The weather has definitely improved lately. I was able to bike to work twice last week, and expect to do so again twice this week. I'll be over 860 miles for the year after tomorrow. Saving gas, reducing pollution, avoiding the traffic on "the bridge", getting almost 2 hours of exercise each day I ride.

Of course, the 860 miles pales in comparison with an acquaintance, Paul, who I talked to last Thursday. He has ridden over 5,200 miles this year!! He doesn't own a car, so he bikes everywhere. He went on a trip around Nova Scotia a couple of weeks ago, which added a few extra miles. Amazing.

Lobster at noon last Sunday -- birthdays to celebrate. Also had steamed clams and beverages of various types, followed up by birthday cake and ice cream. Didn't need any dinner that evening.

Heat finally let up a bit today, with promises for even more relief tomorrow. We'll see.

Managed to break two teeth last night eating dinner. Had a loose filling, I thought, in one tooth that I had mentioned to the dentist about a year ago. Bit into some bread(!) which broke off a piece of one tooth, and then managed to bang that piece into another, breaking that one! Old age setting in?

Trip to the dentist today (grateful for the quick appointment), who patched me up without requiring caps. We'll see how long the patches last.
[I just went to the dentist last week for clean/check, with nothing unusual to report. Guess they can't see into the future...]

Local news that has made it to Boston, and perhaps further. Scary, because it's very near where I work, and anyone at work could have been a target.

Was on vacation. Sorry about that...

Hiked up Mt Washington (in the dark so Jerry could take pictures) and then to the top and down the Great Gulf trail. Hot, humid, and took a while to recover, but better than working.

Bike rides, long walks, ate out almost every night, kept up with the York Singers (concert will be 8/25 in Ogunquit). Didn't see any sharks at Wells Beach when I took a bike ride there, although I did see all the TV station's trucks clogging up the parking lot and streets. York was spared the beach closures, and I'm pretty sure there wouldn't have been any shark bites if the beaches had remained open in Wells.

Back to work. The heat wave continues, and the "greenery" is becoming "brownery"...

Another gap in posting times. Sorry, but not a lot happening here.

I have had several days of cycling to work, going well over 600 miles for the year so far. About 50% more than last year at this time.

Last night I sent out a mailing to all DHS 1973 classmates registered at classmates.com seeking input on our 30-year class reunion. Waiting for replies (thanks Alberta!).

Great fireworks at York Beach last Saturday night. Their 350th anniversary. Just one of the many events they have scheduled for the year.

Hope your investments are holding up...

More to come.

Still hot. Over 90 degrees today (despite the link to the left, which is probably updated beyond the heat), plus a fairly strong wind from the west (reported as 12 mph, but on a bike that's a lot!). Made the bicycle ride home a bit of a struggle, but not too bad. The ride in this morning to work was actually cool in spots.

Last Friday I rode to work from the beach, which was pleasant, and rode back along Route 103 through Kittery. It appears that the shipyard was off work on Friday, so I didn't run into any of that traffic. The alternative was to go past the outlet stores on Route 1, which I did once before with less than enjoyable results.

Strange weather, with the smoke from Canada. Made for an extremely red sun this morning. Weird.

HOT!

Haven't ridden my bike to work because of the heat and the threat of thunderstorms. We haven't had any of the latter, but plenty of the former. Was over 70 this morning, with plenty of humidity.

Still on call for work, but found out that calls to the beeper were programmed with the wrong number, so I won't get beeped tonight if anything goes wrong. Mary will have to call me. Not my fault, but I don't mind too much.

Headed to the beach again tomorrow after work, maybe for the rest of the weekend. Bringing my canoe for a trip or two in the York river to keep cool.

Waaaay behind with this page. Sorry for the one or two people who might read this...

On call for work for the next couple of days, so that's a bit of extra work. We had a beautiful weekend weather-wise, but I worked basically a full day on Saturday, missing out on a lot of it.

Tennis yesterday morning with Peter, which was fun. Broke a couple of strings, so the racket is in the shop.

Summer is here with 90+ degree heat and humidity to match. Better than getting snow, as we did in May.

Need to update the DHS pages soon. People will think I've forgotten about them.

Grrr.... Biked to work this morning, which was a wonderful morning. Sun rose at 5:07 AM, no wind that I felt, or perhaps a small tailwind. Made really good time, but didn't see any deer this morning. Since I repaired a flat tire last night, and the experience with the previous flat tire, I was suspicous about its cause. I checked it at lunch and found it was flat again! Got a ride home, along with the bike, and then took the wheel to Tony's. Turned out that the rubber strip that runs below the tube had a hole that allowed the tube to go into the hole leading to the spokes. This apparently popped the tube.

They put in a new fabric strip in place of the rubber strip, and I bought a couple of new tubes, a strip for the front rim (just in case), and should be ready to go.

Well, we've survived the graduation week. The weather cooperated for the Dover graduation, but not for most of the other ceremonies in the area. The kids had a great time, and all are off to bigger and better things. Congratulations to all.

The bad weather has also put a damper on my bicycling, but I hope to ride to work tomorrow. We'll see how that works out in the morning.

Peter is taking his final exams, and surprised himself with an 87 on his math final. What happened to the "math gene" that I should have passed on? Neither Beth nor Peter seem to have it. Beth did take AP calculus, but it seemed to be a struggle all the way. We don't have the results of the test yet, though, so she may have done OK.

I'll be sending out email to all the addresses I have for the DHS class of 1973 soon. If you don't get one and should, send me a note at DHS1973@mherlihy.org. Thanks.

And, of course, the rain continues, so I didn't get to bike in. I guess it's better to have rain while most of us work rather than on the weekend. Especially this one, as I know of two weddings and it's Market Square day tomorrow.

[This didn't update last night]

Well, I survived the crash from 6/3. No long-lasting injuries, although my legs have a few sore spots...

Hoping that the weather will clear enough tomorrow to be able to bike in to work.

Beth has her Senior Banquet tomorrow night. Baccalaureate is Sunday, awards Tuesday, graduation Thursday. Various parties and other events, along with her job at the Goldenrod, will keep us busy, I'm sure.

Since I last entered info here, I've fought with grubs on the front lawn, fought with fire ants, reseeded a section of the lawn, washed and waxed the truck, washed most of the windows in the house, caught up on taped shows on the VCR, biked to work twice (Thursday and today), saw six deer (this morning at Pease while biking), crashed on the bike (amazing that I didn't get seriously hurt).

I hit a section of pavement that was much higher than what I was riding on, and spun the wheel. I ended up on my back with the bike in the air. Both feet came out of the clips, which was something I had worried about. I wasn't sure if the clips would release or if I'd end up with broken ankles. I only ended up with a good bruise on my left knee, a scrape/cut above my left ankle, a bruise on my right knee and right elbow. I'm sure I'll wake up in the morning with some other pains. The bike was pretty much unscathed, thankfully.

Another very windy day, and I fought the wind all the way home. It probably contributed to my errors in judgement, resulting in the fall. Can I sue?

Sorry about the Celtics losing, but they put up a good fight. Certainly more than we could have expected going into the season last fall.

Another busy time, not enough postings here to keep it interesting. I apologize to the one or two of you who come to this page...

Anyway, getting ready to go to the first rehearsal of the York Singers for their summer session. I saw notice of one concert on August 25th in Ogunquit, and I'm guessing there will be one or two others that we'll do. Small group, all a capella, as I mentioned earlier.

Went to York Beach for the weekend, and the weather wasn't exactly beach weather. Lots of wind, and not a lot of sun. Went for a nice walk along the beach one day, and on Monday went along shore road on my bicycle up to Ogunquit. A 17 mile round trip, counting the scenic side trips I took, though it didn't amount to much of a workout. I'll bike to work tomorrow unless the weather is really bad tonight.

Got word today that I was promoted! Now a "Principle Software Engineer", for all the title's worth. Boston Cream pie for a mini-celebration today. The money is pretty good. Hope I meet expectations. Certainly feel that it was due, but I guess that's always the way that goes.

Next week will be another busy one, as Beth approaches graduation. Awards night, Baccalaureate (sp?) and then graduation on her (and my) birthday (the 13th)!

Yesterday's concert was good, though our performance wasn't as technically precise as the previous Sunday's. But the addition of Darryl's percussion instruments added a lot to the experience. Certainly acceptable.

After the concert we went to a party at house in York Harbor that is right on the water, and beautiful. A new house, with open concept living room/kitchen, a deck running the length of the house, sun room, high ceilings, full-house stereo, etc., etc. I probably can't afford the taxes on the property, never mind the upkeep. The owner is in the chorus, a very good singer, and a gracious host.

This week I'll start singing with the York Singers, a much smaller group that sings all year, but I only sing with them in the summer. All a capella, and generally much more difficult music than in the community chorus.

Snow's done, almost all gone already. Too much excitement!

The snow is accumulating. Well, sort of. Things are getting white, anyway. Not sure what's going on, but I guess tennis is not going to be an option today.

Busy week... got behind in posting anything.

Saturday was Beth's prom, and you can see her pictures by clicking here. The weather was great, and she said she had a wonderful time.

Last Sunday's concert was far superior to the Friday night attempt. Even surprised Wendell, our director. One more concert tomorrow, and hopefully we can do as well.

Biked to work on Thursday, which was cool (39 degrees) in the morning, and warm (73) in the afternoon, with lots of wind again. Good workout.

This morning we're having snow showers! May 18th! I put a short video here, but it's a 2.6 MB avi file. [Are there free tools to compress these?]

That's all for now.

Last night was our first of three concerts, and the second two are bound to be better than that one. There is just too much music for the group, which by definition of "community chorus" is comprised of people of many talents. Sometimes one of those talents is singing ability...

Anyway, we missed a few entrances -- sometimes just one set of voices at a time, other times as a group. We'll certainly be reviewing the trouble spots before tomorrow's concert.

Dover High Prom is tonight. Nice weather, except for the wind. [It's really been windy this spring, although the monthly averages don't show it.] Beth is going with Dan Ball, who has had the distinction of playing saxophone with then-president Clinton. (He's the one with his back to the camera.)

Seacoast Community Chorus rehearsal until 10:05 last night, home after 10:30... Makes 5:15 AM seem very early. Peter had another tennis match, I made supper, started a load of laundry, prepared for and went to a church finance commitee meeting. Rather busy time. Concerts Friday night, Sunday (Mother's Day) afternoon, and the following Sunday.

Beth has her prom this Saturday. Kate (niece) graduates Saturday morning from college -- good luck Kate! We won't be making it to the ceremony, though -- sorry about that. We'll send a check, though.

Anything else? O yeah, we have lots of ants in the house, which we haven't had in any of the prior 20 years we've lived here. Strange. Must be global warming!

Very nice bike ride to work this morning. No wind, and not too cool. 39 in Dover when I started, but in the 40's in Portsmouth an hour (actually 56 minutes) later. The ride home was windy, although generally a tail wind, and warm -- up to 80 degrees. Next chance for a ride to work looks like Friday, based on the forecast.

Beth explained her pictures from her trip to France. They are very nice, and I'll scan some in and post them if she doesn't mind. I know they'll just be typical tourist pictures for most people, but for many of us they'll be the only chance to view these parts of the world. She had a great trip, and a wonderful time.

OK -- finished getting the pictures of the Variety Show up, although I was going to wait for Beth to put in any text that she might want. The pictures are here. Fun stuff.

Beth's last ("last" as in "it's her senior year") variety show was last night (also tonight and tomorrow). I'll put up a couple of pictures later on. My camera is pretty poor at that kind of picture-taking, however, so they aren't all that great. I'll see if I can tweak them a bit.

The show was fun -- a real mixed bag of skits, singing, humor put on by the high school kids. They do all the choreography, writing, directing, etc. and manage to entertain the audience for a couple of hours. A great effort!

Peter, my son, won his first official tennis match as a high school varsity tennis team member (he's a freshman) on May 1st. A snippet of the article in Fosters is here. He has played some other matches, but those hadn't counted towards the team scores. Great job!

Rainy and dreary. Took the afternoon off to register the truck. Seems to cost more than the old one!

I rode my bike to work yesterday and was going through Pease when the crazy guy was trying to chase down the Pan Am jet getting ready to take off. Four Portsmouth police cars screamed past me a little before 6:00 AM (I know, a bit early). The plane took off right at 6:00, though, so they didn't feel there was too much of a threat, I guess.

The bike ride home was another major effort, as the winds came up and were in my face all the way. I wondered if I would make it over the General Sullivan bridge, it was so bad. Took 56 minutes to get to work, 1:09 to get home, and I pushed pretty hard all the way.

Snow last night!! About 2", but it was gone quickly. I put a couple of pictures of tulips in the snow on my home page. Some people lost power as the snow brought down some tree limbs, especially on trees that had put out leaves due to the warm spring.

Almost all of the snow was gone by evening.

Nice bike ride to/from work today, but still not happy with the back tire. I'm afraid I have a slow leak, but don't know whether I screwed up when changin the tube last week, or if there's something still stuck in the tire that I didn't find when checking it out. Not good. My total time was affected, and I wondered why I wasn't really coasting along well on the way to work this morning. Only got up to 31.5 mph on Simpson's Hill, instead of my usual 35-38.

Mmmm...

Snow showers, but nothing accumulating.

We had to have a water line fixed. The main pipe out at the street had cracked, with water coming through the ground. I believe this happened as a result of the earthquake on Saturday, as that was when I first noticed the water. Were there similar breaks elsewhere??

Tennis in the wind with Peter... 50 degrees with a 25-30 mph "breeze" that made thing interesting. Snow expected tomorrow. What was that I said about global warming??

Went for a quick hike/walk at Parker Mountain in Strafford. I like to make a loop that goes near the top twice, for the extra exercise and scenery. Came back before any precipitation. Got very near a moose, which crashed through the trees ahead of me. I had seen its footprints in the trail for a long stretch. Never actually saw the moose, however. Lots of birds - a hawk, turkey vulture, partridge, mourning doves, and more.

Felt the earthquake this morning -- 6:52 AM by my clock. Shook things quite a bit, but no damage. I realize it's not a big deal to people in California (Hi Peter, Marc, anyone else out there!), but it's only the third or fourth I've ever felt, and it's definitely in the news.

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake in NEW YORK has occurred at:
44.51N 73.66W Depth 5km Sat Apr 20 10:50:44 2002 UTC

Time: Universal Time (UTC) Sat Apr 20 10:50:44 2002
Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) Sat Apr 20 06:50:44 2002
Central Daylight Time (CDT) Sat Apr 20 05:50:44 2002
Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) Sat Apr 20 04:50:44 2002
Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) Sat Apr 20 03:50:44 2002
Alaska Daylight Time (ADT) Sat Apr 20 02:50:44 2002
Hawaii Standard Time (HST) Sat Apr 20 00:50:44 2002

Location with respect to nearby cities:
15 miles (25 km) SW of Plattsburgh, New York (pop 21,000)
20 miles (35 km) W of Burlington, Vermont (pop 39,000)
55 miles (90 km) WNW of MONTPELIER, Vermont (pop 8,000)
130 miles (205 km) N of ALBANY, New York

More info at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_deam.html

Here's a link with a nice map showing how people interpreted how strong the quake felt: http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/shake/ne/STORE/Xdeam/ciim_display.html

Beth is in Paris, and Peter had his first tennis match as a high school freshman (only an exhibition, but great experience). Lost to a guy who looked like he could be in college, but put up a good fight. The team won, though, and that's what's important. A great job by the team -- 3-3 in the singles, but came back in doubles and won those matches 3-0, I think.

Nice bike ride *to* work today, but........ I had a flat tire when I got to the bike this afternoon. Not sure what happened yet. But, as this was the first flat tire I had had on this bike, I wasn't used to removing it to fix. I managed to pinch the tube in *several* places, and ran out of patches in my kit to be able to ride home. Grrrrrrrrr....

Luckily, after calling home and calling Beth (my daughter) on her cell phone with no results, I ran into Elaine, at work, who very kindly offered to bring me home. Let the world (or whoever views this site) know that Elaine is a wonderful person to have done this for me!!

I have since gone to the bike shop, Tony's in Dover, and purchased a couple of tubes and a new patch kit.

Hot day, but supposed to be a bit cooler tomorrow.

Beth's off to France tomorrow for 10 days. Hopefully world events won't cause undo concerns about her safety while she's away.

By the way -- nobody has come forward with offers to sponsor her college costs (at tuition@mherlihy.org). Don't let me down!

Busy week-
Peter went to Cincinnati for a PRIDE conference
Beth's getting ready to go to France this Thursday
Biked to work Wednesday (very windy ride home - thought I was not going to make it)
Biked to work Friday (very windy ride home - behind me all the way!!!!!!!!!)
Bought a new truck Saturday (Toyota Tacoma Xtra Cab 4x4 - old truck was 9 years old and in need of big $$ repairs soon)
Visited with Uncle Ted Saturday evening.

Go Red Sox! (although I know it's a waste of time and energy)

Go Tiger! (a better bet, if I were a betting man)

Come on Big Money $325 million (OK - I bet a little when friends at work bet -- I don't want to be the only one left if the numbers come up!)

Went for a nice walk at Kingman Farm yesterday. Spring is here, finally.

Took down the frame to the skating rink, and stacked up all the wood for the summer. I've told myself I really don't want to go through the effort again next fall, but I'll probably forget by then.

The weather is still so cool and windy. We had warmer days most of February than we're having now. Peter practiced tennis while snow flakes drifted down on Friday. Strange...

Well, it's been pretty busy lately. Peter's tennis, Beth at all kinds of meetings, Paula at meetings and events, and me with work (beeper keeping me up nights), updating the web site (check out the scrap book pictures on the DHS 1973 portion) and at chorus practice. I guess it's all better than wasting away one's life.

Snow is gone, almost 60 degrees today. Removed the plastic from the ice rink. Would have been cheaper to rent out an arena this year. Got to move on...

Easter dinner tomorrow at my mother's. She usually roasts a leg of lamb, which is great. My job is to bring a great wine -- this year I chose a 1995 Grand Puy Lacoste. We'll see that turns out.

We'll also see if we get a seat at church near our usual ones. The only-come-to-church-on-Christmas-or-Easter crowd makes it difficult, so we'll be leaving earlier than normal. A lot earlier.

Sunday night I was surprised to see lots of snow coming down (when I got beeped just before 2AM). It was the fluffiest snow possible, flying everywhere when I went to clean off the truck before going to work. We ended up with at least 3" on the vehicles, but less on the driveway.

Today was a messy one, with snow around noon followed by ice pellets and now rain. We can use the moisture.

Beth and many of her friends got their acceptance notices from Boston University yesterday. Buried in the paperwork was the tuition/room/board/fees. A mere $38,500!!!!!!!!!! I suspect she'll be going elsewhere, unless a sponsor wants to contact me at tuition@mherlihy.org (seriously) I'll be waiting... (seriously)

Back from the hike. It was a glorious day to be outside, and the trail protected us from the wind most of the time. Temperature was in the low 30's, so no finger-numbing conditions to deal with. It was definitely windy on the top, however!

It also wasn't all that clear -- low clouds and hazy skies. I have a couple of pictures at my personal pages..

I tried posting this last night, but Blogger must have been a bit under the weather:

Cold and windy. Flags were standing out straight on the flagpole at work today. 15 degrees this morning, wind chill around zero. Mt. Washington was 19 below zero, winds gusting to 112 mph, wind chill cold enough that it really doesn't matter.

Hiking up Mt. Major with my nephew, his wife, and another couple tomorrow. Not a big climb by a long shot, but a great view of the lake and surrounding mountains, even as far as the White Mountains on clear days. If I get any good pictures I'll post a link to them over here.

I'm going to dress warmly.

Ended up with about 6" of snow. More snow on the ground right now (spring) than at any time during the entire winter!

Regarding the Antarctic ice shelf news below, an interesting piece in yesterday's SmartTimes:
[ Begin quoted story about the article in the New York Times - SmartTimes is at http://www.smartertimes.com ]
The Times reports that "many experts said it was getting harder to find
any other explanation" of the ice-shelf breakup other than the buildup
of greenhouse gas emissions "that scientists believe are warming the
planet."

Well, just to put the matter in context, have a look at John Muir's 1879
essay "The Discovery of Glacier Bay."

Muir writes: "Glacier Bay is undoubtedly young as yet. Vancouver's
chart, made only a century ago, shows no trace of it, though found
admirably faithful in general. It seems probable, therefore, that even
then the entire bay was occupied by a glacier of which all those
described above, great through they are, were only tributaries. Nearly
as great a change has taken place in Sum Dum Bay since Vancouver's
visit, the main trunk glacier there having receded from eighteen to 25
miles from the line marked on his chart. Charley, who was here when a
boy, said that the place had so changed that he hardly recognized it, so
many new islands had been born in the meantime and so much ice had
vanished. As we have seen, this Icy Bay is being still farther extended
by the recession of the glaciers. That this whole system of fiords and
channels was added to the domain of the sea by glacial action is to my
mind certain."

Maybe it was greenhouse gas emissions back in 1879 that caused the
creation of Glacier Bay in Alaska. After all, the antipollution rules
were a lot less strict then than they are now. And maybe the
developments in Antarctica are indeed unprecedented and worthy of
top-of-the-front-page treatment by the New York Times. It certainly has
been a warm winter here in New York. But a bit more skepticism and
historical perspective is probably in order here.

[End quoted story]

... and the snow returns -- now that spring arrived at 2:16 PM today. Monday's snow was the first "measurable" snowfall since February 1 here in Dover, NH. It was almost all gone this morning, but we're supposed to get 4-8 inches tonight.

****
Unrelated random comment follows:

I can't seem to get any of the search engines to pick up on the mherlihy.org web pages. I added META tags that should trigger results, followed all the rules in books and articles, but still don't get recognized. I even went to a couple of "submit your site" sites, without results. If anyone out there has suggestions, please let me know at help@mherlihy.org. Thanks in advance.

Mmmm...

ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF COLLAPSES
from The Associated Press

LONDON -- A large Antarctic ice shelf in an area that is warming faster than the global average has collapsed with "staggering" rapidity, British scientists said Tuesday.

The shelf designated as Larsen B, 650 feet thick and with a surface area of 1,250 square miles, has collapsed into small icebergs and fragments, the British Antarctic Survey said. Before breaking apart, the ice shelf was about the size of Rhode Island.

The collapse was first detected on satellite images earlier this month by Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado.
<http://www.latimes.com/news/science/wire/sns-ap-antarctic-ice0319mar19.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dscience%2Dheadlines>

Well, I should have realized that a smooth Saturday would mean a trouble-filled Sunday night. It was, but nothing major enough to force us to back things out -- not that we could without very high risk. Lots of little things to keep me up late and get me up even earlier than is usual for me.

Then today there were several things that made us wonder whether our changes were causing things to go wrong, but each of them seem to be unrelated. I hate when things look like we might have screwed something up, just to have the "users" write back later and say "Never mind, I messed up. It wasn't the application" Ugh!

I'm better now... I get the night off to catch up on sleep.

Hey - I almost forgot to mention the snow! Must not be globally warming after all.

Another bike ride today, but it was a bit cooler than I had expected. Pretty stiff breeze as well.

Expecting a mixed-bag week weather-wise, still not too favorable for riding to work.

At least the big implementation went smoothly yesterday. Tonight is the execution that will make or break it.

Yesterday I attended a class in Boston at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel. It was called "Presenting Data and Information", by Edward Tufte (http://www.edwardtufte.com). Very interesting and instructive. All the attendees got copies of each of his books, and he spent time signing them prior to the start of the session.

I should be more careful when riding the bus, however, and make sure I know where the terminal is! I hadn't taken it in almost 10 years (don't get to the big city often), and they had moved the terminal because of the "big dig"! I had gotten off the bus on the way in at a stop prior to the terminal, and ended up spending a couple of extra minutes finding the new place. The driver had just closed the door as I approached the bus, but she let me on without incident.

Sure beats driving, and the $19 fare is barely more than the $16 parking around Copley Place.

Been going crazy with work for the past couple of weeks, and at least one more to go. A big project that's going in production next Saturday (if all goes well), and the the *real* testing begins! This one's going in before it should because of some really tight dependencies. Crossing fingers may not be enough.

I did manage a little tennis with Peter this afternoon, followed by a 14+ mile bike ride. Kind of windy, but at 61 degrees I couldn't pass it up.

Warm enough Sunday to entice me into a 27 mile bicycle ride. Not being in regular-season shape, and still getting over my bronchitis, it wasn't at any record setting pace... but still a nice ride. I just need to charge my headlight to be ready for a ride to work - 15 miles each way.

Another sign of global warming:
-----------
Last Three Months Warmest on U.S. Record Books-NOAA
Thu Feb 21, 5:54 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The last three months were the warmest on U.S. record books, and January was the balmiest in the 123 years temperatures for the month have been recorded globally, government scientists said on Thursday.
A preliminary average of the nation's temperature measured from November 2001 to January 2002 was 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit above average temperatures gathered between 1895 and 2001, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the government's climate study arm. The same monthly period in 1999-2000 held the previous record, NOAA said.
-----------

Today was the second day in a row we haven't gone below freezing at any time. Lots of fog and gloom, though.

OK -- no more skating rink comments, other than to say it probably didn't matter that I killed it last weekend, after all the warm weather that we continue to have. Tough to skate on slush.

Just getting over a bad case of bronchitis. Thought I was going to die last Monday. When I was out two days in a row my manager suggested to everyone that it might be a good idea to fumigate the area, seeing that I never get sick. I don't remember taking two days off being sick since I had my appendix taken out in the mid-80's!

Almost back to normal now, though. And almost time to get bicycling again.

The skating rink is dead. I give up for this year, at least. Draining the water down caused the ice to cut a hole in the plastic, which causesd way too much water to leak out. I now have ice that slopes downhill, with a big crack, and no way to fix it (that I can think of). Can't even make use of the rink for fish because of the hole.

Wasn't meant to be.

Wasn't the opening ceremony of the Olympics visually stunning last night? I switched from NBC to the Canadian channel during the commercials, since there was *way* too many. I enjoyed the colors, use of lighting, and of course, the skating. Not sure about the 1980 hockey team lighting the torch, though. Didn't seem to be especially creative.

Spring seems to have arrived in New England. I guess I should just give it up and start getting ready to ride my bicycle to work. I have already gone for a 20 mile ride this year (last weekend in January!) and I'm ready to ride again.

On the skating rink front, I've been able to remove the layer of ice/snow/crap that was on top of much of the rink, but since it's been so warm it still isn't usable. I've also started to drain off some of the water in anticipation of rain on Sunday.

I'm ready to put fish in the water under the ice and start ice fishing.

Cold winter day. Still haven't gotten the ice rink in shape, though. It was much nicer last year even though I had to clear the snow every couple of days. Not this year, though. Just ice and slush.

Spent over $150 for 3 days of skating so far.

How about those Patriots! They certainly got all the breaks this season. It's nice to have a more or less local team on top of the heap for a change. I'm not holding my breath for the same to be true for the Celtics, Bruins, and of course the Red Sox.

Well, the ice wasn't as bad as expected, and we didn't lose power at all. The skating rink is going to be a real problem, though. Snow topped by sleet and rain will be very bumpy. I can't clear it yet without the risk of cracking the thin ice.

We'll see how it looks in the morning, after the temperature drops well below freezing. It's not supposed to get higher than the mid-20's for the next 5 days, at least!

Winter's finally hitting us. A snow storm that's supposed to turn into an ice storm. Global warming at its best.

Hopefully we won't lose power, and if we do, not for long.

The skating rink has definitely not been worth it this year.

I'm going to use this page to post things that might seem important to me at the time I write them. I may think otherwise later,and reserve the right to edit the posts...

Let me know if you would like to add to this page. I can give you permission to post here. It might get interesting!

Mike