Ice

[altivo]

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
—Robert Frost

Listened all day to dire warnings about the horrible storm that was coming, with up to nine inches of snow overnight. Started to sleet around sunset, then freezing rain. Other than a coating of ice, which is bad enough, it's looking like another case of the NWS crying "wolf" at a chihuahua. They've been reducing the snow estimate now and it's back down to three to five. Actual accumulation so far: about an eighth of an inch. It is not snowing at the moment. I've been saying for years now, the time to really worry is when they say "light flurries." When they predict something big it rarely happens.

Just as well. I have to go into work tomorrow to give the new firewall a test run when it won't bother anything else. If it works, it stays in, if there's a problem not immediately fixable, I'll switch back to the old one.

Comments

[graystonethusky.livejournal.com]

"...the time to really worry is when they say "light flurries." When they predict something big it rarely happens."

I second this! It's the same way here as well, I don't think they have ever gotten a forecast right yet when it involves snow and rain. Just goes to show that no matter how much money they spend on technology, mother nature still wins! :)

[cozycabbage.livejournal.com]

The time to really worry is when they say "light furries."

You're all laughing now, but wait until they predict snow and it ends up raining hellfires!
They've been that wrong in the past, I'm sure.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I suspect that the increasing technology has actually resulted in less accuracy. The reason for that is complex, and has to do with humans rather than the machines, which do report what they see accurately enough.

Two things have happened. Budget cutting has resulted in a loss of the most experienced and skilled meteorologists. On top of that, a generation of newbies have come in who just look at a computer model and believe it, without ever looking out the window. So if the model says "it's snowing" they report that, even though a glance out the window would reveal the truth that it is doing no such thing.

It is actually snowing now. We've got about two inches on the ground.

[jbadger.livejournal.com]

Third.

[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

The 50% chance of snow they were predicting for Friday turned out to be a bust. Now they're predicting a 70% chance of snow Monday night. Something tells me we're not gonna get much out of that either.

Where's Dr. George when you need him?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's all computer models now and no actual human intelligence being applied.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

@.@

Thats the third time I've seen that poem
in a week.

Its a sign!

*looks at the Sun and sees no sunspots still*

Yes, ice.

c.c

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I really don't know where the idea has come from that sunspots correlate to weather in any direct manner. It sure has been going around a lot lately, but I think it's foolishness. In any case, if there were a direct connection, we should be warmer without them than with. They appear as spots because they are not as hot as the surrounding surfaces.

Anyway, I quote Frost because I really like his poetry. Truth is, the last week of March isn't a particularly surprising time for a late snow here. We finally ended up with about two inches, and it's melting already.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like that poem a lot. He's hereby given rare permission to rhyme "desire" with "fire" without me screaming.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Hmm? Where I live, "desire" and "of fire" are a perfectly good rhyme, right down to the syllabic stress.

Yes, Robert Frost is one of my absolute favorite poets, along with England's Thomas Hardy, and Ireland's W.B. Yeats. Right after that would come U.S. poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, Canada's Robert W. Service, and Australia's Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

They're unfortunately overused in pop music to the point of triggering aneurysms and the odd rant at the radio alarm of a morning. "Light My Fire" (originally by The Doors) is an example that uses the stereotypical three (fire/desire/higher) along with... "mire". This evidently bothers me more than it should.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Ah. Since I haven't listened to much pop music since the 60s, it doesn't bother me. ;p

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

You have missed not a thing, dear equid.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh, and *blush* Badger Clark. One of the first "cowboy poets" and I confess, I happen to like the genre.

Here's a sample.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

Very nice indeed.

Here, have High Flight because it's cool, and the annotated version for extra laughs.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh, indeed. Magee's sonnet is superb, right up there with Shakespeare himself, though the Bard probably wouldn't have known what it was about. If I remember correctly, though, John Magee died young and that one poem is about all that we have from him. Sad.

I love "High Flight" so much that I paraphrased it just slightly in honor of my friend goldenstallion who has carried Tivo high into the skies of Tapestries MUCK many precious times:

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, -- and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of -- wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence, hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager Mount through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

That slightly altered version is written on a locket that Tivo wears around his neck.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

I'd heard that was Magee's only work too, but turns out Wikipedia has the text of a couple more. I quite like the olive grove one.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Mmm, the Rupert Brooke memorial you mean? That one reminds me of A. E. Housman, and he's another poet I really do like. The Wikipedia writer suggests that Magee's work was partly derivative, and that may well be. He was clearly influenced by some other fine poets.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Someone should amend that FAA annotated version to add the further admonitions of TSA.