So Long, Joe

One of hockey's best formally announced his retirement today, but we hockey fans have known about it for a couple of days now. Here's an excellent video from ESPN that illustrates why Joe Sakic was one of the best to ever play the game:



Here's a great roundup of quotes about Joe from other hockey greats... guys like Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky, Stevie Y, Ray Bourque, Patrick Roy, and others.

So long, Joe... enjoy your retirement and thanks for all the memories. See ya in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

More Wisdom From the In-Box

A friend sends this along...

To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine...
And those who don't.

As Ben Franklin said:
In wine there is wisdom,
In beer there is freedom,
In water there is bacteria.

In a number of carefully controlled trials,
Scientists have demonstrated that if we drink
1 liter of water each day,
At the end of the year we would have absorbed
More than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. Coli) - bacteria
Found in feces.
In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop..

However,
We do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer
(or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor)
Because alcohol has to go through a purification process
Of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.

Remember:
Water = Poop,
Wine = Health.
Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid,
Than to drink water and be full of shit.

There is no need to thank me for this valuable information:
I'm doing it as a public service!

And we've left the formatting intact, mainly coz I like the script font. We're ALL about freedom here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington, less so about the wisdom that comes bundled with wine. But we have been known to do a glass of Beaujolais now and then... or most any good red. Never white.

In the same vein as the above... here's what My Dear Ol Da used to say about water:

You know why I don't drink water?

No, Dad... why?

Coz fish f*ck in it.

Badda-da-boomp. But the Ol' Man did have a point, ya know. And that quote is verbatim, passed on to me when I was of an appropriate age for the language used therein.

Bing! And Other Stuff

I'm sure most of you Gentle Readers have heard about Bing, Microsoft's redesigned search engine. I've used it a few times but still use Google a lot more, mainly because I've customized my Google page to include a lot of widgets… including their RSS reader, weather, headlines from the NYT, WaPo, the Beeb, memorandum… and so on. Google is sorta my one-stop shop for jumping off on to these inter-tubes.

But, that said, I found the "Bing vs. Google" site to be quite an eye opener. Here's a screen shot:

So… if you click for larger you'll get a full-screen comparison of my search results for "Santa Fe." As for Bing... note that the "related searches" list is directly in the left sidebar (read as: immediately accessible), and also note the Wikipedia entry on Santa Fe is the third item on the list. Also note the comparative lack of advertising, something that's long irritated me about Google. Bing gets even better when you search for images… and it's head and shoulders above Google in this regard, believe me. Try it!

I read about "Bing vs. Google" in a NYT article on Bing (Bing, the Imitator, Often Goes Google One Better), which is quite good in and of itself. You'll note the title of the piece is favorable to Bing… as is the rest of the article. Good reading if you're into search engines. Or even if you're not.

―:☺:―

I was gonna post this random thought yesterday but forgot to do so: aren't you glad the Founding Fathers waited until summer to declare our independence from Britain? The Fourth of January wouldn't be quite the same now, would it? Think parades, fireworks, barbeques, and the like. We'd have a completely different set of traditions if we'd have revolted against the Crown in the dead of winter…

Yet another example of just how brilliant and forward thinking our founders were. (yeah, my tongue IS in my cheek)

―:☺:―

I mentioned this in comments to yesterday's post, but… Yesterday's WX forecast was rather pessimistic by saying we were going to 103 degrees. We only hit 98, which is hot enough for most people, including Yr HmblScrb. But it was bearable and rather pleasant, even… as long as you remained in the shade and were relatively inactive. I wouldn't have wanted to be doing any sort of serious manual labor outside yesterday, but it was great beer drinkin' and cigar smokin' weather. Last evening around sundown was even better for that sort of activity, if you substitute single-malt for beer.

Now… all that said… our weather prognosticators are still predicting 100-degree temps again today, 104 to be specific. And we just might get there, seeing as how it's 95 degrees as I type at 1115 hrs.

Wow.

More Self-Indulgent Randomness

So. Sitting here this morning… thinkin' and drinkin' (the morning coffee, to be perfectly clear)… our "Summer of Living Frugally" actually isn't… or hasn't been. We had planned to lay low and defer such things as day-trips, extended trips, miscellaneous big/medium ticket purchases and the like so as to accumulate enough capital to make the final payment on our new choppers out of the household account, when said payment comes due this September. And we're still on track (kinda sorta), in spite of blowing money on a new lens for the SLR and a new computer.

"Blowing money" is a relative thing, of course. One could make a case that the new computer was needed what with unmistakable signs of the old box's imminent demise. And it was time, given we were way behind the usual replacement schedule. The lens is quite another story, as there was NO need, perceived or otherwise, for that lil bauble. But it felt good and in the end you can't take it with you… which is the ultimate rationalization for whenever one blows money on something/anything.

All of this is leading nowhere except to say lately we've been feeling the need to Get Out of Dodge, however briefly. We will continue to resist this feeling, though, as we have plans to get away once the new choppers are installed. We should concentrate on that, shouldn't we?

Yes… we should.

―:☺:―

Relative to the above… here's yet another reason to stay put for just a lil while:

Yup, summer is upon us. It remains to be seen if we'll do the usual mid-afternoon Happy Hour today. We sat our Old Ass out under the awning in 92 degree heat yesterday afternoon and the experience wasn't bad at all. But adding ten degrees just might change our minds about the whole thing… or at least defer the activity until after dinner, read as sundown.

―:☺:―

Here's a vid that's been making the rounds in the 'sphere the last few, and if you haven't seen it yet, well… you should watch.

Isn't that just too danged cool? Talk about "feel good" moments! I came upon this in a roundabout sorta way… via a tweet from Lex, which led to Bookworm's place, and then to The Anchoress, who has the full back-story. Credit where credit is due, and all that.

―:☺:―

I noticed the Four O'Clocks are beginning to bloom and are in some serious abundance this year in the flower bed surrounding the ornamental cherry tree outside my door. There are the usual and customary purple and yellow blooms, which will more than likely lead to a post quite similar to this one later on. You know… photos like this:

Maybe better.

Sunrise

Not much of an event as far as New Mexico sunrises go. I've definitely seen better.

Times as noted in the file names. All images shot with the 28-135mm zoom lens, reduced to 40% and slightly cropped. The first three images were shot at ISO 400; bottom pic at ISO 200.

This is waaay too danged early... if you'll excuse me, Gentle Reader, I hear my bed calling.

Added 0740 hrs: Power lines marching off to town. I played with the color curves in this shot; it ain't as it came out of the camera. Click for larger.

Update

Last year I put this up...

Monday, June 23, 2008

New Life Triumphant

Back in March I posted a photo of one of those instances where I dodged a bullet… or, more specifically, El Casa Móvil De Pennington dodged a bullet when this old forked tree came down during one of our better windstorms this past winter. The tree wasn’t old, actually. It was relatively young (at about 15 feet tall) but was most certainly diseased; the fork that came down had been dead for quite a while. The other half of the tree, however, looked pretty healthy and provided me with shade in the summer.

Well, that went away when the caretakers at Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park came out and cut the whole danged tree down in the process of hauling away the dead fork. I wasn’t home when the crime was committed and I would have objected (strenuously, even!) to losing that tree, had I been home. But…new life triumphs, as you can see… and what you see is about four feet worth of new growth sprouting out of the stump. I won’t get any shade to speak of this year, but in two years time? Should be good, methinks.

And here's what The Lil Tree That Could looks like today... note the forked pipes on the right side of the pic (in the background) for growth-reference:

She's about ten feet tall now. Next year... afternoon shade!

About Time

President Barack Obama signs S.614 in the Oval Office July 1 at the White House. The bill awards a Congressional Gold Medal to Women Airforce Service Pilots. The WASP program was established during World War II, and from 1942 to 1943, more than 1,000 women joined, flying 60 million miles of noncombat military missions. Of the women who received their wings as Women Airforce Service Pilots, approximately 300 are living today. (Official White House photo/Pete Souza)

From AFLink...

7/2/2009 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- A dedicated group of patriotic female pilots were recognized by President Barack Obama July 1 at the White House for their invaluable service to the nation more than 60 years ago.

Women's Airforce Service Pilots Elaine Danforth Harmon, Bernice Falk Haydu and Lorraine H. Rodgers were joined by five female current Air Force pilots in the White House Oval Office to witness the president sign into law a bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the WASP.

"The Women Airforce Service Pilots courageously answered their country's call in a time of need while blazing a trail for the brave women who have given and continue to give so much in service to this nation since," President Obama said. "Every American should be grateful for their service, and I am honored to sign this bill to finally give them some of the hard-earned recognition they deserve."

The WASP was established during World War II with the primary mission of flying noncombat military missions in the United States, thus freeing their male counterparts for combat missions overseas. They were the first women ever to fly American military aircraft and they flew almost every type of aircraft operated by the Army Air Force during World War II, logging more than 60 million miles.

Those are just the first few grafs of the news article and I suggest you read the whole thing, Gentle Reader. This long overdue recognition is a classic case of "better late than never," but earlier... like in the 1960s or so... would have been MUCH better. I won't belabor the obvious, but it's a damned shame so many of these brave women went to their reward not knowing that their country had finally given them their due.

More: I posted on the WASPs' final formal gathering in October of last year; their web page is here; and here's what The Wiki sez.

God Bless you, Ladies. And thank you.