Sidebars Wunderbar Weather Blogging....by Bob Sanders

I have what minimal observation must reveal is a less-than-normal (whatever that means) relationship with the computer.  I guess it’s mostly a matter of wanting to take full advantage of my sense of wonder about it while having a severe fear of it taking advantage of me.  It’s sort of like Hugh Hefner and women.

While my reluctant embrace of the machine is what Johnny Carson would have called  “a caution,” a son of mine is another matter; his commitment is so pronounced that I told him recently I fully expect his rather spectacular departure from this world will be in his room of exotic electronic equipment where he will be swallowed headfirst by one of his machines.

With legs pointed heavenward, his last moments will be memorable as he disappears--never again to battle viruses and worms, to experience the thrill of hibernating a laptop, the spine-tingling passion inherent in downloading bad music, the fascination of pimping your flip (I’m assured there is such a procedure), the exhilaration of encryption conniptions, the smug satisfaction of VOIPing, Phishing and, maybe best of all, Skypeing.  One wonders if down the road awaits a 30,000 foot club of exclusives who do their Skypeing at that altitude.

While I am pretty good at the pursuit of information on the internet, I am also so lacking in hipness as a neophyte in the computer world that I continue to fall far behind in understanding its rich nomenclature, road marks in its intense development.  For example, I don’t know how to twitter but wonder if twits have a leg up on such adventures?  Further, I have a terrible time doing simple things like forwarding my neighborhood activist information to the local daily.  The Guide Meridian/Cordata Neighborhood Association has monthly general meetings except during summers when we give everyone a break and take advantage of Bellingham’s hard to beat weather at that time of year.  Anything short of summer is something else but we won’t go into such Chamber of Commerce downers at this time.

We ‘hamsters, as we call ourselves, are a sturdy lot.  Blue collar and all the clichés that go with the description, we are inclined to be impressed more by: a good hamburger than a filet mignon; jeans rather than something shiny from Italy; and local entertainers like the Cody Rivers Show at the Idiom Theater where 10 bucks gets you much better than the mediocrity of $60 road shows at the Mt. Baker Theater.  There is a prevailing honesty in Bellingham difficult to understand unless you live here.

Fourth Corner living, often chancy weather-wise, offered some unexpected snow 10 days ago.  Decidedly a surprise, the left jab of a storm had enough intensity to suggest checking in with that wonderful little Google slot that tells you just about anything you want to know about the local weather and more.  All you have to do is give the computer your zip code and voila--five days of details.  Aware that just about any five days in a row these days will offer 60 to 90 percent chance of rain or snow, ‘hamsters don’t pay a lot of attention to weather reports.  As I continued my Googling, I came upon a plaintive announcement carrying with it both urgency and challenge.  It turns out there is a close cadre of weather bloggers and Bellingham, City of Subdued Excitement, is currently without anyone willing to get involved with what is known as Wunder Blog!  The exclamation mark is not mine.

It quickly became apparent that an idea so fulsome of opportunity would make rejection of it difficult.  As readers of this space are aware, I have cast myself in the role of Bellingham protector, guardian against sprawl and a firm believer that you can’t beat laughter.  Part of my protectionist spirit was inspired nearly 20 years ago by best-selling author Ernie Gann, a San Juan Island neighbor.  Ernie would never tell nosy journalists (now, there’s a highly apt oxymoron) where he lived for fear even more people would move to the island further disrupting his tranquil life.

Buying into Gann’s philosophy of protection, it made sense 15 years later that I would do the same for Bellingham after moving here.  Among my ideas is a disinformation program that would accentuate the negative.  Because mottos are so important to cities, it has for some time been my thought that Bellingham’s unofficial one be abandoned in favor of something more dramatic like “Tony Soprano’s Kinda Town.”

Having chanced upon Wunder Blog!, I came up with further inspiration through the readings of such weather bloggers as BangorWalker, Fshfan’s Wunder Blog, HadesGodMyvern (he checks in from Western Australia) and Charlesimages.  The latter, originating in Cedar Springs, Michigan, offers stories, often not weather-related, like the time a teen-age Charles was practicing lassoing and decided to test his skills on an outhouse.  He managed to rope the air conditioned toilet, finally overturning it with a healthy tug.  The results were rather surprising: his father was in it.

BangorWalker is really into the weather.  Presumably located in Bangor, Maine, he keeps tidy records of such things as daily highs and lows, record highs and lows and record snows.  Being able to crank up the computer to reveal that Bangor’s all-time one-day record snow of 16.5 inches on February 25, 1969 should augur a sense of relief down the road when only 10 or 12 inches of the white stuff falls in a day.

Some of the weather enthusiasts aren’t nearly so caught up in the subject, but do enjoy the outdoors and/or looking at pictures, the latter a major weather blogging offering.  Take TukwilaCathy, whose most recent communiqué in late February, reported that Seattle-Tukwila was “showers,” some .34 inches of rain having fallen.  A further revelation was a high temperature of 48 that day and a low of 44.  For those with a sense of history, we were informed that the key numbers a year ago were 56 and 41 with no rain.  TukwilaCathy appears

to be rather casual in her weather blogging duties while offering a decided contrast to BangorWalker.  It may be that she has better things to do since her prior report was made on Dec. 15 of last year, a development not likely to qualify her for a web page listing as the author of a Featured Blog.

Featured Bloggers of Wunder Blog! apparently are the elite of those who pursue weather information.  One of its leaders is Dr. Jeff Masters who writes about such things as “Weather and Mortality.”  The major conclusion of a survey, recently reviewed by Masters, suggests that people living in rural areas are more likely to die from a natural disaster than those living in cities.  As conclusions go, this appears to rank right up there with fish got to swim and birds got to fly. 

Wunder Bloggers! refer to themselves as Underground Weathermen, a name whose origins give pause.  It was the radical Underground Weathermen who’s Days of Rage included one on October 8, 1969--a year and change after Chicago cops acquired some bad PR while participating in the Democratic National Convention riots.  I remember it well.  Employed by Playboy Enterprises, I had attended a party at Hugh Hefner’s residence on North State Parkway.  Upon leaving, I recall every car within sight had broken windows except mine that bore a Playboy logo.

The upshot of all this is that it appears I have the opportunity to be a weather blogger and help make America aware of all the bad weather that happens in Subdued City.  Our numbers are stunning and the release of such information, touched up a bit here and there as my imagination prompts, should help keep the horrific hordes away from our fair city.  This innate ability to create fear and loathing among potential residents carries grave responsibilities.

Those responsibilities should include attempts to get follow-up stories in the local press about some of the people who suffered various inequities during the January gullywasher that tormented Bellingham.  Of course, journalistically speaking, it appears that follow-up stories these days too often go the way of follow-up questions.

Regardless of how much interest you have in the weather, its erratic transitions and professional attempts to forecast it, I’m inclined to go along with what was George Carlin’s prediction for any given night: dark.

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Comments

[Sheila]

Lakewood, Ohio---went to Saint Augustine's, read you in the Plain Dealer...lived in Michigan City where I read you in the Trib. My husband and I also live in Bellingham for the last 6 years and I've have been trying to find your blog...I am a working neighbor near Cordata at DSHS. I have always admired your style.Now, I get to read through your archives. Bellingham is a far cry from Cleveland-no?

[charlesimages]

""the time a teen-age Charles was practicing lassoing and decided to test his skills on an outhouse. He managed to rope the air conditioned toilet, finally overturning it with a healthy tug. The results were rather surprising: his father was in it.""

LOL? I don't recall ever doing that to my Dad??? Thanks for the mention of me though, glad I inspire you. =) Amazing what I find in the searches!

Sincerely,
Charles R. (charlesimages)

[Bob Sanders]

Inspiration, indeed.
You have brought to mind the cyberspace equivalent of the bane of newspaper writers: bum information gleaned from morgue (now library) clippings.
I agree. It surely is amazing what an internet search can produce. Let's keep the fantasy lasso between us.
And, thanks for reading.