Tag: weather

Back after a break with an update

From October 2022 until now it has been a crazy several months. Between holidays, illness, visitors, and crazy weather my time has flown.

The month of February has been full of rain and two days of significant snow in southern Arizona. Our snow’s three inches and two inches respectively is no way equivalent to what residents in Minnesota receive but for us our snowfall is quite remarkable.

We have been in direct line for the crazy west coast weather, and it has dropped nearly 100″ of snow on our Santa Catalina Mountains as of yesterday. Skiing is in order at the southern most ski area in the USA – Mount Lemmon. 

The first of March we got more snow 4.5″ and it blew everyone’s minds.

My hubby has commenced a new hobby project. He has started assembling model airplanes beginning with the aircraft my father worked on in Vietnam, the B-57. He is painting it an authentic camo design and it will rest with my father’s Air Force photos.

We had a wonderful visit with my son, daughter-in-law and youngest grandson for ten days in the first of February. My heart was full of joy to have them here. Little Jackson is simply adorable and loving, so handsome and curious. He is starting to say words and is a wee bit of a flirt. He let me love, hug and kiss him as often as I wanted. One perfect part was that my daughter and oldest grandson came and stayed for a couple of days as well so I was in heaven having my children and grandchildren in my home.

We have a special event to attend on March 11th in Globe-Miami AZ – the “Walk For Hope” to support outreach for addition. It was started by our friends who lost a son, then nephew to drug addition.  We plan to stay in our vintage travel trailer for a couple of nights. My sister will look after the pets.

So life is moving on and we look forward to God’s blessings in our existence.

Cheers!

-N

 

Contemplation

I’m sitting here, reading a Melissa Foster book, rounding out a day that started yesterday with rain and then snow ❄.  Its cold outside, but my glass of cabernet savignon is warming me.

The book is sexy, the temperature is 40°, and I’m looking at my sleeping German Shepherd Millie curled up on the couch. Also watching my polydactyl calico cat Cleo curled up dozing in the rocking chair.

Snow is low on the mountains, and the clouds are low in the sky. There is a hard freeze warning for our area which means I will have to cover the outdoor plants that are vulnerable.

I’m enjoying my solitude. I have times when being alone and quiet gives me comfort. I think with age we find these times exceptionally valuable.

So to all you lovely folks waiting for inspiration – gaze at the stars, listen to the soft breathing of a sleepy puppy, and relish the complexity of a good wine.

Cheers!

-N

 

Physics and Hurricane Michael

I am a meteorology, geology, astronomy geek. Yep, and proud of it.

Last Wednesday I went to a presentation at the University of Arizona by the folks who helped get the image of the black hole M87. I had chills. It made my mind fly with excitement, and frustration.

The frustration was because I was never encourage, pushed, or helped to do well in school. My folks were not those kind of parents. I was never asked if I had homework, much less if I did my homework. If I got a good grade that was nice, if I didn’t (math specifically) I was told I probably wasn’t good at it, instead of working with me to improve.

My father was in the Air Force, and we lived lots of places. This gave me the chance to experience every kind of meteorological and geological event. Hurricanes in the Philippines and earthquakes in Japan. Tornadoes in Texas and monsoon flooding in southern Arizona. I’ve chased storms in tornado alley, and sat on a cliff in Hawaii watching the lava flow into the sea.

When I came back from helping my son move to Florida I took a side trip to Pass Christian MS to see where storm surge of Hurricane Camille washed the coast clean back in 1969.

I get notifications from NASA whenever the ISS is visible in my area and I watch for it. I’ve learned parts of the sky with my star charts. I eagerly followed the courses of Voyager 1 and 2 out of our solar system, kept track of the arrival of Osiris Rex at asteroid Bennu, watched the images of New Horizons when it flew by Pluto, and set my alarm to wake up so I could watch live the reveal of the first images of a black hole the Event Horizon Telescope captured.

I dig this stuff.

I want to know how they did this stuff. How do scientists figure out the way to image a black hole with six telescopes around the planet? How do geologists measure the movement of the plates? How did meteorologists come up with the CAPE measurement?

I mentioned in a previous blog about observing the damage done by Hurricane Michael in the Florida Panhandle back in October 2018. The damage six months later gives the evidence why this storm was recently upgraded to a category 5. All of these photos were taken on I-10.

I know I have a science leaning. I worked in a cell culture lab for seven years where I was taught how to grow cells, titer antibodies, and make tissue blocks used in cancer diagnosis. I used high school algebra I thought long forgotten, and learned the same sterile technique for a biological safety hood taught to freshmen biology students at the University of Arizona. I had my own projects, and developed procedures I taught to incoming staff with PhD’s. With just a high school diploma.

What more could I have done with the proper encouragement in math and science?

Woulda, shoulda, coulda – physics.

So I still try to learn, my curiosity is as strong as ever.

Cheers!

-N

 

Media for creativity

I have music on my old fashioned stereo which will play the radio, CD’s and believe it or not cassettes tapes, and there are iTunes on my laptop. I don’t have iTunes on my phone because it is an android-yuck. You see I have to have music, especially to be creative. Another thing I do when I am sewing is to chromecast from my laptop to a TV in my work room. I can watch a netflix movie and know how much time I’ve spent on a project, or turn it to YouTube and autoplay one of the channels I follow.

I’ve always had a soundtrack for my life. Inspiration, motivation, interpretation, recall, prompting, all of those words I get from the sound of music I love, or stories I like to watch. It colors the thought process, and the feeling of my creative surroundings.

Today the wind is blowing, the air is cool, the sky changes from clear blue with wispy clouds to a spreading overcast that changes the color of the mountains. It is a classical music day. Hayden I think, maybe Debussy later. I am glad for the solitary time I have at this moment to do some important research for my historical work. I’m looking for books or text written during 1868-1870 to get a feel for language and customs that dominated interpersonal relationships. How would a single young woman write to a young man she has know for her life, but now the relationship is starting to evolve?

I welcome suggestions as I sip my wine.

Cheers!

-N