Scarlet Pimpernel

No kidding! I think I barely measured 2" total last year, if I'm generously slant-sticking, hahaha! And I damn near slept through the "biggest" (1" or so) event, too!!

That's awesome, @nw baltimore wx! I bet in a couple of weeks that area will look amazing as the color really comes out!! You can definitely see the hints of it starting.

Couple of photos for you all! I experimented some with black and white here (with addition of red filter to increase contrast)... Cirrus clouds: And...not sure what this plant is called, but have seen it around. I liked how the light was hitting it:

2013-14 was incredible, perhaps the closest to anything "severe" we've had in recent memory outside 2009-10 and 2002-03 (though there wasn't any extreme cold...lots of snow though!). It was damn near gate-to-gate events, lots of solid moderate events, no big HECS-style ones. Even @Bob Chill said he was just about exhausted from tracking by the end of March that season!! I actually consider '13-14 to be pretty damn close to, or perhaps slightly exceeding, '02-03, even with no HECS events...nearly a toss-up in my opinion between those two seasons.

They certainly can write Shakespeare. I recently read a monkey random typewriter version of "Henry V". It was amazing, almost as if ol' Bill plagiarized it!! Oh...and typewriters?? Really?? (Joking...I have fond memories of learning to type, on an actual old style typewriter, even before electronic typewriters became popular and well enough before word processors existed!!! That was only shortly after having to transcribe things by hand, in ink...and in Latin!)

I'll take a bit of issue stating categorically that 2015-16 was a "crappy winter." But that's all a matter of perspective and opinion of course, and others have expressed the same view, so it is what it is. I won't deny that Dec. 2015 was absolutely awful, the worst in the annals of craptacularity, with a +11 temperature departure for the month. More April than December. However, if you look at the temperatures for Jan. 2016, it was slightly colder than normal, and Feb. 2016 was near to a hair above normal. Though to be sure, the 2nd half of Feb. warmed up again. For snow...outside that one amazing event...you could argue it sucked, sure. But fact is we did get that one spectacular event. And in Feb., there was a small to moderate snow/ice event (that changed to rain very late) around President's Day weekend. Did we have other chances in that 2 month period? I don't remember. But to me, truly crappy would be last winter, where it was nearly wall-to-wall shutout with no chance. And a toaster bath most of the time. Or 2001-02, and 2011-12. Those are the worst kinds in terms of awful winters in my opinion...consistently lousy temperatures and almost no real snow opportunities. I'd argue that as bad as a lot of 2015-16 seemed (mostly thanks to that December), we still had a couple of realistic periods for something.

Well...being the geek I am, I looked to see what 780 degrees Fahrenheit is in Celsius, thinking there was some inverse joke related to "Fahrenheit 451" in there. It's equivalent 415.6 deg C. So, it's not all that far from "Celsius 451"? Either way, kinda toasty!

Well, to paraphrase Bilbo Baggins in LOTR, "We'll get half as much snow as we should like, and less than half as much as we deserve!!"

Hey, gotta replace that blood with *something*!!!! Looks really tasty, and I like the clever name too!

11 pages for a Winter 2020-21 thread, and we're barely into September...oy gevalt!! Either desperation or hope, I'm not sure which. I didn't read the whole thing, but has Ji canceled this upcoming winter yet? And how many times? Do we have Panic Room previews?? @WxWatcher007 promised so many new amenities this upcoming season for the wayward weenies!!

Something like Feb. 14, 2015 would be kinda cool!! That wasn't really 2-4" area-wide, but I got like 2" in an hour or so followed by gusty winds and temperatures plummeted into the teens for the next day or so, as an Arctic front went through. One of the coolest "mini events" I can remember.

Hello, friend!!! I hope you are well these days!

I'm so sorry to hear about that, Mrs. J!! My sincere condolences and hugs to you. I know how hard it is to make that decision, my brother and sister-in-law have had cats for years and they've had to go through the same kind of thing. Never fun. But I hope you will all have many good memories of Oscar over his 18 years!! On a lighter note if I may. My stepmom once saw her cat sitting neatly on the table, right in the middle of a placemat (illegal for the cat to be there, of course!). She said why is it that when cats do something wrong, they place themselves right in the center?? As if deliberately defiant! I'm sure you can relate to that! Also, when I go visit my brother/sister-in-law I always hear that it's like a spa weekend for their cats...another set of hands available to pet them!!

Hey, just remember that it's after 5:00PM somewhere in the world. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!!

So it will be just like the crowds at the old Municipal Stadium in Cleveland that I recall from the '70s and '80s then!!

Hell, I am always up for ordering a good pizza!

On a different, more cheerful note...here's a shot of a distant storm a couple of evenings ago, at sunset. I love the color at that time of day!!

Are they starting the season this year, at least on time? I haven't heard how they'll manage that...or the NBA or NHL, for that matter. Is it going to be similar to baseball, with no real crowds, etc.?

Oh, and hello there, @mappy and @Mrs.J! I hope you are both well! Haven't been in here for awhile, just trying to survive the God-awful heat! I don't even feel like getting out on my bike with this. But I am still taking photos when walking about now and then. I'll see if I can post a few when I have a chance for everyone!

Yup, that prep drink is disgusting...and the "flavor packs" don't help!! I'm sorry to hear you had to go through surgery for Crohn's, I have heard that's somewhat common for the condition. You may be biased by your own personal situation...everyone is of course. But that's not a bad thing. It's when others cannot even try to understand the larger picture here. While personal choice is something we pretty well can all agree on, fact is that a virus doesn't give a damn (any more than it cares about one's politics). If it were a situation where you could take a "risk" without doing anything to anyone else, that would be different. That's not the case with this. And like I said, I know enough people, family and friends, who have varying degrees of potentially at-risk conditions. So I'm biased as well in my view on the whole going back to school or re-opening stuff. I can see how the more remote counties in MD would be better able to "re-open" or even have back to in-person school this fall to whatever extent. I don't have any issue with that, if it's done safely and in a reasonable manner. The areas near DC and Baltimore are a totally different situation. Thus, different decisions, depending on the county (and number of cases, how under control it is, etc.).

First...oh, man, that sucks about Crohn's. And I can empathize, because I've had a history of colitis myself (going back to when I was about 11-12). Ugh! I've had enough of those endoscopy tests that I can almost have a drinking game with that God-awful nasty prep solution you have to drink the night before!! I can deal with an all-liquid diet for a day, and can deal with the procedure itself (they knock you out for it anyhow). But in the number of times I've had to go through this, I've *never* gotten used to drinking the gallon of that metallic salt flavored s*it!! More on topic, I definitely agree with you and get the concern. I know enough people and have enough friends (including family) who have any variety of "risk" conditions. I think we'd all like it if schools (and anything else) could reopen and we can get back to some kind of normalcy. My own daughter will be a Senior this upcoming year, and MoCo just announced it will begin the year with virtual learning through at least the first *semester* (near the end of Jan. 2021). All fall sports and whatnot are canceled of course, with that. Does it suck, especially since she's a Senior? Yeah, and I feel for the fact that her last year in HS will be marred by this crap. Maybe, with some luck, they'll have some in-school instruction come the 2nd semester but I'm not sure. And who knows if they'll have a "live" graduation or do something remote like they did for the class of 2020 this year. So yeah...a drag. BUT...I totally get it and for the most part support the decision. MoCo, just by nature of being highly populous and within the DC metro area, has the 2nd highest number of cases (I think PG has the most in the state?). So it's a different animal than other parts farther out in MD. I'm sure some areas of the state can more safely open earlier or start up some kind of blended in-person/remote kind of deal. Yeah, as much as I totally support being very cautious on re-opening, especially in some areas, some of the rhetoric gets over the top. You're right, the real threat is spreading the disease rampantly through the community by having thousands of kids in school (even if the younger kids might be at far less risk for severe reaction). And there are probably enough kids with at-risk conditions, as well.

Whoa...I guess I missed it. So yesterday was @stormtracker's birthday, and today is @mappy's? Well happy (somewhat belated) birthday to you both!! I hope you have a wonderful day!! Party hearty!!!

Ohhh, tasty!! Is that tsztiki dolloped on the top there? (not sure I spelled that correctly, but I do like the stuff!!). Rice cookers are great, by the way! Had a roommate in grad school who had one. It made just about perfect rice every time!!!

Is that chilled for a short time after baking? Not that it would be bad either way (hot/cold)...for the fish.

Cool...and thanks for sharing! One thing...I wonder if a few slices of avocado would be good, adding to that (or would that be too much). I'm a fan of avocado!