Two days until Hurricane Season and French Open

So I was watching the French Open at lunchtime on ESPN2. It looks cold and miserable there, and the girls have on leggings while the ball boys and line judges are sporting Lacoste jackets. Who would've ever thought leggings would be back in? This is all attributable to some weather system where it is cold and rainy (and even snowy) in France & Great Britain, while it is in the 90's in Moscow, which is just crazy. Sounds similar to what we've got...a wet Midwest & a bone dry & hot South (yep, still the 1-day/week water restrictions).

Nothing in Hurricane land...I'll keep you posted.

3 days until hurricane season and smokey skies.

We're inching closer to the start of Hurricane Season on June 1st...as said before though, there is no guarantee, and most likely not even a chance, that anything will form by then, but that's what it is. A new "It Could Happen Tomorrow", about a hurricane hitting Miami (which could also be known as "If Andrew had hit 30 miles north").

Because of this dry weather, forecasters are saying it wouldn't be a bad thing for us to get a "benign tropical system"...that sounds like be careful what you wish for. I think if we got a lot of rain it would be bad b/c the ground is so dry and can't take it. We shall see what happens. Right now they are calling for a 20% chance of an isolated thunderstorm on Saturday and Sunday...we could sure use it.

As far as watering goes, I watered for about 6 hours on Sunday morning...put the sprinkler on before i went to bed on Saturday night (right at midnight), had the timer come on at 5:30 AM, and set up the sprinklers again at 8 AM. Hopefully that'll hold me until next Sunday. In addition, I am taking advantage of the 30-day exemption for the boxwoods and japanese maples i planted...hopefully the runoff will soak into the side yard.

Similarly, every couple of days now the smoke gets terrible from the Ware County forest fires, to the point where it feels like you're sticking your head in a fireplace and inhaling the flames. That's despite the fact the fire is 250 miles away.

Finally, I saw Pirates of the Caribbean on Saturday...actually a pretty good movie, but it could've been shorter than 3 hours!

It's beginning to look a lot like...Phoenix! City of Atlanta issues additional watering ban

The City of Atlanta has just issued an additional Watering Ban: Even addresses now can only water midnight to 10 AM on Saturday mornings, and Odd addresses, like me can only water midnight to 10 AM on Sunday mornings. Looks like I'll have to reset the timers to come on Sunday mornings, pull out the other timer to start watering @ midnight, and wake up by 8 AM on Sunday morning to turn on the sprinklers again...it'll then be a LONG week before I can do it over again, and heaven forbid if I am out of town one Sunday! We need the rain. Fortunately I think that the new bushes I planted fall under the "newly planted" exception, so I'll be able to water those, and hopefully the water will leak down into the grass!

Speaking of Phoenix though, we just got back from Paradise Valley, Arizona. I managed to get a nice tan without peeling. It's a nice place, but very different from here...so many cacti and lawns made of red pebbles. Hot too...in the low 100's, although this week I think it's much cooler.

It's also time for the big Memorial Day weekend...we've got our flag out on the front porch...

Memorial Day also means that Hurricane Season 2007 officially starts on Friday. Even though we've already had Andrea, this is the "official" start, as seen by the Weather Channel w/ads to the effect of "Hurricane Season starts June 1st, only here on the Weather Channel"...a little dramatic if you ask me. You'd think a CAT 5 was going to bear down on us that day...it's not American Idol!

Andrea dissipating; golf

Andrea is becoming a non-factor, although it could strengthen as it heads out to see and threaten Bermuda as a strong subtropical storm. It almost was not bad enough, because instead of putting out the Georgia/Florida forest fires in Ware/GA, Charlton/GA & Baker/FL, it fanned the flames without providing any significant moisture (for the most part less than 1/2"). All tropical storm watches have been discontinued as it's gone down to a subtropical depression. I guess we'll have to wait for Barry.

This is a big golf week...The Players tournament in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida is going on (TPC Sawgrass) and the LPGA Tour has a big event, the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill in Williamsburg. My parents are volunteering at the latter event.

Other than that no news...just one more day until we fly out to Phoenix/Paradise Valley! I can't wait! This was a miserably busy day at work!!!

2007 Hurricane Season has started

Subtropical Andrea formed this morning off the Atlantic coast, about halfway between Daytona Beach & Savannah, Georgia. Tropical Storm Warnings are posted for Camden & Glynn Counties in Georgia (the southern half of the Georgia Coast), and Duval, Flager, St. Johns & Nassau counties in Florida (down to Flagler Beach, and including Jacksonville). The storm is supposed to make landfall Sunday morning somewhere on the central Florida coast. More details as they arrive, but here is the projected 3-day map: Click Here.

UPDATE: No real new news, but the weather service has issued a statement for Georgia saying that maybe, possibly, a line from Americus to Macon to Milledgeville might get some rain. Shows how bad of a drought we are in! I hope it rains at some point, otherwise we might go to Level III drought restrictions, which would mean that I could only water on Sunday mornings until 10 AM.

Kentucky Oaks

Today is Kentucky Oaks Day...I'm listening to WHAS out of Louisville, the Kentucky Derby station.

It's 63 and misty there now, with some thunderstorms in the vicinity...here is the line of storms, expected to go through Churchill Downs between 9-10 AM. I found a really cool feature on The Weather Channel website...if you type in 40208, then click on Radar, it'll show you a Google Earth-type image (actually I think it's the Microsoft product) with the rain superimposed...you can zoom in and then scroll around to find Churchill Downs and see if it's raining there at this minute!

Tomorrow's Derby weather is supposed to be much better, mid-70's and some pop-up thunderstorms.

I might be cutting the mint from my back patio tomorrow for the Juleps. Also I'm going to pull out the julep cups tomorrow, so it'll seem more "authentic".

New car & the Queen comes to Richmond!

So I got a new car yesterday! The Acura RDX is what I got. It's about the size of a large CRV, but WAY cooler, with lots of buttons and features that weren't even a thought when my old car, a 1998 QX4, came out. At that time, having automatic air conditioning was a big deal...now I have passenger & driver's side air conditioning! It has 20 miles on it now, up from 3 yesterday, and I can't even put my personalized tag on it yet until I get the paperwork to do so!

Also, the Queen (Elizabeth II) is current in Richmond visiting in preparation for a trip to Williamsburg/Jamestown for the country's 400th anniversary. Virginia is very excited, as evidenced by its license plates, which say Jamestown 400th Anniversary.

Finally, Derby Day is Saturday. Tomorrow is Oaks day, which historically is Louisville's Day at the Races, but now is simply a party almost as big as Derby itself. Now Louisvillans a lot of times go on Derby Thursday to see the races, which is only a $2 charge and is no specific "Day". My horse this year: Any Given Saturday...I like the football reference.