Category Archives: weather

odd facts, quiz, weather

Pears and Goats

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Today was one of those days where things started strange and went pear shaped from there. It began with a voice mail box full of full moon (you know, lunatic type) messages, including two from people that wanted to adopt cats but then left no number for me to contact them. Then the fiber optic interface box at the demarc was scheduled to be replaced, but the new box hadn’t been programmed quite right. Browsing to a new page hung up the phone and picking up the phone led to strange internet behavior. It took about an hour for the technician to get all correctly setup, so there went the lunch hour.

Molly and I were finally able to head out on our walk a little after 6pm and it was glorious. Warm, slight breeze, late afternoon sun: what could be better. An hour later and the clouds were rolling in and by the time we finished our 5 miles and returned to the house it was sprinkling. It gave the air that glorious ionic touch that smells so good during and after a rain. Before I could even get supper fixed, the rain started falling and the lightning and thunder sat on the horizon, giving a sight and sound extravaganza. Told you I shouldn’t have worked on the lawn sprinklers! Of course Molly didn’t care for the booming and kept her head in my lap as I ate supper. Poor doggy.

I’ll close with this weird fact I was reminded of today: unlike most creatures, goats have rectangular pupils. (Don’t ask how it came up.)

Human pupils are round. Goats and most other animals with hooves have horizontal slit pupils which are nearly rectangular when dilated. This gives goats vision covering up to 340 degrees, meaning they can see virtually all around without having to move. Contrast that with the less than 180 degrees we poor humans can see around. The real kicker is that animals with rectangular pupils can also see better at night due to having larger pupils that can close tighter during the day and open more at night. Makes me think we got shorted a bit in the grand eye design competition.

Bonus question: what well known invertebrate also has rectangular pupils? No Google!

humane society, weather

Spring?

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Needless to say, the PowerBall ticket of the last post was indeed worthless. At least no one else won either. {*grin*} Better luck Wednesday!

Sunday was a return to spring warmth, so I finally got to work on the sprinkler system and play in the water without being too cold. Of course that meant I awoke this morning to the sound of thunder and rain as a thunderstorm rolled through. I’m just happy I didn’t wash the truck or it would have flooded for sure.

Today was symptomatic of the arrival of spring. I had at least 5 panicked calls on the office phone before 9:30 this morning. All from people who had lost their puppies Sunday. They were hoping that we (the humane society) had found and captured them Sunday or this morning. I passed the calls on to the animal control officers, really hoping that we had indeed captured their pets. Dogs that wonder into the fields and river bottom this time of year tend to become coyote food in very short order.

The first nice spring weekend and people were out working in the yard, removing debris, etc. and forgot that the gate was open and the puppy was in the yard with them. Many times it is hours later that the pet is discovered to be missing. We actually schedule more animal control during the time in an attempt to keep the animals out of harms way, but there is a limited amount we can do in our huge rural area.

One final observation: the economy must be picking up a little. We run the only no-kill shelter in a huge geographic area (hundreds of square miles), so we are getting calls from a 3 state area from people who have gotten a job elsewhere and cannot take their pets with them. It is good that people are getting jobs, but it is hard on them to leave their animal friend and companion behind. They look very hard to find a shelter that will ensure they are taken care of and not subject to euthanasia. That’s how they find us. It will sure be a relief when we get the new facility built. Our current one (an old municipal shelter from the ’60s) has very limited space and is almost continuously full in spite of volunteer fostering and help from the front range shelters with adoption and finding new homes out of area. We really hope to have the construction finished by December.

Back to the salt mine and then off to bed.

books, powerball, weather

Fall?

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Today felt much like a day of early fall. It was overcast and breezy and the temperature never got above 60. A perfect afternoon for football, but not so good for working on the sprinkler system. (Which was my original plan.) I have a solenoid to replace and the cool and breeze made the idea of working in the water unattractive today. A good excuse to goof off.

Molly and L and I took a stroll through the neighborhood, wasting a dollar at the corner store buying a PowerBall ticket. Given that we have a gigantic 1 in 195,249,054 chance of winning, I think it is a pretty safe bet that buying the ticket was a waste. If I turn out to be wrong, the party’s on me. {*grin*}

My reading of the last year seems to be feast or famine. Right now it is in feast mode, since I have 6 books setting on the shelf as yet unread and yet another on the way. It really works out well to read the publishers blogs, because all of that precious new reading material has come from volunteering to read new issues on their blogs. Now all I need is to find a similar source for my expensive scientific book habit. After being a member of a certain scientific book club for 20 years, I quit a couple of years ago. I don’t want to say that I was their best customer, but the annual report did take a nose-dive and they do keep asking if I wouldn’t like to rejoin. {*grin*}

Well, enough meandering. Time to go figure out what to fix for dinner.

Grrr, meeting, weather

Grrr Day

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I hate getting suckered. Today I wasted four hours of a perfectly nice (albeit windy and pollen filled) day attending a meeting I would not have attended had the true agenda been published. Grrrr.

Then I had a Boy Scout committee meeting tonight that ran a bit long. The actual business of the meeting should have been completed in less than a half hour. The meeting lasted ninety minutes after all the asides and reminisces. So all in all, close to six hours of my time were wasted today in pointless or needless activities. Grrr.

The wind is howling outside, making noises and rattling the windows. Days (and nights) like this are somewhat akin to the Santa Ana winds in SoCal. Everything feels a bit out of kilter and unsettled and the gusting noises and random bangs and booms from the wind keeps nerves on edge. Grrr.

(Painting: Gust of Wind – Corot)

What are your Grrrs for the day?
garden, lawn, pollen, weather

Spring Has Sprung

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It’s that time of year here on the high plains – spring. The time of pollen, warmth, and wind. What more could one ask for?

Pollen levels are already high enough to qualify for health alerts, temperatures are in the 70s and 80s, and winds are predicted to be in the 50 mph range tomorrow. I always love the warnings and forecasts about the pollen this time of year:

Concentration of pollen grains in the air for Tuesday will be greater than today’s levels and extend even further into the extremely high range. This forecast of higher pollen concentration is based on strong winds and decreasing humidity.

Makes me really happy I don’t suffer from hay fever or other pollen allergies.

This post brought to you by the 24 loads of lawn detritus, 8 loads of tree limbs, and the complete coverage of the lawn with weed and feed Saturday followed by the early phases of getting the garden ready on Sunday.