Friday/ lost in translation
Well, I never would have thought this.
It appears to me that we don’t have a word in Afrikaans for .. icicle.
I was stumped, and I stumped every online English-Afrikaans translator in my search for one.
The Dutch word is ijskegel (ice cone), and therefore I would go with yskegel in Afrikaans.
Watch out below — for blobs of ice water, or little spears of ice, coming down.
Thursday/ a little more snow
Early on Thursday there was a little more white powder on the ground, that had sifted down in the wee hours of the morning.
The good news is that on Saturday we will hit a high of 37°F (3°C), and on Sunday a ‘toasty’ 43°F (6°C). That should liquefy a lot of the crystalline H₂O on the ground and on the streets.
Wednesday/ destination: the second Lagrange point
The $10-billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is on its way to Earth’s second “Lagrange point” (referred to as L2). It should get there in 26 more days. After that, it will be 5 more months before we will hopefully start to receive images from the telescope. (The temperatures on the telescope have to stabilize, and it has to be calibrated).
L2 is theoretically a point in space. In practice, it is a region some 500,000 mi (800,000 km) wide, in which objects can maintain a stationary position relative to Earth, with the barest minimum of propulsive force needed to keep them there.
The illustrations and explanation below are from Scientific American.
My note: Earth will always be between JWST and the Sun, shielding it with what is called Earth’s magnetotail (the broad elongated extension of a planet’s magnetosphere on the side away from the Sun). The moon, of course, will still orbit Earth as it always does. (On the graphic, the moon’s current position just happens to be between JWST and Earth).
From Scientific American:
The most ambitious space telescope built to date is about to start peering at the universe through infrared eyes. The $10-billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is designed to see farther back in space and time than ever before, where light has been stretched by the expansion of space into much longer wavelengths. To see this faint light, the telescope must observe far from Earth and its contaminating light and heat. After launch, JWST will travel 1.5 million kilometers to Earth’s second “Lagrange point” (L2), a spot in space where the gravitational forces of our planet and the sun are roughly equal, creating a stable orbital location. This vantage point will allow JWST to orbit with its giant sunshield positioned between the telescope and the sun, Earth and moon, shielding the telescope and keeping it at a frigid –370 degrees Fahrenheit (-223 degrees Celsius).
Tuesday/ venturing out
I had to go to a doctor’s appointment this morning.
I told myself ‘You can do it, don’t be a scaredy-cat’ (driving on the snowy, icy roads).
My car does not have snow tires, but the electric motor on the rear axle, plus another on the front axle, makes it an all-wheel drive. The wheels also have traction control (electronics that limit how much the wheels can spin, making it easier to drive on slippery surfaces).
I put a ‘scheduled departure’ into my Tesla app, a good practice in icy weather. That way the car is nicely warmed up inside, with the battery pre-conditioned (warmed up) as you get behind the wheel to drive out.
I was good to go.
Monday/ it’s very chilly
Seattle had 6 in. (15.2 cm) of snow as the sun came up this morning, and that was it, for now.
The sun was out in full force this morning for an hour or so.
The snow on my roof melted and was quickly made into icicles.
The high for the day was only 25 °F (-4 °C).
Sunday/ a White Christmas– a day late
I measured 3.5 in (9 cm) of snow on the rail along the deck in my backyard at about 1 pm today.
We might get another 3 inches the next day or two, I think.
Nice to have a Jeep to drive in the snow. Uncle Ike’s pot shop is open, as is the Hopvine bar, which is where the two guys on the right were headed. I guess they wanted to get out of the house.
I spotted a snow plow truck last night, spewing salt onto some of the arterial roads to keep them clear as long as possible. I suspect that no longer works with 3+ inches of snow and freezing temperatures.
Friday/ frigid weather on the way
The forecasters say we will stay below freezing for a stretch of 3 or 4 days starting on Sunday— the coldest we have had in 10 years or so.
Volunteer Park and its greenhouse, around 3 pm on Friday afternoon.
Thursday/ snow in the forecast
We will not have a White Christmas* here in the city of Seattle.
It is almost certain that it will be a white Boxing Day, though.
(The day after Christmas, celebrated in Canada but not in the US).
*Defined as at least one inch of snow on the ground, at 4 am on Christmas Day.
[Webcam image from U.S. National Park Service].
Wednesday/ PRITHEE, don’t play that word
I was feeling invincible with my triple-triple word play of DIGAMIES (158 points- yowza!) .. but just then Zoey* swooped in with PRITHEE to come out ahead in this Scrabble game.
*Zoey is a Scrabble grandmaster bot.
Here’s a rundown of some of the words on the board.
VIZARD– noun (archaic) a mask or disguise.
DROIT– noun (historical, law) a right or due.
PRITHEE– exclamation (archaic) please (used to convey a polite request).
“prithee, Jack, answer me honestly”
NAE–
determiner
Scottish form of no (determiner).
“it’s nae bother”
exclamation
Scottish form of no (exclamation).
“He was asked if he was ever going back east. ‘Nae, son,’ he replied”
adverb
1. Scottish form of not (adverb).
“it’s nae as guid as whiskey”
2. Scottish form of no (adverb).
“we were just bairns, nae aulder than you lassies are”
QUERNS– noun (plural of quern) a simple hand mill for grinding grain, typically consisting of two circular stones, the upper of which is rotated or rubbed to and fro on the lower one.
DIGAMIES– noun (plural of digamy) a second marriage, after the death or divorce of the first husband or wife.
YAG– noun a synthetic crystal of yttrium aluminum garnet, used in certain lasers and as an imitation diamond in jewelry.
LOGE– noun a private box or enclosure in a theater; the front section of the first balcony in a theater.
PYIC– adjective of or belonging to pus; purulent.
PALI– noun (in Hawaii) a cliff.
VROWS– noun (plural of vrow), 1 : a Dutch or Afrikaner woman. 2 : mistress —usually used preceding the name of a Dutch or Afrikaner married woman.
Tuesday/ Happy December Solstice
I first wrote ‘Happy Winter Solstice’, but that would exclude my readers in the southern hemisphere (for whom it is Summer Solstice, of course).
For anyone at the North Pole, the sun will not appear above the horizon for 11 weeks. (At the South Pole, the sun will not set for 11 weeks).
Here at Seattle’s northern latitude (47.6062° N), our daylight timewill now gradually lengthen from about 8 hours to 16 hours (at our own summer solstice in June of 2022).
Monday/ Omicron now rules
In three short weeks, the Omicron variant has displaced the Delta variant.
The first case of Omicron in the Unites States was reported on Dec. 1.
GET VACCINATED. GET A BOOSTER SHOT. WEAR YOUR MASK.
It averages out at 73% for the whole of the country.
[Infographic from the CDC’s Covid-19 web page]
Sunday/ Olympic Sculpture Park
The skies were a beautiful blue today, and I went out to Olympic Sculpture Park to take a few pictures.
Split (2003) by Roxy Paine, a tree made of stainless steel tubes of 20 different diameters.
Saturday/ not all gray
Here’s 19th Avenue East on Capitol Hill, with the street lights already on at 3.53 pm.
There are patches of pale blue in the sky.
Friday/ ready to step on the brake
It’s the first winter in my not-so-new-anymore car, and I am definitely heeding the message on the dashboard for the cold weather: ‘Regenerative braking temporarily reduced’.
When starting out in cold weather, the car struggles to use regenerative braking as efficiently as in summer.
We also have people dressed in black, with black umbrellas, stepping into the pedestrian crosswalk, expecting drivers to see them. People. Wear something other than black if you’re going to walk the streets at night!
Thursday/ keep calm and carry on
‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ was a slogan on a motivational poster produced by the British government in 1939, to prepare the country for World War II.
Wednesday/ The Randolph
I walked by The Randolph* tonight. I like the stained glass with the name at the entrance.
*A four-story apartment building here on Capitol Hill, built in 1928.
P.S. As for leaded gasoline, the world has finally stopped using it as well. Algeria has reportedly used the last of its stockpile of leaded gasoline in July of this year.
Tuesday/ a song called Mississippi
Pussycat was a Dutch country and pop group led by the three Kowalczyk sisters: Toni, Betty and Marianne. They had a monster hit in South Africa with their song Mississippi.
The year was 1977. I was in high school, with no inkling that the year 1995 would find me living on the banks of the Mississippi (in St Louis, Missouri).
I had long scoured secondhand CD stores for music from the group —with no success. So it was time for the nuclear option: order one from overseas on Discogs.com.
Monday/ the end is not yet in sight
This pandemic will end some time. We just don’t know when, yet.
GET VACCINATED. GET A BOOSTER SHOT. WEAR YOUR MASK.
