Hammock Time

I'd forgotten how nice the hammock can be on a mild winter day. It is the perfect vantage point to see all the bird action in the trees. There are no leaves to hide the birds and the feeder is nearby, which guarantees a lot of activity. And best of all, there are no bugs in the dead of winter, even on a warm day. It was a great spot to relax after an afternoon of yard work. Zima hopped on for a spell and kept me company.

Encore tomorrow night?

That's what the weather report says. Another inch on Sunday night will make Monday's commute oh so fun. Nothing creates panic like an inch of snow in Hotlanta. *sigh*

I'll believe it when I see it.

1-2" of snow are predicted for the Atlanta area tomorrow. Time for pandelerium! The grocery stores will be mobbed tonight, with not a loaf of bread or gallon of milk to be found. Mark my words.

Turning the corner

Can you believe it's already February? I'm never sorry to see January go.

This forsythia bush always jumps the gun on spring and blooms very early. It was no surprise to notice some tiny yellow flowers beaming through the cold and gloomy weather we've been having. It looks a little bit out of place, but all the same I am glad to see it. The rest of the yard will catch up.

It Did!

The rain turned to snow right on schedule. Mass freakoutery to follow.

Multitasking Exhaustion, Dark Evenings, Droopy Tails, and Signing Day

I multi-tasked my butt off at work today. It was mentally exhausting. We've had a lot of people out this week - some due to business travel and some due to illness - and the rest of us have to pull up the slack. What we do is too important to risk sleepwalking through it, or not paying attention. I went through the day feeling like a juggler with 2-3 balls constantly in the air. When I got home, I immediately flopped down on the couch for a long winter's nap. Then we went to a local mom 'n pop Italian restaurant, because neither of us felt like cooking. Chicken piccata... mmmmmmm. And as an added bonus, there are plenty of leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

How long until daylight savings time kicks in? Another month? Can't be soon enough. I'm tired of dark evenings. For me, it isn't about energy savings (there really isn't any savings - it is a wash). It is about having more daylight in the evening when I get home from work and could make use of the time to do outside stuff. Or just not feel like it is later than it is...

In the bad news department, when he got home from work PDM noticed that Zima cannot lift her tail. The part nearest her body lifts up, but the rest of it just sags and drags. No visible damage other than the droopiness, but it is very sensitive to touch judging from her reaction. Not sure what happened or exactly when, but it looks like I will be calling the vet tomorrow morning to get her checked out.

Last but not least, today was Signing Day for college football. This is a Big Deal here in the south, where college football is at least as important as religion or politics. Unlike the pro draft, where the worst teams get a shot at the best players, in college football the best teams generally get the best players. Sure, there are a lot of NCAA rules about how it's done, but the bottom line is that all is fair in love and recruiting, and there is usually some drama right up until everyone turns in their letters of intent. In our case, Duke stole back a recruit that we stole from them. C'est la vie. (Aside - why on earth would anyone want to play football for Duke?!?) In spite of both a coaching change and a major change in the type of offense we will run (switching from pro-style to the spread option), Georgia Tech managed to pick up twenty new Yellow Jackets. All in all, we exceeded my meager expectations. I don't get too excited about individual recruits until I see them on the field. Put up or shut up. But I'm already looking forward to August. Go Jackets! THWUGA!

Why I Hate Winter

So, we're in the dead of winter and I'm feeling the blahs an awful lot of the time. Not much to watch on TV due to the writers' strike. Not enough daylight at the end of the day to do anything outside. The bathroom project has been slowed to a crawl due to the cold weather. There is always reading, but that makes me sleepy and leads to napping. It has been slow at work, although that might change due to an assignment I was just given.

Bored at work, bored at home. I can't seem to motivate myself to do much of anything. This is why winter will always be my least favorite season. (At least I moved back to Atlanta, where winters are short and mild. All this was definitely worse when I lived in New England.) I feel sluggish, lazy, and uninspired.

What do YOU do to fight the winter blahs?

Round 2, By Request

By request, here is a view from my back patio door on Saturday, during the height of "Atlanta Blizzard 2008". You'll notice that the snow is only sticking to the plants, not the patio. That is why there are no photographs of any associated carnage. The roads remained passable throughout the day. Sorry to disappoint.

Now it is just cold as all get out. But not as cold as the northeast. I remember those times - two weeks or so every winter when it never got about 20F - and I do not miss it. Not one tiny little bit. Nope, this is more than cold enough for me. Looking forward to a return to more normal Georgia weather soon!

I promise the next post will definitely NOT be about the weather.

Stay tuned for Round 2...

They're predicting 1-3" of snow for metro Atlanta tonight into tomorrow. LL, you may yet get your wish - I will have a camera ready to record any passing carnage (or weirded-out kitties). Let the freakoutery begin again!

What's this white stuff?

Guess what, ya'll? We're getting some snow here in the deep south! This is a rare event in Atlanta. Yup, last week it was in the mid-70s and now it is 33F and snowing. Those Adirondack chairs now have a nice even coating of about a quarter of an inch. I went ahead and took the picture earlier because it was getting dark and there is no guarantee it will still be there tomorrow. We're pretty close to the snow/sleet line and they say we will get freezing rain overnight. Joy.

I predict an outbreak of widespread panic and general freakoutery, both tonight in the grocery stores and tomorrow during the morning commute.

Psssttt. Hey you.

Yes, you.

You know who you are.

I've seen dozens of you around my neighborhood. You're one of those people who haven't removed a single item of your garish outdoor Christmas display, in spite of the fact that it is now six days into January and Christmas is oh-so-very-over. And not only that, you are still plugging it all in every night, and every morning your inflatable plastic Santa, snowglobe, nativity scene and whatnot is all crumpled down like some horrific massacre has occurred during the night.

Guess what? Christmas is over, and won't come around again for another 353 days. As proud as you are of your excessive display of holiday spirit, 'tis not the season any more. Do your neighbors a favor and take all that stuff back to your attic. Bonus points for class if you don't leave that last string of lights up on the eaves all year. The temperature is back up in the 60s today, so there is really no excuse. Get crackin'!

Merry, Merry!

Merry Christmas, Sweet Solstice, Happy Hanukkah, or whatever it is you celebrate at this time of year. I wish you all the best.

Photo: long exposure of entryway tree with motion toward tree and some good luck.

Frenetic

We are hours away from the Winter Solstice, which should be a quiet and peaceful time of year, and Christmas - a time to relax and enjoy family and friends. But the week before Christmas is not much fun at all. Disrupted routines, crowds, traffic, and a bunch of last minute "must do" chores can make you tired and cranky.

This year has been worse than normal. Our plans have been up in the air due to the health of a family member, and I have been disorganized and late doing things. It is the 21st, and I still have stuff to buy for people. Including PDM. Oh sure, I bought his "big" present already, but I'd like to have a few fun items for stocking stuffers, and gifts from the cats.

Worse yet, my creativity has deserted me. I am uninspired. I can't think of what to get people. This usually results in getting them something lame at the last minute.

Here's to hoping it's a good Christmas anyway, and that we get everything done and have time to enjoy family and friends. Hopefully they will still be talking to me after receiving their incredibly banal gifts.


The photo is one I took using a slow shutter speed and creative camera angle at the "Fantasy in Lights" winter wonderland display at Callaway Gardens.

A "Cross Quarter Day"

No, this isn't about "mad money". (Get it? *Ahem*) Today, November 7, is a cross quarter day -- exactly midway between the fall equinox and the winter solstice. So depending on whether your glass is half empty or half full, we are either "half way into fall" or "fall is half over". Take your pick.

And right on schedule, Atlanta is getting its first frost this week.

Winter Storm Warning

Looks like it's for real this time. Our storm watch is now a warning. Rain, sleet, snow, freezing rain... you name it, we got it on tap in the overnight forecast. I know it isn't a big deal to many of you in the un-southern parts of this country, but this kind of dire prediction causes all hell to break loose down here, and that's before we see one speck of whatever-it-is that they're predicting. You couldn't pay me to go near a grocery store tonight. Pure pandemonium.

It won't bother me at all if we wake up tomorrow to an ice storm. In fact, as long as we don't have a tree fall on the house, I'd welcome the chance to turn the alarm off and go back to sleep.

Update (6:20am 2/1): Wrong again! Woke up this morning to 33 F and heavy rain (which is high on the list of my least favorite type of weather). The weather people aren't doing so great this winter. So far, they are 0-for-2 with the winter storm predictions. I guess I have to go get ready for work now.

Who turned the heat off?

Our high of 73 yesterday set a new record. Today it is back to work, and back to winter. Well, “winter” such as it is in the Deep South. If the forecast is accurate, we are due for some rain, freezing rain, and sleet on Thursday morning. I can’t wait to drive to work in that.

Since PDM and I both had a long weekend, we planned to do some stuff around the house. If we’d known it would be in the 70s all weekend and not raining two out of the three days, we might have made other plans! We tackled the crappiest chore first – painting the ceiling in the kitchen. I don’t mind painting walls, but painting a ceiling (especially a vaulted one like ours) is literally a pain in the neck. No one notices when it’s done, but they notice when it needs doing like ours did. You spend all your time awkwardly standing on a ladder with the roller on a stick held way over your head, craning your neck to look straight up. Makes me cranky.

The good news is that the kitchen renovation we started nearly a year ago is finally complete! This project deserves its own post some day, but in a nutshell - we completely gutted the tired, old kitchen and cannibalised the attached eat-in area to make one giant, modern kitchen. The old ceiling fan (blades long since removed) was the last original item left, and it was taken down before we started painting. After the paint was dry, PDM installed the last of the new light fixtures and now the kitchen is finished. Until we change it again...

We spent Sunday and Monday painting our living/dining room. We also bought PDM a suit (he needs it for the fancy-pants party my employers are throwing tomorrow at the High Museum of Art), watched four hours of 24, and visited our new local Trader Joe’s to stock up on "three buck Chuck", beer, and appetizers for the shindig we’re hosting on Saturday. I feel pretty good about all the stuff we accomplished this weekend. Nothing like a deadline (hey, lets have a party!) to light a fire under your arse.

They're early this year.

It is only January, right?

To The Moon, Alice!

In honor of the first full moon of 2007, I am blatantly ripping off today's Astronomy Picture of the Day because it was so cool. [OK, not a total ripoff - I used a different image of the moon and I'm throwing in some extra links.] The moon orbits the earth in an elliptical orbit, not a circular one. Since the distance from the earth to the moon is not constant, the full moon varies in apparent size. This can be easily seen in this series of images showing twenty consecutive full moons. The slight wobble you see is called libration. Each Full Moon of the year has a traditional name (or two, or three). Once in a blue moon, there is a blue moon, like the one we'll see this spring.

I enjoy looking at and photographing the moon during all of its phases. One of the quiet pleasures of winter is to take a walk in the woods under a full moon. Without the leaf canopy, the moonlight filters through the bare branches and lights your path. Everything is still and quiet. The stars twinkle in the cold, crisp air. Lovely.

Enjoy the Wolf Moon, y'all.

Winter Solstice

Some random thoughts about the winter solstice:

I've always thought "solstice" was a pretty word. It sounds quiet and peaceful.

The actual time and date of the solstices shifts from year to year.

A Winter's Solstice was the first "new age" music I ever purchased. It is the kind of holiday music that I enjoy. My other favorite is Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas . It is a welcome change of pace from all the stuff they play on the radio and in stores.

When I moved to Massachusetts back in December of 1992, I was extremely dismayed to discover that at the winter solstice, the sun sets at 4:20pm and it is dark before 5:00pm. Gack! I hated this worse than the bone-chilling cold. There are two reasons why the sun sets so much earlier there than in Atlanta. The northerly latitude (42 N) makes the day about 45 minutes shorter on winter solstice and longer on summer solstice. But the main culprit is the longitude. Massachusetts is situated on the eastern side of the eastern time zone, while Atlanta is on the far western edge of it. Local noon is around 11:45am in Southbridge, MA, but occurs at 12:35pm here in Atlanta.

In Atlanta, (latitude 34 N) the sun will set today at 5:32pm and twilight will end at 6:00pm. The sun rose at 7:38am. Length of day = 9 hours and 53 minutes. I can live with that. And that is the worst it will be. For the next six months, every day will be a little longer and lighter!

Wishing you all a happy, peaceful, and warm winter solstice.