CATCHING UP...

10-22-16 Saturday dawn (click to enlarge)

October 22. Saturday morning a rather remarkable record of sorts was set...it was by far the latest ever I have recorded my first reading in the 30s to start our descent into the winter months.  Got down to 35 degrees about the time the above photo was taken at the end of Staymon.  Just in the prior days record highs were set in Asheville (84, 84) and Greenville-Spartanburg (89, 87)....and this after the warmest September on record for Asheville.

But now it finally feels like October, and the color is a bit behind schedule.  Rain has been hard to come by...picked up 0.42" with the Hurricane Matthew passage off the NC coast, and just 0.16" Friday with the cold front passage.  The leaves came down mightily Thursday and Friday in the windy conditions, totally covering portions of our roads, but there was a charm (if not a slippery one) driving through it.

Had a bizarre situation happen 2 weeks ago at the intersection of Hall Top and Mauney Cove.  A pickup truck had turned up onto Hall Top and stopped in the middle of the road...Bus #52 was coming down and had to stop...after being stopped for a minute, the truck ever so slowly backed up and headed back down Mauney, slowly at first...then faster and weaving and was far into the left lane, swerving to narrowly miss a red car coming up Mauney.  They then hit the brakes and threw the truck into reverse near the book store and came right at me.  I hit the horn and threw my car into reverse and thankfully no one was behind me.  Then a man came running up from the book store driveway yelling "Who fired that rifle?" at the gray truck who slowly turned into that drive and stopped, the man yelling at the driver to get out of the truck in colorful language...all that to say it was a very scary situation of someone either extremely drunk or high on drugs driving, and with the yelling about a rifle I got out of there as quickly as I could.  Never found out any more than that, and thankfully I didn't watch a potentially deadly head-on collision take place.

It was only a week before that that one of our residents was out for a night dog walk and saw a vehicle stopped with the interior cab light on. As they approached, the driver was clearly visible shooting up drugs in his arm. The walker turned on their flashlight and told them to get the hell out of here and they sped off.  Unfortunately, they were unable to get a tag # but did what we all should do when we see something like that: call the sheriff (828-452-6666).  It wasn't a resident of ACA, but a stark reminder that we are not immune to society's ills here on our mountain.  Everyone's vigilance is greatly appreciated.

If you love the Farmer's Almanac, it calls for a snowy cold winter here...but it is odd man out stacked against National Weather Service long range forecasts.  Most models say we'll stay above average for temps into December, and then be right around average for temps into 2017.  Precipitation may still be hard to come by for a while as we have seen a parade of high pressure cells set up over the Southeast which is supposed to continue.  Not that we won't get some solid cold snaps and hits of good rain once in a while, mind you, it's just the overall trend at this time.  The upside is I'm loving my utility bills so far.  :-)


Bob