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Yeah, yeah, I know it’s early, but the chance of some wet snow this weekend, gets snowboarders and skiers like me excited. It won’t amount to much, maybe, a dusting in the higher elevations of the Northwest Hills at best.

On Wednesday, Sunday River in Maine became the first Northeastern resort to open, although they plan to close on Sunday. It’s more intended as bragging rights for being first and good PR . Check out its Live Cam to see for yourself.

Nonetheless, I’ll take it anyway because it gets me thinking about the upcoming snowsports season. And this year, we’re planning something different on the Connecticut Post’s and our sister newspapers Web sites – a page dedicated exclusively to snowsports. The latest snow conditions, blogs, stories, best deals, videos, photos, loaded with links to provide a whole blizzard of information. And there will be plenty of opportunity for readers not only to comment, but participate.

We’re in the process of developing the site and are looking for some suggestions, guidance or maybe you’d like to write a blog for us. So shoot me an e-mail at jshay@ctpost.com

 One thing that we’ll be doing on the site is providing you with the best deals out there. Here’s one that ends today at midnight….$50 lift tickets at Killington in Vermont, the largest ski resort in the East. That’s a savings of  up to than $32! Click here for details.

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If you ride Metro-North often, you already know the usual causes for train delays. Downed power lines, “police incidents,” flooding, snow, extreme heat and cold.

But here’s one I never heard about: Slippery rail.

Huh?

OK … here’s how Metro-North describes it:

“In autumns past, you may have heard our train crews mention “slip-slide” to explain minor service delays you may have recently experienced. This condition is created by a slimy substance left by crushed leaves on our rails that gets even more slippery and slimy after it rains. When a train attempts to speed up or slow down, this gelatinous “slime” can cause the wheels to slip or slide along the rails. In severe cases the train will automatically make an emergency stop,because the on-board computer system perceives “slip-sliding” as excessive speed. 

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How often do you get to meet someone who walked on the moon?
Not often. Especially since of the 12 men who walked on the moon, only nine are still alive.
One of them is Alan Bean, pictured right, the fourth man to walk on the moon and the lunar module pilot of Apollo 12, the second manned lunar mission.
Bean, who is also an artist, will be at the Greenwich Workshop Gallery on Main Street in downtown Seymour on Saturday Nov. 14, signing his work. There will also be a preview of his work the night before.

Click here for the details.

Having met Bean several times, I can tell you he is a gracious, unassuming and (no pun intended) down-to-Earth kind of guy. He’s the kind of person, you can walk right up to, shake his hand and carry on an easy conversation.

When the 77-year-old Bean comes to Seymour it will be 40 years TO THE DAY when he and fellow astronaut Pete Conrad (now deceased) blasted off on their moon mission. They walked on the lunar surface five days later. Most people today missed the six manned moon landings since about two-thirds of the earth’s population wasn’t even born yet.
In a time where professional sports players and reality TV stars are treated like heroes, it’s not often when you meet a real one like Alan Bean who traveled to the moon and back.

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It was a great weekend to be a Connecticut Yankee.  Good weather, great fall foliage and wonderful towns, parks and a few awesome restaurants along the way.

My wife Sharon, and I took a whirlwind tour of Connecticut this past weekend and saw some beautiful sights that made us happy we live in Connecticut. Forget the high taxes, stressful commutes and tough economy…  lets get to the basic fact that we live in a nice part of the country.

We hit the shoreline, headed up into the heart of eastern Connecticut, enjoyed the Connecticut River and moved on.

The next day we went to northwest Connecticut to Litchfield, Cornwall and along the Housatonic River that ends in Milford and Stratford.

The video I posted is just a little bit of what we saw – including  Connecticut’s covered bridges. There are three covered bridges in Connecticut, but I’ve only included two. Why? Because the covered bridge over the Salmon River in eastern Connecticut is the most pathetic covered bridge I’ve ever seen. There’s rusted girders beneath it, to reinforce it, and the wood looks like it was placed in the 1970s…and with no paint.  Believe me, it’s not worth the trip of seeing it. It’s so bad they should take it off state maps.

Instead, head north up Route 8 or 7, although I have to say the foliage has peaked and will be gone if the forecast rains happen.

Better yet, when you travel the Merritt Parkway this week instead of being stressed, enjoy the peak colors that will be happening all around you.

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DOT traffic alert

10/8/2009 3:48:56 PM Accident

I-95 North EXITS 41 TO 42 in West Haven

Left Lane is Closed

4 MILE DELAY FROM EXITS 39B IN MILFORD TO EXIT 42 IN WEST HAVEN Estimated time to clear 1-2 Hrs

To view the listing of current incidents use the link below http://www.ct.gov/dot/traffic

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Sometimes you feel like a nut.

Today in the Connecticut Post we ran a story about a bumper crop of acorns this season. The boom is part of a natural cycle when every few years, there’s a huge increase in the number of acorns.
And it’s not just acorns, but hickory and other kinds of nuts as well.

We also ran the above photo with the story. To set the record straight, the photo showed hickory nuts, not acorns like the photo caption read.
Unlike acorns, hickory nuts, pictured right, are encased in rough hulls that have to be removed to get at the nuts.
It takes some work to get at the hickory’s meat, but it’s quite delicious and worth the effort. This is how you do it.

And with today’s strong winds, Thursday may be a good time to go harvesting hickory nuts.

Naturally a few of our readers called or e-mailed us telling us about the mistake.

Oops. We should have caught the mistake because after all in this business, we run across a lot of different kind of nuts.

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This is pretty raw video from the Joe Biden visit to Fairfield on Monday. Want good video go to TV, want the real story, go to the Connecticut Post.

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Westport Fire Dept.

A driver escaped serious injury this morning after his vehicle struck a tree and rolled over on the Merritt Parkway in Westport, according to Assistant Fire Chief William Dingee

Dingee reports: “At 5:54 this morning the Westport Fire Department responded with Norwalk Fire, Westport EMS and State Police to a reported one vehicle accident with rollover on the Merritt Parkway southbound between exits 41 and 40. Upon  arrival responders found a Ford E-250  that had struck a large tree on the front passenger side, taken down the guardrail and landed against another tree off the road.

“The driver of the vehicle was able to climb out of the driver’s side door and get out without assistance. Westport EMS evaluated and transported the driver to Norwalk Hospital with minor injuries.  Westport Fire units stood by for removal of the vehicle requiring a tow truck and flat bed from Riverside Service Center due to the vehicles position off of the roadway.

“The Parkway had to be closed for approximately 20 min. southbound during the vehicle removal operation. All units cleared the scene at 6:40 AM.