The Home Front

What a sunrise!

There's a bit of mist or frost in the air this morning, and that along with the high clouds made for one of the most spectacular sunrises I've seen. For a few brief minutes, the entire sky - not just the eastern sky - positively glowed bright pink. Every window in the house was glowing nearly a fluorescent pink. It then turned to gold, then a bright yellow light.

Now that the sun is fully risen, it's settled down to a dull gray with a faint purple tint, and is not nearly as bright. I can't tell if the sky is completely overcast at this point, or if the blue just hasn't started to shine through.

A great morning to be an early bird. :)

The Home Front

Brrrrr!

It's chilly this morning. The "chance of thundershowers" in today's forecast is totally bogus. It's cold, and rainy, there's no thunder or lightning to be seen, but there is a very cold breeze that's been steady and strong since about 3 a.m.

Cloudy. Areas of drizzle and slight chance of rain showers in the morning...Then a chance of rain showers and isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon. Cooler. Highs near 60. Northeast winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of showers and thunderstorms 40 percent.

Drizzle. Ok, I can live with that. Feels more like late September than the middle of August though, and I'm in no hurry to get to winter!

The Home Front

I got my wish, mostly. Not a lot of thunder and lighting, but good steady, and sometimes hard, rain all night long. We so sorely need this. Our lawns were dying, despite hubby's dedication to the watering schedule. We're still restricted to two or three hours, every three days. Better than a few years ago, but it's been a very dry summer so far.

It's cooled off, and while there's not much of a breeze, it's so much cooler that creates it's own air movement. If plants could sigh, it would be a very noisy place here right now.

The Home Front

I hate the weather doldrums we're in now. It's supposedly only 70o F outside right now, but it feels like it's 90. The air is completely still, not even the slightest breeze outside. Can wind speed get any lower than 1 mph? Would nothing register at all?

It's humid, for us anyway, at 28%, though it's probably not much by anyone else's standards. The swamp cooler makes it too cold, not having it on just accentuates the airlessness. Having the fans on full seems to be the only solution, since we have air conditioning only upstairs.

I wish I could translate Celcius to Farenheit in my head like I can (mostly) metric measurements. It seems to just not click, though... High of 30o C today, low of 18o C. Which means exactly nothing to me, and I'm too lazy to go look up a US site, or the conversion chart I have posted around here somewhere.

Hoping for thundershowers, and wind...

The Home Front

How hot is it?

Too damn hot...

It reached 104 F today, and we're supposed to break that record tomorrow. Phoenix has been 115 F for the past week, and has had 12 heat-related deaths; Las Vegas hit 117 F yesterday.

Even the cats are lying in front of the fans.

It's just too damn hot.

The Home Front

I am so glad I don't live in a hurricane-prone area. Snow, blizzards, drought, heat, severe thunderstorms, lighting, an occassional tornado or two do me just fine. Hurricanes sit on your psyche for days in advance, and you know how bad they're going to be. Better to remain surprised.

The Home Front

Lots of rain, hail (very large in some areas, just under tennis-ball size) and tornado watches last night here. Very localized though, so while we had some heavy rain and lots of thunder and lightning, there wasn't any hail in this part of the city.

You can see a little slide show of the weather from one of the news stations if you're interested. Looking at all the photos of severe weather I've been looking at recently is sorely tempting me to finally buy a digital camera. I don't have the patience for finishing a roll of film, and getting the photos developed. Just ain't gonna happen. Even disposable cameras I forget to ever take in to get developed. I think there are three of them on my kitchen counter now - I don't even have any idea what's on them anymore.

There are a couple of vantage points very near where I live from which I could get some fairly dramatic photos of the skies over the city. Can see all the way to downtown, and a very clear view of the mountains.

It's been a long time since I did any photography, but surely I can do as well as those photos in the slide show! After all, how hard could it be to put a dime on a pile of hail?

The Home Front

I'd hoped for a nice weekend, but it's been cloudy and drizzling rain on and off since Saturday night. I had all the windows open Saturday night, and it was great sleeping weather, but by Sunday morning, it was getting cold. Closed all the windows, and by noon had to turn the heat on in the house! I think it drizzled most of yesterday - hardly enough to see it coming down, but enough that everything outside is wet. While that will keep me from doing anything outside, at least it also means I don't have to go out and water the lawn.

It's a bit gloomy out today, but once again the heat is off, and I have windows open for the fresh air. I'm sure we'll be in for afternoon showers later on.

The Home Front

It finally feels like spring. Yesterday was gloomy once again, today it's all bright sunshine and growing things. The average date of last frost here is May 15th, and it feels like the worst might be behind us for another season. Either this weekend or next, I'll buy a few flowers, and at least plant the boxes out front.

I couldn't do any gardening at all last year, because of an ugly reaction I had to some medication. It triggered an allergy to sunlight, and did amazingly nasty things to my skin where exposed to sunlight. I don't think it's gone yet, I still see residual effects. However, a little front porch planting shouldn't keep me out for too long, and I miss seeing flowers when I come home from work every day. The backyard is a disaster, gone all my beautiful flower beds. The roses are valiantly struggling through by themselves, and leggy though they are, at least they still survive.

One thing at a time, I guess.

The kitten is happily running in and out of the house this morning. I have the back screen door propped open, it's warm enough finally to have the door open, and there aren't enough bugs to be concerned with the screen. This is the first time she's been allowed out in over a week, and she's in happy kitten heaven. There won't be any unexpected pregnancies, either, which makes me happy! :)

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Yesterday, the weather was perfect. I didn't check the temperature in the morning, but as I was walking from the car into work, I noticed how absolutely perfect the temperature was. I imagine it was about 68 - 70 F, an ideal temperature for comfort. Well, if you're me. I have a friend who prefers 85 F or so, and likens himself to a happy lizard baking on a hot rock. Lucky for him, that he lives in Florida. :)

Today, it's cloudy, and I imagine we're in for some rain. Good. I like spring rain, and since the lawn's mowed, it's timely.

Since the adventures of the kitten seem to be tied inextricably to this thread, I'll report that the poor dear has an appointment with her kitty-gyno today, though she (of course) doesn't realize it. Keeping her inside for the last 4 or 5 days has been sad. I know she's wanted so badly to go out to play. Just couldn't take the chance of her disappearing again before this little dr's visit...

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Last night was the first night it was warm enough to sleep with the windows open all night. It's a bit chillier now than it was all night. Perhaps spring is finally here, and we're done with all the snow until fall?

The Home Front

It's snowing lightly again this morning. There haven't been any accumulations to speak of in all three of these last storms, just loverly moisture. At this rate though, spring won't actually arrive until summer's here.

The Home Front

Muddy & wet, two snowstorms and two and a half days later, the kitten finally came home.

She's not leaving the house again until she's been fixed!

I honestly thought she was dead by now.

The Home Front

I'm told it sleeted on and off all night, and that it will take an extra 20 minutes or so to clean off the car. Accidents all over, slick roads, and the blasted kitten still hasn't come home. Yes, I'm very worried about her. She may never be allowed outside again!

The Home Front

The later in the year it gets, the more I hate snow.

It's snowing - again.

Why couldn't it do this in November, December, January, February and March, when no one really minds if it's cold and snowy? That's what winter's for, not spring! Nevermind that April is the 2nd snowiest month of the year, here.

It's really cold out tonight, too, which means the new leaves and budding spring flowers are all going to be black from frost by morning. The average date of last frost here is May 15th. If you plant flowers before that, you're either a fool, or a gardening daredevil. Our growing season is short... just 90 days.

Once again, the kitten went out at 5 a.m., and I haven't seen her since. O Foolish Feline, wouldn't you rather be here, where it's eight kinds of warm?

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Just like a teenager, the kitten insisted on going out last night, even though it was raining. She refused to come inside when I went to bed, instead waiting for the other teenager to come home.
I'm wondering how Colorado will fare this year with the drought? The winter was dry here on the plains as it has been the last 4 years. I haven't checked snowpack yet though, or reservoir water levels. I know that the northern Rockies are still in the midst of it, but that spring run off is causing flooding in other areas.

April rain is a good sign, though we usually get more in May, than in April. Hopefully this will keep up....

The Home Front

March was a Goldilocks month - neither too hot, nor too cold. It never got warm enough to feel like spring, nor cold enough to feel like winter. Goldilocks.

April has been an improvement, though we did get 12" of snow last week. The moisture was so welcome, that I don't think anyone minded. Every day, I look at my white oak tree in the front yard, and cross my fingers that this year, it will recover from the drought. It may never recover though... when even the tree experts shook their head over its behavior last year, my heart sank, thinking that we'd have to remove the tree that had been so gorgeous just two years before. Yesterday I noticed there were a few branches with tiny leaves beginning to bud - but it's not even over the whole tree, just in a few places. I'm going to be heart broken if it doesn't recover this year.

The crabapple trees are in bloom all over the city. One just down the street was split in two by last week's storm, but the one next door is beautiful, heavily laden with fragrant pink blossoms.
My husband and son cut the lawn day before yesterday, and the smell of freshly mowed grass screamed, "summertime!" through the open screen doors.

Today things turned cold again, and a light drizzle started in the late afternoon. We had pea-sized hail for about 10 minutes tonight after I got home, but neither it, nor the accompanying rain lasted long.

The Home Front

Just so this storylet won't be left unfinished with the blasted kitten stranded outside in the middle of the biggest blizzard in the area of the year....

Little brat showed up just at dark, fur dry, feet wet, like nothing at all had happened. The snow's twice as tall as she is! Gone for 14 hours, and she just comes wandering back like it's no big deal!

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Doggone kitten is still outside somewhere. There's 6 - 8" now, and it's not letting up one bit. I know she's hunkered down under a bush somewhere, but I wish she'd get smart, and get inside!

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The winter storm we've been warned about since Friday, finally started up about 2 hours ago, nearly a day late. Snow's horizontal already, it's wickedly cold out, and the wind is whipping up... well, a storm.

The kitten went outside about 3 hours ago, and so far, I can't get her in. I hate when she does that. The smart cat is the one that's inside, asleep on the couch.