All Alarms Are Off

My workstation in 2020. 

 Wow. What happened? I entered into the National Weather Service in the age of noisy teletypes and huge facsimile machines that smelled vaguely of ozone. I leave in a time multiple flat screens, virtual briefings, and COVID-19. Deadly viruses aside, I could not have imagined where the job would go after I joined in 1986. The job is better, of course. We are smarter, vastly better trained, and much more accurate. We are also more needed in today's high tech and densely populated world. More people live on the coast than ever, more flood plains have been paved over, more wild areas encroached by development. Add climate change to the mix and you have millions and millions living in at risk areas with a strong need to know. 

It's an exciting time to be a meteorologist, but for me, time to hand off the baton. When you consider where I started and the tools I was given, to where we are now, I think I have handled the changes well, kind of like teaching a caveman Calculus. Still, it's time to go. For starters, It's not just the changes but the rate of change that is difficult. About the time I master one thing, there's three other things that are awaiting my attention. My 60 year old brain has had enough.

But it's not just that. Like I posted in an earlier blog, the life I wish to live out, awaits me. I don't see it as being an exotic, thrill a minute adventure, more of a spontaneous, do it when I want to life without alarm clocks and the dull hangover of shift work. Cindy and I can travel on a whim (2021AC - After Corona), relax on a whim, and start a project on a whim. We will not be bored. Our old fixer upper awaits some more spit and polish. 

Alarms turned off for
the last time

I will miss my co-workers the most. Fantastic people, every one of them, and my closest friends. Shift work, working weekends, and working holidays, tears you away from your outside friends, and relationships shrivel from the lack of attention. On the other hand, working all hours of the day, night, and week builds a closer relationship with your co-workers. The office almost becomes a club house. 

So like I wrote, it will become a time for travel, spontaneity, and rebuilding friendships. I hope to become more active in the fire department, more active at the gym, more active in the family, and maybe finish another room in the old barn on Park Street. Perhaps volunteer where I am needed. 

Who knows? Maybe I'll finish that damn novel in the next couple years, revealing what really goes on inside this over sized pumpkin. Other dreams include trying my hand at stand up comedy at an open mike night, rebuilding a car, and finding gold at the beach. 

I could just sit on my porch and watch the world go by. This seems least likely though since just watching means everyone and everything is passing you by. There's still time to make more memories. 

I will continue this blog. It's popularity is hard to gauge but I do enjoy writing it. I may begin to record some Video Blogs as well (Vlogs to us insiders). What could be more entertaining than actually watching me attempt these jobs that I write about? Kind of like a mash up of Fixer Upper and Emergency 911. 

Like Calvin told Hobbes in their final comic strip, "It's a magical world, Hobbes ol' buddy. Let's go exploring". Good advice.  

So it's 2020...reflections on turning 60.

It's pretty easy to remember how old I am. I was born in 1960 so the math is simple. The thing is, I don't feel like I've been around for 60 years, but then I reflect back and I remember quite a bit of history. I was born only 15 years after the end of WWII, but we're already 18 years after the 9/11 attacks, which seem very recent. Young people graduating college this year will have only vague memories of that day, if at all. I remember when Binghamton still had passenger trains, and remember Walter Cronkite's vivid reports on the Vietnam War with the daily body count.

At a wedding a couple years ago. Advantage of being
bald is that it hides the gray hair. 

I remember when we lived in the "Valley of Opportunity", when Endicott Johnson was still chugging out shoes, and IBM employed thousands and thousands.  I went to see President Reagan speak at the Union Endicott football stadium to tout the area's economic stability.

My own career began in 1986 and was at the end of the era of teletype machines and facsimile maps. I was there when the first computer was delivered (an IBM PC with an 8088 processor) to the office and have worked into the era of full automation of products with the leverage of social media as a communication tool.

It's interesting to me how we do indeed tend to dwell more in the past as we age. I recall old timers always saying things like "back in my day..." and I fight the urge now to say that almost anytime any subject comes up. It's nice to fondly remember those days, and I suppose I'm lucky not to have a past contaminated with bad memories.

The present is good as well. We have our house, we have our health, and retirement is likely sooner rather than later. When I retire, I will miss the job, and especially my co-workers, but I will not miss the midnight shifts and the nasty trolls that understand nothing about weather but still feel qualified to criticize every forecast.

So what does the future hold? For starters, I am fully aware that the clock is ticking, and will take better care of my wife, myself, and my house, in that order, when the built in excuse of the drudgery of shift work is gone. I want to travel, and would like to show Cindy some of the amazing places I visited as an Incident Meteorologist.

Dad's passing was really a reality check for me. He retired shorty after Cindy and I got married, and had a solid two decades of decent health to enjoy life. He taught me one final lesson, and it's time to take that lesson to heart. It's time to go exploring. 

Travel, hallways, and winter continues...

I tend to write a blog when I feel inspired, or when I've done enough to fill up a page or so. Of course, there are times when I am busy, but whatever I'm doing is just not worthy of interest. It is also somewhat embarrassing how little actual progress I make at times, so there is that too. For today's blog, I think I have enough to write about, and I think I'm inspired enough to make it interesting. We shall see.

Back in 2007, standing on a ridge in the Sierra mountains
with a not so active fire behind me. I got out in time. 

I spent last week out in Idaho, Boise specifically, for an Incident Meteorologist refresher. For those that do not know, I am an IMET (Incident Meteorologist) and get dispatched, primarily to wildfires in the western U.S., to provide specific weather forecasts for the incident. These forecasts are used to help plan the command staff direct operations against the fire in a safe manner. It's a great conference with intensive training and good people. One of the final things we must practice is deploying and getting into a fire shelter in a matter of seconds, always entertaining and interesting as I try to stuff this old, 6' 3" frame into what is essentially a large Zip-Lock bag. I have no doubt that if I were actually about to be overrun by a wildfire, I'd get into that thing amazingly fast.

Boise itself is a beautiful city. Up and coming, active, young and very western. Trendy restaurants seem to be popping up everywhere as the state capital and college town blend with old west sensibility. Fresh air and open spaces make the place invigorating. Keep in mind though, I was there in March, with average highs in the 50's and even a passing shower from time to time. In summer, 100 degrees is not uncommon as the desert-like nature of the place takes over. The natural vegetation, outside of the watered areas, is dead grass and rocks, until you get into the nearby mountains, where cooler air and additional precipitation allows for beautiful evergreens.

Just another March snowstorm.

While I was in Boise, it snowed at home, of course, leaving Cindy to deal with it. March is generally a snowy month in upstate NY, which is really quite cruel. The increased sunlight from the longer days gives you hope, only to have those hopes dashed in yet another storm. The problem is that Canada is still bitter cold, while the southern U.S. begins to warm. This creates a strong temperature gradient on which storms love to build. They also love to track up along the mid Atlantic and northeast coast, which puts Binghamton in a very favorable spot for snow, and lots of it. Luckily for Cindy, that strong March sun helps melt the snow, so she decided not to shovel and allow nature to take it's course. I'd be happy to teach my bride how to operate the snowblower, but the chance of her actually using it are about as low as the chance for a snow free March.

The repaired wall. Still needs a bit of fine sanding and
some primer. 

On the home improvement and remodel front, I've been mainly working in the upstairs hallway, The wall repair job that I wrote extensively about is pretty much done. Just some finishing sanding and the wall will be ready to paint. First of course, will be the ceiling, which is ready to go after repairs and other prep. I've also been working in the bathroom, repairing and painting the window frame and door. The bathroom door had a huge mirror, which I removed months ago. It left behind drill holes, but even worse was that the door had never been painted beneath the mirror. Four coats of thinly applied pair were needed to cover up the ugliness.

We've been using the alarm system I installed after Christmas, with only one false alarm. Cindy accidentally set off the alarm while leaving for work one morning, unfortunately while I was in the shower, This resulted in a sleepy person in California calling and asking for our safe word, and me tracking and dripping water all the way downstairs to turn off the alarm At least we know everything is working. We have three faulty sensors which I need to track down and get advice on from SimpliSafe but the door sensors are working perfectly, which is the main thing.

That's about all I have for now. Hopefully the next blog will document progress in the hallway, and a quick getaway trip to one of our favorite spots.

Yard work and closed lows

Two closed lows meander over the U.S., one over New
York and New England 

I mentioned in my last blog that my immediate agenda included yard work and my old mower. Indeed it did, despite the weather, and the old mower again became a reluctant work partner. First of all, the weather. Yard work is, of course, dependent on the weather, and in no place is this more true than upstate New York. Spring here is often a bitter disappointment. After a long and hard winter, even snow lovers like me really look forward to a warm and sunny spring day. While we are "flooded" with traditional spring images of sunshine and flowers, spring here in the middle latitudes often offers a different, much harsher reality. Spring is the time of year for closed, or cut off lows. "What is that?" you say. Glad you asked. In the spring, we still have big differences in the cold to the north and the increasing warmth in the south. This develops large and strong low pressure storm systems, just like in winter. The difference is that in the spring, the jet stream that moves lows and highs, has begun to retreat to the north, leaving these big lows cut off from the flow, and meandering aimlessly. If you happen to be in an area where there is no low, you may have days of warm sunny weather, but if you happen to live in an area under one of these cut off lows, you will be in for days of clouds, rain, and cool air as the low moves slowly, or even circles about. Often, upstate New York seems to be in the perfect place for lousy weather, as it was (is) for much of the first part of May.

Friday deluge. Green is bad. Yellow,
really bad.  Red? Oof. 

So, being a professional meteorologist, I knew this was coming and decided that on Thursday of last week I needed to get the lawns done before this low moved in and established residency. Now I had already cut the lawn at home once and was pleasantly surprised with the old mower and how quickly it had started. It ran pretty nicely as well. The Sea Foam additive had done it's job. I expected little trouble when I went to cut the grass on the last sunny day before the deluge. Ha Ha. One solid hour of priming, pleading, and pulling and that damn mower wouldn't start. I removed the spark plug, the most common cause of non starting small engines, and to my untrained eye, it looked quite fouled. I carefully cleaned and reinstalled it. No luck. I was out of time. I had to still drive to the in laws and cut the grass there. So, I put the mower away and gave up. Friday, as predicted, the rain came. In buckets.  Saturday, a brief break arrived and I headed out. I pulled the plug again and ran to the hardware store for a replacement. I popped the new plug in the mower and it fired immediately. My guess is that in doing it's job, the Sea Foam additive did indeed dissolve the years of gunk in the carburetor that got into the combustion chamber and in turn fouled the plug. In any case I had to wait to cut the grass until the puddles in the lawn mostly disappeared before I did a fast and furious job on the lawn ahead of the next round of rain. I finished the entire thing in about an hour, a new record.

One of the bigger trees I cut down. Note that the gloves are
not near the chainsaw. 

Before the rain on Wednesday, I got out my el cheapo Harbor Freight chain saw and attacked some more of the low hanging branches and dead trees in the side yard. Overall, I'm pleased with the performance of the saw. It had plenty of power and was light and easy to handle. On the down side, the double safety switch was hard to squeeze and keep in the "on" position with heavy gloves on. I ended up taking my gloves off and it was easier to keep the saw going at all angles. I cut up some old wood I had laying around to fireplace size, and took down some new dead and live branches and trees that just needed to go away. A big improvement to the general look to the trees and lawn, and it made it much easier to mow.

Lowe"s wants $89 for this 3 foot high
"Fat Albert" spruce.Yikes!

We want to do some plantings in the near future and have started to look at some options at the local home stores. I'm somewhat apprehensive since the growing and nurturing gene seems to have skipped me and despite the green thumbs of my parents and brother, pretty much everything I plant dies. In any case, we haven't made any firm decisions, but are looking to plant a spruce somewhere near the middle of the side yard. I'm surprised at how difficult it is to find a spruce to transplant, and how expensive they are if you do manage to find one. I need to find a friend with some acreage and some wild spruce so that I can dig one up and plant it in my yard.

Little if anything has been done on the home repair and improvement front. I'm becoming more convinced that I have fixed the tub leak and will soon begin the repair the kitchen ceiling (triggering a new leak no doubt). This may trigger some more work in the kitchen very soon, including the oven hood/microwave combo installation and wall repair and painting.