|
Post by Kapitan on Jul 21, 2023 10:57:26 GMT
I've noticed the sun is rising just a little later than it has been in recent weeks. 5:47 a.m. is the official sunrise, which is a little over 20 minutes later than one month ago. We've lost about 10 minutes on the tail end, with the sunset coming around 8:50 tonight as opposed to being just a few minutes after 9 at the solstice.
That's still a lot of daylight, but once the creep becomes noticeable, I can't help but feel just a little bummed out. A morning person, that early sun is a nice little boost. Things get a little tougher when it's still dark as I wake up.
|
|
|
Post by kds on Jul 21, 2023 16:13:02 GMT
No that we're in late July, and I have noticed the sunsets slowly getting sooner, this is when I try to stave off the Summer FOMO (what the kids call "fear of missing out").
In my brain, I know there's two more months of summer, but its sometimes hard for me to ignore my Summer FOMO when there's Halloween stuff on the shelves and NFL Training Camp starts next week.
Also, my wife is back to her school duties one month from today.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Jul 21, 2023 16:24:55 GMT
No that we're in late July, and I have noticed the sunsets slowly getting sooner, this is when I try to stave off the Summer FOMO (what the kids call "fear of missing out"). In my brain, I know there's two more months of summer, but its sometimes hard for me to ignore my Summer FOMO when there's Halloween stuff on the shelves and NFL Training Camp starts next week. Also, my wife is back to her school duties one month from today. That reminds me, I went to Target this morning. (I had the day off. I don't just wander off on errands while I'm working.) I did not see any fall-themed things, not even back to school. I was pretty happy about that. Yes, they had summer clothing and such on sale, but they still had it out.
|
|
|
Post by kds on Jul 21, 2023 16:51:02 GMT
No that we're in late July, and I have noticed the sunsets slowly getting sooner, this is when I try to stave off the Summer FOMO (what the kids call "fear of missing out"). In my brain, I know there's two more months of summer, but its sometimes hard for me to ignore my Summer FOMO when there's Halloween stuff on the shelves and NFL Training Camp starts next week. Also, my wife is back to her school duties one month from today. That reminds me, I went to Target this morning. (I had the day off. I don't just wander off on errands while I'm working.) I did not see any fall-themed things, not even back to school. I was pretty happy about that. Yes, they had summer clothing and such on sale, but they still had it out. I'm not sure how this has happened, but I don't think I've been to a Target in about a month, so I can't say what the seasonal section in ours look like.
|
|
|
Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Jul 21, 2023 17:05:30 GMT
The worst place for that stuff is Hobby Lobby. Seems like they're always 3-4 holidays ahead. We were there last weekend and they were setting up Christmas stuff.
|
|
|
Post by kds on Jul 21, 2023 17:37:25 GMT
Man, and here I am thinking it's way too early for Halloween stuff, and they have Christmas stuff already? I think it's bad enough seeing the Christmas stuff on shelves around Labor Day.
|
|
|
Post by kds on Jul 25, 2023 13:17:49 GMT
I mentioned earlier that, on July 16, the Giant Food near me had Halloween stuff in the seasonal aisle.
In my neighborhood, we have two grocery stores across the street from each other. Giant and Weis. I typically opt for Giant because the prices are a little bit better, and also that's where our pharmacy is located. Although, Weis, being a bit of a newer store, offers a slightly more pleasant experience. The aisles are a little bit bigger, and they've been known to play some pretty good music.
Yesterday, I stopped in Weis to pick up a couple things. Their seasonal aisle is still full on summer. Not a trace of Halloween candy yet.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Jul 26, 2023 11:56:22 GMT
We've had a few rounds of showers beginning around 1-2 a.m. today, again around 4-5, and a third little bit of pitter patter right now. (Though this one hasn't got much, it's pretty weak.) The forecasts don't indicate this will either cool us off--another day in the 90s--or improve the air much, we definitely need it.
I might even have to mow the lawn one of these days for the first time in forever.
|
|
|
Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Jul 26, 2023 12:16:23 GMT
We've had a surprisingly mild summer, but it's going to be in the mid 90s the next few days, with Friday reaching 96. I usually go for a walk during lunch when I'm at the office, but I think I'll be skipping that.
|
|
|
Post by kds on Jul 26, 2023 12:18:58 GMT
Ever since that dry spell we had, we've have some pretty consistent storms. It's funny. In a typical summer, my lawn would be lush and green in June, and sometimes a bit crispy in late July. This year has been the opposite.
Overall, our summer has been pretty mild too, also with a heat wave coming this weekend.
|
|
|
Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jul 26, 2023 12:25:56 GMT
Yeah, the grass is hanging in there. I'm still cutting it every 5-6 days. I hope I don't jinx things, but we've yet to have one of those 2-3 weeks' stretch of no rain and the grass turns to a crisp brown as the bare spots appear.
I cut the grass last night and discovered the first horse chestnut that fell from the neighbor's tree. The autumn leaves drift by the window...
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Jul 26, 2023 12:27:59 GMT
All this talk of nice lawns is surprising. I guess I am just so absorbed in our drought and heat that I imagine it being nationwide. But it's a big nation. But Sheriff John Stone is mowing more than once a week, and my grass hasn't grown enough for me to mow in two months!
|
|
|
Post by kds on Jul 26, 2023 12:34:39 GMT
I mowed this past Sunday. After being on vacation, it was my first chance to mow since July 4, that's 19 days, which typically wouldn't be a big deal in mid July, but dang it if I didn't have to put some work in to get the mower over some of the higher spots. I actually had to bag up some of the waste, which I never do anymore, but I didn't want to leave unsightly clumps of dead grass all over the lawn.
I really earned my post mow Shandies.
|
|
|
Post by kds on Jul 26, 2023 13:38:23 GMT
I did something last night that I haven't done in probably 4-5 years. I turned on Shark Week.
I got into sharks at a young age. And I believe I began watching Shark Week as far back as 1989. It was either 1989 or 1990 that we returned from Ocean City, and my father showed me a TV Guide add that advertised Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. A whole week's worth of programming about sharks. I was in Heaven.
I continued to watch SW well into adulthood. Some years, here and there. Other years, I'd devote almost the whole week to it.
But, in the early 2010s, they debuted a special about the Megalodon and basically passed off ridiculous dramatizations of hypothetical events as a SW program. Since then, my interest waned as the programs became more in tune with the reality TV formula. Far more manufactured drama than shark science. I kind of tuned it out after having a kid.
But, I put on a show about Hammerheads last night. It was...OK. It was nice for that part of the night when I just needed something mindless before bed. And, that's probably not a ringing endorsement that SW programming is something I file under "mindless." I saw some previews of future shows for this week, and it looked very repetitive. Familiar titles like "Blood on the Water" and "Air Jaws."
Maybe it's because I remember the early Shark Weeks, and have been watching for the better part of 30 years, and there's not much new stuff to entice me. But, I feel like it's...jumped the shark.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Jul 26, 2023 13:46:47 GMT
I used to watch Shark Week, too, but for me it went the way of most of the various educational/documentary-oriented channels into silly, overly dramatic, reality television. The History Channel, the Discovery Channel, and other similar channels all took their purported areas of specialty and made them into what felt like an incessant barrage of aliens, conspiracy theories, and misleading silliness.
To this day, I really love the more dry, straightforward educational programming without the gimmicks. But I suppose it's the gimmicks that lead people to watch, so a show about sharks might end up being "Are Sharks Actually Ancient Aliens!?"
|
|