The big news around here is the buildup of snowpack in the local area (i.e. southern Cascade mountains in south central areas of Oregon and Siskiyou County). The report last monday morning was 114”at the Mt Shasta Ski Park. Mt Ashland also had similar snow depths. Both had to close for a day or so in order to groom the slopes to avoid dangerous conditions.
Everyone is hoping it means a better snow cover which will help with the drought conditions.
Here in McCloud, during the latest storm series, we had a total of about 2’. Even with some melting and 2” of new snow to which was added some light rain, it was just enough to make a mess of slush over ice. Monday morning outdoor temp was 23º and this morning it was 28º.
We’ve been having morning fog sometimes lasting most of the day.
Last monday morning the floor heater, which is set at 62º, came on before 0500. After the heater temp setting was upped to 70º, it didn’t turn off until 0857.
A lot of the area along I-5 between Ashland and Yreka has been experiencing fog most of the last week. We even had fog here in McCloud.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac says “Fog in January brings a wet spring.”
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I watched a PBS presentation which was part of the “Secrets of the Dead” . It was about the history of Stonehenge.
It has been nearly 20 years since I went with some friends to visit Stonehenge and had an unusual experience.
As I was walking around the site I suddenly felt that the Henge was much smaller than I had expected. Then I realized that it wasn’t smaller but that I was too much bigger.
I started to cry and had to leave the area where I sat on a curb in the parking area, crying, until the others began arriving back at the meeting place.
The PBS article was about the wondrous amount of past history which has been discovered in the intervening years and that the history of Stonehenge begins so much earlier than anyone had even imagined.
The history has been traced back to the Neolithic Age around 3,000 years BCE where the small blue stones, which are part of the Stonehenge tourist site, had been unexplained until Archaeological digs in both the Preseli Hills in Wales and in Wiltshire in the UK learned much about the circle of the smaller blue stones around the larger more well-known large circle of sarsen stones. I had not noticed the smaller blue stones when I was there, but maybe the strange reaction I had felt was a reaction to their presence.
A phrase used by the title character in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in which Hamlet suggests that human knowledge is limited when he says “There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Want to know more?
or
Watching and reading these sources of previously unknown information may have provided an explanation for the experience I had those many years ago.
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Sunday the 15th I accidentally watched “Sunday on CBS” and was blown away. Three stories caught my attention.
- A 5th grade class of children in a Minnesota School felt it wasn’t right that three of their classmates were not able to join them on the playground at recess. They talked about it with their teacher and asked why there was no part of the playground where their friends could play. Their teacher said probably because it would cost too much. They asked how much and the answer was about $300,000. The result took many fundraisers but the children raised over their goal with money to spare which they decided to give away to other schools and as a result not only their school now has the requested playground but the excess money has been spread around and there will be other schools revamping their playgrounds.
- A social group of five older women who liked football (American not British “football”), especially Tom Brady. There are now only two of the original five left but a film has been made about them (“80 for Brady”) with a cast which will amaze you and is due to be released February 3rd.
- A tale about a husband and wife who ran away from slavery before the Civil War, and how they managed to make it to non-slavery New England without being caught and returned to their master.
Two of these made me cry and one made me laugh out loud.
You can see them all on the CBS Sunday Morning web site at …
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/this-week-on-sunday-morning-january-15-2023/
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Now that I’ve already sent you on a chase around the net, two items I found reminded me of a song which said “Everything old is new again…”
Night Court is coming back on NBC with a new Judge Stone and Netflix is updating the family sitcom from the 70s Show to the 90s Show.
I’ve watched (at least a part of) the first episodes of each to see how they do.
I find the remake of the 70s Show is just that, a remake … same characters who don’t seem to have aged any and scripts with the same old gag lines. I opted out after the first 20 minutes or so and will not watch any more.
I will however continue to enjoy and laugh at the antics in Night Court which is also a remake but with only one holdover character from the original and the new generation of writers seem to have handled the switch to the new generation quite well.
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The small birds which had been checking my front porch for a bird seed feeder still haven’t been back since the feeder was filled and hung out and the series of storms started coming through.
I’ll keep watching to see how long they stay away.
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Britain retired the RED telephone boxes in 1985 but don’t fret. The blue Tardis isn’t going away (other than the regular trips) anytime soon.
I have three favourite Doctors … Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, and Matt Smith.
How about you?
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The BIG box which arrived via UPS last tuesday contained ONE towel rack for the bathroom and a lot of packing bubbles!
Go figure.
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Went back to the HiLo cafe with the woman who does my pedicures. My older son, with whom I went last time I as there, gave it a not-as-good-as.
Then last friday three of the oldtime servers are back. The salad bar was good. Only problem was that the one who calls all us elders either Mama or Pops was running her short legs off and flubbed my final order but it turned out okay.
It was buy-one-and-get-one day, either a piece or a full pie, and the pies were fresh so I ordered two pies (one strawberry and rhubarb and one blueberry) so I’d have one to share and the other for splurging at breakfasts and/or dinners over the next week. When I unpacked I had a Dutch apple and a blueberry. No real problem. I like both.
I thought the chicken strips and fries and salad bar were good. I brought home enough chicken and fries for that night’s dinner with a piece of the apple pie.
John and Michael took my suggestion about the HiLo when they were next in Weed. Their experience wasn’t the same. They still don’t like it and will stick with the Black Bear in Mt Shasta.
So it seems you can choose which critique to accept.
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I continue to experience Doppelgängers, just not only visuals.
The first was on television where the murderer was a ringer for Stockard Channing more like one of the Aunts in “Practical Magic” than like the President’s wife in “West Wing” or Rizzo in “Grease”.
The other Doppelgänger was auditory. It was an actor in a TV show whose accent sounded quite similar to that of a friend who was born and raised in southern Africa.
Noticing dopplegangers is getting to be fun rather than just a surprise.
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Yesterday there were three fatal shooting sites just in California. More than twenty people died and a similar number wounded.
What does the NRA have any answer to this as well as to the continuing shootings all over the US including the killing of a teacher by a 6-year-old ?
Doesn’t it sound hypocritical to base their position on a misinterpretation of the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution as a “right” while ignoring the rest of the Amendment about a “well regulated militia”?
And here are some scary numbers …
In the first 24 days in 2023 there have been 30 incidentents of mass shootings with 70 deaths.
Anyone making odds on the numbers by the end of the year and if there has been any change in ownership laws and if so any change in the NRA’s position?
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The rebuilding of Lincoln eights following the Mill fire last year is not yet started due to the understanding that you can’t replace generations of occupation, any or no insurance due to the age of the houses and the level of owner income, the lack of any government participation so far, and who knows what else.
I hope someone in the current generations have tech savvy and can start a net appeal for help somehow. I see that kind of appeal for help on the net all the time. I think it’s called something about come fund me. It’s just that I’m too old and tech stupid to do it.
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And to end the week…
Every time has its place in the list of blessings.
I think it was an East Asian philosopher who said something like “ When I compare the present moment with some time in the past I am losing the Now.
Isn’t it said in Ecclesiastes “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”
And I think it was the Birds who sang “Turn turn turn …”
So ‘til next week …