Friday, 28 December 2007
The other day, the reflected sunlight dazzled the ceiling of the gazebo at Lake Clara Meer.
This morning was rainy, and it’s rainy again. Meteorological speculators suggested that over yesterday and into tomorrow, some areas upstream from us may get in excess of 1 1/2 inches of rain. Yippee!
For a brief period, we had sunshine, and wearing my black t-shirt while out for a walk, I actually sweated glowed in the high humidity.
Saturday, 15 December 2007
Okay, the warm summery days are gone gone gone, and the rains have arrived. Maybe we’ll have a fairly normal winter from here out—with a semi-rainy season. Last winter we never had the rains, which is part of why our drinking water supplies are so low.
I think people don’t take this water situation seriously. I’m not overhearing people talk about it while walking on the street or shopping in stores and the like, but maybe I’m too much of a hermit to have an accurate radar on this.
So, to avoid water consumption, I’ve been upping my beer consumption (serious duty, here!), and this is a lovely bottle we had from our good friend “Mugs,” who has an importing system for Western brews. I can’t give details here, because I don’t want to compromise it/him.
So, to make a long story short, via Mugs we acquired this fine bottle, and, yes, the name is Moose Drool Brown Ale. I found the beer’s flavor superior to what the name suggests (at least to me!).
Friday, 14 December 2007
According to the meteorologists, today we saw the last of these much-higher-than-average temperatures….
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Yes, high today was solidly in the mid-70s. Oops, nope, just checked. Seventy-EIGHT. Whew!
And huge amounts of ice north and west of here (especially Oklahoma and Missouri; flights cancelled in Chicago—whatta mess!).
Screwy weather, no doubt about it!
Sunday, 9 December 2007
Doh!
I can hardly believe it took me until today to realize that burning candles, fireplaces, and campfires add to the carbon footprint!
Sunday, 2 December 2007
Perhaps against all odds, we spotted our friend-of-the-week again. S/he provided an unnoticed backdrop to two photographers…. As we departed the park, we could see the weather change flowing across the sky above, so that although we had arrived in sunshine, we left under overcast skies.
Thursday, 15 November 2007
Melancholia by Narcissus Quagliata, made in 1981–1982. The backlight is terribly uneven both in this photo and when I viewed it, yet I still found this image compelling, although I can’t quite put my finger on the reason why. To me, the man seems disingenuous and somewhat arrogant, rather than reflective and thoughtful, as the Corning Museum’s guide to the collections suggests.
Released from the patterns imposed by travel, I have cast about for a topic for today’s entry. The photo part was easy; I have a huge backlog from our travels over the last month; a plethora of photos is one characteristic of our travel patterns….
Meanwhile, let me note that overnight we got a good rain, although it’s been and continues to be so windy that the air must be sucking the moisture right back up out of the soil and vegetation. Still, rain is rain, right? I’ve yet to encounter the news story alleging that last weekend’s prayers at the statehouse and elsewhere have paid off, but I’m sure it’s being written or edited or posted right now…. Oops, I spoke too soon.
Into the mix, I’ve got to note that one Cobb County residence managed to waste use a whopping, and actually I mean mega-whopping 14,700 gallons per day on average in September, for a staggering 440,000 for the whole month. BTW, the average Atlanta residential client uses a mere (and still reducible) 183 gallons per day.
Okay, I have to report I still haven’t ordered the XO laptop, with the second one for charity. Have you? It’s still on my to-do list….
The other day John Hawks posted a blog entry with a link to this amazing graphic display of data by the notable Hans Rosling, and called the Trendalyzer project. The graphics program isn’t yet released, but I’ll wait around for it….
You also might want to check out this web page (thank you, KW), and generate a donation of rice to the United Nations World Food Programme with a vocabulary self-test. The WFP page says they’ve received over one billion grains of rice from freerice.com—enough to feed 50K people for one day. (I suspect the vocabulary is drawn more from British English than American.)
So, let’s get the rice statistic higher and the water use statistic lower, okay?
Does this entry have too many links? Maybe I got carried away….
Wednesday, 14 November 2007
It’s great to be back home, where the autumnal colors are vivid and the leaves are almost all still on the trees (maybe 90%). None of the trees and flowers we saw on this morning’s walk through our neighborhood was as brilliant as the leaves on this dogwood, which were especially striking backlit like this….
It’s also great (actually more than that: positively superlative!) that my parents are doing so well this year after the crises of last fall.
During our trip, we had wonderful visits with long-time friends in WI, MI, and NY, and I’m especially excited that we could meet a cutie who was born in late October, the newest listing in our address book (even if he doesn’t know it yet!).
Thanks for the Fat Tire, McGrady. We didn’t break any bottles on the way home!
Monday, 12 November 2007
The other day in western PA we were surprised by a smallish yet chubby black bear that scrambled across a guardrail and zipped across the road in front of us (no photo, sorry) in a mad dash for the woods on the other side (add your own riff on the old chicken-crossed-the-road joke here), but this snow we found in PA? in NY? is more evocative of winter for me. In our part of Atlanta, we see snow on the ground maybe every two or three years, although I guess with global warming that frequency may decrease. On the other hand, during the Little Ice Age, there was more snow across the Southeast, so that DeSoto and his bunch suffered a cold and unpleasant winter in 1539 and 1540 (I think) in southeastern North America. Can you tell I’m thinking about cycling and fluctuations (actually, both in nature/climate, and in societies)?
Monday, 5 November 2007
As a kid I visited Indiana Dunes (and similar areas along the southeast Lake Michigan coastline), and I have only the vaguest memories of piles of sand. Recently, I read Gary Paul Nabhan’s Cultures of Habitat—definitely recommended reading. Among other things, he discusses growing up in this area and wandering the dune ecosystem. This, he thinks, is part of why he became an ethnobotanist….
Even overcast and windy, I found the place enchanting.
PS Also recommended: Nabhan’s The Desert Smells Like Rain, about the Tohono O’odham people of the Sonoran desert. The lovely, evocative title is from a comment made by a youngster.