Faribault Scene as of 2:30 p.m. – Straight River/Cannon River Reservoir at the Faribault Woolen Mills, Straight River at Fleckenstein Park, Straight River at Teepee Tonka Park.
Butterfly in the Sky…
Two of the most influential people in my life, right there. (Screengrab from Butterfly in the Sky: The Story of Reading Rainbow)
“Trapped by a Tornado”, KSTP’s Dave Dahl, April 26, 1996
We’ve learned a lot about tornadoes in severe weather in the past 28 years, and thus I’m posting this primarily as a “what never to do” video. There are several quotes and pieces of video in these clips that will give any modern storm chaser anxiety.
1:45 – Chasing on an Interstate highway, with no easy way to change directions 90 degrees if necessary. Seeking shelter from a tornado under a freeway overpass (never do this, please).
4:30 – More of the above.
6:00 – Even more of the above, with innocent video crew.
6:26 – Putting yourself in a situation where you need to lie flat in a ditch as a last ditch shelter.
6:48 – “Are we OK?” “Yes, we’re fine. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’ve been doing this for 19 years watching this stuff. Never been this close.”
7:22 – “In a car, Get out, get away from the car, lay flat in the ditch, and that’s exactly what we did. And we stayed safe.”
US Route 65 and the Jefferson Highway
I’ve written about US Route 65 and the Jefferson Highway before, but here’s some added pictures of the mileage signs near Mason City and Northwood.
Iowa has new signs up recognizing the significance of the Jefferson Highway’s route as being one of the first established north-south motorways in the nation.
The Jefferson Highway and US65 traveled into Faribault on Glynview Trail and Willow Street, before turning up Central Avenue, curving left at “The Curve”, continuing to near Northfield and eventually to St. Paul, and all the way up to Winnipeg.
Faribault was enough of a major city at that time to have signs in Iowa 72 miles away, which have been updated and are still there today!
Bethany accidentally scrams the Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant reactor
Of course, she didn’t really. This was during a May 2017 open house at Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant in Red Wing, Minnesota, and this was a control room simulator they use to train their staff. Don’t worry, there was really never a risk of meltdown!
I hit the Northern Lights jackpot!
Definitely hit the Northern Lights jackpot tonight! These were all taken near Winjum’s Shady Acres Resort just west of Faribault.
Jordan Motokazie Supercross Practice with a Honda 250R from April 2009
Feeling nostalgic tonight, so posting this old video from 15 years ago of my friend Dave on his Honda 250R at the Scott County Fairgrounds Motokazie Track in Jordan, MN. Check out that old gnarly layout!
Standard definition because that’s what the original GoPro was!
Tornado Season: Here’s how to stay safe, vigilant
Rice County’s new Emergency Manager Joe Johnson, as well as Rice County Skywarn, got a good write-up in today’s Faribault Daily News on how to stay safe and vigilant during tornado season. Give it a read!
Big Nine Music Festival
Really excellent performance by our Big Nine select performers! Since I was at the Jordan Motokazie last night, Bethany and I listened to the grand finale concert this morning, and had a nice homemade breakfast afterwards. If you want to lay back on a rainy, gloomy Saturday and listen to some great music by talented musicians, this is a great way to start!
Leave it to May!
May Bottke, my Kindergarten teacher, surprised me yet again! Today, I received a birthday card in the mail from her, wishing me a happy 46th birthday, along with a special personalized note.
It’s widely known that May has a special gift of remembering birthdays of her former students. It’s astonishing when the fact is May herself will turn the big 100 this coming November!
A Trip to Kaua’i, February 2024
Sunset Wall at Koloa Landing, Poipu
Koloa Landing Resort Pool, Poipu
Auli’i Lu’au, Poipu
Parts of the drive from Poipu through Hanapepe to Kekaha
Kekaha Beach, Kekaha
Back at Koloa Landing
Catamaran tour/whale/dolphin watching of the South Shore, from Hanapepe to Ki’hei
Grilling out!
Turtle watching at Poipu Beach
Poipu Tree Tunnel
County Skywarn leader fills in local temp record gaps
It was a pleasure sitting down with Colton this afternoon to describe a little of what we’re all about at Rice County Skywarn!
New mechanical SCSI hard drive replaced in an Apple Mac SE FDHD
I replaced an old Quantum SCSI hard disk drive in an Apple Mac SE FDHD this afternoon. A project long overdue! I needed to use the third-party Lido hard drive management and partition utility to get the Apple to recognize a non-Apple hard disk drive. Just as proprietary and “closed ecosystem” back then as they are today!
Dashcam captures a car grazing a deer on State Highway 3 between Faribault & Northfield
A very close shave for the car!
Various Clips from our September 2023 trip to New York City
From Newark to Midtown on rail, Lower Manhattan, Central Park, Metro-North rail to Poughkeepsie, Little Italy, Grand Central, Times Square, and the rooftop lounge back at Hotel Scherman just off Times Square.
Minnesota Radioddity GD-88 Codeplugs for DMR
The Radioddity GD-88 is a neat, inexpensive new dual VFO analog/digital handheld transceiver. Since no codeplugs are publicly available for this transceiver that I have found, I made one based on the Anytone Codeplugs by Eric Ganske, W0EDG.
Check out the instructions and codeplugs at the link below:
The positives of a long, snowy Minnesota Winter.
This has been a long, snowy, perhaps difficult Minnesota Winter. However, I don’t ever remember one with such awesome sights. I can’t wait for Spring to arrive, but I sure don’t mind scenes of Winter mornings such as today, on the drive to Nerstrand.
Vinyl Outsells CDs
Who would have ever thought it? https://www.spin.com/2023/03/riaa-vinyl-outsold-cds-in-2022/
VIP tour of Johnson Space Center
Earlier this week, I had an opportunity to take a VIP tour of Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and it’s definitely not something to be missed. Here I am in a now unused space shuttle flight deck simulator in the Shuttle Avionics Innovation Laboratory, as well as the visitor gallery of the historical Apollo and present day ISS mission control rooms. I actually got a chance to tour the Apollo control room itself.
