Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Winter Continues

 It'll be a little "warmer" today than yesterday, with a high closer to freezing and not quite so cold tomorrow morning. Above freezing tomorrow, slightly, but probably a little more icing. Not as bad as it was in 2021 around this time of year. But still quite unpleasant. There won't be any real relief until Thursday. Thursday should be sunny and the high temperature will be well above freezing for a change. After that it gets much better. Winter sucks. I used to like it, and I must have had rocks in my head. There is NOTHING good about winter. NOTHING!










I'm having my second cup of coffee. Up at 05:30, as usual. If the temperature ever actually does make it into the 20's F, I need to get out for a while and brave the single digit wind chills. 

Monday, January 30, 2023

A Darned Cold Day

 But we didn't have much ice with that. Not looking like much in the way of precipitation by the time this ends, and that might be as early as Wednesday. Or even late Tuesday. One can hope. As usual, the forecasts keep changing. Lubbock is on the fringe of this system. We are certainly not getting the worst of it. That works for me. Even so, it is way too much winter for me. 










This too shall pass away. 

Sunday, January 29, 2023

Maybe Only Three Days Of Winter

 Lots of ifs and unknowns, but the skies are currently clearing, finally. No precip yet, and if we can get a reasonable amount of sunshine we'll get above freezing today. The questions concern Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm finding ways to stay busy. After this episode, we look to be on track for significantly better weather in the first part of February. It's good to see patches of blue sky. If it does clear, that means a morning low around 20 F. I can deal with that. I'd sure like to see this storm system turn into a bust. How nice that would be!











I made a batch of lentils and brown rice, adding peas and carrots and onion and halved cherry tomatoes, a tablespoon of EVO, a teaspoon of butter, and a healthy dose of a Greek seasoning mix, with added black pepper. That tasted very good! There's a heck of a lot one can do with lentils and rice. I've only scratched the surface of these vegetarian meals. Definitely not very expensive, either. Quick and easy to fix. Protein and fiber. Vitamins and minerals. Heart healthy. I like to cook stuff when the weather turns cold, simple things I can whip up on the stove top. I never use the oven. I have a Copper Chef skillet, and those things really work! I can make a very good cornbread in that thing, right on the stove top! Someday I need to try a kind of unleavened flat bread. I'm thinking along the lines of: whole wheat flower, a dash of baking powder, milk, and a couple of eggs. Pour a batter the consistency of pancake or waffle batter into the skillet and let it "bake" with the lid on. 

Saturday, January 28, 2023

Four Days Of Winter CRAP

 It looks like most of next week will be spoiled by more winter crap. Highs above freezing but wintery mix is possible each day. Lows not too bad either. But anything having anything to do with wintery precipitation is no good at all. But as usual the forecasts keep changing. I'll get some more supplies in this weekend and hope for the best. 











Today should be pretty decent. 


Friday, January 27, 2023

More Winter Crap

 Right now about a 30% chance of yet more snow by Wednesday. It might not be quite as cold, though. But winter crap is winter crap and I don't like any of it. 










At least, today and tomorrow it's still warming and more of the last snowfall will melt before we have to deal with that garbage again. 

Thursday, January 26, 2023

Snow Melting

The sooner that stuff melts the better. Mornings are rather cold but we have plenty of sunshine and daytime highs are improving. Yesterday the sunlight was diluted by high, hazy, clouds, but not today. I've been reading about fungi that can infect the brains of certain insects, altering their behavior in the interest of spreading more fungi spores, to infect more hosts. Zombie fungi are a real thing, and a science fiction movie has used the premise that a zombie fungus evolves to infect humans, turning the hosts into-- zombies, who go on to infect other humans. And it occurred to me that such a thing already exists, in many forms. We call those infectious diseases religions. Certain belief systems can function like pathogenic fungi, turning their hosts into zombie-like infectious agents, creating yet more zombies. Far-fetched? I see at least a strong analogy. 










The good news is that the damage is reversible. Many people can and do recover from such infections, and go on to live happy and healthy and productive lives. And they might continue to practice a religion, but not in a pathogenic form.