21 Jan

 

21 January 2023

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 3 Day 21 \ Ave. Sky Cover 70% \ Visibility 10 miles Flagstaff Today 46° \6°  Wind 5mph \ Gusts 8mph 
Air Quality: Fair \Very Low Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 310mi \ Nearest Lightning 1498mi
Jan Averages for Flagstaff: 44° \ 16° \5 Days of moisture
Snowing on & off

Today’s Quote

 

Weekly Observations

14-22
International Snowmobile Safety and Awareness Week
15-21
Healthy Weight Week
Hunt For Happiness Week
Idiom Week
National Activity Professionals Week
Sugar Awareness Week
17-23
National Fresh Squeezed Juice Week
18-25
Week of Christian Unity
National Soccer Coaches of America Week
19-29
Sundance Film Festival

Daily Observations

Bald Eagle Appreciation Day
International Sweatpants Day
International Playdate Day
National Cheesy Socks Day
New England Clam Chowder Day
National Granola Bar Day
National Hugging Day Link  
National Hug Your Puppy Day
National Hyaluronic Acid Day Link
National Use Your Gift Card Day  Link
One-Liners Day (from films)
Squirrel Appreciation Day

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Yesterday was a busy day. I got out and about for the first time in days. When I got home, a good friend from Tuba stopped by. We talk and text frequently, but this was our first face-to-face visit in a long time. I was too lazy to post a blog.

Wednesday it became official…I am a senior citizen. The 2-1/2 feet of snow and ice berm from the grader that cleared our drive was too much for me. I watched it not melting. I even took out a snow shovel and started to move it. That is when I realized I had no business even trying. I asked my Navajo neighbor to dig out my vehicle. He was happy to do it. I paid him $20 for about 45 minutes of work. He had to either haul or throw the snow/ice to a not-so-nearby pile. Then Thursday morning I parked the vehicle in the drive area and attempted to push off all the snow on my vehicle. The roof had a good 2 feet of snow that had packed down. I was only able to get about 60% off…more than enough to drive around town. About 3pm yesterday the HOA had a  large ‘bobcat’ in the parking lot removing the piles of snow that had built up. It took him a good three hours to clean it all out. This was in prep for the Friday storm.

I woke up this morning to 6” of newly fallen snow and the sun shining. By 7am the clouds returned and it has been snowing on and off ever since.  It has been over a decade since this much snow has fallen here in such a short period of time. Still good for the forest.

We reached the debt ceiling yesterday. Not the games begin. The damage caused by not raising the debt ceiling quickly are numerous that will last for decades. I wish our elected congress would realize the damage and stop this silliness. AND…everybody, including the wealthy, should pay their fair share. If I pay x% of my income, so should everyone else.

VP Kamala Harris visited Phoenix yesterday. Good for her. She did not visit the border. That was a bad move. The border is in the news daily. Biden said she was dealing with the border situation. She was only 2½ from the border and she ignored it. Dumb.  

Republican House Committee in AZ has approved a bill that would no longer allow judges to order parents to pay costs in lawsuits they lose where a teacher is sued because the parent believes that the teacher usurped the parent’s rights in a lesson. This is crazy.

The Big 5 of Africa…lions, leopards, elephants, African buffalo, & rhinoceroses

Facts…

The first ball drops were designed for ship captains, not New Year’s Eve.

Whether at home on the couch or among the crowds in Times Square, watching the New Year’s Eve ball drop symbolizes a fresh start. But as the ball descends to mark another year gone by, it also harkens back to an era when knowing the exact time was much more difficult. Before the 20th century, timekeeping was significantly less precise; most people noted the time thanks to church bells that rang on the hour, though the system was often inaccurate. For sailors and ship captains, knowing the exact time was key for charting navigational courses, and they used a device called a chronometer to keep track of time onboard ships. That’s why Robert Wauchope, a captain in the British Navy, created the time ball in 1829. The raised balls were visible to ships along the British coastline, and they were manually dropped at the same time each day, allowing ships to set their chronometers to the time at their port of departure. At sea, navigators would calculate longitude based on local time, which they could determine from the angle of the sun, and the time on their chronometer.   

Slang Origins

1970: Truckin

Meaning: to walk with a certain purpose or goal

Taken from a 1930s blues song (“Truckin’ My Blues Away” by Blind Boy Fuller), “truckin’” was popularized in the early ‘70s by a Grateful Dead song of the same name. They in turn were inspired by cartoonist R. Crumb, whose “Keep on Truckin’” comic in Zap Comix earned him an unprecedented amount of fame near the end of the hippie era.

UNESCO sites…

Al-Ahsa Oasis Is the World's Largest Oasis

No, it’s not a mirage — it’s Al-Ahsa Oasis, the world’s largest self-contained oasis, as recognized by Guinness World Records. Situated in southeastern Saudi Arabia about 40 miles inland from the Persian Gulf, the oasis (which comprises fertile land with a water source in the midst of a desert) is home to over 2.5 million palm trees spread across 32.9 square miles. Agriculture is resplendent all year in the fertile oasis, as the soil is fed by an underground aquifer of natural freshwater springs. Over 280 artesian springs irrigate the area, which is centered in the Al-Ahsa region. Recently becoming a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2018, the oasis is one of two oases considered the most important on the Arabian Peninsula, the other being Al Ain, located on Saudi Arabia’s border with Oman.

Historical Events
1793 – After being found guilty of treason by the French National Convention, Louis XVI of France was executed by guillotine.
1954 – The first atomic submarine, the U.S.S. Nautilus was launched at Groton, Connecticut. It was officially commissioned later that year.
1972 – The first convention of Star Trek fans was held in New York City’s Statler-Hilton Hotel.
1976 – The supersonic Concorde had its first commercial flights (London to Bahrain & Paris to Rio de Janeiro ). The use of the plane ended on October 24, 2003.

Birthdays Today

@97 – Roger Nash Baldwin, American founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (d. 1981)
83 – Jack Nicklaus, American golfer and sportscaster
Focus on remedies, not faults.– Jack Nicklaus
@78 – Mac Davis, American singer-songwriter (d. 2020; after surgery)
76 – Jill Eikenberry, American actress
73 – Billy Ocean, Trinidadian-English singer-songwriter
@73 – Karl Wallenda, German-American acrobat, The Flying Wallendas (d. 1978; fall)
@72 – Aristotelis Telly Savalas, American actor (d. 1994; cancer)
@72 – Richie Havens, American singer-songwriter, guitarist (d. 2013; heart attack)
@68 – Benny Hill, English comedic actor (d. 1992; kidney failure)
67 – Robby Benson, American actor
67 – Geena Davis, American actress
The more hours of television a girl watches, the fewer options she thinks she has in life.
– Geena Davis
@66 – Paul Allen, American businessman, co-founded Microsoft (d. 2018; septic shock)
@57 – Wolfman Jack (Robert Weston Smith), American DJ, radio host (d. 1995, heart attack)
We are put on this earth to have a good time. This makes other people feel good. And the cycle continues.– Wolfman Jack
55 – Charlotte Ross, American actress
@52 – Christian Dior, French fashion designer (d. 1957; heart attack)
@51 – Ethan Allen, American general (d. 1789; apoplectic fit)
That which is above comprehension we cannot perceive to be contradictory, nor on the other hand can we perceive its rationality or consistency.– Ethan Allen
@47 – Grigori Rasputin, Russian Mystic (d. 1916; assassinated)
When the bell tolls three times, it will announce that I have been killed. If I am killed by common men, you and your children will rule Russia for centuries to come; if I am killed by one of your stock, you and your family will be killed by the Russian people!– Rasputin
46 – Jerry Trainor, American actor,
38 – Nick Gehlfuss, American actor
@39 – Stonewall Jackson (Thomas Jonathan Jackson), (Confederate) general (d. 1863; shot)
If the general government should persist in the measures now threatened, there must be war. It is painful enough to discover with what unconcern they speak of war and threaten it. They do not know its horrors. I have seen enough of it to make me look upon it as the sum of all evils.– Stonewall Jackson
26 – Jeremy Shada, American actor, musician, singer
29 – Booboo Stewart, actor