Oh nothing really just wanted to share

80? The only "80" we hear about up here is, "There is an 80 percent chance for more snow". Which is what Duluth is expected to get this Thursday & Friday. Another 6+ inches of the white stuff that falls from above. We should dodge the bullet again.
At least we don't have to worry about those Hurricanes & Thunderstorms.

Oh yeah almost forgot. Shirt sleeve weather for us Northerners! It was near 40 degrees today and I walked around the ice/snow covered driveway drinking an Amber Bock & enjoying a La Paloma hand-rolled stogie

 

Oh for crying out loud !!!!!!!!!!!!
better them than me I guess :::::::

just saw that the NOAA site is updating this on a daily basis and the forecast for the 16 inches of snow which I initially posted has changed to the below much better report of just some minor iceing. Can't wait for the middle of summer when it our highs actually reach the mid 70's!

 

It's the Apocalypse I tell ya. The end of Times! This keeps up much longer and I'm temped to set fire to the whole D*## North Woods just to get even.

Oh and 36 ? Our high was 33 today. So there!

 

Hense why we use those plastic green-house things up here. 11 months out of the 12. Only month is hasn't snowed was July and I think that may change this year.

I keep telling people I had nothing to do with that War either. Sins of my Father or Grand Father? Also, most of the folks up here are Scandinavian so I should benefit from their non-aggression attitude.

That's true. It was Sunny and 37 degrees last week, for a day anyway, and we set outside on the deck and enjoyed a cold beer.

At least you have Wisconsin as a buffer to keep the really cold and heavy snow to your West.

Every article of clothing I HAVE is long sleeved !

Toki, A 15 year old Scotch does wonders.

 

Why did I move up here?

That's a good question.
The clean air, mostly sunny days, the scent of pine trees, all the fish you can eat - right outside the door, the Solitude of living miles from an urban center, Making Illinois a place to visit not live, the Deer, Duck, Goose, Grouse/Partridge Hunting, the Wildlife watching are a few reasons.
But mostly the quiet moments when I notice I haven't heard a car or truck in hours.

 

It's been a couple of interesting weeks. About the middle of March the Wife suggested we visit the kids in Illinois and take a break from this cold weather for a while. Actually it was more like, I Can't Take it Anymore - We're Out-of-Here. NOW!
Once we (She) had decided to go things calmed down a little and I planned to leave about the middle of April.The evening before we planned to leave the weather-jockeys of TV said that Northern Wisconsin could expect to get nearly 16 inches of snow over night so our usual route to Central Illinois was out of the question. The only other way was to head due South and endure the metropolis of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Having driven through Minneapolis when picking up the Uncle last year I was hoping not to run in to the bumper-to-bumper traffic like we did in July. Actually we buzzed right through town and made the trip in good time with no complications.
Driving through on one of the 16,000 bypasses around town I was attracted to one of those overhead Warning signs to alert drivers of adverse conditions. Usually the message is a simple cautionary such as "Slower Traffic Ahead", or "Reduce Speed Ahead". This one on the other hand read " Distracted Driving causes 70 deaths a year in Minnesota. Watch the road and be aware of other drivers. Do Not Get Distracted". (I think there may have been more to the message but I got distracted by the traffic and couldn't read the whole thing.) Good message but the Idiot ahead of me was distracted from reading the warning and I'll admit I was a bit 'distracted' also, as were the several cars behind and to each side of me it seems. Three cars ahead of us had missed their exit and were trying to get back into an exit lane bringing traffic to a halt. I told my wife I wondered how many of the 70 deaths in Minnesota caused by distracted driving were due to that one sign?
If we had been an hour and a half South I could have understood. Iowa needs signs such as these. Not so much to warn you about anything but to get your attention. Anything to break up the monotony of driving mile after mile looking at the same things. Oh look a FARM, And over there! A Field. Cows, look over there and there and there, Cows.
Anyway we made it to the old Hometown and had gone from 27 degree Minnesota weather to that good ol' Illinois 68 degrees and damp humid conditions I so remembered.

 

Thanks TD, yeah I've come to expect such things as I drive through Iowa but not my new homeland of Minnathota. Iowa - IdiotsOutWanderingAimlessly
Oh and once we got to the Land of Lincoln I did get to enjoy Easter Sunday and the 83 DEGREE high we had that day. Of course as usual I only enjoyed it until Wednesday morning when I woke up with my eyes sealed shut from some sinus infection caused by the pollen hitting 12 or something on the crud-o-meter. It is still kicking my ass. I'm half way through a 10 day antibiotic treatment. The Wife did all the driving last Friday to get my sickly body home.
I knew I was going to pay since everything else had been going great. Sunday dinner = awesome; trip to Bass Pro = one Leopold rangefinder and a new bow mount trolling motor for the boat. Which by the look of it may even get in the lake by the middle of May! Monday playing with the Grand kids. Tuesday was a double bonus; 18 holes of golf with a Cousin and then a tour of the ANG 182nd C130s with the Cub Scouts They even put on a fire-fighting display with, my guess is way more than 200 gallons of fuel oil. I have got to post a couple of pictures of the resultant fireball and 60-70 foot flames with blackout conditions from all the smoke! Kids LOVED it. Us older folk thought it was pretty cool too.

 

Not just "nothing really" but Something !

WASHINGTON (AP) — The only American soldier held prisoner in Afghanistan has been freed from Taliban captivity in exchange for the release of five Afghan detainees from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Obama administration officials said Saturday.
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was handed over to U.S. special forces by the Taliban Saturday evening, local time, in an area of eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border. Officials said the exchange was not violent and the 28-year-old Bergdahl was in good condition and able to walk.

http://news.msn.com/world/us-soldier-freed-from-captivity-in-afghanistan?ocid=fbmsnnews


Edit;

Thought a little background should be added to the post:

(CNN) -- The sense of pride expressed by officials of the Obama administration at the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is not shared by many of those who served with him, veterans and soldiers who call him a deserter whose "selfish act" ended up costing the lives of better men.
"I was pissed off then, and I am even more so now with everything going on," said former Sgt. Matt Vierkant, a member of Bergdahl's platoon when he went missing on June 30, 2009. "Bowe Bergdahl deserted during a time of war, and his fellow Americans lost their lives searching for him."
Vierkant said Bergdahl needs to not only acknowledge his actions publicly but face a military trial for desertion under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
A reporter asked Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Sunday whether Bergdahl had left his post without permission or deserted -- and, if so, whether he would be punished. Hagel didn't answer directly. "Our first priority is assuring his well-being and his health and getting him reunited with his family," he said. "Other circumstances that may develop and questions, those will be dealt with later."

Just for clarification;


Staff Sergeant Clayton Bowen, 29, of San Antonio, Texas
Private 1st Class Morris Walker, 23, of Chapel Hill, N.C.
Staff Sergeant Kurt Curtiss, 27, of Murray, Utah
2nd Lieutenant Darryn Andrews, 34, of Dallas, Texas
Staff Sergeant Michael Murphrey, 25, of Snyder, Texas
Private 1st Class Matthew Martinek, 20, of DeKalb, Ill.

These men are the real story. They gave the ultimate sacrifice while searching for their "brother".

 

A 'tad' more for perspective,

Following his release from five years of captivity in Afghanistan on Saturday, Bergdahl was transferred to a military hospital in Germany.
A senior Defense official said Bergdahl's "reintegration process" will include "time for him to tell his story, decompress, and to reconnect with his family through telephone calls and video conferences."
Said Bergdahl's former squad leader, Greg Leatherman: "I'm pleased to see him returned safely. From experience, I hope that he receives adequate reintegration counseling. I believe that an investigation should take place as soon as health care professionals deem him fit to endure one."
Another senior Defense official said Bergdahl will not likely face any punishment. "Five years is enough," he told CNN on condition of anonymity.
Questions surround the circumstances of Bergdahl's disappearance. Conflicting details have since emerged about how the militants managed to capture Bergdahl. Published accounts have varied widely, from claims that he walked off the post to that he was grabbed from a latrine.
According to firsthand accounts from soldiers in his platoon, Bergdahl, while on guard duty, shed his weapons and walked off the observation post with nothing more than a compass, a knife, water, a digital camera and a diary.
At least six soldiers were killed in subsequent searches for Bergdahl, and many soldiers in his platoon said attacks seemed to increase against the United States in Paktika province in the days and weeks following his disappearance.
Many of Bergdahl's fellow troops -- from the seven or so who knew him best in his squad to the larger group that made up the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division -- told CNN that they signed nondisclosure agreements agreeing to never share any information about Bergdahl's disappearance and the efforts to recapture him. Some were willing to dismiss that document in hopes that the truth would come out about a soldier who they now fear is being hailed as a hero, while the men who lost their lives looking for him are ignored. ......................

and

E-mails reported by the late Michael Hastings in Rolling Stone in 2012 reveal what Bergdahl's fellow infantrymen learned within days of his disappearance: He told people that he no longer supported the U.S. effort in Afghanistan.
"The future is too good to waste on lies," he wrote to his parents. "And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be American. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting."
Bergdahl wrote to them, "I am sorry for everything. The horror that is America is disgusting."
CNN has not independently verified the authenticity of the e-mails.
A former member of Bergdahl's squad who has yet to identify his last name publicly but goes by "Cody" tweeted this weekend that before he disappeared, Bergdahl once told him, "If deployment is lame, I'm going to get lost in the Mountains and make my way to China."
Leatherman told CNN that Bergdahl "always looked at the mountains in the distance and talked of 'seeing what's on the other side.' "
Cody noted in his Twitter recollections a story that others from Blackfoot Company relay. While soldiers were searching for Bergdahl, a platoon "came upon some children, they asked him have they seen an American. The children said 'yes, he was crawling on his belly through weeds and acting funny a while ago,' " according to Cody.

More here http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/01/us/bergdahl-deserter-or-hero/