"Say it ain't so, Joe..."

OK, I won't.

I'll say, "Say it ain't so, Bob!"

Ah, 'tis.

As of 5:20pm today, Sunday December 31 in the year of our Lord 2006, my Sony computer tower was sitting in a very reputable repair shop undergoing bench testing to troubleshoot my 'issues'...

All I was going to do was beef up the video card in my 4-year old tower, which necessitated the installation of a 550 watt power supply (twice the original one)...installed without too much of a problem...worked great, too...


Ever heard the expression of "let a sleeping dog lie"? Well, I was heading in this direction, anyway, of upgrading my video/audio processing program to Pinnacle 10.5 Media Suite...with each of the 4 discs I put in they prompted me asking if I wanted to reboot to the new material then and there...but I knew I could do it all at once...including the upgrade to the 3-D radar rendering I spoke of earlier....

And when I did a restart...*boom*...*kabamm*...*blurp*... *diiiiiiiiiiingzleeeeeeeep*...something somewhere went terribly wrong and awry. Hard drive? Motherboard? Software? Just the hardware? Both hard and software? That is where I am at the moment. Dead in the water without my 'puter, awaiting further tests Monday morning.

So the saga continues. The Gorgon Sisters were not aware of their half-siblings, which I have now, unfortunately, brought to life. I will most certainly keep you updated on my less-than frolicking fun here on the last day of 2006...wheee. Feel the excitement....!

Thanks for your support...but I don't think I'll be posting again until sometime next year....

Heinz ketchup and Karo syrup....

Just like the old ads of ketchup that took forever to drip out of the bottle...or the refrigerated Karo syrup that took two forevers to pour out...I am in the slooooow process of upgrading my computer to a larger power supply and beefed up graphics card for enhanced recording/video production, as well as being able to analyze NWS radar data in 3-D mode for virtually all parameters of storms...neat stuff...

HOWEVER...typical of something like this, one step opens up one can of worms, which when itself is opened up opens up another can of worms...and so on and so forth...I'm adding this quick post to say 'stay tuned' as I have to do some real computer surgery and (hopefully) solve my myriad 'issues' that have just appeared.

And Greek mythologians said there were only 3 Gorgon sisters...

Birthin' Babies...

To quote Prissy (actress Butterfly McQueen) from

"Gone With The Wind":

"Lawzy, we got to have a doctor. I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!"



Me, neither. At least not the 2-legged varietals...but I did give 'birth' to my first flute since my shoulder dislocation, pictures I had to withold until after Christmas...this was a surpise gift for someone in Texas that, knowing my luck, would have run across it and spoiled the secret.




It is one of my more unusual designs...I make a series of Ugly Boy Flutes called Half-Pipes that are literally half of a round-bore, traditional flute in design...flat bottoms with a semicircle bore in the flute body. Zero loss in sound quality, just a less expensive option for those that need one.

But you can glue two bodies on either side of the flat bottom and have the makings for a dual-chambered flute called a drone...with the barrels being kinda sorta like half flutes, an over-and-under Half-Pipe drone is like a regular version of a flute, only a little fatter thanks to modified bore ratios that I will NOT venture into here.

The bottom 'drone' side has no holes, but through gentle breath manipulation will play the fundamental 'drone' note or it's overblow note one octave higher; the top bore/playing barrel is a 6-hole keyed pentatonically (standard fare on today's Native American style flutes).


This flute is a mid-range G and about 23" long overall...and each barrel has it's own blowhole so you can separate playing the two if you wish. However, given the size of this flute, the over-under mouthpiece design is just too large to be comfortable...works fine on smaller, higher key flutes, but not this puppy. So I added a section (dark brown, Walnut) that rotated the blowholes into a horizontal format, and offset the playing barrel for ease of performing.


The main wood is Quilted Maple from Oregon; the heartline is mahogany, as is the mouthpiece and fetish blocks covering the airways. The little mountain scene at the end/foot of the flute is partly aesthetic to represent western NC and partly functional as it helped to slightly drop the pitch of the playing barrel to more closely match the drone barrel pitch.

Next on the list is a very special flute that has been commissioned by Charlotte Country Day School, with a due date of February 7. A beauty this one will be, in curly maple, figured walnut (lighter sapwood, unusual), and figured cherry...sounds like another blog entry for another day!

Speaking of another day, enjoy yours!

I know you've thought this before....

Once upon a time in Greenville, NC, there was a young man who worked for a very unpredicatable boss, whose unpredictability was especially noxious inbetween Christmas and New Year's Day.

After having worked long holiday hours up through Christmas Eve, the young man had planned to take a few days off of work to travel to and enjoy his sweetheart's company after Christmas. Alas, Scrooge is alive and well as his boss decided at the last minute to cancel this young man's 'off' days and reassign him work, strongly pressuring him to cancel his plans to be with his love and best friend who was hours away at this very special time of the year.

There is no more to the story at this time. But in honor of all of us who have worked for people that surely must have an address in Hades, I present to you a list of things you could enjoy saying to them, useful as well for for coworkers or clients at just the right moment....


"Things you'd love
to say at work..."

1. I can see your point, but I still think you're full of puppy poop.

2. I don't know what your problem is, but I'll bet it's hard to pronounce.

3. How about never? Is never good for you?

4. I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public.

5. I'm really easy to get along with once you people learn to see it my way.

6. I'll try being nicer if you'll try being smarter.

7. I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message.

8. I don't work here. I'm a consultant.

9. It sounds like English, but I can't understand a word you're saying.

10. Ahhh...I see the screw-up fairy has visited us again...

11. I like you. You remind me of myself when I was young and stupid.

12. You are validating my inherent mistrust of strangers.

13. I have plenty of talent and vision; I just don't give a rat's derriere.

14. I'm already visualizing the duct tape over your mouth.

15. I will always cherish the initial misconceptions I had about you.

16. Thank you. We're all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view.

17. The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist.

18. Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.

19. What am I? Flypaper for freaks???!!!

20. I'm not being rude. You're just insignificant.

21. It's a thankless job, but I've got a lot of Karma to burn off.

22. Yes, I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.

23. And your crybaby whiny opinion would be...?

24. Do I look like a people person?

25. This isn't an office. It's Hell with fluorescent lighting.

26. I started out with nothing and still have most of it left.

27. Sarcasm is just one more service we offer.

28. If I throw a stick, will you leave?

29. Errors have been made. Others will be blamed.

30. Whatever kind of look you were going for, you missed.

31. I'm trying to imagine you with a personality.

32. A cubicle is just a padded cell without a door.

33. Can I trade this job for what's behind door #1?

34. Too many freaks, not enough circuses.

35. Nice perfume. Must you marinate in it?

36. Chaos, panic, & disorder-my work here is done.

37. How do I set a laser printer to stun?

38. I thought I wanted a career; turns out I just wanted a salary.

Cheap Christmas Neighborhood Quiz….

I imagine the majority of you are settling in to the rhythms of Christmas Day which quickly approacheth. In taking Mercy for her late-afternoon walk, the day’s light quickly faded by the time we hit the home neighborhood upon returning.

Knowing I don’t normally post on the weekends, and having absolutely nothing to really talk about as I pretty much unplugged my brain after work Friday, I started to have little gurgling random thoughts…I know, I know, scary, isn’t it…

So, I’ll keep this short and sweet. Just a little question-and-answer quiz on things I saw that crossed my uncharted mind. Ready? Let’s do it...

Why are these air-filled yard ornaments getting so expensive?

Inflation.

What is the forecast pictured?

Rain, dear.

How do I know this is Santa on December 26^th?

He’s two-tired.

Why does this picture remind you of a cat walking on the beach?

Sandy claws.

What would you do to quickly study up on the manger scene?

Take a crèche course.

See, painless wasn’t it?

Peace to all y’all…

The 'Terrible Twos' of Weather...

Mind you, in this lifetime I've been a parent only of the 4-legged canine variety...but I've been exposed enough to very young 2-leggeds to where I can appreciate "The Terrible Twos", and I extend unfettered sympathy to all who have and are dealing with it with their progeny...(even if this one is not quite in the "2" category...)
Winter forecasting is one tick short of full-fledged insanity here in the Southeast...while our Holiday trickery for the Triad is one of nuances in timing and temperatures, it is nonetheless a pain in the patoot when each model run wildly varies the upcoming scenario...

...systems strengthen suddenly, disappear suddenly, cold air stays north, then suddenly appears 3oo miles south, highs are over Pennsylvania, then they're over wester Illinois...all that and then some...it is simply a CYA forecast for us at News 14 as we try to peg a week's worth of weather/travel concerns down to some sense of finiteness.

"CYA" you ask? Cover your "south-end if you're facing north"...I was hoping that I would see some semblance of 'agreement' in the models, but, alas, there has been precious little. What to do? Go with intuition deep within. The ol' gut call. Honestly, we'd be better off in life if we would learn and develop a sense of trust with our Inner Nudge instead of trying to rationalize every decision we make. The real Magic in Life is not found through 'thinking' and 'doing'...rather, it is about 'being' and trusting in the Process. After all, we are human 'beings', not human 'doings'...worth some thought.

Okay, so the extended forecast into next week is crazy...I'm off duty until Wednesday morning the 27th, officially...so what should I care? I just do care, plain and simple...comes with the territory. When you live your passion, it's 24/7...and even though my passions go far beyond weather, it's always a matter of "putting your best foot forward" just for the sake of always giving your best. All a part of 'being' who you are, not just doing a list of tasks. Got Milk?

putting my only feet forward in a 2005 Badlands snow...

No white Christmas here in the Carolinas, though Christmas night the mountains should see their rain become some light snow before precipitation ends early Tuesday. Speaking of snow, my aunt lives in Evergreen, Colorado, up in the Front Range next to Denver...checking out the co-op observer totals from this storm there...40", 44", 39"...and that's not counting the drifting going on! "Liquid equivalents" reported with that snow have it around 2.0" of water...ouch!

"weatherproof" my (see animal photo above)

And those poor people at Denver airport, built +20 miles outside of Denver in the middle of nowhere, ironically touted as 'weatherproof' in the world of airports. Pass the plate of Crow, please.

And now for a couple of other worthy seasonal links:

Phenomenal House Light Show Intricate house light display synched to music...

Have some fun with this interactive SNOWGLOBE

"Chineese Train Wreck..."

In college, where frugality reigned supreme, there would come that time in the week...or month...where you felt like a boarder at old Mother Hubbard's. Cupboards almost empty, you'd used up your cafeteria card, and you sat looking at a can of beef stew...leftover spaghetti...a can of pinto beans...a bag of boil-in-bag rice...so you'd just grab the biggest pot you had and dump it all in there together and fondly call it "Chineese Train Wreck." Makes my mouth water just to think about it....NOT.

Didn't know where I was going with this post today (like most days)...and I decided that I would just add unrelated ingredients to today's entry and create my unique eclectic stew for the day, hence the above reference to my culinary arts practices while at UNC-Chapel Hill.

I have another one of those double-shift duty days, so I'm feeling that excitement...NOT, once again. Being a dog lover and then some, I had run across this card on-line that I'd seen years ago in a store and thought you'd get a chuckle out of it:


In my tangential way, I thought of this card when I read an article this morning of a female Komodo Dragon about to give virgin birth in the UK...parthenogenesis, it's called, self-fertilization already known in some lizard species, but never dreamed possible in this lineage of giant reptiles.
You could retitle the above card as "Komodo Dragon Christmases" and have one lizard say, "Who knocked Flora up?", and they could all sit around saying, "Not me", "I didn't", "Never touched her", "Was that her name?", "If I could have been so lucky"...

Here is the news link: Komodo Dragon virgin birth
More on self-fertilization in nature: parthenogenesis

"Komodo" makes me think of an awe-inspiring group from Sado in Japan: KODO, precision percussionists that will knock your socks off...
The DVD "Live At The Acropolis" is WELL worth the investment. Drumming extraordinaire that will leave you glued to the screen...first saw it on a PBS fund-raiser years ago, the Acropolis show, which has been my favorite.


Time for more holiday humor...


And now back to musicians that will knock your socks off...and little musicians at that...check out this video link to "The Marimba Ponies" and try to remember what talents you were working on in elementary school...click HERE for the video (turn your speakers on!)

Reckon I'd better get to work. As you prepare for and experience this holiday period, be it Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, or today's Winter Solstice, may all your wishes come true....

"HEY, you got chocolate in my peanut butter!..."

Remember that ad for Reese's cups YEARS ago when 2 people bumped into each other and discovered a great new taste? If you don't, thanks for making me feel old...if you do, welcome to the party! Follow me, here...need to digress a moment....

So here in December we've recently had temperatures well up into the 70s, making it feel like anything BUT Christmas...and any hopes for even a cold Christmas seemed waaaaay down the pike of Reality. That's changed a bit, thanks to a shot of cold air now timed for a Christmas Day arrival...cold rains for the Triad, but should be cold enough for a little snow to mix in with rain up in the mountains...we'll have to watch the models closely to see how far south the cold will entrench.

While out in Rapid City, South Dakota 2 Mays ago, we had a nice 10" snow on May 11th, and in looking at the pictures I thought of a weather ad I could do:
"Hey, you got your May in my December!"
"Yeah, but you got your December in my May!"


So even if we don't have a white Christmas, I'll give you some pics from that May storm and you can daydream of it being that way next Monday! Without going into too much detail right now, I used to create weekly Video Postcards for my former station there, 1-minute vignettes of my nature photography with my flute music...but there is one, and only one postcard, that I actually sang for the postcard, to the classic tune of "Camp Granada"...I'm posting the "new and improved" lyrics I wrote along with the pics...sing it to yourself, lest your family or coworkers call the men in the white suits....


"Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh,
We just got some - frozen wadduh,
Though it's May out,with leaves and flowers...
the trees and branches fell and cut our powers.

There was thunder, there was lightning,
Watching people drive - was oh-so frightening!
And my puppy loved - romping to and fro;
Thank goodness I know not to eat that yellow snow!

People shoveled - out their driveways,
While Jamie Zepp's car - spun out sideways,
So let this postcard - serve to remember:
That here in May it can look like December!"

Blogger Headaches and Thomas Edison

I write because I love writing...and in having learned to play the piano, I had a manual dexterity in place to facilitate pretty fast-typing. Yesterday's entry of 'unknown' holiday movies was pure joy to write and fine-tune, the latter of which I do maybe just a little bit too much for my own good.

It was really pretty innocent...the post was up, and around 8am I realized I wanted to change an "i" to a "y" in one word...that was all, just one word...click on it, backspace, enter "y", then "republish"...and all hell broke lose on Blogger.

Fonts changed, type shifted, colors reassigned themselves, text disappeared, spacings vanished...it was nothing short of disaster. I have had Blogger misbehave before and it usually will correct itself in a matter of minutes...but not yesterday.

I tried every trick in the book to get it to post correctly...and it all looked fine and correct in my drafting window...but when I hit "publish" it all went out the window. So back and forth I went, looks fine - won't post, looks fine - won't post, looks fine - won't post...and typical of the situation that has never happened before, I had teased it to the viewers to go read for a chuckle...and I had to keep it offline while I feverishly tried to figure it out. I put a temporary paragraph up explaining the problems and for readers to check back...one of those situations you couldn't just let sit for another time...I had to keep hammering at a solution.

The only thing I figured I could do was to rewrite a whole new entry, which I did, and while it has minor spacing glitches, I at least got it up. And it only took a little over an HOUR for all of this to transpire...was it wasted time? I don't think so, but I sure had other things I then had to catch up and take care of...and it proved to me that this blog is a labor of love...and if one person gets something out of what I pen here most days, it's worth the effort.

In backing away from my 'trouble trees' and looking at the 'regional forest' as a whole, I question how many people today, especially younger people, have that drive to excel simply on a personal level...with our widespread technical advancements that make life faster and supposedly easier, there are often ways to cut corners in accomplishing some 'marker' on some timeline. We have clearly become a Society that is, arguably, lazy in many respects, physically and ethically...and I wonder who of us really has the moxie to reach deep down into their gut when the going gets tough...or who chooses the easier way out, rolls over, and cries 'victim' while pointing fingers at any and everyone but themselves.

Don't forget the core of finger pointing...and you can try this right now: point at something or someone...one finger points to your focus, and 3 curl back and point back at you. 'Nuff said.

And the Thomas Edison reference in the title? Keep in mind, he was no prince to his family and kids...quite to the contrary. Yet his accomplishments remain mind-boggling and felt in every corner of daily life. Life is a balance we all strive for while experiencing it slipping through our fingers all too often. But it takes work, and attention, and effort...for those willing to forge and succeed. I would like to think this quote of his has a place in every classroom and office around the globe:

"Opportunity is missed

by most people

because it is

dressed in overalls

and looks like work."

- Thomas A. Edison

"Coming Attractions..."

Because it is that special time of the year where we all get too busy and too rushed for our own good, defeating the purpose of the holidays to begin with...I thought I would share with you some little-known movie trivia from Hollywood's vaults...movies that, well, just didn't make it beyond the proverbial 'cutting room' floor for their holiday season big screen debuts...

"Frosty The Marshmallow Creme Man"

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

The snow never fell for little Johhny, as his sled sat rusting by the shed in the spring-like rains and temperatures...that is, until that December night when he left the lid off of a jar from one of the 4 major food groups and forever changed the way Johhny ate and looked at this special season...

"Rudolph The Red-Neck Reindeer"
-------------------------
Yeah, ol' Rudolph had had enough..all the other reindeer had just cut him out of what would be their last reindeer games...and they would never again call him 'Rudy-Patooty'. Discover what happened that 'other' foggy night when Santa turned his back to go home and have a piece of Mrs. Claus's Rum Raisin Pudding Cake...

"The Little Hummer Boy"

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

He had no gifts to bring except his gas-guzzling tank of an unnecessary SUV to the crib that night...which would not have been all that bad until the 3 Wise Men showed up in one Accord...

"Miracle on 5921 W. Friendly Avenue"
--------------------------
A heart-felt story of a newlywed couple who, together for their first Winter Solstice realized the true magic of television news that only digital cable can cring, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from News 14 Carolina in the Triad...

"Carol Of The Cow Bells"

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

This 'moooving' account of a dairy farmer facing floreclosure is one of Magic that only the holidays can instill. Joe Tillery cud not believe his eyes when he woke up that morning...to his udder amazement, his herd had rallied together and squeezed out an overnight milk-fest, so the cream of their crop could be taken to market for that direly needed farm-saving sale. The problem? They had no opposable thumbs with which to drive the trucks. Do they beat the deadline? The drama will milk your emotions to the very last drop...

"How The Grinch Stole Hannukah"

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

Stealing Christmas was one thing; however, the Grinch, along with his bedraggled sled dog Max, decided to spread the thievery and go for stealing Hannukah in the neighboring village of Oyville. What the Grinch had not planned on was that, unlike the ONE night of Christmas, Hannukah goes for EIGHT nights...and after the third night's foray, neither he nor Max had the energy or desire to make any more runs. They quickly decide to abort stealing during "The Festival Of Lights", return all the gifts...then put on yamakas and spin the Dreidel so much they fall into a deep Dreamtime...

Answer: Professional Web Surfers

Question: What are cyber-spiders?

"What are YOU lookin' at? I didn't write that awful joke!!!"

Yeah, I'm reaching this morning...had planned to post pics of my first flute since my shoulder dislocation 2 months ago, brand new and hot off the finishing press yesterday...but then I got to thinking this is a surprise Christmas gift for someone in Texas, and there is a chance he might read this blog before then...so I chose to play conservative ball and not take a chance on spoiling anything. I'll post it after Christmas if I remember to (famous last words!)...

So, I'm sitting here wondering what to write about today...temperatures making it feel more like Jacksonville, FL 'round these parts than December in the Carolinas...good ol' foggy mornings that take their sweet time in clearing up, but once they do you feel like singin' "Up a Lazy River" with the Mills Brothers...which leads me to now think of having a nice big porch to lounge on (I don't...), which now leads me to picturing a good ol' pup stretched out on said porch, running rabbits in its sleep...which then leads me to thinking that a great name for a southern dog would be "Magnolia"....and you can just hear someone with a voice reminiscent of Foghorn Leghorn drawling, "I say Mag-NOL-yah, come here, gurl!"...which then makes me think of other great names for dogs...like naming a black lab "Velcro"...or a little tan Cockapoo "Crouton"...

That, my friends, is the random processing my brain goes through at all times, ad nauseum. Just sitting here thinking to myself, "If folks had even a passing thought that I might be a few fries short of a Happy Meal, I've just removed all doubt..."

And all this started with the web surfers title...in poking through some file pics from last summer, I ran across some more close-up shots in line with yesterday's post of raindrops on a web...this set of a really cut little bugger of an arachnid

that I tried to get up close and personal with as much as I could up near Craggy Gardens on the Blue Ridge Parkway...and another gratuitous raindrop-on-leaf shot from that same day, which was

replete with socked-in mountains, no views, and occasional showers. There's always beauty under your nose folks, always and all ways.

Yep, I can sure get off on instant tangents with the best of 'em, so enjoy my little "left turns at Albuquerque". Have a good day, now, y'hear?

"Keeping It Simple..."

"The moment one gives close
attention to anything, even
a blade of grass, it becomes
a mysterious, indescribably
magnificent world in itself."

- Henry Miller

And so I began this post after yesterday's serious, technical nightmares at News 14 Carolina's "command central" in Raleigh...not to mince words, it was a brutal day for any and everyone that had to surmount catastrophic systemic failure across the 3 broadcast offices in North Carolina, which lasted close to 12 hours. Supposedly, the ship has been righted...let us all hope so.

Didn't get Mercy into the woods for her overdue romp until 1pm...by then, the sun had been out, all was dry, and I was degassing as fast as possible. The woods, by now, a quilt of tans, browns, and grays, spindly branches reaching out as if to try and grab back the covering leaves that have been long gone....and as we did our little bushwhacking thing for our sense of pseudo-adventure, I was about to put my foot down and noticed the small spiderweb on the forest floor...with my camera almost always with me, I thought I'd look a closer look at it...

(Now would be a good time to re-read the above quote if it has slipped your mind...)

I constantly find some of the most wonderful, cool, beautiful, and healing things right under my very nose, even in the middle of chaos and our overly busy lives...it can help you become one of Life's Peaceful Warriors when you are able to stop, be thankful, and simply marvel at even the smallest gifts which are everywhere all of the time...to make the choice to simply stop...and enter a silent, mind-full (mindful) state and let the world temporarily whiz by.

Just a litte web, or remnants of one, with unevaporated raindrops still clinging to the silky threads...(you should be able to click on each picture and enlarge it to see more details)

Moving in more closely, you feel this wonderful sense of suspension, as if the water drops were miniature marionettes being held above a leaf stage...

And in moving yet closer you see wonderful mini-beams of reflected sunlight, the rounded drops of cohesive water molecules...these little guys above look like little creatures with their paired 'sun eyes' refracting through the curved lensing field of the drops...it is an easy thing, and a good thing, to detatch mentally from Life's "noise" once in a while and just lose yourself in such tiny worlds...I highly recommend it, on a daily basis...

So, go find your little pocket of beauty and enjoy it...it's always closer to you than you think it is...and because a dear friend ended an email with the following applicable quote, I'll end with some of Thoreau's far-reaching wisdom:

"As a single footstep will not
make a path on the earth,

so a single thought will not
make a pathway in the mind.
To make a deep physical path,
we walk again and again.
To make a deep mental path,
we must think over and over
the kind of thoughts we wish
to dominate our lives.

As you simplify your life, the laws
of the universe will be simpler;
solitude will not be solitude,
poverty will not be poverty,
nor weakness weakness.

Our life is frittered away by
detail... simplify, simplify."

- Henry David Thoreau


(One last little picture of water drops on a White Oak leaf from yesterday...)

"One Flu Over The Cuckoo's Nest..."

Well, flu, stomach 'bug', whatever, it laid me out literally for a solid day...I bet I wasn't vertical for more than 30 minutes total those first 24 hours. Nothing in the realm of Cuckoo-dom (my head), just all in the tummy (outside of significant achiness all over) with a nice little fever to help boost a quick weight-loss program.

During the worst of it, I remember two things:
1) how good it felt to stretch every 5 minutes and roll into a new position, and...
2) how friendly and helpful the pink-striped elephants were to me...
And like all good 4-legged souls, Mercy knew I was way out of whack and kept a close watch on me the entire time, resting with me when she wasn't drooling over squirrels out the back windows.

In my line of work, calling in sick is a major deal, given we are simply short-staffed at the best of times. Thanks to Tara Lane for filling in from the Charlotte staff and making her first weekday early morning weather appearance in the Triad! With the fever having broken early yesterday, I'm climbing back in the saddle.

-------------- NOW THE FUN STUFF! ---------------------

This is a REALLY cute link...and you thought Santa's reindeer's talent was just flying through the sky! (..besides playing reindeer games, of course...) Click HERE to watch a fun holiday number...

I hope this works...it's an audio link from a benefit concert, a group of professional musicians from New Orleans play a stirring rendition of "O Holy Night"... click HERE for just the audio file. If it fails to open, click HERE and then scroll down the left column to the circular seal for the "Tipitina's Foundation"...to the right it will say 'free download' of the song...the song and musicians were recently part of a TV episode...click HERE if you want to see the musicians and the environment in which they played the song, although it's a bit interrupted with the story line of a former cocaine addict thrown in...

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

Well, here I sit now at 5:37am...as my work compatriot on the Charlotte side, Jeff Crum, likes to say, the Hal 9000 has rolled over dead this morning in Raleigh...and I mean on its back with legs up in the air...so I have yet to go live for any weather...serious issues, this time, serious issues...

Ah, technology - can't live with it, can't live without it...excuse me while I go hurry up and wait...

Carpe diem, y'all!

Maybe I should change the name....

...to "Bob's Blah-Blah Hawk Blog"...! I never have any idea what I'll write to this blog...so I just go along and when an idea grabs me I take the ball and run with it.

I had a very brief Sunday afternoon encounter with the hawks that have become quite a mainstay in my life of late...and I'm talking brief. Maybe all of 50 seconds, if that long...


but here are a few more pictures of one of the pair taking wing and making a couple of circles before climbing high on the thermals to join the other hawk and a pair of Turkey Vultures waaaaaaay up in the sky.


That was it. I still have a lot to come to terms with when shooting digitally, getting comfortable with all the parameters I can tweak at any time...so I'm still doing a lot of testing and making plenty of mistakes as I get a little better. Thankfully the winged ones are fairly patient with me!


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Kinda excited this week...since my shoulder dislocation, my flute-making slammed to a definitive halt this fall. However, this week will see my first 'creation', since that fateful fall, come to life. I'm down to the final sanding stages, and then the finishing stages which in themselves take days to complete...but I'm finally there.

I intrinsically 'feel' my flute work with my right hand...it has been good to teach the left how to fill in, but my right hand touch and feel is super-sensitive to my flute making, so I use it with pain as my guide. My good ol' orbital palm sander does fine work for me, but the injured right shoulder can take only about 10 minutes of the weight and vibration before it screams at me to leave it alone. Before too long I'll post the pics of my new 'baby'...and like most of what I do it's a bit on the unusual side. 'Nuff said for now. Been a slow train a-comin', it has.

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After the bitter cold snap days ago, I've been scrutinizing the model runs going out 168 hours...no other arctic outbreak from Canada appears poised to rush in; to the contrary, high pressure plays a dominant role over the Southeast-Bermuda corridor keeping wintry storminess well north up toward the Great Lakes. Yeah, some rain Tuesday night through Wednesday, but outside of a minor adjustment in temperatures, we should remain a bit above average highs this time of year, temperature wise, through early next week. Shop away!

Jack Frost bit us in the butt...

Just a quick note as I'll be out of town and not posting again until early Monday morning. Talk about your cold and frosty start to the day! I think Charlotte set a new record low of 14...ouch.

Of course, in all the cold is real beauty in the form of frost on the leaves as well as the large crystals on my car windows this morning, hence a few pics I took I felt like sharing.



Had to run by the station this morning and took the wrong road in...forgot all about a big running event being held...in the classic wrong place at the wrong time! But I got to see some real characters jog by, and Mercy never could figure out what was going on.


I think the best was a guy jogging with a Fender electric guitar with a small amp clipped around his waist, playing Jimi Hendrix Christmas carols...go figure...all I know is I do well if I can just jog my memory....

Enjoy the warming weekend!!!

"Of Sun Dogs and other clouded issues..."

Yesterday's cold front sure brought in the frozen bacon this morning, eh? And those winds didn't help matters much, either...the picture above was kinda neat in that it shows how strong the winds were aloft with the jet stream shredding the cirrus clouds overhead, making them more wispy than normal.

This is also the time of year that we see an optical phenomenon known as Sun Dogs rather often in the late afternoon hours with the sun low in the sky. It takes good clear air, a nice layer of icy cirrus clouds at just the right angles and orientations...and, magically, you'll start seeing two bright orb-ish spots about 22-degrees to either side of the sun...


...and they're especially cool if you put on polarized sunglasses, which helps clarify the colors by reducing a bit of the scattering glare going on. Depending on the many variables, they may last minutes or quickly change in and out...or if clouds are only on one side of the sun, you'll see only the one bright spot since it takes the ice crystals in the clouds to produce the effect.

You can also sometimes see an actual halo that joins these Sun Dogs in circumnavigating the sun, though the Sun Dogs, themselves, are seen are on the horizontal plane with the sun. The Sun Dogs pictured were taken just last weekend. Even though they are technically known as 'Parhelia', 'Sun Dogs' is much more fun to say!

Now, on to a very weird topic that is intriguing, far-fetched, yet not out of the realm of possibility: macro-scale modification and manipulation of weather by means of secret technologies. The man spearheading this subject was until recently an Idaho TV meteorologist, Scott Stephens .

(weird cloud pattern I shot last weekend near Charlotte...)

Even if you immediately are closed to the idea, I would urge you to take the time and read what he has to say...it is a complex theory, to say the least, with evidence that is often overwhelming...and at the very least you will know that something in the skies 'just ain't right'. There is a ton of information to peruse, so you might want to bookmark his site once you click HERE to get to the homepage.

And it was only last weekend that I looked up into the cirrocumulus cloud deck and photographed the rather bizarre cloud hole seen above...always pays to observe, even if you have no answers...

Which reminds me of a joke: Did you hear the one about the philosophical cloud giving a lecture?

Aw, never mind...it's over your head.

" 'Tis that time of year, ya know..."

Rudy and Terri Thread have a marriage that was, well, made in the heavens, I guess you could say. They met while they were meteorology students at Penn State some nine years ago. Rudy's main area of study was hydrology, while Terri's niche was Great Lakes climatology.

It must have been love at first forecast; only 5 months after their first date, they were engaged to 'weather' life together as husband and wife. You can always tell a healthy, strong relationship by the ability of the partners to banter and verbally spar in a playful, even competitive way...and end it all with a good belly laugh and a hug.

It's pretty normal in the Thread household to stage contests to see who can nail the high temperature for the most consecutive days, or predict what weather will occur one month out, that sort of thing. All in good fun, of course. Terri worked at a local National Weather Service office and Rudy for a competitor of sorts, Accuweather. You couldn't argue against the fact that they truly respected each other.

This time of year, forecasting gets even more squirrely since concerns arise over potential snows, ice storms, even with severe weather and tornadoes mixed in. Just last week they had such a situation bearing upon their area. Terri and Rudy began laying their bets on what was going to happen with the incoming storm system.

Terri had seen many early season storms like this one, and knew there was a potential to have rain quickly ice up with cold air invading quickly with the precipitation. She voted for a moderate ice storm followed by a dusting of snow. Rudy shook his head and said, "You National Weather People are all the same, over-forecasting events...we've been too warm, and the air mass will moderate almost immediately...sorry, babe, no wintry weather this go-'round, just the liquid phase."

Terri scoffed as she quickly retorted, "And you private sector meteorologists think you are God's gift to forecast wizardry, but I have news for you: you put your pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us!"

Now things were getting good. Smart guys learn tricks from women along Life's path...like using someone's formal name to get a point across, so you don't have to raise your voice...just inflect the ol' childhood enunciations we all remember well...

"Is that so, THERESA? Like you have Kreskin in your head and know ALL there is to know about winter storms?"

"Yes, RUDOLPH. Need I REMIND you I've won the past 4 contests in a row????"

The gloves were off. The gauntlet had been thrown down. He had been challenged to yet another duel. He was like a cougar in a box canyon, and could only blurt out one thing...

"RUDOLPH THREAD KNOWS RAIN, DEAR!"

"Why, it's elemental, my dear Watson..."

It doesn't take ol' Sherlock to tell us it's feeling like December outside...and come Friday, the only sleuthing you'll do will most likely be indoors in front of the fireplace or heater. Still a quiet weather pattern...no tricks up the ol' meteorologic sleeve, either.

Very simply, we dip for one big cold shot for about 24 hours or so, then start climbing out of the cellar Saturday afternoon all the way through the middle of next week. Nothing extreme one way or the other, just a good ol' dip...

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And so I ran across these new scientific discoveries of natural elements to be added to the Periodic Table I saved a while back...thought you would get a chuckle out of them as I still do, today!...
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2 New Elements To Be Added
To The Periodic Table

1. Element Name: WOMANIUM
Symbol: WO
Atomic Weight: (Don't even go there)
Physical Properties: Generally soft and round in form. Boils at nothing and may freeze at any time. Melts when treated properly. Very Bitter if not used well.
Chemical Properties: Very active. Highly unstable. Possesses strong affinity with gold, silver, platinum and precious stones. Violent when left alone. Able to absorb great amounts of exotic food. Turns slightly green when placed next to a better specimen.
Usage: Highly ornamental. An extremely good catalyst for dispersion of wealth. Probably the most powerful income reducing agent known.
Caution: Highly explosive in inexperienced hands.

2. Element Name: MANIUM
Symbol: XY
Atomic Weight: (180 +/- 50)
Physical Properties: Solid at room temperature, but gets bent out of shape easily. Fairly dense and sometimes flaky. Difficult to find a pure sample. Due to rust, aging samples are unable to create electricity.
Chemical Properties: Attempts to bond with any WO any chance it can get. Also tends to form strong bonds with itself. Becomes explosive when mixed with KD (Element: CHILDIUM) for prolonged periods of time. Neutralize by saturating with alcohol.
Usage: None known. Possibly good methane source. Good samples are able to produce large quantities on command.
Caution: In the absence of WO, this element rapidly decomposes and begins to smell.

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And there you have it. Enjoy your Hump Day, y'all.

"Dear Santa...."

"As always, I'm sure you have had a really busy year up at the North Pole, getting ready for that special time of year where you do the impossible. I thought I would go ahead and send you my "Top 10 List" of gifts that I'd like for you to give to my fellow Carolinians. I hope it's not asking for too much...but it sure would be swell if you could give it a shot. Pet the reindeer for me!"

10. In anticipation of the winter ahead, could you please place thermal piping under all roadways so that any wintry precipitation will melt? It sure would make for less headaches on the commutes.

9. Speaking of wintry weather, could you also please bring us 2 more full-time meteorologists for the News 14 Triad office? They don't have to be paid much, since none of us are, but they sure would help with the work load when it gets really hairy...

8. For all of our gazillion dollars going overseas, could you help keep even a portion of that locally so we can better help the homeless and those in critical need, right here in our hometowns? I promise you would get a huge bang for your buck by doing that...

7. Could you have Mrs. Claus and the kitchen elves bake unlimited pans of Humble Pie so we can continue to tame inflated egos and self-righteous bigotry in hopes of trying to play together more nicely as a Society? It gets kinda squirrely here on a regular basis these days...

6. I've already talked with Rudolph about this one, and he agrees: we could use a one-million acre preserve so that all the wildlife displaced by uncontrolled development in Charlotte, the Triad, Asheville, and Raleigh can have someplace to live in peace...

5. Speaking of animals, please have oodles and oodles of dogs and cats be adopted from local shelters and all go to wonderful loving homes, and to remind people that older/grown pets can be equally as awesome and loving as the wee ones...(pun intended)...

4. How 'bout a big nice new high school for Eastern Guilford, to replace the one that burned down recently? They need and deserve it...

3. Speaking of schools, I was hoping you could give HUGE pay increases to all the teachers out there so they could begin earning more of what they deserve...and let the pro athletes and team owners hold bake sales!

2. Speaking of pro sports, could you please give a coil of SUPER-DUPER STRENGTH ROPE to the Carolina Panthers so they could maybe "pull it all together"??????

And, most importantly...

1. Could you PLEASE get cell phone headsets for every driver that talks while they drive so they can keep two hands on the wheel???????????????

Thanks for all the miracles!

Sincerely,
FluteBoy

"As the environment goes, so go we..."

I had a summer basketball camp coach drill this into our heads, that 'practice makes perfect'...only to have a star player show up during the session and say he'd rather us say 'perfect practice makes perfect!' I can't say it's perfect practice, but in once again pulling out my ungainly telephoto lens and putting it into use, I have found that I have much practice to go before reaching that adept zone to handhold a big telephoto lens for shooting things like my winged Brothers and Sisters, the Red-tailed Hawk. All of these shots came from early Sunday morning when I found the pair relaxing on a limb nearby...they visit with me often and have accepted my presence, and Mercy's, kinda sorta...

I hope you don't get tired of me posting these pictures (which should enlarge if you click on them)...they are therapy in many ways, and are nothing short of awesome at which to marvel...superior hunting machines with the keenest of eyes, sharpest of talons, most talented of winged flight...

...and in many of our backyards. We should all do our part to ensure they are protected, even as humans unwittingly overdevelop the landscape and remove crucial habitat...

These raptors, they are but one more litmus test for Society to gauge its level of self-destruction, which is arguably where many political decisions seem to be leading us these days...and we MUST accept personal responsibility to do what we can to avoid environmental disasters...

We were given ears to 'hear'...and Nature, at all times, speaks loudly to us if only we would open our closed minds to what we call 'progress'...arguably a substitute for profit-taking and greed on almost every front...and if we don't speak up for ourselves, no one else will. The 4-footed have no government representative...nor do the winged ones...nor do the slithery ones, or those that swim..."As the environment goes, so go we..."...

Sadly, these hawks nest in land slated for sale and more widespread development, adding travel woes to infrastucture that cannot handle the present load, much less the future one. I am not here to say the hawks have priority...but I am here to suggest that we are our own worst enemy, creating our own living nightmares, wishing we could blame someone or something else for the travel and social ills that we, ourselves, have created.

Which leads to a very powerful pivot point for us as a Society and World. We would do well to take the word "rights" and substitute "responsibilities" when assessing decisions. Yes, you have 'rights' to alter land, selling and developing homes and office parks that are already a dime a dozen...but what are your 'responsibilities' to the greater good of the community? Why do we consider 'progress' the building of something instead of the preservation of what already is? Progress would be for our elected officials to buckle down and say 'no' to certain developments once in a while instead of a giving out a widespread carte blanche for their developer buddies to proceed full speed ahead at every opportunity.

Stand up. Speak up. Or not. Just remember it is a personal choice each of us makes. May more and more of us back away from selfish 'rights' and embrace more unifying 'responsibilities' in our personal as well as professional lives.

"On the wings of Love..."

Here it is Friday...and we know why the Universe loves Fridays in general, don't we! TGIF!!! We have huge weather changes in the Triad for today's forecast period...the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season is over... December is here...all seems to be swirling from of-the-moment-concerns of this rather potent cold front and storm system....

I will not elaborate the point that last weekend involved the discovery of a suicide victim...and only minutes behind his family that first found him...made for a hard week on many fronts, and only recently have certain events led to a peaceful reconciliation...and it came from the most perfect of teachers to begin with....Nature. Which you can equate with God. Creator. Yaweh. Goddess. All of the above. None of the above...it really doesn't matter since it is ALL "Source."

So I looked to the Anchors in my Life to steady the keeling ship...anchors are those things that bring you to a 'Home' feeling, things that resonate a 'knowingness' and familiarity so as to help ground us as we move forward.

And so, Thursday afternoon I traipsed out with the Mighty Mercy on our diurnal woods walk, in tow with a new digital camera body for my Canon "L" lenses from my studio film days...darn good Thanksgiving sales at the stores, and I was ready to make the leap to procure it. As 'knowingness' would have it, my second of two pairs of red tail hawks (well, just one of the duo) was soaring in the increasingly strong southerly winds, playing as large-winged avians like to do...nary a flap needed...they simply tilt their head, adjust their wings, and they were off to the races, for time unmeasured.

Okay, so it was overcast, windy...the raptor at a great distance away, and my 460mm lens wobbling from lack of practice and heightened zooming overhead...but I got a few shots anyway and wanted to post them in honor my winged Brethren...and my words to each of you would be to not only honor all of Nature, but to take the time to notice what you see, the context in which you see it, and any other unusual parameters...it is not accidental that certain animals and facets of Nature occur when they do, in the manner they do...all is purposeful, and there are messages for all of us to consider.

So if nothing else, simply be Aware.....be appreciative...and give Thanks when your Heart tugs at you to do so. I feel like there may be something more to add, but for now I'm at peace to post this as-is.

In all things give Thanks.

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“Only in silence a sound,
Only in darkness a light,
Only in dying, life;
Bright the hawk’s flight
on the empty sky.”

- Ursula K. LeGuin