Beware of Leopard ⁽²⁵⁶⁾

Brian Bilbrey September 15, 2013

X < 50

... where X is the temperature outside when I get up in the morning. Today was the first day for that event, post-summer. But only just, 49 degrees fahrenheit at 0800 this morning. This is my leading indicator of the imminent arrival of the Fall season. There's also the calendar, which tells me the Autumnal Equinox is 6 days and 20 hours or so in my personal future. But the temps are the big deal for Fall as far as I'm concerned, not the calendar. It was a cold summer, all things being equal. I'm waiting to see what Fall…

Brian Bilbrey September 8, 2013

Launch weekend

Well, it was a launch for NASA's LADEE mission, a lunar orbiter (full name Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer"), from Wallops Island in Virginia. I headed up by the tennis courts to get a better south east view, further from the trees. Using binoculars, I was able to clearly see the ascent from about 10 seconds post-launch, through first stage separation and second stage firing, and on into the distance for a long while. Very cool. Usually the Wallops launches aren't so spectacular, and I'm usually clouded in and can't see them anyway from this distance. * * * In other…

Brian Bilbrey June 23, 2013

Summer daze

Shedloads of yardwork and housework yesterday, leading up to Linda Rose and Mike over for supper and a couple rounds of Ticket to Ride. Much fun had by all, good food, exhausting. I overslept this morning, so was shopping late, then working remotely on some patching late, and so on. I never really caught up. Oh, hey, one bit of yummy: we had freshly killed zucchini from the garden with supper last night. Sliced, steamed, then sprinkled with Parmesan cheese: superb! * * * Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors: Lance Cpl. Jared W.

Brian Bilbrey June 16, 2013

Powerful storms ... crap predictions

The news leading into Thursday was designed to instill fear ... only 10 times in the last 30 years (or was it 5 times in the last 10, but whatever) had the mid-Atlantic states had such a powerful storm prediction laid on in advance. I noted at the time that the article had neglected to mention the success rate of those prior predictions. I, however, predict that based on the overall low impact of these current storms on our area, the prior prediction success rate was also low. I indict the MSM as a messenger that tries to instill terror…

Brian Bilbrey April 14, 2013

Spring is exhausting...

Last weekend, spring cleaning. This weekend, yardwork, all weekend long. The front is all pruned up, and first mowing of the year done. Looks pretty good (but the front fence needs a full redo). Today, I spent as much energy as I had (several hours worth) weeding out and tilling the garden beds in preparation for spring planting. In the evenings this week, I'll get the rest of the back yard cleaned up, too. At least then I'll have a starting point for the rest of the spring work. Upcoming: This is going to be an expensive week, since a…