Open Thread – 11am Sunrise
On this, the shortest day of the year, folks in Anchorage saw the sun rise at 11am and missed the sunset if they took a late lunch. Thanks to Peggy Wilcox, friend of The Mudflats and one of our state’s finest union thugs, for contributing the above shot from her office window.
The light is returning!! The light is returning!!! The bf and I celebrated the Solstice/final page of the Mayan long count calendar at the Ascension Ball. A good time was had by all.
Very sad day in RussellSq and my community. Gunman killed 3 innocents and wounded 3 PA State Troopers, in our rural PA community, before being killed by troopers. One woman randomly shot while decorating church for Christmas program (she was mother-in-law of one of Russell’s teaching colleagues), another shot and killed after gunman crashed his car into victim’s vehicle (another teaching colleague and very close friend’s cousin) another man shot in driveway. This happening on the one week anniversary of Sandy Hook and on the day the NRA said having armed guards in schools was the answer. (Seriously!!! Are you INSANE??!!) Our community is now mourning. As Russell and i are both teachers, we were already devastated by Sandy Hook, and now this…
Oh, drat, I guess the world is not ending after all.
Back to the chores…..
Please observe a moment of silence for a poor misguided mouse who can vouch that the world is going to end. His/Hers did and if there is some discrepancy as to whether he/she bit the dust early,I blame it on the north/south time differential between iowa and where ever the Mayans come from. You can debate whether or not Mayan influence was involved,but I am quite sure his/her undoing was a trap baited with sandwich cookie creme filling. No worries during the season of giving. I have a stray cat that admires the company of mice. So much for blizzards. We finally got a couple inches of snow. My grass is still fairly green and dandelions are still blooming.
Maybe the mouse was a Mayan mouse? On another note, Mike from Iowa, did you get any snow from the most recent storm that crossed the country this week? We had had a season-to-date snowfall total of 4.9 inches (in northwest Lower Michigan) when we got somewhere between 6 and 10 inches. Because it will remain cold, it looks like we’ll have a white Christmas. I hope that you will too.
Ussuns got less than two inches-our first measurable snow. We are rilly dry for farm country. Must be nearly a foot below normal precip for this year and next year doesn’t sound much better. Since NW iowa is solidly red(even from space) we can always count on rw hot air,alas they dry up the rain before it soaks into the ground. Christmas here looks to be white,I just don’t get festive anymore.
How about some Solstice Bells in this season of light?
Jethro Tull, anyone?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qcPS-J0HTg
<3
tcw
Sunrise.
Sunset.
You know I just can’t help myself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLLEBAQLZ3Q
…one season following another
laden with happiness and tears…
L’Chaim, y’all.
L’Shalom, also, too.
thatcrowwoman