ARCTIC METEOR TURNS NIGHT INTO DAY: On the evening of Nov. 16th, aurora tour guide Tony Bateman of northern Finland was indoors, warming up between auroras, when his surroundings began to vibrate. “There was a huge bang and the cottage shook violently,” he reports. “At first I thought it was an earthquake. Or maybe a tree fell on the cottage roof! I walked outside and inspected the trees. Everything looked okay.” A quick replay of his aurora webcam solved the mystery. “It was an incredible meteor,” he says.
“It gave me goosebumps to see the night sky turn blue as the meteor exploded,” he says. “Auroras and a fireball–what a night!”
This week Earth has been moving through a stream of debris from Comet Encke, source of the annual Taurid meteor shower. Taurids are rich in fireballs. However, the trajectory of this meteor suggests it was no Taurid.
It appears to have been a sporadic–that is, a random meteor from no particular comet. Every day, Earth is peppered with sporadic meteors from a diffuse swarm filling the inner solar system. NASA statistics show that sporadic fireballs as bright as Venus appear somewhere on Earth more than 100 times daily. Fireballs as bright as a quarter Moon occur once every ten days, and fireballs as bright as a full Moon once every few months or so. The Arctic fireball of Nov. 16th belongs in the rarest of those three categories–a lucky catch, indeed.
Dancing With Fools 
Story above just goes to show flaming rocks can drop on your existence at any time, not even a hardhat can help you there.
The Universe is full of surprises.
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….getting weary of the wind up here. Went from advisory to warning until 6:00PM
A High Wind Warning is issued when the following conditions are expected:
1) sustained winds of 40 mph or higher for one hour or more
OR
2) wind gusts of 58 mph or higher for any duration.
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I find wind completely annoying except when riding the motorcycle.
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I went through 70mph straight line winds in a Class A RV. Unfortunately I was parked next to the Mighty Mississippi where my patio furniture went swimming without authorization. 😦
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Cold here today. Walked down to the mailbox twenty minutes ago, pulled the hood of my coat up over my head. Cold winds ablowing.
Devoted myself to the room in the basement, vacuumed corners, where ceiling meets wall, wall meets floor. Amazing how few cobwebs there are now since that part of the basement was turned into a room with walls, ceiling and carpeting. All the cooties and webs are on the other side of the wall, the utility side with cinder block walls, and wood beams for ceiling and concrete for a floor. I didn’t get around to that part of the basement yet. I wanted to get our Xmas room ready for Christmas. Everything got dusted, stuff I tossed on the table was put away. It’s ready!
I’m going to have to keep moving like today, like yesterday, so my legs work. I sat around for over 3 weeks taking care of Bob, no walks, and I slept on the couch to be near his hospital bed. All that really took me down. My legs ached all day, every day until I took an Excedrin. That has now passed as I’ve been moving more. After standing for several hours at the pot luck though, my legs were really tired last night. They were better after a night’s sleep, so I kept up the pace and hit the basement.
We didn’t get the winter cover on the pool and rains have added too much water and it’s almost reached the plastic tube that spits clean water into the pool. One of the siphon hoses was still laying on the ground next to the pool so I went out there, put one end in and started sucking. *spit, splut, spit* but I got it going on the first try. REALLY cold water and sand in my mouth. Rinsed my mouth out when I got back in the house. Pool still draining, hope I don’t have to pull the tube out tonight because of the fear of draining too much water out. 😦 I don’t want to have to start the siphon up again. *blech*
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There is a way to siphon without getting a mouthful, use the hose as a pump. Drop it in the pool and hold it close to the bottom, plug the hose at the delivery end and pull up on the hose at the same time, don’t pull the hose out of the water tho, when the hose is near the top of the pool water release the plug(thumb) shove the hose back down in the pool water, plug and lift again, rinse and repeat until you get a steady stream at the delivery end.
Try to keep the delivery end at least halfway down the side, you can lower it as soon as it flows good.
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That space rock exploding!
Took 23 minutes to the Old Post Office for Brazilian seafood dinner after completing but half of the leaf raking. Well, that is just the part which is raked into the street for the city to pick up tomorrow that I finished but half of. Hafta do the rest in the dark, by lamplight.
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Daily total of Nordic stick walking is 48 minutes.
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About half done with the remaining leaves. A chore.
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Done! 🙂
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An interview style article in TNYT today about John Adams and his last opera, “Girls of the Golden West”. Set in the Sierra Nevada just north of Den, the libretto by Peter Sellers is based on writings from the gold rush days. The article has fine pix. Recommended reading.
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I am very familiar with the area around the Buttes and Downieville, spent many hours talking motorcycles with friends on the bench in front of the Downieville Store, there used to be good Deli there, now just snack stuff. Summer only due to the snow gets deep, now a major mountain biker destination for the trails all over.
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And what will we give thanks for this Thanksgiving?
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I’d guess being alive, maybe with friends, not having to eat T-Day dinner from a dumpster, stuff like that.
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I’m thankful:
1) for my health
2) for warm towels right out of the dryer in winter; or warm towels right off the line in summer
3) that I can ride my bike for miles — and it doesn’t feel like it!
4) that my daughters and sons-in-law love me and respect me
5) that I love to cook, even if it’s only for myself
6) that I love to cook for others…the more…the merrier
7) that I don’t have a TeeVee
8) that I enjoy my volunteer work and get positive feedback that it matters
9) for the many good people in my life who I call friends and they call be their friend
10) for music
11) good books
12) the colors in a sunset
13) when it snows
14) when it melts
15) to see the innocence and kindness of children
16) that I’ve been so fortunate in my years here on Earth
17) for lots of really good laughs — especially those moments that I laughed until I cried
18) after I’ve worked in the yard for hours and eyeing the results!
19) that I don’t need reading glasses…yet
20) that, in spite of the Trump-era, I still have a sense of hope
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Nice!
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…and I’m thankful that you liked this, Den!
Thank you for your dedication to DWFs! You’re amazing!
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The Gobbler Hustle:
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Egads! this is kinda disgusting. 😉
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