August 12, 2010

Well, this is the last post for my little project. Oddly enough, it is also my 100th post. Anyway, here's the last picture taken from my awesome 10th floor dorm room. I will never get a view like this from a dorm room ever again, so I was happy to enjoy it while it lasted. The second picture was my mother's idea. It's a picture back towards my dorm (the white-ish building with all the windows) from the front steps of the Capitol Building. We wanted to take a picture from the top floor back towards campus, but they are doing construction on the north side of the building.

Anyway, it was an extremely hot moving day, but we got it all done. Now, I'm back in Grand Island for a week before the fall semester starts up again. I'm really looking forward to the fall (especially football season), it's just too bad I have such a crappy view out of my new dorm room. I get to look at the side of another building and a parking lot rather than the downtown Lincoln skyline. Oh, well...

August 11, 2010

Alas, it is my last night staying in my summer dorm. I took my final for my second summer class this morning. I will be shocked if I got anything other than an A. That class, honestly, was a joke. I've never taken such an easy math class in my life. After that, it was all packing and cleaning in preparation for my move tomorrow. It was another super hot day, but the humidity plummeted, so it didn't feel nearly as awful as yesterday.

Anyway, only one more picture remains! I will be very sad to leave my awesome view behind.

August 10, 2010

It was a scorcher today. I think it even felt a little worse than yesterday. I'm not sure if the temperature was higher, but the humidity sure was. Anyway, it was completely clear and sunny all day, and it was completely miserable to go anywhere outside during the afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised to see some cool thunderheads right around the time the sun was setting. It seems like there hasn't been anything interesting to photograph in the direction of the Capitol Building recently, so it was a nice change. The clouds were pretty epic right as the sun set.

Anyway, I only have two more days in this dorm before I must part from this lovely view. I hope I get some more interesting photo opportunities before I have to check out...

August 9, 2010

It was freakin' hot today. It was around 96 degrees with a heat index of 111 degrees. Ridiculous. That being said, it was still a good day. I had my last shift of the summer, so I am now work free for the time being. Before long, I will be moving out of my dorm room with this awesome view and into a room on the first floor with no view at all...

August 8, 2010

This picture illustrates what it looked like outside pretty much all day: sunny and totally clear. It was also humid and incredibly hot. I know it got to at least 98 degrees and that's not taking the heat index into account. Still, despite the heat, it was a good day. A relaxing Sunday that was blissfully work free. Unfortunately, I must now focus on both packing to move out of my summer dorm this Thursday and studying for my final on Wednesday. On the bright side, my last shift of the summer is tomorrow! Everything is coming to an end, and, as usual, it's a bittersweet moment. Though I'm ready to been done with work and this class, I'm a little sad that the summer flew by so quickly...

August 7, 2010

What a magnificent day. A day of total freedom. I got off of my last duty shift at 7 a.m. this morning, walked back to my dorm, and went straight back to bed for another couple hours. After that, I was free to do whatever the heck I wanted. It was awesome having a day where I had absolutely nothing that I had to do. I spent a great deal of time outside, even though the temperature reached 90 and the heat index was fairly high.

Tomorrow might be an interesting day. The temperature is supposed to be near 100, and the humidity should push heat indexes well beyond the 100 degree mark. I think there may even be a chance of storms. My only hope is that tomorrow--unlike last Sunday--the air conditioning does not fail us.

August 6, 2010

It's Friday!!! It was a relatively nice day. It was hot--but not overly humid--and sunny. I had class, was able to get pretty much all of my homework done during the afternoon, and then I had my last overnight duty shift of the summer. Then this weekend, for the first time in forever, I have both days of the weekend completely off. I honestly can't remember the last time that happened. I've felt like I'm in a perpetual work/school week since conferences kicked in back in June. The break is coming just in time, too. As we've entered these past couple weeks of the summer, I've been able to feel everyone's will to work diminishing...

August 5, 2010

I was up bright and early this morning to see a clear and humid morning. The day really wasn't hot at all. I think the temperature topped out in the upper 80's, which practically feels arctic after all of the hot and humid days we've had this summer. It was also nice and dry, so it was a great change of pace. Overall, it was a lovely day that ended with a lovely sunset. Some clouds moved in around 7 p.m., so I feared that the sunset would be a bust for the third or fourth night in a row, but it cleared off enough to provide some great colors and reflections off the clouds. It was a very long-lasting, beautiful sunset. I'm not sure what you call those spotty clouds that are shown in the pictures, but those made it a particularly interesting sunset to witness.

August 4, 2010

Well, I woke up this morning to my least favorite view: mist and fog obscuring downtown Lincoln. I was too lazy to take a picture at that point, but it was similar to other times the humidity has been extremely high this summer. Anyway, it was exactly the kind of weather I hate most. These past couple summers have made me want to declare war on humidity. It is truly disgusting and I hate it.

Fortunately, by early afternoon (excuse the crappy picture), the sky had cleared and the humidity went with it. It dropped from 96% humidity when I woke up this morning to about 60% humidity in a very short period of time. This worked out great for me because I did not want to have to attend the end-of-summer staff banquet with a frizzed-out nest of hair on top of my head. So, though the day got off to a less than wonderful start, it ended up not being so bad.

August 3, 2010

Well, today was another hot and humid day, but not as hot and humid as yesterday, so I was happy. We also had air conditioning for the entire day, so it took some of the suffering away. The clouds started moving in as it got later in the evening, and now it looks like we could have a small pop-up thunderstorm heading our way. It's tiny, but it's bright red on radar and heading straight towards Lincoln. As I type this, I can see lightning outside my window. I don't care if it storms as long as it doesn't knock out the power/air conditioning again...

August 2, 2010

So, after spending all day yesterday and all night in the sweltering heat of my room, I woke up to find that...the room temperature had risen overnight. It was 79 degrees when I went to bed, and it was 80 degrees when I woke up. I had a fan running and the window open all night, but it did nothing to cool off my room. I ended up sleeping on top of my bed rather than in it, and though I got some sleep, it wasn't comfortable. One of my coworkers was so desperate last night that she stole the big fan from restroom and took it to her room for the night. Everyone was dying from the heat, and I don't think anyone slept well.

To add to the misery, our showers produced scalding water. Heat seemed to be involved with everything in this building, so I ended up leaving for class about five minutes earlier than usual. I couldn't wait to sit in a math class for an hour and a half just so I could be in an air conditioned room. I encountered a coworker on my way there, and we decided that if the A/C wasn't fixed by the time we got back that we would call someone to complain. Much to our dismay, two hours later, we arrived at our dorm to find that the temperature had risen even more. My room was now 82 degrees and felt like a tropical rainforest. However, just as we called to find someone to whine to, we noticed that cool air had begun blowing from the vents. I've never been so happy about the A/C in my life.

The glorious moment that the A/C was fixed was around noon today, and since then the A/C has still not caught up completely. It is now 71 in my room, so there are still three degrees to go until it reaches my customary 68 degrees. I think my room will finally cool down just in time for bed. I think this process would have been a lot faster if it hadn't been extremely hot and humid today and if we didn't all live on the top two floors (heat rises, you know). I'm still incredibly grateful to whoever came around and fixed the A/C. I think my staff members and I would have had an uprising if we had to face another night in 80+ degree heat... Heads would have rolled.

August 1, 2010

Alas, July is over, and we have entered the final stretch of summer vacation. Mother Nature kicked August off with a fairly hot (about 87) and dry day. The weather really wasn't bad, but I didn't enjoy the day as much as I could have due to the fact that our dorm's air conditioner stopped working at 9 a.m. The temperature in my room topped out at 79 degrees in late afternoon, so it wasn't exactly pleasant. I had a fan running, but that didn't do much more than circulate the hot air. Unfortunately, today also happens to be a Sunday, so there were no facilities repair people around to fix the problem. Not a good situation...

Anyway, as I said, it wasn't a bad day otherwise. There was even a pretty cool orange sunset that I had the opportunity to photograph.

July 31, 2010

As I type this, there are only about 20 minutes remaining in the month of July. I can't believe how quickly this month has passed. Last summer, July felt like an eternity. This summer, I feel like I just moved into my summer dorm yesterday, but it's already almost August...

Anyway, it was a little hot outside today, but it definitely wasn't the worst heat I've ever felt in my life. Not a bad Saturday. Not bad at all.

July 30, 2010--Part 2

Shortly after I posted my entry for the 30th, I had another good photo opportunity sent my way. I looked out my window to see bright orange and pink storm clouds. They looked close, but after checking radar, I found that the only storms were way down in Kansas.

July 30, 2010

Today was EXTREMELY hot and humid. The morning was cloudy, so the temperature wasn't particularly high, but you could feel the air when you went outside. It still wasn't as bad as the ridiculous heat and humidity from a couple weeks ago, but it was pretty sticky outside. My mom and sister came into town, so it was good to see them. We were outside at the Lincoln Sunken Gardens for a while, and after about 30-45 minutes we had to leave. It was just too brutal outside.

Still, it's Friday, and I have duty in my own dorm, so I'm quite pleased with how this week is ending. I'm just crossing my fingers that it's a quiet night, so I can get some of the sleep I missed yesterday night and have a good lead-in for the weekend.

July 29, 2010

It was a good day. It was pretty hot and humid, but it was mostly sunny and pretty decent. Work was actually fun for a change. I was able to hang out with my coworkers for most of my shift, plus it was quiet night. No complaints here.

July 28, 2010

Well, I can't say I was outside a tremendous amount today. I worked all afternoon, and during most of that time I could see (from the window) that it was overcast for most of the day. When I finally got off work and was able to go for a walk, the sun had come out and everything looked a little prettier. It was cool, but fairly humid, so it still felt a little uncomfortable outside.

July 27, 2010

Unfortunately, I must provide you with another boring photo today. It was perfectly clear all day, and very warm. I think it got to the mid-nineties at its peak, but it actually didn't feel awful. The humidity was very low, so it felt like I was walking around in an oven rather than a jungle.

I didn't have to work today (I just had a test in my math class), so I had plenty of time to screw around. I even made it out to Sunken Gardens in the late evening to take some pictures. It's been a long time since I've been there! I can't even say if it's changed or not because I can't remember the last time I visited it.

July 26, 2010

Today was an unexpectedly hot and humid day. It was only supposed to be 85, but I know it got to at least 90 or 91 at times. Anyway, I must provide you with another boring photo. There's not much to see here. I'm currently "working." Really, I'm chillin' in a duty room watching TV, going on Facebook, and studying for the statistics midterm that I have tomorrow. I just realized that the air conditioner has been set to 65 all night. I was cold all night, but I just assumed that it was at about 68 or 69 degrees. I finally looked and was horrified to see how low the number was. As I type this, the AC is kicking on again for some unknown reason. I need to get that fixed...

July 25, 2010 Sunset

Here are a few sunset shots from last night. It's the first time in a while that I've actually been around to see a sunset since I normally work until after dark!

July 25, 2010

Today was another glorious day. It was the time in a week that I have had a complete day off. Unfortunately, I spent much of it studying for my statistics midterm on Tuesday, but I feel like the studying paid off. For once, I could study without constant noise and interruption, so I was actually able to concentrate.

The weather was great today, as well. I think the temperature topped out around 80 to 85 degrees, and the humidity was low again. I think it's supposed to heat up a little bit tomorrow, but it should be a dry week--unless the forecasters change their mind.

July 24, 2010

The day started out a little cloudy, but it cleared off quickly and turned into a gorgeous day. It only reached the mid-eighties and the humidity was really low. It felt ridiculously cool compared to the past couple weeks. The funniest part is that most of the Special Olympics athletes were gone by noon today. It's too bad they couldn't see that Nebraska weather is not always this intense in the summer.

Anyway, it was good day. It was interesting to meet the athletes and people from so many different states this week, but I was happy to have a break. I had six days of work in a row, plus class Monday through Friday. Because no one was around by 3 p.m., I was allowed to leave work early, which made the day even better! Tomorrow I have completely off. Good times!

July 23, 2010

Well, today is the last day of the Special Olympics, and once again it is very hot and humid. These folks really picked a rough week to come here to compete...

July 22, 2010

Well, today was somewhere around 95 degrees. The saddest part is that it didn't even feel hot to me because the humidity was low. Sure, it was hot, but after last Wednesday, nothing compares. It's been really entertaining listening to all the people here for Special Olympics complain. Some of the people from hotter states won't even bat an eye, but others are really struggling!

July 21, 2010

Well, I woke up to some stormy looking skies, but I never actually saw it rain. It was quite humid in the morning, but by the afternoon the air had dried off quite a bit. As usual, the weather forecasters were totally wrong. They gave us a 70% chance of rain--which basically translates to 100% around here--all afternoon and all night. Nothing happened. Strike 1,000,0000 for the National Weather Service.

July 20, 2010

Well, it's another early post for me. It's actually only about 1:30 in the afternoon, but I have a feeling that the weather isn't going to change much today. You can see in the first picture that I woke up to some cloudy, shower-y conditions. By the time I got out of my class, the sun was shining like it is in the second picture. Based on the forecast (and assuming they'll actually be correct), I would guess that the weather is going to flip flop between these two pictures for the majority of the day...

July 19, 2010

This morning was sunny and already fairly hot, but sometime during the hour and a half that I was in class, a rain shower must have come into the Lincoln area. I don't think it ever actually rained in Lincoln, but it was close enough to bring in some cool air. I actually felt chilled in cloudy, windy, 73 degree weather. You know it's been a hot summer when temperatures in the 70's seem extremely cold.

Anyway, as soon as the showers were out of the area, it cleared off and the sun started to heat things up once again. It wasn't terribly warm today, though. I think it was a little bit of a break for all of the Special Olympics athletes. All of these poor people chose the hottest week of the year to visit Nebraska!

July 18, 2010

Last night was little stormy. Around 1:00 a.m. I awoke to heavy rain pounding against my duty room window, and even when my coworker and I clocked out and started walking back to our dorm, we got sprinkled on a little. Fortunately, even though there was a lot of lightning happening north of us, that little cell must have just missed our part of Lincoln.

The rest of the day was hot (of course), but it was less humid and about 5 degrees cooler (around 85-90 degrees), so it didn't feel quite as bad as yesterday. Unfortunately, most of the Special Olympics athletes had to walk around all day in this heat. It's supposed to continue to be in the lower to mid-nineties all week, so they're all going to be competing in some seriously hot weather.

Anyway, the first picture was around 8:00 a.m. and the second one was around 8:00 p.m. I'm also including another video of Wednesday's storm. This one is shorter. It's just a short time lapse (sped up x2) of the cloud coming in before the storm.