Daily Archives: December 13, 2015

Life in general, Space, Working it out

Working it out, Dec 13, 2015

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Got up this morning at 6 AM only to realize I had a horrible migraine and my guts were rolling, so the pups and I went back to bed after they’d done their business. After a bit more sleep, we got ourselves up and moving, but every step was like someone driving a nail into my head, so I opted for advil and caffeine. No treadmill session this morning. I did, however, get in some time late this afternoon, as the migraine had receded – and I wanted to keep the routine going, so it will just be another (better) habit. Soon, it will be time to add some weight workouts to the mix. For now, though, the med change/supplements/walking plus the assorted minimum outside stuff is what it is.

Took a stroll to the beeyard, and they were out on another gorgeous day. Alas, the day turned cloudy and it began raining this evening, so no Geminids meteor shower show for us at the ranch. As our only connection to the vast intarwebz is via satellite, that also means no live cam monitoring at Slooh. Bummer.

Life in general, Working it out

Working it out, Dec 12, 2015

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The joys of satellite internet some days: bouncing in and out of service, even on a brilliantly clear day. Maybe I should hang some sunglasses on the dish out there. This should have posted last night but didn’t.

Both walks completed successfully today, and a new best for the second: one mile, 20 minutes on the dot. I am very slowly gaining incremental speed and time, and I’m fine with that: none of this weak, shaky stuff happened immediately overnight, and it won’t be resolved overnight, either. With the adjusted meds, plus the iron supplement, things are improving on an overall basis.

Current reading for the treadmill sessions: Silent Voices by Ann Cleeves (#4 in the Vera Stanhope series). For whatever reason – I’m guessing here that it’s because the original publication in the UK – the first three are not available on the kindle. It looks like they aren’t even available new at amazon, at least, either. These things happen when you come across an author late. Vera seems to be a rather crusty older gal, which is a nice change of pace.

Life in general, Space

Geminids 2015

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Attention, fellow space nerds: tonight and into tomorrow morning is peak time for the annual Geminids meteor shower. It is supposed to be the most active of the year, but as always, your mileage may vary as much as that of the asteroid/comet debris itself. Because this shower is composed of debris from what has been deemed a rock comet, some of the streaks of material burning up in the atmosphere may be blue, green, or red instead of the more usual white or yellow from icy cometary debris. Since the debris is also just rock (instead of mostly ice), the Geminids can display some stunningly long tails because the bits take longer to burn.

The Geminids are so named because they will appear to originate from the constellation Gemini. It should be a great show for the northern hemisphere, as Gemini is one of the northernmost zodiacals, but the folks in the souther hemisphere will probably be able to see them as well. It’s supposed to be very cold in some places – not here, of course, we’re still basking in our strange fall – so make some hot chocolate, bundle up (especially the kidlets), hope for clear or clear-ish skies, and head out this evening to enjoy the show. Gemini will be in the sky slightly to the left of Orion, so find Orion, look a little to the left to see the twins of Gemini, and then look a bit above them. If you have the chance to just lay flat on the ground or on a car hood against the windshield or in the bed of a pickup to watch, you should: you’ll get a great view of the sky for what will hopefully be the strongest and most active shower of the year.

If you’re socked in by nasty weather, Slooh will have live cams up beginning at 8 PM Eastern US time. Their link: Slooh live cam for Geminids 2015