Winter takes another swipe

We had snow on Monday, and then it drizzled down all night and all day on Tuesday. It made my ride to work on Tuesday a winter wonderland.

I thought to move these two pics away from each other, but then it almost could be one continuous grand view...

A well dressed rock wall..

...and of course, my favorite barn.

This hill was particularly scary, with the snow on it. If it's icy I go another way.

The lake, with the sunrise tinting it.

They say March is the snowiest month, and I've only had one snow day this year - bring it on!

REFLECTIONS

Congrats to Gore!

All I can say is one big WOOOOO HOOO!

Wild Turkey on Parade

It's Melting!

All that mist is from the 40 degree day we had yesterday. The ice is melting, turning to real slush. The temps will get up in the low 40's today and hopefully will get above freezing for the rest of the week.

fingers crossed!

Gonzalez opens website to register complaints

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Justice Department is launching a program to enforce protections against religious discrimination, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced Tuesday. The First Freedom Project would increase education about religious discrimination by holding a series of training seminars throughout the country over coming months, Gonzales told leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Gonzales said he also plans to create a Religious Freedom Task Force, which will review policies and religious discrimination cases. He said he doesn't know how much the program will cost.



"One of our most cherished freedoms ... is our religious freedom," he said. "It is a fundamental part of our nation's history."The first training seminar will be held in Kansas City, Mo., in March, followed by seminars in Tampa, Fla., in April and Seattle in May. Other dates and locations will be announced later.

As part of the new program, the Justice Department is setting up a Web site, http://www.firstfreedom.gov, with information on enforcement and how to file a religious discrimination complaint.

So, Bushco is facillitating the wingnuts' bogus complaints. I say, every time they try to write their religious strictures into our laws, we should all go to the website and fill out a complaint. When they pay no attention to all the complaints by the secular population, then we could register complaints about that. Complaints will follow complaints, in a downward spiral of hateful vicious slander. Just about what we need right now, no?

read it yourself here

Beatboxing Flute

I play a little flute (very very little) and I thought this was so cool.

Dawn Over Ice

We got our snow last week, but a very strange snowfall it was. I had watched a Science Channel special that week about the ice storms in Canada, and just had to make the connection. The snow started as a grainy dry slush, we got an inch or two of that. I have no other discriptor, this stuff was like nothing I ever saw. My sister described it as like tiny glass beads. If you stepped on it, your foot would begin to slide, like on slush, but then it would freeze into place as the grains aligned under the pressure of your foot. Pick it up, and it's heavy and dry. Weird.

Then the freezing rain started to fall. The temp was in the single digits, and warm wet air was coming in from off the ocean and rising OVER the super cold air. So, the rain fell and was super cooled and then froze on contact. Overnight the temps fell below zero, and the wind took over.

The next morning the world was covered in a three inch coating of bulletproof ice, dry to the touch and welded to anything it fell on, proof against the most vigorous scraping. The shine you see on the snow in the pic is that ice. You could drive a big car onto that snow and it would not collapse, or even leave a trace, except for the dirt off the tires. Very, very slippery too.

The Edwards' Bloggermania

Below is a comment found on the thread of the new article that Melissa McEwan posted at the Guardian. The article talks about what happened to make Shakes' Sis & Amanda Quit Edward's campaign. I thought this was hilarious:


Whitt Comment No. 435119

News flash: John Edwards announced today that Jesus Christ was joining his campaign. Critics immediately questioned the move, citing Jesus' illegitimate birth, lack of credentials, his record of disrupting legitimate temple business, his association with a known prostitute, his apparent endorsement of higher taxes, rumors of homosexuality from his frequenting the company of unmarried sailors and particularly after his having been witnessed kissing another man in a public park, his anti-war statements and his treasonous comments questioning the powers of the government. Other rumors include Jesus having a foot fetish, having engaged in faith healing and in one extreme case claiming to have cast out devils and to have brought a man back from the dead. The critics also showed recent photos of Jesus as favoring long hair and a beard as well as wearing sandals, an apparent holdover from his years as a wandering hippie after his half-hearted attempt at making an honest living doing carpentry.
*
In a later response, the Edwards campaign distanced themselves from the scandal, saying that Jesus was only working as a volunteer and did not in fact have any official capacity with the campaign.

Ah hahhahahahahaha

Plump Blue Birdies

Hey honey - quick come here... three birds

soft blue feathers on top, with the tan and white, so pretty

The birds love this suet cakes this time of year. They seem to take turns, one flying in from the surrounding trees while others wait patiently.

Wonder what they're called. I get woodpeckers and titmouses - titmice? and sparrows and little finches and brilliant red cardinals.

*click on the pic for a larger view

What's your chinese new year sign?

I was born in the year of the dragon! How absolutely cool is that?

Year of the Dragon

Dragons tend to be popular individuals who are always full of life and enthusiasm, with a reputation for being fun-loving. They make good priests, artists and politicians.

Famous people born in the Year Of The Dragon:
Vidal Sassoon, Fats Domino, Bob Monkhouse, Jimmy Tarbuck, Al Pacino

Go find your year

*hattip: the Jersey Cynic at blondesense

I AM SPARTACUS!

Solidarity: the only way to win over the powerful.

All Hail Colbert

The new Stephen Colbert flavor Ice Cream: Get it!

Our first appreciable snow

I started this post last weekend, but it's taken me all week to get 'er done. I was hanging out doing a little housework on Sat morning, and noticed a bird at the feeder. He(she) let me get up to about a foot away from this feeder with my camera.

From the markings on the wings, I'm guessing that this is a female woodpecker.

She was fixated on getting as much of this suet cake down her throat as possible. She totally ignored the seed feeder right next to it.

She didn't like it when my camera decided to flash at her, though.

We got about a half inch of snow. Enough to stick, but not quite enough to protect the plants.

We're about four feet short in the snow department this winter, with no relief in sight.

This is a view of our fishpond after it's been buttoned up for the winter. Yep, there's around 30 goldfish under that hatch at the left, swimming around very slowly in the 34 degree water. They seem to go into a psudo hibernation, with their metabolism slowing to a crawl. Sometimes they are fat and sassy when we open it up in the spring, sometimes they are skeletal. Either way, they recover in a few weeks, and spend the summer basking.

Dear John

I really didn't think I'd be writing this. I was very attracted to your stand on various issues, union organisation and the Iraq war chief among them.

However, your hiring and subsequent firing of Amanda and Shakespere's Sister shows how clueless and how accomodating to hard right nutcases you are.

We desperately need Democratic lawmakers to stand up to the people who are trying to turn our country into a facist theocracy. We still have time to turn around this last six years of governmental incompetence and the trashing of our basic rights and privileges, but if you back down before the worst of the ideologues, then you are useless to those of us who love our country and want to return it to the democratic principles we've always cleaved to.

I am forced to repudiate my support, and I would like you to take my name and address off all of your fund raising lists, since I won't be supporting your presidential run.

Thank You
SB_Gypsy

One Hot Image: Caption anyone?

Can anyone say "Venus" ?




*Pic from The New York Times Online

Savings? What Savings?

John Amato over at Crooks & Liars asks the question, "Why aren’t people saving money?", if this economy is perking along so well.

Here are the stats:

…the savings rate for all of 2006 was a negative 1 percent, meaning that not only did people spend all the money they earned but they also dipped into savings or increased borrowing to finance purchases. The 2006 figure was lower than a negative 0.4 percent in 2005 and was the poorest showing since a negative 1.5 percent savings rate in 1933 during the Great Depression.


So, look at that last number (-)1.5 % savings rate during the Great Depression.
............................................(-)1.0 % savings rate today.

...and I personally have been blessed to be able to save at a rate of 1/4 of my paycheck, so someone else is overspending by -26% to match me.

If that's not the best argument(after Iraq) for impeaching this lying, incompetent president, I don't know what is.

comments@whitehouse.gov

With all due respect Sir,

The time is now.

Thank you
SBGypsy