Tag: Weather

I should have taken a picture

As you know if you were in the DC Metro area last night, it was really, really windy.  So windy, in fact, that the plywood sidewalk cover across the street from the house, erected by the construction company to protect pedestrians, blew over into the street.  Luckily, there’s a fire hydrant there, and it’s the side of the street where you can’t park during rush hour, so only one car was hit with debris.  Well, lucky if that wasn’t your car, I guess.  I mean it was lucky that there weren’t more cars parked there.

The police came, and spent an hour or so driving past, and then backing up (the wrong way down our one-way street), and generally making a nuisance of themselves.  Then they put up some crime scene tape and tore off down the street.

As of 7AM this morning, the car with a huge pile of plywood on top of it is due a parking ticket.  It may be hard to place the ticket on the car, as the front end is entirely covered.  But I fully expect DC’s parking enforcement to try anyway.

Im one of those DC snow car people now

When I first moved to the DC Metro area back in 2001, I was living in Fairfax, VA, and working on Wisconsin Ave NW.  I used to park on a little un-zoned residential street.  One winter, either 2001 or 2002, I forget, we had a big snow that was on the ground for a couple of weeks.  We got 4-6 inches, and then it just stayed cold.  Most of the cars in the neighborhood just didn’t move.  For weeks, they just sat, covered in snow.

Now, today we got our first snow since we moved to the city, and my car is still covered.  I expect it will be covered tomorrow.  I mean, it’s supposed to get up close to 40 degrees tomorrow, so there’s not much point in clearing the car.  In fact, since street cleaning has been suspended for the winter, I don’t expect to touch the car during the week until March or so.

Well, tomorrow we have errands to run in Virginia.  But other than that.

It’s funny how quickly my attitude about driving has changed now that, for the most part, I don’t have to do it.  Going a day without driving used to be really strange, and now it’s the norm.

Anyway, the snow’s kind of nice.  My commute is only outdoors for three blocks to Metro, and then a minute where the Yellow Line train goes over the Potomac into Virginia.  So the snow isn’t really a concern.  I do have to take some trash out tonight, though.

Snow? Really?

So, I drive to work less than once a month.  I take the Metro almost all the time, but our corporate office is out in Manassas, and so on the infrequent days I have to go out there, I drive.  Today is the first time since I started at this position in March that I drove to the office where I actually work because I’m going to Manassas a little later today.

Coincidentally, today is the first day of the winter that we’re getting snow.  Now, it’s just flurries, and shouldn’t affect anything, but seriously.  The ONE DAY I drive to work, we get snow.  That’s just absurd.  That, I think, is the most convincing evidence of a supreme being that I’ve ever heard – there must be a god because he/she/it has a sense of humor.

Well, Supreme Being, if it’s not too much trouble, can I get some rain on Saturday so our flag football game gets cancelled?  We’re really short on players this week (including myself), and it’s the first week of playoffs, and I’d really like a rescheduling.

Curse you, rain

Well, not really.  We need the rain.  But it’s messing up my weekend.  We have flag football on Saturday morning, and my mother-in-law will be in town from far away, and wanted to see the game.  My mom was going to come from less far away, and everyone was going to watch.  But since it’s been raining for two days now, and isn’t expected to stop until Saturday afternoon, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that we’ll be able to play.

This probably also doesn’t help the wife’s plans to take her mom around the city tomorrow.

On the bright side, it’s been so long since I’ve actually seen rain that it was really kind of nice.  It wasn’t raining that hard when I was outside, and it’s still warm enough to be pleasant.  As I was waiting to cross 16th Street yesterday, I watched the rain run down the windshield of a Ford Explorer that was blocking the crosswalk as the light was changing.

As I stood there watching, I wondered if anyone had ever uttered the phrase, “The warm rain running down the windshield of your 1993 Ford Explorer is hauntingly beautiful.”

Then I wondered if I had accidentally ingested some drugs without knowing it.

But then I decided that it’s just my subconscious getting ready for Nanowrimo.

Anyway, we need the rain.  But it sure would be nice if the fields were dry enough to play on this Saturday morning.

Is it just me?

Or is it hot outside? It’s not so bad now, but when I got home from work, there was a hot breeze blowing that made me want to move to San Fransisco.

It’s good to be back home, though. Vacation was nice, but the cat missed me.

And, if I ever get a reasonable internet connection at work, I’ll try to get back in the habit of posting regularly.  I know I’ve been a bad, bad blogger lately.

Dont talk about hot weather when its 18 degrees F out.

Report: January hottest on record – CNN.com

That didn’t just nudge past the old record set in 2002, but broke that mark by 0.81 degrees Fahrenheit (0.56C), which meteorologists said is a lot, since such records often are broken by hundredths of a degree at a time.

Explain that, Neil Cavuto!  Warmest on record!  By almost an entire degree.

Of course, clowns like U.S. National Climatic Data Center scientific services chief David Easterling give him plenty of ammunition.

Larger increases in temperature farther north, compared to mid-latitudes, is “sort of the global warming signal,” Easterling said.

Scientists don’t use phrases like “sort of”.  It makes it sound like you aren’t sure.  And maybe you aren’t, but you have to sound like you are.  Especially when many are so quick to dismiss your work as liberal propoganda and lies.

Snow day

Little Mazda that could So, I’m not going to work today. I’ve got stuff I can do from home. But the wife had to go in because her boss is completely insane, so I took her to the Metro. It took a few minutes to get out of the parking spot, because they haven’t plowed the parking lot.

Big snowy hill But a little push from the wife, and I was out. The roads are bad. I made a nice little U-turn after dropping her. All I had to do was turn the wheels a bit, give it a little gas, and wait for the back end to swing around. Even in a front-wheel drive car, you can do a power slide if the roads are slick enough.

When I got back, some clown had taken my parking spot, and I had already passed the only other open spot, so I had to do a three-point turn in the snow. Keep in mind that the snow is piled anywhere from an inch to six inches, and the ground clearance of my car is probably more like four inches.That's where I made my three-point turn

In any event, you shouldn’t be driving out there if you can help it. And if you have an automatic and don’t know how to drive, like the woman I tried to help out of her spot when I was outside taking these pictures, don’t even bother. It’s days like these when the shortcomings of automatic transmissions become most apparent.

The roads were much less plowed than I had anticipated when I went out. The intersection of 66 and Lee Highway was particularly bad. Considering that’s one of the busiest intersections in the area, you’d think they’d plow that one first. However, you’d be wrong.

So, if you live in the DC Metro area, don’t go anywhere today. It’s not worth it.