Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Snow 2014!



It began snowing today around lunch time and came down steadily the rest of the afternoon. I estimate that about 2.5" fell here at the house.

The snow had been predicted for the last several days by all of the weather forecasters. Yet, true to form, the schools did not cancel classes for today. Instead they called school off at midday. This created a traffic jam of enormous proportion. People have been sitting in their cars for hours only to move a tenth of a mile.

A few weeks ago all of the school systems cancelled classes the night before when the temperature was predicted to go into single digits. There was zero chance precipitation! The next day was a sunny, clear, beautiful day, and no child went to school. With snow predicted three days in advance not one school system cancelled classes! Children were in school and then on the spur of the moment all of the school systems dumped them out without a moments notice. Way to go ATL!

As for me, I walked outside around 1 pm and it had been snowing for at least half an hour and it was beginning to stick. We don't get a chance to see snow very often so I walked out into the yard to take it in. Aggie, the dog, she's never seen snow. She was very frightened of it. I had to coax her out from under the deck. I believe that she thought that she had somehow caused it and was to blame. She didn't want to come to me. I think she thought I would punish her for it.

After a little while she finally trusted me enough to come out from under the deck and we went into the garage. I knew if I walked out underneath the eave she would most likely follow me out. She was pretty skittish to begin with but after a while she took to it.

She had a good time running around in the snow and eating it too. It dawned on me that people believe that dogs are color blind. Aggie isn't. She clearly saw all of that white powder all over the place and she did not know what to make of it. I think animals see colors just the same as we do. Why wouldn't they? They probably see it better than us.








Saturday, January 11, 2014

SOHO

Last week it was six degrees. Today it was sixty degrees. Pretty extreme. Our weather depends on the star that we are electrically connected to. It's weather depends on the galaxy it is electrically connected to. The solar electrical input has been weakening for a while. It might get cold and stay that way for a long time. It's a cyclical process.

It's easy to track the weather on the sun these days. NASA has a website that does just that called SOHO. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. Click here to go there. Most of their conclusions are utter nonsense but the data is real as well as the viewing capability it provides.

It's virtually real-time observation of the sun. If you want to know whats happening on Earth you need to know whats happening on the sun.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Pond

It might be hard to tell but there is a flock of doves in the backyard especially around the pond. The pond has filled on it's own. Aquatic plants are on their way.

More landscaping around the pond is on tap. Trying to make it as natural as possible.