It’s all relative, but the weather sucks here this week. Highs are in the 50s and lows in the 30s. That might sound balmy if you’re in Rochester.
But I have to jump in the water Friday, so I’m kinda miffed about it. At least the springs will be warm and the manatees plentiful. I’ll try to get pics. In the meantime, coffee and lots of it.
***
The eagle pair returned this morning. They wheeled over the river, their dark bodies and contrasting white heads and tails stark against the blue sky.
One eagle carried vegetation to the other in a tall tree on the bank opposite our place, where they’re apparently building a nest.
Above is one of the crappy pics I took yesterday. I’m so hoping they stick around and raise some eaglets. The tree is distant, but I have a pretty good spotting scope.
***
I’ve been occupying myself with lots of small projects. So far, I re-tiled a backsplash, re-caulked two sinks, touched up paint and organized two closets.
Bill is working much harder than I am downstairs, where he is replacing the drywall that he ripped out after the flood. (In the Mildew State, ya gotta take care of demo right away or mold will engulf the building and its inhabitants.)
I think we deserve an evening at the pub after all this. I hope y’all are having a peaceful day and staying safe. If you’re a Californian, consider checking in below in the thread for that purpose.
Open thread!
Jackie
I hope baby eaglets are in your – and by extension, our future! How exciting!
lowtechcyclist
Here in Maryland, my county’s schools are enjoying their third successive snow day. And tomorrow will be a late arrival, so the kiddo can sleep late and still be on time.
And we have another storm headed our way Friday or Saturday.
Old School
I think you deserve an evening at the pub as well. I hope you have a great time.
mali muso
@lowtechcyclist: Here in Virginia, kiddo has had 3 snow days in a row and another one just announced for tomorrow. We are headed to Belize early Saturday morning, so fingers crossed the incoming storm misses us.
Professor Bigfoot
NE Ohio here, and it keeps snowing, but so slowly that it doesn’t seem worth it to go shovel.
(…that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it)
Trollhattan
Iggles! Baldy iggles! Here’s wishing for a successful brood and maybe they can develop a taste for li’l gators.
Glorious mid-60s here the last couple days after weeks of rain, across the holidays, so that’s been nice. And speaking of coffee, our ancient espresso maker issued its final doppio in December, so our gift to each other for Christmas was a new machina from Italy. Saluti
geg6
@Professor Bigfoot:
Same here in Western PA. Damn cold, too.
A Ghost to Most
It was 7° here this morning, if that helps.
Ohio Mom
Lots of snow days here as well and more snow heading our way on Friday night.
I haven’t been beyond the end of the driveway (to get the newspaper and the mail) since Saturday morning though Ohio Dad has ventured out to the pharmacy once and Ohio Son went back to his job this afternoon.
I’ve been half busy cleaning the office/guest room, or as I alternately call it, The Girl Cave or The Room Where Projects Go To Die. The dead projects cover the bed and since my Seattle cousin announced she wants to visit this spring, I thought I’d better start clearing it up.
Most of it are half-organized photographs and the various albums picked up at yard sales and saved because one day I’ll need them to organize the photos. There are a handful of really old photographs of Ohio Dad’s relatives that he doesn’t recognize. And gazillions of his step-grandmother who we remember fondly but don’t need gazillions of.
Those are easier to toss than the many more gazillion photos of Baby Ohio Son. The photographs of the long dead and forgotten photos remind me that really, no one is interested in pics of Ohio Son except me and Ohio Dad (Ohio Son has not an ounce of nostalgia in him).
It’s giving me an existential crisis, which is why I’m only half organizing and cleaning. All is vanity, as our ancestors warned us.
lowtechcyclist
@Ohio Mom:
I can relate. My sisters are both childless, and my BIL is too. So the kiddo would be the ultimate repository for all photos and other mementos from both sides of the family. And it seems pretty clear that little of that will interest him after we’re gone. So it really comes down to what my wife and I want to be able to hold onto during our remaining two or three decades.
If the kiddo pitches it all after we’re gone, well, we won’t know about it, will we? But at least for now, it’s what we expect.
sab
I hope it doesn’t get too cold for those poor see cows.
jackmac
Sad eagle news in the Chicago area. A bald eagle found in the western suburbs was having difficulty flying and apparently had tremors. It was captured and had to be euthanized due to suspected bird flu.
Central Planning
@BC: “Highs are in the 50s and lows in the 30s. That might sound balmy if you’re in Rochester.”
True. That’s shorts and t-shirt, drive around with the top down, kind of weather.
Lily
Article by Caroline Van Hemert, a wildlife biologist and high-latitude sailor. Good photos.
https://hakaimagazine.com/features/the-fleet-winged-ghosts-of-greenland/
FastEdD
I could use some slow potato-shaped friends. Geese have made a nest on my chimney and are terrorizing the neighborhood.
Albatrossity
@Lily: That link triggered my antivirus program to block it…
Jeffro
It’s amazing what you consider ‘small projects’, Betty…I’d still be working on that list well into next year.
(I’m not terribly handy, is what I’m trying to say. But I can cook, so there’s that!)
Phylllis
It’s mighty cold here in the Midlands of SC, and the forecast now is for a ‘wintry mix’ Friday afternoon, changing to freezing rain as it gets dark. We have gas logs which will operate on batteries, so we made sure to add D batteries to the grocery list. Of course, being us, having them on the list meant nothing, so I had to make a second trip to get them. At least we remembered that we didn’t get them before it was too late.
Raoul Paste
I look forward to the report on the swim with the manatees. I gotta say that a 72° springs is still well below body temperature. Good luck and Excelsior!
KrackenJack
Why am I thinking of Stephen King? Oh, right…Creepshow 1982 on Youtube
eemom
@mali muso:
As mentioned yesterday I’m a Fairfax County parent of two erstwhile snow day children (now ages 26 and 30). One year, it got to the point where my son didn’t WANT any more snow days because it was gonna “make the summer shorter.”
mali muso
@eemom: Yeah, she wants to get back to school as she’s missing her little friends after a long holiday break compounded with all these snow days.
We didn’t even get all that much snow, maybe 6 inches or so, but the cold temps since is just keeping the non-primary roads icy.
lowtechcyclist
@Phylllis:
Freezing rain – Lord, I hate that stuff. I’ll take a blizzard over that any day and twice on Sunday.
Reminds me of an evening in the fall of 1988 when my new girlfriend and I (36 years later, we still seem to be putting up with each other ;-) were studying together for a Discrete Math test that we weren’t feeling well prepared for, when the word came down that classes the next day were canceled due to weather. And it actually snowed! The next day, she and I went down to the Columbia zoo and took pictures of the pink flamingos in the snow.
Then we still had two days to study for the test, which was enough extra prep time for us to do quite well on it. Good memories. :-)
mrmoshpotato
@lowtechcyclist:
@mali muso:
@Ohio Mom: Hope your utilities are still intact.
Phylllis
@lowtechcyclist: What a great memory. We had enough snow one year while I was a student at Charleston Southern (then known as the Baptist College) that roads were closed. We used the cafeteria trays to sled down the I-26 overpass.
lowtechcyclist
@Phylllis:
Snow in Charleston – now that’s even more impressive than snow in Columbia! Sliding down the I-20 overpass on cafeteria trays, that would be pretty memorable too!
Phylllis
@lowtechcyclist: MIght have been all of an inch or two at the most, so it was verrry slow going. Still lots of fun for a Florida native who’d never seen snow before.
frosty
That is NOT a crappy pic! That would be one of my better ones. As to the weather, I can’t wait til we get the trailer someplace with highs in the 50s and lows in the 30s. Then we can dump the antifreeze and get back to normal camping. We take off on Sunday.
Have fun with the manatees!
Lily
@Albatrossity: Thanks for the information. I linked to the original article because I like Hakai magazine and its site still had the article up. But the story is also up on a new site (partner with the previous Hakai, which just closed) :
If you care to trust/look, the exact same story on the bioGraphic site is up here: https://www.biographic.com/the-fleet-winged-ghosts-of-greenland/
RaflW
Had a nice late-morning snowboarding outing with my buddy. The temp mid-mountain was 6ºF, but virtually no wind and clear blue sunny skies, so it was very pleasant. Only about 90 minutes, though, as even with it being pleasant, my toes started to say “Ehh, maybe somewhere warmer?”
RaflW
@lowtechcyclist: It was a tradition at TCU that we’d go “traying” if it snowed enough in Ft. Worth (about once per two winters).
One of the winters was snowy enough that the campus food service started putting ads in the campus daily saying “We’re glad you had fun, but please return any useable trays. No questions asked, but just be kind.” I think it actually worked.
PatrickG
One of the highlights of my life was robins nesting in a tree three feet away from our dining room window.
glued to that window for weeks! When we realized we were bothering them we set up a webcam and took all meals in the living room.
I almost faint at the thought of EAGLE nest porn. Fingers crossed for you!
PS hungry baby birds are the stuff of nightmares.
Kosh III
Coffee is good!
Publix put our favorite brand on sale: Eight O’Clock. Hubby went there early and got as many bags of beans as they would allow. That’s the only thing we get at Publix otherwise Kroger and Aldi.
Here in McMinnville TN it was 15f at 5:30 this morning and 5+ inches of snow expected starting tomorrow morning. Yeah, 50s would be welcome weather.
Frak the Felon and Buttigieg/AOC 2028