Getting A Jump On Old Man Winter's Premature Return

[Riddick]

It's a four letter word, still there's those people who not only WELCOME the arrival of SNOW they will spontaneously wax joyously poetic on all its 'beauty'; If either of the aforementioned flakey afflictions apply to you please do read on, but be prepared to have your fluffy affectations radically challenged!

And now, with no further ado, in recognition of the oncoming early onslaught of frigid weather and ALL the worst winter has to offer, here's a seasonal carol assailing the accursed annual climate change called

LOU GRANT THE GREAT SNOW HATER
(To the tune of 'Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer')

Ranters will tell you, in all sorts of flavors,
"Freezing wet messes do nobody favors,"
Yet, how many of you can recall
The greatest curmudgeon of all?...

Lou Grant, the newsroom exec,
Had a Vegas jaunt all planned:
But, when the blizzard hit hard
Planes could neither leave nor land

Each of the newsroom staffers
- Mary, Murr, Gord, and Ted -
Could see he was unhappy,
The white stuff had him seeing red!

"I HATE snow, in balls, on hills,
Its color, shape and temp! -
What it does, or how it feels,"
In his court, there's NO appeals

Lou Grant, The Great Snow Hater,
Absolutely void of glee:
For your full frontal assault?
You'll go down in history

[ WATCH IT HERE ]

But WAIT! There's MORE -

IT'S BEGINNING TO FEEL TOO MUCH LIKE WINTER
(To the tune of 'It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas')

It's beginning to feel too much like winter
Every way I know
As all barren appear the trees
After an icy breeze
With leaves on lawns we need no longer mow.

It's beginning to feel too much like winter
We know what all's in store,
Yet the sorriest sight will be all the forecasts that we see
Presaging COLD GALORE --!

A pair of all leather boots with a lining that suits
A scarf, and a sweater and then,
A big furry hat that will mash your hair flat
And a coat with down from duck hens
And tomorrow you can look forward to dressing up again!

It's beginning to feel too much like winter
Daily, donchaknow?
From the one badly stricken sneeze we'll catch disease with ease,
When we're coughing and we're blowin' then it's so.

It's beginning to feel too much like winter
Soon the plows will start...
And the cause for them to salt? It's that whiteness that's at fault -
OH, HOW I HATE snow!

I HATE SNOW, I HATE SNOW, I HATE SNOW
(To the tune of 'Let it Snow')

Oh, I really don't feel delightful
When the weather looks oh so frightful,
And I got a place I wanna go? Oh
I HATE SNOW! I HATE SNOW, I HATE SNOW

OH, my top real-ly goes to poppin'
When it shows NO signs of stoppin'
HOW can other folks love it so--? !!
I HATE SNOW! I HATE SNOW, I HATE SNOW

When I went to bed just last night,
"Just a flurry" is all that they warn -
But, today, in the morning light-?
Ten INCHES meets with my scorn!

Oh, I can tellya It's really trying
- And for me there's NO denying
It just makes my head want to blow -
I HATE SNOW, I HATE SNOW, I HATE SNOW!

SNOW IS HELL
(To the tune of 'Jingle Bells')

Driving through the snow
On an unplowed main highway:
Down the road we go,
Skidding all the way!

A car just hit the ditch
Giving folks a fright:
What I can say about this all,
It's far from a delight

OH SNOW IS HELL SNOW IS HELL!
I will tell you straight,
I LOATHE its color AND its shape,
Its temperature and weight

Oh SNOW IS HELL SNOW IS HELL
Some folks think it's great
But if you hate it just as I
I'm sure you can relate

A day or two ago
The weather was quite sound;
This morn I woke to find
A blanket on the ground -

For kids it's loads of fun,
For me it's wet distress:
Snow is just a lousy
Mushy melting freezing MESS!!!

Oh SNOW IS HELL SNOW IS HELL
Some folks think it's great,
But if you hate it just as I
I'm sure you can relate

OH SNOW IS HELL, SNOW IS HELL
It's on Winter's slate
Relief WILL come, but NOT too soon,
For SPRING we'll have to wait...!

[kbot]

We've already had some sub-freezing days and this storm hasn't even come close to us yet. And up in Maine, they've had about 15 inches of snow with another foot forecast during the past few days - although I don't know if they got that much. Yeah, my wife wants to move to Florida.....

[fos]

Where is Owl Gore's global warming when you need it?

[Riddick]

Where is Owl Gore's global warming when you need it?

You mean the very same catastrophic global warming the Goremeister stated in 2007 could already have completely utterly and entirely melted the North Pole ice as soon as only seven years hence!?

Apparently, it's on "hold".

http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/20 ... 25740.html

[Cherry Kelly]

Yesterday MON) we had a temp that was just under 74°F at 3pm cst. By four hours later it had dropped into the 30's and Tues morning was not even 28°F at noon! and around 2pm it actually got up to freezing 32°F -- so ya cold out there!

---
Remember back in the 70s when they talked global freezing and said before 2000 - that England would be under 20 ft of ice?? ya long time ago... then came the last few years of OH ya we are going to burn up to dust by now??
=-=

When are people going to realize its global cycles that come and go -- pretty much regularly (Yes, may be off a year or two at times). We have had early cold spells hit before - then after a couple weeks go back to warmer so called "ave" temps.

So just dress warm if you go outside, warm up your car before you drive too far. Check your tire pressure and make sure its not too high or too low to deal with the temps. Relax!

[Riddick]

Remember back in the 70s when they talked global freezing and said before 2000 - that England would be under 20 ft of ice?? ya long time ago... then came the last few years of OH ya we are going to burn up to dust by now??
=-=

When are people going to realize its global cycles that come and go -- pretty much regularly (Yes, may be off a year or two at times). We have had early cold spells hit before - then after a couple weeks go back to warmer so called "ave" temps.

I'd say it'd be good if someone let the United Nations and the O admin in on natural climate cycles - but at the same time, I'd also say if EVER there was anything that would fall on deaf ears, that would be it. Steadfast in their commitment, nothing shall stand in the way of vanquishing the Great Satan Carbon!!

Score one for "Science".

[kbot]

On a kinda related issue, since it involves the last ice age, I first heard this earlier this morning. Always been fascinated by history, and morbidly fascinated about burial practices over time and across cultures

Ice Age death rituals revealed at infant burial site

The fragile skeletons of two infants, discovered beneath the cremated remains of a 3-year-old child, may help researchers understand death rituals practiced during the last ice age in North America, a new study finds.

The children's remains, which date back to 11,500 years ago, were found in a hearth at Upward Sun River, an archaeological site in central Alaska. Researchers uncovered the cremated skeleton of the 3-year-old child in 2010, and returned to the site in 2013, digging deeper to see what else lay within the prehistoric hearth.

About 15.7 inches beneath the first cremated child, they found the double burial. [See a time-lapse video of the Alaskan excavation]

"When we got to the bottom [of the hearth], we identified a carpet of red ochre. That clearly set it out," said Ben Potter, an associate professor and chairman of anthropology at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. "Then, we encountered the human remains and the grave goods at the very bottom. That was very unexpected and amazing."

The team immediately stopped the excavation, and contacted local and regional native groups and state officials, asking for permission to study the remains of the tiny infants.

"They were treating the human remains with respect, and that's really what you need to do," said Roy Carlson, professor emeritus of archaeology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, who was not involved in the study.

The skeletal remains of the two infants, found with their legs bent toward their chests, are a "remarkable and unusual" find, Carlson said. An analysis of the infants' teeth and bones suggests that one was likely a late-term fetus, and the other was about five weeks old, making them the youngest known individuals from the late Pleistocene epoch to receive burial treatment, the researchers wrote in the study.

The grave also holds a prehistoric hunting tool kit. The team found several stone-made bifaces, dart or spear points, and antler foreshafts decorated with geometric incisions next to the infants. Other ice-age findings have suggested that early hunters may have used stone weapons and foreshafts together, but the new finding is the first to provide concrete evidence that they were used in tandem.

"They were placed in the position that we could infer that they were attached," Potter told Live Science. "Imagine if you are a hunter on the landscape. You wouldn't want to carry a large amount of heavy spears or dart shafts with you. You would just have one or two [foreshafts], but you would have many points in case you break one."

The burial placement of the hunting tools suggests that terrestrial hunting, as opposed to fishing rods or other hunting weapons, were of utmost importance to the ice-age people, Potter said.

Twin clues

The relationship between the two infants, likely girls, remains a mystery. It's possible that the girls are twins, Potter said, but a DNA test would be needed to verify the idea.

It's unlikely that a highly mobile foraging society would have two deaths from different mothers at exactly the same time, he said. If they were twins, it might explain why the girls are buried together, he said.

"One could have died in utero, and then that enhances the potential for an early death for the surviving child," Potter said. [8 Grisly Archaeological Discoveries]

The soil at the burial site isn't that disturbed, so the infants may have been buried at the same time, the researchers said. Or, they could have died within a season or two of each other, which could indicate that they are not twins, Potter said.

Either way, researchers are looking forward to the results of the genetic tests. And regardless of whether the infants were twins, the people who buried the children clearly gave them deferential treatment.

"You have grave goods, ochre, burial in a highly flexed orientation, and the grave goods are quite amazing," Potter said. "For the upper [3-year-old] child, you do not have grave goods, you do not have ochre and the child is cremated. So this is quite interesting."

The team also found bones of ground squirrels and salmonids, which are fish related to present-day salmon, in the hearth. These animal bones suggest that the infants' burials took place during the summer, when these animals are typically in the region, Potter said.

Carlson said the findings are the result of "top-notch research."

"It brings forward information about Alaska 11,500 years ago from a time which we knew very little about and we know a lot more about now," he said.

The study was published online Nov. 10 in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/11/ ... rial-site/

[Doka]

Lots and lots of money in" Carbon" mainly ours, (money). They are getting really desperate to get the taxes going before the death of fossil fuels,or at least the dependence we have now.

[Doka]

Hey, We just reached 30* and snow comming in tonight, and to colder for the next couple days. Keep warm every body!

[Riddick]

Lots and lots of money in" Carbon" mainly ours, (money). They are getting really desperate to get the taxes going before the death of fossil fuels,or at least the dependence we have now.

Good point Doka! If alternative fuels become TOO competitive, how's that gonna fill the tax coffers -

Clearly, fossil fuels have their place, like tobacco - You don't want everyone to quit smoking, do ya?

[Riddick]

So inasmuch our season's first measurable snow hereabouts Saturday night was nowhere near what points north got socked with last week, even so I can say firsthand fun to drive through it wasn't -

Accuweather sez 20's today - Monday and Tuesday, highs in teens, lows? Single digit, barely double Tuesday. Slow warmup after that peaking at a high 38 next Sunday (just 2 degrees below average!) then starts 3 day period snowfall of around 7 inches. Thanksgiving: cloudy, a little snow, high of 30.

The holiday's coming yet winter's already arrived and insofar it's all too well established its presence similar to some unwelcome party guest? It's a safe bet it has NO intention of leaving anytime soon!!

[kbot]

We've been in the 20s at night, and then high 50s, low 60s during the day. Still hasn't fully hit us yet, although we've had some snow (hardly anything....)

[Doka]

We've been stuck with 0 to 6* nights and 20* days, with about 4 to 5 inches of snow still hanging around shaded spots. It is supposed to maybe get above freezing weds. I haven't tried to start my car for a couple days, but I have my fingers crossed, hopefully that helps.

[kbot]

Oh yeah, this is different....... 20s this afternoon - after being in the 60s only a day or two ago. Upstate New York is expecting 76" of snow outta this.... (they can keep it ). Expecting more cold until maybe next week.....

[Riddick]

Would you believe it appears we'll get a welcome warmup over the weekend into Monday with highs in the low 40's along with rain that may take out the current snow cover?

Of course, that's all provided the forecast doesn't change (again). Weather Wizards, they're not!