Friday, 3/20

Here are two pictures to wrap up one of the weirdest weeks in recent history.

As you know, we had a LOT of snow the past ten days. The Weather Service in Negaunee recorded the snowiest week in the 64 years since they moved up there, and while we had 20 inches of white stuff dumped upon us here in the city, our friends out at KI Sawyer are still digging out from the 54 inches (four and a half feet!) of snow they've endured since last weekend.

So I guess I wasn't too surprised when I got home last night and Loraine told me that I needed to head a few blocks over from where we live to see a tunnel that someone had tried to snow blow through a drift.

I present to you the sidewalk on the east side of Pine Street, by Williams Park--

I have NO idea why someone took a snowblower through the drift, although I'm guessing it was just to say they did it. And if you wondering just how high those walls of snow are, here's a picture of a dork standing inside of it--

Now, I'm 5-10 and a half (the average high of an American male, if you're curious) and the walls of snow are at least a foot and a half above my head. THAT'S how much snow was in that drift, and that's how much snow someone had to blow through just to make that narrow path. How they managed to get a snowblower through the drift remains a mystery, but I do have to admit that I stand in awe of their accomplishment.

Especially after the week we've had.

Hopefully, this upcoming weekend is a lot lot more peaceful than the past week. After what we've been through, I'm pretty sure that we deserve it.

Have a great one yourself!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 3/19

Once or twice a year, the jacket comes in handy.

This is the jacket of which I'm speaking--

It's been sitting on the back of my office door for, geez, 15 or so years now.  A couple of times a year, when it's cold in our studio and I (like a dummy) haven't dressed like I should, I'll slip it on, be warm, and be thankful that I have it.

Everyone needs a jacket like that, right?

Now, if you look at the picture closely, you may be thinking to yourself “Jim...why do you have a personalized Checker Cab jacket hanging on your office door?”  And that would actually be a good thought to have.  You see, I have a personalized Checker Cab jacket on my office door because of a contest we did with the company in the early teens, our “Trivia Taxi” contest, where a Checker Cab would pick up a listener and drive them around Marquette while I asked them trivia questions.

And yes, it WAS a blatant rip-off of the TV show “Cash Cab”.  I don't think we ever denied that.

8-)

Anyway, the contest went on for several months, and during that time the then owner of Checker, Jesse Schram, who also doubled as the taxi driver of whom participants could ask advice, gave me the jacket in appreciation for the contest.  Since then, I've used it as my “office” jacket on those occasions when it's needed.  And trust me—this winter, especially the past week or so, it's been needed.

So if you ever come into the station on a chilly day and notice a Checker Cab jacket on me, that's why.  I haven't traded jobs or anything.  I'm just using a gift from a long-ago contest, a gift that after 15 or so years is still much appreciated.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 3/18

The fact blew what little was left of my sanity.

Because of all the snow (in fact, the snowiest one week period since the National Weather Service moved to Negaunee, which was 1961 or '62), I've spent four of the past five work days working alone. And much like the year & and a half I worked alone during Covid, during the past week I've started to notice little things I do without even thinking the one I happen to have noticed?

I wash my hands a lot. Specifically, during an eight hour day, probably 12 or so times. But that includes washing out tea mugs and after digging out dusty computer cables, so it's probably not that much is it?

Actually, that's not a bad thing. I know washing your hands is a good thing. After all, the best thing you can do to stop the spread of ANY kind of germs (and get rid of dirt from dusty computer cables) is to wash your hands. It's so simple, and it's so effective. I do it myself quite often, and how often do I get sick?

At least (ahem) physically sick?

So I did a little digging to find out how often “normal” people wash their hands; specifically, how many times per day the average American does it. It's 8.6 times in a 24-hour day, not just an eight hour workday, if you're curious, which means that in at least one way I'm quite above average. But the fact that accompanied that was the one that blew my mind--

73 million Americans—22 percent of us—don't wash their hands at all. Whatever was on their hands after working, pooping, and touching anything and everything is still on there.

I'll pause here for a moment if you feel the need to dry heave for a second.

22 percent of Americans go from wiping their butts to unwrapping a Twinkie without washing their hands. 22 percent of Americans go from sneezing in their hands to shaking your hand without washing said hand.. 22 percent of Americans go from digging through the garbage to changing a child's diaper without washing their hands.

Now, I'm not a germophobe, nor do I play one on TV, but is it any wonder some people get sick at the drop of a hat with the flu, the common cold, and any kind of crud that you can pick up from another person? A little simple personal hygiene could make everyone safer & healthier.

But maybe I'm just odd that way. And maybe, just maybe, I shouldn't work alone so often. I shudder to think what strange personal habit I may notice next.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 3/17

I think I've run out of words to describe the situation.

After almost 48 hours, our Blizzard Warning is no more, the snow seems to have stopped falling, and the winds are starting to die down. This has been a horrid, horrid situation, with schools still closed, roads still impassible, and a monster clean-up in front of everyone.

It was so bad I even had to snowshoe to work yesterday, where this was the scene that greeted me as I made it past the Peter White Public Library--

It's funny; we really didn't get as much snow as was in the forecast, but winds of over 50 mph drove the 14 inches we did get all over the place. There are still huge drifts everywhere; some roads in remote parts of the UP may not be cleared until the end of the week, and I think we're all still shell-shocked by what we've gone through.

Like I said, I think I've run out of words to describe. Thankfully, I had enough left to stick together my TV bit last night, an idea that Loraine actually thought might be apropos.

And as always, she was spot on--

That's all I'm gonna say about that, except to leave you with one parting thought, a phrase that has been coming out of my lips almost as much as the word “wow” the past three days--

Is it June yet?

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 3/16

You know what? Considering the circumstances, the sign was spot on.

I work across the street from the First Presbyterian Church in Marquette, where they have a sign out front that discuses what they'll be chatting about during the weekend's services. The topic they were to discuss this past weekend caught my eye on Friday, when we received a foot of snow, and seems even more relevant today, when portions of the UP could see up to three feet of the white stuff. (And you read that right—three FEET).

The topic?

I mean I know that it's just a coincidence. I'm guessing the topic for the past weekend's discussions were probably chosen well in advance. But when I saw the sign Friday during heavy snow, I thought it was perfect. And now that we're in the midst of even heavier snow?

It's even more perfect.

Armageddon, of course, implies a disastrous, permanent upheaval, and I do realize that what we're going through right now is not permanent (disastrous...well, that's up for discussion). But seeing the sign in the midst of three major storms in a six-day span couldn't have been more fitting. After all, sometimes things get so bad that the only action you can take is to laugh.

And I think most of us will agree that the past six days have been THAT bad.

We have warmer temperatures and rain the forecast for the end of this week; hopefully, that stays on track and doesn't because even more snow. Because I really don't think many of us could handle what we've been going through the past week.

For some of us, in fact, it could indeed qualify as Armageddon.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 3/13 (!)

Okay. This is just getting to be ridiculous.

As I alluded to yesterday while NOT talking about the weather, we're in the middle of another one of those bizarre weather episodes with which we've been graced this year. This whole week seems to have been a microcosm of an entire winter, so it's probably no surprise that we're now in the midst of a snow storm, with anywhere from two inches to a foot falling over this place, with an even worse dumping expected on Sunday.

Mother Nature, it's the middle of March. Can we please stop this torture some time soon?

8-)

Seriously; this has just been a weird few weeks around here. Today's the second day this week that most places in the UP cancelled school, and after almost all of our snow melted some areas are getting a LOT of it back. So in order to, perhaps, nudge Mother Nature, to give her a gentle reminder that we do deserve some nice weather, here are some pictures I took from just a few months ago.

Hopefully, I'll be able to take them again soon. But until I can, Mother Nature, remember when you gave us green?

You have us beach weather?

You gave us bike weather?

You gave us things growing from trees?

You gave us opportunities to see (and do) things you can't see (or do) in the snow?

And you gave us a color (or six) OTHER that white?

You know, if you could do that again, and do it again soon, that would be cool. That would be really, really cool.

Thanks in advance,

Your pal,

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 3/12

Today, I promise not to write ANYTHING about the weather. I'll save that for tomorrow when we're supposed to get another foot (or more) of the white crap.

Sigh...

Instead, two totally unrelated things I've been meaning to mention. First of all is a weird thought that popped into my head yesterday afternoon while eating an apple—do you leave the stem in when eating an apple, or do you twist it out? I don't know why the thought popped into my head; it just did. I personally twist the stem out. I don't know why; I mean, I could eat an apple with the stem in it. It wouldn't bother me at all. But for whatever reason, I always twist the stem out.

I guess I'm just weird like that.

And in regard to twisting the stem out of an apple—is/was there some kind of weird thing that goes along with how many twists it takes to get the stem out of the apple? You know; like if it takes four twists you'll kiss four people this year, or something strange like that? I seem to remember something along those lines from when I was a kid, but I don't remember any of the details. So if YOU know if I'm remembering this correctly or if I've just moved myself one step closer to heading off the deep end (a distinct possibility), let me know.

And thanks.

Secondly, I would like you to read this paragraph--

“In this paper, we develop a cascadic multigrid algorithm for fast computation of the Fiedler vector of a graph Laplacian, namely, the eigenvector corresponding to the second smallest eigenvalue. This vector has been found to have applications in fields such as graph partitioning and graph drawing. The algorithm is a purely algebraic approach based on a heavy edge coarsening scheme and pointwise smoothing for refinement. To gain theoretical insight, we also consider the related cascadic multigrid method in the geometric setting for elliptic eigenvalue problems and show its uniform convergence under certain assumptions. Numerical tests are presented for computing the Fiedler vector of several practical graphs, and numerical results show the efficiency and optimality of our proposed cascadic multigrid algorithm.”.

My question is this—did you understand it? Please say no. Please say that only a genius (or, in the case of the person who wrote it, a former lineman for the Baltimore Ravens who's a math scholar) can understand it. Because, you know, if that's something most people understand and I don't; well, then, I even dumber than I thought I was.

And that's quite dumb!

Okay. That's it for unrelated things for now. Except for this—if you're in Marquette and wanna see a dork on TV, there's a special fundraising edition of “High School Bowl” on WNMU-TV tonight at 9. There will be two pledge breaks in the show, and the aforementioned dork—well, okay me—will be begging for bucks for Public Media.

Between those, though, will be game segments featuring some of the brightest young people on the planet. And I'm pretty sure at least one or two of them might even understand that paragraph about the cascadic multigrid algorithm.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)