Archive for July, 2011

Over the weekend was busy

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

I have a lot of thoughts rattling around in my brain today so this is going to be a “purge post” of several of those things.  So, in no particular order, here we go:

I am SO EXCITED that my sister gave birth to her son yesterday!  I’m looking forward to lots more pictures of Josiah and eventually getting up there to smother him in kisses.  I don’t know when that’s going to happen, since our financial situation for the second half of the year isn’t looking optimistic, but when it happens, it’s going to be awesome.  Especially because it’ll mean smothering all the rest of my nieces and nephews in kisses, too.

We had a lot of fun over the weekend with our friends from out of town visiting.  It’s a pair of sisters, the boyfriend of one, and the two teenage sons of the other.  We had people ALL OVER in our house!  It was great!  We went down to Savannah one day and walked all over, stopping at the candy store on River Street and through the squares.  We had dinner at a Scottish pub and went on a terrible walking ghost tour that we skipped out of early.  By the time we left, everyone was exhausted, with sore feet, and irritated at the tour guide.  But dinner was excellent!

We took them to Hunting Island another day.  It was a beautiful day and we splashed in the waves some, sat in the shade and chatted some, and watched the boys with their boundless energy try again and again to catch a wave with the boogie boards.  The beach was strange, though, because the water was filled with floating wood debris that made it really uncomfortable.  The old foundations of buildings that had long washed away were exposed – the last time we came they were covered in sand.  I had no idea there was so much concrete buried on that beach!  The whole shoreline was changed.  Apparently a big storm came through a couple weeks ago, but I was astonished at how much it affected the island.

The rest of the time, we sat around chatting and playing cards and enjoying each other’s company.  We played a several hours long game of Munchkin, the boys played Halo, I taught the adults how to make bread in a breadmaker, one of the boys showed me some tips for the guitar, and the whole weekend was relaxed and fun and comfortable.  After they left yesterday, the house was too quiet.  I walked around looking at everything that’s not quite in the right places and the piles of bedding and Justin told me not to mope.  “But they’re gone!”  “No moping!”  “But I miss them!”

On the other hand, a couple of our other friends, who live in Beaufort right now, are moving closer to Bluffton.  They signed into an apartment over the weekend that’s 15 minutes or so from our place.  They’re moving at the end of August and that’s going to be awesome.  Okay, not the moving during a horribly hot time of year part because that’s going to suck.  But having them so much closer is going to seriously rock chickens.  Movie night!!

Meanwhile, have I mentioned that we’re not going to move?  We couldn’t find anything we liked in our price range.  So, that’ll hold off for another year, I guess.

My plans for this evening include cleaning our bedroom and the bathroom so they’re back the way they’re supposed to be, and maybe the kitchen because I’ll be in there making a loaf of banana bread anyway.  Maybe watching some television, or reading the book I’m supposed to finish before book club on Saturday.  Eating leftovers for dinner.  And going to bed at a decent hour.  It’s going to be exciting!

2
Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Living! |

Your daily weather lesson

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

After yesterday’s weather, I did a little bit of research into hail.  And it turns out that hail on a hot day really isn’t as strange as I thought.  In fact, it will only hail when there’s a lot of warm air floating around.

Hail forms when rain is pushed UP by a hot air updraft. It’ll go up to where the air is freezing cold, the water will freeze, and it’ll collect more and more ice as it goes up higher and higher in the cloud, even combining with other hailstones, until finally the updraft can’t lift it anymore (or it hits a downdraft) and it’ll fall, collecting more ice on its way back down through the cloud.

The theory of how hail forms has actually changed over the years and I had to rewrite that paragraph after reading more information.  It used to be thought that hail would do a cyclical thing going up and down and up and down and adding layers of ice for each cycle.  And that theory still holds for some people and some situations and it seems like there’s this debate about the whole thing with the people who believe that there’s just one up and down cycle, but many layers of air that effect how the ice forms around the hailstone.  And there are different theories about where this whole process takes place, either at the top of the storm or at the back.

The whole thing just started to get too complicated for me because all I really needed to know was that hail falls up before it falls down.  And that was really the most interesting part for me.

I also found it interesting that apparently a lot of people get hail and sleet confused.  Probably people who haven’t spent a lot of time in colder climates.  Sleet is rain that freezes on its way down.  It might start as a snowflake up high, hit a warm layer of air that melts it, and then hit colder air again as it gets closer to the ground.  It’ll freeze again before it hits the ground, but it’s basically the opposite of hail, which melts on the way down instead of freezing.

So there you go.  That’s your science and meteorology lesson of the day.

Eureka and Warehouse 13 started back up again on Monday so Justin and I have been catching up on that.  We missed the Christmas specials that they aired back in December, so one day we watched Warehouse 13’s new episode and the Christmas special for Eurkea, and then the other night we flipped and watched the new Eurkea episode and the Warehouse 13 Christmas special.  I love these shows.  And it’s probably silly but I find it hilarious that we’re watching the Christmas shows in July while it’s stupidly hot.  And there’s more science for you!  In Eurkea, Fargo and Zane got shot into space and had to find a way home and in Warehouse 13 . . . people were being killed with pieces of paper.  Okay, so not so much on the science.  But still!  Fun TV!

We have friends coming into town tomorrow evening and staying through the weekend.  We’re really looking forward to hanging out with them.  They’re the same friends we saw when we passed through Atlanta the last couple times, but this time, they’re coming down to visit us! We’re going to go to the beach and hit Savannah for the sites and play card games (because we’re NERDS) and it’s going to be a whole lot of fun.  But if you don’t hear from me for a couple days, it’s because we’re hosting guests.

2
Tags: ,
Posted in Living! |

More on the weather

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

Justin called me this afternoon to tell me that it was hailing at our house. 95 degrees outside with a heat index of 118 and there’s ICE FALLING FROM THE SKY.

2
Posted in Living! |

Uncomfortable

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

I just want you all to know that it was 80 degrees and greater than 75% humid when I left my house this morning at 6:15 AM.  Right now it feels like 113 degrees and it’s going to get hotter toward the early afternoon.  We’re at a “10+-Extreme” UV index level.  And even though it’s still about 72% humid, there’s a very low chance that it’ll actually rain today.

We’re under an Excessive Heat Warning from the National Weather Service that says “A few locations could experience brief periods of dangerous heat indices around 120 degrees…”

A radio host this morning recommended checking on people you know who are without air conditioning.

Going outside is like stepping into a steam bath.  It’s hot.  It’s humid.  And the added bonus is burning light, with the chance of cancer!

It’s awful and I’m so ready for fall to get here, but we’ve got all the rest of July and August to get through yet before it even hints at getting cooler.  These are the days when I really consider my decision to move to the south.

And I don’t generally go into politics but every time I turn on the radio they’re talking about the “debt crisis” and congress and the president.  And I have this to say about that:  When my personal finances are in deep trouble, what I have to do is pretty clear.  I need to bring in additional income by getting a second job and I need to stop spending money on things that I don’t need to spend money on, even if I really like those things.  And I can’t just ignore that there’s a problem or try to increase my credit card limit in order to fix the problem because it only delays the inevitable – me being completely broke and handing everything over to the bank.

I don’t know the details about what’s happening and the deals they’re trying to make or anything about the complexities of national finances, but doesn’t it make sense that spending has to be cut, tax cuts have to be removed, and there has to be some sort of give and take between both sides of the issue?  This steadfast “NO, NO, NO” and refusing to just compromise even a little bit is getting so frustrating!  No one’s going to be happy with the solution in the end, just like I’d hate losing my weekends to another job or giving up eating at restaurants.  But sometimes it has to happen in order to get everything back in line.

I would be so thrilled to get into my car and hear that both sides of the aisle are upset but they’ve finally worked out a plan that’ll solve the problem and now we can move on and talk about something else.

1
Tags: ,
Posted in Living! |

Back at it

Monday, July 11th, 2011

Well, I’m back from the vacation I’ve been on since June 30th.  Before going on vacation, if anyone asked me what I was going to do while on my break, my answer was simple:  “Sleep!”  Today was the first time in the last 10 days that I was awake before 8:00.  It turns out, when left to my own devices, I will sleep between 9-10 hours a night and be *really* happy doing it.  It’s a far cry from the 6 or so that I get on a regular basis while working.

It was a fantastic vacation.  I got to see my friends Becky and Julie a couple times – once at our place for cards and dinner on the 4th and again later in the week for pina coladas on the beach after Julie’s successful job interview.  We saw a bunch more of our friends on Friday at a going-away party for a friend who is moving to DC for work.  We spent a day by ourselves on the beach, enjoying some impressively high waves for this part of the coast, reading in the shade of our umbrellas, and getting sunburned. 

And the rest of the week was spent relaxing and not feeling pressured to do anything, which meant that I made it through 3½ seasons of Heroes.  I’m really enjoying season 4 more than I expected, even though the “Oooooh, AWKWARD!!” is happening a lot.  As well as the “No, no, no!  Don’t do that, stupid!”  I’d already watched up through most of season 3 so that was mostly review, but still really fun to see again.

So, my sunburn has faded (which is great because the burn on the front of my legs was really annoying) and my alarm rang this morning at 5:15 to get me out of bed, and I had coffee for the first time in a week and a half.  The office was quiet this morning and I’m not sure if anyone really knows what we’re supposed to be working on, but we’re at least physically present, coffee cups in hand, sharing stories about what we’ve done with the last several days.  Mine doesn’t take long:  “Slept, watched too much TV, went to the beach, spent time with friends.  It was great!”

A couple more days would have been fantastic.

1
Tags: , ,
Posted in Living! |