Peachtree Eve and potential Bertha?

Well tomorrow is the big day, the Peachtree Road Race. Why else would I get up at 6 AM to go running on a national holiday? Again I'm in group 1A, so I'll have to run fast to keep up (and hopefully not stay too far behind the Kenyans!). I'm excited though and the weather looks to be good.

Also, a potential Bertha is churning out by the Cape Verde Islands. This is very early in the year for a "Cape Verde" storm to form, but it looks like it may miss land, or at the very worst (for the U.S.) hit up around Maine or somewhere, which would weaken it since the water is still so cold there. It's scheduled to become a tropical storm, and get its name, sometime later today.

Off to Maine tomorrow

Tomorrow we're traveling 1200 miles up the east coast....this would be a 20 hour drive through most of the east coast major cities, but fortunately we're flying, connecting through Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky up there and coming back through New York's John F. Kennedy, which I've never been to before. The weather is supposed to be beautiful, however it might be cold for Atlanta standards, and I think I'll bring my polar fleece vest. Saturday it's supposed to be in the 70's, with 50's at night and 60's on Sunday...it doesn't even hardly get down into the 60's here at night!

There is no tropical development to speak of, even in the long-range forecast. This is not unusual for June though. Things don't heat up until late July and August.

I think I am FINALLY recovered from my trip to Charlottesville. It was one of those conferences where we partied hard, went to meetings all day Saturday, partied hard again, then waited at the bar when our flight was 3 hours delayed because we had nothing better to do and because we had all of our bags with us.

The drought is beginning to worsen again. In Mid-may they allowed us to starting hand-watering 3 times per week at 25 minutes per day. This has helped some but not much, and my yard is starting to show the dry patches where it is stressed. Officially at the airport we've received .24" of rain this MONTH, as opposed to Jacksonville which got 4" yesterday AFTERNOON. We're offically in D2 drought stage which doesn't seem that bad, but D3 is as close as Gwinnett County and getting closer, and D4 is as close as the Upstate of South Carolina and getting closer (the D4 stage didn't even exist until a few weeks ago in the South after we had some good rains).

Wimbledon is on this weekend and next. A week from Sunday is when I get to eat strawberries and homemade Devonshire cream...yum. I missed the 1st few days thinking it started next week. Oh well.

Also next Friday, being July 4, is Peachtree Road Race day! Hopefully it won't be TOO warm. Typically it's around 71 or 72 at race time, and it looks like that will hold true this year too. It's not like we're going to get any rain (haha). I hope that they have the mist-ers hooked up to the fire hydrants, however when we had the last drought in the early 2000's, those were turned off. Also this year because of the drought the course won't make it's traditional finish on 10th Street in Piedmont Park, but instead will take 10th to Piedmont and finish at Ponce de Leon, then they'll hoard us over to the Civic Center (which is named after someone I cannot pronounce!). Fortunately this means we can park one car at my sister's apartment near Lenox Mall and one at my office downtown and avoid the smelly people on MARTA!

Peachtree Road Race Eve

Have you noticed that anything that happens, Global Warming is to blame? Today there was a thunderstorm at Wimbledon which stopped play (again), and the announcers asked rhetorically if this was caused by Global Warming.

Speaking of Wimbledon, it's been raining like crazy, with 5-6 rain delays just today. If they don't finish the 3rd round matches tomorrow, the tournament will be forced to play either the mens' championship on Monday, or the players would have to play 2 matches on one (or more) of the days. Apparently Wimbledon has occasionally gone into Tuesday or Wednesday of the third week. There is also a controversy why no play happened on the "People's Sunday", where traditionally no play occurs. Ironically the weather was beautiful that day...maybe it's a good thing that they did not attempt to play though because the Concert for Diana was that day at Wembley Stadium, and it did not rain (meanign that it might have if play had occurred).

There is a chance we may get a tropical system headed towards Florida...as of the 11:30 AM update, they have labeled it a system under investigation...conditions are somewhat favorable.

Finally, I have made a playlist for tomorrow's Peachtree:
Pre-race:
Buy U A Drank - T-Pain and Young Joc
Georgia - Elton John

Race:
2001 Space Odyssey (duh duhhhh DUHHHHHH)
Comin' to Your City - Big & Rich
Keg in the Closet - Kenny Chesney (through the old Buckhead bar district)
Shake Ya Tail Feather - Nelly/P.Diddy/Murphy Lee (for the Braves)
Give it to Me - Timbaland/Justin Timberlake/Nelly Furtado
Jesus Walks - Kanye West
Eye of the Tiger - Survivor (for Heartbreak Hill)
Maneater - Nelly Furtado
Nookie - Limp Bizkit
Jenny Says - Cowboy Mouth
Kerosene - Miranda Lambert
Such Great Heights - The Postal Service
Callin' Baton Rouge - Garth Brooks

Big update

1) Watering restrictions: Everything seems to have leveled out...we're still on the 10 hours/week, but nothing worse than that. I have until July 17 to water my new Japanese Holly...the huge Japanese holly that I thought was dead actually has a bunch of green leaves on it now, so I don't think I'll get another 30-day exemption after that!

2) Wimbledon: It starts this week, with Wake Up to Wimbledeon on every morning for the next two weeks. Fun times...I love that they play on grass...feels very old school. Now I just wish I had some strawberries & cream to eat!

3) The Peachtree Road Race is next Wednesday (July 4). I think I'm fairly ready for it...I don't think that the fire hydrants will have the sprayers attached this year since we're in a drought though ( ): ) Hopefully the holy water at St. Philips will at least be turned on.

4) Also next Wednesday is the announcement for the 2014 Winter Games.

5) Also next Wednesday is the beginning of the Henley Regatta in England (early July seems to be the best month in Great Britain, which is why we might take a trip there next year!).

6) Forecasters are saying that with this drought, temps might climb to 103-108 degrees in Atlanta this summer b/c there is no humidity to bring temps down. Yikes...I think that 103 and dry is WAY better than 90 and muggy though. They're still saying we need a tropical storm to help out, and that the effects of Barry are bascially gone (and the S. Georgia fire is not quite out, and could flare up again).

7) Next Monday is Canada Day (we have 2 canadian neighbors so I keep up)...Normally it's July 1 except in years when that is a Sunday, like this year.