A Gray-T Day

2010-05-15 16:02:34.000 – Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer

The Simple Things

Today is a good day to be inside here on the mountain. I suppose if one were well prepared and enjoyed hiking on slick, ice covered rocks with freezing rain, blowing winds, and temperatures just below freezing, it would be a good day to be outside. It is days like today where I look at the windows rather than out them. They, like the rocks, are covered in a glaze of water ice. The temperature has been between 31.0 and 31.6 degrees for the last 5 hours now and the ambient heat from the building is causing the ice on with windows to slowly melt. Every once in a while, I will hear and see an entire window pane of ice fall off. More interesting I think is watching the drops of water trickle down between the pane and the ice. I’m always curious as to what path the little drops (drips?) will take. Once they hit the ground, they may make their way down into our well, only to be drawn up and used to make a cup of tea that I drink while watching water run between the pane and the ice. Although the window is fun to look at for a while, I eventually have to get back to work. Days such as this are also fine ones to work on IT projects, which, for me today, have been various programming projects. I’ve been working on Linux Bash shell scripting for webcam processing and a combination of PHP and Javascript for improving our current observation submission process. After many hours of programming though, it was nice to come downstairs, sit on the couch, and write this comment. Before too long, I’ll head back up and write a bit more code before calling it a day. I’ll then head over and visit with Danny and Chris from State Park and probably practice a couple reels on my harp later on. I do love sunny, blue skies and corn snow, but every now and again a day that completely socks in the summit, limiting the visible world to a 40 foot radius, is not so bad either.

Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer