The weather guy is calling for a record high on this Friday, May 8, predicting that it will reach 89º F here in Syracuse, N.Y.
On “Today,” the stories from Al Roker and crew are of early tropical storms coming toward Myrtle Beach — first of the season, in particular, by the name of Anna — as well as tornadoes in Oklahoma and hail in Texas and blankets of pollen everywhere.
It sure looked pretty in the backyard of the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood when I let Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle out at 7 a.m.
Dark and light.
Shadows played over the shed and the grill, which I had uncovered last night while Karen and I lingered after she got home from her job at SMG.
Cool dog.
Ellie B missed at her squirrel leap but was proud protecting the fence bordering Good Neighbor Time and Wonderful Wife Lorraine’s yard.
Trail to the moon.
And the moon did not yet want to give up its morning sky vigil.
All of that awful stuff seemed so very far away this second week of May as I ran over my busy schedule. Decide which movie to see for review afternoon, check …
Are foreboding weather events hitting your area? What’s the worst you’ve seen in May? What do you have planned for this weekend?
Mark Bialczak 
Here it’s just unbearably hot!
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Poor baby.
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Hey bro Mark, I was in the middle of leaving a reply here, after butting in above, when the fire alarm went off and I had to shut down and go to the stair well. Another false alarm, but with the construction you just don’t know these days.
I don’t even remember what I was going to say after all the fun. This is about the weather, right? We’ve had a cooling period since last Friday, and we’re wearing long sleeves again. Big difference, and I love it. I’ll take this over the heat any time of year. You and Karen have a good week and weekend little bro.
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Thanks so much, cooled-off sis! Enjoy the respite while you can.
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I am bro Mark. Heating up outside again this weekend and next week, so getting as much outside time as I can now while it’s nice. I can sleep in front of that sweet a/c unit when it heats up in a couple of days. And WE MADE THE FRONT PAGE yesterday brother! The man from Louisville lied thru his teeth, but HUD is now heavily involved, so he now has a list of questions he has to provide answers for. Trying to find contact info for the HUD guy now.
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Good good good, sis. I tried to read the story but your paper’s site wants my cash, so I stopped my quest there.
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Our paper isn’t worth the amount of cash they want for a subscription brother. Close to $300 a year, if not more by now, with 4 to 8 pages of actual news, if you can call it that, each day, and the rest ads. It just ain’t worth it to many people in this poverty ridden area. Most of the time one person gets the paper, we all contribute, and it is left out where we all can read it. Other people in the area depend on televised news.
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The shared system works well, sis Angie.
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Beautiful!!!! 🙂
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Thank you, Emma!
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You’re welcome! 🙂
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nice pics, mark. i like the moon and sky trail shot the best. i’ve seen it all in may, i think. today, we’re planning a family picnic in a park. happy mo’s day to karen )
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Happy Mother’s Day to you, Beth. Enjoy your picnic with daughter and grands. ❤
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It’s been hot here this week too Mark – low 80’s and more forecast.
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We earned the warm over the winter, Paul.
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Beautiful here on this Saturday afternoon. In spite of my small case of vertigo, I am enjoying hanging out with Mr. B and Daughter B! I can’t believe we could actually use some rain.
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Yes, it is too dry here, too, Mrs. B. My dear wife Karen and I did a several-hour stretch of needed shopping. Now, please, take care of the vertigo and then enjoy time with Mr. B and Daughter B!
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Just butting in here Chick. Talk to an Occupational Therapist about the vertigo. They can do a couple of sessions to realign the crystals that form in the middle ear and cure it without meds. Sometimes only one session will do it. Special training is needed, but my OT did 2 sessions and I haven’t had a relapse of it yet.
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Thanks for butting in with the experiential advice, sis Angie! Hear that, Mrs. B?!
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You’re very welcome bro Mark. I just wish they had known about this when I started having the problem 50 years ago.
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Thanks so much for the tip, Kentucky Angel! I definitely will give that a try. 🙂
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MDW Karen had a bout of vertigo, too, Mrs. B, and the doc manipulated her on the table to work the crystals in her inner ear right in the office, then gave her a prescripition. It went away. Knock on wood! Now that Angie brought it up and reminded me of the word crystals with vertigo.
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Liked your neighborly pictures, appears to be pleasant and harmonious surroundings.
Here in Mildura Victoria Australia, we have very diverse weather patterns, extreme heat in Summer, into the high 40s, then winds and rains and frosts. Our last weather pattern change was two days ago when our city was covered in a dust storm, still no matter where we live, humans adapt to the variables of nature.
Cheers.
Aussie Ian aka Aussie Emu
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Cheers, Ian. May your winter be liveable and not too extreme, my new friend.
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Thank you my friend, our winter is liveable but would freeze the balls of a brass monkey.
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Nothing better than a nice stroll about the backyard, Mark. Looks like life is warming up in Syracuse. Enjoy!♡
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Yes, be good in Houston, weather permitting, Red. ❤
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This is what I do not like about spring….. and didn’t you just have snow remnants a couple of weeks ago???? 🙂
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Yes, MBC, from snow remnants to near-90. Gotta love Syracuse. I took the cover off and put the circuit-breaker guts into the split-duct AC today, too. 😮
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I hear you! We hit the 80’s this week as well. Turned the AC on late this week. I don’t mind being warm, or hot, if I’m moving. But not sitting in it while I’m trying to work. Funny huh? Moving and working is okay. Sitting and working, not so much.
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You are in interesting cat, MBC. 🙂
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😉
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We are having 85 here all weekend. Moms will be sweating it out for their special day. Ugh…give me back the 60’s and 70’s (the temp, not the decades). I love spring, but we so often go straight into summer. At least the nights are cool. Enjoy your weekend, Mark. ☺ Van
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You, too, Van. Happy Mother’s Day. I’ll venture a guess and wish you one. 🙂
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Thanks, Mark. I have a daughter and son, both adults now. I came to it kicking and screaming, but they changed my world and I couldn’t be more grateful. ☺
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🙂 Sounds like a good family, Van.
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as you know, I am still finding my way around your blog, but I find something so comforting about seeing your yard – the shed, the barbie, the fence, etc, – and well, there is just such a authentic no frills fluff as mess to it all and feels warm – and speaking of warm – I have been soaking up so much sunshine today that I had to come inside before i got sunburned – ahhhh so ready for summer yeah baby
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Yeah BABY! I shout for you and with you Y. It is here at last. I’m glad you like our little yard. Home sweet own space. ❤
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yes – home sweet own space – and maybe it also has a familiar western new york feel too – and now I am really very curious about what tree you end up getting. And I need to go back and share this on your other post about the tree, but in 2008 I had to replace a tree to the left of the driveway – and the one that did not get chosen was the weeping cherry – I will tell you what we did decide on instead – but my neighbor has a weeping cherry and it is a purdy little thing – she has a miniature one though – and maybe not the size you want.
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Thank you for the tree update. We may get one tomorrow, Y. We talked of it tonight sitting in our red chairs in home sweet own, in fact. 😉 Now a mini weeping cherry for the front instead has entered the contest. I know. That’s how we can roll. The next spring would come the tree for out back. One tree per year is our limit. 🙂
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well have fun deciding…
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It’s dumped down rain most of the day… but thankfully not before I could get the grass cut. May’s usually one of our peak months for thunderstorms, just a part of living in the Midwest.
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Just stay out of the way of the lightning bolts, even at Busch Stadium, Bill. 😮
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How nice for you to get a warm spell today! As you say, we may get rain, so I went out early with the push mower (to be kind and not awaken tired neighbors with the gas mower), and now my hands are calloused like a day laborer or my husband. 😉
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You are very thoughtful, Kerbey. To your neighbor and your calloused husband, both. Wow. I think your yard is WAY too large for a push reel mower.
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I only did the front, and we only live in .20 acres, so it’s subdivision teensy.
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Your backyard dog photos made my imagine larger. Say, .33 acres. 🙂 I applaud you with the quiet reel push nevertheless, Kerbey.
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Great weather up your way Mark! We are looking at 80s and 90s for the next five days, a bit of rain on Sunday they say. I went to the island and sat on the beach for a bit yesterday. Other than some high surf, which makes me want to get my boogie board out, we won’t see too much from Anna here…I hope!
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I hope Anna dodges your little piece of the pie, Kim. Happy May to you, my dear. 🙂
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Love seeing the moon in the day, great photo, Mark 🙂
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I was excited that I was up and out there early enough to catch the moon in action, Cathy. Thank you. 🙂
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I see it sometimes when I’m out early with the dog and then sometimes in the early evening. Lovely 🙂
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Yes, good job, Cathy, catching it coming and going! 🙂
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Here in England it’s going to rain. Your home patch looks great. 🙂
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You stay dry over there, Rachel. Thanks for the kind words on our patch. 🙂
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Another beautiful day in CNY. Enjoy!
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I have a feeling Michigan is right with us, Scott. 🙂 You, too.
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We just got the little one a 3 foot pool, and I can’t wait to get it set up and soak in it this summer. I am not sure who is more excited me or the little one! Try to stay cool Mark (That shouldn’t be hard for you ; 0 )
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I want a photo of the coolest one in the kiddie pool, UpMom, and that would be you. ;-o Smart summer acquisition.
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The only foreboding event we have is it is going to be in the 90s next week. Ugh.
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Ugh indeed, J. 😦
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We are expecting snow here in Boulder on Mother’s Day. That’s Colorado springtime for you!
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Sorry, Susie, but it will look pretty! As long as it melts quickly. We had three inches that stuck here in Central New York on a Mother’s Day in the early ’90s. I won’t forget that day.
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We are at a pretty high risk for tornados this weekend. My sister is gone for the weekend but I have the keys to her house with a basement so we may be spending tomorrow evening holed up there!
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Please be careful, Hollie. You and Owen get over there in the basement pronto at the first signal that the tornado threat is playing out. Oy. I’m worried for you two now.
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Don’t worry about me, it is Kansas we are used to it! We will get to the basement if there is a threat, she lives right across the street.
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OK, thanks for reassuring me. 🙂
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Very timely questions for me. It’s this time of year when L.A. and NY weather seem to reverse, and I know you know all about the May Gray, so that’s what’s happening right now. Temps are hovering in the 60s with little or no clearing in the afternoon which is kind of depressing for us as we have a trip planned to Legoland for my daughter’s birthday. They have a lot of water rides, in case you didn’t know. I think my daughter plans on getting wet, hell or high water (literally) so as long as she has fun…
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And I would think that 60s is even worse when you’ve had the 80s and sun already, Marissa. Us, 60s is bliss after the 10s and 20s and 30s, as you know so well.
I love your daughter’s water park Legoland spirit of adventure. May Gray be damned. Happy Birthday, Marissa’s child!!
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Yes, my blood has thinned since living in NY. Now 60s is long sleeved weather. I’m sure my daughter will be splashing around nonetheless and I will pass on your birthday wishes, thank you.
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Looks like beautiful days coming your way!
We are in the middle of “Tornado Week.” My parents have been sending me photos of golf ball size hail and we have threats of tornadoes for the next three days. For anyone who doesn’t live here, I know it can be a bit scary. But, like most Kansans…I kinda like tornado season in a very odd, twisted way. I have some great photos to show for it! That said, it’s all fun and mystery until somebody gets hurts or a town is flattened – that’s a real possibility and we have gotten very accustomed to spending nights in the basement.
Have a fantastic weekend, Mark!
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Michelle, you have just frightened the bejeebers out of me. Stay safe, storm hunter. Basement first, photos second, me dear friend.
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I know…I’m pretty bad about it. I’ve actually been struck by lightning before. See…now you know why I act the way that I do 🙂
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Come on. I know you have a sizzling personality, Michelle but that’s too much! Have you written about being struck by lightning?
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I wrote about it around last year at this time. That said, I made the post private because it’s one I submitted for publication to a journal. It was called “Storm Chaser” and still one of my favorite posts.
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Such different photos than what I am use to seeing on your site (snow, snow, and more snow). Looks absolutely beautiful Mark!
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Thanks, PJ. It’s our nice day this year! Hahaha.
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LOL!!
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It’s unusually warm here, in the mid-80’s for a week plus, which I don’t care for, but I suppose is alright compared to -40..I do enjoy sitting outside in the cool of the evening.
I think it has snowed here in May. I feel like that’s a thing, although I can’t remember when, or if someone told me that. I’ve seen it snow here quite a bit in April, and I think snow on tulips is quite pretty 🙂
This weekend promises guests. I’m making mini Monte Cristos. I suspect yard work. Pretty typical and happy 😀
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Mini Monte Cristos sounds fun. Pretty typical and happy sounds perfect for the second weekend in May, Joey. Yay.
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Sounds perfect Mark. 🙂 It snowed in Edmonton (3.5 hour drive north) yesterday and there’s a possibility that today’s rain in Calgary will turn into snow tonight. We have the weirdest weather…. ❤
Diana xo.
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Snow? Well, that would go good with our Calgary Flames’ drive for the Cup, I guess, Diana. ❤
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We’re having near record highs this week, too. In fact, we had to install the window AC in the living room yesterday – which is kind of silly because we’ll have to uninstall it Sunday night so that the new windows can be installed Monday morning.
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That’s a hopscotch move, CM. But do what you must to keep cool in upstate New York. Oy. 😮
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