Right now, as I type this, it's about 50F / 10C outside. Although that temperature is warmer than 30 or 40F, it feels cold for this time of year.
It is early morning, and it's raining. In fact, it's been raining for the past 24 hours. It was raining yesterday, and the days before that have been grey skies, with mostly rain. Generally, we get a lot of weather like this in March and April. In fact, there have been years this is typical March weather.
Not this year -- not by a stretch. Although it's mid June, it feels like March or early April.
A local flowerbed with some bright, beautiful daisies. Some gardens have quite a few flowers, others not so much. And with fuel prices going up, up, up, a lot of folks are cutting back on landscaping.
TREES AND FLOWERS WERE LATE
The trees were about two weeks late in leafing out on the nearby hills, as I have stated in previous blog articles here. But not only have the trees been late, the flowering bushes are about a month late. Where I used to see rhododendron bushes full of beautiful blossoms of all colors in mid-May, it's already June and what little blooms there have been seemed mediocre at best.
I am including some pics I took a couple weeks ago during a morning bike ride, of some of the flowering bushes alongside some of the streets. If you look at previous blog posts from 2016 and before, you'll see that some of the same bushes were loaded with blooms, and the weather was sunnier. But the past couple years we've had cold Springs, and the plants are growing differently.
And, like the trees on the hills, they all seem to be two to three weeks late -- late in leafing out, and late in blooming as well. Some local people who are really into growing flowers have commented online about their irises not developing many blooms.
In past years, the frogs would be croaking and chirruping in the ponds in March. I didn't hear them this year until some time in mid to late April.
It's been weird weather this year in the NW US, at least in my little sector of it, and I don't know if it's part of a greater trend, or just an anomaly. In the Eastern part of my state, which is desert-like and usually dry and brown by Summer time, it's green and wetter than normal.
So, we've had an odd year for weather so far, starting back in October.
The irony is that while we here in the NW US have had about six months of mostly rainy weather, they really need the rain in the Southwestern US, where there has been drought for the last 3-4 years or more. Large reservoirs like Lake Powell and Lake Mead are down by over 100 feet, and agriculture depends on that water.
In the Southwest they need the rain even more than we would need it here. California, Nevada, and Arizona in particular depend on water for agriculture as well as for drinking and other uses. But the Colorado River, which supplies most of it, is slowly drying up. In parts of Northern Cal the reservoirs are even lower than they are in the Colorado River system.
The United States gets much of its food from California and Arizona in particular. They could use the rain we are getting. Unfortunately, that is out of our control.
So, it seems that Global Warming isn't really kicking in here in my section of the world. In fact, as I type this -- even though it is presently mid-June -- I have the heater on. Because it is cold.
Otherwise, life has been pretty much the same. I have been sleeping a lot -- I had to take care of a relative just over a year ago and I wasn't getting much, if any, sleep. I am making up for it, I guess. I work, I write, I practice my guitar work, I work out with dumbbells, I ride my bike, I make sure I pet my cats every day, too.
DXing (long distance listening to MW and SW radio) has been mostly el-dullo the past couple of weeks. We're entering the summer doldrums for MW DXing and SW has been iffy since 2017. For a while I thought the San Diego / Tijuana region station XEPE 1700 had gone off the air. It usually is decently audible at night. In 2012 and 2013 I was able to hear it during late mornings, sometimes as late as 11 a.m. here, playing ESPN.
For two or three weeks I heard nothing but Mexican Ranchero music on 1700 Khz at night -- and sometimes just a hint of talk or music buried in the static. The ranchero station is probably a station in the Fort Worth area of Texas. Finally, two nights ago, XEPE reappeared! They play a lot of 80's pop music at night -- including a lot of rare gems, and frequently ID with the phrase "Heraldo Radio" -- which is the network that now seems to own XEPE. Around 5 a.m. or so local Pacific time they switch to talk, in Spanish, as they relay a station out of Mexico City.
It was nice hearing them again.
Early morning DXing on SW has been variable. I have had some mornings where I've heard broadcasts to Africa, and other mornings where I've heard different broadcasts to and from Asia, including jammers. Other mornings? Mostly static and traces of China's CNR-1, their national, powerful broadcaster which is also used to jam some broadcasts beamed towards that country.
Most of my SW DXing has been in the 31 and 25 Meter Bands, as those bands seem to have more promise for me to hear something from Asia, Africa and deeper in South America.
I have been hearing a bit more activity on the Shortwave bands, so perhaps the sunspots are indeed picking up a bit. The new Solar Cycle #25 is set to peak in about three to four years, so it should be improving the Shortwave and Medium Wave propagation. Time will tell how well it improves. :-)
A STORE CLOSES, AND AN ERA PASSES
I'll end this article with a pic of a small, roadside neighborhood store which recently closed down. The owner, whose father ran it for years, apparently retired and her kids either couldn't or didn't want to take it over. It's always sad when a neighborhood store closes. This store had a lot of canned food, a small produce section, and some dry goods. They also had pop and beer. And there was a popcorn machine near the front door, and the popcorn was good, as well as inexpensive (a big bag for a dime or quarter).
A lot of kids in the area used to ride their bikes down to the store to get candy or soda-pop. I met people out front who either had just bought something there, or re-met old friends who stopped in when I happened to stop by to get something. It was the closest thing to a business district in the three mile stretch of valley where it was located.
I bought my first can of beer at this store -- a golden colored can of Tooth's KB Lager, an Australian beer that you can't get here anymore. It was still the best tasting beer I ever drank, and although I quit drinking alcohol in 2011, I was mainly a beer drinker when it came to alcohol, and the Aussies definitely know how to brew beer. :-)
The store closing is another case of the economy hitting the little guy hard. This store survived for more than 60 years before it finally shut down. I imagine the land is worth as much as the store was, when it closed. With property taxes and business taxes, it's not easy for these small operations to stay afloat. Another store closer to town is still operating, as it is right next to a massive apartment complex where a lot of single people live, so it probably stays in business for that reason alone.
They call this part of "progress". I'm not so sure that disappearing "mom and pop" stores is progress, but it's a trend that doesn't seem to be stopping or slowing down, unfortunately.
You had a good run, Cedar River Market. You served us all well.
With that, I'm signing off for now. Keep your chins up, stay safe and stay healthy, and see y'all next time, folks.
Peace.
C.C. Mid-June, and June 23rd, 2022.
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