vastateofmind

This is great news. Now, since you have an upgraded tool (and obviously the skill!), please do share some springtime pics in the coming weeks. Absolutely love when folks share pics here and in other threads...and not just of beer pours. BTW, as a fellow chess aficionado, I thought you'd appreciate that I treated myself to a Kindle copy of "The Queen's Gambit" today, the source novel that inspired the hit Netflix series. It's on sale on Amazon for $2.99 right now and is well reviewed!

LOL. People in NoVA always mock me, especially living south of the Mason Dixon Line these past few decades, because I've always said "Pee-kin"

Often, yes. Looking forward to April, if only to get through the worst of seasonal allergies. I don't like to rush through spring....on the other hand, it absolutely spring hits me the worst out of all the seasons when it comes to the pollen. Every year it seems it gets worse, at least for me.

#PREACH. I like, not love, cherries....the sweeter kind, not the sour ones. But when it comes to pie, pecan pie is my all-time fave...ANY variety of pecan pie. (Granted, pecans are not a fruit, but we're onto pie now, so....)

Yep. I'm not a huge fan of eating pineapple slices on their own....but pineapple chunks, with ribbons of (or diced-up) ham on a pizza, OMG. A relative made me try that combo years ago, and though I thought I'd hurl at the time, it's become one of my fave pizza combos.

Great reminder about Radarscope -- I'm going to pull the trigger on that today or tomorrow. Have been meaning to buy it for the past year or two for my phone, but always found other apps to waste money on.

Had to Google it cuz I didn't know what it was. Looks like it could be an impressive AND fun product. Do you think it's worth the asking price?

Getting carded...ahhh, yes. If I happen to accompany Mrs. V to Wegmans on the weekly food run and we head for the checkout with IPAs and wine in the cart, she starts loading up the conveyor belt while throwing a hard eyeroll my way and saying, "You're up," knowing how much I love racing to the plexiglass to show the checkout person my I.D. When you turn 55, that Wegmans mandatory I.D. check for alcohol turns out to be one of the simple joys in life.

Awww, TY very much for remembering, @mappy -- hope you're also having an awesome birthday, @Always in Zugzwang!

OMG....I forgot about the hairy buffalo "punch" made up in trashcans back in the day. Liquor bottles with "only that much left" would be dumped in the can just to use them up. LOLOL. Along the lines of @H2O's previous mention....do vodka-soaked gummi bears count as "fruit?" Asking for a friend.

THIS is a breathtaking yard...so well done!! I'd park my arse in one of those Adirondack chairs with my Kindle during every spare or downtime moment!

TIP: We've had Google Home speakers and Nest Hubs scattered about the house for the past several years, but I only just found this year that they have a set of 14 ambient/relaxing sounds (e.g., thunderstorm, wind, water/waves, fire crackling, fan noise, etc.) built into them. Alexa, of course, has a bunch of these, too. For Google Home, you can find out what those sounds are, and how to ask for them here: Relax with your Google Nest or Home speaker or display - Google Nest Help

Seriously. The frequency and intensity of the downpours has increased dramatically over the past 30 minutes...and it looks like radar is filling in just a bit more to my SW? Currently 57.

Thank you for occasionally sharing these snippets from Mt. Holly...and you just reminded me to bookmark their discussion page. Their daily insights are usually pretty interesting, and sometimes capture the "nuanced" wx features, and possibilities surrounding them, moreso than other regional offices. Just my dos centavos...

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...