Last night was special. The night sky held the "Full Wolf Moon". When I heard about that I just had to try to get a picture of it. With my little old inexpensive digital camera, I tried a couple of shots. As you can see, they aren't the best, very far from professional, but at least I took the pictures. The flash went off (I guess it was set to automatic) but that was OK, it lit up the tree branches and gave it an unusual effect. So, here is the first shot I took:
I zoomed it as far as my little camera would allow and tried to hold it as steady as this old body of mine would allow. Notice the end of a tree limb protruding part way across the face of the moon?
So, what actually is a "Full Wolf Moon"? It was named that by the Indians when the hungry wolf packs would howl hungrily outside their villages.
Also, three hours before it was completely full, it was the smallest full moon of 2014. As it says on the Internet: "In terms of apparent size, it will appear 12.2-percent smaller than the full moon of Aug. 10, the biggest full moon of the year.
It doesn't matter to me that much what you call it, I just call it beautiful!! Now, you all dance in the light of the moon. . . or just have a great day, you hear?
Today in January 15th and it is another beautiful day. Spent yesterday working on my battery bank on the RV, four house batteries and two engine batteries. But it was a great day to be outside. That was yesterday and today is the 15th, and since I don't have anything outstanding to write about, I thought I would check and see what happened on this day through out recent history.
Let's see, oh yes for you football fans, this day in 1967 the first Super Bowl was played in Los Angeles between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Packers won.
In 1970 Muammar al-Qaddifi became Premier of Libya. He had removed King Idris from office the year before.
On this day in 1973, Bonanza aired for the last time. It had been on for fourteen seasons and it was the first western to be seen in color.
Also in 1973, the Vietnam bombing ended.
Remember the cop drama, Hill Street Blues? Well back in 1981 it aired for the first time. . . yes, on this date.
On this date in 2008, the FDA approved meat from cloned animals stating that it was safe for human consumption.
I am sure we all remember flight 1549 crashing into the Hudson River in 2009. To refresh your memory, here is a picture:
In 2010, a 7.0 earthquake hits Haiti killing 45,000 to 50,000 people!
And just last year, horse meat was found in "beef" burgers sold in Ireland and the United Kingdom.
By now, you probably have had enough January 15th trivia to last you until next January, right? So I will quit before I completely ruin your day. I do want you all to have a great day, you hear?
When the temperatures get down to freezing and below, I run the furnace in my RV. I have heat strips in my two overhead AC units that I use to keep the chill out, but all the plumbing is in the basement and they don't help warm it up down there. Therefore, I run the furnace, which has floor ducts and it keeps the basement from freezing. The furnace sucks up the propane and it got down to less than a quarter of a tank, so off to the neighborhood RV park to get it filled up. The park is about three miles away, although there is one closer, I am not sure if it sells propane and I have been getting my tank filled at the same place for years now, even when I had my class-C. I even stayed at that park a couple of times. The last time was when I first got this diesel pusher and wanted to try it out but just in case there was a problem, didn't want to go very far from home. That way, I got familiar with setting it up for a couple of days and if I forgot something, I could run home in the Jeep and get whatever I forgot.
When I was getting ready to take it over there to get propane, I unplugged it from the fifty amp plug and then pushed the "IN" button on the cable winder. It only pulled for a couple of seconds and quit. Oh, oh, my house batteries must have died. Being plugged in for all those months must have boiled the water out of them. I hope that is all that is wrong. Today, I will try to get the batteries filled up with distilled water. On my old motor-home, I had purchased a battery filling system. You just stuck the end of the hose in a jug of water and squeezed the bulb until it got hard and you couldn't squeeze it any more. That worked great, guess I will have to get something like that to keep my batteries filled and in good shape. As soon as it warms up a little (it was freezing when I got up) I will go out and try to fill the batteries. I will take some small tubing and try to cyphon water out of the jugs into the batteries. Anyway, that is the project for today.
Although it is on the cool side, it is a crystal clear day and it is warming up fairly fast. Now, you all have a great day, you hear?
I use numbers, you use numbers, we all use numbers. Without numbers we couldn't count unless we had a pile of stones and used them to represent quantities. Of course, wouldn't that be a form of numbering? In the occupation I chose for myself, I couldn't have performed my job without the use of numbers. I just didn't have enough fingers and toes to do the job! Just think about life without numbers. So, you say, you will just use Roman Numerals? Good luck with that! Just try to do math with Roman Numerals, or work a square root, or how about some algebra or geometry? Dang, I am glad I am not Roman (grin).
So, who do we thank for our modern numbering system? Why I suppose that the Egyptians were first, but I have learned that ancient Sumeria, Babylonia, and India used numerals in business transactions. All of the original numbering systems used some form of "1" for the number one. That is because it looks like a single finger. So, just to satisfy your inquiring minds, I will show you what the true Arabic numerals look like:
I can see the one, the nine, and the ten. They look similar to the numbers we use. The symbol for the number seven looks like it should be for the five, the one for the number six should be for the seven, and the one for the four should be for the three. I know I am old, but I wasn't around back then to point out why they should be different. Oh well, I will stick with the numbers I know and understand so that I will have a good day and I want you all to also have a great day, you hear?
Sorry I am late posting, but we spent more time than usual at the flea market. My wife found many, many bargains and I brought home a Jeep full of all kinds of things. I, on the other hand, again couldn't find anything that I could not live without.
Another beautiful day here in East Texas. It is 75 degrees, clear sky, and gentle breeze. But, this old State can surprise you with sub-zero temperatures without much warning. I have seen forty plus degree drops in temperature in a very short time; just a few hours. You know if the wind changes and swings around coming from the north, there ain't nothing between us and the Arctic Circle except a few strands of barbed wire (grin).
I think I will leave you with a chuckle today. I saw a sign at the flea market that said, "I shot my first turkey today!! The only problem was that it scared the crap out of the other customers at the meat counter." I hope after that joke that you can still find a way to have a great day, you hear?
It is absolutely a beautiful day. Perfect temperatures, blue sky, sun shining, and to make it even better, they said this kind of weather will stick around far into next week. Hey, that would be great!! Winter time in East Texas, you got to love it!!
My wife just cooked for and fed the dogs. They are now really happy. One is licking my arm and making it hard to type, but wouldn't have it any other way. Now my wife is cooking some Louisiana boudin sausage with a couple of fried eggs for my lunch. Yum, yum, I love that stuff. Therefore, I am going to keep this blog posting short and go get ready to feast on the boudin. Do I enjoy boudin? You betcha I do. I am going to have a great day and I want you to have one, too, you hear?
Yesterday I wrote about CMEs and some of their effects. Last night on the news they showed video of some fantastic Northern Lights. Yep, that was a direct cause of the CME hitting our planet and the charged particles entering at the poles. I pretty much explained all that yesterday. If you want to read about it check out this link: HERE
Here are some pictures of past Northern Lights:
It is so very quiet here and a little lonely right now for my wife and I. You see, this was grooming day for our three pups and they are now at the beauty parlor. The two girls will come home with ribbons in their hair and all three of them will smell real good. One thing I know for sure is that they will be very glad to get back home and I will be glad to get them back.
I don't have much to say today, so you all have a great day, you hear.
