Hurricane Season Begins - Kind of

Tropical Storm Alma has formed...in the Eastern Pacific. This is not the start of Atlantic Hurricane season however, but there is a minute possibility that this could cross over into the Caribbean and become a Tropical Depression...again not likely though.

June 1st though is the official start of the Atlantic Hurricane Season, meaning that the National Hurricane Center will start releasing twice-daily updates regarding potential development. I'll finally get to wear my new hurricane belt from Nola Couture "in season"...haha.

June 1st is also the date of the Puerto Rico Primary. Polls close at 3 PM AST/3 PM EDT. Clinton apparently is a little ahead in the polls, campaigning for equal representation for the island (hey, what do they need, they're already coming out with a "state" quarter.

Finally, the Weather Channel debuts in HD on June 2....PLEASE Comcast have that be the day you debut the channel on your HD lineup...I am we are only a couple miles away from the studios!!!

More Politics Crack for the addicts out there...

Tonight is the Mississippi Primary results...may not be a long night b/c McCain has things locked up, and the African-American population of that state is so high that Obama may have it fairly locked up already. In any event, I need my campaign fix, and my fix of Wolf Blitzer drawing out the results as long as he can. In any event, the polls close at 8 PM EDT. After this the next democratic (and republican) primaries aren't until Pennsylvania on April 22. The next Republican caucus (which no longer matters) is Puerto Rico on April 5. The race between Obama & Clinton is so interesting even though I am not even a democrat! Thank god for CNNHD.

Atlanta...It's a Dry Heat

Still no rain in Atlanta, although they're predicting a 20% chance and there are currently some thunderstorms about 100 miles south of us in Houston County (near Macon). Still the same water restrictions and it looks like they'll continue unless we get a Hurricane Opal- like storm to hit us here in Atlanta...hopefully without the flooding and the 5000 downed trees however!

Today is the 6th anniversary of the formation of Tropical Storm Allison, who caused havoc due to flooding in Houston even though it was only a weak Tropical Storm. That is the only Tropical Storm name to be retired to date. (Why do I suddenly have Glen Cambpell's "Galveston" stuck in my head??

I was able to finally turn on the sprinklers in the 3rd neighborhood park...those have been off since about the time of the 9/11 attacks. Finally it all works, save one zone, but I set all the others to go on twice during the Saturday midnight to 10 AM time frame...neighbors came out and were very happy.

Finally, I picked out a television for my mother in law, the Olevia 532H, a 32" LCD flat-screen HDTV. I found it at Beach Camera in Edison, New Jersey for $618.00 which offers free shipping and no sales tax except to residents of New Jersey.

The Masters and Watering Restrictions

It's Masters week in east Georgia. The practice rounds end today and the real thing starts tomorrow (on USA network, which unfortunately is NOT in HDTV yet). However, this weekend will be great with Easter and all and coverage of the Masters on CBS-HD.

In related HD news, The Weather Channel will be going HD in September. I hope that Comcast gets on the ball & picks this up...I noticed they did just add about 10 HD channels though!

Finally, mid-April is when Georgia's water commission comes together to decide on new water restrictions, which most likely will raise us to a Level II drought (See the rules here), which means no watering in the evenings anymore. Of course, that won't matter much for me because I usually set the timer to water from 5:30-7:30 AM (on Sun, Tues, Thurs) and then manually set the timer again from 7:30-9:30 on those days. Fortunately it rained a lot last night so no need to water yesterday or tomorrow.