Putting up the Holiday Lights

Well today I put up our holiday decorations and lights. It took several hours and a few hitches to do it. The biggest is that we are having our house painted this month. Therefore, nothing can go on the exterior walls of the house that would be painted. That eliminates the lights above the porch, so I have to redesign the display. I put lights on our deck instead of around the back door. I put a lot of lights in the bushes. But still it makes for a monotone display. So maybe I should get something like a deer to put on the lawn.

Except that our decorations take up a lot of space, 27 boxes of it (I counted such things as the Xmas tree base as a box). I put up the lights first and some broke, so I had to go to the loco Wal-Mart to get another string of 100 white lights. Then some other lights would not work, so I had some time trying to find a set of lights that would work, but I did. I next put up the candelabras. We put a three-candle electric candelabra in each window except in the kitchen. That is 13 three-candelabras. Our neighborhood has the habit of putting up a single white candle in each window, but it is our tradition to put up three red ones instead; I think it looks better. Putting these up is somewhat of a match-it game. I use these X-10 modules like from Radio Shack, so that I can turn on and off all 13 of them with the press of a button. I need to figure out how to deploy all of our candelabras, cords and modules so that when I put them together I don't get stuck because I have a three-pronged plug that wants to go into a two-pronged outlet.

The tree comes next. We use an artificial tree, and we put the tree together in seven layers with branches that are color-coded: yellow, red, black, pink, brown, green and white. Then we put a top on the tree. We also put a toy train set around the tree. The idea here, long ago was to prevent our cats from playing with the ornaments, by scaring them away with a noisy train. However, the train did not work this year; I suppose too many connector bars are missing. So this year it is merely decorative.

Tonight I got out the remote and hit "on". Instantly the lights came on, and I could see that some of the white lights were not working. So I will need to go to the store again. But the holiday lights are up, giving us cheer this Yuletide season until New Year's Day 2003, when we take them down.

International Space Station

When I was a boy around 1955, I read books and magazines about how one day we will have space stations that look like double doughnuts and that these stations will be big and numerous. It is now 2002, the future is here. Do we have space stations? Yes, but we have only one, the International Space Station, much smaller than the ones that Chesley Bonestell imagined in his space art, and difficult to get to. But we do have one, and after looking the times up on a NASA web site, I went outside tonight just before 1800 and saw the space station crossing from right to left with a shuttle docked to it. I enjoyed seeing this bright speck of light traveling in the sky - it indicates that we are progressing into space, although rather slowly. Eventually we will get more space stations up and start colonizing the moon, provided that none of a number of possible catastrophes hits us first. I found the sight of that station inspiring.

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving, the second most important holiday in the year in the United States of America. It is a uniquely American holiday, with no counterparts much elsewhere, although Canada has its Thanksgiving in another month. It features a turkey dinner. Since only two of us live at my house, baking a huge 8-lb turkey does not seem to make sense; it results in turkey meals all the way to Yule, it seems. So we cooked instead three turkey legs. Maybe we should save the turkeys and have a vegetarian Thanksgiving meal and save the poor birds. As far as the meaning of the holiday, it seems to imply a God, to give thanks to, but I don't believe in such a personal God. So I simply feel glad for all the good things that have happened this year. My congregation got it right on their Thanksgiving service. They hosted a play featuring a family wanting to leave their country because men in uniform were stationing in their community and were about to monitor or even arrest them. Where did they go? America. The land of freedom of speech, of economic opportunity, and religious freedom. I just hope our country continues to be a haven for retreat from repression elsewhere; there is still a lot of it in this world. I know we have had Planeattack and feel threatened by other countries' and organizations' (such as al Qaeda) weapons, but we must not give up these freedoms. That is one of the special things about being Americans.

Different types of Weather

I ran the Richmond Marathon in 1983. The weather was rainy with a temperature in the mid 50s (or about 12 C). It was not the nicest weather to run a marathon in. Since that time I had called cloudy and rainy weather "marathon weather"; that is, until I went to several Toastmaster conferences in a row that featured such weather. Then I called cloudy and rainy weather "Toastmaster weather". Here is a table of the various weathers I had come up with in the past few years:

Marathon Weather	Cloudy and Rainy
Toastmaster Weather	Cloudy and Rainy
Fair Weather	Cloudy and Rainy
Miami Weather	Pleasant sunny days and bone-chilly nights
SWIM Weather	same as Miami weather
SUUSI Weather	Warm and hazy; storms at night
Spring Weather	Snow flurries
Skywatch Weather	Cloudy or muggy and hazy
Eclipse Weather	Clouds at the wrong time
Christmas Weather	No Snow
Fourth of July Weather	Warm and muggy with lots of bugs
Skiing weather	Warm weather suitable for short sleeves and shorts

The third one is pronounced FAIR weather, not fair WEAther, and means weather typical of a Virginia State Fair; i.e., cloudy and rainy. To that I might add "drought weather", which means cloudy and rainy. SWIM is the Southeast Winter Institute in Miami, a Unitarian-Universalist camp and conference held between Yule and New Year's; no URL for this camp seems to be available.

It's that time of the year again

This evening I went up into my attic to get down the Yule decorations - 27 boxes of it. I only got down 10 of them tonight, and I will leave box number 16 upstairs: that's Halloween. This is the yearly ritual we go through that transform our drab landscape into a festival of color. I will take two or three hours to get our tree, three-light candelabras, and outdoor lighting up. The result is not as bright as some other displays I have seen, which require getting on the roof and putting up loads of lights. These displays must eat up a lot of electricity and take the entire holiday period to put up. I will also send cards this season, and get gifts for my relatives. Only two are that close - my wife and my mother. There will be parties all over the place, at my workplace and even at my astronomy club. Maybe we will sing Christmas carols at my church. And by the way, why call it Christmas when I am not Christian? I am a Unitarian Universalist with "pagan" leanings. So that is why I call it Yule.

Declaring Weapons Of Mass Destruction

By 2002 December 8, Iraq must declare all of its weapons of mass destruction, reads one headline today. Declare? To me that is unusual language, that Saddam must declare his weapons of mass destruction. It makes me think of his morphing into the image of Scarlett O'Hara, who then says, "Well, I'll Declare! Weapons of Mass Destruction!" In any case, Saddam may have his own idea of what "declare" means, as this script shows:


[Saddam Hussein standing up front in his usual uniform. Behind him are some buildings and a collection of inspectors. To the right and front are UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and US President George W. Bush]

Annan: Saddam, by December 8, you must declare all of your weapons of mass destruction or face serious consequences.

Hussein: You are saying, Kofi, that I must declare all of my weapons of mass destruction.

Annan: Yes, you must.

Hussein: OK, I will. [presses button on gadget]

[In the background a blue-green cloud emanates, and all of the inspectors collapse to the ground.]

Hussein: Sir, I have just declared a weapon of mass destruction. Do you want me to declare any more weapons of mass destruction?

Bush: No, that will be OK, Saddam. It is now our turn to declare. We declare a Regime Change!

[Big explosion in middle of screen; Saddam vanishes.]

Here is my declaration: that Saddam Hussein destroys all of his weapons of mass destruction without harm to any one and without anyone going to war with anyone.

Bottom Line?

The phrase "bottom line" does not make sense. It is an accounting term that has been pulled out of its content. The bottom line of a baseball league standings is the last place team. Nice guys finish last, remember? The bottom line of an outline is the least important. The phrase needs to be replaced by "front line", else it generates contradictory phrases such as BLUF, bottom line up front. What's the front line of your enterprise?

Wasting Population Explosion

Since when does a disease among an animal species causes its numbers to increase? The answer is when the species is deer. In Wisconsin, they come down with chronic wasting disease, which is a relative of mad cow disease. Hunters now stay away since they can't eat their kill. This will cause deer populations to explode in Wisconsin. So what do you call a spreading disease that increases the numbers of the species that it attacks? An anti-epidemic?

Birds and Stars

This year I have been to one birding trip, at the Outer Banks, in October, and several skywatches or star parties. These two events have similarities. They both use binoculars or telescopes, they both try to spot objects in nature (birds or celestial objects), and they involve transportation to favorable sites (shores for birds, dark sites for stars). So the idea I had is, why not combine the two on the same trip? Have a birding and amateur astronomer outing, probably lasting two days, wherein you would observe the birds by day and the stars (and possibly a few birds) at night. Binoculars would be good for both. So where do you start Birdstar? Someone has to find a location, preferably a place near the ocean without lights nearby, such as Okracoke Island, and someone has to handle the logistics of this event, including informing both astronomical, nature and birding groups, arranging for the space and providing accommodations, leaders, and food for everyone. But I think it would be a good way to get birders to meet stargazers.

State Quarters

The two most recent quarters have become rather scarce. Indianas came out in August, and so far I have seen only five of them. Mississippis came out last month, but so far I have not seen a single one. I sorted out my excess collection and found out that I have more Virginias and North Carolinas than any other state. I took a look at next year's offerings. Alabama struck me as being notable. Initially they were going to put hackneyed items such as farms, bolls of cotton and so forth on the coin; then I saw one that featured the state house, which in the past had been a symbol of segregation. I did not think much of these designs. When I found out about the final design, I got a pleasant surprise. They put Helen Keller on the coin. This is the blind and deaf woman who made the most of her life. The inscription is in English and Braille; the first coin that anyone has heard of bearing Braille inscriptions. I think people are going to want that coin. It could become scarce quickly. So I am looking forward to it.