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I always record the precipitation we receive at the house and recently did some annual totals to see where we ended up relative to average.  I look at annual precipitation from October to October, because that month is usually when we get our first snow of the season. Since we received our first snow of the season On October 4 of this year, I went back a year to the October 4 2010 as my starting point.  In order to convert snow to water equivalent, I use 8% multiplied by the snow received.  Its not exact, but probably good enough to get a ballpark figure.

Here’s the results:

• Rain:  9.41 inches
• Snow:  47.75 inches
• Total precipitation/water equivalent:  13.3 inches
• Average for Sedalia, CO:  18.25

We were only at around 72% of average, which actually is better than I thought because it seemed like it was a dryer year.  If you go 30 miles west of us, the mountains received record precipitation for the year due to the La Nina event.  And, if you go 50 miles north of us, they too, received above average precipitation.  We seemed to be just south of the dividing line for that above average moisture.

With La Nina returning this year, although not as strong as last year, according to early forecasts, we might have another dry year, but you never know.

Below are data graphs I’ve included.

Our road trip over Christmas included a 1 day 17 hour drive to California to the parents house – 4 days there – and a 3 day return trip through the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and Arches National Park. Photos and a Google KML map below.

Colorado to California

California

Grand Canyon

Monument Valley

Arches National Park

Click to download a Google Earth KML file of our route.

Video of me plowing the driveway.

2009_10_29_October_Snowstorm from Ed Soehnel on Vimeo.

Video of the dogs playing.

2009_10_29_October_Snowstorm_Dogs_Playing from Ed Soehnel on Vimeo.

Pictures below.

There are 2 pieces to this video. The first one was taken in August before I had started working on the driveway. The second piece was taken this weekend following completion of phase 1 work on the driveway, which was to channel water off of it to stop erosion.

2009_10_24_Driveway_Work from Ed Soehnel on Vimeo.

Pictures below of driveway work as it was getting completed.

Pictures from recent snow storm. We received about 6 inches.

Pictures from the NACS show in Las Vegas October 21 2009. I flew in day before to setup booth and worked the first day and flew home in the evening.

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Last two weeks of January included lots of work travel. I was only able to squeeze in one ride from home on January 19:

Conditions: Sunny and warm. 10 C / 50 F
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 45 minutes
Avg. Speed: 9.75 mph
Bike: Mountain
Device: Garmin Forerunner 205

Notes: Had a flight out later that day for Atlanta, so left work early. Beautiful January day with lots of sunshine and warmth.

View in Google Earth (KMZ File)

Bike – View in Google Maps






My travels took me first to Atlanta for a 3-day trade show that included 20 minute meetings with 50 retailers. The very next week, I had a similar trade show in Nashville that included 20 minute meetings with 45 retailers. Pretty grueling weeks with all the meeting and the weeks following these events are also rather busy with all the follow-up required. Both Atlanta and Nashville were cold with wintery weather more comparable to that we find in Denver than the southeast of the U.S. Did not bother me, as I spent the entire 3 days of each trip in the hotel.

Images from our plane ride to and from Atlanta are below. We flew private out of Centennial on a Gulfstream/Astra 100. Smooth flight up till Landing in Atlanta; winds were gusting and swirling, so while it made for an interesting landing in a small plane, we got down plenty fine.

From 2009_01_22_Atlanta_ECRM

I did most of the Nashville trade show myself, so flew out commercial. Flight was late getting out of Denver, but we had a monster tail wind (ground speed of 640 mph), so made up a little time. Coming back, flight late again, and we had a brutal head wind, so it was a long flight back to Denver. A few images of the hotel room in Nashville where we had our meetings are below. The trade show cleared out a hotel room for us and we setup with our product samples and poster. Every 20 minutes, a new retailer walks in for a face-to-face meeting.



From 2009_01_26_Nashville_ECRM

My flight routes for both trips is below.

View Atlanta Trip in Google Earth (KMZ File)

Atlanta Flights – View in Google Maps




View Nashville Trip in Google Earth (KMZ File)

Nashville Flights – View in Google Maps