Travis Pettijohn: Blog

There's no air conditioning here. In my bedroom, it was 92 degrees Fahrenheit when I decided to go to bed. I had a fan on the foot of the bed blowing over my entire body. When the side in contact with the mattress would get sweaty, I'd roll over and let that side get some airflow. This morning when I woke up, it was still in the mid-eightys.

Ahh, the joys of apartment life: Parking outside. My car was covered in a sheet of ice this morning. When the door wouldn't open, I punched the seams around the door to crack the ice so that it would budge. And the ice was too thick for the scraper, until I realized that it has a "claw" side opposite the scraper side, which was enough to break it up. But the ground was covered in ice, too, so as I pushed against the glass with the scraper, my feed slid away. Fun!

I went storm chasing today! Well...almost. The NWS issued a tornado warning citing funnel clouds about 20 miles south-west of us. Kenny, who has a degree in meteorology, announced he was going to check it out. I asked if I could come, so he took me. We left and looked around and decided that the NSW was late issuing the warning and that the "good part" of the storm was already past us. Boo. Sure enough...by the time we got back (not even ten minutes later), the warning had been canceled for our area. Maybe next time! I have a life goal of seeing a tornado. I've seen dustdevils twice, but they were teeny. I actually saw one a little over a week ago. It was in a dry, empty cornfield on a warm sunny day. I was driving back to Champaign from the suburbs. I thought it was a flock of birds circling, but as it crossed the road in front of me, I noticed that the things in the air were actually bits of debris like corn husks. It was pretty cool, but I still want to see a tornado!

Since we had rain last night, there were worms all over the parking lot at work. I scooped a few up and put them in a paper cup. Then I took them fishing after work. At first, I just stuck the worm through the hook in one spot. I cast out the line. There was a nibble. I yanked. Then nothing. I reeled it in and the worm was gone. I did it again. Then I tried double hooking the worm. Eventually I tried feeding the worm over the hook like a tube sock over a foot. That worked a little better. I don't think the worms were as attractive to the fish since they weren't wriggling around. But I caught one little crappie, just a 4-incher. Not a bad day, but I wish I knew what I was doing. Does anyone have any (qualified) advice?

I was at Schnuck's yesterday digging through the spice rack. I came across a vanilla bean. I picked up the $10 glass jar and noticed that it contained one bean. It was a proportionally giant jar with one scrawny little vanilla bean in it. It looked so goofy, it made me laugh right there in the aisle.

The weather today, as many of you know, is bad. The temperature has been right around thee freezing point, and it's been raining. That, of course, leads to freezing rain. I was driving this evening and all of the sudden I saw this huge sheet of ice falling. I think it was about four feet by one foot in size, just falling down in front of my car. At first, I was confused. I thought the sky was crumbling. I slowed down to give it time to reach the ground. I looked up and noticed power lines. The ice had formed on the power lines and fell right as I drove past it. How crazy is that?

As I was turning a corner, I watched the person turning in front of me slide across both lanes and smack into the pile of snow on the far curb. Way to slow down for the ice, buddy. I let him back out and then head down the street. I kept an ample following distance. Fortunately, this was in a quiet neighborhood street in Savoy, so there was no real danger.

Iffy and I watched Friends, then he came with me to The Fitness Center. He's using a seven day free pass. It was nice having a friend there with me. I don't mind going alone, but it's a little better when you know someone.

I got home from working out after 9. I had some chili for dinner. Right now, I have some blueberry muffins in the oven. The only problem is that I don't have a muffin pan, so instead I'm using a bread pan. So I guess I should say I have a blueberry loaf in the oven. It should work just fine. If it does, I think I'll bring it into the office tomorrow. Otherwise, I won't. We have a meeting at ten, so I have to actually wake up at a "normal" hour. Yuck. I really like that most nights, I don't set an alarm; when I wake up, I go to work. Tomorrow, I have to get up at like 8:30 or 9:00. That's rough. Just kidding :)