mattie g

I used to walk over the bridge on Columbia Road from Woodley Park to Adams Morgan late at night (I was a bartender as a grad student) and absolutely zigzagged. That was partly due to the post-shift drinks I partook in, but I also did it somewhat consciously.

AO is positive. No cold. Next. Unless...the storm creates its own cold! I'm in!

Sweet kegerator artwork! And the beer sounds good, too! I kegged my imperial stout last Saturday. It's a 16%-ish beast aged on Knob Creek-soaked oak spirals and dosed with a tincture made of 6oz of cacao nibs and 5 vanilla beans soaked in vodka and bourbon. I'm naturally carbonating this one, so I'm patiently waiting for another week or so before hooking it up.

I’ve forgotten what I used to look like.

TL;DR

Brasileira lounging in the sand.

I honestly haven't bothered looking. Does it really matter any more?

I understand that it's fun to analyze and prognosticate, so I'm not sh*tting on anything anyone comes up with in regards to their personal forecasts, but... I feel like the last few winters have really frustrated the long-rangers. Blame it on whatever you want to blame it on, but I simply can't trust analogs and/or long-range modeling any more. Nina, Nino, Nada, blocking, no blocking, solar, PNA, EPO, AO, whatever...winter is completely up in the air. We won't know sh*t until it's pretty much on top of us.

Come on man...the occasional McNugget is delicious!

Not reading back, but saw fly fishing mentioned. Picked it up while in college (Bucknell) and absolutely fell in love with it. Sparked me to even get a 9-wt setup that I’ve used in the salt. I don’t do it nearly enough these days, but I would love to be near a place that made fly fishing worthwhile. Also, I’d fish in a mud puddle.

The one year I didn’t reseed and it won’t stop raining. And the fungus in my lawn is thriving. Hi, everyone...

I realize that. I don’t think it changes what I said though. I think you see an increased ratio of deaths attributed to COVID as more tests are being done. Again, I’m not saying things would change dramatically in that graph, but I do think it would change somewhat (probably more deaths earlier on) had you had similar availability of testing from the beginning of the crisis to now.

Aside from the occasional day or two, the weather thee last few weeks has sucked arse.

You also have to take into account the increased testing as you look to the right in the graph. I’m not saying that this would mitigate totally the difficulty in coming off the plateau as shown in the graph, but it is something to take into account.

Garlic has really sprouted in the last couple weeks - nice to see that every clove has produced a plant. Still yet to get set up with grow lights so I can start seeds indoors, so for yet another year I’ve ordered my tomato and pepper plants, which should arrive in the first week of April. I might go ahead and get LED grow lights and a heat map, though - would be good for starting the early leaf vegetables and cucumbers, rather than plant them directly in-ground. The best part of this year’s garden is that my new beds are fully functional from the beginning of the season, with me having built the first in late April and the second in mid August last year. Can’t wait to really get started!

Alright, alright...title edit made. I’ve been preoccupied with training this week and have only been around occasionally. I hope my quick drive-by edit has made everyone happy!

Garlic shoots have started sprouting in force in the last week. With temps in the 70s yesterday and mild overnight temps the last two nights, they’ve now taken off. Good thing they’re hearty and will withstand the upcoming blizzards. I’ll have to post picture of the forsythia at L’Enfant - plenty of yellow on them. Likely that the first daffodil shoots in the neighborhood have started coming up, too.

Pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before on the boards, but I was in Lewisburg, PA that year. I remember heading up there from South Jersey after winter break on one of the coldest days of that winter, and Philly was covered in ice and steam from all the buildings - like a scene from a Soviet factory city on the Volga or something. We seemingly got snow after snow after snow, with an icing here and there for good measure. Not sure what we ended up with, but it had to have been 75”, give or take 10” or so. There was fairly deep snow on the ground for weeks and weeks on end - an absolutely unreal stretch of weather that I’m glad to have experienced.

It’s more unlikely than likely that anyone here will see an 09-10 equivalent in this area again, but it’s not at all impossible.

I wanted to get my garlic in on Sunday, but it didn’t happen. Not concerned - I’ll hopefully get it in this weekend.

The one year I choose to go with late picks...

None were even close except Dulles.

I may be mistaken, but I feel like that hasn't been the case the last couple years...that Richmond's first freeze was near the same time as DC's.

Taking the over for 90% of the mentioned areas.

Every year, my guesses end up being far too early in the season, so I'm going to push it out a little this go-round... BWI: 11/15 IAD: 11/15 DCA: 12/2 RIC: 12/1 Tiebreaker: 9.2"