Rain today, snow on the way

The mild temps have been nice... but they will not last long.  I have a few outdoor projects that need wrapped up soon.  Building some window valances for a friend and then also building a shoe/gear rack for all my outdoor stuff.  Waiting on materials for the valances to assemble them.  I'll share some photos when I finish it. 

We are in for a wet Wednesday, today. We have some steady rain moving up the I-71 corridor for the morning and we will see steady rain for the morning through midday today. Then the afternoon, evening, and overnight rain will be in pockets, so rain from time to time later today. Most of Central Ohio will see around 1" of rain with lower rainfall totals for Southern and Eastern Ohio. Temps will slowly climb from around 40 through the day and we will likely see our high temp of 55 later this evening. We could also see a few heavier pockets of rain and the chance for some lightning and thunder. By tomorrow, Thanksgiving, we remain cool with morning temps around 50 and only warming into the mid 50s. We will remain cloudy with a few light rain showers possible. Clouds break up more on Friday with partly cloudy skies and highs in the mid 50s again. A weak cold front Friday night will swing through and drop our highs to around 50 for Saturday and Sunday. Mix of sun & clouds for the weekend.

More rain likely Sunday night with our next weather maker. There are two players with our next system. We have an area of low pressure coming up from the Gulf and a strong cold front swinging in from the Plains. So there are a few variables at play like speed of each system and intensity of the cold and low. Right now two out of the three models agree that we get rain arriving Sunday night and then we see falling temps Monday and rain changes to snow showers then a lingering low continues our snow Monday night into Tuesday with a shovel-able amount of snow likely by Tuesday PM and Wednesday. The other model shifts the storm farther west and we stay warmer Monday into Tuesday and by the time the cold air arrives the most of the moisture is gone and we are just cold and drier. Stay tuned and have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Back to the "Stay at Home" routine

Good morning!  Been limiting my running due to back issues, but no running hasn't fixed much so I did go out for a soggy 7.5 mile run in the rain yesterday.

With the new stay at home advisory it is like we are going back to the beginning of the COVID quarantine.  So that means trying to entertain the kids.  We made a list of fun things to do and Summer has been wanting to play card games.  War is an easy game they can play and Summer understands it enough to help Evan as well.  We will get to poker in a few weeks(years).

The stay-at-home routine also means getting stuff done around the house, like organizing the basement. We had some smaller metal shelves and a random assortment of cardboard boxes. So we found a deal on some totes and I built a shelf to perfectly fit the totes. This allows us to see everything and stack it all efficiently. I have a few more woodwork projects in the coming weeks as well. I am particularly excited to make a "gear shelf" for all my running stuff.

I also have been busy as well with Balm by Buck.  The holiday sale goes through Cyber Monday if you are interested. 

Chilly weather for a couple days then we warm up midweek with rain returning. We may see a sprinkle today, but generally cloudy and chilly with a breeze out of the west. The clouds break up a little later today and our highs will be in the mid 40s. With partial clearing tonight we will fall to around 30 for the low with frost likely by Tuesday morning. More clouds kick in Tuesday and a stray shower possible with highs in the mid 40s again. We have a push of milder air on Wednesday and we warm into the mid 50s with rain moving in and a brisk wind. Rain likely most of Wednesday PM. We stay "mild" with overnight lows in the mid 40s Wednesday night as rain starts moving out. We may see a little lingering rain on Thursday, but we will be drying out with highs still in the mid 50s. We continue to stay in the 50s on Friday and partly cloudy skies. Our highs cool down more, into the upper 40s, for the weekend. More rain moving in later in the weekend and then even colder air kicks in next week. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

It's been a while... too long of a while...

Y-ello! I have been trucking along.  Busy as ever.  Two kids, work, side gig (Balm By Buck), and there is barely any time left in the day for sleep.  I was working from home, but now back at the station.  I have been running as well.  The kids were at Dawn's parents' this weekend and I spent the day in the woods and took my water filter to avoid doing a water drop. Fun times.

Halloween was a lot of fun with the kids.  A little rainy so we did clear ponchos, but we had a lot of fun.  Evan went as a guard from the Wizard of Oz and Summer was Glinda. 

I took the kids to the zoo as well recently.  They love it there and they do a great job at social distancing.  I am interested to see how Zoo Lights goes.

Good Thursday morning! We have some patchy light fog this morning, but that will clear out for mostly sunny skies today and we warm into the mid 50s. So temperatures back to normal after breaking record high temps earlier in this week. We will be mostly clear to start the night then partly cloudy by daybreak tomorrow with a weak disturbance. Clearing in the afternoon for more sun and highs in the lower 50s for Friday. More clouds Saturday with highs in the upper 40s with a slight chance for rain, mainly later in the day. More rain showers Saturday night into Sunday with a push of warmer air and we warm into the upper 50s on Sunday with a brisk breeze. Then a cold front sweeps through during the day and cooler temps rushes in for early next week. Mix of sun & clouds early next week with highs in the mid 40s. A couple models are trying to bring a clipper system through the Great Lakes on Tuesday, but these typically pull farther north than models suggest, so keeping Tuesday at only a 10% chance of precip right now. Enjoy the sun today and have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Fantastic fall weather, but it's about to get chilly!

We normally spend a lot of time outside, but even more so the past few weeks.  The weather has been great.

I did 20 miles at Great Seal State Park last Saturday and it was a GREAT day for a run.  Nice and cool.  This is the last run I have done in the past couple weeks.  Monday morning I threw my back out of alignment.  I have a couple of compressed discs and I have done this before... Never during anything "fun" like lifting a car, but doing simple things like picking up laundry basket or getting dressed.  I need to start doing more core workouts and not just running.

I have been able to bike and Summer and I went on a couple bike rides this past weekend.  Evan came along for the ride and seemed to enjoy himself.  Summer rode great and I am trying to build her confidence in riding without the training wheels.  I think nearly 10 miles did the trick and we are taking them off for good today. 

We also ran into some of the Columbus Westside Running Club peeps out on their long run.  They are training for our group's 50k event we hold each November. I am hoping my back is better this week to get back into running because I signed up for the whole event. 

I did take the kids for a hike on Sunday and we had a great time.  Love seeing the trees starting to change colors. 

Yesterday was a fun surprise.  Grammy has been working hard on Summer's and Evan's Halloween costumes and she had the day off of work and she came down to bring the costumes.  It is a Wizard of Oz theme. Naturally... we spent a lot of time outside.

And we still have a few more great days to spend outside before cooler temps settle in. Our overnight rain is kicking to the east. As the clouds clear we are seeing fog forming in Indiana and that will try to form closer to our area, but it will be a race against time before the sun comes up, so Western Ohio could have some fog this morning. Mostly sunny today with morning temps in the upper 40s and then warming to the upper 60s today with lower humidity and a light breeze. Staying mostly clear tonight with patchy fog and low temps in the upper 40s. More sun to start Wednesday and then afternoon clouds with highs in the lower 70s. More clouds Thursday with scattered afternoon/evening showers possible and highs in the upper 60s. It will also become breezy late Wednesday through Friday with our stronger cold front moving through on Thursday. Friday and the weekend will bring cooler temps with highs in the 50s. Frost possible for the mornings with low temps in the 30s. A mix of sun & clouds for Friday and the weekend with another wave of rain possible late Sunday into early Monday. Enjoy the sunshine and mild temps before it turns cooler. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

It's Fall y'all! And it is about to REALLY feell

We have been spoiled with some GREAT weather lately!  We checked out Lehner's Pumpkin Farm recently.  So much to do there!  

Fun for the whole family!  Oh, and their food was REALLY good! 

We tried our hand at some fall garden crops.  The lettuce didn't come up, but I think the seeds were old.  Peas are doing ok so far.  Kids love the garden!

The kids and I have been doing so much outside lately.  We went for an early Saturday run along Griggs Reservoir while we let mom get some extra sleep.  We have also ran to the donut shop as well. 

I also did get some personal time and ran Tar Hollow backpacking trail recently.  Solid 15 miles of hills and scenery.  I started before the sun came up so I enjoyed some nighttime running as well on the trails.  A personal favorite. 

We camped out this weekend for our final camp-out of the year. I just want to soak in as much time with the kids that I can while they are this fun age.  We always watch one episode of Magic School Bus in the tent before going to bed.  

Hopefully you were able to enjoy some outdoor time this weekend because it is about to get wet, breezy, and cooler. We are dry this morning with clouds moving in and temps in the 60s. We will warm back into the mid-upper 70s quick today, thanks to a brisk wind out of the southwest. There is a slight chance for some spotty rain midday, but we are expecting a line of showers and storms for the afternoon into the evening. There is a Marginal Risk of gusty winds becoming severe. The rain will move into Eastern Ohio overnight and some may linger into early Tuesday. Most of Central Ohio will be generally dry on Tuesday, but much cooler with highs in the mid 60s and mostly cloudy skies. Mostly cloudy again on Wednesday with another cold front approaching and highs in the mid 60s with just a slight chance of rain. More spotty showers possible Thursday with cloudy skies and highs in the lower 60s. We will also have a brisk breeze Wednesday and Thursday making it feel even cooler. A slight chance of rain Friday with highs in the upper 50s and then we should remain dry Saturday with similar temps and partly cloudy skies. We warm into the lower 60s on Sunday with more scattered rain moving in, later in the day. Overnight lows, later this week, will dip in to around 40 so frost may be possible, especially in the outlying areas. If skies clear more then we may dip even cooler, so stay tuned and have some sheets handy for any plants. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Busy few weeks. Built a shed & back to school routine

Super excited for Summer to be back in school.  I know the virtual learning is a challenge with COVID and we are excited for her to be able to attend smaller classes for her final year of preschool.  

We had a great summer with lots of fun and camping.  We didn't do as man excursions as planned, but made the best of the situation.  Evan got to camp out too for his first time. You may notice the wheelbarrow in the back left of the image...

I had a busy few weeks putting in a foundation and building the frame and rafters for a new shed for us.  We were limited with space for stuff and the garage was getting cramped.  My dad keeps an eye on the price of lumber and I knew it was going up so before I started anything I bought all the materials and stored them in the garage while I was building the frame. My brother had some time off and he visited to help with all the lifting and assembling.

All done!  Well... I still have a couple of small things to take care of to finalize it all, but super happy with how the shed turned out.  It will get the mower out of the garage and the kids can store their toys and balls in here as well. 

I have been enjoying time with the kids and took about 4 weeks off from running.  We have been doing other fun activities like fishing.  Summer caught her first fish! 

I did get back to running this weekend.  Summer ran alongside me too for part of the time.  I wish the kids would stay this age forever.  So fun.

 This past weekend we went back to visit the family farm.  I was walking out of the house while the grandkids and grandparents were getting a photo.  I promise.  I didn't know I was not supposed to be in the picture.  

Good Tuesday morning! We are in for another sunny day today, but the milky skies will remain because of smoke in the upper atmosphere from the western wildfires. We have a cool morning with temps dipping into the 40s and then we warm into the mid 70s. Mostly clear tonight with lows in the mid-lower 50s. The faint stars will be blocked out by the light smoke again. The smoke may impact the sky conditions, but the level of particulates in the atmosphere is low enough that it should not impact our air quality for Central Ohio. Sunshine tomorrow then more clouds later in the day and our warmest day on the 7-day with highs in the lower 80s. A cold front heading our way could trigger a spotty shower or storm, but the front looks to be dry, for the most part. So spotty rain possible Wednesday night or Thursday, but most of us will remain dry. The front will be slowly moving across the area on Thursday. High temps Thursday will be around 70 to the north and closer to 80 in Southern Ohio as the front looks to be splitting the state during the day. We all get into the cooler air by Friday with highs in the upper 60s with mostly sunny skies. Sunshine stays around for the weekend with highs in the upper 60s and morning low temps in the upper 40s. So a cool, dry, sunny weekend. The dry pattern looks to stick around through the rest of the month with the chance of rain being low for a while for Central Ohio. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Back to WFH, running to Lake Erie, & meteor shower on the way!

Good morning everyone!  Real quick... I have to apologize for not posting as often.  Blogger changed their interface for posting and when you put in more than one photo then it REALLY bogs down the browser trying to rearrange the order of the photos.  I literally spent more than an hour the past couple days trying to get it to work.  For anyone else with this issue I found if you copy and paste the photo it is a little easier than dragging.  Anyway!  I am back to working from home since the COVID numbers have gone up.  There were a couple of possible cases and work made the decision to have as many of us work from home that can do so.  I am happy to be back at home and not have to sanitize my work area.  But I do miss my coworkers. 

I have been spending a lot of time with the kids doing new things.  Summer has been trying to catch a fish, but no luck yet.  It has been so hot that we lose interest quickly.  Hoping for some cooler weather before she returns to school. Evan also gets fussy so trying to help Summer and entertain Evan at the same time is a challenge. 

I’ve always wanted to attempt something while visiting my wife’s parents: Run from their house to Lake Erie. It’s a long way and I’ve never been fully trained to do it, but thanks to quarantine I’ve been approaching my goals with a “JUST DO IT!” mentality and go for it. So I was supposed to do a 50k last weekend, but it was cancelled 40 hours before the start. So, JUST DO IT!

Started early and was treated with a great sunrise. It was about 17 miles to the lake if I did surface roads. If I wanted to do metroparks then it would be about 25 miles to the lake. I wanted to be completely self-propelled with an out and back so I stuck to the shortest route.

I did see some wildlife on the way and was treated to some non-sidewalk miles with the multi-use path for about 4 miles.

Just over 17 miles to the lake! I stopped for about 10 minutes to enjoy the view. We visit her parents so regularly but don’t get to the lake often. 

Something about a big body of water cleanses my stress. The only thing you can focus on is the water and the sky. Maybe a boat or two.

Quick shot of Cleveland from the Lakewood park.

My only other “stops” were for water at my wife’s aunt’s house a half block off the course. Didn’t stop the watch the entire run with the exception being that 10 minutes at the lake. Glad I took a couple ziplock bags because it rained a lot of the run back home.

35 miles later… I made it back to my in-law’s house. I kept the pace “comfortable” without pushing too hard in order to keep my heartrate at a reasonable level. Fun challenge and something I’ve always wanted to do.  This is the longest pavement run I have ever done.  I wore the Altra Torin Plush.  I want to try out the Paradigm next.  I was fueled almost entirely with Tailwind, berry flavor.  I did take a couple oatmeal cream pies to snack on as a treat.  Glad I got the Adventure Pack from Ultimate Direction because it allowed me to carry so much with only two water stops on the 35 miles. Oh... and no blisters thanks to my Xoskin socks.  They are pricey for socks, but SO worth the money. The hat was also nice to have when it started raining. BOCO hats are my favorite because they seem to have larger sizes than most running hats.

We drove back that evening because we had a baptism the next morning.  I was asked to be a godfather! Very odd to go to church with everyone wearing a mask.  But I did feel like it was a very safe environment with all the precautions and everyone spaced out.

I spent this weekend on the trails with my good friend, Mike.  We went to Great Seal State Park and ran 20 miles. Love being on the trails.  Way easier on the body than on the pavement. 

Good Tuesday morning! We have mostly cloudy skies this morning and we will see the clouds slowly break up some for partly cloudy skies this afternoon. There is a 30% chance of some isolated showers or storms popping up this afternoon with high temps in the upper 80s and high humidity.

Tonight the Perseid meteor shower is peaking. The best time to look is 11PM to 12:30AM when it is the darkest and before the moon rises. You will want to look to the northeast, but the meteors are possible all across the sky with 10-15 possible an hour and very dark locations could see up to 60 an hour with the fainter shooting stars more visible. Tonight is expected to be partly cloudy so check sky conditions before heading outside. Overnight low temps bottom out around 70.

A weak cold front will park to our south for the next couple days so there is only about a 20% chance of rain for us, on the north side of the front. The best chance of rain will be Southern Ohio for the spotty rain. Our humidity and temps will only slightly drop. 

That front slowly lifts north for Friday and the weekend with a 40% chance for rain for the end of the the week and weekend. Temps will be in the upper 80s and humidity will be high. A better chance for rain comes Monday with a stronger cold front. Most models are keeping us fairly dry until Monday, actually. We will be hot and humid, but we do not have a great triggering mechanism to get the rain to start popping. I am inclined to drop the chance of rain lower for the days, but let's let it play out with a less than 50% chance of rain through the weekend and adjust based on how the rain plays out. If we start getting some rain to pop today and the next couple days then the outflow from the previous day's storms may trigger more for the following day. So a low chance of rain, with high temps and humidity. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael