Three-Letter Acronyms & Four-Letter Words

Give or take a mile.

Thanks to my brilliant navigating skills we have arrived two and a half hours late.

Well, I can't honestly take full credit for all of the delay. We sat through a fsck load of traffic on a bridge that is called something that sounds like 'Throg sank', then we sat in some traffic while going through the Bronx, then another fsck load of traffic while getting onto the George Washington bridge.

What I will definitely take credit for is what happened after we got over the bridge. I completely missed the exit for I-78, we ended up driving all the way down to Pennsylvania on I-95 and then hopping I-276, which turns into I-76. We then took I-76 over to 81 and were back on the planned course.

This out of the way route cost us some time, I'm not sure how much time. But what I am sure if not for that delay, we would have probably have missed the sitting in about a mile long backup of traffic, that stemmed from a highway accident where there was a SEVERELY beaten up SUV and I am pretty sure I saw three body bags on the ground.

The accident and subsequent backup occurred after we had gone through a fairly decent drenching while on the road through Virginia.

After the accident the roads were fairly clear, except for the pea-soup grade fog that plagued us until just about outside Knoxville.

Well, Jeremy has shut down his laptop and I should take that as my sign to brush my teeth and pass out, since I am sure we will want to try to get on the road quicker than we did this morning and get through the other 1,010 miles as to end the trip officially on Saturday and not Sunday.

Beana, I love you and can't wait to see you.

Laterz

The tropical kind, like the one that built up in the Gulf (of Mexico) and is hitting land near Corpus Christi (TX).

It has brought some needed rain here to central Texas.

Don't get me wrong, we have had plenty of rain this summer. But the problem is that it has been coming all at once. Combining the heat and the soil composition of much of Texas all of that water just runs off. It can't sink deep into the ground as quickly as it has been arriving.

So the occasional shower is what we need, probably at least once a week or maybe twice a week. The whole rest of the time it could be sunny and nice. Or if it just wanted to do that thing where it rains at night. All for that one. The wife loves its and well I am asleep so the gray skies don't bug me.

Anyway, Jeremy is coming into town on Sunday. So it will be interesting if the weather sticks around for his arrival (and afterwards) like it has on previous visits.

Not a lot has been going on, I was in Dallas the last couple of days.

I have a conference call in a little bit, so I just wanted to get a post up since I haven't in a while.

Back to the grind.

Laterz

Well, the weatherman says it is supposed to keep raining until the cows come home, course the cows have long since been washed away by all the rain.

Just kidding, sort of.

The weather forecast says that the rain is supposed to keep up until about next Friday.

Work has kept me busy most of this week and with Jeremy here I haven't really bothered to boot up my home PC much.

So we had a little bit of a surprise waiting for us when we got home. Gina and I didn't notice the surprise when we first got home, of course it was sort of dark by then. I wish I had gotten some pictures of the gigantic tree limb that had broken off before Jeremy started cutting it into more manageable pieces.

The neighbors tree that shades a good part of the front yard has had problems before where limbs have snapped off during storms. This one didn't fall to the ground or hit any houses, rather it hit another limb and was just teetering there. However, the limb it was teetering (and part of it still is) on is near the porch.

And I am sure that if Jeremy hadn't cut part of it off when he did, a good gust of wind would have probably dislodged it and allowed it to slide down the limb it is resting on and into the side of porch, causing some damage.

So after work on Wednesday we hit the Home Depot and bought one of those chainsaws on a pole. They really, really should check ID or give you a 10 minute training course with a pass-fail test before letting you guy such a thing.

I bought the electric one, because for those that don't know me, I don't like keeping gasoline around. I mean we did this up north kept the gas can for the lawnmower underneath this little crawl space in the back of the house. But it was Michigan, a 90 degree day is newsworthy up there.

Down here in TX during the summer you can easily have 100+ degree days for several days straight during the summer (not so far this summer mind you), so the idea of keeping a highly flammable substance in my garage or my shed, where the temperatures can get outrageously hot makes me not want to tempt fate.

So I opt for electric stuff, electric lawnmower, electric chainsaws, etc.

Anyway, so this thing is an 8" electric chainsaw on a pole that telescopes out to around 12 feet or so. Yeah this thing is dangerous, but cool.

Jeremy cut two LARGE pieces off of the limb and I dragged them towards the front of the lawn.

After we get the last piece out of the tree we will have to cut up the LARGE pieces into smaller pieces and bundle them for removal. That should be fun as I have had to cut up and bundle smaller amounts of tree branch than that and those times I spent at least a good 1/2 day.

Oh well, I will get some pics of everything when we get home.

Hopefully, it hasn't started raining again by then.

The weather here this summer has been CRAZY.

We get rain in the morning, then for a few hours it stops and if we are lucky the sun comes out, then it starts raining again in the evening and usually rains some more at night.

Don't get me wrong, I love that we aren't in a drought. But WTF, is Texas turning into a tropical climate?

Time to hit the road and head home.

Laterz

I am sitting here in the DFW (Dallas) airport waiting to board the plane. As usual I had to do the old 'search for power' thing, as my laptop has almost no battery capacity (45 minutes on avg when using wifi).

The next laptop will definitely have a like 12 cell battery. I have thought about asking for a battery upgrade on this one. However, I believe that it is probably not a good idea to upgrade the battery for this one as the laptop is about 3.5 years old. Not that it is failing, but with the price of new laptops these days it makes it seem like a bad investment.

Anyway, I am ready to be on vacation. I hope we don't get stuck on the tarmac for too long as it appears to have started raining fairly hard here at the airport. Dallas has more or less been getting daily biblical rain showers.

I am thinking that I need to shutdown and head over to the food-court area and get Gina and I a lunch-time snack for the flight.

In hopefully about 4 hours (give or take) Gina and I will be in Detroit. We are going to stay in Lansing overnight, then we are headed up to the cottage. Where I will promptly change into swim trunks, crack a beer and sit on the beach. (Even if it is raining out!)

Time to shutdown.

Laterz

That is what our outdoor weather station we have setup on the covered sun porch has read for the last couple of days.

Inside the humidity has fluctuated between 41% to 52%.

Needless to say, the humidity sucks.

We have had rain every day for the last several days. This morning it sprinkled on my way into work and then poured for about an hour, give or take 10 minutes.

Now it looks like we are getting some sun shining through the clouds, but off in the distance I can see that it is raining.

Obviously, Texas needs rain. People who have never been here, know that Texas is a state that needs rain.

Right at this moment, I don't think Austin needs anymore rain. I know that my coworkers in Dallas feel the same way.

However, I think I will gladly take rainy days over 100+ degree days.

Back to the grind.

Laterz

I have coughed a couple of time in the last two days, in a way that isn't just a 'clearing my throat' kind of way.

I think, I am going to try to turn in early tonight.

The ARS guys are coming over to do the duct work tomorrow. I will be working from home while they do that. Hopefully, it keeps raining tomorrow too, and thus keep the house cool while the AC is off.

It is raining today, which could also be why I feel kind of blah.

So, the new AC is doing its job the house is nice and cool. It is quieter and I believe that the AC has been on less than before.

Once the new duct work is in, then that will hopefully up the airflow (ie pressure coming out of the vents).

I was a little late getting to work, so I sorry, can't do a longer post.

Back to the grind.

Laterz

It is raining here.

It was raining when we left to go to Dallas.

It was raining harder in Dallas (last Friday).

It was raining when we flew to Detroit.

There was no rain in Lansing while we were there. (Which was excellent. Remember, I am solar powered.)

The weather was OK in Detroit (on Tuesday).

It had recently rained in Dallas when we landed (On Tuesday).

It rained HARD during the day on Wednesday in Dallas.

It was cloudy, but no rain on the way back to Austin.

It started raining during the night.

And the stream going down the street makes me think I will be washed away.

(I will try to snag a photo)

Laterz

Last night a fairly powerful storm swept through our area here in Cedar Park.

An even more powerful storm swept through Dallas.

Which was actually a concern, because I am going to Dallas today. And I wasn't looking forward to driving up to Dallas in really bad weather.

Well it looks like the weather has calmed down. I heard something on CNN about how Dallas will have scattered thunderstorms throughout the day. Hopefully they are mild and clear up once I head back home.

Better go and get ready to go.

Laterz

Come back at night when I'm sleeping.

OK, I should be ecstatic that it is raining. This means that my trees and lawn will grow strong an healthy before the drought like weather of summer comes along.

However, I'm not. I hate it when it is rainy out.

As I have pointed out in the past, it makes me sleepy.

Anyway, enough bitching.

Back to the grind.

Laterz

Yeah, the temperature dropped while it was still raining yesterday. The temperature drop turned the rain into hail and sleet.

I think the low while we were out and about yesterday was 36 (as per thermometer in the Vibe).

Gina kept saying that it was a good temperature, I informed her that it was about 30 degrees colder than what I consider to be chilly.

Anyway, back to rewriting the dog blog.

Laterz