Category Archives: weather

Let Kids Be Kids, FFS

politics, rhetoric, teaching, weather 2018.08.06 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

No more snow days: School district replaces wintry days with off with online classes (fox59.com) Back in 2014, when France made it illegal for companies to contact their employees about work-related business after six in the evening, a lot of pundits here in America used the opportunity to point out how the Internet, and the growing availability of powerful smartphones and tablets, were changing the fundamental nature of work and jobs. Plenty had already been written about how new technology was eating up people’s free…

Storm Junkie

mom, personal, toledo, weather 2018.07.30 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

A love of thunderstorms runs in my family, or at least on Mom’s side of the family. From my earliest days, before we even had cable so the Weather Channel could let us know what to expect and when (as much as weather forecasts are ever accurate), the arrival of a thunderstorm at our house often meant gathering in the living room, so we could look out the big windows as the clouds darkened and then flashed with lightning. Especially in the years before the…

Boom Boom, Out Go the Lights

personal, toledo, weather 2012.07.07 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

If you haven’t heard, there’s been a massive heatwave going through this part of the country for weeks now, resulting in some very high-power storms. One particular wave (one of the “bow echoes” you hear so much about) went through the central part of the state over a week ago, and some parts of the state are still without power. That storm passed south of us — we didn’t even get a sprinkle here in the northern part of the Toledo area — but on…

The End of the World as We Know It

internet, politics, weather 2010.05.26 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

While the rest of this city concerns itself with more trivial matters, I, for one, am wondering how long it will be until we get nuked. If you haven’t been paying attention to world affairs lately, South Korea has claimed that North Korea torpedoed one of its warships back in March, and now North Korea has cut off all ties with South Korea as the rest of the world, possibly even China, is backing the South Koreans. This isn’t the first time tension has flared…

Waiting for the Light

dad, family, Uncategorized, weather 2009.02.21 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

Monday will be one year since Dad died. In a lot of ways, though, today feels like the anniversary, because the 23rd fell on a Saturday last year. Having his death on a Saturday afternoon was especially painful for me, because when we were younger he’d always take me out to the mall to shop and play video games. (I’m only now beginning to realize that this was mostly done to get me out of the house for a few hours so Mom could have…