Another great Ramirez cartoon- Why this administration will never get the economy to fly . . .
July 2012
Sheriff’s Helicopter Flyover
This is one of Sheriff Joe‘s Helicopters flying just above our little corner of town. It’s unusual to see any kind of law enforcement helicopters out of the metro area, but this morning this one circled overhead twice. I don’t know the purpose of their surveillance, but it was weird to see them circling.
At the old place, we had helicopters coming and going from the Robinson factory all day long. The occasional night time orbiting helicopter with their spotlights would give us concern since their presence usually meant that a crime had been committed nearby.
However, the helicopter overhead today didn’t concern me much, since the crime rate is so low here. Nevertheless, I will still be carrying my personal self defense device with “limited penetration” JHP projectiles, just in case of zombie attacks.
Solar Activity
New sunspot 1520 has rotated into view and is producing C class solar flares according to SpaceWeather.com. They also expect M class and possibly X class flares as the sunspot rotates toward the mid-solar southern latitudes.
I took this image this morning from Wickenburg, Arizona using my Canon SX40 and a Rainbow Symphony solar filter. I annotated the sunspot numbers with my Irfanview graphic editor. Click on the image to enlarge.
Update: 07/11/2012 The group is now closer to facing Earthward.
ISP Maintenance Scheduled
Our internet service provider has notified us that there will be a short outage on Saturday, July 7, 2012 at around 10 PM, PDT. The maintenance should be complete within an hour after that.
Our fiber optic network provider needs to replace some of the hardware associated with our network connections. The purpose of this maintenance is to provide greater redundancy for a more stable network for our services. This maintenance will require the network to be disconnected for a short period while the new hardware is installed and tested.
Our Nice Little House
I walked around the house today with my camera and took some pictures. This is a view of the house from the road just below the river rock lined wash that runs on the west side. It was a beautiful day with a few puffy clouds and the temperature got up to about 103 degrees.
The cholla with the thrasher nest is at the extreme left side of the image. I peeked into the nest and saw that the third egg hatched and there are now three little thrasher chicks. Click on the image to enlarge.
The New Tea Party
Ramirez rendition if the modified Tea Party. Personally, I would have a lot more crates labeled with other obnoxious congressional acts than just Obamacare. (When IBD updates this cartoon with the colorized version, I will swap it for this B&W cartoon.) UPDATED.
Curve Billed Thrasher Hatchlings
Two of the three eggs in the thrashers nest hatched sometime between last evening and this afternoon. I peeked into the nest and saw these two almost naked chicks. We believe the third egg is left over from the last brood and is not going to hatch. If it does not hatch, I will get a pair of kitchen tongs and take it out of the nest after these two chicks are fully-fledged. Click on the image to enlarge.
UPDATE: The third egg hatched today (7/6/12).