Its A Blizzard Out There

Posted on January 24, 2016January 24, 2016 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

Yesterday an unprecedented storm struck much of the east coast reaching blizzard conditions in many areas. Washington DC, Pennsylvania and NYC reported record snow fall. As the storm progressed northward it wound it’s way through Connecticut into Southeastern Massachusetts. Falmouth, Cape Cod, Plymouth were some of the communities most hard hit but I’m happy to report that in my little corner of the world the storm was just a snow storm.

And I’m also happy to say that my condo folks were right on top of the clean up.

Not everyone was upset about the snow.

Enjoy your day everyone!

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Hurricane Patricia

Posted on December 8, 2015December 8, 2015 by Dusty Roads

Well all that threatening weather finally came to a head. It took the remnants of Hurricane Patricia to push it over the edge. As hurricanes go there wasn’t much left after getting ripped up on the mountains in Mexico but it was enough. It was like a nor’easter in New England but not a Hurricane. There was a lot of rain and some pretty good wind gusts.

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There were reports of a tornado out by the airport but we weren’t anywhere near that and there ween’t any reports of damage.

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We were on the way to take a boat tour of the bayou when we got the call. They were canceling all tours because of the wind gusts. I was disappointed but better safe than sorry. We were in the cab heading there when we got the call so we had the driver drop us off at the Aquarium instead.

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I know people who say once you’ve seen one aquarium you’ve seen them all but I disagree. I like fish, the ocean and seeing different exhibits.

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Every aquarium shows off their collections differently and can even have different animals. A perfect example is the New Orleans Aquarium that has a mermaid exhibit.

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I’ve only seen that in one other place, Weeki Wachee Springs, a Florida State Park.

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They also had an Omni Theater. They only had one movie playing that day and it’s a good thing. If they had choices I might have picked something different but this movie turned out to be excellent.

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It was Hurricane on The Bayou about Hurricane Katrina and I thought I’d seen hundreds of hours of footage but this was outstanding. This amazing film tells the story of Hurricane Katrina and the impact that Louisiana’s disappearing wetlands has on hurricane protection. It also shows the survival of a region, the rebirth of nature and the spirit of humanity. Winner of 4 Giant Screen Cinema Association Achievement Awards

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If you can get to see it, I highly recommend it.

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After spending the morning at the Aquarium we finally headed back to the Hotel. The afternoon was spent watching a movie in our room. That’s something we don’t do every vacation!

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I Bet I’m in Trouble!

Posted on February 28, 2015February 28, 2015 by Dusty Roads

Hi everyone. I want to thank so many of you who reached out to be sure I was ok. That was so nice. I’m sorry I’ve been neglectful.

So here’s the reason’s or excuses.

#1. New England has been snowed in!

We have had over 100 inches of snow this season and 68 inches of that fell in February. We had snow 20 days out of 28 and it set a record for 2nd coldest month since they started keeping records.

#2. My wolf photo shoot was canceled because we had 2 blizzards that weekend and even if they would have held the shoot I wasn’t driving all that way in a blizzard.

#3. I came down with a winter cold. 🙁 As a result I lost my mind. I just couldn’t get my thoughts in order to put them down on the page.

And the #4 reason I haven’t been posting….I gave myself a birthday present.

And it was a very bad thing. You see I am addicted to reading. When I have to go buy a book or order one from Amazon there are down times while I wait but because we’ve had so much bad weather I didn’t want to be stuck in the house without reading material so I gave myself a Kindle for my birthday. Now I have a book calling my name all the time! I really have to get a grip on myself!

I do still have some more Las Vegas stories for you and a Disney vacation is right around the corner so I’ll try to get my act together and gets some new posts up for you.

I’ll need to update you on the kitties too. Rocky and Buddy are always good for some stories.

So I apologize for being MIA for so long and I promise I’ll start applying myself again. Many thanks to all of you for sticking around and waiting for me.

Dusty

Bright and Cold

Posted on January 11, 2015January 11, 2015 by Dusty Roads

It was clear and sunny and bright but the cold of the last few days continued to linger. At least the overcast and snow was over. There was still a little snow on the ground but it is January in the northeast so what else can I expect.

I’m heading off to join the Audubon Society on a Snowy Owl Prowl at Duxbury Beach. The 8 am excursion was booked but they decided to have a 2nd trip at 12 and I managed to get a spot on that one.

It was time to break out the winter camo. Time to see if it was as warm as the sales pitch said. I skipped the pants because I’d be in and out of a warm van and I figured it might be too much. Instead I pulled on a pair of “leggings” and then the size too big jeans that I bought to keep the waistband from irritating my shingles rash. No one would ever know I was wearing 2 pairs of pants and I figured the extra layer would be enough to break the wind for the little time we would be out of the van.

I packed up my sunglasses, a snack to prevent low blood sugar, a water bottle and the big camera lens in case I had a chance to use it. Then, looking like an extra from Wild West Alaska I headed out.

Arriving at Duxbury Beach I could see that the sea ice had frozen. Since it’s sea water with a lot of salt it isn’t really solid but it looks like regular ice from the shore. While I waited for the Audubon crew I hoped out to snap a picture of the Powder Point Bridge.

Immediately the wind hit me. But after a second I realized that the cold wind was only hitting my face. The rest of me was comfortably warm. That was all it took for me to fully accept my “camo” winter parka. (This is my “concentrating” look as I try to take a “Selfie”)

Shortly after that the Audubon Vans arrived . There were 2 of them and probably 9 of us so we were very comfortable, not crowded at all. I got the front seat with our driver and guide, Dave.

Sally drove the 2nd van and checked us in. Once she was sure we were all present and accounted for we were off.

Baby Its Cold Out There

Posted on January 8, 2015January 8, 2015 by Dusty Roads

The latest update in my Facebook feed on Beau is that he is still alive and still in captivity. More sharing and social media rabble-rousing is planned. I think the authorities in Tennessee could take a tip from the movie Frozen and “Let it go, Let it go, Let it go”. A terrible abuse of power.

But on another note, what does everyone think of this cold weather. Friends in Florida tell me it’s cold there too. Is anyone warm?

Last night the winds were howling and making a real racket when I went to bed. I lower the heat at bedtime down to around 60. I can’t sleep if its too warm and since I’m in a condo with units above, below and on each side, throw in the heated common areas and I’m usually pretty toasty warm. I knew it was cold when I woke up this morning and heard the furnace running.

I remember growing up in the Adirondacks and hearing my folks comment on the cold. I remember plenty of below zero days back then but as a kid stuffed in a bulky snow suit I didn’t really care.

If the cold froze the tops of the snow to ice we’d just take cardboard boxes and use them as sleds. Sometimes we had to crawl back up the hill because the ice crust was so slippery. Of course wiping out on that kind of snow was guaranteed to leave a blood trail! That crust could cut like glass!

I don’t know how cold it got last night but there were lots of reports of frozen gas lines and dead batteries in cars and school buses. I did not even put my nose out there! I can work from home so I was not about to brave the cold even if I do have a snugly warm snowsuit just like when I was a kid. I’ll be trying that out for the first time this weekend.

FedEx was working in the cold. At about 10 am I had a knock on my door. The man standing there looked like Nanook of the North. He had a mustache and a hooded jacket with fur around it.

I think I just stared. I don’t know who let him inside the building but that poor man looked frozen. He didn’t say a word, just handed me my package and left. I think he just wanted to get the day over with so he could get out of the cold. His brief stop at my door probably didn’t give him much time to get warm before he had to go right back outside.

So, how’s the cold where you are and how are you coping? Am I just a wimp?