Coal Mines and Bulldawgs

D-Day. It’s almost over party people.

It’s almost over…..

Hi!

Hello. How’s everyone doing? Don’t worry the ski’s are still alive and well. Just hunkering down and attempting to survive the next 30 days or so.

In this time of economic turmoil, its important that everyone keeps a bit of humor:

Catching Up

So a lot of things have happened since the last post. The highlights are:

I turned 30.

And Sara is chasing her dream in Alaska

More to follow…..

“It wasn’t a mean looking funnel cloud”

Excitement strikes western massachusetts. From the Boston Globe:

Funnel clouds have been sighted this afternoon in Western Massachusetts in New Salem and Sunderland, where tree tops were blown onto Route 116, according to the National Weather Service.

A tornado touchdown has not yet been confirmed. Police dispatchers in both Sunderland and New Salem said they have not received reports of any injuries or damage.

The cloud in New Salem was reported at 2:36 p.m. in the town, 11 miles northeast of Amherst. The cloud was moving east at 10 miles an hour, according to spotters for the National Weather Service.

The Sunderland funnel cloud was reported at 2:42 p.m. in the town, which is 30 miles north of Springfield. The warnings were issued at 2:39 p.m. in west central Worcester County, southeastern Franklin County, and central Hampshire County, which includes the City of Amherst. They were dropped at 3:11 p.m. when the storm weakened.

Intense weather is expected to batter the entire region this afternoon and evening, bringing the potential for high winds and large hail. A severe thunderstorm watch remains in effect until 8 p.m. for almost the entire state of Massachusetts.

Karen Smiarowski, 55, who runs the Smiarowski Farm Stand with her husband, said she saw the funnel cloud looking east from her business on River Road.

She said it was about two miles away and she didn’t know what it was initially.

“It was the strangest thing,” she said. “We were looking at it and it was sucking everything right back into the cloud from the ground up.”

She wasn’t frightened, though, Smiarowski said.

“It didn’t really look that mean. It looked like a friendly one,” she said.

It’s that time of year again….

Tobacco season has settled into the summer like a herd of buffalo being chased by a thunderstorm. The ski’s went back home to help the parents chop, spear and hang broadleaf tobacco for the weekend. We spent Saturday helping out and mingling with my father’s work force that resembles the united nations and/or inmates of a supermax prison. Quite a few stories could be told here but in the interest of protecting oneself, none will be told.

Sunday however was a different story because of the bad storms that passed through the area. Driving home we experienced one heck of a wind storm that tore leaves and branches off trees. In fact, because of this one tree (below) our normal 1 1/2 hour commute turned into five hours. Unbelievable.

Top 25 Things Vanishing From America

WalletPop takes a look at 25 such things that are quickly disappearing from our country. From honey bees to checks to bowling alleys to incandescent light bulbs, we count down 25 things you may not be able to find in the U.S. for very much longer. Take a look here.

Did we fall off the planet?

The ski’s have been busy during the past month doing this and doing that and we apologize to our many loyal readers about our lack of posts lately. With that said, here are a few highlights:

• Went camping up in Burlington Vermont. Spent the weekend with a bunch of friends camping, hanging out at the beach (Lake Champlain), kayaking, playing warshers, jamming on the guitars and bbqing. Good times were a had. Especially when our drunk neighbor came over to our site and began impersonating “Popeye.” Unbelievable.
• Went to a JJ Grey and Mofro concert up in Burlington the same weekend we went camping. Great concert. You should really check them out.
• Celebrated my buddies 30th bday at the swankiest bar in town – Alibi
• The better half has improved drastically on her guitar skills. Curfew is still on effect. After 11pm I hide the darn thing.
• Picked up V.I.P. tickets to Farm Aid. They are coming to town in September. Gonna be awesome!
• Watched a gazillion episodes of Battlestar Galactica. For someone who isn’t known to be into Sci Fi, this show is addicting for some random reason.
• Took in the movie Dark Knight and absolutely loved it. Great movie. Christian Bale is the best Batman yet. The movie is much more realistic than those silly past movie’s with Kilmer, Clooney, and Keaton. To read a good movie review, take a look here.
• Went to Dave and Busters with this guy and played the arcade version of trivia pursuit for almost three hours. Won basically three million tickets. So many tickets that after picking up beer mugs, soccer balls, candy, a toaster oven, a playing card shuffler, coffee mugs, a blender and an inflatable giant hammer balloon (all mentioned items with the Dave and Busters Logo on them) we still have one million tickets left to spend on senseless items. (Oh and I wasn’t able to use the hammer balloon on my wife because of the repeated use on the civil servant during the ride home.)
• Picked out a new pair of glasses from Lens Crafters. Between the superior service Lens Crafters employees provided and my indecisiveness on what type of frame to pick made this an enjoyable experience. You should just ask my better half.

And that wraps up the past two weeks.

Happy Belated Birthday America

So the Ski’s ventured out to the Berkshires to spend a nice weekend celebrating Fourth of July. On Friday evening we took in a James Taylor concert at Tanglewood. One day I will regale you with hilarious stories of our experience with lawn seats at Tanglewood and the various nitwits and pompous yuppies that we dealt with. Regardless, the concert was absolutely fantastic.

Hello Summer

For the first time this year, hazy, hot & humid weather will settle into the New England Region and will last into the middle of next week. With such hot weather in the 90’s so quickly, it’s only fitting to blog about the summer. While everyone is probably planning trips to go camping, learning to play the guitar, going to the beach, watching the Celtics beat LA, or taking in a concert,  Outside magazine put together a few abnormal ways to enjoy the warm weather before the leaves turn color again. Folks, now pay attention, these are some must do once in a life time activities here:

1. Collecting prize money for killing gophers at the Gopher Count Festival in Viola Minnesota (June 19)

2. Spitting seeds for four days at the Watermelon Thump in Luling Texas (June 26-29)

3. Literally watching paint dry at the National Fence Painting Championship in Hannibal Missouri (July 3-5)

4. Calling mosiquitoes at the Great Texas Mosquito Festival in Clute Texas (July 24-26)

5. Learning to Polka at the 2nd Annual Tobacco Festival in Sunderland Massachusetts ( September 14)

Now where is that air conditioner…..

Happy Memorial Day America!

Here’s to the start of Summer!