Six weeks to Spring, you know? But we have to get through the weekend. Here is our new friend, Iceberg A23a;

Inline image

We had a festive dram of good cheer with the breakfast offering. We have completed our review of the pst year and are agreed to let it go! We feel awake and energized and alive in the chill clear dawn. It is a perfect feeling to balance with the raw wet weather that is supposed to come in tomorrow. There was talk of snow, but we don’t know. That discourse moved quickly forward to proposals for other rhyming sentiments, since we are tired of hearing about ‘River to the Sea,’ which we assume is the Potomac to the Atlantic. It might also be someplace else, since things are a bit confused in the global order. Russia and America find themselves at odds again, but with new friends and new calculations. And new missiles.

We will continue to investigate as the political scene remains unsettled. You fellow codgers out there probably have a vague memory of the Carter Presidency. We have the best wishes for the former President, and share his sorrow at the loss of his loving wife Rosalynn. Back in their day, the upright stature and impeccable morals of Plains, Georgia, were a relief from whatever the heck the previous decade had wrought in terms of crisis. There are some tid-bits of ancient history that have floated around since the shootings that transfixed the nation in the late 1960s. The Kennedy Brothers were the first to perish, followed by the unlikely pair of Dr. King and Governor Wallace.

That was a remarkable time from which we emerged a bit battered. Some of the social issues have trailed along in the wake, including the strange DEI rhetoric and racism that is good in order to rectify injustice that occurred only a couple hundred years ago.

We are already in the new cycle around the sun. You can feel it coming alive. “Six more weeks of Winter!” shouted an exuberant Splash. We suspect there may be more. Closer to home, there are some issues crying out for resolution. They represent an evolution from the way elections have been run under the massive uncertainty of a global pandemic.

There is the possibility that things will get back to normal with the usual periodic flurry of emotion about peripheral issues. That is the way things have worked here in America for fairly long time. We have had some spectacular moments in our public discourse. Some of them involving armies marching about, so we are not going to get too agitated this morning. But we will be keeping an eye on things. People seem a little hot-headed these days and we ought to be organized for a calm response.

Rocket had a huddle with our section leader DeMille before the Production Meeting. Things to discuss? Naturally the weather is one of them since it is so near. But under the brilliant mid-day sun it was a bit hrd to take seriously. So, storm clouds can wait for analysis. Then there was a report that some bureaucrat in the Department of Energy had a good idea the other day. That would be news all on its own, but this one has some interesting downstream consequences.

We have already discussed one of the other good ideas that floated out of DoE and Transportation last year. Remember the requirement to install electronic remote cut-off switches for all new cars by 2030? That would enable law enforcement officials to shut down moving vehicles. The new good idea may be part of something that incorporates everything. You may like it- it is a link from satellite GPS in low earth orbit to signal your automobile to stop speeding.

There have been a collection of good ideas, which includes the gas stove in our kitchen. If one were inclined to put all these good ideas together in one plain, easy to read document, we might see that there is a comprehensive plan to control how (or if) we get around. We think that might have been a more interesting and personal topic than what pro-nouns ought to be used to accommodate the eccentricities of a tiny but vocal portion of the population.

So, those issues were flying around linking us to the fairly recent past. As you are painfully aware, the weather and climate have been significant topics quite aside from what may strike us tomorrow. There has been a common refrain through our public narrative on weather. The Scientists have informed us thqt “climate” is a thing that should be measured in thirty year blocks of time rather than what is happening outside at the moment.

We got a cool reminder of that fact which has nothing to do with snow in Virginia. This one is called the “world’s largest iceberg” and it is named with an annoying set of letters and numbers. “A23a” is an immense block of ice larger than a couple Manhattans. it originally broke off from the Antarctic sheet, drifted for a bit, then grounded itself on the seafloor below. It is on the move again, drifting north into warmer water after being stuck in place for decades.

This could be folded into the narrative of Global Warming nicely, even if it is already floating on the world ocean and has displaced all the sea water it is going to. But we suspect that doesn’t mqtter. We may see more about it as the Presidential campaign unfolds with all the bells and whistles deployed. We will keep you posted n that, but as to whqt will be flling on us tomorrow, we re going to take a quick trip to the Class SIX Store over at Fort Myer and stock up on a few bottles of hearty whiskey to help us enjoy whatever is coming our way!

NEW YEAR, new Weather! Let’s roll! We will be back with storm reports tomorrow!

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com