Jul 30

 

Jul  30, 2021 Week: 31 Day: 211

Ave. Sky Cover: 40% \Visibility: 10 miles

Local Temp:   81°\ 58° Wind: 6mph\ Gusts: 10mph

Low risk of fire Active fire: 38mi. \ Lightning: 4mi.

Jul Averages: 82°\51° (9 days w/moisture) 

Today’s Quote

  

 

Weekly Observations

 

XXXII Olympic Games (postponed from 2020):	23-8/8
RAGBRAI: Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa Women in Baseball Week	25-31
Great Texas Mosquitos Days Quilt Odyssey Week World Lumberjack Championships	29-31
Lollapalooza	29-8/1

 

Favorite Memes

Daily Oberservations

 

Father-in-Law Day

International Day of Friendship

National Cheesecake Day

National Intern Day

Paperback Book Day

Share a Hug Day

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

 

Did some quick shopping this morning and now just awaiting the afternoon rain.

The pandemic has kept people from many things. One new startup is doing great. It’s called ‘swimply’. It works like Airbnb. You can rent a pool at someone’s home by the hour. They carry insurance, furnish the pool and towels along with wifi access. This summer’s heat waves have helped increase reservations in the hottest areas. In some areas their reservations have increased 300% over last year. Nice!

One addition to yesterday’s post about Luis Grijalva, the runner from our local University. He will be running for Guatemala in his 5000m run.

I enjoyed the swimming and synchronized diving last night. Things have changed a lot since I was swimming on a team.

When I saw the headline about the 8.2 earthquake in Alaska, I remembered the great quake in the mid-60’s. Luckily, the tsunami didn’t happen, and major damage was limited.

The Flagstaff mayor just announced that beginning tomorrow at 8a there is a mask requirement for all city facilities, even if fully vaccinated. Here we go again. Sad.

 

Historical Events

 

 762 – Baghdad was founded by Caliph Al-Mansur.

1619 – In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convenes for the first time.

1729 – Founding of Baltimore, Maryland.

1733 – The first Masonic Grand Lodge in the future United States was constituted in Massachusetts.

1866 – New Orleans, Louisiana’s Democratic government ordered police to raid an integrated Republican Party meeting, killing 40 people and injuring 150.

1935 – The first softcover paperback books were introduced, in Germany.

1956 – A joint resolution of the US Congress was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God we Trust as the US national motto.

1962 – The Trans-Canada Highway, the largest national highway in the world, officially opened.

1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.

1975 – Jimmy Hoffa disappeared from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. He was declared dead on July 30, 1982.

2003 – In Mexico, the last Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the assembly line.

2017 Russian President Vladimir Putin announces American diplomats in Russia cut by 755 in response to American sanctions

2020 The US economy posts the largest quarterly fall on record with GDP down 9.5% for the 3 months to June 30

 

Birthdays Today

 

@96 – Henry W. Bloch, co-founded H&R Block (d. 2019)

@85 – Casey Stengel, American baseball player, manager (d. 1975)

@83 – Henry Ford, founded the Ford Motor Company (d. 1947)

82 – Peter Bogdanovich, American actor and director

80 – Paul Anka, Canadian singer-songwriter

74 – Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-American bodybuilder, actor, and politician, 38th Governor of California

65 – Delta Burke, American actress

65 – Anita Hill, American lawyer and academic

58 – Lisa Kudrow, American actress

57 – Vivica A. Fox, American actress

53 – Terry Crews, American football player and actor

51 – Christopher Nolan, English-American director, producer, screenwriter

50 – Tom Green, Canadian comedian and actor

47 – Hilary Swank, American actress

 

 

 

Jul 29

 

Jul  29, 2021 Week: 31 Day: 210

Ave. Sky Cover: 95%\Visibility: 10 miles

Local Temp:   80°\ 57° Wind: 4mph\ Gusts: 7mph

Moderate risk of fire Active fire: 75mi. \ Lightning: 2mi.

Jul Averages: 82°\51° (9 days w/moisture) 

Today’s Quote

  

  

Weekly Observations

 

XXXII Olympic Games (postponed from 2020):	23-8/8
RAGBRAI: Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa Women in Baseball Week	25-31

 

Daily Oberservations

 

International Tiger Day

National Chicken Wing Day

National Lipstick Day

Rain Day

 

 

 

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

 

Monsoon showers are here. Lots of lightning and thunder. ‘Take Shelter’ alerts on my phone. I’m still waiting, but thankfully got some shopping done before the thunder started. There are currently four squirrels chasing each other in our commons area. Up and down trees, chasing on the ground, back to the trees. They must have had too much coffee this morning.

The mailboxes for our complex are on the main drag, about 50 yards from my place. The bank of boxes also has several bins for large packages. Over the past few months, I’ve noticed that some of the bins are not locked and several people have left their boxes open, but no key. I have had trouble opening my box and had to jiggle the key a lot to open the box. I got a letter from the HOA that there are problems with the old bank of boxes so today they are putting in new ones. No mail delivery until Friday. Even then may have to go to the main post office to pick up mail that wasn’t delivered yesterday or today. I just hope they are a little larger than the ones currently installed.

Listening to the hearing yesterday on the Jan. 6^th incident was moving and disturbing from the cops who protected so many that day. Hearing the conservative responses to the cop’s testimony is truly frightening.

I learned yesterday that there is a runner from our local university in Tokyo. He is DACA since arriving here at age 1 with his parents from Guatemala. After qualifying, he had to get special permission from the US government to run in the 5000m race. I’ll be watching Luis Grijalva when he runs. Go Lumberjack!

 

Historical Events

 

 1148 – The Siege of Damascus ended with a crusader defeat and lead end of the Second Crusade.

1836 – Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile (Arch of Triumph of the Star) in Paris, France.

1958 – US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law, which created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

1981 – A worldwide TV audience of over 700 million people watched the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

2005 – Astronomers announce their discovery of the dwarf planet, Eris.

2009 Temperature reaches 103°F in Seattle, Washington, the hottest day on record

2015- Windows 10 was released.

2015 Part of missing airline MH370 is found on the island of Reunion

2020 Scaled back Hajj pilgrimage begins in Saudi Arabia with no foreigners

 

Birthdays Today

 

@102 – ‘Professor’ Irwin Corey, American comedian and actor (d. 2017)

68 – Tim Gunn, American television host and actor

@61 – Benito Mussolini, Italian fascist politician, 27th Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1945)

He was shot. On 29 April 1945, the bodies of Mussolini, Petacci, and the other executed Fascists were loaded into a van and moved south to Milan. At 3:00 a.m., the corpses were dumped on the ground in the old Piazzale Loreto. The piazza had been renamed "Piazza Quindici Martiri" (Fifteen Martyrs' Square) in honor of fifteen Italian partisans recently executed there.

After being kicked and spat upon, the bodies were hung upside down from the roof of an Esso gas station.[192] The bodies were then stoned from below by civilians. This was done both to discourage any Fascists from continuing the fight, and as an act of revenge for the hanging of many partisans in the same place by Axis authorities. The corpse of the deposed leader was subject to ridicule and abuse. Fascist loyalist Achille Starace was captured and sentenced to death and then taken to the Piazzale Loreto and shown the body of Mussolini. Starace, who once said of Mussolini "He is a god",[193] saluted what was left of his leader just before he was shot. The body of Starace was subsequently hung up next to that of Mussolini.

After his death and the display of his corpse in Milan, Mussolini was buried in an unmarked grave in the Musocco cemetery, to the north of the city. On Easter Sunday 1946, his body was located and dug up by Domenico Leccisi and two other neo-Fascists.

On the loose for months—and a cause of great anxiety to the new Italian democracy—Mussolini's body was finally "recaptured" in August, hidden in a small trunk at the Certosa di Pavia, just outside Milan. Two Franciscan brothers were subsequently charged with concealing the corpse, though it was discovered on further investigation that it had been constantly on the move. Unsure what to do, the authorities held the remains in a kind of political limbo for ten years, before agreeing to allow them to be re-interred at Predappio in Romagna, his birthplace. Adone Zoli, the then-current prime minister, contacted Donna Rachele, the dictator's widow, to tell her he was returning the remains, as he needed the support of the far-right in parliament, including Leccisi himself. In Predappio, the dictator was buried in a crypt (the only posthumous honor granted to Mussolini). His tomb is flanked by marble fasces, and a large idealized marble bust of him is above the tomb.

55 – Martina McBride, American singer-songwriter

49 – Wil Wheaton, American actor

 

 

Jul 28

 

Jul  28, 2021 Week: 31 Day: 209

Ave. Sky Cover: 30%\Visibility: 10 miles

Local Temp:   76°\ 52° Wind: 1mph\ Gusts: 4mph

Low risk of fire Active fire: 58mi. \ Lightning: 92mi.

Jul Averages: 82°\51° (9 days w/moisture) 

Today’s Quote

  

 

Weekly Observations

 

XXXII Olympic Games (postponed from 2020):	23-8/8
RAGBRAI: Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa Women in Baseball Week	25-31

  

Daily Oberservations

Buffalo Soldiers Day

National Hamburger Day

National Milk Chocolate Day

National Waterpark Day

World Hepatitis Day

World Nature Conservation Day 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

 

I helped out my neighbor yesterday, taking him back to the Rez. Great day to travel…cloudy. Visiting a part of the Rez I haven’t seen for years was nice. It is obvious why people live there.

I have tried for a couple of months to get my new TV to do what I want it too. It took a call to the help line to figure out the sleep timer. This morning it was to have the TV be on the cable channel, as opposed to all the choices of streaming services when it is first turned on. The call  was successful after a 10 min hold to talk to a human, then another 15 minutes for him to figure out the answer. I sure don’t understand their logic. I get going to settings and display but what logic says to then choose ‘power’ so that it turns on to cable TV? I guess it is complicated cause it took the tech a long time to figure it out.

Over the weekend, I was alerted on my TV and my phone of ‘areal flooding’ in the area. I had never heard of that, so I looked it up. It has nothing to do with air, nothing to do with Disney’s Ariel, but is a real thing regarding flooding. A flash flood comes quickly during and after a rain as water finds a lower place to go. Areal flooding happens when the ground is saturated, and water flows up to 8+ hours after a heavy rain. I’m old-er and still learning…thank goodness.  Yes, our burn area did cause quite a bit of areal flooding this past weekend.

I read today that AZ is 3^rd in job recovery after the pandemic shutdowns. That is good news.

My old school, Tuba City Boarding, has come out with its plan for reopening school next week. Parents were polled a few months ago about a choice of ‘hybrid’ learning, ‘online only learning, and regular school. Turns out they never asked the staff…duh. Seeing the comments from parents, many are not happy with the decision. So here goes: School starts August 2, 2021 in a Hybrid class model.

• Group A: Students with last names that start with A-M will attend school, IN PERSON, on Mondays and Tuesdays, and virtually on Thursdays and Fridays.

• Group B: Students with last names that start with N-Z will attend IN PERSON, on Thursdays and Fridays, and virtually Mondays and Tuesdays

• Wednesday will continue to be half-days VIRTUALLY for ALL students. All I can say is TGIR...thank goodness I’m retired.

Tokyo Olympics continues with unexpected news stories. Simone Biles has dropped out of some competition. The story changes hourly as to why. Team USA had a great race for swimmer Lydia Jacoby taking the Gold for 100M Breaststroke. Lydia is the first ever medal for an Alaskan. As a former competitive swimmer, it was a great race.

I am also seeing quite a few of articles as to why the Olympics has run its course and needs to stop. The myth that host-cities make money is not now true if it ever was. It has added too many new ‘athletic events’. It now costs about $20billion for the host city…and no one knows where the money gathered at the events really goes. The IOC has become more of a carnival barker than caring about athletes and competition. I still enjoy them, but I certainly am beginning the understand the negativity.

 

Historical Events

 

1854 – The USS Constellation, the last ‘all sail’ warship built by the United States Navy, was commissioned.

1868 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was certified, establishing African American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law.

1896 – The city of Miami, Florida was incorporated.

1933 – The first Singing Telegram was delivered, to Rudy Vallee for his 32nd birthday.

1945 – A US Army B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, killing 14 and injuring 26.

1973 – Nearly 600,000 people attended the Summer Jam at Watkins Glen rock festival at the Watkins Glen International Raceway.

1996 – The remains of the prehistoric Kennewick Man were discovered near Kennewick, Washington.

2002 Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, were rescued after 77 hours underground.

2017 General John Kelly appointed new Chief of Staff by US President Donald Trump

2018 Longest "blood moon" eclipse of the 21st century, lasting 1 hour 43 minutes

 

Birthdays Today

 

@84 – Rudy Vallée, American actor, singer (d. 1986)

@77 – Beatrix Potter, English children’s book writer/illustrator (d.1943)

@64 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, 37th First Lady (d. 1994; cancer)

@58 – Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela (d. 2013; cancer)

57 – Lori Loughlin, American actress

 

 

 

Jul 26

 

Jul  26, 2021 Week: 31 Day:207

Ave. Sky Cover 60%: \Visibility: 10 miles

Local Temp:   76°\ 50° Wind: 10mph\ Gusts: 15mph

Low risk of fire Active fire: 58mi. \ Lightning: 15mi.

Jul Averages: 82°\51° (9 days w/moisture) 

Today’s Quote

  

 

Weekly Observations

 

XXXII Olympic Games (postponed from 2020):	23-8/8
RAGBRAI: Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa Women in Baseball Week	25-31

  

Daily Oberservations

Aunt and Uncles Day

Holistic Therapy Day

National All Or Nothing Day

National Bagelfest Day

National Coffee Milkshake Day

One Voice Day

World Tofu Day 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

 

 Someway my computer got a mind of its own and deleted all my files that I use for information for this posting. I’ll fix it for August. Until then, only a few things will be posted.

My friend go waylaid so won’t be here until Tuesday.

I’m watching the Olympics on three different channels. There are lots of prelims for every sport. I watched some skateboarding and while the ‘runs’ are interesting I am most impressed by the words used to name each maneuver. I’m glad skateboarding was not in my youth as I’m sure I could have never remembered that many maneuvers and their crazy names. I was also impressed with the intensity of table tennis.

Sunday rant: Many want ID in order to vote. Here’s my idea: ID required to get on and stay on social networks. People make up names [handles] just like we did back in the CB days. By remaining anonymous some believe they can say anything they want…things they would never say if they were standing in front of others. Sometimes they say mean things. Sometimes they say false things. Sometimes they just say stupid things. An ID would certainly cut down on these things. Then what about the hackers? They try and steal people’s accounts and the pretend they are that person. We have to constantly change our passwords unless we want to be hacked. Some social media sites have a 2-step authentication…meaning if you want to change your password, they will text or call your phone with a verification code. All of this hacking, much of the lies, and lots of the stupid things would be prevented with requiring an ID to sign up. I have never had to change my Social Security number and I have had one since I was 16. Medicare did update that number to stop stealing of SS numbers. I would never sign up for a social network that required my SS number. However, much like a passport, one could sign up, and pay a small fee, for social media ID. That ID could be used whenever signing up for any Social Media network.

Something must be done to prevent all this hacking. 

Historical Events

 

 1775 – Allowance for The United States Post Office Department was established by the Second Continental Congress. It was called the Post Office Department 1792 – 1971. United States Postal Service was effective on July 1, 1971.

1847 – Liberia disbanded from the support of the American Colonization Society, and formalized their settlement as the Republic of Liberia.

1887 – Dr. Esperanto’s International Language, usually referred to as Unua Libro (English: First Book) was published.

1908 – United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issued an order to staff the Bureau of Investigation (BOI – later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI).

1941 – US President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.

1946 – Aloha Airlines began service from Honolulu International Airport. They closed on March 31, 2008.

1947 – President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Department of Defense, United States Air Force, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the United States National Security Council.

1990 – The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was signed into law by President George Bush.

2016 – Hillary Clinton became the first female nominee for President of the United States by a major political party at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. #VictoriaWoodhull

2017 3 live king cobras reported found inside potato chip cans by customs officials in Los Angeles

2018 Facebook has the single worst day of any public company on the stock market - losing 19% or $119 billion market value

2018 Over 700 immigrant children still separated from their parents in the US as court-imposed deadline to reunite them passes

Birthdays Today

 

@94 – George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (S. 1950)

@85 – Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist (d. 1961)

78 – Mick Jagger, English singer-songwriter, Rolling Stone

76 – Helen Mirren, English actress

@69 – Aldous Huxley, English novelist, philosopher (d. 1963; cancer)

@70 – Stanley Kubrick, American director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer (d. 1999; heart attaqck)

65 – Dorothy Hamill, American figure skater

57 – Sandra Bullock, American actress

54 – Jason Statham, English actor

48 – Kate Beckinsale, English actress