Commissioner Goodell has decided to award the Steelers the AFC North title 2 months before the season begins. At a press conference today, Goodell explained that "Well, the Ravens were a great story last year, but Joe Flacco’s reciever situation is just screaming “Sophomore Slump”. We at league headquarters decided that, as the Steelers were the only other NFL team in the AFC North, they would be given the title due to lack of credible opposition. Now Steelers fans can wear their 2009 AFC North Champions gear to training camp. Oh, and we’ve also decided to make Randy Moss and Tom Brady Co- NFL MVPs for this season and Coach Belichick coach of the year for life. That will be all."

You will probably not notice the “take better care” issues. Our big parks get a lot of use and are probably reasonably cared for, but if you want to avoid those issues, backpack into the real wilderness for a few days and you probably won’t see anybody or any sign that human have or have not been taking care.

I’d also suggest Glacier Park in Montana (you can blend it with a trip to the adjacent international peace park in Canada) before the glaciers melt away in a couple decades. I went in Sept 1991 and it was stunningly beautiful, peaceful, and empty. Also the time of year when Bears are pretty active—twice in one week I came off a trail only to see that it had been “closed” while I was out because of aggressive bear activity. oops. Still hoping to hear a pack of wild wolves howling at night. Probably make me pee in my tent, but want to hear it anyway.

Thanks!

How often does it NOT rain.

Joking. From Oct 1 through about April 30, you can expect gray skies 85% of the time, some sort of precipitation about 60% of the time, and actual, measurable rain, maybe 40% of the time. What’s the math there… 153 gray days (suicide alert!) 108 days with at least mist (slippery suicide alert!) and 72 actual rainy days (learn to swim already!). Hmm, that might be overstating it a bit, but probably not far off. My oldest son’s last two fall flag football seasons had one wet game each year spanning 7 weeks from Sept to Nov. We all noted how lucky we were, but maybe that’s the norm—hard to say. Some days in January you think back and cannot remember the last dry day—might be two weeks ago, or two days, but they all tend to blend together. A couple buddies and I used to go camping in January because, what the hell, can’t change the weather, so might as well ignore it. We’d just laugh at how bad trail conditions were, see how deeply we could sink in the mud. I’ve golfed and skied and hiked in the rain a significant percentage of the times I’ve done those activities.

But then summer comes and this May/June, for example, we had a record 30 days with no measurable precip, and if memory serves, no clouds. The little strawberry plot we have in front of our suburban home exploded with fruit. For me, the great part is the delta from daytime to nighttime temps in summer. Living in NY there was almost no difference—On days that were 85 degrees, I’d go to sleep and it was still 80 at midnight. The next morning, it might have dropped all the way to 72. Ugh. There’s no relief from the heat. Here, when it’s 85 during the day, it can still drop to 60 at night, meaning the next day might be sunny, but does not feel “hot” til afternoon. Then again, I like it cold. On vacation in the high desert of southern Oregon (Sun River, altitude about 4,000 ft) it might have hit 90 in the day, but dropped to the 50s at night. That was pretty cool. And as they say, a dry heat.