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The past week has been the most uncomfortable SoCal heat wave since Liz moved here in 2013, and it started when we were in Spain. The humidity was up, so low temps were in the mid-70's for a week. That meant running the A/C 10-12 hours per day and not opening windows. Last night was the...

Liz still likes to have her powder skis on destination trips just in case, though we will each take one pair in a combined ski bag this month. I have rarely used Southwest for skiing. They do fly more from Burbank to Salt Lake and Denver than other airlines, which is convenient for me, but...

That could be. The 1940's-1970's were a sustained overall pause in global warming. However my college years 1971-1974 fit the negative stereotype perfectly: tons of rain (125% of normal in Central Park) and never more than 4 inches of snow at one time. But that was New Jersey. Maybe upper NY...

That picture is an excellent graphic representation of ski areas on Chilean volcanoes. Villarica at latitude 39 is only 9,200 feet tall (same parameters as Palisades Tahoe) but has a glacier on its south side. Why is that? Summers are cooler than the comparable latitudes in North America...

This week PeakRankings published an interesting history of South America's ski industry. Most of their content is in video format, but the link above is text.

Every ski area within a resort cluster is likely to have bad season at the same time. There is no Southern Hemisphere region safe to target far ahead. Nonetheless I followed that advice personally only for the two Las Lenas trips in 2005 and 2015 and the one upcoming. The others? late August...

These areas are 3.5 hours from Toulouse and 4 hours from Barcelona. The latter drive is fairly efficient on the plains, just entering the Pyrenees at the end, average speed 90km/hr. Once in the Pyrenees it's slow going, moving west to east: Candanchu - Grand Tourmalet 3+ hours, 50km/hr. Grand...

That rain runnel pic is the worst I've ever seen, which is saying something after my experience at Great Northern in 2005. I'm a bit worried about how much Liz will have suffer to attain her 7th continent in 2028. With the eclipse being July 22, skiing will be no later than early August. I...

Zero effect on precipitation in Northeast from El Nino. If it's warmer than normal, that's an obvious negative. Is there such a thing as an overall dry Northeast winter? All the bad ones I recall were warm with a lot of rain. I'll bet that standard deviations of precipitation in the...

I can still see where I'm going and the snow right under my feet without glasses. Just don't expect me to identify my ski companions at distance unless they are wearing distinctive clothing! That said, I have traditionally worn glasses instead of goggles much more often than most people, even...

That's a rather narrow perk. If you buy anything other than basic economy, seat selection at time of booking is routine. And if you want FF miles (the point of having an airline credit card and paying an annual fee) you're not booking basic economy.

1968 was the year with maximum unrest in the US in my lifetime: MLK and RFK assassinations, lots of inner city riots plus Vietnam protests. 2020 had some parallels. Some of my still Republican friends took exception when I said the 2020 election was 1968 minus Nixon: Biden = Hubert Humphrey...

That's total conformity with what most airlines do. So the only reason to fly Southwest now is if they beat the price and convenience criteria vs. other airlines. That may still be true for the high volume routes in California and Texas.

There's an oxymoron if I ever heard one!

Paul Krugman (economist and staunch Democrat all his life) is running a series of e-mails on the subject over the past few weeks. Some details are paywalled. 1) He blames the dangerous level of deficits all on the Bush 2 and Trump tax cuts. IMHO there is room for debate on some of the Obama...

Only federal agencies are required to make these changes. Apple Maps has "Gulf of America" but has not yet changed Lake Ontario.

Political comments are moved here.

I'm guessing these name changes don't show up if you load Google Maps from an IP address outside the USA. Perhaps sbooker or a Canadian user can verify this. As for the idiotic new Canadian tariffs, evidently they are somewhat narrow in scope and a plaintiff has yet to be found willing to file...

But not foreign airlines per James' experience? My friend Richard and I did that once. He used my miles to fly Air France to Morocco. I used his American miles somewhere in the South Pacific I think. Richard had a lot of business travel when working for Transamerica, retired at the end of...

I'm fairly sure we can ski gravity from El Colorado to the Valle Nevado ticket office on day one, show our Ikons and get the local resort card. The Valle Nevado–La Parva interconnection add-on seems not worth the hassle for us if you can't even find out its price online. It must be easier...