Sunday, 4:30 pm: Phew! What a weekend; hail, rain, snow and high winds, all in the same day and at the same time. I suppose I need to bring in more firewood.

My wife and her family have returned from their trip of many of the eastern states a week ago today. They saw a little bit of everything, and not a lot of any one thing, or place. No connection or immersion in local cultures. They saw New York City at a distance from their car windows on the Interstate, and the Kennedy Space Center in the same fashion on the Interstate. Please don’t ask me about it, because I can’t quite figure it out either. A coffee table photo book is even cheaper. Most of the photographs they showed me are from the car windows. They did catch the tail end of a storm that swept through New York, which probably added to their adventure – of sorts.

On Thursday we drove them to the airport in Presque Isle to catch their connecting flight to Boston, then on to Berlin via London. From Presque Isle my wife and I continued driving south in two cars and dropped off their rental car in Bangor. Then we drove on to Augusta and Bath where we adopted a ten year old Border Collie named Brodie, now called Cosmo, from New England Border Collie Rescue. He’s a great senior dog, and very mellow too. He was discarded in an Albany, New York shelter when his humans got a puppy. I hope their puppy is more fortunate.

Current values from our Vantage-Pro
Weather station:

Temperature: 38.6° (F.)

Barometer: 28.919 & rising rapidly

Humidity: 81%

Precipitation: .45 in. rain, snow & hail mixed

Storm total precipitation: 1.05 in.

Visibility: > 3 miles

Skies: 100% overcast

Since midnight:

Low temp: 37.3° (F.) at 9:23 am

High wind: 26 mph at 9:23 am

Typical view looking east from our house

Sunday, 2:05 pm: Today is a blustery and cool day: A day to keep our woodstove chugging along. The day is unremarkable and it is enough to type something thoughtful and well-prepared, which I seem to be missing the mark by a mile in today’s weather blog. The winds aloft seem to be much faster than here on the ground. The clouds are flying by.

Last night was clear and I was attempting to view Comet Swift in northwest horizon just after sunset. The heavy growth of nearby trees obscured any chance of viewing it. Being one never to persevere too long, I called it quits and came inside and listened to my CDs [I am into 1970s punk rock this week]. Luckily I have some great photographs of Comet Hale-Bopp I took sometime in the 1990s. I fancy myself a “fair weather” amateur astronomer, but doing any sort of amateur astronomy can only be done in fair weather. Those pesky clouds!

I’ve gone through my mental gymnastics for today, hey I am middle-aged, and my caffeine level is dropping like a rock. I better go before any sort of keyboard sensibility vanishes completely. It’s time for espresso.

Current values from our
Vantage-Pro weather station:

Temperature: 49° (F.)

Barometer: 29.76 & rising slowly

Humidity: 44%

Wind: SW at 6 mph breezy

Visibility: > 3 miles

Skies: 100% overcast

Since midnight:

Low temp: 29° (F.) at 1:32 am

High wind: 17 mph at 11:16 am

Saturday, 9:40 am: Here it is a few degrees above freezing outside, and I am sitting in front of my computer typing in my t-shirt and drinking ice-tea. That doesn’t sound very rustic to me. And as I type, one of my dogs is sitting at my feet. I wish I could read her mind, because I am sure she reads mine, which either confuses or amuses her.

Yesterday the radio said there was a chance of a dusting of snow last night. Nothing came down from the skies except starlight. There is a nice layer of frost on the ground this morning, which makes walking nice and crackly.

Several hunters were driving down our road at the crack of dawn today, all decked out in their orange hunting attire. Last week I had to walk across the street to remind “would be” hunters that we lived only several yards away, pointing to our house, and maybe they could shoot their weapons a bit farther down the road. I know it’s close when I can see their muzzle flash from our front door.

My wife, Ruth is still away with her family in Florida. They made it safe and sound with her cousin putting the “pedal to the metal” all the way to Florida. Soon they will be off on a pilgrimage to Graceland to see Elvis, or what’s left of him. Baby-boomer Germans who were brought up in the1950s seem to have this affinity for all things Elvis. I asked my wife to buy me something really kitsch, completely without taste, when she got there, but definitely no white jumpsuit with tassels.

Current values from our
Vantage-Pro weather station:

Temperature: 39.3° (F.)

Barometer: 29.82

Humidity: 100%

Wind: Calm

Visibility: > 3 miles

Skies: Clear

Precipitation: None – ground frost

Since midnight:

Low temp: 26.4° (F.) at 6:31 am

High wind: 2 mph at 8:50 am

--- A few miles down our road ---

Friday, 10:50 am: After delays and false starts, I am back. Those rusty hinges in my brain have been well-lubricated with liberal amounts of coffee – ah, caffeine, nature’s magic elixir.

My in-laws arrived safely on Wednesday night in the middle of a driving rain storm in Presque Isle. Their itinerary started in Berlin with stops in London and Boston. Now my wife and her family are safely, I hope, on their way to Florida in a rental car. I am the lucky one, I stayed home. My wife, Ruth, called, and they are in Rhode Island this morning. Ruth said her sister is car sick with her head stuck in a bag most of the time. Again, I am the lucky one. Boy, I dodged that bullet!

Now that my wife is gone for three weeks I’ll revert back to my genetically-linked sloppiness and hopelessly bad diet of cookies, ice-cream and hamburgers. Of course, that’s for breakfast. I am not predisposed to healthy eating when my wife isn’t looking. I should probably take life more serious, or is it seriously? I'll leave it to the English majors to decide. Since this is a weather blog, here’s some weather information: It’s nice outside. Here’s the other information.

Current values from our
Vantage-Pro weather station:

Temperature: 51° (F.)

Barometer: 30.38 & falling rapidly

Humidity: 58%

Wind: WSW at 2 mph – light & variable

Visibility: > 3 miles

Skies: Lightly scattered high clouds

Precipitation: None – ground frost

Since midnight:

Low temp: 27° (F.)

High wind: 8 mph at 10:40 am