BLIZZARD WARNING FOR AUGUSTA, MAINE!!! UPDATED (Scroll down for Updates)

Snowed In

We just got back from an overnight trip to my wife's hometown of Eastport where we visited with her family. We had a wonderful time and made out like bandits with lots of loot, including a new fishin' pole to me from my father-in-law.  :) We had plenty to eat while we were there also - chicken wings, bacon-wrapped scallops, stuffed shrimp and three kinds of pies. I am still full. It was nice to go back to Eastport because I think we will be moving there in the next few months.

We had planned to only stay last night and maybe all day today, but then this came up. This is not your basic get a foot or two of snow nor'easters, it is a full blown blizzard. Here is the technical definition of a blizzard. We are stocked up at home with plenty to eat and an ample supply of bottled water, so I think we are prepared. The only thing I am concerned about is losing power because we are at 17 degrees at 1:15 PM EST. We would definitely miss the heat if power went out. But we have each other, so it's all good. I'll try to live blog the blizzard as it happens. If you'd like to keep on top of it with me, keep an eye on the blog or Facebook or better yet, subscribe to the blog and updates will be emailed to you automatically. The sing up is in the right side bar.

If you'd prefer to watch things develop on Augusta RADAR, you can do so on Accuweather.com, Weather.com or Intellicast.com. Those are the three best weather websites on the internet. The info you would need to see what is happening where I live is: Augusta, Maine and the zip code is 04330. That will get you to the nitty gritty of the weather situation as it unfolds.

If I am able, I will update as I can with weather info and photos. For those of you who have never experienced a blizzard, it's quite a sight to behold. So,check back when you can and experience what's happening as it takes place here in Maine.

UPDATE: The snow just started falling at 6:37 PM, EST. The blizzard has begun!    

UPDATE 2: 8:22PM EST - The heavier snow moved in about 30 minutes ago. The wind is blowing pretty good now, too. I'll have another update when something good happens.

UPDATE 9:36PM, EST Since my last update about an hour ago, we have received about an inch more of snow. I am headed outside to take some more photos and will post them in a few minutes.

UPDATE: 9:52PM, EST - I took this shot while standing on my front porch. I am looking across the street at another building in our complex. If you look just to the left of dead center of the photo, you'll see a porch light about 100 yards away. I zoomed in to get a good look at it. Let's see if it's visible in another hour or so.

UPDATE 10:54 PM, EST - We've picked up another two inches of snow in the last hour, with about another 8 or 10 inches due overnight and still more for tomorrow. This will be my last update for the night. I should have some good photos for you tomorrow. Until then, Adios.

Toby

Christmas Eve Classic! 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

'Tis the day before Christmas and all through the place,
Everyone woke with a smile on his face,
Outdoors there's snow on the ground,
Ready to welcome the Man who is round,
The children, all happy, are dancing about,
Greeting the day with a squeal and a shout,
With Yuletide chores that we still must do,
We wish you the best, Merry Christmas to you!

I just made that up. :) It serves as a prelude to the real deal. The timeless poem that has been part of the American Christmas Tradition for almost two hundred years. With that, I happily and merrily present to you, dear friend, a Christmas Classic.

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.
And Mama in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap.

When out on the roof there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
tore open the shutter, and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
gave the lustre of midday to objects below,
when, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
but a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles, his coursers they came,
and he whistled and shouted and called them by name:

"Now Dasher! Now Dancer!
Now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid!
On, Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch!
To the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away!
Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
when they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky
so up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
with the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
the prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head and was turning around,
down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
and his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
and he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes--how they twinkled! His dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
and the beard on his chin was as white as the snow.
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
and the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
that shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
and I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
and filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
and giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, 'ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

 I got this copy of the poem from blackdog.net. Click the link and scroll past the poem to the bottom of the page and there's a nice little history of the Yuletide standard.

To all of you, I wish the Merriest of Christmases. May God bless you and your loved ones with happiness and prosperity for all your days.


Feliz Navidad,
Toby

SPECIAL CHRISTMAS ALERT! Track Santa Live on Christmas Eve!

Keep Tabs on This Guy

This post is quite possibly the most important post of the Christmas season. Ask your children or grand kids and they'll tell you that it is so. As a public service, I am obligated by my love for children to put this information out there for public consumption. Below you will find a few web sites that step to the fore each year at this time, to track the path of Santa Claus as he makes his annual trip around the world delivering goodies to boys and girls of all lands. The people behind these web sites use all the latest technology to track Santa on his journey to the four corners of the planet. I have it on good authority that Santa Trackers on every continent will be using not only RADAR, but satellites as well to keep a bead on Santa's sleigh by way of a special Global Positioning System, or GPS, to guide the Jolly Old Elf around any turbulent weather he might encounter in order to make his trip as safe as possible.

These web sites will be following Santa as he travels the globe on Christmas Eve night:

• NORAD - This is the site that I normally use to track Santa for my kids. They are experts in Santa Tracking with many years experience. "NORAD (the Aerospace Defense Command of North America) is the one that gives us information on the journey of Santa. They have been tracking his movements since 1955 and online they showed people Santa’s position since 1998.
  The site of NORAD says that this tradition began by accident, as a newspaper misprinted an ad. The misspelled number in the ad made kids call NORAD instead of the local store, and the operators told the kids where Santa was located with the help of their radar. Since the, each year, volunteers and staff watch for Santa’s ride and let people know where he is."
• SantaClaus.net - When you click on the link to SantaClaus.net, you'll find many activities to keep you busy in between updates on Santa's flight. There are games, letters to Santa, Naughty and Nice Lists and you can even get a phone call from Santa himself!
• SantaTrackerOnline.com - Another web location to keep an eye on Santa's progress. they also provided almost all of the information on NORAD (above)
• Where's Santa Now? - These folks are located at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and they use the most modern tools to track Santa.

In my opinion, as a 50 year plus veteran of Santa Tracking, the web sites listed above offer the most detailed and latest information on the flight of Saint Nick on Christmas Eve. They are all FREE and will be available anywhere you have an internet connection, including your cell phone. I hope you'll find one or more of them useful.

Merry Christmas !!!

Twas the Night Before Christmas (Texas Style)

On Bubba and Leroy and Jim Bob and Gus

'Twas the night before Christmas, in Texas, you know.  
 Way out on the prairie, without any snow.  
 Asleep in their cabin, were Buddy and Sue,  
 A dreamin' of Christmas, like me and you.  
   
 Not stockings, but boots, at the foot of their bed,  
 For this was Texas, what more need be said,  
 When all of a sudden, from out of the still night,  
 There came such a ruckus, it gave me a fright.  
   
 And I saw 'cross the prairie, like a shot from a gun,  
 A loaded up buckboard, come on at a run,  
 The driver was "Geein" and "Hawin", with a will,  
 The horses (not reindeer) he drove with such skill.  
   
 "Come on there Buck, Poncho, & Prince, to the right,  
 There'll be plenty of travelin' for you all tonight."  
 The driver in Levi's and a shirt that was red,  
 Had a ten-gallon Stetson on top of his head.  
   
 As he stepped from the buckboard, he was really a sight,  
 With his beard and moustache, so curly and white.  
 As he burst in the cabin, the children awoke,  
 And were so astonished, that neither one spoke.  
   
 And he filled up their boots with such presents galore,  
 That neither could think of a single thing more.  
 When Buddy recovered the use of his jaws,  
 He asked in a whisper, "Are you really Santa Claus?"  
   
 "Am I the real Santa? Well, what do you think?"  
 And he smiled as he gave a mysterious wink.  
 Then he leaped in his buckboard, and called back in his drawl,  
 "To all the children in Texas, Merry Christmas, You-all"  

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus

Francis Pharcellus Church

With Christmas Eve just two days away, I wanted to be sure to get a couple of Christmas classics posted before The Big Day. This is as classic as it gets and is as timely today as it was over a century ago. It's a question that as children, we all faced at one time or another, "Is there a Santa Claus?" Do I believe in Santa Claus? As long as my little girls are little girls and my grand children are children, and if I'm lucky enough to live to see my great-grand children when they arrive, you damn right I believe in Santa Claus. Could billions of children around the world all be wrong? Of course not.  :)

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps. "DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. "Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. "Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' "Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus? "VIRGINIA O'HANLON. "115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET." VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world. You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
This article can be found on a million websites, but I chose to get it from an excellent site called Newseum. If you enjoy reading about history and would like to see what the news coverage of an event was at the time it happened, Newseum is an absolute treasure chest of nuggets like this..

Christmas Movies for Every Taste! (Or Lack Thereof)

Ralphie

Today marks the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. Not only is it the first day of winter, but it's the shortest day of the year as well. And to top all that off, Christmas is just four days away! Watching Christmas movies with your family is a nice way to spend an evening together during this time of year. I did a little internet sleuthing and I came across this particular list that features some of the all time Christmas Classics and some of the dumbest movies ever made. Since being generous is a yuletide mandate, I'll be nice and just post the list without any of my own commentary, instead relying on the opinion of whoever reviewed them. They are all available for free online, so unaltered, here's the list:

• Santa Claus Conquers the Martians: Kids help Santa defeat Martians who threaten to take away Christmas.
• The Polar Express: A child finds the true meaning of Christmas.
• Holiday Inn: Irving Berlin, dancing, and music; can't get better than that.
• Miracle on 34th Street: Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
• It's a Wonderful Life: One of the most classic Christmas movies of all time, with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed.
• Scrooge: A Christmas Carol from 1935.
• A Christmas Carol (1971, Richard Williams): The excellent 1972 animated version of the Charles Dickens classic.
• Mystery Science Theater: "Santa Claus": After Mike and the 'bots exchange gifts, they get to watch a movie where Santa Claus has to outwit Satan in order to deliver gifts.
• The Star Wars Holiday Special: A really awful movie about Star Wars and the true meaning of Christmas.
• Babes in Toyland: Starring the comic duo of Laurel and Hardy.
• The Great Rupert: A squirrel helps a poor vaudeville family led by Jimmy Durante Christmas by stealing cash their landlord has stashed in a wall.
• Christmas Do-Over: Christmas only comes once a year...or does it?
• Benji's Very Own Christmas Story: The dog's version of Christmas.
• The 12 Dogs of Christmas: Dogs celebrate Christmas, of course.

That's a diverse list of movies, so you can watch any or all of them at your leisure. There are a few more movies on this link to about.com that would require some extra "egg nog" to actually sit through, so use your own discretion.  :)  Merry Christmas, y'all.

Maine Minutiae: A Double New Years Celebration

Two New Years in One

In this post we are going to look past Christmas into the New Year, 2011. We are also looking east...as east as you can look and still be in the United States. We are once again heading out to the easternmost city in the country, Eastport, Maine. As many of you will recall, Eastport is my wife's hometown. We are heading there again this weekend to do the Christmas Thing with Heather's family. It will be nice to see all the in-laws again, but I wish that we could put the trip off for another week. If we head out this week, we will miss the Sardine and Maple Leaf Drop. This is an annual New Years Eve event in Eastport, with several hundred people braving what is certain to be cold and breezy weather. A few hundred folks is quite a crowd because the population of Eastport is only about 1600. the cool thing about this Sardine and Maple Leaf Drop is that the revelers get to celebrate the arrival of the new year twice! The deal is that you can look across the bay from Eastport and see Canada, which (I am just guessing here) can't be much more than a mile away. this is where the Maple Leaf Drop comes in. It's kinda like the ball in Times Square counting down to the New Year. The Maple Leaf Drop happens at midnight Atlantic Time which is 11:00PM Eastern Time. So for an hour, New Brunswick is in the New Year while Eastport is still in the old. At midnight Eastern Time, the Sardine Drop welcomes in the New Year to Maine and the Eastern Time Zone of the USA. This is just an excuse to drink more beer in welcoming in the New Year to both countries. And of course, getting an extra New Year smooch from your better half.

Here's the web site that has all the information you'll need to know if you'd like to spend the New Years Weekend observing and celebrating its arrival in two countries within one hour. It sounds like a hoot and I'd like to be there for the big shindig, but I think I'll be headed to Colorado to see my Mom and my step Dad.

Let me figure this out. If I time it just right I can welcome in the New Year to Canada and the Eastern Time Zone of the USA, catch a plane for Denver in Bangor, celebrate the New Year in the Central Time Zone in mid-flight, then land in Denver,  haul ass to my Mom's house then bring in 2011 in the Mountain Time Zone at one of the casinos down the street from Mom's place. Now that sounds like a plan. Too bad I don't know anyone in the Pacific Time Zone. I could celebrate the arrival of 2011 from East to West across the United States. Oh, well. Maybe next year.  :)