Cocoposts

Waiting for Wildfire

A woman wearing camo yoga pants and dark sunglasses picked up the cold pint of IPA and a stiff wind blew the napkin away.  It fell at the feet of a large woman in loud clothes. She looked at it briefly and pushed it away with a sequined tennis shoe, continuing on about how miserable she was in the heat and how this might as well be Dallas and couldn't they get a table inside. The man with her whispered something and she burst into laughter sending the rhinestones on her huge t-shirt into shimmering cascades. The woman in the sunglasses by the window mumbled something to the big dog at her feet and stared at the distant smoke plume.

Can't you just see the wind?

Mom's holding her hair out of her eyes, squinting behind ray-bans and glaring up at him and that damn pentax he got for Christmas. Mistake, she thought, turning back to the campfire to stab at the steaks.

Her mood and the wind came up at the same time. She'd begged him to leave it at home, that camera. She'd had some dentistry. The partial wasn't ready. She didn't want her gapped-tooth smile immortalized and she sure isn't smiling in this photo. But you can see that dark space anyway as her mouth is open a little saying, "Oh for God's sake Dave."

He took her picture all day like he always did. Our weekend and holiday camping trips and picnics were elaborately documented. If there'd been an internet then, my father would have facebooked, geo-cached and tweeted every one of our trips. As it was, he left multiple trunks of 35mm slides, rolls of super-8, shoe boxes of 3x5 prints, and a small library of photoalbums.

In the pictures from this day the wind is like an unwelcome family member, a crazy Aunt who visits for extended periods every spring and spends the afternoons screaming and crying at you for something that isn't your fault.

Year Six Blog Anniversary

Rain falling on the United States contains radioactive material from Japan at levels that exceed federal safety thresholds.

Federal officials on Tuesday urged calm in the wake of the discovery of iodine-131, which blew across the Pacific Ocean from the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, in rainwater.

Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/12bQH)

The sixth year anniversary gifts are candy and radioactive iodine.  Whoops, I meant iron.

Rain falling on the United States contains radioactive material from Japan at levels that exceed federal safety thresholds.  Federal officials on Tuesday urged calm in the wake of the discovery of iodine-131, which blew across the Pacific Ocean from the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, in rainwater.  (From Bay Citizen)

But remember not to worry.  New plants will be built better.  Promise?

Rain falling on the United States contains radioactive material from Japan at levels that exceed federal safety thresholds.

Federal officials on Tuesday urged calm in the wake of the discovery of iodine-131, which blew across the Pacific Ocean from the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, in rainwater.

Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/12bQH)

Rain falling on the United States contains radioactive material from Japan at levels that exceed federal safety thresholds.

Federal officials on Tuesday urged calm in the wake of the discovery of iodine-131, which blew across the Pacific Ocean from the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, in rainwater.

Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/12bQH)

Rain falling on the United States contains radioactive material from Japan at levels that exceed federal safety thresholds.

Federal officials on Tuesday urged calm in the wake of the discovery of iodine-131, which blew across the Pacific Ocean from the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, in rainwater.

Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/12bQH)

Big Dog Cold

He's completely unfazed by the cold.  My thermometer read 12 degrees in the late afternoon yesterday but he was tugging for a longer evening walk. Frozen tears obstructed my view of ice so I had to keep my hands out of my pockets in case I fell.  That way I'd break a wrist instead of a hip and could continue walking on treacherous ice the rest of winter with a cast on my arm.

Anyway, it's cold and I wore snow boots and double coats to the Roundhouse yesterday.  Someone asked if I'd ridden a snowmobile into town from Canada. The Roundhouse crowd was a little thinner owing to the weather.  (But still mostly overweight.) 

Got a flu shot, blood pressure and glucose test on UNM Day.  The UNM Pharmacy school students were amazed at my good glucose and blood pressure numbers.  "So I'm all set for Alzheimer's?"  I asked.

Oh, and it was Alzheimer's Day one day this week.  I forget which.

 

 

The Boy Lingers

Figures I would move into a solar adobe in an El Niño year. 

From the excellent Durango Telegraph's Will Sands:

“Not every El Niño delivers, but last week’s storm was classic El Niño.” Wolter (atmospheric scientist with the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) said.

The current event is the strongest El Niño since the winter of 1997-98 and “the boy” promises to linger in the Southwest for the remainder of the winter.

“El Niño is cranking this year, and this is the strongest event since 1997-98, which was really the benchmark,” Wolter said. “I also don’t expect it to die off or go away anytime soon. We typically expect a wet spring with El Niño.”

Wolter characterized last week’s storm as an extraordinary event – not record-breaking but likely among the top 10 biggest storms to hit the region in the last 50 years. The fact that it came on the heels of a large storm in early December is also significant, he said. “Extreme storm events seem to be getting more common in Colorado,” the scientist said, noting research into the last five decades of snowfall data. However, Wolter also said he is not ready to point any fingers or name any  causes. “You’re not going to get me to say it’s because of global warming,” he remarked. “The cause really is not as important as whether it’s getting wetter or drier in the region."

Shaky Shaky

We'll be having a sale on broken china for those who like to do mosaics. 

Antique store owner in Eureka California where a 6.5 quake was felt big time last evening. 

From AP story in Salon:

According to the USGS, the quake hit at a depth of nearly 10 miles. Five aftershocks followed in the 90 minutes after the quake, the biggest registering at a magnitude of 3.8. The San Francisco Bay area was struck by two light earthquakes on Thursday and Friday.

There is a small chance -- 5 to 10 percent -- of another magnitude-6.5 temblor or larger hitting the area over the next week, but the odds dramatically decrease as time passes, the USGS said.

There's also a 78 percent chance of a strong and potentially damaging aftershock magnitude-5 or larger over the same period. The earthquake probabilities are based on statistical observations of past earthquakes in California and are not predictions, the USGS said.

Dan Bowermaster of San Francisco was with relatives in Eureka when the quake hit. He said he had been in several moderate and large quakes throughout California but had never felt anything as big or dramatic as this one.

Not Me

 Thursday, 12:45 a.m. An intoxicated woman was sitting at the end of a bar, refusing to leave in the 600 block of Main Avenue.  (From the Durango Herald police blotter)

Whitelodge Wisdom

1.  Numbers 1 through 4. removed after consideration of number 3. and because it wasn't that wise but had to do with not spilling good California wine on a Californian. 

5.  In anticipation of being outnumbered by conservatives at a family gathering, bring reinforcements.  Surround yourself with liberal friends who can either restrain you from your excesses or make you appear moderate in comparison. 

Imbolc

Sunlight and superbowl signal spring.   From Mercury's Voice. 

February feels like a month in which we begin with a call to clean house, both as a country and as individuals. Tend to the seeds of the dreams that were sown in the late fall and early winter. These seeds must be nurtured, and provisions must be made in preparation for a possible extension of the winter.

Imbolc is generally a time hope, as we see small signs of spring occurring as the light’s return gains speed. This particular Imbolc feels more like a reminder not to forget the dark so easily, not to leap forward blindly toward any sign of warmth and light. The cold and darkness are incubators for something in us that, perhaps, needs a longer gestation period.

Shucks.  I was all about leaping forward blindly toward the warmth and light.

Global Psychosis

Friday cut and paste via Boing Boing where Cory has intro to Bruce Sterling in Seed Magazine:

Bruce Sterling's lead editorial in SEED Magazine's feature on the 21st century enumerates the disastrous contradictions and changes in the shifting global mindset, and scathingly demands that we fix them. This is inflaming, heady stuff.