The this and that of the world from newsworthy to interesting to the mundane.
February 13, 2026
It took a couple of days to get back into the rhythm, but I came back from the road inspired and determined. I'm falling in love with the characters in my next novel and I'm getting the book over the hump.
Lover's Spit - Broken Social Scene (2003)
February 11, 2026
Actor Bud Cort has died. I loved him in the 1971 film Harold and Maude. That was the first cult movie I fell in love with as a teenager in the 80s, watched on repeat and still watch once a year. The movie features a great soundtrack by Cat Stevens. I had such a crush on Bud in that film. He was in a tragic car accident in 1979 that permanently ruined his face despite the best efforts of reconstructive surgeries. The accident ruined his career. What could have been?
Trouble - Cat Stevens
February 10, 2026
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| Me from a home video in early 1995 when I was twenty-one. |
Home from the road. I watched some old home videos of mine from the 1990s just to see the silly version of myself and thankfully he still exists.
It's A Shame About Ray - The Lemonheads (1992)
January 28, 2026
For the next two weeks I'm on the road a ton. I'm glad for the needed writing break. Distance and space are my friends. I can turn my brain off.
I Knew You Were Waiting - George Michael and Aretha Franklin
January 26, 2026
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| Stylish blokes. The very short lived British band, Metro. There's a Police/Stewart Copeland connection there too. |
Feet on the desk looking over the brown landscape. Not a single trace of ice in sight. What a weekend. Glad the storm hype is over.
Listening to Criminal World from 1976. This is the stuff that is never played on the radio but should be.
January 25, 2026
8AM - That is one massive dry slot right up the ass of the arrogant National Weather Service Atlanta forecaster that called his forecast a "slam dunk" and ">99%" on Friday. He would probably like to blame the models, but as expected the bulk of the precipitation has been well northwest of Georgia as it was depicted on the some of the models. As I've been thinking since Wednesday of last week this has been an upper South, Ohio Valley and Mid Atlantic storm.
Where things stand this morning and what happened overnight: it is currently 28 degrees here northeast of Atlanta (the coldest it has been so far this storm), 28 in Athens and 31 at Hartsfield in Atlanta. No precipitation is falling and it stopped just after 7AM. There was some sleet overnight and freezing rain. Accretion has been minimal only estimated to be less than a tenth of an inch - not exactly Ice Storm Warning criteria. Ground surfaces are warm enough that concrete surfaces such as my driveway and patio have unfrozen puddles and zero ice. Again, not exactly Ice Storm Warning criteria. The CAD that the media, internet weather freaks and the National Weather service used to predict Ice Armageddon has been lackluster to say the least. It is currently 37 degrees in the mountains in Blairsville, 34 in Macon and 37 in Rome. The wind is primarily out of the NE around ten miles per hour across North Georgia, that is a weak wedge. I would say that some strange voodoo has happened, but what happened was "modelology" instead of "meteorology" with a dash of fear and arrogance and this is how bad forecasts are made.
Ahead: the bulk of the day will be dry with the occasional spotty shower or sprinkle, temperatures will creep above freezing and the heavier rain will come in this evening, but by then it will be plain rain as temperatures will be above freezing. It would not be out of the question for the sky to brighten at points today with hints of the sun.
January 23, 2026
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| One of those ice storms from the 1980s in the hills behind my childhood home in northern Georgia. Photo by me, 1980s. |
It is funny that people expect 100% accurate weather predictions days in advance from the media and online weather pundits. Those expectations are by people who only have the most rudimentary understanding of science. But who set those expectations? The media and pundits themselves who claim/market/lie to be first, fast and accurate. I speak from experience about this, news directors love to hype the weather to build their audience, garner ratings and win awards all the while pretending they care about you the public. Weather coverage is cheap and easy to produce and fills lots of air time. Pressure, sometimes not so subtle, is placed on forecasters to hype the worst case scenario. Integrity is not part of the equation. The only hope is for forecasters to be honest and say they do not know exactly where, when or what is going to happen two days from now.
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| This made my jaw drop. From the morning (1/23/26) forecast discussion issued by the National Weather Service office in Atlanta. Arrogant forecasters are bad forecasters. The humble forecaster is the better one. The forecaster is also wrong. There is significant model disparity in the placement and the amount of precipitation. There is also the potential as shown in some models for a dry slot over parts of Georgia. There are no "slam dunks" and the chances are only greater than 99% if it is occurring at that very moment. Some of the statements and forecasts coming out of NWS Atlanta this week have been exceedingly questionable. |
Also, never forecast in absolutes more than thirty-six hours in
advance and sometimes even before a smaller window of time.
Regardless of the outcome, what will happen is that everyone will
blame the models without admitting their reliance on and misinterpretation of them was the
true failure.
What is likely to happen here at my
location is: Freezing rain late Saturday night into Sunday midday
with gradual warming resulting into a changeover to plain old rain. I
have seen this plenty of times in my fifty plus years. The heaviest rainfall is likely after temperatures have risen above freezing.
What will happen and I write this with
great confidence: there is a 100% chance you will hear or see the
adjectives “crippling” or “historic” or “devastating” or
“deadly” or “high impact” which seems to be in vogue like
the storm is going to smash into you like a fist. Reporters who will be poorly knowledgeable about the weather will
stand in ditches decked out in the station's gear making dumb statements, cars will slide
and trees will bend and break. The media and pundits will claim a successful victory and move onto the next storm without a care. No one will learn and trust erodes further.
3PM Friday -
I have this suspicion that a bunch of people in the Ice Storm Warning issued by NWS Atlanta, will be looking out their windows for much of the day on Sunday and see very little happening. The mountain counties in Northeast Georgia and along the Tennessee border are possibly where the bulk of the activity occurs.
January 22, 2026
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| The top headline Wednesday morning (1/21/26) on the Fox 5 Atlanta website. Shame on those people for that irresponsible nonsense. |
I've been thinking since Wednesday that with the evolution of the models that this weekend's storm is more of an upper South, Ohio Valley, Mid Atlantic storm. While there may be some ice accretion late, late Saturday night into Sunday here, the focus of this storm will be well north. This storm has inland runner written all over it. The way too premature proclamations of total devastation and destruction by the media, the Atlanta National Weather Service office (though maybe they have begun to come to their senses this morning) and the shameless social media weather freaks are once again wrong. Honestly, I believe that the weather obsessives on social media and forums should be banned from ever discussing the weather again as they do so much harm and assume no responsibility.
Also, there is actual real science (2015 NOAA paper here in PDF format) behind ice accretion such as precipitation rates (the heavier the rate the less accretion), solar radiation (timing of storm: day or night) and wind (lower wind speeds actually help minimize accretion).
Now something pretty. A sundog was visible in the western sky late yesterday afternoon behind my house. You see them more in the winter here.
January 21, 2026
The photo above is of the 1935 ice storm in Atlanta, the worst in local recorded weather history. It was worse than the ice storm of 1973 that I have mentioned in one of my books. The electricity was off for two weeks as a result of that storm.
I hope it does nothing more than rain this weekend with zero chance of frozen precipitation. It would serve right every online weather pundit, television station/network and other media outlets posting model output days in advance without regard for accuracy. They want clicks, they want viewers and they want them to be dumb and afraid. Credibility be damned in the rush to be first and there is no accountability as long as the public remains gullible. Instead of blaming themselves, they will be blame the models for being wrong. There is always a scapegoat. You could also apply every word of this criticism to news reporting on politics and everything else. The public is lied to and you can be damn certain there is an agenda behind it.
Even the National Weather Service office in Atlanta has gone off the deep end ignoring the reality of guidance and trends therein. I look at who wrote the morning discussion and I see why.
January 18, 2026
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| North Avenue in Atlanta a couple of weekends ago. Photo by me, January 2026. |
While it snows today from Columbus to Macon to Augusta, I'm glad we missed out on the snow up here. I love the cold and want it to stay, but I'm not interested in snow this winter.
Schoenberg Serenade, Op 24
January 08, 2026
January 07, 2026
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| Skins photography book by Gavin Watson in 1994. |
Morrissey is about to release a new album, his first in five years, maybe this week. He'll be in concert at The Fox in Atlanta in ten days. The thirty second preview that I heard sounds unintentionally campy. I hope it is.
The National Front Disco - Morrissey 1992
January 01, 2026
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| A tree I illuminated in front of my house for the holidays. Photo by me, December 2025. |
2026 begins. I do not know what to expect of this year. Everything seems to be a big unknown. My mood is hopeful that it will be a good year. When 2025 began I was more anxious given U.S. politics a year ago. Much of my political thoughts are underground.
The Politics of Dancing by Re-Flex (1983)
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