THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Cold Morning in July

For July, it was cold this a.m.

Early in the evening of July 29, we opened the windows to cool off the house.

By 2 am on July 30, Ann was cold enough to close the windows.

The low temp at Dulles Airport was 48F. Walrus had a minimum of 54F at his house in Gaithersburg, BWI had a minimum of 55F and National Airport had a minimum of 60F.

(the image is from the 2nd Obama inaugural - the man is actor John Cusack)

posted by Martin Weiss # 10:24 PM

Friday, July 25, 2014

Weeds - The Showtime Series

I was at the blood bank giving a platelet deposit (my pulse was 64 and blood pressure was 118/68 and I got a compliment on that from a staffer).

The DVD disk I brought which had episodes of Star Trek didn't play on the Video players at the blood bank so I decided to watch episodes of a made for TV series I had heard about. The series is called 'Weeds' and it played on Showtime from about 2005 to 2012 or so. It is a comedy/drama and I like that genre. Furthermore, I had heard good reviews.

The leading actress (sitting in the image) takes up growing marijuana to support her family after her husband dies. She is dating a DEA agent while growing marijuana. She is Jewish and her oldest son is a drop out from Rabbinical School. She poaches an employee of a drug dealer and does both wholesale and retail biz. Her best friend is anti drug and becomes mayor and makes various streets 'drug free'.

It isn't actually that good but the premise is interesting and it did occupy me while I was lying on the coach.

posted by Martin Weiss # 6:19 PM

Wednesday, July 09, 2014

Storm, Electrical outage, tree damage but then a double rainbow

Quite an evening yesterday (July 8). We had a lightening hit near our house which knocked out power. Another hit was on one of our tulip trees and we got some big branches down in the back yard. One branch is leaning against our sun room so the outside door can't be opened. The electricity was out from about 630pm to 715pm. The wind and rain came about that time and the nice lily trees in the pictures in the post below this one are leaning to the east (because of the strong west wind gusts).

However, the storm ended and someone took this image (click for a larger image) of a double rainbow spanning the Washington Monument (the folks at the Capital Weather Gang posted it on their site).

posted by Martin Weiss # 8:46 AM

Tuesday, July 08, 2014

Giant Lilies not as Giant as Last Year

The first images show George next to one of the lily trees today (July 8, 2014). A rose bush that is almost finished with its first bloom is in front of the lily (and gives it some support). This image and the second image can be enlarged by clicking on them.

The second image shows this also but picking up the lily garden in front of the garden when George is standing.

The third image shows George on July 9, 2013. The lilies may have been taller then or, at least just as tall.

Also, back in 2013 there was a fig tree next to George (on his right). The trunk of that tree died during the past winter (which was hideously cold). Shoots are coming up so next year's image may show a fig tree again.

posted by Martin Weiss # 3:14 PM

Lillies for July 4 sabbath

I didn't use our giant lilies for a table piece last year for some reason. But I did this year.

Using them violated one of the rules I learned from Emily Gilmore (matriarch of the Gilmore Girls and Lorelei's mom). That rule is to keep fragrant flowers off the dinner table.

They did have a rather strong fragrance when I picked them about 4pm but by 830pm when we had supper, the fragrance had decreased and was, I thought pretty nice. The coke bottle was left on the table to provide some scale.

posted by Martin Weiss # 3:05 PM

Wednesday, July 02, 2014

The Coywolf Menace

In the DC area there have been some reports of strange looking animals prowling in parks, wooded areas and even neighborhoods.

The general feeling has been that, yes coyotes, now inhabit our region and in fact, they are sometimes called 'Eastern coyote' to distinguish themselves from their western cousins. But lately, some genetic sampling of dead animals presumed to be victims of coyote attacks, show indications of both western coyote and eastern wolf DNA.

The image on the left is from the coywolf research institute.(There is a coywolf.org site also).

Based on all this, the plurality hypothesis is that when the grey wolves became extinct in the eastern US and the other subspecies had limited populations, the coyote moved into their habitat and interbred with the remaining wolf population.

There are no reports yet of injuries to humans caused by coywolves in the region. The main negative of coywolves is that they attack garbage bags and create a mess. The main plus is that they help keep the deer population in check.

A WaPo report on possible coywolves in Rock Creek Park is here.

posted by Martin Weiss # 9:16 AM

M's 14th Nationals Win in a Row

I was at National's Stadium yesterday, tickets courtesy of Stanley Cohen. The Nationals won 7-1 over Colorado, but the win was tainted by the fact that Colorado started a pitcher who has had a horrible season and when that guy gave up runs they brought in a reliever who has also had a horrible season (both Colorado pitchers, Friedrich and Bettis, had ERAs over 9.0 when they began pitching today). Colorado also rested their all star shortshop (Troy Tulowitzki who was batting about .350 with 18 HRs after 80 games played). On the other hand, Washington started Steve Strasburg, who while having some rough games has also had some excellent ones. This game was one of them as Strasburg shut Colorado out for 7 innings before giving up a HR in the 8th (when he was relieved - the image shows him leaving the game).

This was the 14th game in a row in which I attended and the Nationals won. The previous one with a win was on May 21. However, I did have tickets to a May 27 game vs Florida which was rained out.

The game was nice but the weather was very muggy with little breeze and the Metrorail was slow and crowded, also the escalator at the Navy Yard west entrance to the metrorail stopped (I almost fell forward) while I was on it (its about a 100' vertical and I had to make it down about 70' myself).

posted by Martin Weiss # 7:31 AM