Tourette's Weatherman

Uhm....might be time to start sending out the resume.

I know where I'll be tonight

"The way it happened was the equivalent to flipping the bird, frankly, to the rest of the world ... on an issue about which they felt so deeply."

That is how former New Jersey governor and the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Christine Todd Whitman describes the U.S. withdrawal from the Kyoto agreements in the film Hot Politics, airing tonight on FRONTLINE at 9 P.M. on PBS

I plan on popping some popcorn and settling in.

There is no more debate. This is a scientific issue that is occurring. Causes? If we are to be honest, nobody can say for sure they know with 100% certainty what is causing climate change. But when hundreds of the world's most knowledgeable climatologist agree on a theory, I tend to believe their reasoning based on their expertise alone.

What I really am concerned about, and always have been, is our government's attempts to quell the release of scientific information, in order to please the oil industry and their profits.

Money Quote:

"In my thirty-some years in the government," says top NASA climate scientist James Hansen, "I've never seen constraints on the ability of scientists to communicate with the public as strong as they are now."

But, I've already covered all that.

Now...extra butter or kettle corn? Hmmm....

April's split personality

(photo courtesy of CapitalWeather.com)

The schizophrenic month of April continues to be anything but average. High temperatures are either way below the normal high, or skyrocketing well above average. Take a look at the highs for each day listed below: Today, the normal high should be 69 degrees.
Forget April...we shot from February to June in one week.

1 60
2 82
3 77
4 58
5 47
6 48
7 41
8 46
9 48
10 52
11 54
12 61
13 57
14 56
15 48
16 47
17 56
18 54
19 56
20 71
21 72
22 81
23 83

Mapping in black and white

I love maps.

Looking at the changes that have occurred in a historic map, verses a current version.

Studying the visual trends in a thematic map.

Seeing something as a work of art, rather than just a static display of data.

Sometimes...when you see things displayed graphically, they make you stop and take notice.

Such is the case with the one above.

Take a look at it. It displays those states where interracial marriages were illegal in this country in 1952, and eventually repealed before 1967. It also displays the states that still considered interracial marriage illegal in 1967 when the Supreme court ruled the individual state laws unconstitutional.

Yes, that's right...in 1966, you could still be thrown in jail for falling in love with someone of a different race, and then marrying the individual. In fact, that actually happened in the Supreme Court case that overturned all these remaining "racial integrity" state laws.

In Loving vs. Virginia, the couple got married in D.C., and then returned to Virginia, only to be sentenced to one year in prison.

Money Quote by the Virginia trial judge:

"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."

As with everything in life, things fade. Memories of this case, and the people involved soon become a distant memory. New generations move forward and look back in disbelief at what people where thinking, and how could they have thought the way they did.

Such is the case with the social conservative.

I just don't get it. Throughout history social conservatives have been on the wrong side of every issue in history every time. Whether it was interracial marriage, women having the right to vote, or civil rights for blacks...they have always been on the wrong side, and worst yet, are proud of it.

Yesterday, New Hampshire's governor announced he would sign a bill, making the state the fourth to declare they will provide civil unions for same sex couples. Again, this isn't a matter of whether or not you think civil unions are right or not. It's an issue of whether or not you understand that being gay is part of the human condition, and if you DO understand that, then you would believe that everyone is entitled to committing themselves legally, or otherwise, to another person, the way they were intended to.

One day, perhaps in 2047, some blogger will be writing a post, using a map just like the one above....only it will be when the Supreme Court decision overturning every state law recently passed, banning or recognizing civil unions, or marriages, for same sex couples.

It won't be a blow against social conservatives in general, but rather another move forward for us a race and our understanding of what it is to be human.

Reflecting

Just finished watching "Flight 93"...wonderfully done. Just like with the Virginia Tech tragedy, you never know when it all could end suddenly. In a world that moves so fast...slow down,take the time to tell those you care about, "You love them".

This Blows

(photo courtesy of Accuweather.com)

The intense Nor'easter that has been wreaking havoc across the entire east coast, has resulted in some pretty impressive wind gusts here in the DC area.

D.C. 51 mph

Baltimore 52 mph

Manassas 49 mph

Winchester 57 mph

Leesburg 51 mph

Quantico 54 mph

Combine those winds with rain, a few ice pellets, and high temperatures only in the 40s, and it feels nothing like Spring. Someone needs to remind Mother Nature that the calender says April!

Something evil this way comes

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."
1 Peter 5:8

I really don't have any phobias to speak of.

However, when I was a kid, I remember having a fear of escalators. It was never the ones going up, but rather just the ones going down. As a small child, there was something frightening about standing on the edge, and looking down this ledge of moving stairs. The dropoff seemed too steep to get on slowly, and with care, and what if I didn't time it just right? Would I lose my balance and fall all the way to the bottom?

Then there was the issue of approaching the bottom. The jagged, steel teeth at the base...devouring the individual stairs as they disappeared underneath.
Those teeth were there, just waiting to inflict their damage to whatever approached them, and in my mind that was me. I used to watch them closely, and time my kangaroo-like departure, so that my feet would be nowhere close to those razor sharp man-eaters.

There was also the issue of possibly getting something caught while riding. "Don't stand close to the edge" You might get a shoelace caught in between. "Keep you hands on the handrail" You might pinch a finger. "Give me your hand...jump now!" Dear God, this is serious...I could have died if we didn't get off right at that moment.

At some point, I must have outgrown these fears, and those nightmarish childhood thoughts. They were only the makings of a child's imagination......or were they?

Yesterday, at the L'Enfant Plaza Metro Station I witnessed something that made those childhood fears all come screaming back to me.

Just a typical start to the day...riding the green line to work, and departing the train. Since I have to exit the station on the opposite side of the platform, once departing the train, I routinely take a small escalator up to get to the other side, where I ride another one back down to the platform.

I stepped on to the escalator and started up. A lady in front of me was reading the paper and had on a long winter coat. As she approached the top, she started to step off. The beast from below had other ideas.

The tail end of her coat had gotten snagged in the teeth at the top. The teeth were even worse than the those of my childhood nightmares...they were jagged, and dirty, and had been painted yellow. A Doritos bag lay there, playing opossum, rolling over and over, not quite allowing the beast a chance to grab it firmly and take it below. It was more determined with the coat...and the lady wearing it.

Suddenly, another rider screamed "Her coat is caught!" The lady had quickly assumed a squatting position, her back to the disappearing stairs behind her...her coat rapidly being sucked into the depths of the whatever escalator hell lies underneath. She was still in the coat.

Another woman screamed, and someone else yelled "Stop the escalator!!"

She had now fallen to her bottom and was leaning back...half of her jacket had been swallowed by the sadistic beast. Three other riders were holding her arms and trying to pull out her coat.

The crowd at the top created a backup of riders, unable to depart the moving devil...they tumbled on to one another at the top of the stairs...trying to avoid the sacrificial rider.

I approached the top just a few steps behind her, onlookers and those assisting her, blocked my way too. I crashed into them, squeezed my way over to the left and looked frantically for the "Emergency Stop" button.

There it was...I lifted the little cover (a buzzer goes off, if you've ever wondered) and smacked that sucker as if I were on Family Feud.

Everyone let out a huge, collective sigh.

A few people, at the bottom, mumbled because now they had to walk up.

Meanwhile, the once-sacrificial rider was still on her butt, with half her coat wedged in the stairs. She was able to get out of the coat, and was obviously quite shaken up over the incident.

A "Metro" man came right over and assisted her in retrieving the coat. It was torn in two places and had grease all over it...the beast had left its mark.

Everyone scattered, she picked up her paper and mangled coat, and continued on her way.

The "Metro" guy looked at me and said, "At least she didn't loose a toe like the last person that happened to."
I laughed nervously and went on my way.

I suspect I might try out the elevator tomorrow.

A very "spatial" artist

Geospatial art from a local D.C. artist.

Very, very cool stuff.

Will definitely be purchasing some of his work.

Brrrr...an Easter to remember

In one word...COLD!

Regardless, a great time with my niece and nephew who were up visiting with my sister, and her husband from Atlanta. While I had hoped for sunshine and warm days, my earlier prediction of making a tiny snowman with my niece and nephew, came true. Of course, they loved it, and couldn't have been happier...even if there was barely enough snow to cover the ground!

Records shattered across the mid atlantic and southeast over the weekend.

Just a few of the many record lows reported:

Washington - 29 degrees 0.4" of snow (record low and snowfall for the date)

Baltimore - 26 degrees 0.2" of snow (record low and snowfall for the date)

Richmond - 1.0" of snow (record for the date)

Charlotte - 21 degrees

Asheville - 22 degrees

Columbia - 26 degrees

Greenville - 24 degrees and latest ever recorded snowfall for April - Trace

Augusta - 26 degrees

Atlanta - 30 degrees

Jacksonville - 31 degrees

Not much better today...even the National Weather Service noted today how rare this run of unseasonably cold weather is:

"FIVE DAYS BELOW 50 DEGREES IN APRIL IS A RARITY IN THIS AREA...BOTH WASHINGTON AND BALTIMORE HIT FIVE CONSECUTIVE DAYS BELOW 50DEGREES WITH THE ADDITION OF MONDAY. EVEN WITH THE EXTENSIVE WEATHER RECORDS FROM BOTH CITIES...FOR APRIL THAT IS NEARLY UNMATCHED.FOR BALTIMORE...OUR CURRENT STREAK OF FIVE SUB 50 DEGREE DAYS TIES A STREAK MADE OVER 70 YEARS AGO IN APRIL OF 1935. THE ONLY STREAK GREATER THAN THOSE TWO WAS SET BACK IN THE 19TH CENTURY.BETWEEN APRIL 1ST AND 6TH 1881...THE TEMPERATURE REMAINED BELOW 50FOR A RECORD SIX DAYS.FOR WASHINGTON...OUR CURRENT STREAK OF FIVE SUB 50 DEGREE DAYS IS THE FIRST TIME SUCH A STREAK HAS BEEN MADE IN APRIL SINCE THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. THERE WERE TWO OTHER STREAKS OF FIVE...IN APRIL 1898 AND APRIL 1886. HOWEVER...AS WITH BALTIMORE...THE RECORD LIES IN THE PERIOD BETWEEN APRIL 1ST AND 6TH 1881...THE TEMPERATURE REMAINED BELOW 50 FOR A RECORD SIX DAYS.TODAY...MAXIMUM TEMPERATURES ARE FORECAST TO GET JUST ABOVE 50DEGREES IN BOTH CITIES."

Enough. I want Spring back!

More than petals covering the ground?

This is crazy.

How many times have I heard this while down at the tidal basin, "Look, it's snowing!" as a sudden breeze blows thousands of pink and white cherry blossom petals from their branches, and they float down to the ground against a bright blue sky.

Well, that phrase might ring true, more than normal, here this weekend.

It never fails...company coming, and it either rains or is freezing. It's not going to rain this weekend, so there must be freezing temperatures in the forecast.

Hard to believe with high temperatures in the 70s and lower 80s the past few days, that we would be talking about highs in the 40s and even a chance of SNOW!

If there were a plus side to any of this, it would be that my two year old nephew and my four year old niece have never seen snow, so they would surely enjoy it.

While I envisioned cherry blossoms, and the Easter Bunny, being the highlight of their visit, their most exciting moment may just be making a 4 inch high snowman in my backyard with just a dusting of snow covering the ground.

Perhaps this isn't such a bad forecast after all.

Weekend View

In Georgia, once again, this past weekend.

Sunshine...dogwoods in bloom...family and friends...and the "Tour of Homes" going on.

Pete and I spent time measuring every inch of the potential future home...all the dimensions down, sketching out ideas...and worrying.

Lots of work to be done.

It's a big step, but I want to do it.

Hitting some speedbumps along the way.

Inspection Done.

No big surprises.

Needs to be entirely rewired, portion of roof is sagging, plumbing issues, and lots of cosmetic work.

New offer going in to see if seller will pony-up for these costs.

Ugh.

Want this to go smoothly.

Keeping my fingers crossed.