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March Banter Thread


North Balti Zen

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26 minutes ago, mappy said:

I was surprised Balt Co didn't have a 2hr delay today. Back roads up in my area are still pretty dicey in spots. And buses use those roads. 

I know for a fact that the bordering counties discuss decision in the wee hours of the morning, including Howard and Baltimore.  When Carroll announced their delay for today last night, I'd be willing to bet that the other two got on the phone with each other and said, "If you don't, then we won't."  They don't seem to make their decisions independently. 

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I know for a fact that the bordering counties discuss decision in the wee hours of the morning, including Howard and Baltimore.  When Carroll announced their delay for today last night, I'd be willing to bet that the other two got on the phone with each other and said, "If you don't, then we won't."  They don't seem to make their decisions independently. 


Makes sense. I've noticed, now that I've got a kid who goes to school three days a week, that when one makes a call, the other two follow suit.


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I'm a little bummed today that Bucknell lost yesterday. Valiant effort, but just came up short. Good thing is that we started three juniors, a sophomore, and a freshman by the end of the season, so we should only get better next year because, you know...we're a school that actually believes in the idea of student-athletes that graduate. :lol:

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Any fellow winter wx junkies suffer from post storm / winter depression? This winter my depression won't be as bad since this winter blew, but having a late season bust (especially up here in philly) will make me feel like crap for the next few weeks until it legit warms up. I remember March 2001 was my worst experience. I literally went through a hardcore depression as an immature 15-16 yr old. I need help

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42 minutes ago, Wentzadelphia said:

Any fellow winter wx junkies suffer from post storm / winter depression? This winter my depression won't be as bad since this winter blew, but having a late season bust (especially up here in philly) will make me feel like crap for the next few weeks until it legit warms up. I remember March 2001 was my worst experience. I literally went through a hardcore depression as an immature 15-16 yr old. I need help

 

Absolutely. I'm bored now, this place is a time suck. Need some severe to track. 

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Is there a setting that that allows email notifications when someone makes a post on this board.? I suddenly started getting emails everytine someone posts. I looked through the various settings but can't find a way to stop this. Any thoughts?

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21 hours ago, MN Transplant said:

Should be in the notification section.

 

20 hours ago, EastCoast NPZ said:

Yes.  Go to notifications and click on 'notification settings'.  Many options to check or uncheck.

Thanks. I found them when I got on my laptop. Not sure how the settings got  changed...

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Hey yard crew! I have some questions. 

I have 2 really nice 4 year old dwarf pampas grasses growing by my fire pit. I give them a proper annual haircut every march. Last year they both struggled with growth in the center. I just finished chopping them to a few inches above ground level and the centers seem to have some rot issues. Is there anything I can do to help them grow full again? I thought about cutting each one in half at the root ball and removing the rotted area but hesitated. I really like their size now and don't want to basically halve them. 

 

Another question. Years ago we bought a fountain grass that was supposed to be sterile. Of course it wasn't and it became invasive so we removed it. I've been dealing with fountain grass pods invading my back yard and they really piss me off. How do I get rid of these f'ers without destroying my yard? I dug a bunch out 2 years ago and my yard was full of divits and brown spots. I'm considering just hitting them with roundup once they start growing this year and just letting my grass reclaim the area. Might take a year or 2 but I have to do something. Walking barefoot on mowed fountain grass sucks. It's like little saw blades. 

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I say nuke your fountain grass with Roundup.
My yard had 18 different grasses and 540 different weeds in it, so I killed my entire yard with roundup and re-seeded with better grass seed from a friend who works at a sod farm.  Within 2 seasons I had a pretty lush yard again.  

The trick was to nuke the yard in late August or early September, plant new seed and fertilize in late September (after the roundup dissipates) and re-fertilize in early Spring with weed-control fertilizer.  Yard is now nice and hardy and has only the 3-4 grasses that came with the sod blend I planted.

 

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36 minutes ago, Bob Chill said:

Hey yard crew! I have some questions. 

I have 2 really nice 4 year old dwarf pampas grasses growing by my fire pit. I give them a proper annual haircut every march. Last year they both struggled with growth in the center. I just finished chopping them to a few inches above ground level and the centers seem to have some rot issues. Is there anything I can do to help them grow full again? I thought about cutting each one in half at the root ball and removing the rotted area but hesitated. I really like their size now and don't want to basically halve them. 

 

Another question. Years ago we bought a fountain grass that was supposed to be sterile. Of course it wasn't and it became invasive so we removed it. I've been dealing with fountain grass pods invading my back yard and they really piss me off. How do I get rid of these f'ers without destroying my yard? I dug a bunch out 2 years ago and my yard was full of divits and brown spots. I'm considering just hitting them with roundup once they start growing this year and just letting my grass reclaim the area. Might take a year or 2 but I have to do something. Walking barefoot on mowed fountain grass sucks. It's like little saw blades. 

Not sure anything can be done about the pampas grass centers.  They are inclined to die off like that in the middle, particularly in soil that isn't well-drained.  Also, our area seems to be wetter than they like, and colder.

As for the fountain grass, its the right time of year to hit the yard with a weed killer, but please use something less toxic than the Roundup.  Corn gluten meal is a lot safer, healthier, and gives your whole lawn a nitrogen boost.  Figure on using about 20 lbs per 1000 sq.ft. of lawn.  Make sure the type you buy is a pre-emergent herbicide.  If some of the fountain grass still goes to seed after applying, hit it with some vinegar.

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I encourage moss growth. Having nice grass in the middle of the woods, with well drained soil, and with all the moles is futile. Too much work. Soon I will have a nice soft carpet pretty much everywhere. It goes a bit dormant in the hot July sun, but it comes back. My yard is about 50-50 now. I have huge mulch areas where I grow a variety of stuff, fountain grass included. Anything to reduce the "grass" area.

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15 hours ago, C.A.P.E. said:

I encourage moss growth. Having nice grass in the middle of the woods, with well drained soil, and with all the moles is futile. Too much work. Soon I will have a nice soft carpet pretty much everywhere. It goes a bit dormant in the hot July sun, but it comes back. My yard is about 50-50 now. I have huge mulch areas where I grow a variety of stuff, fountain grass included. Anything to reduce the "grass" area.

I second you with the moss growth. At the back of our house where the outside water tap is and the drain for the AC out of the house, I had tried for years to grow grass there. No luck so about 2 years ago put in mosses. You are right they go dormant in the July hot sun but when not dormant it is a beautiful green carpet in an area that for years had been a dirt trench. 

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I've been continuing work on my garage brewery (look for flyers in the mail regarding the grand opening in May), but took a break yesterday to get back to the whiskey barrel project. I put the hoops back on, cut the door, and then figured out what I think is the best way to secure the door. Initially I was going to use a hinge or two, but because of the curve in the barrel, I could probably only use one hinge in the middle, and the weight of the door worried me. So I opted for cabinet door magnets and they work great. Still have the shelves to install and the chessboard tabletop to construct.  One day at a time...

Pictures below and I was kidding about the brewery being public, but once the keezer is finished and a couple of brews are ready, anyone is welcome. ;)

IMG_0264.JPG.36f9416eb57901230da0b8cf5bd1efe1.JPG

IMG_0263.JPG.f0ed9eefca05f39e5d7b7627c8ca2481.JPG

 

 

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@WxWatcher007

You're a lot younger than me. I've lived a long and twisty road just like most everyone else so I'm not special in that regard but I'm pretty experienced. You'll appreciate my story. It will give you some perspective.

 I had the sweetest gig ever from 2000-03. I was working for a well connected and pretty powerful Gov contracting firm in the financial services industry. I was young, gung ho, well liked, and very well compensated. I got married in 2002 and bought a house in 2003. When I was house shopping one of the principals of the firm told me to go big with the home (I didn't because I'm not like that) but he told me I was going places. Big places. And that money was not going to be a big problem. Yay for me right?! Nope...

In June of 2003 (exactly 1 month after I closed on my house) the firm I worked for lost 2 of their big contracts and the Gov announced it was scaling way back on financial services work. Guess what...I was laid off just like that. Big mortgage and no job. LOL. Oh how life is funny sometimes. I went into scramble mode. MUST FIND WORK IMMEDIATELY ran through my mind 24/7. I made a lot of good friends/contacts during my stint in DC so I did find work pretty easily. Of course at a big pay cut but still plenty enough to not get foreclosed on so off I went. 

The work consisted of an endless string of 1-4 week contract jobs at banks all over the place. I traveled constantly. Newly married, nice home, and I was never there. But I paid the bills and survived. Was traveling for work fun? Yes, for about 2 months it was. But it got old. Really old. Sometimes I would be literally at DCA or BWI arriving on a Friday evening for a weekend home and I would get a call...plane to Dallas departs at 9pm and I'm on it. Ugh. There was no saying no so off I went. Another weekend missing married and home life. 

I got used to travelling and I was making enough so all was good...until I find out my wife is pregnant...with twins...OMG now what am I going to do? I can't be gone 25 days a month? WTF am I going to do now? She was going to have to leave her job late in the pregnancy (twins are no joke) and I had to figure out how to stay home AND cover 2 incomes. Oh god...I was a mess. But I got lucky and got the sweetest 10 month contract gig @ HUD in DC. Back home AND paying the bills! But 10 months goes by fast...real fast...

So now I have 2 sets of twins (I married into a set of twins), big bills, one income, and a job that's ending...OMG now what am I going to do? So I'm at a party with a bunch of old friends and ran into an old friend of mine has been struggling to grow his mortgage brokerage. This is 2005 so mortgage biz is rockin. We struck a deal. I would come on as a minority partner and grow the business. We would split the profits. I was terrified in many ways and excited in others. And man was I focused. If we didn't make enough money I wasn't going to be able to cover the monthly nut. 

Mortgage biz was great. We killed it. I really believed that I had found my final stopping point in life. I mean what could go wrong right? Established business, great employees, we became a mortgage banker and funded our own stuff, and the business didn't owe a penny of in debt. It was like a dream. All my life's problems solved...and then the credit crisis froze the banks and the real estate crisis froze demand for loans basically overnight. Poof. By late 2010 we let everybody go and called it a wrap. 

This last "disaster" wasn't actually that bad. I was much older and much more experienced. Especially in the WTF am I going to do department. I didn't stress out. I didn't freak out. I just dug in deep again and made it happen. So did my wife. Yea, it sucked really bad during the recession but our pain was far from unique. It was a bloodbath everywhere. But oddly the least stressful of all previous disasters. 

 

You just experienced your first WTF am I going to do moment in life and have recovered. It's not going to be your last. Each one is a building block towards future success. Look on the bright side. You're not married with kids and a big mortgage and all the other stuff. That WTF moment will come later. LOL

 

TL:DR - Congrats on the new gig and work hard and prosper!

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So glad to hear you landed on your feet, 007. Selfishly glad you are still in the area, and generally glad for you having gotten through this. Bob is right, how you roll with the changes means everything. I am 46, and job changes are a reality, really, for many of us - willing and unwilling. Bob is right about pushing through.

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Glad to hear about the new gig WW007! Much like Bob said, you survived your first wtf am I gonna do moment. We all have had them. Mine a few years ago when I was let go at a job I had been at for 5+ years and making good money. I was thankful to have found a new one within a one month by having good networking in the business but had to take a pay cut. We managed and just a couple weeks ago I was given a promotion and am finally making more than I was at my last job in just three years time.

It all works out and I'm happy it's going to work out for you too :)


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Glad all seems well on the job front .. and back to fluff .. 

Is the tracking season over for you?

Or like me do you track the melting of snow piles - secretly hoping they make it to April 1 or later perhaps? 

I believe the pile I watch (north side of parking garage) has made it to April 1st 3 of the last 7 winters (although one of those years it may have melted late on the 31st!) Hoping for 4/8 this year. 

 

 

 

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@WxWatcher007 I'm glad that you were able to find happiness given the loss of a job that then turned into some soul searching via snow chasing and then finding another gig soon after.

 

Many of us have faced similar and different challenges that test us so i'm glad you have been able to deal with them in such a positive way.  good things happen to good people.

 

My story begins after the war when I joined the peace corps.  We were assigned to an isolated tribe called the mulombos.  They had never seen white people before. This is the documentary of that trip

 

 

 

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