To the Airwaves

Storms come and with them our local television stations.

Julie made the big time on Wednesday afternoon, when in anticipation of another 10 inches or so of snow, Channel four prompted her out into the wind and rain to show them the prior damage and to gauge her feelings on the night ahead. A couple of facts got hung up in the gusts but I hope you enjoy the Tale of the Wind Blown Wife.



I was given a chance to go on the air with our neighbor Channel 5 meteorologist Mike Wankum the following morning. He had asked me to come out and to go on camera during the last storm but I think he was being polite as he caught me in sweats and a t shirt when he came to the door. This time he called ahead and I got myself ready. He and his camera man were set up at the beginning of Rebecca Road and we did 30 seconds or so right around 7:00 in the morning. School had been called at 5:00 for Haley and me and I waited out the worst of it before shoveling out around 10:00.

There were a fair number of rocks thrown up around the Tower again but they were small potatoes against the storms of last winter and spring. I went out today and began a clean up but only did about 40 minutes of what looks to be a 90 minute job. Every time I start shoveling stones I feel like Rocky training to fight Ivan Drago. After 40 minutes I am ready to get revenge for Apollo.

One of the stories yet to be told of the Boxing Day Blizzard was the discovery of a plaque thought lost for nearly 25 years. In 1986 The Cedar Point Association placed a plaque on the Tower commemorating 30th anniversary of the Grounding of Etrusco. A short time later the bronze sign was noted as gone from the Tower and vandalism was suggested. In the aftermath of the clean up in late December the missing plaque was discovered and turned in to the Scituate Police by a high school student named Brett Concannon. It was weather beaten and caked with sand when discovered. I cleaned it up some and it sits behind me as I type. Shortly it will make its way to the Maritime and Mossing Museum to join the other artifacts dedicated to that shipwreck. Call it the silver (or bronze) lining to what was otherwise a terrible storm.



There is another hit coming on Tuesday into Wednesday this week. As usual we are on the rain/snow line and the temperature will be the key. The tide is the most important ingredient for trouble here and that doesn't look to be extreme. If it gets bad, I will be back outside with the Rocky theme playing in my head, shoveling stone.

Thanks Tom

Several neat photos to share today. A follow up post later in the week with more details about one of them. (Click on each for a better look)



Tom Greland is a colleague who teaches boat building and construction. He shared the first photograph taken amazingly with his cell phone.

I was intrigued by Tom's photo and downloaded a program that would let me fool around with panoramas myself. The bottom two images are the result of that experiment.





I have got a new toy to play with here and several ideas on how to use it best going forward. Expect new looks at the old place as we continue along 2011.

Like Clark Kent

2011 has been mild mannered.

The first week of the new year has been a marked departure from that of last year. When teenagers arrived to take a new year's plunge last year their language was blue and so were their lips. Not so this year.

Mild temperatures greeted visitors to the Point on New Years and that has carried over into the first week. I was able to take the wreath off the Tower today with little wind or cold to bother me. It had been up there a full month and may have dinged up the Tower in the wind last week. We will know better after a hard rain if the mark I see up by the small window is just grime or if it is a scar.





The last of these pictures shows you this year's plunge. These two girls walked and talked up to their knees in the Harbor for about fifteen minutes and never flinched. Maybe some day I will think that is a good idea but I doubt it.