early cold & the vagaries of LES

LES (lake effect snow in meteorological jargon)continues to pummel (favorite news reporter's meteorological verb) nearby areas of New York state, leaving us high, dry, quite cold, and very windy. We reached a high of 15 today with windchills below zero F since early morning. This is the second round of the lake effect snow no-show for Ithaca. I do wish the NWS would either back off or get more granular with their accumulation forecasts. And yet I find comfort in the unpredictability of complex, dynamic invisible air envelope that we live within and upon which we rely for life.

The cusp of December

It's the time of year when intense storms angle up through the Great Lakes states: the wind blows hard and sucks up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, the western Atlantic, and the lakes and dumps rain in copious amounts. We've had our share this year. A six-inch rain, the re-energized remnant of Tropical Storm Nicole, on the last day of September and a two-inch rain on the last day of November with a lot of wind. Six Mile Creek flooded impressively. This last rain wound up with a couple of inches of snow and a cold spell. We've had our share of gray skies, but I like it when the wind blows hard and the skies open up.

Switching back to half-time work at the turn of the month has freed up some of my energy for cooking and for yard time. More hardwood leaves, more white pine needles, and trimming back the annuals in preparation for winter. It's just gotten cold enough now that I've switched to walking instead of cycling to work. It has been a big year for planting--nearly 100 bulbs, three trees, winter cover crop in the kitchen garden, lots more herbs--lavender, salvia, basil, the usual rosemary, hyssop, sage.

I want every drop of rain and snow that falls on this bit of the earth to stay here, to sink in, and to nourish monster plants.

frost on the punkin

Last night was a real cool deal--mid 20s for hours, cold enough to kill the tender annuals like our red sage, Thai basil, regular basil. Meanwhile the newest generation of crocuses, narcissus, and daffy down dillies are all planted in their snug little beds. The new dogwood is protected from the depredations of rutting bucks. In the Kitchen garden, the cover crop of winter rye and peas is putting up its slender purple shoots. The padrone and Bolivian pepper plants are potted and stationed at sunny windows inside. Storm windows are on. All this just in time for a cold week in Ithaca. Sigh.

The annual leaf drop is nearly done. The most reluctant of the maples dropped a ton of leaves today; a good freeze really cuts them loose. The oaks are holding on for the moment. I'm looking forward to gathering oak leaves to bed down the areas that I haven't covered so far. My longer term goal is to dwell in an earthy place that is like unto a forest floor. Something to aspire to.

Bulb-planting day

Mid-October is bulb-planting time. This year we ordered more than ever before. Today, in the cool sun, we planted 50 King Alfred daffodils. In the damp soil on little pillows of dried crab/lobster pieces, dried kelp, and peat moss. Tomorrow we plant Narcissus and Crocus bulbs. Liking fall and thinking spring all at the same time.

The new world of movies...

streaming movies from NetFlix, that is. I'm an instant convert. Been home with a nasty cold all weekend and today. Last night I watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Heavy.
Today:
Iron Man. Oh yeah--boy toys times CGI equals big fun. Quel suit.
180 degrees South. Rapa Nui, Santiago, and Douglas Tompkins parque south of Puerto Montt in the Chilean Patagonia. Never thought I'd see that in a movie.
Being John Malkovich. A re-watch and well worth it.

If you have to be sick, this is a good way to improve the experience. FFFF. The new iMac as entertainment outpost.

My first view of unEarthly moons

Last Tuesday, for the first time I saw the moons of a planet other than Earth with my own eyes. I heard on Earth and Sky that Jupiter was unusually close to Earth, closer than it has been since 1963 and than will be again until 2022. And also very near the Earth moon. So I whipped out my binos and there Jupiter was in the early night sky. And right near Jupiter I saw three of its moons. Wow. Uranus was supposed to be hanging around within one degree of Jupiter, too, but I didn't see it. That would have been a first for me, as well. Saturn is the farthest out planet I have seen so far.

More info from Earth and Sky.

Here's a neat chart of where these planets are right now.

Over and out.

computer death

OK, this is not about the yard, though this is the yard values blog.

Last week our iMac died and took a lot of files with it. Actually the biggest hunk of stuff was photos that I had in iPhoto. The last photos I had backed up were from September 2009. So a lot of photos.

The last time this happened was when we first bought that iMac, and I lost a lot of photos when the motherboard crapped out--bad capacitors, I guess--then, too. And I was really devastated. But this time, I'm not devastated. Sure, I'd like to have them back, but no devastation. I'll see if I can find someone/thing that can resurrect them--Geek Squad at Best Buy, maybe--but I'm not hopeful. Maybe this means that I'm getting more comfortable with death.

Of course it doesn't hurt that I have a new iMac to play with.

3 months later

Well, the passing of my 65th birthday signaled a change, an elbow, in the direction of my life. Preceded as it was by knee surgery and the death of my aunt, Janet. And followed by rehabilitation of my knee, which is ongoing. And our trip to Seattle and Port Townsend for Janet's memorial service and interment. And returning to work at Olin Library.

The best thing so far about this post-65 time has been swimming in Lake Champlain one or more times a day during the two weeks we were in Vermont at the end of August. And visiting with Clare, a college friend who now lives in Seattle. There is nothing more strengthening and clarifying about swimming as far as I can in that water and playing with its buoyancy. The first few days were very windy, hence really wavy and challenging to swim in. When calmer days came, the strength developed swimming in the wind enhanced my appreciation of the smoother water.

Seems like the end of an era. So where now? A new direction is not yet clear. To experience a tectonic shift in my sense of self does not mean that I know much about it yet. I wonder what will happen.

Meanwhile, I have been enjoying reading two books in the Library of America series: Reporting World War II, Part One and A. J. Liebling's World War II Writings. It is sobering to read reporting. I know how the events proceeded more of less, how they turned out, but the writer has no idea, of course, because their future, and our future, has not yet happened. It rather parallels my present state. Something is going on, and I can only report about what seems to be happening without knowing how it will turn out exactly. Or even approximately.

Turning 65

Today I walked on South Hill Recreation Way from 8 to 9:30 am, then headed to Taughannock Falls State Park to escape the heat (95 degrees in Ithaca this afternoon). I swam in Cayuga Lake a couple of times, read the New York Times, worked the crossword puzzle, and fell asleep in the shade of a locust tree. Foolishly, I neglected to apply sunscreen and the locust shade, being only partial, did not keep me from getting a sunburn on my face. In spite of the sunburn, though, I had a good birthday. Never too old to do foolish things, am I.

O Thistle

The volunteer thistle on the edge of the driveway is back and blooming. Among the most beautiful of flowers, there are the thistles, round scaly spheres bursting with violet. Riding on four-foot spiny stems. Later the seeds are favored by goldfinches.

Investing in the Golf

Just passed through a decision point with the VW Golf. We looked at and Jane test drove one of the new Golfs. Then decided to invest more in the existing car--new tires, fixing the coolant leak and the leaky head gasket. Feels good, once we made the decision. Greener.

Recovery

Slowly but surely recovering from surgery for a tear in the medial meniscus of my right knee. Had a lovely pre-surgery trip to the city and finally got to walk the High Line. Lots of gardening inspiration there. Went to a terrific dance concert in Chelsea with Anna and Kate. And witnessed Kate getting her Masters degree in early childhood education at Hunter College. Momofuku, lots of other good food.

Spring snow

Contrary to my expectations we did get some snow today--mostly air snow. During our South Hill walk we saw thick flakes looking beautiful against the bright green leaves where they landed. After a lot (say two months) of warmer than usual weather, the Canadian air has blown us some very chilly, gray weather. Gray because of the lake-effect snow and rain showers and cloudiness. The cold winds blowing over the slightly warmer lake water are picking up a lot of moisture. Our good old Great Lakes.

The high winds brought down some good-sized maple branches in the neighborhood last night and today. When we returned after watching a sneak preview of a 1993 Cornell graduate's movie, Easy A, last night, we discovered that the wind had taken out the top of our Norway maple in the side yard and deposited it on Water Street. We got a goodly amount of firewood out of the deal--sawing away with our bow saws like little beavers chewing up wood. Then tonight just before dark I discovered a large sugar maple branch downed by the wind and harvested more firewood from it. Nothing like a good windstorm to replenish our supplies. A year or so drying under the back porch will turn it into prime firewood.

Learning Spanish

Just back from my evening Spanish class. I've been taking an intermediate conversation class twice a week at Cornell since the first week of February. The instructor is a lively man who is fond of literature and music and has been using both extensively in the class. It's challenging. I'll have a bad class, but it's usually followed by a good one. A bad class is one when I can't understand the question the instructor is asking me in Spanish. Or I don't understand the story we have read well enough to answer coherently.

But it's good for me to take on the work. It will pay off on the next trip to Chile. Hopefully this coming northern hemisphere winter/southern hemisphere summer. Every once in a while I will understand a whole sentence. Triumph. More often it's a game of approximation. How much can I understand? My progress is slow but, still, progress. I expect to keep learning Spanish, off and on, indefinitely. I want to be fluent.

trees that smell like mushrooms

When I walked on campus tonight, I approached a long double line of ornamental plum trees in full bloom. Meanwhile I was looking around for the mushroom compost or mulch that I was smelling. It helped that I was listening to Radio Lab at the time and so was distracted from my usual perception of the environment. Then the light dawned--it was the tree blossoms that smelled like mushrooms. I had not connected the smell of those trees with the smell of mushrooms before.

the red flush of spring

The forest covering South Hill, the ridge we can see from our back porch, is covered in a subtle reddish blush. It's the red maples blooming. Acer rubrum thrives in the wet, thin soils that many trees don't like. There is a lot of ground water at or near the surface on that hill. Lower down the hill, the red is punctuated by the intense chartreuse of weeping willows, another lover of wet, poorly drained soils, whose leaves are just emerging.

Still recovering from watching Duke grind out a victory over Butler in the NCAA Division I national basketball championship game. Not fun to watch mostly--like sausage being made.

Warm weather upstate: part 1

630 AM EDT THU APR 01 2010

...RECORD MINIMUM MONTHLY SNOWFALL FOR ROCHESTER NY...

ONLY A TRACE OF SNOW WAS RECORDED FOR
THE ENTIRE MONTH OF MARCH 2010
IN ROCHESTER. THIS IS THE ONLY MARCH IN
THE 126 YEAR HISTORY WITHOUT
MEASURABLE SNOW. THIS ECLIPSES THE
OLD RECORD FOR MARCH OF 0.9 INCH SET IN 1946.

IN ADDITION...THE 2009-2010 WINTER SEASON
IS THE ONLY ONE ON RECORD
WITH NO MEASURABLE SNOWFALL IN BOTH NOVEMBER AND MARCH.
IT WOULD BE THE SHORTEST SNOW SEASON ON RECORD
IF NO FURTHER MEASURABLE SNOW OCCURS.

SNOWFALL RECORDS IN ROCHESTER GO BACK TO 1884.

Big Red basketball

The Cornell basketball team was retired from the Big Dance Thursday night. Kentucky had a stifling perimeter defense and the Red couldn't make most of the outside shots they needed to stay in the game. Now Kentucky, who looked invincible against Cornell, has been ejected from the tournament by West Virginia.

We went to Uncle Joe's sports bar to watch the game. I had also watched the Cornell-Wisconsin game there the previous weekend. It was a lot of fun being with a big group of sports fans yelling and carrying on during the game.

It was hard to see the team lose. The good part was getting so far along in the tournament--the Sweet Sixteen. It was the first time an Ivy League team had gotten that far since Pennsylvania went to the Final Four in 1979.

Friday noontime I had the chance to greet the returning team on campus. I enjoyed seeing the big guys piling off the charter bus in front of Day Hall. The core of the team is seniors, so this was their last dance. With many a tear, we sent them off to their futures, not as NBA basketball players, but probably as financiers. I'm sure they will remember their unselfish team play. Perhaps it will affect their work in the world in a positive way. I hope so.

Yard values migration

Hi folks,

I'm officially giving up on Live Journal today after encountering a full-page ad before I could even log in. The old blog address is http://refwhiz.livejournal.com/

To start, here is my favorite post from the LiveJournal blog:

Yesterday morning it was sunny and clear and chilly
At home I put my ruby-red LG VX8350 cell phone in the front pocket of my pack
I left our house about 8 am
Walking to work
I left the front pocket of my pack unzipped by mistake
I ran through Collegetown
Just for fun
Somewhere in Collegetown
My cell phone bounced out of the front pocket of my pack
Onto the sidewalk
Or into the street
I didn't notice
I was listening to Morning Edition on my Sony Walkman AM/FM radio
When I got to work, no cell phone
I called Jane from my office phone
I asked her if I had left my cell phone at home
Jane offered to call my cell phone from her cell phone
If my phone was somewhere at home, she would hear it ringing
Instead someone answered her call
Someone had found my cell phone
But they wouldn't speak
Jane hung up and called again
Someone said they would leave my phone at the front desk of the Hotel Library
Jane called my office phone to tell me this
I ran to the Hotel Library
I went to the front desk
I described my cell phone
The woman behind the desk gave me my cell phone
Here's what my cell phone looked like:
The battery cover was missing
I could see the black battery on the back side of the phone
The screen was broken
It showed a multicolored abstract pattern, mostly white
The case was deeply scratched in many places
The front window had cracks radiating like a star burst
The case, the keys, everything was covered with a powdery film of white road salt
The woman behind the desk told me the name of the person who found my phone
He was a librarian I know
I went to his office and thanked him
He looked at me in an odd way
I left the Hotel Library with my cell phone
I walked back to my office in Olin Library
On the way I tried using my cell phone
I pressed 2, the number for Jane's cell phone on my speed dial, and send
It worked
I walked to a training session in Mann Library
I told my cell phone story to a colleague
That afternoon, I called 611 on my cell phone
I talked to a woman somewhere at Verizon Wireless
She said she could mail me a new phone just like my broken one for $99.99
If I wanted
Just say the word
It would arrive in 2 or 3 days
I got an email from my friend
He offered me a 2-year-old Razr phone
He had to check with his brother first
I called the local Verizon Wireless kiosk-store at Pyramid Mall where I bought my cell phone
The phone rang several times
No person answered
A message told me that the staff was currently helping other customers
I called again a few minutes later
Same result
And again
Same result
The fourth time, an hour later, a woman answered
She told me to take the phone to a Verizon Wireless store near WalMart
They have repair technicians there, she said
They might repair my phone or give me a new phone for $50
Maybe
She couldn't guarantee it
I thought about this
I decided to go to that store
At 2:15 I ran to the bus stop by Anabel Taylor Hall
The weather was still sunny and clear
It was warmer
I waited 5 minutes for the bus
The 30 bus arrived at 2:20
I rode the 30 bus downtown
I got off at the Cayuga Street stop
I ran and walked to the Verizon Wireless store near WalMart
I walked into the store and registered at the front desk
They asked me my name
I said Michael Engle
They said, spell your last name
I did
They sent me to the back of the store to wait
Two technicians behind a counter in the back of the store were helping other Verizon Wireless customers
Another person behind the counter was not a repair technician
later I figured out that he was a customer service representative
A big TV near the ceiling listed the customers waiting for help
There were three queues displayed on the screen: Sales, Customer Service, Technical Support
My name was displayed thusly: MIKE E
I was in the Technical Support queue
The other queues were empty
I waited about 15 minutes
While I waited I
Logged on to our Verizon Wireless account on a kiosk and looked at the minutes we used in this billing cycle
Looked at the phones and hardware displayed near by
Practiced deep breathing
Turned on my Sony walkman AM/FM radio
There was strong radio interference on the FM band
I could hear only a loud hiss on the radio
I turned the radio off
One of the technicians, the red-haired one, told me they would help me soon
A few minutes later, the other technician, a round-faced, plump young man, called me forward
He carefully explained my choices
If I owned another cell phone I could use that
The technicians would program it for me
Or
He could sell me a new phone just like my old one
If they had one available
It would cost $54
He would put my old battery in the new phone
He would look to see if they had a battery cover
He went into the back of the store
Through the door labelled "Authorized Personnel Only"
He came back with a matching battery cover
The letters ILY were written on the cover seven times in different colors of fingernail polish
In different directions
I said I would pay the $54 for the new phone with my old battery and the ILY battery cover
He said the phone would be ready at 3:55, 40 minutes later
I decided to go back to work and pick up the phone after work
The customer service person told me that the Verizon Wireless store closes at 9 pm
I could pick up the phone any time before 9
They lock the door exactly at 9
If I came one minute after 9, they would not let me in, he said
I ran back to the bus stop on Green Street
By the Tompkins County Public Library
I arrived at 3:26
The 30 bus arrived at 3:28
I rode the bus up to Cornell
I got off at the Carpenter Hall stop
I walked back to my office
I walked home after work
I drove to the Verizon Wireless store
I waited a few minutes
The red-haired repair technician came through the Authorized Personnel Only door
I showed my receipt
He programmed my new phone using a computer
He complained that it wasn't working
Then it did
He tested it by calling the store public address system and saying my name
He asked if I wanted to pay the $54 in our next bill or by credit card
Credit card, I said
At 6:15 pm, I had my new phone
I drove home
I thought about what ILY might stand for
Ivania Lubovich Yurishenko
Or
Idiot Like You
Later I thought it meant
I Love You