A Tour Of The International Space Station

In her final days as Commander of the International Space Station, Sunita Williams of NASA recorded an extensive tour of the orbital laboratory and downlinked the video on Nov. 18, just hours before she, cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Flight Engineer Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency departed in their Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft for a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan.

It's 25 minutes long but doesn't seem like it.  Worth a go, I'd say.  Sure beats trying to come up with a real post when I just don't feel like it.


Reposted from Bits & Pieces and YouTube.

A Late Flower

In the corner between the house, porch, stairs and air conditioner, among the leaf litter and mulch, a day lily flower opened today.  All the others are gone except this one stem, and it even has a couple more buds on it that may open.  Here it is, late November, there have been several frosts and cold stretches.  But there it is.  Have a good upcoming holiday, everyone.

Highest Resolution Machu Picchu Picture

See the pic here.

The Last Nice Day?

Yesterday was beautiful for this time of year, sunny and in the mid-sixties.  Probably the last time we will see anything that good until Spring, and unfortunately that also meant that this was to be a workday.  So, after an inauspicious start to the day, I got to work outside, took a break to watch the Badger game, then was joined by my wife outside for even more work.  Gutters, leaves, mulch, house washing, stairs scrubbing, garden cleanup and more.  But now the yard looks good and ready for Winter, I just hope we are, too.
The garden has not been done yet in this pic, there will be more pictures and discussion of the garden and compost bin shortly over at my garden blog.  I'll try to do it soon, but I'm not really in a writing mood right now, it just takes too long to get it juuuust right.  OCD, y'know.






I'm already eyeing up a possible Spring project for next year, cleaning up along the side of the garage.  This past year I pretty well poisoned with Round-Up every weed that tried to grow over there.  My first thoughts are to remove and wash the rock that is there, even out the dirt, and put down a good landscape cloth.  Then I think we will get several stepping stones and use the same rock around them.  Then, hopefully, it will stay neat with little maintenance for years to come.

We have not decided what we are doing for some of the holidays yet, but no one should hold their breath.  I've always hated to travel and if you expect that to change then you're nuts.

PTFO

Blogs and Writers

I got started reading blogs long ago, shortly after we got the internet.  Over time I have read many blogs that either ran out of steam or I grew bored with and moved on, but there are some that I still read to this day or was referred to from one of those first ones I read.  Most of it started with the old blog 'Random Acts of Reality' by Brian Kellet, aka Tom Reynolds.  That blog is no longer, but I do have a link to his current page on the right.  From there I moved out to Diamond Geezer and Bill Sticker, all of these from across the pond, and looking at their blogrolls I picked up on Tears Before Pearls and others that are no longer on my radar.  Thus, most of what I read originated from the UK, and most just happened to have something to do with healthcare, since most started from an ambulance driver's blog.

What I have come to realize, however, is that many bloggers are actual writers.  At least the ones I read, and that may not be coincidence.  Writers should be able to put together a pretty well written post normally and that is what makes it enjoyable to read and keep coming back.  Even my newest blog on my reading list turns out to be a writer in Georgia, Mike Firesmith.

I'm no writer.  Oh, I write here, and I enjoy it, but I am no storyteller or wordsmith.  I know my limitations and am comfortable with them.  My place may not be much and it may not be very interesting to too many other people, but I like it.  Thank you to all who I read and have read in the past.  You may have inspired me to start this little page, but believe me, I know I am not a writer and I have no aspirations to be one.  But, please, continue what you do, I enjoy all of you!

These blogs and more listed in the right column.

Election Day

If one more person tells me to vote I'm going to pop a friggin blood vessel.  I am so sick of the flyers, phone calls, mailings and door knockers I want to scream (sound familiar?).  I should refuse to vote anymore until we have more realistic campaign periods, like a reasonable six weeks instead of two-plus god damn years.

I will be off to cast my ballot soon tonight.

If there are any higher powers then they better help whoever knocks on my door or calls my phone tonight.  I am almost enraged.  Here's what I don't get:

Why the hell isn't everybody?

Leaves and Candy

Today seems almost like a weekday and I'm playing hooky from work.  My wife was required to work today so she got up and left early, also there is no Badger game today, this is their bye week.  Nonetheless, it is Saturday and I had stuff to do.  I finally left for the grocery store late this morning, and when I got back it was time to tackle leaves.

Most of the leaves have fallen in the neighborhood, our tree in back is still holding on to a bunch for some reason.  Today is cool, dry and overcast, good leaf raking and mulching weather.  I started by raking all the leaves in front into one big pile that I then attacked with the mulcher.  Then I moved on to the back alternately using the rake, blower and mulcher.  By the time I was done I had barely enough leaf mulch for our flower beds, but I'll probably have to do it once more with fewer leaves in a couple weeks when I do the gutters.  I don't think I'll ever put leaves by the street again, in fact, I think I only put some out there the first year we were here.  It's so easy to mulch the leaves, like I did or with the mower exclusively like my neighbor Dave, and not have to put anything out for collection.  Of course, if I had 2 or 3 more trees I might feel differently.

On Wednesday night we had somewhere between 30 and 50 trick or treaters, not as many as we expected, but there were many cute costumes and even some parents were dressed up in nice costumes.  They came in several small groups and when it got fully dark there was nothing, not even teenage stragglers.  Now we have tons of leftover candy that I don't need and my wife doesn't want.  Problems, sweet problems, eh?

Now the rest of the day is mine.  Later on, my wife will be coming home from work and a couple hours later a friend is coming over for movies and pizza.  Happy Saturday to you!