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.

July 17, 2010

Well, the hot streak continues. It wasn't necessarily humid today, but I was still soaked when I came back from a walk this morning. This heat has really been intense... It's a complete 180 from last summer. I can remember 2009 being a wet, humid, cool summer. I think we rarely reached the 90's, so it's interesting that this year has turned out so completely different.

Anyway, I have a video to share this time, as well. This video was taken on Wednesday (the 14th) as the storm was coming into Lincoln. This is basically what I see every time it rains hard here. Sorry for the shaky camerawork. Also, the video is muted because all you can hear is my air conditioner. I wasn't about to open up my window and let all that humidity into my room!

July 16, 2010

I'm posting this entry a little early today because I doubt I'll have time later. I have work and class today, so I'm a little short on time. Anyway, it appears to be a nice day so far. The Special Olympics athletes and coaches will be checking in today, so by the end of the day we should have about 4,000 people staying on campus. That's not counting the 30,000 people that are expected to be in town over the next week to watch the Games. It should be a busy and interesting week...

Fun Fact: According to my boss, the 2010 Special Olympics here in Lincoln is going to be the biggest sporting event that takes place in North America this year (in terms of the number of athletes competing). Even bigger than the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver!

July 15, 2010

Today was about 400 times nicer than yesterday. The humidity was only about 40% compared to 80% + yesterday, and it felt MUCH better outside. I actually spent a good deal of the evening outside with a bunch of my coworkers, and it was completely comfortable to sit outdoors. I hope we never see another day as hot and humid as yesterday. That was brutal...

Also, a quick, random note. I almost went to Ivanna Cone (an ice cream parlor) with a bunch of my coworkers this afternoon. Now, I regret not going because when they got there Ndamukong Suh was there with his entourage. I guess he came in a Hummer, and was in there eating ice cream with about 12 girls and one other guy. Another one of my friends saw him downtown earlier in the day at the LES building. I'm so jealous. I've never seen Suh (except at football games) even though he was around on campus all last school year.

July 14, 2010

Today the weather was...disgusting. It was in the 90's and the humidity was through the roof. I went for a brief walk outside (maybe for about an hour in the late morning), and by the time I got back to my dorm room it looked like someone had poured a bucket of water over my head. Everyone I talked to said that they felt like taking a shower every time they stepped outside. It was just really gross weather.

The best part of the day was when the storms came in around 7:30 p.m. It provided some excitement that has been lacking in the weather recently. There was no hail, but it rained extremely hard and the wind blew like no other. I also got to watch about 10 of my coworkers play outside in the pouring rain (and lightning). Not for me, but very entertaining to see.

July 13, 2010

Not a terribly interesting day. Super hot and super humid.

July 12, 2010

So...today was the first day of my second summer class, but the weather I woke up to did not set the greatest tone. It was raining all morning, and then misting for the first half of the afternoon. Because the weather sucked so much, I stuck to the great indoors for most of the day. I went bowling with some friends around 3 pm, and when we emerged from the bowling alley around 5 pm it was magically sunny and hot. Typical Nebraska. Fortunately, even though the humidity remained, the sky stayed relatively clear for the rest of the night. There were some cool clouds hanging around that almost looked like thunderheads, but there were no storms in the area. Also, if you look closely in the last picture, you can see a big jet that flew directly over the Capitol Building.

July 11, 2010

It was a fairly hot, humid day. I spent some time inside, but spent most of the afternoon inside watching the extremely long World Cup game. I would elaborate more, but I'm too tired from babysitting a building full of cheerleaders for the second night in a row!

July 10, 2010

I'm posting this much earlier in the day than I usually do, but it's only because I'm bored out of my mind at a desk shift right now. I have about two and half hours left in my shift, so I figured that posting this now would kill some time. The picture is not fabulous and has a lot of glare, but I will probably not be back to my room today, so I can't take another one. I'm sitting behind an air conditioned desk right now, so I can't say exactly what the weather is like. However, looking out the window, it seems to be the same as it was this morning: clear and hot.

July 9, 2010

It was not a bad day today. Not a bad day at all. My English class is over FOREVER. It wasn't terribly difficult, but everyone gets sick of having the same class at the same time every single day. It was time for it to end. Fortunately, class only lasted 15 minutes, so I had time to go for a walk and play some tennis in the nicer weather. It was hotter than yesterday (mid to upper 80's), but not humid and still a great day.

July 8, 2010

The picture for today is deceiving. It's not exactly a wonderful photo, and the clouds make it seem as if it was not a stellar weather day. In actuality, it was a fantastic day. The air was dry, there was a slight cool breeze, and it only got to the upper 70's/lower 80's. Really a great day.

July 7, 2010

Today was a craptacular day as far as the weather concerned. It was incredibly humid all day (above 90%) and random showers popped up in the afternoon. In my infinite wisdom, I decided to go for a walk this afternoon. About halfway through, I got trapped in a church archway when it started pouring. After the rain started to lighten, I took off again. I managed to keep from getting completely soaked by walking under overhanging roofs that cover the sidewalk in much of downtown Lincoln. Unfortunately, the closer I got to campus, the harder the rain got. I ended up surrendering and walking the rest of the way back to my dorm out in the open. I got soaked, but I had time to change and wring out my hair before the staff meeting.

I can't complain about the situation too much, though, since it was my fault I got stuck in the rain in the first place. I guess I can look back on it as an interesting experience...

July 6, 2010

Today was a nice first full day back in Lincoln. It wasn't as near as humid and disgusting as it was last evening. Unfortunately, I spent most of the afternoon inside writing an irritatingly long essay for my English class...

July 5, 2010--Fireworks Display

Much to my surprise, there was a fireworks display northwest of campus tonight. I guess it was postponed because the weather sucked so much on the Fourth of July. I went up onto one of the parking garage roofs and filmed the whole thing, but the video I posted is only the last minute and a half or so (the finale). It wasn't a bad show. They even had it choreographed to go with patriotic music that played on one of the Lincoln radio stations. Unfortunately, a passing train drowned out the car radios on the video.

July 5, 2010

Well, I'm back in Lincoln after a nice holiday weekend with my family. I'm really not disappointed that I wasn't in Lincoln for the Fourth of July because the weather was much better in GI than in the capitol city. The sun came out fairly early in GI, but I was told by some of my coworkers that it was cloudy and rainy until late in the evening around here. Anyway, tonight was fairly nice. It was only 75, but the humidity is around 70-80% so it feels WAY hotter.

July 4, 2010--Independence Day

I don't have a picture for Independence Day because (obviously) I was home in Grand Island for the weekend. However, I do have a video from the day that I can share. This video was recorded at about 10:30 p.m. in the field behind our house. The footage itself is really nothing spectacular, but the sounds are ridiculous. It sounds like Grand Island, Iraq instead of Grand Island, NE. The noise was pretty much continuous from about 8:00 p.m. to 1 a.m.

July 3, 2010

I snapped this picture early in the morning before I took off for Grand Island for the holiday weekend. It was a nice, clear day, and I was able to avoid holiday season traffic. Apparently, no one else thinks it's a good idea to travel on Interstate at 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning.

July 2, 2010

As you can see, today was the first day in many days that there were actually clouds in the sky. For the first time in a over a week, it was humid, hazy, and not as pleasant, which made for a slightly more interesting picture.

Anyway, the holiday weekend is fast approaching. Many of my coworkers have already taken off for their hometown or vacations, and tomorrow I will do the same. I'll try to remember to snap a photo tomorrow morning before I leave and Monday evening when I return, but unfortunately I will have no picture for Independence Day. I'm happy to go home, but it's a shame that I can't be around to take a picture of fireworks from my window. Perhaps I'll post a pic of something from GI if I happen to capture anything fantastic over the weekend.

July 1, 2010

Once again, a hot, windy, sunny day and another boring photo. The good news is, after a hectic week last week, work and school has been super easy since Sunday. It's about to get even easier, too. My class got cancelled tomorrow and Monday, so I have a four day weekend from class, and I'll soon be returning to Grand Island for Independence Day. The funny thing is, the weather is supposed to get interesting again as soon as I leave Lincoln...