Post Race!

[homer13j]

It's certainly spring here, unfortunately. After an excellent December, we just had the second driest February on record. That's not good.

All our snow is finally gone here, and supposed to be in the mid-60s on Sunday! Of course that's no guarantee we won't get more snow. '22 sure made up for the lack of snow in late-'21.

In other news, on our hike tonight (actually last night 'cause it's past midnight here) my dog decided to roll in some poop. And not just any poop, either. I have no idea what animal it came from, but this was some exceptionally foul-smelling poop. Could have been from a human.

So when we got back to the van I tied my dog's leash to the inside back door handle to 1. keep him as far away from me as possible and 2. keep him off the seats. Not a pleasant ride home to say the least. He got hosed off in the driveway before going inside for his bath. Oof, that was nasty. Good thing I have a cargo van with rubber floor mats instead of carpet.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Dogs are awesome. That's a great story.

I was in a car headed up to a cabin for the weekend, with another car following us. On a long, empty, stretch of road, they vanished. Since there was almost nowhere they could have turned off (and nowhere that they had any reason to turn off), we turned back to find them.

They had pulled into a recreational parking lot for some backcountry ski trails. The reason was that one of their dogs had developed sudden, explosive, diarrhea. They had some boxy car like a Honda Element (though I'm pretty sure it wasn't that), and the dog had coated a bit of it. That took a bit of cleaning.

[szlamany]

I'm busy for a few days, come back to check the Post Race and, wow, yikes - I got no words.

Let's move on, nothing to see here!

Random word of the day: Branch

[Shaggy Hiker]

Because this place has gone to the dogs?

The word of the day is branch???? Are you trying to fork us?!?!?!

[Delaney]

[dday9]

That is beautiful.

[homer13j]

We hit 70 degrees today!

Yesterday's high temp was 38. LOL

And we'll still end up getting more snow before it's all over.

[FunkyDexter]

We hit 70 degrees today

Must be some real strong winds you've got there.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Yeah, even if that's only 70 degrees from the vertical. If it's 70 degrees from the horizontal, that would really be something....depending on how you look at it.

[Shaggy Hiker]

That reminds me of hiking across a bog in a drizzle. I was on a narrow boardwalk, and not thoroughly enjoying the day. Looking over to my right, I could see the sun shining on the hills, with only a few cloud shadows here and there. I gazed upon the scene for a minute or two before it dawned on me that it was sunny almost EVERYWHERE else, yet it was raining on me. That didn't seem possible. As I noticed that, it was as if the universe had decided it had been found out, and the cloud blew away in an instant, leaving me in sunshine just as everywhere else was.

That sun came with a strong wind, though. The wind kept picking up more and more, and quite rapidly, too. Pretty soon, as I continued to stagger along the boardwalk, the wind was so strong that on two occasions, I lifted my foot and the wind blew me sideways such that I stepped off the boardwalk into the bog.

At the end of the boardwalk, I had to climb a series of granite ridges. By then, the wind was so strong that I didn't have to stand upright. I could lean back on the wind, and it pushed me on up the trail. Unfortunately, it didn't push me straight up the trail, so I kept veering off across the rock faces (not vertical, of course, but at a reasonably steep angle, though shallow enough to be walked up without using ones hands). Every now and then I'd have to tack back to the trail, which was quite the fight in those winds, so letting it blow me diagonally up the rocks was easier.

I later heard that there was a wind gust to about 110 mph at a weather station on a peak that was in sight from where I was at the time. Therefore, I would put that wind at 70-90 mph. Sure dried me out mighty quick.

[dday9]

Les vents de careme are a blowin'!

[Shaggy Hiker]

That last post appears to have disappeared.

[Shaggy Hiker]

It wasn't important.

[Bonker Gudd]

No it hasn't.

[dday9]

Nor shouldn’t it.

[homer13j]

Les vents de careme are a blowin'!

Same here. I'm seeing how long I can go without turning the furnace back on.

[Shaggy Hiker]

It has yet to warm up that much, here, but it'll get there pretty soon.

[Bonker Gudd]

We're all going to warm up soon.

[dday9]

What about your avatar? I heard that Saturn was super cold.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Don't know about that, but like Saturn, there are rings of debris around Uranus.

[dday9]

Haa!

[Bonker Gudd]

Silence, I am elite you know.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I thought you were just fanatic.

[homer13j]

"Has anyone seen the cat lately?"

[Shaggy Hiker]

Big cat.

[Delaney]

cats are good, taste like rabbit ..................(dog told me...)

[homer13j]

Big cat.

Probably multiple cats.

[Shaggy Hiker]

So, a golden retriever retrieved a bunch of cats? That's golden!

[homer13j]

What is the proper pronunciation for the capital of Ukraine? For as long as I can remember it's been "Kee-ev" but suddenly everyone is calling it "Keev." Which is correct?

[dday9]

The former is how it is traditionally pronounced and is using the Russian (and Germanic) pronunciation. I think news anchors have been purposefully pronouncing it in the anglophone equivalent as a slight to Russia.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Sort of. The pronunciation used by most news anchors is the one favored by Ukrainians, while the one that we all remember was the one favored by Russians. This means that there are almost certainly several layers of reasons going on here. The news anchors are likely using the Ukrainian pronunciation more in support of Ukraine, but the Ukrainian pronunciation might be, itself, a thumb of the nose to Russia.

[dday9]

I have a friend who is a first generation Ukrainian immigrant (immigrated when he was 4 in the early 80s). He was a bit upset over the "key've" pronunciation.

I asked why should he care? He's crapped all over his former country since I've known him. He said that it was "the point of it all".

[Shaggy Hiker]

Ex-pats can be a bit weird. They're either pining for the fjords, or casting aspersions. Never seems to be, "it's a great place, but I've moved on."

[FunkyDexter]

The pronunciation used by most news anchors is the one favored by Ukrainians, while the one that we all remember was the one favored by Russians.

Yeah, that's my understanding and given the current situation I'm inclined to use Kyiv, it just seems polite. I can't bring myself to order a Chicken Kyiv, chips and peas though.

[dday9]

I had no idea what a Chicken Kyiv was until now. That looks good.

I do something similar where I pound the chicken until it is flat, line it with provolone cheese and prosciutto, roll it up, and tie it with baking ties. I then cook it on the stove on a super high temp to get a nice color and then swap it to the oven at around 400 to finish cooking it.

I haven't done that in a while though, it is a lot of prep work.

[homer13j]

I do something similar where I pound the chicken until it is flat

Is that more satisfying than choking it?

// Sorry, I'm divorced and it's been a while.

[Shaggy Hiker]

You need to make conch Kyiv. It would take a bit more work.

[FunkyDexter]

I had no idea what a Chicken Kyiv was until now.

That really surprises me. I thought it was a pretty universal dish but perhaps it's more of a European thing.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I've heard of it. I'm pretty sure I've had it, but I can't say all that much about it. I never really tied it to Ukraine, before, though. It's kind of like hamburger or Buffalo chicken in that the name matches some place, but the reality is drifting from that place.

[Bonker Gudd]

I've heard of it. I'm pretty sure I've had it

Have you had it or not? I like it with *OH **** WWIII*