Last month, we discovered a fraudulent charge on the credit card. The procedure for rectifying that is to cancel the card. When the new card arrives, you have the task of notifying all of your on-line stores (like Amazon.Com) that you have a new number. When I tried to notify Mobil to change the card associated with my Speedpass®, they told me they would send a new one and that I should destroy the old one.
Fair enough . . .
Last weekend’s ‘Mozambique’ drill at the firing range. The idea is to aim and shoot “two to the heart, one to the head.” The technique is used to defend ones self against an assailant who may be wearing body armor.
As you can see, I shot 10 rounds at the target – three 2 plus 1 and the final to the heart. All of these were well within tolerance. It was a good day.
Today is February 3rd which is a cross-quarter day. During Earth’s orbital motion, cross-quarters occur midway between solstices and equinoxes. They have been observed by cultures for many, many centuries. Today, for example, might have been the day that nomadic tribes may start their journey toward spring hunting and gathering lands.
Image: Imbolc – click for a complete orbital depiction.
In our culture, we consult a fat rodent for a non-scientific weather prediction – sort of like Al Gore, in a way.
A good place to read about equinoxes, solstices and cross-quarters is Archeoastronomy.com. The cross-quarter days are summarized below the break:
Thus, Imbolc was the beginning of Spring. Imbolc corresponds more or less to Groundhog Day in the USA, February 2, when tradition has it that if a sleepy groundhog creeping out of its burrow at dawn sees its shadow, there are 6 more weeks of winter. (If not, we surmise, only 42 days remain.) Solmonath and Candlemas were Church-approved substitute names for Imbolc, which is spelled Imbolg by some pagans. Druids prefer Oimeaig, pronounced IM-mol’g.
An unfortunate consequence of trimming the shrubs around the house is the inevitable loss of some of the little blossoms. These were on the Hawthorne bush today before I cut it back. Not to worry, the spring growth will bring plenty of these as it always has. Click for a close-up of Verna’s image below.
These were seen in the airspace near Torrance (CA) airport today. Although the paint schemes are not uniform, I believe that all five of these are either Army/Air Force AT6 ‘Texans’ or Navy SNJs (which are the same airframe, but with folding wings for aircraft carrier use).
Now, I can’t take credit for this nice photo of the squadron’s straight echelon formation since it was Verna’s camera that got this while I was still on my way home from work today. Click the image above for a closer view.
Yesterday morning, I got in the truck to head to work. To my chagrin, instead of a cranking noise I got a clanking noise – the battery was almost dead.
Fortunately, we keep one of those little portable jump start batteries in the garage for just such an event. Verna seldom goes anywhere in her car and sometimes her battery gets drained by all those little electronics in the car that don’t turn off when you shut off the engine. We got the jump battery for her, but now it would come in handy to get me going on my way to work. I hooked it up to the battery terminals and cranked the truck over with no problem. Success!
I was at work for a half day session and then came home to address the battery problem. The little jump battery went with me and, as expected, was needed again. When I got home, I removed the old battery and Verna took me to get a new one. She took the picture above while I was installing the replacement.
Bottom line, the little jumper can save you a call to AAA, thus getting you going sooner.
