Is It Hot in Here?

While surfing National Geographic's website (yes, currently NG is an obsession of mine) I found this alarming headline, "2006 Was Warmest Year Yet Recorded for U.S." Now, I know we've all been commenting on the unseasonably warm December that has hit not only the Northeast, but the Midwest apparently - while places like Denver, uhhmm, have been suffering foot after foot of snow.

So what gives? Is it global warming? Is it El Nino? (Can you make the tilda over the "n" on Blogger? Or from my keyboard? I can't find it. My high school Spanish teachers would be disappointed in me.)

Apparently, according to preliminary data from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville, North Carolina, the annual average temperature in the U.S. was 55 degrees Fahrenheit in 2006 which is the warmest year since 1895 when such data started being recorded. The average temperature was also 2.2 degrees F higher than the 20th century average.

While scientists agree that El Nino certainly contributed to the warmer temperatures, especially those experienced in the month of December where no state in the union experienced temperatures below their averages and five recorded their warmest Decembers ever, they also warn that 2006 is part of a "disturbing long-term trend of increasing temperatures."

"The past nine years have all been among the 25 warmest years on record for the contiguous U.S., a streak which is unprecedented in the historical record," the NCDC report says.

Scientists believe that this long-term increase can be attributed to the emission of greenhouse gases - global warming, people. It's not a "theory." In fact, with every passing month it becomes more and more concrete. And if the Brits at the U.K. Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Change are correct then 2007 will be even warmer (globally) and the warmest year yet on record as the long-term increases continue and El Nino keeps the waters off the northwest coast of South America nice and toasty.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not really liking these crazy weather patterns. I mean, I don't ski or snowboard or snowshoe or generally go out into the snow unless dragged by my children, BUT it just doesn't feel right around here! A Christmas without snow happens all the time, but being able to play football and soccer in a green backyard without even having to wear a jacket during the first weekend in January - it just isn't right!!

Am I right?

And the implications for the spring are disastrous as well. First of all, without all the snow melt, lakes and streams and water tables are going to be low - really low - and that means a lack of water all around. There will probably be all kinds of water bans during the dog days of summer which are predicted to be VERY hot indeed in 2007.

So you tell me . . . Should we continue our fossil fuel burning ways while we continue to emit unprecedented amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and cut down thousands of acres of trees in the Amazon that would otherwise be soaking up some of these nasty greenhouse gases and releasing it back into the atmosphere as oxygen . . . or should we do something about it? I mean, really. While we can't change the path of El Nino, we certainly can have an impact on its effects by trying to prevent the annual increases in temperature due to global warming.

What have we got to lose if we try?

Well, everything if we don't.

I'm Totally Random Today

Well, I've received a request (Yes, a request!) to update the blogosphere about my big move. The reason I haven't talked about it in a little while is because things seemed to have hit a bit of a stall. Repairs that were supposed to get done (by the seller) and issues we had that needed addressing (by the seller) weren't getting addressed. In fact, we weren't getting all "No. No way. Not on your life;" We weren't hearing anything at all.

So my husband and I had been getting very frustrated. People were asking us about getting excited with the closing date coming up and my packing, etc. and all we could do was grit our teeth and try to smile because when it all came down to it, if we didn't get some answers soon we were ready to go look for another house. Don't get me wrong. We LOVE the house we found, but not enough to go into while there were still issues (especially ones that might cost me more money than I have) that needed to be taken care of. With the lack of communication, we had started to feel like we were being played and that maybe there were things wrong with the house other than what we alrady knew and that the sellers were trying to stall until it was too late for us to back out.

Whatever. So I sort of had a bit of a fit over the weekend (via an email to my real estate broker) and wouldn't you know it - the ball is rolling once again. Things are getting done, papers are being signed, repairs are being made . . . Hip, hip, horray!!! It's amazing what a few stern words will do and it appears that it wasn't the sellers at all, but their real estate agent who wasn't communicating with them. From a couple of phone calls we got this morning regarding a few of our "issues" it appears they're actually very agreeable. (Ask me again after I sign the final papers though.)

So we're still on schedule to close in a little less than two weeks (which really means that I should be packing right now instead of blogging, but it isn't the first, or the last, time that I'll be blogging instead of doing something else that requires my attention.) I've been packing, but I guess it's time to go turbo.

My hope has been restored and I am once again excited about moving into my own house! (If I'm lucky I'll never have to do this again!) I'm basking in the sunshine streaming through my window (which won't be mine for much longer!!) and I am giddy with the thought that I just did what was quite possibly one of my last pile of dishes by hand! (Yes, my new digs have a dishwasher and it's been WAY too long since I've had one of those!) I'll say it again - Hip, hip, horray!!!

On another completely random note, I read the January issue of National Geographic last night - AMAZING! INCREDIBLE! FIVE STARS! I had truly forgotten what I'd been missing the last, oh I don't know, 20 years. I remember flipping through it at school as a kid, you can always find a few good pictures to put in your latest collage creation from NG, and since it was such a cheap introductory offer (we're talking a dollar a month!) I figured, at least, the boys would enjoy all the bright photographs.

Well, I don't think the boys have even gotten the chance to look at it yet because their mommy and daddy haven't given them the chance. I mean, the photographs alone are worth having the subscription:

Not to mention the reporting. I read the cover story, Last of the Amazon, last night and it literally blew me away in words and in pictures. The portrait of devastation, of what further devastation would mean not only to the people of Brazil, but to the Earth itself - very, very dramatic.

It's not just the amazing writing or the breathtaking photography, but the wide range of topics covered by the publication - Science, Nature, Travel, Ecology, Culture, History, People (I could go on) - that there's really not much you won't get between the covers. How's this: It's like a passport that takes you anywhere you want to go even if you don't have the financial means to get there phsyically. (OK, now I sound like the advert I got in the mail!)

But it's just that good. I'm so glad we subscribed! Maybe I'll actually get around to letting the kids look at it, but only after I've poured through it several times because I feel like there's so much to it, I want to make sure I don't miss anything.

Now I just have to make sure I change my address with NG . . . and with the bank . . . and I have to call to have the gas turned off . . . I need to go through the boys' closet (I think there are some things in there to bring to The Salvation Army) . . . I need to get a list together for what we're going to need to buy for the new digs . . . I guess I really should be going now :)