Sunflowers 80

 Now over 890,000 Covid deaths in the US. No snow yet in Lubbock. I'd be happy to see no snow in Lubbock at all during this wintery blast. That might be too much to hope for. Still, not as bad as last February. Highs should be back above freezing by Friday, with sunshine. A few very cold mornings to deal with and then we're out of this crap. 

It was nice and warm when I took these pics! 

Sunflowers 79

 Well, today I noticed a very substantial spike in weekly Covid cases in Israel, and ALSO in weekly deaths. And this morning in Lubbock it is not even below freezing. I guess sometime today the cold air is supposed to move in. I would be happy to find that this forecast is a bust. At any rate, bust or not, I intend to do what needs to be done, winter bum-blast or not. 

I'm starting to realize that I might have done more photographic sunflower studies than anyone else on the planet. 

Sunflowers 78

 Gee, now it looks like mid-week we'll have some serious cold stuff. Why does anyone even bother with "long term forecasts"? Anything more than a day or two in advance is worthless. OK today, and OK tomorrow, but after that, so say the forecasts, it gets rough. So they say. I'm as prepared as I can be. Surely it won't be as bad as the stuff that hit us last year around this time. But who knows? You might as well flip a coin. 

The sunflowers are reminders of happier times. There really WERE happier times. 

Sunflowers 77

 Looks like today and tomorrow will be pretty nice days. After that, a nasty shot of cold stuff. Just winter crap. 

Odds are, it won't be as bad as the stuff hitting the Northeast. Not by a long shot. Maybe not bad enough to make ERCOT collapse. I'd like to see some hard evidence that improvements have actually been made, that the money appropriated for that purpose didn't simply line pockets. For that matter, was ANY money actually appropriated?? Was it all talk? 

I've added some new SCIENCE links to my list of favorites sites, at the bottom of this blog. 

I've been waiting for Vlad the Impaler's Russia to be hit by the Omicron surge. It's happened. This could be spectacular, with less than 50% of that backward country's population vaccinated. 

Sunflowers 76

 We've got a few nice days coming up with a couple of days of bitter cold forecast for midweek next week. I hope that turns out to be a bust. They've taken wintery precipitation out of that forecast, but it changes every day. Forecasts are largely worthless, I've noticed. There are reports now of a new Omicron variant spreading in "North Texas". There are cases in Dallas and Houston, and in Denmark it is now the dominant strain. It only took a couple of weeks for infections to explode there, as the new strain appears to be significantly more infectious than the last dominant Omicron variant. Not clear how much protection vaccination provides (but surely it's better to be vaccinated), and the severity of this variant is not clear. And what does "North Texas" mean, precisely? I would say Amarillo, as a guess. And the US is now over 880,000 Covid deaths, with almost 60,000 in the last 28 days. And there are still people who won't get vaccinated. Amazing! The depth of ignorance in this country, and in the human population at large, is really stunning. Ignorance and superstition that would do a Neanderthal proud. Oh well. Nothing I can do about any of this. Just sit back and see what happens next.

The illusion of control is insidious. Best to abandon that one.