Friday Music

Badfinger was a British rock band that recorded and released four consecutive hits between 1970 to 1972 - Come and Get It (written and produced by Paul McCartney), No Matter What, Day After Day (produced by George Harrison), and Baby Blue (written by Pete Ham and produced by Todd Rundgren).    

As the tale goes it is said that Ham wrote the song about a woman named Dixie Armstrong, whom he had dated during Badfinger's final US tour.  It was the group's last Top 20 single, peaking at number 14 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart.  Forty years later the song reemerged to new fame and recognition when it was featured in the series finale of AMC's Breaking Bad - a reference to the distinctive blue methamphetamine produced by Walter White.  

It is heartening to be witness to a third (global) generation paying homage to classic 70s rock 'n roll.  This is a faithful cover of the song by a band from Bangkok, The Drivers.......

New Year Night Sky

Yesterday I posted a video debunking the Face Book memes and misinformation about the Great January Planetary Alignment Hoax of 2025.

Today is guidance about the four planets that you can see with you naked eye (Uranus and Neptune are out there too but without optics they're not easily discerned).

The four brighter planets that you can spot together in the winter night sky include Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn in what is referred-to as a planetary parade.

While the four planets will appear to line-up in the night sky this alignment is nothing new.  If you watched the video yesterday you would recall that this is what planets do in the ordinary scheme of things. 

In any event, for the initial couple of hours after darkness falls you should be able to spot Venus and Saturn in the southwest along with Jupiter situated higher in the sky and Mars in the east.

Fingers-crossed for cold, clear viewing conditions.

And don't believe bullshit posted on Face Book.  They haven't fact-checked much for years....

New Year Night Sky

Not surprisingly Face Book also happens to be a vast cesspool of astronomical information.

Sheesh!

Anyway, here's the straight scoop debunking what you can and cannot see during this month of stargazing.

You're welcome.

A Ray of Sunshine

 

If you rise early enough for breakfast then following a trip to the yard for a potty break you can stretch out on your dog bed and soak-up the morning sunshine.

It's a dog's Life.....

 

Critters In Winter

The doggo and I got a pretty good gig going for us.  Step outta the house and there’s approximately 3.5 miles of trails to walk.  Better yet, the pup doesn’t have to wear a lead and I don’t get dragged along behind one.  All she wears is her hunting e-collar just in case.  Our walks are free range and à la carte.

North of a year and a half-old Ruby has certainly matured.  Of course that’s relative as she’s still stuck somewhere between puppyhood and solid adulthood.  Nevertheless, she follows voice commands and generally sticks close. If I stop to examine something I’m curious about she’ll wait for me to catch-up.  Conversely, if she’s after something of interest, her bell is a good cue as to her whereabouts.  And she returns when summoned.

The other day we checked-out the prairie habitat north of the house. This stuff is absolutely not indigenous peninsula habitat; but it’s good wildlife cover and it’s our property so we plant what we like.

This is excellent pollinator habitat three seasons of the year so it attracts a lot of birds.  In the fourth season of winter it is terrific cover for overwintering birds and other critters.

Those grasses and forbs that have been blown-down in the photo were about six  feet tall at their prime. Tumbled-over they form thousands of hollow cavities and caves at ground level. When covered by snow these become snug animal igloos.

Sure enough - thermal cover for the birds and other critters to hunker down and hide from the wind and snow.  Predators too.

Now play Where’s Waldo and find the dog in the photo…

 

Free Speech

I was witness to a disturbing phenomena over the weekend and I don't believe I am the only person to have made this observation. Moreover, I am not surprised that it has come from the same small group of individuals who six months ago were getting-off on Face Book with vulgar, racist, sexual memes and hate speech focused towards Vice President Kamala Harris.

It took only about 24 hours for these same individuals to go over the top gleeful as Californians suffered the tragic misfortune of losing everything to wildfires.  

Homes, businesses and property lost. Families displaced. 

People still missing and unaccounted-for.  

Lives lost.

Thanks to an abundance of material supplied by Russian and Communist Chinese troll farms my recalcitrant acquaintances have somehow roped forestry policy, the LGBTQ community, pedophilia, diversity, equity and inclusion, a wild smelt, Hollywood personalities, Gavin Newsom, North Carolina and Ukraine all into one big wet dream of joyful, celebratory and triumphal mirth over the loss of life, destruction of neighborhoods and communities reduced to ash.

As a casual observer it is interesting to watch this social psychology at play in real time.

There's a great deal of unresolved grievance and hatred out there. Waiting only for the opportunity to be unleashed on social media from behind the warming glow of a device. Hard to know if it's a character flaw or a pathology. Strikingly, some of these individuals wear their 'Christianity' on their sleeve and remind me of it regularly.  

I wonder what Jesus would have to say about their flagrant expenditure of bandwidth to mock the dead and air their loathing and scorn for the people of Los Angeles?

I just don't get it. I'm grateful I'm not hardwired to be ecstatic and gratified over my fellow countryman's misfortunes.....

*Individual screenshots of Face Book posts, commentary and replies have not been reposted here for privacy reasons and because the content is just sick.

 

 

New Year Night Sky

The first full moon of 2025 rises tonight. 

According to Native American tradition January's full moon is also known as a Wolf Moon.  Legend suggests that wolves howled more at this time of year due to winter hunger. European settlers also knew this as the Old Moon or Moon After Yule

Wolves have made their presence known around here on very rare occasion and what I know for sure is that with all the dang deer on the landscape if any have found their way across the ice to the peninsula they will not be hungry.  I fully expect that any howling I hear this evening will be from the resident coyotes.  Like their larger wolf brethren any vocalizations will be social in nature - locating pack members, reinforcing their familial bonds, defining territory and such.  

 

NASA image

Prior to European settlement the Lakota people know this as the Hard Moon, the Cree called this the Cold Moon, the Ojibwe of the Great Lakes Region called this the Great Spirit Moon and the Assiniboine fittingly refer to this as the Center Moon - the demarcation of mid-winter.

Watch for the moon to rise from the east at sunset tonight and tomorrow. As a bonus, the bright red planet Mars will be shining just to the moon's lower left (or celestial east).  

It will reach its highest point around midnight. If you're up for any reason while the moon is high in the night sky be sure to observe that a winter full moon climbs as high in the heavens as the summer noonday sun.  On a clear winter night you can see your shadow by the light of the moon!

If you are an early riser you can locate the moon above the western horizon before sunrise. 

Fingers-crossed for cold, clear, winter night skies.