorations. 

I’m taking this opportunity to repack and consolidate the decorations into fewer boxes and a bit better organization. I’m aiming for certain types of decorations and supplies being in clearly marked boxes. You know, Hallmark battery powered ornaments in one box. Keepsake ornaments in another box. Replacement lights, power cords, and those kinds of accessories in another box. Organization makes decoration a lot easier and pleasurable.

By the end of day yesterday, the Palisades fire erupted. Followed by additional wildfires across LA County.

Santa Ana winds are whipping through the canyons with hurricane gusts. That means that embers are flying and the potential for spot fires is very high.

For the time being, the winds are blowing mostly offshore, which means that the wind is blowing the fires away from me and the abundant fuel in the foothills and forests.

Where I am, the winds are very calm just breezes really.

On the other side of the mountain that is not the case. I’m watching the fires in Altadena and Sylmar very carefully. If the wind were to shift, and that fire started burning to the North, What happened with the Bridge fire could happen again only worse this time.

The Altadena fire is burning near where the Bridge fire began in Sept. For a time in Sept, I thought our whole little town was going to be wiped out.

The Calfire people were amazing and the town was saved with only a few buildings lost.

Santa Ana winds are whipping through the canyons with hurricane gusts. That means that embers are flying and the potential for spot fires is very high.

Aircraft are grounded due to the winds.

I’m betting that the property losses are going to be astronomical.

I feel so sorry for people who’ve lost their homes. I know what that feels like.