Would Someone Check The Sky, Please?

[digitS']

I know it is up there. A blanket of air surrounds all of us.

What is the air quality? Does this website know where I live?

If you click "Highest 5: Current AQI" (link) are all the sites in Nevada, Oregon, Washington & Idaho??

Steve
who may need Bob's cotton weather rope but imagines it to be stained a dirty brown this morning
edit to add "color."

 

[digitS']

You know, while I was at that "airnow" EPA site, I drifted around to their "Lawn & Garden Tips" on their "What You Can Do" page!

They have a "Sustainable Landscaping" pdf file that was interesting to go thru (link). It was put together with stats from the early '90's after the Clean Air Act was renewed. Shows the pressures we put on the environment trying to have LAWNS!

I always seem to be fairly close to surface water here in this arid corner of the US but it is the Kentucky Bluegrass I'm thinking about and the whole thing got me thinking about pavers - yeah, flagstones, bricks, concrete (& what about wood?). I wasn't quite sure how pavers would be "environmentally friendly" when they were pointing out how shallow-rooted grass isn't really. Isn't environmentally friendly.

Pavers and the EPA took me to Rainscapers.Org on the Chesapeake Bay, where I guess one needs to think a little about getting some rain, once in awhile . Pavers are also something I think about in my yard. What if there wasn't so much (beaten-down :/) grass around here? How would I deal with the ground surface?

(The sun is up brightly and there is a little air movement! Thank Heavens!!)

Steve

 

[digitS']

 

[bobm]

Today in Washington, the cotton rope is dead still, but slightly wet due to the white stuff ( frost) is starting to melt. There is this fairly large yellow orb on the East side , and the sky is blue and NOT falling .Chicken Little can safely go peck around for bugs today. :coolsun

 

[897tgigvib]

I just went out and checked the sky.

It is actually a very very deep dark shade of blue, not quite black, and there seem to be a bunch of random small pinpoints of brightness. I can make out that some of them are ...ish's of various shades, but mostly what seems to be white. Some are bigger and brighter than others.

Oh, and there are some notable clusterings of them too, and I kind of made out a hazy band of bazillions of smaller ones, and ya know, that's a cloud of dark stardust in there. Yep.

It's kind of hard to see the whole sky from here because there are so many trees.

Nary a single raincloud, but I saw some things blinking and going south. Sometimes that happens right before a low rumble sound.

REMEMBER, WHEN YOU PREDICT SOMETHINGS, TIMING IS VERY IMPORTANT.

Well I used that timing thing and even predicted the rumble! Pretty good?

 

[digitS']

Indoor and outdoor burning bans went into effect this afternoon.

At one point this morning, I smelled something strange while sitting here at the south window. Stink! Checked the kitchen to see if a burner was on, no. A few minutes later I had reason to go outside. The bad smell was out there and getting into the house.

I've been outdoors, briefly, many times today. My eyes are very tired - I'd better find some of those "lubricating" eye drops tomorrow. As it is, I think I'll wash my face with baby shampoo, shower and go to bed. Might make it in there before 8:30. I can no longer be comfortable with my eyes open.

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

I use prescription liqui tears and bacitracin at this time, and baby shampoo on wash cloths with very warm water twice a day now, so hopefully no more Prednisolone for awhile. Last eye exam was 20 20 right eye, 20 25 left eye. Huge improvement from a couple years ago when it got down to 20 200, (2 Zeroes!) using both eyes. (That was, I could tell she had a hand up, but not how many fingers from 5 feet). And also methinozole and vitamin d3 daily, and vitamin d2 mega weekly. And, Protein powder 2 a day with added branched chain aminos. That stuff is to try to reduce my thyroid output and to make up for what thyroid output burns up. Getting complicated, but I tend to heal up. Next eye appointment in 3 months, next thyroid appointment is mid december.

Take good care of your eyes Digit.

 

[digitS']

I will try, Marshall. These mornings, it is just staying indoors as much as possible. (As if, the air in here is so wonderfully sanitary .)

Here is what I missed by not being able to look up . . . or, I should say, not being able to see our horizon before sunrise in recent days:

Comet ISON (link, EarthSky)

The possibility is that we will see this comet in December. It looks like it is on a trajectory for destruction. The Sun is likely to tear it apart and what the result is, can be anyone's guess.

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

Well, I just went down to the lake (bed) on the launch ramp, (visible on the satellite view between the most southerly two of our docks, a and b), and looked for Isom. In the gathering light of imminent sunrise I could see no Comet, but I believe I saw Saturn and mayhaps Mercury.

Mercury. That planet nearest the sun. It can get quite bright, but is at best, always in the gathering or waning brightness of sunrise or sunset. Some of the greatest astronomers of the olden days are not known to have tracked nor mentioned the planet Mercury.

I have never for certain seen it, but this morning I am reasonably certain I did. Just above the hills to the left (north) of where the sun will rise.

I was among those young hippies who made the pilgrimage to the nearest high mountain to try to see Comet Kohoutek back in, what was it, 1974(?), but it turned out to be a fizzle, not visible. Loaded up the vw van with the pop top with some friends and took the night drive to Mt. St. Helena, and the night hike to the top, where we made a small fire. But it was real cool. From up there as the sun rose our young eyes could see Mt. Shasta to the north. Could also see something bright and fluttering far down in the great valley above and likely north of Sacratomato. None of us could tell what the hey that was. A newspaper taken aloft? Never did figure that one out.

I think I finally saw Mercury this morning! If it was, tomorrow at 6:15 am it will be slightly lower, and possibly brighter, so, REMIND ME to go look for Mercury at 6 am tomorrow morning. Then I'll know for sure I saw it.

In, what was it, 1997(?), two evenings in a row I saw Comet Hale/Bopp, (not to be confused with Halley's Comet), while living in Montana. Comets are super cool sights to behold.

Back in 1976 I used to date the very glamorous and beautiful Carla Collins, and drive around San Francisco. One romantic night as we laid back on some beach at the Presidio, she and I observed with our young and bright naked eyes, several geosynchronous orbiting satellites, yes indeed, and we observed Jupiter, and sure enough we were able to make out four of Jupiter's moons. Right there at probably 2 feet above sea level at San Francisco. Yes, there can indeed be clear skies in San Francisco on warm romantic nights between China Beach and the Golden Gate Bridge, listening to Boz Skags.

I reminisce! Yes, Carla (with a different last name nowadays) and I keep in touch. Still glamorous and beautiful as a Grandma, she still gets recordings of music prior to official release. Amazing.

The sky now brightens to the dawn as my Abyssinian warms my lap seemingly trying to make my British Shorthair jealous, but to no avail. He's sitting admiring his food. No, wait...oooph. Now he's on my knees, my feet on the desk, Clev not budging, Peeps on my knees. That's 30 pounds of cats on my lap and legs. Who sez I don't get enough exercise?

No need to make a fire this morning. I have 2 living heat pads!

 

[digitS']

There's a Mt. St. Helena?? Wow, I bet some people in your neighborhood panicked when the volcano in the Washington Cascades began to bulge in '82!

I am one who didn't get much from looking at Hale-Bopp. It looked for all the world like a highlighted Wooly Aphid somehow hovering just beyond arm's reach . . . I felt only a little better about the 1st lunar eclipse that I slept out on a hard ground to see: It wasn't that nice of a color after the Earth's shadow covered it. We really should do something to improve our atmosphere.

Really, the most dramatic meteor experience I had came while I was suffering a hangover one morning and while I was bobbing about in the middle of Lake Pend Oreille. Good Heavens!!! Talk about paying a price for indiscretions!

Steve
edited to show picture of me under that blinding meteor!