Last Day of the Year

Yay, We've made it through another year.  When I was a kid, I realized I might see a year that didn't start with 19.  But I didn't think I'd see years all the way to 2007.  Wow.

But here I am at te computer in the middle of the night...AGAIN.  After many nights of solid sleep and having to be waked in the morning.... Alas, I am up in the middle of he night after tossing and turning for an hour or more.

May be what I eat.  Supper was not to my liking: Macaroni and cheese and ham casserole.  So I ate an avocado I happened to have, but it was not fully ripe.  Then along about bedtime I ate some left over pie and some Top Ramin.  And now I wonder why I am not sleeping... who could?

My Grandson turns 22 today, the 31st.  Makes one feel old.  (And I have older Grandkids, too.)

Kellen O'Grady conducts a trivia tournament with some really tough questions, but I missed the deadline.  I really wanted to play, too.  Alas.  Maybe you can see the questions if you check this link.

Enough rambling...back to bed.

You CAN say No

It was very flattering, to be asked to be the New Years Eve entertainment.  To play my keyboard, doing my improvisations. I certainly like the applause, and I like to curry the favor of the old folks.

So I tried to select some material and decide what new materal to make...say, and new patter song with everyone's name in it.  And I tried the keyboard for loudness and decided it needed an amplifier.

I rooted around and found an amp, and it needed a power supply.  That took some real digging in the junk box, and moving furniture to get at it.  By then I realized.  I just cant do this anymore.  All this rooting and digging and scrounging parts and moving equipment and selecting music and making up words and printing song sheets, and so forth.

I was flattered.  They said "we liked your playing last time."

But  I had to say, "That was THEN.  This is NOW.  And NO, I  just can't."  But oh, how I wnated to.

You can say no, but it takes something out of you.

Stunned

I was simply astounded.

I am a disabled veteran, with a service connected disabilty. I went to the the veterans administration hospital for an eye examination.  I lost an eye in combat in WWII and the other eye was injured.

I got my eye examination. 

The Veterans Adminstration billed My Bluecross Medical Insurance   Huh?  Yep.  The Veterans Administration charged my Bluecross Insurance $63.52 for the examination, of which they paid $12.31.

Twelve dollars is not a lot of money... but how come Bluecross, and ultimately my former employer who pays Bluecross, has to pay because I was injured in WWII?

Does this make sense to you?

 

Day and Night, Night and Day

Silly old Earth, is so tired it leans to the side.  But it is the leaning that makes the seasons, and the fact that the length of the day and night vary according to the season.

I asked myself a question in entry below ...Called Drat... if days and nights are all the same length at the equator.  So I printed a picture of the globe and the sun and reasoned it out. 

You have noticed that world maps on globes are always mounted so that the Globe tilts to one side.  The globe tilts because the Earth tilts, 23 degrees in fact, from the plane of its orbit.  So, as the Earth orbits around the Sun, the north pole is pointed away from the sun and then toward the sun, once each year. When the north pole is pointed toward the sun, it is summer (in the Northern half of the world) and when the north pole is pointed away from the sun it is winter in the north.

"Ah, hah," I hear the brighter children ask, "But what about the Southern half of the world."  They don't know the word hemisphere. 

"Just the opposite," I tell them.  "When it is winter in the northern half of the world, it is summer in the southern half."

"But when is Christmas," they cry.  First things first for kids.

"Chrismas comes right in the middle of summer."  The children fall back in their chairs aghast.  Santa in a fur trimmed red suit being pulled in a sleigh thrugh the summer heat is more than they can deal with.

But what has this to do with the length of the day? Well, Big Children, when the northern hemisphere is pointed at the sun, any location gets more sun, and the day is longer. When it is pointed away from the sun, the opposite is true.  There are longer nights. 

The farther north you go, the longer each summer day is.  How long can it get?  Well, at the north pole, a day can be 24 hours long.  Huh? 

That's right.  At the north pole, the sun comes up on March 21st and stays up, until September 21st.  How's that for daylight savings time? 

Of couse, when it sets, it is gone for six months. Alas.

But my original question was, Are the days and nights always the same length at the equator?  Looking at the globe and the sun, I would say "yes.  Days and nights at the equator are always the same: twelve hours each."

Bor--ing.

Drat

I have been sleeping so well, that it is distressing to find myself back at the computer in the middle of the night. (4:45 AM)

I love rambling on, and I do it best at night, but I loved the sleeping until dawn much more.

Christmas Eve was a delight at the old folks home.  My  son-in-law and my grandson, musicians, and I, no musician but an old timer with a harmonica, had a Christmas music Jam session, in the parlor of the home. About ten residents came along for the fun.

Grandson would start a Christmas song on his bass violin, (Doghouse), Son-in-law, on piano,  would begin Jazz improvizations, and I would hang on with whatever accompaniment I could muster.  The result was music, real music, for over and hour.  It was delightful fun.

It was such fun, I forgot the pain in my side, and went to bed satisfied.  I was soon up again, and trying to sleep in my chair to be comfortable.  I slept a bit in the chair, returned to bed, and slept...wonderful sleep, and I woke with a dream.  A soothing voice was saying "You've had a miraculous cure.  Your pain is gone.":

It was such a wonderful dream that I was afraid to move, fearing that the pain would still be there.  But, the pain was actually gone.  I was practically cured.  I have been able to sleep on either side, hardly any discomfort. 

So what am I doing up?  Dunno, except appreciating the fact that I can go back and lie down, and have a final snooze before dawn....which will come along about as late as it can get this time of year. 

Silly old Earth is tired and leans to the side and that makes the seasons with l-o-n-g nights and short days.

Question: are days and nights the same length on the equator?  I will have to look into that.

Patrick's Weekender

1. How many Christmas Cards did you receive from people you hadn't sent cards to, after the "mailing deadline?" Did you send a card anyway? Didn't send any, received about half a dozen.  May answer one.

2. At this point, do you weigh more or less than you did on January 1, 2006? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Less.  Not sure that is too good.  Was result of illness, not reducing effort.

3. When the clock strikes Midnight on New Year's, will you be at home, at a party, or somewhere else? Will be asleep in my bed at old folks home, as will about 89 of our 90 residents.

4. Take the quiz: What's your holiday stress level?  Didn't take the quiz, but pretty high.

5. Have you ever been the designated driver at a party or outing with your friends? Don't think so.  Usually partied along with others.

6. Have you ever taken the keys and driven home a friend that you felt was too drunk to drive? If not, do you think you would attempt to if that situation ever arose? I think I have let people drive home, even when I thought they were a bit too far advanced down the tipsy scale.  As far as I know, there were no bad results, but that is just chance.  Friends don't let friends drive drunk.

Dinner at Eight -- Huh? No Way.

For seven years at the old folks home we had breakfast, dinner (at noon), and supper (at five).  The big meal of the day was dinner.  Supper was light.

It was that way in the military, too.  Dinner at noon.  K rations came in little boxes marked breakfast, dinner, and supper.  Note.  there was no such thng as "lunch".  So okay, we all adapted.

Then we changed cooks.  New cook serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Now "supper" is the orphan and all communication about meals has been lost.

I tried to order four meals for Christmas eve, I called them "supper", and four meals for Christmas day, I called them "dinner".  Cook called the supper "dinner" and the dinner "lunch", and it took us five minutes to get it straightened out using a routine that would have made Abbot and Costello happy.  Who's coming to dinner?  No, he's on first base.

What we need to do is get rid of the word "dinner".  Half the world eats dinner in mid-day, and the other half eats dinner in the evening.  I'd like breakfast, lunch, and supper.  That preserves the precious late breakfast meal, known as "brunch".  So would our cook. Who would like to sleep in on Sunday morning and then go to "brinner"?  No one. Dinner is out, and lunch stays in.