Dec. 19

 

Week: 51 Day: 353
Ave. Sky Cover:  5%Visibility: 10miles
Local Temp:   34°\ Wind: 17mph\ Gusts: 12mph
Low risk of fire Active fire: 254mi. \ Lightning: 544mi.
Dec Averages: 43°\17° (5 days w/moisture)


Today’s Quote 


Weekly Observations

5-24 

Andisop (Meterological Fiddling)  Link

14-1/5 

Christmas Bird Count Week: Link 

14-28 

Halcyon Days

16-24

Posadas

17-23

Saturnalia

Daily Observations

Favorite Memes









 


 


 



 

Have a laugh

What did the artist draw before he went to bed?

The curtains!

 

Arizona Trivia

·        Famous labor leader and activist Cesar Chavez was born in Yuma.

·        In 1912, President William Howard Taft was ready to make Arizona a state on February 12, but it was Lincoln's birthday. The next day, the 13th, was considered bad luck so they waited until the following day. That' how Arizona became known as the Valentine State.

·        When England's famous London Bridge was replaced in the 1960s, the original was purchased, dismantled, shipped stone by stone and reconstructed in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where it still stands today.

·        Mount Lemmon, Tucson, in the Santa Catalina Mountains, is the southernmost ski resort in the United States.

·        Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch in Picacho, Arizona is the largest privately-owned ostrich ranch in the world outside South Africa.

·        If you cut down a protected species of cactus in Arizona, you could spend more than a year in prison.

·        The world's largest to-scale collection of miniature airplane models is housed at the library at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

 Nice day, if you like very cool weather.

This will be my last blog until I return from Mexico. Tomorrow is packing day. I’m hoping to get everything into a carry-on but will find out if that works tomorrow.

Shopping completed this morning. E-cards sent. Passport and vaccination card ready. The shuttle picks me up at 5AM on Monday. I arrive in Merida by 7PM their time…5PM my time.

Trevor Noah did an interesting story on China in Africa. After visiting there numerous times, I knew that China was loaning money for infrastructure in many countries.  I knew the loans were interest free or as China says, ‘No Strings Attached.’ Noah’s piece was discouraging. While the loans are interest free, the many governments have agreed to give China the infrastructure if they can’t pay the loan. Many Western countries do not offer these African countries loans because they are seen as too volatile. Also China sends many workers to oversee projects at very high wages while hiring locals at very low wages. Now some of these countries are ready to default on the loans. In one case an international airport in Uganda may become Chinese owned if they can’t pay. While the early colonization from Europe was ‘We are here, you are ours, bow to our will’, the financial colonization of China may be much worse. If there are a lot of defaults, the world power dynamic will shift quietly and quickly.

The other day I mentioned the long sentence for the driver on I-70 who killed 4 a few years ago with one being a classmate from high school. Now 3.4million people have signed a petition that will be sent to the Colorado governor to commute his sentence to time served. I will be following this closely.

I’m ready for winter as I have flipped my mattress a little early since I will be in Mexico when the seasons change. I also put a new toothbrush on my Sonic toothbrush.

Have a great holiday season. I get back late the 27th and will start posting again on the 28th.

 

 

Historical Events

1776 – Thomas Paine published one of a series of pamphlets in The Pennsylvania Journal entitled The American Crisis.

1998 – President Bill Clinton was impeached by the United States House of Representatives, becoming the second President of the United States to be impeached.

1917 – The first NHL Games took place. Montreal Canadians vs Ottawa Senators (7-4 final) and Montreal Wanders beat the Toronto Arenas (10 to 9 final).

1950 Chinese invasion of Tibet forces the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to flee

1984 Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration to transfer Hong Kong back to China in 1997

2007 The Lakotah people, a Native American tribe, proclaim independence and withdraw all their treaties with the United States. Establish the Republic of Lakotah, as a separate country.

2018 First use of a drone to deliver vaccines - to island of Erromango, Vanuatu, by Unicef

2019 Earliest fossilized trees, 386 million years old, found at a quarry in Cairo, New York, study published in "Current Biology"

 

Birthdays Today

@96 – Cicely Tyson, American actress (d. 2021)

77 – Tim Reid, American actor, comedian

58 – Jennifer Beals, American actress

54 – Criss Angel, American magician

52 – Richard Hammond, English journalist and TV presenter

49 – Alyssa Milano, American actress

@47 – Édith Piaf, French singer-songwriter and actress (d. 1963)

41 – Jake Gyllenhaal, American actor

34 – Ronan Farrow, American journalist

 

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Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
I retired in '06--at the ripe old age of 57. I enjoy blogging, photography, traveling, and living life to it's fullest.