This is a photo I took of some daisies eight years ago yesterday. The photo was archived on the terabyte drive that we use for backup. I found it by accident when looking for Veteran’s Day photos. I liked the fall colors and always love flowers in general. Click on the image to enlarge.
There are many veterans who deserve credit for keeping our nation safe and free by putting themselves in harm’s way. Not all such “harm’s way” scenarios require combat or the battlefield. Sailors who work on the dangerous decks of aircraft carriers, Soldiers who prepare ordinance and test weaponry, Marines who carry out firefighting missions, Airmen who crew patrol and transport aircraft and Guardsmen who patrol our coasts in aircraft and on the sea.
Special thanks go out to combat veterans as well as those who have risked their lives in training and support roles. God bless them all.
(This is a reprise of our Veterans Day 2009 post – still applicable today.)
A hearty Happy Birthday and job well done to the men and women that serve or have served in the United States Marine Corps. We will never forget the Few and the Proud who share the legacy of the Corps. God bless the USMC.
On November 10, 1798, President John Adams signed the Act establishing the United States Marine Corps. The 13th Commandant of the Marine Corps, General John A. Lejeune, issued Marine Corps Order Number 47, Series 1921, directing that on November 10th of every year, in honor of the Corps’ birthday, the Order’s summary of the history, mission and tradition of the Corps be read to each and every command.
Although I was in the Navy, I really liked this spoof of the “Never mind the dog” window sign that features the USMC Logo and serves as a warning to those that may want to think twice before entering the premises.
I’m just getting around to posting about the International Space Station (ISS) passing over the Arizona High Desert last week. It was a pretty good pass, the ISS being visible almost from the west horizon to the southeast horizon. The maximum elevation above the horizon for this pass was 78°.
We use the on-line SpaceWeather.com satellite flybys tracker to predict when a suitable satellite pass will occur. We use the filter function to display only the ISS, since those are usually the most dramatic flyovers.
The remarkable thing about the photo is that I candidly snapped the flyover using my less-than-optimum pocket camera, a Canon PowerShot A1400, and got this relatively good image of the ISS as it passed high over the parapets of our little house. Click on the image to enlarge.
I spent a couple of hours putting the new office chairs together today and they are quite nice. Our old office chairs were almost 13 years old and had seen better days, although the gas piston air cushions were still functional. The surfaces were worn and the padding was pretty flat (Damsel used a patio chair cushion on hers to soften it up).
The finished products above are (left) my new chair on a new roll around pad and Damsel’s new chair and pad. Click on the image to enlarge.
We use these chairs not only to work at the computers, but sit in them to watch movies on the DVD/TV in the office. We’re looking forward to this evening’s movie in the new chairs. I wonder if we wll be able to stay awake with all the comfort . . . 😉
When we moved to Arizona, we brought only a few items of furniture from the California house. Damsel had designs on furnishing the new house with all new items. That was true for the bedroom-turned-office as well. We bought two new desks and a short filing cabinet for computers and peripherals storage. However, we did not buy new office chairs; the old ones were brought for that purpose.
Now, the original office furniture for the old house had been there for a while. I checked our financial records and found that the office furniture – including the chairs – had been purchased in December of 2001. That’s just under thirteen years ago – time to get some new chairs. Damsel and I both went down to the (greater Phoenix Area) West Valley today and purchased two new chairs similar to the one shown in the graphic.
We also bought two chair pads that sit on the floor in front of the desks for the chairs to roll around on. We had been using area carpets for this, but the plastic pads seemed to be more durable and easier to clean and maintain.
This minor office upgrade is just the beginning. Damsel and I have decided to redecorate the great room and dining area with all new furnishings. The old tables, table lamps and sofas will be donated to charity (as will be the old office chairs) and replaced with new items in the near future.
I went out to the courtyard to photograph the last image of the great sunspot of 2014, AR 2192 before it rotates out of Earth view. According to the article below, there is a possibility of the spot to return to the Earth-facing side of the solar disk in a couple of weeks. Click on the image to enlarge.
From SpaceWeather.com:
SUPER-SUNSPOT PREPARES TO DEPART: The biggest sunspot in nearly 25 years is about to leave the solar disk.
. . .
As AR2192 approaches the sun’s horizon, it is no longer facing Earth. However, the odds of an Earth-directed radiation storm are higher than ever. The reason is, the western limb of the sun is well-connected to Earth. Solar magnetic fields springing out of that region spiral back to our planet. If a sunspot passing through the area explodes, those spiralling magnetic fields can funnel energetic particles in our direction.
In only a few days, the behemoth sunspot will begin a 2-week transit of the far side of the sun, carried around by the sun’s 27-day rotation. However, that doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of this magnificent active region. Big sunspots typically persist for two or three solar rotations before they decay. After it leaves, AR2192 will return in November.