I know, I know

.... it's not vogue and far more common to read complaints, woes and whines ... but there other things ... often of grand significance.

We do have some amazing technologies other than cell phones and lap tops ... and what's happening in outer space is absolutely amazing-exciting-fascinating.

There's an array of satellites and robots and landers throughout our planetary neighbors, some of which make the Hubble telescope seem like a Model-T Ford.

The photos coming back from these high flying "digital cameras" are stunning.

Take a gander at this.  Or this.

Interested in Saturn, go here and click on "Images".

The Sun? Try this. Or here for just a pic of the sun.

Maybe you just want to look at the Earth? Here and also this Blue Marble.

And, if you're interested in an overview of the Solar System Exploration programs, click here.

Here are several sites I visit on a regular basis: APOD, NASA's image of the day and HiRISE.

Random

today, just outside, wet n stuff

I dunno, maybe I should write something about the photos ... nah, they're reasonably self-explanatory.

The Kiss

She was a calm person, a bit introverted, bright and purposeful. He was more of an extrovert, still finding his way and unsure of many things.

They knew one another, just briefly, having met and saying hello and one another’s names. Though the informality was the typical, there was a stirring between them. 

Their lives were on different paths but occasionally during chance meetings they talked about small things, common things. During one encounter, the moment seemed timely, eventful, in a calm voice he asked her to join him for a dinner.

She looked into him with a smile full of mystery and he knew there was magic. His senses were heightened, full of new potential, something more, something touched with beauty. She was curious, slightly intrigued and aware.

He arrived at her home, perhaps a bit early, though she was ready and waiting for him. They left for a small romantic place, all dark and filled with mood and atmosphere. It was a restaurant he had noticed but never experienced, his friend told him it would be a perfect place for them.

She enjoyed the wine and meal and was at ease within the cosmopolitan élan. He pretended effortlessness while churning within. They laughed and talked small personal vignettes and agreed on so many things. Their hours together were as a blink.

Driving her home was mostly a quiet affair. In his silence, he was considering how to make things linger; she was still in the now-moment, enjoying it all. Walking the path to her door, holding hands, they were, each in their own way, expectant and wondering.

Stopping, and in a pause that went on forever, they kissed. Every possible sensation, every passionate desire was felt then unraveled. Every second was an hour then timeless. Every touch was pleasure, new and fresh and beyond comprehension. There was texture to air and their lips, fiery and desiring.

Embraced, transfixed, the kisses were spellbinding. He instantly understood he was forever changed, in a place he never expected. Her reaction was more complex, she knew there was much more including sensations of unfathomed desire.

Could the warmth of lips pressed against lips be so different from any kiss previously experienced? Was it possible to be intensely aroused by a single kiss? Another kiss and then another, there was nothing else, just desire.  Wordless thoughts, alive in passion, both enchanted, they looked deeply into one another’s eyes.

Still no tan line

Last week we had 6 sunny days.

You're probably sitting there reading this thinking,, "Whoa, those dudes and dudettes are sooo lucky!"

But there's a 'but' in the message.

Apparently Seattle, on average, gets 58 sunny days per year.

That means with 10 months of the years still to come we've already had about 10% of our allotted sunny days.

That sucks.

I've called my travel agent

"A potentially habitable alien planet — one that scientists say is the best candidate yet to harbor water, and possibly even life, on its surface — has been found around a nearby star.

The planet is located in the habitable zone of its host star, which is a narrow circumstellar region where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the planet's surface.

"It's the holy grail of exoplanet research to find a planet around a star orbiting at the right distance so it's not too close where it would lose all its water and boil away, and not too far where it would all freeze," Steven Vogt, an astronomer at the University of California at Santa Cruz, told Space.com. "It's right smack in the habitable zone — there's no question or discussion about it. It's not on the edge, it's right in there."

Vogt is one of the authors of the new study, which was led by Guillem Anglada-Escudé and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution for Science, a private, nonprofit research organization based in Washington. An alien super-Earth

"This planet is the new best candidate to support liquid water and, perhaps life as we know it”, Anglada-Escudé said in a statement.

An alien super-Earth The researchers estimate that the planet, called GJ 667Cc, is at least 4.5 times as massive as Earth, which makes  it a so-called super-Earth. It takes roughly 28 days to make one orbital lap around its parent star, which is located a mere 22 light-years away from Earth, in the constellation Scorpius (the Scorpion).

"This is basically our next-door neighbor," Vogt said. "It's very nearby. There are only about 100 stars closer to us than this one."

Interestingly enough, the host star, GJ 667C, is a member of a triple-star system. GJ 667C is an M-class dwarf star that is about a third of the mass of the sun, and while it is faint, it can be seen by ground-based telescopes, Vogt said.

"The planet is around one star in a triple-star system," Vogt explained. "The other stars are pretty far away, but they would look pretty nice in the sky.""

full story

Going - Not going Home

“You can’t go home again” is often said, mostly relating to a state of mind, usually in reference to personal growth or inner changes.  In my case, I cannot go home because there is no house and everything about the land is an antithesis of my childhood.

For twenty years this was the view from my bedroom window.  I don't know when this photo was taken but it was probably in October or November because during the warmer months the trees and bushes were green and the wild oat fields beyond the shrubbery were tall and wavy green and alive with quail, pheasants and jack rabbets.

Beyond the grassy fields were several small creeks which I frequently explored, chasing frogs and playing pretend games of being in the wilds of Africa or, with my BB gun, protecting myself from bandits and barbarians.

The neighborhood was sparsely populated and houses were identified by the owner’s name.  In conversation, someone would say, “Did you see the Helmick house has been painted?” Or, “The County was doing work between the Anderson’s place and the road.” 

I don’t think my parents actually knew the people in most of the homes, they just knew the names, probably because people had their names on mailboxes.  Also, hardly anyone moved away and new constructions were uncommon so, after a while, in casual conversations, names and houses became a single identity.

Then something happened. Perhaps because of relaxed zoning codes, perhaps it was because of the proximity to a larger city or maybe it was just the result of over population ... whatever the reason, almost overnight, the area changed and became charmless and filled with row upon row of ordinary looking houses.

My parents eventually sold their house which was had been centered on two acres.  Looking at the Google image, there are now six houses where once had been one.

The yellow circle is where my home had been and the arrow is towards the view from my bedroom.  Of course, when I was seventeen I couldn’t wait to leave. I suppose, when I moved away, I assumed the house and view would always be there.  No, sometimes you simply can't go home.

Mimi, where are you?

When I began blogging in 2007 I certainly had no idea what I was going to do with the blog.  I'm not a diary person and while I'm very practical, I do not overly plan things and I work at being disorganized.  I suppose I'm a complex mix of action and reaction.

When it comes to art and design or writing a creative piece, I instantly focus on those things and everything else becomes secondary.  Regarding the day to day stuff, most of it is boring so I mostly react.

I mention this because I'm once again wondering if there's a purpose for me blogging.  In retrospect, the last time I did a re-evaluation, I deleted 700 postings, waited awhile for any reaction and getting none, I deleted the blog.  Days went by and, bored with free time, I restarted my blog with all new stuff plus added two other blogs.  I had saved all the deleted postings but chose not to recycled them ... tho I know some of them are very good.

Which brings me to this posting's title, "Mimi, where are you?"

Mimi was one of my earliest readers and her blog was a well written and honest account of her life, her trials and tribulations and of her failures and successes. Her work revealed a strong woman with a few demons.  Her creative writings should be published (and hopefully they have been).

Mimi also had questions about the blogging process and she too started and erased blogs whenever the mood hit her.

I miss our conversations. You see, after deleting her last blog she also changed her email address and our thin thread of connectivity was lost. I suspect there might have been a crisis and she possibly moved to a different city or state. It's also possible she found a ton of work and had no time for blogging ... I totally get that.

I'm going to share a segment of an email from her, perhaps you will also sense the person - the creative person that is Mimi.

" ... i think the key is being able to infuse your skill with your passion.  That's why I love film.  To me, it encompasses everything that I love.  That's why I work every second I have to make something happen.  I wait for the day that I can etch out a living doing what I love.  Even if I never get there, I am happy...because I'm doing what I love.  Win-Win.

I think you're very right.  The biggest problem I have with pop fiction is the same problem I have with film.  It's like eating a Big Mac instead of a Gourmet meal.  Everything is so bland, so formula.  It all comes to a point where it sounds like a monotone voice that is boring into my skull.  Sometimes it's hard for me to believe that anyone would want to hear what I have to say, because what I have to say is so textured and at time unbearably painful, but for me, the process of telling the story is more about emotion and how the nuances of life write the story, and how everything, no matter how seemingly frivolous can bend and shape people and decisions...not about catching the psychopath or getting the girl.  In books like that, we all know the outcome.  It is safe.  It is like traveling to the same place every day, but differing your route by one safe city block.  You know you're going to make it, and chances are you wont be killed or carjacked on the way.  To me a good book/movie forces me to explore a new part of myself that I have never been to before, cutting my way through with a machete.  That is how I try to write.

I have always felt that success in such artistic fields is contingent on finding that one person who believes in you and is in the position to help you.  I guess I should be more proactive in getting my shit out there and maybe I will someday soon.  For now, I am enjoying the process, Heh. Even if it is just for the ten or so people who read my blog."

Of course it's chic

Last time I mentioned Seattle Chic a friend offered to buy me new boots.
Oh, the shame of it!
(heh heh)

While I didn't take him up on his offer I did visit REI.  I figured, now's a great time to buy new boots because once the snow, muck, cold drizzles, really deep mud holes and low temperatures subside ... and the calendar indicates springtime, everyone will be shopping ... thus making it a challenge to find nice boots (that fit).

I am so ready for better weather ... new boots and trail maps plus backpack at the ready ...

ps: I chucked my old boots.

Seattle chic

We go everywhere together plus they're an inseparable pair.

I suspect they'd prefer a rocky mountain trail to the lowland's mushy show.

Finally

A bit of snow shoveling and we're able to get away from the house. I estimate this storm deposited 8-10" of snow. And, yes the bare pavement is part of our driveway. Steep isn't it?

We were lucky ... we didn't have power outages tho the lights flickered throughout the storm
... the latest report indicated over 100,000 homes are still without power.

If you are moving here from a region (most of the Country?) with underground power lines ... be prepared ... most of the Seattle area has old-fashioned power lines stretched between poles.  When there's too snow or ice, the lines break and you best have a back-up generator.

The weather warnings are now about flooding as the snow melts.

another day

Stuck.

We've been snowed-in for most of the week, the roads are unplowed and now the falling snow has changed to ice pellets.

If interested, our local weather guru.

Otherwise, I'm sitting at my Mac waiting for the thaw.

24 hours later

Yesterday's snow event

and today's