Open Thread – Ice and Snow
The marvel of frozen water in some of its many forms.
December 18, 2024
Thursday, August 3, 2023
The Quitter Returns! -Monday, March 21, 2022
Putting the goober in gubernatorial -Friday, January 28, 2022
The marvel of frozen water in some of its many forms.
The picture is really cool – looks like it is taken from inside a window (rather than a wall) looking out at dusk, with icicles from the eaves but don’t know why those lovely patterns formed on the glass. Anyway, it’s a really lovely picture!
Beautiful. Kind of looks like miniature antlers.
🙂
yes, it does.
Just thinking about the coming weekend, St. Patricks’ Day. My family came from Galway by way of NYC, then on to Pennsylvania. We were “Lace curtain” Irish my Grandfather proclaimed, because the sheep did not sleep in the cottage at night. I am encouraging all the Irish Mudpuppies to share a bit of family lore. Like when my Grandfather, an undertaker, enbalmed my Uncle Billy with Irish whiskey and he then turned black in the open coffin on the day of the funeral. We had stayed up all night “keening” and very few of the men were sober. My Grandmother was furious and tried to hit my Grandfather with a soup tureen. She missed, thank God, it would have killed him.
Slainte’ to all
and Peace
After my great-uncle died, his three brothers were assigned the task of cleaning out his apartment in NYC. Being men of little patience and short temper (but a keen taste for good Irish whiskey), they paid little mind to the actual or sentimental value of his belongings.
He and his wife, long deceased, had traveled the world as the staff of a wealthy family – an ‘advance team’ who went ahead of the family to open up whichever house they were about to descend upon for the season. They hired the staff, supervised the cleaning and stocking of the house, and made sure all was ready. If the family was travelling to a country where they had no home, my great-uncle and his wife would rent a suitable abode and get that set up as well. They remained with the family for many years and were reportedly paid quite well.
During their travels around the world they collected many wonderful treasures that had tremendous sentimental value and quite a bit of monetary value as well. Those treasures were, however, beyond the appreciation of three cranky Irishmen who only wanted to be done with their irritating chore so they could head to the local bar. One of the braintrust came up with a brilliant idea and borrowed a truck. The ‘boys’ loaded up the truck with all of the china, crystal, artwork and local craft items, souvenirs, etc. They drove the truck to the banks of the East River and tossed it all in. Every last bit of it…right into the East River. Proud of themselves for accomplishing their assigment so quickly and easily, they repaired to the nearest watering hole to celebrate.
It wasn’t until one of them returned home and bragged to his long-suffering wife about what they’d done that the rest of the family nearly had cardiac arrests, thinking of all those precious items, lost forever in the stinky, smelly waters of the East River!
what!? East River? where? i can see the river from my bedroom. i am looking at it now. gotta go find a diving suit. gotta find the treasure.
what a great story Leenie.
my story is about a music teacher named Mrs. McG. as many of you know i was brought up in church. what church you ask? all of them Katie. at the time of this story was i still in elementary school and was in the children’s choir at Springfield Gardens Methodist Church. i had a rigorous choir mistress who was also a very gentle woman who loved children and was loved in return. this story is not about her. it is about Mrs McG who taught our school choir. Mrs McG was a tiny lady with silver hair and icy blue eyes. she was a no nonsense, stern martinet who never seemed to smile and was never satisfied with our modest efforts at singing. she had an ear that could hear a off note from a mile away. unfortunately over the summer months in my last year at ps37 something happened to my voice. though i searched high and low i couldn’t find a note. any note. i sqeeked and squawked. so decided to pretend. i moved my mouth but not a sound did i make. Mrs McG heard the missing voice. that’s how good she was.
after class she explained that my voice was changing but not worry she would work with me and so she did. that year we sang the Ave Maria and at the end she was so overcome she smiled. we had done well. Mrs G was proud and happy and her smile meant the world to us.
🙂 <— Look…I'm smiling too!
That is a great story! Men!
My family patriarch owned property in Ireland. They were reasonably well to do, but he was such a nasty, horrible person that the family had to flee for their lives to Canada with almost nothing to their names. Not only was he mean, but he’d been well off enough that he actually didn’t know how to do any work, and the family was soon in dire straits. He abandoned them, and his wife sold my great grandfather into slavery to some New Hampshire farmer. Yes, they were white, yes, it was after the Civil War, and yes, it was a Northern state. I would imagine that all those things conspired to make this a rather poor exchange for the family. He succeeded in running away when he was in his early 20’s, after about 14 years working for a guy who was as bad as his dad had been. At least he was used to the bad attitude. However, he was a mean, nasty old f@rt himself. My lord! We never went near him. He had 4 wives, 3 of which he literally nagged and brow beat to death. The fourth survived, and he left everything he owned to someone else.
St Patrick’s Day was never a biggie for my family, though. They were Orange.
Tonight at 8:00 eastern time—-this will be shown on Youtube.
http://my.barackobama.com/Watch-The-Road-Weve-Traveled
How many hours a week do you work? How many of those hours are productive? How many of them would be better spent sleeping, enjoying a hobby, a book, or a cuddle with someone you love? Read about our overworked, overstressed workforce:
http://www.alternet.org/story/154518/why_we_have_to_go_back_to_a_40-hour_work_week_to_keep_our_sanity?page=entire
I’ve seen the ill effects of the overlong workday firsthand. I used to substitute for the night secretary at a law firm. I saw the output of the associates who were trying to make partner by putting in 80 hours a week. Their work was garbage. It got even worse when they were junior partners trying to make senior partner. Help make this article go viral.
AKM, I forgot to mention how lovely that photo is. Water in all its forms is spectacular, and you’re great at catching its ethereal beauty.
Meanwhile, back at SB191, Alaska’s own Ultrasound Instrusion bill:
http://www.nationalpartnership.org/site/News2?abbr=daily2_&page=NewsArticle&id=32629&security=1201&news_iv_ctrl=-1
Coghill said it reflects his “political” beliefs. What exactly are those beliefs, the merger of church and state?
Beautiful picture AKM! It has been in the 70’s here most of this week and the long range forecast is showing more of the same. We are having our early spring and since it’s my favorite season, I won’t complain. Beautiful day today.
Colleen and team are officially in, according to GPS tracking! The leaderboard will be updated any second now…
Wonderful job, RGK, all the way around! You are one of the finest ambassadors for racing, and rescuing, all the way around!
Wow…she beat Lance Mackey! Congratulations Colleen!!!
Goofed, put in wrong place upthread…
Can I even imagine what it would feel like to be on my last hour or so on the trail to Nome, with all the early heartbreak and setbacks on top of a grueling, weather unfriendly race?
If Lance doesn’t pass her, she’ll come in soon at 21st place. No small feat for this team, the little team “that could”. If you have a minute, congratulate Cole and dogs on their blog when she gets in. It will be a real treat for her to get back and read all the comments on the blog when she’s not too tired to look at a computer screen. This is part of what keeps them going – knowing that others appreciate their efforts in rescuing dogs and giving them a great life on the trail, whether it’s a training trail or a race trail.
http://rogueskennel.com/blog/?p=1220
AKM, thank you for that photograph. It refreshed and restored my mood and attitude.
It’s Spring Break in our area. We had to turn on our window A/Cs last night in order to sleep. Tomorrow will break 80 though we’ve had high seventies almost all week – but it is the humidity that is making moving around a little bleak.
Just before coming to the computer, I was preparing a French Apple Pie (no top crust – just struesel topping) for my husband’s birthday. He’s a pie, not a cake, man. I could barely breath in the kitchen even with an A/C humming steadily two rooms away and a fan in the doorway to the kitchen. Whew!
I shudder to think what the summer holds for our area. Humidity is always a problem here in NE KS, but that it is starting in mid-March is demoralizing. Heat is okay; humidity is not.
Thanks again for the gorgeous photograph! Not that I want the ice, but I would love a bit of cool, day air. Happy Spring Break to everyone!
Skunks seem to be out of fashion down on the farm,so let’s talk groundhogs. Trapped two on consecutive days from same porch hole that we trapped skunks in. Have windows and doors open. House still reeks of skunk. Must have a veritable menagerie of dumb(albeit smarter than rwnj) animals under my house.
Our skunks don’t show up til the beginning of May. Luckily they don’t spray dogs with their big pointy yellow flowers – the stinking up of dogs around here is all by the dead fish!
LMD – your message has been received!
Thanks MUYS. They pay through
30th place so she should get some money no matter what.
Do they have an online donation form? Otherwise, and address will work. My family has been involved in Humane Society/rescue organizations for three generations, and I’ve had three “designer hybrids” of my own.
Love, love mutts!
They do! There is a PayPal button on the blog, here’s the link. Thank you, thank you!
http://rogueskennel.com/blog/
Here is the address:
Colleen and Joseph Robertia
PO Box 1244
Kasilof AK 99610
Checks can be made out in their name as they do not have a bank account for the kennel. Thank you again!
I just checked before coming to the ‘flats, and Colleen and her team came in the 21st place. And the Paypal link works – I was able to send a small donation.
Thank you!
Cole is in and out of Safety now, last checkpoint before Nome, and she’s less than an hour away from Sousa in 20th. She gained a bit of time on Lance – but that run for 20th is going to be tough with not far to go now.
Cheer them on – go RGK! A new leader, Zoom, has found his mettle this year to help Penny when the other leaders had to go home. Go mutts!
Go, mutts, indeed! Goddess willing, Cole and team make top 20!
Yes Love My Dogs – it is a wild ride back there with the pack they dubbed
“The Storm Troopers” in this 40th Iditarod! Colleen from RGK crawled up through the ranks from 42 to 22, having to drop her most powerful dogs early in the race due to mishaps beyond her control.
A group of 18 teams or so all piled up in Shaktoolik due to a bad storm, and some finally decided to leave in spite of the storm only calming but not receding. She dropped10 or so places, and has now regained her spot of 22 and moved ahead of Lance Mackey by ONE MINUTE out of the last two checkpoints to claim 21st by a hair. She’s got to stay ahead of Lance somehow, and run down the musher in 20th who as of last night had about 1.75 hour lead.
A lot of these mushers running together are friends, but no one is going to let that get in the way of passing each other if they can!
If Colleen can place in the top 20 the purse will help them offset the huge expense of this race. They have no big sponsors, they both work, and spend the rest of their time turning rescues and misfits into working, happy racing teams! Know the story of mighty Penny, her main leader, who might have been over 30 lbs when the race started but if so, barely. She’s the smallest dog on the trail out there and was another rescue. Penny brought Cole into Nome two years ago, with a big smile on her sweet little dog face.
Go root for Cole and Penny (and all the rest!) We’ve been watching her run, surrounded by past race winners, holding her own and then some. Keep in mind that these other mushers have full time kennels devoted to breeding, training, buying and selling. Not RGK – they don’t buy dogs, they turn mutts into racers!
http://rogueskennel.com/blog/?p=1220
Thanks for the update. I am pulling for Collen and her team. What an accomplishment to be neck and neck with Lance:-)
All the neater the team is rescue dogs…overall still think it is a special story!!
Many trees in my neighborhood are in the very young leaf stage (willow) or already have buds or flowers. Daffodils and crocuses are all over. It’s disconcerting to see only halfway through March, but since planting zones have shifted, unsurprising.
My crocuses (croci?) bloomed two days ago, which is almost unheard of in Rochester. I keep waiting for one last blast of winter to hit us since we’ve often gotten snow in March or April, but it doesn’t look like that will happen.
My favorite event of the year – Gardenscape – starts tonight at the county fairgrounds and continues this weekend. I will be spending the day there on Saturday, examining the displays, browsing the vendors and attending the seminars. It’s quite the popular event, attracting more than 20,000 people each year, and a welcome taste of spring after the (usually) cold and snowy winter. This year, of course, it feels like winter hasn’t even started yet so it IS a bit disconcerting to be seeing spring bulbs blooming!
If the weather (and my back) cooperates, I’ll probably be putting my early seeds in the veggie garden on Sunday. Lettuce, spinach, peas…yum!
Gardenscape sounds like loads of fun. I content myself with the Creative Little Garden up the block & across the street, and with sprouting at home.
Pussywillows in Juneau! Scouler’s willows have giant catkins, and apparently the one at the base of my driveway thinks the weather outlook warrants blossoming.
Here’s a great combination: snow and cuteness. It’s a red panda playing with a pumpkin, in the snow:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/red-panda-plays-with-pumpkin-video.html
Cute alert!
Isn’t red panda redundant since they come from Commie countries to begin with? Grass is greening up. Geese are nesting,blackbirds have returned and my garden beckons me. Look for asparagus real soon if temps stay in the 70s. If you get out my way you can garden to your heart’s delight.
Cute is right- great way to start out smiling.
Whee..fun..and..new-knowledge. Did not know..there were..Red Pandas.
Sitting here..hands reaching for moi coffee mug..and waiting..trying to reach..’that place’..where words will crystalize..around that one perfect vision..catching it.like..like a butterly-kiss. That Water..magic moment..and sent..tremblingout..all over this world..since its posting. A gift..such..a healing gift.
I morally object to all rwnj in Congress and government in general and demand that no tax payer monies-zero,zip,zilch-be allocated to pay the salaries of the Nazis who have declared war on women. These cretins are dangerous,not only to women,but to everyone with at least one functional brain cell. When a political party declares war on fully half of this Nation’s population mere months before the next Presidential election one has to wonder if the end is truly near.
The states are taking the lead in backward thinking now. You would think that a party who is opposed to abortion under any circumstance would want to prevent unwanted pregnancies. But now I see what the right is really trying to prevent and that is any sexual act which is not done for procreation.
There is a teensy problem with that kind of Santorum thinking. I don’t want to analyze this too much but…people have natural desires, men even go so far as to enhance that desire by taking drugs to stimulate their ability to quench their thirst, if you will. So if all these men are to satisfy that need and if women are there for the purpose of carrying that man’s child, then won’t we have a bit of a problem with over population. How are people outside of the 1% going to support all those children after the right wing has taken away all the programs like health care assistance, public education, day care so that both mother and father can work to support all those children and any other publicly funded, socialist, program designed to help communities? Are the churches meant to take up the burden? (Course there are a lot of hateful, judgemental churches out there but I digress….) And what if a citizen isn’t even a Christian?
I forgot to include an interesting link: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/03/14/444111/birth-control-to-control-birth/
Next logical step for nutjobs is a variation on the amber alert-let’s call it the scarket letter alert and broadcast the name.address,e-mail and phone number of any woman that wants birth control for any reason. Maybe they can publish a directory of all girls about to reach puberty so they can check to see if they are engaging in nefarious activities such as girl stuff at puberty. Thanks for the link.
I like the suggestion made in a comment on IM that there be a DNA registry for all males over the age of 12, so that when a girl/woman gets pregnant, the father can be identified immediately and obliged to support said mother and child. Sounds fair to me.
I also think that no one should oppose contraception if that person also opposes universal health care, adequate funding for programs for mothers and children, early education, and all other stages of education.
Are the AZ politicians trying to get all females to leave the state?
They are back to thinking that a woman’s place is in the home–taking care of the kids, having dinner on the table when the husband gets home, doing the wash and being a servant. Look at Old Ads—-giving the “little woman” a sweeper, iron & other “helpful” things to make life easier. Give me a break!!!!!!
Do all the Republicans think that they are the Representative from Stepford?
MUYS I left you a message on the last open thread.
have emailed her in case she hasn’t seen this/that
Thank you – I did not get to yesterday’s thread – important message!
Got it! You ROCK!
Can I even imagine what it would feel like to be on my last hour or so on the trail to Nome, with all the early heartbreak and setbacks on top of a grueling, weather unfriendly race?
If Lance doesn’t pass her, she’ll come in soon at 21st place. No small feat for this team, the little team “that could”. If you have a minute, congratulate Cole and dogs on their blog when she gets in. It will be a real treat for her to get back and read all the comments on the blog when she’s not too tired to look at a computer screen. This is part of what keeps them going – knowing that others appreciate their efforts in rescuing dogs and giving them a great life on the trail, whether it’s a training trail or a race trail.
http://rogueskennel.com/blog/?p=1220
If anyone wants to follow a very exciting race within the race, Colleen is duking it out in a footrace to the finish with Lance and a bout 5 other mushers right now. Live blogging at Rogues Gallery Kenmel blog in the comments.
Palin had better start stomping her naughty monkey and demand an apology from Rush Limbaugh for calling her a corpse!
http://www.mediaite.com/online/rush-limbaugh-desperate-obama-has-gone-back-to-the-graveyard-to-dig-sarah-palin-back-up/
Indeed! She’s obviously much more Skeletor.
And now I’d best charge up my snark filter.
Spring break starts Friday after school, which is just in nick of time. Folks are wound pretty tight and the sap is rising. Not sure who’s got it worse, the “grown-ups” or the students. If I had a quarter for every time I said, “No snogging in the hallways, please” …
I could use some Jack Frost superpowers around here, just sayin’, but we’re headed for 80 degrees.
*hoping I’m provoking a snowball fight, like please don’t throw me in that briar patch*
thatcrowwoman
spring has sprung in New York. i saw some purple and white flowers in the garden….and birds.
also too sap is arising around here. i can feel it though it is still around my ankles.
70 degrees today, rain/snow next week… can Mud Season be far behind? 😉
Sounds like you live in my CA desert town. Only thing between me and a week off is 6 more classes.
Spring break in Alaska….