Well, it's Groundhog Day, and everyone's favorite whistle pig in Pennsylvania has forecast an early spring- despite it being overcast.

Of course, the weather will do what the weather will do. But it's supposed to be 40s and even 50s for the next week so who knows? Perhaps the woodchuck out east hit a bullseye. One can hope.

Mom's birthday was ( Read more... )

Late August. Doesn't seem possible.

All in all, we've had a fairly mild summer, especially when compared to the rest of the country. Well, excepting perhaps Thursday night's storms. Where I live was OK- I lost power for two, maybe three minutes. There was a small branch caught in my bush partially blocking my exit. That's it for me. But I've seen ( Read more... )

Did not mean for so much time to pass between posts. Been a busy couple months, in a good way.

Been a relatively warm but altogether dry summer. In late May and June, we went more than 20 days without rain- highly unusual for that time of year. I even had to water my outdoor potted succulents. Twice.

I've been swimming somewhat more regularly, and ( Read more... )

We had negative temperatures this past Friday. This Friday, we could see 50s.

Gotta love Northeast Ohio.

I'm very grateful my heat and electric worked throughout. A lot of people lost power during this time.

Today I just chilled; finished one book and started another.

( Read more... )

Had a nice staycation last week, a nice combination of R&R and having fun. Fun included meeting up with a close friend for dinner at a place I hadn't been to in ages, followed by seeing the new Top Gun movie (which was amazing, by the way- it was even better than the first one, and that's saying something!), meeting up with another friend who was ( Read more... )

The United States has met a grim milestone: 800,000 deaths from COVID-19. Not surprising, indeed if anything I'm shocked it's not more. People here are pretty much in deep COVID fatigue. I get it, so am I. But cases are soaring again, probably from Thanksgiving gatherings and loosened guidelines in general. Schools have had to cancel sports games, ( Read more... )

Alluded to this in my book blog but I had my presentation on journalism history and the importance of local journalism at the end of August, and it went really, really well. Never had to do a presentation that long but I kept everyone's interest (that is saying something because the day was hot and humid, and there was no a/c). Nailed the time, too ( Read more... )

For the most part, it's been a good week. Took a couple days off around Labor Day, and worked the holiday (sweet sweet holiday pay, woot!) Didn't do much, just recharged and relaxed from a really stressful week a couple weeks ago.

Yeah, the COVID-19 situation, locally and nationally, continues to be a complete shitshow, as I feared. And I don't see ( Read more... )

It's going to be a bumpy few weeks, to paraphrase that famous quote from "All About Eve."

Yeah, I'm really dreading the next few weeks. The potential for clusterf$#%ery is just off the charts. Spent the weekend just recharging to get myself through this next week.

Nationally, I've heard of one area (at least) running out of hospital beds. I just ( Read more... )

...it was very high 80s and 90ish. Had to turn on the a/c.

Yesterday? Forecasts called for 53 degrees. Don't think we ever saw that, though. Highest I saw on my cell phone was 49 degrees. Amazed that wasn't a record- but not even close. Record was 37 degrees in 1949. Still, it's been the coolest Memorial Day weekend that I can recall. Natalie and I ( Read more... )