And so I have completed another journey around the sun and lived to tell about it. We had a nice family dinner and the guys made a strawberry cheesecake to celebrate. I guess I’m in my mid 50s now. I’m cool with that.
July 2022
Dancing In The Moonlight.
I miss “Xena”. Any feeble attempt at a reboot would be just that, feeble. Xena knew how to kick ass and she knew how to have fun.
Glimpse.
NASA unveiled the first image from the new Webb telescope today. The telescope is in orbit around the Earth and Sun, about 1.5 million miles away from Earth, and can “see” farther than any telescope to date.
As reported by NASA, this image represents the same area of the Universe as if you were to pick up one grain sand from a beach and hold it out at arms length to look at it. The number of galaxies and other celestial phenomena in this impossibly small area of our Universe should keep everything in perspective. We should be humble. And this is only the first photo.
Observing.
Truman has spent much of the morning watching the wildlife (mostly doves and roadrunners) outside my office window. He did, however, take a moment to look at the weird guy with the box that takes photos.
Wallpaper, Part 2.
So, last week I wrote about a new wallpaper I was using on my devices. Over the weekend I logged on in the middle of the night (because I was bored and couldn’t sleep) and I realized the wallpaper was a touch too bright for the nighttime. It wasn’t super startling, but it was a bit overwhelming. I promptly dug up an old wallpaper I used a while back and found it much more nighttime friendly.
So here it is in its full resolution glory. I don’t remember where I originally found this, so I can’t give proper credit. I didn’t create it; if I find the creator I’ll update this entry with the proper credit. You can click on the image to open up the full resolution version.
premium black and gold lines abstract background
Walk.
It’s much too hot to go for my daily 30 minute walk during the day. Last year I walked very early in the morning, which doesn’t really work out well for my schedule on the weekends. This summer I’m walking after sunset and the change has worked out well.
I also gave up listening to podcasts while walking after returning from my storm chasing trip last month. The change has been good for my mental well-being. Listening to tech pundits argue and hypothesize over Elon Musk’s next move was getting tedious and was weighing down my mood. Now I enjoy the quiet of the desert and exchange pleasantries with neighbors also out walking during the golden hour.
We need everything we can do to make life better. These steps and this time are keeping me sane. I hope everyone can find their center or happy place. It would make the world a little more enjoyable.
Monsoon.
The Monsoon has ramped up in these parts. Looking at the weather radar as I write this (21:27 / 9:27 PM MST), there’s a bunch of storms headed in our general direction from Mexico. We’ll see if they make it up here tonight.
In the meanwhile, during our adventures today we saw lots of lightning. Lightning is cool.
Relative.
My husband is an hour away from me in this photo. This was taken on US 70 at the Arizona-New Mexico State Line. I’m standing in Mountain Standard Time, he is standing in Mountain Daylight Time.
Caturday.
There will be days where Truman spends most of his time upstairs relaxing in the master suite or the adjacent Observatory in his cat bed. (The observatory was built by the original designer of this house, we use it as an office and gaming area). Other days he’ll situate himself at my feet as I make my way through the workday. As long as there are occasionally treats and a couple of scritches behind the ears, he’s good. Otherwise he stretches out and only wakes up if I move my chair. We both assure he won’t be run over.
