mattie g

11 minutes ago, frd said:

So what chemical reaction is causing this wildfire smoke to smell more like burning plastic and chemicals versus a typical wood burning ?  There are some conspiracy theories on the web about this currently.  

 

Of course there are!

NVSL Relay Carnivals tonight. One of the most fun nights of the season!

5 minutes ago, WxUSAF said:

Very pleasant late June morning 

It's been an unreal couple months, to be honest. You know it's been an easy summer so far when it hits 87 with some humidity and folks are melting.

1.3" at the closest CoCoRaHs that has reported yesterday's rainfall. That puts MBY over 3" for the last week, despite completely whiffing on Monday.

3 minutes ago, mattie g said:

Radar is more impressive than the rainfall so far.

Abd the skies then opened up.

3 minutes ago, H2O said:

I’m only gonna go out and look at the clouds today. Nice cluster to my west out PW/FX way

Radar is more impressive than the rainfall so far.

Just now, Terpeast said:

I wouldn't be surprised if areas that got no rain yesterday gets it today, and vice versa.

Keep talking...

10 hours ago, hstorm said:

Completely agree on the flinches.  Especially for younger kids and if it doesn't otherwise affect the start.

Our false start issue was a bit more unique, but is addressed clearly in NVSL's false start guidance.  One of our swimmers was using a teammate's legs for a backstroke start.  At the "take your marks" command, he started to pull up to get into his starting position, but one of his hands slipped off his teammate's legs and he fell backwards (all before getting set in his starting position).  NVSL's guidance covers this scenario and says it is not a false start if a swimmer loses his balance and falls into the pool before getting set.

We have a very experienced referee.  To his credit, he was  patient in letting them make their argument.  But there was no reason for them to push the issue for 15 minutes after the meet ended.  That, however, was just one of the many annoying (and petty) things that they did on Saturday.

Gotcha. Yeah...that's plain as day and even if the Reps weren't aware of the rule (which is totally understandable), they should 100% defer to the Referee in that instance.

What a crappy way to end a meet!

Just add to the chorus above…my co-Rep and I saw false starts on two different relays (both the other team’s) that didn’t get called. We both immediately looked at each other and mouthed “huge flinch”, but it’s just not worth making a fuss about it.
 

There’s something to be said for holding kids accountable to play to the rules, but there are other ways to address it than DQing kids.

1 hour ago, hstorm said:

Yesterday’s A Meet was the first time im our family’s 3 years of NVSL swimming that I left a meet with a bad taste in my mouth. Our opponent’s coaches/reps were just unpleasant (including a protest and staying for 15 minutes after the meet ended to argue with our referee over a — correct — non-call that they thought should have been a false start).  Seemed entirely out of place for a middle division meet  

It was too bad because both teams swam really well and it was otherwise a fun meet … including an entertaining 8&u fly where everyone DQed. 

That sucks. I get the idea of being able to protest, but it should only be used in the most obvious of circumstances and if it makes a difference in terms of the outcome of the meet…and even then I question whether that card should be pulled.

Full slate of DQs is hilarious! We have a small 8&U crew this year, and few of them are experienced swimmers, so our only boys fly swimmer DQed…but he was close!

We had a really fun meet that was closer than we thought it might be. Our opponents had some much better swims that their seed times suggested, but we held them off in the end. And <Dad Brag> my girl had another PB in 9-10 free, nonchalantly going MUCH faster than any of us expected </Dad Brag>.

We often get a single ant infestation in our mailbox each spring that always follows a heavy rain event. I just nuke them and they're gone...not to return until the next year. We only got that one decent rain event at the end of April, but I haven't gotten any ants so far this year.

1 hour ago, MN Transplant said:

Yeah, that's effectively where I am.

Makes sense since when we get general area-wide precip, we usually fall pretty much in line.

Swim practices cancelled this morning due to the cool temps. Pretty wild for June 22!

About .8" based on CoCoRaHs nearby. Seems about right.

1 minute ago, Terpeast said:

Have you seen a recent sst map? and the forecasts?

Orange and red everywhere, except for a few small blue spots. Frankly, it tells me everything I need to know about this issue. 

Lots and lots of underwater volcanoes?

Ended up with a few sprinkles (literally) after bedtime. Not worried, as we'll get ours this week.

12 hours ago, hstorm said:

Congrats to your daughter!  We were also shorthanded this weekend and it showed in the final score.  Lots of familes away for the week (or for the weekend) with school just getting out.  My son and daughter did great, so very happy about that

Rough going tonight at our home B Meet.  Had to start 20 minutes late due to thunder and meet was called around 7:45 when another storm blew through.  We made it through free and back with only ~1:15 of actual swim time between pool closures.  Pretty efficient use of the little time that we did have.  I always feel bad for the non-A Meet swimmers when a B Meet gets called off, but at least getting through free/back gave most everyone the chance to race.

Congrats on your kids doing well!

It's always rough when lots of kids are missing. It's understandable, but never fun, especially for the coaches when they're putting their lineups together. My guess is that your team is bigger than ours, and we feel the pain big time when we miss kids, but no matter what it's always a blow to go into meets knowing you don't have your full team available to you. The positive to that is that it gives other kids a chance to swim in A Meets!

Wow...free and back in only 1:15? That's flying! And agreed on the non-A Meet kids getting their chances to swim!

We hosted last night and somehow got through the whole meet without a delay! Storms stayed to our west and south the whole time, but even so we still ended at about 9:00. It was a fun meet though, especially because we swam against our closest neighbors whose kids generally go to the same schools as ours, so we all know each other. It was also my 5-year-old daughter's first race! Great start (if I do say so my biased self) and got all the way across with no issues!

The US Men looked really good in both the Mexico and Canada matches and were deserved Nations League winners. Not going to dissect the matches, but I was really pleased with what I saw!

As for Berhalter, the discourse is ridiculous. I have absolutely no issues with his reappointment nor, does it seem, do the players. We have three years until the World Cup, and if things don't go well through Copa America, then we can make a change leading into 2026.

On 6/16/2023 at 11:16 AM, hstorm said:

Looks like a beautiful day tomorrow for the first A Meet.  Our last evening practice was yesterday.  No practice today because of our annual end-of-school party at the pool.  Always nice to switch to the morning routine.

Only downside tomorrow is that we are away and have a 45-minute drive to the other pool.  We dodged any long trips last year but are paying the price this year -- our other away meet is also a 45-minute drive.  Early mornings . . .

Turned out a little chillier (and breezier) than ideal because our hosts' pool was mostly in the shade during the meet, but our kids were seated in the sun, so they looked comfortable enough!

We had lots of good swims, including personal bests and a team record! And I have to brag on my older girl who won her first A Meet heat ever with her own 50 Free personal best! I have to say that I felt bad for the other team reps because they were missing more swimmers than they expected, which led to a pretty lopsided, unfortunate final score. Plenty of closer meets to come, though.

19 hours ago, Terpeast said:

really like the enso orientation here, but global ssts are frighteningly warm all over

Lots and LOTS of underwater volcanoes!

38 minutes ago, Paleocene said:

https://weather.cod.edu/satrad/?parms=nrnmidat-02-24-1

You can see it in a big arc reaching from MN through the midwest to PA... headed our way

HRRR doesn't seem super enthused about our latest weather-hype phenomenon. Maybe some smoky haze, but nothing like what it was last week.

On 6/12/2023 at 9:23 PM, MN Transplant said:

Special for @mattie g

 

https://wtop.com/local/2023/06/drought-monitoring-triggered-on-potomac-river-drinking-water-backups-could-be-tapped/

I appreciate the heads up!

I think we'll be fine though.

1 hour ago, vastateofmind said:

You highlight two very critical must-have volunteers for efficient meets -- a knowledgeable/organized referee (newbies and experienced alike) who can keep the proceedings moving along at a steady pace, and a kickass clerk-of-course (preferably with runners/assistants!) who's not afraid to accost the coaches to get their swimmers to the staging area ON TIME, or chase down the swimmers themselves.

As a former S&T judge, for about 15 years, I was always fortunate to work with awesome refs, starters and CoCs at our pool. Always encountered at least one "peacock referee" during a given season at an opponent's pool, but that's par for course. I've mentioned it before, but one of my favorite teams to compete with was @H2O's neighborhood pool, with whom we hold B meets each summer...his pool has some of the easiest and friendliest officials and families I've encountered in all of those NVSL years, with experienced officials, a comfy/spacious pool and surrounding grounds, and ALWAYS a great concession stand.   

For sure. If there's one thing I've become more appreciative of, it's how the referee sets the tone for how the meet will run and how the clerk of course keeps sh*t moving. First B Meet makes sense for a new ref to work, but I think he was a little overwhelmed. Hopefully he comes along and gets more comfortable as the season progresses.

We're lucky to have a fantastic CoC who worked last night (at home meets, she's a monster!), but with the chaos on the deck and the other team's coaches/reps not really doing anything about it, there was only so much they could do. I honestly have no idea why they even had marshals since there was barely a thing they could do to keep the deck clear.

That's high praise for H2O's pool! I hope other teams feel the same about ours!

2 hours ago, H2O said:

One, just ONE clap of thunder held us up for 30 min.  No rain.  We didn't finish until 9:15ish.  And thank god the other team was small.  Otherwise i think I'd still be at the pool timing.  My voice is so shot.  But we had 3 food trucks in the parking lot and man did they do business during the delay.  

Fun really begins Saturday with the first A meet.

2 hours ago, hstorm said:

Same here.  9:05pm finish (and then a 15 minute drive home . . . which is par for the course; we are a good distance from any other pool).  Long evening for those of us who needed to stay until the end.

At least it's the last week of school!

Team size is all relative, but last night's other team is bigger than ours, though probably on the smaller size of the NVSL spectrum in general. And even with that, after the 30-minute thunder delay, we didn't get done until about 9:35 .

It was a bit of a sh*tshow, to be honest. Their swim club's footprint is tiny, so it's absolute chaos on the deck; they also had a first-time referee who, while a very nice guy, didn't do a great job of setting the tone for moving things along. Also, from what I could tell, there were a number of times when kids from the other team were supposed to be there to start, but they weren't there so the officials waited for the kids to be found.

Luckily, they're five minutes away, so it wasn't a long drive home, but still lots and lots of tired faces today!

I can't wait to get through this last week of afternoon practices and to the first A Meet and morning practices after!

Our meet finished so f'ing late last night. Kids at the bus stop were miserable this morning

We host a B Meet this coming Monday, and while we need the rain I really hope it holds off. Kids love those meets, as does the team because B Meet concessions make a HUGE difference for us!

Some very light rain with a distant rumble of thunder or two that delayed our swim meet last night. And damn...it was chilly by the time it finished (at like 9:40 pm)!