too much food, candy drink, gifts, fun, friends and family but too little sleep
I celebrated the Christmas Holiday in the American tradition of excess.
The one thing I did not get too much of is sleep.
At the time, it was a small price to exchange sleep for the traditions of staying up to midnight to pack stockings while Christmas at St. Peter’s is on the TV and getting up way too early on Christmas Morning.
Then the cooking.
First that Turkey in the oven.
The only prep work I do is remove that bag of parts and the neck, rinse the whole thing best I can, put an onion inside and tie up the drumsticks.
The breakfast with bacon, eggs and freshly baked cinnamon rolls.
Then back to Christmas Dinner.
Mashed potatoes.
Gravy.
Sweet Potatoes.
Bread Stuffing or dressing or whatever you want to call it.
Congealed Salad, or as we called, Jello with fruit.
Broccoli.
Black eyed peas.
Deviled eggs.
The lack of sleep is being felt, especially in my knees, but the arrival of Grand Children perks me up.
Dinner and dessert eaten.
Gifts passed around.
The day starts to lag.
Lack of sleep now hitting everyone.
I think this won’t last, this can’t last much longer.
The time comes and the guests depart.
We get to that moment, side by side on the sofa, drinks in hand.
Tired out.
Tired out a lot more than we used to be.
Sleepy.
But, lack of sleep was a small price to exchange for the many excesses and blessings of the day.
vacation hot spots? lounging endlessly with books no need to travel
I remember when I was working the information desk at the Cascade Branch of the Kent District Library I was asked, “How do you know so much about the world?”
I answered that librarians had been everywhere, done everything and seen the world … just not in the first person.
When I was in college, I would roam the labyrinth of the Grad Library at the University of Michigan (reportedly some 5 million books on the shelf) and randomly take books of the shelves until my arms where full then I would sit in the reading room and disappear into the books.
What the library staff thought when they found my stacks of books left on the table, I never stuck around to find out.
This shelf surfing continues to this day, both online and in my local library.
Searching for the odd fact, photo, story or even recipe.
I was thinking about this because I keep reading stories about the best places for a vacation.
The 10 places you have to see before you die.
The 50 cities you have to visit.
It seemed to me that many of the descriptions included the phrase, “a great place to relax”.
A place to relax with a book.
I have to ask, “Why do I have to travel to relax?”
Travel headlines are about long lines, unreliable airplanes, reliably awful co-travelers and weather.
I am not a traveler.
I have no travel bucket list.
I have to say this is not a criticism of those of who do love to travel.
If you enjoy traveling, I am all for you.
I even admit, when I travel, I enjoy the opportuinty to see new things.
I sat on the front porch of the house were Elvis was born this year.
Top that!
For the most part, it is just not me.
I travel the world, just not in the first person.
Come aboard.
You will find me nearby.
Lounging endlessly through books, through the web.
easy to live in the wreckage of the future each day for itself
I was listening to Louise Penny’s Long Way Home in the Chief Inspector Gamache series and she used the phrase, ‘living in the wreckage of the future.”
The phrase has stuck in my brain.
Often, the wreckage of the future is NOT IMAGINED.
Life can be a train wreck waiting to happen.
And the trains are in motion and they are on tracks and the tracks cannot be changed.
We would be foolish to ignore what is coming.
Still.
I am reminded of stories of the days of railroading when a dispatcher would realize that a train wreck really was going to happen.
Two trains routed onto the same track and heading towards each other.
No way to communicate with either trains.
No way to stop it.
These trains were going to wreck.
The only thing a dispatcher could do was put together a rescue train with medical supplies and personel and send it on the way to where ever the accident did take place.
And deal with the wreckage of the future.
There was a chance that the engineers might see each oncoming train.
Maybe the point of meeting would be on a straightaway across a prairie and the engineers could stop.
The emergency train would be sent out and the dispatcher would hope for the best.
Lots of trains in my life right now.
Lot of those looking to be in a wreck.
I will be ready but hope for the best.
In the movie, The Magnificent Seven, Steve McQueen says to Yul Brenner, “did you hear about the man who fell of the 10 story building? All the way down, he kept saying, so far, so good.”
weak upper impulse lingering secondary fairly pleasant start
Ernie Hemingway could not have been a meteorologist.
Mr. Hemingway’s prose can be described in the one word, terse.
A meteorologist’s prose can be describe in the one word, verbose.
Weather forecasts may be the best example of the use of descriptive adjectives in modern english writing.
Consider today’s forecast from the National Weather Service.
SHORT TERM /Today through Sunday/…
A lingering secondary weak upper impulse is allowing for some isolated light rain/drizzle potential mainly in portions of central GA early this morning, otherwise should transition to NW flow aloft and dry Saturday on tap. Some continued mid level moisture especially in central GA could keep some cloud coverage hanging around today. Should be a fairly pleasant start to the weekend with afternoon highs mostly in the low to mid 60s.
Surface high center sliding into New England this evening will result in a CAD wedge building in for Sunday across the area. We can expect a shift to cooler temps (about 10 degrees lower than Saturday across north GA), increased easterly gradient winds, and some low level moisture overrunning/isentropic upglide causing increased cloud coverage and some return of afternoon shower potential in parts of the south and west. Ascent and late shower potential could also be aided by a weak upper shortwave.
Baker
LONG TERM /Sunday Night through Friday/…
The long term period begins on Sunday night with a wedge still in place across northeast Georgia. As southwest flow advects moisture over the wedge, chances for showers will continue into the early hours on Monday. Have included slight chance pops for Sunday afternoon with increasing chances Sunday night into Monday afternoon, as the wedge breaks down. A large longwave trough will push a strong cold front towards the area on Tuesday into Wednesday with the arrival of the front during the day on Wednesday. Have included chance pops across much of the area with likely pops across portions of northern Georgia in addition to the mountains. The highest QPF amounts for Monday through Wednesday look to be across far northern Georgia, around 1 to 2 inches with around a half inch or less further south. In addition, models are showing some slight differences on the backside of this system with the GFS showing another shortwave trough developing and crossing the local forecast area late Wednesday into Thursday and the ECMWF, while still showing the shortwave trough, clears precip from the local forecast area by Thursday and takes the trough much further south of the area. Overall, decided to trend on the drier side for pops in this time period, with slight chance to chance pops Wednesday afternoon and clearing across the area on Thursday.
Post frontal passage, high pressure will build into the area at the surface, providing dry weather for Thursday. By Friday, chances for precipitation will increase again as models show a developing surface low in the Gulf moving towards the local forecast area on Friday and Saturday. Although models are showing some differences in timing, have included chance pops for Friday through the early weekend.
High temperatures on Monday and Tuesday will be about 5 to 15 degrees above average in the 60s and 70s, returning to the 40s and 50s through the rest of the extended. Overnight lows Tuesday morning will be very warm in the 50s and 60s, around 20 to 25 degrees above average. Otherwise, lows through the rest of the extended are expected to be in the 30s and 40s.
Reaves
Notice in the 2nd paragraph the abbreviation CAD.
CAD stands for ” Cold Air Damming. The phenomenon in which a low-level cold air mass is trapped topographically. Often, this cold air is entrenched on the east side of mountainous terrain. Cold Air Damming often implies that the trapped cold air mass is influencing the dynamics of the overlying air mass, e.g. in an overrunning scenario. Effects on the weather may include cold temperatures, freezing precipitation, and extensive cloud cover.”
Good Grief.
I can see why they used the abbreviation.
These are some of the words used in just the short term forecast.
lingering secondary weak upper isolated light mainly early mid especially fairly pleasant mostly low mid high cooler lower increased easterly gradient overrunning isentropic upglide
Impressive list.
Notice also the names Baker and Reeves and the end of the forecasts.
Are these the meteorologist who wrote these forecasts?
Did they learn this style in meteorology class?
Is there a special thesaurus for weather modifiers?
At the end, what do want to know?
I take my hat off to these people.
I salute these people.
I also recall once seeing my good friend George Lessens come into the newsroom after a particularity wordy forecast and I yelled, “oh come on. You guys make all the stuff up!”
Even George joined in as everyone in the newsroom laughed.
