tamarack

"Safe" in this context is relative. The science says that wearing masks greatly reduces the chances of getting COVID-19 but I've not heard any science that says it totally eliminates the chances. Sitting in a poorly ventilated room (typical of many small-town voting places) for 8 hours while hundreds of people file by multiplies the "greatly reduce[d]" chances. Volunteers in our town are generally dedicated and will be there, but reducing the number of folks parading past the registry table can only help. Edit: 'Berg nicely describes the "lock the gate behind me" syndrome.

Depends on how one does it. When "phase 2" arrived in June, meetings of up to 50 people were okayed, with masks and/or distancing. Our pews are tape-blocked such that differing family groups sit 6+ feet apart and families with younger kids view the service remotely from a downstairs room to ensure <50. We do sing hymns, but those with louder voices (like me) mask up to sing. Choir has not yet resumed - we had hoped to present our Easter program for the church's 40th anniversary in June - no go - so now were looking at December and doing it as the Christmas program as the material works for either holiday. I'm not real confident it will go completely, maybe just the spoken parts w/o the choir. Just common sense.

With the new town hall just beginning to be built and no sizable place in town to vote, a social-distanced queue of more than 10 people will have most standing outside. November can be messy, even during the 1st week. Because of that and our ages, my wife and I will vote absentee but hand-deliver our ballots before the crowds arrive on election day. Killington folks gone wild And it may be just beginning. Less than 30 of the 65 guests at the infamous Millinocket wedding early last month got the virus, but with secondary/tertiary infections the total related positives is probably approaching 140, with 66 in the York County jail alone. When it was 54 the cases included 19 staff and 35 prisoners. Yikes!

The arborist bill might be more than what it cost (in 2020 $$) to build the pool.

Despite the SNE damage from Isaias, it was still a Cat 1, so the season to date might be called "Laura and the dozen dwarves."

Dec 1992 was just wind at my (then) home in Gardiner, nary a flake. PWM had 2" so I doubt IZG got much. Feb 1978 dumped 22" at the Farmington co-op, only 2" where I lived in Ft. Kent. We were marking timber near the south shore of Eagle Lake about 15 miles south of FK and had S- on an eerily steady north wind about 25 mph. I can't remember another significant wind that had so few gusts. In my 10 years in northern Maine we had only one decent snowfall that also tagged both CHI and NYC, the April 1982 blizz. Anything else that got both sites at 40-41N invariably kept heading east.

August numbers: Avg. max: 74.61 0.30 BN. Warmest was 86 on the 11th, coolest 55 on the 29th - tied with 8/29/09 for month's coolest max. Avg. min: 53.52 0.81 AN. Coolest was 38 on the 28th, mildest 66 on the 12th. Avg. mean: 64.06 0.25 AN. Was running +3 thru the 1st 2 weeks. Warmest mean was 74 on the 12th, coolest 52 on the 29th. Precip: 1.79" 2.18" BN. Greatest one-day: 0.90" on the 29th. Had 0.71" from Isaias on the 4th-5th, thus 0.18" for the other 28 days. 1 TS, tied for lowest Met summer: Avg. temp: 64.45 1.26 AN. 4th warmest of 23. Warmest: 65.78 in 1999; coolest 61.24 in 2009. Hottest day: 90 on 6/20; coolest: 27 on 6/1. Precip: 11.82" 1.37" BN. 8.33" (70%) fell June 28-July 14. Wettest was 23.82" in 2009 (of course), driest was 7.24" in 2002. Greatest one-day: 1.98" on 6/30

4th warmest of 23 here, about 1.5 degrees behind 1999 and slightly less warm than 2001 and 2005. The last 6 days of August averaged 64/45 and kept this summer out of the #2 slot.

York County locations had up to 21" and Machias 25", so those big Maine forecasts verified in a few places. Had 125% of average snowfall that winter, but for "woulda-coulda" frustration it ranks behind only 2009-10 since we came to Maine in 1973.

It was 38 years ago that we watched and read about NYC to BOX getting a freak April blizzard, then went to bed after seeing the CAR forecast for windy 20s and flurries, that last added only late in the evening. By 2 AM we had S+ and CAR wound up with 26.3". Only 17 at my place, a wild guess in the 50+ gusts (27" at the stake pre-storm, 25" after but 6' drifts a few yards away on either side) but the most impactful snowstorm of my 10 years in northern Maine though only 5th biggest snowfall. Of course, the VD massacre of 2015 is the other kind - blizzard warnings for 18-24, lowered to 12-18 by the afternoon shift and verifying at 1.5".

I was fortunately having way too much fun to think about retiring that early. It's in the works now, however, for December if Maine PERS can get to my benefits options in time - they have a lot of folks in the queue. Might look into a private contract to assist with next year's full recertification audit.

I can't fault you for disagreeing. BOX depth reached 31" in Jan 1996 while 150 miles north we never got past 28, as the big KU was a fringe job there. That was somewhat AN for max depth in Gardiner but peanuts compared to BOX's anomaly. My "affection" for deep pack was born in my Fort Kent years. The monster pack in 1961 in NNJ is a strong memory, but that winter was almost the only incidence of significant pow-pow. Usually the snows fell on bare ground there, or on a bit of whitish crust. In the years once I became interested in snow records (began about 1956) until moving to BGR in 1973, my area in NNJ averaged 50-55", which is about 15" above the long-term average, and the Feb 1961 storm is the only one that brought a 10"+ storm atop a 10"+ pack. Even the snowier locations in NW Jersey at 1000+ elevation did that only the one time. Where I live now it occurs in more than half our snow seasons, even this past BN one though barely - the 10.3" on 3/23-24 fell atop a 10" pack.

First fire in the stove this season (except for burning some non-recyclable papers) as the past 2 days' means of 52 and 54 had cooled the house to 63-64. (Thermostat set near 60 so no oil used.)

Not quite as stark here. We've had 11.82" May 17 thru today (average for the period is 15.17", so not terrible) but the 17 days June 28-July 14 had 8.33" and the rest 3.49" - 2.59" over the remaining 88 days w/o Saturday's 0.90. Another CoC day, low 40s this AM to upper 60s this afternoon - w/o yesterday's wind, clouds and 60° max. Last 5 days' highs: 64, 65, 72 (low of 38), 55, 60. Middle day's high only 1° BN but the other 4 averaged -12.

Probably about the same here, after being +3 a couple weeks into the month. Yesterday's 55/49 took a bite out of the AN. That max ties for the coolest I've had in August here. Exactly 11 years ago we had the same 55/49, but only 0.62" compared to yesterday's 0.90.

The classic big snow/no retention was 1995-96. At Gardiner the snow got to 28" deep 2nd week of January then 3 torch deluges cut it back to 5". In Farmington, 40" went down to 8" - takes some incredible thaws to drop the foothills pack by 32" in January. Feb saw the Gardiner pack go up to 12" then squash back to just 2. 16" in early March again lifted the depth to 20" and 17 days later it was all gone. 23" in one April week produced only 21 SDDs. For my 13 winters in Gardiner that winter is 30" snowier than any other but only 5th in SDDs, way behind 86-87, 89-90 and 93-94. Fun watching the stuff fall, not fun slogging thru the slush a few days later.

Most of which are probably true. That Cutler trip in 1991 was interesting in many ways. It was before any of the trail work had begun and going thru the spruce behind the seaside cliffs was like fighting one's way thru tall krummholz. Torn uniforms, scratches galore, and we were all swacked out at the end of the bushwhack. That evening we got the news we had feared, that the political impasse at the State House had caused a shutdown and we were to drive straight back to Augusta the next day, which would spoil our plans to explore with Maine Coast Heritage Trust the 10,000 acres inland from the highway that they had recently acquired (and would later gift to the state.) Ten minutes after getting the news we called back and asked if we used the state vehicles only to drive back to Augusta, did it matter when we got there? The Parks and Lands Director knew exactly what we were asking and said, "I guess not." Next morning we all packed into the MCHT vehicles and did the planned explore, carefully as we weren't then covered by workers comp, and figuratively thumbing our nose all day at the political mess back home.

My Knife Edge round trip in 1973 tops my list of memorable mountain experiences. However, the scariest was much smaller scale, at a pocket beach surrounded on 3 sides by 100' cliffs on the state's "Bold Coast" Cutler tract. We entered down a 45° (thus 100%) scree slope about 100' long after another 150' of letting ourselves down by hanging on to the occasional bush. When one would hit the "beach", scrambling another 30-40' was recommended to avoid being hit from behind by the rocks one had loosened. The footing wasn't very good once one was down as the Cutler "sand" is of a size suitable for paperweights. With 7 of us looking to get back up, I had the "smart" idea of free-climbing the cliff where it was only about 75' to the trees. The first 30' were easy but when I got to the real steep I found that the rock was so crumbly that it was worthless as a hand-grab. For the next 15 minutes I edged upward (down would mean a 30' fall) by using the dying grass for support - weak but better than the rocky mess. By the time I reached the tree line my legs and arms were toast, having been at constant full tension for that 1/4 hr. A minute after rejoining the group I got stung by a yellowjacket but had far more adrenaline in my system than an epi-pen would provide (and I've never shown the allergy.) Still had another 4-5 miles that day and I was slogging as much as walking. The beach was, to me, the most spectacular spot on that spectacular property, but our trail layout avoided its proximity as we couldn't figure a safe way for significant hiker traffic to enter and exit. (Short of a hideously expensive structure that might withstand the storms)

Had 0.89" with dz about 20 minutes ago. Lot of svr watch in VT, but GYX thinks the cold-damming here (still mid 50s) will damp the convection down mostly to quiet showers. Next week's warmup forecast has modified from mid-upper 80s seen 2-3 days ago to near 80 on Thurs-Fri. Might be dewy, though.

Actually quite a lot has changed since "Paper Plantation" though perhaps the legislative clout less than most things. Back then most of the large landowners also had mills; Seven Islands and Prentiss & Carlisle were the major exceptions. The "earthquake" began when Great Northern sold its 2 mills and 2.2 million acres (about twice the next largest landholding) to Georgia Pacific in 1992. Over the next 15+ years the land/mill vertical structure essentially disappeared, with the land ownership going to Timber Investment Management Organizations (first was John Hancock, deciding that their funds would earn more that way than in the stock market) and Real Estate Investment Trusts. Whatever one thought of how IP, Scott, GNP managed the forest, those companies' biggest investments were the mills so they managed the woodlands for the long term. The newer entities generally looked at a 10-year horizon (plus/minus) and would often cash out at the end of that period, with establishment of desirable forest regeneration beyond their investment time and thus not on their radar. The land still grows trees but a short financial horizon is unlikely to produce a diverse forest.

What I'd like (as would anyone here) would be another Feb 1969,when Farmington got 43" over 3 days that built the pack to 84" - was the state's tallest pack on record until 2017 when 94" was measured at Chimney Pond. Pales next to Pinkham Notch's 164" after that same '69 event., undoubtedly the most east of the Rockies. Mansfield is 2nd, 149" that same winter.

Been there only once, on our honeymoon in June 1971. I recall it as being a bit spooky, in a good way - deep shade and big roadside boulders.

6.7% gradient vs. 11.5% at MWN. I suspect I-70 doesn't get above 5%.

Ever hear the Rudy Vallee version? Light rain now, looks like about 0.8" in the gauge. Decent, and the biggest RA event in 6 weeks.

Moderate RA the past hour, probably 1/2-3/4" in the Stratus to boost August's 0.89" before today. Mid 50s, very October-ish.