Watched the remaining leaves turn upside down, the temperature has dropped about 3 degrees an hour since 7pm, and my shoulder is killing me. We’re about to get hit hard.
Glad I got all the leaves bagged and a final lawn mowing and weed-eating done. I think this is going to be a long tough winter. I can’t explain why, but it just feels like it is going to be bad this year. I’m sure those of you who have lived in the same place for decades know what I mean. You can just tell when it is going to be worse than normal.
Or maybe not, and I am full of shit. For now, I am betting on a really, really bad winter that is going to hit quick and stay for a while.
tom
I’ve had the same feeling about Wisconsin this year. I foresee way more snow shoveling this winter than last.
Just Some Fuckhead
We can play cribbage by the fire.
Spaghetti Lee
I don’t have a house or car to maintain, but I’m not a big fan of snow nonetheless. Everything takes slower and it’s colder, too. But I also can’t stand the heat. Maybe I should move to San Francisco.
jharp
Not even close to getting done with leaf cleanup and quite a few are still up in the trees.
Central Indiana.
Redshift
Considering that it’s near the end of October and we (in Northern Virginia) haven’t come close to having a frost, I’m not inclined to worry much about winter yet. Yeah, the storm may well suck. I doubt it will be anywhere near as bad as the derecho around here.
Democrat Partisan Asshole
Different issue here in lovely San Diego. I think it’s going to be very warm, and very wet this year. Tomorrow should hit about 90, and it’s almost November. Not normal, but then again, we haven’t had “normal” weather here since about 1996 or so, when the summers started getting humid.
pseudonymous in nc
We’ve had the wood stacked and the chimney swept and I’m spending what feel like the last warm days of the year finishing up some weatherproofing and gathering kindling and splitting down a few logs so that when it’s time to light the fire, all the component parts are ready.
I’ve got that feeling of a sharp winter here, though not of a long, gruelling one: that when it comes, it’ll come hard and fast for short spells.
Anne Laurie
At least 60% of the leaves are still on the trees here (just north of Boston) so I’m using the Frankenstorm as an excuse not to rake until afterwards.
Our dog Zevon, who usually only objects to thunderstorms — he’s the only one of our three current papillons who’ll go outside when it’s raining without being forced — is being weird & needy tonight. On the other hand, the exquisite barometric pressure instruments that are my sinuses haven’t started complaining yet, and the most recent local forecasts say the rains won’t arrive until late Sunday…
Comrade Luke
Over here in the PNW (Seattle), they’re calling for a “normal” winter, after what has seemed like years a La Nina/Nino winters. Problem is, “normal” winters are the ones where you get the major weather events.
I’m getting a generator :)
Odie Hugh Manatee
Here’s some bluesy sounding, long, cold winter to set the mood for you. I have seen these guys in concert a couple of times and they always put on an excellent show.
freelancer
It’s gonna be cold. It’s gonna be gray, and it’s going to last you the rest of your life.
…Then put your little hand in mine! Ain’t no hill or mountain we can’t climb…
Mike G
In SoCal we’ve had an El Nino-ish humid summer, but the long range forecast is for a warm, dry winter (my favorite kind). For whatever long-range forecasts are worth.
Thor Heyerdahl
Jacques Loussier Trio playing their arrangement of Vivaldi’s Winter Concerto No. 4 Allegro Non Molto
Hill Dweller
OT: Wolf Blitzer is a shitty journalist, but he has good taste in movies. His choices as guest programmer on TCM are: Advise & Consent, All The President’s Men, and Seven Days In May.
Spectre
Brace yourselves. Winter is coming.
Soonergrunt
Racist misogynist fuckwit Dan Riehl is in ICU. He is supposedly going to get pulmonary bypass. He blogs at Breitbart’s site. And we should pray for him. Pray/meditate/hum that whatever god/force you believe in would make him a decent human being and then for him to recover.
Unlike Andrew Breitbart.
Who is still dead.
Bnut
Went and saw Skrillex and Pretty Lights play downtown Nashville on the river. My body is still vibrating.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Just left Changchun, in northern China– they had their first snow this past week. At any rate, last winter was SO mild, I just knew we were going to have to pay for it one way or another.
? Martin
Supposed to be 98 tomorrow. Long live the Santa Anas.
And Seven Days in May is one of my favorite movies. I’m in for the next hour.
freelancer
@Soonergrunt:
I hate his politics and his opinions make me think of him as a loathsome person, but best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.
amk
@Soonergrunt: Why ?
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Oh, damn, man– that’s awesome. Makes me wanna pull the ol’ Les Paul down off the wall.
Allen
@Comrade Luke: Re: Generator. If for home installation go with a Cummins Quite Site II, natural gas for fuel.
Soonergrunt
@freelancer: I honestly don’t want him to end up like Breitbart–an asshole, face down in a gutter, dead.
MikeJ
@Soonergrunt: I don’t wish ill on anyone, but I can’t say I really give a shit about whatever does occur.
Soonergrunt
@amk: Because we aren’t evil.
I don’t think he should die just because he is a racist misogynist prick. I want him to live. But if he’s going to live, I want him to be a useful member of society, and that requires him to stop being a racist misogynist prick, too.
Debbie(Aussie)
Have the same feeling/fear for our summer. Which started early, three weeks ago, temps over 30 already. First decent storm happening as I type.
gorram
In NorCal, it feels about normal, or maybe a little warm, but it’s definitely going to be unusually wet this winter. The rains have already started, and some years those wait until after New Years.
Soonergrunt
Please donate to Rob Zerban, and let’s send the zombie-eyed granny starver to the unemployment line instead of back to Congress when we re-elect Obama.
Geoduck
@Comrade Luke:
Following months of abnormally sunny weather. It was like a switch was flipped somewhere.
? Martin
@freelancer: 7,000 people will die from MRSA infections this year in the US. I would not be broken up if Riehl took one for the team, to save a fellow American.
freelancer
@Soonergrunt:
Agreed. I wasn’t being facetious.
amk
@Soonergrunt: ebil/shebil. pfft. There are far more worthy souls to Pray/meditate/hum for.
amk
@? Martin: +1.
Soonergrunt
@freelancer: @amk: Well, to be 100% honest, I’m praying for a “both or neither” deal on this “make him a decent person AND save his life” thing.
Just doing one of those two isn’t going to help anybody.
? Martin
@Bnut: I can imagine.
My wife likes Muse and so she dials it up on Pandora or Spotify or whatever. Unsustainable comes on and my daughter barges into the room and exclaims “Why is my mom listening to dubstep!” My son notes that it’s just Muse. My wife sheepishly asks “What’s dubstep?” Lot’s of Skrillex gets played over the next half hour or so.
(Fond of Bangarang myself)
Bnut
@? Martin: I don’t even really like dubstep. It’s all about the drop moment with the moments in between seeming to be filler. I love electronic music though. There are the occasional dub artists I like, such as Bassnectar, but they are rare. This concert was crazy though. Like a plane had crop dusted MDMA over everyone.
marindenver
Good luck to you. The forecast is definitely scary. I’m flying in to Philadelphia and connecting to Rome on Wednesday next. Just hoping the big storm will have passed on by and moved on by then without any major damage for you guys!!
But, global warming is a lie-beral hoax, right?
Anne Laurie
@efgoldman:
National Weather Service (thank you Raven!) is telling me:
We’re planning on food-shopping Saturday, but we won’t restock the freezer. Main worry, for us, is the godsdamned unbalanced oak limb hanging directly over the power lines (& blocking sunlight to my tomato garden) that the power company refuses to take care of and which we haven’t gotten around to budgeting $1000 to get removed. If I disappear over the next week, blame NStar…
TheMightyTrowel
@Debbie(Aussie): spring is a bit late in the act. loads of Sun but it’s still single digits in the morning.
Joseph Nobles
The Times has an article today about a possible one year or more gap in satellite weather coverage, because Austerity!
Well, not just Austerity. The problems have been been building. But, yeah, if we can’t see global warming, then it’s not happening, right?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/27/us/dying-satellites-could-lead-to-shaky-weather-forecasts.html
eco2geek
@Geoduck:
That’s the truth. It felt like it went from summer to winter with no fall in between.
Dunno if it qualifies as dubstep, but Butch Clancy’s fun to listen to. Crank it up.
James E. Powell
Tonight I finally finished Season Five of Mad Men. Watched the last six episodes in a row. Man, what a depressing show. I don’t know whether to hang myself, get electroshock therapy, or just start drinking Canadian Club at 10AM every day.
R-Jud
There’s a hard frost on the ground here and we’ve had spells of flurries in the last few days. Very unusual for central England in October.
Debbie(Aussie)
@TheMightyTrowel: Not here in south east Qld. Spring, what spring……….
Punchy
I hear its about to become windy with a little rain soon. Either that, or yer about to all die a horrible death in some freakish, one-in-a-brazillian year Death Storm(TM) coming yer way. Depends on which cable channel one peruses….
Raven
Drought getting worse in Georgia as another hurricane will bring ZERO rain.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko:
WTH is your Les Paul doing on the wall?!
Case snob here. :p
Yeah, that is awesome to see and hear. Tom Keifer is one talented musician too. At one of the concerts I saw he started playing Don’t Know What You Got (’til it’s gone) but he wasn’t in sight for a few until they lowered him from the stage rafters while playing a white baby grand. They put on one hell of a show, that’s for sure.
Their album Long, Cold Winter remains one of my favorites. Bad Seamstress Blues is one kick ass song on it. I love listening to a great slide player.
Raven
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Huh, I’ve never heard of these dudes.
arguingwithsignposts
Just be glad you aren’t living in the. 50s.
Raven
@arguingwithsignposts: I wish I was 50!
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Raven:
They were grouped into the ‘hair/glam metal’ scene back in the 80’s but they are very diverse in their musical styles (as most good musicians are), which made them interesting to me. I can pop one of their discs in and listen to the whole thing without wanting to skip tracks. Their first album (Night Songs) was pretty metal but they opened up after they gained a huge following.
Good stuff for a band of guys called Cinderella. :)
If you like the blues, check out their third album, Heartbreak Station. That’s the one that slammed Tipper Gore for her ‘jihad’ against rock lyrics (Shelter Me).
Raven
@Odie Hugh Manatee: I guess their beginnings would account for my lack of knowledge. I went from San Francisco rock to Country Rock and bypassed disco and glam. I’ll give it a listen. I picked up the new Donald Fagen and I really like it.
WereBear
@Soonergrunt: Well. I wouldn’t wish a pulmonary bypass on anyone. So there’s that!
Raven
Modded for mentioning Steely’s frontman?
Bill E Pilgrim
Or maybe not, and I am full of shit. For now, I am betting on a really, really bad winter that is going to hit quick and stay for a while.
Nate Silver has that at 74%.
JPL
I just sent Beth pictures of the pets. Since my sons wanted their animals included, I sent three separate e-mails. I hope that is okay and I hope she receives them all.
The calendar is so nice and we look forward to it every year.
edit.. Maybe I should have done one email with three attachments. Obsess , obsess, obsess.
Odie Hugh Manatee
A morning funny, brought to you by Redstate:
Wow, Marsha Blackburn is a dude? That ought to be news to her husband!
Her phrasing needs a bit of tweaking. ;p
greenergood
Sunny, cold, snow flurries on the west coast of Scotland. Flying into Newark Tuesday morning – why, hello, Sandy! If we can’t land, does anyone have an idea where flights would be diverted to?
PreservedKillick
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Only the ones without a sense of humor.
BruceFromOhio
@Thor Heyerdahl: This is fabulous. Vivaldi has been a staple for many, many years, and I have never heard this kind of arrangement. Looking up the artiste, it seems he has quite the splendid history. This rates a new channel on Pandora, and some requests from Telarc.
Thank you for sharing this, it fit perfectly into this cold, grey, rainy Saturday morning.
kay
@PreservedKillick:
Republican men can’t stop talking about rape, so it’s time to change the subject to how Obama degrades women.
Everything conservatives do or say is political. Everything. They’re not real complicated.
I’m waiting for the NYTimes to give Campbell Brown (journalist!) Some more free ad space to stump for Romney. She’s out front whenever Republicans tell the truth about the role women have in that Party.
jayboat
A bit windy but clear down here on the sw coast of Florida this morning.
You wouldn’t know it listening to the local tv news, though. If there’s a hurricane within a thousand miles it’s RED ALERT. It’s sickening how they pander to the old farts down here. Unless there’s a storm heading right for us, or I’m heading out on a boat, I never even bother checking the weather- sunny and warm most of the time with some rain here and there.
Haven’t seen snow in 16 years. Don’t miss it a bit. 8-]]]
Comrade Jake
Ezra Klein tweeted that ALL of the commercials in Columbus, OH, during the 5-6 news hour are political ads. Not some, not most, but ALL. Someone should tell the Obama campaign that they could probably lock up the state by just pulling the rest of their ads over the next week and a half. It’s got to be counterproductive at this stage,
amk
@Comrade Jake: And leave the mittbot and citizens fucked saturate the air waves with their lies ?
Barry
John Cole: ” I can’t explain why, but it just feels like it is going to be bad this year. I’m sure those of you who have lived in the same place for decades know what I mean. You can just tell when it is going to be worse than normal.”
Nah, I’ve lived in SE MI for over forty out of fifty-two years (and within five miles of where I was born) and I can’t predict squat.
donnah
It’s been a long, dry summer in SW Ohio and our autumn has been average, swinging from low eighties last week to fifties this weekend. But I walk our dog every day and this year there has been a ton of squirrel activity. Sure, we have them burying provisions every fall, but I’m seeing these critters digging nonstop in every yard.
if this isn’t going to be a bad one, then there will be some tubby grey tree rats come spring.
Dice
Just outside Madison, WI: 30°F and frost on the ground, no snow. On the other hand, the horses haven’t haired up much as yet, which probably means a light winter. They’re usually better predictors than the Old Farmer or any weatherperson, IMO. Somehow they know what the weather’s planning and don’t waste energy and protein growing hair if they won’t need it.
Just saying …
Persia
Vermont here. It feels pretty normal so far but we’re that much further north.
I haven’t even gotten my snow tires on yet.
James Hare
I hope so. I spent last winter in Vermont and we barely had any snow. Thanks to job issues I’m back in the DC area and looking forward to some snow. My favorite mountain around here is in WV so I hope Cole is right.
Ash Can
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Actually, her grammar is correct. If she had gone on to refer to herself in the second part of that sentence she would have messed up. As it is, her sentence is fine.
/pedant
amk
@Ash Can: Agree.
Poopyman
You’ve had a hell of a week for a couple of reasons, and now the reaction is sinking in. You’re outlook’ll change in a couple of days, I’m thinking, back to an “it is what it is” attitude.
We here on the Maryland Western Shore and DC environs have dodged a bullet with Sandy, but New England is not so lucky, and I’m really glad I don’t live on Long Island. Well,for a lot of reasons, but here I mean weatherwise.
So we’ll get 5-6 inches of rain, and the NWS is predicting winds in the 30s. Some will lose power,but it’s not going to be as bad as the derecho in June.
Now I gotta go pick stuff up in the yard. Good neighbors don’t let their lawn chairs, bird feeders, and loose tarps get into the neighbors’ pools.
Montysano
Down in the low 40s this morning here in the hills of north Alabama. Got the Jotul stove cranked up. The stovepipe is cleaned, the stove is clean and oiled, a new woodshed is built, and 2 cords of perfectly seasoned wood are stacked. The tornadoes of April 2011 were tragic, but they left mountains of cheap and plentiful firewood. Got oak, cherry, pecan, and hackberry (a wonderful firewood BTW).
Bring it on.
Poopyman
@Ash Can: @amk: Right. The President does indeed have two lovely daughters.
But WTF is wrong with these people if the first thing they think of is losing virginity? Wingnuts! What a bunch of perverts!
Anya
@Odie Hugh Manatee: What’s exactly offensive to women about the ad? Or is it the case of “ewww….sex is icky!” irrationality?
Maude
@Montysano:
In NJ, we’re at 61 degrees and cloudy, no wind.
Rosalita
@Maude:
calm before the nightmare…I was just observing the same thing here in CT…creepily still
HRA
47 degrees here in the outskirts of Buffalo, NY and rain predicted at 100% for the next 4 days
It’s not that we have never been hit with a few big ones in the past. They did not bother me as much as the October storm we had a few years ago when the trees were still full of leaves, large limbs were down all over this large tree encased yard and power was out for 4 days.
The worst part initially is traveling the 20+ miles from work to home during one of the storms.
scav
Piffle. If “millions” of women are indeed offended, they are perfectly capable of expressing same, most effectively, oddly enough, at the ballot box. So let them handle it and don’t presume to speak for them. Bark, bark, bark, useless to tell politicians and pundits and pulpit-pushers anything.
OldDave
@Maude:
Yet. Monday evening, when Sandy arrives, may be a horse of a different color. Good luck!
maya
Not matter how stormy it may get this winter just keep in mind this comforting line from CCR:
There’s a bathroom on the right.
imonlylurking
We’re expecting a bad winter also. Brownie looks like he’s wearing two fur coats. We thought he was just getting a bit fat, but it’s all fur.
blingee
Thanks for telling us your instincts that it is going to be a bad winter. Based on the fact you are almost always wrong about everything I’m going to sell some of my natural gas stocks.
Jay C
FWIW, at our country retreat last month (Berkshires, Western MA) I saw a bunch of odd orange-colored caterpillars crawling around, and realized they were actually Wooly Bears: normally black with an orange band, the size of the band is supposed to predict the upcoming winter weather. These were all orange, mainly, so I’m guessing next winter will be extraordinarily mild.
Not that I’m going to be making plans solely based on a goddam caterpillar…..
hitchhiker
@Anya:
If young women are allowed to make sly jokes about their own sex lives right out in public, the world will end for everybody who lives and dies by the patriarchy — and that includes a lot of conservative women.
It’s the same dynamic that makes them hate gay marriage, right? Gay marriage threatens the patriarchy in a big way. A marriage of two men doesn’t make sense if you think of marriage as the vehicle for establishing men as the heads of households. Eek! We can’t tell who should be in charge!