HAPPY YULE!!!!!!!!!

 I wish you a blessed Solstice. May your holidays be full of light, laughter, and love.

X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Clow, M.; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and K. Arcand

Via NASA:

In addition to this cosmic wreath, a new version of the “Christmas tree cluster” is also now available. Like NGC 602, NGC 2264 is a cluster of young stars between one and five million years old. (For comparison, the Sun is a middle-aged star about 5 billion years old — about 1,000 times older.) In this image of NGC 2264, which is much closer than NGC 602 at a distance of about 2,500 light-years from Earth, Chandra data (red, purple, blue, and white) has been combined with optical data (green and violet) captured from by astrophotographer Michael Clow from his telescope in Arizona in November 2024. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

Well, I did at least get home by 9 pm

My boss let me go enjoy a bit of this glorious day (78 degrees and sunny, although a bit gusty with a south wind) by letting me leave after my work was finished, so I left at 3:30 pm, went home for a bit, picked A up from a job interview, and then took him to YKWIA's.  YKWIA showed us several clips from the TV show 'Mom', which I had not seen.  Then I took A to the store, took him home, went back to YKWIA's with some things from the store, made him tea, and then came on home.  Both of them have some sort of cold.  Hopefully I won't get anything from them; I've had my crud for the season as far as I'm concerned.

Tonight we have thunderstorms; tomorrow will top out about 30 degrees cooler than today.  But it was nice while it lasted, and it looks like there will be warm weather next week, too.  My friend's croci are actually and blooming already, and I saw a beautiful tree (not close up enough to see what it was, but it had lovely white blooms) in full glory.  Hopefully it won't get caught in a freeze.  But we're not out of the woods.  We've had a blizzard in mid-March about twenty-four years ago.  I'll believe winter is over once spring really gets going, although I must admit, we haven't had much cold or snow, and the last week has been wonderful.  I actually worn skirts two days this week, and with the exception of the two days I was packing boxes, I've worn sandals.

I finished the John Scalzi book The Dispatcher and enjoyed it quite a bit.  It was only a novella, but I'm counting that as a book for my reading goal.  Zachary Quinto did an excellent job with reading the voices.  Apparently it was produced by Audible, so as far as I know, it's just an audiobook.

Now I'm listening to OneRepublic's Native album.  I'm almost finished.  But it was nice to relax a little.  I'm going to take the guys to an appointment tomorrow, but I could sleep in, as that isn't until midday.  But at the same time, I think I may go on to bed and get up early and get a few things accomplished around here.  Plus, I still need to do game notes, of course.

Okay, I'm going to head on to bed.  The album just finished playing.  Good night!

It's 60 degrees and stormy two days before Christmas

And I must say,  I'm enjoying the warmer temperatures.  It may get into the 70s this weekend.  I think we've had a handful of cold days this month.  Makes me wonder about February,  though.

Remarkably

my geraniums, which are in window boxes on my window sills in the living room, are actually not only over-wintering--they're blooming. Yay! That and the Christmas cactus have been cheering me up during all the snow. But the thaw is in full swing, and a lot of the snow has melted. Of course, it's supposed to rain much of the week here, and that will be a problem with the ground so saturated. But we've got a long stretch of 50s and 60s coming up, even when I'm back from Chicago. Double yay! Winter has to end eventually. It's not my favourite season anyway (spring is), and I'll be happy to see this one go.

I was busy at work today getting things ready for my absence. Tomorrow will also be pretty busy, but I've met with both of the people who back me up on aspects of my job and gave them a refresher. I'm going to miss a clinic that is insanely large (I guess things got bumped to it due to the weather).

I've gone to the library, returned a book, paid a fine (yes, sometimes librarians forget to take things back, too, although in my case it was a DVD with higher fines than a book would have had), renewed some others, and now I'm back at home. I need to work on the house, and I'm actually in the mood to now that I've had a couple of veggie sausage, egg, and cheese sandwiches. It's 55 degrees and sunny outside, and I'm hot in here, so I'm tempted to open the windows but there's just a couple of more hours of sunlight, so instead I'll get into shorts and a tank top and maybe sit in front of the fan for awhile. The house is mostly about straightening up, and I need to take the recyclables (of which there are many) and the trash (not so much) out. I did the dishes and the laundry yesterday, so that's in good shape. I might go ahead and figure out what I'm going to wear in Chicago and what I need to pack, as well. I found some cards I've been looking for, but not all of them. They were tucked into one of those plastic window things you find in wallets, and they were actually where I thought they'd be, but had fallen down behind the area I was looking in. The others got separated at some point and I thought they were in my backpack, so I need to look there yet again. The ones I found just now were the important ones (such as insurance cards). The others are store cards, like the big Kroger one and my Speedway card, so they are replaceable. It would be nice to have them, though. Hopefully I'll find them as I straighten up. Oh, and I should wipe down the counters in the kitchen and clean the bathroom some. Okay, so I do have quite a bit to do. :) I also have to get some important papers and put them in a place I've told a friend about should anything happen to me on my trip (knock on wood, but it's good to be prepared).

Alright, I'm going to get into some cooler clothes and sit in front of the fan and go through my backpack/purses for those cards. Then I'll work on the rest of the house. Hope you had a good start to your week.

Well I got my car dug out

with the help of three neighbour women who showed up and offered to help as I was clearing off my car. They had a small snow shovel thankfully. In the ten years I've lived in the apartment, I've never needed it, but you better bet I'll get one for next year. The snow had drifted so that on the back there were about six or eight inches on it, but in the front it was about two feet--my windshield wipers were barely visible where I'd left them up due to the ice. It took us about 45 minutes to free the car, but I should be able to go to a couple of appointments tomorrow morning, one with a friend, and then on to work tomorrow.

Kentucky made the national news, as parts of the Interstate in a couple of places were almost like parking lots, and people were trapped for hours until rescued by National Guard members. That area had had at least 21 inches of snow. I can't stress how rapidly this stuff came down, on top of about 24 hours of heavy rain, so pre-treating was not really possible. One popular local spot for sledding had to be roped off because there was standing water at the end of the hill--not frozen, just standing--over by the Beaumont YMCA.

I hope we're done with the snow for the year. The temperatures are plunging tonight, so we are definitely still in winter's grasp. It should be around -8 degrees Fahrenheit in the morning. Next week is looking to be around the high 50s when I travel to Chicago, and Chicago is looking to be in the 40s. So let's hope Spring is on the way, soon.

Here we go again

The latest for our area from the weather service:

Issued by The National Weather Service Louisville, KY - Tue, Mar 3, 2:56 pm EST ... WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM EST /NOON CST/ WEDNESDAY TO 1 PM EST /NOON CST/ THURSDAY... THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LOUISVILLE HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM EST /NOON CST/ WEDNESDAY TO 1 PM EST /NOON CST/ THURSDAY. THE WINTER STORM WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT. * TIMING: RAIN CHANGES TO SNOW WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON... BECOMING HEAVY AT TIMES WEDNESDAY EVENING AND NIGHT. SNOW ENDS THURSDAY MORNING. * ACCUMULATIONS: 8 TO 12 INCHES OF SNOW ACROSS CENTRAL AND NORTH CENTRAL KENTUCKY. 5 TO 10 INCHES ACROSS SOUTHERN INDIANA AND ALSO SOUTHERN KENTUCKY. LOCALIZED HIGHER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE. * MAIN IMPACT: MAJOR TRAVEL DISRUPTIONS WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING. PLAN ON SNOW COVERED ROADS AND DANGEROUS TRAVEL CONDITIONS. SNOW RATES MAY BE INTENSE... RESULTING IN RAPID ACCUMULATIONS. * OTHER IMPACTS: NORTH WINDS GUSTING UP TO 20 MPH WEDNESDAY NIGHT. THIS COMBINED WITH THE WEIGHT OF THE SNOW COULD RESULT IN SCATTERED POWER OUTAGES AND DOWNED TREES. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... TRAVEL WILL BE HAZARDOUS... TRAVEL ONLY IF NECESSARY. SCATTERED POWER OUTAGES MAY OCCUR. TRAVEL WILL BE TREACHEROUS WITH SOME ROADS NEARLY IMPASSABLE. HAVE AN EMERGENCY KIT OF BLANKETS... FOOD... WATER AND FLASHLIGHTS IF YOU MUST TRAVEL. POWER OUTAGES ARE LIKELY.

It is now 60 degrees Fahrenheit in Lexington. By Friday morning, it's expected to be around zero.

I cry uncle. The last few weeks have seen abysmal amounts of snow and low temperatures. I am tired of Old Man Winter. On the other hand, the long-range forecast for my Chicago trip at the moment has Lexington at partly cloudy and the lower 50s, with Chicago the same, except for lower to mid-40s. I can live with that. Let's hope that forecast holds.

Cool. Eerie, but cool...

Nearly Frozen Waves Captured On Camera By Nantucket Photographer

Check out the photographer's website for more. His name is Jonathan Nimerfroh.

Going back to bed

as sleet is pelting my windows. Here's hoping for snow over ice, and rain to wash it all away (without flooding). So tired of winter, and really, it's been a decent one until this past week, upon which time Old Man Winter thought, gee, the South isn't getting that much and the New Englanders haven't broken yet, why don't I dump a whole winter's worth of stuff on Kentucky?

What a mess that's on the way!

Another Winter Storm

A lot of us are in a band of our forecasted 3-7"+ of snowfall with sleet, freezing rain and rain mixing in. It looks like more snow north and perhaps significant amounts of freezing rain and ice in the southern portions of that forecasted area. This does include Lexington.

Baby, it's cold outside

Deep freeze, USA: All 50 states sink below freezing point after second polar plunge dumps FIVE FEET of snow on Great Lakes

• Every single state experienced below-freezing temperatures Tuesday
• Five feet of snow is expected around Buffalo, New York
• Half of the nation is blanketed in snow
• Authorities shut down the New York State Thruway in western New York
• Dozens of drivers are stranded on the Thruway after getting caught in incredible pile-up of lake effect snow
• Temperatures are 15 to 25 degrees lower than normal for this time of the year across most of the country

Note that here in Kentucky, per one of the maps, we are 22 degrees lower than normal for this time of year, and you could certainly feel it. I was concerned this morning because my car doors tend to freeze shut easily and I've been told that my battery is charging at 50% capacity but haven't been able to get a new one yet before the cold weather settled in. Fortunately, this morning everything went as planned. Let's hope tomorrow will as well. We're going to steadily warm up till this weekend we'll see the 60s, and Thanksgiving is supposed to be sunny and 49. But getting down to the low teens in November for lows is not fun, and we simply aren't ready for it. Last winter was so horribly cold, snowy, and seemed longer than it should have, and I think most people are starting to think that this one will be similar.

Such a busy week--I can't believe it's been five days since I blogged

Sorry about that. I've been over at my friends' house a lot. I can't remember what I've done day by day, to be honest. It's kind of a blur. We've watched some 'Dan vs.', some 'Star Wars: the Clone Wars', and lots of YouTube videos, especially MadTV ones. Friday I did a little shopping at Gabriel Brothers and then went to over to my friends' house for 'Grimm'. Yesterday was chock full of errands, and I was out for 11 hours, and then got home and crashed. I didn't even do the game notes till this morning around 6:30. Today was the game, of course, and by that I mean Call of Cthulhu, although many other people in Kentucky were no doubt watching the finals of the SEC tournament. So there was the game prep beforehand as well.

A winter mix came in today, with the temperatures falling throughout the day, and with rain turning to freezing rain, sleet, and finally snow. I had to scrape my car for awhile when I went to leave because there was some ice on it under the snow. Then I started home on snow-covered streets. I'd say it's about an inch right now, and it was snowing pretty heavily. I think I did 20-30 mph the whole time. My check engine light came on, which was troubling, but I pushed on because I'd already taken out the things out of the car such as the air mattress and backup CPAP machine that I had in case I got stranded at my friends' house during the winter. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea. But once I got home I downloaded my car manual and checked what it said about the light. It's apparently something triggered by the emissions sensors, and something was off. I didn't see anything blocking the tailpipe (I thought maybe snow might be), but it was dark and I couldn't see well. They said it could just be some water vapour in the gas and suggested filling up (I'm at about 1/4 of a tank right now) with high quality gas and driving at least three times from a cold start on city streets and highway to see if it goes off. If not, I should get it looked at. We'll see.

I am getting a little frustrated with my partials. They did adjust the bite Friday morning, so it's more even. The lower ones are still a bit tricky in that they sometimes come loose while I'm eating, but the Poligrip helps with that. But it's really hard for me to get the upper ones to seat correctly...they have to clip around a tooth, and if I don't get them right, they fall out when I open my mouth to talk. I thought I was getting them in okay, and sometimes (not often), they go right in. But on most days when I have a time constraint, I have to take them in a little plastic container with me and put them in after I get where I'm going. I tried that today, however, and it was no go. I simply could not get them in well. I realise it takes practice, but it's been over two weeks. But I'll keep trying. I'm going back to the dentist on Wednesday for a crown and will address the looseness and see if maybe they can line them or something. Friday I told them my gums were sore towards the end of the day, and they said it would just take some time to get used to them. I still talk funny, too, but it's not as bad as it was, or at least not to my ears.

Okay, I have a few things to do here before I go to bed. And my 'm' key is sticking (I have this trouble on my laptop, but it always moves around to different keys). Weird.

Can I just say

that I am terribly tired of winter. Really. It can be spring now, even with my allergies. I want to see things bloom, and hear happy songbirds, and see greenery return. I want it to be warm and pleasant and no more dirty snow, ice pellets, or salt to deal with. Just saying.

It kind of peeves me

that so many people seem to think the world is going to end on my holiday, Yule, the Winter Solstice (Summer Solstice in the southern hemisphere). Personally, I plan on enjoying the long night and short day because the world is not going to end. The sheer amount of lunacy and panic I've seen in the news of late regarding this is amazing. Just wanted to be on record for saying there are going to be some people with egg on their face come December 22nd.

I am not a wine connoisseur

In fact, I rarely drink any wine at all, except maybe a taste here and there, or mead, which is honey wine and not from grapes at all.

What I do, however, is often give libations of red wine in thanks for the answering of prayers, as well as my monthly religious observations. I try to give decent wine, but since I'm in no real position to determine that, and because my fortunes are sometimes fickle and it's difficult sometimes to get the wine, the quality may vary.

The other day a friend gave me a ride to the store and I'd mentioned getting wine. The closest place that sold wine was a drugstore, and I went in and quickly got a pinot noir that was at least from Italy, but was about $13 for 1.5 litres, so I figured it was probably passable. What I didn't expect was that it was actually corked. I opened it a little while ago, and although I have a super-duper corkscrew (the type where you screw it in and then push down on things on the side to get it out), it was an abnormally long cork that wound up breaking in half horizontally, but I was able to get it out without getting pieces of cork in the wine. Then I couldn't re-cork it, and so I stole a cork from an empty mead bottle I keep for decoration in the kitchen.

Sometimes I think the Greeks had the right idea with amphorae.

Anyway, it was a pleasant surprise. And the wine has a very nice bouquet. I didn't have any (the tannins in red wine don't go well with my taste buds), but I think it worked out fairly well.

I seem to be having all sorts of trouble opening things of late. Yesterday there was the Classico vodka pasta sauce that I could not break the seal on by dinging with a knife and actually had to pry a tiny bit on the lid with a flathead screwdriver until the seal broke.

This is why I am destined not to rule the world. That and I'm minion material, I'm afraid.

Okay, so the solstice is officially here (it was at 12:3O EST). Here's to longer days to come. Good night.

Happy Yuletide!

Tonight is the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. But with the dawning of the sun, the days will start to lengthen towards summer and with it is the promise of growth and life to help sustain us throughout the winter. Happy Yule!



For more on Damh the Bard's music, go to: http://www.paganmusic.co.uk/. You can also follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. And of course, there's his YouTube channel.

For those, like, me whose weather didn't cooperate

Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Here are some other great pictures.

Happy Solstice! Yay for the turning of the year back to longer days and shorter nights!

Charge the cell phone and Kindle, now, for ice is on its way!

We are forecast for 2 to 6 inches of snow before it turns to sleet and freezing rain, meaning up to a half inch of ice on top of snow. Joy. Fortunately, someone happened to take off Thursday and Friday due to a lecture series that means no surgery and little clinic activity in the hospital. Since I wasn't going to get much data to enter, I took off. Yay! And our department holiday dinner was postponed due to the weather. So I don't plan on getting out on ice tomorrow if I can help it. I can do holiday shopping and even laundry Friday. Tomorrow is a watch movies and back Tower Prep episodes if there's electricity, and if not, I'll read the Kindle and if all else fails, a library or other book, for I have plenty of those at hand. I actually seem to have (I don't have hard numbers, but I'm willing to go out on a limb) more books than my library does. (It's a small library, what can I say.)

Anyway, if you're caught in the weather, please be careful.

Snowboarding at night

was the entertainment I had to occupy me while waiting for the bus tonight. Some guy was snowboarding down the embankment in front of the hospital with only the streetlights and the lights around the flag to illuminate what he was doing. He was pretty good, actually.

It is very cold. This morning it was 7 degrees. Even now it's 19. Yesterday I found something at the book fair to help with that. Which do you think looks warmer?

Me with my light duster, a scarf, and hat.

Me with my heavier coat and my new 6-way hood/scarf.

Obviously the answer is the one on the right. It's a fleece hood that extends about 8 inches beyond normal down. You tuck that up and it covers your face, too, like a balaclava. Or you can pull that down and just have a hood, pull the hood down and it's a scarf. It has pulls that help adjust it; it can even be a bag. You can have the hood down for a masque/scarf combo. There's also a beanie hat option. It is very, very warm. And it was less than $8, which I thought was pretty decent. I found a video showing how to change things around:



I'm not including this as an advertisement, just for fun. But if you are interested, their website is: www.HotHeadzProducts.com (although it's geared to retailers, or you can do a search on Polarex 6-in-1 and it'll bring up lots of places that sell them. Regular price is $24.95. I got mine for $7.99, but I found some for $9.99 on the Internet.)

We still have snow on the ground (and are expecting more on Sunday), and there was actually enough and of the right consistency that I've seen several snowmen around town. One was at my apartment complex, but I noticed tonight someone knocked it down. It was cute, though, with a carrot for a nose. The most interesting one, though, was a large one at the fire station on Richmond Road. It has a fire hat on the top and a Dalmatian at its side. :)

Ah, winter. It is not my favourite season, in fact it is my least favourite, but it has a lot of appeal. If it just weren't so darn cold. I love snow,too, so long as I don't have to go out in it. :)

Snow and hot chocolate

Ice pellets were coming down earlier after an evening of rain, but that was okay because the ice had not built up on my car too badly and the roads (I was using main roads, except for the one I started out on) were in really good shape.

A half an hour later, 1/4-1/3 inch of snow lay on top of all that, and that made for a harrowing trip home, trying to see the edges of Man O'War through my freezing windshield and in one case nearly spinning out on Armstrong Mill. Fortunately not only did I come to a stop short of the intersection (and I was being really, really careful, mind you), but I managed to stop on the pad I couldn't see that triggers the lights. Otherwise I could have sat there all night. Across the street, someone turned from Man O'War onto Armstrong Mill and did a 360 degree spin out, but managed to stay in the middle of the street away from anything dangerous, and there were no other cars. The only one I really encountered was a semi-truck (sans trailer, thankfully) which nearly sideswiped me.

So now I'm home, I'm in, I'm having the hot chocolate that's five years old I found in the back of my cupboard. And now I'm going to bed. It's been a long day and my neck is hurting where I carried all the tension of driving in it.

It's icing

It's not freezing rain, or sleet really, but little round balls of ice that are making things very slippery. It's suppposed to snow later, which of course will be on a foundation of ice. I hope we don't wind up with an actual ice storm like a few years ago. I slid and very nearly did a doughnut coming into my parking lot. Whew.