Spectacular lightning tonight

This evening as I was headed home from choir practice, I was watching some really incredible lightning flashes in the clouds. The line had tornados in it, and did a good bit of damage as it came through. The flashes looked like something out of a movie as they jumped from cloud to cloud. It was so incredible looking that I called DH to tell him that he needed to be watching it if he wasn’t already.

Fret, fret, fret, wory, fret

Oh man. One of the worrisome things about the shuttle launch is that the date is VERY fluid. There are mechanical difficulties that can push the launch back. If the weather isn’t within certain parameters it will also delay the launch. So I’ve been following the shuttle Discovery’s journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A with hope and trepidation.

Within the last several days the NASA techs have found a small leak in the fuel line for the orbital maneuvering systems engines. From what I’ve seen online, it appears to be an intermittent leak, but they are going to be replacing the seals on the system. So they have to drain the fuel tanks, replace the seals, and refill them. Normally this work is done back in the Vehicle Assembly Building, but they are going to be doing the work while it is on the launch pad.

Its nice, I have a flexibility in my schedule that not many others do, but I still would like to see this launch go off on time. And now Tropical Storm Richard has formed and is projected to possibly impact Florida next week. If it does, it could possibly cause NASA to roll Discovery back to the Vehicle Assembly Building. Which would push the launch back a good bit.

So I’m sitting here hopeful that everything is going to work out, and that in a little over a week I’ll be sitting in Florida with a bunch of other space geeks and we will have had the opportunity to watch our craft take flight!

Let it snow

Well, we have chance of snow tomorrow. I’m sure the grocery stores are covered up tonight! The forecast for tomorrow states “Thursday Breezy at times. Showers through the day. A chance of snow in the afternoon. Snow accumulation up to 1 inch. Highs around 42. Northwest winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of precipitation 90 percent.”

Now I’ll believe that we’ll get an accumulation of up to one inch tomorrow. Not. It’s been over 60 degrees for the last 2 days. There’s no way its going to do anything other than fall and melt, if it snows at all.

Going on 10 days

of 100 F and up heat is going to kill our power bill. I don’t think the air compressor on the air conditioner has turned off but maybe once or twice in the last 2 weeks. It still is at least 80 F in the house after work when DH gets home, even with the AC on. I’m just glad its working, because the house would be unbearable without it on.

Nasty weather tonight

There are days I’m really glad I have a laptop. There are some bad storms coming through tonight. Earlier in the day a tornado hit a high school in Enterprise, AL and a number of people were killed. Between the blizzard in the north and the storms in the south, its a rotten night. Keep those folks in Enterprise in your thoughts and prayers, please.

If the power goes, I lose the router and the internet connections, so this is short. Be safe!

Panic, everyone, there might be frozen precipitation tonight!

OK, now it is reaching the ridiculous here. In the state of Alabama, if there is the remotest chance of frozen precipitation, people panic. And they are panicking right now. The local news shows are broadcasting their versions of the panic buttons and their lists of closings and postponed openings for the morning. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Waah! I want some snow to fall here! We haven’t had a measurable snowfall in years! We’ll be waiting longer for snow here, none tonight.