Shiny day

Had a very interesting multiple-hour conversation with a fellow human being last evening. The details might be interesting or educational or even helpful, but this isn't the place for that. I mention it because I learned something new and (to me) exciting. It was a simple thing, no more than a different way to look at a common life experience. Simple, yes, but also very powerful. The Big Aircrew Chief throws amazing stuff at me when I least expect it and through the most remarkable vehicles. Life is a very cool experience.

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Yesterday was snowy and blowy and cold. In some ways it was miserable. The cold wind just cuts right through you during such times, regardless of how you are dressed. That's no fun. At the same time nature put on the most beautiful and awe-inspiring show.

Last evening the clouds cleared out, the wind went down, and the full Wolf Moon charged up over the east-northeast horizon. I don't know if you've noticed it before, but as the daily arc of the sun moves south, the arc of the moon moves north. The reverse is also true. So in the depths of winter the moon rises where sun will rise in high summer, and at the peak of summer the moon rises where the sun appears during the winter. It's just a cool coincidence having to do with orbital geometries and mechanics and our planet's lovely 23 degree (IIRC) axial tilt.

The other thing that came with evening was bone-chilling cold. The mercury plummeted to below zero by about 8 p.m., hit minus 2 for an hour-and-a-half, then began creeping back up.

By midnight it was plus 3 degrees and by sunrise plus 12. At noon it was 33 and at 2 p.m. it was 44, 5 degrees higher than forecast. Nature. What a cool thing.

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Today has been quite enjoyable. Red and I visited the oil well which was being repaired a couple of weeks ago. It was only off line for 48 hours and has been pumping away ever since. It's there chugging away all the time and I scarcely pay it any attention, save to make sure it's pumping so the greenbacks keep flowing. But it's always just a thing. Mundane.





Everywhere I looked the mundane was interesting and even beautiful today.

The white stuff is just water, but water is different in the winter.

A very tired fence.

Summer weed = winter bird food.

Sunflowers back-lit by the sun.

The winter green of yucca.

Red and I explored a tiny bit of one of the canyons on the South Googie. She was skeptical at first.



I think she had a good time though.



Neither words nor the moving pictures do it justice.



Plenty of winter left to enjoy.

Be well and enjoy the blessings of liberty.