Always in Zugzwang

A red rosebud. Took this awhile back, and made it black and white EXCEPT for the red, to make it stand out (and a cool effect, I think!).

@MillvilleWx, a little late to the party here as I haven't been on in awhile...but CONGRATS!!!! Very happy for you getting the WPC position...well earned and well deserved! When do you start (I guess sometime in August given what you say above)? Now...all you have to do is bring the snow back here with you, right?! Maybe I can catch you sometime at NCWCP, I do head over there now and then from Silver Spring HQ.

Can you post the Kuchera maps for this??

A stately tree! This is actually on the grounds of Georgetown Prep school (right at the entrance), near where I live. I've always liked this tree and have taken several shots of it. Difficult to get it while avoiding buildings, street, traffic lights, etc. (it's right off Rockville Pike). But I found an angle that worked. So here it is, at dusk/sunset...

No problem on the rant! I totally understand what you mean. That scene of Gandalf and the Nazgul never quite made sense to me either, where Gandalf was essentially broken (yet Gandalf, as you mention, broke Saruman and also held off Nazgul earlier). It just sort of ended with Gandalf on the ground and the Lord of the Nazgul going off to meet the Rohirrim. I really only posted that for the Ride of the Rohirrim battle, in my opinion one of the best such scenes in the movies (and still holds up very well 20 years later!). I guess that particular YouTube clip starts it with the Gandalf/Nazgul scene. I always liked the part where Theoden looks down in horror and disgust at the orcs laying waste to Minas Tirith...then jerks his horse with a "fuck it!" attitude and prepares his outnumbered army for battle no matter what.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ride+of+the+rohirrim&oq=ride+of+the+rohirrim&aqs=chrome.0.0i355i512j46i340i512l2j0i512l3j46i512j0i512l3.4872j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:5fb4492f,vid:7lwJOxN_gXc

Ahhh, love the 9th and the choral part of course! I've been fortunate enough to see it performed TWICE in my lifetime, both by the Atlanta symphony and chorus (one of them conducted by Yoel Levi). I've heard it said that as wonderful as the choral part of the 9th is, it's actually rather rough and demanding on the singers because they have to strain their voice over the music.

Yup, classic scene! And yeah, Legolas sliding down the trunk of the Oliphant after dispatching all the men and the Oliphant itself...with a toss of his head, and then Gimli saying "That still only counts as one!"

@yoda... Thought you would appreciate this. Some movie theaters here are showing a 20th anniversary of Lord of the Rings, Return of the King. Saw it last night. Totally awesome! Amazing how that movie still holds up 2 decades later. They showed the extended version, so it was like 4 hours, but absolutely worth it to stay out late! I saw the original theatrical release in Jan 2004. And though I have a Blu-ray copy of all 3 which I have seen a few times, seeing that on the big screen again was amazing! Favorite scenes are lighting of the beacons of Gondor, and the Ride of the Rohirrim battle. Unreal cinematography and Howard Shore's sound track is unparalleled.

That would be cool, over a beer or three (after work of course!). I actually work in MDL and do a certain amount of work on the Blend as well as MOS. But much of what I have done lately involves getting things ready for implementation. I would definitely be glad to talk more offline if you like.

I totally hear you, PSU, and overall I agree concerning 2015-16. It is hard to just look past that one amazing event but also it really was not the most memorable season beyond that. Well, if you consider the extreme December warmth, I guess that is memorable LOL! I wonder if the 8" event you got was the same mid-Feb snow/ice event we got farther south here. And I agree, don't like having to root for the historical level event to save a winter! 2013-14 and 2nd half of 2014-15 were more consistent in terms of longer lasting cold. Which was awesome of course! I guess my point is that I never got all the 2016 "hate" that so many seem to have. Going into that winter, I recall expectations being kind of reserved with a very strong Nino. But also that some expected a higher than normal chance of a big event. And honestly after an April-like December, that Jan-Feb were pretty OK temperature-wise.

I know you're being a bit snarky with that reply, but in all honesty there are a certain number of people that love to hate on that winter 2015-16. Despite the HECS in January; and it wasn't really all some total "freak/luck" event either. I'm not one of those, and would take that again just to re-live that one event and the lead-up to it. Yes, December was abysmal with a +10 departure for the month (thank goodness that didn't happen in JULY!! LOL!!). Christmas Eve was downright muggy!! And yes, we really had just the one event worthy of remembering. But...oh, what an event! To me, it's kind of amusing to say, "if it weren't for the big-ass snowstorm that we all followed a week in advance, winter sucked!" It's kind of like saying, "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?" If you look at DCA's records for that winter, Jan-Feb actually were both a bit COLDER than normal (Jan in particular). At DCA! And I think a lot of people forget the interesting little snow/ice event we had in mid-February. We had some legit cold days the second half of January and in the middle part of February. It's not like all was a torch other than one event; there were chances beyond the HECS that season. I'd take that any time over the constant actual torch we had this Jan-Feb, with literally NO snow outside a half-inch on Feb. 1 in the predawn hours that was gone before noon (and almost literally no real chance of anything all winter). Maybe I'm one who just likes to take the discrete good events or periods that happen for themselves, in a lot of ways. Heck, I actually view winter 2006-07 to be pretty good here, and a hair from being one that would be very memorable for everyone (the Valentine's Day sleet storm was not far from being a foot-plus of snow, and was during a very cold period that month).

You need to oil up the ol' Jebman Shovel, get out there, and show them how it's done!!!

That's awesome, @MillvilleWx!! Best of luck to you with the interview, and I hope you land the position! You'd definitely be a great asset there. I go to the NCWCP building now and then (still know a few people there even though I've been at HQ for many years now!), and would be glad to stop in and say hello if you get there! Maybe you can lead one of the WPC map discussions sometime!

And this was perhaps my favorite..looks like a flame! It looked cool in silvery black-and-white as well!

Happy Easter, happy Spring! @mappy, some TULIPS for you!! I took enough tulip photos today that I'm practically Dutch! LOL! But there were so many good ones people had planted. Here are some of the better ones I got: Close-up of the inside of a tulip: Purple tulips: Tulip among some white daffodils:

From the past week...a foggy night (last Saturday, on my birthday no less...note the spider web on the branch near the one light), and a cherry blossom back-lit by the late day sun.

@mappy, that is stunning!!! Love the light and contrast!!

Start a thread, PSU! Start a thread! Go on...DO IT!!

To @vastateofmind...wishing you Happy Birthday, from a fellow March 25th-er!! Not sure about you, but strangely, I've found my birthday to be either kind or cruel some years. March in general seems to be that way to me. Something fun or good that day, or something unpleasant or downright awful. Kind of a strange contrast! On the lousy end, I've had chicken pox over my birthday, I have been mugged on that day (still a very vivid memory), and I saw Purdue (in 1988) get knocked out of the tournament in a year they were widely thought to go to the Final 4! But...I've had some very fun times with friends and family that I also remember, people who helped make it a good day for me, took me out, etc. I guess because of all that, I have always felt that everyone should be entitled to enjoy something special or fun on their birthday. Doesn't have to be anything big, but just to have a great day! So...have a great birthday and a fun time for yourself! I actually wrote a sort of free-form poem in 2020 about when I got mugged, 30 years before. I had been meaning to write about the incident for some time but never got around to it until then, thinking that "30 years" would be a good time to do it. I completed it appropriately (and purposely) right on March 25, 2020 after working on it for a couple of months. Though I don't think of it so much anymore, I was amazed how much detail I still can remember about it. It was actually a bit cathartic to put it all into words, a bit of closure in a way.

Hahaha, yes it was! Definitely Oscar-worthy! Whereas this winter was more like the quality of an Ed Wood film!

Yup, pretty much my sentiments, @stormtracker. Screw it, awful winter, nothing worthwhile. But it's done, so whatever. We do have the best subforum in that we can laugh and joke about our failures and just make light of it all. We also have some very good posters too, of course. I'm the same as you, will be in the "summer hibernation" for the most part but will check in here and there for fun and to see what's going on. You have a good spring/summer, too! And yeah, we'll get back at 'em next winter. ETA: Your Youtube "Hitler's Rage" video will be a classic forever! I've saved the link! Now that's how gallows humor is done right! Posting here again for everyone:

We'll refer to those as "FU" storms.

Coals to Newcastle, as it were...

Yup...March 5, 2015. We had rain overnight and into the early morning on the 5th (and had icing a day before that). Then there was a lull as temperatures dropped with a cold front, and the main low then tracked along the front. Snowed from about 9AM through 4PM, I got 6.5" snow from that and it was quite cold through the afternoon that day. Following day on the 6th it also remained below freezing.