easy to live in the wreckage of the future each day for itself
I was listening to Louise Penny’s Long Way Home in the Chief Inspector Gamache series and she used the phrase, ‘living in the wreckage of the future.”
The phrase has stuck in my brain.
Often, the wreckage of the future is NOT IMAGINED.
Life can be a train wreck waiting to happen.
And the trains are in motion and they are on tracks and the tracks cannot be changed.
We would be foolish to ignore what is coming.
Still.
I am reminded of stories of the days of railroading when a dispatcher would realize that a train wreck really was going to happen.
Two trains routed onto the same track and heading towards each other.
No way to communicate with either trains.
No way to stop it.
These trains were going to wreck.
The only thing a dispatcher could do was put together a rescue train with medical supplies and personel and send it on the way to where ever the accident did take place.
And deal with the wreckage of the future.
There was a chance that the engineers might see each oncoming train.
Maybe the point of meeting would be on a straightaway across a prairie and the engineers could stop.
The emergency train would be sent out and the dispatcher would hope for the best.
Lots of trains in my life right now.
Lot of those looking to be in a wreck.
I will be ready but hope for the best.
In the movie, The Magnificent Seven, Steve McQueen says to Yul Brenner, “did you hear about the man who fell of the 10 story building? All the way down, he kept saying, so far, so good.”
weak upper impulse lingering secondary fairly pleasant start
Ernie Hemingway could not have been a meteorologist.
Mr. Hemingway’s prose can be described in the one word, terse.
A meteorologist’s prose can be describe in the one word, verbose.
Weather forecasts may be the best example of the use of descriptive adjectives in modern english writing.
Consider today’s forecast from the National Weather Service.
SHORT TERM /Today through Sunday/…
A lingering secondary weak upper impulse is allowing for some isolated light rain/drizzle potential mainly in portions of central GA early this morning, otherwise should transition to NW flow aloft and dry Saturday on tap. Some continued mid level moisture especially in central GA could keep some cloud coverage hanging around today. Should be a fairly pleasant start to the weekend with afternoon highs mostly in the low to mid 60s.
Surface high center sliding into New England this evening will result in a CAD wedge building in for Sunday across the area. We can expect a shift to cooler temps (about 10 degrees lower than Saturday across north GA), increased easterly gradient winds, and some low level moisture overrunning/isentropic upglide causing increased cloud coverage and some return of afternoon shower potential in parts of the south and west. Ascent and late shower potential could also be aided by a weak upper shortwave.
Baker
LONG TERM /Sunday Night through Friday/…
The long term period begins on Sunday night with a wedge still in place across northeast Georgia. As southwest flow advects moisture over the wedge, chances for showers will continue into the early hours on Monday. Have included slight chance pops for Sunday afternoon with increasing chances Sunday night into Monday afternoon, as the wedge breaks down. A large longwave trough will push a strong cold front towards the area on Tuesday into Wednesday with the arrival of the front during the day on Wednesday. Have included chance pops across much of the area with likely pops across portions of northern Georgia in addition to the mountains. The highest QPF amounts for Monday through Wednesday look to be across far northern Georgia, around 1 to 2 inches with around a half inch or less further south. In addition, models are showing some slight differences on the backside of this system with the GFS showing another shortwave trough developing and crossing the local forecast area late Wednesday into Thursday and the ECMWF, while still showing the shortwave trough, clears precip from the local forecast area by Thursday and takes the trough much further south of the area. Overall, decided to trend on the drier side for pops in this time period, with slight chance to chance pops Wednesday afternoon and clearing across the area on Thursday.
Post frontal passage, high pressure will build into the area at the surface, providing dry weather for Thursday. By Friday, chances for precipitation will increase again as models show a developing surface low in the Gulf moving towards the local forecast area on Friday and Saturday. Although models are showing some differences in timing, have included chance pops for Friday through the early weekend.
High temperatures on Monday and Tuesday will be about 5 to 15 degrees above average in the 60s and 70s, returning to the 40s and 50s through the rest of the extended. Overnight lows Tuesday morning will be very warm in the 50s and 60s, around 20 to 25 degrees above average. Otherwise, lows through the rest of the extended are expected to be in the 30s and 40s.
Reaves
Notice in the 2nd paragraph the abbreviation CAD.
CAD stands for ” Cold Air Damming. The phenomenon in which a low-level cold air mass is trapped topographically. Often, this cold air is entrenched on the east side of mountainous terrain. Cold Air Damming often implies that the trapped cold air mass is influencing the dynamics of the overlying air mass, e.g. in an overrunning scenario. Effects on the weather may include cold temperatures, freezing precipitation, and extensive cloud cover.”
Good Grief.
I can see why they used the abbreviation.
These are some of the words used in just the short term forecast.
lingering secondary weak upper isolated light mainly early mid especially fairly pleasant mostly low mid high cooler lower increased easterly gradient overrunning isentropic upglide
Impressive list.
Notice also the names Baker and Reeves and the end of the forecasts.
Are these the meteorologist who wrote these forecasts?
Did they learn this style in meteorology class?
Is there a special thesaurus for weather modifiers?
At the end, what do want to know?
I take my hat off to these people.
I salute these people.
I also recall once seeing my good friend George Lessens come into the newsroom after a particularity wordy forecast and I yelled, “oh come on. You guys make all the stuff up!”
Even George joined in as everyone in the newsroom laughed.
foreign policy terminal decline; make way foreign politics
Online in the Guardian, David Adler and Ben Judah wrote an article titled, “Traditional ‘foreign policy’ no longer exists. Democrats are the last to know – Progressives need a new doctrine, championing the interests of the global 99% against a transnational oligarchy“
Sadly and yet, intriguingly, I feel this is true.
They state:
Trump’s election was a symptom of a foreign policy paradigm in terminal decline; his foreign politics a dark premonition of what might replace it. Not only were his supporters reacting to a general sense that they had lost control over their national borders in the process of rapid international integration; they were also reacting to a more acute sense that the US government and its army of diplomats merely channeled the interests of a transnational economic elite. Trump promised to attack that elite, and – through his diplomacy-by-Twitter – cut out the middlemen unworthy of trust.
Trump is, of course, not alone. From Benjamin Netanyahu to Vladimir Putin, rightwing leaders are practicing foreign politics to advance their personal interests, linking up in a network of like-minded authoritarians who have little respect for the cherished norms of the liberal international order.
I think of Theordore Roosevelt negotiating (and winning the Nobel Peace) the end of the Russo-Japanese war as he thought he was the man to do it.
History seems to show that FDR and Churchill pretty much ran World War 2 as like minded authoritarians.
The reason for foreign policy I was taught is that it was there to take responsibility for any mistakes. Presidents took credit for any successes.
The world is smaller.
Few decisions can be made that will or would impact just one nation state.
Just got to remember to get the right people in place.
peel, chop, boil, roast, bake stir, strain, mix, cool, slice, serve, eat then time to have pie!
I have read that cooking appeals to some folks as it is a do-it-yourself project that you can do in less than one day.
Count me in.
Thanksgiving maybe my favorite holiday.
I think its great that we have a day put aside to recognize that we have much to be thankful for.
I like that it was Lincoln that issued the 1st Thanksgiving Day proclamation.
I love the food.
I love the anticipation of the food.
I love the smell of the food.
And I love the preparation of the food.
Starting with a vast selection of ingredients and turning them into different dishes that are all ready to eat at the same time.
I love the challenge.
And I am thankful that I don’t have to do it every day.
Washington, D.C. October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State
Please note there is some historical discussion that the proclamation was written by Seward and not Lincoln.
No Haiku For You 