What Do We Have Here?

Tonight I was rolling the garbage and recycling out to the street behind the Ancestral Digs. The Moon and Jupiter were just Burning overhead...missing was the usual low clouds/marine layer, and in it's place a fairly brisk North Wind...which explains the MIA overcast.

This morning, when I fetched the local Rag from the driveway, the sky was blue and there was a breeze afoot...but it didn't register in my pre-caffeine brain. After I drank half a pot of French Roast, I was back out there with my camera snapping a bunch of pictures of the newly sprouted mushrooms in the yard, the tiny green shoots of the next crop of weeds, the lovely fallen maple leaves from the neighbor's trees, and the latest bunch of roses to bloom in my Dad's Rose Garden.

Confession: I've been stuck on the internet all day...jacked in, like the sci-fi movie...The Matrix...this week, I'm totally hooked on the prospect that my cellphone carrier will offer the WiFi-Enabled Handset of My Dreams on Wednesday!

All the Fan Boy/Gadget Websites have been abuzz with rumors and chimeras about the coming of Motorola's new Google Android Powered Phone, the "Droid"...the less circumspect among them have actually uttered the phrase: "iPhone Killer"...Everyone, take a deep breath...in, out...in, out...

I managed not to leave the friendly confines of the Ancestral Digs today, and still made some homemade Crookneck Soup that wowed my audience at the dinner table! I need to hit the Asian Grocery for my next Culinary Coup, but I'm a dedicated Multi-Tasker behind the wheel of late. There's a trip to Fry's Technology Emporium and the Big Box Office Supply on the docket, and I need a new Cowboy Hat too...all in the same neighborhood...That's Mr. MultiTasking to you! Multi Tasking...Hoe-oh!

It's all a diversionary tactic though...the north winds are heavy with portent...maybe winter will arrive in the Central Sierra early like in the East...so, I submitted...before I got up and got dressed I surfed the Remote Sensors, read the Forecast Discussions from Reno's NWS Office, and looked at all the Webcams...as forecast, the mercury plummeted. Boreal has had their fans running around the clock, though they weren't pushing much water mid-day. Cold Northerlies are doing their magic, and Boreal might have enough to get open again in time for Halloween.

The Local News Live Remote from Boreal on Halloween Night is kinda cliche on the Mountain, we get it, though...as in real estate, everything is Location, Location, Location...and Boreal's got that. The rest is Marketing, plain and simple. Who can blame them for making the most of their ideal situation?

Before I get all excited and stuff, there's still Crab Season Opener, Family for Thanksgiving, and a long list of chores still to be completed...oh, and New Phone Shopping! The Droid should be my solution to the "How to get the latest satellite and radar loops in RealTime in my Cat Dilemma"

Watching TV on a phone in a snow cat is business...not a sitcom...really! There might be a sitcom in there...but I'm not writing it...honest!

My Head Hurts

It's not a Tumor...the Immortal words of the Governator from the slight Hollywood movie, "Kindergarten Cop" It's embarrassing really...the mess in Sacramento...not to mention Washington DC!

I've been following along with the weather forecast world much more closely than in the three past years. I'm totally tuned-in to the day in, day out flow of the forecast discussions and forecast products produced by the three NWS Offices in CorduroyPlanet's World.

After a the Big Fall Weather Kerfuffle, Fall is back on track and the Mountain Temps are once again on a rising path. Looking around the country however, the weather news is record cold, and early cold going into mid-Fall.

Tracking the Climate Science News shows another path all together! Earth has been cooling for 11 years, despite all the Global Warming Hysteria that's reported by rote on a near-hourly basis.

No wonder my head hurts! How does anyone who pays attention not feel like their head will explode given the cacaphony of the Global Warming True Believers? The Sky Is Falling!! The Sky Is Falling!!

Even though the Earth has been cooling for more than a decade, the Noise level of the Global Warming Alarmists is truly starting to "peg the meter" going into the home stretch leading to their big December Climate Summit in Copenhagen.

I guess those with a vested interest in more Government Regulation of the people's day to day behavior and the potential for big payoffs from said regulation regimes, have to turn the volume up to eleven...to drown out the swelling skepticism blossoming across the Western World.

Snowfall in October, following record cold for much of America this Summer, has opened many eyes that are usually distracted by the culture and it's myriad entertainments and diversions.

The Western World's Elites, who've convinced themselves that they must "Save The Planet" are now rushing headlong towards their goal, hoping to wrest central control of the Market Economies of the West, before the masses wake up and vote them back to where they came from. The clamor of all the mischief afoot in Western Capitols has awakened the Sleeping Giant who'd rather be left alone by the Professional Busybodies of the Handwringing and Ruling Classes.

The headlong rush to Remake America isn't what America voted for this past November, and the breathtaking speed that the DC Elites have displayed while running up staggering debts to grow Government to behemoth proportions is a deluge of ice cold water in Regular Working Americans' Faces. We're awake now, and we're looking at a Bad Dream. That headache isn't a tumor at all, it's the Ice Cream headache of too much Government...shoved down the people's throats, too quickly.

Damn, it is a Tumor! Best to cut it out before it metastasizes! Throw out the bums at your next opportunity...your head will feel better right away!

The Rest of the Story

Malaise aside, I found today's Early Winter Story...it came to me by way of Twitter: "Cold Start to Fall Continues, 252 More Low Temperature Records Set in the USA This Week"

A closer look tells the real story as they say...looking at the map from the story, all those cold records are Back East...all the Orange Dots Out West are the records for High Minimum Temps! The Red Dots across the Southwest are all Record High Temps. No wonder I've been feeling like I'm doing Beach Time this week! Call it My Last Hurrah if you like, but I'm thinking Winter will get here sometime around the first week of December. We've opened the Mountain in December's First or Second Week for at least the past two years...if not three years.

Given the Cooling Trend in effect since the end of the 1997-1998 El Niño, it's interesting that the Mountain's Opener has been trending later. Could it be a fingerprint of the swing to the Cold Side of the PDO?

El Niños were around in 2004-2005, and again for 2006-2007. Perhaps the 2007-2008 La Niña somehow held things up too? I'll need to do a spreadsheet and plot this stuff so I can get some idea if there's any correlation with ENSO Events and OpeningDates. Oh Darn! My Install Disc is Up The Hill...I guess it'll have to wait. Ahhh...back to Daydream Beach...

Feeling a little guilty given the level of my sloth today, I scanned the Remote Sensors and saw a warming trend at 7300ft...no Snowmaking tonight! It's Midnight, and the temps are hovering around 42F

On the 11 O'Clock News, Sacramento's TV Weatherman teased a "chance of rain next week" but nothing in the Discussions I've read said anything concrete about precipitation. Hmm...could be "Weather Center Boredom" setting in again...Uh-oh, clear across the Pacific, there's another typhoon...here we go again...Gentlemen, Start Your Marketing!

Craig Ferguson's just named the season "Flummer"

Flummer is starting to feel like a well-worn favorite Old T-Shirt...dare I say it...
perfect beachwear!

Still Longing

How long will my malaise linger? I can't really concentrate today. It's kinda like Spring Fever...Fall Version. The warm temperature comforts me...lulls me into a soft warm place of daydreams...lazily wasting away the day...it's kinda nice, and surely relaxing.

It won't last long however...I saw some Snowmaking Fans at the base of My Mountain on the webcam this morning. Then I checked the Remote Sensors and the Reno NWS Discussion...I guess they needed something to do for a couple of hours, because there's no Real Snowmaking Weather Window on the horizon.

Next, I took a cursory look around the 'Net and didn't find any "Early Winter" stories...it seems the latest round of Early Winter Syndrome has finally waned...good riddance. Winter will come when it's time. My sister and her husband are going camping in the Sierra Foothills this weekend...enjoying the warm Fall days...sweet!

Enough procrastinating...I've got a garage to organize...it's cozy warm out there too.

One Fine Day

Today is, in fact one fine day here in the Inland Valley...yessir, a fine Fall day. I'm still in weekend mode here at CorduroyPlanet. I've been getting some loose ends tied up, before the weather changes enough to call me back up the hill.

I was out and about most of the mid-day hours, enjoying the warm Fall day...since last week's big rain event, the leaves are starting to turn autumn colors, the hills are showing the green of newly sprouted grass, and the light has that special Fall Glow. These are the kind of days that start me to longing...Winter is coming before long, I best wrap up my Summer Projects...I'm already looking forward to saddling-up my Snowcat, and building the Mountain.

I checked the Mountain Sensors...it's another fine day atop the Mountain, too. Temps still are avoiding the freezing point, as they have for most of the last twelve days. Boreal finally updated their Mountain Webcam Image...it's not pretty, unless you believe that ski season should start no earlier than Thanksgiving! I wonder if Boreal's remaining patches of snow will last until the mercury starts to get into freezing territory, and their Snowmakers can make more Manmade on top?

Before I get reacquainted with my Mountain, there's one more Fall Touchstone that must be touched. Dungeness Crab Sportfishing Season opens November 7th. California's Dungeness are so delicious, I prefer them to New England's Lobster by a wide margin, and crab fishing is another way for SturgUrge and I to spend a few hours on the Briney Deep.

We made our first Crab Trip on the last weekend of last year's crab season in our local waters. We caught one keeper Dungee, a mess of Red Rock Crabs, and one really nice Halibut over two days fishing during an overnight trip to Tomales Bay. On that trip, we threw back a dozen Dungees that were just 1/8 of an inch undersized. Weather permitting, we'll be back out there to keep some of them now that they've been growing, unmolested for three months!

Dungeness Crab are a big deal on San Francisco Bay Area tables, and are the hit appetizer for the Thanksgiving Spread.

I can't hardly wait!

Just Missed

I've enjoyed a nice weekend. Buoyed by the return of Fall Weather, and relieved that Hurricane Rick defied the models and shrank to a Tropical Storm, turned right and became a Non-Event for Southern Baja. In the mountains, temperatures are trending warmer and the sun is shining! Boreal has thrown a wrench into my Schadenfreude Machine however, by leaving a three day old image on their mountain webcam...a snowy, foggy scene with moisture on the lens. The remote sensors don't lie though...the thermometer at 7300ft shows only two tiny dips into freezing temps over the nine days since the Big Storm came through!

BajaBabe phoned last night to enquire about the Orionid Meteor Showers while I was immersed in a Science Channel Show on NASA's New Horizons Mission that's launched it's probe towards Pluto. This one is really cool...light, fast, and it carries a Dust Particle Counter designed and built by college students, the first flight-ready detector by college students to fly. Pluto is so small and so far from the Sun, that it's atmosphere freezes and falls to the surface of Pluto during Pluto's Winter! New Horizons launched in January 2006, and will arrive at Pluto in July 2015

The Orionids are pretty good this year, the moon is just a crescent so seeing is good as Earth flies through the debris left behind by Halley's Comet. If you're in Dark Skies, you'll be able to view 30 meteorites per hour over the next couple of nights...tonight at 2AM PDT is the forecast peak of this years shower. The "shooting stars" appear to radiate from the Constellation Orion, hence their name: Orionids.

I spent some time over my weekend researching a Handheld Device like an iPhone that works on my cellphone network...I'm really stoked to get a device that I can view weather satellite and radar images with in RealTime, while up on my Mountain in my Cat. While I was surfing thru the Geek-Gadget Web World I stumbled upon a Skiing Robot! This one's from the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia. I was disappointed in the video...the robot skis fine...but missing in action...the Corduroy!

I'm Outta Here!

There's not much worth saying today...

It's cooling off here in the Inland Valley...it's a symptom of the little wave of low pressure that's coming ashore tonight. It'll stir things up some, but it still won't qualify as the Pattern Change.

My weekend is at hand, but I'm keeping an eye on a couple of items:

Hurricane Rick strengthened to Catagory 5 Saturday afternoon, and models have it making landfall Wednesday...a day earlier than modeled before. The storm track has trended south, and Cabo San Lucas is in Rick's crosshairs now.

Atop the Mountain, temperatures remain high. For those who are keeping score, Tuesday the 12th was the last time temps dipped below freezing at 7200ft...noon Wednesday was the last time the mercury was in the 30's, and highs through the six day period remained in the mid-60's until today. Today the temperature rise stopped at the mid-50's about noontime.

I'm wondering if Boreal will get their Snowmaking up and running before all their snow melts away...

Around the rest of the country, many new weather records fell this week, notably many cold records were set in the Northern Tier, though Florida set some High Temp records at the same time.

The lead story at Anthony Watts' Site chronicles the 4500 new records.

Tonight I'll be seeing the Premier of the documentary "Not Evil Just Wrong" by film makers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney. More on the Unintended Consequences of Environmentalism's Anti-Human Bias...A Real Inconvenient Truth?