The last time I ate at an indoor restaurant was March 14, 2020, at a Culver’s east of St. Louis. Over a year had gone by since then – weekly takeout orders, efforts to eat local, learning to actually cook for ourselves, occasionally eating on a patio if the weather permitted – and finally, by …
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Life Update: Getting Vaccinated, Getting Jobs, Getting Back to Normal
We are now moving into our second year of covid restrictions. I have not eaten a meal indoors at a restaurant since March 14, 2020, at a Culver’s near St. Louis. Over the past couple of months, Elizabeth and I had started to get back to eating outdoors at restaurants, encouraged by Scipio’s improving behavior …
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Summer 2020: Grand Lake/Trail Ridge Road
Check out the previous post: It had already been an eventful trip to Colorado. Getting to see Elizabeth’s reaction to the Rockies in the distance, staying downtown in Denver, a camping mutiny over campsite locations, and a literal derecho – somehow, despite the fact that we hadn’t really been on a big hike in the …
March 13, 2021: Caprock Magic Strikes Early
Much like unicorns or the state of North Dakota, March tornadoes have always felt like one of those things that get discussed all the time without actually existing. Mythology, really. From 2017 – 2020, I hadn’t ever managed to see a Real Tornado before April 22. But on March 13, 2021, with a localized tornado …
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Scipio’s First Camping Trip: Palo Duro Canyon, March 2021
(I want to begin this post by thanking the inimitable Joshua Schank for helping me migrate my blog to nolanmeister.com. I ran through all of the storage allowed by the OU Create server which, but for his generosity and technical support, would have been the end of a blog that helped me maintain my sanity …
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Summer 2020: Arapaho National Forest
Previous post Friday, June 5. Elizabeth pulled out from the parking garage in Denver, and with pinpoint navigation from Michael and myself, headed westward through Denver until she reached I-70. Looming directly ahead was the starkness of the Front Range – a phenomenon that really can’t be described unless you’ve driven that stretch of 70. …
TORUS 2019: Oklahoma High Risk (May 20, 2019)
I’ve been inside two SPC High Risks in my life. One was on my 16th birthday – November 17, 2013 – and ended with me within a few miles of a heavily rain-wrapped EF2 tornado near Kokomo, IN. And then… there’s May 20, 2019. I’ve never seen a day like it. This was the day …
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Christmas Break 2020-2021: Great Smoky Mountains National Park (among other things)
This post is just intended to summarize an eventful few weeks of my Christmas break. It includes five driving days, two dog vomits, one national park, and one violent insurrection against the government of the United States. Enjoy! My Christmas break began on December 17, right when I finished off a (long) dynamics final exam. …
TORUS 2019: May 18 – Excellent Shelf Life
Has a field campaign ever started off hotter than TORUS did in 2019? A day one cyclic tornadic supercell, well-sampled – it’s hard to beat. And there was an incredibly active period upcoming, with more opportunities to deploy in the next week and a half. The morning 500 mb map from May 18 just screams …
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Summer 2020: Denver
The freedom of the open road at the beginning of summer can’t be beat. That is, unless your open road is a horribly inefficient route. Yes, Elizabeth and I were on our way to Denver on June 4. We were going to stay the night with her cousin, Michael, and his girlfriend, Irene. We brought …
