Spectacular double rainbow this evening in RTP

I'd credit the photographer, but given that he took the picture w/ his newly, ill-gotten, government-property Blackberry ... I'll save him the potential GAO audit.

Anyway, it was a real thin squall line of heavy rain & gusty winds, but immediately behind it was clear skies, thus the rainbow. Kind of a nice reminder that better weather is ahead. Softball signups start next weekend. Two months to spring training. I think I'll make it.

If There's a Rocket Tie Me To It

At this point in the election cycle, I'm trying to avoid anything and everything political. I've given up trying to discern which parts of America are racist (western Pennsylvania, apparently) and which parts contain anti-American Americans (thankfully not North Carolina, I guess). So, caller ID helps us avoid the robo-calls and we don't listen to the messages left behind. The mailers are glanced at on the walk from the mailbox to the recycle bin only for the amusement value ("my opponent voted for quadzillions of dollars of new taxes", "My economic plan will create a 42 million new high-paying jobs"). TV ads are tuned out or clicked away from. Fox News and MSNBC are never EVER turned on. Bulk e-mails are treated like potential viruses (deleted w/o opening). Newspaper columns from omniscient partisans are passed over. The blogosphere w/ its frenzied hordes of overwhelmingly irrational screamers is avoided like a coiled and cornered copperhead. If anyone tries to steer the conversation to the politics, Dolberry steers the conversation to softball or the weather. (OK, I do that for any non softball/weather conversations.)

So, a lot of people ask me how I pick who to vote for. It's simple, really.

I go by the jockey's silks. In the early races on the ballot (judges, sanitation commissioner, anything to do w/ agriculture, etc.) you want to take someone wearing bright colors, yellows and oranges preferably. These candidates almost always win and pay reasonably at the windows. A good example is this weekend's Breeders Cup Sprint where Midnight Lute won (pictured above). Later down on the ballot, you want someone w/ a star or horseshoe on their vest. They may not win, but they will always finish in the money (unless they are a libertarian or gelding). In the big races, you want some sort of green ... just not green and gold ... those colors are an abomination together.

Tropical Storm Hanna did not disappoint

Best weather day of the year! Wind gusts topped out at maybe 35-40 mph. The airport got over 5 inches of rain and I'm sure we did too. It's ramping down here, now. Here's a video summary.

Tropical Storm Hanna #6

The Dolberry Tropical Weather Centre is online early this morning. Hanna came onshore near the NC/SC border ~ 3:30am. Most of the highest winds have been detected by offshore buoys. The highest wind gust I've heard of was a 67 mph gust at Wrightsville Beach.

It was raining hard here when I woke up (slacked off some now), but there's been very little wind (< onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5L0GEQVDOoj64cgxMPv95WOJx6DxFsyXvsf-TW7vtsLGrrZVcUzNjN_xeN6Hs5gUyeLYTQdeKAnHU8pjZKkAj0-t5DHLqMdlTYJfIPi2MA2fG0Px9AsLKQJpGW21YDAzBxgFqvQ/s1600-h/doppler1-640x480.jpg">

Tropical Storm Hanna #5

Hanna is approaching. In an ominous sign, the first rain from the storm occurred in my office when drops of water started falling from the ceiling around 3:15 this afternoon. (I called EPA building support, but they still hadn't come by the time I left. It eventually stopped dripping.) The real rain started around 4p w/ some squally showers. It apparently rained hard while the beautiful KMD & I were at a movie (celebrating our 16th anniversary ... Dolberry is a lucky dude). It kinda sprinked while we drove to dinner. Winds were maybe 7 mph or so.

Anyway, the official forecast here is for gusts of up to 40 mph around sunrise tomorrow. The Weather Channel has us w/ a low risk for power outages.

It looks to me like Hanna is starting to form an eye ... and the hurricane hunters have found that the pressure has dropped to 974 mb. But they haven't found any winds above 74 mph, so it's still a tropical storm. When it gets closer to shore, the Doppler radars should be able to sample what the strongest winds truly are.


There was a tornado warning for a county about 100 miles from here, but that cell dissipated rapidly. We're in a High Wind Warning. The wind is just now starting to pick up some, blowing the blinds periodically.

I'll probably wake up early tomorrow to get some pictures and for APD and I to have our traditional "Hurricane Race" where we race each other around the yard in the height of the heaviest rain and wind. I'm 0-4 in these races, but I haven't had a shot in a few years. Tomorrow is my day.

Tropical Storm Hanna #4

Hanna is still projected to come onshore early Saturday morning near the NC/SC border. The primary change is that the models and the NHC don't see much chance that Hanna strengthens into a hurricane. But it'll be a strong tropical storm. And it'll be fast moving. And it is has a very large wind field. All that should conspire to produce a brief (~6 hours) period of fairly significant winds tomorrow night and early Saturday morning. Could see gusts in the 30-40 mph range which hopefully will do no more than scatter some limbs.

Will be interesting to see how much rain we get. The HPC says Hanna will dump a quick 2-3 inches in our area. Also the SPC says we're slight risk for severe weather, tornadoes presumably.


Tomorrow should be an interesting weather day in Apex. It may even surpass the Great Non-Sticking Blizzard of January 19th as the biggest weather day of the year.

Then all eyes turn to Hurricane Ike. The models have started to lock into a southern track, which is bad news for Florida or Cuba. Climatologically though, most major hurricanes (9 of 10) that are where Ike is tend to miss the U.S. (recurve to sea). I tend to trust climatology more than the models at days 5 and beyond.

Tropical Storm Hanna #3

The models continue to shift ever so slightly east and delay Hanna's passage. The NHC is thinking landfall near the NC/SC line early Saturday morning, but then tracking due north and eventuall northeast. This would likely leave us on the west side of the storm which will be calmer and drier. There's still some spread to the models, so it's not a done deal that we're off the hook.

The NHC expects to issue a hurricane watch for the Carolina coasts tomorrow which will likely cancel Mrs D's girls youth group retreat.

Should have a better idea tomorrow night. Maybe worse news is that the models are starting to show Category 4 Ike making a NWward turn toward day 5. We'll see.

Tropical Storm Hanna #2

Hurricane Hanna got ripped up by shear today, but is still hanging on as a tropical storm. If it can make it another 12-24 hours, the shear should relax somewhat ... allowing Hanna to restrengthen.


The models today seem to have moved the storm south w/ the cluster centered around Savannah GA. Due to the angle of approach of the storm, a small deviation to the south could mean a central FL landfall; conversely, a small deviation to the north could mean a NC landfall.


For reasons not clear to me, the NHC are predicting a landfall near Charleston SC, w/ a track right over Apex around 2am Saturday morning. Anyway, until the storm gets its act together and starts actually moving toward the U.S. ... it's too soon to get too excited.

Hurricane Hanna #1

The above graphic shows the various weather models' predictions of Hurricane Hanna's path. There is a slight shift north in the predicted tracks w/ 4 of the 6 models predicting a South Carolina landfall on Friday afternoon at a strength of ~ Cat 2. Unfortunately, the models aren't that good at days 3-5. Further, the models have struggled w/ this storm thus far. (Maps from the Weather Underground.)


If and when HH hits the Carolinas it's projected to be racing inland pretty quickly. Using NOAA's inland wind model, a Cat 2 hitting the East Coast at a forward speed 12 knots (14 mph) could bring 50-65 kts (57-74 mph) winds along its path well inland (e.g., Apex).

We'll see ...

Golf ball sized hail in Apex

Not at our house unfortunately, though. Storm just rolled through. One of the few storms I can remember that you heard coming about 90 seconds before it came. Loud winds and presumably the hail was making some noise. As it blew by here, it hailed for about 90 seconds. The biggest I could see (i.e., landed on the porch) was just over pea-sized, but not quite marble-sized. Very cool!

I know DCV readers want to know where it ranks among hailstorms that Dolberry has experienced. I rate this as the 4th best hail storm I've ever seen.

#5 Louisville, 1983? - The one that dented our station wagon & El Cueto got the insurance company to pay us for (ahem) "repairing" it. I don't really remember the storm or I'd rank it higher.

#4 Apex, 2008 - For about 45 seconds, this storm was as good as any storm. Pea-sized, but plenty of it.

#3 Apex, 2004? - Remember it nearly covered the ground. Want to say it was in March.

#2 Arnold MO, 1989? - Was visiting Ron McCann over 4th of July and there was a huge storm. Largest hail I've ever seen. Just short of golf-ball sized.

#1 Louisville, 1984? - The one that shredded our awning. That was awesome! Remember it hit right around 5pm and I tried to watch it from our front porch but got scared when the wind ripped the door out of my hands. Retreated to the basement at that point and watched out that little window by the dryer.

(Remember, graupel is not hail. The Derby Day graupel event is #1 in graupel events. 1 of 1. If I did count it as hail, I'd probably put it as #2 or #3 on this list.)

I'm going to bed now, though. Lousy poison ivy + PI medicine has made sleep pretty much a non-entity over the last two weeks. Feel sorry for me! (that's pitiful, more so than the hail countdown)

Live Blog: Snow Day!

In the history of the DCV, there have only been two occasions momentous enough to warrant the "Live Blog" treatment. One of these ("My Night at O'Hare") wasn't even a truly live blog since I didn't have internet connection through a lot of it ... it was more of a tape-delay. The other was the Louisville - West Virginia football game of 2006. (This was back when both Louisville and WVU had football programs.) It was a BIG game as you may recall and the DCV "Live Blog" treatment brought enough luck to the Cards to pull them through.

It is, in part, this desire for a little additional input from Lady Fortune that the live blogging procedures have been cranked up here at the DCV, because we want to see some snow and the atmosphere may not have it in it w/o some additional blog-generated providence.

9:39a: The Dolberry Winter Weather Prediction Centre is lowering its original snow prediction of 4.7" back down to 4.2". Uncertainty is high with this event and thus we are suspending our usual procedure of predicting snow to 3 decimal places w/in 24 hours of the event. We apologize for any inconvenience.

9:42a: Last fall, Relient K came out w/ a Christmas album and while most of the songs had been previously released, it did come with a shiny new, typically-clever RK title ... Let It Snow Baby, Let It Rein Deer. Well, at present in Apex, it is 37.0 F and raining. Normally, if it's 37 in Raleigh, you're not anywhere close to snow, but cold air is on its way. Needs to hurry before the precip leaves. It has dropped 0.6 degrees in the last 30 minutes. Let it SNOW, baby!

9:59a: Part of the reason I want it to snow so badly is that we bought a sled yesterday. According to the cashier, half the town of Cary bought sleds yesterday. (I think we'll have to view that as an unofficial tally.) Anyway, me and the beautiful KMD were out shopping for sleds. We tried Dick's first and all they had were lousy snow intertubes and they were like 20 bucks. "Give me a break!" stormed Dolberry out of the store w/ the beautiful KMD in tow. Then, the beautiful KMD (shortened to bKMD for the rest of the "Live Blog") said sometimes Linens and Things sells sleds. Dolberry smelled a rat here. "I'm not going to Linens and Things!" stormed Dolberry. But since we were right by a Sled, Bath, and Beyond we went into that one. Whoa! What a zoo. A new shipment of sleds had just come in and there was a frenzy of maybe 3-4 shoppers looking over the limited inventory. They had some plastic orange contraption that looked like it would maybe be strong enough to carry MoJo down a slope that was $9.99. bKMD suggested that one would be fine, but the Sled, Bath, and Beyond saleslady asked Dolberry how old the child using the sled would be. "Ten." I lied. ('Cause you know it's a 41 year old heading down the hill first ... for testing purposes ya know.) With the smooth skill of a car salesman she steered the gullible Dolberry over to the plastic discs that were running for $14.99. bKMD thought Dolberry was being taken for a snow ride and said so when the saleslady had walked away. Meanwhile, the Lexus of sleds had caught Dolberry's eye. A shiny new, half-sled / half boogie board device. Dolberry was entranced ... and sought the saleslady out. "How much is this one?" he timidly inquired. "29.99". Oh my. We then spent more time debating the purchase of this sled than we did purchasing our car. In the end, w/ a severe case of buyer's remorse setting in, we went with the fancy model, but when the cashier rang it up, she said that'll be $16. SWEET! So, I need it to snow.

10:08: Update from the bKMD, in this case the "b" stands for "brave" who has ventured out into the storm and reports it is still raining, but that some of the raindrops look "flaky" when they hit the windshield.

10:14: Had to take a break from "Snow Day: Live Blog" to buy our Spring Training Reds tix. We're down the first base line. 4th row for the Yankees game on Thursday. 6th row for the Pirates game on Friday. We're seeing the Marlins @ Red Sox in Fort Myers on Saturday. And then we're eating cheesesteaks on Sunday (while the Phils play the Blue Jays). Buying Reds tix was about 50x easier than buying Red Sox tickets. When I observed this to bKMD, she said "That's a good thing about not winning the World Series."

10:28: The Admiral (NOAA) does a whole bunch of model simulations (21 to be exact) every 6 hours as part of an exercise he calls the short-range ensemble forecast. Then he takes the average of all those runs and bases a snowfall estimate based on that. Here's a plot of what the Admiral expects in the three hour period between 1-4p.


10:29: So that would be a solid 1.25" of snow in that three-hour period. Plus, they have us getting snow in other periods as well, for a total of about 2". Or just enough to sled on.

10:32: The Admiral then taunts snow lovers everywhere by cherry-picking the highest of the 21 ensemble members and plotting that one. Here it is, the most optimistic of the 21 is still prediction a whole bunch of snow. Here it is.


10:35: So that'd be a good 3" inches in a 3-hour period this afternoon, w/ other 3-hour periods having snow as well tallying up to about 7". So the mean is 2", the max is 7", and the min is presumably the usual bupkis (zero).

10:40: Watching the Weather Channel. They are on full alert for the snow in Atlanta. Snow far they've shown a closeup of Jim Cantore's sleeve which had a few sleet particles on it. Then they showed a sky cam of Atlanta where a few flakes were falling. The funny Bill Kennely said, "Hey, I see one! Wait there's two! (pause) Three!"

10:43: As seen in the comments section, but I'll put it up here as well, BK Weather has also lowered there forecast accumulation, but are still calling for a solid 4".

10:44: Temperature update: It is now 38.1 in Apex. That is most disappointing. Realistically, it looks like the switchover will be between 12p and 2p.

10:51: Here's what the radar looks like now. There will be a brief gap in the precip here between 11a -1p. Then we have to hope the main bulk of precip doesn't slide too far to the SE.


10:52: Snowing pretty good in Atlanta now.

11:03: The new RDU forecast discussion is out! It's very long. And very thorough. I think they may have brought the Admiral into write this one. Bottom line is that, they're growing increasingly skeptical about much snow in the western part of the forecast area. They're thinking there will be a sweet spot of higher snow (2"-3", they imply) from eastern Wake Co up to Louisburg and Roanoke Rapids.

11:14: The Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) model ... the one that the Admiral runs most often (every hour! don't know when the guy sleeps) and only runs out to 12 hours ... seems to be on board for some snow. Two inches between 2p and 8p.


11:28: Has officially stopped raining in Apex. Gap shouldn't last too long according to radar trends. More rain around 12:15p?

11:59: It's not raining and the temperature's warming (38.7F).

12:01: I'm glad the BK forecasters are still onboard here. Atlanta has picked up a quick quarter inch, and that precip mass is still coming this way. Tentative sledding time is projected to be 5:15pm. We're going to the Apex Comm Park if the BK forecasters are interested.

12:07: Where IS it snowing at present? Alabama (Birmingham, Aniston, Montgomery) and Georgia (Atlanta, Marietta, Gainesville), and Andrews North Carolina. I don't think any of these places are w/in a 6 hour drive of here.

12:13: Where IS the cold air? The wind direction has changed in Winston-Salem from E to N over the past two hours and the dew point has dropped 10 degrees. When the next batch of precip hits this air, there will be more evaporative cooling and we should see temps drop to 32-33 very quickly. The front (as evidenced by windshift and dew point drop) is through Greensboro where the dewpoint is 20 and approaching Raleigh, where the dew point is still 34.

12:16: Where IS the precipitation? It's coming back. Radar trends would say by 12:35 we should be back into the rain and then it should precipitate for sometime ... 'til about 8p. Need that front to hurry up!

12:18: The bKMD wanted me to mention she whupped me in a Sudoku match in the "Snow Day: Live Blog" lag between 11:28 and 11:59. Duly noted.

12:20: Good news! The dew point is dropping quickly at Chapel Hill ... down to 25. Sharp dew point gradient between there and the 34 at RDU. Usually once the cold dry air gets over the Appalachians it rolls down the Piedmont pretty quickly.

12:32: First sign of snow? Statesville NC is reporting "unknown precipitation". It's an automated monitor, so it's probably some rain/snow mix. Temp is still 41 there, so it's not much snow.

12:50: DCV Programming Update: Dolberry has to run IM and APD up to their Heroclix tournament at 1pm. I will provide an eyewitness account of the weather when I return. After that we have a 1:45 lunch appt. So updates may be sporadic over the next few hours. Hopefully the loyal DCV readers will manage.

12:53: Light drizzle in East Apex. 39.2 degrees.

1:11: Update. Big crowd @ Heroclix tournament. Maybe 8-10 kids. Oh, wrong update. Drizzle and dropping temps ... down to 38.7F.

1:16: Winds have shifted to N at RDU and dew point is starting to drop.

1:40: The best thing we have going for us is the radar. Still a lot of precip to our SW heading NE. I still think we should see snow before 3p.

1:43: FLAKES! ACTUAL SNOW FLAKES IN EAST APEX. Mixed in w/ rain. Will be late for 1:45 mtg. Report back later.

3:21: It is snowing in east Apex, but this snow is snow only in the strictest sense of the word. It is snow that has adhered to the letter of the law, but not to the spirit of the law. One failing of this snow, in particular, is its reluctance to accumulate on the ground. Instead it is melting immediately, which is not good for sledding purposes. It's been snowing for about 1 hour in East Apex and our accumulation is up to 0.000" so far. I'm a little underwhelmed to this point.

3:54: Snow now sticking in East Apex as well. Approximate accumulation 0.05" and still coming down.

4:05: Picture of us in snow.


4:29: Still snowing. Temps are down to 32.2F. All snow to this point should be accumulating, on the grass anyway. Sledding at 5:30 looks less and less likely. Maybe 7p sledding? Dolberry is down 14-3 at halftime in our snow football. Footing is nonexistent.

4:57: Still snowing lightly. Radar trends show increasing precip to our west. Still expect a good 1-1.5" to come down between 5:15 and 7:30p. Temp is down to 31.6 in east Apex.


5:28p: Still snowing. Maybe up to 0.2" of snow in east Apex.

6:36: Filing under lesson learned ... 0.5" of snow is not really enough to go sledding. We managed about 5 runs down the hill at the softball fields. At $16 for the sled, that works out to $3.20 per ride ... or about State Fair prices. The beautiful KMD said it was worth $16 to see my ride which ended up w/ me caterpaulting sideways into the big mud puddle at the bottom of the hill. I don't know why she's like that sometimes. Anyway, we got to slide around some and the anticipation is most of the fun part anyway.

More BIG Apex News

So, I'm walking to the bus stop last Friday (this Friday I am off) and as I approach the Food Lion I notice an Apex Police car has traffic stopped on Laura Duncan. In the past they've set up roadblocks there to check for driver's licenses, but that seems strange at 7:10am at the peak of high school traffic. Anyway, a school bus is waved through the blockade & then pulls over & opens its door to talk to me. I'm on the sidewalk about 50 yards from where the police are. The bus driver tells me, "You may want to stay there. They've got something going on w/ a deer up ahead."

I'm still a little groggy & this statement is far enough out of the normal realm that all I can manage is a polite "OK. Thanks." and keep walking figuring I'm not afraid of a deer. I take about 5 more steps and the policewoman sees me and says very forcefully, "Sir! BACK UP!".

I'm able to process that and back up the 5 steps I just took.

Then I see the other police officer get out of the patrol car and walk over to the grassy area ahead of me and just off the sidewalk. For the first time, I notice the deer sorting of aimlessly wandering around w/ a clearly injured front leg. The police officer tentatively approached the deer and tried to get him to shoo, even whapping the deer on his hindquarters once. The deer did not obey, presumably unable to comply due to injury.

The officer then gets out his gun. Meanwhile the other officer notices that a crowd is gathering in the Food Lion parking lot to watch. One guy is way out in front of the rest. She tells him, as forcefully as she told me, to move back. He doesn't. After 3 orders that are not obeyed, she goes over there and gets in his face, at which point he does move back.

The male officer points his gun at the deer & fires. The deer does nothing.

He fires again and again and again and then one more time. The deer is clearly agitated but can't go more then 2 or 3 steps in any direction. I'm talking to the bus driver who's left her bus by now (no kids inside, between runs apparently) and she says "How bad a shot is this guy?"

I guess he must have been shooting blanks, cause I don't think they'd fire in a non-emergency w/ that many people around.

He returns to the squad car & then comes back. By this time the deer has fallen down & I was just wishing they would put it out of his/her misery (presumably hit by a car). The officer shoots one more time and about 5 seconds later they wave me and the cars through.

I had to run to catch my bus. The policewoman thanked me for waiting. And I steadfastly did not look to the left when I passed the dead dear.

---------------------------

Other than that ... all is well. Work is extremely busy. Look for two projects I've been involved in to hit the news over the next 6 weeks. Good environmental progress is forthcoming. APD made the Principal's List again which is cool. It's supposed to snow here tomorrow. The Dolberry Centre for Winter Weather Prediction is officially calling for 4.2 inches. This is on the heels of our 0.2" yesterday. If it does snow 4", that'll be our biggest snow in at least 3 years. Hope all readers are going Grrrreeeaaattttt.

Record highs in Raleigh ... ain't no big deal anymore

In an effort to stave off boredom the other day, I looked at some of the climatological data on the RDU NWS site. It had seemed to me that we had record highs quite often in 2007. The data bore that out.

There were 33 days w/ record highs in 2007. This is considering a record period from 1944 through 2007. So in that 64 year period, all things being equal, one would expect to get (366/64, or 5.7)record highs every year. One oddity though, days in which the record high is a tie (temps are measured to nearest integer) are attributed to the most recent year. So, one would expect the more recent years to have more record highs due to this artifact. I've looked at the 2007 records at RDU and most of them are not ties, but actual records. As you can see the 33 record highs for the year is not only 27 more than usual, but 14 more than we've ever seen before. On average, every 11th day was a record high in Raleigh. Wow.

I've also looked at the record lows at RDU. Same as above ... it's a 64 year record and ties go to the most recent year. Over the last 6 years, in a period in which we should have gotten about 34-35 record lows, we've gotten only 6 (just one in 2007, a chilly 27 deg F on 4/8). Record lows have been very uncommon in this area over the last 6 years. Most record lows at RDU are from the time period 1960-1985. It's supposed to get quite cold here over the next few days, but the forecasts are that we won't get w/in 5 deg F of any records.

So, the odds this year of getting a record high on any given day were 1 in ~11; the odds of getting a record low were 1 in 366.

Why is this happening. Some potential reasons:

1) It's possible that the monitor itself changed or was moved at some time over this 64 year period, perhaps to some place warmer. I don't think that happened, but cannot say for sure.

2) Certainly, the landuse patterns around the airport have changed dramatically over the last 20-30 years. Rapid development in the Triangle has appreciably reduced the amount of forested area in this part of Central NC. Most of this former forest has been replaced by urban devices like asphalt or concrete. This may be leading to a bigger heat island effect around the RDU site (& area as a whole).

3) Maybe it's a symptomatic of global warming. According to NCDC, 2007 was on pace (thru November) of being the 8th warmest year (of the last 100 or so) in the U.S. and the 5th warmest (since 1880) globally.

Oh well, it's a complicated issue and the record highs in Raleigh may not mean anything, other than it was an abnormally warm year here. Interestingly, ozone air pollution was quite low in Raleigh this year. Ozone forms on high temperature days, but it appears as if the control programs that EPA, States, industry, and the population at large have agreed to and implemented have had their intended effect. I suspect that if the same cooperation could be applied to the global climate change subject, we would see the same results.

Hope everyone has a great 2008.

Random sports and weather thoughts

Hope all are doing well.


Pat Forde on the Disingenuous Drifter (Bobby P) ... one of the most excoriating articles I've read in a long time.

The Mitchell Report comes out tomorrow. Early leaks (less than w/ most reports) indicate over 80 names are listed as having used steroids/HGH. I may be wearing rose-colored glasses, but I doubt more than 1-2 Reds are on the list. I figure Freel/Farney has probably ingested almost every substance known to man ... but other than that no Reds seem to fit the mold (at least the mold in my mind ... yes I have a moldy mind).


It looks like it's going to snow in Louisville (& Evansville) this weekend, once you get past your potentially flooding rains of tonight/tomorrow. Looks like Louisville will be right on the rain/snow line. Here's where the NWS thinks the heaviest snow will be laid down.

Ear Infection: A Review

Hey all,

I have an ear infection. I don't recommend it. One star on a scale of 1-5.

If you want to talk to me, talk loud. The doctor said I'd have 70% of my hearing back w/in a month. 90% in 3 mos. Other than not feeling good (first a cold, then the EI) since T-giving, all is fine. KMD is sick as well, but she doesn't complain near as much as I do about it. APD has been unscathed.

It was 80 degrees today here ... which was a record. APD & I tested out our new baseball bags and the curve balls. Both were very fun. Good times to be back on a field again. On the bright side, I should be able to hear by the time softball starts again. I give today's weather 5 stars. We're supposed to have record highs the next 3 days as well. Yay for that.

Need your faith in humanity restored? Check video to right.

Hard not to like the Phillies after that.

Holiday from Blogging

Hey, a lot's gone on since I last blogged ... here's a quick update:

June 1: Mom, Dad, Tim, Kris, & Mojo came in from Louisville for trip.

June 2: Went to Carowinds w/ TCC youth group. Much fun. It rained on us despite my assurances to all that it would not (for about three hours). Saw the Newsboys which is always nice.

June 3: Headed to Emerald Isle w/ the extended Dolberry clan. Caught up to the tail end of former Tropical Storm Barry. Swam in the pool in the rain. Ocean was a churned up.

June 4: Am sure we had fun on this day. Can't remember exactly what we did.

June 5: I'm gonna say we went golfing on this day. None of the golf was that memorable. APD and Sparky impressed at times. Scott & I hit a (curiously stupid) fish with our drivers.

June 6: Maybe we putt-putted and go karts on this day? I remember I lost at putt-putt. G'Ma won.

June 7: More fun at beach. I think I clinched the pool battle royale between KMD & I on this night. 3 nights to one.

June 8: APD and I made a cool sand stadium that got wiped out by a rising tide, despite numerous Dolberry forecasts that it would not.

June 9: Sad goodbyes to beach clan. What a great, relaxing, fun trip. Blow was softened by returning to a softball game. We only had 8 players and got pounded. I'm too out of shape to play OF in a 3 OF alignment.

June 10: First game of Apex tournament. We lost to #3 seed (as #2 seed) 14-9.

June 11-12: Two crazy days at work. Catching up from a week off & trying to prep for three more days away.

June 13: Headed out to Boulder/Denver for conference. Got to see Aunt Jane, Uncle Mike, and Jeannine, Shannon, and Michelle (and families). It was very hard to see Aunt Jane so sick. Was so glad to hear she was able to be returned to Louisville & hopefully will be transferred to a rehab center soon. As sad as it was to see Aunt Jane, it was equally happy to get to see all the (former) Fitzgerald cousins and their families. What a great group. I'm proud to be related to 'em.

June 14: My day to lead the conference and give two talks. Think it went well. Ate dinner in downtown Boulder. Boulder is always nice ... even the time I went out there for a job interview at NCAR and totally bombed the seminar I gave. Once the bombing was complete, I went and drove into the mountains which saved the trip.

June 15: Left Boulder at 3:15a local time to get back for our softball tournament that night. Plus, I was able to catch a show from a band that a YG member drums for. The key to good softball is waking up 2000 miles away, flying coach most of the morning, going to a smoky bar for loud music, than playing ball from 8-11p. I was 4-4 w/ two walks and flawless SS defense in two St Andy's wins (17-12 and 19-6).

June 16: Unfortunately, Catholic Blue team ran up against Baptist Blue and they beat us again. 9-6 this time. I had a chance to get us into a tie in the 5th, but flew out w/ 2 outs & a runner in scoring position.

June 17: Fathers Day was nice. I was treated to Philly Cheesesteaks for lunch & we had a TCC picnic that evening. Started to itch from poison ivy contracted presumably from yard work the day before.

June 18-21: Everything basically settling down. Over this month I applied for my own job and got it. So, I'll be switching over from NOAA to EPA sometime in July. It's only a slight raise, but is good to be actually working for the agency I've always done work for (if that makes any sense). The humorous bureaucratic thing is that I'll be on a 1-year probation (again) & they're doing a background check on me. I told HR that if there was anything worth stealing; I'd have stolen it already ... which they didn't think was funny. I itched profusely over these 4 days and moaned unceasingly to KMD and APD.

June 22: Went to doctor and got steroids. Immediate relief. Went swimming w/ APD and KMD. Very much fun. Hung out w/ some friends that night.

This weekend was fine. Went to Harvest Crusade w/ youth group. Other than that, just relaxed.

There! You are now all caught up on the tediousness that is Dolberry!

Halloween 2006

All right ... I'm still not sufficiently recovered to fully vent my bile re: this past weekend, but rest assured those responsible will be fully taken to task in a later blog entry. I will say, as covered over at that other blog, the highlight of the trip was seeing longtime DCV blog reader Joe L. during the third hour of our detention at J.C. Penney's portrait department.

Instead, I will distract my attention w/ a recap of tonight's Halloween festivities here. APD went as the Weather Wizard who is a HeroClix character. The get up consisted of his weather map sweatshirt (provided by Gm D many years ago), a bandanna w/ a tornado on it, and his baseball pants (?). Oh yeah, and gloves that say soccer on them. No pictures were taken. He said three treat-dispensers pegged him as a meteorologist, which didn't bother him much, but does leave me a little concerned. Which channel has the weather dude who wears baseball pants?

OK, here's a countdown of Top 5 APD treats received tonight:

#5 I thought these would be #1, but there were only 9 of these in his overflowing bag.

#4 There were 10 of these.

#3 You know how we call football, soccer & the rest of the world calls soccer, football? Well, that pales in comparison to how we call the #3 treat this, but the rest of the world thinks this is this. I think that may be the most single fascinating thing of this entire blog to date. I think Americans would like these better if more of us knew the rest of the world was mistaken in what these are. Either way, there were 12 of these in the bag.

#2 The candy that taught us all that sometimes accidents can be good things. 14 were received, or about two days worth of calories for a averaged-sized adult male.

#1 Is there anything else that was first created in 1896 that is still the most popular item in its category in 2006? A whopping 17 were received.

You Tube link of the night: snippet of Relient K's new song, Devastation and Reform, performed live in Houston. Their new album, Five Score and Seven Years Ago will be released on 3/6/2007, and if this song is any indication this could very possibly be the second best March 6th ... ever.