1/07/12 A GREAT VISIT, TALKING AS THOUGH I KNOW SOMETHING, AND WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?

Saturday, 8:00 AM.  Wind SE, calm.  The sky is overcast, there has been a dusting of snow, but the barometer is high.             It is quite surprising how much snow there still is, particularly in the countryside, considering how warm and windy it had been.  Today is a gray, somewhat wintry day.
    Andy and Judy headed home early this morning.  It was a great visit, which really helped to brake up the long winter for us. Last evening we had fresh whitefish for dinner, courtesy of neighbor Sherman, who often gets lots of free fish from local commercial fishermen because he is a diver, and untangles nets and lines from boat propellers when called upon to do so (and one good turn begets another). Now it will be back to work on landscape plans and other projects and commitments that the winter will prove none too long to accomplish.
    The saga of the “lost” I Photo program continues, as every download we have come across so far has proven to need a more advanced operating system than my ancient Apple OSX 4.2.6. system.  Computers and software become obsolete so quickly, and operating systems cannot always be upgraded because of hardware restrictions. All my hopes now hang upon the disk in the mail from one of my blog readers.  If that doesn’t work I shall have to purchase a new computer, while the old one still works great. I amtalking as though I actually know something about computers.
    Commentary: The  US Navy recently rescued an Iranian fishing boat and crew that had been held for months by Somali pirates.  The State Department hailed the event as “Proof that the United States is not always the aggressor.”  With a State Department like ours, who needs enemies?

1/06/12 LUNCH AT FISH LIPS BAR, AND A SILENT JUKE BOX

Friday, 8;30 AM.  38 degrees, wind WSW, light to moderate.  The sky is mostly blue with thin, stratospheric white clouds moving quickly from the west.  It is a gorgeous day.  Before people worried about global warming, we used to call this the January thaw.
    Yesterday Andy and Judy spent most of the day at their place and Joan and I and Buddy joined them for lunch.  We went to Fish Lips tavern in Cornucopia, where there were a half dozen customers sitting at the bar, some eating lunch but almost all of them preoccupied as well with their laptops or playing games or gambling at the bar’s computers.  It seems very strange to me that instead of going into a bar and playing the jukebox and arguing politics or discussing sports people seem so self-absorbed.  I don’t think it a healthy trend, everyone wrapped up in their own little world with their own little problems, unable or unwilling to share them with others.  Its not hard to see where all the psychos come from.  Maybe there is a computer program to address the problem.
    Buddy had another good run through the woods paths, but it will be a long time before I let him off the lead away from home.
    Solving the I Photo software dilemma seems to be near at hand, David at Chamber of Commerce having found a free download of the program online, and one of my blog readers from Onalaska, Wisconsin emailing me that he had an old program on disc from his old eMac that he could legally share with me, so I should be back with photos for the blog shortly.

1/05/11 A LIESURELY DAY, AND ANCIENT FEARS

Thursday, 8;30 AM.  27 degrees, wind W, calm.  The sky is partly to mostly cloudy.  The dawn was a garish splash of orange-red across the southeast quadrant of the sky.  The barometer is down, predicting snow.
    Yesterday was a nice, leisurely day spent with friends Andy and Judy.  We went to their tree farm, walked through the snow down to the sugar shack with the dogs, ate too much at all three meals during the day, and in general did little of any importance.  Last night was moonlit and starlit, the temperature right around freezing, and great for walking Buddy. Orion was clearly visible again in the near southern sky, progressing east to west as the night wears on.
    I searched for my computer software discs and have everything except I Photo, so I am still searching for a download for my e Mac, which is now a relic at nine years old. Any suggestions?
Commentary: the local newspaper carries articles or letters to the editor almost daily regarding the proposed iron mine.  The problem, as I see it, is that most people on both sides of the issue seem to have already made up their minds, before the 118 page bill can even be explained in detail.  Its no way to make an intelligent decision on so important a matter, and the ancient fears of democracy being unsustainable seem to be surfacing again

1/04/11 A LOST COMPUTR PROGRAM AND PAYING THE PRICE ONCE AGAIN

8:00 AM.  24 degrees, wind W, light with moderate gusts.  the sky is mostly clear, with some dusky pinkish clouds coming in from the north and west.  The barometer predicts snow, but it neither looks nor feels like it now.
    Andy and Judy and their dog J.D. are visiting for a few days.  Andy is a photographer so we have been wandering around a bit looking for photo opportunities and will visit their summer place on Hwy K today.  The dogs love all the activity.
    Somehow I lost my I Photo computer program and have to download it again after I find the disk, so no pictures.  Fortunately the photo library with my 5,000 pictures is still in memory.
Commentary: Having removed our troops from Iraq, where they were a dagger pointed at Tehran, and downsizing our navy, Iran is having a field day threatening us, Israel, other countries in the region, oil commerce and everything else.  They are providing obvious support for the thugs in Syria.  If we don’t meet their threats they will do something really stupid, like attacking one of our ships or planes or lobbing missiles at Israel.  We have become so timid in our foreign policy and accommodating to the worst interests on the planet that I believe we are within months of a major war with Iran and its allies.  We have been a stupid nation led by a Chamberlin in the White House, and the whole world will pay the price, and and American blood will be spilled on the sands of the Middle East again.

1/03/11 BUDDY'S THREE LEGGED DANCE, AND MAYBE OUT OF MONEY

Tuesday, 8:30 AM.  7 degrees, wind W, calm. The sky is mostly overcast and the barometer is down, predicting snow.  The sunrise was very colorful, and the thin ice forming in patches on the bay reflected all the colors of the rainbow.  The roads are still frozen and slippery and my yak tracks crunched loudly as Buddy and I walked, and  Buddy did a three-legged dance to keep his feet from freezing, but with no wind we were otherwise warm enough.
    There are no photos at this time because I am having trouble opening I Photo.
        The much colder weather of the last few days has hastened the ice buildup on Chequamegon Bay. There were a few ice fishermen out on the ice at Ashland yesterday, and the shoreline ice is developing more visibly at the beach.
Commentary: I saw no sign of Recall Walker protesters  during the Rose bowl Game yesterday. Either they reconsidered, or the media paid no attention to them.  Or maybe the Unions are out of money.

1/02/12 WINTER, BEACH GRASS, AND ALREADY AT ODDS IN THE NEW YEAR

IT'S WINTER FOR SURE

SEED PLUME OF BEACH GRASS

BUDDY IN THE BEACH GRASS

Monday, 8:30 AM.  16 degrees, wind NW, very strong and gusty, up to 40 MPH I would guess.  There is little additional snow but it has been blowing and the roads are slippery, I put my yak tracks on this morning.  The barometer is up and if the clouds are cleared out the temperature will plummet.  All those who wanted winter have gotten their wish. 
    Our outing at the beach yesterday was cold and windy but enjoyable nonetheless.  The American beach grass, or American marram grass, Amophilla breviligulata, is the primary pioneer dune species along the Great Lakes.  It spreads by runners and tenaciously holds and builds the foredune, the dune closest to the water.  Often it is the only plant species holding the sand in place.  It develops seed heads in late August, which are still prominent now and at least many of the plumes still contain the miniscule seeds.  The species is native to the Great Lakes and the eastern seaboard.  It is an extremely important conservation plant, without which lake and ocean shorelines would be much more prone to erosion.
Commentary: If you are going to watch the Rose Bowl game today between Wisconsin and Oregon, you will  at some point be subjected to a “Recall Walker” (Wisconsin’s Governor) protest.  Ye gods! These people are like a pestilence!  They accost one at the post office, at the grocery store, on street corners, their signs are everywhere (which one knows   will never be picked up after the recall movement is over).
    These folks are getting desperate now, because they are still around 50,000 signatures shy on the recall petition, which must be completed by January 17 to trigger a recall election.  So, it’s off to the Rose Bowl Game to make a spectacle of themselves and the state of Wisconsin.  I can’t imagine many of the protesters have procured tickets to the game.  In any case most of them will be Union hirelings from Chicago or somewhere, as it is safe to assume that few legitimate protesters could spend thousands of dollars to go to Pasadena from Wisconsin, and certainly wouldn’t do so if they didn’t have tickets to the game.  If there is a mass protest in the stands during the game then I will admit to them being mostly Wisconsinites (and probably mostly University of Wisconsin faculty). But even that begs the question of why they would go to such lengths, and embarrass their own state and the Badgers team by making a scene at this premier football bowl game. 
    I can’t tell you how much I detest the actions of these people, who can’t abide losing the last election and continue these inane protests.  Even now, over a year after the governor was elected, they are still singing anti-Walker songs daily in the Capitol rotunda, as though they were a legitimate part of the Civil Rights movement of a half-century ago, or something.  
    I do, however, have a solution to what is in my opinion an unwarranted recall, which is so  expensive and disruptive to the  daily business of government  and the decorum of the state and its capitol. Legislation should be enacted to make signers of a recall petition personally responsible for all the costs involved in the recall process.  I wouldn’t think it unconstitutional, since it has nothing whatsoever to do with freely participating in a routine  election. 
In any case, these unreasonable and ubiquitous protesters have pushed the limit of the patience of the general public, and spoiling the atmosphere for Wisconsin’s football team and its fans today goes beyond the limit of at least my own patience. 
         And, I must say, it pains me even more to know that many of the Recall Walker folks are acquaintances and neighbors, and that we are already so at odds in the new year, but it seems that divisiveness and rancor are the political order of the day. 

1/01/12 HAPPY NEW YEAR, WISCONSIN CREEPING JUNIPER, SKI HILL OPENS AND TREES PAY THE TAXES

WISCONSIN SPREADING JUNIPER...

...TIPS OF BRANCHES TURN  UPWARD

MT. ASHWABAY IS OPEN

TREES  PAY THE REAL ESTATE TAXES

Sunday, New Year’s Day, 2012.  31 degrees, wind WNW, strong at times.  We got about  3” of fine, wet  snow last night and will probably be getting more, as the sky is filled with dark snow clouds.  The roads are quite slippery, and one of the neighbors missed the corner on 9th St. and went into the ditch.  After several attempts at pulling her out with a pickup truck, a city dump truck loaded with sand attached a line and that did the trick.  Never would have happened in a big city.
    Running Buddy on the beach late yesterday afternoon I came across this colony of the native spreading Wisconsin Juniper, Juniperus communis var. depressa.  I wouldn’t say it is rare by any means, but it is not seen that often because it occupies very specific habitats, such as beach dunes and other sandy, droughty locations.  It and its cultivars and some similar species of Juniper, mainly J. horizontalis are much used in landscaping because of their low, creeping habit that makes then useful as ground covers.  The primary difference between J. communis var. depressa and J. horizontalis is that in the former the prostrate, running branches turn upwards at the distal ends, and in  the latter the branch tips remain prostrate. In Wisconsin, J. horizonalis is found mainly in Door County along Lake Michigan beaches.
    The Mount Ashwabay ski hill is open and drawing good crowds.
    There is lots of logging going on everywhere, as real estate taxes have to be paid by the end of January.  Private land has to support itself; by farming, logging, or the use of whatever economic resources it offers.
    Happy New Year, and let’s hope it is a better one in all respects than the old.