May 31, 2011

Well, I'm back in Lincoln after a nice Memorial Day in Grand Island with my family.  When I left on Friday night I had to outrun storms that were forming right on top of Lincoln, but I managed to get out without too much trouble.  There was a really bizarre haze over the land between Lincoln and Grand Island, and by the time I got to GI it was extremely dark, gloomy, and misty.  Then, Memorial Day was unbelievably windy and fairly hot.  There were Weather Channel stormchasers in Nebraska all afternoon and evening due to a strong possibility of severe weather.  Ultimately, they did not find the tornadoes that they were looking for, though Grand Island did have some nasty wind blow through.  Despite all of the weather issues yesterday, I really enjoyed hanging out at home with my family and doing nothing.  God knows that I won't have much time for "nothing" in June.  I basically work every single day for the next months AND I have a class.

Anyway, I can't say much about the weather in Lincoln today because I didn't spend much time in Lincoln.  I only got back about an hour before my shift, so this picture was just quickly snapped before I forgot completely.  In GI, at least, today was much more pleasant than yesterday.  It was a little hot, maybe, but at least the wind had calmed down.

May 29, 2011

Look at this revolting weather...  Fortunately, I don't have to look at it because I'm working a noon to six shift behind a desk.  I'm hoping that this foggy mist stuff is gone by the time that I get off.  Either way, I won't have to deal with it too much because I'll be on my way back to GI shortly after my shift.  Only four and a half hours to go!   We have seen one person since our shift began, so it hasn't been the busiest of desk shifts so far...

May 28, 2011

The picture above shows you the scene that I woke up to this morning: wet sidewalks, strange patches of blue sky and sunlight, and an even stranger haze lingering in the air in Lincoln.  Much to my surprise, when I ventured outside later that morning, the air was not thick with humidity.  It wasn't muggy at all, and the air was cooler than I expected.  I know for a fact that the humidity was fairly low because my hair didn't curl when I went outside (that's right, I use my hair to measure relative humidity).

Speaking of hair, I had nothing going on this morning, so I decided to head over to the nearest hair salon for a few touch-ups.  I had my bangs trimmed up and the sides of my hair evened out.  One side has been longer than the other since January, and cutting it myself wasn't the best idea I've ever had.  I got it to the right length, but you could still tell that something was off.  I also had my first all-over color.  I've been trying since last fall to phase out all of the blonde highlights in my hair, which left me with two-tone hair: dark roots and bright ends.  We found a color that matched my roots almost perfectly and dyed it all.  It wasn't super cheap to get the cut and color, but I figure I'll save more money down the road (no root touch-ups to worry about) and won't look so white trash if I neglect my hair color for too long.  The difference is fairly subtle, so I'm not going to mention my dye job to any of my coworkers just to see how observant they are.  They'd have to have a pretty keen eye to pick up on the differences.  I went from sort of blonde to sort of brunette, so it's not incredibly obvious.

Anyway, back to the weather for moment.  The rest of the day looked exactly like the picture above (minus the haze).  It was a great day, honestly.  Good temperature, quite a bit of sun, and not too windy.  I won't make it outside again tonight because I am on duty in a nearly empty building.  We literally have a 1:1 staff to guest ratio right now, so it should be a quiet night for me.  Tomorrow I work at the desk in this same building, and then it is off to GI for the weekend.  It'll be my last chance to jet home before my schedule prevents me from doing so.  I am pretty much booked solid for the entire month of June between classes and work.  It should be pretty hectic.  Well, this has become a pretty long, TMI kind of post, so I guess I'll wrap it up for now.  Goodnight!

May 27, 2011

Well, it wasn't the sunniest or warmest of days, but it wasn't awful.  When I woke up all of the sidewalks were wet, so I assume we got at least a little precipitation overnight.  It hasn't rained a drop since I woke up at 8 a.m., though, which makes me very happy.  According to the satellite radar, the clouds are slowly drifting away, but the nearest sunlight is still about 100 miles west in my hometown (Grand Island).  If the sun makes it out today at all, I will probably not be outside to see it.  I work a six to midnight at a desk, so I would only be able to see a few feeble rays of light through the main door anyway.

Normally, I save blogging for desk shifts to help pass the time, but today I chose to post earlier in the day.  I'm working a shift with a new coworker--a "First Year" if you will--and I felt it would be rude to ignore them to post while I'm supposed to be teaching them about the job.  Plus, I'm not positive that I want any of my coworkers to be aware of this little blog.  As a college student, ranting about the weather doesn't exactly make me the hippest person in the world.  The fact that I just used a form of the word "hip" probably isn't helping my cause either...

Note:  If you are a coworker of mine, please let me know that you're reading this.  Better yet, avert your eyes and go to a different website.  :)  There's nothing to see here...

May 26, 2011

As you can see from the photo, the weather did a complete 180 overnight.  It was 100 percent clear and sunny all day.  The temperature was absolutely perfect (right around 70) and there was only a light breeze.  You couldn't ask for a more beautiful day.  I was able to get outside multiple times today to walk around, soak up some rays, and relax on my day off.   There were some clouds rolling in around 7 p.m. and it got a little cooler, but the evening was pleasant as well.

Anyway, my sleep schedule is still somewhat out of whack, so I may go to bed fairly early tonight.  I don't think I ever fully recovered from my midnight to six shift a week and a half ago...  Goodnight!  Let's hope for a decent Nebraska day tomorrow!

May 25, 2011

I have to invent a word to describe how utterly disgusting the weather in Lincoln was today.  I think the most accurate word would be "sucktacular."  It was cold, it was misting/lightly raining the entire day, and gale force winds were knocking everyone sideways.  In other words, it was probably the worst possible conditions Mother Nature could have cooked up for the second day of the state golf tournament.  Miraculously, the weather did not hurt my brother or his team's level of play, and they ended up taking the state runner-up trophy.    Still, my condolences go out to all of the golfers and spectators that had to stand out in those awful conditions for 5 or more hours.

Though the outdoors conditions were depressing, today wasn't all bad.  It was the last day of my job training!  I got to stay indoors during training, so I had to face the nasty weather relatively little.  Also, it was nice to get everything squared away so we can all get into the swing of things and get on with our work schedules.  The crappy weather also gave me motivation to run a few errands since I had nothing better to do.   Now, I'm just crossing my fingers that the forecast for tomorrow holds true: 70 degrees and clear with a very low chance of precipitation.  I don't have to work tomorrow and I would really appreciate being able to be outside on my day off.

May 24, 2011

Shockingly, the forecast for today was correct.  This morning there was a great deal of blue in the west and south, and around 11 a.m. it began raining cats and dogs in Lincoln.  Naturally, a few minutes after the downpour began, I had to be at a shift.  I was fortunate enough to hitch a ride from a supervisor, but I later got soaked running to a dining hall to grab lunch.   I was reminded that my jacket is definitely NOT waterproof and soaked my socks and shoes so badly that they were still wet five hours later when I clocked out.  Oh, well...  I guess it's not really summer until you get drenched while fulfilling a work-related duty.

Anyway, about an hour or hour and a half after my shift began, the rain dissipated and it was sunny for much of the afternoon.  My brother all of the other kids at state golf were able to finish out their rounds, but they started significantly later than the original tee times.  All afternoon (from what I could tell), it was decent outside.  When I got off my shift, I noticed that it had started clouding up again, and by 9:00 p.m. there was a particularly nasty lightning storm in the capitol city (which was immediately followed by more pouring rain).  Glancing at radar, it appears that there isn't going to be a break in the precipitation for quite some time.  The state golfers will be very lucky if they are able to finish an entire round of 18 holes tomorrow.

In better news, tomorrow is the last day of training!  I think everyone is ready to get into a regular--ha!--work pattern and out of the "classroom."  We finally got our work schedules, and already I can tell that my summer schedule is going to be as erratic as last summer.   I have a summer class that will be thrown into the mix as well, but I'm not complaining.  It's better than being bored all summer with nothing to do. Well, I shall wrap up this long, rambling post.  I still don't feel completely caught up on sleep, so I think I'm going to turn in early once again.

May 23, 2011

My day started off bright and early at 4:50 a.m.  I had a 6 a.m. to noon shift, so I had to get up extremely early in order to get ready and walk over to the appropriate building in time.  Getting up at 5 a.m. is rough, to say the very least.  After I got to the shift, I felt surprisingly awake, but during training this afternoon I was going down for the count.  It took every ounce of willpower in me to keep my eyes open during training this afternoon.  I really don't believe that human beings are meant to be up and about between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.

Tomorrow, it's back to work again.  I will get to miss the majority of training because I will be working.  In this situation, I don't have a problem with that at all.  All of the training is repeat from last year, so it gets a bit dull.  You get paid either way, and I'd rather be working at a desk than listening to information I already know.  Also, there are supposed to be some potentially wicked storms coming our way tomorrow afternoon and evening, so things could get interesting.  It's is the first day of state golf, so if a bunch of storms roll in, it might throw a wrench into the flow of the tournament.

Anyway, I am dead tired at the moment.  I haven't gone to bed earlier than 11 p.m. in a very long time, but I think I may have to tonight.  I don't think I can make it another half hour!

May 22, 2011

Yesterday was a nice (albeit slightly boring) Sunday.  The weather was sunny, mostly clear, and, most importantly, it didn't rain.   I honestly have very little else to say.  I do, however, want to post one more picture.  Recently, I discovered that the roofs of  downtown parking garages are excellent places to take wide shots of the sky and downtown.  Here's one I took from the roof of a Q Street Parking garage yesterday (click to enlarge):

May 21, 2011

This first picture illustrates pretty well what most of the day looked like.  It was a little humid early in the day, but overall really not bad.  Because it's Saturday, I had a break from training and really enjoyed the time to myself.  It gave me some time to edit some of the videos and photos that I took at camp.  I finally got all of the videos edited and uploaded a few minutes ago, so that's one thing to check off the "To Do" list.  I even found the time during my walk this afternoon to stop by the Michael Forsberg gallery in the Haymarket.  I've passed by it dozens of times, but I've never gone inside to look around until today.  If you're ever in Lincoln, I would definitely recommend checking it out.  The guy has some amazing photography taken all over Nebraska and other Great Plains states.  I was blown away in the short period of time that I spent in the gallery, and I will definitely be making a return trip in the near future.

Anyway, we had a very strong chance for rain and storms today and tonight, but they seem to have bypassed us for now.  Around 7 p.m., there were thunderheads in the north and south, but nothing ever came in the direction of Lincoln.  Just another fail by the National Weather Service... 

May 20, 2011

I can sum up the weather today in one word: yuck.  A tour of downtown Lincoln was meant to be included as part of our training today, but we bypassed the outdoor version by taking a virtual tour via Google Maps.   I don't think anyone was disappointed that we decided to stay inside, especially since the indoor meeting was considerably shorter than the outdoor tour would have been.   We were able to start our weekend an hour earlier than usual.  My main goals for this weekend: to catch up on sleep and to edit all of the photos/videos I took at camp.

May 19, 2011

Yeah...that's right.  This is what I saw when I woke up on the day my coworkers and I were supposed to  head off to camp.  I must admit, I didn't have high hopes for the day when I pulled back my blinds and saw this mess.  The only positive thing that came to mind was that it wasn't raining quite as hard as last year.  As it turned out, except for the occasional downpour, the rain did not ruin our camp experience.  I was outdoors for the vast majority of the day, and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves.  There were a few minor issues (my hair curling out of control in the high humidity and my perpetually soaking socks and shoes), but overall I would rate this year's camp MUCH higher than last year's.

May 18, 2011

I woke up this morning to a sky that looked like rain.  Though there was a band of rain heading east on radar, but it must have fizzled out before it reached Lincoln because we never saw more than a couple sprinkles.  The rest of the day alternated between cloudy and sunny, but it was a decent temperature and the humidity was still low.  Unfortunately, despite the beautiful weather we've had during the first half of the week, there's a huge chance of rain for the next few days...just in time for camp.  It rained all day at camp last year, and it looks like it's going to do the same thing this year.  My worst nightmare appears to be coming true.  I didn't think it was possible for us to be so unlucky two years in a row...

May 17, 2011

Today was rather uneventful, so I'll keep this post short and sweet.  It was another gorgeous day in Lincoln.  The weather was absolutely perfect, which was convenient considering we were outdoors for a good portion of our job training today.   All in all, it was a very good day.  Like yesterday, I need to get to bed ASAP.  I have another early day tomorrow, and the effects of my overnight shift have not completely worn off...

May 16, 2011

As I said in the previous blog post, I started off my Monday morning quite early.  I survived my midnight to six shift, got back to my dorm for about four hours of sleep, and joined my coworkers at training after lunch.  Surprisingly, I was not as exhausted during my shift as I expected, and I felt fairly normal throughout the day.  The only strange parts of my shift were the motion-sensing lights randomly turning on and off in empty rooms, and footsteps on the floor above me (though the building was basically abandoned).  This mysterious happenings all took place in a brand new residence hall, so ghosts were not any concern of mine.  I'm still working on figuring out a logical explanation for some of the unusual things I experienced this morning.  I'll let you know if I manage to come up with something!

The rest of the day consisted mostly of training with my coworkers, running errands, and walking around Lincoln.  The sky was clear, the temperature was in the mid-60's, and everything looked quite beautiful.  It was perfect, boring spring weather.

Well, there isn't much more to report, which means I am going to bed.  I felt unnatural and robot-like all day because I was functioning so well, but now the lack of sleep has finally caught up with me.  I'm really just running on fumes at this point...it's not a good situation.

May 15, 2011-Hello, All!

Hey, everyone!  You are reading the first official post of the second summer of Lincoln "Skyline" Project.  Today, I got back from my short vacation back in Grand Island and was able to take the first window shot of the year.  I snapped a picture earlier in the day, but it was so gloomy that I was pleased to do a retake when the clouds broke.  It really wasn't a horrible day (weather-wise) after the sun came out, but I can't say I spent much time enjoying the sun.  After I unpacked and arranged my room,  I forced myself to take a 3-hour power doze (because I can never properly nap) in preparation for my overnight shift.  As I type this, I am about 20 minutes into my first 6-hour shift of the summer. Unfortunately, my first shift is also the mutually despised midnight to 6 a.m. shift.  I evaded this particular block of time last summer, but I obviously wasn't so lucky this year.   I'm feeling quite awake right now, but I fear for my physical and mental state come 4:30 a.m.  We'll see how it goes!

As I said in a previous post, regular posting will now resume.  Expect many pictures and--if you're lucky--more stories of ferocious thunderstorms and epic air conditioning failures!

New Picture Posts Are Imminent

So...yesterday I moved into my summer dorm.  I think this year I may actually have a slightly better view than last year because the Capitol Building is actually more centered in my window this time.  Unfortunately, I completely forgot to snap a picture when I moved in yesterday, but I'll be at home for a few days anyway, so it probably didn't hurt anything.  Anyway, I just wanted to post this to bridge the gap between the next few days and regular posting.

I hope that it will be another interesting and fun summer, and that there are days with cool clouds and storms to photograph.  As much as I may complain about some of the rain and storms, this blog would be unbelievably dull if it were sunny and clear every single day.

Anyway, I'll see you in a few days when posting resumes!