Alas, Ron's birthday present did not materialize last night. The Trojans lost a hard fought battle against the Longhorns in the Rose Bowl. Thursday morning quarterbacking of certain plays aside, Vince Young of Texas was simply amazing and seemed to be everywhere on the field at once.

[Better luck next year, USC.]

Mom pointed out that I missed another birthday yesterday. It was the day that our dog Hildy had her puppies. I can't remember which year, but I recall getting up in the middle of the night to watch her have two puppies. We went to bed and when we got up, there were two more. They were "Cock-a-Poo-Poos" - a little Cocker Spaniel with two doses of Poodle thrown in. The father was Uncle Dick and Aunt Claire's dog, Peppy. There were two boys, two girls, all very different looking. Three of them were black and one was a blond.

When they got a little older, Ron and Pam took one, Punk and Linda took another, our friends the Thorsells took the third and we kept the last one.

[So Happy Birthday to Moufflon, Princess, Sandy and Velvet!]

And more belated birthday greetings to Eva and John K. Both of them came over to the house yesterday for a little post-holiday gathering, along with Diane, Ken/Kathy, Colleen/Billy and Jon. Great fun and thanks to everyone for coming.

[No wonder I'm tired today.]

Tropical Storm Zeta is still out there. As was the case with Epsilon, it just won't follow the rules and go away. They keep saying that it will run into shear and dissapate - and then it ignores them and reforms. I think the forecasters are starting to feel that these storms are just toying with them:

On Monday:

GLOBAL MODEL FORECASTS INDICATE EVEN STRONGER UPPER-LEVEL FLOW OVER THE STORM WITHIN 1-2 DAYS AND IT IS HARD TO CONCEIVE THAT A TROPICAL CYCLONE WILL BE ABLE TO SURVIVE FOR VERY LONG IN SUCH A HOSTILE DYNAMICAL ENVIRONMENT. THEREFORE I HAVE NOT BACKED OFF ON THE FORECAST OF WEAKENING. OF COURSE...ZETA MAY HAVE OTHER IDEAS.

On Tuesday:

THERE IS AN UPPER-LEVEL TROUGH PRACTICALLY SUPERIMPOSED ON THE STORM AT THIS TIME. THIS TROUGH SHOULD CONTINUE TO MOVE EASTWARD...AND STRONG NORTHWESTERLY FLOW IN ITS WAKE IS LIKELY TO BEGIN TO DISRUPT THE SYSTEM IN 12-24 HOURS. SO...ALTHOUGH YOU'VE HEARD THIS FROM US BEFORE...WE EXPECT A WEAKENING TREND TO COMMENCE TOMORROW.

On Wednesday:

AS AN APPROACHING STRONG WINTER LOW PASSES BY TO THE NORTH OF THE CYCLONE...A GRADUAL TURN TO THE NORTHWEST IS ANTICIPATED. IT APPEARS THAT THIS WINTER LOW WILL PASS BY VERY FAST AND WILL NOT INDUCE RECURVATURE. ZETA AS A WEAKENING CYCLONE SHOULD THEN MOVE BETWEEN THE NORTHWEST AND NORTH-NORTHWEST UNTIL DISSIPATION. AS YOU CAN SEE...I RAN OUT THINGS TO SAY.

This morning, Zeta was (finally) downgraded to a Tropical Depression in the early morning advisory. By mid-morning, however, it was back up to being a Tropical Storm and the latest forecast is using the word "should" in quotes to describe the weakening that they keep talking predicting.

[Go Zeta, Go!]

Quote du jour:

"Energy and persistence alter all things."

Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)
US statesman, diplomat, inventor, printer

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