vastateofmind

Great point. I remember at the end of and just after brood emergence that year, so many of the mature trees in my area looked like they were decorated in "brown icicles" -- where the last 6"-12" of tree branches and twigs wither or die off from female cicadas cutting egg slits into them. It was odd seeing the mixed green/brown for the remainder of that summer.

Hope it was a great birthday for you....despite all of the usual jokes, 21 IS one of your first important age milestones, not just to enjoy the "first legal drink" (ha, ha) but a good time to pause and look backward at the journey so far and forward to your next decade. Here's to thoroughly enjoying your 20s and squeezing the most of them. I turned 21 in the midst of pledging a fraternity, so you can imagine there was little "self-reflection" going on for me at the time...a milestone lost in all of the surrounding drama. Granted it's something that "1987 me" likely wouldn't have done anyway (even when the party haze occasionally lifted), but which "2021 me" regrets just a bit. One other caveat -- avoid Zima at all costs.

I wish we could get the "drool" emoji added to fly-out post reaction button...

Only other person I knew with March 25 was Sir Elton John. The part that gets tougher each year for me, is remembering how many times I've turned 29 now...

Now it's getting weird....mine's this Thursday, too.

Congrats to you, big day!! Hope the contractor's bamboo prevention plan pans out. Love the landscaping fabric idea...am considering that for our two large-ish front garden beds, which will undergo a turning and re-mulching within the next several weeks. My wife spent most of Sunday afternoon trying to pull the chickweed in just ONE bed....shite was extra virulent this year, and I'm tired of it getting worse every year. Holly bushes...ugh. They are pretty (at certain sizes) but I uniformly despise cleaning up after them as I'm always piercing my gloves/hands. Also, I'm a huge fan of landscaping and indirect lighting outdoors -- would love to see a pic or two in the future if you don't mind sharing. Wired is usually best, but we've found some great solar-powered options in recent years, too -- soooo many options, in fact, now! One of my favorite projects a few years ago -- our backyard's rear border is outlined by a 150' stretch of tall, sterile, barbed-wire-topped fencing courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard C5i facility next door. A really ugly, 1950s era fence, and while it's "OFFICIAL U.S. GOV'T PROPERTY," I'd always wanted to better integrate it (or hide it!) in our surroundings. Several Christmases ago, I found solar-powered, 75-foot sections of tiny white lights and lined the top of the fence with a couple sets, from end-to-end...it added an air of "clean and trim" to that damn fence, and looked so nice I've opted to leave them up year round.

I should practice sounding reads more often, as I still find them confusing. However, these are three resources I've held onto in recent years, ranked in terms of increasing complexity. Last one in particular from weather.gov provides some great examples. Others posting here likely have even better links/resources than this. Green Sky Chaser » Meteorology 101: Atmospheric Sounding Charts Atmospheric Soundings - An Introduction - Weatherwatch Skew-T Parameters and Indices (weather.gov)

Well, if nothing else, it sort of illustrates how we do potential severe at least as tentatively as our often overly-complex, thread-the-needle winter storm setups... And at the end of the day on Friday, I'll embrace warm/windy as much as I will our first rumble of thunder!

Best lifecycle description I've read yet. Makes the periodic cicadas seem SO badass.

I wasn't sure yesterday could be beat in terms of perfect spring days....but today's gonna make a run at that crown again.

That huge sucking sound must be the sound of brackets imploding globally...

Popped this Bitter Valentine from Alewerks Brewing Co, based in Williamsburg, VA, while taking in some hoops early last evening. Ironically enough, I passed on this one and grabbed the Three Notch'd tripel while crawling Wegman's beer section on Friday (I dismissed this one as "leftover holiday themed" beer), but then this caught Mrs. V's eye on HER weekly grocery run to Weggy's yesterday afternoon and she grabbed the last of it. Happy to report my initial judgment was off the mark and that this is a great double IPA...hoppy but not overly so, finishes smooth without too much aftertaste and to top it off, has that awesome "Pouty Cupid" label artwork. Based on this trial alone, thinking about a day trip to visit the Alewerks mothership in Williamsburg perhaps during spring break week...

Amen. We'd finished most of our route planning for renting an RV to head out/back for a three-week cross country trip in July to see our oldest stationed at JBLM in WA state...and the Army just decided to move him back to Ft. Benning in GA within the next two months. We won't make the trip right now, as he was the primary reason for going, but I'm saving all of my route plans/stops and we WILL do it in the next year or two. It also buys me some more time to talk Mrs. V into buying our OWN RV for the trip. Switching gears -- had opportunity to take my sweet time in Alexandria Wegman's beer/wine section yesterday. Carefully combed all of the craft beer shelves for some of those awesome brews shared here in recent weeks, looking particularly for product from those breweries in the Columbia-Baltimore corridor. (Yes, I've made a list.) Can't find a one of 'em...in fact, I found maybe only two beers from all of MD, Heavy Seas being one of them. Why, Wegmans, WHY?? Their buyers must stay hyper-local...dozens of VA beers from within a 50-mile radius, of course, but I've tried most of the closer-in VA breweries and was hoping to find some of the goodies that you all put up here sometimes. I will keep watching. In any event, had to "settle" for this tripel from Three Notch'd in Charlottesville -- 2nd best tripel I've ever had (New Trail's version in Williamsport, PA still holds that crown) but beware, this packs a huge punch at 10.7 ABV.

You're a good egg, @Mrs.J....and I hope you had an awesome birthday. Can't wait to see what great things you do with that new cookbook...

Yep...exactly what I'm afraid of again. Just went out to run some errands, and while brisk and windy at times, nearly every tree I saw had NO PROBLEM continuing to pop those buds. I imagine the ramp-up for allergy sufferers is going to be a steep one in the next week or two.

My guess is that most furniture is more cheaply built across the board these days, so I wouldn't mind if it's from VCF, Ashley, etc. I can find something to like, for any room, in any furniture store, it's Mrs. V who's a little more, ummm, "choosy," shall we say. We've actually had great luck with LaZBoy in Kingstowne...bought from there a few times during sales over the years and their pieces have held up well. The LR stuff we've pitched is from Belfort, one of my wife's favorite haunts in past years....but this time, I didn't want to go schlepping out to Dulles to roam a giant furniture warehouse for an entire day. Yep, I'll GLADLY repaint the LR to avoid THAT.

COVID still taking a bite out of full-up/100% productivity everywhere. We picked out a new living room sofa/chair combo from LaZBoy Gallery in late Feb. My wife considered a custom upholstery fabric, which the store rep said would take another 6-7 MONTHS for delivery from the factory. If, however, we elected to choose the "default" upholstery fabric on the floor models (which we actually loved, but wasn't first choice because it would require repainting the LR), the delivery wait is "only" 6-8 weeks. So, yeah....I'll be breaking out the tarps and paint brushes for spring break.

Bring it! I just hope we don't have a late-season freeze like we did last April (ish?)...at that point, a few backyard myrtles we had pruned in late 2019 which had just popped out a nice variety of symmetrical shoots from the main trunks...most of which were burned by that freeze, leaving behind a bunch of brown, shriveled feeders/shoots. I was so pissed.

Good thinking on the french drain to preserve the integrity of your carport. We have a french drain that routes in a U-shape around the 20'x20' addition off the back of our home that ends in the semi-swampy lowest corner of our backyard. It does keep the runoff/moisture away from the addition, although since our neighborhood is built on marine clay (widespread east of I-95, actually), the walls, ceilings and doorways in the addition and rest of the house are always slightly shifting/cracking somewhere. Doesn't/didn't help that our addition began life as a roofed patio, but which the idiot previous owner of our home (a self-proclaimed contractor) apparently decided to enclose...without upgrading and putting in a proper foundation first. There is one, but it's barely adequate for the structure built upon it, and prone to constant shifting, depending on how dry/wet the season is. Got so bad in the mid 2000s a few years after we moved in that we had to call in a new contractor, who determined that the addition was pulling away from the house altogether. So, nearly $30K later, and after nuked (but restored) side patios and backyard landscaping, we have 10 giant pile-driven "screws" securing the addition. We hope. Finally, didn't want to be so forward to ask for porch progress/finished product photos...but if you don't mind sharing, would love to see!

OMG, preach. I'm astounded at how bad my sinuses have gotten in the past 3-5 days. I don't usually expect to feel like this for at least another 1-2 weeks. Currently 47, light rain, uniformly gray/wet out.

In real life, I'm with you 100% -- I don't even give one shit. However, full disclosure -- we allowed ourselves to get addicted to "The Crown" on Netflix and now must see it through to the end. But that is my extent of "royal-watching."

Yeah, kinda. Funny how a day with low clouds in the low 40s will somewhat deflate us spring-watchers. I sincerely hope you get snow this weekend, and if anyone has a shot, you and your area do -- but I'm already anticipating a return to somewhat warmer temps next week. I have a crap-ton of yard and garden bed work to dig into. Literally! Truth be told, I'd like to fast-forward a month or so....all of the budding trees and emerging flowers are ramping up my seasonal allergies, big-time.

Yeah. Still not a huge fan of this Disney film, but eight years on, I still love when Elsa tosses her tiara and lets her hair down at 3:04. Kinda like when "good" Sandy goes "bad" in Grease.