Tie A Knot

It's pretty bad when you experience a morning where everything just falls into place, the timing is perfect and the memory works as intended, only to begin wondering what's going on and start dreading the fall. The fall you're sure is about to come. Is that paranoia? There is ALWAYS something that doesn't go as planned, there is ALWAYS the feeling of being pressed for time and there is ALWAYS something forgotten. Here I am having a great morning with none of the usual pitfalls, and suddenly I'm looking over my shoulder for the sucker punch I KNOW is coming! WHAT"S UP WITH THAT!? I'm probably forgetting something and have forgotten that I've forgotten.

Weather. Wonder what Mama Nature is serving for breakfast this morning. 

Phone, you ready to go to work?

15° of fair skies, 53% humidity and 8 mph West winds with 18 mph gusts. Sounds brrr. An expected high of 27°, along with increasing cloudiness and winds threatening a chill factor of -1°, is promising to make for a chilly day. Ooo, and possible snow tonight after 7 pm. No significant snowfall accumulation is anticipated.

Well, that's quite the gourmet meal, is it not!? 

Camera, you're up... did you know that the reason you can't find any decent point and shoot cameras anymore is because of the high quality camera in most cell phones? Well, doesn't THAT suck. I don't wanna use my phone as a camera since I don't particularly wish to expose an expensive piece of electronics, such as a phone, to things like, oh I don't know, RAIN, SNOW, SLEET, HIGH WINDS with blowing debris, TEMPERATURE EXTREMES and the guaranteed DROPPING of said expensive and very difficult to replace electronics, from cold or slippery hands!!!!!!

!!HUMPHF!!

Where was I? 

Ah, yes. The weather. C'mon Camera. Let's go outside and play!

...

It took two arduous trips to the great beyond that is known as The Front Porch, for Camera to capture the beautiful predawn blue that we love so much.

Have a GREAT GRAND and GLORIOUS day, Travelers.

Hang in there. Life, as painful as it can get, is oh so worth living, if you just hang in there. As Roosevelt is credited with saying, 

 "when you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on"

Weather The Weather Rather Well

18°

71% humidity

7 mph winds

Overcast

Expected high is 24°

Expect cloudy and windy conditions.
*heavy sigh*

At least the Weather Guessers have sumpin'.

Cus I got nuttin'.

Had ta use the flash to get any kinda image besides black.

The wind is packing a punch this morning.

Have a great day, Travelers. And may you weather the day's weather rather well.

Vivi Ridi Ama

Chicken Tacos And Ashtabula

Chicken tacos. It's 10 am and all I can think about is chicken tacos for dinner. It's so happenin'.

Weather. On with the weather.

The Weather Guessers have consulted their oracles, Thermometer, Hygrometer, Anemometer and Satellite Radar, to bring us their best guess of the current and near-future weather conditions. Thermometer claimed a current temp of 27°. Seemed a whole lot warmer out there, whilst standing comfortably on the Front Porch.

Hygrometer claimed a current humidity level of 49%. Yeah. It's definitely been dry lately. My cracked fingertips always give that away.

Anemometer claimed a wind speed of 6 mph. Yep. It was definitely breezy out there, but it felt so good! Must go out and enjoy more of it.

And last but certainly not least, 

Satellite Radar has proclaimed the skies to be fair. Liar. (Uvula is still asleep.) There is a definite haze out there that the sun is struggling to burn off. Fair skies, my Ashtabula. 

I'm thinking maybe I should one day go visit Ashtabula, since I use the name so indiscreetly. Ohio seems like a foreign land. One that nobody thinks about when planning a vacation. And yet it is the birthplace of my father. Ohio is. Not Ashtabula.

It might actually be a nice place. Maybe. Possibly. Could be.

I blame A League Of Their Own for my indiscretion.
Genna Davis playing Dottie Hinson:"No thanks."
Jon Lovitz playing Ernie Capadino: "No thanks? Hey, no skin off my Astabula. You wanna stay here plucking cows that's your business."
Genna Davis playing Dottie Hinson: "You know what? You're not nice."
Jon Lovitz playing Ernie Capadino:"Ooooo, that one hurt. So long milkmaids."
A GREAT movie, by the way.

That bright spot between the trees in the upper left is the sun trying to peek through the cloud cover, haze cover, marine cover, whatever they call it.

Done here. Must be done here. Things to do and places to be.

Have a great day, my beloved Travelers.

ViviRidiAma

Ernie Capadino: Hey, no skin off my ashtabula.

I Love Computer Games

Well, I almost forgot again. Except we've already come to the conclusion that "almost forgot" can't possibly exist since remembering makes the almost part null and void simply because one remembers. I am not going to wonder out to the Front Porch and ask Camera to take an insufficient WIP since night has fallen.... how come a night falls and the day breaks?... anyway, it's too dark to get a WIP. HOWEVER!!! There happens to be a WIP that was taken and downloaded at... what times was it this morning?... 8:52 am. That's when I started this report. No, not true. That's when I started preparing for the report I never started. Till now that is, at... what time is it?... I'm looking for a clock. Why am I looking for a clock when the computer always displays the time in the bottom right corner? It's 10:10 pm. 

Not only did I take the following WIP this morning

I also took a screen shot of the 8:53 am weather report, as prognosticated by the WeeGees. And I gotta say with enthusiasm

LIARS!!!

Fair skies!?!? That cloud cover looks pretty complete to me!!! The 39° I agree with. It felt rather warm out there. 96% humidity, yeah, whatever. Calm winds. If memory serves, it was calm on the Front Porch this morning. 

I can't tell you about the rest of the day's weather as I spent the entire day nose to monitor vocally, and quite loudly I might add, complaining about the number of times my character died in the game I'm playing. I'm losing my touch. I even lowered the difficulty level and frequently consulted a walk-through! Still, I died! And continue to die, over and over again.

Humphf!!

Humphf or no humphf, I cannot tell you how much I love computer games!

Have a good night, Travelers, and may nothing but sweet dreams see you through.

No Sumpin' Only Nuttin'

Doncha hate sleeping for hours and waking up tired. Well, I'm 4 slices into a 6 slice bacon breakfast and feeling much better. Bacon. It does a carnivore good. Of course, the large amount of coffee I consumed this morning might have a little something to do with me feeling awake now.

Weather. I know we have some, I'm just not sure what kind yet. Phone is loading up current conditions as we speak...er... make that as we type... uh... probably more like "as I type."

Phone says that the WeeGees claim we have 9° out on the Front Porch right now. Brr. Phone says the WeeGees claim we also have 92% humidity, calm winds and fair skies. And Phone says the WeeGees claim we have a high of 42° with mostly sunny skies to look forward to today. 42! Gonna feel like a heat wave!

I got nuttin' this morning. Unless there is sumpin' going on around the Front Porch when WIP time rolls around, I just got nuttin'. My hands are dry. I guess that's sumpin', but it's a sumpin' I don't wanna have. WIP time.

Back will I be.

...
My fleshy extension at the back of the soft palette that hangs above the throat was all prepared to sling epithets at the WeeGees, but upon careful examination of the weather page, which has updated, AND an even more careful examination of the 3 day history which gives three days worth of hourly readings, has denied Uvula it's favorite form of expression. I guess we really did go from 9° to 24° in just one hour, and from calm winds to 6 mph winds in the same time period.
Wow.
When a warm front decides to move in, it moves in.

I must be off!
Have a good day Travelers!

To Much Breakfast

Too much breakfast.

Consider the word breakfast.

Break-fast. To break fast.

I get it.

Alright, my question is, exactly how long without food is considered a "fast" if we must break our fast every morning? 8 hours? 6 hours? 2 hours? An inquiring mind wants to know. A brief Google search has garnered nothing, zero, zip, nada. Much to my disappointment. C'mon Google! I thought you had the answers to everything!?! Good, bad, real or imagined, where's my answer? It's all in the wording. Apparently, my wording will not suffice this morning. But, getting back on track, I ate too much this morning. Cream of rice cereal is... heavy on the stomach. My goodness. Ok, 'nuff of that. Moving on.

WEATHER

Phone says we have 11° to look forward to when we step out onto the Front Porch. Phone also says the skies will be fair, the humidity will be 61%, the winds will be 5 mph out of the West and that we should expect a sunny day with a high of 25.

Ok. Sounds do-able. Not that I can do any thing else but do-able it, right?

Too early for a WIP yet, so I have time to ponder my impulse buys at the Goodwill yesterday. Keepin' the sweater, returning the shirt, undecided about the bath mat, returning the labels, returning the headlamp (not working), returning the adapter (wrong plug), returning the bag of three punches (dull, dull and not interested), keeping the wreath forms, keeping the wooden box (beautiful! will make a nice gift box) keeping the scarf (potential gift?), keeping the single corner punch (it's sharper than the one I'm using so I'm tossing the old one) and I'm undecided about the mini glue gun and glue sticks. Nope. No longer undecided. Keeping the glue gun. It's a hot temp gun. The one I have is a cool temp. And all the glue sticks are multi temp, so they should work in either gun.

WORKS!

As riveting as that last paragraph was, I must be on with the morning "prep for work" ritual, which includes the taking of several potential WIPS, the downloading of all potential WIPS, the careful scrutiny of all potential WIPS, the selection of todays WIP and finally the posting of the chosen WIP, good bad or otherwise. Then there's packing a lunch, the pouring of a bottle of Britta water, the re-brushing of the teeth to remove todays breakfast, the skate to Trusty for a brief warm-up before travel, the washing of the breakfast dishes, the pouring of the remainder of my coffee into an empty water bottle so I can make a cup of iced coffee with it at work, the peanut-buttering and cutting up of some stale bread to toss to the Crows I've come to love at work, the folding of my load of laundry (if it dries in time) the inevitable hunt for Phone and Camera, the taking out of the trash as this is trash day and finally the drive to work. Oh, and the 10 minute coat, glove and scarf bundle-up against the weather. Ok, I admit I exaggerate, but it sure feels like 10 minutes.  

Now, as riveting as that last paragraph was, I must MOVE IT!! NOW!! Or risk being late!

Camera warned me it couldn't focus.

Phone did a little better.

Three things before I go. First, don't wash your hands immediately prior to grabbing a metal storm door handle in 11° weather, as you risk losing the skin that sticks to said handle. Second, 11° is NOT short sleeve weather. And third, avoid pants that turn to ICE in 2 seconds in 11° weather. It makes you walk funny.

Have a great day Travelers!

LIVELAUGHLOVE

Blasted Nuked Coffee

Blasted nuked coffee!

Nothing guarantees a miserable morning more than an alarm clock. Followed closely on the heels of arousing in such a rude and unnatural manner, is the introduction of one or more toes to a nearby door jamb. Almost every door jamb in the house and all ten toes have already met. WHY they feel the need for a reintroduction is a mystery. Finally, running neck and neck with alarm clock awakenings and toe/jamb reintroduction's comes the over nuked coffee. A scalded tongue is the perfect way to knit the brow in a deep scowl of hostility. And, of course, the offended tongue will continue to punish the one who scalded it, for the remainder of the day!

HUMPHF!

Blasted nuked coffee!

Feeling a bit better now. However, the glower has yet to recede.

Front Porch, Weather, Camera, Phone, OBACE, we're in this together so

WAKE UP!

Let's get this show going.

Phone. Yer up first. 

It's 13° out there, with 67% humidity, 3 mph winds and fair skies to go with it. A sunny day with a high of 20 is in the forecast.

Camera. OBACE. Time to move it outside and see what Front Porch has to say.

I love the predawn blue. And it WAS blue out on the Front Porch. Purdy enuf to wipe out the scowl. Almost.
Throbbing.
There's a word for you. It's like your heart found a new place to dwell for the moment. It can no longer be found in the chest. Nope. It now beats in the toe that was unceremoniously slammed into a doorjamb whilst stumbling around in the dark looking for the bathroom.
May your stubbed toes be few, if nonexistent, my dear Travelers. They're completely unnecessary and a total waste of a good mood and precious time.
Much Love I send to you.
And Happiness, too.

Ice Storm Yesterday

We had an Ice Storm yesterday.

35° right now.

So sayeth the WeatherGuessers.

We beat the predicted high of 34° for the day. The temp is expected to fall all day as a cold front moves in.

Fair skies right now.

So sayeth the Weegees.

Patchy Fog is supposed to give way to sunny skies as the day progresses.

93% humidity right now.

So sayeth the Weegees.

As always, we take their word for it.

6 mph winds from the West right now.

So sayeth the Weegees.

Confirmation of the preceding will be forthcoming when the Organic Bipedal Anthropomorphic Climate Evaluator starts it's engines and fuels up for a Front Porch visit. Brief as that visit may be, the current conditions are apparent immediately.

...

Ok. With that last bite of scrambled eggs, OBACE has a full tank of fuel and is ready to meander out onto the Porch for a first glimpse of the coming day.

Phone! Camera! Let's do this.

No wind to speak of. Noisy tho. The trees were dripping from the melting ice on their branches.

Lotsa stars shining in the sky. Purdy. Only a couple were bright enuf to come thru in the WIP.

Gotta go prep Trusty for a perilous trip to work. Glad work is only 4 miles away.

Stay warm, Travelers. It does a body good.

May Love and Happiness be yours.

Amusing Terminology

Good Morning.

According to the weather guessers we have that Fog/Mist thing going on again.

Along with that they say we have 24° of chilly air, 100% humidity, calm winds and a Winter Weather Advisory from now until 12 pm Tuesday. OH! There's more! I love this next one! Apparently, in the forecast for overnight tonight, we have a "Chance Freezing Drizzle."

Freezing Drizzle!

I love that!

Drizzle is such a great word.

On a serious note, as amusing as I might find the terminology, ice storms can be quite destructive. Beautiful. But destructive.

Hang on... that was the forecast for last night. We are still getting last nights forecast this morning. An update is due right now as the clock just turned to 5:53 am. But I gotta wait for 10 minutes or so for the update to be posted. So, I'm waiting. In the meantime I can go check out the weather situation and ask Camera and/or Phone to illustrate said situation.

...

Chilly out there. 

The current weather conditions for this hour, exactly the same as last hour. Except now we have forecast for the day, Rain/Freezing Rain likely then Rain and Patchy Fog.

Got it.

I couldn't see the mist but I could feel it. Camera, with the aid of it's trusty flash, actually could see the mist.

Have a good day, Travelers!

I gotta go right now!

Noche' Says Hello

Fog/Mist

That's what the Weegees are saying we have at the moment. Of course, I must go see for myself.

Do you see any fog out there?

No. There is no fog.

However, there will be no mud slinging, as there was the slight presence of mist. Saved by the "slash mist" part.

To go along with that slight mist, we have 21°, 96% humidity and 9 mph winds out of the North East.

Another day in a most excellent shade of gray.

May your day be wonderful.

Oh yeah. Noche' says hello

Gray Was Quiet

It's gray today, but no snow or rain is expected. That's cus the Front Porch is enjoying 43° at the moment. Humidity is at 47% and the finger skin was feeling it. The thumb and first finger digits wanna split today. And then we have the 7 mph breeze. Felt so delicious during the 30 second Porch visit. 

A quick check of the Back Porch revealed a distant visitor. 

Gray was very quiet. Nary a peep. But his tail was flipping lightning fast. I'm surprised we weren't hearing sonic booms from it.

Have a great day, my Brothers and Sisters of this most wonderful Universe.

Till Next We May Meet

To quote an epitaph on an Irish tombstone, 

"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, but love leaves a memory no one can steal."
Happy 82nd Birthday, Mama.
And to you, R,

time to go say goodbye, till next we may meet.

...

31°, 76% humidity, 8 mph winds from the South West and "a few clouds."
The following 2 pictures were taken within seconds of each other.

Camera was obviously playing with it's "auto" settings.
The first picture is more what my eyes saw. But I also like what Camera's eyes saw in the second picture.
Except for the blur.
May a good day be yours, my Fellow Travelers of this most excellent Universe.

Mid-morning And To Say The Least

Street musicians are the best. 

Apparently, Drummer Gordo, a wonderful Australian drummer who studied music in Japan, has been a YouTube sensation for quite some time. I have only just now had the pleasure of seeing him perform in a video that Baby Sis shared on Facebook. The man doesn't need drums. Buckets will do.

Incredible talent.

Weather. Front Porch. Camera. Phone. Wip. Weather Guessers.

On with the morning...

The current weather conditions, as reported by the ever unreliable but much loved WeeGees arrrrrrrre... c'mom Phone. You can do it... here we go.

11° = chilly, to say the least

hmmm...

"To say the least?" What's that mean, exactly?

It's GOOGLE time!

...

Okaaaaay. 

Not entirely sure I'm using this term in the proper context. "To say the least" is an understatement used to imply that the reality of a situation is actually worse than stated. I suppose there are far worse expressions that could have accurately described 11°.

Back to the weather... 

92% humidity = no split fingers-at least not yet

calm winds = no wind chill to contend with

overcast skies = possible snow squall sometime during midmorning

hmmmm...

Mid-morning? Exactly what time is "mid-morning?"

It's GOOGLE time!

...

Riiiiiight.

Mid-morning is, and I am quoting Google's top search definition, "the middle of the morning; the time centering around the midpoint between early morning and noon."  Seriously? 

Well, DUH!!!

Further research has produced a tentative time frame of 8 am to 11 am as being mid-morning.

Wip time. C'mon Camera. C'mon Phone. Let's go see what we can do with the predawn light.

Whatever settings are engaged in Phone take a whole lotta liberties with the available light.

I like the pictures Phone takes, but that is not what my eyes see.

 The lack of light with the auto setting makes things difficult for Camera to work with.

Even so, Camera does a much better job at capturing my reality.

May your day be a great day, Travelers.

My Game Face

Good morning. The Front Porch is enjoying 14° of calm winds fair skies and 92% humidity. It's soon to be a sunny day with a high of 32°. A normal winter day! I like it. A delicious weather recipe.

Am I annoyed much?

Oh yeah.

Woke up thinking about the new game I started, The Evil Within, set in a mental asylum. Gonna be a gruesome and gory game if the first chapter is any indication. However, what's annoying is the amount of times my character has succumbed to the "Butcher." Blasted BUTCHER! 4 times already! And I'm not even 10 minutes into the game!!! You wanna know what this calls for!? It calls for a

!HUMPHF!

And humphf humphf humphf!

Okay, nuff feelin' sorry for myself. 

Time to put on my game face. I sure hope I still have one. If I do, that Butcher is toast!

But that's for later. First order of the... there goes the plow. Wonder how much snow is now blocking my exit from the driveway. Best give meself time fer a show snovel this morning.
Poor Camera. Struggles to focus anymore. Fall down the stairs didn't help.

Stars. Pretty. But that goes without saying, right?

Have a good day, Travelers.

Purdy Out There

According to the WeeGees we have Light Snow/ Fog/Mist, 26°, Calm winds and 96% humidity going on right now. The expected high for today is 30° and they think the snow will last until about 8 pm, by which time we will have amassed a possible 10 inches total snowfall between last night and today.
Sure is purdy out there.

May a good day be yours, Travelers.

Whadda We Have

So... whadda we have this morning...

15° is what we have. 77% humidity, overcast skies and 5 mph winds to go with those degrees. Today's forecast calls for a mostly cloudy sky with a high of 27.

Ok.

I hit 4 instead of 1 on the microwave. 4 minutes later my coffee is boiling. Probably scorched as well.
Piffle.
Wonder how Baby Baby Sis is doin'.

Posta snow tomorrow.
Dinner was good last night.
What exactly is the grippe?

I guess I'm done. Staring at the monitor for 10 minutes has produced nothing but a Google search for an explanation of "grippe" and the Huey Lewis and the News song "I Want A New Drug." A drug, free from side-effects, that will give me a little energy, would be nice. Caffeine ain't doin' it this morning. On the bright side, I didn't scald my tongue. I patiently waited till my new cup of coffee was ready. But, even with coffee, I wanna go back to bed instead of work. 

*heavy yawn*
Oh, grippe, by the way, for those like me who didn't know, is an old-fashioned term for the flu.
May you always wake refreshed, and sleep well when tired. Te quiero, Travelers

Cold But Beautiful

51% humidity, 6 mph North winds, fair skies and 11°. Our heat wave is over. At least for the next few days. By this weekend we should be back up into the 40's again. For now, we must settle for the high of 19° expected today. I gotta say, the day is beautiful out there. Cold and windy, yes, but beautiful just the same.

May the beauty of the day find you, Travelers.

One Tough Camera

Currently-

9°, 84% humidity, fair skies and calm winds.

Camera was able to take the preceding WIP. Even after a seriously hard drop followed immediately by a rough tumble down the stairs a couple of days ago. One tough Camera.

 Forecast today calls for sunny skies, a high near 22° and 5 mph North winds.

May the forecast in your neighborhood bring much wonderfulness, in it's own way, and may your day be a great day, Travelers.

Weather Happenin'

There's some weather happenin' out on the Front Porch.
54° of Rain/Fog/Mist, 100% humidity and 12 mph South winds with gusts of 21 mph.
Yeah. Weather is definitely happening out there.

Camera Phone And Wallet

Where's Phone? Where's Camera? Feet! I'm tellin' ya, they got feet!

...

Here is a perfect example of how my days have been going lately. Just now I went in search of Phone and Camera, the pranksters, found Camera sitting next to my wallet, came back to my computer and spent several seconds trying to find the On switch on my wallet so I could check the weather. I need Phone for that, not Camera and certainly not my wallet. The seriously delayed reaction between my Brain recognizing the fact that my wallet did not have a power switch, that my wallet wasn't Camera like I originally thought and that neither wallet nor Camera would be able check the weather for me because neither of those things was Phone, is a bit unsettling.

...alrighty then...

Where's Phone?

...

Phone has revealed the current weather conditions, now that the game of hide and seek is over.

43 balmy degrees... balmy. Defined as pleasantly warm or extremely foolish, the latter being a bit archaic. A description quite apropos for this morning temperature. 43° is pleasantly warm after two weeks of subzero weather, but it is a tad foolish to refer to 43° as warm.

Balmy.

:)

It's perfect!

Uhh, where was... ah yes, the current conditions. 43°, 100% humidity, overcast skies and 3 mph winds. Forecast calls for a high of !52°! along with rain and fog today.

Eyes are done for now. Back I will be.

...

Today's WIP. Brought to you by Phone... 

Wonder why Phone and Camera have never revealed their names. Maybe because of the notion that there is something "off" about someone who names everything. But then, that would make the entire worlds population "off" as we have "named" everything. A personal favorite is the dot above the small I or J. Tittle. Of course, tittle means a tiny amount or part of something, so it's not just naming that dot. But that dot IS a "tittle," or a "superscript dot." Now I ask you, which is easier and more fun to say, superscript dot or tittle?

:)

Phone and Camera just may be dubbed with new monikers!

WIP! It's WIP time!

Never noticed the person walking down the street till I looked at the pictures.

The powers of observation. Mine they are not.

Toodles, Travelers.

And The Heat Goes On

Currently we have 36°, 86% humidity, 13 mph South West winds with 22 mph gusts and... oh, I always love this one when the WeeGees use it, "unknown precip." Forecast calls for a mostly cloudy day with fog and a high temp of 45°. Our heat wave is expected to last until Saturday.
Too early for a WIP. Not enuf light.
...
Okay. C'mon Camera. C'mon Phone. Let's see what kinda light we got out there.

Luna was playing peek-a-boo with the cloud cover.

Camera's feeling very neglected. Can't see in the dark. Although, it is getting lighter and lighter out there as the days go by. Phone, on the other hand, is having no trouble seeing the light.
May a good day be yours, Travelers.

The Heat Wave Continues

14°, 88% humidity, fair skies and calm winds. A predicted high of 33 and sunny is the forecast for today. The heat wave continues...

Luna and the Stars

Ahh, The Fresh Air

Ahh, the fresh air... I woke only once during the night, thanks to my bladder. But, more importantly, I woke this morning with no headache. I must confess, however, getting out of bed was a serious struggle. Toasty warm and snug under the covers, breathing in that cold fresh air, yeah, I wanted very much to stay right where I was. Somehow, I don't know how, I found the will to throw back the covers

This morning the Front Porch is enjoying 24° of crisp, wonderful air and... huh, overcast skies. Really? Won't know for sure till OBACE moseys out the door. What else do the WeeGees say we have? All right then, they claim we currently have calm winds and 91% humidity to go with that overcast sky. And lastly, they are forecasting mostly sunny skies and a high temp of... say WHAT!?

40°

!?!?

You mean, we're gonna have a genuine heat wave of the non-sarcastic persuasion!? 

Wait a second... the WeeGees are wrong an awful lot of the time. Oh, here we go. My hangy down thing is gonna sling it's favorite epithet if the WeeGees are wrong today. And not just once, either. Oh no! I will completely unleash the Kraken that is "the fleshy extension at the back of the soft palate that hangs above the throat" or, as it is otherwise known, the

UVULA!

Should any of you across the country, suddenly experience an unexpected gust of wind today, that may carry with it the essence of garlic and bad teeth, you'll know I have released the Kraken!

Camera, c'mon. We need a WIP.

Poor Camera didn't have enough light. but Phone did. Definitely overcast.

Have a good day, today and always.

And when life makes the ViviRidiAma seem far away, hang in there. 

You'll find them again, if you do.

One more thing-

Yesterday, while it was snowing, I noticed a couple of Mourning Doves in one of the trees our backyard. This first one looked cold, sitting there all fluffed out, trying to warm his feet.

But the second one...

I wanted to go out and throw a blanket around the poor thing!

...

Update-

The high temperature today was 39°. Close enough to the predicted 40° that the hurling of epithets was unfounded. Uvula is mighty disappointed. Tonight's predicted low is 10°. Do I or do I not open my window? That is the question.

Good night, Travelers.

An Open Window

An open window!
It's 29° right now. The expected low is 25°. That means a wide open window!

Fresh air!

I have had to wait approximately 2 weeks for this.

Fresh night air, at last. And allow me to say, that the fresh air coming through that wide open window feels WONDERFUL!!

It's the little things, right? They're HUGE!

Sleep well, Travelers. May your dreams be sweet, and hold dear memories.

No Fresh Air

Good morning. It's a headache morning. The lack of fresh air is probably the culprit. Sinuses and negative temperatures don't mix well. So the window must stay closed. BUT!!! We have a warm air mass moving in sometime this week! Ah yes, an open window will be at the top of the to-do list.

Camera, lets go snap a WIP. 

:)

That sounds so funny when I read it.

Snap a WIP.

:)

C'mom Camera...

This weather illustration picture, aka the WIP, is trying to show the current 17°!!

17 degrees?!

No wonder I was able to stand out there for so long with just my jammies on!!

It's warm! Well, ok, yer right, not warm, exactly, but, compared to -15, it's much warmer!

Let's see, what are the rest of the current conditions?

Overcast. Yep. It's overcast.

70% humidity. Really? Then why is my bottom lip threatening to split?

Calm winds. Yep. Not a twig was rustling.

Forecast is calling for high temp of 27°, with a 50% chance of snow showers and winds up to 15 mph later today.
Totally doable heat wave.

I need to clean my desk off. It's suffering from flat surface syndrome. A flat empty surface is a prime host for "we'll just set it there for now" disease. 

Got nuttin'. I think I ranted myself empty last night.

Have a good day, a great afternoon, a grand evening and a glorious night.

Te quiero, Travelers.

They Need To Do The Math

Beware!
Rant coming.

Doncha hate... nope. No H-bombs... Doncha highly dislike hearing people complain about the money they don't have by slamming those who do? And inevitably they pop off with some variation of a statement to the effect that "he/she should just share it with me/the rest of us." Usually, it's "ME" and not "the rest of us." People have a tendency to be greedy with other peoples money. So I took 10 minutes with Google and crunched the numbers. We'll take Trump as an example, since he is standing right in the middle of the worlds spotlight at the moment. His net worth is approximately 3.1 Billion. That's a whole lotta greenbacks. Now, let's take the population of the good ole USA. Approximately 323 million. That's a whole lotta breathing humans. If Trump were in a monkish mood to take a vow of poverty, then proceed to give up all his worldly possessions, once he liquefies them into cash, by sharing equally with every man, women and child in the US, how much do you think your palm would be blessed with? 

How bout I show you the numbers?

3.1 Billion divided by 323 million = $9.60

All 323 million of us would get a whopping $9.60. 

That's right, one more time,
NINE DOLLARS AND SIXTY CENTS.
And that's gonna put Trump in the red because of the "round up." The actual number is 9.59752321981. Well, let's not stop there. (It's okay to assume there are liberal round ups/round downs and approximates from here on.) Let's subtract 78 million under the age of 18. Children wouldn't know what to do with such a windfall. So, 

3.1 Billion divided by 245 million = $12.65

Hey! You can safely buy 2 cups of coffee from Starbucks with that! Wait, we're not done.

Let's say that the 4.7 million criminals (this number includes those incarcerated, those on parole and those on probation) don't qualify for this money.

3.1 Billion divided by 240 million = $12.92

I admit I'm having trouble thinking of what an additional 27 cents might purchase. Perhaps that should go into a savings account. But, wait, there's more. Since we live in a patriarchal society let's eliminate the female gender from the equation. (Please note that this exercise is not gender biased. If this were a matriarchal society, I would be eliminating men.) 

3.1 Billion divided by 115 million =  $26.96

This assures every qualifying man in the USA can step into a 99 Restaurant and have a single dinner. Or skip dinner and share a few celebratory drinks with friends instead. All right, let's be fair and say that our patriarchal society is a caring society, and Trump chooses to split his money equally, but only among those living at poverty level in the USA.

3.1 Billion divided by 43.1 million = $71.93

That's a couple tanks of gas to get to and from work and to the grocery store for a couple of weeks, depending on the car. If there's a car to put the gas in. Did I also hear "All I need is one million. He could spare that easily."

Riiiiight.
There's that greed I mentioned.

Who's gonna decide which 3,100 people out of 323,000,000,000 he should give a million to?

Who among us is worthy to decide?

Good luck winning that lottery.
To those who think it's not "fair" that he have so much, if Trump walked up and handed over 10 bucks right now, would that be good enough? It is, after all, the "fair" share.

Rant done.

2 Seconds Each

We are currently enjoying 4° of fair skies, 42% humidity and 10 mph West winds giving us a wind chill of -11°. Oh, and the forecasted high for today is 12°. Spell check would really prefer I didn't use "forecasted", but sometimes I feel rebellious.

Camera and Phone have been pressing me about today's WIP. I suppose if I want a picture to illustrate the weather I must go let them play. They've got 2 seconds. Each. That's a total of 4 seconds, you guys. Best be at the ready when the door opens.

...

Poor Front Porch. We haven't had a proper visit in weeks. On to the WIP. Phone's picture is up first. I'm amazed at the lack of color. I didn't deliberately set any filters on Phone, so I'm guessing that maybe pointing the lens at the sun triggered an automatic filter. I don't know...

Camera on the other hand

must deal with the sudden onslaught of Sun's light. Good job Camera. Your picture captured what my eyes saw.

I got nuttin' again today, Travelers.

May your journey be a great ride, no matter what must be endured.

A Frosty Storm Door

I pushed the storm door open, let Camera snap one unfocused picture and called it good. I should have snapped the picture thru the storm door but it fogged up so... wonder what that would look like?

Hang on...

Interesting.

But I misspoke. The glass on the storm door wasn't "fogged" up. It was actually frost that I could literally scrape off with my fingernail. I guess we should start keeping an ice scraper just inside the door.

Luna was saying good morning. Luna is always beautiful.

I got nuttin' so I'm off.

Have a good day, Travelers. The best that you can have.

LiveLaughLove

Always
...
I forgot the weather conditions this morning.
At 6:15 am, when Camera took the morning WIP, the Front Porch was enjoying -4°, fair skies, 5 mph winds and 53% humidity.
Right now, at 7:45 pm we have 1°, 46% humidity, overcast skies and 7 mph winds with 23 mph gusts giving us a -12° wind chill.
Goodnight, Travelers

Momentary Heat Wave

19°. We're having a heat wave at the moment. That's going to change in the next moment. Today the temp is going to drop to somewhere around 4, as another cold air mass descends upon us. For now, the 19° made shoveling the Porches quite comfortable. The trees around the house protected us from the 9 mph West winds. And from the gusts up to 16 mph. I didn't feel the wind so much as hear it howling thru the branches above us. The skies are fair and the humidity is 62%.

No time today.

Have a good day. As good as it can be.

ViviRidiAma
...
By the way, our official snowfall total for the ridiculously named "bomb cyclone", otherwise known as 2018 Storm Grayson (sounds much more dignified) is 13.3 inches. Pretty impressive, Grayson. But the question begs to be asked, what's wrong with "blizzard"?

Riding On The Winds Of A Storm

Snow/Freezing Fog, 21°, 92% humidity and 3 mph winds.

R, I wish to think of you as traveling today, and peacefully riding on the winds of a storm.

Brain Pain And A Heavy Heart

Papa Whitey's birthday. I cannot remember the year of his birth. Must look that up.
Three days into the New Year and still with the nuttin". Nuttin' but preoccupied brain pain and a heavy heart.

*heavy sigh*

The current weather is such

-7°

fair 

calm

82%  relative humidity

A possible high today of 25°

And a possible blizzard moving in early tomorrow morning.
...

Okay. 10 minutes staring at the screen has produced nothing but the promise of a headache. I'll be back when I can add the WIP for today. To early for one yet.

...
Static electricity. The bane of cold dry winter days. A sudden discharge of this electricity, most especially on the lips, under a fingernail or directly on a tiny injury such as dry cracked skin, is enough to bring about a string of decidedly unsavory and vulgar terminology spewing forth in unrestrained abandon. Even those of us who believe in the "less is best" rule when it comes to profane language, are inclined to overindulge.
owie Owie OWie OWIe OWIE!!
*humphf!*
It's WIP time.
Be right back.
...
Brrr... I gotta go try again. Poor Camera just couldn't get a decent WIP. Maybe Phone will have better luck.
...
It's the fogging of the lens that's the issue. Took a few pics to get a relatively clear WIP.

Bella Luna

A single star is hiding in this picture.

It's off to work I go...

Te quiero, Travelers.

Supermoon, Jack Frost And A Weegee Named Smalls

Anybody see that Supermoon this morning!?

Luna was BEAUTIFUL! Not that she always isn't, or never not is, or always is not isn't... BRAIN PAIN! Too much brain pain. Simplier... right now, I don't care if that's not a word... simplier put, Luna is always beautiful. But she was shining special today.

I gotta go right this minute. But I'll be back sometime today.
 :)
...
Ok, I'm back, but this isn't the back I meant when I said I'd be back. Trusty's is warming up and I must leave inna a few minutes. Wanted to wait in the house till then. In the meantime, ... meantime?... I got no time for pondering words! Jack Frost painted my windshield again.

Quite the artist, no?
Okay, I'll be back again.
:)
It's 6:56 pm, I'm back and I got nuttin'. I can at least share the weather recipes served up today. This morning at 4:14 am, when Luna was posing for me, we had -4° with 65% humidity, fair skies and 6 mph West winds.
When Jack was painting my windshield at 8:33 am, we had 1 degree, fair skies, 5 mph winds and 51% humidity.
And now we have, well, look at that, we're back down to 1 degree, from a high of 12 somewhere around 3 pm. We cooled down fast when the sun set. Along with the current 1°, we have fair skies, calm winds and 79% humidity.
Tonight we're looking at a low of... say what?... seriously?... a low of 2? I'm thinkin' one of the WeeGees MUST have the last name Smalls, because a quote from the movie Sandlot just flashed thru my head- "Yer killin' me, Smalls!"
They plainly say it's currently 1°, but then stick with their original predicted low of 2°? Have they no dignity!? No shame!?... which is it? Dignity or shame? Brain pain is trying to set back in.
Have a goodnight, Travelers.
Be warm, be safe, be well.
Te quiero

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Today is Grumpy's birthday. Would have been his 86th.

It's also

2018!

It's 2018!

 Not only that but it's

-18°!

As in MINUS, in the negative, below zero!

This is what a -18° morning in 2018 looks like. 

That's MINUS 18 degrees!

As in EIGHTEEN degrees below zero!

Yer right. The picture can't really relay to the viewer -18 degrees.

Yer gonna hafta take my word for it.

It's

BRRRRR!

out there!

Try to stay warm this winter, my Fellow Travelers of this most excellent Universe.

ViviRidiAma!

...

Ok, I gotta share this.

A very short conversation between two strangers washing their hands in a womans public restroom-

Strange woman: My God. Look at you! You are so beautiful!

B: Thank you.

Strange woman: Are you a model?

B: No.

Strange woman: Are you like, Swedish or something?

B: Ma’am, I’m 14 years old. I don’t know what the hell I am.

B’s mother, (inside one of the restroom stalls throughout the conversation):

Bwaahaahahahhahahaha!!!

:)

Oh, my wonderful B, you are, without a doubt, one of the brightest shining and most beautiful rays of light on this planet!!! Like your mother, you probably have no idea how many smiles you give to people, even strangers. Or how good you make them feel.