30 Dec

 

`Flagstaff Almanac

Week 52 Day 364   Flag Today  48° \16°	Sky Cover 5% Wind 6mph Gusts 13mph
Active fire:   223miles Risk of fire: Moderate	Near Lightning: 2510mi
Air Quality: Fair Sunshine	Dec. Averages: Temps: 44° \ 17° Moisture 5 Days

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

15 - 1/1/24   Arrive Sober or Get Pulled Over Link  15-21 15-21 Gluten-free Baking Week 16-23 Cookie Exchange Week    Posadas 17-23

Saturnalia 25-1/2/24 Chanukah 25-31 It's About Time Week 26-1/1 Kwanzaa 27-12/3  National Deal Week

Daily Observations

National Bicarbonate of Soda Day Bacon Day Link  Link Falling Needles Family Fest Day Link

Festival of Enormous Changes @ The Last Minute Peeps Days Link

Today’s Thoughts

I’m having a nice winter day. Headed to the grocery store for some fresh foods. Store was not busy. Easy Peasy. Then I flipped the mattress and washed the mattress pad and put on clean linens. The hacienda is only about 45 minutes from the main town of Merida. Leaving Sabin, about ½ the journey to Merida is narrow, windy paved roads and then a highway. The narrow road was paved…in about 1940. Most of the road has huge trees and bushes within about 6” of the road. There are for about 10 haciendas…otherwise just bushes and trees and pullouts when a big truck is coming. Vegetation is thick for at least a mile from the road. One drives to a couple of small villages. The people are friendly as one drives by. The poverty is very visible, lots of street dogs. Most small houses had nice Christmas lights, and many had shrines lit of various Catholic saints. Walking in the rain forest you hear many different birds, large snakes abound, and lots of flying bugs with mosquitos that bite at all exposed skin. My legs and arms still itch. They all have wide speed bumps made of bricks to slow traffic. If one doesn’t slow to 5mph, it is what we called Whoopee Bumps when I was a child.   I mention all this because it reminded me of many of the Rez roads. If the vegetation was gone, they would be just like Rez Roads. The roads could also be many of the safari roads in Africa without the wildlife around.

 Enjoy

Important inventions…

1961: Cordless Tools Black and Decker releases its first cordless drill, but designers can’t coax more than 20 watts from its NiCd batteries. Instead, they strive for efficiency, modifying gear ratios and using better materials. The revolutionary result puts new power in the hands of DIYers and—thanks to a NASA contract—the gloves of astronauts. Honorable Inventions: Industrial Robot, Carbon Fiber Composites

States with similar size to countries around the world.

Transylvania Nothing to do with Dracula or vampires, this proto-state – a colony set up by pioneer and land speculator Richard Henderson in 1775 – was situated in what is now the central and eastern parts of Kentucky. Henderson was poised to purchase the vast swaths of land to form his state but the Province of Virginia, which claimed jurisdiction over the territory, stepped in to thwart the deal. The acquisition was voided the following year.

Historic Events

1903 – A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois killed at least 605 people. 1916 – Russian mystic and advisor to the Tsar Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was murdered by a group led by Prince Felix Yusupov. His frozen, partially-trussed body was found in a Moscow river three days later.

Birthdays with some quotes

86 – Paul Stookey, American singer-songwriter (Peter, Paul, & Mary) @80 – Jack Riley, American actor (d. 2016) Bob Newhart Show @79 – Bo Diddley (Ellas Otha Bates), singer-songwriter, guitarist (d. 2008; heart failure) I thank you in advance for the great round of applause I’m about to get. I opened the door for a lot of people, and they just ran through and left me holding the knob. 79 – Michael Nesmith, American singer-songwriter, Monkee @77 – Bert Parks, American actor and beauty pageant host (d. 1992; lung cancer) @79 – Fred Ward, American character actor (d. 2022) @73 – Simon Guggenheim, American businessman (d. 1941) @72 – Skeeter Davis (Mary Frances Penick), American singer-songwriter (d. 2004; breast cancer) @70 – Rudyard Kipling, Indian-English author (d. 1936; hemorrhage) If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too… If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings- nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And- which is more- you’ll be a Man, my son! 70 – Meredith Vieira, American journalist @66 – Davy Jones, English singer-songwriter and actor, Monkee (d. 2012; heart attack) 64 – Tracey Ullman, English-American actress 62 – Sean Hannity, American radio and television host @55 – Del Shannon, American singer-songwriter(d. 1990; suicide) 50 – Jason Behr, American actor 48 – Tiger Woods, American golfer 46 – Laila Ali, Boxer 43 – Eliza Dushku, American actress 41 – Kristin Kreuk, Canadian actress 37 – Lebron James, Basketball 37 – Caity Lotz, American actress 31 – Carson Wentz, American football player

…The End for today…

 

28 Dec

 

`Flagstaff Almanac

Week 52 Day 363   Flag Today  46° \24°	Sky Cover 10% Wind 4mph Gusts 13mph
Active fire: 356miles Risk of fire: Moderate	Near Lightning: 1452mi
Air Quality: Moderate Sunshine	Dec. Averages: Temps: 44° \ 17° Moisture 5 Days

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

15 - 1/1/24   Arrive Sober or Get Pulled Over Link  15-21 15-21 Gluten-free Baking Week 16-23 Cookie Exchange Week    Posadas 17-23 Saturnalia

25-1/2/24 Chanukah 25-31 It's About Time Week 26-1/1 Kwanzaa 27-12/3  National Deal Week

Daily Observations

National Pepper Pot Day Still Need To Do Day Texas Admission Day (28th state)

Tick Tock Day Link YMCA Day (Organization not The Song)

Today’s Thoughts

I sure hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and are ready for a wonderful 2024. I had a great time with my brother, sister-in-law, her sister and husband at my brother’s hacienda in the Yucatan. Most days were in the mid-80’s with one at 90, then the mid 70’s at night. There were also 14 dogs which are very enjoyable for sure. On a sad note, one of the rescues that has been with them for My brother and I spent my first day there shopping in Merida getting essentials for the hacienda. I couldn’t believe Costco. It was bigger than anything in AZ. No self-checkout and about 12 registers. It was very crowded. The checkout lines went from the registers to the back of the store, then curved and headed about half-way back up to the registers…it took 50 minutes to check out.  I took our carts and stood in line while my brother continued shopping and filled both carts. Those in line were very courteous and friendly. When we left people were lined up awaiting carts to get into the store. As we were putting the items in the car, a lady was waiting to take our cart. Very friendly and glad she missed the line for carts. We all went to a Christmas Eve dinner at a long-time friend or Laura and my brother. Very enjoyable. We had another dinner at another friend’s earlier in the week. Also, very enjoyable. The day after Christmas was a trip to a nearby Mayan ruin none of us had seen before. It was about an hour from the Hacienda. It was spectacular and we spent about 4 hours there, including a nice lunch.  The ruin just opened recently to the public. I flew home yesterday. Left the hacienda at 6am, walked into my house about 6:30pm. Technology has hit the US and Mexico. No longer must fill out the forms on the plane as it lands. Customs and immigration are very fast.

 Enjoy

Important inventions…

1960: Pacemaker In 1956, Wilson Greatbatch grabs the wrong resistor and connects it to a device he is building to record heartbeats. When the circuit emits a pulse, he realizes the device can be used to control the beat; in 1960 the first Pacemaker is successfully implanted in a human.

States with similar size to countries around the world.

New Mexico – PolandArizona’s neighbor, New Mexico, is the fifth-largest state, spanning 121,590 square miles of the southwestern U.S. The “Land of Enchantment” is most similar in size to Poland, which has 120,423 square miles of territory. There are 2.1 million people living in New Mexico, significantly fewer than the 37.5 million people who reside in Poland. New Mexico’s capital city is Santa Fe, though the city has a smaller population than the larger cities of Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Rio Rancho. Poland’s capital, Warsaw, is also its most populous city, and is home to an estimated 1.7 million residents.

Historic Events

1851 – The first American YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) opened in Boston, Massachusetts. 1890 – The US Cavalry killed 146 Sioux at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. 1916 – James Joyce’s book Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was published

Birthdays with some quotes

@88 – William Ewart Gladstone, British politician (d. 1898) “Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home.” 85 – Jon Voight, American actor @80 – Mary Tyler Moore, American actress (d. 2017) “Pain nourishes courage. You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you.” 77 – Marianne Faithfull, English actress and singer “If you analyze the bad times you find that it’s because you wanted to have a bad time.” 76 – Ted Danson, American actor 72 – Yvonne Elliman, American singer-songwriter @66 – Andrew Johnson, American politician, 17th President States (d. 1875; strokes) “If I am shot at, I want no man to be in the way of the bullet.” 64 – Paula Poundstone, American comedian “It’s funny that we think of libraries as quiet demure places where we are shushed by dusty, bun-balancing, bespectacled women. The truth is libraries are raucous clubhouses for free speech, controversy, and community. Librarians have stood up to the Patriot Act, sat down with noisy toddlers, and reached out to illiterate adults. Libraries can never be shushed.” @60 – Ed Flanders, American actor (d. 1995; suicide) @59 – Charles Goodyear, American chemist, and engineer (d. 1860; heart attack) 56 – Ashleigh Banfield, Canadian-American journalist 51 – Jude Law, English actor 47 – Danny McBride, American actor 44 – Diego Luna, Mexican actor 41 – Alison Brie, American actress 38 – Alexa Ray Joel, American singer-songwriter

…The End for today…