It’s coming close to the deadline to call it a wrap even though most of us know it’s a wrap. I have a feeling that not one person from any of the cities behind Syracuse want to make a late run in the next few days. Not with the halfway decent weather we have been having. On a pessimistic note, don’t forget it has snowed on Mothers Day before and I still can’t get the Balloon Fest weekend from last year in June out of my mind. The worst weather I can remember for June. Here’s hoping for a gradual climb in the temps and lots of sunny days ahead.

I personally have been enjoying the weather in the 50’s and 60’s. Squeezing in a couple of Herkimer college softball games and several of my sons ESM baseball games which I’m off to watch in a minute. Just a quick check in to say I hope you are all enjoying the somewhat decent weather. Have a Super Weekend All!

I’ve received a few emails about the shopping coupons for the stores that we have listed online. The biggest problem seems to be that when someone clicks on the link for coupons it doesn’t show any. Just a quick explanation as how to use the little store front that as on goldensnowball.com. There are two ways to search for coupons. One is to click on the coupons link and then click on a store your interested in. The other is to click on the store first and then click on the coupons link. It’s kind of simple but can be a little confusing.

The stores are companies that we have relationships with and are very trust worthy and secure. Below is a brief description of each of them and Yes this is a shameless plug for shopping and yes there are some great deals out there 😉

AC Lens – sells contact lenses at discount prices, glasses and you get the drift.

Amazon – probably one of if not the biggest shopping site online and carries every product you can think of.

Apple – No they don’t sell fruit but they sell ipods, iphones, itunes and more.

BackCountry – a great shopping site for our area. They sell winter gear, clothing, skiing stuff and a lot more. Right now is a good time to check them out for the off season deals they have.

Bass Pro Shops – every outdoors man know about them. Good prices on fishing gear, hunting, camping equipment, boating stuff and a ton of other things.

Blair – mens and womens clothing at decent prices. One thing cool about Blair is their 7 day sale where the prices come down each day. The only thing though is that the stuff sells out fast once the price gets so low that they might not have your sizes but if they do the prices are ridiculous.

Buying Bar Stools – the name pretty much says it all. A ton of stools and bars, glasses, tables and pretty much anything to do with a bar set up.

Cats Play – if you own a cat then check them out. They have a ton of cat furniture, scratch pads and they also have carriers for cats and dogs and dog houses that are pretty cool.

Collectibles Today – they have collectibles, go figure. They are one of the more popular shopping sites online for collectibles and they have Hamilton collectibles, angels, Hawthorne villages, Thomas Kinkade collectibles and yada, yada, yada 🙂

Comp USA – they have good deals on computers, laptops, computer parts and software and more.

Crazy For Bargains – Pajamas and lots of them. They have great prices on kids pajamas with themes such as Batman, Spiderman, Superman and a lot of others. They also carry pajamas for men and women.

Easy Click Travel – Good Guess! If your looking to get away from our great weather they normally have some decent deals on vacations, car rentals, hotel rooms and cruises. Enough said!

Ebags – A ton of handbags and purses, luggage, brief cases, laptop cases and they do have some good prices.

Eddie Bauer – men’s and women’s clothing and apparel, shoes and more.

Emitations – they sell affordable jewelry including necklaces, bracelets, anklets and more. Gold, silver jewelry with reasonable price tags.

Figleaves – one of the popular sites for womens intimates. Shop for bras, lingerie, swimwear, underwear, sleepwear and more. They also carry plus size apparel and have a mens section also.

Football Fanatics – sports apparel and lots of it. Also sports memorabilia including a ton of Syracuse shirts, sweatshirts and other products. Sorry Sabres fans but there isn’t a whole lot of stuff for them but they have a ton of Buffalo Bills apparel and memorabilia. Baseball, hockey, football, college and basketball clothing and other stuff. This is one of my favorite sports shops online.

The Home Shopping Network – most have heard of them but just in case they sell women’s clothing, toys, jewelry, arts and crafts, etc, etc. Can you tell I’m getting bored typing all of this 🙁

Lamps Plus – here you can buy any kind of lamp or lighting that you are looking for. Ceiling lights, table lamps, desk lamps, fans, outdoor lighting and even lava lamps. One of the biggest lighting stores online with some really good everyday prices.

Playful Plush Toys – a neat little site for plush toys, stuffed animals and tv characters, figures and too much to name. Care Bear toys, Dora that little explorer, sesame street characters, disney and more. Some cute stuff.

Rugman – Rugs, Rugs, Rugs and lots of them. They always have some kind of rug special going on. The carry oriental and Indian rugs, Chinese, runners for your hallways, Persian and rugs of all styles and sizes. Definitely worth checking out.

Enough for now and I’ll update the other stores soon! The shopping section is on here for 2 reasons. To help you save which you really can and to make me a millionaire. The millionaire part isn’t ever going to happen so make sure you check out the coupons and save. Hey, Have a Super Nice Weekend All!

It took a couple of weeks but I finally was able to get through to Mother Nature. She said her phone has been ringing non stop and that she was doing her best to please everyone. She also said not to be blaming her and mentioned something about Global Warming, El Nino and a few other things. To sum it up she said look for better days ahead. Lets just hope she’s not playing with us and throwing some of them teaser days at us.

Eric from the Syracuse area who drops me some great emails with great info from time to time sent me this picture which sums up our Spring so far and hopefully our Spring of the past. Great Picture Eric!!! Just click on it to enlarge it.

Yesterday was gorgeous and today is even nicer. This weekend is suppose to be picture perfect with the temperatures hanging around 70 degrees and sunny. I’m really missing the sounds of spring. One of my favorites is “Play Ball” and the sound of the bats beating on a baseball or softball. Believe it or not my daughter who plays for Herkimer Community College softball team was able to squeeze in a couple of games on Monday against the Adirondack Community softball team. Of course it was at an inside ball field.

I think the sweetest smell that I am waiting for is the smell of the grass being cut for the first time. I can’t remember when we all started last year but it seems like we might of cut it by this date. One thing I know is that we cut the lawn a lot last year because of all the rain we received. I also remember last year that almost every time we had a party or picnic that it rained. The worse of last years weather was on the weekend of the Jamesville Balloon Fest which I believe is normally the second weekend of June. It was the coldest that I could remember with wind chills in the 30’s.

Not this year! I’m looking forward to a nice sunny Spring – Summer time from here on out. Yeah, I’m an optimist if you didn’t know by now. Have a great day all!

For some reason I woke up this morning with the song “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” stuck in my head. No lie! Maybe it’s because I still haven’t gotten over the fact that we had a green Christmas this year. Kind of twisted if you ask me and I know, I need to get over it. Even more twisted is that we have probably half a foot or so of snow on the ground on April 16th and it’s still coming down. I’ve been wathing the Weather Channel and they are back in town reporting. They interviewed the Mayor Matt Driscoll who had to cancel a golf outing : )

The kids gotta love it getting an extended Spring vacation with a snow day today. It might be a good idea to keep the kids inside today for the fact that branches and power lines have been coming down. I looked out the window this morning to see several branches down. One at my house and a couple at the neighbors Frank and Donna’s house across the street. The power lines are sagging but holding so far but reading some of the news reports it doesn’t look like everyone has been as lucky so far. Over 70,000 without power across the state including some in the Syracuse area with some tree’s and power lines down. Sean Kirst at Syracuse.com said a tree is down in his neck of the woods and around here the fire trucks have been busy heading up my street a good part of the morning most likely for the same reason.

Crank up the heat. For those of you that don’t have wood stoves or fire places I suggest you crank your heat up just in case. It’s kind of a ritual here when a storm with heavy snow or ice hits here. Crank the heat up and if you lose power that will buy you a few more hours of warmth. I’ll be crunching some numbers later in the day when all of the snow stats are reported from NOAA. Lets just hope this is it for the season because it’s getting old even for me. Have a great week all and stay safe!

Blame it on El Nino, global warming, the snowman shaving a little later than normal or even the Snow God being accidentally left out a little too long this year. It doesn’t matter where the blame lies, another snow storm is starting to look like it is going to happen. It’s still a day away and if we are lucky the winds will shift more to the East and push this storm off to the sea. That’s wishful thinking though and probably isn’t going to happen. A small shift of the Nor Easter one way or another will make a big difference though as to who is going to get the brunt of the storm.

I’m reading different forecasts for this and it’s looking like most of us will most likely see 7 inches or more along with some strong winds. The chances are that with the temps somewhat warm the snow will be heavy weight wise and with the winds there could be some power outages so tune up the generators just in case. Steve aka- The General noted that this could be one for the record books as far as it being the latest storm of a season on record. He also posted some good 2006 – 2007 stats in the forum which are below.

I posted at the beginning of the season that I thought this would be a season where Nor’ Easters would come into play and unfortunately that is happening. But who would of thought we would be talking about one in the middle of April? Not me! Keep an eye on the weather come Sunday thru Monday and if this pans out take it slow on the roads or better yet take a 3 day weekend. The storms that come from the South are hard to predict exactly what they will do and where they will hit so nothing is a sure bet yet and I’ll post more as the info comes in and check with your favorite meteorologists as to whats going on. SEE SNOW – DRIVE SLOW!

S0 Far This Season – Stats Courtesy of Steve Madsen (Buffalo)

In the process of number crunching for the 06-07 season… OH BABY! Enjoy!

Season Start / End Dates, Season Durations
Earliest Start for a season:___Oct. 12___Alpha___2006 – 07 – BROKE RECORD BY 21 DAYS!!!
Latest Start for a season:___Dec. 20___Albatross___2001 – 02

Earliest End for a season:___Jan. 16___Io___1998 – 99
Latest End for a season:___Apr. 8___Nematodet___2006 – 07 – BROKE RECORD BY 13 DAYS!!!

Longest Season (start – end):_____179 days_____2006 – 07 – BROKE RECORD BY 45 DAYS!!!
Shortest Season (start – end):_____57 days_____1998 – 99
Average Season Length:____98 days

Number of Storms
Most Storms in one season:_____14_____2006 – 07 & 2002 – 03
Least Storms in one season:_____6_____2001 – 02
Average Storms per season:_____9.75

Counting the Days
Longest single storm:___10 days___Feb. 3 – Feb.. 12___Locust 2006 – 07

Longest span with no storms:___48 days___Feb. 16 – Apr. 04___2006 – 07

Storm Days – (number of days in a season where a named lake effect storm was active).
Most Storm Days:_____29_____2005 – 2006
Least Storm Days:_____16_____2004 – 05 & 1999 – 00
Average Storm Days per season:_____22.13

Storm Length Days – (average length of storms in a season by days).
Highest Storm Length Days:_____3.50_____2001 – 02
Lowest Storm Length Days:_____1.78_____2004 – 05
Average Storm Length Days:_____2.27

% Storm Days per Season – (ratio of storm days to the total number of days included in that season, the resulting number represents the percent of days during a season where a lake effect storm was active).
Highest % Storm Days per Season:_____0.15 (15%)_____1999 – 00
Highest % Storm Days per Season:_____0.35 (35%)_____2003 – 04
Average % Storm Days per Season:_____0.23 (23%)

Flake Scale Ratings
Highest Flake Scale Rating Average:_____2.83_____2001 – 02
Lowest Flake Scale Rating Average:_____2.00_____2004 – 05
Average Flake Scale Rating Average:_____2.40

Break Down of Storms by Rating & Percent of Total Storms
<1 Flake>_____19 Storms_____24%
<2 Flake>_____28 Storms_____36%
<3 Flake>_____18 Storms_____23%
<4 Flake>_____09 Storms_____12%
<5 Flake>_____04 Storms_____05%

Break Down of Storms by Month & Percent of Total Storms
________10 Storms________13%
________30 Storms________39%
________19 Storms________24%
________12 Storms________15%
________07 Storms________09%

Breakdown of Average Flake Rating by Month
________2.88
________3.13
________2.67
________2.89
________2.17

Have a Great Weekend All!

One of my favorite seasons of the year, Spring, is slowly slipping away and cabin fever has finally set in. Enough Already! Bring on the sunny 50 – 60 degree days that we should be getting right now.

An inch here and there since the last update and unfortunately snow is in the forecast for the next severeral days. Also in the forecast is the posibility of a Nor Easter for Sunday night and Monday. All we can do is to hope that the temperatures are warm enough so that we get rain and not snow for that event. You know it’s been a long winter when I’m hoping for rain instead of snow 🙁 Like I said, Spring is one of my favorite seasons and it’s just not happening this year. The average temperature should be in the 50’s right now. We’ve all been lucky just to break the 40 degree mark.

NYCO, are you sure the Snow God is put away? Did it manage to some how sneak out of the closet and turn itself back on? Ummm, maybe if you take the light bulb out that will help to bring on Spring? It’s time for my yearly ritual of shaving the winter beard. If that doesn’t work we could be in trouble. I’ll be shaving in the next 10 minutes so look for the radars to do some wierd things in the next day or two. I’m starting to wonder if it’s not time to move to some place warm and sunny for the winter. Maybe some place like Albany 😉 Have a great day all!