Friday, May 28, 2010

We Bought a Condo

At 11:30 a.m. today, we became the proud owners of a condo. Finally. This particular unit is the one that we lost out on a few weeks ago. Luckily for us, the offer that the seller originally accepted fell through and our bid was apparently the next best thing. I spent this morning signing a plethora of documents at the closing - not once, but twice, because Jim was in Calgary and I had the power of attorney to endorse everything for him. After running around all afternoon arranging our condo insurance, scheduling gas & electric service, and changing the door locks (thanks to our locksmith, Richie!), we can now get down to the nitty-gritty of moving the remainder of our belongings out of our house. Condo pictures to follow soon!

Interesting anecdote: Jim left his Alberta hotel this morning - wearing shorts - to fly back to Texas. When he stepped outside it was a winter-like 32 degrees and there was snow on the ground! His plane even had to be de-iced! He is now safely back in Houston, where the high temperature this afternoon was a sweltering 97 degrees!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Risky Business

While deploying radars and instruments on storms, Adam and the Vortex 2 team often come across lots of amateur storm chasers and curious onlookers. Usually the bystanders are excited to see the armada of weather vehicles and are intrigued and polite. One day last week, the V2 group was operating close to Oklahoma City, and Adam said that there were hundreds, possibly even thousands, of people out clogging the roadways and making it difficult for the scientists to do their jobs. Worse yet, some storm chasers from the Discovery Channel were nearby, driving recklessly, and generally giving meteorologists a bad name. One of the Discovery Channel chasers is rather well-known for being defiant and negligent while driving his "TIV" (tornado intercept vehicle). Check out THIS VIDEO of the TIV and its crew endangering their own lives as well as the lives of everyone around them. And remember, these idiots are in no way associated with Vortex 2.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Headed North

We are leaving Texas this afternoon to mosey back up to Michigan. After two+ weeks here, I must say that I am spoiled by the lovely weather. I understand that it is going to be warm up north this weekend, so there shouldn't be too big of a temperature adjustment for us. Now all we have to do is make it safely through the severe weather that is predicted for much of our driving route today. I do have Adam on standby to send me updated storm reports, as long as he isn't too busy chasing his own tornadoes!

I am so pleased with how well my banana tree is doing!

93 sticky degrees in the shade.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Springtime in the South

The weather in Texas has been pretty nice the past couple of weeks. In fact, I have not worn shoes or long pants since I have been here - only flip-flops and shorts. The temperatures have been consistently normal and/or above-normal, rising into the upper 80s and even the lower 90s. Jim and Jacob use our pool quite regularly, and when the water temp climbed to 83 degrees last week, even I went swimming! Jacob quickly snapped a picture of me because it was such a rare sight. The last time I immersed myself in a body of water for recreational purposes was in June, 2007 at a pool in Las Vegas.

Jacob and I drove to Galveston one afternoon. We intended to walk along the beach, but apparently it was high tide.

The homes in Galveston are all built up on stilts.

I always find the strangest things in our Texas yard. These are some leaves with fuzz on one side that I discovered in our bushes.

The previous owners of our house left a reindeer in the garage rafters. I noticed that Jim would never park on this side of the garage, and upon questioning, he admitted that he's worried that the decoration will come tumbling down onto his car. Jim seems to have recovered from his phobia, and the menacing reindeer has stayed securely on its hook. (We now have a menacing Mockingbird that won't leave our garage, but that is another story for another time!)

Friday, May 14, 2010

A Virus and a Storm

Today my netbook computer caught a virus. While it is being fixed, Jacob is graciously allowing me to use his "new" laptop, which he recently inherited from Adam. Speaking of Adam, he sent a text that he saw two tornadoes and a funnel cloud while out chasing with Vortex 2 this afternoon. The Weather Channel has been quite lax with their V2 coverage this year. They did not have any reports about these twisters on television because Mike Bettes and his Weather Channel colleagues had stopped for lunch and missed the storms. Adam said that his group gave TWC some of their own footage that will air tomorrow.

Adam and the other U of M students are again writing a blog about their adventures. I have put a link to it on my left sidebar under "Sites I Like." Once on the blog, you have to scroll down a bit in order to find Adam's last update, as the five Michigan participants are taking turns composing the summaries. I think Adam is due to ink another one any day now.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

In the Thick of Things

Some of you may have heard the news about the ten or so devastating tornadoes that hit the Oklahoma City area yesterday. The Vortex 2 team and The Weather Channel group that is embedded with them, were in the midst of the storms. Adam did not actually see the tornado that was documented by TWC because he was busy doing scouting work for some radar trucks at the time. He did witness plenty of damage in the aftermath of the storms, though, and the last I heard his hotel was without electricity.

Many of the Vortex 2 members live in this region because the main headquarters of the National Weather Service is on the grounds of the University of Oklahoma in Norman. I'm sure that lots of these people were concerned about their own families and houses during the outbreak. The Vortex 2 team was very saddened that the tornadoes hit in a populated area, but they certainly have no control over that. Their goal is to ultimately increase warning times and provide information to engineers that will allow them to improve the structural integrity of buildings in order to save lives. Hopefully they will encounter some more storms in the coming weeks that occur in wide, open fields. That way they will be able to get better readings from their instruments, there will be much less property damage, and, most importantly, no one will get hurt.

Mike Bettes from TWC explained tornado chasing with this analogy. An oncologist does not want anyone to get cancer, but people do, so they study the awful disease. A meteorologist does not want tornadoes to develop, but they do, so the destructive storms are studied. Adam's research in grad school will focus on severe storms.

Adam and the University of Michigan group is working on a blog about their Vortex 2 experiences. I will post the link as soon as Adam sends it to me.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Twinkle Twinkle

A couple of weeks ago, Jacob and I went to the University of Michigan Planetarium & Observatory. This particular field trip took place after dark so we would be able to gaze through their telescopes and see celestial bodies in the night sky. First, we sat in a domed planetarium, which showed an awesome simulation of the movements of stars and planets. Some astronomy students then brought us up to the roof of the building where they aimed their telescopes at distant objects. Luckily, it was clear outside and, among other things, three planets all just happened to be visible that night. We peeked at the moon, the stars that make up Orion's Belt, and some constellations. Then the amateur stargazers directed the telescopes towards Mars, Venus, and Saturn. The "Red Planet" and the "Evening Star" appeared bright and stunning in the sky. The real treat of the night, however, was seeing Saturn - not just the dazzling glow of an orb off in space, but the actual planet with its distinct and unmistakable rings. I was duly impressed and cannot wait to return to the Planetarium for one of their upcoming open houses this summer.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Out and About

Adam took off on his Vortex 2 tornado chase after the U of M commencement on Saturday. Jim, Jacob, and I attended a graduation party at noon on Sunday, went to a birthday celebration for Norm & Jason later that afternoon, and squeezed in 45 minutes in the evening to meet with our realtor to place a bid on an awesome condo. (We just found out tonight, however, that our full-price offer was not accepted.) We scurried off to our Texas house on Monday so Jim could get back to work. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well all of our plants and bushes have been doing in the Houston heat. Despite the fact that there has been very little rain, everything is flourishing and looking lush.

The banana tree is growing like crazy!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

A Visit to the Big House

On Saturday Adam wrapped up four years at the University of Michigan, receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Earth System Science and Engineering. His graduation ceremony was held in the U of M stadium among 85,000 of our closest friends and relatives. President Obama was the commencement speaker and, as a result, security was tight. Despite some extremely long lines and less-than-stellar weather, we all had a great day!

This is the security line we encountered outside the stadium gate. It took us an hour to get through it, but everyone was very friendly and cooperative during the wait.

Irma and Nancy had handicapped seats down near those port-a-johns. They were actually fairly close to the stage and were treated like royalty. Adam was able to find them in the crowd before the festivities began.


Our view of the graduates and the stage.

Here is Obama's helicopter flying off after the ceremony.

The new alumnus met up with us in parking lot.