Weather Still OK

 I've got today and tomorrow to finish prepping for the coming Arctic blast, words I did not want to hear this winter. What a drag. It looks like two days of bitter cold and a rebound but the damn forecasts are simply worthless. Still no snow in our forecasts, and that's the only good thing. How I hate winter. Oh well. That's life in the PU, a place that is basically hostile to life. Where you find life it's in a tiny oasis, clinging to a rock, in essence, and doomed to eventual extinction. Welcome to the Physical Universe! It stinks. Reality makes one want to be a dualist, crazy as that is, just to escape the futility of existence in the stinking, rotten, detestable, PU. The impending "Arctic BUM-blast" has got me in a foul mood. Who ordered this crap, anyway??

If it takes a sense of humor to make life endurable, then life really is a joke. But not a very good one. On the other hand, if you like your jokes sick and twisted, cruel and mean... this is the place for you! Enjoy. 

Very Cold Soon

 But as usual the forecasts are always changing. If this weather event comes off as predicted it will be yet another example of freakish weather becoming the new normal. Ten, twenty, years ago this sort of thing WOULD have been exceptional. Not now. Now, it happens every season, more than once in a season: something extreme. 

And this crap comes from Siberia! From Russia! That adds insult to injury. 

Next Week

 Some sort of wintery conditions sans snow or ice keep appearing in the local forecast for next week, but as usual the forecasts change from day to day and are largely worthless. It would clarify things if the the news media had less of a tendency to indulge in weather disaster porn. Yes, that's what it is, and the intention is obviously to attract "clicks" if on the web, or viewers if you are watching TV at home. Winter is bad enough without scare tactics. 

Colder Mornings

 A series of cold fronts are annoying, and a couple of days next week might be unpleasant, but, again, hardly any precipitation, although a few snow flurries might be possible. Insignificant. What I dread is January. The nastiest stuff usually hits in January. And again they say that El Nino might visit us. They said that last year and it did not happen. El Nino conditions would be a pleasant change, I think. 

I felt yesterday's earthquake, and the aftershock. The epicenter was in the Midland area, where they do a lot of fracking. Could be, ancient fault lines are getting lubricated. The Balcones fault was once very active. Maybe these old faults will become active again, thanks to the fracking, and Texas might experience major earthquakes again, after millennia of relative peace and quiet.  

SAMBAL OELEK!

 Yes! For a long time I have searched in vain for my favorite chili paste hot seasoning. I searched Asian markets to no avail. But I found the stuff on a supermarket shelf at last recently, only two small bottles left but I snapped them up! I use a lot of that stuff, since I like spicy Asian cuisine of all sorts. Fortunately there has been no shortage of Sesame oil, since I use a lot of that, too. And I did discover a good Korean hot stir fry sauce, and that sauce goes well with Sambal Oelek.