FIVE SECOND STORIES-HAPPY LEAP DAY!

2/27-Temps reached 72° breaking the longstanding record for this date set in 1867. Bud enjoyed keeping an eye on the Diner from the table:

Later, he was doing his rounds when he came across a Rocky who had just woke up and emerged from his apartment:
 

We held our breath as Rocky puffed up and arched his back to make himself look bigger. "Dude, just let him do his thing" we said. DHS looked rather nonchalant despite being at a disadvantage in both size and weight and quietly walked away.

I noticed that my maple and Benny's next door were beginning to show their red buds. Out front in the warm sunshine, the crocuses were in their glory and bees had something to feed on:

The big cold front with plenty of thunderstorms and lightning swung in around 11.30 pm waking us up. It was still 59° and Bud was outside somewhere in one of his dry outposts. A couple of minor tornadoes touched down in the lower counties. When I got up at 7am, the temp had dropped to the high 20's and hung around 24° most of the day with fierce North winds. Brrrrr.

2/28-Around the corner this morning, I saw a flock of robins. Now, we had seen some Christmas Day when we took a walk in the Delta park-those evidently overwintered. Not sure if these guys did as well or just flew in. Last year my first sighting was on 2/3 and 3/15 in 2022.

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"Let Them Eat Cereal!" Clueless and tone deaf  Kellogg CEO Gary Pilnick stated in interview on CNBC's Squawk on the Street, that he thought it would be a great idea for families with tight food budgets to start having cereal for supper. Now, consider that Mr. Pilnick's annual compensation is $1 million in salary, $4 million in incentives and the prices of his products have gone up 26% since the pandemic. This stupid bastard actually thought he was presenting a valid solution for food insecurity. He was swiftly excoriated online by folks who were not amused by his plea for peasants to help him maintain his standard of living.

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The Impatient Fisherman: a Frankfort, MI man was convicted of 2 misdemeanors earlier this month after he redirected the Platte River in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park so he could have easier access to Lake Michigan. The Platte river runs for some distance parallel to the lake with a sand spit separating the two. He was sick of spending time going the long way so he took matters into his own hands.

U.S. Attorney's Office

 

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Fun fact: Many of the carved stone heads on Easter Island have bodies! This was known as early as 1914 but for some reason this knowledge remained hidden until 2012 when images from researchers from the latter part of the 20th Century emerged online. Researchers from UCLA spent 4 years unearthing a number of statues and documented for the first time intricate carvings found on the bodies.

UCLA