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I think I will stay home for Thanksgiving.
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group is for us to check in at to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. It's also so we can find other Kossacks nearby for in-person checks when other methods of communication fail - a buddy system. Members come here to check in. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we and your buddy are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care! IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a PM to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group is for us to check in at to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. It's also so we can find other Kossacks nearby for in-person checks when other methods of communication fail - a buddy system. Members come here to check in. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we and your buddy are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a PM to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
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Chuck Grassley apparently has something of a reputation as a matchmaker. He just attended the wedding of the 20th couple to meet in his office.
The Library Map.
One hundred years of the jungle gym.
I missed this one before Halloween. Regional slang terms for ‘ghost’.
There is evidence that Venus once had the same type of plate tectonics that Earth does.
A sea otter who stole surfboards last summer has a pup now.
NASA captures image of ghostly cosmic hand.
Chopin in paint swirls.
Mom’s funeral finally happened. Things can be delayed like that for people who wanted cremation, which she did. The only one remaining of the older generation now, that I’m sure of, is Mom’s older brother. He’s 95 or near it. Mom’s younger brother died of cancer a fair number of years ago now. Dad’s youngest sibling might still be alive, but nobody would think to tell me one way or another, and I do believe she died a couple years ago.
Nothing from the archaeology sites this week.
I’m not sure when I’ll be home today. See you when it happens.
Love you guys!
My brother who’s next after me is 69 now.
Why is space so dark?
The first emperor of the Qin dynasty in ancient China used a carriage hauled by six sheep to decide where he would sleep each night. The carriage was recently excavated near the mausoleum where he was buried.
It appears that Moebius strips have to be a certain length in relation to their width. This has only recently been mathematically proven.
Stone Age flip-flops? Maybe.
Goats and the uses of solar-powered GPS collars.
3400 year old pyramid excavated in Kazakhstan.
What ancient languages may have sounded like.
I begin to see the end of the reorganization of my kitchen. It almost looks neat, even though it still isn’t finished. I have to wait for something I need to be delivered on Monday.
I was up half the night last Thursday, reading my new book that got delivered to my Kindle at midnight Eastern time. Illusion of a Boar by Celia Lake. It’s the story of how four people in the magical community of Albion contribute to misleading the Germans about D-Day. I finished it on Friday and went right back to the beginning to read it again.
I tried an experiment and discovered that my leg doesn’t hurt anywhere near so much since I have dropped one exercise I was doing. I’m going to have to find something else to replace it, but much closer to pain-free is very much what I was hoping for.
Tomorrow my second turns 41. She doesn’t look like what people think 41 is any more than I look like what people think 70 should.
Prada is designing the space suits for the 2025 moon mission.
When lions were king. How different ancient civilizations regarded lions.
85 kinds of apples.
The rock sitting on a bible in a 15th century painting is probably an ancient hand axe.
The scoop on saffron.
The Garamantes thrived in what is now Libya due to access to an ancient aquifer. Their kingdom lasted roughly 500 years, but declined rapidly when their groundwater ran out.
There seems to be a photographer who specializes in pictures of fog.
I just got what turned out to not be a routine email from my Congressman. Earl Blumenauer will not be running for re-election in 2024. I have been in Oregon for the entire time he’s been in Congress — I believe he was elected to Congress in the first election I voted in after I moved back to Oregon. I will vote for whoever he endorses.
As of November 1, the Portland Public Schools teachers are on strike. The district appears to be claiming there is not enough money to meet the teachers’ demands. The State of Oregon appears to have called bullshit on this.
Since the grandkids have been available mid-days this week, much progress has been made in my decluttering.
I got a text from the Speaker of the House Saturday morning. I was quite rude before I did the STOP that will hopefully get me off that particular list.
I’m not feeling especially enthusiastic about any of them at the moment. That could change.
The 20 most haunted places in the world.
An excavation at St. George’s Guildhall has uncovered a stage where Shakespeare performed.
Changes in cause of death over time in America.
The Spanish flu that coincided with the end of WWI killed people who were already subject to environmental stressors of various kinds much more often than people who were generally healthy when they came down sick. Another history myth debunked.
The most perfectly preserved dinosaur of all time.
A new study of the Parthenon marbles in the British Museum had detected colors and patterns they were originally painted with.
The best street food in the world.
Evidence indicates our sense of smell affects how we see color.
My grandson is taking part in a cross-country … tournament, I suppose … today. This is the last of it for this year. I’m not sure what his mother will have him doing next.
I am beginning to see actual progress in getting my kitchen together. I had to throw out quite a bit of stuff due to it being a couple of years past the expiration date. I do plan to not do that again.
Tracking the news brings only one thought to mind these days: I LOATHE SOAP OPERAS!!!!!
Not doing Halloween this year.
I have no gifts for Christmas, but I have all the supplies I need to wrap anything. And I have two wall calendars — I am not sure what I want to put up for 2024, cats or more astronomy.
I’ve never enjoyed soap operas, so the coverage of tfg’s performances makes my stomach hurt. Another war in the Middle East. I wish the people who wanted it were the only ones fighting. And when is news of Putin’s ill health and probable imminent death going to be proved true?
Ninety animals and how their eyesight compares to humans.
One hit wonders.
Another previously unknown language has been found in tablets discovered during an excavation in northern Turkey.
We have very little going on here. Due to Oregon weather, my second and her husband went elsewhere in their attempt to see the eclipse.
My grandkids are released from the grounding. We went out for an early sushi dinner after my chiropractic appointment on Saturday. Far too many of the sushi selections featured avocado for my taste, but I found one that I liked that didn’t, and the entree I ordered as well provided lunch today besides finishing dinner nicely yesterday.
I am discovering just how routinely I used to call my mother by how often I find myself reaching for the phone.
Progress continues on my decluttering — though you’d never know right now, since it is at that particular stage….
I would like to go somewhere and have a headache. None of the people making the decisions that put millions of people in danger are anywhere near what’s happening. That seems to be how wars work.
An archaeological dig in a Roman city in Turkey has excavated a shop selling jewelry and makeup supplies. Apparently, Roman women liked hot pink eye shadow.
The tomb of an important official of the 5th dynasty in ancient Egypt has been found again, in 2022. A French archaeologist found it in, apparently, 1862, took a couple of artifacts out of it, and then shifting sand buried it and he couldn’t find it again. The official’s mummy was still inside.
Sealife off the coast of Long Island. This is a gift article where I found it. It may not show here.
Research is showing that crows understand statistical reasoning.
Film of a ‘Dumbo’ octopus.
From The Guardian: some comfort food recipes.
I have been ordering things online again. I managed to order quite a bit over a couple of weeks that mostly arrived last Tuesday — six different orders in one box. The reason I mention this is that the box was plastered all over with labels saying ‘HEAVY’, and it wasn’t — at least, not in comparison with others I’ve received over the last few months, which had only the address labels on.
My countertop dishwasher bit the dust a few days ago. I was in luck — I found one online that will do all I need, for about the same price as the one I have, which I’ve used for around four years now. It will arrive in a few days.
Mom’s funeral, such as it will be, is postponed to mid-November. The original dates chosen turn out to be in conflict with a couple of sports events. Now, Mom was no more a sports fan than I am, but she was always very proud of how good the assorted offspring are at whatever they chose to do. My niece’s daughter goes to a very small school and they have unexpectedly made the state volleyball finals — if the kid doesn’t show up, they won’t have enough players. The other is my grandson’s cross-country team being involved in a fairly large competition.
One of the nicer of my male high school classmates died a few days before Mom did. He’s the 13th that I know of, out of a class of 85.
My sister-in-law says Mom is working hard. She texted us a picture of peonies — three or four plants, all blooming madly — growing where she said they’d never been planted, at least not by her or my brother.
I’ve noticed quite a few being talked about on Daily Kos. I’m not sure we have anything locally (we don’t always), but I am registered if there is something.
Portlanders going electric.
The ingredients for a balm used in mummification have been identified. They are calling the recreation ‘the scent of eternity’.
A tool to find a book to read when you’re stumped for ideas.
Spiders ready for their closeups. Wolf spiders, apparently.
Jimmy Buffet’s final album will be released in November.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar does a newsletter every few days. The subjects are frequently political, but also anything that catches his interest. It’s at substack.com — I tried to provide a link, but the site was having issues. I do recommend it. Here’s a quote from what he wrote about the first Republican presidential candidates debate: “Trump is irrelevant to this election. He wasn’t the elephant in the room, he was the poodle’s pee stain on the rug, mildly irritating but easily overlooked.”
The person who carved several of the most important runestones in Danish history has been identified. His boss was a queen named Thyra.
Oral legends regarding a temple on the Cerro de San Miguel have been confirmed.
Tulsa appears to be trying to make at least some amends for the 1921 Race Massacre. A third excavation for graves has wrapped up, and more than 50 unmarked graves were found. They will be identified, the investigators hope.
My daughter has grounded her offspring for not following through on the chores they promised they would do while she was in Los Angeles for her aunt’s memorial service. Neither of them is trying to say they don’t deserve it.
My mother’s funeral will be at the end of this month. We have a lodge of some sort reserved for several days. I have promised to read the obituary. I don’t really have anything else to contribute — I spent much less time with my mother than my siblings did.
The decluttering progresses. I’m not paying the grandkids for their help this week — they have been promised a trip out for sushi already and are willing to wait till their mother isn’t mad at them any more.
I got word yesterday that one of my high school classmates died last month. A few days before my mother did. We made it 35 years without losing even one that I know of, but now it’s at least thirteen gone.
September 22, 1931 — September 28, 2023
Two Roman cavalry swords were found in the Cotswolds during a metal detectorists rally.
Yelp opinions on the best cheap eats in each state.
An Ice Age ivory sculpture has been thought to be a horse. They’ve found more pieces of it that seem to show it’s a bear.
Dictionary.com has released the list of their new words.
Humans were building with wood before our species existed.
Easy tapas. From The Guardian.
Scientists are studying the methods used by ancient Amazonians to create fertile ‘dark earth’.
Three sisters stew, and corncakes. Recipes from The Guardian.
An unpleasant death from illness, but evidence indicates the man was well cared for.
I have continued making progress on the decluttering. It has been settled between us that when my granddaughter feels the need to move to a place of her own, she will take the set of dishes that I originally gave to my parents before my first was born, and my microwave — which works just fine, but I’ve stopped using it.
My grandson didn’t do cross-country week before last because he was sick; but all of us remembered this past week that the meet was scheduled on Tuesday, so everything to get him there went smoothly. I’m not sure how he did — he seems to like the running, but not be terribly interested in the scores.
My mother died in the wee hours of last Thursday. I’m not sure exactly when, but my niece notified my sister at about 1:15 AM. She lasted long enough to make sure we all knew she was determined to do it her way. Now life is out of the holding pattern and within a month everything but probate will likely be over.
One of my mother’s oldest friends died on Friday. This is a woman I have literally known since before I was born. They had a pair of great-grandkids in common — one of her granddaughters married my oldest nephew. She apparently said fairly often, and recently, that she and Mom would go out together — not that they were of a generation to put it this way, but the implication was kicking ass and taking names.
{LeVar Burton: “Whether you know me from “Roots,” "Star Trek," or "Reading Rainbow," the freedom to read and learn has been a central part of my life. Now, our freedoms are being threatened by the dangerous rise of book bans and censorship in our country.}
This is the first bit of what was written to announce his partnering with Move On because of the current spate of book banning. I know him from all three, as a matter of fact.
If you’re a fan of pumpkin spice, ….
Bog snorkeling is a thing.
A totem pole stolen in the late 1920s and sold to a museum in Scotland is being returned to its actual owners.
How the National Hurricane Center predicts a storm’s path.
I was hustled south to make sure my mother had me there for her birthday. This is all I have for this week.
Yes, I’m tracking the news. No, I’m not going to comment on it. I don’t want to start frothing at the mouth.
The move to the smaller place where my mother could keep her cat was not a success. She wasn’t even there a full three weeks. She had a bad fall and ended up in the hospital for several days — last Tuesday evening, she was moved from the hospital into hospice care. One of the women who did the caregiving before we moved her took the cat — at the hospice, they can’t have animals living with them, but pets can come visit, and I’m sure my mother will get to see her cat.
The first I heard that my second and son-in-law were here was my brother texting that the three of them were about five minutes out from the hospital. Ask me if I was surprised.
The doctor my niece consulted doesn’t think my mother will last much longer. She turned 92 on Friday, and slept through her birthday and the Saturday. It won’t be a surprise when it happens. The hospice has been adopted by a cat that shows up in a patient’s room when the patient is soon to die. I agree with my firstborn that it is more because it was raining that the cat came inside the building and more because my second the cat-whisperer was in her grandmother’s room that the cat went in there.
My middle nephew’s youngest forgot her stuffed raccoon at the hospital, so it was sent to the hospice with my mother. She loved it.
Otherwise, the grandkids are trading off sick and their mother has been exhausting herself trying to help with my mother and get her own work done as well. Me, I’m making progress on the decluttering I’ve been trying to work up the oomph for for months.
I only rarely use my laptop, but I brought it south with me, just in case. I remembered my password! I also got this posted.
Yeah, they are. I could do with some boring. I wonder when the current armchair lawyers are going to turn back into armchair immunologists.
Earth’s core
There’s a newly discovered cave full of paleolithic art near Valencia in Spain.*
Scientists working together over winter in Antarctica are provably developing a local accent.
Ancient irrigation tunnels in Jordan are being explored using a remote-controlled car.
A zoo in Tennessee has a baby giraffe that is solid brown. The only one previously known was born in Japan in 1972.
Evidence has been found that humans were using shoes 148,000 years ago.
The British Library has put a million images into the public domain.
A Roman stone wall has been found in a quarry in Switzerland. This article is from Popular Mechanics.
Photographs of undersea life
Some slang terms from the 1930s. Some of them are still in use.
Pictures of the wolves in Yellowstone providing teething toys for the pups.
I have started clearing my dining area. I can’t call it a room because the ‘wall’ is four bookcases. I have a lot of recycling to get out of there, and quite a few books to get rid of, since they are the sort of thing that gets superceded and the ones I have are years out of date.
I may not be available on Sunday. We have to go see my mother.
My grandson participated in his first track meet on Thursday. He was in a cross-country relay race. No, I don’t know how his team did — I wasn’t there, and no one has told me. I am well known in the family to not be a sports fan, so they assume a total lack of interest. I believe I have griped before about my relatives being so sure they already know everything I will ever think, do, say, or feel, that they never bother to ask me. Ah, well — at this point in my life, it qualifies as a minor annoyance.
I had to get some of the trash out on Friday. My plans to conscript the grandkids on Saturday having necessarily fallen through.
I have been following the news. Like many another, I will be delighted when I no longer have to see that fatuous mug. I don’t hear the voice much — I usually turn the sound off when film of Trumplethinskin is running.
A model of an early human embryo has been developed from treated stem cells.
The oldest Roman forum in Hispania. The city it was in is unknown.
Finding your voice. My voice teacher talked about this sort of thing occasionally.
A complete Neolithic cursus monument on the Isle of Arran.
How money-laundering works. There was a fairly interesting commercial about a cashmere company when I followed the link.
Early humans were making stone spheres 1.4 million years ago.
Big excitement of the school week: On Wednesday, my grandson was supposed to take a bus to his sister’s high school to be escorted to his track practice where my granddaughter went to junior high. He apparently didn’t see them immediately, so instead of staying put, he went looking. He seems to have induced two panic attacks — one in his mother and one in his sister. I raised two girls in Los Angeles, so my idea of grounds for a panic attack has a considerably higher threshold; but I did do what my daughter asked me, and they did find him. He has a smart watch which can be used to phone and text, but it was out of power, it seems, and he couldn’t get in touch with anybody.
I am trying to get the clutter under control. I have a fairly large number of things I need to toss, and an even larger number I need to put away.
My sister is photographing stuff our mother has had for years and letting the siblings decide if they want any of it. So far, I’ve asked for a glass pitcher — I don’t think I’ll want anything else.
Some of you may have a certain familiarity with Buttonsmith. Darcy Burner’s son, Henry, started it when he was ten or so. I believe the company has made him rich, and it is expanding. Darcy was on Facebook asking for people to give her ideas so they could test their new T-shirt printing equipment, and they would get a discount on the samples. I’ve had an idea for years, so I asked for it. It took a couple of tries to get the email with the proposal/order to me, and there was one slight change I wanted; but the T-shirt arrived on Friday, and I love it!
The memorial service for my sister-in-law has been scheduled for the end of the month.
The San Remo Hotel in San Francisco is still in business. The last time I stayed there, though, it was $55 a night, which might give you some idea of how long ago that was. It’s about 6 blocks one direction from Fisherman’s Wharf and about 6 blocks another way from Chinatown.
I don’t know what’s going to happen anywhere. I am following the news like everybody else; and getting mightily sick of Trumplethinskin.
Fundamental constants, which have been thought to be unchanging, turn out to have variability ranges. This has quite an effect on living cells.
NASA’s new website and streaming service.
Red ochre found at an archaeological site near Carlisle in England confirms the descriptions of a Greek explorer, Pytheas of Massalia, of the British Isles as “Prettanike” — roughly ‘the land of the painted ones’.
Thirty-nine colors you may not know.
Stereoscopic photography has revealed previously unknown pictures of animals in a new study of cave art at La Pasiega cave, Cantabria.
The most distant star ever detected from Earth.
Researchers have found a couple of blood biomarkers that appear to predict long-COVID brain fog.
A study of a Bronze Age family from a burial site in the southern Urals.
My sister-in-law’s funeral won’t happen for a week or two. Apparently, the mortuaries in Los Angeles are kind of busy.
August finished on a high note, I must say. I got up for the day on the 31st, went into the bathroom, and there was a huge wet mess on the floor. The line into my toilet was leaking. I had towels and a pot to deal with the problem, but it was mid-afternoon before the guy got here to repair the leak — and it was NOT a slow one.
A major limb on the tree in my sister’s backyard broke off in the middle of the night Thursday. She says the only other damage might be the hydrangea bush it landed on.
My mother is moved. She was determined to be nasty about it for several days, but when one of my brothers dropped by on Friday, he said she was in the dining hall talking to somebody and seemed to be enjoying it, so he left her to it. The men in the family have been moving the stuff remaining at her old place into storage — they seem to have made a major dent in it on Friday because my sister texted everybody that a couple more hours on Saturday would do it.
During the heat wave, I stopped some of the exercises I was doing. This was a mistake, though — I won’t do it again.
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