Post Race!

[wes4dbt]

CA has had plenty of rain but the more important thing is the snowpack levels. The storms have been fairly warm so the levels are well below average, with no help predicted in the near future.

Not worried though, can always borrow some snow from Greenland.

[dday9]

It's been nice here. Basically, the highs have been 70s and lows have been 50s, although there was one week where it dropped down to the 30s every night.

I absolutely hate the cold and we don't need snow like y'all do, so for me its been a great winter. Cool but not cold.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I finally got to go cross country skiing today. It was nice.

[Shaggy Hiker]

We're headed back to an inversion over the next few days, though. That won't be so nice.

[Shaggy Hiker]

More snow! We need more snow.

[wes4dbt]

I hope you get all you want but I'm glad it doesn't snow where I live. It's pretty to look at. Other than that I have not use for it.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Yeah, if you don't do snow sports, it's otherwise a nuisance.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Camping in the snow is pretty comfortable, so long as it is well below freezing. If it is near freezing, everything gets wet just from body heat and condensed moisture from breath. That gets pretty bad. As long as it is below about 25F, all is well. The big problem is that the days are so doggone short...and the nights are so doggone long.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Now it looks like I'll be taking a road trip this winter. I'll be dodging the storms for that. Not much to dodge, this winter, but I'll dodge what I can.

[wes4dbt]

Which direction???

[Shaggy Hiker]

South.

[wes4dbt]

That's the best direction this time of year.

[Shaggy Hiker]

That's what the birds tell me.

[Shaggy Hiker]

The skiing is probably going to get bad again, anyways. One thing about inversions is that the temperatures up at 6000 feet can be quite a bit warmer than the temperatures in the valley at around 2500 feet. So, it might be cold enough where there is no snow, and too warm where there is snow.

[dday9]

It's down in the 40s today and it looks like it'll be cold pretty much all week, though today will be the coldest.

[Shaggy Hiker]

It's up in the 40s today, and it looks like it will be warm pretty much all week, though today will (not) be the warmest.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Perspective is a funny thing...depending on how you look at it.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I'm disliking Outlook at the moment. It has always been fine, and a whole lot of people have my outlook email addresses, so changing would be a pain in the butt, at this point, especially since I just moved away from a work email to a personal one and told a variety of people about it. Changing it a month later would be a bit of a pain.

What I'm disliking is that MS is doing their level best to suck people into Office 365, which I have no interest in. I exported a LOAD of emails from my work email to a .pst file. I can't import that into my personal system without a subscription cause...reasons. Not stated reasons, but reasons, and without any clear GOOD reason, I'm left to come up with my own reason.

Fortunately, I found a project on Git that allowed the viewing of the contents of a .pst file. That's good enough. It can remain legacy, for all I care. I want it for reference, I don't need it for day to day.

Still, this seems like a naked money grab.

[Shaggy Hiker]

To be clear, the money itself is NOT naked. Washington is still wearing clothes, as is Lincoln (Ben Franklin is naked from the waste down, which is why he has that smirk in his portrait, but that's not well known).

[dday9]

What about John F. Kennedy, although it is only his head.

[jdc2000]

Shaggy,

Are you using the "new" Outlook? If so, try switching to the "Classic" Outlook. Some searching seems to indicate that you can import .pst files using the Classic Outlook.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Outlook/com...t_subsciption/

[Shaggy Hiker]

What about John F. Kennedy, although it is only his head.

Only one side of his head. The other side doesn't look so good.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Shaggy,

Are you using the "new" Outlook? If so, try switching to the "Classic" Outlook. Some searching seems to indicate that you can import .pst files using the Classic Outlook.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Outlook/com...t_subsciption/

Having looked into it even more, I'm thinking I might end up abandoning Outlook entirely. Switching to Classic appears to be largely a way to slip all of Office 365 in. This may also be a recent development. When I followed the steps for switching to Classic, it asked for admin permission and then started downloading something MASSIVE, which it claimed was Office 365. I found a mention that this might have changed in October, and that the only way to get to classic Outlook if you don't already have it from earlier, is with a home or business subscription.

Microsoft is pretty adamant about not unbundling Outlook. I did find where I could get a permanent license without a subscription, but it's for all of Office and it wasn't clear that you could take Outlook from that and jettison the rest.

Maybe it's time to switch to something like Thunderbird.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I also have a slight suspicion that my email may cease to work entirely next week. Despite having a personal account, I see some evidence that MS decided that it was a subsidiary to my work email. Once I sever ties to that, MS might just end my personal account, as well. That seems unlikely, but they certainly do seem to have an agenda, so we'll see.

[dday9]

Only one side of his head. The other side doesn't look so good.

My wife would be absolutely furious with you if she heard you say that. She adores JFK and Jakie O.

In fact, I will sometimes say "I need a hole in the head like" then stop just to get her to spin around and give me "that look".

[Shaggy Hiker]

Yeah, that was a dark joke. Still, the only piece of currency that I can think of with JFK is the half dollar. Is he on any of the bills? I don't THINK he is, but I just don't use enough to be certain....and despite writing this on the internet, I don't feel like looking it up.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I've always been struck by JFK's voice. While I know he SHOULD have that Boston accent, it still doesn't seem right coming from him. I feel the same way about Churchill.

[Shaggy Hiker]

In the case of Churchill, even though he looks like a bulldog, I never expect him to sound like one.

[wes4dbt]

My wife would be absolutely furious with you if she heard you say that. She adores JFK and Jakie O.

In fact, I will sometimes say "I need a hole in the head like" then stop just to get her to spin around and give me "that look".

It always surprises me when people who weren't even born when JFK was alive have so much reverence for him. He has become like some kind of mythical being.

[ident]

I hope you all are well, and have a happy new year

[jdc2000]

I might end up abandoning Outlook entirely.

Outlook works OK, until Microsoft completely removes the Classic option, provided you are using a Microsoft email account. I have the stand-alone version of Office. I would never use the subscription version. I set it up to access one of my non-Microsoft email accounts last month, and that was a complete nightmare. If you do not have a Microsoft email account, it wants you to set one up before you can even start Outlook. There is a way around that, which does work, but it is a lot more trouble than it should be. For a non-Microsoft email address, there are better email client programs available.

[dday9]

I hope you all are well, and have a happy new year

Blast from the past! Glad to see you!

[Shaggy Hiker]

I went out to dinner with a bunch of work colleagues (soon to be former, as I officially retire on Monday). While we were there, a heavy fog settled in. I couldn't get my bearings, and almost needed to bust out Google just to find my way home, even though I knew the area well. I couldn't figure out which way was north.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I could figure out up and down, though.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Fog is one of the results of a bad inversion. It's basically chunky style air. If the inversion gets bad enough, the fog starts getting thicker and thicker...and when there are lights on at night, the fog droplets seem to get bigger. Kind of a soup, eventually.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Looks like the inversion is forecast to remain right through the weekend, so air quality will continue to deteriorate. If I can find my way out of the valley, I'll go somewhere else.

[Shaggy Hiker]

The one nice thing with the inversion like this, is that I can drive up to the ski hill. The skiing is lousy, as it is warm and sunny up there, which turns the snow to mush, which then freezes. However, driving up the hill, one drives out of the clouds and the valley is filled with what looks like a sea of white waves. I've seen people lined up on the road taking pictures of the clouds in the valley.

[wes4dbt]

Here we have what we call Tule Fog. It can be really bad. Have no idea if it has anything to do with an inversion. It seems to settle in after we have rain. But yeah, you can drive up to the hills and the sun will be shining.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Thick fog this morning. It may break up later on today, or it may not. As the inversion persists, if fog develops, it lingers longer and longer until it is just foggy.

[Shaggy Hiker]

The temperatures tend to drop under the fog, as well. Makes for interesting growing areas. Without inversions, we'd rarely get a frost, which would allow a wider variety of plants to make it through the winter. With inversions, we can get temps down in the single digits (F) for weeks on end, thereby wiping out all plants that would have survived a bit of frost, but not a prolonged hard freeze.