Hi Carolyn,
Far out! Another one of those end of the summer crept up unnoticed situations. Well, it's not the calendar end of the summer, of course, but a career of teaching has embedded the end-of-August = end of summer paradigm in my thought processes and internal rhythms, I guess.
It's been outside stuff 'round here for sure since my last entry aided by superb end of the summer months weather. In fact, it's been so engrossing with the motorcycling, the general gadding about and the being farmer wannabees that I didn't realize just how long it had been since last I checked in. All of that fresh air has made this once confirmed nighthawk actually sack out before midnight pretty well every night recently.
Anyhow..... some Captain Catchup here.
Firstly, weatherwise, you're so right about the politics trumps geography thing - i.e. the weather that stops at the border. It happens on this side of the 49th too, and not just on the small screen. My LSBH worked, in her teen years, at a restaurant here in Ontario on the 401 highway( our equivalent of your Interstates ) about half an hour north of Detroit. This area shares a latitude with Northern California. She will attest to the fact that holidaying Americans she waited on, in the summer months, would comment surprisingly on how the climate was the same . No, they did not see eager American folks arriving in July with ski gear strapped to the roof of their vehicles, but they did encounter folks who were surprised that it wasn't different outside.
In my constant online weather trolling, I've been using intellicast.com along with Environment Canada stuff for years , in part, because of that discrepancy thing. Where we are, stuck down well below the 49th, the weather flows across the Great Lakes from Michigan in the west to the eastern seaboard. There's not nearly as much of this missing weather stuff herein because Central and Southern Ontario actually stick down into the Northeastern States like a friendly finger.
Weather is one of those things that absolutely brings out the geek in me. I have about six different places I visit almost daily to get a overall picture of what's happening in the atmosphere above North America. I am old enough to remain in constant amazement at the fact that this kind of data and info is available on an almost moment to moment basis. Even with all of this digital assistance there are still times when the weather can surprise, though.
So, when I found myself recently out scatting about a bit online I ran into a couple of frivolous but totally up my alley items.
I've been a Lego fanboy of sorts for a long time and stuck various Lego images in here in the last few years. The latest thing that caught my fancy was a Lego figure for Mr. Bean. In the process of checking that out I discovered that there are worldwide Lego websites, fansites, blogs, etc., to an extent that is exponentially greater than I had imagined. One that caught my attention was minifigures.com. I went and had a look. It's a company that has it's own line of Lego figures plus - and this was the intriguing part - a service that will create a Lego figure to your own specs. What stuck me as intriguing about this was that such a seemingly micro-niche endeavour would become so popular and successful. They have created figures for promotional purposes for Google and Microsoft, among many others. Whodathunkit??
Far out! Another one of those end of the summer crept up unnoticed situations. Well, it's not the calendar end of the summer, of course, but a career of teaching has embedded the end-of-August = end of summer paradigm in my thought processes and internal rhythms, I guess.
It's been outside stuff 'round here for sure since my last entry aided by superb end of the summer months weather. In fact, it's been so engrossing with the motorcycling, the general gadding about and the being farmer wannabees that I didn't realize just how long it had been since last I checked in. All of that fresh air has made this once confirmed nighthawk actually sack out before midnight pretty well every night recently.
Anyhow..... some Captain Catchup here.
Firstly, weatherwise, you're so right about the politics trumps geography thing - i.e. the weather that stops at the border. It happens on this side of the 49th too, and not just on the small screen. My LSBH worked, in her teen years, at a restaurant here in Ontario on the 401 highway( our equivalent of your Interstates ) about half an hour north of Detroit. This area shares a latitude with Northern California. She will attest to the fact that holidaying Americans she waited on, in the summer months, would comment surprisingly on how the climate was the same . No, they did not see eager American folks arriving in July with ski gear strapped to the roof of their vehicles, but they did encounter folks who were surprised that it wasn't different outside. 
In my constant online weather trolling, I've been using intellicast.com along with Environment Canada stuff for years , in part, because of that discrepancy thing. Where we are, stuck down well below the 49th, the weather flows across the Great Lakes from Michigan in the west to the eastern seaboard. There's not nearly as much of this missing weather stuff herein because Central and Southern Ontario actually stick down into the Northeastern States like a friendly finger. Weather is one of those things that absolutely brings out the geek in me. I have about six different places I visit almost daily to get a overall picture of what's happening in the atmosphere above North America. I am old enough to remain in constant amazement at the fact that this kind of data and info is available on an almost moment to moment basis. Even with all of this digital assistance there are still times when the weather can surprise, though.
So, when I found myself recently out scatting about a bit online I ran into a couple of frivolous but totally up my alley items.
I've been a Lego fanboy of sorts for a long time and stuck various Lego images in here in the last few years. The latest thing that caught my fancy was a Lego figure for Mr. Bean. In the process of checking that out I discovered that there are worldwide Lego websites, fansites, blogs, etc., to an extent that is exponentially greater than I had imagined. One that caught my attention was minifigures.com. I went and had a look. It's a company that has it's own line of Lego figures plus - and this was the intriguing part - a service that will create a Lego figure to your own specs. What stuck me as intriguing about this was that such a seemingly micro-niche endeavour would become so popular and successful. They have created figures for promotional purposes for Google and Microsoft, among many others. Whodathunkit??
Speaking of Windows... I found out that the supposedly seamless transition from Windows 8 to 10 that I, and all other Windows minions were promised, has not fully come to pass. It appears that at the moment I can't go and grab images online and stick them into the blog as I have since we began. I began this entry while still using the earlier O.S. and then switched. Once I got back to finish off this entry I found the images I wanted but could not copy and paste them. In fact, the more I get into this new- designed to stop the hordes from migrating to Apple- operating system, the more I am finding that it makes me want to do precisely that. Hmmmmm.
Anyhow, enough geekish whining for now. I'll just have to find some time to fiddly-fart around with this between now and next time.
Gonna go now, though. I leave you with this Twainism ( and yes, there is a Mark Twain Lego figure out there to be had online... )
A good memory and a tongue tied in the middle is a combination which gives immortality to conversation.
Ya know..... I'm not sure just exactly what that means..... but it sounds wise and witty none-the-less.
Don
All figures obtained from Google Images:
Fig. 1 - twitter.com
Fig. 2 - blogs.rediff.com
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