climate

Save the whales; and track them, too

I bought some of these Whale Tracking Bracelets as Christmas gifts this year from Club Ocean. People loved them.

I got a variety of colors, dark blue, light blue and pink.

Originally I thought there was a chip or something in the bracelet that let you track the whale, but there is a card with each bracelet that has the whale’s name along with a QR code which takes you to the GPS where the whale is. If you save that info on your phone, you can easily pull it up whenever you want to check him/her out.

My humpback whale, Merlin, a female, is off the coast of Australia. She is about 45 feet long.

Club Ocean also has other animals you can follow and donate to. There are turtles, sharks, polar bears and dolphins along with the whales. And there are coral bracelets, plushies, caps and other accessories you can purchase.

The bracelets took almost a month to arrive, even though I paid for rush shipping, as I wanted to have them in time for Christmas and maybe the Christmas rush is what delayed the delivery, but they did arrive the day before Christmas, so that worked out well.

Check them out here. and support sea animals and get a cool item in the process.

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There’s always one

Today’s cartoon makes me laugh because it is so true. If you live in a cold climate, you’ve seen this – some guy running or just traipsing around in shorts and a tee, while the rest of civilization is bundled up.

I saw this the other day in New York City, it was quite cold this week and a guy was walking in shorts, with a bunch of people who were bundled up. Usually it’s a guy running through the streets – jogging or whatever -at least the guy here has a hoodie on.

***The Montauk Lighthouse all lit up for the season.***

Last weekend a bunch of us went to see the Montauk Lighthouse Christmas lighting. They make a big show of it every year.

The weather was brutal that night. We were literally on a hill, which goes up to the lighthouse on the very tip of Long Island. The wind was whipping and we were up there for hours. But it was worth it. And no one was in shorts, I’m happy to say.

We usually do the Southampton parade and Christmas tree lighting, but we did Montauk in stead.

One funny things at the end of the lighting, a bunch of people do “The Roll.” I’m not sure how it started but people take a sip of wine and then literally roll down the hill from the lighthouse. It’s a lot of fun (to watch). It’s a tradition that goes with the lighthouse lighting.

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Mind over weather?

I laugh every time I see this cartoon, not just because it’s mine, but because it’s true.

I was recently in New York and Boston and I saw it, and every winter/fall, there is some guy in shorts and t-shirt running or just standing in the city while everyone else is bundled up.

Is he showing off or does he not feel the cold?

He’s probably from a cold climate and 30 degrees is not cold to him. Maybe he’s from Alaska or Canada or some northern European city.

I know that when I’m home in Miami, when it gets to 70 degrees, I need to wear a hoodie or jacket or something, but when I’m in NY, I can go out in a t-shirt in 50 degree weather and when it’s been 39 degrees and sunny, I can walk with an open jacket and t-shirt in NY and not feel the cold. I think it may have something to do with the humidity in Miami and maybe lack of it up north. It just feels colder down south when the temp drops.

I remember one year, it was 19 degrees at the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade in NY and I was fine out there. I was bundled up and dressed for the weather and I think only my nose was cold. But I was bundled up, I wasn’t in shorts and a t-shirt.

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There’s always one . . .

This is one of those cartoons that just took off. It really went viral with thousands of likes and shares. It seems that everyone can relate to it. Many people see their own city and many people see themselves or someone they know as that person.

I see this all the time in New York. It’s freezing out and and out comes some guy in shorts and sometimes shirtless, running down the street or in the park. Quite a few people say they have seen this with the person wearing flip flops. I don’t think I’ve seen that.

I actually envy them when I see them. I’m bundled up and they are half naked running through the streets. Most of the people I see are running or jogging like this. But the opposite may be true of them – they may not be able to handle hot weather since it seems their bodies prefer the cold.

In Miami we have the opposite thing – the temp goes down to 70 and people are bundled up as if they are in the Tundra. I saw a lady just yesterday dressed as if the city froze over. It was 69 degrees at the time. I was driving by and I was tempted to stop the car to take a picture for this story.

I’ve been going by Jason Chatfield’s credo – “Don’t curate your art to what gets likes. Curate it to what you like.” I’ve been doing that and people are responding and getting the gags.

Some of the comments the cartoon received:

I am one of those people… I am from Erie PA

I see “these people” all the time in North Myrtle Beach, SC! I’ll be all bundled up with my thin, Southern blood and there are “those” that are in shorts. I’m always thinking that they must be from Canada or Buffalo.

In Chicago. We have a light snowfall in tree limbs and on the ground today, but still some guys in shorts.

Just saw one in Kroger’s and it’s 34 degrees

Maryland but here we’re wearing flip flops!

It seriously seems to be a pandemic in the Boston area!

My daughter and nephew !!

Obviously not from Oregon, would be wearing flip flops!

Wisconsin, I see it all the time.

Me. I don’t feel the cold!

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Back and forth; NYC, home and back

I was in NYC last week, had to go home to Miami for four days and now am back. Very weird feeling to do it over again, you know, hop on a plane to the same destination. I was at a wonderful wedding last weekend, part of it in Babylon, New York, which is a village in Long Island. Very New England-like, beautiful there.

I sometimes ship some of my dirty clothing home to lighten my luggage and it was such a fast turn-around that the dirty laundry didn’t arrive home yet, before I left.

Hurricane Ian came and went, luckily we were blessed and it bypassed us, but it destroyed one of my favorite parts of the state. One of my best friends lived up in the Punta Gorda, Venice, Ft. Myers area and I would spend many days there. He lives in the panhandle now, but those poor people on the west coast . . . .

Ian made it’s way to the northeast with some wind and rain, but nothing to speak of.

I wasn’t going to return to NY, but I had Comic Con tickets and basically I didn’t think a friend of mine would go without me. We are going together. He is so excited to go, I didn’t want to ruin it for him, so I returned to the city for 10 days.

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Summer in October

Friday in NY was fantastic. It was like summer.

I usually prefer fall and would want the weather to be in the 50s and 60s, but this past summer was crap – 107 degrees or heavy rain constantly and this past week was blah, overcast and not really cool, but not really hot.

But Friday, was bright, the sky was blue, the temperature was 80 degrees and it seems like the whole city was out. Every park was full of people of all types from school children to office workers.

I watched in delight as some school boys climbed up on one of the statues in Union Square, where one of them struggled to get up there with his friends. Just matter-of-factly, two friends grabbed him by the arms and dragged him up. And then it looked as if they all had lunch sitting up on the statue base.

An older guy played the guitar and sang old hippie songs from the 1960s, and was amazing. The whole day was amazing.

I took the subway out to Coney Island. While the weather was great, strangely enough, there weren’t many people out there and it wasn’t as lively as it was in the summer. But I still enjoyed it.

Thursday night I spent with my cousins, We all went to dinner and it had been almost two years since we did that due to the pandemic, so it was very enjoyable, one of those nights I’ll always remember.

We may go apple and pumpkin picking upstate this weekend, but the weather is supposed to turn to rain again, bringing in a cold front, so we’ll see. The rain would stop us from going, not the cold front.

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Friends in my head

I was talking about how much I love Life Below Zero, but I would never consider living like that on the frozen Tundra. I watch these shows over and over again and enjoy them so much, I feel as if some of the people are friends in my head.

Another thing I love is cooking shows. Mostly on weekends I have taken to watching them all. And yet, I don’t even like to boil water. Yet, like Life Below Zero, I find them very relaxing.

I know what roux is and I know how to caramelize onions. I just don’t do that. I love eating it all, but I don’t care to prepare it. I know what stone fruit is and I love all of it, I just don’t bake. I know where capers come from and how to make chicken in a Moroccan tagine; and I know not to turn fish on the grill, it will release itself when ready.

I know what Sara Moulton is up to and what recipes Jacques Pepin‘s mother used to make. I know how Bridget and Julia like to brown a turkey and how Dan Souza prepares his Indonesian-Style Fried Rice, and when Martha Bakes, watch out!

I know what size oysters should be before they are harvested and how to kill a caribou and ptarmigan in the Arctic. I don’t put any of it to use, but it’s all in my head!

Life below zero; it’s brutal

I’ve been watching so much Life Below Zero lately, it seems to be on tv non-stop. I’ve seen so many of the episodes three or four times, but for some reason, it comforts me. I guess it’s the people, my favorites are Jesse and Sue. Season 12 started recently.

I don’t understand how they live like they do. It’s not like they are living in a city. So many of them go to Fairbanks or some other place and they get the cold sweats, they can’t take all the people and the “traffic.”

But I laugh when I think of their lifestyles. It’s like they say, “I want to be away from everyone. Far away in northern Alaska. I don’t want running water, tv, cable or electricity. I don’t want a store within 300 miles of me and I want it to be dark for 22 hours a day in winter and I like 40 degree below zero weather. And I want to have to hunt and fish daily to survive.

I just don’t get that. But that’s how they live. I often wonder why they just don’t move to the mountains in Colorado or North Carolina or some place remote but not brutal. But apparently these people, friends in my head, like it that way.

I’m not doing my 10 With Tom column these days, but I would interview them with probably more than 10 questions if I did write the column.

Life below zero

Yesterday’s “Ice Hole” cartoon got a big reaction and lots of shares on social media. I try to be cerebral but I guess the simpler and crazy ones are what the masses like.

This comic came to me while watching one of my favorite shows, Life Below Zero. I wasn’t really paying attention, I think I was dozing off, and I heard Chip Hailstone, one of the people on the show, say to his kids, who were going ice fishing, “Hey, there’s an ice hole!” And it made me look up and laugh and just totally struck me as being hilarious. And voilà – there was a comic idea.

I played around with it a bit. At first there was a bear hibernating behind a bush and he heard the guys say “ice hole,” and he looked up with one eye open. It was titled, “Trouble Brewing,” but I couldn’t get the image setting right, so I made it another ice fisher.

Oh yea, one more thing. People think those are women. They are men. But as I see them as women, I think it’s even funnier – sort of like Lucy and Ethel go ice fishing.

Hurricane Isaias

hurricane

So we dodged a bullet. Hurricane Isaias brushed by, we barely got any wind or rain.

I was traumatized by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which did a number on Miami. Things were never the same after that – it was life changing for everyone who lived through it.

For years after that I would freak out with any sort of wind and rain but over time I got used to other hurricanes that came by and eventually in the last year or two, I’ve become a bit better about them and I don’t freak out so much. But it is a scary thing.

We get prepared and panic and worry and whether it comes through or not we are so relieved when it is over. And I look at that as sort of a good thing. The hurricane makes up stop and take notice, sort of like the caronavirus, and then when it’s over, we are happy with the status quo before it arrived, even if the status quo wasn’t great.

It’s weird. Now that we are over the danger of the hurricane, let’s get back to normal – dealing with caronavirus which isn’t so bad if you do the right things – wear a mask, social distance, etc. So it’s Monday and we’re back to work or staying home or whatever it is we did last Monday and in this case we are happy to do it.

Unfortunately, it is going to affect the Carolinas and possibly the Northeast. Hope not.

But for me, I opened my shutters and let the sun in.