Tapes and Carhartts 2008-06-27 05:26:33.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer Tapes and Carhartts Life here on the summit has been rather grey as of late. Grey and wet. For much of my time awake, as I am working nights, this grey turns more to a thick black. On nights such as this, observations take roughly 30 seconds and really aren’t terribly interesting. This gives me time to do some programming while listening to some fine music. Chris gave me a bunch of cassette tapes for Christmas to play in my car, but I unfortunately left the window open and frost

stop and smell the roses 2008-06-26 11:34:07.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer perfect reflections "Stop and smell the roses." It's a very popular phrase, indicating that one shouldn’t rush through life. One should appreciate the beauty that unfolds around them, much like how the petals of a rose unfold as it blooms. Every so often, during my off shift week, I will travel to home, sweet, home... New Jersey. The trip is populated with highways, by ways, some long and windy roads, and even a few bridges, not to mention tolls and a couple of somewhat painful trips to the gas

Volunteering at MWO. 2008-06-25 04:17:58.000 - William Lanford,  Summit Volunteer Mr. Pizza. “You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give." -Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) The home page of Mount Washington Observatory states, “Since 1932, the non-profit Mount Washington Observatory has been keeping watch on one of the planet's most extreme places, the 6,288 foot summit of Mount Washington. We invite you to become a part of it.” I have done just that as a volunteer, (place website for volunteering, MWO) for one week during the month of June

Volunteer thoughts 2008-06-24 21:37:19.000 - Michael Lalancette,  Summit Volunteer Easy as Pie. Although the weather has not been optimum I have beenable to settle into life at the Observatory for the past week.It has been an interesting week seeing how the staff andinterns interface and live together. We did witness a greatsunset and sunrise (a first for me) along with a ride down themountain and back up on the cog. I rode the cog as a childwith my father in the ealy 60's. Although I did an EduTrip inthe winter a few years ago I had no idea on what

L.L. Bean Visits 2008-06-23 18:01:06.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer Posing in front of the tower A special group of guests paid us a visit on the summit on Friday. A total of eight people from the product testing department at L.L. Bean made their way up the mountain for the day with three of them hiking up Boott Spur and the rest coming up the Auto Road. These are the people that are responsible for developing and testing new and updated products for L.L. Bean. If you don’t already know, L.L. Bean is a huge supporter of the Observatory as

Past, present, and future. 2008-06-22 17:37:29.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Meteorologist How I feel: Illuminati My last week off, I watched “Kung Fu Panda” and there was a quote that I thought seemed fitting in describing everything that is going on at the Observatory. It wasn’t an original line but a parable that has been around for some time. It went: “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift, that is why we call it the present.” The parts about yesterday and tomorrow are very true but the part about today is debatable. It is a gift but

Steve Switches Shifts 2008-06-21 20:18:17.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer Bridge over the West Branch of the Peabody River, As some of you may know this is my last day, on this shift, at the Mount Washington Observatory. By the time you read this, I will have hiked down to the valley, via the Great Gulf Trail. Hopefully I will have gotten to see some of the mountain flora and fine views on the way and won't have gotten too wet from any passing showers. I won’t be away for long though as, come Wednesday, I’ll be heading back up

NULL 2008-06-20 17:10:35.000 - Ted Letcher,  Summit Intern Valley Fog to the Northeast After three shift weeks of my internship I am finally beginning to realize that I am already almost half way through my internship. So before I have a “mid-internship crisis,” and start ripping my hair out over worries that I have accomplished nothing in the past few shifts, I would like do a short recap of my summer thus far. My shift weeks have been getting progressively smoother. Tasks that once scared or intimidated me have become more or less perfunctory. Sights and weather that once seemed

Mount Washington and Florida 2008-06-19 23:43:48.000 - Matthew Morin,  Space Grant Intern Cumulonimbus It was only a few days ago that I was walking along the shore of the Space Coast in Cape Canaveral, FL. It was on that day when I realized that I achieved a seemly unreachable goal, a 1,300 mile road trip back to Florida on a college student’s budget and little planning. I fell in love with the Sunshine State during my Space Grant Internship last summer where I worked with researchers at a NASA facility at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. My research focused

NULL 2008-06-18 12:43:45.000 - Lisa Hodges,  Summit Intern crepuscular rays at sunset Mount Washington frequently finds itself in the clouds. But occasionally, we find ourselves above the clouds, a phenomenon called an undercast. I witnessed my first undercast from the summit on Monday, and it was definitely breathtaking. Working and living at the summit, we witness a great number of extreme weather phenomena. When I signed on as an intern, one of my hopes for my time at the summit was to see an undercast. From the valley, and undercast is just a bunch of fog. But for those brave