storms

A while ago, J.Po requested some photos of storms from my window, so here ya go! I took them on my film camera and just yesterday got them developed. I love my film camera. I really missed it. It takes great pictures.


I did not mess with the colors here - it's a combination of that yellow stormy light and sunset.

peer gone

Peer Gynt is over now. It was really a pleasure to sing. Also, I'm told by people who came to the concert that it was fantastic. And most of these people didn't even give birth to me.

Tonight when we finished there was tons of lightning. As I drove home I put on a recording I'd been using to practice. The first few miles of my drive home are along a dark winding woodsy road - with In the Hall of the Mountain King playing and lightning turning the sky purple. Not a bad end to the evening.

The conductor has apparently been taking this Peer Gynt show on the road for the centennial of Grieg's death, so if you get a chance, you should definitely check it out. And if you can, arrange for lightning afterward.

tornadoes

We are having a giNORmous storm today. It's in wave two right now, with tornado warnings in a bunch of Virginia counties and a tornado watch in D.C. This afternoon at work I was looking out my window and in about 15 minutes it went from a little overcast to yellow to dark as night, then started raining in sheets. I was following warnings online and called my mom after I saw a tornado warning for their county. Then I called again after I saw the somewhat more specific one about a storm with "severe rotation" headed toward a list of neighborhoods including the one where my parents live. (All is fine at home.)

This is one of the many times when it is particularly awesome to have huge south-facing windows. Rehearsal tonight (the first meeting for the Christmas show!) was cancelled because the power's out where we were supposed to have it.

Seriously, though. Aren't tornadoes supposed to stay in the Midwest? I only remember one tornado from when I was growing up around here.

Question of the day: Do we have more tornadoes now or better detection? Or do we just get more worked up about them than we used to?

talk about the weather

This afternoon I was standing at my window watching it rain really hard. They'd predicted big weather for this afternoon, and the skies were starting to deliver. It's really cool watching storms from my window - I have a great view, from the parking lot under my window to the heights a few miles away.

Then while I was watching, the rain got even heavier, really pouring down - and all of a sudden a big oil slick whooshed out from under my car and ran down the drain. Whoops. Sorry about that, Mother Earth. Guess I know now just how much rain it takes to wash off that oil spot. I think the runoff from the parking lot goes into the geothermal system, so at least I'm not delivering my used motor oil *directly* to the Chesapeake Bay.

I just read there was a tornado watch until 5:00 this afternoon - I'm glad I didn't know that. Tornadoes have played starring roles in many of my nightmares.

so pretty

Check out Krakow. Isn't it just ridiculously pretty?

There was about a half-hour break in the rain on Saturday afternoon so I ran outside and took pictures. Other than that half hour, it rained most of Saturday and Sunday. (I was there Friday afternoon to Monday evening.) Oh wait...it rained Friday evening, too.

pointless post

This is my steering wheel. My choices at Target when I bought the cover were this one and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (There were boring ones, too, but...please. Would I do that?) But in the two or three years I've had it, the flowers have all come off, and I found one of the ladybugs in the parking lot when I went out to my car this morning.

I suppose I could get a new cover, but I feel that this one goes well with the aesthetic of the car. (Aesthetic of my car = "old.") Going without a cover isn't an option - the black stuff on the steering wheel comes off on my hands when it gets wet. Not that it has gotten wet recently, since it's rained, like, twice since June. Stupid drought.

Ok...I have no point. I like this picture, though.

one of the many reasons my apartment rocks

A storm on Saturday night:


Unsurprisingly, I was not able to get a picture of one of the many bolts of lightning I saw come down from the sky. Oh, and speaking of things that happen in the sky, don't forget the lunar eclipse tonight! Things will get rolling at 4:51 a.m. Eastern time and it'll be completely dark from 5:52 to 7:22, by which time we will no longer care because the sun will be up. (Adjust for your time zone.)

in your multitudes

Tonight is the peak of the Perseids - so get out there and look for meteors! The peak is at 2 a.m. local time. It's cloudy here, not to mention the major light pollution issue, but some of you people ought to be able to see some. I saw one last night from S.Vix's roof. It was super-bright and went really far.

whine

Ok, I know all anybody does these days is whine about the weather, but you know what? It is HOT! It was over 100 degrees today! The air feels like soup! Dirty soup! It's so hot, they can't run the metro at full speed on the aboveground sections, because the rails might be warped out of shape! Every day they predict thunderstorms, and every day we get nothing! No thunder! No lightning! No rain! This, my friends, sucks. (Welcome to the region, Spice!)

I would also like to send some mental appreciation to the mechanic who fixed my car's air conditioning in California a few years ago. That is some STRONG cold air.

RealFeel is dumb

I just checked the weather outside, because I have to have some way of entertaining myself in my windowless office, and this is what it says:

Temperature: 87F / 30C
RealFeel®: 106F / 41

Ok. Can't someone please put an end to this RealFeel thing? I haven't been outside since 9 a.m., but I can guarantee you it does not feel like 106. It feels like 87 and humid, which is to say, very, very uncomfortable. If it were 106, it would feel like death.

weather

It's supposed to be 96 degrees tomorrow. NINETY-SIX DEGREES, people. You know what that is? Too damn hot. We should get hot days. Like sick, but for hot, as in "screw this, I'm not leaving my sweet air-conditioned apartment today."

In better news, tomorrow is the first day of the Smithsonian's Folklife Festival. This is pretty much the awesomest thing that happens in D.C. all year, and this year sounds particularly awesome - they're featuring Northern Ireland, the Mekong River, and...ok, Virginia, which is somewhat less exotic. I'm psyched for Irish set dancing and Southeast Asian food!!

troldhaugen

Edvard Grieg lived near Bergen, and his house has been made into a museum. So my second full day in Bergen, I put on my long underwear and hiking boots and headed out to take a city bus down to Troldhaugen, his house. This is what I love about Norway: the official Bergen tourist brochure doesn't say, oh, it's X miles out of town, rent a car or take a taxi. Instead, it gives detailed instructions on how to get there on public transportation. And it's not like the bus goes right there - when you get off the bus, you still have to walk a mile (along a well-sign-posted road) to the museum.

Here's his komponisthytte (composer's hut - Norwegian has some German-like tendencies with the long made-up words):

It's right on a big lake, or fjord, or something. Apparently the view is lovely, but when I was there it was mostly snowing horizontally. Grieg and his wife, sensibly, spent their winters in sunny southern climes (Denmark). The hut is totally cosy inside, with an upright piano and a couch and a big window looking out at the view.

This was the one time I was a little sad to be traveling alone - the snow at Grieg's house was *perfect* wet snowball snow, and there was nobody to throw it at. (Literally nobody - I was the only visitor for most of the two hours I was there.) So I took a picture of the snow instead, with Grieg's house in the background.


Imagine that the snowball is blurry because it's about to hit you. I'm starting my campaign now for anyone who wants to come with me next time: come with me to Norway so I can throw snow at you. (No, really, come with me because it's totally fun and round-trip airfare is less than $500 in February. And the ski-dance week would be more fun with you.)

ice storm

So, 'bout that ice storm we had this week. See how the cute widdle birdies hop around on top of the snow at the bottom of the birdfeeder, and they're so teensy and dainty, they don't leave any marks?

Right. Except the same thing happens if I clomp around in my big ole hiking boots. It's not so much snow as it is a sheet of ice. A three-inch-thick piece of ice. Not even, like, an icy crust on top of some snow. Nope - just ice. (The footsteps in the picture are from yesterday, when it was a bit slushier.)

cold running

People from other places looove to point out how Washingtonians wig out over cold weather. Generally I'm inclined to defend us - I mean, it doesn't get this cold that often, and it really is pretty chilly. Right now it's about 15 degrees and windy. But tonight as I was eating at Whole Foods, the woman sitting next to me got on the phone. Below you can read some of the better quotes from the conversation. (It was so good, I got out paper and took notes.) What you can't necessarily get from reading is that she wasn't even half-joking - she was seriously pissed.

I can't believe you went running in this weather!
[me: it's like 20 degrees, it's not *that* bad.]
It is zero degrees outside!
[me: or 20.]
You could have gotten frostbite!
[me: or not.]
I walked one block to get here and my hands were frozen!
[me: maybe you should've worn gloves.]
I have been trying to find you for an hour!
[me: you're sitting here in the nice warm grocery store killing time before rehearsal, not waiting for your transplant surgeon. people used to get through life without cell phones. shut up and go back to your book.]
No one runs in this weather!
[me: except for the people I saw running earlier.]
Mitchell, running outside in this weather is *not* taking care of yourself. We have machines in the basement.
[me: ok, if I were Mitchell, about now would be when I would hang up.]
No. I am really angry.

I think this is when Mitchell hung up. Or "lost service." So, ok, maybe some people do overreact just a little. (I would like to note that I walked a very brisk mile from work to the metro in the same cold and, like Mitchell, I did not die.)

slightly more snow!

Ok, we did get a little more snow later in the day. I was trying to demonstrate that, indeed, a bit of snow had accumulated by taking a picture of the trash can through the kitchen door, but I wasn't expecting the reflection of the kitchen. Cool, huh?

Now the snow has turned into sleet or something. Awesome. Can't wait for the morning commute.

snow!

weekend in virginia

Saturday Miss S and I hosted a wedding shower for G-dog. I stayed over at Miss S's Friday night because I was afraid of driving in the giant snowstorm they were predicting for Saturday. (Yes, yes, you midwestern people go ahead and sneer, but I had all the food at my house and I have no experience driving in snow.) We watched three Firefly episodes Friday night. First picture: I strapped the cheese and salami into Little Miss's car seat on the way to the shower location on Saturday. In the rain. Not snow.

Second picture: G-dog with a bag of embarrassing presents. Not from me or Miss S - we gave her normal presents. The rain was finally turning into snow.

Third picture: Doggie S takes a trip outside during Miss S's and my six-episode Firefly marathon Saturday night. (I didn't feel like driving home in the increasingly nasty weather.)

Fourth picture: the snow was perfect. This morning Mr. Miss and Little Miss made a snowman while Miss S and I watched the last [sigh] episode of Firefly.

phew

The story's closed, so now I can relax. I was one of five or six reporters on the health story - you'll see my name at the end in italics - and actually contributed very little to the final product. I spent a lot of time on stuff that was pretty peripheral. But someone had to check it out, I guess. And today I spent a lot of time rechecking stuff and begging for people to call me back. In a three-page story, I can probably claim four or five sentences. Anyway, now I'm going to eat baked goods and watch TV.

the wire, again

Okay, so the first deadline was at noon, but the magazine won't close til later in the day, so keep sending those mental messages to the Louisiana Hospital Association. I'm waiting for the dude to call me back...and I think his employees have already gotten sick of me. They say he's busy, like, coordinating hospital evacuations or something. As if that mattered more than talking to me.

bad state of hospital

Who knows how accurate they are about things going on outside the hospital, but this e-mail from two people associated with Methodist Hospital in New Orleans could be expected to be accurate on conditions inside, several hours ago:


Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2005 8:55:55 -0400

Contrary to what has been reported on the news, Methodist Hospital, including Albert and Maxine Barrocas have not been evacuated, and the details are grisly. FEMA has been intercepting supplies sent to the hospital, and patient and staff evacuations have essentially ceased.

If anyone can help bring attention to this problem, please help us. Below are some facts related to us by the staff at the hospital during one of the few occasions we have been able to talk to them.

600 People in hospital
13 patients on gurneys
Staff is dehydrating
FEMA is DIVERTING support being sent in by UHS (owners of hospital) away from the hospital
Temperature 110 degrees with humidity
NO fuel left to operate the hospital tower
NO communication with National Guard to coordinate evacuation of patients
Having to feed 500+ non-patient refugees - they are very close to rioting for the balance of food water and supplies
NO power, NO communication
Everything is manual - no xray - running out of supplies
Patients are on the 2nd floor and 3rd floor - having to carry patients up the stairs and the helicopters don't come back
Without power, the ventilator dependant patients are being manually bagged in 1 hour shifts by staff
Refusing to take gurney patients
FEMA is commandeering all supplies and all private efforts to get supplies including fuel, food, water
Governor is misrepresenting what is going on
Snakes in hospital
Rashes on staff from water
Losing nurses as a result of dehydration
Need FEMA to land on roof and prove what they are saying is correct
No security - uprising for food, water and supplies
Governor did not allow for the evacuation of the hospitals and now won't help
Uprising of refugees


Natalie Barrocas Cohen and Michael Cohen


-------------------UPDATE from another health writer:
"Turns out that this e-mail WAS completely true as of 9 am EST this morning. But in the last 1.5 hours, help has arrived. "