Archive | weather RSS feed for this section

Weekend Winners and Losers

27 Aug

Winner: The Office, for winning the Emmy for Best Comedy Series, and My Name Is Earl, for winning awards for writing and directing
Loser: The rest of the show. Aside from Conan’s opening, it was a snooze.

Loser: Ari Gold
Winner: Jeremy Piven

Loser: The Red Sox. Still. They should just stop playing. I mean actually stop playing. It was painful last weekend, but now it’s just an agonizingly slow crawl to October.
Winner: Me, because I didn’t watch any of it

Winner: Saturday’s weather
Loser: Sunday’s weather

Winner: My eyes. I had an opthamologist appointment on Saturday and got some new glasses.
Loser: Rims. My new glasses have none.

Loser: Snakes on a Plane. Why isn’t anyone seeing this movie??
Winner: Everyone who did see Snakes on a Plane. I still say I’d pay to see it again.

Winner: The weekend. It was relaxing and good.
Loser: The weekend. Too short, as always.

Weather Report

3 Aug

“The weather out there today is hot and shitty with continued hot and shitty in the afternoon. Tomorrow a chance of continued crappy with a pissy weather front coming down from the north. Basically, it’s hotter than a snake’s ass in a wagon rut.”
— “Walter Cronkite,” Good Morning Vietnam

The Weather Outside Is Frightful

2 Aug

With temperatures nearing (but not reaching) record highs in Boston today (I mean, it was so hot), I figured the only sane way to deal with it was to break out some Christmas music. So that’s what I did. Rather than a playlist full of songs like “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “Margaritaville,” or “Beautiful Day,” I was grooving to tracks like “Jingle Bells,” “Let It Snow,” and “Winter Wonderland.” Admittedly, it didn’t really keep me cool, but it sure was fun. Damn, though. It was really hot out!

Hot Damn

17 May

Finally, after a week of rain, the sun has found its way back to Boston today.

It’s a good thing, because there were a lot of unhappy people in town the past few days. This woman below must have lived next to one of them.

Thanks to Universal Hub for the tip, and Evan for the screen grab.

Perfect Timing?

15 May

My umbrella broke today.

It happened right in the office as I was about to leave to go home.

The top — the umbrella part, the part that opens up — separated from the pole, and I was unable to reattach the two parts.

So as of 7:30 p.m. this evening, my umbrella is dead.

Long live my umbrella. Continue reading →

Spring, Ahead

11 May

I figured since yesterday’s postings now feel dated (not only did the Yankees win last night, but Chris Daughtry was kicked off American Idol), I needed to get something else up here quickly. Pickings are slim — I don’t have a whole heck of a lot to say today — but I thought I’d pass along the exciting news that in the vote of pro and con, with everything else going on in the world today, The New York Times has enthusiastically come out in favor of Spring in today’s paper. So now we know: Spring is good. Phew. That’s a relief. I can only imagine the contentious debate this editorial triggered among the editors. Now, if only the glorious weather written about in the Times would come a little bit farther north…
(Thanks Doug for the tip, and Evan for the encouragement.)

Is It Spring Yet?

3 May

Over the weekend, I was discussing with Stephani the idea of forcing the seasons. She revealed to me that she’d recently moved her winter shoes to the back of her closet, and put her warmer-weather shoes in front. It’s not just a practical thing, she said, it’s psychological. After all, it’s May and even if the weather is still on the cooler side, it’s still springtime according to the calendar. I can buy into that, I replied, and told her that in a similar vein, I refuse to wear my winter coat until at least December 1 because every fall, I refuse to give into winter before I absolutely have to.

I’m posting this story because I feel like in recent years it’s taken longer and longer for spring to actually arrive, and quite frankly I’m sick of it. What happened to spring? It seems like we’ve gotten into a pattern of skipping over the season completely and going directly from winter right into summer. As spring is my favorite season, this simply will not stand.

Today, the third cold and gloomy day in a row here in Boston, I’ve done my part to force the season. At the risk of sounding like a girly-man, I’ll admit that I deliberately wore one of my brighter shirts — an orange, blue, green, white, and red striped one from the Gap — and it seems to be working. Aside from being told by various people that I look “citrusy” (as opposed to “fruity,” thank you very much) and that I can be seen from across the office, I can actually feel the weather changing. Through the skylights of my office, I can detect a clearing of the sky. The rain has stopped. And when I go out for lunch in a few minutes I’ll verify if, in fact, the temperatures are actually climbing.

Sure, this God complex is probably all in my head, and if I had only watched the weather report last night I would have known that regardless of what I wear and do, temperatures will be in the low 70s on Friday. But still, I think Stephani was onto something and that it has to be in my head if I want there to be a spring this year. If mother nature’s not going to cooperate, then I say, “Screw her.”

Since We’ve No Place to Go

12 Feb

I love how on blizzard days like today, the news reports are always the same: “There are treacherous conditions out there, the wind is howling, snow is falling at a rapid pace. It’s a good day to stay inside and off the roads … Now let’s go out to our reporter in Natick!” Followed minutes later by: “Now, out to Plymouth!” And later: “Up to Burlington!” Then “Out to Newton!” And everywhere, it’s the same story: Snow, and lots of it.

Well, in that spirit, I can tell you “It’s snowing in Brookline!” Finally. We’re going to get close to 20 inches. Can’t say I’m all that bummed since we haven’t had a storm like this all season. I’ve got work to do, some food I can bake, and maybe I’ll even purge some more of my books, so I’m going to make the most of the day. In the meantime, I went outside at 10am and took some pictures just in case you, like some news watchers apparently, need proof that it’s really snowing here too.

Need Some Mulch?

4 Jan

Alright, enough with the Florida-related postings, I know. But I have one more topic I wanted to write about. One of the things that really surprised me last week was just how much damage Hurricane Katrina did in south Florida, and how much of it still hadn’t been cleaned up. The area around where my grandmother lives, already depressed and older looking, was marked by crumbling stone signage and a great many tree stumps. You could now see greater distances from one place to another than you ever could. Worse, I think, were the trees that were ripped from the ground; many of the stumps haven’t been righted (which left large holes in the ground) and the spaces had not been cleaned up. Aside from being an eyesore, it was just dangerous. Over by my parents’ place, about 20 minutes away, there were large piles of trees and branches, sitting right off the golf course, just waiting to be ground up into mulch. I know that Katrina left a lot of damage in its (her?) wake, but the way the story has been reported, you’d think it was all in New Orleans or the neighboring areas. Sure, life in south Florida wasn’t affected nearly as much as it was in other places, largely because the damage in south Florida — while significant — didn’t compare to that in New Orleans. But considering Katrina hit four months ago, seeing these things, and seeing them just sit there like an accepted part of life, was like a lingering reminder that there’s still a lot of cleanup work to do in more places than most people realize.

It’s Good to Be Home (Not)

1 Jan


This was Friday in Florida. Mid 70s, not a cloud in the blue sky. Ahhhhh …


This is what I woke up to today here in Boston. High 20s, snow, grey skies. Yuck.

Does this mean vacation’s over?

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →