Ice & Amaryllis

The bed time I was aiming for has come and gone, yet I still have things to do.  I can't believe the evening slipped by so quickly into night, 6:00 pm turned to 10:00 pm in the wink of an eye. Time is funny that way.  When there is little to do, time drags on relentlessly, moving ever more slowly, but when you have a deadline there seems to never be enough to meet it.

Stuck Mama

Mama Manx likes to play this game where she gets up on the roof, comes down to a trellis that's about 7 feet high and acts like she can't get down. She paces back and forth on the 18 inch 2X4 that tops the trellis, venturing out on the wisteria occasionally to see if she can walk down it to the railing on the porch. She acts very pathetic until I reach up, get a good hold on her, bring her down and put her inside.  She gets all excited and happy that I rescued her, drinks water, eats, then goes back out side and gets on the roof again. We go through the same routine over and over. She seems to really get a thrill out of it.

If I I simply go back inside and leave up there long enough she will get down by herself, but then she acts miffed that I didn't rescue her. If I'm not home, she'll act pitiful for Laurie, but since Laurie can't reach her without getting a step stool, Mama Manx is left to her own and she gets down by herself for Laurie.

Laurie says she training me to get her off the roof, which is true and fine by me. My rescuing her seems to make her very happy and a happy kitty is a healthy kitty.

Outside Looking In

I looked up "Outside Looking In" on youtube, and sure enough, there was a music video by Jordan Pruitt of the same name. Ms. Pruitt's song is definitely not my style of music, and I couldn't relate to the video at all, but like "Inside Looking Out" the opposite is a song title as well.

I'm still recovering from whatever virus I had, so I spent the day hanging around, doing photos of the cats looking in through the window, wanting in. I made them wait until I photographed them looking through the blinds before I let them in, so I usually got an earful when I finally opened the door. I also photographed some of the birds through the window. The birds were hard to photograph because they don't stay in the clear for more than a few seconds.

I spent a good deal of time on Robert Felix's website iceagenow.com. He's also the author of "Not by Fire but by Ice" about the next ice age. What I found interesting about his site is that a lot of the data and info he presents is what I studied in climatology 30 years ago. Back then global warming wasn't an issue, it was the next ice age. I was mentioning to Laurie that ice ages are triggered when large portions of continents are covered with snow.  That reminded her that she had heard Mr. Felix on Coast to Coast AM and told me to look him up. I also found it interesting that a website about the ice age had advertisements for camera gear. Hmmm! I thought. I have a photo of the day site and it gets advertisements for pretty much everything but camera gear!  Google seems to be missing the boat on the ad sense.

I finally got up enough energy to vacuum the house, and did some LaTeX coding on Laurie's paper. Other than that, I rested, worked on recovering and photographed critters that were outside looking in.

Claws & Fangs

The sunset was colorful tonight both in the northern skies and in the southern skies.  The temperature was 10º F at 7:15 am, so either it stabilized overnight or warmed back up before sunrise. We had a sunny day, but I don't think the PNM building ever showed a temperature over 31ºF. Nevertheless, the west side of the mountains had much less snow this afternoon, and most of the snow had melted off the road. There is still a couple inches of snow covering the property, otherwise.

Rosencrantz likes to lay on my legs and show his claws when I pet him, but every time I grab my camera to get a photo of his claws, he would retract them. I finally got a photo  with his claws out. It kind of reminds me of Dr. Strange Love.

Sunset looking north

Sunset looking south

Frozen Beach

The thermometer read -12º F when I checked it at 7:45 am. It might have gotten colder, but that's the coldest I saw. Any temperature below zero is cold. While it is not uncommon for us to get near zero and sub-zero temperatures at our house, the sub-zero temperatures are causing problems in Albuquerque and other parts of New Mexico that don't often get this cold. Schools, universities, national labs and some of the state and local governments are closing until Monday to cut down on their use of natural gas and power.  The temperatures are looking better for tonight — it was 10º F at 8:00 pm. Therefore, it may only drop to zero tonight.

I walked out to the bosque and photographed the Sandias from the river bank and also got photos of the ice along the river's edge. The bosque and mountains are beautiful with all the snow, but it was still darn cold out. As I was walking out to the gate, I noticed a trail in the snow that ran from the old house, between a cottonwood and the red VW. I followed it on the other side of the cottonwood, and it went under one of the camp trailers, around the back of the chicken house, to the irrigation ditch, and into the culvert that runs under the fence that separates the back of the property from the main irrigation ditch. This trail is being used by the raccoons to go between the old house, where they live in the roof, and the ditch where they must be scavenging for food. I thought they hibernated in the winter, but by the evidence of how well their trail is used, they seem to be quite active right now.

I still have a slight sore throat and I am still feeling fatigued, but I had a better appetite today, so that is a good sign. As the temperatures warm up, maybe I will get more energy and get to normal again.

Black Ice

Sandias with ice on the Rio Grande

Raccoon Trail

Inside Looking Out

Does anyone remember Grand Funk Railroad's "Inside Looking Out"? It's really not very good, but seems particularly fitting for sub-freezing days and below zero nights. I really wanted to go out and photograph the Sandias from the river tonight, but with my sore throat hanging on, and the temperature at 10º F at 5:00 pm, I decided against it.

I don't think the PNM building downtown ever showed a temperature above 1º F today. It may have frozen and couldn't register above one, or perhaps it was averaging the ambient temperature and the wind chill. The wind was brutal, and bit any exposed bare flesh. UNM closing today probably saved many young women from getting frost bitten bosoms walking between classes and waiting for the shuttle buses. It doesn't seem to matter how cold it gets outside, many young women with cleavage prefer to leave it in plain sight.

Speaking of In Plain Sight, one of my programmers got called to be an extra again for whatever episode they are filming. He had put his name in for another film in 2009, which he never got called for; then last February he got called to be an extra on In Plain Sight. The back of his head made its debut on national TV on that episode. I hope they don't make him stand around in the cold all day tomorrow.

The kitties where out and in a few times this morning before I left for the office. The first time Puck asked to go out, he took three steps out into the snow, turned around and came back in for another hour before he went out again. Guildenstern stays out in the cold and snow much longer than the other kitties. I guess he keeps warm from being such a big cat. The rest of the kitties pop out for a few minutes, then come back in and ask for food.

The weather widget is forecasting seven below zero tonight for Corrales. Since it was down to -4 º F at 9:00 pm, the temperature will probably drop well below -7 tonight at our house. I think I'll stay inside looking out.

Snow Day

 I only stepped outside today to look at the snow and knock it off the canopy. Laurie and the cats ventured out beyond the deck into the garden, so Laurie gets the honor of having the photo of the day.

My sore throat is hanging on, which is the reason I didn't go out and play in the snow with the kitties and Laurie today. It's not so bad that I can't swallow like last week, but it is still sore and annoying. So I did some work from home, took a half a dozen photos of Rosencrantz and the snow, then started on taxes in the late afternoon. The overcast skies and light snow made it seem like the day never fully developed.