Playoff Football

The Jets will be going to San Diego to face the Chargers after the Ravens dismantled the Patriots yesterday. Traditionally, the Jets (like the Mets) don't fare well on the west coast. This year, the Jets made one trip out that way and walloped the Oakland Raiders 38-0 but that's hardly a measure to trust--everyone beat up on the Raiders this year.

The Chargers' strengths are their passing offense (#4 in the NFL) and their rushing defense (#5). The Jets' strengths are their passing defense (#8 in the league) and their rushing offense (#12)--and improving after the last two weeks. With WR Vincent Jackson having an achilles problem and listed as questionable for the Chargers, it will be interesting to see who Darrelle Revis of the Jets is assigned to guard. As goes Revis, so goes the Jets' pass defense seems to be the popular wisdom, but they will also need more pressure and sacks from the front line.

******

Did you watch the Green Bay-Arizona game yesterday? This has to have been one of the most entertaining postseason games in a long while.

The Cardinals 51-45 overtime victory over the Packers set a postseason record for points as Warner and Rodgers came out slinging as they combined for 801 yards through the air. Rodgers had 422 yards and 4 TDs while Warner had 379 and 5 TDs. Yet the game was won on a defensive play. After featuring virtually only a token defense by either team resulted in a 45-45 tie during regulation, it was the Cardinals' defense that won the game with a Karlos Dansby fumble recovery returned for a touchdown. You might say that that play was the answer to the Arizona place kicker Neil Rackers' prayers after he pulled a relatively short field goal attempt with seconds on the clock.

During regulation, it seemed only a matter of time before the offensive team scored a TD. The defenses could only slow the proceedings and not prevent the result.

Best line of the day was delivered as they went into overtime the TV announcer, who was probably massaging his sore neck from having to swivel his eyes back and forth across the field so quickly to follow the plays, said something to the effect: "It's a good thing we're not playing college overtime rules or we'd be here all night." Up to that point, he was 100% correct. It didn't seem as if either side could make a stand. (Although, ironically, Green Bay did force a punt early in the fourth quarter that allowed them to score two consecutive TDs and tie the game at 35 apiece.)

Morning Report from the Aerie, January 11, 2010

The winds shifted over night and are now coming out of the WSW instead of the NNW. As a result (I guess) that Blue Blob is no longer on the weather.com radar screen this morning. That makes me believe it was a result of up slope lifting air currents.

Oh, the temperature only fell to 11 degrees over night. Heat wave! On the other hand...weather.com is calling for a 70% chance of snow showers this afternoon and snow tonight. One to three inches, they say.

About My Bowl Pics

Someone (an anonymous commenter) asked what my record was in the bowl pics.

I was 19-15 (0.589)

Got let down big time by TCU, West Virginia and Nevada. The latter two had to deal with the retirement of Bobby Bowden at Florida State and some really bad decisions made by players (academic and otherwise) at Nevada that kept two 1,000-yard rushers out of the game.

Minor disappointments with Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Fresno State, Houston, and Temple all of which I thought would prove victorious. (I guess I bought into the hype about the PAC 10 being such a good conference!)

Brrr!

Just 3.4 degrees at the Aerie this morning at 7 AM under clear skies and with rime ice coating all surfaces. Virtually no wind--thank goodness! (Weather.com agrees on the temp. AccuWeather says it's minus 4.)

That is all.

ps. Oh, that Blue Blob still hovers over Armenia Mountain on the weather.com radar despite not a cloud in the sky.

pps. I just checked the AccuWeather radar and the Blue Blob is there as well! This has got to be cause dby the northerly winds being pushed up the Armenia Mountain slopes. The ridge runs on a line that would be from the ENE to the WSW and the Blob stretches from one end to the other. BUT ONLY ALONG ARMENIA MOUNTAIN. There are half a dozen ridges in the area called The Endless Mountains and the Northern Tier. Why us? Will the Blob disappear when/if the wind shifts?

J-E-T-S JETS! JETS! JETS!

The Jets did the job today in defeating the Cincinnati Bengals 24-14. They gave up 171 yards rushing. (169 of them went to Cedric Benson who was the one bright spot for the Bengals.) But Sanchez threw one TD to Dustin Keller sandwiched around rushing TDs by Shonn Green and Thomas Jones.

As a team, the Jets matched the Bengals with 171 yards gained on the ground. But they also had a fumble recovery and an interception

The quarteback lines were:
M. Sanchez 12 of 15 for 182 yards 1 TD 0 INT
C. Palmer 18 of 36 for 146 yards 1 TD 1 INT

Palmer got sacked three times including twice in a row to end the Bengals final drive.

******

The Jets will be in Indianapolis next week. [Or maybe San Diego?]

LOL

Watching the Jets beating the Bengals. The two-minute warning comes and they go to commercials. One for Cialis comes on and I notice, as the talking head on screen goes through all the cautions and warnings, this little sentence appears in the lower left of the screen: "See our ad in Golf Digest."

Luckily I had just swallowed my beerage or it would be all over the laptop's screen.

College Bowl Wrap-up

The college bowls are over and we are into the NFL playoffs. I thought I'd take a look at how the college conferences did in the 34 bowls.

The best showing by a conference with five or more teams playing belongs to the Mountain West with a 5-1 (.833) record. The only lose the Mountain West had was that of the TCU Horned Frogs.

Of the six BCS conferences (indicated by an asterisk), the best record was the Big East's 4-2 (.667). The problem for the Big East is that the two teams (Cincinnati and West Virginia) that played in what could be considered "major" bowls ended up losing.

ACC* (3-4 .429)

Big 10* (4-3 .571)

Big 12* (4-4 .500)

Big East* (4-2 .667)

Conference USA (1-4 .200)

Mid American (1-4 .200)

Mountain West (5-1 .833)

Pac* 10 (2-5 .286)

SEC* (5-4 .556)

Sun Belt (1-1 .500)

WAC (2-2 .500)

IND (1-0 1.000)

What the....?

What's wrong with this radar?

The blue blob in the center of the screen is supposed to represent snow. It's along the Armenia Mountain Ridge. It's been there for at least five freakin' days. Now, during the last four days it was, indeed, snowing to some extent along the ridge. I know because the Aerie is on the western edge of that effing blue blob. However, today it is not only NOT snowing but the sun is shining brightly! I believe that blue blob has been so persistent that the weather.com radar has had it burned into their screens permanently.

On the temperature front, it was just 8 degrees at the Aerie this morning at 7:30 AM. It's now "up" to 9.0 degrees in the 10 AM sunshine. Tonight is supposed to be even colder.

Terry saw on the news this morning that it was 13 degrees in Elmira, NY, just a short distance to the northeast. At the same time they reported it was 12 degrees overnight in New Orleans, Louisiana. And there was snow and freezing rain as far south as the Tampa Area of Florida. I wonder if the Florida forecasters have ever had to use the phrase, "..and there will be snow in the higher elevations."

The news also showed footage of the ice rinks that were the Atlanta, Georgia roads with all the comedy gold of slipping and sliding southern motorists.

[UPDATE: You have GOT to be kidding me! THere is not a cloud in the sky and yet...
the infamous Blue Blob is still there!]

Aerie Report, January 8, 2010

The very light powdery snow that fell all night and throughout this morning let up around 1 PM. Heck, even the sun made a (very) brief appearance. I thought it was done so I donned my boots, gloves and coat and went out to clear the driveway.

I was disappointed to find there was a mere 4 inches on the ground. Thinking that might not make the use of the blower worthwhile, I started with the shovel and cleared half the area in front of the garage in a little less than an hour.

Not long after I started the sun disappeared and a pretty serious snow squall hit. It didn't last long but it gave me an excuse to take a break and ponder my options further.

The squall stopped after 15 minutes and I started the snow thrower. heck, after the plow had gone up the road, I knew some deeper snow was ahead of me. So I wrestled the thrower over the second half of the area in front of the garage, the driveway and the plow-made drift. It took me about an hour. I saved about 30 minutes...maybe.

While I did the drive, Terry did the deck and replenished the bird feeders much to the delight of the juncos, chickadees, nuthatches. etc.

When I finished, Terry produced a cup of welcome hot chocolate and I sat down to the computer. As I type this, it has commenced snowing again. Checking the weather.com radar that damn blue bubble is parked right overhead...again. *sigh*

If this keeps up there may be enough snow on the ground to get out the snowshoes.

Winter

My cousin sent me this this morning.

I found this beautiful winter poem and thought it might be a comfort to you... It was to me, and it's very well written.

I felt it really captured my own feelings about winter.

'WINTER'

a poem by

Abigail Elizabeth McIntyre

SHIT, It's Cold!

The End

My cousin lives near Tampa, Florida.
Prior to that she lived in northwestern New Jersey. I think living in Florida has thinned her blood.

I didn't really mean it that way

The other day I was complaining about the 1 and 2 inch snowfalls that were much too little to get the snow blower out and just barely deep enough to require the shovel. I don't recall if I said it on this here blog or elsewhere.

Wherever I said it, Somebody must have been listening. He obviously assumed I wanted more snow, not less. I need to work on my communication skills.

That little green dot on the weather map from several days ago? Hasn't moved. And it called in reinforcements over night. A light, fine powder has been falling since just after dark. The forecast called for 2 to 4 inches. We've already got the 4 inches and it's working on five. Another inch and it's snow blower depth. It's supposed to continue until noon. We shall see.

On the other hand, this weather has brought milder temperatures It stayed in the mid 20s overnight. That won't last, however. Weather.com says tonight it will dip down to 12 degrees while tomorrow's high will be just 17. Saturday night will be coldest of all with the low down around 6 degrees. They do promise the sun will come out on Sunday though. Be nice to see the old boy again.

Unofficial AARP Eye chart

This version is for the guys.



[ps. Don't bother trying to click to enbiggen. It's still not going to get large enough.]

Alabama 37, Texas 21

An interesting game the outcome of which will be discussed for quite a while.

After all the hype and build up about Heisman candidate QB Colt McCoy of Texas squaring off against Alabama's defense and Heisman winner running back Mark Ingram facing Texas' defense, we got precious little of the former (just five plays) and a lot less of the latter than expected. McCoy got hit hard on a quarterback keeper on the fifth play ad game out of the game dangling his right arm by his side. He never returned. Ingram sat out almost all of the third quarter and a large chunk of the fourth with sever cramps in his legs. Alabama's offense was stifled during that time going three-and-out four consecutive series.

Still, the game did have it's share of drama.

Why did Saban call a fake punt so deep in Alabama's end on the first series? That didn't work too well and led to a Texas field goal.

That was followed by Texas pooch kicking the ball high and short. The Tide players were caught off guard and failed to corral the ball. That set up another Texas field goal.

True freshman Garrett Gilbert played nervous for the entire first half (he compelted just oone of eleven passes for minus 2 yards), but showed a lot of promise in the second. That shovel pass at the end of the first half? It should have been buried--i.e. never thrown. That Marcell Dareus (the Alabama defensive lineman who put McCoy out of the game) was able to pluck it out of the air as it bounced of hands, chests, asses, etc. and return it 28 yards for a TD...well. that should never, ever happen. But it did and made the score 24-6 at the half.

With Ingram obviously pained from cramps in his legs (or maybe that grimace on his face was from all the pickle juice they were forcing him to drink), Gilbert started to hit McCoy's roommate wide receiver Jordan Shipley (10 catches fr 122 yards and 2 TDs) and suddenly the Tide's lead was only 24-21. With just 6:15 left in the fourth quarter, Texas had the ball on their own 7 yard line and a chance to make history.

But a blind side sack and a fumble recovery on the 4 yard line lead to one Ingram touchdown. A few minutes later, after Gilbert's third interception of the game, Richardson would score the final Alabama TD. to make it 37-21 after the extra point attempt clanged off the left upright.

For Alabama, Ingram ended the night with 22 carries for 116 yards. Trent Richardson had 19 carries and 109 yards. Marcell Dareus had one tackle (knocking out McCoy), one interceptions (of THE shovel pass at the end of the first half), and one TD (on the 28 yard return of same).

The Kid, Gilbert, finished the game 15 for 40 for 186 yards, 2 TDs and 4 INT. He should have had more completions. There were at least four passes that were in receivers' hands and dropped. And I can guarantee that he will never, ever throw another shovel pass into a crowd.

Congratulations to Alabama and Coach Saban on bringing home the National Championship.

OMG!

Eugene, Ore. police have arrested the Tooth Fairy!

Bag of teeth links man to Seattle-area dental burglaries

After reading the story, this 26-year old is anything but The Tooth Fairy.

Shane Carlson had long been on the radar of Seattle-area police after his numerous arrests — and convictions — for car prowls, home burglaries and office break-ins. One Edmonds police detective describes the 26-year-old as "an equal-opportunity burglar."

Seems if it wasn't nailed down, he thought it was fair game.

Sounds like he'll be spending some serious time in the slammer, however.

Global Cooling threatens species!

Or, at least, makes it easier to catch/kill them.

Iguanas, a non-native of southern Florida, are having trouble with the latest cold snap.

Cold Killing Iguanas Extended cold could kill invasive iguanas

With this week’s evening temperatures falling toward the upper 30s, strange fruit may drop from South Florida trees: non-native, invading iguanas that many residents consider more pest than pet.
...
It is legal to kill iguanas, but it must be done humanely. Among the options is decapitation.

The adult iguanas can measure up to a yard in length. There is no closed season or bag limit. Might be a good place to take the air rifle for some small game hunting target practice. (Can't be "hunting" since the durn things are pretty much immobile which precludes any semblance of "fair chase.")

No recipe at the site but several commenters say iguana tastes just like chicken.

Any way. Go read the entry at Watt Up With That? And don't forget to read the comments. Some of them are hilarious while others are informative.

Old Fart Pride

Another item that came over the transom. I wondered why I got it from my buddy (who is five years younger than I and received it from a hunting buddy older than we are who is certainly an Old Fart) but realized after reading it that being an Old Fart isn't such a bad thing after all.

I'm passing this on as I did not want to be the only old fart receiving it. Actually, it's not a bad thing to be called, as you will see.

Old Farts are easy to spot at sporting events; during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner, Old Farts remove their caps and stand at attention and sing without embarrassment. They know the words and believe in them.

Old Farts remember World War II, Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Normandy and Hitler. They remember the Atomic Age, the Korean War, The Cold War, the Jet Age and the Moon Landing. They remember the 50 plus Peacekeeping Missions from 1945 to 2005, not to mention Vietnam .

If you bump into an Old Fart on the sidewalk he will apologize. If you pass an Old Fart on the street, he will nod or tip his cap to a lady. Old Farts trust strangers and are courtly to women.

Old Farts hold the door for the next person and always, when walking, make certain the lady is on the inside for protection.

Old Farts get embarrassed if someone curses in front of women and children and they don't like any filth or dirty language on TV or in movies.

Old Farts have moral courage and personal integrity. They seldom brag unless it's about their children or grandchildren.

It's the Old Farts who know our great country is protected, not by politicians, but by the young men and women in the military serving their country.

This country needs Old Farts with their work ethic, sense of responsibility, pride in their country and decent values.

We need them now more than ever.

Thank God for Old Farts!

Pass this on to all the Old Farts you know.

I was taught to respect my elders. It's just getting harder to find them lately.

C.Michigan 44, Troy 41 in 2 OTs

Another entertaining bowl game if not bowl game coverage last night as the Chippewas of Central Michigan defeated the Troy Trojans 44-41 in double overtime.

Despite two powerful offenses, the score was just 10-9 at half time and you could sense that the ESPN crew was bored. Or maybe they were just upset that they were not covering The Big One, the National Championship Game, to be played tonight. Now, I wouldn't blame them for frequent promos of the #1 Alabama vs #2 Texas game DURING COMMERCIAL BREAKS, but in between plays by the play-by-play crew? Way to keep your audience focused on the game at hand guys. At least they sat up and started paying attention after Central Michigan's Antonio Brown ran the kickoff back 95 yards when it seemed Troy, having just taken a 31-19 lead, was about to put it away.

Chippewas' QB Dan LeFevour made like Bret Favre completing 33 of 55 for 395 yards and one TD. He also ran for a 13-yard TD in the first overtime period. Hard to believe he didn't play quarterback in high school until his senior year. He ends his college career as #2 in total yards with 15,853 total yards. Only Hawaii quarterback Timmy Chang did it better (16,910). LeFevour also moved into fifth place in the FBS in career completions and 10th in yards passing.

But last night he was almost out gunned by Levi Brown of Troy who completed 31 of 56 for 386 yards. Add in the one completion by Trojan Cornelius Williams for 17 yards and Troy did out throw Central Michigan 403 to 395.

With both defenses bending like hell but not completely breaking, field goals made the difference. Andrew Aguila, after missing from 46 yards early, converted on kicks of 28, 35, 44 and 42 yards in regulation. At one point early in the third quarter he gave the Chippewas a 12-10 lead.

After Antonio Brown's kickoff return made the scorer 31-26, LeFevour lead a drive resulting in a TD and then a two point conversion to make it 34-31 Central Michigan with a little over a minute to play in regulation. But Troy's Michael Taylor made a 46 yarder with about half a minute to go to tie it up.

The teams traded TDs in the first OT with LeFevour's 13-yard run matched by a Shawn Southward 1-yard run.

Troy's attempted field goal in the second OT was blocked meaning ANY score by Central Michigan would win it. The Chippewas played it conservatively and set up a 37 yard attempt which Aguila nailed for his fifth field goal of the night. And the celebration was on.

An excellent game which ESPN seemed to be overlooking for much of the evening. And that's a shame.

Speaking of driving in the snow/ice.

Don't be afraid of the former but do be cautious. Don't travel in the latter if you can help it.

If you must travel on ice, wait for a salt/cinder spreader and latch on to it's tail like a remora on a shark. Just be sure to stay far enough back that the particles the truck is spreading hit the road in front of you and not your windshield. You can spot the vehicles of people who have tried this but misjudged their distance. The crack all across the windshield sorta gives it away. By May large numbers of vehicles from certain northern and mostly rural states sport this indicator of the combination of snow/ice/cinder/gravel.

Actually, get some studded tires and you can do pretty well on the ice. They used to run auto races on an oval track on Lake Placid in the '60s using specially studded tires.

If driving in the snow remember one thing: Never, EVER pass the snow plow if his blade is on the road. Even if the plow is going only 20 mph in a 55 mph zone. It's there for a reason and if you peek to the right of the plow you'll probably see the snow/ice/slush shooting off in a lovely curl reminiscent of those from the Maverick's surfing competition off Half Moon Bay.

Remember, too, that the brake peddle is your enemy and so is your accelerator when the roads are snow covered. Keep your foot off the brake as much as possible and if you must use it do so slowly and well in advance of where you want/need to stop. If you are IN a curve, do not use your brake. You will likely go off the edge of the curve if it is slippery as your vehicle will slide in a straight line. If you feel you're going too fast for an approaching curve, slow down using a light touch on the brake--pretend there's a raw egg between your foot and the peddle--or gravity/friction (take your foot off the gas, dummy!). Once in the curve, your accelerator can be used (again, lightly as in egg-and-peddle) to get out of the curve. This works best with front-wheel and four-wheel drive vehicles where you get pulled instead of pushed.

If your vehicle is a rear-wheel, two-wheel drive and the snow is piled up on the road way, park it in your yard, make some hot chocolate and sit in front of the fire. Okay, maybe you can't do that because you have to get home from work/school/play. Use caution as detailed above.

And if you've got an automatic transmission put it into a fixed gear (those are the numbers on the console next to the "D" and "R") or into low (that's the "L"). This is especially true when going up hill. When going up hill you want to maintain a constant velocity--not necessarily a fast one, but constant. If your auto transmission starts to shift on you when you're part way up the slope, it's going to screw up that constant part of your velocity just the tiniest bit and quite possibly cause you to lose traction and set you to spinning your wheels.

If the worst happens and you start to skid, remember that you want to steer into the skid. That is, if the rear end decides to head to the right, you steer to the right. If it heads to the left, you steer to the left. The idea is to keep the front of your vehicle--well--in front! This will allow you to maintain some control as you leave your intended path. Steer the opposite way and at best you'll set your self up to roll onto your side although more than likely you're going to be doing a 360 or worse. And be sure to keep your feet off the brake and off the accelerator! Let friction and gravity do the work until the skid stops. THEN you can lightly press the accelerator or brake as needed to get control of your vehicle.

When I was a kid, my Dad took me out driving on immediately after the first snow storm and showed me how to handle the family car under these conditions. We used the wide open spaces of the school parking lot. An acre or more of black top without concrete curb or grassy barrier between rows. The best words I heard that day were, "Okay, now put her into a skid!" I don't think you can do that sort of thing today. I know my son got a ticket at 12:30 AM for driving in a figure 8 in a vacant mall parking lot back in '00.

Aerie Report, January 6, 2010

I got up early this morning to drive over to Sayre to have the "secondary air injector pumps"--whatever the hell they are--replaced on the Tundra. Under warranty by a few miles so I didn't have to pay the $2200 plus labor it would have cost me. Mechanic's report said something about water intrusion into the pumps. Not so hard to figure out how that might happen with the extremely wet weather we had this past summer and the mud that generated.

Not a bad way to spend the morning except for the inch of snow I had to sweep off the truck before I began, the icy/slushy highway I had to traverse to get there and back, the fearful drivers I had to endure, etc.

I don't mind cautious drivers when the weather calls for caution as this morning's did, however I do have problems with drivers so afraid of the road that they will travel 20-25 miles below the speed limit on flat, straight roads. I'm sure these drivers (I came up behind two of them) have been on these roads before. I'm also sure that they were on their way to work (it was 7 to 8 AM, after all) which would mean they know the road pretty well. Therefore, it must have been their own skill in which they lacked confidence. Fine, slow down around curves or going down slopes when there's some meltwater on the road that could become ice. Watch out for those bridges and overpasses that "freeze before roadway" as they say. And remember to go straight when you go across one of those bridges--curves are not your friend. But for goodness sakes do not keep hitting your breaks when you "accidentally" find yourself going 36 mph in a 55 mph zone.

******

I mentioned that it snowed overnight...again. At least it was slightly warmer. It only got down to 17 degrees. Of course it only got UP to 24 during the day. While the snow stopped early in the day and didn't return, the winds did pick up and made it sown right nippy out there even at 24.

The temperatures will take a dip for the next few days but are supposed to get up to near freezing on Sunday. Which is also the first day they say we will see Old Sol. Two inches of snow expected from showers each day between now and then. Not enough to do much with at any one time. Can't shovel it, can't blow it, can't snow shoe on it, can't ski on it. Totally worthless except as an annoyance. THAT it's real good at.

Iowa 24, Georgia Tech 14

In the Orange Bowl.

I only watched the first half of this game as I had to get up early this morning to get the truck taken care of, but from the outset you could see that Iowa had come to play--no, make that "come to win."

Truthfully, I thought the Yellow Jackets were going to run away with this game. I thought their ground game would find multiple ways through or around the Hawkeye line. Boy was I wrong. The long break at the end of the regular season allowed the Iowa coaches to come up with and implement an excellent defensive scheme that shut down the Tech runners.

I had also forgotten that Rick Stanzi would be back at QB for Iowa. Those two quick touchdown passes in the first quarter had to have had a psychological affect on the Yellow Jackets. Certainly it caused them to play under much pressure.

The scary thing for the rest of the Big 10 has got to be that most of the Iowa squad will be back next year. Ohio State and Penn State better not be looking over their shoulders, 'cause Iowa won't be there. They'll be up front!

Want to see something that'stotally awesome?

Go on over to Dickiebo's to view a video of the winner from "Ukraine's Got Talent" at work. Just be sure to read Dickiebo's description first as there's no narration.

Kseniya Simonova’s Amazing Sand Drawing

(h/t to threecollie of Northview Dairy)

Cave Drawings

More stuff from my (younger) sister. She sends me lots of stuff. Tonight it was good stuff that I'm willing to share.
******
Cave Drawings:

Written across the wall of the cave were the following symbols:




It was considered a unique find and the writings were said to be at least three thousand years old!


The piece of stone was removed, brought to the museum, and archaeologists from around the world came to study the ancient symbols. They held a huge meeting after months of conferences to discuss the meaning of the markings.

The president of the society pointed to first drawing and said: "This is a woman. We can see these people held women in high esteem. You can also tell they were intelligent, as the next symbol is a donkey, so they were smart enough to have animals help them till the soil. The next drawing is a shovel, which means they had tools to help them."



"Even further proof of their high intelligence is the fish which means that if a famine hit the earth and food didn't grow, they could seek food from the sea. The last symbol appears to be the Star of David which means they were evidently Hebrews."



The audience applauded enthusiastically.


Then a little old Jewish man stood up in the back of the room and said,
"Idiots, Hebrew is read from right to left...... It says: Holy Mackerel, Dig the Ass on that Chick."

The $100 Bill

I've no idea what the provenance of this little piece is as it came over the transom from my (younger) sister this evening. I found it amusing and instructive.

The sun is beating down, and the streets are deserted.. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.....


On this particular day a rich tourist from back east is driving through town. He stops at the motel and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.


As soon as the man walks upstairs, the owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.


The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.


The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel.


The guy at the Farmer's Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit.


The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.


The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.


At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, picks up the $100 bill, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.


No one produced anything. No one earned anything.


However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism.


And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is conducting business today.

This would, of course, not work in the real world because each of these folks (except the hooker) would have had to take sales tax out of the transaction and forward it to the state and/or county authorities.

Then again, our federal, state and local politicians are all currently taking their cut as they distribute that $100 earmarked for "shovel ready" jobs in the bills they write in D.C., until the people actually in need are receiving far far less if anything at all.

Yet another snowy morning at the Aerie

For the second consecutive day I got to the weather.com page and check the radar to find there's pretty much a blank screen all around ...except for one small blue dot located along Armenia Mountain. I can confirm that it is snowing beneath that blue dot. I can also confirm that the freakin' thing hasn't moved over the last hour and a half. (When I put it in motion it just pulses like a beating heart.) Looks like another inch or two of uplifting snow. ("Uplifting" has nothing to do with how it makes you feel, believe me. It's when moist air from the lakes blows south and hits the ridge. It then rises and--voila--condensation takes place. Since it's only 13 degrees at 7 AM, that means snow.)

This is slightly ridiculous but still much, much better than some of those towns on the shores of Ontario, Erie or Huron. Terry saw a report on TV news this morning that Fulton, NY (northwest of Syracuse along Lake Ontario) had gotten 52 inches of snow in the last few days. And was expecting more. Since she is just under 60 inches tall on a good day, she found this less than amusing.

Winds are still coming out of the north-northwest but their velocity is way down. The windmills are slowly, slowly turning and the snow flakes are drifting horizontally slowly enough that you can follow individual flakes with your eye.

Boise St 17, TCU 10

First let me say that I was rooting for TCU. Second I'm not a huge fan of defensive battles on TV. Three plays and punt are about as exciting on TV as watching bread rise when you forgot the yeast. (Watching a defensive slug match in person is another story. In person your eye can take in the whole field. That allows you to focus on the line play and/or defensive backs. TV focuses on the ball and nothing but the ball. Sometimes to the point of being faked out of their pants when the QB and running back pull off a great fake.)

For two teams averaging over 40 points a game--Boise lead the nation with 44.2 points per game and TCU was fourth with 40.7 per game--this was a pretty, well, boring game from a TV viewers perspective.

Okay. Boise State played a heck of a game. The interceptions came just when they needed them most. Brandyn Thompson had two, including one in the first half returned for 51-yards and a TD that looked for all the world like it would be the only one scored by Boise. Until he made a second INT in the second half halting a TCU drive deep in Boise territory. After that INT Boise couldn't get anything going and, on a 4th-and-9, was lined up to punt from their own 33-yard line. Except they didn't Kicker/punter Kyle Brotzman threw a 29-yard completion over the middle to Kyle Efaw. Kellen Moore then played pitch-and-catch with his receivers as they marched down the field in a drive culminating in Boise's only offensive TD.

TCU quarterback Andy Dalton just seemed to be a little up tight at the start and slightly off his game when it came to ball location. He did have a respectable 25-44 for 272 yards night, but the three INTs, after tossing only five all season, were killers. One returned for a TD, one to stop a drive and eventually lead to a TD and the third with seconds on the clock as TCU again marched deep into Boise territory and threatened to tie the score. (Okay. Maybe that last one was just bad luck as the ball ricocheted around before a Boise player snatched it out of the air.)

Neither team got much going on the ground. Boise managed 77 yards on 32 rushing plays while TCU had just 36 yards on 20 ground pounders.

Boise State converted on six of 18 third downs and was 2-for-2 on fourth downs. TCU managed just one (1) of 12 on third down and was 0-1 on fourth. Each team punted eight times.

Thank goodness for that fake punt. It was the only truly exciting play in the whole game.

A Mystery

I a very interesting paper over at Watt's Up With That a Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach explores the question: Where Are The Corpses?

A recent study in Nature [Thomas 2004] stated that 37% of all species might soon go extinct because of habitat reduction due to global warming. This same prediction of impending mass extinctions from habitat reduction due to global warming has been made a number of times recently, for example in a book by Professor Michael Benton of Bristol University (Benton 2003), as well as in studies by Parmesan and Yohe (Parmesan 2003) and Root et al. (Root 2003).

Habitat reduction has also been cited as being responsible for the continuing extinction of species which is said to have already happened due to the cutting down and fragmentation of tropical forests (Wilson 1995, 2001). For example, a recent study in Conservation Biology (Harris 2004) opens by saying that “Intense deforestation causes massive species losses.” Wilson says that due to habitat reduction we are in the “sixth great wave of extinctions”, comparable in size to the five previous great waves of extinctions in geological time. (Wilson 1992).

Eschenbach does something unusual (although it shouldn't be)--he looks at the record of extinctions over the last 500 years and asks "Where's the Corpses?"

Spoiler: There aren't nearly as many as predicted. But go read the whole thing.

Little Ice Age anyone?

They might not have actually done anything, but those UN and government entities that attended the Copenhagen summit on Global Warming last month have certainly succeeded in bringing global warming to a screeching halt.

...record freezing weather grips Europe, North America and Asia

Great Britain may be heading for a Dickens of a winter. (That's a joke. Laugh!) Switzerland is getting buried in snow. As are Germany, Austria, China, and Russia. The US, too is colder than an igloo. Even India has had more than its share of cold, cold temperatures.

Funny that there's been no mention of conditions in Canada. Perhaps, like the Alaskans, cold to a Canadian is 1- something one experiences every, freakin' year so it's--you know--normal or 2- there's a reason for all those Canadian license plates heading south on the US interstates and no one is left to report on conditions up there. If the latter is the reason for the lack of reportage, I wish the migrants would just leave their damn weather home or, better yet, ship it north to someplace like Churchill where they know what to do with it.

[PS: It's still snowing here. Hasn't stopped all morning and now afternoon. 40% chance my a**! And the wind has picked up a little as well. Out of the north-northwest naturally.]

More snow at the Aerie

Well now, things have warmed up a bit here at the Aerie this morning. All the way to 12 degrees! The weather.com quacks are saying we'll get an inch or two of light powdery snow this day--and tomorrow--and maybe the day after as well. In fact, the 10-day forecast window shows 30-50% chance of snow showers EVERY SINGLE FAROOKIN' DAY. Odd that their radar shows now snow showers in the area at the moment because it's certainly coming down pretty heavily. There's an inch of fluff on the deck that explodes whenever a mourning dove comes in for a landing.

The weather.com site also says the temperature is currently 15 degrees while my digital reads 12. The only thing we agree on is an almost total lack of wind--thank goodness. And the high temps will only get to the 20s according to them, while the lows will be back into the single digits later this week.

*Sigh* Maybe we should have looked further south when planing our retirement.

Or maybe not:


Nah, can't take the humidity down south anyway. And the southwest desert heat, while dry, is still way too hot for this old boy.

Second CBC outing.

Eight (8). That's what the thermometer read when I left the house at 7:15 AM this morning to participate in the Christmas Bird Count for the Lycoming Audubon Society. Worse, the wind was blowing at a steady 20 mph out of the north-northwest and there were snow showers falling and in the day's forecast.

Five of us would meet in Liberty to cover a small section of Jackson Township. Ann and Martha would team up and cover one section while Phil, Gary and I would take the rest. It had "warmed" to 14 degrees by the time we started at 8:45 but the wind and snow flakes still blew.

Birds proved to be few and far between. The little ones were hunkered down in the thickets and none of the farm houses along the way seemed to have feeders out. (We only came across two that actually had some seed in them to attract birds.) Even the farm yards didn't have a lot of birds. No starlings. No finches. No woodpeckers. Few rock pigeons. Not a lot of birds at all.

Our route took us through a couple of elk farms, an organic beef farm and several wild, wooded gorges. Still, only in one area where there was still some standing corn on one side of the road and a maintained feeder on the other side, where there was a stand of hemlock and spruce adjacent to a home with a maintained feeder, and in one spot near the bottom of one of the gorges with a open running stream beneath a thick stand of hemlocks, did we find small but active flocks of chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches and tufted titmice.

The whole time we were out, the wind blew snow from the fields and/or the snow fell and flew. By the time we gathered at the Fry Turkey Ranch for lunch and to compare notes, the snow fell more steadily on the open ridge of Route 15. When we left the restaurant an hour later, there was an accumulation of 1/2 inch on the highway. And, though not very deep, that proved dangerous to at least one driver heading south over Bloss Mountain. Emergency vehicles with lights flashing lined over half a mile of the south-bound side as the errant car sat far off the roadway facing north. Once I cleared that area--at much less than the 65 mph posted speed limit--I found the snow falling less and less as I traveled north to Mansfield until there was only a very light and very occasional flurry at the Aerie. (The winds still blew, however.)

The results for the guys today:
Number of species: 14

Red-tailed Hawk 2
Rough-legged Hawk 1
Rock Pigeon 16
Mourning Dove 2
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 32
Common Raven 3
Black-capped Chickadee 22
Tufted Titmouse 4
White-breasted Nuthatch 5
Brown Creeper 1
American Tree Sparrow 6
Dark-eyed Junco 26
Northern Cardinal 1

The ladies had essentially the same species. Only the numbers changed.

Saturday night at the Bowls

With the fire burning to warm the Aerie, I settled down to watch the evening/night football games.

First up was the Arkansas vs East Carolina game. Nothing really unusual about this game--except the kicking. And that it went into overtime. How they got to overtime is a strange, strange story.

The game was played in very cold, but not frigid conditions in Memphis, Tennessee. At kickoff the mercury hovered around 32 degrees with a wind of 15 mph or so, but the temperatures fell throughout the game. As a result the ball was hard from the cold and inelastic and it didn't carry as far as it normally would. Early on, place kicker Ben Hartman of East Carolina was asked to attempt a field goal from around 50 yards. It was within his range and he hit it well and true...only to see it fall just short. It was an omen.

That miss was just the beginning of Hartman's woes. While Hartman and the Arkansas kicker Alex Tejada would succeed in making field goals (one each in regulation), the score would be tied 17-17 with 1:09 left in the game when Hartman's real odyssey into misery would begin. As he stepped up to attempt a go ahead FG from around 38-39 yards out, the temperatures had dropped to 25 degrees. He hit the ball well, but the kick clanged off the left upright. No good.

Arkansas took over but three incomplete passes ran almost no time off the clock. A short punt and a long return set it up for Hartman to have another chance from around 38-40 yards out. Again he missed--this time wide right--as time expired.

Arkansas won the toss to start overtime and, as a result East Carolina was on offense first. When they came down to a 4th and 2 on their first series, it was time for Ben Hartman to step up to the plate--again. And as he had in the previous two attempts he missed from around 40 yards out--wide right again.

Arkansas went on the offensive and managed a first down before stalling and having to call on Alex Tejada who managed a 37-yard FG to end the game.

Final score: Arkansas 20, East Carolina 17.

******

I'll confess, I didn't watch the entire Alamo Bowl game between Texas Tech and Michigan State. I couldn't stand the frequent references to the Mike Leach/Adam James saga. That and once it got to be midnight here at the Aerie, I turned into a pumpkin and hit the sack. (It was 6.1 degrees at the time and I feared going birding in the morning. More on that later.)

I watched the first half and a little into the second. Seeing the Texas Tech offense function, is a unique experience. First off, their offensive line uses the entire width of the field. And I'm talking about the interior five not just splitting a receiver or two out wide. From tackle to tackle, they seem to stretch from one yard stripe to the other. In fact, they appear annoyed if they get squeezed between the markers and the side line. Each lineman is a good five or six feet from his neighbor. You would think the defense would find this porous, yet they seldom get through the gaps to reach the quarterback. In a large part this is because the QB seldom holds the ball for more than two seconds. He's either handed it off to the running back or passed it to one of the wide receivers on a quick screen. The linemen are seldom stationary during the quick screens. One shot at the defense and off they go to block in front of the receiver. If the defense blitzes the running back picks up the extra rusher while an end will slide into the area the linebacker or corner just vacated. Texas Tech seemed able to reel off 8, 9, 10 yards on every play and Michigan State couldn't find a way to slow them down. When Tech kept it on the ground, Baron Batch was gaining 4 or 5 yards. (He finished the game with 22 carries for 100 yards.) Starting Tech QB Taylor Potts completed 29 of 43 tosses for 372 yards (an Alamo Bowl record) and one INT and two TDs before a sprained ankle forced him out of the game. His replacement, Steve Sheffield was 9 for 11 for 88 yards and one TD.

Despite their offense (31 first downs? and 579 yards total), Tech still had to come from behind after Brett Swenson's 44-yard field goal put Michigan State ahead early in the fourth quarter, 31-27. Luckily, Sheffield was able to direct two fourth quarter scoring drives to cement a 41-31 victory.

If only the ESPN coverage could have focused upon the game being played on the field instead of the soap opera of former coach Leach; wide receiver James and his dad, Craig James of ESPN; and the Texas Tech Chancellor's decision to fire Leach on Thursday.

Big East in the Bowls

It says something that the game being played in Birmingham, Alabama (South Carolina vs UConn) is being played under colder conditions than that in Toronto, Canada (South Florida vs Northern Illinois). True it was close to one (1) degree F on the streets of Toronto and they played indoors at the Rogers Centre, but still....

******

Speaking of the Independence Bowl, South Florida pulled away in the second half to beat the Northern Illinois Huskies 27-3. Way to go Bulls!

******

Meanwhile, in the PapaJohn's Bowl in Alabama, the UConn Huskies out muscled South Carolina 20-7.

******

So the Big East ends the bowl season with a record of 4-2.

Rutgers beat Central Florida 45-24 in the St. Petersburg Bowl played in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Pitt beat North Carolina 19-17 in the Meineke Car Care Bowl played in Charlotte, NC.

West Virginia lost to Florida State 33-21 in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla. This in Coach Bobby Bowden's last game after a historic career.

Cincinnati lost to Florida 51-24 in the Sugar Bowl played in New Orleans, La. The final game for larger than life QB Tim Tebow who set all kinds of BCS records. And, possibly, the final game for coach Urban Meyer.

The Reckoning

I know that there are some out there that partied hard on New Year's Eve. And that some of you may still be paying the price. For you who may still feel the pounding between your ears and the spin cycle at work in your stomach, I have a bit of advice from Robert W. Service:

THE RECKONING


It's fine to have a blow-out in a fancy restaurant,
With terrapin and canvas-back and all the wine you want;
To enjoy the flowers and music, watch the pretty women pass,
Smoke a choice cigar, and sip the wealthy water in your glass;
It's bully in a high-toned joint to eat and drink your fill,
But it's quite another matter when you

Pay the bill.

It's great to go out every night on fun or pleasure bent,
To wear your glad rags always, and to never save a cent;
To drift along regardless, have a good time every trip;
To hit the high spots sometimes, and to let your chances slip;
To know you're acting foolish, yet to go on fooling still,
Till Nature calls a show-down, and you

Pay the bill.

Time has got a little bill--get wise while yet you may,
For the debit side's increasing in a most alarming way;
The things you had no right to do, the things you should have done,
They're all put down: it's up to you to pay for every one.
So eat, drink, and be merry, have a good time if you will,
But God help you when the time comes, and you

Foot the bill.

Not bad advice for daily living either.

Hey! Who turned off the heat?

It was down to 11 degrees when we came down to the kitchen this morning at 7 AM. And it went down from there. Not much, thank goodness. Just down to 10 degrees at 9 AM. The winds are a pretty steady 20 mph coming out of the north-northwest making it feel closer to zero. The temps did go up to 13-14 degrees when the sun got up over the mountain, but still....

Must be those rascals from Canada cleaning out the fridge again.

At least were (almost) out of range of the lake effect snow. Just a 50% chance of snow showers here today and tomorrow. That should make our second outing for the Christmas Bird Count tomorrow morning interesting to say the least.

Florida 51, Cincinnati 24

Ouch!

All the action was on the Florida side of the ball. I figured it would be a little closer with the Gators beating the Bearcats, but this was a blow-out of the major proportions.

Perhaps losing their coach to Notre Dame and their interim coach to Buffalo affected the Cincy squad more than we will know. Perhaps Tim Tebow's final game and Urban Meyer's semi-farewell to the Gators had them playing with a bit more emotion than normal. Perhaps playing so close to their home base that this could have been classified a home game for the Gators had them fired up. Whatever the reason, the Gators came out of the box firing on all cylinders while the Bearcats looked overwhelmed.

Huh?What did you say?

So I get done listening to the insufferable Brent Musberger and his partner "Herbie" doing the Rose Bowl on ABC, a displeasure only matched by having to watch Ohio State beat the Oregon Ducks 26-17, when I switch to Fox to watch the Cincinnati Bearcats against the Florida Gators. And there is no sound...as in NOT ONE FARUKIN' PEEP! Why could that not have happened on ABC? I tried using the mute button to get the closed captioning but even that is not getting through.

At least I can still watch the action on the screen. *sigh*

PSU 19, LSU 17 FSU 33, WVU 21

Playing in Orlando on what has to be the worst field in the world of college football--especially after hosting the state high school championships and an earlier bowl game plus having endured colder than usual weather preventing the sod's roots from taking hold--Penn State and LSU played a down and dirty, nitty gritty showdown of a game.

PSU kicked a field goal with a minute left to take the lead 19-17. LSU, with no time outs, tried but failed to get down to field goal range.

And Joe Pa came away with another win.

*****

Meanwhile, up in Jacksonville, Bobby Bowden's Florida State Seminoles trailing 14-3 after the first quarter, came from behind to prove victorious 33-21. You knew the 'Noles were going to come out playing hard, but you have to wonder if the Mountaineer's starting QB, Jarret Brown, had been able to play in the second half if the outcome wouldn't have been different.

Aubrun 38, Northwestern 35

Holy moly! Interceptions and fumbles on both sides as each team scored 35 points in regulation. Big plays on both sides of the ball...by both teams. Hard hits. And a missed Northwestern 48-yard field goal--following an Auburn fumble on the kickoff following the tying score by Northwestern--with 3 seconds on the clock.

Auburn scores on a field goal. A face mask penalty giving Northwestern a first down (and 15 yards). Roughing the kicker on a missed attempt to tie in overtime creating a first and goal for Northwestern. THEN, with a new kicker in the game because the old guy was hurt/inaccurate, a fake on a short 22-yard field goal that fails so Auburn wins.

Heck of a game!

Aerie Report, December 31, 2009

The cats woke us at 7 AM this morning to a dark and snowy world. The forecast had said we would get snow late in the night. What they didn't say was that it would, in fact, be early this morning. It snowed hard for five hours or so resulting in an accumulation of between 3 and 4 inches of light powder. Not nearly enough for me to use the snow thrower, so I spent two-plus hours shoveling the driveway. Terry got the deck and then spent half an hour helping me with the drive.

Our temperatures are pretty comfortable. We started with 20 degrees at 7 AM and it's warmed up to 28 with a tiny bit of hazy sunshine. Tomorrow's forecast calls for a high of 30 degrees but then we'll drop back to around 20 for Saturday and Sunday and then the mid-20s the rest of the week. Snow showers (30-40% chance) are forecast by weather.com for each of the next ten days. We shall see.

******

Lunch was a warming bowl of curried acorn squash that was more gruel than soup. It may have looked like baby food but it sure packed a kick! Terry saw the recipe in one of her magazines and thought to give it a try. That recipe is a keeper.

******

Terry and I have no intention of going anywhere for New Year's Eve.

I'll probably watch the bowl games. There are five of them today. (I'm shocked to see Air Force doing so well against Houston. AF leads 34-20 as the third quarter winds down.)

Terry will probably watch the ball drop and we'll toast the entrance of 2010 with a glass of sparkling cider.

What ever your plans are for the evening, I hope you have a good time and stay safe.

Aerie Report, December 30, 2009

A quiet and slightly warmer day here at the Aerie. After a cloudy morning temperature of around 15 degrees the sun came out and warmed things up to the mid 20s. Dead calm gave way to steady southwest winds.

This "warming" will bring some snow, however. In the next four days we'll see about four inches of the white stuff. That's still better than what they're expecting up in New Hampshire and Maine. From the Presidential Range up through the St. Lawrence Valley will see a foot or more from a rapidly moving and strengthening system off the north Atlantic coast.

Terry and I have no plans to go anywhere until Sunday morning.

******

Speaking of Sunday, Terry will be going to Mass as she always does. I got a call from my birding buddy, Gary, who, in turn, had an email from some folks down in Williamsport. The Lycoming Audubon Society will be doing their Christmas Bird Count on Sunday and they're looking for help. There are some areas in southern Tioga County that are within their circle and they're shorthanded. So it looks like I'll be going birding in some new territory near Trout Run and Morris. I hope that Gary gets some scouting reports before we go.

Idaho 43, Bowling Green 42

Whew! I'm exhausted!

Only one field goal attempted (by BG early in the game) and it was blocked. Up and down the field. Back and forth. Bowling Green took the lead 42-35 with just 32 seconds left in the game and I though the Vandals had blown it. But they came back and scored their own TD with 0.04 on the clock. Then they went for two and made it!

After being 1-11 two years ago and 2-10 last year, the Vandals really stepped up this year. They were 6-1 at one point and then lost four of their last five games. But today they had just enough to win their first bowl appearance in 11 years.

This game gets my vote as the most entertaining so far. (Yeah, Wyoming's 35-28 double overtime win over Fresno State was pretty good, too. As was Pitt's 19-16 last second win over North Carolina.)

And there's still lots of games to go!

Tundra (Aerie) Report., December 29, 2009

The best words to hear form the service manager: "Of course, it's covered by your warranty."

The worst: "We don't have the part in stock. We've ordered it and it should be here tomorrow. We'll call you and set up a date."

I actually can't fully remember what the problem was. I think it was a bad air injector pump or something like that. The fact it wasn't going to cost me more than time made the rest of my mind slightly fuzzy in reception.

I blame the cold, cold temperatures.

******

The winds howled out of the north-northwest much of the night. By this morning the thermometer read just 6 degrees at 9 AM and never got above 16 degrees all afternoon despite a strong sun shining all day.

Aerie Report, December 28, 2009

I got nothing the last few days.

Terry made the trip back to the Aerie on Sunday with no trouble. By the time she got home, all the ice and snow on the ground was gone thanks to the warm air and the rain. Once she was here, however, the wind went and switched to the west-northwest and the temperatures started to fall.

This morning the thermometer read only 18 degrees and a fresh coating of light snow covered the ground while the wind swept most of it off the deck. Tonight the weather quacks say wind chills (gusts to 40 and 50 mph) may get down to zero degrees. Winter has returned.

I travel over to Sayre, PA tomorrow afternoon to get the Tundra serviced. I hope to find out why the "Service Engine" light came on and also get the regular 35K mile service done. I'll take time in the morning to make up a list of some woodworking supplies I want/need and stop at the Lowe's store over there when I'm done at the shop.

Aerie Report, December 26, 2009

It's been a rainy day here at the Aerie. Being on the eastern side of the Big Storm hitting Minnesota and the Dakotas means we're getting moist warm air dragged up from the south and east. The rain hasn't been torrential but it's certainly been continuous. Between the rain and the temperatures climbing into the low-40s, virtually all the snow on the ground has disappeared. Most has simply melted but some has contributed to the fog that's often referred to as "rotting" snow. Actually, that's usually just the very moist air being cooled below the dew point by the snow and ice on the ground. The result of that cooling is condensation and fog.

I had to spent some time spreading salt on the driveway when I went out this morning to go get the mail. The snow packed by driving on it had turned to a sheet of ice that made walking on the slope an exciting experience. Continued warm temperatures and rain mixed with the salt to break up nearly all of the ice by darkness.

******

Football. Football. Football.

Still not doing well on my bowl picks. Only Rutgers and Utah have been on my winning list so far making me 2-5. Ouch! Pitt's looking good, however. Especially with stupid plays/penalties by N. Carolina.
[UPDATE: Oy! A field goal with 62 seconds left to win the game for Pitt 19-17.]

I will say, however that it's frustrating to make my picks and then learn that there are players being sent home for violating team rules or breaking laws or not making the trip to a bowl because they were too stupid to pass six (6) hours during the semester. I don't know ho much things have changed, but when I went to RU between '67 and '71 six hours amounted to two classes. One engineering course could be five hours. A biology lab was four hours. I'll forgive those kids who couldn't play because of injury but breaking rules and laws or not maintaining your grades? Idiots.

Heh?

I saw this headline: Kerry Floats Plan to Visit Tehran, and my first thought was, Will he bring his lucky hat?

My second thought was this was a slap in the face to those within Iran's borders who are protesting the current administration.

My third thought was that this was a big--and I mean REALLY BIG--mistake regardless who actually goes but KERRY?

But what do I know. I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn last night.

Lesson learned

If you have a fire place or insert with a removable thick steel smoke tray (a piece in the top of the firebox that catches flying cinders before they can go up the flue or that's there to redirect the air flow), it is not wise to try to pick it up even with thick leather gauntlets if it is displaced and falls into the red hot coals. Especially if the fire has been burning long enough to produce those red hot coals.

Now, those leather gauntlets--full thickness of a steer's hide--may allow you to pick up a burning log as advertised, but they are not--repeat NOT sufficient to pick up a piece of steel that may be several hundreds of degrees in temperature and, perhaps, just shy of glowing.

I now know this for a fact as attested to by the second degree burns on my right index and middle fingers.

That is all.

Aerie Report, December 25, 2009 Christmas Day

The cats and I spent a quiet day curled up in front of the fire place. Although the outside temperatures rose to just above freezing with the south southwest breezes, we had a little of this and a little of that as precipitation. Snow, sleet, freezing rain and then rain fell for much of the afternoon and into the evening hours. There wasn't much in the way of accumulation insofar as the snow and freezing rain went. The regular rain washed it all away and warmed the surface of the deck and driveway. The warm air blowing from the fireplace did alleviate the feeling of rawness that the precipitation and mid-30s temperatures created.

******

Spent some time on the phone speaking with my wife and daughter in New Jersey and then got a nice phone call from my son who is currently visiting his in-laws in Chicago. All is well, all is calm and all is bright.

Jessica is doing well in her Computer Science classes and working behind the scenes at the Apple Store where she likes it. (No direct contact with the customers, you know.)

Rick has been busy with the landscaping contractor for which he works despite it being the off season and weekly concerns about having enough to do. Hanging Christmas lights for home owners has taken up some of the slack but he says things should be looking up in a two or three months when spring arrives in Portland.

DIL Sandy is busy as a beaver at the law firm for which she works in Portland. Her nearly 12-hour days, six days a week are tiring, however.

And Terry is about partied out! She'll stay in NJ until Sunday so she can pick Mom--who has been to Half Moon Bay, CA for the holiday--up at the airport late Saturday night. (That way Jess won't have to worry about having to do so and still get to work early Sunday.)

Me? I'm watching cats snooze, flicker flames in the fireplace, big fat snow flakes come hurdling to the ground and watching football on TV. (Just don't ask me how I'm doing on my bowl picks, okay?) I'll wait 'til Terry gets home to open any presents.

I hope you had a very Merry Christmas.

Christmas

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.

Linus explains the meaning of Christmas



The Celtic Woman perform "Christmas Pipes."



And "O Holy Night"

Aerie Report, December 24, 2009

When I came downstairs this morning at 7 AM it was just 18 degrees and the clouds were down to around 2100 feet elevation. As a result, I could look up the hill and see the tops of the pines gathering frozen fog upon their needles while down the hill, there was nothing. That changed when the clouds dropped even lower a few minutes later and everything was shrouded in fog. When they lifted a few hours later (there was no breeze or breath of air movement to assist), the trees on the far hillside were also covered with a very thin sheen of ice.

Trees with a thin coating of ice.

The haze is caused by some lingering clouds and by the "smokey" nature of water vapor entering the atmosphere as the temperatures climb in to the mid-20s. (Ice changing directly to vapor without first melting is called sublimation. It's how frost free freezers work.)

There's a hint of a "fog line" in this photo.

Notice the windmill isn't turning. No wind so no electricity. The wind may be "green" but it sure is intermittent. (That means "not all the time.")

******

The folks at AccuHunch took the ice out of the forecast. Instead we'll get lots of rain, they say, as the temperatures Saturday and Sunday will positively soar into the mid-30s wherever their weather station is located. (We are usually 4 or 5 degrees colder than wherever that is.) The rain will be followed by a little bit of snow Sunday night.

Concerns about that stupid dashboard light will keep me in PA, however, ice or no ice.

******

Rick and Sandy were flying into O'Hare to celebrate Christmas with her folks. I home they have a safe flight and are not canceled or anything nasty. Sandy has been working long hours and weeks for an attorney in Portland and they haven't really had much time off together.
[UPDATE: The kids got into O'Hare okay and on time on Wednesday despite numerous cancellations of other flights.]

Terry and Jess will go to my sister's annual get together this evening. Terry's been gallivanting around NJ and even NYC visiting friends and former coworkers during the holiday party season. She's the sociable one in the house.

******

Well, I got the gas cans filled up and added some stabilizer to each one so the gas won't go bad before I need it. Moved a couple of wheelbarrows full of firewood into the garage, too. Except for the birds chattering around the feeders it's really, really quiet around the Aerie. It might be time to take a hint from the cats who are sound asleep after having finished their lunch.

Give us this day our daily Birds, Part 4

Today's bird is the Tufted Titmouse. Slightly larger than the chickadee, the Titmouse looks like a miniature gray and white cardinal with its triangular beak and peaked head gear. One thing that always amazes me with these little birds is their large, dark eye. It loos about two sizes too big for their frame.

Tufted Titmouse enjoys a seed.

Tufted Titmouse. So many to choose from!

The slight blush of rusty beige on the flanks breaks up the monochromatic scheme on these little birds. Both males and females look alike--just like the chickadees, juncos, nuthatches, blue jays, and mourning doves.

Aerie Report, December 23, 2009The Oh Cr*p!! Edition

Just as the weather wonks had moved the ice storm to early on Christmas Day and opened a window I could work with the travel to NJ on Christmas Eve and back later on Christmas Day, the Tundra betrays me!

I traveled down to AJ's Power Equipment in Mansfield today to purchase a generator (just in case) and then over to Wally World for some groceries (okay, snack food for the bowl games). On the way back up the hill to the Aerie, the "Check Engine" light comes on. I'm 200 or so miles before my oil change and the time for the Maintenance Required" light, so this is not to be taken lightly. The truck doesn't act any differently than before but a 500 mile round trip to NJ is not to be undertaken without someone more knowledgeable than I looking under the hood. (I did check the oil and coolant fluids and they seem fine. And none of the gauges on the dash indicated a problem in the short trip to town and back.) I did call the serviceman but he said 1) they are closed until Monday, 2) it's probably nothing more than a sensor malfunction since the behavior didn't change, 3) the fact that it's not misbehaving now doesn't mean it won't start acting up in a couple hundred miles. I made an appointment to bring the Tundra in on Tuesday.

So it looks like I'll be home alone for Christmas...again. Just me, the cats and a few hundred small birds.

I still have to get down the hill tomorrow to get the mail and fill up two gas cans...just in case.

******

I figure to cook a venison tenderloin, some string beans and a baked potato for my Christmas dinner. Julie the Cat will help me eat the tenderloin. I'm sure of that. She really likes wild game. She starts salivating as soon as the meat has thawed enough to give off any aroma and, sometimes, even before that. When a friend gave us some moose meat a few years back all we had to do was take it out of the freezer and she was stalking the kitchen waiting for her "taste"--which translated into a good sized tablespoon's worth of finely cut red meat. She'll pick up a piece and give it a good shake to make sure it's dead before chowing down.

She's the only one of the three that eats "human" food. She'll eat chicken, turkey beef and some fish (she doesn't like blackened or cajun style and forget about any rubs or breading), but what she really likes is venison, moose, bison, and squirrel. Looking at those first three, I think she's got an inner cougar in her somewhere. Thank goodness she's the smallest of the three cats!

******

I mentioned the ice we're supposed to be getting on Friday. They now say the ice could accumulate to 0.4 inches before the whole thing switches to rain. Looking at the maps it seems the storm center is actually going to pass a bit further west than they thought earlier this week which is why points west of the Great Lakes will be hit hardest with the snow and wind. Here, warm air will be pulled up from the south and run over the cold air that's been entrenched for a week or more. (At the Aerie, we haven't see the temperature get above 31 degrees in more than a week.) The moisture in the warm southern air will fall through the cold lower layers and freeze either on the way down or on the surface. Eventually, the warm air will push the cold air back to the north and we'll get all rain...maybe. At 2100 feet, I don't really know if that's going to happen.

After two days (Friday and Saturday) of slightly warming temperatures, we'll get back to below freezing again. And that's for the high temperatures. We'll be a few degrees below the average highs and, upon those clear nights, almost 10 degrees below the average lows through New Year's Eve.

I better pull some more firewood in to the garage...just in case.

Dinner Company

So. I'm standing at the kitchen sink preparing my dinner when I glance outside to see that I've got company.

Black Bear at the metal feeder.

"Yeah, I'm talking to you!"

It's not a big bear; probably its first winter without Momma. The feeder's less than four feet off the ground. Still, even at around 150 pounds it can put a sizable dent in the seed budget not to mention the feeder damage.

It took a little shouting and a bit of banging on the deck rail to shoo it away. If it comes back, the feeders will have to come in over night. And that is a PIA.

[UPDATE: The little bugger came back after dark. Tried to sneak in to the feeders but I was alerted by Julie Cat running back and forth from window to window. The feeders are now in the house.*sigh*]

[UPDATE 2: The rotten SOB came back again. I brought in all but one feeder, the one that was mounted on top of a metal post. It's a large feeder holding 203 pounds of sunflower seed. It's made of heavy metal and has a wire cage to keep the squirrels out. The bear bent the pole at the ground, separated the feeder from the top but could not get to the seeds. Julie didn't warn me this time. She was curled at my feet basking in my praise. (And having eaten a portion of my chicken dinner.)]

Give us this day our daily Birds, Part 3

I'm only going to post pictures of one bird today: The White-breasted Nuthatch

These chunky little birds are fairly common around the Aerie. I've seen four or five at a time at the feeders and in the trees. Usually they fly in, snatch a seed and then head out to the trees where they will land on the trunk facing downward, wedge the seed into a crack in the bark and hammer away at it to get at the meat inside.

A White-breasted Nuthatch scopes out the cameraman.

The handsome little one shows off its profile.

Looking for just the right seed. This bird threw two or
three aside before it was satisfied with its selection.

But at least one bird has learned that the cracks, or checks, in the deck posts are a good substitute for a tree's bark. Less energy wasted in flying back and forth, too.

The seed stuffed into a post's crack and the little bird
puts everything it has into getting at what's inside.

Spring is coming!

It's the first official day of winter (The Solstice) and yet I've also received the first harbinger of spring. Newly arrived in today's mail was the 2010 Burpee Seed Catalog! It used to be that the catalog wouldn't arrive until the calanders had been changed. Now, like the holiday decorations in the store, they seem to have moved up a month or more. Still, it's nice to have all those lovely photos to look at even if the plants in my garden never, ever look that good.

Not that there's much we want or need to purchase this year. We've a long summer trip planned that will take us away from the Aerie between June 15th and September 1st and there won't be anyone around to tend the garden except for Mr. Groundhog and Mr. Rabbit. Terry and I have signed up for a Good Sam's Club Caraventure that will take us to Alaska.

Now all we have to do is find somewhere to park the kitties for the two and a half months. They do not travel well and crossing the Canadian border would require all sorts of extra paperwork. Not to mention the worry of their going on the lam the first time the trailer door is opened.

******

Meanwhile, it's overcast and cold at the Aerie again with light breezes just sufficient enough to turn the windmills. A "decorative" snow flurry or two (it's been nearly continuous) is slowly falling. No accumulation is predicted beyond a "dusting" of snow. Beats the heck out of a foot of the stuff like Terry had in Linden, NJ.

I'm supposed to go into NJ on Thursday for Christmas Eve at my sister's returning to the Aerie on Christmas Day. But, just like last year, ice is in the forecast for Christmas Day. AccuHunch this morning said up to 0.8 inches is possible. If it moves up I may have to forgo the journey just as I did last year. Snow I don't mind driving in, but ice is another thing altogether.

******

The birds are taking advantage of my largess in great numbers today. The chickadees; tufted titmice; white- and red-breasted nuthatches; juncos; blue jays; goldfinches; mourning doves; red-bellied, downy, and hairy woodpeckers are zooming in and out like jets at O'Hare. Unlike the jets, rather than circle the clearing in holding patterns they perch in the trees or cling to the tree trunks around the yard to await their chance at choice feeding spots or to hammer at purloined seeds . I find the activity of my feathered horde exhausting. I may have to follow the cats' example and grab some shuteye.

Brain Freeze (or That Senior Moment)

Ever have to dial your cell phone from your land line because you forgot where you put the cell?

How 'bout not being able to find that item you put in a "safe place" a month ago?

We moved into the Aerie in December of 2006 after moving out of our NJ home in September. Now, losing things in transit is not unusual but I still haven't located that box--put in a safe place--that contained over two dozen different bolo ties.

And that battery charger for the Nikon Coolpix I put away last spring is still AWOL, so I had to purchase another online.

More and more frequently I look at a common tree, plant, bird, etc. that I've seen a thousand times and know all the habits of only to ask, "What's its name?" And forget about people!

As for tools and stuff...With two domiciles (Aerie and Bolt Hole) 220 miles apart, I now own three of everything. And they are always at the other place when I need them.

Maybe that's why Terry forwarded this to me.

Rutger Over UCF, 45-24 in St. Petersburg

In case you missed it last night, the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers won their fourth consecutive bowl game when they trounced the Golden Knights of Central Florida 45-24.

The win gave Rutgers a 9-4 record for the season. Two of those loses, to Pittsburgh 24-17 and to West Virginia 24-21, could have gone the other way with a few breaks. They got blown out by Cincinnati in the opener 47-15 with Dominic Natale under center, and--inexplicably--31-0 to Syracuse.

And things look bright for the near future. nearly all the offense returns including Freshman QB Tom Savage, who threw for 294 yards and two TDs last night, and Freshman WR Mohammed Sanu, who ran for two TDs out of the wildcat formation and scored another on an 11-yard pass. Freshman D.C. Jefferson, a quarterback in high school, is still learning the tight end position but should be a big (literally at 6' 6" ) target next year. All of RU's running backs will be returning and the only receiver they will lose to graduation is TD Timmy Brown. The offensive line will lose the most, especially if, as expected, junior left tackle Anthony Davis opts to enter the NFL draft.

The defense will see several players graduate and/or opt for the draft, and not all of them will be easy to replace. Senior LB Damaso Munoz will be playing on Sundays next year. Cornerback Billy Anderson, who came in for an injured Devin McCourty and ran an interception back for a TD, is graduating. McCourty, listed as having a year left, may join his brother in the NFL. SS Zaire Kitchen, LB Ryan D'Imperio, and DE George Jefferson will graduate.

The roster holds plenty of underclassmen who are waiting their turn and the recruiting class is strong once again. With a stronger out of conference schedule in 2010, RU could join the Top 25 early and stay there.

Pine cones

I like pine cones. The symmetry they display is remarkable when you look closely at them. And the little winged seeds tucked under each scale serve as food to red (pine) squirrels and lots of birds. yesterday, on one of my stops for the Christmas Bird Count, I came upon a stand of pines that still held many of their cones. They must have still had seeds inside too, because the Chickadees and Red-breasted Nuthatches were all over those trees.

The birds didn't stay still long enough for me to get the camera to focus but the pine cones did.

Pine Cone at Ive's Run.

Morning weather at the Aerie and east

It dropped to 16 degrees overnight at the Aerie. That's not real cold but it is still below the average low for this date. It never did get above 25 yesterday and isn't likely to do so today as the breezes (can't really call them "winds" as the air is barely moving) are blowing out of the north.

While the east coast got dumped on, we here in the interior a couple of hundred miles from the ocean got bupkis, nada, nil, zip in the way of any new accumulations. Oh, occasionally there is a very fine crystalline form of precipitation falling, but it has neither filled in the squirrel tracks on the old snow nor covered any part of the wood on the deck.

Meanwhile, Terry reports that she and Jessica received around 11" of light powdery fluff during the night. They had both cars parked in the driveway which is about 5 normal cars long so all she had to do was clear the end of the drive and the sidewalk before heading off to church. She'll get the balance of the snow cleared when she gets back. Jessica had to go off to work early as The Mall At Short Hills' tape message said they would be open today. As long as they had a crew available to clear the snow from the access roads that's probably a sound decision since the snow has ended and it is one of the few malls with a large, multi-tiered parking garage.