Tuesday, June 16, 2015

More Bits and Pieces


The Sun Shines! The Midwest US has had rain recently. A lot of rain. Two to four inches yesterday, an inch or two Sunday, and God only knows how much in the previous two weeks. Our water table is high. Our lawns are green and our shrubbery and trees verdant. Also growing are our streams, creeks, rivulets, and rivers. Detention ponds are overflowing. Streets are full and closed. Area road construction projects are awash and delayed.

Tornado warnings were present through much of yesterday afternoon and last night. That seems to have passed without tragedy in the region. But flooding will persist as the water shed sheds! Streams, rivers and flood basins will fill and roads will continue to be closed. At least our area is not dealing with a drought! That’s a good thing and we know our blessings when they come our way.

Putin – again! So NATO expresses a concern over Putin’s war rumbles on his western borders and in eastern Ukraine. NATO is laying plans to install some war materiel in abutting areas to support 5000 troops if the call becomes necessary to move them in. This is all defensive moves to protect Ukraine, Poland, Eastern Germany and the Stans of yesteryear’s Soviet Bloc. These are peoples who do not want Putin’s presence. And they ask the world community for help.

NATO is there. Not the USA but NATO. Stop the propaganda, Putin. This is not about America. This is all about you and your bellicose manners. And poor they are. Shame on you. You rattle your swords to get a reaction and then raise the stakes when we say boo! Pardon me? Where exactly did your parents fail you in your upbringing? Manners, Vladimir. Manners. They still count.

While we are at it, FIFA scandals are not international politics. You and other nations ‘won’ world cup rights for future years but FIFA sold those ‘rights’ to you. You didn’t win them. So don’t count on hosting yet another propaganda event. Those days are well over for you. FIFA is dirty and needs cleaning up. America really doesn’t care. Others do and asked for legal assistance. Last time we checked, that wasn’t a political issue!

Global Warming and…: The globe is encircled by jet streams, air movements, atmospheric pressure zones and resulting oceanic currents, temperature water massing and the resultant coastal wind patterns. These movements above land and sea, and under sea as well, make weather patterns throughout the globe. Normally these patterns are just that – patterns – and they behave somewhat predictably. However, warming trends at the poles have shifted air and ocean current movements enough to change all of the usual patterns. Resulting upsets are droughts, floods, hot weather, cold weather, in season and non seasonal. The upsets themselves are evidence of global warming. The length of the patterns is another piece of evidence. Even more evidence is shown in rising ocean levels and coastal flooding. Whether this will persist is anyone’s guess at this point. But a trend of global warming is well and properly documented.

This is not a political statement. It is a statement of fact based on science. If we residents of the planet can do something to ease the situation, then we need to do that. Such actions will save lives and maintain healthy living conditions for tens of millions of people at the very least. If the warming pattern persists, a billion lives will be affected.

We need to collaborate for the good of us all, not debate endless political dribble. Enough!

Ah, Respite: As I gaze out the window at a green world lit by a rising sun in a pastel blue morning sky, I sigh! Many days that view has been gloom, rain, wind, mist, and yuck. Days and days of this affects mood. The body slows and slogs through each day. Wonderment yawns toward future days and perceives nothing but clouds and rain.

But the storms are past for this day. And we have respite from nature’s fury. All we need do is avoid puddles and watch for rising rivers and washed out roadways. But that too will pass. We take our rest and peace when we can these days.

Ah, respite is a golden prize at this moment!

June 16, 2015


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