No trip to Daytona Beach is complete without one of what is often called the Main Street pier ... Here is a picture of it in its newly renovated form, complete with "Eat at Joe's" sign for the new location of the Joe's Crab Shack chain that is located there, and the gurgling surf, Daytona Beach, Fla., 2:48PM, July 27, 2012.
I took this on my short-lived, ill-fated, indeed disastrous trip to see my crazy old father last week. From start to finish including travel time to and from my apartment, the trip lasted about 60 hours.
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The Daytona Beach pier, southside, and the lightly roiled Atlantic surf, 3:22PM, July 27,2012.
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Phew. *Sigh*
I really need to update this poor, forgotten, and hidden blog. I want to have at least one entry with a July date. However, it simply doesn't make any sense to have a lengthy entry.
Therefore, in this entry, I just want to note some things ...
A dogwood growing along the sidewalk of the 1500 block of 16th Street NW, Washington, D.C., 8:36PM, July 9, 2012. I was walking home from the gym (discussed below).
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The summer is now about half over and it has been hellishly hot, although our region is not in a severe drought as is so much of the rest of the country. We're still significantly below normal on precipitation, though, and the summer is as hot as the previous two. The current pattern for the mid-Atlantic is actually just summertime "normal" with highs around 88F here and occasional bouts of t-storms.
A little ornamental birdbath in the small yard of 1734 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., 7:02PM, July 21, 2012. That was a cool, showery day with at 71F high at DCA -- the coolest July high there since 2002.
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This follows our own record heat that for all intents and purposes tied on July 7th the all-time D.C. record of of 106F, except it counted as 105F due to the 3-minute rule.
This was the front page print edition picture of The Washington Post ("The WaHoPo") on July 7, 2012, the day it "officially" hit 105F and "unofficially" hit 106F at Reagan Washington National Airport climate station (KDCA). This is a picture of Mike and Eileen Hutson of Trenton, S.C., taken the previous day by the U.S. Capitol Building when it also topped 100F.
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The high on July 20, 1930 was actually 105.6F -- a pre-KDCA record when the official climate station was in downtown D.C. This is a JPEG image of The Washington Post headline from the next day, July 21, 1930 (article in upper right). Thus, the record was actually rounded up 0.4F and probably did not use the 3-minute rule but was an instantaneous temperature).
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The southern Great Plains are in a dangerous heat wave and much of the Lower 48 are in moderate to severe drought that overall is on par with the 1930s Dust Bowl ones. Indeed, it is a repeat of the Dust Bowl heat and drought, except land management / soil conservation practices are far, far better now -- hence no giant "dusters."
Apocalyptic-looking dust storm -- well, all dust storms have that apocalyptic look to them -- approaching Stratford, Texas on April 18, 1935.
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U.S. Drought Monitor map issue dby NOAA - USDA, updated July 24, 2012. A huge stretch of the U.S. -- the largest since the Dust Bowl era -- is in moderate to severe drought conditions.
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Greenland, BTW, seems to have undergone at least a brief "flash melting" of its surface earlier this month following extreme / nearly all-time warmth there (approaching 78F at the southern tip), and you may expect more of this.
This is a NASA produced image from the MODIS sensor aboard both the Terra and Aqua satellites showing melting versus non-melting in the surface layer of ice across Greenland, July 8 (left side) and July 12 (right side), 2012. The "flash" melting spread to an unprecedented 97% of Greenland's surface, though it lasted only briefly.
Of course, rapid Greenland melting possibly accelerates the next ice age. Or at least another Younger Dryas event. But in the Age of Man -- the Anthropocene -- it's not clear where the forcings on the atmosphere and biosphere end.
Delta Air Lines flight 1439 somewhere over South Carolina showing clouds below and deep blue sky above as seen from the middle troposphere. It wasn't as blue when I took the picture, 1:58PM, July 26, 2012.
I was thinking of the Bible versus Psalm 19:1: "The heavens declare the Glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork." (NKJV)
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My job is going so far OK, I guess, although things may chance for the worse by fall / early winter, esp. if idiot America is as dumb as we all know it is and elects R-Money for president with an all cuckoo GOP Congress, and then it's probably economic depression by 2013-2014. On the other hand, there could be other opportunities.
Image of the YMCA National Capital from its website.
On June 23rd, I REJOINED the gym -- the YMCA National Capital -- after 8-1/2 years, and I have gotten more or less back into the habit and swing of it where I was back then (when circumstances forced me to quit).
There is one, well, two important differences: I'm 8-1/2 years older and 50 pounds heavier from then.
I've lost about 5 pounds so far -- down to 179 lbs, but I realize you can't look at day to day changes. And my weight changes very slowly. I'm still doughy fat.
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Crossing the Florida coastline over Daytona Beach on final approach to DAB, 7:41PM, July 26, 2012.
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And, as you may have surmised, my trip to Florida to see my insane old father in Flagler Beach was a total disaster, a borderline catastrophe. You can read about it on my Regulus blog. I plan to post a much lengthier entry in the next few days about it, complete with the pictures I took.
Passing near / around a thunderstorm located close to the Florida - Georgia border just off the coast near Jacksonville, 5:34PM, July 28, 2012.
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I managed to make a decent 1-1/2 day trip out of it, though, by staying in Daytona Beach at the Hilton. But I won't be going there any longer to visit him. Indeed, I'm not sure if / when I'll be seeing him again. Daytona Beach, for its part, was crowded -- jumping -- with tourists, much more than I thought would be the case in July. It is a very straight place, though, and tilts conservative politically despite all the social detritus and gentle hedonism and easy-going libertine quality.
Daytona Beach boardwalk looking north from the edge of the pier, 3:29PM, July 27, 2012.
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I am looking forward to going to the Jersey shore -- Wildwood -- with Gary and maybe Wendy in late August for several days.
OK, that's all for now.
Yours truly on the Daytona Beach pier, 2:38PM, July 27, 2012.
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My next planned update on this blog likely will not be for one to two months.
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Arcturus
