Category Archives: weather

Water in and Out

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Morning Rain

Rain. That’s what we’ve got. And plenty of it. It started raining last night just after dark. And it kept falling. All night, all morning. It is still raining.  I sat in a morning workshop for a few hours today and I kept looking out the window. I was distracted by rain. It fell hard and never let up. My umbrella got some use, as did my windshield wipers. And my boots. It is wet.

It is snowing up high. The road up the way is flooded. The road up the other way will likely be flooded by tomorrow. A bit of a mess. The frogs love it. It replenishes the water table. We won’t run out of water in the house any time soon. My water bottle will be full.

Yesterday I worked at a school. Students dumped quarters into the vending machine slots to get water. Right next to the water fountain. Right next to the restroom with running water. They washed their hands with water clean enough to drink, then spent money to buy water.  Then tossed the empty plastic bottle in the trash.  What gives with that?

People from across the thought spectrum in the United States talk about “common sense.” And then we spend millions of dollars on bottled water. Common sense?  I’m not so sure of that. And we throw away the bottles. Again, is this common sense? No way Jose.

I have a colleague who feels bottled water is totally fine because “I always recycle the bottles.” Good for you! But if you did not purchase the bottled water to begin with you would save lots of resources and money and energy. And your purse would be fatter.

The rain falls and falls. Free water. Clean water. Healthy water. If you on board with understanding the tragedy and the scam of bottled water, then I’m glad to hear it. If not, then consider watching the Story of Stuff video about bottled water.  It might enlighten you.

For other stories about water issues around the world, check out the Blog Action Day web site.

Foliage For Now

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Not Bad, Eh?

Things are popping around these parts at this point. Yesterday and today were just simply glorious, fabulous, lovely, or whatever other descriptors I don’t typically use to describe, well, anything really. I was out early this morning and, once again, was reminded that I live in a beautiful place. It is always beautiful, and it is easy to take that for granted at times, but on days like today–hoo boy what a stunner.

A big fat rainstorm is predicted to hot tonight. We might get a couple of inches of rain, winds with 50 mile per hour gusts and cold temperatures.  My guess is we will have few leaves left at which to gawk when it has passed.  So it goes, however. We still have some fall left. And then, welcome winter. Once it snow, we will have a whole new wonder upon us.

First Frost

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It was cold last night. The thermometer read 32 degrees when I rose this morning. Frost on the pumpkins and all that. Winter on the way, baby.

Sun Coming Up on a Frosted World

Weather

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Last weekend we had some fine weather.  We took a family walk with some friends in Shelburne, had a picnic, enjoyed the views and the cool breezes.  Good times were had. We had some of this:

Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks

And some of this:

Walking Route

Last night, the clouds starting dropping their burdens. Today we had a whole lot of this:

Rain While Waiting for the School Bus

I walked around outside a bit today and I got wet more than once. I have to say, however, I love this stuff. Fall rain, with foliage turning and the cool air and woodsmoke in the air. I mean, does it get better than that?

More Hot Painting

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I didn’t get started as early as yesterday, but I did get some painting done on the house today. I got started about 8:30 because I needed new brushes, so I zipped to the hardware store before I could I could begin. I was working on the siding where there is a lot of trim, so it was slow going. I kept at it for a few hours, until 12:15 or so, then washed up and headed in for lunch. This is a big project for sure. I don’t really want to be painting when it is 88 degrees, as it was when I quit, but I need to paint while the sun shines, even if it is hot. Wicked hot.

Tomorrow I plan to paint under cover–walls under the roof of the porch, so it will be shaded, and if we do get those “slight chance of” showers I can keep working. Then I have the lattice to paint. That took pretty much forever when I primed it the other day and I assume it will take close to that or more with the regular old paint. Two more days of painting what I primed, then sanding (the part for my sander came in today) and more primer. Overwhelming, that is what you might call it.

I need to look into getting a sprayer. This house of ours is way too big to paint with brushes. We’ll see. Maybe I can rent one? We’ll see. For now I have brush work to do, and a deck to finish sanding, and some walls to sand. Oy. It will be hot again in the morning, but I will call it quits by lunch time. Then I will have the whole afternoon to sweat.

Where I Left Off

Lattice Waiting for Paint

Paint on House Siding

The Last Paint Left in the Brush

Holy Hotcakes

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So it has been hot. We have ourselves a heat wave. Records are falling, power is failing and people are slumping. I spent the morning painting the porch. My wife had said she did not want to me to do that, but when the weather is good for painting outside, I’m on it. I primed the porch and walls nearby two days ago. That took about ten hours. Today I was less ambitious. I only painted for four and a half hours. The thing is, it helped with the heat. It was 77 degrees when I started and the thermometer rose the whole time, but gradually. I was in the shade so when I was ready to knock off it felt hot, but no hotter than when I started. I am glad I quit then, however.

I saw 95 degrees as the high temperature here. That is hot enough. The children spent several hours swimming in a pool and I joined them after lunch. That felt good. I could handle living on a lake, no joke. A pool is nice, but a lake is the way to go. No chemicals and more water.

Yesterday the temperature was over 90 as well, but I missed most of that. I spent the day at the office–the air conditioned office. That felt good. People used to just deal with this kind of heat. Granted, it didn’t typically last so long (we will have temperatures in the 80’s until Saturday, then one day of high 70’s, then back to 80’s and hotter again) but they dealt. People used to escape to Vermont to escape the heat of the city, however. Bad strategy these days.

Tomorrow I will paint again. A high of 95 is forecast. I will need to get started early and crank. No dilly dallying. Too bad I need to replace my brushes, which means a trip to the hardware store before I can start. But so be it. It will be hot, but I need to get this painting done. If I wait until it cools down, we will get rain. I would rather choose to do it in the heat than not have a choice to paint at all. And once I clean up, I will go swimming. Maybe even in a lake.

Beautiful Day and Up Early Tomorrow

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Rode the ferry over to New York today. Had lunch, and an ice cream cone, and came back. Swam in the lake (only 59 degrees)–it felt great. A perfect June day. Tomorrow I am up early to go birding. 2:15. I could wait until 2:30 to rise but then I wouldn’t have coffee. No one has coffee to go at that hour so it’s make it or go without. Hopefully I will be successful in finding the birds I seek. Report tomorrow.

TTYL Vermont

One of two tractors, driven by teenagers, headed to New York

Like I said, a perfect day

Jammie Day

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Rain in Hinesburg

Rain today. I had considered heading out early to try to find some high elevation birds but thought better of it. It is the time of year for Mountain Birdwatch surveys, and I would need to be on top of a mountain by 4:00 AM. Birds won’t be out if the weather is too poor, so getting up in time to be at the start point by 4:00 AM isn’t what I’m talking about if it’s raining. I am glad I put it off. It was raining hard at 5:00 when I woke (briefly) this morning.

The children are still in pajamas. They are not in the same pajamas with which they started the day. They changed into cozier ones as the day has been damp and chilly. Current temperature, high for the day so far: 57 degrees.

I have been inside most of the day. I could have planted those late spring bulbs, but I called it on account of rain. Too wussy. My wife is out for a run at the moment. It wasn’t raining much at all when she left. She will be soaked when she gets back, however. Pouring, that is how you might describe the weather at the moment.

Soggy, soggy. I should put on some jammies myself. And brew up some decaf. And maybe make some popcorn. And read a book. I’m not getting to many projects today, in any case. I’m good with that.

Rain on the Deck

Canadian Smoke

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Last night we slept out in our tent next to the house. As we had the previous two nights as well. Apparently, this has become a tradition of sorts. This makes three years in a row for that activity on Memorial Day weekend. I woke with a sore back to the smell of smoke. The smell was faint at first, but got stronger. It was not worrisome. It smelled like a neighbor had a fire lit to ward off the morning’s chill. The temperature hovered around 50 degrees last night.

It turns out there are a series of forest fires in Quebec. The northern wind has been blowing the smoke our way. It seemed misty this morning but the sun should have long since burned off that business. What lingers is smoke:

No View Today

Not Fog

We’ve got some poor air quality for this Memorial Day. The wind is forecast to shift later today, so things should clear at some point. Maybe in time for the parade in Vergennes late this morning. In the meantime, no panting allowed.

Quiet Day

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Not much snow today. It fluffed down a little this morning but then it was dry. We got over 30 inches, close to three feet, of snow over the past few days. Yeah, baby. My wife was hoping for a snow day today but I was skeptical. School was held as previously scheduled. The roads were slick but not slick enough to keep learning from happening. My daughter wanted a snow day more because she was nervous about going back to school after a long break. She was fine of course.

We did get some crust. Freezing rain is about the worst possible thing after such a tremendous snowfall. Ice on top off all that amazing snow? Ouch! At least it was a thin crust, just enough to slice your cheek if you fell wrong. Yesterday we were falling with straight backs into a wall of fluff. Not today. After a big storm it seemed quiet today–no precipitation, hardly a breath of wind. It was gray, but not much happened weather wise. We were all back to work and school.

It is sad to see the holidays go. They offer such joy and such hope. A new year has begun and we are back at it. Will we discover new things about ourselves? About each other? Will we come around to the realities around us or will we still be too afraid? Will we keep joy? Will we play? I hope we will do all these things. I will try myself, as that is all I can do. It was a good day to start back. It truly felt like a renewal, like the real first day of the new year.

And we will be back at it again tomorrow.