vastateofmind

Yep. Even with AC on just the past two days, I can feel the dreaded drainage thing kicking in, which is a joy in combination with allergies. Was sort of hoping AC season would hold off a bit longer...Mrs. V is always too warm, I'm always too cold...UGH.

That makes for perfect fire pit wx...minus the wind, of course. And BTW, good luck with the big move this week!!

Can someone explain why that "stray" Air Quality Alert has been issued in the Winchester/Martinsburg area?

Same for me. Sidebar -- a co-worker recommended Pataday eye drops to me last week; they used to be prescription and are now over the counter. I have more sinus-related issues when it comes to seasonal allergies, but I have to tell you -- I picked up these Pataday drops, and they've helped me immensely this week with symptoms. Only needed once a day, too.

When I was actually going TO work at Fort Belvoir a seeming lifetime ago, I'd do a lunchtime circuit walk several times weekly between my building to a waterfront rec area that the MWR maintains on Accotink Bay, where starting around this time of year dozens of osprey would return to start nesting. Belvoir puts up a lot of tall poles with large nesting platforms near the river/bay for the osprey, which they love...but they're not above taking up residence at the top of the softball field lights near my building, where some of the nests look they were built by pterodactyls. Osprey are a hoot to watch when they dive-bomb for fish, but their constant scolding tells me that they don't like me milling around being a spectator.

Currently 90 IMBY, though RH stands at 36%, so doesn't feel too oppressive out there (to me).

LOL. I will always enjoy snow, but the only accums I want to be cleaning up in a few years are dead palm fronds from my front yard.

90 with, apparently, an incoming stiff tropical breeze!!

With you 500%. We have one major move (southward!) left in the tank for us, and I vow NOT to have any deciduous trees within 100 feet of my next home, if possible. I'm all for shade, especially when facing southward, but the root damage that trees can do to underground pipes, along with all of the annual messes that we've covered here, has turned me off from having mature trees close to my home...with the possible exception of palm trees.

WOW, this looks incredible....and TY for linking to the recipe, totally trying this!

It all looks amazing (as usual), but that corn pudding looks particularly tasty....haven't had that for many years, and it was a staple growing up in northern PA! Is your Brussels sprouts salad a cold or hot presentation? Regardless, I suspect @wxtrix would like that sprouts salad a whole lot...

Awesome, TY for taking the time to share!! I'm so jealous, your beds are well on their way to a good-looking summer....our front beds currently are a sea of chickweed and maple "spinners," but that will change shortly with the landscaper visiting in the next week or two with a crap-ton of mulch and a couple new perennials to try....

Pics, plz, @Mrs.J.....either here or over in the lawn/garden thread! (If you don't mind sharing) I love to see what folks got growing, and have picked up a lot of ideas in here over the past couple of months. In their late teens, my sons had iPhone SE's back in the mid 2010s...which ALWAYS had broken screens because those knuckleheads were never careful with them. I tried ONCE to replace a broken screen on one of them (and the battery, since I was conducting surgery anyway) and completely hosed the innards. Got everything reconnected and put back together, after studying five meticulous DIY iPhone screen replacement videos, but the damn thing refused to power back on. Learn from my bravado -- unless you're really handy with microelectronics, I'd definitely take it to a repair shop, which I eventually did with the iPhone SE that *I* ruined. My guys paid for numerous other screen replacements out of their own pockets, and they typically paid ~$100 several years ago....though I'm sure it's saltier than that for the more current, larger iPhone models. (And yeah, might as well pony up for a battery replacement if you need it, since it will already be apart.)

Just picturing your maters a month or two hence, makes my mouth water for nice, fresh BLT...

Yeah, way windier than I expected today. Given all of the outdoor yard work and mowing yesterday (and resultant seasonal allergic reactions TODAY), I stayed in and finished TWO books. It was an enjoyable afternoon....

Feels a lot chillier, too! Only down around 53, but man, the dampness....

Spot-on obs. Partly sunny just before noon, turning into increasingly cloud-filtered sun as the afternoon went on. Our temps seemed to go just slightly higher than forecasted here...hit 69 just after lunchtime...and have been hovering in the mid 60s most of the rest of the afternoon under building overcast. Rain moving in from SW, appears to be between Stafford and Dale City right now. Bring it on....I got ALL of the mowing done within the past hour.

I'm glad for you and your bride's reservation....and since I wasn't able to get to all of the mowing today and it will be pushed to tomorrow, I'm (selfishly!) also glad the rain is supposed to hold off until tomorrow evening!

Me & Mrs. V, trying to figure out how to temporarily disable "schedule" mode (which itself required an engineering degree) and engage "manual" mode on the new wi-fi thermostat... Got down to "only" 32 last night...thank heaven.

Me, catching up on the hockey-related trash talk the morning after....

First, totally agree, @Mrs.J -- I'm not necessarily ready to shift into 5th gear (e.g., high 80s and humidity) at this point, but good Lord, not THIS wx. Second, big ups to you for using the Chummy GIF from "Call The Midwife." That show is almost 10 years old now (hard to believe!), but it is one of the finest period pieces....some of the finest TV, period...I've ever seen. And Chummy is my favorite character of the whole series.

I only learned this week that the "oak moss" (my name!) are called "catkins" -- and I forgot about the gutter messes they cause. We got those gutter screens years ago, which have helped immensely. And I feel your pain -- the back patios look even worse, as there are congealed catkin/spinner tumbleweeds and clumps everywhere. Only another week or two until all this crap comes down and I can pull out the power washer...oh, JOY.

Dear GOD, I hate them. Next door neighbor has the spinner-shedding tree in his backyard, and yet, these damn things manage to land primarily all over my front/back yards. He's been talking about removing the tree over the past year, since (extra added bonus!) one of its largest trunks is leaning precariously toward/threatening the rear addition off the back of my home. I suppose if I had to look for a silver lining in this instance, it's that our front beds won't be mulched for another two weeks. And we continue our vigil, hoping that the damn tree is gone when spinner season comes this time next year.

On radar yesterday at lunchtime, it looked like the line really got its act together right at I-95...I'm about two miles east of the interstate, and it seemed to "bloom" overhead pretty quickly (in terms of lightning, wind and rain), and intensify as it moved east to cross the Potomac into MD. For you mets and other smarter-than-me wx people -- is there something about our geography, or topology, or climate (or, or, or?) that causes lines of thunderstorms to strengthen between I-95 and the Potomac River, and pick up even more steam in southern MD? Is the Potomac playing a role in that? I can't tell you how many times I've noticed this phenomenon in the past 20 years -- a storm will approach us here in southeastern FfxCo in spring/summer, be "standard strength" while crossing overhead, but when checking radar and stepping outside to see the "backside" of the storm, you could literally hear/see it getting worse and building in strength as it moved toward the river...often producing warned storms in southern MD. I will never forget watching the "backside" of the thunderstorm that produced the 2002 La Plata tornado move east away from us -- the sun started returning pretty quickly after its passage here, and the "backside" of that storm was lit up, clouds churning and building so high to make it look like the coming (or departure, in my case) of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.