Category Archives: Weather

Winter Is Cold

December 3, 2005Blurbs, Domestic Goddess, WeatherMush

And I hate being cold.

I think Nature’s just showing off with this 6-degrees-outside crap. We all know there’s really no reason to be that far below freezing. (Actually, it’s 23 degrees out right now. But it was 6 when I drove home from band practice Thursday night.)

I’m sitting here at my desk in my office drinking a rapidly-cooling latte and surfing Fictionwise for something to read in front of the fire. My office is cold.

Brett’s going to want me to do crap with him today, he’s got this list he wants to get through but as usual I don’t really want to do what he’s doing. I want instead to do some cosmetic housecleaning and go shopping and invite some people out for manicotti and too much wine for dinner.

Bread got up early and drove the dump truck to the dump. It had about six months’ worth of household garbage in it and, he says, most of it was frozen to the deck and he had to kick and shovel it to get it to slide out.

We live too far out in the middle of nowhere for garbage service, so we used to burn the majority of our garbage, composting the wet stuff and recycling the rest. Then Bread got tired of emptying the ash from the burn barrel, so we switched to throwing everything into garbage bags and into the back of the dump truck. My recycling and composting juju is gone – I’m a terrible world citizen and you should mock me. (It’s incredible how much garbage two people make in six months, when you can see it just piling up in the back of the dump truck. It’s sick. Literally.)

In other news, I haven’t brushed my hair since Thursday.

Snowy Snowerson!

December 1, 2005WeatherMush

In which the Weather Service was right for once.

Hey, it snowed last night:

Snow on my Jeep

Since I don’t know where my scraper is, I took a broom outside and swept my car off this morning.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful
but the fire is so delightful
and since we’ve no place to go
let it snow! let it snow! let it snow!

I need a latte. And my feet are cold, even though I’m wearing tights under my pants with thick socks and boots. I like summer so much better than winter.

In other news, BoSean came out for dinner last night. I made pork chops, scalloped potatoes, and spinach salad. BoSean brought an organic apple pie; I ate a slice of it this morning before leaving for work. The label claimed the crust had – I shit you not – organic fruit shortening in it. WTF?

BoSean also DID THE DISHES. I love him.

Dog. Snow. Thing.

November 30, 2005Blurbs, Pets, WeatherMush

In which I list three unrelated, random things. Because this is my blog, damn it, and damn those ‘what to write about’ blog treatises too, because I’ve been blogging since before there was a fucking word for it and I’ll write whatever the hell I want to!

One. I made meatloaf for Bread’s dinner the night before last, and neglected to put it away fast enough. When I came downstairs around 8:30 that night, Bread was asleep on the couch and the meatloaf, which had been sitting in a pyrex dish on top of the stove, was gone.

Shiva had very carefully stood up on his hind legs and eaten a whole pound of meatloaf without knocking the casserole dish to the floor, since the sound of it shattering would surely have waken even Bread and earned that dog an ass whoopin’.

I mean, a whole pound of meatloaf?! Bad dog! (Clever, quiet, sneaky bad dog!)

Two. This wholly unwelcome news is just in:

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN QUAD CITIES HAS ISSUED A SNOW ADVISORY…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 7 PM THIS EVENING TO 6 AM CST THURSDAY.

A FAST MOVING WINTER STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE FROM EASTERN NEBRASKA TO WESTERN ILLINOIS BY THURSDAY MORNING…BRINGING WIDESPREAD SNOWFALL TO THE AREA. THE HEAVIEST SNOW WILL OCCUR FROM ABOUT MIDNIGHT TO 4 AM…WITH A BAND OF 2 TO 4 INCHES EXPECTED FROM EASTERN IOWA INTO WEST CENTRAL ILLINOIS.

THE SNOW WILL BE HEAVY AT TIMES…WITH VISIBILITY REDUCED TO A QUARTER MILE OR LESS AND SNOWFALL RATES POSSIBLY AS HIGH AS 1 INCH PER HOUR FOR A SHORT TIME. SNOWFALL TOTALS BY MORNING ARE EXPECTED TO REACH 2 TO 4 INCHES.

Guess what? The shitty weather’s here! Maybe I’ll get lucky and get snowed in and have to read books in front of the fire and drink lattes.

Once again I’m soooo thankful I have a 4WD! Not.

Three. Yesterday, Bucket gave me a cute little case for my external hard drive enclosure. You really can’t get much geekier than having a custom zippy case with a shoulder strap just for carrying your external USB drive around with you.

In other news, it’s five o’clock, and I’m off to the tavern for a hard-earned cocktail. Okay, all I did was move a couple of web sites and talk on the phone a few times, so perhaps “hard-earned” is pushing it. But it’s five and I’m still awake by God so I figure I’ve earned something.

It's Starting to Stick

November 16, 2005WeatherMush

In which my body still wants it to be August.

It rained all day yesterday. When I stepped out of the data center at about twenty past five yesterday evening, it was snowing. Big, fat, fluffy flakes swirling down everywhere. Ugh. But it was too warm to accumulate, so it managed to be nothing more sinister than cold and damp.

This morning, the jeep was running on empty and I couldn’t find the gas can so I had to drive dirt roads to the Batavia BP for fuel. My kneecaps nearly froze off as I stood between the car and the pump, trying to find the little doohickie that keeps the nozzle flowing so I could get back in the car out of the wind. Nine gallons, $20.11.

This morning the bank clock told me it was twenty degrees when I drove past. Snow is sticking to the grass, and in the corners between street and curb.

I am so not ready for this. I am so, so not ready for this.

I love weather!

September 8, 2005WeatherMush

In which the sky gets dark in the middle of the afternoon.

…SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL 150 PM CDT THU SEP 8 2005

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN THE QUAD CITIES HAS ISSUED A

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR… NORTHWESTERN JEFFERSON COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST IOWA SOUTHEASTERN KEOKUK COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST IOWA

* UNTIL 215 PM CDT

* AT 147 PM CDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING QUARTER-SIZED HAIL…AND DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH. THIS STORM WAS LOCATED NEAR PACKWOOD…OR ABOUT 12 MILES NORTHWEST OF FAIRFIELD…AND MOVING EAST AT 20 MPH.

* THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE NEAR… PACKWOOD BY 155 PM CDT RICHLAND BY 205 PM CDT

THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM. MOVE IMMEDIATELY INDOORS AND STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS.

LAT…LON 4120 9218 4105 9218 4105 9195 4120 9195

Of course, if this storm keeps on course it will move north of the town my office is in, and I will miss it completely. Which would suck. Maybe there’s another one behind it.

I love this weather/Cookery

August 12, 2005WeatherMush

I haven’t been outside all day, but it was darkish and overcast when I woke up the first time today. (I say “the first time” because I went right back to sleep.) It’s still overcast now, and I have to say I like the whole vibe. It might be body temperature out there, but it looks like it’s cooler.

This weather makes me want to cook.

I’m making curry for dinner tonight. I bought papadums and mint chutney at the store yesterday, and I’ve got lentils and basmati and ghee and all the spices I need to get my little Indian food freak on… Of course, my husband doesn’t like Indian food any more, so I might just make it now, eat some, and then feed him a sandwich for supper.

Not like Indian food? How can you not like Indian food, when you frequently and happily eat all the ingredients and all the spices in other dishes I make? Continue reading I love this weather/Cookery →

Tornado watch

June 5, 2005WeatherMush

Last night I wrote a big long post about how fucking shitty I felt on Friday(*), but then I lost it – sometimes browsers just eat things. Then a huge storm rolled in and I had to shut my computer down.

Brett and I walked up to the top of the driveway, it was around ten last night, and watched the light show for a bit. Lightning was crackling across the sky, the clouds were huge and forboding, and the wind was fresh and cool. I love Iowa summer storms. They’re huge, and loud, and beautiful, and scary, and the Northwest has nothing on them. They’re amazing.

“This is so disco!” I squealed, staring in awe at the flashing clouds. Brett stood beside me, solid and warm, and the wind whipped around us.

“We’d better go in. It’s about to start,” he said, and taking my hand he headed back toward the house. His weather sense is uncanny; the moment we stepped inside the rain came.

Stella huddled under the stairs in the basement for the duration.

~ ~ ~
(*) In a nutshell, I woke up Friday fevered and sick, with a horrible painful tightness in my chest. I was in that muzzy, fuzzy space that is sickness and I did not dig it.

If that weren’t enough, the whole day was basically a never-ending goddamned panic attack as well.

And on top of all THAT, my period started. Which is impossible, because i just had one sixteen days ago, and I’m supposed to be ovulating right now. MY HORMONES ARE TOTALLY FUCKED. Apparently I’m not producing enough progesterone to keep my uterine lining IN MY UTERUS, where it belongs.

Friday was about enduring. Just getting through the day, one minute to the next. It was, in point of fact, probably one of the two or three worst days of my entire life.

I have an appointment with my midwife next week. She said in her email, “Let’s see…pap, full exam, check your hemoglobin, etc, etc, etc. Also, straighten out your hormones, stop that infuriating mid-cycle bleeding, resolve all emotional/mental/physical/psychic symptoms… yeah, that will cost you $75.”

I love my midwife.

Of course, if I'd checked the weather

January 10, 2005WeatherMush

I never would have bothered blowing up the Jeep if I’d only paid some attention to Weather.com today:

… WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT TONIGHT…

A MIXTURE OF FREEZING RAIN AND SLEET WILL DEVELOP ACROSS THE AREA TONIGHT WITH AROUND TWO TENTHS OF AN INCH ICE ACCUMULATION EXPECTED. THE ACCUMULATION OF LIGHT FREEZING RAIN AND SLEET… WILL CREATE HAZARDOUS TRAVEL CONDITIONS… ESPECIALLY ON UNTREATED SURFACES.

ALONG WITH THE FREEZING PRECIPITATION… DENSE FOG WILL LIMIT VISIBILITIES UNDER A HALF MILE AT TIME.

Brrr

January 4, 2005WeatherMush

… WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT TONIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY NIGHT…

FREEZING RAIN AND SLEET WILL OVERSPREAD THE AREA THIS AFTERNOON… AND CONTINUE THROUGH WEDNESDAY BEFORE CHANGING TO SNOW WEDNESDAY NIGHT. SIGNIFICANT ICE ACCUMULATIONS OF ONE QUARTER TO ONE HALF INCH ARE EXPECTED… ALONG WITH SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 1 TO 4 INCHES. IN ADDITION… NORTHEAST WINDS OF 15 TO 25 MPH… COMBINED WITH THE SIGNIFICANT ICE ACCUMULATION ON TREES AND POWER LINES… COULD RESULT IN CONSIDERABLE TREE DAMAGE AND POWER OUTAGES.

Winter Storm Warning