August Banter 2026

[toolsheds]

1 hour ago, H2O said:

These would be perfect on some scrambled egg ice cream. Someone needs to invent that 

Just got a juicer last week.  Nothing better than a fresh glass of beet, apple, cucumber, lemon, ginger juice to wake you up.  :-)

[ravensrule]

21 hours ago, aldie 22 said:

So far im pretty happy with this Kremer fella on the Twins. Two quality starts in the books

Everyone becomes Cy Young when they leave the Orioles. 

[Chris78]

53 minutes ago, ravensrule said:

Everyone becomes Cy Young when they leave the Orioles. 

Or pitch against them

[psuhoffman]

@WxUSAF @CAPE @das@MillvilleWx  @Terpeast

Not sure why this isn’t getting more attention or maybe it is and I missed it but  NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis has been discontinued as of March. This is the primary source of all those analog composites you see posted in the discussion threads.  As of now I’ve seen nothing in terms of what’s replacing it. How can that be?  It’s a major tool. Hopefully someone can tell me I’m wrong and there is another option I just don’t know about for this data moving forward. 

[nw baltimore wx]

Unfortunately, at the last few minutes, some horizon clouds moved in and we didn’t see totality. Of the three eclipses that I’ve chased, this is a first for me and I am only disappointed for the newbie’s on the trip that still don’t appreciate totality. I won’t be home for a few more days, but here’s a phone pic of the “disappointment.”

[wxmeddler]

1 hour ago, psuhoffman said:

@WxUSAF @CAPE @das@MillvilleWx  @Terpeast

Not sure why this isn’t getting more attention or maybe it is and I missed it but  NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis has been discontinued as of March. This is the primary source of all those analog composites you see posted in the discussion threads.  As of now I’ve seen nothing in terms of what’s replacing it. How can that be?  It’s a major tool. Hopefully someone can tell me I’m wrong and there is another option I just don’t know about for this data moving forward. 

There was an SCN that went out about it last year and there was no indication in there that there was going to be a replacement or complementary service. The SCN went put at about the same time as other things which were curtailing the access / dissemination of climate information. 

[psuhoffman]

15 hours ago, wxmeddler said:

There was an SCN that went out about it last year and there was no indication in there that there was going to be a replacement or complementary service. The SCN went put at about the same time as other things which were curtailing the access / dissemination of climate information. 

Ugh. How is this not getting more backlash? Seems to be a pretty big deal to me. 

[MN Transplant]

On 8/12/2026 at 6:40 PM, psuhoffman said:

@WxUSAF @CAPE @das@MillvilleWx  @Terpeast

Not sure why this isn’t getting more attention or maybe it is and I missed it but  NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis has been discontinued as of March. This is the primary source of all those analog composites you see posted in the discussion threads.  As of now I’ve seen nothing in terms of what’s replacing it. How can that be?  It’s a major tool. Hopefully someone can tell me I’m wrong and there is another option I just don’t know about for this data moving forward. 

For research purposes, NCEP/NCAR was eclipsed a long time ago by ERA5 (Euro-based, of course).  It is all available, but I'm not sure if there are any sites that make it easy to use for the public.

[H2O]

Really need good weather today and tomorrow as I am moving kid #3 into college this weekend after moving kid #2 into college earlier this week.  #parentlife

I know we have a few empty nesters here but have 2/3 of my kids out of the house is gonna be weird and hard to adjust to for a while.  Will be fine over time but man, its a change.  

[WxUSAF]

My daughter moves into college in about 2 weeks. Will be very weird not having her home.

[toolsheds]

39 minutes ago, H2O said:

Really need good weather today and tomorrow as I am moving kid #3 into college this weekend after moving kid #2 into college earlier this week.  #parentlife

I know we have a few empty nesters here but have 2/3 of my kids out of the house is gonna be weird and hard to adjust to for a while.  Will be fine over time but man, its a change.  

Just wait....in a few years they can move back in when they are looking for jobs :-)  I have two at home looking for their "Adult" jobs.  THe older one had one after graduation but his company was folded into Staples and was laid off.  The other graduated in December and is an applied math major sending resumes everywhere. Nice to have them home, but it can be a struggle seeing all they are trying to do and nothing. 

 

[WxUSAF]

31 minutes ago, toolsheds said:

Just wait....in a few years they can move back in when they are looking for jobs :-)  I have two at home looking for their "Adult" jobs.  THe older one had one after graduation but his company was folded into Staples and was laid off.  The other graduated in December and is an applied math major sending resumes everywhere. Nice to have them home, but it can be a struggle seeing all they are trying to do and nothing. 

 

Sorry to hear that. I have a colleague whose son just graduated with an engineering degree from a good school and can’t even get an interview. 

[psuhoffman]

15 hours ago, MN Transplant said:

For research purposes, NCEP/NCAR was eclipsed a long time ago by ERA5 (Euro-based, of course).  It is all available, but I'm not sure if there are any sites that make it easy to use for the public.

Someone could make $ them making this available for a fee. I’d use it. But then again I’m weird so maybe there isn’t much demand. 

[psuhoffman]

My social media feed seems to be littered with gender war crap, including people celebrating walking out on their spouse just because they weren't totally happy.  It's not men or women, it's both... women proudly posting about how they left just because they felt bored or something "just wasn't right" and men bragging they left because their wife wasn't... well use your imagination here.  WTF is going on?  Forget the battle of the sexes crap, when did marriage vows become a total joke?  I mean... there are legit reasons to leave a marriage.  Abuse.  And I include emotional abuse not just physical.  But I don't ever remember the "until I get bored or you're not putting out enough" clause in the "until death do us part" portion of the wedding!  Did I miss some major announcement where marriage vows were just a suggestion and no longer an actual commitment?  

[toolsheds]

1 hour ago, WxUSAF said:

Sorry to hear that. I have a colleague whose son just graduated with an engineering degree from a good school and can’t even get an interview. 

It's tough, but you just have to keep pushing them.  AI and social media sites have made finding a job extremely difficulty when first starting out.  In most cases, you have to know someone to get even an interview. 

[SnowenOutThere]

1 hour ago, psuhoffman said:

My social media feed seems to be littered with gender war crap, including people celebrating walking out on their spouse just because they weren't totally happy.  It's not men or women, it's both... women proudly posting about how they left just because they felt bored or something "just wasn't right" and men bragging they left because their wife wasn't... well use your imagination here.  WTF is going on?  Forget the battle of the sexes crap, when did marriage vows become a total joke?  I mean... there are legit reasons to leave a marriage.  Abuse.  And I include emotional abuse not just physical.  But I don't ever remember the "until I get bored or you're not putting out enough" clause in the "until death do us part" portion of the wedding!  Did I miss some major announcement where marriage vows were just a suggestion and no longer an actual commitment?  

My genuine advice is to leave twitter. I got a "brick", which is a horribly overpriced product that locks your phone from accessing apps/websites until you physically retap it, and I went from 15 hours a week on twitter to maybe an hour if a primary election is going on. The dramatic quality of life improvement I've seen is honestly sad. Everyone knows that social media abuses your worst insecurities, desires, and thoughts to keep you scrolling, but you don't realize just how much it effects you mentally. Think about it. After scrolling online how often are you happier for doing so? 

Imagine how much more time you have afterwards. I've read four books recently with my "new" time. As for the specific comments you've put forth I would argue that social media is not reality and these stories are generated as outrage bait. You will not find a healthy way to process things from social media, that is akin to asking a +NAO, -PNA, -PDO pattern to produce a snowstorm, it just won't happen. 

[SnowenOutThere]

4 hours ago, H2O said:

Really need good weather today and tomorrow as I am moving kid #3 into college this weekend after moving kid #2 into college earlier this week.  #parentlife

I know we have a few empty nesters here but have 2/3 of my kids out of the house is gonna be weird and hard to adjust to for a while.  Will be fine over time but man, its a change.  

4 hours ago, WxUSAF said:

My daughter moves into college in about 2 weeks. Will be very weird not having her home.

You don't need to worry about them. They'll be okay, and if they're driving distance or on an Amtrak line (Go Hoos!) then you can always be there if they need it. Besides, I've been told most people love college! I myself thought it wasn't quite worth the hype, but even then I'm doing well, and I'm not anything special so your kids will be fine too. 

[GramaxRefugee]

4 hours ago, WxUSAF said:

My daughter moves into college in about 2 weeks. Will be very weird not having her home.

Wait until you walk her down the aisle. About the hardest day in the life of a girl dad. Happy but sad. And so final.

[toolsheds]

44 minutes ago, SnowenOutThere said:

You don't need to worry about them. They'll be okay, and if they're driving distance or on an Amtrak line (Go Hoos!) then you can always be there if they need it. Besides, I've been told most people love college! I myself thought it wasn't quite worth the hype, but even then I'm doing well, and I'm not anything special so your kids will be fine too. 

My daughter goes to Drexel and loves taking the train home.  Even has started to visit other friends in NYC.  Great way to travel, and usually the tickets cover the cost of gas/tools/parking and the aggravation of driving. 

[mitchnick]

9 hours ago, WxUSAF said:

My daughter moves into college in about 2 weeks. Will be very weird not having her home.

Just wait until they leave the house to get married.