A Last Look At The Weather Before Sleep

The Internet has changed everything for me. Nearly all the tools I have at work I have at home… except I can’t wear pajamas at work!

barba.pngI have been working on other projects, but checking the weather every once-in-a-while. It’s too late for me to change my forecast so this is more an exercise in self flagellation. There’s always something not quite as I said.

Right now the storm seems to be the right intensity and positioned as expected. There have been some flurries on the shoreline and Western Connecticut. The snow will be slower to reach the Massachusetts border than I thought.

My friend Bob at FSU sent:

the qpf forecast for SE PA —

the 12 hour forecast for GFS (00z to 12z today) verified in 4 hours

gfs is running very very dry bias where it is currently snowing

Cryptic, isn’t it!

Basically he says earlier computer runs of the GFS model have been stingy with snowfall projections. What was forecast in 12 hours came in only four!

The Internet has changed everything for me. Nearly all the tools I have at work I have at home… except I can’t wear pajamas at work! Unless you looked forward to the Math SAT (I did) this job’s probably not for you. Lots of charts and maps and endless columns of numbers.

After all these years I can see the numeric data and visualize the result.

If I had it to change I might raise my numbers near the shore and lower them to the north. Easy to say now. In practice it’s not a snap decision. There’s lots of internal give-and-take before I’ll actually make a revision.

Bottom line: It still looks like a very snowy day with a period of major accumulation late morning/early afternoon. The strong winds kick in as the snow begins to taper toward evening.

Are you listening Mother Nature?

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”

The Foxes At The Big E

We saw animals and ate food… lots of food… lots of bad-for-you food and walked the grounds.

Big E MidwayWe came. We saw. We ate… and ate!

Today was “Big E” day for the Fox Family. Stef and Helaine dropped Roxie at the vet for her “Tribute to Bob Barker” day then headed home to wake me. By 9:30 AM we were on the road, heading north to West Springfield, MA.

I started the day with a scratchy throat. No change there. We’re back home now–exhausted.

We saw animals and ate food… lots of food… lots of bad-for-you food and walked the grounds. The Big E is New England’s state fair, so it’s pretty large.

I also took around 350 photos. I plan on putting some sort of slide show together, but for now I just wanted to check in and say I’m alive.

Hurricane Bill–Wide Right!

The surf will be angry. The beaches will be empty of bathers.

bill-sse-cape-cod.jpg

Hurricane Bill is down to Category 1 at the moment. I can see that in the satellite shot. The eye has become ratty. Convection is missing from much of the western side. Most importantly, it looks like dry air is getting in toward the center.

LARGE SWELLS GENERATED BY BILL ARE STILL AFFECTING THE EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. THESE SWELLS WILL CONTINUE TO SPREAD NORTHWARD INTO THE CANADIAN MARITIMES ON SUNDAY…CAUSING EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SURF AND LIFE-THREATENING RIP CURRENTS. – National Hurricane Center technical forecast discussion

Earlier tonight on Facebook Craig Allen posted some personal observations from Jones Beach on Long Island&#185 which was disappearing under the tidal surge.

Just got back from Jones. Not Jones Beach; Jones Ocean. THERE WAS NO BEACH! All the sand was COMPLETELY submerged under the ocean from West End to Field 6. The ocean continued under the boardwalk, splashing up from between the slats and flooded the g…olf course. Only the top 2 feet of the basketball hoops were visible. The bandshell was under 3 feet of water. Only the dunes prevented it from flooding the parkway. – Craig Allen, meteorologist

Without Long Island we’d be susceptible to all that Bill’s got. Of course that’s academic. Thanks for taking one for the team Long Island!

Offshore, NOAA’s buoys continue to see large swells even in areas without strong winds!

There will be plenty of video later today from Massachusetts. The surf will be angry. The beaches will be empty of bathers.

Close but no cigar for Bill. Connecticut gets a pass. He will be Canada’s problem now. We are happy to see him depart.

&#185 – Actually Jones Beach is south of Long Island on a barrier island called Jones Beach Island. This is one of those cases where what is true and what is commonly believed are at odds.

Apollo 11–I Almost Forgot

Forty years and one day ago man set foot on the Moon for the first time. Even today… actually, especially today, that stands out as quite an accomplishment. There is so much we can do now with computers we couldn’t do then. How could we solve such complex mathematical problems with such rudimentary tools?

There are moments in our lives indelibly etched. Where were you? What were you doing?

In fact earlier tonight I got an email from an old friend asking, “do u remember where we were on the Sunday night of July 20, 1969?

I’m guessing he thinks I was with him, because we were friends then. The correct answer, as best I can remember, is the Bridgewater Service Area on Route 24 in Massachusetts! I was on my way to (or possibly from) WSAR where I’d just begun to work as a weekend disk jockey.

It was a sultry summer evening–that much is clear. I pulled my 1960 VW Beetle into the lot, got out and joined a parking lot full of people listening to their car radios.

I didn’t see the live Moon video until the next day!

Thinking back to this made me aware of a misconception I’ve been carrying around all this time. I always thought my anniversary in broadcasting was in the fall. Nope–last week marked my fortieth anniversary on-the-air professionally!

They’re On-The-Road

I don’t want Rick Springfield’s travel schedule–only his frequent flier miles.

Helaine woke me at 10:00 AM for a quick kiss and goodbye. She and Stef (who came back late last night) are on their way to Saugus and Beverly, MA for a Rick Springfield show and a half.

The real show is tonight in Beverly (Behv-uh-lee). Tomorrow he’s in Charlotte. Sunday it’s Chandler, AZ. I don’t want Rick Springfield’s travel schedule–only his frequent flier miles.

This afternoon the band is playing Saugus with a brief set for a Boston radio station–Mix 98.5. The event is called “Cougarpalooza,” and it’s contest winners/invitation only. Probably an acoustic set, I got them tickets through a friend of a friend. Just a few songs–I’ll call that the half show.

What’s interesting about Saugus is I once (briefly) lived there… in the middle of a swamp! It’s a long story. You really don’t want to know.

The girls return tomorrow. They have “Clicky” so I expect documentation.

Bob Is Flying To Connecticut

I did the same–except the soda burst out and sprayed all over me.

My friend Bob is on his way… and by on his way, I mean sitting at Charlotte’s Douglas Airport waiting for his delayed plane. He’ll be visiting for a day before heading north to see his son Christopher in Massachusetts.

I’ve known Bob since my first day on radio, back in 1969. Stef is looking forward to quizzing him about those early years. Be afraid, very afraid.

The difference between Bob and me can be characterized by what happened the day I was scheduled to move from Charlotte to Cleveland. Bob had come with me to a tire store on Independence Blvd. in Charlotte.

We decided to get drinks, so I dropped some change in a Coke machine. Bob got his, stuck it in the opener and popped the cap. I did the same–except the soda burst out and sprayed all over me.

His flight is now in the air.

Maxtor Licensing – You’re Kidding, Right?

I don’t know what font that is, but it’s certainly nothing I’ve seen before or anything I’ve defaulted to. No, I’m afraid this is a little gift from the folks who wrote the software. It looks like they’ve tried their best to make this license unreadable.

A few weeks ago I bought a Maxtor One Touch III external hard drive to back up our myriad computers. Tonight, I decided to install it, so I inserted the enclosed driver/software CD and watched it begiMaxtor Drive EULAn to load.

The attached photo is a true picture of the licensing agreement for Retrospect Express! It’s unreadable like this, so click on the photo for the large, though still unreadable, version.

I don’t know what font that is, but it’s certainly nothing I’ve seen before or anything I’ve defaulted to. No, I’m afraid this is a little gift from the folks who wrote the software. It looks like they’ve tried their best to make this license unreadable.

I was able to highlight and then copy it, and it’s included after the jump. There’s nothing that seems any more evil that any other EULA.

So why is it obscured?

Continue reading “Maxtor Licensing – You’re Kidding, Right?”

The Road To Las Vegas

I’m writing now from Las Vegas and the MGM Grand Hotel. I have found, over time, my blog entries slow down when I’m in Vegas. I’m not in the room as much and there’s not much to talk about when I’m mainly playing cards (though we will be seeing some shows and visiting places I’ll want to tell you about).

I’m currently up, but a McDonalds employee makes more per hour!

It was sad leaving Palm Springs. I know I can speak for Helaine when I saw, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The hotel was great. The city was great. The experience was everything we wanted and more. I even had a great time at the Rick Springfield concert.

We left Palm Springs around 9:00 AM and headed west in the slightly circuitous route necessary to get to Las Vegas. Traffic was moderate, but mostly moving at or above the speed limit.

We weaved through San Bernardino&#185, then to Victorville and Barstow. Now we were in the middle of nowhere and the speed ramped up to 80-85 mph, as the drivers took it on their own to improvise what the speed limit should be.

Most people from the east think of desert and think of the vast trackless sand of North Africa. Most of the US Desert Southwest isn’t like that at all. There is vegetation, mostly in the form of scrawny, low to the Earth brush.

We didn’t eat before leaving Palm Springs, which opened us up for a quick lunch at “Peggy Sue’s 50 s Diner” in Yermo. Yermo is a town of around 2,000, adjacent to Ft. Irwin.

The food was fine, but Peggy Sue’s needs a little updating and freshening. Much of the diner looks like it hasn’t be refurbished since the 50s!

We continued east on I-15 (it’s really a north-south road, so we were officially going north), stopping again in Baker. Our destination was Alien Fresh Jerky!

Here’s a place that’s successful because of its catchy positioning. After all, you can get jerky anywhere, but how many places have Alien Fresh Jerky?

Baker to Las Vegas is only a hundred miles or so – next door in terms of the desert. We were at the MGM and in our room by early afternoon.

By mid afternoon we had found my Cousin Melissa, gone to Wynn (up the Strip), had dinner and deposited me a the poker table.

If that’s not a full day, what is?

&#185 – San Bernardino is the county seat for San Bernardino County, which is larger in area than the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware combined. It is the largest county in the United States.

How I Became A Maine-iac

Here’s the setup. I had vacation time I needed to take (and there’s more where that came from). So did my friend Bob from North Carolina. Neither of us wanted to spend much money, but he had a plan.

If we went on vacation to Maine, he could do some work for a radio station that carries his syndicated morning show, and we could visit Maine on the cheap. Anyway, he loves Maine and is very attached to the radio station in Bangor where he’s been heard for 10 years.

We made our plans, such as they were.

We’d drive up to Maine on Sunday and stay until Wednesday. I needed to be back in time to hand off the camera, “Clicky,” to Helaine and Stef who were going to a concert.

In return for Bob’s on-air visit, the station would arrange a place for us to stay. This was the first in what would be a string of incredible luck and good fortune that marked our trip.

Bob flew up from Charlotte, and we left midday Sunday. Though my car’s a convertible, you can’t drop the top when the trunk’s full – and it was full. That’s OK. Our 415 mile, six hour fifteen minute, trip was a little long for that much wind noise. And, as it turned out, once we got to Maine, the top stayed down!

We drove through Connecticut, into Massachusetts and then onto the Mass Pike. We exited near Worcester and then headed northeast into the Merrimack Valley and New Hampshire. From there, we paralleled the coast, without seeing it, on I-95.

Maine is a big state. Once you’re north of Portland, there is little but trees to see. We watched for moose!

Off the Interstate, we drove east toward Mt. Desert Island. It sounds foolish when you first say it, but it’s pronounced “deh-ZERT.”

The topography of Mt. Desert Island was set into motion as the Earth’s tectonic plates collided to form mountains. It’s only in the last tens of thousands of years that the true lay of the land was set by the advance and retreat of glaciers.

It’s an island – you expect to see water. There’s more than you expect! The island was scoured by glaciers, which formed lots of lakes, harbors and Eastern United States’ only fjord!

Our home was in the town of Southwest Harbor. More succinctly, it was on Southwest Harbor.

Because of the shape of the harbor, it has wide tide swings. High and low tide can sometimes be separated by 10-15 feet! For the tidally deprived, that’s a difference in depth. The actual water’s edge can, and does, retreat by hundreds of feet.

Our landlord/hosts were Mary Jo and Rhonda. They own the house we were in, one next door and another home well inland. They could not have been friendlier or more gracious.

Let me stop here and say, everyone was friendly and gracious. This wasn’t because I’m TV-boy, or because Bob has been on the radio for a decade. People on Mt. Desert Island and everywhere else we were in Maine were just nice.

The perfect example came later in the trip. We were on a tiny island – only 75 full time residents. I was in the general store looking for Chapstick. No luck. As I was about to walk out, a woman approached me, handed me one, and said it was in her purse, unopened.

I offered to pay for it, but she said (and this is an exact quote), “It’s my good deed for the day.” To me, that one sentence typified Mainers.

Our house was interesting, in that it was bigger inside than out. Built like a boat, it had slightly low ceilings and no wasted space.Upstairs there were three bedrooms. The two Bob and I used each had large picture windows that opened onto the harbor.

The bathroom was compact as well. I wouldn’t have mentioned it, but I’ve never been in a shower so small you had to be under the water at all times.

After unpacking, we headed to Cadillac Mountain. Cadillac is inside Acadia National Park, and at 1,500 feet above sea level, offers an amazing view in all directions.

While we waited for the Sun to set, we looked around. The air was clear and clean and richly blue. Below us were Bar Harbor and a number of coastal islands. Holland America’s Amsterdam was leaving port, continuing its New England/Canada itinerary.

We left the mountain and drove into Bar Harbor. With only 5,000 or so permanent residents, it is definitely a tourist town. However, don’t think honky tonk.

This is Mt. Desert Island. There are no 7-Eleven’s, McDonald’s, Starbucks or any other franchise or (shudder) big box stores. It is 1950s America as depicted on sitcoms – all white (97.88%), all Christian, all industriously hearty.

We had to get up early (for me) on Monday. Bob was going on the radio from a natural foods supermarket over 50 miles away. This would be the beginning of the “Fatiguing of Geoff.”

Getting up early is no problem. It’s the getting to bed early part I can’t hack. Day-by-day that took its toll.

The appearance was Bob’s. I was just an appendage. Still, I was impressed with how he handled himself and the genuine affection of the listeners who came by.

On Sunday’s arrival I had discovered my laptop’s PC card slot was no longer functioning. That meant no Internet! There was, however, an Internet Cafe in the market. This would be my only time online during the vacation.

It’s tough to remember each and every thing we did, and in the proper order, but we visited nearly every inch of the island and its three main towns: Bar Harbor, Southwest Harbor and Northeast Harbor.

We also ate lobster. I’m not talking one meal here. We ate lobster twice each day – lunch and dinner.

Lunch was a lobster roll. Think chicken salad on a hot dog bun, but substitute lobster for the chicken! Dinner was boiled lobster.

It doesn’t take long to understand lobster is a major employer on Mt. Desert Island. It’s not some ‘photo op’ touristy thing. You see men, and at least one woman I saw, scurrying about on stubby lobster boats nearly every time you see water.

Lobster buoys, the makings of the prototypical Downeast Maine photo, are everywhere. Yes, they’re hung on walls and piled on docks, but any stretch of water deep enough for lobsters has hundreds, sometimes thousands of traps marked with buoys.

Though surrounded by water, Mt. Desert Island is not a bather’s paradise. The water is too damned cold, even during the height of the season, when it’s in the low 50&#176s!

Even if the water was warmer, there is only one sandy beach – Sandy Beach! The rest of the coast is speckled with large rock outcroppings, and crashing surf.

We spent part of one afternoon at Sandy Beach and Thunder Hole – both are in Acadia National Park. Thunder Hole is a natural rock formation which, when conditions are right, produces 30-40 foot tall columns of sea spray accompanied by thunderous booms.

Though Hurricane Florence was passing off to the east, and we came before and stayed through high tide, Thunder Hole was silent.

On Wednesday, our last day, we took the mail boat past the Bear Island Lighthouse to Islesford on Little Cranberry Island. This tiny community has a permanent population of 75.

At first, I thought it was neat to be an interloper in their little society. Then I thought, do they feel as if they’re zoo animals on display? Wherever reality lies, I felt welcome and I loved the island!

It is small enough to transverse on foot. Bob and I followed an unmarked road to a lonely stretch of rocky beach. We turned around and walked, cross island, to an art gallery.

It didn’t take long to figure out there was something strange about the island’s vehicles. Most homes had a car or truck parked outside – a very old car or truck.

When the island’s tiny, your car’s engine will never wear out. However, the exterior is another story. Exposed to salt air 24/7/365, the finish dims and sometimes rust pokes through.

This was a great trip with a great friend – a guy I met my first day as a professional broadcaster, over 35 years ago.

The trip itself was better than the sum of its parts. Yes, Maine is spectacularly beautiful – possibly the most beautiful place I’ve ever been.

It was more beautiful because the Sun was strong each day, the temperatures mild, the stars very bright. I might not have enjoyed it as much if it hadn’t cooperated with me. Still, that’s an outcome I didn’t have to worry about.

I shot over 1,000 photos on this trip. Some of them illustrate this entry. There are nearly 180 more in my online photo gallery. I hope you get a chance to take a peek.

Quote In The BU Newspaper

I got an email a week or so ago. It was from a Connecticut resident, now a student at Boston University. Chris wanted to know if I’d answer a few weather questions for an article in the BU daily… and so I did.

Continue reading “Quote In The BU Newspaper”

Messing With An Iconic Moment

Let me recommend PBS’s American Masters profile of Walter Cronkite. I watched it last night and was fascinated.

To see Cronkite in review is to see CBS in review, because they were inseparable.

There was one part of the show, unfortunately, that disappointed me. It’s a misportrayal I’ve seen many times, but didn’t expect to see from such an esteemed program. It’s Walter Cronkite’s ‘call’ of the astronauts’ landing on the Moon.

As Cronkite speaks, and the astronauts and mission control chatter back and forth on the radio, you see the shot of the lunar lander skimming the surface and finally touching down.

It might have happened that way in real time, but it didn’t happen that way on real time TV. The film (yes, it’s film) of the lander’s touchdown wasn’t processed until Apollo 11 was safely back on Earth.

We saw Neil Armstrong take his “one small step” live, but not this critical landing. We only had audio for the landing.

What difference does it make to insert this “B-roll” over Walter’s stentorian tones? Part of the amazing power of Cronkite on the night of July 20, 1969 was his ability to guide us through this sightless occurrence.

Showing it now, with pictures, changes the context of his words and visible emotions.

On that night, I was on my way to work in Fall River, MA. I listened in a service area along Route 24. To this day, I’m not 100% sure what was shown on TV before Walter took off his glasses and let out a sigh of relief. It just wasn’t video of the landing.

Depressing Weather

Seven of the last eight days have had measurable rain. On the eight day, there was also rain – just not enough to statistically count.

Emotionally? That’s another story.

Instead of being a May of getting out, this has been a May of staying in. I am suffering from sensory deprivation.

I know – how can you feel sorry for me, in the most modern, convenient and advanced society ever known? You never heard the Pilgrims complain about burnout&#185.

Of course, many are currently suffering more than I can even fathom. Flooding in parts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire is at historic levels. Here in Connecticut there are pockets of minor to moderate flooding.

I still feel myself moping around. Maybe my temper is shorter than it should be.

By tomorrow some limited sunshine will appear. Will I bounce right back, or is the rain a convenient target on which to blame my bad mood?

&#185 – The concept of Pilgrim burnout is not mine. I wish I could remember who first used it.

Working On Vacation

I had my car washed today. It’s not that it was dirty as much as I wanted it to be clean! I was going to a meeting with my weatherboy peeps and this is as close as I get to ‘dress to impress.’

All things considered, I should have taken a pass. I’m on vacation. However, the guest of honor was Walt Drag. That changes everything!

I’d better explain. In the weather world, even when you don’t use the Weather Service forecast (and I don’t), you still read the Weather Service discussions. They are heavily technical and go deep into the thought process of the on-duty NWS lead forecaster.

They’re fascinating and insightful and loaded with enough abbreviations to make them nearly unintelligible to casual readers. Walt Drag is the Steven Spielberg of the forecast discussion!

Walt was coming with Nicole Belk, a Weather Service hydrologist (think flooding). Together, they were presenting a rundown of changes and highlights at the Weather Service.

Since the Weather Service office that serves most of Northern Connecticut is in Taunton, MA, and since 20 local meteorologists were expected, Walt and Nicole came to Connecticut. Brad Field at Channel 30 volunteered their studio as our lecture hall.

That was pretty nice. That WVIT sprung for sandwiches was even nicer.

In 23 years in Connecticut, I’d never been inside of Channel 30. In fact, though I’d seen the building from the Interstate, and knew its address, I couldn’t find it until cruising through the neighborhood a few times.

It was nice to see ‘the guys.’ Other than Nicole, all the local mets attending were guys. Some I hadn’t met before. Some I hadn’t heard of before. A few were really young – I hate that.

I tend to be a pain-in-the-butt at times like this, and today was no exception. I have a huge beef with the Weather Service, and I got it off my chest again.

Though I don’t use the NWS forecast, I do try and use their watches, warnings and advisories. The problem is, there are three Weather Service offices that cover Connecticut. Each serves a small slice of the state and is quite parochial in its outlook.

There’s no easy way to explain this, but sometimes using the watches and warnings from all three offices would be misleading. That’s especially true during winter weather situations.

There needs to be a lot more coordination than there is now.

Brad said he sometimes changes what’s issued, so it makes sense – even though he’s putting words in the NWS’ mouth. I do the same thing. We can’t be alone.

Unfortunately, I’ve been bringing this up for as long as I can remember. And, obviously, I haven’t had a lot of impact.

It’s a shame, because in the long run, it’s the general public that gets under served because of this situation.

I did learn a lot from what Walt and Nicole presented, which was good. It was also a lot of fun getting to see all those people I usually only see on TV.

Oh – it was also good to finally see what Channel 30 looks like.

I’m A Bluetooth Guy

Who named the technology that ties wireless phones to wireless headsets Bluetooth? This might be the dumbest name in all of technology. But, it’s a great technology.

You’ve probably seen this technology at work, watching an otherwise normal person walking down the street, seemingly talking to himself. On his ear is a device fit for a ‘borg’. A blue light intermittently flashes.

When I bought my Motorola RAZR I knew it had Bluetooth capability, so I ordered a headset. It is small, doesn’t actually go into my ear, but does flash every few seconds with a blue LED. I can find no way to turn the LED off!

My daughter and wife have both told me I’m forbidden from wearing this IOGear Bluetooth headphone anywhere but in the car. They say it will make me look too geeky.

Hello? Isn’t that a preordained fact? You mean I should be the chick magnet babe I was back in high school. Right. There’s a major work of fiction.

My friend Bob in Austin, on the other hand, says go right ahead. It looks fine.

Unfortunately, Bob would be the wrong guy to tell you how not to be geeky! That is not a photo of Bob on the home page of one of his websites… but “Great Home Theater Made Easy”… C’mon, you think a Colin Farrell type is writing that?

Anyway, I have begun to fool around with the Bluetooth headset and it’s great. No longer do I have to hold the phone to my ear, forcing me to drive with my knees or leaving me one hand short when it’s time to signal a lane change.

This IOGear model is plenty loud too. That’s a major concern when I drive with the top down. And, as time goes by, it seems more obvious I don’t hear as well as I once did.

I bought the headset on eBay. It was shipped from Taunton, MA. At the same time I also bought a Bluetooth Dongle&#185 which is coming from Hong Kong. Let’s say how much longer Hong Kong takes. I’ll bet it’s less of a difference than you think.

The dongle will plug into the USB port on my computer, allowing me to use the headset for PC applications, like Skype. I also want to do more narrated slide shows on my website.

As I said, so far I’m very impressed. It has done all I’ve asked of it. It has made my life that much easier. And, I suppose, this means my new toy has a new toy.

Is there anything cooler… or geekier?

&#185 – It is likely, if anyone tried to say “Bluetooth Dongle” on primtetime TV, they’d be bleeped.