Well, my buddies in Florida got to deal with yet another tornado warning last week. I gotta say I certainly don't miss those lousy thunderstorms.

So we got pasted with a spring snow storm here in Denver. Dropped about a foot on us. Not quite the whopper everyone predicted, and today it is a balmy mid 50's and it is all melting away. I decided to roast a 23 lb turkey yesterday while it was snowing potato chip sized flakes. Man, it felt like Thanksgiving up at the cabin. Tossed a bunch of stale bread and chips out the back for the birds and the squirrels. By the evening the snow had turned to rain, then quit altogether. We ended up with some slop this morning, but it was a beautiful Colorado sunrise looking out to the mountains and the striking blue sky.

So I reckon they can keep their 80 degree days and lightning plagued evenings out there in the sunshine state. We'll be in the 70s again by Tuesday, and I just bought a fresh bunch of USA grown tangelos and oranges at 30 cents a piece. They all look beautiful and perfectly ripened, thanks Izzy. It's great sitting on a bench in the park surrounded by snow banks munching on peanut butter and jelly cookies and a quartered orange.

Ben just FWIW My son and I will be in Denver tomorrow around 9:00a (we have a 90 min layover) on our way to Albuquerque to pick up a bus for my company.

Mike

Dang Mike, mondays suck for me at work. Ever been to Denver before? 90 minutes isn't much time to do anything because the airport is out in the middle of nothing. What airline are you flying in on?

I chatted with my parents (they live on the East Coast of Canada) this morning and they got more of the finest winter weather one could ask for!

In the Caymans, we had a mild weekend with nothing happening other then some clouds and lots of sun. It made it up to the 80's and would have been nice beach weather... but we spend it inside enjoying some peace when the boys fell asleep for 4 hours strait.

You have no idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

I always think of the thunderstorms as more of a feature than a design flaw. I love the feel of the front coming through. Watching the gray clouds coming, feeling the pressure change, and the wind freshen. Feeling the moisture, then the first huge drops of rain and then in a couple of minutes, if you haven't made it to shelter, the line of rain arrives in earnest. Rain so thick you can't see ten feet.

I love laying back with a close friend and listening to the storm. The whine and whistle of the wind, lashings and rattle of the rain, and bluster of the lightning and thunder as the lines of thunderstorms approach and overtake us, and then, after a time, moving off. Leaving the air tingling and alive, everything washed and clean.

Thunderstorms are, IMO, vastly superior to snow and ice. Ice that locks the world away and makes the roads and sidewalks into crippling and lethal skating rinks. Snow that is miserably in its useless cold and sodden wetness. That seeps into the bones and the spirit, wet, smothering, and in a few days, becomes clots of ice in soiled shades of brown and gray.

With thunderstorms they come and go. Good or bad it is over in an hour or two. Often just a few minutes. With snow and ice it is months of miserable cold, and weeks of ice that wears you down. After a few weeks of gray miserable weather felonious assaults, domestic violence, and suicides go up.

Thunderstorms are like drive-by shootings. Mostly it is a big noise and you brush yourself off. Winter with snow and ice is like trench warfare. Knee-deep in mud you hunker down and dread having to raise your head up for fear of being assaulted by the sleet and wind. All you can do is hunker down in your bunker and hope the weather changes before you give up and eat your gun.

Tornadoes are indiscriminate. North or South. East or West. just about everywhere you get strong fronts and lateral shearing winds you get them. You hang tough, as best you can, and it either ruins your day or it doesn't.

Spring has been late in coming here in Northeastern Ontario. I still have about 2 feet of snow on my lawn and the big lakes will be froze-up tight for at least a couple more weeks. I am really sick of it.

Mike

Here in Alaska, it's "spring" with mud coming up everywhere as the snow slowly melts for an hour or too daily before freezing back up.

Still 4 feet of snow around some of the trees.

But lovely weather, crystal blue skies, bright sun til 10pm, weather around 20 degrees.

the only down side is I already had spring starting in Detroit, and had to be thrown back into "winter!"

Sunny and warm today with plenty of yum tomorrow.

Lee
Warm next door in Utah

Benjamin,

My sister lives in Genessee and she said she was snowed in with no power. Stay warm.

Today was beautiful here in Hawaii! It was sunny with a nice breeze. It was a perfect day weather-wise as our extended families went to visit my dad's grave. After, I sat outside in the shade with the breeze with a cool drink and grilled up a mess of ribs and kalua chicken for the family dinner.

If it wasn't for the fact that my wife and kids all have colds, it would have been pretty perfect.

Hey MDinana, send us some pictures!

Yesterday morning I awoke to the harshness of a spring sun glinting off the waves of frozen snow in the yard and street. As the coffee dripped away into the carafe, I took a nice warm shower and woke the wife. 30 minutes later I had finished my first cup of the day and we were headed for a wonderful brunch at the Rock Bottom Brewery. The temp was a balmy 48 degrees at 10:00 am, and I only needed 4wd on the pickup to get off our neighborhood street and onto the main drag, which was mostly bare and dry. At the brewery, we basically had the entire restaurant to ourselves, and dined on some fine breakfast grub and got a free sample of 5 of their in-house microbrews. We then drove down to CastleRock where we strolled the Outlet stores and took in the wonderful view of the mountains to the west behind a slate and white valley floor of Sedalia.

Back home at mid-day, we fed the squirrels and commenced with baking loaves of rye bread. We reclined to the sofa to take in some good westerns, and ended the day with a good dose of spaghetti with home made meat sauce with extra dollups of minced garlic and fine Balsamic from Moderna, accompanied by some decent sourdough and Sangiovese from Spokane. Cuddled in front of the fireplace, I alternately watched the evening news and my wife gently dozing off while snuggled in my arms, using my shoulder for a pillow.

Swamp..all i hear about on the canoe sites is how thick the ice is on Sawbill Lake--northern Minnesota--the open water gang is getting really jumpy..

Hey Canoedogs,

The small river that flows through my town opened up on Sunday afternoon but the big lakes still have at least 2 feet of ice on them, maybe more. It could be a very delayed boating season.

Mike

Well, up here in the northwest side of Denver, we had about 12 - 14 inches. It was a lot of fun for my kids to play in, and it looked incredibly beautiful. That was Friday. Now it's Tuesday, and except for the snow piles left by the snowplow operators, it's all gone, and supposed to get in the upper 70's/low 80's by the end of the week. I hate the heat. I'll live with the summer as a necessary evil, but when it comes this early, I get cranky. 50's and 60's is perfect for me.

Yep, noon today here in Denver it is 70+ degrees. Bye Bye snow.

Hi Ben sorry it took os long to respond we flew on Frontier (never flown them before Not too shabby) Anyway your right airport is in the middle of nothing and even further from downtown, had a good trip and even rode Amtrak from ABQ to Gallup
overall a good time for both my son and myself


Mike

Amtrak across New Mexico is better than the last time I crossed it. We were going cross country in a work van with a bad alternator and only an am radio. All you get on am from Gallup to Albuquerque is indian chanting. We nearly went psychotic.

Bleaker still is that run from Gallup to Shiprock. Nice place to go if you need to "get away from it all".