Snow day

Dieter playing in the snow. Been a cold snowy day here. I’m really feeling achy and breaky. Two pairs of everything on except for sock which I have three pairs on. I’ve been out on the porch a couple time with the kitties. I see a couple little buddies and some little hands on the porch. It’s after ten and the snow is slowly melting. I don’t know what the over night temperature is going to be but sure not going to be warm. It started snowing around noon and just kept snowing into the evening. I watched Dieter running around in the snow. Every time I looked out she was in a different place. Stayed up too late last night watching movies waiting for the snow. Saw a little drizzle when I got up this morning to feed the kitties. Dieter and her friend the raccoon are out there together. They seem to get along pretty good. I found out that Dieter is scared of the stereo yesterday. Took me a couple days to get her out from under the computer desk. Once I turned the radio off she came out and ran out the front door. Well, it was nice and warm here yesterday.

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Warm days and cold nights

It's been another odd winter like the past few winters where the suns out bright and shining. No rain mid January or February but the rains coming along with snow. It's been doing this same weather pattern the last three years. The Jet-stream is dipping down to southern United States bringing the cold and moisture to the east coast. The east coast is having record cold weather. They had a massive snow storm which locked up many states. Here we have been having high 60's to low 70's. It gets cool soon as the suns gone or your in the shade. Doesn't feel like winter except for the short days and long nights. I can tell that the days are getting longer. It's light after 5:30PM. I haven't noticed it getting lighter in the morning yet. I like those summer days when it's like till 9 PM. Well it's going to be a few month before it's light out late and we have warmer days. Seems you want summer except for those triple digit days. When it's in the 80 during the day and 60's at night those are very pleasant days. In the winter you hoping for summer days and in the summer you hoping for cooler weather.

Ground Clouds

Another rainy day and the clouds are on the ground. Just staying inside where it’s warm and dry. My kitties are on the back porch snuggling together staying warm except Dieter who is roaming around. She my watch kitty and gets jealous if any other animal comes around that I might pet. I don’t know how I’m going to break her of this because she might get hurt picking on creatures bigger then her. Car is working again. Fixed the problem. It’s an indoor movie day.

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Funny I didn’t feel like I was in a Rut

My deer friend with his nose up smelling the air for female hormones. At times they will be so much into the rut they will go without eating if a females hormones are in the air. The musk gland is near their eye and will open and close as they breath. It’s more noticeable on the mule deer then the black tail deer like this one. The deer aren’t alarmed seeing me so then get rather close. This is a view from my porch or from the front door window. The views are always amazing.

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Looking out the front door window

I’m always amazed at the wildlife here. They always amaze me because of how they get along with everyone. I see a fox eating from the plate of corn. Two raccoons are eating cat food and looking around only a couple feet from the fox. Dieter Kitty came walking up and is laying down on her spot of the porch where the kitties lay in a kitty pile sleeping together. When the kitties are up playing they don’t seem like they would sleep together but they do. The raccoons sometimes will arch their back and make the hair stand up until they figure out the kitties are their friends. The skunks when they are around are sort of solo creatures. They seem to get along with the other wildlife. They might stomp their feet at first but when the other kitty or raccoon of fox doesn’t back up they go about eating. I’m just amazed how I brought all the creatures together here. I heard that foxes and raccoons were enemies but I don’t see that. They all seem to get along. They get a bite to eat and watch each other. Everyone knows everyone. Because they are long lived creatures they all have grown up together from babies. The foxes come to me when I call their names. So do the kitties. The raccoons are a bit shy but will come up to me and I can sit on the porch with everyone walking around me. It’s just amazing a word I use a lot because it is simply amazing seeing them all together. Kitty eating from the same pile as the skunks and raccoons. The foxes dart in and out getting a bite then darting off. It’s such a hyper creature. The raccoons are hyper too but it takes a bit of watching them to see that. They look around and use their hands to feel for food. I was sitting out on the porch with everyone and extended my hand with one finger. The raccoon came up to me and touched my finger on all sides. I think they noticed that my finger is warm like they are. Those little hands move so fast around checking out everything. Watching the raccoons move they look slow but there is a lot going on. They always got those round ears going listening to everything going on in the forest. Each little noise needs to be explained. The female deer will admire the babies. They will come up to all babies and just stair at them. Babies have that rounded head and other animals recognize that. They cut the babies some slack. With baby deer and the pecking order of the herd the baby might get pushed out by another deer but mom will be there to protect the baby. Momma skunk will protect her babies and so will momma raccoon. Momma raccoon will give you a growl to let you know your too close to the babies even if she knows you real well. Those are her babies and for several months she’s going to be teaching them how to become a raccoon. I noticed that they do something you may learn in survival training. They will find a muddy place and dig a hole. Water will seep back into the hole and they will wet their paws or get a drink. I find small rounded holes all over the yard where they were getting water. It’s like a teaching class too. Mom will be explaining by example and the babies will gather around watching every move. It’s real cute to watch them play together also. They like climbing over each other and rolling down a hill together. Seeing them standing up is so cute. I never knew skunks stand up too to get a better view. For me watching them is like watching TV, I can do that for hours.  

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Too cold to do anything

Too cold to be doing anything outside. Todays high was 39 degrees and low this morning was 25 degrees. The yard was frozen and white from ice crystals. I almost got the Dieter in the house tonight but as I started closing the door she ran out. Well that’s closer. I’m petting them something they said I’d never be able to do. Deer are sneaking up to get the cat food. The raccoons played with the frozen water bowl and rolled it across the yard and up the hill. Saw a couple male deer pushing each other in the creek. They were splashing in the water and the antlers were clacking. They don’t hurt each other and seem to stop right before they do. When one deer quits both quit. Nice to see they have an honor code of fighting. This cold spell has hit the whole state all the way down to the ocean. Still getting a light dusting of snow higher up.

I have some new babies under the house. I believe they are a family of raccoons. I heard them crying while mom was out eating. I had a family of 5 babies last year under the house. They still come around as a group. I’ve watched them grow up and learn to be raccoons. This should be an interesting year. Now I see why the skunks were chased off from under the house because of the babies.

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Fiscal Cliff or Fiscal Theater, Don’t tax the rich job creators!

Taxes aren’t being raised but returning to where they were before the tax reduction from Bush and Obama. There was a deal to reduce the deficit over ten years which isn’t much when you get down to it. 150 billion a year for ten years. That will pay for both wars the republicans forgot to pay for but put it on plastic and charged it. Then there was the world economic rescue. This saved the world’s banks from totally failing.  So what is the media talking about? Is it just a metaphor? Is the media taking this too far? Is this like the ” Y2K ” hype? Remember that where they said planes were going to fall from the sky. Banks would be broken and not be working and you couldn’t use your ATM cards. Why aren’t they talking about jobs? Too many right to work states and not enough unions. Where is the problem, is it the lobbyist passing out tons of money to congress and senate and spreading cheer and myths about government? They are saying, Raise the age for Medicare. This would save around 100 billion at the end of ten years but the people getting sick and coming onto Medicare would be in worse shape costing Medicare more over all. When people retire they are pretty much used up. I was forced into retirement because of my medial shape, I was used up far before my time. Without Medicare and Social Security I’d be living under a bridge some where.

Let the “Fiscal Cliff” be permanent. It’s going to cut funds to the military industrial complex. Taxes will be back to where they were back in Clinton’s days when the economy was doing fine and making jobs and there was a balanced budget.  As Clinton was signing one of his budgets he said, “this will make sure the budget is balanced for the next 25 years.” Then Bush came around and cut taxes for the rich which was back loaded so the longer it went on the more they would get mainly because of the tax breaks such as capital gains and other deductions that the poor and middle class can’t take advantage of.

Why is Obama trying to deal now when the republicans only want tax breaks for the rich. It’s not just lower income tax but a whole line of breaks they get. Why hasn’t anyone said, Lets tax those people on Wall Street when they buy things. A sales tax on stocks and bonds and other financial instruments. When you buy anything you have to pay sales tax except for those rich people who caused the problems we had in 2008 and afterwards till now. I heard is they were taxed 1% it would add up to hundreds of billions a year.

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DTV what a piece of crap!

Unless your in close proximity to a transmitter antenna your never going to get a good signal. The signal seems to break up during a show and come back during a commercial. I’ve missed the endings of so many show. The signal will be fine until the last ten minutes of the show. So you always miss the ending. I’ve been watching a show tonight and missed twenty minutes after the beginning of the show just enough time to want to see what is going on. I’ve got to see ten minutes out of an hour and can’t figure to much out of a fast paced show with a lot of changes and turns. I try to be real Zen over my TV watching but when fog or the weather causes the signal to break up something that analog TV never did. At least with analog the signal might break up but you could still see and hear it. I’ve noticed that it takes 4 times as much power to go 1/4 the distance. I don’t know what to do to get a better signal other then what I’ve done so far.

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Now that's a storm

Had a series of storms come through this week. The one today was real intense. High winds, trees bending like little sticks, rain going sideways. My poor kitties hide on the back porch and under things. Sprockets was on the back porch and kept looking out over the yard by looking under the railing. Was the first time Dieter came up to me and let me pet her. She then rub against me walking around me, that was the first time she let me pet her. The kitties really like being assured things were okay but they were still scared with all the noise. I saw a blue sky late this afternoon going into the evening. I was out feeding the kitties a little bit ago and it was so silent outside. No wind. No rain. No noise. The air was cold and feeling heavy. Tomorrow will be a clean up day.

Why TAXES should be higher on rich?

He’s the reason why taxes should be back to the 1950’s rate so that the country has the money to work.

 

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein came to Capitol Hill this week to call for cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. As Congress and the White House are negotiating a year-end deficit deal, Blankfein blustered about the need to “lower people’s expectations” about their retirement and health care. He was loose with his facts. He spoke with all the sympathy for someone struggling to get by on a $14,000-a-year retirement that you’d expect from a Wall Street banker paid $16 million last year. To Bernie, Blankfein’s attack on working families is obscene. “Think about the arrogance of these guys on Wall Street who were bailed out by the middle class of this country when their greed and recklessness nearly destroyed the financial system, and now they come to Capitol Hill to lecture Congress and the American people about the need to cut programs for working families,” Bernie said. “This is what class warfare is all about.”

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Tropical Storm, wet week

It’s the first big storm of the year. So fat the winds aren’t so bad but the constant rain is getting old. It’s been raining with one break mid-day to evening. Was listening to a San Francisco radio station and they said there could be 12 inches of rain in the coastal mountains. A local station said there could be 12 to 18 inches of water in the foothills. So far the steady rain hasn’t been that bad. The Weather Undergrounds maps showed the break today. Now it’s looking rather grim. It looks like rain all night. Sure wish I had indoor kitties. I feel bad they are outdoor cats. I have dry places for them on the deck under large tarps that cover the side of the house. Weatherman on TV said get ready for storm two. Just wonder what’s after that. Well on the bright side I get to do indoor projects. Read my VB book and learn VB or Java.

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Warp Engine and going really, really fast

Found this article on "warp engines" and space travel near the speed of light.
http://io9.com/5963263/how-nasa-will-build-its-very-first-warp-drive

 
It really sounds good but the amount of energy needed puts it out of reach at this time and who know maybe we will come up with some sort of anti-matter cores that produce all sorts of energy like in Star Trek. The warp engine isn't called a warp engine but The Alcubierre Drive. Michio Kaku dubbed Alcubierre's notion a "passport to the universe." Just need to solve that power problem. Have to have a infinite power supply which doesn't sound like something humans are going to be doing anytime soon when we are still burning coal, something out of the 19th century. Well they were burning coal to heat homes and buildings because they cut the trees down and burned them so getting out of the burning era and into something new is a bit far off.

What Fiscal Cliff

When one person you’re the phrase Fiscal Cliff it traveled the media like wildfire. Some reporters can’t use it enough like in every sentence at least once. The worry is that the middle class will stop spending after January first and won’t buy a lot of junk for Christmas because they are worried about “The Fiscal Cliff” an over rated catch phrase. Catch phrases come and go. Remember 9/11 and “Connect the Dots?” What about the first gulf war and “Hunker Down?” Everyone was “Hunkering in place” waiting for the next catch phrase to repeat. The latest word or phrase is “Superstorm Sandy.” If you use a spell checker “Superstorm” isn’t in there. I thought the words would have been hyphenated as “Super-Storm” but everyone followed the leader and made it one word, a new word. It is good the climate  change is in the media but the way it’s being used is like filler to a program. The people doing the reporting couldn’t care less what they are reporting about they are just reading copy. Copy, a page or pages of text written by a writer for a person to read on camera or in front of a microphone which is transmitted to the masses.

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Stitchen the front yard

100 pictures stitched together to make this. I had to make it about 1/4 the size because it was 170 megs. Check it out... click on the photo to zoom in.

Stitching Photos

 

These are amazing the added depth because the pictures are made up with six or more photos. This free ICE program from Microsoft is pretty good. I'll have to take some photos with the idea of stitching them together. These were just a bunch of photos I was taking of one area. The JPG files are a lot larger then the originals. Just amazing the depth the photos have.

Quit playing with the Boehner

Boehner wants tax cuts for the 1%. As it is the 1% has grown at a rate of 265% above the middle class. The .01% have gone into the sky and rates over 1024% and Boehner want to pay back the rich people for putting him in office. Too bad he's such a peckerhead. Look at that, an orange Boehner.

Quaken' on the Left Coast

The Looser

Looser,     Looser,     Looser

A deer in the head lights

A deer in the head lights

Lounging

Little buddy lounging on the deck. After playing with the sock and friends she down for a lounge. Just a cute little girl.

What was that?

So what about hurricane Sandy. What was it? A super storm? Three storms? Hundred year storm? Thousand year storm? There hasn't been a storm like this in forever. Not while humans were around to document it anyways. There are a lot of flaws in the system that's for sure. No way of plugging up all those hole going under ground. Of course there are the houses built in the wrong place, on a sand bar right on the coast. The talking heads call it extreme weather but that's what they called the hundred plus degree heat this summer. Then the last hurricane was suppose to be a fluke, a once in a hundred year storms. We're getting those event every year now. They don't say anything about global warming or climate change. The talking heads say you can't say this storm was because of global warming or climate change. This year was the hottest year since they started taking records. Last year was the hottest since they started keeping records. It's been getting worse every year for the last thirty years. For me here it seemed like there was only a few days that it wasn't over a hundred this summer. It was months at a time over a hundred. Last year it was weeks at a time over a hundred. Seems like I'm hearing, "That really was a fluke in the weather" more and more. The talking heads on TV call it extreme weather. Was extreme rain storm that was a thousand miles wide. That's got to be a fluke. "Had we listened to climate scientist....." They said it was going to be like this and it is too.

What can be done? Don't build there. You can't build houses on the shore and expect insurance to pay for a new house every other year. Maybe if insurance companies stop insuring houses and things on shores where you know storm surge is going to hit the beaches. Would be nice if the shore line would be shared with more people then cluttered up with boxes on the beach.

How many extreme weather event does it take to get your attention? Just in the USA, 14 extreme disasters last year and 7 this year so far. Knowing that green house gases cause the problems it would be a good idea to get rid of them as soon as possible. There are going to be areas that will be lost to the future and sea level rise. They will be a marker of a time gone by. It's going to cost too much to repair or replace things when the extreme weather events happen every year in the same spots. More people are finally getting the boot to the head to wake up and pay attention to whats going on in the world. Some people though have their head barred in the sand saying it's not really happening but that will change.