Is Spring Finally Here?

So the Freeze Warning expired this morning at 9 AM, and it appears there was no harm, in fact it appears that our area escaped with a low reading at 6 AM of about 33. However, there is still Frost Advisories posted for Rabun County, as well as Brooks, Grady, Lowndes & Thomas, and areas around Tallahassee Florida for tonight. There are also frost advisories for areas around Richmond, Williamsburg & the Hampton Roads excluding Virginia Beach. Our forecast merely calls for lows of around 40, so we're going to go ahead and do our summer planting tonight. I'll have to be efficient, because usually it takes me the better part of a Saturday, however I'm going to Home Depot straight away after work, and getting to planting as soon as I get home. My wife will walk the dog. This year we're doing red begonias and impatiens again. Those should fair well in the drought, as well as with supplemental water from my rain barrel.

Major update

1) Last time I checked in, I was about to head to the MTSU/UVa game in Murfreesboro...that was a barn-burner but it all worked out as UVa came away victorious with a last-second field goal. Then we won again against UConn and even more surprisingly at Maryland. Then we blew a late lead against NCSU, and as it stands now, we are 7-2, going into a game against Wake who is newly ranked and surging. We shall see...but you know what I'll be doing at noon Saturday EDT.

2) Speaking of EDT, we finally (and unfortunately) go back to Eastern Standard Time this week. This is the end of the new & improved Standard Time.

3) Atlanta still has no water. We have been under a "no outdoor watering" ban since the end of September. Now the various jurisdictions are slowly chipping away at the exemptions. I still wash my car (illegally), but I figure I'm using water from a bucket I keep in the shower and using a lot less water than the commercial car washes (which are not illegal). As it stands, supposedly our clean drinking water supply will run out sometime around 1/9/08. Some people in the metro area are already stockpiling water. It'll be very interesting (and scary) to see how this turns out.

4) Even though there is no guarantee it will grow, this weekend I aerated and then planted the winter rye. I would love to water it right now, but it's not in the cards, so I'm hoping it comes up on its own, esp. after being trampled on by kids during the Halloween madness.

5) Finally, Tropical Storm Noel could brush past extreme southeastern Florida on Wednesday or Thursday. It doesn't look it'll do more than cause beach erosion, however, it would be a minor miracle if it kept jogging left and went up through Georgia. Doesn't look like that's in the cards though. However it will almost definitely ruin Miami-Dade and Broward Halloween Trick-or-Treat plans, and Tropical Storm Watches may be posted at any time today.