How are the dog-days of summer your way ?

[geodeticman.5]

Small talk to be sure, but that feeling is creeping up on me tonight, for the first evening this month.

In the hottest blazing days of summer here in Colorado, non-permanent snowfields up on the Divide melted if they are going to completely; glaciers intact, and *fall* is in the air tonight here, out of nowhere. Its too soon of course, but you how that first day, or evening feels, smells, temperature changes subtly or significantly.

It is noteably cooler tonight at 6200 feet in Castle Rock. That is not high for Colorado; over 2/3 of the state is over 10,000 feet in elevation, little-known fact even to Coloradoans. 6200 feet is only one-thousand feet higher 20 minutes up out of Denver - thank God for that fact - pollution, traffic, etc.

Those factors, in what was our sleepy little story book town where, when my wife and daughter and I moved here in '96, Mamie transitioning from junior-high (its not "junior-high. Dad.......its MIDDLE SCHOOL oops OK honey) to middle school at the time, have grown more big city-like in bursting-at-the-seams subdivisions, a gazillion new restaurants, hotels, ....and believe it or not, our first real MOVIE "thee-ate-er" lol. Thats how small it was. Now we are in the second fastest growing County in the Nation. Our sleepy little burg is a burgeoning bedroom-community to Denver, much like Evergreen.

Now, the High-school kids go to the 12-movie cineplex in town, self-consciously brandishing the ubiquitous cellphones, and "beeper" car-lock remotes to what neither I, nor my friends at their age would EVER have had - a new car, or near new- rotated out of dual-income Mom-and Dad's 2 -3 year car ownership optimum resale or trade-in frequency, whatever it is now, totally foriegn concept to me.

I buy a new car, and drive it with increasing cost effectiveness, noting with Scottish satisfaction as it goes from $500/yr to license, down to $20 when it gets 130,000 miles on it. 3 new Subaru Legacy's back to back, 4 actually if i count Merrry's little 4wd mini -Justy, the only 4wd, automatic, air-conditioned car ever sold for $10,000 to my knowledge - with a lot of chiseling on my part down from 13,000 msrp lol. That car had an almost "first" in it - an electronic, continuously variable automatic transmission in it- the "ECVT" it was called, wierd... you could hold it steady at 3,500 rpm, from 0 - 75 mph, and never change the engine speed if you chose. Merry never could drive a stick, ......

Now I notice the ECVT being touted as revolutionary in Infinity's, Mercedes, Lexus', et al, as being "new" ... snicker. The very first. and only other CVT before the Justy was the Get-Smart TV series little red convertable sports-car he drove - it was a Sunbeam Alpine, and its dirth was the CVT that had a rubber-belt that wore out at 25,000 miles, whereas the Justy - quite clever - had only three moving parts - versus the modern automatic transmission averaging almost 300 parts in it.

The Justy would have two metal cones, one inside the other, opposed to one-another sliding in and out, thus provding varying radii for the electro-magnetically charged steel chain that would slide with the cones to change "infinite gears" - no thud or thunk or a sense of gears chaging at all, very ingenieous.

Well, off of my subject I was, most Coloradoans have the requisite SUV, 99% of which have never been off of pavement, at least off-road per se . But there are about 3-days a winter "they" say that in Colorado, down in the city, you are *real* glad to have 4wd. Of course, up in the mountains, like my High School home-town, at almost 9000 feet, 4wd is a way of life - and quite necessary.

Mamie inherited our first Sube Legacy 4wd, and had her first - thank God - only accident in it. I sadly said good-by to that car, the family wagon, stickers and all, which had faithfullly carried the whole tribe to Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, Trail Ridge, Pike's Peak, countless summer vacations as she grew up, rubber-tomahawk in hand from the fake Indian trading posts....Mamie and us loved those years...so many memories....the car NEVER failed us from new to its untimely death at 130,000 miles when Mamie successfully negotiated a sharp cutoff concrete abrupt shoulder into soft-fill berm, and fish-tailed back onto the road, experiencing the common fish-tail increasingly getting out of hand until she hit the concrete delimiter in the median.... and landed sideways in the car, thankfully not injured. Now 26 and married.
Wow....

Well, more rambling, more subjects than I intended, but you guys know by now to expct that from me.... main thing is.... are you feeling...smelling...detecting..any first hints of fall in your neck of the woods ? Even when we do, in Colorado, we will have a spectacular Indian Summer in September - October - the best hiking months of the year - if you dont; mind waking up to 4" snow outside your tent, when it was 75 dgrees the day before......Thoughts ?

~geo steve

[joveski]

its the middle winter down here i'm freezing my nuts off!

[geodeticman.5]

LOL Joveski - sorry...... I of all people should be cognizant of the earth's seasonal functions - tropics of Cancer and Captricorn, 23 1/2 degree rotational axis tilt, not to mention the wobble, precession , and nutation of that spin, ...AHA ! The is the answer - the "NUT-ation" of the earth's spinning - hense your freezin your baguettes off !

I was being shamefully USA-centric..... in this global medium of the internet.....

*3-whacks* with a yard-stick in class for Steve....LOL

hope things warm up for you down and around there.....no chance of an Indian Summer for you this deep into winter ?

~geo steve

oh check out Q's 43 - 48 - NEW !

[DJ in MJ]

Here on the Canadian Prairies it has been hot and dry the past few weeks, though not as stinking as last year. My family and friends in Ontario are none too happy with all the cold and wet they are getting, but we would have loved it! Both Lisa and I are Rainy Day People and neither of us like the heat.

I suppose now it would be selfish to want the rain, as the farmers here will need the sun and dry to do their harvesting. I feel for them though. We've had a ton of hail this year, and the crop damage has been rather substantial. My dad-in-law sells steel buildings to farmers and he is hearing many tales of woe due to the hailish weather this year.

From just a personal perspective, it's been an enjoyable and relaxing summer overall.

[Nightingale]

Funny you should mention 'fall' Steve.

Yes, here in Indiana, we are having signs of fall. I was telling my husband the other day that the sky looked like a a 'fall' day sky.
We are having a chill in the air tonight, very unusual for August.

My summer flowers are fading fast and the birds aren't singing their songs as much...two more signs that the ease of summer is leaving us.

And finally, the last sign of fall being on it's way is I feel kind of melancholy.
I do it every year.

I think a lot of people feel it when the wind starts blowing colder.

Joveski, You made me laugh really hard...lol. Too funny!
Hope you get thawed out soon, my friend.

[formerlylavender]

It's funny, but it seems to be getting cooler here in Delaware too. The evenings are getting chilly already, and the days aren't as warm as they were in July. I like it, but it's not a typical August so far!

[timetraveler]

right now, the weather here is a little on the insane side. It can't seem to make up it's mind from one day to the next. We finally got some rain the other day that cooled things off enough that we were able to turn off the A/C for the night. Otherwise, first thing in the morning, after I take the dog out for a walk, we turn the A/C on & leave it on til around 10pm. May sound silly to some, but I'm actually looking forward to a little nippy weather come fall.

[charlene]

here in (deepcove/hubbards) Nova Scotia it's beautiful. A rainfall yesterday afternoon but clear last night. Today the skies are blue and there's a slight breeze. Temps are up around 75 usually. We were in Peggy's Cove a couple of days ago..absolutely gorgeous scenery. We're off to Chester (5 min.away) for race weekend activities..
We were down to Lunenburg and will return on Saturday for a 2 hour cruise on The Bluenose..
July in Toronto was wet but the rains were fast and furious..sun was hot and days were 80+. Cooler evenings than usual tho.

[Affair on Touhy Ave.]

Does it really get all that hot in Canada?

The closest I've ever been to Canada is Northeastern Minasota were we vacationed there a few times durring the summer in the 80's.

In all four of those times it was hardly hot which was not all that bad but and the nights were cold.

I couldn't believe it.


Anyway I'm trying to enjoy the summer the best I can and can't wait for the cold winter time.


Just joking.

[charlene]

well canada has a huge range of weather..toronto gets vefy hot and humid being situated on lake ontario. there are times when it's hotter and more humid than it is where my sister lives in sarasota florida.\
today here in south west nova scotia on the atlantic it was clear and sunny-no humidity-but at 75 it was a blistering heat./
"canada" has as varied weather as the u.s. from coast to coast...-

[geodeticman.5]

General consensus seems to be so far: somewhat unusual August so far for most; still hot in Colorado, hence the dog-days someone mentioned in the quizzer post which made me think of atmospheric ( no pun) imagery in Lightfoot songs of just such things.

Hot August days, cooler nights, a hint in the air as a portent of autumn waiting in the wings here to commonly appear color-wise in the 3rd week of September, but still hot when I opened this thread. Then it got unseasonably cold and rainy right for a week or so after in Colorado and apparently elsewhere, and here, has not changed yet. I am -sigh- anticipating an early autumn. I hope we have a heck of an Indian Summer ! yahoo I love those...great hiking, though I can't do that anymore on a big scale, but thank my lucky stars I can on a smaller one-lung scale !

I wonder: does this mean an early winter ? Hope not. Bu,. I love the snow. Just have not done what I want to yet this summer in total.

Sounds like most of you are smelling fall in the air, or feeling it, or seeing the fleeting signs of it coming..... as soon as I say that, like was said above, it'll be hotter than hades again in a week. More of dog days to go.... I 'spect....

We almost always get a light snow in September, and a substantial October snow in Colorado ritualistically for Halloween. There is a hilarious list called: "You know you are a Coloradoan if...." and it mentions as one of the "you might be a red-neck if...."-type humour items this gem:

"You know you are a Colorado'an if all your childhood memories of Halloween costumes included a down-coat under it per your Mom, and your de rigeur Colorado Native massive 8-pound Frankensteinian leather off-trail backpacking and/or climbing boots- [popular in the 70's as a school uniform of sorts , coupled with carefully-faded jeans, plaid flannel or wool for "Real Climbers" shirts, blue down vests ala John Denver, as well as Michelin-man poofy-grade Blue (again) Down jacket over the vest, and topped off with a hilarious-looking Tibetan boiled-wool colorfull balaclava with ear flaps, yes...this was cool out here then....]

Yup, snow would be in the air by late September, even if the snowline starts at 6600 ft. like my house location, or 9,600 where I lived at home in High School here. The leaves'll turn to gold and yellow-ish if temps are just right and tree-sugars in the aspens are right, and we don't have an early hard-freeze, not just the predictable frost-tinging of September over-night. Beautiful month in Colorado. And for the last week, its all been in the air, despite no phyical signs of it except for the heady autumn leaf aroma.

~geo steve

[geodeticman.5]

Char - yes as to varied weather and climate - I notice in my little window weather gadgets that as I speak, where I am at in Colorado, at a mild 6200 feet, it is 78 degrees, wheras "down" in elevation but "up" on the map - Longmont, where my mother lives, and Merry and I did for about 14 years , 8 months recently, it is 81 degrees - but having surveyed Longmont I knw where she lives is only around 4950 feet. A little up into the Mountains to the west of Longmont, where we lived when Mamie was born, and I went to High School in 75 -'76, in Estes Park, it is 72 degrees, at 8200 feet.

Then up to where my folks had their mountain house at 9600 feet it would be on average 3-5 degrees cooler. And up Canada way - its 45 degrees in NW TERRITORIES at Tuktoyaktuk of Ice Road Truckers notoriety, well into the arctic circle. And further to the North in the Queen Elizabeth Islands at Resolute and Alert, its 28 degrees right now in Alert. Pt. Barrow over in Alaska right now is 37 degrees, down at a balmy 71 degrees Latitude (compared to Resolute and Alert, around 80 degrees Lat.). I'd have to agree Char - and I have always wanted to see New Brunswick in the fall - almost made it there on a five-month solo Steinbeck "Travels with Charlie" (his Dog) type trip I took. Gas money gave out in Maine, though.lol Sure love to tour Canada - I envy your New Scotland trip .... I drove thru Canada across the bottom of all the border provinces with Dad at the helm when I was 12; but he was going 85 pulling a pop-top trailer in the family wagon.... we dared not make a sound or we'd crash - and die of the giant flies we encountered in Sasketchewan. The trans-Canada Highway (#1?) had a posted speed limit of 80.... and we went from down at phonetic (SOO SAINT MARREE) - I wont take time to look it up - you all now it, from the US side, then got up onto the great East-West Highway, all the way to B.C. and up to Lake Louise, and the Athabasca Glacier area. Them striaght down hell-bent for leather to Colorado, you know how Dad's grind the miles out in the family wagon on vacation.....gotta make good time....lol

Hope your Nova Scotia trip's rewarding Char

~geo steve

[BILLW]

I can tell you the pool water is down to about 78 F. Not too bad, I don't have a heater installed (yet). And it's cooling down in the evenings but the forecast is for the mid 80s for the next week at least. Bob the Frog is still coming back every night. When he quits for the season I know real cool weather is coming. Hmmm ? What was the question ? Sorry !

Bill

[geodeticman.5]

BILLW - ah nothin important for the Q - your post fits right in , its good ole' conversation, general premise being: how are the dog-days of summer going your way ? Assuming you are having -em. Soon as I wrote the thread starter, next day it turned from blistering heat - I'll borrow that term, into unseasonably cool, rainy, oh -sh** aspens are gonna turn early, bad color, not at all and fall off olive-green dry dead leaf, or who knows...

as long as there is not a hard freeze before 3rd week of September, the aspens have a chance of spectacular if all bodes well.... its a site to behold in Colorado, around average of 7 -9,000 feet on the Eastern Slope in the Front Range -most prominent to ppl north of Denver - the Collegiate Peaks and more to Denverites, and the Rampart Range down south of Denver and up/out elevation -wise somewhat ( 6 - 8,000 ft.) without going in the mtns per se at all, or even foothills, it is just that high between the Denver Basin, and back down into Colo. Springs, where the southerly terminus of the Rampart Range is the majestic ( I sound like a travel pamphlet) Pike's Peak - the top of which is where some lady that could belt-em-out wrote "America the Beautiful" - at 14,200 feet.

A cool cog ratcheting railroad made by the Swiss (of course) goes up it year-round . 'cept for bad storms. Trains made by Sears Craftsmen tools, it sounds like ( that sound of a good quality 3/8" ratchet handle (arh arh arh), Its kind of reassuring-sounding when you realize that if it were to not have cogs, and its little electric motor failed, or someone pulled the plug for their Christmas lights (Chevy Chase -Clarke W. Griswold might do it) and the train careened backwards from 14,000 feet rather quickly down towards 6,000 ft at bottom, somewhere along the way it would hit, oh say, 400-600 mph, and fly straight off a curve into the air and little Jimmy down in Manitou Springs would say "Look Daddy, its Santa's Sleigh !" - and as I recall the OLD Frosty the Snowman cartoon at x-mas, it barely animates during a period-relevant commercial I will always remember as well as the cartoon - anyone else remember the "Norelco electric shavers" sledding and skiing sorta around the fake-snow set of the cartoon. Its alittle plug for what to by Dad, or the hubster, more $-pertinent.

Well, we are not quite to that weather yet, but u watch, in what will feel like 4 -6 weeks, we will be saying Merry Christmas and Happy Channukah (sp?) to one another!

So.... I guess we dig the weather for now....hot/cold/dry/humid whatever - cause its the last rites of sumer, then the false winter, then hopefully a great Indian Summer outhere September to...... 2 days before Halloween !

Happy dog-days wherever you are.... so whats going on your way to those who've read and have not shared some local colour with us ?

~geo steve