Blogger in Paradise

Mere fractions of a second separated the top three drivers during Saturday’s swamp buggy racing time trials. Swamp buggy racing is nuts, but really fun. If you haven’t been to a race, now’s the time to go. Read More.

Greenling Fastest

Monday, December 12, 2011

Two top U.S. hurricane forecasters, revered like rock stars in Deep South hurricane country, are quitting the practice because it doesn’t work.

William Gray and Phil Klotzbach say a look back shows their past 20 years of forecasts had no value.

The two scientists from Colorado State University will still discuss different probabilities as hurricane seasons approach — a much more cautious approach. But the shift signals how far humans are, even with supercomputers, from truly knowing what our weather will do next.

Gray, recently joined by Klotzbach, has been known for decades for an annual forecast of how many hurricanes can be expected each official hurricane season (which runs from June to November.) Southerners hang on his words, as even a mid-sized hurricane can cause billions in damage.

Last week, the pair dropped this announcement out of a clear, blue sky:

“We are discontinuing our early December quantitative hurricane forecast for the next year … Our early December Atlantic basin seasonal hurricane forecasts of the last 20 years have not shown real-time forecast skill even though the hindcast studies on which they were based had considerable skill.”

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Dining out is one the fun things to do in the area. We have lots of great restaurants of all kinds and price ranges. The Golden Spoon Awards just came out. Here’s who made it. Try them out.

The Golden Spoon Award Winners -
The Perfect Caper, Punta Gorda
Café & Bar Lurcat, Naples
M Waterfront Grille, Naples
Sea Salt, Naples
Turtle Club, Naples

Golden Spoon Awards: Best New –
Figs Grille, Bonita Springs
Lush, Fort Myers

Golden Spoon Awards: Hall of Fame –
The Grill at The Ritz-Carlton, Naples

Locally caught stone crab claws ‘the golden nectar of the sea’. Season begins Saturday and runs through May 15.

Read More.

Chesser  amassed more than enough points to clinch the crown. See photos and Read More.

Instead of carrying around lots of pictures of our “kid” in my wallet like most proud parents do, I’m just posting some more here for my friends to see.  He’s doing great and is now 32 lbs at 15 weeks. He’s got his stay, come, heel, and sit and lie down commands down pretty well. He greets all the neighbors on his walks and is having a darn good time. Click the pics for the whole picture.

Taking a moment to rest

Puppy at the ready.

On the march

PHOTOS: Swamp Buggies: Greenling edges emotional Chesser for Budweiser Fall Classic title. See and Read More.

Here’s a link to pictures of the Swamp Buggy Parade in Naples. The Swamp Buggy races happen a couple time a year and their pretty fun. Here’s the link. And here’s a link to their web site. Gotta go to one.

Swamp Buggy Racing

There’s a Corvette show in Cape Coral on Saturday. Read More and Go!

Looking handsome at about 12 weeks.

He’s here! – our new boy. We don’t have kids so our dogs substitute for them. This dog is the son of VA 9 Paul vom Bierstadter Hof and Destiny Wilhendorf. Paul is rated one of the top german shepherds in the world (#9) and Destiny is rated number 2 female in the United States. We’re very lucky to get a dog of such lineage and proud to be the new “parents”. His official name is Jens von den Oher Tannen. Here is a link to more pictures of Paul and here’s a link to Destiny in action – wow! Incredible dogs. On Paul’s page there are some links just below his picture of him in action. I just got home with our puppy and as any other doting parent, I’ll be adding more pics as we go along. Here are pics of his real dad and mom. If you click the pics, you’ll get a larger version of them.

VA-9-Paul-vom-Bierstadter-Hof

V5 (LG Germany) Destiny von Wilhendorf

Waterfront dining in Bonita Springs is limited. Getting something to eat while you’re still on the water is even more challenging. This adds another dimension to a day on the water.  Read More.

Thank goodness our county leaders listened and managed to keep from raising our taxes. I expected at least a small raise, but they did their job and kept it down during these tough times.  Read More.

Don’t usually cover something like this, but I thought it amusing. Read More.

For all of you bikers of the non-motorized variety, the bike path over the bridge to Sanibel opens today. You can bike from the Fort Myers side over the causeway to Sanibel and all over the island. Take a look at the Video -> Read More.