Kathleen Mary 's posts with tag: weather
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080620/sc_livescience/sarcasmsee...So, the other day my husband stands in front of the silent, very useless fan in our bedroom and studies it with the astute observation---
"What is this thing, a new form of art you bought?"
I look up from my book, I am covered by a blanket and in my warmest PJs.
"I don't know what it is, just appeared, liked it when I bough it, but's totally useless now - I think it's in Pocus' way when he jumps up to go the window, I will move it, tomorrow !"
Another one.
SPPEA, our beloved, DEAR new union at Boeing has made a rule about what hours Leon can work. He comes home and tells me that his boss told him he must report in at 4 AM not 3AM...
Without flinching, I say :" I just LOVE SPPEA, they remind me SO of the Catholic Church !"
------Leon's wit is what I think I love best, though the rest of him isn't bad, either !!
 For a short time I posted on a group website but decided it really wasn't the wisest thing to do - I find, that most of the time, I am completely out of step with my fellow women. It is as if some horrid karma pursues me when it comes to my fellow women, something, I do not understand; but it is very true and I finally realized I was irritating & annoying them more than I was helping, so, I left them, behind. '
Tis for the best, I suspect.
(You do not need to hit me over the head with a baseball bat to get my attention, folks, well, you do, but only once or twice at the very most !!!)   
I did realize that I enjoyed posting my poetry and short stories... and, from time to time, here, I will do so. My interests are many - I love science - and mysticism and spirituality; love literature and movies; crafts and needlework of all kinds: I even sew, tat, knit and well, you know about my crochet work, already. ( I am going to be making my summer shorts this week.) I will, though, from time to time post some of my favorite form of creativity, my writings - my 'words' as I always call them - even little snippets from my novels - just for the fun of it. It does not matter if no one but me reads them - or, God forbid, enjoy, them - It matters only that I create what is in my heart to create.Most people have a blog devoted to just one thing, but my interests are too varied for that.
As you see the picture beside this is the "Fool" from the Grail Tarot - He sets off on a long journey, know not where he is going but seeing his objective - the Holy Grail, above. His first challenge is walking across a great gulf - a canyon, perhaps, on the edge of the sword. He must not fear the fall that could happen so easily, he must not sway too much to one side, but keep his balance between contraries. He wears the simple garb of a pilgrim or traveler, no cape, no pack of food, candles and extra clothes, even. He is assuredly, alone and not even a horse or a mule accompanies him. This is the challenge of the spiritual seeker. Keep your eyes on the prize and sway not from the path. This is a suitable card for this lovely spring morning.
My lilacs are all in bloom this week and yesterday was the 28th???? anniversary of Mt. St. Helen's eruption, I can't get over that fact. I've never gone on a visit to the mountain, perhaps I will do so once I reach my final weight and can climb on the back of our motorcycle.
It is amazing how quickly our lives flash by us - and how difficult it is to accomplish any lasting thing, in each life - it is the challenge of life that I love best. Trying to create something - anything that will outlast me!
I am even doing research on how to start a compost heap this year, so now my garbage is going to be turning into good soil - that all started because Leon opened the bin and complained because King County wants us to put kitchen waste into the garden waste recycle bin - it is a disgusting smell, I admit that... but, well...They are the bosses and they wanted me to do it.. so, to please both King county and my beloved I begin a compost heap. Next thing you know I may reopen my herb garden soil and start growing herbs, again - what about some posts about herbs and all the wonderful things I am use them, for?
OHHHH - keep an eye out for recipes. I finally caught on I could have a recipe function and I just need to start posting - I have some truly wonderful recipes - some from my mother's Italian roots & times, some I created, some from friends, books and magazines. So keep any eye out.
This Picture is not today's weather... add some snow flakes and some hail and even a few sun breaks, if you want to imagine the Seattle area today. We are both going nuts. They keep telling us its spring...we listened to the country-western station this morning and every advertisement spoke of spring sales and spring fairs. (I told My Honey that the next person that said the word 'spring' to me was going to get a knitting needle through an eye. He looked at me as if I finally gone over the edge. ( I was knitting a sock at the time.)
I had.
(What a barn of a state !)
We need some spring weather - every few minutes I turn around and look outside.. the only thing that hasn't happened today is a thunderstorm and a tornado but the day is still young! Any cats and dogs falling from the sky and I am moving to Arizona immediately.
(I have officially had enough of North West weather - how am I going to endure another 10 years of this climate- from -the -7- level of hell, will someone please tell me? )
We went for an early morning walk - around 8 am - it was freezing weather and we walked home from Wal-mart in the SNOW, mid April - SNOW ...
The only reason I would ever have for wanting to be wealthy is so I could move out of Washington state with my Honey, my cats and my stuff and find a NICE warm place to live.
"OK, Al Gore, make me believe in Global warming .. come here and give me a 70 degree day - and I will bow before your altar of environmentalism and pay you homage, amen !"
I am sitting here - at my computer shivering... I think I will go find one of my shawls and do some sewing. The sky is gray as lead pipe, it is cold, breezy and the cherry tree is in bloom. Oh, why did we have to find work this God-forsaken state? I hate Washington, I really do. Most livable area in the country ?? It is a moss covered, steel-sky- of- endless- rain purgatory with only 1.5 months of really decent summer weather a year. Even our Truck has moss growing one side. We will have to wash it off the first warm day we have - let's say --- in, oh, ... August? Did I mention the carpet of moss on the north side of the house that I have to kill every summer. (poor moss all its doing is growing on the sidewalk I'm a moss murderer!!!!.)
Why do old childhood ditties always go through my head when it snows?
"Its snowing, its snowing
the old man is snoring
He went to bed, hit his head
and never got up in the morning!"
Well, it was bound to accumulate a little, today - its been snowing here from very early morning and shows no sign of changing to rain... but it must be warm at ground level, compared to the clouds and isn't making much show on the ground. Its hard to imagine such an unlikely thing. I've been thinking what a hoot it would be if Al Gore & his scientist friends were wrong - what if we weren't going into a warming period but a cooling? The sun is supposed to be in an upswing of its spots but the sun is nearly as clean as a new virgin - a minimum of sunspot activity has always been a sign that an ice age was approaching - do research on the "little Ice Age" if you don't understand this aspect of climate. I am not saying we don't need to watch ourselves and become conservatives in the sense of caring for the Earth, we very much must conserve, recycle and care for our dear mother, the earth Mother Terra - she is the only real mother the human race has - unless you count our beloved Lady Mary, the mother of Jesus. Must love your mothers, friends.
I just don't think environmentalism is a good religion - or any religion - for me, caring for the land, my home, cats, husband and the little bit of land our house stands on just makes good sense -- take responsibility for yourself and what you love and the things, people and animals will last.
I have lost another two pounds - 160, our scales this morning. I am wearing a size 18 Petite down from a size 22-24 petite.
I am writing ... its doing strange things to my head. I feel like the energy in my head is going to explode. I don't know what I mean - Just "BOOM" Its like a dam breaking in my head. I have forgotten how much I love writing.. so afraid of offending someone... of saying the wrong thing... of being hurt, persecuted, hated for my words.. and, yet loving writing.. loving the words, the wonderful images flowing through my pen. I am not going to worry any longer about offending anyone - just create, write, love my life and what I can create.
The Organization of the notes is driving me nuts though, the process of organizing them is confusing and challenging me ... so many notes over the years... so much lost, too. I've never been good at organization. I am just working - trying to find ways of making it a whole fabric. It reminds me a little of beading, actually -- you take all these little things and try to compose a big, beautiful thing from all of them.
I've got to go. Always so much to do - I need to write a little more on this blog, too.
Please take care, everyone. Talk more later.
I shouldn't complain about the weather but we are in the rainy season and well, what the <blank>   Use your imagination what word I imply. Its raining, It is always raining, it rains for months. No real storms, no thunder to make you jump, no lightening to keep you anxious, no wind to make you paranoid about the electricity, -no - the time for the big storms will pass by the end of January, just rain, endless, dark, cold, wet RAIN for months, sometimes well into what everyone else calls summer. Anyone who says Seattle is a livable city or that the Northwest is a natural heaven on Earth ought to spend a fall/winter/spring sequence, here, AND, OH, a note about lightening and thunder... when I see a Thunderstorm in Seattle in a movie I always laugh . They don't happen or are so rare as to be noted in big letters in the news. If we get thunder or lightening its usually just a few rolls and flashes, sometimes Just ONE at the very beginning of a downpour... There is never the contrast/conflict of hot and cold air that cause the great storms of the Middle of the country. My knees hurt, my shoulder hurts, heck, I am getting those winter blues moods from the lack of sunlight that I work so hard to escape. Usually by ignoring the skies and the rain. Its gray, its always gray and its not even the end of Christmastide.. you want rain, come here. You want decent weather, I suggest you try the Northeast or even the South. A little snow would be a change, at least ! I like snow. Cold and clear afterwards and the stars like are cold diamonds above your head as you walk home,they make you sigh for the beauty of it all. What cold beauty there is in the skies of winter, a beauty you can remember 50 years, later! Here? I can't tell you how many astronomical events I have missed because the endless clouds cover all. Stars? Comets? meteor showers? what are those? Now for some other news. We are still working on the Linux/UBuntu operating system on both computers to make it work and act the way we want. My CD & DVD are acting weirdly and I think it has to do with all the work we did loading the OS. Its over my head so Leon has to look into it. I am going to make it my chief operating system and use Windows XP for the programs I can't transform or find replacements for in the near future. Linux is like taking a huge step back to 1999 in someways but I like it. I like the idea of a free program created by people who just love computers and computing. We have been using Open Office for some time, now and have never been disappointed in it. I suggest trying it. I also use Firefox and Thunderbird, both excellent programs, Firefox being a Browser and Thunderbird being the Email program and both absolutely FREE. This is important. I want to learn a lot more about Linux - it challenges me and makes me think. Nothing is elaborate, it makes me want to learn how to do things myself. I found a child oriented website that teaches programming. They are promising a Linux lesson set - which I think I will use to teach myself some programming. I also have a desire to learn to make my own Multiply themes - I liked the one I used for Christmas but I tend to like things a bit more subdued & I wouldn't have had the intense colors everywhere... also, I would have had more contrast, more green and even gold - I don't want to distract for the words which is the point of the Blog. As I have aged I have learned that over the top isn't always aesthetically pleasing. My plan is to make this is a year of study and organizing. I would like to clean up and use some of my own Christmas pictures on my blog so I need to learn more than the basics of Gimp, another free program we have used for several years. As you see my house isn't a very roomy place. It's always a mess to some degree as any house must be when there is little storage and two rather creative people. It makes my Christmas pictures look like the tree is resting next to a messy table, which it actually is but I would like to edit out some of the mess. Well enough complaining and planning. I Must wash dishes. And, yes, I am back on my diet, never really got off of it. I will weigh myself in a day or two and see what damage I have done - and will continue to go down the long road towards a reasonable weight.
This is another summer of flooding, fires and heat waves- which is actually pretty normal for the human race, worldwide. I, luckily have been in only 2 floods in my life. One was an overflowing lake in Virgina - we didn't live on the bottom floor but we lost some things in our storage bin and the other was a flash flood during a thunder storm while I was driving home from the grocery store, same state, a few years later. In this state, which tends to flood from time to time I have only been close to one 'flood' and I cleaned that drain, myself! I have stayed as far away from forest fires as I can, they terrorize me beyond all reason and as for heat waves, hey, I lived in Virgina, summer is one big humid heat-wave, if you ask me ! I feel for all the people world wide who are suffering from Mother Nature's nasty side - but she has always had a nasty side, lets face it : from extinction events through to the wind & ice storms (and accompanying loss of power for a week/weeks!) that come nearly every winter here in the Northwest, nature is neither nice, pretty nor much of a mother - she is as much a slayer as a giver-of-life and she has always been so. Preparation, though, can minimize the effects of her unpleasant side and even save your life. I want to, though, give some ideas about surviving - first things first - get over thinking your government - whether it is Great Brittan or FEMA here in the USA is going to save you. If natural - or unnatural - disasters endanger your life YOU need to be responsible for you and your family, your pets and your possessions - your first and best savior is yourself when it comes to surviving; this means being educated and knowledgeable, having plans, talking about options with the rest of your family, what supplies you will keep in your house at all times, even choosing the place you are going to live, wisely. Lets cover that last one first - a lot of danger can be minimized by choosing you residence carefully. We have earthquakes (I've been in 3 above 5.0 since I moved here in 1989.) heavy rains and therefore, mudslides, and lastly the possibility of a volcanic eruption if our beloved mountains ever decide to blow up : mudslides. Live on flat ground. Don't live near those beautiful vistas that everyone loves, here. Check to make sure where mudslides have happened before and don't choose that area to live. Vistas : bad - dull : good A very typical report of a local mudslide after a long rainy period. Earthquakes are the same - check to see where the ground is known to particularly unstable - the valleys locally are beautiful & verdant - but they tend to be subject to sever shaking during even moderate earthquakes - their soils are less compacted than where I live. Mudslides can also occur during earthquakes but then, things are falling, down, aren't they? Liquefaction, another danger, happens where man has built up or filled in soils as they have in Seattle and much of Seattle is in danger of sinking like the Titanic if it ever has a truly great earthquake. The valleys are as bad as living too close to the edges of those cliffs & hills nearby. During a volcanic eruption all that ice on Mt. Rainier will melt and flow down those great valleys (one reason they are fertile is their rivers flowing from the mountains bring down so much soil and historically have flood from time to time.) such mud flows (for that is what they become!) are called Lahars. One of the websites discussing the lahar danger here. We chose our home for dullness of vista and altitude above the valleys. It is very stable land, compacted, on the rise of a natural hill with no cliffs nearby with little to impress anyone and time has proved our choice wise - in the recent 6.8 Nisqually earthquake very little fell to the floor - one vase and a book or two. (most of our bookcases are tied to the walls.) We are also 300 ft above the Sound, more or less - I can't see it from where I live but I only need to walk to the corner to see it in the distance - this is important because there is a chance of tidal wave (Tsunami) during a major earthquake whose epicenter is under the Sound. We do not live near a river flood plain, either, because all the local rivers are prone to flood during the rainy season - which, in the N.W. is nearly the entire year! A page discribing the most recent quake locally. Look for this kind of informational site for your local area. Also : sometimes, things change or the science of the disasters that your area is prone to, changes and new understanding is born of recent discoveries - this has happened in the N.W. in two very important ways - the possibility of far larger quakes out in the ocean because of the plate tectonics of the area (with the increased possibility of great tsunamis hitting the beaches on the Olympic peninsula ) and the local sound tsunami danger I just mentioned. A recent earthquake has identified a buried, invisible fault very close to where I live. Stay aware, stay educated. FEMA is ok but they aren't God or our daddy but they can give you a good deal of information. Your ears should always perk up when someone talks about your local risks and natural disaster history - do research on your locality, wherever it is, and learn what you can about what has happened in the past, and also, what people did - those who survived and those who did not. The past is often the key to the future, learn from it. Look for this kind of local site for your state's, country's disaster history. Another thing you should look into is an understanding of local climate, lets face it - we have never had a wind storm in July - though, anything is possible - but we have had 4 in the last 26 years in the November-January window. When you know there is a chance of bad weather check your weather every day. (more about that kind of preparation later.) Education & research does not mean you won't die in a major disaster or at least get water-logged but it means you can do your best to survive even if sometimes you are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes we can not help but live where we do - the trick then is at the smallest scale, choose wisely.
The legends are completely true: it rains here most of the time when it doesn't it is usually rather cool (55 is the normal temperature for Federal Way in winter, spring and fall.) even into June and July we often have cool days. We do have some 70 degree days in May - and this is one of them. Every so often it actually gets up into the 80's and 90's but I wouldn't hold my breathe !
I am going to work out the Patio and clean it out and weed out the rest of the yard's edges - so it is yard work today. I miss HOT weather of the south but I admit this day is absolutely perfect.
I am crocheting myself a new purse and I think I may take pictures and post a pattern of sorts. It will require my level of knowledge of follow it because I am so inexperienced writing patterns.
Well, have a great day everyone. If I have time later I will write a real blog.
Kathy Mary
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