Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Holidays

Inclement Weather

Inclement WeatherIt looks like the long holiday weekend will bring our desert some rainfall. I took this photo this afternoon at about 4 PM as the dark clouds approached from the southwest. It didn’t actually start raining until around 5:45 PM but the rain is still persisting at two hours after it started.

Our forecast calls for continued chance of rain throughout the year-ending weekend and on into the first part of next week. Damsel and I are all self-contained in that all of the shopping is done for the holiday weekend menus and we’re well stocked with other survival provisions.

We know it is very cold in other parts of the country and it will be relatively warm here compared to some places, although our high temperatures are not forecast to exceed 55 or 60 degrees for the next few days. That is harsh for us since it has only been a few weeks since the highs were in the 90’s.

Meanwhile, we’re battened down and prepared to enjoy a nice Happy New Year holiday regardless of conditions. We wish you all a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

30 Dec 2016 by Arizona Environment Holidays Retirement

Season’s Greetings from the PC Legal Department

I found this protracted politically correct message for the Holiday Season at The Patriot Post:

flake.png

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

And a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2017, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great, (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only “AMERICA” in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishee.

(By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.)

Regardless of the tongue-in-cheek PC verbiage, on behalf of The Damsel and myself, we wish you a

Very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!
23 Dec 2016 by Holidays Humor

Thanksgiving 2016

Thanksgiving 2016

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy a great long weekend. It’s a beautiful desert afternoon and that is one of the many blessings for which we are thankful on this day.

24 Nov 2016 by Holidays

Leap Day 2016


This day is when the “loose change” of four “quarters” collected during the previous four years is resolved into a “dollar,” or a complete day. 2016 and every other leap year has 366 days and today, February, 29, 2016 is the 60th day of the year which would occur on March 1st in non-leap years.

Before the Gregorian Calendar, Romans and other civilizations had to ad-lib synchronization of their primitive calendars to accommodate the actual sidereal motion of the Earth around the sun by adding and subtracting days and even months.

From Wikipedia:

The calendar of the Roman king Numa Pompilius had only 355 days (even though it was not a lunar calendar) which meant that it would quickly become unsynchronized with the solar year. An earlier Roman solution to this problem was to lengthen the calendar periodically by adding extra days to February, the last month of the year.

February consisted of two parts, each with an odd number of days. The first part ended with the Terminalia on the 23rd, which was considered the end of the religious year, and the five remaining days formed the second part.

To keep the calendar year roughly aligned with the solar year, a leap month, called Mensis Intercalaris (“intercalary month”), was added from time to time between these two parts of February. The (usual) second part of February was incorporated in the intercalary month as its last five days, with no change either in their dates or the festivals observed on them. This followed naturally, because the days after the Ides (13th) of February (in an ordinary year) or the Ides of Intercalaris (in an intercalary year) both counted down to the Kalends of March (i.e. they were known as “the nth day before the Kalends of March”). The Nones (5th) and Ides of Intercalaris occupied their normal positions.

Before the Gregorian Calendar, which is in use currently, the Julian Calendar also added leap days to compensate for the actual solar circuit. When Pope Gregory XIII, introduced the new calendar in October 1582, many of the Julian Calendar errors were corrected at the expense of rearranging some important historical events to different dates than were originally established, mostly out of the Church’s desire to celebrate Easter near the time of the Vernal Equinox.

Happy Leap Day!

29 Feb 2016 by Culture Holidays

Early Valentine Gifts

Chocolate Strawberries

Since we’re going to be on the road during the St. Valentine’s Holiday, Bob thought it would be best to present me with my gift before we get going. Yesterday, I received a couple of pieces of Waterford Crystal, namely, a nice nine inch crystal bowl and a crystal seahorse paperweight which is more of a showcase knick-knack than a paperweight. I have received Waterford crystal for Valentines Day for a number of years now. It is nice to see the tradition continue.

Today, a box containing a dozen delicious chocolate-covered strawberries showed up. You can see from the image above, that I already enjoyed one of these tasty delicacies before taking the photo, since there are only eleven left in the box now in the fridge. I plan to “ration” them out at no more than one per day until they’re gone. Click on the image to enlarge.

28 Jan 2016 by Holidays

Christmas 2015


Damsel and I wish each and everyone a very Merry Christmas! We hope that you all have been and will continue to be blessed as we have been.

We are spending our Christmas with each other and our dogs at home, away from the hubbub and secure in our little house. We plan to travel and visit with family and friends after the new year begins.

Damsel took the image seen in the animation above on New Year’s Eve, 2014, just about a year ago. It was the ONLY snow day that we have seen in the five years since moving to Arizona.

Again, blessings to you and yours and enjoy the Christmas Holiday.

24 Dec 2015 by Arizona Holidays

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