The New Year

Ah, the coming new year. Time to reflect, time to make plans, time to make resolutions, and time to break every single one of them. I don’t  know why we go through all that soul-searching and agony of trying to remake ourselves in one night. As if we can undo years of habits in one fell swoop.

 

I have some pretty bad habits that I’d like to address, but for once, I’m not going to get all philosophical and think I can fix years of  habits in one month. But I will lay them out and see what I can do with them. And I'm only doing two, no need to get all heady.

 

1. Be better organized in the morning. Too often I end up buying lunch because I don’t have time in the morning to make breakfast or lunch. So often breakfast is the same thing, yogurt and berries when I get to work, and then I have to buy my lunch. It’s becoming too expensive and I eat too much when I buy it.
2. Lose weight. Now this isn’t some “gee I’d like to be the same weight I was in high school”…ain’t going to happen. But my weight is a major part in controlling my diabetes, and stopping the pain in my knees and back. I don’t have to lose a lot but I’ve been up and down so often that I’d like to maintain my weight anywhere but where it is.

 

So that’s about it. 2013 wasn’t a bad year. I had some fun, I had some lows, but I have to say the year tipped more towards the fun side.

 

Every Christmas I buy an ornament or two that represents what I’ve done this year. Some years I’m wracking my brain to find one thing. This year I bought four ornaments. So yes, it was a good year.

 

Hopefully in 2014 I’ll buy six ornaments!   

Jellyfish Clouds

It’s funny how things that pop into your head as questions get answered the next day. I was looking at these strange clouds yesterday. They looked like jellyfish because they had hanging tendrils under them. I had never seen clouds do that. Then the next morning I was watching the news and the meteorologist was talking about the same thing. She even said they look like jelly fish.

 Speaking of meteorologist, what do you call the female ones if they aren’t meteorologists? Some of them don’t have the degree. We call the men weathermen but what do they call the women? Back in the dark ages they called them weathergirls. Apparently back in the day, women who had the same job as men weren’t allowed to grow up. I’ve never thought of that.

Anyway, I digress. So I looked up the jellyfish clouds and this is what I learned today on Weather.com (you know I didn’t write this stuff).

They are called altocumulus castellanus. When warm, moist air rises, the invisible water vapor eventually cools and condenses into tiny water droplets on particles called condensation nuclei. As the process continues, water droplets further accumulate upwards, creating visible heaps in the sky known to us as white, fluffy clouds.

However, in the case of jellyfish clouds, the warm, moist air can only rise so high in the atmosphere before it gets stuck. The moist air encounters an area of much drier air, which causes the moisture to evaporate at a faster rate than it can condense. Essentially, the cloud vaporizes at this height of the atmosphere, thereby stunting the cloud's growth and producing the "dome" portion of the jellyfish cloud.

At the same time, water droplets within the cloud are becoming too heavy to remain suspended in the air. As gravity pulls the water droplets toward the ground, they encounter yet another layer of dry air and evaporate before they can strike the surface of the earth. This phenomenon, known as virga, produces the tendril-like streaks in the sky below the altocumulus dome.

Jellyfish clouds develop during fair weather days, when there is enough moisture in the air to produce clouds but not enough for them to grow large or to produce rain.

So now you know.

Thanksgiving

Yesterday was Thanksgiving in the US. After all these years, this Canadian kid can’t get used to Thanksgiving in November.

We had a wonderful dinner with the family. Only one of the boys was missing due to work, but two had to go to work after dinner, so we had it early. And that is the reason for this blog today. I have two that work in retail and one that works at a retirement home. Obviously, the one who works at the retirement home is needed, but did the retail stores have to be open on Thanksgiving Day?

There’s been a lot of debate on that issue this year on the social media sights. People are complaining that we’ve become too commercial and that family should be together on Thanksgiving. Of course, people have been complaining for years that Christmas has become too commercial. I think even back in Dicken’s day they were complaining. Has there ever been a time that Christmas wasn’t commercial? I think we all hark back to days that never existed—the rose-coloured glasses of Christmas past. At least in my lifetime Christmas has been very commercial. Shoot, I bet about the only time it wasn’t commercial was the first one in Bethlehem!

There are always the ones that say Christmas isn’t about the presents, that we should stop buying and enjoy the season for what it should be. Now my first thought is, “What would their reaction be to a tree with no presents under it?” I remember one Christmas that I spent away from home. I was living with some friends of my boyfriend. They bought me one token present. It was the most miserable Christmas of my life.

Christmas is about a lot of things: the birth of Christ; giving gifts; receiving gifts; enjoying the season; loving each other, etc. People zero in on the commercialism and forget that it’s part of the whole package. Yes, I love finding the perfect present; yes, I love going to midnight mass; yes, I love watching the kids open their present; no I hate the snow (had to throw that in).  

Also, since I have two children in retail I’m rather glad of the commercialism because they have jobs!! Both were unemployed for a long time because people were not spending and companies were downsizing. We shouldn’t go into debt, but retailers would go out of business and the country would crumble with Christmas shopping. So even though it cut into my holidays I was rather glad it was because of work.

But, should the stores be open for Thanksgiving. I say no. Give us one day to stop, and take a breath, before the madness of the holidays. Although I have to say I was tempted by the 30% off all items at Michael’s and thought of going there late last night. But after eating all that ham and fixings, I was too full to move out of the chair LOL.