3/10/2013

Thoughts On A Sunday

The weather has been quite good here in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, sunny and temps in the 50's. There's a lot of melting going on and the snow on roofs has all but disappeared.

We fired up the Official Weekend Pundit Gas Grill late yesterday and BeezleBub cooked up over 3 pounds of sirloin tips for dinner. I plan to cook some burgers on it later today. While this isn't the earliest we've ever used it (we did use it starting one January a few years ago) it's still nice to get a jump on the grilling season.

I haven't had to use the Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove this weekend and unless the daytime temps fall below freezing again, it's unlikely we will.

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Just when I thought they couldn't get any stupider: School confiscates cupcakes decorated with toy soldiers.

These people need to be fired. We don't want people that stupid and that indoctrinated to be teaching our children.

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I was perusing one of the local real estate glossies and was surprised to see what some of the higher end properties are listing for these days. Some of the nicer ones with mountain and lake views are listing for less than what we paid for The Manse. (Fortunately we haven't lost much equity in The Manse, at least with what it's assessed value is today, and we've seen similar places list for what The Manse is supposedly worth.)

If I wasn't so adverse to the idea of moving (and could actually get a mortgage) I would consider making an offer on one or two of the places I saw.

What I find ironic is that I remember what some of the homes in the glossy sold for a short 6 years ago and now they're listing for far less than they did back then, in a few cases for half what they sold for back then.

You can't tell me the housing market has recovered when prices have plummeted and homes are on the market for over a year before they're sold.

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Bogie reminds us of all the snow we've had over the past 6 weeks or so, including some photos from around her domicile showing the effects of all those storms. Even with the melting that has taken place over the past few days there's still a lot of snow on the ground.

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It's Liberals versus Reality. In the end, reality always wins. No amount of wishful thinking can change that.

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Cap'n Teach tells us that now the AGW faithful are saying even tweets are causing Hotcoldwetdry!

Is there nothing not causing Hotcoldwetdry these days? I guess not.

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Something I saw here at The Manse just before it got too dark: a beaver making its way across the snow and down to the lower part of our property, stopping at a number of smaller maples to chew on them for a few minutes. At one maple he/she climbed up to one of the lower set of branches (it was a very small tree) as if it were making itself comfortable for the night.

I have never seen a beaver up in this part of town before. While there are a few small brooks that run down the side of the hill where The Manse perches, I wouldn't think there were any with enough relatively flat land that would enable beavers to build a dam. Then again, maybe the beaver came up hill to find some sufficiently tender saplings to drag down to its pond.

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Watts Up With That provides an object lesson about global warming and how cold it was in Alaska.

As Willis writes:

...don’t bother telling me that weather is not climate … because that’s exactly what I’m pointing out, isn’t it. My main issue is that if January 2012 in Alaska had been 14°F above the average, we’d never have heard the end of it … but 14°F below average attracted little notice at all.

Ah, yes, the old double standard being applied yet again.

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Could it be human generated CO2 is preventing the Fallen Angels scenario?

If I had to bet, I'd have to say the answer is yes.

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There is a marked difference in the way Americans and Brits show respect to their military personnel. In the US they are treated with respect, with many civilians taking time away from their families to greet them at various airports as they head to or from deployment, no matter the time of day. Airline passengers have given up their seats on flights to help a serviceman or woman get home for leave. Passengers have remained quietly on their flights in their seats as a fallen hero's casket was loaded on board their flight for their final trip home.

On British airlines they're told they have to remove their uniforms in case they they might offend fellow passengers.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has been warm and sunny, gas grills have been running, and where thoughts of the upcoming boating season are starting to make themselves known.