FIVE SECOND STORIES

In the Neighborhood:

3/4-A pleasant day, sunny in the mid-50's:

Things have dried a bit so Bud is enjoying his early Spring outpost:
 

3/5-rain!

That evening, the black silhouette of the shed roof and a glowy grey sky:
 

Buddy enjoys putting himself in a rather precarious position on Mum's quilt and legs when we are watching the tube-he seems to love the balancing act of staying on without sliding off-some sort of macho feline behavior.

Mr. Redbird waiting at the Diner:

3/7: a nice afternoon with temps pushing 60° with a bit of dampness in the air after all the rain. I spotted LG at the Diner so I thought I would go out on the deck, greet him and toss out some peanuts. He saw me and immediately hopped towards me. I congratulated him on surviving Winter and wished him a happy Spring as I tossed the nuts.

3/8-crocus in full bloom:

 A distant colony that the squirrelies planted over by the shed:

Our resident chipper has awakened and is up:

3/9-gorgeous early Spring day with temps pushing 70°-grass is starting to green up and the lilacs are showing leaf bud:

 

3/10-overcast with storms coming in the evening and overnight. The Diner was busy as critters were fueling up. The nutkins were out and about and as usual, fighting with the big squirrels. Mom Nutkin with her russet back and tail:

Her children from last year, grown and independent but still visiting the Diner:

One of the siblings, what a cutie! 

Big storms woke me around 1.30 am. I got up around 2 am to check on everything. Bud, who was in his basket when I went to bed wasn't there. Worried, I looked for him. He was lounging on the South facing front porch, which due to the rain coming in from the North and the great overhang, kept it dry. Securitycat was keeping an eye on things-good lad! I got up around 8.30 am and saw that we had a pond in the Back 40 which often happens this time of year:

My rain gauge showed 1.33" so I am thinking the pond is partly due to me sumping out the water from the pool Winter cover. I directed the water to flow along this line of honeysuckles to give them a good drink. January and February were both below average normal.

~ 

Radar showing a classic hook echo of the Three Rivers tornado on 3/6:

3/10-A burst of rainfall with a ton of hail hit Grand Rapids creating this surreal scene of icy flooding in the streets:

  

3/10- A EF-3 tornado hits Kankakee IL with gorilla hail:

 

It's odd to be seeing such intense storms this early and this far North. Look what happened in Three Rivers. Is this going to be the new normal?

~

#cutebuddypics:

C had replenished Buddy's nip toy and gave it to him on the Caucasian rug. Now, he will go over to the rug and gets frisky whether more nip has been added or not. Contact buzz!

 Sometimes, it's the real thing:

He loves to defy gravity while lounging with C while practically falling off. Check out his paw on the table:

Another example of his politeness: we had been hanging out together on the couch when I got up to get some food. I nuked up something and fed him as well. I returned with a bowl and a plate and put them on the table. He followed but upon jumping on the couch, immediately hung a right and settled in, about arm's length away in front of the heater, giving me some space to eat.  

~ 

I was walking to the checkouts at Meijer when I spotted this in a display:

Just the thing for someone you don't know much or a relative you are obliged to gift! You can help out Aunt Bobbie over the holidays and get her hub, who has a problem, one of these so he will spend less that week on his gambling fix. Yikes!

~

Hodgepodge for $400:

Demon face on plant pareidolia:

Skeleton of a stingray:

Cave of Hands (Cueva de las Manos) Santa Cruz, Argentina:

In a series of caves, dwellers decorated the walls over many centuries. These hand paintings are associated with work from 5000 BC to 1300 BC. 

 

In his 1790 will, Benjamin Franklin bequeathed £1,000 each to Boston and Philadelphia (roughly $4,000 total) to be held in trust for 200 years

. He instructed that the funds accrue interest for two centuries, with a portion used for loans to young tradesmen after 100 years. By 1990, the trusts grew to over $6.5 million, funding scholarships and civic projects.

~ 

So many vids these days seem to use AI for narration. But, in many cases, how much language data given the system seems to be inadequate. For example, NATO was pronounced as "gnato" as in those tiresome tiny insects.

~ 

I came across this nice metaphor for living with the existence of nuclear weapons: a loaded gun pressed to the temple of every human being on the planet. 

~ 

I am older than Google! 

~ 

With our health care leaders being complete quacks, it brings to mind an old Mark Twain quote (thanks C): 

 "Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint."

Not to mention the plethora of quacky influencer ads on YT such as the olive oil swilling promoter (with his own product, of course).

~ 

There was an article in The New Yorker concerning Shere Hite who caused a cultural explosion with her study of female sexuality during the Reagan years. The upshot of the story is a warning: those of you who took Ms. Hite's words to heart, learned from them and implemented them into your life-you are under threat from this current adminstration's uber trad macho manosphere complete with conservative, Christian religious zealotry: love, Honor and OBEY, BITCH!

~ 

The first coast-to-coast automobile trip in the US was completed in 1903 by Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson, Sewall K Crocker and their dog, Bud. They drove a 2-cylinder, 20-hp Winton touring car from San Francisco to New York City in 63 days, navigating with few, if any, proper roads, maps, or gas stations.

~ 

Fun vids: 

Mad ads: this curious one from Amazon promoting the "all new Alexa+". Here, Alexa serves as an alarm clock in the persona of a female Don Rickles for a woman. Evidently, she is a serial slap the alarm, go back to sleep kinda gal. Alexa roasts her repetitively, covering a wide range of topics and won't shut the fuck up until sleeping beauty is outta bed. 

What I found odd and perhaps documenting the issues of Gen Z these days, is that this is a grown woman. Perhaps as a teen or college kid she had major attendance problems. Great news for fellow travelers whose boss has given warnings- Alexa + to the rescue! Makes sense especially if they have major college debt to pay off. 

1177 BCE marks the beginning of the collapse of civilizations across the Middle East. The standard story has been it was the mysterious Sea Peoples. But who were they?

 FUBARland:

Just like those darn Iranians!

Donnie Demento, Whiskey Pete and Vlad Miller can't figure out why the Iranians won't do as they are told. Well, let's strip identities out of this and tell the tale in broad terms-from the standpoint of the new Iranian leader:

You and your family were attacked by foreigners. You're hurt and they killed your father. A school was bombed and many children were killed. You have fought back yet these foreigners are demanding that you surrender. They threaten to come and stomp around in your backyard. Hell no! you say and continue to fight back. This really has a biblical feel to it. 

And as usual, folks from the West just don't understand the deep feelings of people in the Middle East-they have very long memories when they feel dissed. Hell, they are still pissed off about the Crusades! And having their ancient lands carved up by the oil hungry West after WW1. And being removed from your ancient homeland by the British to make make way for a Jewish nation. And being invaded because the Americans, in their post-9/11 fervor, were itching to do some nation building. 

How did this all work out? 

Meanwhile...

With all that is going on, what is the Roach prioritizing? Footwear for his male cabinet members. Yep, Dear Leader gifted them with crappy Florsheim $145 shoes, a style he adores. Of course did he have staff get their sizes? Naw, the stable genius guessed. Now, the poor bastards gotta wear them, being too afraid not to. For some like Marco Rubio, they're clown shoes:

How fitting. 

You can't make this shit up!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE GIRL WITH BLUE EYES

     They smelled the camp before they saw it. They were a 6 man recon patrol in a woods in rural Southern Germany, part of the leading edge of  American forces in that region. It was an warmish spring morning, some trees were leafing out and the birds were singing. The patrol had been uneventful until they began to smell something and the sergeant raised his hand for everyone to halt. They listened  and scanned in front of them for a bit and he motioned for them to move on. They saw a break in the trees and as they approached they began to see an encampment surrounded by tall barbed wire fencing with wooden guard towers. They dropped down onto a knee and took it all in, looking for Germans but saw none. What the hell is this? whispered a private. They could see people inside but not a guard in sight. Let’s take a closer look said the Sarge and they quietly stood up, spread out and began walking towards the camp. They noticed that the main gate was chained shut which they cut open with a bolt cutter.  As they opened the gate, some people inside began to take notice while others wandered around. The odor was overwhelming and the patrol soon saw piles of rotting corpses on the grounds. On either side of a main path were makeshift wooden huts. At one point, they just stood, dazed by the sight. Finally the Sarge said to one of the privates run back to camp as fast as you can, find the captain and get him up here. As the kid left, the rest of the patrol walked in. They noticed that the people were made up entirely of women and girls. They appeared to be inmates of some kind, wearing striped clothing, with numbers and yellow stars of David sewn on their tops  They were hollow-eyed, emaciated and filthy. One woman approached one of the squad and upon seeing their uniforms were not German, took his hand and fell to her knees breaking into tears. The patrol continued to walk further into the camp and at one point a corporal looked inside one of the huts. There were wood bunks with women and girls on them, all starving, all filthy. It appeared some bunks contained dead women. Outside, more inmates were coming over to the squad, crying, making gestures begging for food waving metal cups in their hands. The Sarge ordered the patrol to back off towards the gate and wait for reinforcements. He had no idea what to do-there was nothing in his training for this.  

     The Captain soon arrived with most of the company-about 150 men with more on the way. He had talked with Division about how to proceed and announced to his men: give the people water but no food as their systems could not handle it due to starvation. Squads were organized to go hut to hut and try and help people out if they could. Many of the men were hardened paratroopers who had fought their way across France into Germany and had seen the horrors of combat. This was something different: these were civilians, women and children. 

    In one of the huts lying on a bunk, a private found a young girl, head shaved, emaciated but with beautiful blue eyes. She reached out to him and he helped her off the bunk. She could not walk so he carried her. She is as light as a feather he thought. They worked their way through the camp, which by now was bustling with activity. As they walked, she lifted her head towards the sun and pointed at it, smiling. He thought that he needed to get her out of there, away from this place of death. They quietly moved out of the camp to the woods where it was quieter. He found a nice big tree on an edge of a clearing and sat down, with his back to the trunk. The day had warmed and the sun was streaming down through the canopy of branches. He propped her up and offered her a sip of water from his canteen which she took. He was careful not to give her too much. She finished, wiped her mouth with a dirty hand, smiled at him and sighed. She moved her arm around him and snuggled close. The birds were quite active and the private noticed squirrels busily moving up and down the surrounding trees. It reminded him of back home in upstate New York  and thoughts of his life there streamed through his mind. His attention returned to the girl as she had gone limp. He gently moved her hand and then her head but she did not respond. He quietly wept. After all he had seen and done since Normandy, witnessing close friends blown apart, killing men in close combat-this young girl’s death had broken him. 

    After a bit, he slid her gently to the ground and sat for a while, gathering himself. Time had stood still and he had no idea how long he had been away from his unit. Never mind, he thought, there was something that had to be done. He rose, picked up his shovel from his pack and began to dig a hole. He was about halfway done when he heard someone calling his name. It was a couple of guys from his recon group. When they walked up, their annoyance turned to silence. The private didn’t stop digging. Give me a hand here fellas he said and without a word they did and finished quickly. He gently moved the girl into the hole, crossing her tiny arms across her chest. He walked over to a patch of blooming wild violets nearby, picked out several stems and placed them in her hands. He looked up. I want the sun to be on her face, always he said to his buddies and they began to shovel dirt on top of her. When they finished, one placed a large rock they had unearthed on the head of the grave. I heard Jewish people put stones on their graves he said and they stood for a moment. They noticed that the woods had gone quiet followed by a soft, single breeze. Thanks, fellas finally said the private. She deserved more than to be buried in a unmarked mass grave. Now, we have the living to tend to. He grabbed his pack and the three men walked back to the camp.

     The private survived the war and returned to his family and home in upstate New York. He went to school on the GI Bill and earned a degree in accounting. He found a job, fell in love, married and raised a family. He never talked about the war although every Spring, his wife noticed there would be a period where he would be quieter than normal. On a nice weekend day, he would be gone for hours in the woods on their property, never explaining his absence. He wasn’t a hunter, in fact, he had never touched a gun since the war. She would tell her girlfriends that her husband was on one of his “walkabouts” but in her heart she knew it had something to do with his time in Europe. 

     One late Winter day, 55 years after the liberation of the camp, he announced to his family that he was going to take a trip to Germany. They were quite surprised as he had never been much of a traveler unlike his wife and children who loved to go on vacations and explore new places. He simply told them there was something he needed to do. His family protested about him going alone but he pointed out that despite being in his early 70’s, he was pretty healthy, mobile and stubborn. 

     Recently, thanks to the new Internet, he had been researching about the camp. He discovered its name, precise location and history but little more. The experience with the girl had always stayed with him and he wanted to return to the camp and visit her before he died. He timed his arrival to around the date he and his buddies had discovered the camp. The journey was simple and fairly direct. He rented a car and drove to the site on a beautiful Spring day much like the one years before. The camp was a minor one in the industrial killing system the Nazis had installed. There was a parking lot and a plaque outside of the main gate. He was the only one there. 

     He got his bearings, hitched up his knapsack over one shoulder and walked to the woods which seemed unchanged since he was last there. The trees had begun to leaf, the birds and squirrels were busy at their work of finding food. Twenty minutes later, he began to worry about his memory of the place. He stopped and at looked up at the cloudless, azure sky and closed his eyes. The woodland creatures all went quiet and a slight wind picked up. As he opened his eyes again and moved his gaze down, he saw The Tree about 30 yards away. As he approached, a sight stopped him in his tracks: at the base of the tree was a large colony of blooming violets with a large rock in the middle. Those few sprigs he had put into her hands had managed to propagate and spread over the years. His eyes welled up and he sat beside the flowers and began to talk. It poured out of him-his life since the war, how her memory had always remained with him, how sad he has been to never had known her name or family. No one to tell that she was here and that in the final moments of her life, she had known freedom. 

     Finally he was done, all that he had kept inside all these years, expelled. He stood up and reached into his knapsack. He pulled out a rock, one of the first he had come across digging his garden back home and had saved. He placed it next to hers. A part of myself, he thought, and murmured so you won’t ever be alone. He sighed, blew a kiss at the grave, turned and headed back home.

 

FUBARland

Buh bye to Kristi Gnome, hopefully the beginning of the avalanche that will bury these pieces of shit. Poor bitch, got a bunch of stuff done to her to achieve the "Mar a Lago" face that is so prized by the Roach. How's that gonna work out for you 20 years from now?

RT-Kristi. LFT-this is what happens when you open the Ark of the Covenant. Divine energy destroys those with evil intentions. 

The Iran War. Welp, best labelled a Fubar war cuz that exactly describes what it is. The "mission statement" changes practically hour to hour and no one has a fucking idea what is going on. Why are we there? Well, Dear Leader "had a feeling". And it's costing thousands of lives, that "feeling".

Meanwhile, Puty is laughing so hard he's choking on his Putinka: he's providing the Iranians with intelligence about location of American assets and has managed to get his oil sanctions temporary eased because nothing is moving through the Strait of Hormuz. Russian oil is going to India bringing in much needed cash so he can keep up the offensive in Ukraine. Stupid, stupid Roach.

The fucking insane Republican cowards in the Senate, still afraid and still smooching orange ass, vote down a War Powers resolution to try and bring things under control. 

Meanwhile, gas jumped 30 cents/gal on Friday, probably will be over $4/gal next week. The markets are freaking. Many say we are on the edge of recession. 

C and I keep writing our Congresspeople: Impeach! Impeach them all! Keep applying pressure re: Epstein. Fight! Fight! Fight! 

 

FIRST SPRING STORMS

The March Lion roared yesterday! 

A huge system encompassing MI, WI, SW down to OK and TX brought heavy rains, hail and tornadoes. SW MI suffered a number of tornadoes, hitting Branch and Cass counties killing 4 and creating a lot of damage. Below, Tornadoes in Three Rivers and Union City are documented. A real twig-snapper-took out roofs, shredded trees, flung cars. Sounds like a EF-2 to me.

Update: the Union Lake twister now been rated EF-3 with136-165 mph winds.
 

Luckily, the twisters came out of a single isolated cell that I believe kept spinning up new ones as older funnels dissipated.

We had several storms come through with a big one arriving as it was getting dark. Heavy rain and a lot of lightning. All told, we received 1.5" of rain. 

The warmth and rain has fired up everything-more crocus in bloom this morning:

The daylilies in the West garden are up. And, we've heard that RW has returned!

I'm sure we'll be seeing him and the missus at the Diner soon!

Mr. Lil' Woody having lunch:

~ 

I wouldn't break out the margaritas just yet: Old Man Winter will return to show everyone he still has his mojo. Sho' nuff-forecast for next weekend is for another shot of cold air with...the "s" word.

Speaking of which, snowfall here for the 2025-26 season is around 40" with the average around 50". Yeah, OMW will probably want to be average. 

FIVE SECOND STORIES

In the Neighborhood: 

3/2-3/3-What a difference a day makes. While overcast, nearly windless and temps barely into the 40's-the remaining snow melted. Right pic taken morning 3/4:

 

M/M Redbird had a lengthy meal at the Diner:

Another new squirrel-short tail with a noticeable gouge in his fur near his spine. Fight or hawk attack?

3/3-Lunar eclipse featuring the "Blood Moon":

Blood Moons freaked out the ancients who interpreted the event as a harbinger of death, disaster, chaos. Considering recent events, they seem to be spot on although there is often cherry-picking for the event to fit a narrative:

In Mesopotamia, just to the West of Iran, such eclipses were viewed as a direct, fatal threat to the king. To protect the monarch, the kingdom would appoint a "proxy king" to take on the danger, while the real king went into hiding. 

In Christianity, the blood moon has been linked to biblical prophecies of the "end times," where the moon turns to blood. 

FUBARland: 

Just yesterday an old crazy chestnut resurfaced with news that 40 incidents at 30 military locations where officers told their troops that the Iran war is a part of God's plan with the Roach anointed by Jesus to cause Armageddon (the end of days) marking His return to Earth. 

Now, this stuff has been around to my memory since the 80's with ultra-right evangelical Christian, rabidly pro-Israel Congresspeople and ministers lobbying for Middle-East conflicts to bring about the End of Days. It fired back up during the 2 Iraq wars and has returned, probably hand-in-hand with the Project 2025 plotters. 

~

#cutebuddypics: one of his favorite things to do-lap time with his Mum:

 

C is on Spring break and to celebrate, she checked out a salt water float tank at Beyond a Dream Spa in Okemos. Just the thing for a tired Watergirl! She enjoyed it: practically Red Sea saltiness and, most importantly, the water was warm enough. Followed by a tasty ramen noodle lunch at a newish Zhen Ramen and Grill restaurant in Hannah Plaza, East Lansing. 

The float tank reminded me of the 1980 Ken Russell film, Altered States starring William Hurt. 

 

CROCUS!

Crocus starting to bloom! Looking back at past years considering our very cold Winter, pretty much on time.

LG survived the Winter:

He had the Diner to himself:

While not the warmest day, Bud found a dry spot to keep an eye on things:

The snow line behind us and Benny's where our roofs block the sun from melting the remaining snow. It shows that even at its highest point during the day, just how low the sun is at this time of year.
 

March Full Worm Moon. The odd cloud to the right is an jet aircraft contrail that expands over time:

 

FIVE SECOND STORIES

In the Neighborhood: 

3/1: +12° and 2" of overnight snow:

Poor crocus, poking their heads up through the snow:

But, the sun is strong and things are melting fast. Warm-up coming mid-week with temps 40-50s with rain. Rumors of 60s arriving for the weekend. 

~ 

With the upcoming Spring in mind, a Kelly Boesch vid, Honeybee:

~

My first PSA test after treatment came in at .07. Normal for men my age is 0.0-6.5. Yay! Recheck in 6 months.

~

Fun pics:  

Alpaca after shearing:

 

The size of a grown tiger's paw:

A Striped Pajama squid:

Found in the Indo-Pacific Oceans of Australia, this guy is tiny-adults reach a length of 3".

Cassowary with eggs:

These birds are smaller only to ostrich and emu with giant killer claws. One wonders if this might have inspired Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham? 

In Iran's Zagros Mountains, salt domes and glaciers formed over thousands of years as subterranean salt gradually migrated to the surface.

 

Wavy rock at Vermillion Cliffs park:

The area near the Utah-Arizona line is a place of strange and delightful rock formations. In the Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness, the renowned Wave formation is made of Jurassic-age Navajo sandstone -- 190-million-year-old sand dunes turned to rock. Stacked one atop another, the dunes calcified in vertical and horizontal layers. 

White Auroras Finland-Seen during intense, cold winter nights, they occur when the aurora is exceptionally bright, overwhelming human color perception (rod cells), or when green and red emissions mix with nitrogen to create a white effect.

 

Spherical cloud, Fujisawa, Japan December, 2016:

Dubbed "Death Star cloud" or "cotton ball cloud", these stationary, low-hanging clouds are likely a rare, isolated form of lenticular (or cushion) cloud, often caused by winds flowing over mountainous terrain or unique atmospheric conditions. 

Fog Dome 2016 North Wales:

A weatherman from the BBC explained: "This is a very unusual phenomenon, but the most likely explanation is that the "fog dome" has been caused by a source of heat close to the ground, possibly an agricultural building or a relatively warm pool of water. As the fog has formed in the valley this heat source has forced the fog to lift away from the ground into a dome as warmer air rises; like a hot air balloon."

Sutro tower in San Francisco looking like a ghost in the fog:

 

Kelvin-Helmholtz wave clouds in Wyoming 2022:

Known as Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, they form when a faster stream of air moves above rising air below.

Mammatus clouds near sundown, Germany: (not enhanced)

Jimmy red corn originally from Georgia-a rare variety saved by a single farmer from extinction. It is also known to make exceptional moonshine with a smooth, deep flavor. 

 

Inside a cactus: 

Ring display in jewelry shop:

Women's full face swimming mask from 1928 designed to protect the skin:

A MRI of baby in the womb:

The creepiness of the images are why ultra-sounds are used! #getanexorcist

Pareidolia: rock floating in sky or rock in a lake?

Fun vids: 

Orchard tree trimming machine:

 Carrot harvesting machine:

FUBARland:

Something I am not reading about in the media concerning the assassination of Iran's Supreme leader are potential consequences. Historically, killing a leader of a country has been a taboo although we've done it a few times over the years. But now, with drone technology, an enemy can whip a few in under radar and boom. I would not want to be in the Secret Service's shoes moving forward: how are they going to protect the Roach (and subsequent presidents) when he is out golfing? 

Idiot. Let's take this to the nth degree-any leader anywhere will rarely be seen in public. Everything will be televised and therefore AI imaging could be used. Reality will be fixed.

Now, reports are coming in that the Roach's reasoning for the Iran attack had to do with retribution of alleged Iranian messing in our 2020, 2024 elections. In a draft memo that was leaked, China was cited for the same thing. All as fake justifications for the Roach to stomp on our voting procedures so he can steal the 2026 mid-term elections. 

What is it going to take for Congress to impeach him?