Monthly Archives: August 2006

The importance of being Ernesto

Posted on August 25, 2006 | Comments Off on The importance of being Ernesto

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Could this be our drought breaker? Tropical Storm Ernesto, which the Nat’l Weather Service expects in mid-Gulf by Wednesday as a hurricane. After that, Austin meteorologist Bob Rose says, nobody knows: "As of now, there is no clear answer as to where the storm will go…anywhere from Brownsville, Texas to Pensacola, Florida is possible. Should the storm track northwest toward Texas, it appears landfall would be late next week, possibly even next weekend due to the slower forecasted movement."

UPDATE Looks like Ernesto won’t bring Austin anything but could play hell with Mobile, Ala, and environs. Weather.com says: "Current forecasts indicate that Ernesto will be a Gulf of Mexico hurricane by Tuesday and increasing in strength as it heads toward the northern Gulf of Mexico."

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Posted in Weather/Climate

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The chainsaw chorus

Posted on August 25, 2006 | Comments Off on The chainsaw chorus

I love the sound of chainsaws in the morning!

The landscapers have arrived and begun cutting up the Texas Red Oak that fell down at Rancho Rolly Polly late Wednesday night.

UPDATE Two hours later the chorus was over, the fallen tree was gone and the mess all raked up. The Red Bud’s shorn west side is sad, one whiskey-barrel planter is a casualty, and the Mr. Lincoln hybrid roses will need trimming and staking where the falling tree sidewiped them. But otherwise no damage.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly

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Return of El Nino

Posted on August 25, 2006 | Comments Off on Return of El Nino

Eastern Pacific Hurricane Ioke, packing winds of 160 mph, is expected to cross the International Dateline on Sunday, becoming a typhoon, and so match Hurricane/Typhoon Ele, which also was spawned southwest of Hawaii, and crossed the dateline in August 2002–which turned out to be an El Nino onset year.

"It might be one more clue that we’re headed toward El Nino this fall," said Austin meteorologist Bob Rose. "It is interesting that the current drought resembles similar dry patterns in 1996 and 2000 which ended as La Nina faded and El Nino began.  In 2000, the rains began to return in late September and October.  In 1996, the rain began to return in October as well."

Of course the astrometeorologists (read astrologers) have been predicting the return at least since May. 

El Nino generally means rain for Texas, and gentle, soaking rains would be welcome, after this stressful drought, but post-drought flash flooding is more common in the Texas feast or famine weather cycle. 

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Demotion

Posted on August 24, 2006 | Comments Off on Demotion

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Hubble’s hard won view of Pluto and its moon Charon from 2.6 billion miles. Frozen rocks in the deepfreeze suburbs of the solar system. Until 2015 and a robot spacecraft’s visit, this is the best NASA can do for a portrait of Pluto, the newly demoted planet. The god of the underworld joins an asteroid, Ceres, and a  planet-candidate with a number in the Kuiper Belt as one of three new dwarf-planets. Talk about historical revisionism, even though it’s really scientific revision, however scientific it may really be. Solar System Newly Defined: Eight planets, three dwarf-planets. But it really ought to be four dwarf planets, since Charon is almost as big as Pluto.

HONK IF… Then, the inevitable happened: "like-minded astronomers [have] begun a petition to get Pluto reinstated. Car bumper stickers compelling motorists to "Honk if Pluto is still a planet" have gone on sale over the internet and e-mails circulating about the decision have been describing the IAU as the ‘Irrelevant Astronomical Union’". 

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Posted in Space

Goodbye Red Oak

Posted on August 24, 2006 | Comments Off on Goodbye Red Oak

So we’re sitting in the kitchen last night going over some elementary school handouts for parents when we hear this big sound, just a big whoosh. We go outside to find it is the second Red Oak to give up the ghost in two months, except this one was two feet in diameter, versus about six inches for the other one that took out part of the fence. The new one seems to have done little damage, missing the house by inches, but sadly it sheared off the west side branches of the Red Bud, and of course it is blocking access to the back yard pretty good. The landscaper, who can’t come to start the chainsaw chorus until tomorrow, blamed it on the drought, but it also might be oak wilt. Looking on the bright side, we will now have more sunshine for the planting of more antique roses to keep safe from more deer, etc.

UPDATE  Something I forgot. Mr. Boy, getting into the spirit of our nightly readings of The Lord of The Rings trilogy, glanced at the fallen tree in the back yard and pronounced it Treebeard, cut down by the Orcs in mid-battle for Isengard. "Back to Fangorn!" he shouted to the other trees. 

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Posted in Antique Roses, Rancho Roly Poly

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One war

Posted on August 24, 2006 | Comments Off on One war

As the Town Hall dot com ad puts it, When was the last time you saw a top American general interviewed at length by the MSM? Hugh Hewitt interviews Gen. John Abizaid, of Central Command, who brings us up to date. The transcript is here.

"HH: Is it all one war, General? Afghanistan, Iran, the Hezbollah-Israeli battle?

"JA: Well, from where I sit, it’s all connected. And whether it’s one war or not can be debated from a political perspective. But from a military perspective, as I look at it, the…all of the lines lead back to one or two sources. They either lead back to Sunni-sponsored extremism, or to Shiia-sponsored Iranian extremism. And sometimes, on occasional points in the battlefield, they even cooperate with one another. So it’s certainly connected. No doubt in my mind."

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Posted in The War

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Kisses from Iran

Posted on August 23, 2006 | Comments Off on Kisses from Iran

"If you want to have good relations with the Iranian people in the future, you should acknowledge the right and the might of the Iranian people, and you should bow and surrender to the might of the Iranian people."

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Posted in The War