Wondering: Yellow Jessamine vs High Winds

This time of year the air is filled with a sweet smell.  That aroma comes from small yellow flowers that grow on climbing vines that reach to the top of the tallest trees.  I am talking about the Yellow Jessamine that grows all over my place.  Here is a picture of what I am talking about:

 

 And another :

 We are expecting a bad to severe storm to blow through here in a couple of hours.  It is quite warm this morning, just under 70 degrees and when this stormy cool front collides with this warm 99 percent humid air near the Gulf, it is suppose to produce some strong thunderstorms and a chance for a tornado or two.  It is very cloudy and windy right now with on and off again light showers.

In fact, the wind has brought down some of the Jessamine flowers:

We will just wait and see what the front does produce.  A lot of the times it never gets as bad as predicted, but on the other hand, sometimes it gets worse than predicted.  Now, I hope your day will be bright and sunny.  Even if it isn't, just have yourself a great day, you hear?

Wondering about pertussis (whooping cough).

Just when the flu season is waning, I read an article about whooping cough (Pertussis).  No, I don't have a persistent cough but I was surprised about what the article said.  It stated that the vaccination that people get to prevent it starts to wear off in only a few years.  It seems that it has now becoming a problem with people in middle age and older.  What is even worse is that it is very, very contagous.

The big misconception is that only children can get it so when an adult comes in for a doctor's appointment, they don't even concider that an older person with a pesistant cough has whooping cough.  Another rason why so many cases go undiagnosed in adults is that they recieved the vacination when they were young and it still gives them some advantage, so they don't get a severe case.

So, what can we do about it?  I suppose we could all go to the doc's and ask for a booster vacination.  But how many of us are going to do that?  A pharmacutical company has donated 117,000 free booster shots to health clinics for low income families.  The more people who are protected, the fewer people there are who get it and pass it along.  So, how about all you get the vacination so that I don't have to.  Now that sounds like a plan to me.  Now you all have a cough free day, you hear? 

And I thought I did a good job.

Remember back when I posted about fixing my power pole?  If not, you can check it out here: http://dizzydick.blogspot.com/2013/02/straight-pole-croocked-back.html .  Well, I didn't do such a good job.  I thought that the only reason it was leaning was the weight of the wires and the vines.  I guess I was wrong because it is now leaning to the side.  So, the other day, I wint to Home Depot (the last time I went to Lowe's) and got another 2x4 and if nothing turns up to prevent me from doing so, I will put in another brace.  This one at ninety degrees from the first one.  Now, that should fix it, right?  The only other thing I can think to do is put stakes in the ground behind the 2x4 braces to keep them from pushing away from the pole.

It rained a lot yesterday but today is clear and sunny.  According to the weatherman, today is the only nice day this week.  This weekend is the upcoming rodeo at Houston with all the trail rides heading that way.  It seems that the custom is for the weather to turn bad for this event.  Seems to do just that almost every year.  Some of these "trail rides" come in from very far away.  They are more like wagon trains since they have to have a chuck wagon and a wagon to carry supplies, etc.  You have to give yourself more time to get to Houston at this time because the trail rides also use the roadways and they are not going the speed limit (grin).  OK, I will get to work and you all have yourself a great day, you hear?

Wondering to the inner most planet.

Yesterday, I went way out to the outer fringes of our solar system and talked about Makemake.  I only got two comments.  Maybe I went out too far, so today I will go in. . . in toward the sun.  I am just going to talk about that burned cinder they call Mercury.  Actually, I am going to talk about water ice on Mercury.  Surprised that there is ice on a small planet that is so close to the sun?  I was, since this planet can reach temperatures of over 800 degrees Fahrenheit and it does rotate on its axis so it would be baked on all sides.  It is, but since its rotational axis tilts only about one degree, the poles (especially the craters near the poles) do not get heated.  In fact, they contain frozen water (ice) that probably does not melt.

OK, how did it get there?  I assume that it came from the bombardments of comets and wet meteors.  The universe's most abundant thing is hydrogen and since there is also a lot of oxygen around, sooner or later they are going to get together and give birth to water.  Water then gave birth to life as we know it, with a divine guidance.  Now you have a good day and try not to get too mad if this life giving water rains on your parade, you hear?

Wondering about Makemake.

Why should you wonder about Makemake, and why should I wonder about Makemake, and for that matter, why should anybody wonder about Makemake?  Actually, I can't think of any good reason to wonder about Makemake.  I guess before we go any further, you should know how to pronounce it.  You say it like this: MAH-keh MAH-keh  It is a dwarf planet with a tilted orbit out beyond Pluto.  Here are the orbits; the red one is Pluto, the green orbit is Haumea, and the blue one is Makemake:

The above mentioned objects are all TNOs.  OK, I suppose you want to know what a TNO is, so I will tell you.  TNO stands for trans Neptunium Objects.  Here are some of the largests:

OK, I am going to stop here because you already had enough strange names thrown at you.  Speaking of objects getting thrown at us, we have recently been hit with a couple of fair sized meteorites, one injuring about a thousand people in Russia.

The universe and the small part of it that we call our solar system is a dynamic and ever changing place.  Sometimes for the good of humans and sometimes not.  Keep looking upward, especially on a clear night, and behold the wonders!!!  Now, you all have a great day and don't get hit with any wayward space objects, you hear? 
 

Wondering, could it be jealousy?

After I turned 65, never has a razor, clippers, shears, or any other cutting or trimming device touched any of my hair.  Therefore it has been allowed to grow for five years now and needless to say, both my hair and my beard have gotten fairly long.  In fact people seem to notice and a few times I have been mistaken for a member of ZZ Top.  Why just yesterday after going to Home Depot to get my wife a storage cabinet for the room she is making her hobby room, as we were driving out through the parking lot heading for the street, a clean shaven fellow walking by pretended to stroke a make believe beard and then pointed to me and gave me a thumbs up.

Like I said, I seem to get noticed (and I don't know why - grin) and my wife says that she is a little jealous.  So, after we got home, she came walking out of her bedroom trying to look like me.  I just had to take a picture of her and share it with you all:

 

So, what do you think?  Now I am jealous!!!  Of course mine is snowy white and hers is dirty brown.  I guess you can see from that last sentence that I am quite jealous.

I am just so sorry that everyone in the world can't look like me (grin).  Now, even if you don't have a long beard, please try to have a great day anyway, you hear? 

The day after.

Dang, I don't feel any different and here it is, the day after I turned 70!  So, I guess it wasn't that big a deal after all.  I did get some nice cards and my cousin, Jimkabob, called me from his home in Virginia and we talked for quite awhile.  I always enjoy talking to him, he is just so quick witted.  He said he mailed something, but I had to tell him that I didn't get it yet.  Now, I have something to look forward to today.

Yesterday, we celebrated by going to Wal*Mart and getting groceries.  I had to do that since I was out of my Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream.  And there is no way I could celebrate my birthday without it!!!  While we were there, my wife insisted that I get another shirt.  I buy nothing but western shirts with snaps and I found one that would go good with my brown leather vest.  All in all I had a good birthday and woke up this morning feeling no bad effects of the day.

I want to thank you all for wishing me a happy day on the blog yesterday.  I do really appreciate your comments and I enjoy hearing your side of things.  My side of things is slanted to my way of thinking, you know.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?