Hello Hurricane - Best song ever!

OK ... hyperbolic much, Dolberry? But this song rocks. Can't imagine the studio version being better than this initial live effort from Switchfoot. I've listened to it 10 times here this evening (still on Mountain time). Check out the You Tube link to the right if you're reading from Blogger.

I've been watching new skies
They've been turning blood red.
Not a doubt in my mind anymore.
There's a storm up ahead.

Hello Hurricane.
You're not enough,
Hello Hurricane.
You can't silence my love.
I've got doors and windows boarded up,
All your dead fury is not enough,
You can't silence my love

Everything I have becomes lost
Everything I have has been stripped away
Before I started building
I've counted up these costs
There's nothing left for you to take away

Hello Hurricane.
You're not enough,
Hello Hurricane.
You can't silence my love.
I've got doors and windows boarded up,
All your dead fury is not enough,
You can't silence my love

All this time fighting for control
All this time fighting for my soul
Everything inside of me surrenders
You can't silence my love
You can't silence my love

Hello Hurricane.
You're not enough,
Hello Hurricane.
You can't silence my love.
I've got doors and windows boarded up,
All your dead fury is not enough,
You can't silence my love

From thunder to tundra

After the presentations today, Dolberry headed northeast to Rocky Mountain National Park. Just like last year, there was a little bit of squally sun-rain heading out of Boulder, but by the time I hit Estes Park, it was basically broad blue sky.

Drove up the Trail Ridge road to the Tundra Nature Trail. It starts at 12, 115 feet and climbs another 250 feet on the 1 mile walk. Wow, the air is thin up that high. Hard to breathe and walk at the same time sort of thin. And despite being pre-hydrated to past flood stage, I had a bit of a headache as well getting started. Thankfully they have little information signs every 50 yards or so that you can stop and read (e.g., "lichen is a fascinating example of tundra adaptation") ... while not betraying you would have had to stop to catch your breath anyway. It was a wee bit chilly up there ... maybe mid-50's and breezy. Unlike the other trail folk, Dolberry was dressed uncomfortably in a t-shirt and shorts.

I'm not sure if it was the oxygen-deficit or natural goofiness, but I did the last stages of the "out" portion of the trail as Gollum ... cursing the nasty hobbitses while searching for my precious. You had to be there. At the end, you can climb up these rocks and cast a near-sunset shadow about a quarter of a mile down and maybe 200 yards long.

Sitting up there ... saw a herd of elk cross the road and head across the snowfields below me. Beautiful glacier lakes, humorous-looking marmots, and even higher mountain tops shining in the sun were no match for the best sight of all ... the restrooms at the trailhead. I probably peed for 3 minutes.

Anyway, great day. Wish you guys were there as well. Am guessing that Dolberry was the only person in a 50-mile radius w/o a camera, but these ones off the interwebs were pretty much what it looked like (except w/o the hunched over hobbit-like creature skulking up the trail). Thanks to the photographer at the interwebs for making them available.

Votto, part II

It turns out ... and this happens very infrequently ... that I was right about what was bugging Joey Votto. He returned to the Reds yesterday after missing three weeks. It sounds like after his dad died last August at the young age of 52 ... the sadness of that coupled w/ a realization that "we are not infinite, we are not permanent" ... pretty much got him in a bad state. At one point while on the DL, he called 911 at 3am fearful he was dying,

"I could not take it," he said. "I thought I was going to die."

So glad he's doing better and hope he realizes that it's a really a perverse sort of gift to know that life doesn't last forever.

A life spent chasing tornadoes?

So, I'm out here in the foothills of the Rockies ... attending the WRF workshop. Some of the talks were interesting; others were not (to me anyway). Coming out of the meeting after the last presentation, I was reminded of why I got into meteorology in the first place ... the sky was darkening to the north and thunder murmured from above. Having no real plans for the evening (other than to skip the conference reception) ... I decided to chase the storm like all those cool dudes and dudettes on the Discovery Channel. The radio indicated that it was severe, was over the airport, and was heading northeast.

At the beginning, it was more of a drive than a chase. Drove east through the towns of Dacono and Fort Lupton seeing only one (very cool) bolt of lightning. But as I merged onto I-76 East and could go the 75 mph speed limit ... there was a rapid narrowing of the gap between Dolberry and the darkest skies. Frigthening pulses of lightning surged from cloud to earth at 15 second intervals just to the south of the highway. I was trying to get out ahead of the storm ... to get to a point where I could watch it roll in.

I stopped in Roggen ... on a little hill ... but it was clear that the real action was further south and east. Got back on the interstate and sped on to the little town of Wiggins CO. Several miles before the exit, I saw a small shelf cloud off to the left. Called my radar back in NC (thanks Kyle) who confirmed what was becoming apparent ... I'd gotten right in the path of a big storm. Drove south down a narrow road, just like the one you see real StormChasers drive on all the time ... finally stopping when I saw some clouds lower than the rest.

I watched them for a while ... they seemed a long way off at first ... but then they seemed really close. The wind started to gust ... maybe 40 mph ... and then the rain began blowing sideways. I'll admit I was a little scared even though there was no real hints of a tornado ... just a nice sized Great Plains thunderstorm. I did a U-turn ... really a sideways T-turn ... and headed back to the interstate in a driving rain.

(There eventually was a tornado from the storm ... 80 miles downwind.)

When I was scared there ... for those first adrenelin-fueled seconds that accompany any good downdraft ... I wondered why in the world I'd driven some 70 miles to get in the path of a storm. Driving back to Boulder, wondered further if the evening was a little metaphor for life on Earth ... and whether one should chase highly-transient objects that can be both really cool (popularity, success, wins, wins, wins) yet are often suddenly destructive.

It'd be cliched if it weren't true ... but I saw a beautiful rainbow on the way back ... heading away from the storm ... heading back to a temporary home.

Dolberry Doused in D.C.

Got to go to D.C. last week ... fun experience. Honors award ceremony was nice. Got to shake Lisa Jackson's hand. (Will post picture when I get it.) Afterward we were eating lunch outside at a restaurant on Pennsylvania Ave. when numerous Homeland Security cars came racing by w/ sirens blaring ... for the Holocaust shooting less than a mile away. (I seriously don't understand how somebody can hold that much hate for that long. At some point don't you have to find something better to do w/ your life.)

After checking into my hotel, rode the Metro over to the new Nationals Park to see the Reds play the Nats. Very cool place. Right along the Potomac.

Caught a lot of BP and caught a ball on a carom. Some pre-game pics of the park.



Not many people at the game ... maybe about 30% full. Got $29 tix on the street for $20. It was a hot day, but as game time approached it started to get darker and darker.


The Reds only got two hits through the first 7 innings, but fortunately one of them was a 2-run bomb from Jay Bruce. Even better, Aaron Harang was pitching a gem and the Reds led 2-0 going into the bottom of the 9th. It had been raining off and on since about the 4th, but it got serious by the end w/ lightning and torrential rain eventually chasing everyone off the field.


I stuck around for about 45 minutes, but because I had been up since 4:20a ... had a train ride back to the hotel (in Virginia) ... and an 8:30a meeting the next morning ... ... I decided to bail before the end of the rain delay. They started baseball again a little before midnight and the Reds blew the lead, only to win it in the 12th at 12:45a. Apparently, less than 100 fans were left at the game's end.

My meeting the next day was good and I got back home in time for a softball DH in which the second game was postponed due to lightning (that was about 30 miles away).

Busy week next week (big briefings on Mon and Thurs) ... then the travels continue: Louisville, Colorado, Emerald Isle. Should be fun. Life is good.