Musings

Rain has been with us all day, slowly intensifying. Now, the wind is ramping up, also slowly. The last track I saw indicated a slight drift of the eye to the east of us, which means a similarly slight reduction in intensity—for ATL, not for our loved ones in Athens. It’s almost always a tradeoff. In short, the ground is soaked. Lots more rain is coming, stopping perhaps by noon tomorrow. With the increased wind, I’m asking gravity to slack off on bringing down trees (and power lines).

Mentally add a comma where you please in the title, or don’t…. 🤣

Posted at 9:06 PM | 1 Comment »

We got a burst of rain about 12:20 this afternoon, then it stopped. It started back up about two hours later, and hasn’t stopped. So far, the wind’s not kicked up; that’s what I dread most. It’ll be an unsettled night. We’ve got all devices charged up…including the car 🤣.

Posted at 9:12 PM | Comments Off on Hello Helene

I learned that the world’s longest lived vertebrate is the Greenland shark, Somniosus microcephalus. They can reach at least 400 years, and perhaps 500—that’s half a millennium! The latest research (thank you NYTimes Tuesday Science stories), discussed by Jonathan Moens, has discovered that this species has huge genomes, with about 6.5 billion DNA base pairs (humans have less than half that). This makes these sharks more genetically resilient (read the story for the details), and thus likely contributes to their longevity.

Still reeling about the (possibly) 500 year lifespans.

Posted at 9:40 PM | Comments Off on Not my photo

Yeah, this is a Hulu promo image. Yeah, we’re happily watching OMITB (again). Cute pig. Look for Paul Rudd with a super-heavy Irish-accent (and tweed flat cap).

Posted at 9:31 PM | 1 Comment »

This memory picture, from October 2021, is in honor of the fact that technically autumn arrived this morning. You couldn’t tell it by the weather here, however, with a high of—was it?—89°F…and a low expected overnight of 71°F. Pure summery weather, that.

Posted at 9:44 PM | Comments Off on Technicality

I titled this showoff grass, and that’s about the extent of my “creativity” at the moment. G’night.

Posted at 10:25 PM | Comments Off on Yawn

I’m really noticing the daylength getting shorter.

Posted at 8:53 PM | Comments Off on Seasoned

Most recent binge-watch: “La Grande Maison Tokyo” (fiction). Tonight’s binge selection: “Lost Treasures of Rome” (science/NatGeo).

Posted at 7:39 PM | Comments Off on Look out!

I just read (okay: skimmed) a WaPo article by Andrew Zaleski that describes a new operation for people with knee cartilage problems. Surgeons put a pellet of calcium carbonate derived from coral exoskeletons (yeah, the reef kind) in the bone. Over time, the pellet is absorbed and the body makes a gooey substance that acts rather like real cartilage. It’s a fast operation, albeit with a different recovery curve than knee replacement. Zaleski describes two other new approaches with good results.

I’ll try to remember this. Right now my knees are okay (knock on wood), but they have had issues, and I baby them frequently.

Date: 17 Sept 2024. Title (that I saw online): Not ready for a knee replacement? You might be able to fix your cartilage instead.

Posted at 10:06 PM | Comments Off on Surgical knee magic

We tried to see the eclipse…the partial eclipse of the moon…nope: too much cloud cover. It does seem a bit brighter where the moon is supposed to be, though?

Posted at 10:24 PM | Comments Off on Moon-watch