Tag: Christmas

Filling Boxes For Stef’s Move

Stef is moving on January 6. Her belongings are heading out first. That’s why there’s a packing frenzy on this day before Christmas.

“I have enough plaid shirts–truly.” Those were Stef’s words as she pulled a single shirt from a packing box and handed it to Helaine. One shirt in this undertaking is the equivalent of “pissing in the ocean!&#185”

Stef is moving on January 6. Her belongings are heading out first. That’s why there’s a packing frenzy on this day before Christmas.

Thanks to the sage advice of a friend who’s “been there, done that” Stef’s stuff is going to California via FedEx Ground. Sorry USPS, you’ve been beaten on this job. FedEx is cheaper with superior tracking.

I vaguely remember my first move from home. I can guarantee you it had none of the organizational skill Helaine is lending to this move. I sort of threw things in my VW and headed out. I still had enough room left over to pick up a hitchhiker who then let me sleep on a dorm floor at Georgetown!

Stef will arrive in California with all her stuff, even her car, waiting for her. That’s a lot more than I could have handled.

She just walked by with a full load of handbags heading toward a box. I stared.

“I left a bunch of them upstairs,” she said.

I’m a guy. This is not my expertise. Still, I didn’t know a single person could have that many bags without also owning a store.

In Stef’s defense this has been her home for 20 years. You accrue over time. She especially accrues!

The boxes and car are being shipped to my secretive friend in the San Fernando Valley. Hopefully the timing is right for her possessions to get there not long before we do (and certainly not after).

Along with the physical baggage there’s emotional baggage attached to this trip. Even at college Stef was never more than an hour or two away. Now she will be fully a country away. That’s a big change for all of us.

This physical moving of freight is no big deal compared to the other.

&#185 – Update: I am told the shirt Stef is leaving is actually Helaine’s shirt, though she has never worn it!

Darlene Love Means It’s Christmas

I realized I was acting like those people who’ve seen Rocky Horror Picture Show a few dozens times and now talk back to the on-screen dialog.

darlene-love-christmas.jpgIt is said Jews have written the best Christmas songs. This is what we talk about while going to the movies and having Chinese food on Christmas Day. There’s White Christmas and The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) and Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). The latter has the distinction of also being the finest Christmas song from a convicted murderer–Phil Spector.

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) was performed tonight on the Letterman show by Darlene Love. She’s been doing it on his last show before Christmas as long as I remember and I look forward to it every year. I’m not alone.

For late night TV this is a big budget production. Along with Paul Shaffer and the band there was a nine voice chorus, six string players plus a few brass pieces and other instruments I surely missed.

Darlene’s still got it. She belts the song. She hits the notes while staying mainly on key. She wears a skirt short enough to shame women a third her age and gets away with it.

Darlene is always on last. That makes her appearance late enough that I’d never watched it with company until tonight. I had to drop off something at my friend Rick’s house and we watched from his basement.

What a scam! The man works from a studio in his basement. Sorry–jealousy getting the best of me.

Rick is an announcer. You have heard him a million times. He sounds like God.

I always wanted to be an announcer, but wasn’t born with the equipment. I told him tonight he is my Mickey Mantle.

Darlene finally came. I waited a year for this. I was excited. Rick, not so much.

As the song began I told him what was coming next. I realized I was acting like those people who’ve seen Rocky Horror Picture Show a few dozens times and now talk back to the on-screen dialog.

It made no difference. Darlene was magical. The song is hers alone.

I left Rick’s a few minutes after Darlene’s exit. I watched her again a few times on the DVR at home.

This is obsessive behavior right? It’s the way I know it’s really Christmas.

The Storm’s Over — The Numbers Are In

The dry air was the wild card. Radar showed moderate snow over all of Connecticut for hours-and-hours before anything hit the ground.

snow-shovel-on-the-steps.jpgThe snow has come and gone. There’s never a bullseye, but the forecast was reasonably close. If success is judged by number of complaints, or lack thereof, I’m doing fine. Here are the final DOT numbers. I have also added the Boston and New York NWS snow totals, which include Connecticut, for the Dec 20-21, 2009 storm at the end of this entry.

Not everyone was as lucky. A friend who forecasts in Springfield sent a text message saying he’d received nothing! “Bust of the decade,” he said. Ouch. Been there. I know exactly what he’s going through.

I was right about Southeastern Connecticut getting the most snow followed by the shoreline in general. The snow was fluffy and windblown as predicted. Accumulations were generally in line with my numbers. My call for the Northwest Hills and most of the area directly adjacent to the Massachusetts line was a few inches higher than the actual totals.

I wrote about this last night, but it bears repeating the most unusual and interesting part of this storm was the exceptionally dry air. During the summer we sometimes see 30 grams of water content per square meter. Last night it was around 1 gram per cubic meter!

The dry air was the wild card. Radar showed moderate snow over all of Connecticut for hours-and-hours before anything hit the ground. Once the atmospheric column over any location became saturated light snow turned to heavy snow. I’d never seen a situation quite like this before. It cut inches off all the accumulations.

It’s a shame this storm will impact Christmas shopping. Otherwise we’re lucky it came on a Saturday night when travel is usually light.

And now the dig out begins.

(NWS totals after the jump)

Continue reading “The Storm’s Over — The Numbers Are In”

These Snow Forecasts Never Get Easier

With all this heavyweight computing power and myriad observations this was the best we could do-vague and inconsistent guidance!

nws watches map.jpgThe weekend snow seems to be coming into sharper focus. I say “seems” because I won’t know for sure until the whole thing is gone. It’s been a wild, incredibly inconsistent ride which isn’t over yet.

Last night before going on-the-air I looked closely at the 00Z&#185 GFS and NAM models. The NAM called for a blizzard. The GFS had a windy day with light snow.

Before bed I took another look.

The 06Z runs were in. The NAM had gone from Armageddon to nothing! It was now showing the storm missing us! I sent a text message to Gil Simmons who was already preparing his forecast at work:

Geoff: Nam to 60h. Sorry snowman.

Gil: WTF. Gfs still had some measurable.

Gil: Nothing like flushing hrs of work

Gil: What a joke

He was right–What a joke. With all this heavyweight computing power and myriad observations this was the best we could do-vague and inconsistent guidance!

I went to bed.

I woke up this morning and checked my phone. Craig Allen, New York’s best known broadcast meteorologist, was on Facebook. He was complaining about the Weather Service’s freshly issued “Blizzard Watch” for Long Island. It was much too early considering the inconsistency of the forecast and the immense impact on the weekend before Christmas.

By experience on-air forecasters understand it’s easier to cancel an event than un-cancel it! There’s no harm in waiting a little while longer. On the other hand there’s plenty of downside committing to a watch too early.

Before starting this entry I took a look at the 12Z GFS and NAM. Major snow is back in the NAM. The GFS has become less of an outlier and is now closer to (but still less than) the NAM solution. These models and a few more will form the basis for my forecast today.

I will spend the next few hours mulling over each detail. How much wind? When will the snow start? Will there be a burst period? What about the critical cloud temperatures which will define the snow’s fluff factor.

In the end I’ll hope to be close. There’s no bullseye in snow forecasts. You’re never exactly right. You can only hope people are well prepared and critics cut you a little slack.

&#185 – To achieve global consistency all weather data is produced in “Z” time aka UTC or GMT. This time of year it’s five hours ahead of EST. So 00Z means 7:00 PM EST. That’s the initialization time. It takes a few hours for the results to trickle out.

The Melt Before The Storm

Connecticut will roll up the sidewalks sometime Saturday afternoon. I feel bad about that because restaurants which make a large portion of their weekly take on Saturday nights will suffer. They had it better years ago when their customers would eat and get stranded.

It is a spectacular day in Connecticut. The Sun is out and unfettered by clouds. The breeze is light. Everywhere I look things are melting.

There are some pictures at the bottom of the entry. You can see how the driveway has become visible again as has our ‘pet’ rabbit, Eddie. The ice on our front steps is melting and soaking into the brick.

Another day like this and we’d be nearly snow free. Right.

If there’s an opposite of wind chill it’s in effect today. The thermometer temperature is 30&#176, but it could easily pass for 45&#176. In a less enlightened time there’d be no hint another snowstorm is coming tomorrow.

My company’s Holiday Party, normally scheduled for this quiet period after Christmas and New Years, has already been postponed. It’s not the only thing that will close. Connecticut will roll up the sidewalks sometime Saturday afternoon. I feel bad about that because restaurants which make a large portion of their weekly take on Saturday nights will suffer. They had it better years ago when their customers would eat and get stranded.

I have checked and double checked the computer runs. They’ve been reasonably consistent with the precipitation amount and cloud temperature. The onset time has slid a few hours later from what I said yesterday. It’s an inexact science.

This will be a moderately large snowfall–more than 6″ but under a foot.

semi-bare-driveway.jpg

front-steps-ice.jpg

snowy-rabbit.jpg

Replacing Stef’s Lost License

I haven’t been in the DMV building in years. Its interior is still etched in my mind for the same reason I can still recall details of my tonsillectomy… from 1952. We remember pain.

“Are you OK?” Those were my first words after hello as I spoke to Helaine a few minutes ago. It was obvious something was up.

“We’ve been in line for an hour and twenty minutes,” she said. She sounded dejected. There was more waiting to come.

Somewhere, somehow, Stef lost her driver’s license. Though AAA is our secret shortcut to renewals, their website made it sound like they wouldn’t issue a replacement. There was no choice but to head to the drab, low slung, obviously government built and maintained office on State Street. A case can be made it’s functionally dysfunctional!

I haven’t been in the DMV building in years. Its interior is still etched in my mind for the same reason I still recall details of my tonsillectomy… from 1952. We remember terror and pain.

By any metric this has got to be the DMV’s worst week With Christmas and New Year’s only a week apart and the end of the month, and the year, one business day away people are crazed. There is no place left to put off the inevitable.

Stef will be much more protective of her license in the future.

Best Day For Bad News

When a company or governmental agency wants to bury some information they release it late on Friday. It then enters some netherworld where it’s exists, but quietly. If the news is exceptionally bad it gets released on or just before Christmas Eve! It’s Christmas. People’s minds are elsewhere.

When a company or governmental agency wants to bury some information they release it late on Friday. It then enters some netherworld where it exists–but quietly. If the news is exceptionally bad it gets released on or just before Christmas Eve! It’s Christmas. People’s minds are elsewhere.

With this in mind two stories that should be heard but were released to be buried:

From Forbes.com – “Wal-Mart Stores has settled 63 wage and class-action lawsuits, and just in time for Christmas.

The company expects the settlement to costs between $352.0 million and $640.0 million. “

The suits had to do with employees being required to work when they were “off-the-clock.”

Wal-Mart is fiercely anti-union. It closed one Canadian tire center when its employees voted to organize. Wal-Mart is not looking forward to the Obama administration.

Our other under-the-rug story centers on Yale University. You could shoot a cannon across campus the day this story hit–the 23rd.

From Yale Daily News – “Yale has agreed to pay $7.6 million for allegedly making false claims on federal research grants, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Haven said Tuesday, concluding a two-year investigation of Yale’s grant administration. ”

I’m sure there are other similar stories, but there’s just so much holiday cheer one guy can spread.

From Your Christmas Doofus

The weather here is awful. We’ve been warming for 15 or 16 hours, it’s raining and there’s slushy snow everywhere. Rain de-fluffs snow!

santa-hat.jpgI follow “PhotoJeff” on Twitter. Jeff, whom I don’t know, is with Microsoft. He just wrote:

“PhotoJeff: …here’s a holiday fashion tip for men. Stop wearing the Santa hats! They look cute on girls and women, but make you look like a doofus…”

Great–like I’m not already guilt ridden. I’m wearing the hat on TV today anyway. Jeff lives in Seattle. He won’t see it.

I used to wince “tracking Santa” with the NORAD animations. Who knows why, but a few years ago it started seeming like more fun and I’ve embraced it. So tonight, in my doofus hat, I’ll be tracking Santa.

I’ve had parents tell me how their kids enjoy the Santa tracking, but the happiest of all are our producers who are working with a skeleton staff and happy to get a full serving of “Newscast Helper!”

The weather here is awful. We’ve been warming for 15 or 16 hours, it’s raining and there’s slushy snow everywhere. Rain de-fluffs snow!

On top of that, last night’s performance from Darlene Love was a disappointment. It wasn’t Darlene as much as it was HDTV! What always seemed like a huge and glittery production on Letterman looked more like a high school pageant on the wider and more highly resolved LCD screen. The studio looked old and worn. Then the show ran long, meaning my recordings (yeah–two) were snipped at the very end.

I’m sure my mood will brighten later. The folks who work Christmas are always in a good mood. Honest. I’m not sure how that works, but they are.

Merry Christmas. Happy Chanukah.

Darlene Love Alert

I almost forgot. Tonight’s the night! It’s Dave’s annual last show before Christmas. That means Darlene Love and “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home).”

I almost forgot. Tonight’s the night! It’s Dave’s annual last show before Christmas. That means Darlene Love and “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home).” I have written about this voluminously since this blog’s birth.

Here’s the listing from the Late Show site. What’s Mickey Rourke doing there? This is hallowed ground. This is tradition. Don’t be coming in promoting movies!

Tuesday, December 23

Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)

Jay Thomas

Darlene Love (“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home”))

I don’t record The Late Show anymore except this one.

Eating Japanese I’m Really Eating Japanese I Really Think So

The Japanese restaurant was totally empty. The sushi chefs were lounging around hoping someone would show.

snowy-tree.jpgBetween Friday and today we have at least a foot of snow on the ground. It’s wintertime. I’d better get used to it.

We originally planned to have sushi today and there was no reason to change that. Helaine’s 4Runner is a demon in the snow.

There were more people driving this afternoon than you’d expect. It’s the Sunday before Christmas. Lots of folks have no choice but to be out-and-about.

The Japanese restaurant was totally empty. The sushi chefs were lounging around hoping someone would show. NFL football was on a widescreen set above the sushi bar.

Often, when people complain about global warming they chastise people like me with SUVs. Up here in the hills of Connecticut there’s no choice. Without 4-wheel drive we’d be isolated for weeks at a time.

Christmas Spirit Thanks To Ed

I walked into the store and right ahead of me is Ed with his full white beard holding a Santa suit. Could anyone look more the part? If there’s any disappointment it’s that Ed isn’t using the suit anymore (and that he doesn’t own his own)!

Is it just me or is Christmas a little less bright this year? I’m seeing fewer lights and fewer signs of the season. The economy isn’t helping either!

That’s why I was exceptionally happy to run into Ed today. Ed’s from North Haven and I found him at Costume Bazaar on State Street. It’s where I buy my makeup.

No jokes please. I wear it. I don’t enjoy it.

Anyway, I walked into the store and right ahead of me is Ed with his full white beard holding a Santa suit. He was returning it on this mild winter’s day. Could anyone look more the part? If there’s any disappointment it’s that Ed isn’t using the suit any more (and that he doesn’t own his own)!

I asked if it would be OK to snap a shot. The result is below.

Thanks Ed for a little smile in a season of frowns and doubt.

ed-as-santa-2.jpg

ed-as-santa-1.jpg

Some Christmas In New York City

Here’s a little feel of New York this time-of-year.

After meeting Stef at the museum we had sushi on the West Side. Then I drove her to Penn Station. What was I thinking? It’s the height of Christmas traffic in the city!

“Were you ever scared to drive in New York?” she asked. Never. Maybe it’s because I grew up there. I’ve just never found the aggressive jockeying for position in Midtown Manhattan to be a problem. It’s one place you can’t drive without 100% attention.

Here’s a little feel of New York this time-of-year.

Designated Companion

Sending me to this exhibition is like O.J. going to Christmas dinner at the Goldman’s. I’ll try and be good.

Stef has an assignment from her Geology course that demands a trip to the Museum of Natural History. Amazingly, that’s not a preferred destination for college students. Who knew?

She was looking for a companion. Here I am. This probably speaks to my nerdiness more than anything else.

I will drive. She will take the LIRR and a subway. If everything goes according to plan we’ll meet at the museum’s entrance hall around 2:30–if everything goes according to plan.

The exhibition we’ll be seeing concerns climate change. I’ve read through the museum’s website. Sending me to this exhibition is like O.J. going to Christmas dinner at the Goldman’s. I’ll try and be good.

I’m taking Clicky.

Remember The Toyota Guy?

Helaine and I were lying on the bed watching football (kicked out of the family room by Stef as she caught a Law and Order marathon), when the conversation turned to Toyotathon.

Really. Why would I kid about that?

Toyotathon has been a running joke in our family for years. It was the holiday that followed Thanksgiving.

For years Toyota took advantage of the commercial lull after Christmas to mount a huge TV campaign. Nowadays, the ads are running earlier.

They made one other large change. They stopped using Squire Fridell. I was crushed.

You might not recognize the name, but you’ve seen him tens of thousands of times. He was friendly and energetic. He was the ‘everyman’ who enticed you to Toyota. He was the face of Toyotathon for nearly 30 years!

So, there we were watching football and discussing Squire Fridell when I decided to see what ever happened to him. As is often the case, he wasn’t tough to find.

Squire Fridell is a vintner – proprietor, with his wife, of GlenLyon Vineyards and Winery in Glen Ellen, California. Judging by his picture on their website, he’s doing well and looking healthy.

I don’t know him, but I decided to drop him an email anyway and tell him we’d been talking about him. Who doesn’t like knowing they’re being thought of?

Hi Geoff:

Terrific that I actually REPLACED Christmas! That’s a first….

Life is good out here and the wine is even better!

Come out and visit Sonoma Valley where the weather is something to

enjoy (most of the time) rather than report on…. I’ll show you

around GlenLyon!

Cheers!

Squire, The Ghost of Christmas in The Fox Household

It was nice he wrote back and even better he wrote back cleverly!

I’ve come to the conclusion he really is that nice guy they wanted portrayed on TV… true life typecasting by Toyota. I’m glad I sent the email.

I’ll Be Bushed For Christmas

We are still really short of people at work. It’s no one’s fault. I can deal with working a little extra from time-to-time. I am exhausted.

Last night I worked through 11:35 PM. Today, I was in for the noon news.

It is Christmas. The TV station carried NBA basketball all afternoon and much of the evening. I had lots of time between the noon show and 10:00 PM.

As is the tradition, we went to the movies (with Stef) and then had Chinese food! The restaurant was full of other ‘treeless’ people.

Today’s movie was Juno, from director Jason Reitman. This is a quirky movie with interesting production techniques. It’s the story of a 16 year old girl from Mankato, Minnesota who gets pregnant.

This is a dark comedy, artfully written with clever dialog. The words and thoughts may be too sophisticated for a 16 year old, but I bought into it anyway.

Ellen Page as Juno was perfectly cast.

This is not a movie for kids or a picture to be taken lightly. And, though the ending isn’t exactly storybook… and with the subject matter, how could it be… it was a very satisfying film.