’Tis a fine soft day at El Rancho Pendejo.
Tlaloc is having a wee this morning, and glad we are to see it. It’s been so dry even the cacti have the asthma.
If we’re really lucky this light rain will become snow and maybe stick around a while, soak in a bit. I can see a dusting up there along the ridgeline.
But the odds of any serious accumulation seem poor, on a par with Southwest Airlines returning your luggage (or you, for that matter) before the Fourth of July.
Still, it seems I was wise to get the ol’ bikey ridey in yesterday. Any outdoor exercise today is likely to involve running shoes and rain gear.
It feels weird to be sitting here, mostly high and dry, as an atmospheric river water-cannons the West Coast and the East Coast tunnels out from under a bomb cyclone.
One of the upsides of living in the high desert, I suppose. The downside being that in a couple years we’ll need “Dune”-style stillsuits for the long, hot hike to the farmers’ market.
Tags: atmospheric river, bomb cyclone, Dune, Southwest Airlines
Mad Blog Media 
December 28, 2022 at 10:39 am |
The Colorado Compact as well as much of the mass migration to the American SW happened during abnormally wet periods for this area. Now Ma Nature gets her revenge.
December 28, 2022 at 11:16 am |
I understand Southwest Airlines stock can be had for a song. The song that you sing at the airport while you’re stuck there. Wow, another 4800 flights today. I don’t believe I’ll be booking anything with Southwest for a long time.
December 29, 2022 at 5:37 am |
And me with 2 SWA Visa cards and 250,000 points banked. Looks like I’ll be staying put. Was planning on a late Feb escape from the Mitten State for a few days of sunshine which I’ll store like an old snapping turtle as I ride out the dregs of winter. It’s hitting 50 degrees here which will slopify everything and yo-yo your sinus compass
December 29, 2022 at 8:05 am |
Yeah, I dunno as I would book a flight on Southwest in February. Or ever. A Los Angeles Times columnist writes that instead of making long-overdue investments in infrastructure, management has been (wait for it) buying back stock and paying dividends to the investor class.
The little people fly coach, if they fly at all.
December 29, 2022 at 5:55 pm |
Remember the days when you could run up to the counter of an airline and if they had space available, they would honor your ticket from another airline? Ahh the good old days. Back when Pan Am was still spewing massive amounts of CO2 across the oceans in their custom 747’s and airlines would check just about anything that you could carry to their counters. It’s just no fun anymore.
December 30, 2022 at 9:47 am |
James Fallows, an esteemed journo who is also a pilot, has a good piece on the airline bidness then and now.
Remember dressing up to fly? Braniff? Och, lad, them was the daze. …
December 30, 2022 at 10:31 am |
In review of Fallows article, yes I agree. However, the period just after deregulation for 15 or so years, was great. The efficiency of the bean counter market hadn’t improved enough yet to create what we have now. During that period, new routes opened and operated in locations that never would be profitable, jets flew at less than half full, and rates could vary substantially simply by calling back to the airline 30 minutes later. But 9/11 really changed the industry. The airlines were suddenly forced to review their costs to stay profitable. Would I pay more to fly during a time like that which existed back in the ’80’s? Yep. But time goes on and systems change. Perhaps our system of freely traveling back and forth as we do, contributing to a problem that we don’t all want to agree on is occurring, needs to change as well.
December 30, 2022 at 10:43 am |
Throw in the practice of enriching execs and investors at the expense of the customer and you have a bidness model in which I do not care to participate.
My rule of thumb is simple: If the journey is more than 2,000 miles one way and/or involves a water crossing sans bridge or ferry I will consider flying. Otherwise it’s Air Subaru for The Kid.
I seem to remember telling United customer service after my last tangle with those evil skells that I’d rather push my Subie than fly their airline.
December 28, 2022 at 11:22 am |
My XO in Korea had a rule: no whining about the weather until February. Because whatever you’re complaining about, 1) it’s gonna get worse, and 2) it’s already worse somewhere else.
Then we got a new kid from Nome, AK, and he would add, if your town doesn’t have “burn your winter underwear” on the community calendar sometime in April, you’re not allowed to talk about the weather, period.
But still, it’s fun. Eg, on this morning’s dog walk, the girls noticed a lack of hawks and an abundance of rabbit poop. In places, the ground cover was so thick, you’d think it was some new Xeroscape feature. They pondered whether our double-digit sub freeze drove the predators south, leaving the salad-munchers to run the place for a while.
December 28, 2022 at 1:33 pm |
I have nothing to bitch about. On a whim I dashed out for a short, quick trail run and hit the sweet spot: hardly any wind, almost no rain, and barely even cold.
Even managed to stay upright, which qualifies as a Feat of Strength.
December 28, 2022 at 11:27 am |
If it’s too cold/wet for a proper workout, the Monty Python Method might be for you:
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20221222/Adults-could-achieve-physical-activity-targets-by-walking-e2809cTeabag-stylee2809d-for-a-few-minutes-each-day.aspx