It’s Raining Cats and…Trees?

So my local forecast totally didn’t say anything about this.  Maybe because they had no warning as there were no storms or heavy winds of any kind.  But something, somehow, caused a tree to be completely uprooted midday in front of my house.  My household only became aware of it around ten minutes after it happened by our far more attentive (to the goings on of our vegetation, at least) neighbors.  Here’s what the scene looked like:

That’s from the point of view of my porch.  Speaking of my porch, we are very lucky the tree fell the way it did, in what was essentially the least harmful direction.  If it had fallen 90 degrees to the left my porch would be in shambles, 90 more degrees and it would have damaged my neighbors’ car, and another 90 degrees and there would have been a lot of angry drivers.

Here are some more pictures:

Oh, and here’s a bonus pic I’ve had up my sleeve for a while.  It’s a custom license plate on a car in front of the one I was in on the way to the recording of the 7th podcast:

I hope putting a picture of it here isn’t illegal.

Man, He’s Lazy

Whoa.  Where’d this blog go?  Oh, come on!  God damn it, Zach, did you stop writing it?!  But it was so promising!

Sorry, man, what can I say?  The joke was getting old, and it was tedious as hell to write every day.  How can you expect one man to write so consistently on something he isn’t even passionate about?

I don’t know, but so many people enjoyed it!

Oh, well.  In the meantime, we have a great music blog, a happening podcast, and some sweet forums.  And I’d never say never regarding the issue of this blog returning someday.  But I will say this: not anytime soon.

Many regrets,

Zach

5/27/08

Ugh…and so it begins…

I can be easy on hot weather sometimes. Every so often I endure a hot day but truly feel Mother Nature did a good job with it. But for the most part, I just hate hot days. I like cold days. Usually. Too many cold days at once is too much repetition for me to find them all enjoyable, but hot days truly irk me. There’s simply no good way to shed the discomfort. Air conditioning? Well, it doesn’t exactly follow you around, plus it’s costly. Fans? Loud, plus they’re a bitch to carry on-the-go. Cold days, on the other hand, give you ways to easily warm up while still being able to enjoy the temperature. The weather was sporadic enough in the beginning days of May that I figured the blog could go one for at least three weeks. Then we’d hit the typical glut of hot days when I’d have to shut the blog down so it didn’t become boring and because I hate writing about hot days. But the glut may just be coming earlier this year. The blog will go on for the rest of the week, but if it stays this hot, I do not plan on giving a damn come Monday.

2

So, Mother Nature, if you do not start making me care, the blog will shut down, at least until the fall.

5/23/08 - No blog tonight

Okay, just some housekeeping notes. The blog is taking Memorial Day weekend off, including today. I can’t say if it will be back on Monday or not, but if it is it will likely not include a picture (at least from the same location). But I will be unable to blog for the next two days and due to certain complications am not sufficiently prepared enough to write about today’s weather. Apologies.

Enjoy your weekend, and see you in a few days.

-Zach

5/22/08

OK, I was half-asleep through this one (and primarily indoors) so let’s make it short.

This is some bizarre weather we’ve been having, isn’t it? Mother Nature seems to be gravitating between eighty dozen different styles of weather every day. Yesterday, though, had some great moments spliced with some really bad moments. Today had neither. The wind when I took that picture at 1:35 was pretty good (and yeah, today there were unfortunately people occupying the field, but ignore them), but the rest of the day was kind of lackluster. I missed the brief rain (again with the brief rain – how about we come up with something new tomorrow, huh, Mother Nature?) but no one I talked to seemed too emotional about it, unlike yesterday’s rain which inspired as much joy in some as it did anger in others. (Until the unnecessary follow-up fifteen minutes later, which was more like today’s rain.) I’m really hoping Mother Nature can get her act together – I can’t tell if she’s going at this stylistically, trying to create a masterpiece out of fragments, or just throwing every trick she has up her sleeve at once and hoping it looks good. Either way, it isn’t working, so I’ll have to give today’s weather a

6

I keep ending these with something along the lines of “Better luck tomorrow,” and only once has better luck happened. So I’m gonna end it with: stop being crappy now. Maybe she can actually take that to heart.

5/21/08

Okay, so this was a really bizarre day.

It was a typically cold morning, so I decided to reserve my judgment. Then I went outside a few hours later and was struck by how nice it felt. I thought Mother Nature was gonna walk away from today with a respectable 8. I go out forty minutes later to take that picture (at 1:40), and it was amazing out. I thought she might be aiming for an 8.5, a 9 if she was lucky.

Thirty minutes later I was outside again and it was still good, although not nearly up to par with how it had been mere minutes earlier. And then, it started raining. This struck me as very odd, but I really enjoyed the rain. It then stopped and went back to sub-par. Then twenty minutes or so later I go inside for ten minutes, and when I return, it’s raining again. For real, to resort to that weather twist twice in one day? I liked it the first time, but it was far too short lived. I was outside then for about ten minutes with the rain and then was on a bus for ten minutes. When I got off? Not raining. WTF? This was such an inconsistent day – started off okay, became enormously satisfying, then less so, then started raining and was nice, then stopped, then started again, then stopped…how scattershot can one day be? I have a lot of trouble giving it a good grade – I have to take off points not just for the bad stuff but also for how scattershot it was as a whole, but then it comes out to around a 6…and how can I live giving a day with two moments as amazing as the sunshine at 1:30 ish and the rain at 3:20ish a 6? I’ll go with a

6.7

I still feel really weird about that grade though. I so wish I could give it something better, but it was just too damn inconsistent. If it had been linear, like good to bad or bad to good, I could give it a 7. But no, it had to go back-and-forth. Better luck tomorrow.

5/20/08

Well, after yesterday’s disappointing showing, I was probably far more impressed with today’s weather than I should have been, but I don’t care.

This morning I noticed it was a tad bit colder than yesterday, and it was raining, but none of it felt too impressive. I worried it would be nothing more than a rainy-day version of yesterday. Behold, it totally turned itself around. When I took that picture above, again at 1:30, I feared for my camera’s life out there in the rain. (Notice some on the camera lense.) Hell, I feared for my life – the rain stung a little. Not to mention how cold it was, and I was in a sweatshirt. In fact, that’s about as good as rain can get when it it’s not absolutely pouring. A great showing today. Again, maybe I’m just in a better mood thanks to the contrast with yesterday’s dud, but I’m awarding it a solid

8.423

Hopefully tomorrow’s weather can excite me equally.

Day One: 5/19/08

Hey all, and welcome to the Weather Critic. It is the monumental first post (as I said, consider that post from the 17^th the “prologue,” or “post zero,” whichever you find cooler), and we’ve got an interesting day to cover.

And by interesting, I mean, uh, not-so interesting. How I wish Mother Nature could have been on her A-game for the first day of this blog, but ‘twas not to be. That isn’t to say that today was bad. It just never really got off the ground. It started a tad bit cold, but not that cold. Already there were signs that today wasn’t going to be all that. So it was chilly with no bite, and then we quickly glided into the weather that was to be sustained through most of the day. It was warm, pleasant, but nothing notable. You could stand outside and say, “It feels nice,” but not, “Holy frak, this weather is nice.” Apparently it rained a tad while I was sharing the wealth of Weezer’s new single indoors (not “Pork and Beans,” but “The Greatest Man that Ever Lived (Variations on a Shake Hymn),” their even newer single), so I was not witness to this. But judging by how unnoticeable the rain on the ground was afterwards (or at least I didn’t notice any), and also how short it lasted, I’ll have to say that must have been lightweight too. Now it’s back to how it was earlier, and my predictions for tonight? Slightly cold, but not that strong. Wow. What a lackluster day. I’m not saying it didn’t have its good qualities, but compared to the oomph that a better day packs, I’m gonna have to stick this one with a disappointing

6.5

Better luck tomorrow, Mother Nature. And yes, that picture was taken at 1:30 this afternoon, to give you an idea of what today looked like in case you were not outdoors.

It’s Not the Weather Channel Online

Okay, I’m going to stress the purpose of this blog for a second now. The blog should start officially sometime in the next two weeks, but I want to get explaining what it’s about out of the way now, so consider this the prologue. Let’s go at this point-by-point.

1. This blog is about the day’s weather. Unlike most weather-related material you’re likely to find online or elsewhere, this blog doesn’t look forward - it looks backwards. In other words, it’s a review of the weather from the day gone by.
2. But it’s not a summary. And I stress this, this blog’s focus is to discuss the quality of the weather in critical terms. I will not just rate it Sunshine=Good, Rain=Bad. No, given the circumstances, sunshine could very well equal bad. If it has been a week of straight sunshine, then I could easily find it repetitive and dock that day points for it. On the same token, if it rains after a sunny morning, I could find it to be a juicy twist and up the point ante accordingly. So you see, it’s a very atypical look at the weather.
3. Each day will receive a score from 1-10. If I find this system to be unsatisfactory after the first few weeks, I am at liberty to change it to a more fitting point system.
4. I recognize the potential of this blog to get stale during periods of the year with the same weather patterns over and over. Therefore, it shall only be updated daily for around a month before it will temporarily retire. During this time, which could be anywhere from two months to an entire season, I will still publish weather reviews, however they will be weekly or monthly, not daily. Once we enter another period of less predictable weather, I shall make it daily again.
5. If I ever am disatisfied with the weather, I need someone to blame. If I am immensley pleased, I need someone to praise. After deliberation, when I wrestled over whether or not God would be a fitting choice, I came to the conclusion that I shall address any frustration or joy towards Mother Nature.
6. NO SPOILERS: I can promise there will be no spoilers in this blog. In other words, I will try to avoid as best I can spoilers for each day’s weather. I will shut my ears during weather reports on TV and certainly never check online. This is NOT the Weather Channel online. On the same note, if you wish to comment on any post, I heartily encourage you to do so, but spoilers will not be tolerated and the comment will be deleted.

So that’s all out of the way now, and the blog is free to commence. I cannot promise when it will, but expect it any time within the next two weeks, sooner more likely than later.

-Zach, 5/17/08