ellenspictures

Category: Storms

  • it’s 2020. it’s 2020. can’t believe it’s yet another decade.

    it’s 2020. it’s 2020. can’t believe it’s yet another decade.

    The year started as it usually does. New Year’s day. Another birthday. Friends birthdays… and as always, new possibilities for the new decade.

    As we experience in winter, it brings shorter days. Struggling with the gray days. Seeking the sunlight as much as possible when they present themselves – sometimes we’re lucky and get stretches of brightness.

    Glorious High Clouds

    Breathing fresh cool air is wonderful, but I get a bit freaked out when we have crazy tornado weather in early January, and the flowers are blooming, and the birds who normally act okay are flying into windows and not coping well with the unexpected near-summer temp days that string themselves intermittently amongst the “normal” for winter days. Strange? A bit.

    But, it has happened before, maybe, but not in our lifetimes so much. We maybe weren’t here then. I looked up the history… but the fires. Those are truly what is the most concerning. That and the knock-on effects. The droughts. All the stuff we living in a “privileged first world country” don’t see, that I have seen and you can’t “un-see or not remember” what you see that looks like that. You can’t, if you have any empathetic bones in your body… Or any sort of wired-in alarms within your soul.

    What we see and witness is being blasted out every minute of every day. Citizen witness-reporting. Citizen scientists commenting. We observe the culture. The culture of our childhoods is not the culture of today. It is change. “Life is change. How it differs from the rocks…” BUT… guess what? Rocks change all the time. They move, oblivious to the life standing on them, or growing around them…

    Rocks, shells, wood, sand… seaweed – elements recomposed.

    The law of conservation of mass or principle of mass conservation states that for any system closed to all transfers of matter and energy, the mass of the system must remain constant over time, as system’s mass cannot change, so quantity can neither be added nor be removed. This means that your fine automobile was something else at one time, and now has been recomposed into your fine automobile until such time that it, and all its parts, are dismantled and again go through the process of returning to the earth or being recomposed into something else.

    Think about it. What this does not address is that during the times of decomposition, transition and recompilation multiple processes are at work – natural processes or human processes – but then, think again – humans are “natural” unless… and then the possibility arises that humans evolved from “something else” that joined with a natural being and a number of theories come from that. Religion. Science. Lore. Extremely compelling ancient evidence that points to early in human existence, beings having the ability to view from high distances – the evolution and migration is quite well documented in rock records, as well as in ancient texts – even if those are cuneiform on rock scrolls – and in artwork in caves – interesting depictions.

    Fascinated by timelines stacked on top of one another of what happened simultaneously on the earth, these continue to change as new discoveries are made.

    Geology and geophysics – the science says: Rocks shudder under the weight of oceans and other rocks. Driven by energy coming from the core of our planet. Soft squishy humans and other animals are affected. We are supposedly the “intelligent” leaders and stewards of the orb. Despite this tag, sometimes we don’t act like it. Earthquakes can surprise people living in areas where faults have not been identified – this can introduce catastrophic outcomes. Geologists and geophysicists and their sub-professions are humans, first, scientists – and the “tools du jour” are what enables them to make discoveries.

    1920’s Geologists

    We measure – we alert – we sometimes do not get the alert in time. Kind of like ants, we are… milling around. We try. We work at improving all the time. But we’ve lost our abilities to get along in the process.

    Have we not taught our children that getting along is important? Self-focus is not. We really cannot afford to not share and consider our impact on others. Each time you toss something away, it’s on its way to entering that process of decomposition – a long process indeed.

    Being a good citizen of the planet is about looking after others everywhere. It is about considering the impact of being cruel and how it will, no question, come back to haunt you – at least it will if you have a conscience and morals. The selfish politics rising in popularity over the last decade and a half, is not healthy for our continued existence in the end – it will destroy us. Guaranteed.

    Teach our children and grandchildren well. Like the song of the sixties tells us to do. But, extending this to all of our family members, and young friends – teach our nieces and nephews that our planet and everyone are worth getting along.

    Please. Where you do technology, balance with hand-made art. Where you listen to digital music, get out a guitar and a drum – or a ukulele or a banjo! Sing out loud! Read books! Real ones with pages! Draw pictures of what you see. Never forget how to do those things by hand and that the digital representations are just that… representations.

  • getting really bizarre here lately on planet earth… more to add to the chapter entitled “The Big Unfair”…

    getting really bizarre here lately on planet earth… more to add to the chapter entitled “The Big Unfair”…

    Should have captured a photo the other day of the remarkable map that we could observe using satellite imagery and radar – oh. my. gosh.

    There’s a thumbnail below of the storms – but, we’re not through the “season” yet… Last year, another Cat 5, Hurricane Michael, visited in October, chasing on the heels of Florence, involving some of the same damaged areas, still recovering from just under a month before – 16 storms in 2018 – 3 Cat 1’s, 3 Cat 2’s, 1 Cat 4, and 1 Cat 5, in addition to tropical depressions and tropical storms that fell into the total list before the season ended – the last one being the end of October, but not making landfall.

    The prior year, 2017, was a “doosey” by all accounts, having 18 storms in the Atlantic – 2 incredibly damaging Cat 5’s, 2 incredibly damaging Cat 4’s – Harvey producing the historic record for total rainfall, doing incredible amounts of damage – still not completely determined, two years out – the recovery will continue for years.

    With Irma, and Maria, Jose – all battering the USA and it’s territories, the costs are continuing to stress the economic resources – not to mention Mr. Crazy, whose influence as president and decider in chief, has altered the resource direction by his idiotic priorities. Let’s say that $282 billion and counting does a number on the resource pool. 2018, so far, is shaping up to be over $50 billion, and it’s only the first week in September.

    Storm severity seems to trend higher in August-September and October for some reason, so the big numbers may be forthcoming, but let’s hope things calm down.

    Multiple tropical storms churning in the worlds oceans. Powerful storms. Another “Category 5” storm rips apart – literally destroys – a vacation spot visited by many for decades – which reset everyone’s frame of reference and definitely created a paradigm shift.

    Crazy weather – dangerous storms more frequently forming these days…

    This is not the stuff of disaster movies anymore. It’s real life.

    Essentially a couple of islands on the the east side of The Bahamas are no more in terms of life as people knew it. Like bad yard work, just mowing without any tidying – it’s an awful thought that NOTHING exists much there that isn’t destroyed. No modern anything.

    Giant piles of rubble, likely burying alive people who could not get out of the way – TBD on the fatality count. We know that the number can grow from these disasters – largely people who do not have a lot of money and fancy resources, living the island life, surviving day to day as they always have for as long as The Bahamas have existed as a place where people live.

    Lots of dangerous messes. Not even a way to start from scratch without a whole lot of effort – and think of this: forklifts, and big dump trucks that would help – there is no place to off-load them without building a dock or a ramp – those were also destroyed. The mother-of-invention has arrived. Let’s see if human invention and innovation kick-in… Depends on how badly or whether it is reasonable to rebuild – before the next monster arrives…

    Just do the Wikipedia thing and review in short the history of this group of islands.

    I visited The Bahamas only once – in 1985. Fun trip, but strange… interesting. I never had much desire to return, but, it wasn’t the fault of The Bahamas. It was mostly that the company and the experience with the fellow travelers and tourists did not set well. Didn’t get to stay long.

    It was an expensive place to visit. Why? Because everything is shipped in that feeds the economy.

    Tourism IS the economy. Perhaps if you throw in illegal drug trade, that might be a hidden sub-economy… Financial Services (the proverbial “bank account in The Bahamas”) ranking second, and Agriculture (yes, they do grow and export “tropical things” as their third most prevailing economic money-generator.

    Oh and did I mention the casinos? Yep. Vegas Baby – it’s like that. Every island has a casino or hundred… It’s a thing. Part of why people visit there – maybe pay for their trip expenses or accommodations or meals.

    But on the pleasant and fun side of the tourism equation – aside from the potential for staying totally intoxicated throughout a visit, if you are so inclined, scuba diving, water-skiing, fishing for giant catch, every water sport you can imagine – anything related to coral reef activities and crystal turquoise (or deep blue) water – that’s where you go (at least one of the places) to experience that.

    The people there, by and large, are a mixture of indigenous and migrants from nearby islands and other places, particularly Africa. The Bahamians generally do not refer to “dissolved” multi-cultural categorizations – you are either “black” or “white”. As with other nations that have inhabitants with various skin-tones, whereby the darker are the majority, the white folks generally get nicknames. In the case of The Bahamas, white people get called “Conchy Joe”, in much the same manner as white people get called “gringos”, or other somewhat potentially sarcastic labels.

    The original people who first inhabited the islands were Lucayans, according to the most up to date research. The islands were first inhabited best-guess between 500-800 AD. Research shows that likely these folks came to the various islands, potentially from other islands, originating from somewhere in northern South America – probably the eastern areas. Fascinating history of how these island populations evolved.

    The whole laid-back atmosphere of the culture has evolved over time. Generous, graceful, and athletic – by and large- but, at times “polluted” by western cultural influences and the chasing of the almighty dollar – plus issues related to the fast-food trends – just like other places across the planet – the norms and influences, and the takeovers of countries…

    Back to today, now the situation on Mother Earth is changing at an accelerated rate, and we are witnessing what happens to fragile areas when the seas get angry and super-storms develop. Anyone want to wager on whether there will become a Category 6 sometime in the next few years, as storms trend to be Category 5’s more often and push the upper levels?

    As we have been warned, the economic impacts will be significant during the “adjustment period” to the new normal generated by the changing climate trends.

    You throw in the ever increasing wild fires destroying whole towns, well… let’s just say that Mother Earth’s anger at her human inhabitants is coming out in many forms. Remembering that old commercial “You can’t fool Mother Nature” – it’s true… She’s no fool – and Mother Earth is her favorite grand-baby.

    Like the Game of Risk, these “machinations” continue to destroy unique cultures as the civilization of indigenous peoples is driven by “big religion” efforts, “big plantation” AKA “corporitization” efforts, technology, social engineering (another nice word for exploitation, which is just another form of human aggression, takeover, and control) – all of these forms have been doing this, in some evolutionary format, since the dawn of humans on the planet – humans are “born to take” – despite the internal “guilt” instilled by God only knows what, in some cases – each human being has more or less the drive to acquire something.

    But that, dear readers, is an entirely different discussion… for a different day.

    For now, this tragedy, added to the tragedies of Puerto Rico, and other “destructed places in paradise”, is still unfolding and yet to be understood fully – and will not be for a very long while…

    Stay tuned here for more opinions and updates.

  • trying to understand this new world

    trying to understand this new world

    I think that it is because it all seemed to happen at once.  The dimensions and facets right now are pretty different from this time a year ago.

    I think that everyone is affected, not just us – but we have “extra stuff” that impacts our lives right now.  I wish it were different.  In as much as we try to get through each day, without me coming completely apart, I feel that I am touching the border of what constitutes the seams, and they are showing their wear right now.  If one aspect were more stable, then I think that the whole of it would not feel like impending doom.

    I grasp for hopeful straws, having a foundation of optimism within myself.  Sometimes I wonder if the foundation is cracking a bit.  I believe that I always relied on looking out and finding something else that was a go-to goal – that had promise of “better” whether it was people, situations, places, or whatever, but something that would change the landscape.  I think that “fresh start” is an apt term, or a “reset”, whereby the foundation was still intact, but some of the things that had gone wonky had been removed or stopped.

    Human beings have a great elasticity that most people would have you believe does not exist.  Some of us have a constitution that enables us to stretch beyond the limits that we ever imagined that we possessed within ourselves.  Some of us do not.

    It is evidenced by genetics, likely, as we are learning that this is the “code” of our existence to be cracked to solve mysteries of our evolution, our capabilities, our vulnerabilities, and everything in between.

    I look back at my family members on both sides of my family.  We had some very strong individuals who faced great challenges, as well as great opportunities to better their lives.  Looking back as far as I can reach, we had those who sailed to be in a better place, escaping what they believed to be untenable.  We had those who once they reached this turf, sought to make their way despite the tough environments and tough tasks ahead, just to survive.  We had those who were victimized by diseases and could not escape death from those.  We had the sturdy, who despite great hardships and change out of their control, figured out how to survive and survive well.  I think we had a great combination of thinkers, some strategic, some tactical, and some who were dreamers, who without those dreams would not have been the entrepreneurs that they became.

    One theme that has emerged, percentage wise, is strength and endurance.  Do not get me wrong – this is not 100% – but more than not, we have not been taken down without holding on as long as possible.  Few suicides exist and there are not too many afflicted with known mental illness.  Neuroses?  Yes, for sure.  Cause-effect stress related illnesses?  Definitely.  But all in all, persistence was one of the character traits, along with tenacity, and care for people – genuine, that underlay the other aspects of character that we have developed over time.

    We had artists, lawyers, business people, teachers, and those who did not fall into any particular category of profession, but had tendencies to those named.  For certain, creativity and lateral thinking were there – as well as those who were outfit to analyze and solve problems.  Who are we?  We are people who by and large cared for our families first.  This is the underlying driver of why we have done what we have done.  Yes, we have the need to feel fulfilled and enjoy a happy life, but we were driven by family survival needs.

    My family on the West side – both West branches – were pioneers.  They moved across large expanses of sea, land, across country borders, even, migrating or homesteading for better opportunities.

    Dangerous ventures, likely, as initially, people came across the oceans, and later, some of this was moving into what was called back then, “Indian Territory” – before Oklahoma and New Mexico became states in the USA.  Into Kansas, as well, which was enabled by the building of the railroads west in the 1800’s.

    Some of them fought in the Civil War, some against their will, some proudly fought for the Union, and I have the papers to show that coming from my great-grandfather.  Some came from England to the US in the 1600’s, before the revolutionary war, working in shipping, out of Massachusetts when it was a grimy, cold place.  Imagining that they lived through the witch hunts and the atmosphere was tough then, like we are seeing now.

    Some of them endured epidemics, losing their husbands and children to these outbreaks of disease – one lost her husband and a child the same day.  After losing my son to Cystic Fibrosis, after 17 plus years, I cannot imagine the pain of that loss.  And it happened to more of her children, having lost a few more of her little ones, to scarlet fever, which was a disease that caused my aunt, my Dad’s sister, to lose nearly all of her hearing capabilities, as she had this as a child.  She grew up with the disability and yet, she became a teacher by profession, having obtained that degree, later on with the same determination that was ingrained – it was a West trait, and likely, my grandmother did not let her disability stop her from participating as much as possible in school, and normal activities.  She coped well.

    My grandmothers both did manage their families, but in greatly different ways.  My grandmother West was very well skilled at living off of the land, fishing, and teaching all three of her children how to do the same.

    My dad could grow things, cook, fish, hunt, fix stuff, build houses and furniture and just about anything else.  He understood tools, systems and materials very well.  He understood land, weather, and could figure just about anything out.  He was a great negotiator.  He was friendly, but he was also suspicious of people who appeared untrustworthy.  He had a deep survival instinct.  He was strong, and he was gentle.  He protected us, and served as our foundation of strength.

    He was good with kids, and he was good with most animals (except for small dogs that chased him when he was approaching land owners in his work).

    Anything that he personally built was strong, and meant to last.  When he passed away, he said, “Take care of your mother”, in some of his last words to me.  At that point, I knew that he was passing the baton to me, because he felt that I could do the job.

    It was interesting and empowering for him to do this.  It was also a great responsibility, and a difficult job, as my mother, who I will discuss later, was strong willed in her own way, and had a complex personality that was difficult to interpret at times, and definitely, taking care of her was a challenge, as she did not want me in that role until much later in the next decade after my dad passed away.

    My dad was reluctant to give up – to lose control.  I saw, as he aged, as he had physical deterioration, that he would approach these with following the doctors’ orders and try to solve and resolve.  The one that eventually got him was congestive heart failure, which has a predicted outcome.  However, he lived to the maximum predicted extent of that outcome, exceeding it by about six months.  That was my dad.

    At the time of his death, he was still refusing to go.  It brings to mind the Dylan Thomas poem, “Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night”.

    About this present situation, my Dad would have been beside himself – he would likely have been very worried, but he would have also become angry and likely, if this happened to him, it would have caused irreparable damage to the relationship as a result.  Worrying was a character trait that I inherited from him, however, I think that I remain open for a forgiveness process, which I do not believe that my dad embraced.  He did hold grudges, some forever.  He never forgot much at all.  Unlike his mother, dementia in any form did not set in with him – he may have had a little temporal confusion, as you do as you age – but he never forgot people, relationship events, or things that happened.  Ever.

    Our personalities, being unique only to us, as we are unique in the combination of what genetic design we inherit.  Plainly, each of us is unique – but each of us has characteristics that can be similar to our parents, our grandparents, and other relatives.  We can see it, feel it or acknowledge it – and people who know you well say, “you sound like….”  or “you remind me of….” or “your grandmother used to have that twinkle in her smile…”  or “you are scowling like your grandfather…”  You get the point, right?

    But there are times in our lives where we “feel” the ominous coming or we “feel” that something is just not right.  Despite the encouragement of people to “just get over it” and let it be, it screams at you – from the center of your gut – in such a loud way, that you cannot ignore it.  I often think that those who are “super-sensitive” might be those who hear voices or see people who are not apparent to the rest of us.  Who knows the mysteries of this half-in-this-world situation of perception?

    But right here right now we have a situation.  Everyone is on pins and needles waiting… and some of us are suspicious that our attention is being diverted from things that are actually going on right under our noses.  I’m not paranoid.  Now I am reading this in the news.  How about this situation up in Fort Worth, Texas, where the lady was arrested for voter fraud – here is her story from the New York Times.  It makes me want to vomit.  Seriously.  Talk about cruel and unusual punishment… this is extreme.  And these people who are now in leadership roles all over our state, they don’t care about people and the greater good – they see that as being “socialist” or something.  They do not recognize that this is based in core values, in our upbringing where our parents are supposed to help us care about our fellow man – as they knew that if dangerous times came upon them, the factions could be more damaging inside the country when facing an outside enemy.  The McCarthy era, in the end, did not yield positive outcomes.  In fact, the issues that came from that were long lasting, and Martin Luther King became a champion of civil rights and equal rights, which have yet to completely be put into place – we are still struggling.  It becomes an open sore that nearly heals, but never quite does.  It leads us down the road of wondering, “are we going to substantially change as a country?”  “Are we going to be broken apart by this?”

    If you think about it, all sorts of issues are touched upon that send big red flares up – a person who cannot speak English well, nor read well enough to fill out complex forms in order to get to vote, and a person whose family brought her to the USA when she was an infant… she has been here since, is married and has several children, and has been working.  She thought she could vote and did not understand that she was not eligible.  Why is this?  People took her application and no one flagged it as potentially problematic years ago.  The communication issues are screaming here.  She does not understand and cannot read well.  Illiteracy is an issue.  Language is an issue.  Yet, no one recognized it until now – because it was not important to anyone at the time.  This could have been stopped before she got to the point of actually voting.  Yet, it did not because people were not focused on this witch hunt.

    This is appearing to look like that type of situation – having both the “witch hunt” and the “McCarthy Era” aspects together, it becomes expensive, damaging, and sends us backwards in our progress.  Who wins from this?  It’s bullshit.  It is people who are bullies, throwing their weight around.  They do not care.  They just want to be “in control” and “in power” and they probably cannot explain to you why, because the self-righteousness is so deeply ingrained – they profess to be Christian, yet they do not know the first things about the teachings of Christ.  It is incredible, but very true across the broad landscape of Christianity in some of the religious sectors of the United States.  Misinterpretation is a dangerous thing, especially when people become zealots in political office.

    Yet in Texas, today demographic statistics point to the population of the state being Hispanic or Latino, 38.8% percent, July 1, 2015, (V 2015) (b) US Department of Commerce Census Bureau Estimates.  What does this mean?  It means that over 1/3 of the population is under-served.  Well, we all know that.

    Look at the Texas Government elected officials:  Planet of the White Guys are the most outspoken and in control.  We have a bad problem here, especially in the rural counties, now empowered to be as racist as they feel, and stomp on anyone who does not look like them in terms of skin color, or from a country that contains people that look like them.  Its the basic animal instinct to be suspicious of “those which are strange”.  Rollback the clock, folks, we are sliding down the slippery slope.  Hold onto your sleds.

    I suppose that for today, we must try to just tend to health and well-being.  The draw to escape is great.  Looking for hope in wrong places is not on the table.  However, looking for hope in places that are good and better, certainly is.  I am going to have to continue to consider this…

    It is February 12, 2017, and we are expecting another record high, in the warmest year on record, to date, in recorded history.  I guess that eventually the unbelievers will have to believe that things are definitely changing…  The storm destruction will be in their faces, and potentially, they will experience something that will convince them.  Science is data collection, interpretation and observation.  Eventually, they will look at it and say, “Wow, it was here all along.  Maybe we should have paid attention.”  Yup.  Maybe they will, maybe they won’t… time will tell.