Musings

I usually keep an eye on the weather predictions for the immediate future where I am, yet somehow I managed to momentarily be surprised that a storm/rain front would be coming through “roit-now.” Which it is.

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I think of this as immersion red, as in I gaze at it an want to immerse myself in the blossom. What a lovely space that would be!

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We did see the eclipse. We perhaps didn’t prepare our recording equipment for the event. This is taken with a “real camera,” that is, one that you can’t talk to, with eclipse glasses held in front of the lens.

Here’s the total eclipse—again, not a stellar photo, yet still a wonder. Phenom witnessed, photoed, and oohed over…so we hopped back in the car and turned south into what became a series of traffic jams. Remember, we were in southern Illinois, and we had only a few bridges near enough to get across a major river. [We heard that an academic prognosticator in Carbondale estimated at several hundred thousand folks would visit southern Illinois to eclipse-watch.]

En route, we encountered a double rainbow—with both ends on the ground! Sorry, not shown. I saw no leprechauns or pots of gold, although I had a good view of the rainbow-feet. Still, we took it as lucky…

…that we encountered the front that brought this a few miles before the hail, and, as it happened, we only had to drive through hail-on-the-ground, not plummeting hail, whew. We motored along with great care between hail-piles, and within two miles, were out of the ice and headed for our traffic-jam fate. For the record, we reached home safely at 12:45am, at about the end of my energy.

After seeing photos today of Etna’s “smoke rings,” I wonder if there’s another phenomena sighting we should put on our short list?!!—and perhaps arrange tickets???!! 🤣 Kidding.

Posted at 8:37 PM | Comments Off on Phenomena

We managed to see the total solar eclipse. I think the resolution’s been hammered and you can’t see that this is the corona, or that Jupiter is below and right of the sun/moon pairing. Stunning. Stories tomorrow….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Corona (not virus)

Several years ago, City Worker-Bees installed asphalt speed-bumps along one of our favorite neighborhood shortcuts. Today we took that route and all the speed-bumps had been ground up and removed, leaving a series of rough shallow depressions instead. We hypothesized that the City Worker-Bees are preparing to repave the street, and, sigh, probably reconstruct the bumps.

Posted at 9:34 PM | Comments Off on Bumps ahead?

I used our spring REI discount on a lightweight, well-cushioned shoe for my near-daily walks. They look a bit like modernized corrective shoes, but, man-o-man do they feel good for my feet and knees (after two days). [Fingers crossed this continues!]

Words floating by today: Patapsco, prill, torque.

Posted at 8:39 PM | Comments Off on Lightweight power

This afternoon a beam-let danced on a small area on the tablecloth, and made it seem like hoity-toity old-timey brocade. Sorta.

Posted at 10:17 PM | Comments Off on Light upgrade

I do enjoy the “regular” redbuds very much, yet I also always look for the few white redbuds that are scattered in this neighborhood.

This is the first summer “insect” picture, in which I take a flower picture, then find when I look closely at the photo that I also made a bug-portrait.

Posted at 10:18 PM | Comments Off on Novelties

Penultimate 2023–2024 winter sunset…sometimes it’s worth it to look backwards.

Posted at 9:13 PM | Comments Off on Getting wise

Early this evening I looked out the window and was awash in the feeling that I could tell the days were longer. Then I thought about it. Nope; well, a little. Mostly, I was noticing the apparent longer days from the time change.

Posted at 9:52 PM | Comments Off on Deception