Halloweekend

Happy Halloween Weekend everybody! This is how I looked tonight when Trick-or-Treaters door-belled for candy. Bonus: we get an extra hour of sleep tonight. G0od Evening.

Your Vehicle Was Toad

My workplace recently had to start enforcing towing un-permitted vehicles from the parking lot. We've heard of a few cars that were toad. Hopefully, my car will never get toad. Apparently, it's quite the hassle getting them back, after being taken over by big government.

Preparation A For Asteroids

When comparing worst-case scenarios, we often think of the ultimate worst-case scenario as being that the universe blows up. Earth getting hit by a giant meteor or asteroid would probably be a close second.

I was certainly quite relieved earlier this week to hear that NASA lowered Earth's chances of getting hit by an 885-foot asteroid. Newly discovered in 2004, 99942 Apophis (original name was 2004 MN4) seemed to have a chance of hitting Earth (or the Moon) in 2029. Then again in April of 2036, scientists had calculated a 1 in 45,000 chance that Apophis could strike Earth. However, luckily for us, that threat has now been lowered to a 1 in 250,000 chance. Some day down the road, we're all going to be hearing about the Torino Impact Hazard Scale. Level 1 would indicate a very small chance of the worst-case scenario. If they start talking about the Level 4 threat level, we all might as well start partying like there's no tomorrow. In the meantime, let's send out some space probes that will put tracking devices on these annoying asteroids.

Polar Eyes

We don't see things as they are,
we see things as we are.
--Anais Nin (1903-1977) American/French writer

Fake Lake

We have a lake in our neighborhood. It's very popular for joggers and dog walkers. It's not a real lake. It's our Fake Lake.

For being man-made, it certainly fools a lot of waterfoul. As I drove by today, a great blue heron flew right over my car. Gaggles of geese love to land into the wind. The fountain is intermittently active. It's lit at night by colored light.

Fake Lake is starting to seem more like a real lake. Reeds are growing along the west side. I'm starting to think a canoe or kayak or sunfish sailboat might not look too bad out on Fake Lake, with me inside.