Category Archives: Beware of Leopard

… where X is the temperature outside when I get up in the morning. Today was the first day for that event, post-summer. But only just, 49 degrees fahrenheit at 0800 this morning. This is my leading indicator of the imminent arrival of the Fall season. There’s also the calendar, which tells me the Autumnal Equinox is 6 days and 20 hours or so in my personal future. But the temps are the big deal for Fall as far as I’m concerned, not the calendar. It was a cold summer, all things being equal. I’m waiting to see what Fall brings us.

Yesterday was a chore day. I shaved the brown lawns front and back, and did a bit of weeding in the sad gardens (where weeds are now the big product, and the veg is mostly dead – a lot of August travel on my part had a big effect on garden maintenance). In the afternoon, I vacuumed the house, did a bit of bathroom cleaning, and cut my hair. Dog walks were interspersed throughout. Today was not as ambitious. Shopping, coffee roasting, and a bit of computer work rounded out my Sunday.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of this fallen warrior:

• Staff Sgt. Robert E. Thomas Jr., 24, of Fontana, California, died Sept. 13, at Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, of wounds suffered during a non-combat related incident on April 21, 2013, in Maiwand, Afghanistan.

Shedloads of yardwork and housework yesterday, leading up to Linda Rose and Mike over for supper and a couple rounds of Ticket to Ride. Much fun had by all, good food, exhausting. I overslept this morning, so was shopping late, then working remotely on some patching late, and so on. I never really caught up.

Oh, hey, one bit of yummy: we had freshly killed zucchini from the garden with supper last night. Sliced, steamed, then sprinkled with Parmesan cheese: superb!

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

• Lance Cpl. Jared W. Brown, 20, of Youngstown, Florida, died June 16 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
• Sgt. Justin R. Johnson, 25, of Hobe Sound, Florida, died June 18, in Bagram, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with indirect fire.
• Spc. Ember M. Alt, 21, of Beech Island, South Carolina, died June 18, in Bagram, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked her unit with indirect fire.
• Spc. Robert W. Ellis, 21, of Kennewick, Washington, died June 18, in Bagram, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with indirect fire.
• Spc. William R. Moody, 30, of Burleson, Texas, died June 18, in Bagram, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with indirect fire.

The news leading into Thursday was designed to instill fear … only 10 times in the last 30 years (or was it 5 times in the last 10, but whatever) had the mid-Atlantic states had such a powerful storm prediction laid on in advance. I noted at the time that the article had neglected to mention the success rate of those prior predictions. I, however, predict that based on the overall low impact of these current storms on our area, the prior prediction success rate was also low. I indict the MSM as a messenger that tries to instill terror in our population.

Thursday I was in the District at a VMUG conference. I bailed out a bit early and got home in time to fire up the generator when the power went out – a tree had taken out a power line nearby. Two hours later, the power was back on. There had been a tornado, an EF0 that had been on the ground for a fair stretch, and damaged a few houses and cars by knocking trees over on them. Last year’s derecho was much, much worse than what we had this week. Oh, yeah, another tree fell in about the same place today, and we were power-out again for another two hours.

I got some more herbs installed this weekend in the garden, did a fair bit of weeding, and got the face frames and backs fabricated and installed on the last two cabinets, down in the woodshop.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

• Lt. Col. Todd J. Clark, 40, of Evans Mills, New York, died June 8, in Sharana, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered from small arms fire received at Zarghun Shahr, Afghanistan.
• Maj. Jaimie E. Leonard, 39, of Warrick, New York, died June 8, in Sharana, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered from small arms fire received at Zarghun Shahr, Afghanistan.
• Staff Sgt. Jesse L. Thomas Jr., 31, of Pensacola, Florida, died June 10, in Helmand, Afghanistan.

Or, dare I say, hasenpfeffer? No, we didn’t have that for supper – the rabbits aren’t out and about yet as it’s been too bloody cold! I did nothing special in celebration of a mystical fiction. Instead, I continued to work on the RHCE material through the day.

This evening, we watched the new Doctor Who episode via DVR. The writing on that show remains so very sharp and smart.

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Our condolences to the family, friends, and unit of Sgt. Michael C. Cable, 26, of Philpot, Kentucky, who died on March 27 from injuries sustained when his unit was attacked by enemy forces in Shinwar District, Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan.