Aerie Report, Morning, January 18, 2012

The temperatures rose all of yesterday and even through the early evening hours. It reached 47 degrees at one point before the cold front moved through, the wind shifted and the temperature began to fall once more. It's just 22 degrees as I type.

And what a front it was, too! Long (stretching from east of Lake Ontario to West Virginia) and skinny (only a narrow band of clouds about 50 miles wide along the front), it swept through within a matter of minutes and brought some howling gales and gusts. (Elmira area had a report of a 60 mph gust around 11:30 last night.)

Today we've got some lake effect snow showers off lakes Ere and Ontario to contend with, although the bulk of those will be to the north of us and a smidge closer to the shorelines.

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Since we moved into the Aerie in December of 2006, the intervening winters have seen us pretty much nibbled to death by ducks--that is suffering from frequent small snow storms of 3-4 inches--from November through January. With a few exceptions, the months of February and March--even early April--are when we get the "big ones."

I prefer to shovel when the snow is 4-6 inches or less, use the snow thrower for 5-8 inches and then the tractor for anything more. So far this year, I've had to shovel snow just twice. The snow thrower and tractor are getting dusty.

And even the shoveling may have been unnecessary since we had 40 degree (or more) days not long after that melted everything I didn't/couldn't shovel. Today there's only a tiny bit of snow where the winds drifted it to a depth of three or four inches and where the sun didn't get to it--yet.

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Yesterday was the DIL's 28th birthday. She and her pup spent the evening alone in their Portland, Oregon home as my son was out in Yakima, Washington for work.

He's an inspecting forester for the power company making sure tree work and right-of-way clearing is done correctly. With the forecast for one heck of a snow storm in the Cascade and Olympic Mountains (which stretch across his path from Yakima back to Portland) I hope he drives safely--and that includes knowing when NOT to drive. Even so, if tree limbs give way under the weight of snow, he could be busy, busy, busy!

Stay safe kids!

Some thoughts while driving

I took the Tundra over to Athens and Williams Toyota this morning to get the oil changed and have a X-points inspection done. I could have just as easily gone down the hill to Mansfield Exxon, but this was an excuse to get out of the house for a while and I like the folks over at Williams. (I like Ryan at Mansfield Exxon too. He get to work on the Aveo and occasionally the Tundra. I'll see him in the spring when I need to get new tires.)

This is a 100-mile round trip and I had time to do some thinking.

First, I was pleased as punch that the temperature rose from the 31 degrees at the Aerie to 36-37 degrees along Route 6. That meant that the little bit of sprinkle that was falling stayed liquid instead of becoming black ice. (It also meant that the extra half hour I allotted for the trip was unnecessary, but I'd rather be early than in the ditch.)

Second, I'm happy there is a Mickey D's in Troy. Hot coffee and an egg and sausage McMuffin early on a cold, damp morning is a fine thing.

Third, this being a 100-mile round trip I couldn't help but think of how things have changed in a little over 100 years. In 1900, it would have been a two-three day trip just to get to Athens (50 miles) on horseback or in a wagon. Call it four to six days round trip. As it was it took me a little over three hours round trip INCLUDING a one hour period while I waited for the mechanic to do his job.

Fourth, the all electric vehicles being promoted by our wonderful government, having a range of about 40 miles on a charge, would not have even gotten me to Athens before needing to be plugged in. Given the charging time, a trip to Athens and back in a Volt would have taken me three days or more. Back to the future, indeed.

Fifth, those thoughts about the Volt's range (about 40 miles per charge) made me think about the commute of the average American. (Or at least those I know in Northern New Jersey.) While many of the teachers I worked with lived in close proximity (10 miles or so) of the school, some came from 30 to 50 miles away. (A few commuted from Pennsylvania to Parsippany because the taxes in New Jersey were so high. One of these also taught nights twice a week in Jersey City. He really racked up the miles!) Then there were other folks who worked in Manhattan yet lived out along the I-80 or I-78 corridors some 50 or more miles from the city. Some took the train or bus, but an awfully large number did not because public transit was inconvenient. The point is, there are lots of folks who could not even use the Volt to commute from the suburbs because of its limited range. So what, exactly, is supposed to be the Volt's niche?

It can't be to save CO2 emissions. You need electricity to charge the bloody thing and in today's world that's probably provided by coal or natural gas. (Or nuclear, I suppose.) Mining or drilling for the source of energy to yield the electricity or for the materials to build the light weight chassis and heavy metal batteries would create as big a carbon footprint as my Tundra.

The Volt must have been a project dreamed up while on drugs, planned by committee, and executed by a government run bureaucracy (or a union--same thing). Even with the generous, taxpayer provided rebates, it's a lemon of a vehicle no one wants. It makes the Ford Edsel look like a dream car with excellent sales numbers.

It's Friday the 13th...

...so perhaps it's right and proper that we be cursed/blessed with the return of winter weather.

With the wind out of the south as it had been much of the day, it started raining hard again last night after 9 PM when the temperature was still 40 degrees. It continued raining heavily on through 2 AM this morning (temp still 40 degrees) but changed to snow shortly thereafter when the wind shifted around to come from the west-northwest and the temperatures nosedived.

It got down to 23 degrees at 7 AM by which time there was a coating of snow everywhere. How much is difficult to determine as it is snowing sideways and the stuff is being swept clean from some surfaces and drifting on the leeward side of any obstacle.

The weather advisory is calling for 2-3 inches of snow in the "northern and western mountains...especially the higher elevations." With the Aerie in the Northern Tier at 2100' elevation, I guess that's us.

This just in!

The LSU football team is stuck in New Orleans.
Someone painted a fifty yard line in front of their bus.

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West Virginia just scored. Again.

Bowl Game Summary

All the bowl game, including the national championship game, have been played. So how did each of the conferences in the FCS level do.

First, there were two independent teams in the bowls (BYU and Notre Dame). BYU won its game. ND did not. so the independents went 1-1 or 50%.

Of the conferences with automatic qualifiers in BCS bowls:

• The ACC had eight teams in bowls. They won just two, a 25% record.
• The Big 12 also had eight teams in bowl games and won six of them, a 75% record.
• The Big East had just five teams in bowl games (smallest of the conferences) and won three of them, a 60% record.
• The Big Ten had a whopping 10 teams in bowl games (over 83% of their members) and won five of them, a 50% record.
• The PAC-12 had seven bowl teams and won just two, a 28.6% record.
• The SEC had nine teams in bowl games and won six, a 66.7% record.

All six AQ conferences ended with a 24-23 record.

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As to those conferences that do not have an automatic qualification with a BCS bowl:

• C-USA had five bowl teams and won four games (80%)
• The MAC had five bowl teams and won four (80%)
• The MtnWest also had five bowl teams and won two (40%)
• The Sun Belt had three bowl teams, winning one (33.3%)
• WAC had three bowl teams and won none (0%)

These conferences went 11-10 in their bowl appearance.

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Granted, the level of competition was quite varied, but I thought the powers that be did a pretty fine job in matching competitors and providing entertaining games.

Have you seen this...

...piece of head scratching idiocy?

EPA Fines Companies Because They Didn’t Use A Fuel That Doesn’t Exist

John Hayward has a look at...

The Orwellian nightmare of running a business in the shadow of the Obama Administration is nicely captured in this story from the New York Times, which explains why motor fuel companies are about to be fined $6.8 million for failure to use a biofuel that does not exist:

Yeah. Makes perfect sense. Fine them for using something that does not exist because the 2007 law says they must use it or be fined. And, since they are using so little of it this year, next year they must use even more! Or be fined even more!

These fines will, of course, be passed on to the consumer upping the price of fuel.

As John Hayward says in his subtitle for this article: "Gosh, it’s tough to figure out why that recovery is stalled."

Here's hoping this puts the offense on the offense.

At first I thought it said "Tony Soprano" which would have been alright by me. Capice? After all, Soprano's a Jersey guy. Would have ended any discord in the huddle right quick, too.

But Saprano could be a good hire, too.

Jets hire Tony Sparano as offensive coordinator

Still think that Soprano would have put the fear of God into Sanchez and the O-line, forcing them to step up their game.