Juliancolton

Ahh, comfy. 66/61

Dews are already down 6F in the last 20 minutes as winds swing around to NW. Front is through.

94/78... dying inside the house. Tomatoes are having a grand ol' time, however.

Too much caffeine from coffee enemas, just straight water now. It was 98/80 (allegedly) about an hour ago before some clouds moved in. Absolutely intolerable.

The "reading NE threads" expression transcends species it would seem. Cute little guy.

Yeah, same... but my well is getting low. It's shocking how quickly 15" of rain in July just vanishes into the annals of history.

This is an ultimatum. You guys start posting some more, or I make a c*vid post. The choice is yours.

I mean, they definitely are. Civil twilight begins 35 minutes earlier than it did in late June... that's getting pretty hard for even the most absent-minded among us to avoid noticing.

It's actually quite impressive how almost every weekend this summer is dark and dreary.

Depends a lot on moon phase and ambient brightness from light pollution, but I usually start around f/2.8 and ISO 5000 for 20 seconds and just keep shooting continuously until the lens gets soaked in dew. If it's a more urban environment, you'd still want to keep ISO and aperture very fast but reduce your exposure time. Expose for the meteors.

I can't remember the last time the Perseids didn't disappoint. Give me 20 ZHR Leonids over 120 ZHR Perseids any day.

Bananas have always been the clear favorite food of my toy poodle mix as well. Back when she could still hear (or see), she'd come running if you even mentioned the word banana. My grandfather used to tell stories of his dogs stealing only the biggest and plumpest tomatoes out of the garden, so that's been a thing at least going back to the 50s in some households

47.5F this morning should slow down the gardens for a few days

An emotional or mental crisis can be every bit as debilitating as the most gruesome physical injury.

53.5 was my low for the second day in a row

I saw one, uh... shell? husk? yesterday. Felt like the token 0.4" of dust from the annual fringe blizzard

I was thinking yesterday that all the rain this summer will probably delay the usual mid-August flashes of color from sickly maples in ditches. Tremendous blow to my running narration.

Dare ya to go into the main pattern thread and post that summer's back is broken. 56F was the low here

What a year for oriental bittersweet. Criminy. Trees getting choked out left and right.

The main thing is I miss the V8 power, which is more a reflection of my personal choices than the quality of GMC trucks. I'd been wanting to jump down to a mid-size pickup since I don't do any real heavy hauling or towing, but the Canyon just feels underpowered in everyday use. The gearbox is sluggish, especially climbing hills, and braking is rather spongy... I get that it's a truck and not a sports car, but it wouldn't out-maneuver some of the much bigger trucks that I've had. Otherwise, a handful of little grievances, mostly around the interior. The backup cam keeps going offline, and I'm scheduled to bring it in so they can find the loose wire. The wireless charging platform, which admittedly is totally unnecessary, is too small to fit any modern cell phone. That's a real "what's the point?" moment. Gas mileage a bit worse than the estimated 16/22, combined with a small tank, means I'm filling up every 300 miles or so. That said, the ride is smooth, there's plenty of storage, and mechanically it hasn't skipped a beat in the first 6 months/8k miles.

I bought a new 2021 Canyon Denali in February at a reasonable price, so I assume that was just before the market really went nuts. The salesman was going on about how I wouldn't be able to find a new truck in a few months' time. At the time I brushed it off as a slightly embellished version of the usual shtick, but in retrospect, I guess he was right. It turned out to not be my favorite truck ever. If someone offered me over sticker price for it, I'd probably hand them the keys on the spot.

Would you rather fight one triffid-sized tribble, or a hundred tribble-sized triffids?

Thanks for asking. I've cleared just about all the muck and debris, and got lucky that there was no damage to the fence or driveway. Many others in town definitely experienced more long-lasting effects. Only remaining issue imby is the washout in front. A whole bunch of riprap got dislodged and deposited in part of my lawn farther down, so I have no idea what to do about that. I wish I could find one of these things big enough to gather 1-2lb chunks of bluestone.

Yeah, and it's right here at the sfc. Can see and smell it even just in my yard. Definitely don't have to go upstairs to check visibility to yonder hills.

As a former young boy, there's nothing wrong at all with a good garbage truck.