Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Spring?

Huh? Flowers?
So I rolled into the driveway after another thrill-packed exciting day at work (not) and noticed that vignette above. The crocuses are coming up! And to the left you can see that the hyacinth are not far behind.

Closeup of the Croci
These little guys only last a couple of days according to The Missus Herself. The reason I took these snapshots is as follows...


I took the liberty of drawing red arrows above to bring your attention to the forecast of SNOW. Geez.

While a number of people of my acquaintance here in Little Rhody have bemoaned the harshness of this winter (which technically is over, officially it's spring) and the vast amounts of snow we've received I have not gone overboard in my assessment of this past winter. And its lingering presence in these parts.

For while we've had more days with snow than in recent winters, the overall quantity has been somewhat lacking. I've seen winters here where we've had over a foot dumped upon our heads in one go. This winter lacked any really large one time accumulation.

I will say this though, the number of really cold days has been excessive. The koi pond stayed pretty much iced over all winter (yes, I did maintain a spot of open water) and we lost two of our koi this year. That has never happened before.

So the winter has been, on average, colder than most winters we've experienced since moving back to New England some 15 years ago.

But still, more snow? On top of my lovely crocuses? There will be gnashing of teeth, rending of garments and wailing should the predicted 3 to 6 inches grace the landscape come tomorrow morn.

Or I'll just grumble, clean off the vehicle and go to work.

I suspect the latter will hold true. Unless it doesn't snow at all. Then I will exclaim "HA" to the elements and count myself lucky to have dodged another snowfall.

But you know doggone well that next winter I'll have at least one post that says "I like seeing it snow." How soon we forget...

Who ordered the white stuff?
And nowadays my job is indoors, no more of this business...

Bones in the snow
Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., flightline Oct. 29, 2009
Part of me misses the flightline. The unbalanced, crazy part.

10 comments:

  1. Snow makes working inside just a little nicer.

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  2. Without a doubt I miss the flightline, just some days a little less than others. Unstrapping from my second flight of the night one February at the Kun and having the sweat on my flight suit freeze before I could get into the Maintenance Shack to debrief the airplane comes to mind.

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    1. Reminds of having to R&R a front scope once at the Kun. It was February, it was cold, really cold. Have I mentioned how one needs to strip down to one's t-shirt in order to remove the cannon plug on the right side of the scope.

      Yup. Cold. That's the part I don't miss.

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    2. Being the contrary cuss I am, I looked forward to huge snow storms when I had a winter job deicing planes at DIA.

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    3. I'm guessing that it was either fun or it made the day go faster.

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    4. Both Clear days were boring. We went in at 5 am, down to American to take the frost out of the nacelles, then defrost a few daily outbound flights. On snow days, nonstop action. Fun to play with big toys and the ultimate squirt guns.

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    5. I get that. I sat on a bird at DTW back in January watching them de-ice. Looked like fun it did.

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  3. You know the deal - you're in the same general vicinity as I am. 33 degrees today, windy as hell. I have a feeling the start of softball season for me is going to be undertaken in long johns. Bummer.

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    Replies
    1. Oh yeah. We didn't get as much snow as originally forecast, barely a dusting.

      Softball in long johns, now that's kinda old school.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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