Scarlet Pimpernel

Happy Birthday!! I hope the Lord High Executioner is having a good one!

Thank you! I am glad you noted and appreciated the composition. I did actually crop these some to cut out some foreground buildings and such. And I totally understand what you mean about not being into much of the festivities.

Happy 4th everyone! Some fireworks from a display near where I live, from the other night...

Hahaha!! Yeah I know you're not anywhere near 85. As for @H2O and "Jurassic", well, that might still apply! Oh and have a great time at your softball game, along with the jello shots! I miss playing, it was fun...but decided to hang up the cleats this year in the league I've been on for a long time. Like 17 years before COVID canceled the past 2 seasons, and that last season ended for me when I broke a finger on one play. Just too much going on now and yeah, dare I say, getting a bit old for it! I'll joke and say that without me playing now, our outfield has probably improved greatly! LOL!!! I may show up at the annual tournament later this summer as a "guest" and take photos (and drink beer!), though.

Happy Birthday @mappy! Hope you have a great day!! Without sleet, of course! @H2O, if mappy is 85 then that must make you...well, I won't go there, but the word "Jurassic" does come to mind!

I don't quite know. My mind tells me it's the 4th month, but my perception is that we're a lot farther into the year than that!!

@mappy...TULIPS, continued!

@mappy!!! TULIPS for you!!!

I guess I'd go with a C+, maybe up to a low B. So I give it a Ralphie award! Certainly January was the highlight with the Jan. 3 event plus a couple of other smaller ones, and it was pretty cold too. March had that neat event on the 12th (though it kind of underperformed in this area compared to others). December was awful and overly warm with no real chances. February was just a waste for a month that normally produces at least something halfway decent.

A tiny new redbud leaf. Taken close up to the leaf (and at a wide aperture) with the redbud blossoms in the background "blown out" to give a smooth, purple look.

Getting to this a bit late, as I was up in Ohio (Cleveland area) visiting my brother and sister-in-law this past weekend for my birthday. Thank you all so much! Had a great time there. Of course, there MAY have been food and plenty of booze involved (duh, of course there was)! Including BLTs and Veuve Cliquot champagne one day for brunch! And they got snow! It snowed on and off Saturday, sometimes pretty hard. Mostly stuck to grassy areas, but maybe close to 2" total then, though it kind of melted and came back depending on when it was snowing. It then got quite cold, around 20 Saturday night and it was in the 20s all day Sunday. We got another ~4" overnight Saturday and some occasional decent snow showers during Sunday. Definitely felt wintry! It was like in the mid teens or so when I left this morning...brrrr! Here's a couple of photos from their area. First is Saturday afternoon, second one is Sunday morning:

Like Weird Al Yankovic, partying like it's 1699!

Same. Well, I knew one kid in like 6th grade who also had the same birthday, but that was back in ancient times! Like before I even rode dinosaurs to school! Couldn't afford that until high school! Take heart knowing that Howard Cosell also was born on Mar 25!

Yeah, that image is...disturbing!! LOL!

Hey @vastateofmind! An early happy birthday to you...fellow March 25 birthday!! I'll be out of town this weekend, going up to Ohio tomorrow to visit for the weekend (and celebrate), so wanted to send wishes today. I'll be turning 29, not saying how many times I have though! Perhaps as old as @H2O or older than dirt!!

Ahhh yes, remember that more now. Didn’t know the post got up to 40+ weenies chucked his way! Hey you were just gaming the refs! No different than "campaigning" for an Oscar! Still a remarkable number of weenies!

Not quite! I added the "confused" emoticon, so now @Weather Will has officially hit for the cycle! I do think @WinterWxLuvr got the record a few months ago for the most weenies (like 25 or something!), but offhand I can't remember what his post was for that!!

March 32nd storm...book it, I'm all in for being fooled again!!!

Wow, I honestly didn't even know they were considering that at that level. I wonder if staying on standard time all year would have been better? Though really, when you look at places farther north (from what @MN Transplant said), I don't think a one or the other solution all the time would work well anyhow (standard or daylight time). So they can barely pass a budget at the (literal) 11th hour to avoid a government shutdown, but Congress will jump right on DST/EST!! Gotta love it. Well, they do say that the opposite of progress is Congress, eh?? LOL!!!

Wait...is this at the Federal level, or state of MD? I heard MD was considering going DST all year, if several other surrounding states did. Oh and yeah 2PM Euro would suck. But even worse, would be having to stay up even later for the 2AM one (00Z cycle)!!! Hell, by that point we'd be waiting earnestly for the next NAM run LOL!!!

Wow, and I thought it was a pain in the ass when I was at Purdue. Indiana doesn't do DST but they are in the eastern time zone which is the same as Ohio (where my home was at the time). So like part of the year, I'd be an hour behind everyone at home! But a 9:45AM sunrise in late December for the northern tier of states? That's just a bit much.

Oh my, Mrs. J!! That is horrible and so sorry to hear about your younger Miss J!! I truly hope she'll be fine and that it is nothing too overly serious. ETA: I didn't read farther down to see the results you mentioned. I hope the surgery goes well to remove the kidney stone!! Sending you all good thoughts...

Much respect on the cartography and GIS, especially since it seems to be something you prefer a lot more for a career! I find the different map projections, etc. to be pretty interesting, though I don't understand much at all in how to convert one to another or how exactly they represent the spatial aspects on the globe. My major and career has been in atmospheric science/meteorology, so I actually didn't mind the calc series I had to take, or differential equations, that sort of thing. That said, I probably don't remember at least a certain amount of it at this point in time, LOL!!

Recs for using HPs and RPN!!! Huzzah! I've had an old HP11-C (though had to replace it once with another one) that served me well through undergrad and grad school. Still have it now at work and use it upon occasion. I actually like RPN and the memory "stack" that those calculators have, can really come in handy.