Settled Down...Kinda

About last night...

Stutter-step start...not in my fave BR350
Nice to be grooming in falling snow again...
Didn't need the cloud deck settling in just before dawn...
Really didn't need the cloud deck to turn to rain...
For want of a silly cable, I went tuneless all damn night...

I remembered a very funny bit that Jimmy Fallon did the other night. I promised Driller I'd embed it.


The fire between Reno and Carson City is behaving...for now.

Gonna be another Interesting Day...

Another wild night on tap...may end in rain again...grrrr...

Friday night update:
Tonight's shift is gonna begin with rain...hurry cold front!

Gettin' Down to Business

It's true! There's an inch of new snow on the DaveCave's front deck tonight! Chain controls are up, and the Washoe Drive Fire is settling down a bit as the winds abate a little and the relative humidity is rising thanks to the storm.

KOLO8 TV is still wall to wall Washoe Drive Fire! The fire's forward progress has been halted for now.

Up on My Mountain, snow is accumulating! Maybe 5-6 inches and counting. My world is gonna look so fine tonight! Snowfall will taper off overnight, but the second wave is due Friday evening.

Friday's storm looks to be wetter and bigger. Some new trails will fall from the sky Friday night into Saturday!

The Worst Is Happening

I got off early this morning, then fell asleep before noon. When the wind shook me awake at 2:30PM, my Twitter timeline came alive with news of a wildfire in the Washoe Valley between Reno and Carson City.

Evacuations are mandatory, and a few homes have reportedly been consumed. KOLO8 TV has preempted regular programming for fire coverage. Their WeatherDude reports steady 35 MPH winds in the Washoe Valley and 100MPH gusts up on the ridgetops.

Hwy 395 is closed, and Vice President Joe Biden's speech at Galena High School has been cut short to allow time to evacuate!

The fire has a name now, The Washoe Fire. It's not the only fire either...I looked at Sierra Front Interagency Dispatch Center page and saw The Jack's Valley Fire.

KOLO8 is streaming their coverage now, and will cover a live press conference at 5PM.

NWS Reno has extended Wind Warnings and Red Flag Warnings until 10PM.

It's just beginning to snow in Truckee, and 4 miles west, Chain Controls are up over Interstate 80's Donner Summit

More Weirdness

My head hit the pillow at exactly bedtime today, 2PM. I got off work a little early, picked up the mail, and picked up a few things at the Auto Parts Store.

Back at the DaveCave, I put out the garbage and recycling stuff, did some chores in the garage and driveway, and Pow-Wowed with Mr Landlord on our plan to get my pickup, Mrs Landlord's car, and all the other winter crap into the garage before the storm arrives for real Thursday afternoon. Then I made a killer breakfast...a pastrami and cream cheese omelet...yummy...

I woke up with a start...no dream...probably another big gust of wind...it's blowing like a storm is really coming in...and one is...followed by most of a week's worth of juicy drought busters! These are the first serious westerly winds of my season to date!

I tuned in the 5 O'clock News looking for an idea of exactly when the snow would start flying. Imagine my surprise when the weather map had a wide ranging Red Flag Warning for my neck of the woods, alongside a Winter Storm Warning on the West Slope, and Winter Weather Advisories to the north and south.

Warnings for everybody!

Weird...my Twitter Timeline has tipped me to several Prescription Burns around the Tahoe Basin that the Forest Service is conducting. I heard an advisory on the radio on my way home from work...Carson City was getting a lot of smoke from Prescription Burns on the El Dorado National Forest.

I won't lie starting fires in wildlands during Red Flag Warnings gives me the Heebie-Geebies.

I'm still up...not good...I guess I'm a little too excited. I get back in my favorite BR350...it's been down for a couple of days getting a new injector pump. Thursday night's shift is the one that's pumping this extra adrenaline through my fevered brain.

Damn, am I ever ready!

Quick Phobos/Grunt Reentry Update 5

The flight of Phobos/Grunt is over, but accusations of blame are just beginning to fly!

I don't know if the US radars on Kwajalein atoll are even used to study asteroids...

All this seems like so much CYA...are all these Space Agencies still full of aging Cold Warriors?

Comrades, fellas...Old Dudes! You can let go of the past without dishonoring it, or diminishing your place in it's history! You'll save a ton of money and grab more brass rings along the way if you figure out how to cooperate!


From the Muddied Waters Dept:
@Zarya_Info tweeted:
"Phobos-Grunt - is everyone writing fantasy about the re-entry? Aviation Week item riddled with inaccuracies/errors: aviationweek.com... "

Lest we forget, Kosmos 2176 has most likely reentered. Predicted reentry zone was again the Southern Pacific Ocean.

All this reentering satellite stuff caught the UKGuardian's eye.

Quick Phobos/Grunt Reentry Update 4.1

Here it is Wednesday...Phobos/Grunt reentered Sunday...still no word from ESA, NASA or US StratCom.

There's still some background noise about the failure and the location of the debris field.

Spaceweather.com has the rebuttal to the Marshall Islands Radar Charge:

"Sources within the Russian Space Agency have suggested to newspapers that a US radar on the Marshall Islands might have accidentally disabled Phobos-Grunt. The mishap could have occured, they say, while the radar was using megawatt pulses to track near-Earth asteroid 2005 YU55 on the same night the Mars probe was launched. According to an analysis by satellite tracking expert Ted Molczan, however, "the asteroid was below Kwajalein's horizon during both of Phobos-Grunt's passes" over the radar facility. An errant "zap" seems unlikely. Besides, says NASA, they weren't using the radar anyway."

Spaceflight 101 Blog:
Phobos-Grunt's Exact Reentry Location Remains a Mystery.

Kosmos 2176 Reentry Update
Most predictions say the Russian Satellite reentered Tuesday afternoon PST...I won't be holding my breath on this one...

Stay Tuned!

Afternoon Update:
The plot thickens!

Bedtime In the Garden of Good and Evil

All the waiting is nearly over. This afternoon's Reno AFD says the waiting for snow ends Thursday evening.

Formula One's first practice session of the first race of the 2012 Season in Australia is only 58 days away.

It's a month and a day until the San Francisco Giants' pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training.

Only four days until the San Francisco 49ers host the New York Giants in the NFC Championship Game...Winner advances to Super Bowl XLVI

Now I'm up 3:21 past my bedtime...gonna suffer tonight.

My @CorduroyPlanet twitter timeline is running about Warp 7.1 today. Lots of Giants baseball news, as the team comes to terms with it's players.

Lots of the fellow SF Giants Fans I follow are prolific Baseball Fans who tweet every move of the Giants' rivals' personnel moves, not just the Home Team news.Today is the last day of negotiations before the Arbitration Deadline. The Giants and their ace Tim Lincecum are $4 million apart...or about 20% adrift.

All the Tahoe Sierra Ski Resorts are tweeting up a blizzard of "Here Comes Winter" stuff.

I'm waiting on some Space Junk Reentry News...Confirmation of Phobos/Grunt's final resting place, and today's eminent demise of another Russian satellite, Cosmos 2176.

As with the whole Phobos/Grunt Saga, news is trickling out like molasses in January, and with all the baseball transactions, I'm bound to miss the news and Cosmos 2176's splashdown.

I won't give a damn later this week when I'm pushing newly fallen Sierra Cement around!

Must sleep NOW!