Not really, but this site is long overdue for some attention. The coding is inefficient, more pictures need to be added, I need to re-do the picture page, and most importantly, the storm chase section is two years behind.

I've been busy with work, church, other websites, Moral Contradictions, and applying to seminary. Woo!

For now I posted some pictures under "Chasing", which are fun. Here's one to convince you to click:

There are actually people with time on their hands to advocate changing how words are spelled.

The irony? The grammar needs a little work: "It's a very difficult thing to get something accepted like this".

Instead of challenging folks to work harder in school and finding new ways of learning, the quickest way to resolve a problem is to lower the bar.

Cellphone talkers as bad as drunk drivers.

"Just like many people who have been drinking, the cellphone users did not believe themselves to be affected, the researchers found."

More evidence that talking on the cell phone while driving isn't a good thing. Of course, how many police officers do you see talking on them while they pass you, not to mention legislators?

I guess a few people will have to be killed before anything is done.

We currently are the owners of a very tall, yet soggy back yard. I cut the front yard before the current period known as "The Sun Doth Forsake Us", and thus haven't been able to cut the back yard. The rain brings that double-edged sword: you can't cut grass because it's wet, but it also makes the grass grow twice as fast.

Last summer when we bought our house, my grandmother donated her 12 year old lawn mower. The engine runs great, but the deck and handle bar is rusting out and the clippings flap is coming off (currently held down with blue painter's tape). There's a place just across the road that works on small engines, and I probably could have asked them to help repair the mower, but I figured it would just as easy and a better decision to get a new one.

Wow - I was running off prices from 10 years ago when my parents bought a $99 mower from Wal-Mart. Now the cheapest is about $140.

All hail Craigslist. I found a 5 year old Craftsman mower with a 6 horse-power engine and bagger for $65. Not too shabby.

Except whenever I go to pick up a used item and hand them cash, I always feel like I'm participating in some sort of black-market deal that could go wrong at any moment. How, I'm not sure.

The awkwardness and increasing rainfall didn't help out, but all in all, I saved some money. I want the mower to last at least 5 years - and we're still keeping the other one in case we ever want to cut the grass twice as fast!

/Here's to hoping the rain will stop so I can actually use the thing.

I drove up 301 from Hanover into Caroline County behind a storm that was moving generally north. I ran into heavy rain at the road to Woodford and diverted northwest to skirt around the storm. As I crossed into Spotsylvania County near Guinea Station, I watched the back edge begin to wrap up. The feature moved northwest as the storm back-built toward Massaponax. The below pictures are from the northeast of Massaponax Church Road.




On my way home on I-95, to my southeast was the below storm. I saw what could be a wall cloud on the southern flank of the storm. I then looked to my east at Doswell in northern Hanover and saw what looks like some sort of shelf cloud. Neat!

Well, we're in Day 2 of our chase on the plains. Yesterday featured the world's largest ball of twine, a drunk local, deja vu, a can caught by the truck, and a distant tornado.

Seeing the ball of twine and the drunk local have set the tone for the trip - we learned early to expect the unexpected. Yesterday was a success, but as we rolled into Holdrege, Nebraska we realized we would be staying in the same hotel as we did two years ago during our last trip... and we ended up eating at the same Pizza Hut.

The tornado was brief and at least 10 miles away... we're 95% sure it was a tornado, but with the distance we couldn't confirm. We saw some crazy lightning as the storms coalesced around us and went off towards our south.


We then woke up this morning to the fresh smell of cows and targeted Limon, Colorado. We spent several hours in the middle of nowhere watching some clouds trying to rise up over a small ridgeline. After storms closer to New Mexico threw up a large anvil shield, prevening any further development for our location, we gave up and headed toward Denver and the Rocky Mountains.

Tonight at Outback we witnessed a drunk cowboy/Brokeback Mountain/Rocky moment... you had to be there, but be glad you weren't.

Tomorrow we'll wake up and head to southeast Wyoming to play a triple point and see what we can see. We'll be up there for a couple of days and hopefully we can swing over to South Dakota and see Mount Rushmore.



Our progress so far: The blue line was Monday (about 350 miles), with a red X where we saw the tornado. Green was today, Tuesday, another 350 miles, at least.

Freud would probably have a field day with me - I'm one of those folks who feels guilty for relaxing. Maybe it's because I can work home for half of my job and thus I have a hard time separating work and play. Whatever it is, I had no clue what I'd end up doing today. Kristen's gone for the week, it's hot outside, and I really don't have much to do.

I decided to download Itunes and rip all of my music onto my computer. I found some old mix CD's I made a few years back, and thus have been walking down memory lane through my college years.

Not to get too cliche, but whoever came with the idea that music serves as the soundtrack of our lives is a wise person.

I'm remembering old friends, old cars, crazy weekends, roadtrips, late night dessert runs, all-nighters, and other random stuff. Any negative connotations of those memories have faded (thank the Lord), as I've learned not to dwell in the past. Sure high school was fun, but I don't want to hold them as "the glory days" - the same goes with college and other eras of my life.

Nostalgia is over-rated because a memory doesn't fully capture the emotions and experience of the occasion, yet serves as a reminder to enjoy each day as more memories are made.

...or really stupid. My dad and I met up today to again chase some storms. We had a few minutes and pulled out the maps and pieced together what happened Thursday when we saw the Spotsylvania tornado. The red numbered dots are where we saw or encountered the tornado. The green marks represent where my dad saw damage during his recon on Saturday.



1. The Pamunkey Road, Route 612, was our main highway. We approached the storm from the east via the Post Oak Road, which branched off state route 208. We went past Mastin's Corner and determined we were too far west, and labeled 612 as our "escape route". Since the storm was traveling southwest to northeast, we figured this road would be our friend.

As we doubled back to the east and took a left on 612, my dad pointed out that he could see a tornado through the trees. I, as the driver, found out that roads posted with 45 mph could handle speeds of 65 mph. I reckoned the police had more pressing matters, as did we - namely, get out. Complicating safe spotting was the lack of visibility. The trees were incredibly thick with the roads extremely windy.

2. We pulled off at Shady Grove Corner where the rain lessened and we knew we gained on the storm. I was completely trusting my father with navigation, which was interesting as his dilated pupil made it difficult to spot street signs. He told me to travel west towards Logan - I initially questioned the decision but as I had only glanced at a map I deferred to his judgement.

We had not traveled a quarter of a mile before we rain into debris falling around us. The road was traveling downhill towards the right with trees lining both sides. All we could see were branches falling around (and on) the car. My dad hurredly instructed me to turn around, no small feat for even my Civic with a narrow road. I thought we had run into the tornado whereas my dad thought it was another storm. Later analysis proved that it was the tornado.

3. We raced northeast and pulled off just below Todd's Tavern facing north. I was stressed with having to drive through heavy rain behind some very slow drivers. I knew they were trying to be safe, but I also knew what was behind. Only two minutes after we pulled off we saw rain curtains rotating in the field across the road opening up to reveal the tornado. We knew it wasn't very far away (we later determined it was less than 150 yards, if not less), yet initially felt safe as it was supposed to generally cross in our front.

Unfortunately, "generally" allows for some variation, and that variation caused the tornado to move toward us faster than it was moving away. We high-tailed out of there toward the southwest and from there lost the storm in the thick wilderness characteristic of that area.

The tornado proved to be an F0, meaning it damaged trees and whatnot, but left most structures and even powerlines intact. The rating allows for wind gusts up to and around 75 mph.

Chasing in Virginia can be tough. Navigation through unfriendly terrain has proved to be the key in finding the tornado. Unlike the plains where a general forecast along with a friendly and predictable road pattern is enough, forecasts must be more accurate and knowledge of the topography is a must.

Additionally, awareness of tornadoes in the east is not as high among the general population as it is in the plains. Less spotters combined with denser populations make spotting critical. The LaPlata, Maryland tornado a few years back helped show folks that destructive tornadoes can happen in the Mid-Atlantic, but even still, I was proud to help our community out - even if the National Weather Service goofed.

I met my Dad and sister in Thornburg, Va, and headed west into Spotsylvania County to intercept a line of tornadic storms. Here are some lessons learned:

1. A navigator/spotter that just had one eye dilated is not ideal.
2. A 2004 Honda Civic, in no way shape or form, can be considered as "off-road".
3. Trees + bad roads + disorientation + tornado nearby = soiled pants.
4. Debris falling around the car isn't necessarily a good thing.
5. Seeing a tornado is only a good thing when it's farther than 200 yards away and isn't moving towards you.

All in all, a good chase, but I'm not sure I'd want to do that one again. Read more at my Dad's blog.

I knew I had to watch out for cars when I learned how to bicycle, but unstoppable cans?

A Henrico County man riding a bicycle died early this morning after being hit by a can that did not stop.

Holy crap. Explain that one to St. Peter.

...that I really like Weezer - I always have since I was at Greg Baughman's house circa 1995 and heard 'The World Has Turned and Left Me here" for the first time. I remember saying "Who is that?" and I was hooked ever since.

I went out and bought the Blue Album, only to lose it in a car accident a couple of years ago. I still have the songs on my computer but I need to buy it again.

I've been stymied three times when I could have seen them. The first time was when they gave a small exclusive show at HFStival in 2001 instead of playing the main stage. The second time was when me and a couple buddies at OU had tickets to see them, Jimmy Eat World, and Tenacious D in Fort Worth. Unfortunately, an ice storm hit between Norman and Fort Worth that night and we couldn't go. The third time was when they were playing in Wichita May 2002 - yet I couldn't get anyone to go with me because of exams.

They're the one band that I can listen to no matter what mood or situation I'm in. Right now I'm in a bit of a funk due to some frustration at church combined with a bit of stress at work, so instead of dealing with those problems I'm listening to some Weezer and writing this blog entry. :)

Just a few years ago, my home county of Stafford, Virginia, was in the top 10 list of fastest growing counties in the nation. Neighboring Spotsylvania was lockstep with Stafford as both counties found themselves as bedroom communities of DC because of easy I-95 and train access. Metro Fredericksburg is nothing like what it was when I was growing up - but I'll save that lament for another day.

Now, the "suburbs" of Fredericksburg and ex-urbs of DC are seeing the trend. King George and Caroline are in the top 10, while Culpeper and Orange are up there. Louisa County is even ahead of Spotsylvania, due to it being bedroom communities of Charlottesville, Richmond, and DC/Northern Virginia.

My wife and I personally witnessed the results of the explosive growth in Caroline County. At the beginning of last year when we talked about buying a house we looked there - six months later when we were financially ready to move, we were priced out. Heck, we've been in our house 6 months and our house value has already gone up by nearly 15%.

The quiet and rural Central Virginia that I love is now being over-run by urban refugees.

This can't bode well for anyone:

Federal officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief of possible devastation just before Hurricane Katrina struck.

Six days of video footage from briefings and transcripts were obtained by The Associated Press.The warnings were that the storm could breach levees, risk lives in the New Orleans Superdome and overwhelm rescuers.

....

He assured state officials that the government was fully prepared.

Um... whoops?

...I'm not sure what that means, but it probably describes my present stage at life.

Okay, I'm going to look it up before I stick with the above statement... Wow I was totally off. I knew there was a reason that term was in my vocabulary, but it comes from my Middle East History class a couple years ago... Anyways, my life has been busy.

I'm finally over the sickness that somewhat flattened me for the past week or so. My wife ordered me to stay on the couch and slow down - which I forcefully resisted... until I stood up. I now know understand the definition of "loopy".

I want to think that I haven't completely shelved plans for graduate school - the big question is for what? I have a strong interest in history and how it applies today. That's too broad, though. Add my interest in the intersection of politics and religion along with my strong passion for issues routinely ignored by the loudest churches, and I have no clue what to do. I want to learn - I feel like I don't know enough yet I may have something to contribute. Operative word = "may".

I really enjoy Baptist history, as I look at Southern Baptists I wonder if they're being true to what a Baptist really is. I want to call attention to the issues that are being ignored... I want individuals, churches, denominations to step up and respond to the moral issues of our day that are forgotten. I don't envision myself as a pastor at all, but I feel like seminary may help... or should I go to a university and get a history degree?

Okay, assuming I answer those questions, what would I do with said degree? How would that degree help? I like the job I have now - it's challenging, the hours are great, I have a ton of responsibility, but the reward is high. However, I'm not fulfilled. I'm not fulfilled with everything I'm involved with at church. After being burned at Oklahoma where I learned my interest in meteorology was merely pedestrian, I'm skittish at the prospect of committing to something.

Maybe lunch with a good buddy next week will help clear the air...

I think my cold turn into the flu... or at least a touch of it. I had been denying a fever for about a day now, but there's no doubt. 100.5 degrees... not raging, but enough for me to say "whoa" when I stand up, causing me to want to lay back down again.

However, there is a remedy. Dish Network with a DVR loaded with South Park and Reno 911!. woot.