Bragg Family South

As some of you have seen, my ability to predict the weather, is, well, pretty pathetic!! Only hours after stating in my last blog entry that we didn't expect to get hit by really bad weather on Saturday, a series of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes swept across southeastern Arkansas. One small town about a half-hour from Monticello called Dumas was struck pretty much head on by a couple of tornadoes. I don't think anyone was killed, but a number were injured and a bunch of homes, businesses, and other structures were damaged or destroyed. We weathered the storms fine, although we know some people in town who lost power briefly. We are on the second day of our Georgia trip, having arrived in Athens safely--no small feat, given the traffic around Atlanta! We actually took a leisurely drive from where we stayed yesterday near Birmingham, Alabama to northeastern Alabama and northwestern Georgia before braving the Atlanta traffic. We swung up to a place in NE Alabama called Little...

For all of you facing the prospects of a blizzard on this fine February morning, here is a picture showing that spring has arrived in Monticello... These daffodils are blooming all around this area, as are spring beauties, crocus, and other early spring plants. Within weeks the woods will be blossoming with other spring mainstays like redbud, dogwood, yellow jessamine, etc. Spring is a very good time to visit the South, as we have an early green-up and generally nice weather. However, there is a dark side to spring in this area. The snowstorm some of you will get this weekend translates to severe weather in our area, and though we haven't seen any yet, there is a good chance we'll have some thunderstorms today. The winds here are strong, the air is moist and feels unstable, and a cold front is approaching. If it was a little more unstable, we'd be really sweating it about tornadoes...but I don't think that's the case for us today. Regardless, I have been spending ...

As we told Mom and Dad Bragg and Mom and Dad Pruden yesterday, we just returned from a very positive doctor's appointment, and are happy to say that Baby #3 should be joining the Bragg Family South crew by September of 2007! Hope is about 11 weeks along, and we were able to hear a strong, 160-beat per minute heartbeat yesterday afternoon. This pregnancy has been going smoothly so far for Hope, so although we're not quite entirely out of the woods yet, we expect no problems! We had planned to surprise everybody when we head up to Rhinelander for Easter, but after 2 previous kids, the surprise factor isn't quite what it used to be... Needless to say, the impending arrival of #3 will mean some changes in our travel plans for this year. We don't expect to get up north over this summer, although we are thinking of a business-related trip to the Michigan area in October, and still are tentatively planning on coming up for Thanksgiving this year. We still fully expect to host ...

We are still plugging away at remodeling our Monticello home. Most recently, I replaced the guest room bathroom window to make it more air-tight. The old aluminum-framed window (which we are gradually replacing around the house) was single-paned and drafty--with the bathroom fan on, you could actually feel a cold breeze coming into the house. We are still working on getting more heat into this guestroom area, and this drafty window was a big part of the problem. We replaced the window with a sliding vinyl clad design that allows us better access to open, and is definitely more air-tight. The picture to the right is the new window, with freshly primed siding around it. It was actually pretty easy to get the window in, once the weather warmed enough... The old windows are also of a less-than-standard size, making their direct replacement a little challenging. We had planned on reframing the window and redoing the siding on the outside anyhow, but it took a little creativity to get the re...

I have decided to "upgrade" my Blogger account to the newer Google-based option, which doesn't seem to mean much of a difference. However, in doing so, I decided to go with a new look just to spice things up. Speaking of spicy, here's a Valentine card from Kenny and Beth--Kenny used one of his kid's art programs on his computer to generate the picture, and suggested the nature of the text, even though I typed it in. Hopefully, this card warms those of you in the frozen north...

I can just hear Brother Bill rolling his eyes to what I'm about to say, but back in MY DAY, they wouldn't have cancelled school because it was -20 degrees... In my 6 years at Michigan Tech, I remember only one period when they canceled school because of inclement weather, and that was an afternoon and the following morning when it was -30 or lower with heavy snow and wind. Speaking of cold and snow and MTU, here is a link to their webcams, for which you can see a now snow-filled campus with cold, clear skies (at least as of 4 pm today): http://www.admin.mtu.edu/urel/cams/ They did close school for a day or so here in Monticello around when we got the snow, but it wasn't because of bad road conditions or the cold--too many students and teachers were sick with the flu and other ailments for them to open the schools!! I don't remember them closing the entire school for sickness when I was a kid, but I do remember missing some days with illness. I was actually jealous ...

We awoke to a rare sight here in southern Arkansas--it snowed overnight, and we ended up with about an inch of snow on the ground! Hardly seems noticeable, given where I have spent most of my years, but it is quite an event here in the usually balmy south. The kids got to play in the snow for a while this morning, but I'm sure that it will be almost completely gone by this evening. I just returned from a meeting at a location just northeast of Atlanta, Georgia. We were worried about my return from this meeting, because a wintry mix was sweeping across the south during the time I was to depart. However, aside from a little sleet, snow, and freezing rain, I had no problems getting back to Little Rock. The meeting was designed to get the Southern Research Station research staff (scientists, mostly) up-to-speed on our recent reorganization. A good chance to network with other scientists, if nothing else... We have plans for a big Super Bowl party this Sunday at our house. Hope has...