Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

I was out for an after supper walk last night, flashlight/weather radio combo in hand, light on low and the NOAA Weather Radio station on Mt. Lemmon gently telling me about the current conditions and the upcoming weather. It’s the old school way of assessing the weather but I still enjoy it very much.

Something caught my eye in the night sky. I looked up and saw my first “Starlink Satellite Train” moving across the sky. I immediately knew what I was seeing and while these trains do pollute our sky bit, especially for those of us into astronomy, I have to admit watching the line glide across the sky so effortlessly was pretty nifty.

I tried to take a photo with my iPhone 13 Pro; the result is what you see above.

Even though it’s the weekend, I was up early at my usual time this morning. I think this comes along with getting older. I’m just up at sunrise these days and I actually feel good.

I’ve been fighting a little bit of the sniffles since last weekend’s flight home. It’s nothing dramatic; just a light cold. Other than an occasional cough or sneeze I’m feeling pretty decent.

I went for my morning walk and I was delighted with the colors in the sky. I turned the corner and started heading west, where it was apparent a storm system is moving into the area. But Mother Nature treated us to a rainbow first.

I got in the house just as it started raining. Weather models say it should clear up by this afternoon.

There’s a small room off our upstairs office that serves as my man cave. I sit in here often when I want to just have some alone time, something critical to my mental health. The room is stucco covered cinder block on three walls. When the house was built it was originally going to be the home to a telescope for the observatory intended for this side of the house. Directly below this room is a wood working shop that Chris and Mike keep busy in.

My telescope lives in here, ready to be taken out on the roof when I’m ready to gaze at the stars at night time. I do this several times a month, usually when the moon isn’t lighting up the sky.

We are lucky to have places to engage in our hobbies and the like. Continuing the theme of the week, I am thankful that we were able to find the ideal location in the desert and live together in relative harmony.

I’m sitting in my space right now as I type this blog entry. Truman must come in and sit next to me, occasionally looking up to see if I’m ready to dispense treats. I can hear him purring.

It’s a good way to start this weird workday, the day after Thanksgiving.

Chris made some napkin holders for us last night.

Preparations are underway for the grand Thanksgiving meal here in our desert home. I just ran to the liquor store for a couple of bottles of wine to complement the experience. This was after I prepped the table and cleaned up the space a bit.

Today I am watching a video from 1960 featuring the beauty of an all-electric home, A Medallion Home.

My dad built his own all electric home for us beginning in 1975. We moved in September of 1977, the day before my first day of 4th grade, as a matter of fact. I can easily remember my night in my own bedroom. The hallway light fixtures hadn’t been installed yet and we had “pig tail” lightbulbs hanging down in the appropriate places. There were bare wires where the smoke detector was to go. And while my sister and my ceiling light fixture in our own bedrooms looked identical, one of them had a pull chain that was cut off in the very center of the shade while the other did not. I believe it was my sister’s fixture that had the pull chain. I also had to use the Nutone Central Vacuum outlet in her bedroom to vacuum my bedroom. I found this upsetting; why wasn’t I worthy of my own plug? Occasionally she would get angry with me about something and then I’d have to use the one in the hallway that didn’t allow the vacuum to reach the far reaches of the room. No one would notice.

Our family’s all electric house didn’t last for very long in that a wood stove was added a few years later because electricity prices skyrocketed in the late 1970s and the bills became a challenge. Years after I moved out on my own Dad installed a forced hot air furnace for the first floor but the second floor retained its electric baseboard heat.

I often write about the world inspiring me in ways just when I need inspiration. As mentioned in my previous entry, I’ve been struggling a little bit and I’m always looking for ways to alleviate that struggle.

A quick aside: there’s a part of me that struggles with the fact that I share my feelings like this in a public forum such as this blog. Just to let you know where my head is at.

Anyway, another bit of inspiration that fell into my lap was this excellent blog entry from The Original Mac Guy. It’s called “Garbage In, Garbage Out“. Jim writes about we are what we consume. I really enjoyed his blog entry and it’s just the reminder I needed today. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Here’s another link in case you didn’t see the one above.