Weather and Bees

Killer Bees are no bees.

A friend said recently that she noticed the weather has sure been crazy lately.   She went on to say that Springs and falls are the ones doing  the craziest things in the past few years.

I have given  her statements deep thought, a whole lot of thought, at least ten minutes worth (I have a short attention span).  And I came up with  a theory of the reason we have had the crazier than usual springs and falls weather lately:

It is a fact there are less bees.  Scientists are still trying to figure out why.  Bees are essential to spread a lot of pollen, as much as we need to survive.  Sure, other insects and the weather spread pollen but not  as large quantity that bees do.  The experts say that we need the bees for our survival - their diminishing population could diminish or population - there just  will not be enough vegetables produced .

Maybe Mother Nature sensed this in her natural sense of keeping everything in harmony and stepped in to rearrange the progress.      Maybe arrange she arramgeed  the winds to cause havoc spreading seeds and pollen all over the place.  

But really, Mother Nature, covering my car with pollen - really? 

Jump On In!

It will cool you off!

The History of Groundhog Day

Do you know the history of Groundhog Day, like how it got started and how it developed itself into today’s version?

I did some extensive research on the subject – which means that I read today's page of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader page-a-day Calendar: In old Europe on February the 2nd they celebrated Candlemas, which is the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. The church clergymen lighted candles and la-de-da. Then the Germans altered the tradition to include a hedgehog. If the hedgehog sees its shadow there would be six more weeks of winter. Then many Europeans started migrating to the new world. A lot Germans settled in Pennsylvania. They wanted to continue Hedgehog Day but there were no hedgehogs. They substituted groundhogs. So, there you have it, the development of Groundhog Day.

Now, I don’t know if you are aware of it or not but some of the details have changed again. Now, on February the 2nd, the honorary groundhog must see, not his own shadow, but the above character.

More Snow in Downtown Marietta

I promised you there would be more snow on this blog didn't I? Have I ever told you a lie or let you down? Wait! Don't answer that! One more installment.

What Snow?

It hasn't been too many weeks ago that Marietta got hit with a winter blast. I overheard one lady complain, "That is why we moved from Ohio, to get away from this!"

These downtown Marietta pictures have been forwarded around, and richocheting around us locals for over a month now. I emailed to the first address on forwarding strand to ask permission to put them on my blog. I did not get a response. I am assuming a no translated to, "I don't care." Which of course means, "Go ahead!"

They are beautiful pictures and these are only about a third of them. I hope to put the other 2/3s, one third at a time, out, unless the person who is responsible for the pictures comes forward and tells me "No!"

And thanks to Skip Hudson for guiding me how to change the pictures to JPG format.

Another Winter Blast Predicted for Tonight

The above picture is by my friend Joe Jenkins. After the last snow Joe went downtown Marietta to the top of Cobb County Government parking deck and photographed this picture. I like the picture because of its panoramic view (when you click on it); the snow on Kennesaw Mountain; and the steeples. Also, the picture gives the impression that we are almost at the foot of the mountain and actually we are over a mile away, maybe two.

Yep, the weather prediction is another winter blast tonight. It is predicted to be not as bad as our last blast, only an inch or so of snow.

I bet Groundhog General Beauregard at this very moment is pacing back and forth in his burrow wondering should he make an amendment to his earlier prediction or deny making it at all, politicans do that all the time.

Willow the Wild One

Arf!

Desert Snow

Because us corn-fed Georgians get so bent out of shape when we get a little snow, G sent these pictures of her front and back yard in the desert in Nevada to let us know we are not the only ones to get a good dose of rare snow.

By the way, I hummed the title of this post in the same tune that "Wild Flower" was sung.

View from Our Windows & Carport

There is no way I'm getting out today!

DAUGHTER OF THE CALL OF THE WILD

Remember Jack London's CALL OF THE WILD? The story of a wolf in the wilderness fighting for survival in snow covered Alaska?

Well, this video version of a more pampered canine that has a sweater on and does not want to pee because she might squat too low and get her bottom cold. We mustn't have that! No no!

Speaking of snow, yesterday was a day for records. Glen Burns, the weatherman on WSB-TV, said yesterday was the first day ever, in recorded history, that there were snow in all 50 of our United States, and that includes Hawaii.

But later, on the same station it was said, the amount of snow was not measurable.

As you can see by this video I am still in my learner's curve. Or as I so cleverly told somebody, I am in my learner's U-Turn. Am I clever or what?

Sick & Dreaming

Have you ever noticed that when you are sick your dreams become more creative? I have noticed this several times. I think it has something to do with one’s stomach doing flip-flops and somehow the brain is getting some confused messages from that area and, well then… I don’t know.

I am currently sick, but better than I was yesterday, thank you. My dream this morning:

My old employer, the Atlanta Post Office called me and ordered me to come back to work in the Time Keeper/Data Collection Site. The person that called said all the people there called in* and everybody that had worked there, except me, died.

I drove throw the snow, ice, and wreck cars, just like before, to the old Federal Annex Building on Forsyth and Spring Streets.

The exterior of the building was the same but the inside was completely remodeled to suit the needs of the present operations. The old wooden floors have been removed and in place were metal grid floors that you could see below or above you 3 to 4 levels.

On each metallic level were huge letter sorting machines, mostly scanning machines that instantly read addresses and sort them appropriately. There was very little need of human input. When I worked there before I think there were about 2000 people around the clock that worked in the building. In my dream, there were less than a hundred.

I had a learning curve to absorb… time keeping methods has changed so much since I was there, they could have just pulled a homeless person off the street and have as much as current experience as I had.

One interesting thing is that no one was still around that was there when I worked there. They had long retired. But one young man looked a lot like a guy I worked with named Charles W. was pushing a tram of mail and I asked him was he related to Charles W. and he said no, but an old man used to live down the street from him named Charles W. that some people claimed they looked alike. He said Charles died about ten years ago.

I remembered at the Post Office Charles was a ladies’ man; a womanizer. I smiled to myself, it seemed that Charles kept his goodwill going in the neighborhood too.


*I think this my brain was referencing a time that I and two other time keepers came in during an ice storm in the late ‘70s and for three days three of us around the clock had to a job of 35 + people. We did it and our division manager got a quality step increase, which increased his retirement about a $100 a month. By the way, he did not come in during that bad weather time.

Snow Today!!! Whoopeee!!!.

It seems everybody in Metro Atlanta is looking forward or preparing (buying milk) for the big snow I thought I would help by showing them pictures of snow... these pictures of snow will probably be the only snow you gonna get.

They are from some old negatives I recently scanned. See the yellow streaks... no, we didn't try to write our name in the snow, that just chemicals on the negatives doing stuff.



Adam was born in 1979. I would guess these were made about 1983-84 give or take.

Anna made sure Rocky and Adam were dressed in layers of clothing to keep warm. Two sides of our carport has a small wall bordering it. On one side, on the other side of the wall is about a five or six foot drop. That day somehow, Adam, being so stiff with layers of clothing somehow flipped over the wall on the deep side. We ran horrified to him imagining calling 911 or something, and there he was looking at us peacefully. The Snow and the layers of clothing absorbed the fall.


This mailbox is a painful memory. It is no longer there. I took this picture with the thought in mind of maybe using it for a Christmas card sometime in the future.

The mailbox and its replacement has been knocked down four or five times by our "high" neighbor. Most of the times he admitted he knocked it down and put it back up. But once he denied it, said someone must have drove by and hit but his son, about 5 at the time, thought he was trying to be helpful, said in so many words, "No, don't you remember Dad - that was me... I was playing in the truck and it rolled backwards."

Finally the last time they knocked it down we decided to let it stay down and we got a Post Office Box... just too much of a hassle.

Enjoy your snow day.

First Day of Autumn

The above picture is a picture I taken of our house a year or so ago.

Today is the first day of Autumn. For the past several day I have felt a coolness in the air that I only feel in the mountains and in well Autumn. Some say it is that high school football weather feeling.

This nice breezy cool weather also reminds me of when a golf driving range opened on the 4-Lane (aka The 41 or Cobb Parkway, South), almost across from Dobbins Air Force Base.

It has been long gone but for several years it was the place to be with even a steak house on the premises. I think it opened in 1960 or maybe 1961,

A bunch of us went the first day they opened. I remember there were cement stairs going up to an overlook. At the bottom of the stairs was a gate that they had not opened yet and a big pile of people were waiting, us included.

I was standing behind a shapely young lady and her husband or boyfriend. He looked like he was probably an officer at Dobbins AFB across the street – you could spot Air Force pilots a mile away.

A few friends were beside and me and behind me. One friend, Jesse L. was behind me. We were all just taking making small talk when I saw Jesse’s arm and hand slowly ease beside me and to the young lady’s ass and grabbed it. I knew it was his hand because I recognized the jacket sleeve. The lady turned around and glared at me. I turned around and shot Jesse a mean look. This was not the first time he has did that in a crowded situation. He looked dumbstruck, like he didn’t know what I was getting at.

Again, a minute or two later the arm came easing around me and towards the lady’s ass with the hand shaped like a huge pincher. I hit his hand and looked at him. He had that mischievous grin and while I was looking at his expression the hand again shot past me and pinched her ass.

She stepped forward some and whispered in her man’s ear. He glanced back and then they forced their way through the crowd to be out of reach. They didn’t want any trouble. That made at least three of us.

Jesse’s slight of hand must still be paying off. The last I heard he was a blackjack dealer in Mississippi.

Brownie Did a Heck of a Job

Three years ago today Hurricane Katrina hit the our Gulf coast.

And later Michael D."Brownie" Brown, head of FEMA, was credited with “doing a heck of a job!” cleaning it up.

Baby – its cold outside!

I used to say "Baby - its cold outside!" to either son when they were preschool age and then rub the son’s neck with my cold hands – and he would always burst into laughter. That would get them every time.

It has been cold for several days now. With few exceptions, we have been cabin bound.

We have been doing cold cabin-bounds things, like making chili and watching dvd movies:

LICENSE TO WED staring Robin Williams, Mandy Moore, and John Krasinski. It was a cut comedy – nothing I will remember the rest of my life or anything. Interesting, John Krasinki was the fiancé – he is the tall casual fellow in the TV sitcom OFFICE – and three or four other OFFICE stars did cameos.

PERFECT STRANGER staring Halle Berry and Bruce Willis. It was a good intriguing who-did-it kind of movie…. With a twisting ending – all mysteries have a twist, I think a non-twisting ending would be just as surprising.

COLOR ME KUBRICK staring John Malkovich. It is about a man impersonating director Stanley Kubrick and raking in on all the director’s amenities: free food, free lodging, free drinks, and more free drinks – apparently the guy was an alcoholic. The movie was very well done – it played at lot of Kubrick’s movie soundtracks, such as the music in 2001 and Clockwork Orange. And I think, but I am not positive that almost every scene was a mockery of a scene in one of Kubrick’s movie. I haven’t seen all his movies – but several times I did see hints of one or another of his movies going on without comment.

Willow, on the other hand, got cabin fever. She had to break out often and romp in the frozen snow and maybe chase a squirrel for the fun of it – of course the squirrel wasn’t running for the fun of it, it knew it was running to save its dear life.

Snow Report

above - about 6pm last night.

What snow?

Willow and I just returned from a 30 minute walk and the light rain has just about dissolved what little snow we had.

Late last night it was pretty… a big white blanket covering the earth as far as you could see. It was the first time Willow has seen snow and she was first slightly leery of it then in no time she was jumping up and down in it.

Willow is like other Georgians – we are amazed at snow. It is so rare in these parts.

On our walk this morning I saw a little boy, about 7 or 8 years old looking out his family’s living room window – with his hopes for today being washed away.

Drought Report in Georgia

One thing about it. The Drought does not see class, gender, money, or color. The Drought effects everybody in this area. Everybody is asked to sacrifice.

For instance, in a previous blog, I told of getting a form letter from the water department saying we were consuming about 15,000 gallons more than my neighbors were averaging.

I found that strange, because for months we have not watered our grass or washed our car, and there are only two of us that live here, compared to our neighbors who wash their cars, water their lawns, and most have more than two people dwelling in their house.

I checked the water meter and it was covered with months and months of spider webs and caked with dust and dirt. I called the water department and said I believed that their private contractor who is supposed to have read the meters have been estimating.

They sent a man out and looked at my meter and assured me that they have been checking it but told me not to worry about it. Then my water bill fell from $35 a month to $15 a month. Yep, they were estimating the numbers, without even coming near.

Now, I heard on the news that a house on Thunderbird Drive in Marietta, it was leaked (get it?) to the news that the house was using enough water for 60 houses (on the average).

Thunderbird Drive is in one of the most expensive areas of Cobb County. A view from a news helicopter of the house showed a very big house with fountains and I thought I saw a manmade waterfall.

They interviewed the Chairman of the Commission board and he said the man who owned the house said he didn’t realize there was a water shortage and he will try to cut down.

I think what he probably said was that he didn’t think water restrictions applied to the wealthy. By the way, he did cut down.

Yes sir! All they had to do was talk to him and he cut down on his water usage. Good for him! And this is the truth: He cut his water usage from the amount for 60 houses to the amount for 9 houses. If that isn’t sacrificing, I don’t know what is.

That is what America is about! All of us doing our part, rich or poor! – right?

Sonny the Rainmaker

My friend Steve suggested that our Governor Sonny Perdue do a rain dance. I was going to help out and find a picture of Sonny in paint and feathers to fit the occasion. Above is the best I could come up with, which might fit the occasion just fine.

Praying For Rain

Georgia’s Governor Sonny Perdue is to host a pray for rain this week sometime, if he hasn’t already. Some people are not happy because he is doing this.

Some atheists and strict Constitutionents (I made up that word) are not happy. They both feel he is doing this as the head CEO of Georgia who has sworn to uphold the United States Constitution. And, the United States Constitution says a separation of Church and State will be maintained.

However, I don’t see anything it could hurt. And, it might help. It is like a group of positive thoughts causing an outcome to go their way. You don’t even have to believe in a supreme being to accept that. Nature is full of positivisms.

Some good could come from praying for rain. The only bad thing, if it happens to be in the books to rain anyway, the people who prayed might claim credit for something they don’t deserve. Or, it doesn’t rain, and they can claim it was “God’s Will”.

They can’t lose.