Weather Forecasting with Ian Lang; Astrology Forecasting with...me.

I'm using two questions and answers from Quora today, one about weather forecasting, the other about astrology. Ian Lang answered the former; I, among others, answered the latter. It might seem that there's no connection between the two subjects. I do see a connection - however vague - so please do read on.

QUESTION: How accurate is weather forecasting these days?
An answer by Ian Lang, Leading Technician (used with his kind (blanket) permission) -

Not being one of those funny people in suits from Greenwood’s [Note from Twilight - Greenwoods is a well-known men's clothing retailer in the UK] that used to infest half of Bracknell I can’t speak for them directly, but having had to do fluid mechanics (which it is, albeit dressed up and on a very big scale) I can speak from that perspective.

When you’re dealing with fluids (gasses are also fluids) in an enclosed system, the best you can do is make educated guesses. The Greenwood Suit People (GSP) are very, very educated in their subject indeed.

The problem with what the GSPs do is manyfold and one of them goes by the name of Navier-Stokes. They’re fiendishly difficult, and those chaps at Oxford and Cambridge on here doing physics might like to go into the minutae of them but frankly they’d send me to sleep if I wasn’t so busy trying not to throw myself off the roof because of them and so I’ll just say that they’re used to calculate stuff to do with fluid motion and stress in it.

The Earth and its atmosphere are, as I’m sure you appreciate, a very large enclosed system indeed. You can’t possibly know the condition of every molecule of stuff there, or predict where hot and cold fronts will go. So, then, what you do is split the volume under consideration into smaller bits. With something so big, even smaller bits are quite large, and you might have a net in which each bit is 10km wide, 10km long and 10km high. In terms of something the size of the rock on which we live that’s a pretty fine net, but we have to remember that bits of stuff are continually leaving one cube and entering an adjacent one.

What you do is look at these nets and see what’s likely to happen. If you take some variables and give them a value, you’ll get several different outcomes depending on what values you have, and you can, with computer technology, run several variations on the theme and out will pop an aggregate with the most likely probability.

It’s not exact and it can’t be. What you see on Newsnight as a weather forecast may well have changed by six o’ clock the next morning as something that happened in Uppsala may well have changed the probability in Basingstoke from overcast to bucketing down rain.

So, then, the forecast for tomorrow will have a reasonable chance of accuracy, perhaps 70% or higher, and I’ve seen it in the eighties. It would be a very foolish forecaster indeed that said, with absolute confidence, that it will be fine and sunny all day without a doubt. I’ve never seen anybody say that there’s a 100% chance of accuracy.

You can’t do long range either. Every hour into the future you peer, the chance of you being right diminishes. If anybody is offering you a three-day forecast, take it with a pinch of salt. If anybody is offering you seven days, you may laugh in their face and call them a charlatan. If anybody’s offering you ten, they may as well be Mystic Meg.

Nature abhors a vacuum. It’s not too fond of weathermen either. But at least it allows the latter to wear suits from Greenwood.

QUESTION: There are many people who believe in astrology. If there are 100 people who are born on the same day and exactly the same time, will all of them be facing the same kind of situations in life as per astrology?


An answer by me, at Quora

“…the same kind of situations in life” is the key phrase of your question as I see it. You are not asking, primarily, whether they will share personality traits and characteristics- though those factors will, inevitably, feed in to outcomes of situations encountered. Try looking on the natal chart and planetary transits affecting it, as a kind of weather forecast, but rather than predicting rain, snow, sunshine or frost, the astrological forecast indicates periods of time when things are likely to be easy-going, and other times with potential for challenges of various kinds to arise.

100 people who share very similar natal charts will experience similar “rhythms” and experiences of easy-going periods and challenging, more difficult, periods of time, because transits of the outer, slow-moving planets, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto will be conjoining personal planets in these natal charts at similar points in time. The nature of challenges and difficulties experienced will be quite different for each individual, the ways in which challenges and difficulties arising are dealt with will be different, due to differences in each individual’s early background, location, education, life situation, and so on. Sometimes a challenge opens a door of opportunity, a chance of transformation depending on choices made. Here, and always, we're dealing with astrological potential versus real-world opportunity, or lack of it.

Natal charts of 100 near astrological "twins" would manifest in very different ways, but with subtle resonance in the rhythm of challenging times and easy-going times experienced by each individual.

I now see that I could have added a thought to my answer, in the style of Ian Lang: "If anybody's offering you a prediction of a specific situation happening at some future date, based on astrological factors, you may laugh in their face and call them a charlatan - or Mystic Meg. (Poor Meg - she gets blamed for a lot!)

EXTREMES

Global warming is making hot days hotter, rainfall and flooding heavier, hurricanes stronger and droughts more severe. This intensification of weather and climate extremes will be the most visible impact of global warming in our everyday lives. It is also causing dangerous changes to the landscape of our world, adding stress to wildlife species and their habitat.
(See here).

While some regions of the USA have been experiencing more extreme weather, it's nothing like the extremes experienced in other parts of the world. In India, for instance, soaring temperatures are killing many hundreds of inhabitants - and people there are not unused to extreme heat.
(See here).

Oklahoma has never been short of some level of weather extremes, but the pendulum has been swinging ever more widely during the past few years, noticeable even during the relatively short time I've lived here (since late 2004). Our local newspaper's headline today was apt: "From the Driest to the Wettest". Texas, our neighbour to the south, is experiencing much the same, and worse in some areas. (See here).

This year's long, colder than usual winter followed a few very dry summer seasons. The state experienced ongoing severe drought conditions. These are suddenly ending with weeks of regular violent storms and torrential rains. I'll not even mention the attendant tornadic activity because that comes with the territory, always has.

In 2015 the annual rainy tornado season is lasting longer, with regular daily storms, heavy rainfall bringing flash floods. Rivers and lakes are filling rapidly, some overflowing. In many ways we are thankful - this is beneficial, much needed.

Yet, one does wonder.

What if this is part of a new pattern? Could the region cope with a regular mini-monsoon season? I doubt it. Drainage systems here have always seemed primitive to me, coming as I did from oft rain-soaked England where they have the drainage issue down to a fine art. Even there, though, flooding occasionally does cause problems.

Will local Okie and Texas politicians ever deign to accept that climate change is actually happening? If they do, eventually accept as much, will they have the gumption to do something about trying to slow down the rate of change?

Weekend's Blue Norther & Remembered Song

Weather forecasters warned us late last week: A cold front, referred to as a blue norther, will sag southward ushering chilly air across the southern Plains on Friday and northern Texas on Saturday. Highs will drop 20-30 degrees behind the front with breezy conditions adding to the chill."

Forecast was correct. Temperatures on Saturday and Sunday barely inched above 50 degrees after having been in the high 70s and low 80s during the week. Skies were unrelentingly grey. But this morning, even though it feels almost frosty, the sky is brilliant blue and weather forecast promises gradual rise in temperatures during the week, returning to the low 80s, for at least a little while longer.

From Texas State Historical Association website:

The term blue norther denotes a weather phenomenon common to large areas of the world's temperate zones—a rapidly moving autumnal cold front that causes temperatures to drop quickly and that often brings with it precipitation followed by a period of blue skies and cold weather. What is peculiar to Texas is the term itself. The derivation of blue norther is unclear; at least three folk attributions exist. The term refers, some say, to a norther that sweeps "out of the Panhandle under a blue-black sky"—that is, to a cold front named for the appearance of its leading edge. Another account states that the term refers to the appearance of the sky after the front has blown through, as the mid-nineteenth-century variant blew-tailed norther illustrates. Yet another derives the term from the fact that one supposedly turns blue from the cold brought by the front. Variants include blue whistler, used by J. Frank Dobie, and, in Oklahoma, blue darter and blue blizzard. Though the latter two phrases are found out-of-state, blue norther itself is a pure Texasism. The dramatic effects of the blue norther have been noted and exaggerated since Spanish times in Texas. But that the blue norther is unique to Texas is folklore.

"Blue norther" - sounds kind of romantic doesn't it? Kind of familiar to me too having, long ago, been an avid country music fan. It didn't take long to track my memory down.

Blue norther (often wrongly quoted in lyrics as blue northern) is mentioned in Someday Soon a song written in 1964 by Canadian singer-songwriter Ian Tyson. He recorded it with his wife Sylvia. Judy Collins' version of the song was a hit in 1969, many other artists have recorded it since.

Someday Soon is about a gal who's in love with a rodeo rider, just back from military service; her parents don't like him.

There's a young man that I know whose age is twenty-one
Comes from down in southern Colorado
Just out of the service, he's lookin' for his fun
Someday soon, goin' with him someday soon

My parents can not stand him 'cause he rides the rodeo
My father says that he will leave me cryin'
I would follow him right down the roughest road I know
Someday soon, goin' with him someday soon

But when he comes to call, my pa ain't got a good word to say
Guess it's 'cause he's just as wild in his younger days

So blow, you old blue norther, blow my love to me
He's ridin' in tonight from California
He loves his damned old rodeo as much as he loves me
Someday soon, goin' with him someday soon.

Judy Collins' version is available at YouTube, as is the version by Ian and Syliva Tyson, but here are two others: one by Patty Loveless and Kathy Mattea; the other, lyrics tweaked to suit a male vocalist, by Johnny Cash, who also tells us about addiction to the rodeo.

Too Darn Hot ~ Summers Now - and Then

Time for another mild whingeing session about the weather here in S.W. Oklahoma. There's still no let up in triple digit heat, no sign of rain, nor does the weather forecast offer any hope of improvement.




I consulted astrology blog The Weather Alternative, but again, unless something major blows into the Gulf of Mexico and drums up the father of all storms from which we might get at least the dregs: a downpour or two, it seems we're stuck with the intense heat, and the drought, until September - maybe even later than that for precipitation.


A local newspaper reports that the last ten months are the driest since at least 1921, when records begin for this state. The last two months are likely to rank as the hottest June/July period in the state's recorded history. Since the first day of June this year we've seen only 2 days with temperatures less than 100 (97 and 98 degrees in fact) - and no rain. It doesn't cool down much beyond mid-80s all night long. The cold tap/faucet brings forth lukewarm water, denying me a necessary first-thing cold water wake-up splash. So I tend to wander around like (as my Mum would have said) a clock half-struck.



While such heat isn't unknown here on the fringe of the great south-western desert, for it to continue unbroken for as long, with no rain at all is not normal.

Is this a sign of permanent climate change? We can't really be certain until several summers of a similar pattern have passed. Summer of 2011 could be a flash in the pan, or it could, just as easily, be the tip of....can't say an iceberg.....the tip of the lowest flame in the fireplace.

The BBC has a video and article touching on the problem, with details that I find quite shocking. "In Steinbeck's footsteps: America's middle-class underclass" by Paul Mason. A 15 minute video and transcript are available at the link.


On a brighter note - an old "found" photograph from my husband's vast collection at Lost Gallery. The feeling from this one is just - well - happy! One summer day, somewhere in the USA, sometime in the early 1900s a group of young women were enjoying the summer weather.



A couple more caught my eye - these from beaches, somewhere...sometime, maybe around the 1920s or 30s:





Rivers - a good alternative. How's that for a poseur?




When beaches or rivers were out of the question there was always The Picnic:

"A continual state of inelegance" & annoyance...

What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance. ~Jane Austen


Elegant cannot be said to accurately describe me at the best of times, dreadful hot weather tends to make me bad tempered and ultra-inelegant to boot. Thank goodness for air conditioning. Without it I'd have had to return to Blighty, for sure.

I notice that transiting Mars and transiting Saturn have both been making trine aspects from Gemini and Libra to my natal Sun in Aquarius during the past week or so. Mars, in this case, meaning ANNoyance and challenge, Saturn = putting the brake on plans, and need for persistence. (Caps seem appropriate because that's my name!)

ANNoyance #1

Oklahoma is no stranger to extremes where weather (and conservatism) are concerned. The heat this year, though, seems more continually excessive than during the previous 6 summers I've spent here. We had triple digit temperatures (around 40C for those across t'pond) for several continuous periods during June, and into July, no rain to speak of for at least 6 weeks, perhaps longer. Our county is dealing with extreme drought conditions. There have been only two days since November 2010 when rainfall amounted to more than half an inch. Having (fingers crossed) traversed the 2011 tornado season unscathed we now find wildfires to be a continual threat, and one about which we cannot afford to be blasé.

We'd been tentatively planning to get away from Oklahoma from next weekend, heading north and west - Wyoming in fact: higher ground with somewhat lower temperatures, just for a couple of weeks. But, all things considered, especially the fact that our house backs on to a pasture and woodland where any spark might set off a blaze that could engulf our home rapidly, we've decided to wait until a substantial downpour comes along to slake down the extreme dryness. before starting out. Who knows when that might happen? Not that we could do much about a wildfire if one started, but we'd have a chance to quickly pack valuables, documents, photographs etc. in the car trunk before moving out of danger, and be on hand to sort out the resulting mess - if any.

Katharine Whitehorn (superb 20th century British journalist) once wrote: of the weather:

People get a bad impression of it by continually trying to treat it as if it was a bank clerk, who ought to be on time on Tuesday next, instead of philosophically seeing it as a painter, who may do anything so long as you don't try to predict what.

ANNoyance #2
TRACFONE customer service! We've used a Tracfone prepaid cellphone for some 5 years without much hindrance. We hardly ever use the thing - it's an "emergency only" acquisition. We don't even use our landline much except for receiving calls from my husband's offspring, and the odd reminder about a dentist appointment. Our old cellphone model is defunct, wasn't holding a charge for long, so I decided to replace it with a refurbished newer type from Tracfone online - doing my bit for the environment - or so I thought.

In trying to get the replacement charged and activated via phone calls to Tracfone I've spent periods of one and a half, and two and a half hours on the phone (landline 800 number).

It takes around 30 minutes to get to speak to a human being to start with, then it's not always easy to understand the accent of the human being one hears. Call centers are located in Central and South America I think - and maybe in parts of Asia too. First time around was a frustrating disaster. I tried to make a nice, patient-sounding guy understand that the refurbished phone wasn't holding a charge and wouldn't switch on properly. Having been told this several times he still insisted on going ahead transferring our phone number and remaining units/minutes from our old phone to the second phone.....thus leaving me with two useless phones. DUH!!! I eventually made him understand I'd need to go out to buy a Tracfone from Wal-Mart, so that the stuff from my old phone could be transferred. He gave me an "interaction number" for use as and when, and said a fond "goodbye ma'am".

Two days later, with a new Tracfone from Wal-Mart charged up, I attempted to reach a human being at customer service again. First three tries brought forth the news that due to current volume of calls they couldn't take mine. Fourth try, several hours later, put me in a 30-minute waiting line of callers. This time I eventually got a female human, with accent easy to understand, she seemed to understand me too, was patient and helpful. But the action of inputting yards and yards and yards of code into the new phone still took well over an hour and a half, followed by more waiting to speak to yet another rep, in the returns department, to get a ticket number and address to which to return the faulty re-furbished phone for a refund.

And.... the new phone is still not active - it takes 2 business days to get the phone number transferred to a new network (or something).



ANNoyance #3
I bought a 4-DVD set of a TV series called Firefly from an ebay seller. Brand new, in wrapper. When we tried to watch at the weekend we found that apart from half of the first episode the rest of the recording was faulty - pixelating all the time, two of the four DVDs wouldn't even start. So they must now be returned.....

Thanks Mars and Saturn.....now b..... off please, and make your trines elsewhere.

TROUBLES

Swine 'flu pandemic? Oh joy! Yet another verse to add to our current song of woe.

I suppose it's not too surprising that something like this should emerge just now. The astrological "atmosphere" is ripe for anything doomy and gloomy. Pluto in Capricorn, Saturn more or less opposite Uranus, both send less than optimistic messages to our astrologers. But both may have potential to turn things around... later, and to our advantage, once the initial stages have passed. Pluto draws out what's harmful, causes discomfort, but then allows healing to take place. Saturn and Uranus struggle to find balance between rigidity and flux. There really isn't a true point of balance, but out of the struggle will emerge something new, different, and possibly better.

We're in a cycle of astro weather, and it will pass just as the tornado season here in middle America will pass. Most nights this week excitable TV announcers and weathermen have been threatening us with "hail the size of golf balls", potential rotations which could turn tornado-ish at the drop of a hat.... "go to the safest part of your house......." they tell us. The husband advises me that the safest part of our house is the liquor cabinet, so.....! We've missed most of the worst of it, thus far, but we'd best not start getting complacent. I feel nostalgic, at times like these, for the measured, reassuring tones of BBC news readers. I am thankful, though, for the technology which allows the weather people here to track storms and troublemaking weather so closely, giving us plenty of warning of imminent disaster.

Tornado watches, 'flu watches, the economy, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Rush Limbaugh....We should remain calm but vigilant, careful but serene, wash our hands a lot and.... yes...avoid spreading panic and paranoia.

Let's go along with Dr. Seuss:

“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”

Oh - nearly forgot - it's our 5th wedding anniversary today! At least there are no troubles there!

Extremely extreme.

During 2007 Oklahoma experienced some of the most extreme weather in the state's history. Oklahoma has a reputation for experiencing extreme weather, lying in Tornado Alley, as it does, centre of the nation, high pressure and low pressure colliding from mountains, plains, desert, Gulf coast - a fine mixing pot! 2007, though, brought extremely extreme weather to the state. According to a report in our local newspaper, on no less than eight occasions during the year federal disaster aid was made available through presidential declaration. No other state has ever had as many presidential disaster declarations in one year.

Oklahoma achieved statehood on 17 Nov 1907. Astrologically the state could be said to have been "born" under the zodiac sign of Scorpio. I'm doubtful about states, countries, governments and other inanimate entities having "signs" and charts, but I'm open to persuasion. Here's a thought which does kind of fit, if states were eligible for charts and Sun signs. Scorpio's ruler is Pluto, and during 2007 Pluto has been in a particularly significant area of Sagittarius - close to the Galactic Center. Sagittarius is known to relate to extremes of all kinds. The Galactic Center is thought to be something of a dynamo, which could, arguably, intensify that which is already extreme.







Oklahoma started 2007 with an ice storm which caused the biggest power blackout in state history. Spring and summer 2007 brought heavy rainfall, ending the drought but causing floods which devastated homes, floated vehicles, necessitated dramatic rescues, and shattered records. The year ended, almost as it had begun, with an ice storm, this time leaving 600,000 homes and businesses without power, and causing 29 deaths. We in the south-western section of the state were fortunate, and fared much better than those further north and east, experiencing only minimal disruption.

Was this extreme weather, occurring while Pluto transited Sagittarius and the Galactic Center, a coincidence? There's climate change to add to the query too. I don't know the answer - coincidence, the thin end of climate change, or astrology? A mix of all three perhaps.

The Week That Was

The Week That Was was a very wet week here in Oklahoma. On Thursday evening while watching a Democratic Debate on TV the programme was interrupted twice by local emergency services warning inhabitants of our town over and over again to "stay home, stay safe" due to many flash floods in the area. Kathryn Cassidy's blog entry on 27 June "Cosmic Clocks and more" was an interesting view of possible astrological reasons for current unusual weather, both here and in the UK.

I'm told by HeWhoKnows that the continual rainy weather we're experiencing is very unusual for this area of the USA. Heavy rain has fallen on Oklhoma City on 15 consecutive days, breaking a 70 year record. It's certainly much different, so far, from the other two summers I've spent in Oklahoma. Last year we experienced the other extreme - weeks of drought, grassfires, extra-high temperatures. Whether astrological effects, climate change, or in Oklahoma's case, the delayed effects of Native Americans' rain dances last year are to blame, I doubt we'll ever be certain.

In the UK Prime Minister Tony Blair at last made his exit, stage left. Gordon Brown stepped into the limelight, and was immediately presented with an emergency in the shape of a potential terrorist atrocity, the London car bombs. Thankfully the threat was discoverered in time (or the bombs had failed to explode, I'm not clear about this.)

Threats of one kind or another are always with us these days - from the climate or from those who wish us harm. Vigilance has to be our watchword, and gratefulness for those whose job it is to keep us informed, and to deal with these threats as they arise. Saturn's move into service oriented and caring Virgo, in a couple more months, could be helpful to these folk, who must be forever on guard.

(Photograph: Flood rescue in Oklahoma City. Associated Press, Sue Ogrocki)

THE WEEK THAT WAS

Three news stories caught my attention this week: Cindy Sheehan retired from her anti-war activism. Tuberculosis raised its ugly head once again, in a more virulent form. The weather in Oklahoma was weird - it has always been weird, but now it's extremely weird.

Surely there's no common thread - or is there?

I see mini-evolution.

Cindy Sheehan's decision to withdraw was a kind of evolution, born of despair. Perhaps her mind and body told her to change, because it's the only way she'll be able to survive.

The type of tuberculosis in the news this week is a stronger strain, no longer as susceptible to man's efforts to destroy it. That strain evolved to survive.

The weather appears to be evolving, in response to change forced upon the planet by man. Locals in our town are saying they have not encountered, in the past 30 years, anything like the long periods of torrential rain we've experienced recently. HWK talks about it at Thinks Happen. Is the planet evolving to survive? The planet will survive, there's no doubt about that.

We need change. Evolution is a natural necessity. What the human race needs to do is catch up. Catch up with Cindy Sheehan, bacteria, and the weather. We badly need to evolve. Our ways of thinking about how to live life on this planet have to change.

"Evolve to survive" has been nature's motto since the beginning of time, it ought to be ours. Perhaps nature will come to our aid - I believe she will. Coming changes "above", the transition of Saturn into Virgo in September, and Pluto into Capricorn in January 08, will jolt us, here "below", from our current reverie. Perhaps a new dawning of awareness will have change and evolution in its wake.

And, on a lighter note, yesterday, 1st June marked the 40th anniversary of the release of the Beatles' album "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
Ye gods! 40 years? Where did they go?

I have to admit that I have never owned a Beatles record, single or album. It's only recently that I've come to appreciate their music. I must have evolved! I'd been lagging behind, but I got there in the end.

(Evolving Planet image: Entrance, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, USA Source: Date taken: 3-11-06 Joseph Herrmann III.)

The Weather, Comets and Astrology

A cardinal visiting our backyard for his breakfast yesterday.

Whilst I don't believe that "The End Times" are nigh, the long string of recent freak weather detailed at The Great Red Comet blog http://sky-watch.blogspot.com/ does give cause for thought, especially regarding Comet McNaught's possible effect on our weather since it appeared in our skies. (Late addition - please see interesting information posted today on this topic at Jude Cowell's site http://starsoverwashington.blogspot.com/ )

In astrology we believe "as above, so below". Above us last week in the USA and Europe was a rare sight (for those lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time). Below, here on Earth, many people experienced rare weather. To be reasonable about this, it IS mid-winter in the northern hemisphere. Skeptics will say "What do you expect?" Agreed - we expect it to be seasonally cold or hot, but the longlasting and severe swath of Arctic weather presently spreading across the USA is more severe than normal. Oklahoma has been declared a Federal Disaster area by President Bush - that's rare! Scientists say that the only way an object such as a comet can affect the Earth is to hit it. How can they be so sure ?

I'm not in a position to comment on the rest of the weather items mentioned in The Red Comet blog, but grouped together as they are, it inclines one to pause and wonder.

More on weather and astrology at a blog written by Ken Paone, who, I understand, has been working with Kepler's long-range weather forecasting method for about 14 years.

"The Weather Alternative" http://theweatheralternative.blogspot.com/

On 27 December 2006 the author told of an historic snow storm.

"January 12, 2007 will mark the 119th anniversary of the Children’s Blizzard. Also known as the Schoolhouse Blizzard or the Schoolchildren’s Blizzard, this powerful storm hit the U.S. Plains unexpectedly on January 12, 1888. Only those who lived close to telegraph offices or railroad stations received news of the approaching storm from the U.S. Signal Corps. Many people, however, were caught unaware. Children were trapped in one-room schoolhouses or met their fate trying to find their way back home. Farmers were caught without protection taking care of their livestock as were family members doing errands in town. It is estimated that 235 people died that day on the Dakota-Nebraska prairie—more than a hundred of them children.

He goes on to say

The astro-meteorology behind the Children’s Blizzard shows that on the 11th and 12th of January Mars conjoined Uranus as Mercury made a 90 degree angle to Mars and Uranus. Mars-Uranus contacts indicate acute, energetic, erratic action and provoke wind velocities of varying intensities. Mercury-Uranus is known to provoke falling temperatures and erratic gusts of wind. Mercury-Mars action indicates sudden brief spurts of whipping winds....................................

This January(2007), roughly from the 27th through the 30th, shows that the solar eclipse of March 29, 2006 will be activated. The implications are that a powerful storm, perhaps a blizzard, will develop over the Plains and push eastward across the Mississippi Valley and toward the East Coast. I’m in no wise thinking that this storm will be anything like the Children’s Blizzard of 1888. The similarity resides in the fact that, in both cases, eclipse charts are involved. The planetary energies involved, however, are different. This January we will be dealing with a Mercury-Saturn opposition, a sure harbinger of a strong low pressure system."

So..... more fun to come then ????

A Different Learning Curve

The Arctic weather we're experiencing in Oklahoma just now is presenting me with a learning curve of a different kind . We lost electricity on Sunday for five or six hours. A big old tree had fallen under the weight of ice, right across some electricity lines. Electricity returned just as darkness fell - for which we were truly thankful! My husband's photographs above show how the trees are covered with a heavy layer of ice . This morning, as the sun rose behind the big Cottonwood trees in our backyard and in the woodland beyond, shimmering through ice coated branches and twigs, the scene took on a look of pure burnished silver - an amazing and beautiful sight !

These circumstances have delivered a salutary lesson. "Be Prepared!" We had to scramble around in the freezing cold garage looking for batteries, portable radios and torches . AJ, my husband's son, who lives in the neighbourhood, braved the skating rink of a road to our house to make sure we were warm enough and OK. He brought news of the reason for the outage. He pointed out that our telephone wouldn't function under these circumstances, it's the "walkabout" type which relies on electricity. This started yet another hunt in the garage for an old fashioned telephone handset which would plug directly into the phone line. With this organised, AJ left for a slithery drive home.

I made sandwiches while the daylight held out, and we hunkered down for a picnic evening, with gas fire, candles, alcohol, and radio playing country music....then the lights came on again! Good on ya, Wichita Lineman! We were lucky this time, but many in the state and beyond are less fortunate, and may be without power for much longer during this unusually long and severe Arctic interlude.

On a brighter topic

Here is a link to The Curator's notes at Jonathan Cainer's Psychic Museum site
http://www.psychicmuseum.com/curator.php
There's a selection of very interesting links there relating to all things paranormal.
One of the most recent is to a group of articles and websites on the subject skepticism.

PS
The photograph (left) is of a Christmas gift I received from AJ. A plaque showing the Aquarius symbol. AJ's hobby is using scrap copper to make sculptures. His job as heating and air conditioning expert is source of much scrap copper.

His family was quite surprised by his new-found creativity when he started experimenting a couple of years ago.

On my first Christmas here he made me a 10" high copy of a British telephone kiosk (right) working from photographs. I was most impressed, and touched. It stands in a prominent place in our living room, reminding me of "home".

The above plaque, AJ confessed, proved unexpectedly difficult to make. He gave up on it several times throughout the year. He knows nothing about astrology, but worked from an illustration provided by my semi-indoctrinated husband. I think the plaque is a true work of art, it hangs by my desk as I type.

AJ is a sweetie!