My Story Part 101 – Year In Review

This was a year of great achievement for me, in May I graduated from UConn with my Masters in Social Work. It was a long four years and I miss school. I enjoyed the class discussions and I miss my classmates and professors. I was taking part in the learning process and school activities. I also went to my first Prom, which was “A Night to Remember”. During the graduation ceremony I wondered what mother and dad would have thought as I walked across the stage.

In April, I gave my first professional presentation at the National Association of Social Workers conference in Waterbury and judging from the workshop evaluations form, it was well received. I have given many other workshops, but this one was the first time I presented a workshop to my colleagues.

In June, after 5 years of working to pass a gender inclusive non-discrimination bill, it finally passed and went into law on October 1st. I was there in both the House and Senate when it was debated and with every vote for amendments on the bill we held our breath as the vote count was tallied on the board. All the amendments were defeated except our amendment and when the Senate voted on the bill at 12:30AM on June 4th, I felt jubilant that we had finally passed the legislation after all those years of work.

On July 4th my nephew and his wife had their first child and my brother’s fifth grandchild.

In November, I was invited to give a speech to law students at Western New England University School of Law on social justice and how laws affect us. It was the first time I ever gave a speech, I have given power-point presentation and taken part in panel discussions, but I have stood up and gave a speech before.

The other big event this year was weather, I got by with minimal damage from the hurricane Irene and the October snow storm, and I was only without power for a little over two days.

We have now seen 5 all-time records broken this year that are directly related to the weather. January was the snowiest month ever with 54.3" at Bradley International. July 22nd was the hottest day over the last 105 years with 103 degrees at Bradley International and 103 degrees in Bridgeport. We then had a record October snowstorm! Storm Alfred dumped 12.3" of snow on Windsor Locks. Alfred caused a record power outage for the state with 831,000 customers without power. Now, we have the all-time wettest year on record and we still have 8 days to go before the year is over!

The Meteorological Autumn (September, October, and November) was one for the record books. At Bradley International Airport, the average temperature for the 3 month period was 55.8 degrees, which is 3.0 degrees above normal. It was a tie for the 4th warmest autumn on record! The warmest autumn was in 1931 with an average temperature of 57.7 degrees. Rainfall over the last 3 months was 19.98", which is 7.84" above normal! Plus, we had 12.3" of snow from Winter Storm Alfred in late October. This autumn was the 3rd wettest on record and the 2nd snowiest on record, although Storm Alfred was an all-time record snowstorm for the month of October. For Bridgeport, the average temperature for the season was 58.9 degrees, which is 3.4 degrees above normal. It was the warmest autumn season on record! Rainfall was 13.11", which is 2.60" above normal. Snowfall was 4.0", which is 3.3" above normal. For Bridgeport, it was the 16th wettest autumn on record, but the 3rd snowiest!

For the month of November…the average temperature at Bradley International was 46.4 degrees, which is 4.0 degrees above normal. This November was the 6th warmest on record! Total rainfall came in at 3.81", which is only 0.08" below normal. There was only a trace of snow, which is 2.0" below normal.
WFSB