Since 2008, I've been collecting weather observations in my backyard with a Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2 Wireless Weather Station. Beyond routine maintenance and an occasional replacement or addition of parts, the weather station has been rock solid.

I've heard lots of opinions these past couple months from family and friends that vaccines against COVID-19 work. I've also heard from other family members and friends, some of them anti-vaccine folks, that if/once you have survived COVID-19 you have natural immunity that protects you during future exposures to the virus. To me, the comforting news is the numbers collected here in South Dakota, both sides of this discussion are correct.

Month after month, analysis by local papers and our hospital system have consistently shown the following to be true.

When I'm not able to visit with family or travel to some place warm during the holiday season, my most favorite time of the year to work is the week between Christmas and the New Year. For the holidays, most of the office staff is on vacation, most of my organization's leadership is on vacation, and most on-going projects have been put on hold. In other words, I have found there is no other week of the year with fewer distractions than this week.

It has been no secret that since the start of the pandemic, I've been obsessed with vinyl records all over again. Part of my interest is out of nostalgia for my old records but I've also bought a lot of new music also being released on vinyl. And you know what? I'm not alone. Weekly sales in the United States of vinyl albums jumped to their second largest week since the MRC Data tracking of sales in 1991. According to Billboard.com:

The third feature release of Drupal 9 recently became available. New features and improvements in Drupal 9.3.0 include:

With today's winter storm bringing 6 to 10 inches of snow across the area, I decided to start snow blowing before the snow even ended. I'll do cleanup Saturday morning.

Below is just a quick video from the security camera of snow blowing with my EGO Single-Stage Snowblower.

Well we made it to December, but it won't be long before Sioux Falls other parts of the upper plains get hit with it's first Winter Storm. Here in Sioux Falls, the current forecast is calling around 9 inches of snow during the day Friday. Snow amounts in a forecast are subject to change as the actual event arrives but overall our local National Weather Service office does a great job in forecasting these winter storms. The above graphic and the below description is from the NWS Weather Story that was posted on their page late Thursday afternoon, December 9, 2021.

For two-wheeled motorcyclists a 382 mile trip is quite doable but can still be a challenging trip when crossing the high plains and mountains. Only the dumbest people would do such a lengthy trip two-up on a mini bike though. If you recall that's what exactly happened in the movie Dumb and Dumber with the shows two main characters, Lloyd Christmas (played by Jim Carrey) and Harry Dunne (played by Jeff Daniels).

But if the mini bike scene in the movie isn't funny enough for you, what would happen if you made this same trip from the plains of Nebraska to Aspen, Colorado for real? That's exactly what Zack Courts and Ari Henning did in a YouTube video for RevZilla and Common Thread XP.