Worth Mentioning
Thirty-two years after it was launched into space, the HST team celebrated the Hubble Space Telescope’s contribution to space exploration by publishing a photograph of five galaxies which are merging into one. Talk about a merger! This event is expected to take about a billion years to finish. I keep wondering, what’s the due diligence on something like this?
The five galaxies involved are called the Hickson Compact Group (HCG) 40, an interesting name for a progressive rock group. (Their music is probably spacy, doncha think?) Contemplating this information is staggering on many levels. One, that we’ve achieved the capabilities as a species to look into deep space and understand this. Two, that the event will take so long. Such patience is required. If I was one of the stars involved in the galaxy merger, I’d be, like, man, this is taking forever. Such is my response at a grocery store when I need to wait an extra sixty seconds because people can’t remember their PIN (no, I’m not looking at my wife), or my exasperation rising due to pages loading v e e r r r y s s s l l o o o w w w l l l y y y on the net. I can’t imagine waiting a billion years for anything, although it’s all relative, innit? Stars live longer than I do, so far as we know at this point.
So if you have the time and resources, that is to say, if you’re not suffering from food and housing insecurity, and you’re not a refugee from war, famine, or natural disaster, and if you have the net connections and a computer, in other words, if you’re a fortunate person in relative measure, it’s worth taking a few minutes to consider this far-away event. Helps add a little more perspective.
Cheers
Floofsticate
Floofsticate (floofinition) – To live among animals or with animals, or to live a life involving animals. Not to be confused with floofticate. Related: rusticate.
In use: “The COVID-19 pandemic saw a surge in pet ownership as more humans chose to floofsticate with animals, a recognition of the warmth, comfort, and friendship that animals offer.”
A Train Dream
Yeah, I know what train dreams supposedly signify in some circles. This is different. Also, this isn’t about the rock group called Train.
I was high on a hillside. Turning, I looked left over my shoulder and down into a green valley. As I further turned and looked, I saw a city in the green valley. Blmues and silver dominated the city. While I watched, moving closer, I understood that they were trains. What I had first thought of as a network of roads were trains. Trains were going in every direction, at different levels in a beautifully synchronized dance. Most trains were short, with a stubby engine and then two or three long cars, but some trains were ten to twelve cars in length. None seemed like a super train.
For a period, I just watched the trains, getting a feel for their travel, seeing how none touched the ground, that there were no tracks, that areas were set up where the trains stopped, how they didn’t have wheels.
Then, I was down close to the trains, moving toward my train. I knew that no one owned any land. We all lived in trains and stayed on the move. Some trains were full of extended families. You bought an engine and car and added on as the family grew, even incorporating businesses into your train.
Then, dream shift, my wife and I exited our train. It was day, a little cloudy. We were on muddy lowlands by a beach. The tide was out. We planned to go tide pooling. But large black rocks stole my attention. Going up a hill, I discovered it the rock was a statue. More dotted the land. Ah, we’re on Easter Island, I understood.
I hurried back down the hill to tell my wife. She was milling along the beach. Other trains and people had arrived. I recognized my wife’s brother-in-law and snuck up on him, surprising him. We were up on a slight elevation, looking down, where his wife and son were. His son’s wife wasn’t there, but my late mother-in-law was. All of them were not far away from their train, a small, beige engine with a single, short beige car. I said to him, “Oh, you brought all of them with you.”
He didn’t reply, and then I was down by my wife and my train. The train was a pretty chrome blue, very new and sleek. I walked along it, smiling and looking around as I thought, “This is going to take me a long way.”
Then I stopped and faced the choppy waters of a dark blue sea.
Dream end.
Thursday’s Theme Music
Sunrise cracked the night apart at 6:21 AM, flooding the southeastern windows with glorious, warm light, putting an end to a night of rain. Other than that, today, Thursday, April 21, 2022, is copying much of Wednesday’s weather. The wind has abated but the temperature will range up to a 54 degrees F high from its current 46 and then fall back to 38 tonight. Rain will drop by and dash off. Clouds will linger, mingle, and part. Sunset will begin at 7:59 PM.
The reservoirs are filling so we appreciate the rain. Snow keeps dropping and piling up on the mountains, and that’s appreciated, too.
Today’s theme music is a little different. I read a summary about the most popular music for productivity. The article discussed lo-fi, full of hissing vinyl and imperfections, and chillhop. At the end, based on search results from Spotify, is piano music by Ludovico Einaudi. So, I’m filling the morning mental music stream with his greatest hits.
Stay chill, don’t neg, wear a mask as needed, and get the jabs when prudent. It’s prudent for me to now reward my neurons and tastebuds with a little darkly roasted, ground beans drenched in hot water.
Cheers
Floofstress
Floofstress (floofinition) – 1. Force or influence caused by an animal.
In use: “Joan and Carrie would love to travel more but the floofstress brought on by adopting several special needs animals kept them at home.”
2. Pressure or anxiety brought on by an animal.
In use: “Whenever he’d not seen his cats for an hour, he went and found them, assuring himself that they were okay, alleviating the floofstress which he felt.”
3. Female animal who has power, authority, or ownership.
In use: “Moose outweighed his mother by two to one but she was the house floofstress, and he obeyed her just like the other ‘normal’ sized felines and dogs.”
A Pessimistic View of the Mid-terms
Jeff’s post and pessimism is a mirror to my views. The way the GOP behaves shocks me, but the Democrats react with such ineptitude. Oddly, while Republicans want to curtail rights and end government programs, effectively dragging the United States back several decades, it’d the Democrats who are using political strategy and tactics from the 1950s to counter the GOP’s machine. Make no mistake, it is a calculating and cunning machine that the GOP uses to throttle freedom, democracy, and equality, while blaring that they’re all about freedom, democracy, and equality. The truth is outed by the GOP’s actions (and lack of it), but as Jeff points out, and others highlight in comments, soundbites, amplified, repeated, and distorted, rule US politics.
I try like hell to be an optimist. I keep thinking my fellow Americans will ultimately do the right thing when it matters most. When they see the clear difference between our two political parties, they will surely choose the one that gives us the best chance of continuing to live in a democratic society and address the vital issues confronting us in the 21st century.
Unfortunately, of late, I’ve failed to maintain that positivity. I find myself increasingly in the category of folks who say the November mid-term elections will be a catastrophe for Democrats. Our current president has done a lot to move the country forward. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to matter to folks.
The American people are pissed. About everything, it seems. And, if I’m to be completely honest with myself, why shouldn’t they be? Inflation is out of control; the pandemic is still lurking, although…
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