I said Welcome 2014

Posted on January 3, 2014January 3, 2014 by Dusty Roads

I guess we didn’t give 2014 enough of a welcome Jan 1. It rolled in with a vengeance. Almost immediately 2014 started dumping snow and cold on New England. The blizzard started quietly enough early Jan 2 but gained momentum as the day progressed really picking up steam over night.

There were reports of empty shelves at supermarkets as everyone raced to the stores to stock up on essentials, bread, milk, eggs, meat…funny the snack aisle was pretty hard hit too!

The Governor was on the news urging employers to send people home and close early. Schools were closed while kids rejoiced. 🙂

My boss encouraged everyone to work remotely from home and agents with tours were encouraged to reschedule. The message was clear! Stay off the road. Stay safe.

The speed limit on the Mass. Pike was reduced to 40 miles per hour. And the road crews only promised to try to keep one lane open overnight. Forecasters are saying white out conditions! Doesn’t sound like fun driving conditions.

At least the snow is dry and fluffy. Sorry, not good for snowmen and snowball fights but easy to clear…and there’s another storm on the way for Sunday/Monday!

Did I mention that I hate the cold?

Bring on the Heat

Posted on October 24, 2013October 24, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Last year I was trying to figure out a way to make my orange cat, Rocky (you may know him better as Editor -in – Chief )

relax and stop over grooming. I started using Feliway which is a pheromone diffuser and that seemed to help some.

Rocky also like to “escape” out into the hall where he happily chirps at the sun spots and rolls on them. My apartment is on the shaded side of the building so I don’t get too many sunspots. I began to think I was depriving him of a basic cat right, to lounge in a sun spot. This got me to thinking about how lizards and reptiles like to bask in the sun. So on a trip to Petco I picked up one of the sun lamps they use in the reptile cages.

Rocky took to it right away.

Then suddenly, this spring he seemed to lose interest. I turned it on for him a few times and he’d sniff around it and then walk away. I had no idea what had changed but I wasn’t about to waste electricity running a heat lamp he wasn’t using. Neither Smokey nor Buddy showed any interest so I packed it away.

The first really cool, fall weather finally hit today. About noontime Rocky started wandering around meowing quietly. It was a very sad, plaintive kind of meow. Then he hopped on the desk and got in my face. I took a time out to pet him but that didn’t seem to satisfy him.

Then a light bulb seemed to go off. Could he want his heat lamp? I pulled it out and plugged it in. After a couple of experimental sniffs he stretched out and was down for the count.

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful!

Posted on October 6, 2013October 6, 2013 by Dusty Roads

We’ve been talking about the “Dakotas” , North and South, so I couldn’t help but notice the weather out there. Wow! Have you seen the pictures? A blizzard hit the whole region!

Rapid City, where we went on vacation a couple of years ago, got 21 inches of snow. Temps are struggling to reach the 30’s when it was 85 last week! Here is a partial report from the AP.

news-national-20131005-US--Autumn.Storms

Brenda Nolting, of Rapid City, S.D., rolls her cart to her car after stocki…

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — In the span of 24 hours, the scenic Black Hills in South Dakota were coated in up to three and a half feet of wet, heavy snow, one of several Great Plains states walloped by a storm system that’s caused millions of dollars in damage.

Wind gusts of up to 70 mph were recorded in the Black Hills, National Weather Service meteorologist Katie Pojorlie said Saturday morning, but the snow was expected to end later Saturday, giving people a chance to start digging out from the unusual early fall snowstorm that set records.

But wintry weather wasn’t the only thing wrapped into the powerful cold front, as thunderstorms brought heavy rain, hail and tornadoes in Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota. No one died in the tornadoes, reports said, but snow was blamed in the deaths of three people who were killed in a traffic accident on U.S. 20 in northeast Nebraska.

Forecasters said the front would eventually combine with other storms to make for a wild — and probably very wet — weekend for much of the central U.S. and Southeast.

Pojorlie said the historic mining city of Lead, S.D., in the northern Black Hills had received 43 ½ inches of snow by 7:30 p.m. Friday and more had fallen overnight. Rapid City had 21 inches, but 31 inches was recorded just a mile southwest of the city.

Farther south at the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary, the mustangs found themselves in a winter wonderland.

Tornados touched down in near Wayne, Nebraska but thankfully there were only minor injuries.

Is the weather getting crazy or what?!

It’s October!

Posted on October 1, 2013October 1, 2013 by Dusty Roads

October 1st. Once again I want to share my favorite Poem with you. I first learned it in 5th grade and still remember it!

October’s Bright Blue Weather

O suns and skies and clouds of June, And flowers of June together, Ye cannot rival for one hour October’s bright blue weather;
When loud the bumblebee makes haste, Belated, thriftless vagrant, And goldenrod is dying fast, And lanes with grapes are fragrant;
When gentians roll their fingers tight To save them for the morning, And chestnuts fall from satin burrs Without a sound of warning;
When on the ground red apples lie In piles like jewels shining, And redder still on old stone walls Are leaves of woodbine twining;
When all the lovely wayside things Their white-winged seeds are sowing, And in the fields still green and fair, Late aftermaths are growing;
When springs run low, and on the brooks, In idle golden freighting, Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush Of woods, for winter waiting;
When comrades seek sweet country haunts, By twos and twos together, And count like misers, hour by hour, October’s bright blue weather.
O sun and skies and flowers of June, Count all your boasts together, Love loveth best of all the year October’s bright blue weather.

Helen Hunt Jackson

Another 8

Posted on September 24, 2013September 24, 2013 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

Can you believe it? Another letter of the alphabet is used to start the names of 8 more states. Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, and North Dakota.

Lets go for Nebraska and Nevada. Nebraska first.

Nebraska …No

Nebraska is a Great Plain State. Miles and miles of treeless prairie, ideal for cattle-grazing but not so good for breaking up thunderstorms. Nebraska lies right in the heart of Tornado Alley.

So what is there to do in Nebraska, well one thing comes immediately to mind and that’s storm chasing. Would I do it? I don’t know. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s safe. It is not. Not when seasoned storm chasers like Tim Samaras can be killed by these deadly storms. At one time I would have jumped at that kind of vacation. Now I am not so sure.

So if I’m not going storm chasing, what is there to do? Explore Nebraska’s historic routes – Pony Express, Lewis & Clark, and the Mormon and Oregon trails. Discover things to do – fossil beds and the Niobrara River – canoe, kayak, fish, tube and waterfalls. At Lincoln, the capital, take in the Great Plains Art Museum and Historic Haymarket. Omaha is home to attractions – a zoo, General Crook House. Gerald R. Ford Birth Site, Hot Shops Art Center, gardens, Union Pacific trains and Boys and Girls Town, plus nearby Chimney Rock and the Strategic Air and Space Museum.

So I guess there’s plenty to do in Nebraska.

On to Nevada…Yes, I have been to Nevada but I prefer it’s neighbor to the east, Arizona. Of course the biggest draw for Nevada is Las Vegas….what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…isn’t that what they say?

Big on most tourist lists is Hoover Dam. I haven’t gone to it but I know many people who have and they all highly recommend it.

My first trip to Nevada was way back in the 1970’s and since I am not a gambler I spent most of my time by the pool or going to shows.

I was only about 5 rows back from the stage for Tom Jones and only a little father back for Mr. Las Vegas himself, Wayne Newton.

Both entertainers really worked hard and put on great shows.

About 10 years ago my sister and I accompanied my mother to Reno.

We took a tour to Virginia City and Lake Tahoe, (Lake Tahoe is actually California) but the high point for me was a show by a group called “RAIN”. They are Beatle impersonators and I love the Beatles.

They did an awesome show taking the Beatles through the years. They had costume changes that matched exactly the way the Beatles looked at different times in their career. It was amazing. It was easy to think you were watching the real thing!