Conference back40::soapbox

  It felt kinda springlike here (New Hampshire) this morning and early 
  afternoon.  I remarked to my kids how I love this time of year (which
  they reminded me I tell them every year) with the warming temps, color
  returning and spring showers, etc.  'Tis a bit chilly tonight, however.


 Jim

    The frogs started singing here in Ottawa last wednesday night. When the
    frogs sing spring has sprung!
    I think its a little windier than usual this year I could be mistaken.
    I like spring I like summer I like fall I like winter. So when people
    say they are glad the winter is over I remind them that the sooner
    winter leaves the sooner you start getting it back. That always
    depresses them but hey if weather gets you down you deserve to be
    depressed.
    

    
    well, i parked the rental cah in west newburyport, and hiked out to
    plum island, out to the point, along the beach, then back through
    town.  i wore shorts and a pullover, and was perfectly comfortable.
    
    

We sat in an outdoor caf� on Newbury Street for about two hours this
afternoon and gorged ourselves on pasta, chianti, cappucino, and teramisu.

/john

tIramisu

    I've heard it said, whenever you find 4 Episcopalians, there's always a
    fifth.

Yeah.  That's why I typoed tiramisu.

/john

    ;-)

    
    Did you know that "episcopal" rearranged spells "pepsi cola"?
    

Spring is somewhere else.  We're just starting to get autumnal. 
Spring won't happen here 'til September.


C

    We are moving into the Fall too !!

Fall???

ptui.


Chele

    Hmmmmmmmm!

is that Fall as in Mark & Brix Smith's band?

Chris.

    First of all, kudos to Mz.Deb for what I call the observation of
    the year (so far). (in .9)
    
    Spring IS here.
    
    Its here for 5 days already.
    We've had 24'C on Sunday. That must be ~70-75'F according to my memory
    and my analog C/F converter (dual scale thermo).
    
    Unmistakeable sings of spring:
    	The tulips are out. 
    	The dogs takes 5-6 baths in the pond per day.
    	Alexandra's eyes are itching and she has a hard time breathing.
    	It is warm outside.
    	Butterflies all around.
    	Neighbors (south) are barbequeing.
    	Neighbors (east) are having garden parties.
    	Me sitting on the veranda, preparing the asparagus for diner.
    
    	and all that.
    
    Heiko

My tulips are also out, but the wind and hail have tried to kill them,
so summer's obviously on its way!

Chris.

I trust that Martin and Chele will keep us posted on the harsh
aspects of the Oz winter as the season progresses. When the
temps don't get any higher than 70 and actually dip into the
40's or so . . . 

Heiko, what sort of an area do you live in? It sounds kind of
"suburban" by American standards. Sort of "country-ish?"

    
    S C H L E S W I G - H O L S T E I N   !
    
    My, my!
    
    I'm doing the best to promote my federal state (home of the cows) and 
    Mr.Delblasto, even though being one of my favourite targets, is still
    utterly ignorant :-).
    
    Yes, it's country-ish. Actually, almost all of Schleswig-Holstein is
    country-ish. The biggest cities are Kiel (400,000), Luebeck (250,000)
    and Flensburg (~80,000) inhabitants. Hamburg iteslf (pop. 1.8 mill) is
    a federal state of its own.
    
    I live in Trittau. That is a 7,000 people "Dorf", 30km east of Hamburg. 
    Quite rural, albeit the center of the Hahnheide region with about 20,000
    people. Center means: the only Dorf with reasonable shopping
    opportinites. 
    There are very few apts in Trittau, most people live in single houses.
    So do we. Garden, pond, old trees included. 
    
    I guess you'll need YAPC. (from Trittau)
    
    Heiko

> YAPC

With cows on it?

    
    Maybe.
    
    As an aside, I *am* wearing socks with cows on them. 
    

    
    I have daffodils and hyacinths out already.  The trees are pretty bare
    but have buds.  And I raked the heck out of the lawn this weekend.
    
    I want to get a little bench for under the trees on the front lawn and
    maybe a hammock.

Today brings gale force winds and a lingering mist.  Heavy rain is
forecast for later this afternoon.  My daffodils and tulips aren't
looking very happy.  I love the typical English spring!  (not)  :(

Chris.

Actually had two daffodils bloom before I left this AM. I guess the rest
will be along before week's end.

Serviced the swimming pool pump yesterday and removed the last of the
water from the cover. Prolly remove the cover and open the sucker next
weekend.

    RE: Plum Island and shorts.  
    
    Exposed flesh in the Plum Island area usually acts as a dinner bell for
    the nice little flies there known as Greenheads.  They are assault
    flies of the worst kind with large pointy teeth and huge appetites for
    filet de hiker.  Must have been windy?

    It's 38 F here today in Cincinnati.  It has rained all weekend (I was
    looking for snow, but it didn't get quite that cold), too.  What a
    lovely spring we are having.  
    
    Funny, but I remember springtime as being at least somwhat WARM, at
    least when it is this close to May. 
    
    April showers bring colds and flu, rather than May flowers, it would
    seem.
    
    
    -steve

    
    
    RE: .0.....
    
    
    
    It's in my personal name.  :*)
    
    
    Terrie
    

    re: .24
    
    	Way too early for greenheads.
    
    			Robert.
    

     er: .27
    
     Yup. Try the same walk in 2nd-3rd week of July and it'll be a
    different story.

    
    
    
    Dogwoods have come and gone the trees are in full green and
    except for the last four days it's been sunny warm for about 
    seven weeks here in GA.
    

Update to .23 -

By the time I got home last evening there were over a dozen Dafs that
had bloomed!

Fast little sobs, aren't they?

    Spring- I think it sort of just went roaring by, we had 80 degree temps
    here over the weekend.  Since Friday I've clocked over 100 miles on my
    bicycle, even though I took Saturday off.
    
    DougO

    As I watch the snow melt in my yard, I see it revealing lush green
    grass. I know that I'm going to be sorry for fertilizing last week.
    
    
    ...Tom

    Spring is almost over in Hotlanta; most spring flowers finished
    blooming.  We're having a couple of cool "blackberry winter" day;
    summer blast will hit as soon as this passes.
    
    

    I think there is hope for us yet, as I was leaving the office to-night
    I noticed the Forsythia on the roof of the restaurant in front of our
    building was just begining to bloom.
    
    
    joan

My forsythia was in bloom when I got home tonight.

At least 98% of the bulbs I planted last Oct/Nov are up and
healthy.

It looks like two of the tulips are going to bloom tomorrow.

Over two dozen daffodils and narcissuses (narcisses?) are still
in bloom - going on two weeks now!

The leaves are starting to come out on just about all of the
trees.

Downside:
     The blackflies are biting to beat the band.

    <--- What luck!

No blackflies up there, eh?

    Not yet but it won't be long now.

Well, won't _YOU_ be the lucky one then!

    My tulips keep trying to bloom. But, the constant changing weather here
    in Colorado keeps stopping them. One day they are out and the next they
    are bent over because of frost or snow. At 6200 ft above sea-level the
    buds are just starting to show on the aspens.
    
    ...Tom (who is always lucky)

    Spring is but a memory; we're about to move straight ahead into
    summer :-)
    
    It was truely marvelous breathing in the scent of wild honeysuckle
    while walking the poochies this AM.
    
    

    
    
    RE: Tulips...
    
    I think I mentioned this already somewhere in here, but just in
    case.......
    
    
    All the tulips I planted in my front yard in the fall are now blooming
    beautifully all over my yard.  Everywhere EXCEPT for where I planted
    them. ;*)  Some verment dug them up and replanted them around his hole
    in the ground, in the brush pile behind the back porch, next to the
    lilac bushes, and behind the garage.  It's quite a riot now, but I was
    not ammused when I first saw all the empty holes where they had been
    burried originally.
    
    
    Terrie
    

    >>It was truely marvelous breathing in the scent of wild honeysuckle
    
    
    i *love* the smell of honeysuckle!!!  i just don't know of where to
    find any to sniff... :< 
    
    

    I'm still waiting for spring to arrive.  Maybe sometime this June...

Are you still having that gloomy nasty mess out there, Steve?

    
    
    Around the office the birds are singing, Daffodils are almost done,
    Tulips and Grape Hyacinths are blooming.  Not where I live, the birds
    are singing, Yes, but we've had frost every night for the past week and
    my spring flowers keep diving back underground.
    
    
    
    joan

Sorry to hear about the frost, Joan. I just checked
the recording thermometer and we've been above freezing
every night for over two weeks here.

My tulips finally succumbed to the high winds.  Bugger.  The weeds
have now gone too, as I spent this afternoon turning the jungle out
the back into a garden again.

Chris.

    Yipee it's arrived
    
    And according to the weather lady it's going to stay (even though there
    is a frost warning out for to-night, for us poor country folk, I dont care)
    I can spend all day to-morrow in the garden again :-)
    
    
    joan

    re: .45
    
    Actually, it was absolutely beautiful Sat. and Sun., which really makes
    me mad as I no longer can gripe about the weather.  8^)
    
    FWIW, it's clouding up as I type.  It's supposed to rain sometime
    today and probably storm tonight and tomorrow AM, so I'm getting my
    typing fingers loosened up for a good volley of whining.  8^)
    
    
    -steve

     Hmmm. And I thought that most cherries were around 98.6�...

    It's been raining like a bastard here all day long. Snow is falling in
    the Gatineau hills.

| <<< Note 394.53 by POLAR::RICHARDSON "Pangolin Wielding Ponce" >>>

| It's been raining like a bastard here all day long. Snow is falling in
| the Gatineau hills.

	I've never seen a bastard rain...

    -1 then you'll never be able to accurately state "now i've seen
    everything".

    I'll agree with Mr. Multiplicity on this.  Yesterday was sunny but very
    windy and cold while riding.  My toes were frozen by the time we
    finished.  Shouldn't be that way.  Nope, nosirreebob. 

Well, *I* didn't know a 'day' could ride!

Pete

William the Bastard rained.  Er, reigned.

    i suppose you've never heard of briefs riding either.

    ..where is spring in New England? Hiding between winter and summer...
    Wanting summer to come sooooooon.:) But, around these parts, like
    Maine, there are three seasons.... mud, bug, and wint-tha.:)

    
    
    
    	Weather so far this spring has inhaled big time.  I'm 
    	waiting to see if anything we planted survives/comes up/blooms.
    
    

	methinks it's been a very good Spring for the 
	world of plants.

 Good quote about New England weather from Mark Twain in today's Manchester
 Union Leader (which I will attempt to quote accurately):

 "New England has 3 months of winter and one month of bad sledding".

    
    
    	I don't know why, but that cracked me up!
    

    Watchoutfordertree!!:)
    

>	methinks it's been a very good Spring for the 
>	world of plants.

Not out in Central Mass... All the veggies are sprouting, but that's it. Too
cool, too rainy = virtually no growth. My first radishes are due next
weekend, and I doubt they'll even have their first real leaves.

   .66  i thought she was talking about flowering plants.  seems like
	it's been a good Spring for them, at least.  but hey, maybe only
	in Chelmsford.

    Chelmsford is theee gaahrden spot of Mass.

    
    
    	Looks like some the gladiolas are going to make it.  Checked	
    	out the flower bed last night and three of them have poked
    	through the surface........
    

    
    whatchoo gonna put around that thare birdie bath???
    
    

    
    
    	Well, right now it's sitting in the middle of the rock garden.
    	If'n we decide to move it, I have plenty o' flower type seeds
    	and bulbs, that I'm sure we can find something to put around it.
    
    	=)
    

    Still too cold to plant squash, beans, or sunflowers in CO.  Temps are
    supposed to be climbing soon though.
    
    

    
    
    	Well the weather persons here certainly got today's 
    	forecast screwed up!  Wasn't it supposed to be damp,
    	overcast and off and on rain?  It's gorgeous out there.
    	Sunny and warm.  Bit windy.
    

	Up there, yeah.... down here, no. 

It's a 75/75 day today ... 75 degrees, 75MPH wind.

Coasting down 495S at about 1:30 this afternoon and the wind yanked 
my scanner antenna off the roof and sent it crashing down against the 
side of the car ... a few small scratches, but doesn't look too bad.

Geez, I take a week off for 40 degrees and rainy and come back to 
work for this ... figures, eh?

> Coasting down 495S at about 1:30 this afternoon and the wind yanked 
> my scanner antenna off the roof and sent it crashing down against the 
> side of the car ... a few small scratches, but doesn't look too bad.

Real radios don't have magmount antennas.

But it's not a "real radio" ... I said it was a scanner, didn't it?

> But it's not a "real radio" ... I said it was a scanner, didn't it?

Yah, manly men transmit, too.

Well, now I'm crushed.

    Whatdozthishavetodowithspring? 

The spring wind blew the antenna off of the roof of my car.

Please try and follow along.

    Shawn, 80 columns please for the love of GOD!!!

| <<< Note 394.81 by MRPTH1::16.34.80.132::slab "[email protected]" >>>


| The spring wind blew the antenna off of the roof of my car.

	where is it now?

The spring wind?

Probably outside, in the same place as it was the other day.

    I used to have a spring to wind. Then I got a digital watch.

Digital watches are definitely easier to spot in stores than Digital 
computers.