’Tis the Season…

On the spine of this month’s Real Simple:

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

I Saw Old Faithful Go Off!!

And from my very own living room!

Bob spotted a short piece in the Senile this afternoon about the National Park Service’s new streaming Webcam for the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park.

To get to the new camera, point your browser to the Yellowstone Web site and click on the Photos and Multimedia button on the left side. That takes you to the Photos and Multimedia page, but also drops down the Photos and Multimedia menu. From either the page or the menu, click Webcams, which takes you to the Yellowstone Webcams page.

From here, you can look at the original Yellowstone Webcam. This shows real-time still images of Old Faithful which update every 30 seconds. It also shows the predicted time for the next eruption. Just below the Webcam image is a little graphic from The Weather Underground that shows the time and the temperature in ° Farenheit and Centigrade.

Back on the Yellowstone Webcams page, clicking on the Old Faithful Geyser Live! link near the top takes you to the page for the new and improved streaming Webcam.

Before clicking on the Launch Old Faithful Geyser Live!—Video WebCam link, please note that Windows Media Player (or equivalent) is required. ::::rolling eyes::::

I’m using the VLC media player from VideoLAN; it’s available for Windows, Mac (OS X only), and a ton of UNIX and LINUX flavors. VLC just works. I clicked on the live Webcam link, and it took over from there. What more can you ask for?

If you’re running Mac OS 8.1 through 9.x, VLC isn’t available, and I’m not sure what options other than Windows Media Player there are… Any road, Windows Media Player 7.1 is still around.

Once you’ve got your video viewer set and ready to go, click the link and enjoy!




Did you know? There are more people hurt by bison than by bears each year in Yellowstone. Park regulations state that visitors must stay at least 25 yards away from bison or elk and 100 yards away from bears.

Bailey, the Snow Pup

Thanks for the pointer, April! She’s a hit!!

The Snow Is Falling All Around

Bob just read a snippet in the Senile that an off-duty Pasadena policeman reported snow at the 210 and the 605…

First Snowfall in the Corporation

It started before 1:30 this morning, and by 9:00, there was 4" of snow on top of the Rav4 (awfully good thing we got to Hertz Saturday and traded in the Honda for the Rav…). Stan did get Brett to the airport on time, however.

We debated driving up Hilliard-Rome Rd. vs continuing on Broad St. to 270, and turned onto H-R behind an Ashley Furniture delivery truck; hey, if a vehicle that size can make it, so can we, right?

Ha!! As soon as we got onto H-R, we slowed to less than 5 mph. As soon as we could, we turned around and got back on Broad St. Traffic on northbound 270 was going about as slowly as it had been on H-R, but what is a mother to do?

All the excitement seems to have been gawkers at a van and a Freeway Patrol vehicle parked on the left shoulder up near Cemetery Rd., sitting there doing nothing. Ho hum.

We passed a little field with spruce-looking trees at the back, and the bare-bush screen in front. The field was under snow, the trees had the perfect Christmas tree snow look, and the bushes in front had every branch topped with snow. Where’s the husband with camera when you need him???

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Listening to: Miles Davis - Blue Christmas
via FoxyTunes

Boots Through the Snow

Got up this morning (late; it’s a snow day, and yes, it’s snowing…) and puttered around the doghouse for a while. About 1:30p, I wandered over to the cathouse, leaving a trail of boot prints behind. About 6:00p, I went back to the doghouse to get something to drink with dinner, and… no footprints. Back to the cathouse for dinner and sociability until about 11:00p. Back to the doghouse, and… no footprints! (Next morning, still no trace of having wandered back the night before).

You Know It’s Bad…

…when your boss comes in about 2:30 in the afternoon, and says, “You people are NOT coming in tomorrow, are you??”

OK, so we have a snow day tomorrow…

Get Out!!!

Ed came by about 3:00p and threw us out: the snow storm was a little too serious…