Good Morning, Don! And a glorious morning it
is! I so understand your enthusiasm for the fall! Here in town we had maybe ½ inch
of snow, cold rain late Friday, and now the skies are crystal blue, temperature
is cool – long shirt sleeve weather – sorry to hear that our little weather
maker caused such problems east and north of us! Three and half feet of snow is
something I don’t wish on anyone. Did you get some of it?
Our trip into the mountains didn’t provide us
with any aspen color. It just hasn’t been cold enough at night for the trees to
realize winter is coming. Here in town, everything is still pretty green, but there are trees here and there that
have gotten the word that it is time to shut down. It was a bit scary thinking
that the rain on Friday could have at any time turned into an ice storm. I’m
beginning to think that maybe global warming is giving us “autumn” as opposed
to the “fall” we usually have.
I’d never heard about Colorado Lows, the
Colorado Haymaker or the Colorado Express Train! Wow! But I have experienced
the Alberta High. Once it makes it this far south, the winds get wicked!
So here in the States we are experiencing a
bit of “drama” as the Republicans throw themselves around and trash dramatically
at Democrats for being the cause of all things bad. I have to admit that it
reminds me of rebellious teenagers lashing out against authority. They want
everyone to follow rules, but don’t feel that they should have to.
The shutdown has been interesting – like what
is considered essential and non-essential. Flight controllers, FEMA. National
Weather – non essential? Full time vs part time and which one to do without depends
on the department…most interesting is how the Republican party has tried to
write exceptions for certain
governmental groups and departments but not necessarily those departments that
are most helpful for the public. It’s like “no” doesn’t apply to them and what
they want.
Last year I read an article on “group think”
that led a large team of experienced back country skiers to cross an avalanche
field even though several members of the team thought it was an unsafe
traverse. There were strong leaders in the group who convinced the group it was
okay, and the desire by the others to belong to the group, to be loyal to the
group, proved to be fatal. We see the same things happening in government. It
appears to be better to be committed to “the group/the party” than it is to show common
sense, be rational or thoughtful.
The really sad thing to me is we are becoming
like other countries in the world where the government can disagree with
itself, hold the people hostage and the people tolerate it. In the States we
have become government for the “Party” instead of government for the people.
Special interests are more important than the man on the street. Such is the
power of democracy.
Doohickey,
gizmo, thingamabob! I believe these
are generational words, not held to a particular society or culture. I’ve
gotten frustrated in class – not been able to find the right word and I’ll
substitute in whatchamacallit – you know,
that thing- and students look at me like I’m speaking a foreign language. Some
of the older students understand and smile – even the ones from foreign countries, but
the younger students just don’t know how to fill in the blanks. They just don't understand "ya know, the STUFF!"
Riddles! Joy of the week. Okay, my last one
was garden globe lights. We don’t have fire flies here, but if it continues to
warm up, maybe we will!
I think yours is chop sticks.
Okay – try this:
Found
world-wide as tines of wood or steel
Used
for meat, vegetables and ice cream
Have a great week everyone!
Carolyn
Figures downloaded from Google Images:
Fig. 1 – autumn trees
Fig. 2 – "Thingamabob" Print Ad retrieved from www.colorbus.com
Fig 3 – Fireflies Photo retrieved from http://www.fanpup.com
Fig 4 - Transport 25 cover designed by Larry Varvel retrieved from Wormholeelectric.com title covers
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