Father's Day Weekend

Good morning! It has been a while since I ran at Great Seal State Park, but I went down there Saturday with my buddy Mike. The mountain doesn't look too tall in the first image, from a distance. Once you are on the trail though and climbing up to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain, it is definitely a climb! Great to get back down there and do about 19 miles in a great park. Well maintained park as well. It was a nice and cool morning.

Saturday we made smores and caught lightning bugs in the backyard. This was me roasting the marshmallows with the kids.

This week I had a lunch with my coworkers at the new Agave and Rye restaurant. The food was SOOOO good! Huge epic tacos! 

The heat returned this week. Did a quick run in the heat Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday I went to the pool with the kids and that zonked me out. Trying to keep an eye on two kids at the pool is tiring. 

Good Thursday morning! Storms are gone and some refreshing air will be replacing the heat for today. We will be mostly sunny today with lower humidity and a high around 84. Tonight mostly clear skies with low temps dipping into the 50s with some patchy fog. Friday we warm up to 88 with mostly sunny skies again. We heat up more this weekend with a high of 92 on Saturday with sunshine early and then a few more clouds by the afternoon and evening. Humidity will also be higher for Saturday and Sunday. A cold front will pass through the area Sunday night so there is a chance for scattered showers and storms Sunday, ahead of the cold front. The best chance of rain will be Sunday afternoon and evening. High of 90 on Sunday, ahead of the rain. Rain should leave before daybreak on Monday. Next week we cool down a little more, with highs near 81 for Monday and Tuesday. Mostly sunny skies will be returning. We start warming up again into the mid 80s on Wednesday, but remaining dry and sunny. So plan on watering your plants because Sunday’s 60% chance of rain looks to be the only rain on the extended forecast and we are evaporating about 1”-1.5” of water from the soil per week right now. Have a good one!

Best, Andrew Buck Michael

Charlotte Trip with the kids, no electric, heat returns

Back from a fun trip to Charlotte, but so many photos that I made a video of the trip:

We went around and saw all the sights that we could. One of the coolest areas is the Whitewater park. I could have spent a lot more time there.

We come back home to a lot of our flowers in full bloom! 

We have been doing our best to stay cool this week. This is our first year getting a pool membership, so we will be there a lot cooling off.

I have limited my runs to no more than 5 miles the last few days because the heat index has been between 90 to 100, but Tuesday's run was a 3 mile run with the heat index 115 while I was running! I like experiencing the extremes because it makes you appreciate the run of the mill 90 degree day a little more. 

I had the pleasure of running with a good pal, Carl, last weekend. We ran around Tar Hollow State Park. He ran the 9 mile south loop with me at first then I did the 9 mile north loop solo. It is one of my favorite parks because it is so remote. 

Some of the views are amazing!

There are two downfalls to the park though. Downed trees and logging. The park is notorious for trees knocked down over the trail that you will need to climb through or over. There was a storm the week before and there were at least 40 trees down on the 18 miles. The park does not regularly clear them, so if you want to head there, be sure to be able to cross the downed trees. The other issue is logging. There always seems to be logging going on in different parts of the state park. With the lack of tree-cover there is more light at the surface for briars. So you will be running through a lot of thorns. If you know those two things going into the adventure, then you know the worst of it. I ran with running poles and tried using those to block most of the briars, but my legs came back pretty shredded. 

This weekend is looking GREAT! We will get a break from the heat and humidity, but it will be back soon...

A warm and humid morning, but humidity will be dropping slowly through the day setting us up for a pleasant weekend. We will still be hot today, high around 87, with mostly sunny skies. There will be more clouds to the south as showers and storms pass by to our south. Mostly clear tonight with a low around 58. You can open the windows to the house! Beautiful Saturday with sunny skies and a high of 76. Mostly sunny Sunday with highs around 78. Low humidity all weekend long. Don’t let your guard down with the sun because the UV index will be high this weekend. Monday we start heating back up with humidity slowly climbing. Partly cloudy with a 10% chance of rain with a warm front lifting through Monday. Partly cloudy with a 20% chance of rain Tuesday and we heat up to 95. The best chance of rain will be scattered showers and storms on Wednesday with a high of 95. Some isolated rain also possible Thursday with a high of 90. So if you did not get much rain yesterday, you will need to water your plants because we stay dry until the middle of next week. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Run with Nick Ashill, wrapping up the school year

Had an amazing run yesterday with Nick Ashill, more on that in a little bit...

We have wrapped up a school year for the kids. Summer is done with Kindergarten.   

Which means more time for bike rides and smelling the flowers.

I did go on one final weekday run without the kids at the Quarry Trails Metro Park. 

I am excited for more fun stuff with Summer.

I was able to wrap up the school year with a school talk and had a lot of fun being back in-person. Hoping to do more school talks in the fall.

Evan has been mastering the swing on the swingset and also riding his bike better and better. 

Had the opportunity to share an amazing story yesterday. Nick Ashill was running across the country in 2017 when he was hit by a car in Central Ohio. His legs and hips were shattered and the doctors didn't know if he could walk again. He was determined to finish the run to raise money/awareness for pulmonary fibrosis, which took the life of his mother. Yesterday he returned to the accident scene and we ran, about 30 miles, from there to the OSU hospital where he had more than a dozen surgeries. Honored to be there for his return run on Day 1 of Part 2 of his cross-country journey. Here is a link to the LIVE shots from yesterday, while we ran:

Quick look at your forecast:

Good Tuesday morning! Hottest day of the year expected today! We have hit 87 a few times, but today we are going to give 90 a run for its money. Humidity will be making it feel like the lower 90s today and we will have mostly sunny skies. There is a very, very slim chance for a spotty shower or storm popping up today because of the heat, 10% chance. Warm and mostly clear tonight with low temps around 68. Wednesday we will have an approaching cold front. Highs around 87 with high humidity then we will cool down with scattered showers and storms in the afternoon. Central Ohio is in the Slight Risk for gusty storms in the afternoon, mainly between 2PM and 9PM. A few lingering showers possible overnight and Thursday with a couple rumbles of thunder possible, but severe weather not likely overnight into Thursday. Both Wednesday and Thursday it will be a 60% chance of rain, so most of the area will likely see rain, but not a guarantee for everyone. We will be cooler on Thursday with a high of 72. Mostly sunny Friday and Saturday with highs in the upper 70s with low humidity. GREAT weather! We will warm up to 81 on Sunday with a high of 81. There is a slight chance for an isolated shower or storm, 20% chance. More scattered showers and storms early next week and we will stay warm for the start of the week. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Could this weather get any better?!?!

Loving this spring weather! We all have been enjoying the beautiful weather outside before the heat of summer arrives.  

I worked over the weekend, but when I got home Saturday we worked on Dawn's Mother's Day gift. The last few years I got take-home wine and canvas kits for Dawn and Summer to do. Evan was 2 last year and insisted on helping. Dawn really loves doing it and it is a great memory. I think the business closed up since last year, so I had to get creative. I bought some canvases and sketched the state of Ohio split up on the four canvases and then drew the word HOME on the state. Each person got three colors to paint the letters, state, and border. We started the letters and the state, but we need a second coat on those and then doing the outside colors. We may finish that this coming weekend.

Good Tuesday morning! Mostly sunny and beautiful today. The morning temps are in the mid 50s and we warm into the mid 70s this afternoon. More clouds tonight and temps dipping into the mid 50s again. Mostly cloudy Wednesday with scattered showers and storms likely. Highs will struggle to warm into the lower 70s as rain moves in and cools us off. Severe weather is not likely for Central Ohio, but Southern Ohio could see a few stronger storms. Thursday we start with patchy fog then some sun followed by a chance for few isolated showers or storms. We start warming up on Thursday, lower 80s. Friday we will have a big push of heat and a high of 89. There is a slight chance for a stray shower or storm, but most of us will remain dry and partly cloudy. A strong cold front arrives later Saturday, so we warm up again into the 80s Saturday before the cold front arrives. Scattered showers and storms look to arrive during the second half of Saturday and we could see some stronger storms later Saturday. Some of the rain may linger into the early hours of Sunday. Cooler air for Sunday and Monday with highs back in the upper 60s. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Final big run before a bigger special run, storms this weekend

I spent yesterday morning logging as many miles as I could while balancing parenting. I woke up early and ran a little more than 7 miles around the neighborhood before the kids woke up. Then I took the kids to preschool/school. Then I went to Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park for another 14 miles. This is my final big push of miles because I am going to start tapering now and cutting back on my miles before Memorial Day. 

You may remember the story of Nick Ashill in 2017. He is a professor from New Zealand and he was running across the country to raise money for pulmonary fibrosis, lung disease. He ran all the way from the Pacific Ocean and on his way to Coney Island, but was hit by a car in Madison County, Ohio. He had more than a dozen surgeries at Ohio State University Hospital before getting back on his feet. He has been training to come back and finish the run. He will be returning to the scene of the accident on Memorial Day and running the 35 miles to the OSU Hospital before continuing to the East Coast. I will be running the 35 miles with him that morning and doing LIVE short interviews on Good Day Columbus throughout the morning. Then I will be putting together another news segment for later in the day. So I will be resting up my legs for that long run. 

It has been a hot week, but Evan has been fighting a cold. We kept him home on Wednesday from school and he didn't mind hanging out with dad. I put up the hammocks to try to encourage him to rest instead of running around the backyard.  

Be prepared for some storms this weekend. The chance of severe weather is pretty low, but it is possible.

The best chance for rain will be early Monday morning. 

Good Saturday morning! Warmest weekend of the year(so far), is here! Today we will have partly cloudy skies and humidity will be a little higher than it has been all week. We will see isolated showers and storms popping up today. We have already had a couple spotty showers pop up, so there is a chance of rain any time today. The best chance for rain will mainly during the afternoon/evening when we warm up into the 80s. We will stay humid and hot for Sunday with morning temps in the lower 60s and then warm into the mid 80s. The chance of rain is a little lower during the day tomorrow, from a 40% chance of rain today to a 30% chance Sunday. Partly cloudy and hot will sum up Sunday for most of us. Then the chance of rain goes up more Sunday night and Monday morning with a cold front triggering a line of showers and storms. Due to the timing of the cold front (late-night into the early morning) the threat for severe weather has been downgraded to a Marginal Risk for Central Ohio, which on a scale of 0 to 5 puts it at a 1. So be aware there may be strong storms, but widespread severe weather is not likely. A few lingering showers possible Monday as cooler air pushes into the area with a high temp around 73 on Monday. Then we get a break from the heat. Mostly sunny Tuesday with a high of 72. We warm to 72 again on Wednesday with increasing clouds and then more rain returning late Wednesday and early Thursday. Temps warm into the upper 70s on Thursday then mid 80s on Friday. So we have a little dip coming early next week before we return to a summer-like pattern. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Beautiful Mother's Day weather rolls on...

Hopefully everyone had a fantastic Mother's Day! The weather turned out AMAZING! Summer had a dance recital at a park and thankfully the rain was all gone and there was plenty of sun.

Saturday we went up to Cleveland for a family gathering and it was actually sunny there too, but cloudy and light rain in Columbus. The opposite of normal. Summer really has taken to baseball! 

And now... the nice weather rolls on.  I spend so much time outside I have been trying to be more aware of taking care of my skin. You will see me in bucket hats a lot more often. I did a 5 mile run yesterday to Evan's preschool. 

The garden is starting to come alive and I am excited to put in the rest of the plants later this week once we finally dry out. So far, only the cold crops like lettuce, peas, broccoli, strawberries, and sunflowers have popped up from seed. Planting tomatoes, peppers, onions, and zucchini later this week. Maybe some watermelons or pumpkins too. 

This morning we are starting in the upper 50s and then we will warm to around 80 with mostly sunny skies and a few passing clouds. Tonight there will be some rain & storms trying to move from Lake Michigan into Indiana, but not expected to work its way too far into Ohio. We will see additional clouds tonight and for the start of Wednesday, especially to the west. So partly cloudy on Wednesday with morning low temps in the upper 50s and a high around 82. Mostly sunny for Thursday with highs pushing into the mid 80s. A few more clouds Friday with similar temps. Saturday our humidity will start creeping up and we will have about a 40% chance for scattered showers and storms later in the day. Highs in the lower 80s on Saturday. More scattered showers and storms on Sunday with highs in the upper 70s. Monday we cool down into the lower 70s with some lingering rain possible, but drier air moving back into the region. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Checking in, it's been a while! Weather Folklore debunked...

It's been a while. Life has been so busy that sometimes I wonder where the time went. I also have been in this weird funk with social media lately and so many people sharing so much of their lives all the time. I love seeing what is going on with friends, but some people just share EVERYTHING. That isn't me. This blog was initially meant to be a snap-shot into the big things going on, but not everything. And it is special to me because I know some people check in on here. Like my grandma said she would read it a lot to know what was going on with me and the family. So I want to start writing a little on here more often. I do like going back to see the highlights of all that has been happening. So I am going to do a brief catch-up and try to be more consistent with the highlights. First off... as you can see above, family is all doing well. I mentioned how it seems like there isn't enough time in the day and I try spending as much time as possible with the kids while they are this age because they are growing up so fast. We went to a Columbus Clippers game last week and had a blast.

Dawn and I went to Las Vegas to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We had a lot of fun just being two kids in love. We pushed the trip back about 8 months once the COVID restrictions were dropped and we could enjoy Vegas a little more.

I did go for a long run while I was out there and ran up to the top of Frenchman Mountain. If you are in Vegas and look to the East, it is the highest point of the ridge. 

It was a beautiful morning run. But man, that was a STEEP climb up and down. Then a pretty flat run all the way back to the Strip. 21 miles for the trip. I got dropped off by Uber on the east side so it wasn't a 34 mile run. 

Not everything stays in Vegas... Came back home and ended up getting COVID a few days later, so likely caught it on the tail end of the trip or coming home. Vaccinated and boosted, but the booster was about 6 months ago. So I worked from home during the quarantine and thankfully only had mild symptoms. Dawn also caught it, before me, but the kids already had it in January, so they were immune. I set up the studio in the garage and it worked out pretty well. A little cold because the garage is not insulated or heated. Nice to have this as an option, but a week at home made me miss the studio at the station a lot. 

Glad I made it back to work by April 28th. It was Take Your Daughter/Son to Work Day and Dawn dropped off the kids for 90 minutes before school. They had a lot of fun and loved the break room because I let them pick out a snack and bought them the gummy bears they wanted.

I have still been running. This was from a snowy training run at Mohican State Park in March. 

I was back to Mohican a few weeks ago for Forget The PR 50k race. It was a fun, warm day running around the state park.

Mohican is gorgeous and I highly recommend checking it our, if you have never been.

I have been also doing some running with Summer too. She is almost getting too fast for me to run with her now. I may need to dust off my bike to be able to keep up with her now.

It has been a while since we have seen the sun, but there is a lot of sun on the way eventually. Today we will be mostly cloudy with a few peeks of sun. We are cool this morning with temps dipping to around 50 and we will warm to 67 this afternoon. Rain showers will arrive from the west later today. The chance of rain goes up in the late afternoon into the evening. Scattered showers overnight with a few rumbles of thunder possible. Friday looks to start off with rain in the morning then a break in the rain midday followed by more scattered storms popping up in the afternoon. The Storm Prediction Center now has the Southern half of Ohio in the Marginal Risk for severe storms, so on a scale of 0-5, this would be a 1. So a low chance for a few isolated storms becoming severe on Friday. The scattered showers will linger into the overnight hours and Saturday morning. Highs around 69 on Friday then we will be behind the system on Saturday for a cooler high of 63. Staying mostly cloudy on Saturday as the rain slowly leaves through the day. Sunday, Mother’s Day, is still looking nice with partly cloudy skies and a high of 69. We warm into the mid 70s on Monday with mostly sunny skies. We stay mostly sunny through the middle of the week with high temps climbing into the low-mid 80s. 

Right now, it looks like we are done with frost for the Spring. So that means our main three weather folklore sayings in Ohio:
Foggy days in August = Snow days for winter Three snows after forsythia bloom Thunder in February = Frost in May on same day.

Maybe next year... Have a good one!