Dogs playing in 2002

 Nothin' better than dog movies to end the year.

Found these video clips on the computer.  Enjoy Biscuit and Callie playing.

I miss them.

Happy New Year

Winter Travel 2022 headaches

 You get what you pay for.

Holiday travel has been a headache this year.

Record numbers have pent up demand to visit grandma and have jammed the highways and flyways.

Road travel is always bad with the combination of cheap gas, more traffic and crappy weather.  So much that I long gave up on holiday travel by road in the winter especially after headaches in snow and ice storms and the desire to travel 300-400 miles by road.  Even the Interstates were bad.

Air travel is another story and this past weekend airlines cancelled thousands of flights due to the heavy snow that blanketed everything from the Midwest to the East.  Once you get a Chicago size airport closing, it jams up flights for everyone.  Large carriers, for the most part have recovered, but not Southwest.

Why Southwest?  Well most airlines employ a hub strategy, that links smaller airports via a connection at a larger one.  That meant for me, when I lived in New England you had to make a connection on flight.  I expected that for international trips to the Caribbean and would plan to travel through Miami southbound and Charlotte, if possible northbound.

But Southwest flew direct and many were between smaller airports.  I only flew once on SWA about 16 years ago and it was between Hartford, CT and Baltimore, MD.  I didn't care for the cattle herding boarding, but I was travelling alone.

Well this system of moving passengers and crew failed.  SWA is still backed up and doesn't expect to recover until next week.

 You get what you pay for.

The flights out of New England were always at 600 ish in the morning, and since it would be the first flight out, we rarely had a problem in a snow storm.  Returning would be close to midnight, but we were always happy to see the pups.

So the flight south would continue and most of the time without incident, except when thunderstorms would disrupt connections but that is a summer problem.

Returning meant passing through customs, and that is another story.  In the meantime I recommend Precheck. 

 You get what you pay for.

December Solstice

Today is the Solstice.   Notice I didn't say winter solstice since people in the southern hemisphere would disagree.

So what did we do?

After a visit to the Carbondale Dog Park I hung our new bird feeder and watched the fun.

Night Sky Clingman's Dome and the AT

 

Light pollution from Clingman's Dome, the highest point on the Appalachian Trail.

The conditions.

For more details see the webpage.

On a rainy day in 1974 it looked like this.

Leaves Are Springing Up Earlier Along the Appalachian Trail

 ArcGIS online maps are cool, check this one about "Leaves Are Springing Up Earlier Along the Appalachian Trail" and a summary here.

Here is the Map.

Symbology in this map is designed so that areas with earlier greenup over time appear a shade of red, and areas with later greenup are a shade of blue. Areas where change was less than one day appear as white. Areas with statistically significant change in greenup are outlined - a light blue boundary indicates a p-value of > 0.10, and a yellow boundary indicates a p-value of > 0.05; significant at the 95% confidence level.

A story map is located here.

In the meantime, here is a spring shot of the Trail.

Official Length of Appalachian Trail in 2023 is ....

 

For the details.

Glacial Retreat?

 Here is another short video clip and this one is about glaciers.

Not perfect, but our heat pump helps.

Three pack of Falls in Iceland

 This flick might serve as a great screen saver.  

No soundtrack besides the sound of flowing water.  Enjoy.

Kerið

 Check out this short video on this volcanic crater in Iceland.

Shots taken on two trips to Iceland.

Pingo

 No, not the latest craze on social media, but rather ice-cored hills, 3–70 m high and 30–1,000 m in diameter.

See these near in Skaftárhreppur, Iceland.

Neat, eh?

The 2022 AT Thru-Hiker Survey

 Posted now, read the results.

https://thetrek.co/the-2022-at-thru-hiker-survey-general-information/

Mt. Washington, NH

Glacier Retreat

 In just two years, this glacier in Iceland retreated 100 meters.  Here is the photographic evidence.

 

See this satellite image too.  And one from NASA.

Psychotronic Films from South Asia

 I got these video clips from a dealer in Pakistan probably 20 years ago.  His store was called The Hotspot Online and in addition to film collectibles, he sold ice cream.  See the archived site here.

Some of the video clips may still be available via the crawler.

In the meantime, ponder the weirdness.

Crazy eh?