I seem to have acquired another cat. She's not quite full grown, and is what they describe as a "tuxedo cat", meaning mostly black with a bit of white on the chest. I saw her hanging around the yard in the fall, kind of getting along with my cats, and fairly friendly towards me. Two nights ago, I went out to change the cats' litterbox and saw her again, meowing plaintively from under my car. I guessed that she was hungry, and opened the garage and put a can of food in there for her. She gobbled it up in under 30 seconds, so then I put out a bowl of dried stuff for her. I saw her again the next day, and showed her the rest of the dried stuff she'd left behind, and gave her another can of food last night.
This morning, she rather insistently barged into the house. It's about -10° out there, so this is understandable, though it was actually colder yesterday. Anyway, I was most worried about how Dovienya would react, but Dovi just ignored her. Pouncer seems mostly interested, but cautious. The two girls, Princess and Jilly, are rather unhappy about her. They've been having staring contests all morning. I think I'd better lock Tuxedo (hopefully a temporary name) in a separate room while I'm gone, as I'm not sure what they'll do without me around to mediate.
She's got the same snub nose as Princess, and similar ears and facial features to Dovi, so I'm wondering if she's possibly related to Dovi (same mother?). If so, this might explain why Dovi wasn't worried about her.
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From the weather forecast for Pocatello at NOAA:
Now, if it does rain on Thurdsay, and the high is only 27° F, I'm pretty sure it would actually come out as "Freezing Rain," not just "Rain." The forecast in words also said merely rain, so it's not a case of a mere typo in the picture coding.
Now I'm trying to think how it would work for it not to be freezing rain... The ground temperature would have to be above freezing, despite having no highs above freezing in the past week, or the rain would have to be saturated with something that would lower the freezing point below 27° F (probably further down than that, since that's the high). That just doesn't seem likely to me.
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I'd missed Saturday taiji three weeks in a row, twice due to my bout of flu (though the first time I didn't realize that's what it was) and once because Don had to have his knee cut open again. So, despite the inch and a half of snow and my lack of snow tires, I drove up there today.
I think these were the worst roads I'd ever driven on without snow tires. I hadn't really appreciated how much of a difference they make. I was cut down to 35 mph or so in some places, and never really made it above 55 mph. I tried once, and immediately slowed down again. It was an interesting drive. Also strangely peaceful and relaxing, except when idiots zoomed around me. I like the challenge of driving on slick roads. Why? I have no idea.
Still, I do plan on getting my snow tires put on this week if at all possible. Just because I like the challenge doesn't mean I don't want to be careful about it. ^!^ And the roads coming back were much better. Not quite bone dry, but pretty close.
As for Don's knee, apparently there was another, smaller tear in a tendon. The doctor wasn't sure how long it had been there, but I can only assume that it started to bother him during the time I was unable to come. His best guess was that it happened when his leg was dropped shortly after the first operation, as there had been a great deal of pain then. He's back in the wheelchair, but more cheerful than I expected ... that or he's good at putting on a cheerful front (based on prior experience, I expect it's the latter). It was more or less a seminar class, with Don critiquing here and there.
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Despite Pocatello having flash flood warnings and record amounts of rain (more than 3 inches so far in June; normal is about 1 inch), the first day of summer is upon us. Click on the picture to see APOD's blurb about it.
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I've always hated mowing the lawn. It's noisy. It's pointless. It makes my allergies act up. However, I have discovered that I don't mind it so much when using a "push-mower," meaning one without an engine (though since all but riding mowers are pushed, I'm not sure why this name is supposed to distinguish it from gas or electric mowers). I got one primarily because I've been unable to get the motorized one to start since late last summer. I suspect that the price of the new mower would be roughly equivalent to the price for taking the motorized one in to get it fixed. If parts were needed, the repair might be more expensive.
So I tried the non-motorized one out yesterday. It's awesome. It's not noisy, it doesn't put out fumes, and I don't have to worry about whether or not it will start when I want to use it. It's also not significantly more work than a motorized mower, except in places where the grass has gotten extra tall and thick. So long as I actually manage to mow each week, that shouldn't be an issue for the rest of the summer, and I'm more likely to mow regularly when I don't dread the fumes and noise of the ordeal. The only problem I had with it was that it does not do well with the small branches that tend to fall from the elm tree like dandruff; those I'll have to pick up by hand. It still aggravates my allergies, but there's not much I can do about that.
Except reduce the amount of grass on the property, but I need a day with little wind and little to no chance of rain for that. Those have been in short supply lately.
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One of my daffodils is fully open now, and two more look ready to join suit. I've also got a hyacinth that looks almost ready to bloom, and many many tulips just starting to raise their buds up from the ground. They, at least, seem to like the large amounts of moisture we've been getting this week!
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Sometimes, the misprint is much better than the intended meaning:
SNOW EXPECTED AT ELEVATIONS ABOVE 6500 TO 7500 FEET WITH POSSIBLE ACCUMULATINOS OF 4 TO 5 INCHES OVER SAWTOOTH AND WASATCH MOUNTAINS.
Accumulatinos sound like an exotic fundamental particle, maybe one produced when enough of some other particle accumulates. ^/^ This is from a warning about likely thunderstorms 'round these parts for the rest of the week.
Oh, and I added a local weather banner to the sidebar in place of the former "god of the day" bit. I figured if I was going to have mythology on the sidebar, it might as well be potentially
useful mythology. On a related note, when the cable company rearranged the channels recently, it put the weather channel right next to the sci-fi channel. That was the one change I approved of. (And, no, I still don't have cable; I find I enjoy television much more when I can only watch it
someplace else.)
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We had a thunderstorm last night. It took me by surprise. When the first bolt of lightning flashed, I saw only a quick flash through a window, and started trying to figure out why someone was taking flash-pictures outside my house at nine o'clock in the evening. 5-10 seconds later, the thunder rolled in, and I felt rather silly.
Normally, I enjoy thunderstorms, but for some reason this one was making me nervous. I wasn't really sure why. However, the nervousness turned out to be somewhat justified. Just as I was getting ready for bed, a flash came. I automatically started counting under my breath, to see about how far away it was. I got as far as "one on—" before the thunder crashed around me. Call that half a second. 5 seconds is approximately one mile, so half a second would be roughly a tenth of a mile, or 500 feet. I didn't hear fire trucks any time in the next half hour or so, so presumably it didn't strike any flammable structures. Still, I was a bit jumpy for a while after that. The thunder actually rattled the house.
That's not the closest I've been to a lightning strike, though. Once my dad and I were at the Westwood Mall (probably at the sporting goods store that has since moved out), and as we were getting ready to leave, the lightning/thunder was breaking overhead in the parking lot. That was...unnerving. As far as we could tell, none of it was reaching the ground, but it was loud, with lots of static in the air, and probably not a particularly safe place to be. We made a dash for the pickup (which was, in retrospect, incredibly idiotic) and made it out safely.
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After our refreshingly springy first day of spring, the cold front did indeed move in... there was about 4 inches of snow on my front porch on Monday morning. So I haven't accomplished much in the garden/yard work department this week. I've been working on cleaning instead, which in large part involves dealing with things that I've been ignoring (like a nice little cupboard that is meant to be hung on a wall, not sitting on a floor where it can be knocked over).
And my mom did change Skitzi's name. To Snickers. I'm not entirely convinced this is an improvement, but she's not my cat. Apparently the biggest problem for Mom was that she couldn't remember the name Skitzi. I've got to admit that I find this entirely puzzling, and can only conclude that my skill in learning languages was not inherited from her.
As for travel, I'm hoping to drive down to the Salt Lake area on Thursday and stock up on some things at Whole Foods Market. There's a Barnes and Noble next door to it, and a few other interesting shops nearby, so I'll probably make a day of it. I was considering going tomorrow, but between the tires in my trunk and the "70% chance of precipitation" vs. "10%" for Thursday, I figure I'd be better off waiting. Most of the snow from Monday had melted off today, until another half-inch or so fell tonight. With any luck, Thursday will be a melt-off day rather than a re-deposit day.
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I managed to get half my garden cleared out yesterday afternoon: cornstalks pulled out and stacked, weed mat pulled up and stakes gathered into a pot, semi-whole weed mat placed over the irritating weedy grass patch near the gate, and black raspberry branches planted. Yes, planted. They'd sprouted roots over the winter after being cut from the main plant, so I put them by the back fence. I may dig up their parent plant, as it is determined to be a climber, and that's just not a good place for a climber.
I've also nearly finished digging the grass out of the bulb patch. And the bulbs that I wasn't sure of have turned out to be hyacinth. For some reason, I had thought the daffodils were the hyacinth, but the big buds started becoming visible, and they had the many-flowered-heads of hyacinth, which, by process of elimination, meant that the somewhat grassy leaves were the daffodils.
Tonight, a cold front is due to move in, bringing with it rain and/or snow... I'm hoping it will be decent enough for me to finish cleaning out the garden and get the peas planted this week. I'm not sure if I'm going to plant corn this year. It takes up a lot of room, plus I keep getting that nasty fungus in it (huitlacoche aka corn smut). Yes, some consider it a delicacy. I consider it just plain nasty.
ADDENDUM: I just found some useful information on controlling corn smut. The two bits of advice most relevant to me are below:
Planting tolerant cultivars is the best control. Cultivars that show improved resistance over two years of testing in the Columbia Basin include: 'Elite', 'Chase', 'Conquest', 'Eliminator', 'Diva', and 'Marvel'.
...
Plant before May 15th.
The varieties that I've been planting are actually listed as some of the most susceptible to the fungus: jubilee and any corn that matures
early. Corn that matures later is, for whatever reason, less susceptible. At any rate, if I can find some of the resistant varieties, I may try planting some and see what happens.
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o'er thick fog
—cut off from earth—
mountains float
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I was looking for things to post for Groundhog Day, and started looking at the pictures... and suddenly noticed that groundhogs look an awful lot like rockchucks. So I did a quick search, and, lo and behold, that's yet another name for rockchucks/woodchucks/marmots. Here is a quick reference.
And apparently Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, but another predicting groundhog in Georgia did not. I couldn't find any local references about whether any rockchucks 'round these parts saw their shadows, but I think we had our early spring in January (for about a week) then winter kicked back in. ^/^
So, Rise and Shine, Campers! Don't forget your booties 'cause it's cold out there today!
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ice-coated sage
gleams silver in
dawn’s early fog
Once again, we had a foggy night coat everything in ice. Now if only I could come up with the right words to describe the wisp of fog that hovered over us, wraithlike, as it crossed the interstate..
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through translucent ice
layered tracks reveal
history’s footprints
Before the most recent snow, everything had turned to slush. Then the snow came, and the slush froze underneath it. On my driveway, there's a beautiful overlay of tiretracks, and this poem is my attempt to capture them in words.
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Admittedly, I tend to overuse this phrase, but it's literally applicable in this instance:
Results 1 - 4 of about 2
It doesn't much matter what phrase I was searching for. I can see the point of Google rounding down the number of results when it's in the hundreds or higher, but this? I don't get it. Oh, but that just reminded me of a beautifully odd segement from my Existentialism class:
All respectable ants begin with the ant-hill, and they will probably end with it too, which does great credit to their constancy and their positive characters. But man is a fickle and disreputable creature and, perhaps like a chess player, is interested in the process of attaining his goal rather than the goal itself. And who knows, (nobody can say with certainty), perhaps man's sole purpose in this world consists in this uninterrupted process of attainment, or in other words in living, and not specifically in the goal, which of course must be something like twice two is four, that is, a formula; but after all, twice two is four is not life, genetlemen, but the beginning of death. At least man has always feared this 2 x 2 = 4 formula and I still fear it.
...
Twice two is four is, in my opinion, nothing but impudence. 'Two and two make four' is like a cocky young devil standing across your path with arms akimbo and a defiant air. I agree that two and two make four is an excellent thing; but to give everything its due, two and two make five is also a very fine thing.
~Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground pg 40-41
I fixed a few typos that were on the typed sheet Dr. Levenson handed out, and made it clear that there was a substantial amount of text where the ellipsis is. Somewhere between a third and a quarter of a page, anyway. It's a very odd bit of text. Levenson picked it as portraying existential dread and/or defiance. Btw, two and two don't always make four. Particularly if you put two electrons with two positrons. They make zero! 2 cups of water mixed with 2 cups of alcohol does not result in four cups of liquid. And in Z3, 2 and 2 make 1. ^/^
ADDENDUM: I just found another one:
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Dense fog advisory in effect from 8 PM this evening to 11 am MST Saturday... |
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ice crystals cover
cars, branches, sidewalks:
sign of frozen fog
Statement as of 9:01 AM MST on January 16, 2009
... Freezing fog advisory remains in effect until 11 am MST this
morning...
A freezing fog advisory remains in effect until 11 am MST this
morning.
Dense fog along Interstate 15 from Blackfoot to Pocatello and
Interstate 86 from Pocatello west towards Burley will continue
to reduce visibilities to one quarter mile or less in many areas.
With temperatures below freezing... slick spots are likely on area
roadways. The fog is expected to improve by lunch time.
A freezing fog advisory means visibilities will frequently be
reduced to less than one quarter mile. If driving... slow down...
use your headlights... and leave plenty of distance ahead of you.
Also... be alert for frost on bridge decks causing slippery roads.
~Wunderground NWS warning
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white mountains melt
rivers flow beneath street ice
winter turns to spring
wind rises
cold front brings back
winter's chill
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Here's the wreath all covered in snow. Pity that it's now about 40 degrees and everything is starting to melt. On the plus side, that should generate plenty of business for Spencer.
Below are some of the boxes I made this Christmas.
This was my third attempt at covering an empty candy box with paper such that it would be potentially reusable. On the first two attempts, I used tape. Bad idea. The tape just gets in the way. On this one, I used a stick of glue. I also didn't try to wrap the paper around the edges of the box-top. Instead, I covered any bare spots with the green ribbon, also put on with a stick of glue.
This is an old box that I found in my dad's basement this year and figured it was in good enough shape to reuse. The problem with this style of box is that it does not hold together very well. So when I use it for gifts, I cheat a little: the ribbon wrapped around the body of the box is to keep the two halves from separating.
This was a box that I put together in an unconventional fashion. I wanted to emphasize the fancier paper, but de-emphasize the plainest paper. The nice thing was that the colors of the middling paper blended in nicely with the plain paper, so the asymmetry of the joining isn't as obvious. Below is the bottom of the same box, just because I like the way the two papers look together. I tend to save the not-quite-as-nice paper for the bottom of the box, but these would have worked well as a top, also:
And this one was made by joining the pieces of the lid pinwheel style. There are four pieces to each lid. To make the pinwheel, you put the "square" edge of each piece into the "angled" edge of each adjacent piece.
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... Records fall at Pocatello and Challis airports
today... correction...
0.62 inches of water equivalent fell yesterday... Christmas
day... at the Pocatello Airport and exceeds the previous record of
0.59 set in 1988.
A record snowfall amount of 5.9 inches fell
yesterday... Christmas day... at the Pocatello Airport and beats the
previous record of 1.1 inches set in 1988.
The Challis Airport also reported a record water equivalency of
0.29 inches yesterday... Christmas day... and beats the previous
record 0.17 inches set in 1959.
~Wunderground
The airport is several miles outside of town, so there could have been more in town. Or it could just look like more due to being blown off of roofs and such. I suppose I'd better get shoveling, as we may be getting another wave this weekend.
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From 511.idaho.gov, this is the current status of the roads in Idaho. Pretty much, if you weren't there by Christmas Eve, you weren't getting there. I can't remember seeing this much snow all at once since I was a kid. I can remember the snow being up to my waist at least once when I was old enough to attempt to help out using a shovel (probably 6 or 7). It's beautiful, so long as you're not planning on going anywhere soon. It's made more beautiful by my mom's generous neighbor, who took his snowblower to her walks and driveway. She tried to give him some Christmas goodies in return, but he refused.
I'd call it 10-12 inches on the ground at both her place and mine, though some of that could have blown off of rooftops. I haven't seen an official measure yet. Anyway, leaving town anywhere in Idaho is not recommended at the moment. Leaving the house may be problematic... So long as there's no traffic, I can get out of my driveway just fine, but if I have to stop right at the edge... Tomorrow will be plenty of time for shoveling out.
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