Rock Group the Cranberries and my Late Friend Jim.

Recently I’ve been hearing a song by the Cranberries. “Dreams” stands out for several reasons, first I remember it only played on certain stations as like an “indie band”. And not played very often.  It wasn’t on the Top 40 stations or on Casey’s countdowns.

Second back in 1999 or 2000, my late friend, Jim Cendrowski, was telling me about this great new band he heard on a coworkers tape player /CD player.

I can’t for the life of me remember how he described the music or the band but I said sounds like the Cranberries and they weren’t new.  He couldn’t believe I was familiar with them. Their two single were in 1993 so not new by any standards. 

At his memorial I mentioned his favorite groups. Lobo, Lynyrd Skynyrd s- Free Bird from the 70’s, John Mellencamp from the 80’s and Bare Naked Ladies and the Cranberries from the 90’s. 

Third item: the Cranberries songs Dreams and Linger are played more now than in 1993 and on more station genres than ever. 

I think of James Cendrowski often when certain songs come on. Miss you  Jim, and your antics and your company chasing frogs, bugs and mantids.  I was telling the younger Metroparks naturalists how you and I were some of the early Frog Monitoring volunteers back in the 1990’s before the early onset Alzheimer’s showed up in 2002 to eventually take his life at 48. 

He passed in February 2004.

RIP Jim. I understand your buddy Larry “bird” Lutz, RIP ,has recently joined you. And the lead singer of the Cranberries ,Delores   O’Riordan, RIP, has joined you. 

Copyright 2024

Gary J. Lovell

Dreams:

Linger:

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Three Parrallel Weather Events

    So far this winter is shaping up to be like another one I witnessed in my life. In 1982 we had a strong El Nino winter where it set a record high temperature on Christmas of 63°F. It apparently was a doozy that it was in the news for months. It was the first time we ever heard of El Nino and  I remember distinctly a snow in October then temps in December warm enough for crickets to still be alive to sing. And rain on Christmas.  And we only had one near zero degree low that February and I was sick for three weeks.  

     This year the weather news has identified another strong El Nino that gave us another warm and rainy Christmas. And predictions of a mild rest of the winter. 

That reminds me of a couple other similar nature events. 

     This year 2023 had a drought in NW Ohio and I had a big water bill for June and July watering my newly planted flowers. It didn’t last as long as the big drought in 1988.

I witnessed that one in a different way.

   Living in Liberty Center, Ohio it was also hot with several high temp records broken in June(one record was 104°) it lasted a bit longer without significant precipitation.  I remember seeing the brown dry grass in the highway medians with milkweed as the only greenery. And hearing  the annual cicadas about ten days earlier than usual.

    A weird non nature item: in 1988 the song “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman was played all summer. This past year 2023, a country star, Luke Combs remade “Fast Car” and it crossed over to all genres and was played all summer, bringing back memories from the 1988 drought year while making new ones.

    I lived  through the Blizzard of 1978, which dumped significant snow (23 inches) to make that winter the snowiest in a century per an online http://www.toledoblade.com article.  Total for the season was 73.3 inches. The theme song for that winter on the radio all winter long was “Slip Slidin’ Away” by Paul Simon.

   Thinking we couldn’t beat the Blizzard year seasonal (1977-78) snowfall without a Big snow Blizzard/ event, it  was knocked out of the ball park in 2013-14 season. So many snowstorms added up to a record  86.3 inches.

 The beginning of this article was started just after the warm Christmas, since then  (today Feb 22) we have had barely 10 inches of snow. We have had a few day stretch of near 0 °  with warm temps of 50° to 60° F in between. 

With the warm temps in NW Ohio the first chorus frogs were heard on February 9. In 1983 at the end of the El Nino winter, the frogs came out on March 3, earlier than the average. 

Of course snow is still possible in March and April.

So enjoy the warm February weather. 

Copyright 2024

Gary J Lovell

Below is a link to a home movie during the Blizzard of 1978.

2024 Annual State of the Frog Pond- the First Appearance of Western Chorus Frogs in NW Ohio

*** February 27, 2024 update: The weather for this February has been really up and down. Lows near 15° for days with days in between up in the 50’s and 60 °s. On several nice warm days I listened for frogs to no avail. On Feb. 24 former naturalist at the Metroparks Michelle Grigore posted on Facebook that  her husband heard two chorus frogs at a Irwin Prairie hike. Today I heard two on a drive by at Irwin as it got to 72° F about 2:30 PM.

This year’s groundhog said it’ll be an early spring. I have never compared the first frogs out date with the groundhog day prediction, however I do remember a few seasons that the frogs were way off proving the groundhog wrong. Well this year the ground hog was correct– the first western chorus frogs in NW Ohio were heard on February 9th by Britani Furlong a Nature Conservancy employee and leader of a frog monitoring program at Irwin Prairie, where she heard them.

The ponds and ditches have been clear of ice for weeks and we had two 60° F days last week which helped tease the frogs out at the open sunny Irwin Prairie. I visited Oak Openings frog survey transect and did not hear any on Feb. 9th.

As I started last year, looking  back to fifty years ago notes:  

February 27, 1974 “Saw a robin today…Days are warming and spring is close.”

     ” March 3, 1974 Spring is here. With temperatures in the 70’s about four frogs were calling…” Over the next few weeks temperatures were down to 5° F. And back up to the 40°s. And snow was in there too.        ” March 26, 1974: The sun shine and it got to 40° today.

The most interesting thing occurred yesterday: two or three frogs were croaking in 22° F **weather. The sun was out but most water was ice- covered.”

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**Back in the 1970’s the way we got the current temperature was to call “Time and Temperature” a phone number–936-1212. Unlike online weather programs on our cell phones now, it was a temperature reading from a location in downtown Toledo and not  where the frog was singing many miles away. So how accurate it was is uncertain.

    However this incident could add credence: in 2015 while on the frog monitoring transect for the Metroparks at Oak Openings Park, we recorded the weather /environmental data and saw the air temp below freezing(31°) but the pond water was 36° and frogs were singing. Nature never ceases to amaze.

    This year I found my late friend Jim Cendrowski’s bug /nature notes.  So I will be adding his notes from the same time frame.

March 2, 1974 ” the temp is 61°. The first time this year it made it over 60°.

“March 3rd: Today it got to around 70°, we all went to Sand Hill ( a field later made into a City of Toledo Park called Greenwood Park)…to look around and seen quite a few signs of spring. Also there were some frogs out chirping and some still making there way to the pond. In the big pond there are 6-10 frogs singing. “

Copyright 2024

Gary J. Lovell

This is the updated first frog chart since 1972:

Original 2017, –First Day Western Chorus Frogs Heard in Northwestern Ohio

In Memorial of Jim Cendrowski

February 6, 2024 is the twenty year anniversary of James( Jim) Cendrowski, my long time friend. I miss you and it’s more pronounced when frog season and chirping insect season comes around. So I am posting this even if you don’t know him. Some of the photos and videos may give a glimpse of how crazy, demented and ingenious he was. RIP .

I finally found the Home movie video I put together for my long time friend Jim Cendrowski. In honor the anniversary of his passing Feb 6th, 2004, I am posting this 2 hour plus of videos.   They were taken from Bell and Howell wind up 8 mm camera, and later video camcorders from 1986 and 1987 till 2002. We met when I was in 5th grade through a classmate Dale Smith because he knew each of us liked turtles, snakes and bugs and rock music. So for 30 plus years we chased mantises, frogs, water bugs etc. Jim passed away a few years before Facebook and Youtube. He would have loved both, and I am sure would have had tons of videos on line. I wish we could find his home movies (stolen in 1983) and his videos he had taken years later. But oh well here is some of his antics on my videos and photos online now.

Copyright 2024

Gary J. Lovell

RIP Jim

Link to Flickr Photos :

https://www.flickr.com/gp/glovell2008/64R71x513S

Home Movies compilation for his memorial(may still be blocked by YouTube copyright claims): 

Check out videos of Jim on my YouTube channel:

https://youtube.com/@glovell1?si=5Thxx5nncG863au4