drought or rainout?

As I alluded to last week, the softball team I play for had been rained out of more games this summer than we had played up until this past week when we were able to get three games in. Before that though 5 of our first 8 games saw Mother Nature taking the 'W'. I am sure that sounds almost impossible considering that we are currently sporting a rainfall deficit of 14.25"!

Even though that is the case rainfall since the beginning of June has been pretty close to 'normal' across the metro area. Not only have rainfall totals been close to average, but so have the number of days that we have seen measurable rainfall. During the month of June we received measurable rain on 9 of the 30 days. The historical average is 10 days of rain during the month. So far this July we have received measurable rainfall on 10 days while we typically see measurable rainfall on 12 days. What that means is that in a year that started off incredibly dry it seems we are finally beginning to turn things around.

To borrow a softball term, perhaps the past 2 months are an indication that we are rounding third and headed to home when it comes to getting out of the 5th driest year on record.

As for our team, perhaps we should pray for me rain as we have won just one game this season so far... and that was a forfeit. :-(

I hope you have a great week! It looks like it will be relatively rain free.


--Chris

out and about...

Ever since I moved to Atlanta my wife and I have always tried to make Friday night 'date night.' This past Friday we went to the High Museum for their Friday Night Jazz series. This is a fun event where they open the High on the third Friday or each month. My wife and I have a membership to the High, but because our off days are Monday/Tuesday and the High is closed on Monday's it makes it tough to get the most of our membership. That's why we try and do the Friday night thing when we can so we can get out and see some of the great exhibits.

This time we were able to see the Annie Leibovitz and Cecilia Beaux exhibits. The Leibovitz exhibit was cool because of the all the celebrity photos that were in it. While Beaux was more of what I would call a more traditional American artist. Both exhibits were on the same floor so one just kinda flowed right into the other.

After the art and jazz we had worked up quite an appetite so we decided to give a relatively new restaurant in midtown a try, JCT Kitchen. My wife and I love southern fair and JCT is the latest in 'high end' southern cooking. We were not disappointed and I would certainly recommend giving it a try. My shrimp and grits definitely got a big thumbs up!

Not much is planned for my upcoming off days. I have a softball game Tuesday night, but that remains to be seen. We have been rained out of more games than we have played so far this summer! I know it sounds strange. I will blog more about that later in the week.

Have a great week!


--Chris

Friday the 13th???

I can not tell you the number of times in my 10+ year TV career that we have run stories of people seeing Jesus in a tree or in a window, or...

Well, this story does not involve seeing Jesus, but it does involve something you do not see every day! Maybe because it was Friday the 13th, or perhaps because of global warming, or maybe because of the wild weather we have seen lately, but recently when my wife was cutting up some potatoes for dinner she ran across this strange 'tater.

It looks like it had grown inside of itself or perhaps the potato grew around another potato! Certainly not something you see every day! As a precaution we decided to not eat our strange new potato, but I did grab the above picture before he was headed off to the landfill or big strange potato place in the sky.

Not something you see every day! :-)


--Chris

challenging times...

The other week when I was filling up my car (I do not fill up often since I live 1/2 mile from work) I started thinking about the challenges we face for those of us who like to end up with our gas totals on an even dollar amount. When gas was a buck or so it was fairly easy to stop on the even dollar. Only occasionally did we misfire and end on the dreaded .01. That meant we had to hope and pray we could make it back around to reach the goal... .00!

These days with gas prices 3x what they were 10 years ago, the gasoline rulette that we play is as challenging as ever. One slight click can mean several pennies of gas. If you stop on .99 you are almost guaranteed to go over the goal!

So, the next time you will the car see how good your game is when you try to hit .00! Are you ready for the major leagues? :-)


Have a great weekend!


--Chris