Weather is still cold in the morning. Predawn temperatures are in the high 20s so every morning sparkles with frost. Almost no ground snow left other than the high berms resulting from the Service District plowing.
This was written on tuesday morning about 9 am when it was snowing lightly with predictions for more because of the two low systems waiting offshore.
Wednesday morning temperature was 18 degrees. That may be the coldest yet. No new snow overnight.
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Ready for another Doppelgänger?
This time it was an actor look alike of Hillary Clinton playing the “mother love” murderer of, among others, a fire and brimstone Curate and in this episode first seen sitting in the front pew of the Midsomer village churches.
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Now here’s a doozie for collectors of trivia (and those who know the “Groundhog Day” movie).
In1853 London the mail was delivered to your door seven times a day including Sundays (maybe not in the east end however).
And another trivia item … the origin of the word “clue” morphed from the 14th century word “clew” meaning a ball of yarn which in turn came from the tale of Theseus and the Minotaur in which Ariadne gave him a clew so he could unwind it as he went into the maze and thereby find his way out.
And yet another … in Medieval castles all stairways were identically narrow and spiraled upward to the right (as does the one in the George and Pilgrims Hotel in Glastonbury) because they were easier to defend.
They stopped invaders, who were coming up, from using their right arm which held their sword while defenders, who were the ones coming down, had full use of their swords.
It worked fine until one day, during a siege, some savvy leader gathered a troop of lefties.
And still another odd trivia fact .. some folks have inferred that Shakespeare didn’t like his father because the family name shake speare led to his being sometimes called “false staff”, (which may have been the insulting name in Elizabethan times for limp whatever) and so Shakespeare demonstrated his lack of respect by naming the drunken buffoon in “Merry Wives …” Falstaff.
Isn’t it interesting the things you can learn, in addition to who doneit, while reading a mystery novel?
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Down between Mt Shasta and Dunsmuir is a notorious stretch of Union Pacific RailRoad track known as the Cantara Loop. It goes over the Sacramento River in a tight curve with an uphill grade going north sometimes (often) with trains often a mile long.
Federal Railroad Administration data shows that the Union Pacific has been responsible for almost a third of railroad accidents in California over the last ten years.
In mid-November of last year nine lumber cars went off the track. That was the second derailment in 2022.
Derailments have occurred at this site in at least 1976, 2009, and 2021
The most famous derailment was in1991, known as the Disaster, involving a load carrying thousands of gallons of herbicide killed marine life and sickened people downstream i.e. toward Dunsmuir.
The Loop is so famous there is a large metal sign there commemorating that event and the people involved in the following clean-up.
The lack of communication between the RR and local County emergency response teams and agencies is one cause according to one County official who said “If it happened twice in 16 months, it’s not like it’s not gonna happen again.”
Amtrak runs along this same track.
A massive metal guard rail was installed in 2001 but trains continue to jump the track at Cantara Loop.
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Had another power outage tuesday during a very strong west wind. The outage didn’t last too long. My guess it was due to a downed power line the result of a tree falling. But my backup power source did its thing and I was fine.
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Yesterday was Valentine’s Day and it reminded me of the year George was away on a consulting assignment in either Milwaukee or DC, can’t remember which, but I do remember the card and the gift that followed.
The front of the card was two bears, one a bit larger than the other. The bigger one was wearing an apron and the smaller one was wearing a big grin as he looked up and inside the car was written“To my loving first wife” and the gift he brought home was my set of pearl earrings and a necklace.
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Turkey/Syria had earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 & 7.6 with a count of the dead in the thousands while we in the northwest US still await the Big one when the Cascadia Fault and the North American plate collide and one slides under the other.
I wonder if it will cause Mt Shasta to wake up.
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Does anyone remember the magazine OMNI which was published back in the 1990s? It published articles in science, science fiction, fantasy, and parapsychology written by such authors Issac Asimov, Harlan Ellison, Arthus C Clarke, Theodore Sturgeon, Ben Bova, Philip K. Dick, and too many others to list here.
I was an avid reader and in one issue they published the first flat 3D picture. It was a small black and white picture consisting of only dots until you learned how to read it. When you learned the “trick” you suddenly were able see something in the midst of the dots. One I remember clearly was a spinning wheel. Another was a butterfly.
I don’t remember what that first picture was and it took me a few minutes to see it, but when I did finally see it, I was able to make the magic much more quickly and easily.
I can still see things that others are not able to see such as loose threads of the same colour, but not part of the random pattern, as one of those in my robe and that makes no sense if you don’t know what I’m talking about. Flat 3D ???
Subsequently they became all the rage but I haven’t seen any lately and OMNI stopped publishing in 1995 after the woman publisher died. What a loss.
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They have been having Sneaker waves on the Oregon Coast due to the low pressure fronts coming in with this series of storms. They are like mini-tsunamis which can pull people out to sea if they are daft enough to turn their backs on them.
There have been at least a couple of such incidents so far this winter, in spite of warning signs, one of which was a father holding a child.
In southern California I remember crosscurrents which were similarly lethal although they weren’t tall and could be handled once you knew to swim across them rather try to body ride them although surfers would try to ride them if they were any bit above sea level. I don’t remember any surfer deaths. Probably because cross currents didn’t get as high as sneaker waves.
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Last saturday I found myself watching a bull buckoff taking place in Sacramento. It has changed a lot since my days of rodeo(pronounced as I’ve said before row’ dee oh) attendance.
Back then the bulls’ horns weren’t blunted, the riders wore stetsons, the distractors in the arena were clowns without torso armor or protective head gear and there was usually only one of them.
Nowadays the horns are shortened and slightly rounded, the riders are wearing helmets which wouldn’t look out of place on a football field, and there are three protectors/distractors who initially, as the bull leaves the pen, are behind the gate or way out in the center of the ring. But to give them their due there is no body armor or helmets and they close in on the bucking bronco in order to be right there whenever the rider leaves the bull either voluntarily as the time horn signals they have been riding the required time (I think it was 9 seconds) or involuntarily. One rider almost made the time but barely did it hanging under the bull and barely missed being stepped on rather than over.
The distractors did their job well by getting the bull back out of the arena and allowing EMT personnel to get the rider also out of the arena.
The riders all (with one exception, the one who was nearly stepped fully on and left the arena on a stretcher) doffed the helmets in favor of waving stetsons as they made their exits.
It was exciting watching to see how long they lasted aboard (none made it the full time although one came close … his ride was nearly 8.5 seconds), but somehow not as exciting as with pointed horns, no helmets just regular cowboy headgear, and one really brave clown.
One young rider didn’t make it to the competition because while practicing at home (I started to add “, home on the range” but refrained), he was offed by the bull who gave his genitals a glancing blow.
During the follow up medical exam a small cancer was diagnosed in one testes which was quickly treated.
In an interview, the young rider said he may not ever compete in bull riding again, but is grateful that bull saved his life and he is now working in the arena as a distractor.
An unplanned couple of hours but not wasted time. Memories …
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Watched the new version of Riverdance which premiered 25 years ago so the original dancers are all probably at least in their forties. Michael Flatley, the Lord of the Dance with Feet of Flames, retired in 2016 with a broken body (constant spinal, knee, foot and back pain).
Colin Dunn took over as lead dancer in Riverdance when Flatley left to go the solo route. Colin was the one I saw dance when a couple of nurse friends and I saw the show in Seattle shortly after Flatley left the show. Colin was very good but without the ego flash of Flatley.
Jean Butler founded a school for dancers and taught Master classes until retiring to Brooklyn.
The current show was full of original choreography and music as well as newer pieces. For me, the big disappointment was the downplaying of traditional instruments so my interest went up with the drumming, but then you all know my relationship with drumming.
The vocal group didn’t get much credit, but in truth everyone was so good they couldn’t all get individual billing. Neither do the Rockettes.
All the dancers, including the flamenco and street dancers, were well worth watching. The blending of both solo and the blending with step dancing of the different types of dance with the traditional step dancing was done with respect for all.
And all the step dancers were wonderful, especially the two leads, who added some romantic pizazz. They literally had big shoes to fill and they did it.
The ensemble inline dancing finale demonstrated much practice and love of the dance. Very great ensemble precision.
I’m glad I watched.
BTW … did you know when they were on tour, at least when I saw them, they carried their own stage flooring to set atop the theatre’s flooring so their dance sound would be true?
Another tidbit for trivia …
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Wow, for someone who started with the feeling I had not much to say it sure took a long time to say it.
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To close out the week and the blog …
“It’s time to go.” said Bear.
“But where are we going?” asked Rabbit.
“Forward,” said Bear, “we can’t stay here anymore.”
“So much has happened here though. I don’t know that I can move on.” said Rabbit.
“You can stay if you want,” said Bear, “but life won’t wait with you.”
“It won’t?” asked Rabbit.
“No,” said Bear, “besides, up ahead there might be something wonderful.”
“You think so?” asked Rabbit.
“I think…” said Bear, “if you stay here, you’ll never know.”
So‘til next week …