Yesterday morning the system heading toward the Windward islands wasn't even a tropical depression. Today it's a strong Tropical Storm Felix and will probably grow into a hurricane by tomorrow.
Looks like the Yucatan and Belize are in for another soaking from Felix this time.
So now that I have my new swanky camera, I find that now I need a camera bag for it.
The bag I have for my old Olympus C3000 was fine for that camera, but the FZ50 barely fits in it. Forget about stuffing in all the extras like the spare battery, charger, flash and cables. I suppose it will do for now, but I think I'll need to get a new one if I'm going to be able to effectively carry stuff around.
*sigh*, it just never ends, does it.
With all the rain that's been falling over the last couple of days, the lawn's getting mighty squishy. Mushrooms are also popping up like you wouldn't believe. One moment there's nothing there, a few hours later there's a bright shiny mushroom almost 10 cm tall. Have to make sure to pick them out before the dogs try to sample one.
The mole crickets burrowing through the lawn are also contributing significantly to lawn mushiness, along with killing large sections of the grass. Going to have to do something about that.
26 GFLOPS for less than $1300. Schweet.
I've lost track of what number we're on now. Is it 7? Which ever one it is, the system that's been brewing off the East coast could be the next one.
SATELLITE IMAGES INDICATE THAT THE AREA OF LOW PRESSURE LOCATED BETWEEN BERMUDA AND THE SOUTHEAST U.S. COAST HAS BECOME BETTER ORGANIZED OVERNIGHT. UPPER-LEVEL WINDS ARE BECOMING MORE FAVORABLE FOR ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENT...AND A TROPICAL DEPRESSION COULD FORM LATER TODAY. AN AIR FORCE RESERVE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT IS SCHEDULED TO INVESTIGATE THIS SYSTEM THIS AFTERNOON. THE LOW IS FORECAST TO MOVE GENERALLY WESTWARD OR NORTHWESTWARD DURING THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS...AND INTERESTS ALONG THE EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES SHOULD CLOSELY MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF THIS SYSTEM.
Please join the Coastal SC Lab Retriever Club as it hosts a free seminar about our Labradors and all of their skin issues. We'll address food allergies, itchy & flaky coats, those problem ears and much more! The seminar is presented by Dr. Randy Thomas, board certified dermatologist.
When: September 15, 2007
Time: 4-6 PM
Where: El Bohio/Pour House (1977 Maybank Highway, Charleston, SC)
Brooks Adrenaline GTS. I've always liked Brooks shoes. Their line of stability shoes have always worked better for me than any other shoes I've tried. I'm looking forward to giving these ones a go.
Spotted on the Crab Shack menu.
There's plenty of room for all of God's creatures - right next to the cocktail sauce!
From today's TWO:
SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ASSOCIATED WITH A TROPICAL WAVE AND BROAD AREA OF LOW PRESSURE LOCATED ABOUT 1250 MILES EAST OF THE WINDWARD ISLANDS HAVE NOT BECOME ANY BETTER ORGANIZED THIS MORNING. HOWEVER...UPPER-LEVEL WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO BECOME MORE FAVORABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT AND THIS SYSTEM COULD BECOME A TROPICAL DEPRESSION WITHIN A DAY OR TWO AS IT MOVES WESTWARD TO WEST-NORTHWESTWARD AT 10 TO 15 MPH.
TD 8 is out in the Atlantic
THE AREA OF LOW PRESSURE EAST OF THE LESSER ANTILLES HAS ACQUIRED ENOUGH ORGANIZATION TO BE DECLARED A TROPICAL DEPRESSION...THE EIGHTH OF THE ATLANTIC SEASON. THE CENTER OF THE ELONGATED CIRCULATION APPEARS TO BE LOCATED JUST EAST OF THE THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY DUE TO SOME EASTERLY SHEAR.
while TD 9 is in the Gulf
THE DEPRESSION IS IN A LIGHT-SHEAR ENVIRONMENT WITH ANTICYCLONIC FLOW ALOFT...AND SOME INTENSIFICATION IS THEREFORE ANTICIPATED. THE PRIMARY INHIBITING FACTOR FOR DEVELOPMENT WILL BE THE SHORT PERIOD OF TIME THE SYSTEM WILL HAVE OVER WATER.
and sounds like it probably won't be much more than a rain event. One of them will become Humberto, while the other may become Ingrid.
I hope whatever TD8 develops into doesn't come by while I'm on vacation.
Getting ready for my trip back home, there were a few of things I needed so a short gadget shopping spree was in order.
You can never have enough USB ports on your computer or laptop anymore, so one of these USB squid hubs solves the problem perfectly.
Perfect for attaching things like:
and
for getting images off this
Of course I need something to carry all this crapmy gadgets in, so I got one of these
Time to start getting things organized and ready for packing.
Just saw this come through my feed reader a few minutes ago about Robert Jordan
It is with great sadness that I tell you that the Dragon is gone. RJ left us today at 2:45 PM. He fought a valiant fight against this most horrid disease. In the end, he left peacefully and in no pain. In the years he had fought this, he taught me much about living and about facing death. He never waivered in his faith, nor questioned our God's timing. I could not possibly be more proud of anyone.
Sad news about an author who I've been reading for a very long time now. The DragonMount site seems to be down right now so I haven't seen much else other than what came through the RSS pipeline.
I feel like I've walked into the Twilight Zone.
A lot has changed around Edmonton since I was here last. Some things have stayed the same, but there's lot of new stuff too. I feel like I've got this double vision thing going on. Everywhere I look, I'm seeing new businesses and buildings superimposed on memories of what I remember from the last time I saw it. It's been especially true wandering around the neighbourhood.
It's a really weird feeling and somewhat disconcerting.
Like this photo for example
This used to be the playground in front of my house. Superimposed on this, I see the two slides and sand pit in the foreground (where the posts are), another sand pit and big log castle in the middle, a large grassy hill in the back where the orange fencing is and an asphalt area with a ring of upright logs around the perimeter.
Of the 6 or so sand pits and boxes that used to be scattered around the complex, only one was left.
It must be a very boring place for a kid to grow up in now.
This is all that's left of the Physics building and V-wing (actually there's a tiny stub of V-wing left where it connects to Chem West), where I spent most of the 8 years I was at U of A.
But soon a big new building will rise in its place: the Centennial Center for Interdisciplinary Science.
In the background from left to right are Athabasca Hall, MecE building, a new nanoscience tech building and BioSci. Also gone is the Nuclear Research building.
Had a great time at the reunion. Much fun, much seeing people I hadn't see in 20 years. I think I ended up spending more time taking pictures of people than I did talking to them, but I caught up with the people I wanted to see.
There were more people there than I expected so things were very busy. There were a few people I hoped to see but didn't show, some that I did see that I wasn't expecting and a lot of people that I was expecting. Everybody still looked mostly the same so I managed to recognize most everyone without having to resort to the name tag check ducking manoeuver.
I think I've got a couple hundred pictures I need to sort through and filter out, so it'll be a little bit before I can get pictures posted.
More later.
I've been staying with friends here in Edmonton, and they have a very nice iMac. Like Jared, I'm feeling the pull back to Apple after using it for a while.
I'm certainly no stranger to Apple since the very first computer I laid tiny little fingers on was an Apple ][+ and my first computer was an Apple ][e, My all time favourite computing platform was the NeXT, but it's been PCs since then.
After seeing Apple's new iMacs, I was starting to get tempted to get one to replace the aging Dell I have at home. Now I'm more tempted.
While I'm here spending the last few days of my vacation enjoying pleasantly cool Edmonton fall days, the tropics are really heating up with TS Karen, TD 13 in the Gulf, two systems off the coast of Florida and over Hispanola and two tropical waves coming off Africa.
Hopefully nothing happens before I get back.
Well, my time back home is finally drawing to a close. Tomorrow I'll be flying off back to Charleston via Denver and Washington D.C. (I suppose I could use the extra reading time). I'm sad to have to leave, but it will be nice to get back to the dogs. I'm sure there's a bunch of stuff a work waiting for me to get caught up on.
It's been a great trip where I got to reconnect with a bunch of high school friends and catch up with others. It felt good to hang out with friends again, and I was reminded once again of what a great city Edmonton really is and what a great place it is to live. It's not something most people really appreciate until they leave and then come back.
I'm definitely not waiting another 7 years before my next trip home.
After a largely uneventful and tiring 10 hour trip, I'm finally back in Charleston where it's decidedly warmer and more humid than back home in Edmonton. Much unpacking and laundry to do and many many photos to sort through to figure out which ones get posted.
And then it's back to work.
I suppose the vacation has to end some time.
