30 years

[altivo]

Has it really been that long? Yes it has. My mate and I celebrate 30 years together as of this weekend. Not that we're doing anything big. We plan to join some friends who are celebrating their 50th anniversary and go to dinner at an Indian restaurant. We also went out to a relatively new Polish buffet style place tonight (it wasn't bad, but wasn't really impressive either.) I bought us a new mattress that is being delivered next week, and he gave me a teddy bear. That's about it. We tried to plan a real party on our 25th but no one was able to make it, so this time around we're not doing that.

Weather today has been a bit on the peculiar side. We had a very odd display of cloud shapes around 11 am. There was no warning or watch in our county, but the sky looked like a honeycomb of cavities going upward. It's hard to explain, but imagine a uniform overcast that appears to have a definite ceiling. then imagine huge holes in it pointing straight up, looking as if someone had pushed a giant carrot up into the cloud ceiling at regular intervals, making a series of rows of holes that covered about half the sky. There was severe thunderstorm activity to the south of us, but we had no wind and no rain, just this very weird cloud formation. Later someone referred to it as a "mesoscale convection" I think. or something like that. In any case it was the oddest looking and most disturbing cloud distribution I've ever seen in my life.

Now there appear to be thunderstorms headed in our general direction, but it wouldn't be surprising if they miss us, as they often do. It's bone dry here, and we really could use some decent rainfall.

Comments

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on your 30 years together! Dave is here for the weekend; I told him, and he also extends his admiration and congratulations.

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

That's fantastic! Congratulations!

[schnee]

Happy anniversary to the both of you! :)

Hmm, I don't know much if anything about clouds, but Wikipedia's entry on mesocyclones has a passage that reminds me of your description:

Mesocyclones are believed to form when strong changes of wind speed and/or direction with height (wind shear) sets parts of the lower part of the atmosphere spinning in invisible tube-like rolls. The convective updraft of a thunderstorm is then thought to tilt upwards the layer of spinning air (from parallel to the ground to perpendicular) and causing the entire updraft to rotate as a vertical column.

As the updraft rotates, it may form a wall cloud, a spinning layer of clouds descending from the mesocyclone. The wall cloud tends to form closer to the center of the mesocyclone. As it descends, a funnel-shaped cloud may form at its center. This is the first stage of tornado formation.

Sounds like you may have seen the beginning of that — or a related phenomenon.

[altivo]

Thanks. While I wouldn't attribute it to "luck" I don't think we've done much of anything special to make it work other than just plain being sensible. I guess I could call it horse sense.

[altivo]

Thanks. Just "stable" personalities, I guess.

[altivo]

Yes, something closely related to that. It almost looked as if there were a bunch of inverted funnels going up into the sky and we were looking up into the wide ends of them. I did wonder what it looked like from above, though probably there was denser cloud cover at higher levels to obscure the view.

As far as I know, there was no actual tornado activity, but the storm complex to the south of us (30 to 80 miles wide) continued to gather strength as it moved east. They were definitely severe thunderstorms by the time they hit Ohio, with big lightning, hail, and 80 mph winds. Power and communication systems took major hits there.

[hrrunka]

Happy Anniversary!

...and I hope you don't get the bad weather.

[altivo]

Thanks. At this point I'll take the bad weather as long as it includes an inch or two of rain.

Yesterday we were slated for a cool down with chance of rain every day and night for the next week. This morning it has changed to continued heat wave over the next seven days with no chance of rain. That's not good at all.

[hrrunka]

We had a short sharp downpour this morning. Now it's just blustery, but at least it's a bit less humid than it was...

[merik]

Congratulations! That's really wonderful! :)

[lhexa]

Congratulations on the anniversary. :)

[moonhare]

I'm happy for you both; congratulations!

...and what better gift than a teddy bear? ;o)

[altivo]

Thanks. Yes, it is. Even though we've turned into a couple of grey geezers. (Well, I'm grey. He's mostly shiny.) He doesn't object to my mountain of plush and I don't object to his piles of boxes that fill the barns and garage. :D (At least, not much.)

[altivo]

Thanks. Now if it would just rain a bit...

[altivo]

Thanks. Yep, he knows what I like. Maybe not the biggest Gund makes, but the largest I've seen. Long furred, very soft. The tag says "Downing."

[moonhare]

Downing's a handsome fellow. I've always loved Gund products.

[calydor]

Congratulations on the many years of subverting the very fabric of society and marriage. ;)

[altivo]

Thanks. I'll let you in on a little secret though. Both my parents would agree if they were still here to do so. I've been subverting the very fabric of society for 62.5 years now, or since the day I was born. I've always been that way, and usually managed it so as not to be stopped. Not the kind of rebel who blows things up, but rather one who rearranges the furniture inch by inch until one day the dining room and the parlor have been completely swapped without anyone noticing.

If I ever actually get to retire from full time work and still be alive for a few years, some surprising things may happen. ;p

[avon_deer]

Congratulations, both of you.

[altivo]

Thanks. I won't yet say it "seems like an eternity." ;p