Echoes of past events

It's widely know that sensual stimuli can bring old memories to the forefront of the mind.  The sense of smell, for example, is strongly connected to memory.

Another stimulus, or so it seems for me, is weather forecasting.  The forecast for Friday has both the high and the low in the thirties, and we're also supposed to get some frozen precipitation of some kind.  Seeing this forecast at this time on the calendar reminded me of the ice storm of 2000.

That one was notable because the Super Bowl was being held in the Georgia Dome the same weekend.  There was freezing rain on Saturday, and it went on for hours and just steadily built up on everything.  Lots of limbs came down at that time, especially pine limbs due to the higher surface area (per unit volume) of pine needles.  The air in my neighborhood was tinged with the sharp scent of pine sap.  It was quite a storm.

Maybe something similar will happen this weekend.  Or maybe it'll fizzle out as forecasts often do.  But it's interesting how something as innocuous as a weather forecast can dredge up an old memory.

Thanks to you, too

My book Clouds of Venus was promoted again on Tuesday.  Again, I don't know who, but I got a nice spike in downloads.

Thanks, whoever you are.  I really appreciate it.  :)

Thanks, unknown benefactor

Someone promoted Clouds of Venus today.  Don't know who.  Nice spike in free downloads, though.

Whoever's responsible, thanks.  I really appreciate it.  :)

Made it

I made it through Christmas.  It's always a little in doubt, you know.  Get-togethers with family can be unpredictable.  And while there were some stressful moments, I survived without losing my temper or my sanity.

My health has improved these last few months, too.  I've been drinking more bottled water, and I think that's doing the trick.  Maybe 2025 will be a good year for me.  I think the last good year I had was 2019.

On the financial market front, I've been expecting a correction/crash for a long time now.  It hasn't happened.  My best guess is that the AI boom dragged us all along for the bull-market ride just a little longer than would have happened otherwise.  I don't know what to expect next year.  When the usual indicators stop working, and it seems they have, what can anyone foretell?

It's been a colder December than normal, and I'm already dealing with chapped hands and face.  Luckily, some warmer temps and some rain are on the way this weekend.  I simply can't deal with dry winter air the way I could in my younger days.  My DNA is optimized for the wetter winters of northwestern Europe, not the dry ones of southeastern America.

Anyway, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas that was free of disasters and other assorted drama.

Notre Dame looks nice, mostly

I'm actually kind of surprised by how good the cathedral turned out.  The interior stone was dingy and gloomy before, but now it's white and gleaming.  The cleaned artworks have more "pop" to them.  The whole interior is brighter and more cheerful-looking.  Removing centuries worth of grime makes a difference.

The repair and renovation crews deserve a lot of applause for what they've accomplished.  And the French government deserves credit for not finding a way to muck things up.

The new altar sucks, though.  It's a Modernist nightmare.  Its flat metal surface could pass as a griddle.  When the priest was pouring oil on it, I half-expected him to start frying up some hash browns.  This sort of modern ugliness--which unfortunately applies to some of the other accoutrements, too, not just the altar--is about how I expected the whole renovation to go.  

But the building itself was fortunately spared that fate.  It looks the best it has ever looked in my lifetime, and the workers did a fantastic job on it.

Perhaps a future generation can replace the altar and other Modernist doodads with something that's actually handsome.

A baleful winter?

There's a scene from Groundhog Day where Bull Murray's character is in the doldrums.  He gives his speech to the camera and says his prediction is for a winter that will be cold and hard and last for the rest of your life.

I don't think things will get quite that bad, but winter has definitely come on strong these past few days with sub-freezing lows at night and bitterly dry air that threatens to turn everything to dust.

The good news is that Sunday is predicted to be a little warmer.  The low that day is just 45, and the high is projected to be 58.  But it's a long way to Sunday, and forecasts change frequently as you get closer.

My gut tells me that this winter will be no milder or colder than any other and probably fairly average.  But my cynical side is telling me to be prepared for an arctic blast that hits like a sledgehammer.

Worst coup ever

So the South Korean president decides that his government is full of guys who are conspiring with the North Koreans.  He then declares martial law, presumably to root out the traitors.  He has the support of the military.  He could become a dictator-for-life sort of thing in South Korea if he wants.

Then the parliament tells him to knock it off, so he does.  The tell him to resign or be impeached, so he resigns.  And that's apparently the end of the story.

I don't get it.  What was the point of it all?  Why take such a big gamble if you're just going to fold like a lawn chair at the first sign of resistance?

This all happened so fast and to such trivial effect that the price of gold didn't even spike higher.  Lol...