What a differnce a day makes

When I wrote this I totally meant one thing...

And now I totally mean another.

Nothing like one small thing to sneak up on you and take all the wind out of your sails. 

I hate it when I don't see something coming especially when it should have been obvious.

Winters first Kiss

We did not get all the snow we were supposed to last night but we did get just enough to coat everything and make people drive crazy.
Welcome to winter.

Well its Satuday and its gloomy...

 

 Check out this live shot of the Diag. from the library cam. 

The Bell Tower and the MI flag in the background.

You can see the LIVE FEED HERE.

Summer may be almost over, but its still green and lush in Michigan

Usually by this time of year everything is dry and the lawn goes weeks between cuts.

This year it has been wet and warm... and to be honest I cant stop things from growing. Even this little tenacious guy that found a way to grow right out of the side of our chimney.

Calm before the storm

I watched out the back door at the office as this line of clouds approached menacingly… the obvious harbinger of rain and lightning.

Minutes later it was coming down in sheets sending the dog under my desk for refuge and me hoping we don’t loose power. Here or at home.

It was hot today and the sun may have been angry...

It was hot today and the sun may have been angry but no one can dispute it was spectacular sunset .

The sun

Tornado sirens going off!

Tornado sirens going off - Phone is blowing up with warnings and TV is talking about 70 MPH winds.

Brace for impact everyone.
*update*
It was pretty much a non event here as the storm line broke up just on our doorstop.

Its a pretty rainy Wednesday here in Ann Arbor today

Its a pretty rainy Wednesday here in Ann Arbor today. Just enough to make me not want to get anything done. 

The worst part it I have a lot to do and instead I would just rather watch the rain. 

Oh well... back to work.

The Park...

Was a little flooded tonight. We went around the barricades the city had placed for our protection to get this and couple of other photos. This forced us to go to higher ground for our nightly walk.

Tanner took the change in venue in stride.

I caught this handsome fellow in the yard this morning

Like me the cold was not making him very happy. It was 38 deg and he was not going to move even if I almost did step on him.
Tanner remains the only one not discouraged by the cold weather and the slow start to spring.

Dear Mother Nature : We are over it.

Lets face it, you are among friends here.

But these destructive habits are just not good.
Not good for you.
Certainly not good for the ones around you.
I thought you were done with the snow?
You just could not resist one last re-lapse could you?
It this really what you want? It this really how you want things to be?
I know that deep down you are tired of the toll it takes... on you and others.
We all love you Mother Nature. Sure were not perfect either and we don't always show it.
We just want whats  best. I want you to go into Spring now. Dont be scared, really it will be OK.
The first step is admitting there is a problem.
Its OK to be upset. We are all upset.
We are here to support YOU Mother Nature. This spring thing may seem hard now but it will be good for you and then someday... and that day will not be that far away... you will be ready for summer.
You will be able to look back and smile at how far you came.
Now go with spring now. That it. Stop fighting it.
Good.
Remember we will be here  to support your decision and we love you.
Sincerely,
All of your friends.

Today was full of surprises...

Today was full of surprises... some of them good some not so good.
Yesterday I was telling the Girl it was so windy I was afraid a tree was going to fall on us at the park.
Today Tanner and I found this lying across the path.

The other part of Sunday.

Sunday lived up to its name today as temps soared and raced to highs you would expect in June not April.
My bother and sister-in-law had a chance to spend some time with some friends so I looked after my Niece and Nephew for a few hours.
After I pried Gabriel away from the Wii and the iPad we all walked down the the park with Tanner for some fun in the sun so to speak.
I spent most of the time wrangling the heard but did manage to snap these quick shots of my always stylish niece Mina enjoying the swing.
With the Girl out of town visiting friends it was a pleasant albeit almost to hot diversion to spend some time with the Kids.

Its another beautiful day in Ann Arbor.

Despite the crazy going on in my head.
At least it looks good outside.

Sunday rolled in and rolled out again just as fast...

Sunday rolled in and rolled out again just as fast...Maybe faster as we lost an hour to daylight savings time. Daylight savings like a thief in the night stealing our most precious thing: time to sleep in.
I hate the whole spring-forward thing as much as you can really hate something with the word spring in it.
One thing with spring just around the corner the sudden absence of snow can certainly make a mess of things. It can make a simple trip to the park an exercise in mudding, What you see here was only the parking lot.
Still it is hard to stay annoyed with the promise of  things to come hanging in the cool heavy humid air. Even when you have to hose your boots and the dog off. 

Who measures this stuff:

 We are all worried about and our heart goes out to Japan and everyone effected by the recent earthquake/tsunami. On top of the obvious damage, the water damage the potential damage to the nuclear plants now we have to think about ... the earths rotation?

 

(according to yahoo news's story they picked up from the AP *here*) 

 

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer – Fri Mar 11, 4:15 pm ET

WASHINGTON – You won't notice it, but the day just got a tiny bit shorter because of Friday's giant earthquake off the coast of Japan.

NASA geophysicist Richard Gross calculated that Earth's rotation sped up by 1.6 microseconds. That's because of the shift in Earth's mass caused by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake. A microsecond is one-millionth of a second.

That change in rotation speed is slightly more than the one caused by last year's larger Chile earthquake. But 2004's bigger Sumatra earthquake caused a 6.8-microsecond shortening of the day.

The Japan quake is the fifth strongest since 1900.

I was looking forward to the days getting longer.

Wow.... For Once I am at a loss

 

Tsunami Energy

 Oh Japan... 

Today at the park... *updated*

The morning rain was to much for the river to hold. Here you can see
the path was over run with water. It proved an impasse we had to
backtrack and find another way around.

*update*

Here is how its supposed to look.

This morning at 4:30 am ...

This morning at 4:30 am ... the dog decided she wanted to get up. She started poking me in the arm with her nose relentlessly until I obliged her protest by taking her out. Tanner does not often do this so I am thinking maybe she does not feel well and waiting another hour until her Girl gets up for work maybe a bad idea. Usually I find when a dog is trying to tell you something you should listen... at least most of the time.
So outside she went I waited by the door and was struck by the cold radiating off metal shop door.
Overnight the clouds had stayed away and any heat from the day quickly left as well leaving a cold , hard-packed snow surface that glistened in the streetlights. I could not help but think that it was like the cold unforgiving surface of the moon, all pot marked and alien in appearance especially eerie at this god-forsaken hour.

Tanner was back before I could finish my thoughts, something about too bad we don't have the lighter gravity of the moon... and she elected to stay downstairs as I lumbered back to bed half asleep still anyway.

I knew I would get back to sleep but I also knew that the alarm goes off at 5:30 again for the Girl and the trash was not going to take itself out. Those thoughts faded as the warmth of the comforter poured back in to my limbs making me wonder, for a second, if I had ever really been up at all.

Things that sucked about today:

My truck actually froze to the ground all stalactite(ie).... to the freaking ground. Honestly I thought there was so much salt on the ground that nothing could freeze to it.

I was wrong.

So cold is bad. Also bad, crazy people. Yep crazy people goes on this list.

Cold
Crazy people
Taking Tanner to the Vet. She hates it so ... no fun there either.