Tag: San Diego

San Diego Weather

I had always postulated that being the weatherman in San Diego must be a living hell. Virtually all the year there’s nothing to talk about, except how nice it is.

We’re in the final stages of a San Diego-like period of weather here in Connecticut. It’s been sunny, warm and dry for 11 days at the moment, and there’s one more nice day to come.

You know what? It’s not bad. I didn’t have that “nothing to talk about” moment that I had feared.

Would it be this way if we went a few hundred days without bad weather? I don’t know, but I’m willing to participate in that experiment.

Playing Golf With My Dad

I spoke to Helaine this morning. Not a good night for her. She’s coming down with the cold I undoubtedly gave her. Frank plowed our driveway at 2:00 AM and then the town came by and did our road at 4:00. She heard both… in fact she never got back to sleep after the first.

Steffie’s coming down with a cold too. I will not return as Mr. Popular.

The 1104 miles (1776 km) between them and me makes a world of difference weather wise. We were back into the low 80s with San Diego-like humidity. There were clouds, but they were the puffy variety that marks fair weather.

I lived here in the very early 70s. What was I thinking when I left?

My dad and I hadn’t played golf yet, so we headed out around 1:30 PM. There was plenty of room to get us in, though we ended up playing behind a slow group&#185.

My father’s course of choice is Sherwood Park, a course that is incredibly forgiving. There is no water. There is no rough. The holes are short and easy. So, for us, this is an incredibly challenging course!

If there is athletic acumen in the Fox family, it has been hidden from my dad and me.

Actually, Steffie is quite athletic. I have no idea how that happened. It is not inherited from me.

Sherwood Park has another attribute that attracts my dad – it’s cheap. Since it was already nearly 2:00 PM, we played for $11 a man. That includes a cart! And, since it was late, it was as many holes as we were willing to play.

We were paired with another golfer, an 84 year old&#178 named Joe. He was slim with good posture. He was old – no doubt. But for 84, he looked pretty good. He was certainly a better golfer that either of us.

When my folks lived in Connecticut, my dad and I played golf all the time. He was the perfect golfing partner. He was forgiving as only a parent could be. He was available as only a retiree could be. Once he left Connecticut my golf time was seriously reduced.

The funny thing is, I love playing golf. It’s a great game.

I’ve never shot up heroin, but I assume there’s the same pleasure involved at the beginning of heroin use and golf. Otherwise why would you allow yourself to become addicted to a game which is so frustrating.

I started slowly today, but soon had ramped my game all the way to mediocre. Twice I putted for birdies. That’s unreal for me. Of course, both times, I three putted – but that’s another story.

My dad, Joe and I made a great team. I was the spotter. I stood behind both of them to see where their tee shots went. In Florida, a lot of tee shots are lost in the vast blue sky. That most of these golfers, who can’t find their golf balls, drive cars is scary beyond belief.

We played 12 holes until Joe had to go. My dad and I continued through 14.

It was great in every sense of the word. This is one of those moments they talk about in the credit card commercials – playing golf with your dad… priceless. It is.

If the weather is good again tomorrow (and why the hell shouldn’t it be good), we’ll play another round. I’m looking forward to that.

&#185 – By definition, any group of golfers who plays slower than my dad and me is slow. Remember, we are taking the maximum strokes allowed by law on each and every hole.

&#178 – When kids are 3 to about 11 years old, they offer up their age as a matter of pride. That attribute goes away until age 65. From 65 up everyone again freely offers their age. No matter what the person looks like, your response is supposed to be, “Wow, you really look good.”

San Diego – Wow!

There are heavy, flooding rains across portions of California. For them, a few days of rain are more catastrophic than our worst winter storms. That’s a bad thing… but it’s a few days a year.

Here’s the upside, the real reason San Diego is so attractive.

The rain held off just long enough to set a record for the second straight year. San Diego went 182 consecutive days without measurable rainfall, topping last year’s run of 181. Rain on Sunday morning broke the dry streak, which began April 18. Before last year, the record was 165 days set in 1988. – from SanDiego.com

You know, I’ll put up with a few umbrella days to get that six months of sunshine.

Return of Humidity

The past week has been unreal – truly. New England in the summer is hot and sticky, sunshine is limited, rainfall is never far away. This past week was some sort of San Diego dream sequence.

Reality has returned. I haven’t checked the numbers, but sitting here in my pajamas, with the window open, I estimate the dew point as 66&#176&#185. It’s certainly high enough for me to consider turning on the air conditioner as soon as I finish typing this – certainly before I hit the shower.

Even with this sultry return, the summer is winding down. Acorns, actually smashed acorns, now litter the end of my driveway near the garage. No leaves have fallen yet, but I have gotten my first email asking when the leaves will change.

As spring is my favorite season, fall might be the opposite. Winter is more harsh, but fall is the writing on the wall. Nature says, “Hey, we’re shutting down for the winter – see ya’.”

Soon, geese will return to this area on their way to warmer weather. Over the next few weeks it will become common to see them flying in their “V” shaped formations. I’m not sure why, but I always seem to spot them, in the air, over Interstate 91. Maybe they follow the road south?

The summer can be brutal. Winter is worse.

I have been in some very cold places, including the top of Mount Washington in February. The coldest I can ever remember is waiting outside, in line, to go ice skating inside at Flushing Meadow Park. I think it was before the New York City World’s Fair, making it pre-1964. The fact that my mom was there also implies early ’60s.

The cold was so awful I remember it 40 years later.

In 90 days snow will be here. In 120 days the bleakest of the cabin fever days of mid-winter will arrive. Every year, facing this weather gets tougher.

Thirty five years ago I lived in West Palm Beach, Florida. Shouldn’t there have been a competency test before I was allowed to move on?

&#185 – OK, shoot me. I couldn’t not check. The dew point is officially 68&#176 at Tweed/New Haven Airport. It’s probably a degree or two lower here, nearly 10 miles inland.

Sony Laptop to the Hospital

We have two laptops at home. One is an older Dell which has become mine… and a Sony Vaio PCG-FXA59 which Helaine adopted and used to be mine. When I woke up this morning Helaine gave me the bad news, the Vaio had gone bye-o (I’m sorry – unavoidable).

Actually, what she saw was the screen blink a few times and then nothing but black. For the past few months the laptop had exhibited a reddish tint on its screen when starting up – that now seems to have been a symptom of the impending doom.

I brought the machine upstairs and plugged a monitor into its external VGA port. It worked. So, the laptop is alive, the screen just won’t fire.

I could have sent the laptop to Sony, which meant shipping it to San Diego. Their repairs are flatrate, with LCD repairs costing $600. That seemed too pricey. Instead I went to a place I’d seen advertised on TV, PCW Computers in Orange. They charge $30 to do a diagnosis and then separately for the repair.

The funny thing is, in their ad they reference their location by saying, “across the street from CompUSA.”

I walked in and it was unlike anything I had ever seen. People were carrying in towers mostly. And there were plenty of them. Behind the counter were a number of workstations, with monitors. There is no shortage of computers to be fixed, I suppose.

My hope is the problem will be the inverter (which creates the voltage to light the bulbs that illuminate the LCD) or the Cold Cathode lights themselves. Neither are incredibly expensive (though I’ll assume the total cost of repair will be at least $200). If the actual LCD went, this laptop is toast – and not worth fixing.

In the meantime, Helaine has adopted the Dell.

San Diego Weather

It’s probably torture to be the weatherman in San Diego. Day after day after day of loveliness. To my way of thinking, San Diego has the best weather in the U.S.

I’m mentioning this because today, we’re having San Diego weather! Actually, it’s better here.

Current Weather Conditions:

San Diego, San Diego International-Lindbergh Field, CA, United States

(KSAN) 32-44-01N 117-10-59W 12M

——————————————————————————–

Conditions at May 17, 2004 – 11:51 AM

2004.05.17 1551 UTC

Wind from the S (180 degrees) at 15 MPH (13 KT)

Visibility 10 mile(s)

Sky conditions overcast

Temperature 66.0 F (18.9 C)

Dew Point 53.1 F (11.7 C)

Relative Humidity 62%

Pressure (altimeter) 29.98 in. Hg (1015 hPa)

ob KSAN 171551Z 18013KT 10SM OVC030 19/12 A2998 RMK AO2 SLP152 T01890117

——————————————————————————–

My closest official reporting location is Meriden, CT

Current Weather Conditions:

Meriden, Meriden Markham Municipal Airport, CT, United States

(KMMK) 41-30-35N 072-49-40W 31M

——————————————————————————–

Conditions at May 17, 2004 – 11:53 AM

2004.05.17 1553 UTC

Wind Calm

Visibility 10 mile(s)

Sky conditions clear

Temperature 71.1 F (21.7 C)

Dew Point 50.0 F (10.0 C)

Relative Humidity 47%

Pressure (altimeter) 30.42 in. Hg (1030 hPa)

ob KMMK 171553Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR 22/10 A3042 RMK AO2 SLP298 T02170100 TSNO

——————————————————————————–

Too Late For Snow

It’s snowing now, as I write this entry. There’s little wind, so I can watch the vertical path of the flakes as I look out the window.

My lawn is white as are the tree limbs. Some buds have started to form on the trees out front – and they’re covered too. The street and my driveway are wet, not white.

The bad news about March is, it can still snow. It was the middle of March that saw the greatest snowfall ever recorded in the Northeast, The Blizzard of ’88 (1888 that is).

Since the ground is warmer and the Sun higher in the sky, even a cloudy day can heat up road surfaces enough to melt what comes down… unless the snow is heavy and sustained. Then all bets are off. The snow preps the blacktop until it’s cold enough to allow accumulation.

We’re not there yet, and I don’t suppose we will be.

Still, these are giant economy sized flakes. Down on the lawn, the little piling up there is good packing snow – perfect for snowballs and building forts. There’s just too little of it to do anything.

This is a cruel snow, since it follows a tease of warmth. Being sick of the cold, I was ready. And now, at least temporarily, my hopes are dashed.

Yesterday, Los Angeles and San Diego went into the 90s. San Fransisco broke a long time recored getting well into the 80s. I’m jealous, very jealous.

Can’t we have just a teeny bit of global warming?

California Fires

This week the news has been filled with stories of the California wildfires. Spread from San Diego to just north of Santa Barbara and inland to desert areas, these fires are awesome in their ferocity and size.

The ground and helicopter based pictures are sobering to watch, but I think the full version of the image to the right is even more amazing. Taken by one of NASA’s low Earth orbiting satellites, it provides more detail than I’ve ever seen in a similar satellite image.

As of tonight the Santa Ana winds have subsided. Hopefully, over the next few days, these fires will be controlled by firefighters.