Do NOT distrurb

I will be offline Thursday January 31, 2008

LOST returns...

Remember them, Thank them

Dedicated to my cousin and the thousands of others who put themselves on the line for us...

January 30, 2008

Letter and pictures from Afghanistan

My cousin voulnteered after 9/11 to rejoin the Army. He was a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley, was working in the Trade Center that day. Since then he has been to Iraq-North Carolina-Iraq-Fort Irwin and is now back in Afghanistan. He has send some pictures which I will scan and post as i can...Some of the pix he sent are pretty amazing, but not like this one

The pilot is a Pennsylvania National Guard guy who flies EMS choppers in civilian life. Now how many people on this planet do you reckon could set the ass end of a chopper down on the roof top of a shack on a steep mountain cliff and hold it there ..

Sunset convoy

Cars...what every girl wants to talk about?

I have gotten comfortable with driving the same vehicle for years until my total lack of care results in expensive repairs to the point it makes more sense to get another vehicle. I have driven my Jeep Grand Cherokee since she was new, going on 5 years now.

Before that I had a 1989 Saab 900, which i wanted because it was Swedish, bought used. It also had a turbo charged motor which made it really fun to drive on trips. Honey hated it because it was so cramped inside, but I loved roaring down the country roads near our house and open the sun roof on a sunny day. Sadly she started to leak fluids, and one day a pully flew off (HONEST, WHO KNEW?) which explains why the AC quit...poor car had 189000 miles on it at tradein time.

Before that was a Toyota Pickup (4 years was enough of that), and a slew of American cars that lasted about a year or so each, all developing problems-Chevy truck, too expensive to run, Chevy car too low a roof, other chevy car bad brakes that never could get fixed right, Chrysler car leaked, and our Dodge Spirit- now in Dodge spirit world, blew the engine after 56000 miles (Honey has an acronym for that car-POFC-Piece of F(ornification)C(ockydoo)p

Thanks to my freind eric, I was reminded of the cars of my youth, my own vehicles i bought with my money-My Dodge clunker in Junior college, my Toyota Corolla in university, and the series of wild cars i boughtoff people in Germany, either soldiers or military civilans who had a vehicle they didnt want, or couldn't ship back for some reason or another. I had some little red car, forget what it was-; BMW 2002; my boyfriends corvette and after i ditched the BMW ( I tried to drive it under the back of one of those army trucks, I think they were called duce and half, which I think means they were 2 1/2 ton trucks I had a Mercedes, which was no big deal..and then when I came back to the USA, I bought a MGB from an air force guy at Pope AFB.

thinking of that car brings back good and bad memories. more good. I am laughing, thinking of how i called it my little bounce mobile, for reasons i wont elaborate on.

Realizing that fuel is only going to keep getting more expensive, i am trying to figure out when i will have to switch cars again...if i could afford a Tesla, all electric, i would do it today...no gas, so i could give OPEC the finger...sorry, thats a bad image, but I always have sticker shock at the pumps these days...on one trip last summer filling up the 6 cylinder Jeep cost us almost $70 !!! But then again it was over $3.5 gallon. Amazing. Same trip in Utah we filled up for about $42 I think

Read about Tesla and then wonder why the big car companies aren't doing this now also.

Entry for January 24, 2008

I read someone leses blog, and it just struck me that the comments by others seemed to dwell on the child(18) and her missing her always working mom and deglected to account for the parent, mom, and how she may feel. Sure, she may not care, but I doubt it. If mom is a single parent, she has a tough job already(mom), and her paying job is probably barely cutting it-

Having been a working mom, I guess I am really sensitive to critical comments about women working instead of rearing their children. Its a tough thing, stay home and barely get by or work and have hardly any family time. I suspect most opt to eat and have health insurance and dental insurance, and "extra money" so they can afford things, without going on the public dole. Maybe that just my work ethic, support yourself, dont expect others to do it for you.

I worked as a shift supervisor, preparing departures, and scheduling fueltrucks, services, food, and ensuring freight and luggage were all transferred. It sucked. It paid good, but I was constantly being hassled by the men I worked with "why aint you home with your kid?" I did that for about 20 months, and finally gave up, and went into some other work, which turned out to have been a good decision. I still had to work shifts, and I will never get back the time i missed with our daughter.
i wanted to stay home and not work, but with wages being what they were, and the inflation at the time, i started down the career path.
Our daughter at first enjoyed the freedom from me constant nagging at her to do her homework, chores, etc, but eventually that waned, as did our sense of family. Did it hurt me emotionally? Hell yeah. Did I like it? NO. Trust me, i know what its like to have a child say "why are you always at work? Don't you want to be with me?" No amount of discusssion will satisfy that childs question, yet any low wage earning adult with kids can understand the rationale- food, housing, health insurance, dental insurance.

OK, I'm off my soapbox...thanks

cdm

Whats New in Canice-Land (part 2)

Whats New in Canice-Land (part 2)

Another new person started at work today, she will be working with me on my projects...she seems pleasant enough, and very detail oriented, which is great, since I really don't enjoy writing reports, which is what she was hired to do...yippees!!

Friends

I seem to want to post stuff in my blog that either is too mundane, trivial, boring, or something that warrants low readership, but what the heck, i enjoyed doing it, so there!

I know religion and politics are subjects best left alone. Anyone who knows me knows that i have no interest in beating you over the head with my political or religious viewpoints, but if that happens from time to time, you are perfectly capable of ignoring me..deal?

I have friends here on 360, not a lot, but thats the way it is. Some I have hardly ever heard from, and others are prolific writers, although not always unaided by fictional confederates and confidantes.

A observation if you will. If you take the time to look at each persons page and the comments left by others, and track back some of the more interesting or curious comments, you sometimes find curious things. Sometimes you slowly come to realize that the person you thought you sort of knew is not at all like you thought, or they have a side you were not aware of. Not much different than in the real world, except in cyber networking people can become paranoid or fearful of being stalked, or whatever. That happened to me several years ago, like a decade ago, on AOL. I was busy learning to do stuff online, and discovered IM and chat. I made a good friend in NYC, and we enjoyed "talking" for hours, which my honey thought odd. not the conversation part, but it was the hours. If I was typing away from 9 to 12 Pacific time, the other person in NYC was doing the same at midnight to 3 AM!
I had gotten in way to deep, and decided to back out, cant we just be friends??? Oh, then i was a bitch and worse....OK, fine, so be it.

Age
My friend Martha is going thru a bit of a crisis dealing with 50. I remember thinking 50 a major deal...half a century!! But health wise I had changed more between 45 and 50 than I have from 50 to 54.5. (Started to have to wear glasses at least most of the time. All the time driving.)

50 wasn't so bad. Heck, i joined AARP(you can use the membership card to get all sorts of discounts on travel) and got the magazine and read a bunch of articles about women I had no idea were in their 60'sand beyond and still looking good and doing things, so i have high hopes...or maybe i am just high on hope?

Candidate Parade

There are a lot of websites where you can share information and discussion about the forthcoming US Presidential election - but ¡México Decide! may be the most interesting one I've seen yet.

Arguing that the US has huge influence in Mexican elections and that Mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal (undocumented), are fundamental to maintaining the US economy - ¡México Decide! concludes that all immigrants, legal and illegal, ought to have some say in the US Presidential election.

The site provides a place for immigrants and others to share information and discussion on the candidates and their policies. It also includes profiles of Mexican immigrants who have lived and worked in the US for years but who are not yet documented citizens.

Then there is this....

Sparked by the story of 17-year-old Sarah Boltuck, a Maryland teenager on the verge of losing her right to vote in the 2008 primary elections, FairVote worked closely with state allies like Sen. Jamie Raskin in winning a dramatic reversal to protect youth voting rights. All 17-year-old citizens who will 18 by Election Day in November 2008 will be able to vote in Maryland's Feb. 12 primary -- a ruling affecting thousands of voters. FairVote is launching a campaign with other civic groups and the Maryland Association of Secondary School Principals to notify eligible students of the registration deadline in the spirit of our vision of universal voter registration.

Eight other states allow 17-year-olds who will be 18 by the general election to vote in primary elections. Those states are Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia.
and now for your viewing pleasure....campaign ads !!!! I swear today has been about ever other ad all day long is political...

Entry for January 21, 2008

Here in the nanny state, we have to check before we can use our fireplace. It is raining and very chilly today, about 38 degrees this morning, so i lit the fireplace up anyways...and then checked.

Today's Wood Burning Status Monday, January 21, 2008

Fortunately today is a burn dry wood day....what ever happened to a government of the people and for the people??..

Our wood stove in the kitchen has been turned into a ornament, since it fails to meet the standards...which were impose late last year..

What's new in Canice-land? 01 20, 2008

What's new in Canice-land?

I reported to work at my new job with a little bit of the apprehension, not knowing what I might have gotten into. I was (as usual for me) a little late, arriving about 10 after 8AM. I managed to convince the security guards I am a new employee, and figured I could place part of my tardiness (rightly so) on them. Arriving on my floor, I told the receptionsit who i am, and she called my manager, who came to let me in. She escorted me to her office, and we spoke a bit, and then she said "let me show you where we are going to put you" I walked with her past rows of cubicles, and thought to myself, well these aren't so bad...better than where i was before. We turned down an aisle, and kept walking towards this office, where I guessed we would meet someone else, she walked in and said" well, this is where you will be" I think my open mouth and wide eyes must have caused her to smile a bit, and I asked, is this temporary, and she asked" Why? Is this unacceptable??" I assured her it was not. Its a cubicle, really more like a rectangle, I paced it off - its 17 feet by 10 feet about. I have a work area, a meeting area with four chairs and a couple of lamps, and off course the computer. And being a corner office, I have these wonderful WINDOWS...I look out at the front drive and across the river to the baseball stadium..

I put my stuff away, and she took me around introducing me to people. I met the two analysts sitting in my row, who apparently report to her but functionally work for me, at least part of the time. So much for Monday .

Tuesday was more introductions, and a discussion with my manager. Wednesday was a couple of meetings and a teleconference with the contract vendor. Appears some of the deliverables are still on a boat from Japan, so installation will be delayed by about 3 weeks. Here is where i slowly catch on to why I was hired. I write a list of issues during the call, and afterwards try to find more info, only its few and far between. Nobody has been reporting anything since the previous project manager left in October. Later in the day, I wander over to my managers office and talk to her, and one of her comments is " you know, one of the reasons we hired you is while many of the candidates had the Project Management skills, none had any real experience" (AH HA! Age does count I guess.)

Thursday I went over to the organization whose project this is, and learned that everyone there is skilled at something, but none has any experience in dealing with vendors or managing a project. I took a tour of the place, got an ID card from there so now i can come and go as I need, and here again I find I have a office... Friday was pretty much a reading day, and I spent all day trying to read documents and see where I can do something to move this project along.

One of the weirder things getting used to is the deference I am being shown here as opposed to where I was before. People knock before coming into my area, and refer to me as m'am a lot.

when i email people and ask about something, its treated like an urgent missive...and everyone on the project is practically in a "we're not worthy" mode after I meet with them...but then again, i have a reputation as being a "big thinker" . one thing i did do at the meeting with the project people was one of them said " ...and he thinks outside the box.." HOLD IT. We are not going to use that tired old saying around here OK?

to be continued

January 16, 2008 - sign off

1. Sign off is a type of message commonly displayed when a user disconnects from a chat service. Most sign offs are witty quotes, sayings, or advertisements created by the user.

"Wit is educated insolence."

That is all for now, later...

Entry for January 14, 2008

Of all the music I have heard this somehow is one of my favorites 40 years later...I know he is a great guitarist, maybe it was the times we were in then that added to the music...listen to the lyrics, what few there are.

Another favorite would be this one, by Cream - comprising guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker.

Funny, memories that flood your head when you play this old stuff..thats the hell of it, its aged and hence so have all of us who remember it live, vibrant, as something new and radically different from the pop rock before...

A New Beginning

Years and years ago, all I or any of my friends cared about was having a good time and trying to make it to school enough hours a week to stay current on the work, and pass the course. One of the mainstays of this existence was music,especially since I worked at the campus radio station 12 hours or so a week and this was one of my favorites...

Entry for January 13, 2008

I was watching the morning news while eating breakfast and during the weather report, I thought about when was the last time i had been skiing. I think it has been 15 years. I remember going, and thinking why am i doing this, its cold, wet, miserable all for a few minutes of joy as you plummet down the side of a mountain covered in snow (and frequently ice) the already cold air now feeling colder due to the wind chill effect.

I was not a good skier, and spent a lot of time around the lodge, recuperating from my frequent tumbles on the mountain. I felt like Lucille Ball or some other comedienne when I would ride the lift and have a hard time getting off, usually to the amusement of my fellow skiers.

That lengthy discussion setting the stage, I thought abpout where i had attempted to ski:

In Germany: Garmisch-Partenkirchen ( the alps) and the WasserKuppe in the Rhon mountains

the WasserKuppe in the Rhon mountains

And in the USA, I never skied on the east coast, or in Colorado (although I went to Vail once), and so most of the skiing I have done was in California or Nevada. Alpine Meadows, Squaw Valley, Donner Ski ranch(awful place), Northstar, Heavenly and Kirkwood Meadows are the ones I remember best. I have also been to Bear Valley, but was too scared to try it...I think i took a lesson there, but did not try any of the trails, they were VERY steep. Kirkwood I remember was pretty, andthey were always warning about avalanches, while either Squaw Valley or heavenly had the best views, Squaw wins on best shopping and food. Because a winter Olympics has there, there are a lot of buildings, and most have been converted from original use to something else. I first went there in college, and spent the night with a friend, but thats another story

Squaw Valley

Heavenly

This is how I spend the winter months now:

Have a nice Sunday!

Entry for January 11, 2008

This is the first time I have been able to blog in 3 days; I tried on the 1oth, and it saved and went away, where we will never know

My last 3 days at work have been hectic, and although not a lot of people came to the say goodbye party, our whole team went to lunch yesterday. Today after lunch they gave me a bag of goodies i will need on my new job- a laser pointer, giant postit note pad, a desk calendar with note space label"Goofy Idea of the Day", and a gift certificate to go shopping for clothes.

I was all ready to leave at 2:30, and then my boss said she would be right back and 2 hours later she showed up, so she could sign off that I had turned in everything-blackberry(yay!), keys, ID keycard, parking permit, etc.

I had wanted to go to the new place just to check around where things are, but guess that has to wait now...which is OK. i am having a stress free weekend.....for once.

At the lunch I asked our coworker who had retired last month how she liked it, she smiled and said she gets a lot more sleep now, no more tossing and turning worrying. She handled a lot of project documentation, and did a lot of code review work to ensure the applications were being done according to standards, so nnow having to only worry about what flavor of coffee to make in the morning seems to agree with her.

Entry for January 08, 2008

I went to work earlier than usual today, because i had a early meeting...I barely had enough time to hit the starbucks (remember when there used to be coffee shops- and now they are gone and we have all these corporate coffee stores) and get settled into the daily grind.

When i got back from the meeting, where everyone had a discussion that was leading to a obvious conclusion of me having to do a project outline( hey I only have 3 more days here people!!!) I started plowing through the first round of overnight email, and saw this one:

Subject: Green light

Curious, I looked at the sender, and saw it was from my new job. It read in part:

Canice– Our HR Office has given us the green light regarding your appointment and start date of the 14^th. You asked about the parking arrangements. Our parking is a third party arrangement - There is open parking as well as assigned parking (more expensive). .... Any questions let me know. Looking forward to your joining us on Monday!

This was GREAT, because they said I had the job, but needed to work out "some details"...apparently to make sure they had approval and funding. Yay!!!

I also(bad me) over heard my coworkers conspiring to throw some sort of party, and then was walking abck from the paper recycle dumpster (cleaning out your work area makes you realize you probably saved too many papers) and a person i know stopped me and says "Wow, I got the invitation to the party tomorrow, congrats on your new job!!"

So I gathered there were about 200 people invited, which i was shocked i know that many people there...but its true, when on a big project, you meet a lot of people...

Now, do I dress up or dress like usual??? I think usual, otherwise they might not recognize me, although sort of nice since there is bound to be cameras involved...OMG, cameras, and friends, there is likely to be tears as well.... Happy tears though, which is OK.

My co-workers want to also take me to lunch Friday...

and then at the end of the day, our Office Chief comes by and says he wants to try to get me to stay, and I about laughed at him...they are all so nice, and I told them if they had offered me a FT job I'd stay, but now its like too little too late, ya know?

Gizmos and gadgets - January 07, 2008

Then at CES(Consumer Electronics Show) there was the news that Warner Brothers Studios had decided to go with Blu-Ray, which means 5 of the 7 Hollywood studios are putting out media(and their library of films) in that format vs HD-DVD. However the big news,literally was the Panasonic 150 inch widescreen plasma..."It's so big, it's hard to take it in, really. With a viewing area that measures 11 feet by 6 1/4 feet and 8.84 million pixels of resolution, the TV (which has no model number and no date for being commercialized) is regularly thronged by crowds of slack-jawed onlookers, unable to comprehend the thing.



Ok, so i am sitting in our TV room, and I realize that TV would not fit in this room(extra bedroom is 11X10, but the 11 ft walls are either a window or closet wall). So that means it would have to go in the living room, where it would in fact become a new wall, since there is the fireplace and windows there too. SO where would you put such a monster??? Off course, this all rhetorical, since it is likely to cost a lot more money than any sensible person would spend, but then again....


The places i've been...this do-dad is from www.whereivebeen.com

Entry for January 06, 2008

Has bad as it is around my house, we are fortunate that none of our trees were uprooted this weekend by the winds and heavy rain. Today there was a series of photos documenting what happened in our area.

Houses destroyed by falling trees

Widespread power outages are still a problem:

Some customers who don't have power now might have to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday before the lights go back on, warned David Eisenhauer, a PG&E spokesman.

"We hope to have the majority reconnected today, but there will be some who will have to wait longer," he said Saturday. "Some areas we just cannot get into because of the sheer amount of damage."

This was printed in the reader comments today:

Thanks to the utility workers who have to jump into battle during these storms and do their job under the worst conditions. My hat is off to all of you out there. And the same goes for public safety, who are out there too. We appreciate all of you!

Amen

How are you faring in the wind? January 05, 2008

The picture in todays blog is the remains of our east fence. All 72 feet of it blew over, some panels flew into the neighbors built in pool, which is 20 feet from the property line.

The semiofficial wind reading local was a gust about 10:20 that clocked at 72 MPH; my brother says where he is in the mountains, it hit 92, and up on the summit over 100.

The temperature has been in the 40's, but the wind and last couple of days of heavy rain have produced a lot of uprooted trees, many falling on cars and houses.

This afternoon it finally stopped raining...for awhile.

The Blizzard of January 04, 2008

The localized flooding is what we are worrying about... our fence didn't stand up against the estimated 70 MPH wind gusts that hit today..but it could be worse...

Potential Record Snowfall in California...Prediction 6 feet of NEW Snow over the weekend...

Conditions in the Sierra are being reported all day one the radio and TV, but my source is my brother, who works for the Transportation Department has been working since last weekend readying snow removal equipment. He sent me this, which they get from the center in Sacramento and Reno:

NOAA
* BLIZZARD WARNING..........SNOW LEVELS WILL LOWER DOWN TO 2500 TO 3500 FEET BY SATURDAY AFTERNOON THEN LOWERING FURTHER ON SUNDAY TO 1500-2500 FEET. SEVERAL FEET OF NEW SNOW IS POSSIBLE OVER THE SIERRA CASCADE RANGE COMBINED WITH VERY STRONG WINDS AT TIMES IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH. BLIZZARD CONDITIONS WILL LIKELY PERSIST THROUGH SUNDAY. SEVERAL INCHES OF RAIN ARE POSSIBLE IN THE VALLEY.
LOCALIZED FLOODING WILL BE POSSIBLE AT THE LOWER ELEVATIONS NEAR SMALL STREAMS AND URBAN AREAS. SHOWERS WILL LINGER INTO MONDAY AND THEN ANOTHER FRONTAL SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO MOVE INLAND BY MIDWEEK BRINGING MORE RAIN.

This just in :

SACRAMENTO—Blizzard conditions prompted authorities to close Interstate 80 across the Sierra, the main east-west link between Northern California and Nevada.

The California Department of Transportation says the route is closed from Applegate, about 40 miles northeast of Sacramento, to the Nevada state line.

The Sierra Avalanche Center issued an extreme avalanche danger warning for the backcountry around Lake Tahoe due to the high hourly snowfall rates.

“They're predicting at least 6 inches an hour, which is two to three times as fast as normal up here,” said Andy Anderson, avalanche forecaster. “The danger is as high as it can get.”

Entry for January 03, 2008

I studied enviromental science for about a year in college, which entailed learning about the relationship between weather, human activity, what we are doing as a species to influence things. At the time the focus was on cleaning the air, water and stopping the massive use of energy that was making all the pollution.

Seems to me that about 10 years ago the media started picking up the theme of Global Warming, which has reached fever pitch in the last few years. I think the attention to "green" policies is great, but thats not what I want to discuss.

Today I was thinking about how the last few summers out here in California haven't been as hot, and the winters colder, and I started thinking about the various scenarios put forward when i was in school, that greenhouse gases would trap all the heat, and make the planet a global hothouse; the other scenario would be that the while that would happen to a small degree, the weather was more influenced by ocean condition, and solar activity. I found this article today:

"Dr David Whitehouse, an astronomer and the author of ‘The Sun: A Biography’ writes in The Independent today that we might be about to enter a period of unusually low sun activity. Such periods, in the past, have been associated with low temperatures on planet Earth.

Some members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Whitehouse writes, say we may be at the start of a period like that seen between 1790 and 1820, a minor decline in solar activity called the Dalton Minimum. They estimate that the Sun’s reduced activity may cause a global temperature drop of 1.5C by 2020. This is larger than most sensible predictions of man-made global warming over this period.

This is something we must take seriously, Whitehouse adds. What happened in the 17th century is bound to happen again some time. Recent work studying the periods when our Sun loses its sunspots, along with data on other Sun-like stars that may be behaving in the same way, suggests that our Sun may spend between 10 and 25 per cent of the time in this state."

OK, so we know that we are continuing to dump pollution into the air, water and landfills. And Americans are growing weary of escalting energy(aka petroluem) costs, so we could put this part of the equation away by improving how we deal with our environment..in my book by curtailing the massive reliance on gasoline. 'But Canice, how will people get around? Are you going to make people stop using their car?' Well, no; i would instead urge that by a concerted effort to reduce usage, buy more fuel efficient vehicles, and stress "Green" we can reduce use of fossil fuels and make the enviroment a little cleaner.

Global warming? I used to be fairly convinced , but then again, i have started to doubt that we really understand the complicated independencies that impact this planet and its weather...

So in the new year, I have started to apply some of this to my own life; replaced bulbs with Energy star bulbs, which are save (according to the packaging) 75% energy and last 7 years...but failed to mention the bulbs contain mercury and need to be treated as Hazardous waste(I found this out when i opened the box..

And we have been looking at a hybrid vehicle, like a Ford Escape, which after reading todays news i remarked Ford is going to need an escape, since toyota passed them up...

"Toyota beat Ford in 2007 in United States auto sales, putting it behind General Motors, industry statistics showed Thursday. Ford had held the No. 2 spot since 1931, according to the company’s historian."

So much for Buy American...wait, if a Japanese car has parts made in China and Mexico, shipped to the mid west and put together by Americans , thats an American made car, right?Right.

Entry for January 02, 2008

Why do i write so much about my ancestry?
First off, its not about being better than anyone else. i know people may say " Oh, my family settled here in ..." So what? I have some ancestors that came to America about 1640, according to the family records. Both side of my family had some one here by 1750, except for my maternal grandfather side; His dad came here from Sweden, so grandpa was a first generation American in 1902. Mom(from that side of the family would be the second and me the third generation) ....but i stray.

I got into ancestry to find out about where i came from, biologically speaking, what is the background for my existence. Why do i have blond(ish) hair, blue eyes, a big face? Why does my dentist tell me I have the longest teeth roots he has ever come across, and a large jaw as well...and yet my mom, and her sisters have the exact same condition. Why are the women in my family so tall? great grandmother was over 6'; mom is nearly 6', and I am a quarter inch over 6' flat footed.

Why is every medical condition my mom have seeming to turn up in me also, plus the few things peculiar to dad's side of the family, and some unique to me..

These are the primary motivations when I started...finding out the history was fun,and exposed me and my family to the basis for customs and traditions we long had forgot ..

Special Edition - January 01, 2008

I should write something meaningful to mark the beginning of a new year....

I got up at about sunrise, having fallen asleep last night watching tv waiting for new year The rest of the family had gone to bed around 10...even the pup! I roused her out of her bed, and we went about the usual morning stuff, going out to let her do her morning duty while coffee brewed. I watched the sunrise, with a slight mist in the air, and then looked skyward to see the moon. (see photo)

I always worry at the beginning of the year about all sort of things we can't control...destiny type questions. So every new year, i try to arise with the sun and say a prayer, that maybe this will be the year we see no more wars, that maybe we start to finish what we started in cleaning the environment(Remember Earth Day?), that maybe we in this country elect someone president who is actually qualified to do the job, based on life experience and not having a sack full of money and powerful friends...maybe I ask too much. So as I said yesterday, I hope you have a happy new year.