vastateofmind

Yeah. And this is why I no longer invest the time/energy into bracket building. On a brighter note...what a delightful spring day. Got up to 66 IMBY between 2-3 p.m. Incoming showers tomorrow, and then....the first ugly mowing of the front/back yards come Sunday or Monday, during chillier temps.

Thanks, man! You always help me keep a fresh/tasty "buy to try" list. Love the RAR beer goblet, too! Also, thought of you when we picked this up last week from one of our favorite VA breweries....it's oustanding.

You're always a breath of fresh air, Jeb...you're the reason that many of us still take wonder-filled "Jebwalks" in the snow, years after you left this area... And I appreciate your shout-out for ST: Enterprise, which is definitely included on P+. When it came out around 2001, most diehard and casual ST fans were suffering from Star Trek fatigue, at least on TV...and I feel that show was underrated and not given a fair chance at the time. ST:E had a great cast, and pretty good writing and story arcs, especially in its final two seasons. I think the passage of time has helped Enterprise to be less critically judged, and more readily accepted in the ST realm. I know I enjoy it more when I watch it now, 20 years on...

#PREACH. ST:PIC S2 just wasn't that good because they (IMHO) insisted on falling back on the shopworn "time travel" trope...and S3 is the first that I can't wait for the next episode to drop. In recent times, I feel the laziest ST writers return to the "time travel" and "Mirror Universe" wells far too much. While DS9 went there, too, that show's writing and story arcs were original, well done and just consistently good.

Sounds like we approach Trek from the same critical angle. Given that, I think you will REALLY enjoy Picard S3, certainly more than the first two seasons, as it definitely feels more ST than before. And a GREAT point about ST: Prodigy, didn't mean to leave that one out -- I did watch the first season and was pleasantly surprised at the writing and storyline, and thought the voice cast was quite good. I like that Prodigy's creators/writers not only respect canon, BUT, that they're writing a thoughtfully mature show that's aimed at younger viewers without insulting their intelligence. And AHHHH, "In the Pale Moonlight" -- agree 500%! An episode that forces us all to consider, "To what lengths will I go to achieve my objectives?" Still get chills watching that one...and it's no accident that it often appears at the top of (or within the top 3) of best ST episodes of all shows/all time!

Yeah, it was impressive to wake up yesterday to the same type of winds that we went to bed with on Tue evening...and they ramped up nearly to Tue's level of torque yesterday. Quite a stretch! Currently 27 here, with zero wind...thank God.

Not gonna lie, Bar Rescue is kinda fun to watch! And yeah, Star Trek....THAT'S the reason I subscribed to P+ in the first place, and there's a whole lot to choose from, obviously. ST: Strange New Worlds Season 1 is GREAT from start to finish, INCREDIBLE casting, good writing/stories, although they'll have to try to avoid the "sophomore slump" going forward. ST: Lower Decks is also a new favorite, not because it's animated, but because the show is reverent about ALL of the ST TV/movie canon that came before. ST: Picard... Season 1 = Not bad Season 2 = Watchable, but UGH...must ST always go back to the "time travel" trough??? Season 3 (current) = Some of the best ST I've seen in 40 years, and I suspect it's going to end up being a GREAT send-off for the Next Generation cast (that the ST: Nemesis movie NEVER was). ST: Discovery -- AVOID AT ALL COSTS. This show is abysmal, the writing has been lazy and essentially "called-in" since it debuted 5-6 years ago. Cast is okay, but the stories and changes/updates they ATTEMPTED to make to a half decade of canon in the first two seasons...shame on them. The only way they could possibly redeem this shitshow was to move the ship/cast 3,000 years into the future at the start of Season 3 and going forward, so that they could make up WHATEVER nonsensical crap they wanted to in the far distant future. Good riddance. In fact, die in the future, Discovery...which hopefully it/they will since this coming season is (thankfully) its last. Finally -- after all of that word salad, I should state that ST: Deep Space Nine remains the peak experience of ST watching. Incredible casting, thoughtful and insightful writing from start to finish over SEVEN seasons, the arguable apogee of TV-based ST. I watched DS9 over seven years in its original run from 1993-2000....but if you give it a try now, in this streaming/bingeing environment that many of us currently live within, I can almost guarantee you that you'll be tempted to watch more than one episode at a time, to see what happens next.

LOL. Well, as I recall, you're slightly younger than a lot of us checking in here, but....you'll soon be building out the "infrastructure" of your own apartment/condo/home soon enough, and all of the good info and details that @Stormflyshared in his post will make sense soon enough.

Indeed. And you remember well the wind event of March 2018...the one thing I recall is that's the event that felled for good the "original" Potomac Mills mall sign on I-95. Also, I snapped these pics of two unfortunate homes in my neighborhood that did NOT well weather that particular event. Hard to believe that this happened five years ago! https://photos.app.goo.gl/tbpHvnNHWKQsAuBS9

Curious -- what is your security cam system of choice? I've got several "flavors" of cam systems currently in place and want to consolidate...and I like the quality of your feeds.

Yeah, it's brutal out there. Took the dog for the usual couple-block circuit walk and froze my arse off. Even the dog ran the last block home with these damn winds. Of course, I stupidly went out in shorts, not realizing that the temp had tumbled into the mid 30s since sundown.

Yeah, my spouse wanted P+ for the Yellowstone prequels as well, and those shows mostly delivered (1823 more than 1923, IMHO). I kinda hate-watch Yellowstone now...it's a tad melodramatic and every season seems to have the same ending, but I'll see it through to the end. Interestingly enough, Taylor Sheridan is the producer/writer behind ALL of these shows we're talking about. I happen to think he does prison/mafia-based stories better than neo-Westerns...but again, my opinion only.

Any Paramount+ subscribers out there? I initially joined for all the TV/movie Star Trek you can eat (and more), however, we've been surprised by their original-run shows. We just devoured Mayor of Kingstown and Tulsa King within a week...Jeremy Renner (in the former) and Sly Stallone (in the latter) are amazing, as are the other cast members, and the writing on each show is outstanding. Best two shows I've seen in decades...highly recommended, even if you only try P+ for a free month.

Yeah, we're seeing this, too, even in SE FfxCo. And THIS "threat" is why we early terminated a visit a day early with our son at Fort Benning, GA and drove back to NoVA yesterday. He just earned his Army Ranger tab, and we wanted to "celebrate" another day, but oh well. Because of, you know, the threat of psychotic mid-late March weather. Anyway....it's 38/31. And intermittently flurrying and/or raining. Ugh.

I've had mPING installed on all my cell phones for the past decade...and STILL forget to utilize it. TY for the gentle reminder about its existence... More of us (including ME) really need to use that app.

Dude, PREACH. I despise this stuff....my front yard is covered in this damn weed already, but somehow, it never appears in my BACK yard. So bizarre. I think I'm just gonna break down and call TruGreen this season...there's too many challenges going on in both the front/back yards that I can't seem to handle this year.

Did just that this afternoon, for the 14 freakishly overgrown small patches of grass in my backyard, prior to...whatever....might fall in our yard later this weekend while we're on the road. I hate this part of late winter/early spring in our part of the world when it comes to lawn care... Us years-long, snow-starved "lowlanders" wish you the very best of luck with Wave #1 in northern MD this weekend....and that your relatives in NY state continue to get smothered with snow as well. We'll just keep tending our freakishly random patches of overgrown grass "down here" in the newly, expanded-northward stretch of the SC lowcountry...

Yeah, I'm torn. I looked at that and was like, "F*CK. So typical this season!" And then, on a day like today (or yesterday), I'm like, "Hmmm. Yeah, I'm more ready for warmer springtime temps than I realized. Screw my achey sinuses, BRING IT, SPRING." We are taking a rare road trip south into northern GA from Wed-Sun this week, and will need to plan a Sat/Sun return depending on what happens with Storm #1...and while I don't particularly want to DRIVE in marginal snow/ice back into NoVA, I am pulling for those of you here in the DMV to get something this weekend. God knows y'all deserve it.

We've been in the mid 60s for the past hour or so...SO freakin' nice out. Of course, it's March....so not allowing myself to enjoy it too much, for too long. :/

59/34 currently. Wind advisory expired an hour ago, and honestly...it's an effing gorgeous early spring day out there under a nearly perfectly blue sky. I only wish our patio furniture was cleaner, because we would TOTALLY sit out around the firepit tonight.

Shorter Ji:

The main takeaway here? Sapwood Brewing. Never heard of it, but because @Scraffmentioned it....I will go over to the MD dark side and try it, based SOLELY on his mention.

Not surprisingly, all cold light rain here in FfxCo...did an hour-long walk at mid-morning, and it stayed around 45-46 degrees, with on/off sprinkles. I missed the thunder/lightning a couple nights ago...so wouldn't mind hearing that for the first time in 2023 (myself) tonight. And literally moments ago, a wind advisory was just hoisted for tomorrow during most of the day. Welcome, psychotic March weather.

Good point. Mine broke years ago and I've been dragging my feet on a replacement...although I've read/heard about a few better replacements in this sub over the last 1-2 years, so there's that.