Saturday, February 20, 2021

A Week of Hibernation

 

And WHAT a week!

It started on Sunday...and it snowed...and snowed...and then it snowed some more...

With it the temperatures dropped...and dropped...from low teens to single digits...then into negatives.

It wasn't just us...even in the deep South it was frozen...with alligator snouts protruding from the ice to stay alive.

Although they cannot hibernate...they can reduce their metabolism to a bare minimum and know to keep their snouts above the surface when it freezes so they can breathe. This is called snorkeling.  The tip of their snout is made of cartilage and remains unharmed.

Stocked up on Friday of last week...and baked and roasted and stayed inside all week. Who knew how well spicy brown mustard went with venison, anyway??? They say up in the 40's next week. I will venture out, then!

Texas has been hammered by the ice and freezing cold.  In part, because of their off the grid approach to electricity. Playing Devil's Advocate...having their own independent grid has worked well for them for 20 years. And no...it wasn't the Green Deal (...which hasn't even been implemented yet...) like Abbot falsely claimed...or windmills...but that this was unprecedented cold, snow and ice in their area.  Simply put...their grid just wasn't built for weather like this...

Apparently, neither was this guy. 

Ted Cruz.

Who immediately left with his wife and daughters to CANCUN when the power in their home went out...with everybody else's.


 And I get it.  Freezing cold...burst pipes...icicles hanging...frozen water in toilets and bathtubs...

I get it. 

But you are a Texas Senator.

And your constituents are freezing...some of them to death...literally.

The hew and cry was so loud, so fast, that he left the family to their Cancun Ritz-Carlton vacation and hopped standby the very next morning at 6:30 AM.

Here is where it gets a bit dodgy.

Instead of just manning up to it

"I fucked up."

He tried to lie his way out...it was all his daughters idea...they wanted to vacation with friends...I was only trying to be a good dad...flying them down and then coming right back...

Even though his wife had flown down as well.

Then someone from United called BS...because his original ticket back was for Saturday.

Then his wife's emails surfaced from days before where she had invited others to join them in Cancun because

"...the power is out and the house is FREEZING."

He finally admitted he had lied.

sigh

By today a bar in DC was serving these


 That didn't take long...

And The Resistance is strategizing for 2022.

So there is that.

Personally, I am still basking in the glow of having a warm, wonderful, compassionate, competent, intelligent President for the first time in 4 years, okay???

But yes, in 2022 I will help vote Todd Young out.

The big news this week was that Perseverance made it to Mars.

I watched the landing in real time on the NASA channel...holding my breath along with those in the control room...


 Until the Rover settled into the rusty red soil...

Their joy was contagious.



And one of the first photos sent back...


Okay..maybe it's a little shopped...

I am excited. Perseverance came equipped with a helicopter drone of its own to get more/better photographs this time.

Can't wait to see the images that come back.

Coronavirus news is slowly improving. 

Worldwide, the daily cases dropped from over a half million per day to about 300,000

In the US, we have dropped from 300,000 new infections each day to just over 100,000.

 

 Progress.

The death rate for those infected remains constant at 3 out of 100.


 Sightly concerning is that the California variant and the UK mutation have seemed to combine.


They are still researching what this might/might not affect.

The vaccination process is rolling out more smoothly now and many have already received at least one (often both) of their jabs.

Still waiting for our age limit to drop from 65 to 60.

Soon.

Oh, and this guy died this week-

Rush Limbaugh

and the world became a little less hate-filled and angry. 

Good riddance to bad rubbish. 

Seriously.

Got to see (in pictures) Kaylee and Hannah this week...so grown up now.


 and Kaylee, and her girlfriend Hailey

 (they are absolutely smitten)


Ahhh...young love!


Excited, because Koko, a Twitter artist friend of mine, is working on a commissioned piece similar to this one for me...


Only in shades of blue, aqua and turquoise. 

Can't wait!

Angie has now beaten Covid...and got a bunch of this snow in Tennessee as well.

Brenda and I are envying Diane who is calling back from Orlando

"It is 85 today!"

click

 

And for those of us who fight dark under-eye circles every day, and should have bought stock in concealer long ago...

Apparently, now we are en vogue.

...laughing...

(sorry, still not giving up my cover stick)

 

Now to begin my Cinderella Day with a good bubble bath and shampoo- before the business of dishes and laundry and dusting and scrubbing!

 

Enjoy Your Weekend! 


Oh well...