Spring Is In the Air

15:19 Saturday, 7 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 60.93°F Pressure: 1008hPa Humidity: 76% Wind: 15.84mph
Words: 273

It's the "season of mud" around here, but it feels like Winter is finally leaving the stage. There's still a pile of snow at the top of the driveway from when we had it plowed three times. That pile also contains a good deal of the "blue stone" that is supposed to cover our driveway.

I've been outside raking that stone, and the "fines" scraped up with it, back into the driveway as the snow melts and exposes it. Not fun, but a certain amount of exercise. "Exercise" involves "pushing" and "pulling," and raking is mostly pulling.

Assuming all goes as intended, we're going to have to extend the driveway to the site of the new house, and we have an estimate for that effort, around $12K. Then, after the house is built we'll have to repair the driveway again from all the construction trucks.

I'm going to be pulling all the plastic window inserts this weekend, and storing them in the shed after I mark what windows they came from. I also plan to move the patio furniture onto the front porch. I suppose that means it'll almost certainly snow again.

I've dialed the radiant heating thermostat down to 62°F, may drop it lower. We can rely on the mini-split from now on I think.

I've got the screen open in the storm door to get some fresh air in here. It's nice hearing the birds and the cows. From time to time you can hear a boat horn from down on the lake.

I'm looking forward to the explosion of green that happens around here when Spring finally arrives.

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March 7th in History

15:10 Saturday, 7 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 60.93°F Pressure: 1008hPa Humidity: 76% Wind: 15.84mph
Words: 99

I enjoy the website RetroNewser, especially the fact that it has an RSS feed. There's usually something interesting every day, but March 7th seems more interesting than others recently.

Alexander Graham Bell received a U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876, 150 years ago.

First "decidedly successful" transatlantic radio-telephone conversations took place 100 years ago today.

And Hitler re-militarized the Rhineland in violation of the Treaty of Versailles 90 years ago today. Many people believe that had France violently opposed the German army, it would have prevailed and who knows how history might have been different?

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Operation Urgent Transit

11:01 Saturday, 7 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 51.58°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 14.74mph
Words: 473

Mitzi's en route to San Diego to see her daughter and siblings, but the usual chaos of modern air travel intruded.

It began last night with Delta calling her to see if they could persuade her to take a later flight out of Elmira for the princely sum of $300. It might have been an attractive offer, save for the fact that they'd have her changing planes twice, and it seems that my achilles tendonitis is contagious (just kidding, for the literally-minded), because she's been struggling with a bad case since October. (Mine is definitely improved.) Walking from gate to gate is painful and slow. Plus, it wouldn't have gotten her into San Diego until nearly midnight, so she declined.

Then, at about 0300 this morning, Delta texted her that her flight had been cancelled. For whatever reason, Mitzi was alert enough to catch this and at 0330 she woke me to see if I thought we should try to get her to Ithaca for an 0530 flight to JFK, with a follow on connection to San Diego, which got her there at a very reasonable hour.

I'm not very clear-headed after waking up after finally falling asleep. So I mumbled some things and said, "Sure, why not?"

We'd loaded the car last night, but she had to do some final preps for traveling, so I went out and backed the car out of the garage and entered the destination into Maps. Mitzi climbed in and asked me if I'd entered the airport into Maps. I said yes, not really understanding that we now intended to go to Ithaca, not Elmira. Fortunately she caught that before we left the driveway.

I'm not a fan of driving at night anymore, especially around here with unlit country roads and an enormous deer population. But we got there in good time. Windy as hell, but fortunately not raining. Didn't see another car on the road.

Driving solo on the way back, I was more awake and alert so somewhat more comfortable. Nevertheless, I tend to drive five to ten miles an hour below the speed limit because deer; and I picked up two bogies in trail who didn't share my sense of caution driving in the wee hours of the morning. Not a big deal, but I was relieved when I finally hit a patch of road that was clear enough for passing and the driver who was on my bumper seized the opportunity to pass me. The second one had turned off the road we were on a little before then, so I was back to having the road to myself.

Got back to the house at 0450, texted Mitzi I'd made it home ok. She had no trouble getting through TSA and to her gate in time. I went back to bed.

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