Posts from — January 2015

In the picture of the bush below this was the white bloom alone on the lower right of the bush. The true color is rusty brown, the picture is lighter than reality.

The French made quick work of the murderers. The one that ‘got away’ may have already fled before the siege at the Kosher supermarket, and is being hunted in Syria.

The group calling itself Al Qaeda in Yemen is taking credit for the attacks, although one of the whackos claimed to be associated with the Islamic State movement in Syria and Iraq. The Yemen conflict is actually tribal in nature has been going on since the 1960s. Fundamentalist groups use the conflicts like Yemen, Syria et al. for recruiting and have no real interest in the reason for conflicts. It is about power, not ideology.

The French police officer killed while trying to stop the attack on Charlie Hebdo was also a Muslim, which is a bit of a problem for the right wing hate groups in France, as is the fact that the murderers were all French citizens.

In other news closer to my home, the high climbed above 40 yesterday, above 50 today, and is forecast to hit 60 tomorrow. I’ll get a picture of one of the pathetic frost-bitten camellia blooms.

Cool Cats

We want fire, not flash!

[Editor: In addition to it being cold enough to cause a truce for cuddling, Property and Excise had to put up with the flash for the picture.]

The Friday Ark for lots of animal pictures.

Religion is a matter of personal choice to believe something, not an inborn fact of a human being. Humans must be taught to believe and accept that what they believe is not subject to any testing.

Despite claims that this or that religion is the one, true religion, there is no way of knowing, of proving that claim. Individuals tend to create their own personal religion in their minds.

When the Bible says “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God, in vain”, I interpret that as meaning “So help me God” at the end of civil oaths, “In God We Trust” on money, “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance are all blastphemy, i.e. “in vain”, but that is what I believe, and I can’t prove it in a rational sense.

What happened in Paris at Charlie Hebdo was murder, not a religious act. It was an act of terrorism, an attempt to censure the media. There are laws in place in many places that already block the satirical magazine’s import because of a perceived need to protect religions from satire. They were passed to protect primarily Christian beliefs in the West, but they also protect other belief systems from ridicule. France and Denmark don’t have these laws, nor does the US.

[Read more →]

So I started my day notifying tenants of the pending Hard Freeze and the need to drip a faucet to save the pipes. I have mentioned this to several of them, but got up with a few more and put a notice on everyone’s door.

Then it was time to protect the camellia – a total failure. I have black construction plastic that is 10 feet wide and was more than adequate for the job with exterior landscape lamp inside to warm the air. I figured out how to get the plastic over the top, but I didn’t count on the strength of the winds, especially the gusts. The winds just found a way under the plastic and blew it away. The duct tape didn’t want to stick in the cold, so if the wind had been blocked at the bottom, it would have still found a way in and blown it away. Camellias aren’t happy in direct sun and the one surviving exemplar is on the North side of the house, in the direct path of the North wind that accompanies cold weather down here.

All I can do is hope for the best. Bummer…

С Рождеством Христовым to my Orthodox friends who are still waiting to see how the calendar reform works out.

The top photo is the poor abused bush I’m worried about. It has already suffered from a disastrous pruning, the result of reversing instructions. The bush was supposed to be reduced in height, but the height is all that survived. It is starting to fill in at the bottom but it has taken years. It is obviously grafted which can be seen in the pink blossoms, white blossoms, and the ‘peppermint’ blossoms seen in the picture of the individual flower [my personal favorite].

These plants are members of the tea family and are native to Asia.

Today marks the Feast of the Epiphany, end of the twelve days of Christmas, and Día de los Reyes in Spanish-speaking countries.

This is the customary day for gift exchanges in many Christian cultures because it is the day that the Magi finally arrived in Bethlehem with their totally inappropriate gifts after putzing around for a week and a half because they didn’t want to ask for directions.

[Give me a break! They bring soft metal, smelly tree sap, and bitter medicine associated with embalming to people who could use a hot meal, baby clothes, and diapers.]

The camellias have just started blooming and we are scheduled for a hard freeze on Wednesday night/Thursday morning with a low around 23°F. The cold won’t kill the bush, but it will ‘burn’ the buds causing the edges of the blooms to be brown. This is a major bummer as the blooms look like very large roses. [I’ll try to remember to take some pictures tomorrow.]

It looks like we will only get one day of below freezing temperatures, but it is always annoying as the older local houses aren’t built for these temperatures.

The National Weather Service won’t issue a Hard Freeze Warning until Wednesday afternoon or evening so people will be trying to protect plants and get pets inside in the dark. I have no idea why they do things this way, but that’s the way it works.

The weather is also disrupting life in Australia as fire fighters are working like crazy to contain as much of the current bushfires as they can before the high temperature/low humidity conditions move into the affected area on the local Wednesday [tomorrow for the US time zones because of the International Date Line].

I’m getting ready to upgrade WordPress and normally this only takes things down for a few minutes as files are being overwritten, but this is a software upgrade so there is always the possibility of a disaster.

I’ve been putting this off to reduce the possibility of disruption, but there are no guarantees. My host just updated some of their software which is happier with the newer versions of WordPress than my current version.

Update: Dodged disaster again…

From the ABC,
AirAsia QZ8501: Four large parts of missing jet found off Borneo coast, search for bodies continues. They have recovered dozens of victims, some still strapped in their seats. They know that they have at least four large pieces on the sea floor, but the seas are so rough that they can’t get good visuals under water.

Meanwhile Australia is battling wildfires, high temperatures, and low humidity in South Australia and Victoria. The worst fire is in the Adelaide Hills, Adelaide Hills bushfire: Dozens of homes feared lost in SA; Victoria fires downgraded. A cold front is passing through Victoria and improving conditions there.

Homes aren’t the only thing being lost, Adelaide Hills bushfire: Dogs and cats perish as blaze sweeps through Tea Tree Gully Kennels and Cattery. This was a boarding facility, and it was totally destroyed. They managed to save about 40 dogs out of all of their borders.

Easily Confused

A new year, really?

[Editor: Hadley isn’t really into the calendar.]

The Friday Ark has been in ‘dry dock’ for the holidays

С Новым годом
Prosit Neujahr
Feliz Año Nuevo
Bonne Année
Felice Anno Nuovo
Gelukkig Nieuwjaar
Gott Nytt År
Sehe Bokmanee Bateuseyo
Blwyddyn Newydd Dda
Onnellista Uutta Vuotta

May you be safe from the idiots who think gravity is just a theory and fire off guns, failing to understand that what goes up will come down.

Given the prevalence of accurate timekeeping devices, it is amazing that the explosions that are supposed to signal the new year extend for hours beginning five hours before and extending well after the actual event. Anyone who thinks alcohol and gunpowder is a recipe for a long life should be avoided by insurance agents.

The new year brings new opportunities, so here’s hoping that the good wins out and the world is made a little better. It hasn’t happened yet, but there’s always a chance.

Oh, and a happy 14^th blogiversary™ to Steve Bates at the Yellow Doggerel Something.