Well, I survived 2021, another crappy COVID year. Three cheers for me. 2021 was marked by four deaths. The first off was my dad. He died in February of “general geriatric decline” (old age) and I have been dealing with his estate ever since. It’s mostly settled with a few irritating exceptions. Just try closing … Continue reading Yet Another New Year
Category: Diary
Buy My Daughter Helen’s Art!
Dear readers, as most of you know, this blog does not promote anything except the fevered ravings of its somewhat deranged author. But today, in a wild break with tradition, I'm promoting my daughter's art. Some of us put Winnie the Wuhan Kung Flu1 lockdowns to good use. I finished my JOD book, and my … Continue reading Buy My Daughter Helen’s Art!
A Brighter Bluer World
Yesterday I had cataract surgery, My cataract-infused left eye lens was removed and replaced with a plastic mono-focal lens. I’m still recovering from the procedure but I can already see that it’s going to be a brighter and bluer world, My cataracts were literally casting a yellowish pall on everything. I knew my color sense … Continue reading A Brighter Bluer World
My Father’s Obituary
The following is an obituary I wrote for my recently deceased father. The original was posted the on the Franzen Davis Funeral Home website. This version incorporates some minor adjustments and corrections that were noted by my brother. Franklin Burdick Baker, age 87, of Las Vegas formerly of Bozeman, died on Tuesday morning February 9th, … Continue reading My Father’s Obituary
Cataract Conjunction Caps Coronavirus Year
Our crappy Coronavirus year wound down with a bright spot: actually, two of them. On the 21st of December 2020, Jupiter and Saturn appeared right beside each other in the early evening southwestern sky. The last time they could be seen this close it was 1226: Notre Dame was still being built and the world … Continue reading Cataract Conjunction Caps Coronavirus Year
Woke Wildfires
For the last two weeks we’ve been inhaling woke, California, Oregon, and Washington, wildfire smoke. Fire season, yeah it’s a season, is an annual “thing” in the Pacific Northwest. Every summer and fall fires break out and ruin air quality for weeks on end. As “nearly 85 percent of wildland fires in the United States … Continue reading Woke Wildfires
Sinking in Blog Sand
I’ve been refreshing my blog’s look. I created new favicons, blog-banners, and changed my WordPress theme to a simpler and more modern style. I’d really like to harmonize my picture and blog sites, but CSS issues are frustrating me. I have no desire to plunge into the CSS blog sand, but if you care about … Continue reading Sinking in Blog Sand
JOD goes into the Arctic Code Vault
This was a pleasant surprise. A few weeks ago, I noticed this little message on my main GitHub page. Arctic Code Vault Contributor Curious, I hovered on the text and learned that a few of my open-source repositories — JOD in particular — had been archived in GitHub’s Arctic Code Vault. That sounded literally cool! … Continue reading JOD goes into the Arctic Code Vault
Neowise Nostalgia
Comet Neowise is fading fast. For the last two weeks, I've been watching Neowise climb higher and higher in the early evening northwestern sky. Neowise was a welcome sight in this shit-storm (2020) year. Gazing at its diffuse tail takes your mind off the Wuhan Coronavirus1 and the global, mostly self-inflicted, economic clusterfuck it caused. … Continue reading Neowise Nostalgia
Who Thought Blinking Windfarms was a Good Idea?
Click here for a PDF version of this post. One night, a few weeks ago, I was driving west on I86 near American Falls when I spotted a long string of blinking red lights. The lights stretched over a large arc of the horizon. My first thought was “Jesus H. Christ now what?” As an … Continue reading Who Thought Blinking Windfarms was a Good Idea?
Analyze the Data not the Drivel 