Musings

I was too lazy to head to the beach to watch the sunrise, but did get out to see the sun crest the treeline. Nice.

Now this is unexpected: a few lilac blooms in OcTOWber! They do smell like spring.

Posted at 9:34 PM | Comments Off on Expected, unexpected

Nice carpet of beach foam this morning…or only a welcome mat, perhaps.

Posted at 8:46 PM | Comments Off on Free-form foam

Yesterday’s golden sun gave the dock extra pizzaz.

Today’s sunrise sun was obscured, and the dock removed for the winter. [Sigh.]

Later, the sun porch lived up to its name, and became a comfy dining room.

Posted at 6:53 PM | Comments Off on Time change

No saturation boost; this is what I saw. 🌅

Posted at 8:51 PM | Comments Off on Stunning sun

We finally got out from under the cloud cover associated with Helene, and had smooth sailing under blue skies…very pleasant. We crested a hill, and Eden was marred by a fog-belt. Turned out it was right over Sturgeon River, and when we cleared the valley, we enjoyed unbroken blue skies again. 😎

We dined this evening on a spring green salad with chunks of smoked whitefish…surely five-star dining for this part of the world. The orchard grasses are browning out, but the trees remain overwhelmingly green, with some brown-orange tinges.

Posted at 7:09 PM | Comments Off on Fish tales

Or should the title be where’s the mare? These golden horses are at the (south) Kentucky Welcome Center on I-75. I have no idea where mom went.

To explain the title: we’re northbound (again), to leafpeep and eventually close the cottage for the winter. We waited out Helene in ATL, then got on the road this morning and ended up driving into the storm, now just a lot of rain and a few gusts and general windiness—too much rain by far some places. Mostly, we could just motor along, wipers keepin’ time.

Posted at 8:28 PM | Comments Off on Stormchasers

The storm did hit us, lots of rain and wind gusts (the former gone; the latter still somewhat active). We were lucky; it was far worse elsewhere. We didn’t lose power or internet, and we long ago perfected hunkering down. This solitaire with mahjongg tiles was part of my personal hunkering arsenal.

Posted at 11:08 PM | Comments Off on Waiting worked

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