Archive for the ‘General’ Category

feeling like autumn

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

We’ve turned the corner heading back towards winter now.  I’m noticing the sun is lower in the sky and it’s been cooler the past week or so and much less humid than it had been.  Most nights we’re making it into the 50’s.  We  haven’t had much rain this summer in my backyard but a few  miles in every direction has had their share of rain from thunderstorms.

A strong cold front will move through today but we’re not likely to have any rain from it because there’s just not much moisture for it to work with.

It feels like fall now.  I’m looking forward to autumn and the sound and smell of freshly fallen leaves in the woods with the nice cool nights.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Garmin support is great

Friday, July 25th, 2008

Garmin customer support rocks. My 60csx was 2 years old and for no reason wouldn’t acquire satelites. We were on our way to Philly to visit my family when this happened and it was during vacation so it cut down on our geocaching but this stuff happens. On our way down the turnpike I thought many times of throwing the GPS out the window but didn’t

I left it sit at the window all night and still had a blank satalite screen in the morning. I googled for some fixes and ended up figuring out the GPS software was gone. I tried the suggested methods to fix it with no luck. I called Garmin and the guy who answered the phone was nice and helpful. He had my try a couple of things and they didn’t work. He then apologized and said I would have to return it. I asked him how much it would cost and he said he put in under warrantee. All it cost me was shipping and they sent me a replacement when they got mine.

Unfortunately the replacement unit I received didn’t power on. These things will happen though. I can’t really hold that against them because when I called back the guy apologized and they paid for two day shipping each way. It actually took longer than I would have liked but in the end I received one that seemed to be new because it came in a box unlike the other one. Now I can’t wait to get back out geocaching.

I guess my whole point is unlike many other companies who would just tell you that you’re on your own after the warrantee has expired, Garmin fixed it for me with no charge. I can’t imagine any thing I could have done would’ve caused this problem. If all other things are equal in the future when it’s time to upgrade my GPS I will choose Garmin. I just thought I’d take the time to say something nice about a company who did the right thing for a change.

Popularity: 29% [?]

surprise thunderstorms last night

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

About 2:00 am I woke up to thunder so of course I had to get up and go watch.  It looked very promising for a good storm with a constant flashing in the distance with fairly frequent flashes close by.  It looked like it had already rained a bit. It was actually nice outside on the porch..  Cool but humid but I’m adjusted to the humidity now.

Things calmed down.. with still lots of lightning in the distance.  I went and looked at the radar and saw that a small cell had formed and a northwest to southeast line of storms was exploding to the west.  The line was severe thunderstorm warned and they mentioned lots of cloud to ground lightning..  I guess that explained the flashing in the distance.

We were under a warning also so I stayed up.  There was occasional nearby lightning with some moderate rain.  I saw the solid line of storms so I figured I’d wait and it would get better.  Now the rain is pretty much just drizzle with some nearby lightning with some light breezes.  First there were some warm breezes from the east or so it seemed then it switched to a cool breeze from the west and the lightning wa becoming more distant.  I went and looked at the radar.  The line  had become a really nice east west solid looking line with a time  break right over us!   Usually that happens with storms moving from west to east here but not ones from the southwest.  oh well..  Maybe next time.  It was a bit of a disapointment but still a nice little unexpected surprise.

Popularity: 34% [?]

tropical storm Dolly in the Gulf of Mexico

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

We have tropical storm Dolly which should become a hurricane soon in the Gulf of Mexico.  That should give me something fun to watch.  Looks like it should make landfall as a hurricane near the Texas and Mexico border.  Wonder how much oil prices will go up..

Popularity: 27% [?]

Ilinois Earthquake

Friday, April 18th, 2008

It’s not something that happens all too often but an earthquake occurred in Illinois this morning.  Of course my first thought was whether it was on the new midrid fault but it wasn’t.

It registered 5.2 on the Richter scale and doesn’t seem to have caused any major damage.  It looks like there have been four aftershocks.

one has to wonder how many of the people that live there are aware of the New Madrid fault

Popularity: 55% [?]

caching in the coal region

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

Last Saturday we did some caching in the coal region of PA.  That’s always an interesting area to visit for me.  Growing up I went to the mountains with my grandfather in the Hazleton area and some of the older people there were miners at one time.  I learned a lot from them and enjoyed their interesting stories.

Odd thing is is the one cache was in an area where the PA DEP had filled in the strip mines but not to the original contour of the land.  It was just pretty flat so at the one edge the bottom rock was showing on a steep incline.  We weren’t thinking.. We should have taken pictures of it.

Popularity: 53% [?]

heavy rain may lead to minor river flooding

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

I got woken up last night by howling winds and the heaviest downpour since last summer.  My Vantage pro2 said 2.06 inches an hour for rainfall rates.. It also said it’s raining cats and dogs, well no shit!  Sounds like there is a little minor flooding out there now.

I got up and looked at the radar.. What an impressive squall line it showed.  Haven’t seen one like that cross this area in a while.  Even more uncommon is this one was overnight.

Looks like the NWS expects the Susquehanna river to crest above flood stage Thursday into Friday.  Just in time for more rain.

Popularity: 50% [?]

Why do people get stupid when driviing?

Monday, March 3rd, 2008

What the hell is it with people when they’re driving?  We were on our way home today and there were two people that seemed to be racing down the road including driving in the wrong lane and the left hand turning lane today.

Why does driving seem to bring out the asshole in people?  This is how folks get hurt or killed.  Sadly its often innocent people who are the ones who get hurt.

Popularity: 36% [?]

Wundermap - neat new toy

Monday, February 25th, 2008

I just came across a pretty cool new feature on wunderground.  It’s called wundermap and it overlays weather station information on a map or satellite image.  It would be pretty interesting to watch a strong cold front on here or something like that.

It also has the ability to overlay radar images. which I haven’t tried yet.

Check it out!

WunderMap Interactive Radar & Weather Stations

Popularity: 46% [?]

turn off your lights

Friday, February 8th, 2008

I wonder how much energy could be saved everyone would turn off lights at night.  It’s interesting to see how many outside lights are left on all night.  It just seems very wasteful to me.  One neighbor has a light bright enough to light up our back yard and they live something like three houses down.

Another neighbor behind us leaves more than one light on every night.  One lights the side of their house.  One lights up their back yard.

Much of the light is wasted by just going into the air and causing light polution at night.

What if there was a reflective shield everyone put above their lights so that it’s not wasted lighting up the night sky?  There’s not much of a point in trying to light up the sky.

Americans are very wasteful with so much of what they do.  It’s time to be less wasteful.  We have a limited amount of resources.  Just something as simple as turning off lights would save some money and electricity.  I don’t think that will happen around this country anytime soon.  Think about how many people have to drive huge SUVs that they’ll never actually need.

Popularity: 19% [?]