RDM

Happy Birthday youngster, and many more!

Cool - keep it! That $800 bucks will go far compared to payments on another truck. That's where I'm at too. Costs almost nothing but to drive it. Replaced both tie rod ends and the idler arm on mine a long time ago. However, all the bushings are still original and the shocks too, although as a group they are shot. Been contemplating having all bushings replaced with urethane, replacing the shocks and the brake lines too. Even if it costs a few grand, still a lot cheaper than payments. Plus, I'll be paying for my wife's vehicle for a couple more years - the 7th of 7 that I've owned. Bought her a one year old SUV 15 months ago. Since then it's been driven 62 miles...

Yup - agree. Something 2-3 years old is still barely broken in. With the rapid depreciation of new vehicles these days it's hard to justify buying something new. I'm nearly 60 and have only owned 7 vehicles in my entire life. Still own 5 of the 7 now. Oldest is my 91 Chevy Silverado I purchased new in July 91 for $17K loaded. Only reason I purchased new one then was A.) couldn't find any used worth buying and B.) knew I was going to keep it a long time. Didn't think I'd still have it 29 years later. It has no rust, 185k on the odo and the only thing major I've done is rebuild the tranny and replace the intake manifold gasket. Needs some new seals and a gasket here and there, but overall is in good shape. Would love to have a newer truck, but the sedimental attachment is too strong to part ways with the one I have now.

Looks scrumptious Mrs. J. My wife is Asian-born and makes all kinds of curry. She has curry from Japan, Thailand and India. It's so darn good I always overindulge. What you have there looks like some of the curry my cook in India used to make. He had about 20 kinds of curry powder in my kitchen. Ranged from medium to beyond hot. He used to get a read on how I was feeling before cooking to get the spicy right. India has the best carrots in the world too (they are red, not orange), which go great with all curry. Same thing when we lived in Thailand. Our cook had all kinds of curry powder. They have various kinds of green, red, yellow, brown and orange curry - and some of it will light you on fire. What you have there in the picture just looks fantastic.

Wow - already up to 76 here with 68dp.

Don't recall ever seeing anything like this in May. There's a lot of navy blue there... Interesting that the border of NY and PA is not under a warning too... https://www.weather.gov

That's sad Mappy. So close, but so far away. Looked at the fiber coverage map and there's a sharp cutoff up towards the M-D IVO Parr's Ridge. Similar situation my brother had near my home in semi-rural Ohio just north of Dayton. He lives just outside ATT DSL coverage (less than a mile). Was on DISH for years with very slow data rates. With no sign of fiber coming anytime soon folks in his area generated a unified campaign and lobbied for better service. After a couple years ATT deployed a cellular upgrade that now provides the option to go with a fixed cellular AP option. Provides Mbps speeds to fixed APs which is light years ahead of what he had with DISH. Those fixed cellular options for semi-HSI can be setup fairly quickly if pushed. Surprised MD doesn't push for the same in under served areas. Not sure we could ever live without fiber again. Just checked our FIOS speed and we're at 82/79Mbps (down/up).

Oh my, really? One would have thought the school districts would have raised this up the chain. With a coordinated response the technology exists to tactically establish hotspots and the associated linkages to major trunks quickly. The large providers and elements of the USG have those capabilities. Hopefully this will be part of the lessons learned that are documented and improved upon for the next time. (perhaps wishful thinking on the latter) Didn't realize parts of BaltCo are not yet connected. The Dulles Corridor is singularly THE most connected data spot on Earth, yet our fellow citizens so close by have no Internet at all? Sad.

Hey - hat head hurts too! In 9th grade two of us needed the 1 XL helmet in the inventory. (my hat size is around 9.5) We flipped for it and I lost. (no joking, that's how we decided). Had to wear a mere large that crushed my skull when I pulled it down to normal position. Couldn't stand it more than a couple mins. Most of the time the bottom of the face mask was around my nose. It looked every bit as goofy as it sounds. Never been able to wear normal baseball hats. Looks like a beanie cap up top.

It has happened, albeit I'm referring to the infamous year without summer in 1816, and this ain't 1816. None the less, snow is snow, no matter when it falls and if we do get anything this weekend, even snow TV, we'll all be jumping for joy. We need something to release the tension in the COVID and Banter forums. There's a limit to what yeast, malt, barley and hops can do alone.

Nice job on the deck. Just a thought... Our deck is about 900 sq feet and the annual power washing is quite a chore even with a 3000 psi gas powered pressure washer with extension hose. For years I just used a wand with adjustable nozzle. Slow and tedious at best and when adjusted to a fan spray pattern the pressure is not equal throughout the pattern. The result is stripes on the deck boards that look fugly. Bought a power broom attachment and tried that, but the 3 nozzles dilute the pressure just a bit too much. (looks like this - https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200747603_200747603 ) Because of the reduced pressure on each nozzle, ended up having to slow down and/or do repeated passes to get the boards clean, which takes too much time. Three years ago we bought the ideal power washer accessory everyone with a deck should have. Is called a Rotating Surface Cleaner attachment. There's various sizes and designs. Ours looks something like this - https://www.homedepot.com/p/MTD-Genuine-Factory-Parts-15-in-4200-PSI-MAX-Quick-Connect-Rotating-Surface-Cleaner-for-Gas-Pressure-Washers-490-245-V003/310449923 It really works well. With two nozzles that rotate around inside the housing, the pressure is diluted, but not too much like with the power broom. The nozzles rotate around very fast under the housing and really do a great job. It cuts down the time needed to do our deck boards by at least half. Still have to use the adjustable wand on the railings, which is tedious at best. If you and/or anyone else does not have a rotating surface cleaner, highly recommend one. They are well worth the expense in saved time and energy. Much easier to move around than a power wand because it rests directly on the boards. The consistent distance between the nozzles and the deck boards also provides much more consistent results than a wand. Good luck.

Been wondering the same thing. Many of the recent events since early Dec that went N of us did so in a way we were 2-300 miles from the action. (which is a world away, I know). Realize from I-81 N and W there's another entire climate at play, especially from mid-PA N in latitude. But in some cases one could see if the setup of the ridges and troughs over the Pac and CONUS was shifted some we could be closer to at least in the game (assuming also the WAR stays out of play). Perhaps wishful thinking here, but the boundary has often been in eastern Ohio diagonally down through western KY and SRN MO. My relatives in SW Ohio have already had multiple 4"+ events, which is a bit rare for them this early.

Fantastic Bob - no doubt you are doing a lot of things the right way beyond being part of the foundation here. That's great. Can only imagine how proud your son is going to be too. Real life learning opportunities like this are too infrequent these days...

Bob, no doubt you were inoculated against having any chance of becoming jipolar a long time ago. Most of us received that immunity at a young age... Sitting at 6.5" here about a mile NW of Vienna. Picking up again....

6-1/4" just NW of Vienna on Lawyers Road. Looks to be some building down around Raleigh. Hope good stuff mentioned by the NWS for this afternoon makes far enough N&W to give us all some more. Wes should be in a prime location for that.

Great second pic of your son. The awe he must feel with what today has in store for him.... I'm nearly 60 years old and still feel the same. Only thing that changes is the way we have fun. Can't wait to get out in my Kubota and do the neighborhood. Typically plow our 450' driveway, 4 more adjacent to us that are longer, about 20 other driveways, a 1/4 mile of street and a mile or so of sidewalk along Lawyers road to Vienna. Hope your little man has a blast today!

If this were to really play out as illustrated on the NAM, suggest it would be a hands down BECS. Can barely read the posts as fast as they are coming in. If the NAM nails this, it will have dethroned king EURO.

24/21 - Nice rise in dp from when I went to bed. Hats off to all those who stayed up so those mere mortal weenie wannabes like me could get some sleep, wake up and quickly read about getting named overnight and new additions to webster's dictionary of meteorology terms "according to Jeb"

A "positive reverse bust" - I think.... hope..... pray... that is a 4 letter word that starts with B and ends in M?

WWA just extended up into lower PA...

27/16. Just went outside with my long time damaged/broken/disjointed finger/weather monitor - the digit started tingling immediately - yup, it's gonna snow.

That was a great storm for us for many reasons. The 18th of Dec is my birthday for one. That aside, it was the best welcome home present our family could have hoped for. We'd just returned to the US that Fall from a few years in Thailand, where I may point out it don't snow... ever! (except inside the snow house at the Dreamworld amusement park). We'd just bought a new house on 30 Nov and moved in the first week of Dec 09. Also bought a small Kubota tractor with a front end loader the week before the storm to go along with my two Gravely walk behinds (our driveway is 500 feet long). The Kubota with loader, a blade on one Gravely and a blower on the other Gravely saved us and the neighbors. What a Dec that was, only to be followed by the back to back fun in Feb 2010. No snow this year for my b-day - darn it.