Day #278 - Happy Winter Solistice

And... The Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn - which you most likely know about unless you've been hiding under a social media rock.

( description from NASA on what it is... )

And my attempt to capture it on film along with the moon. The tiny speck is the conjunction.
( Read more... )

Frankly it looks like a very bright star from this distance. I envy folks with binoculars and telescopes.

In other news..or rather in our on-going series New York vs. the Corona Virus and the Federal Government of the United States

New York got worried about the UK bringing a virulent strand of the virus to New York. So in an act of desperation, because the pesky Federal Government was ignoring it, asked if they could be added to the list of 120 countries requiring a negative COVID-19 test prior to landing and entering New York.
( Read more... )

In other news - Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Navy have agreed to a $406 million plan that for the first time would comprehensively stop and remove the Grumman groundwater pollution plaguing Bethpage and surrounding communities, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Monday.
( Read more... )

And.. Covid vaccine tracker website that will track how many people everywhere have been vaccinated (assuming of course it works, hard to know at the moment - Biden was vaccinated today, along with his wife. The Doofus hasn't been yet - but he can't because he had the virus recently and was treated with anti-bodies.



Made it to Greenwood Cemetery today for a long walk. They say today was the shortest day - but it was light outside until 4:45-5PM, which has been about average for the last month or so. It may have been darker this morning? I wouldn't know - I didn't get up until 7:45 am - being on vacation and all.

Lovely day for a walk - for the first time in four days - we had blue sky, and little to no clouds for about five hours. ( Read more... )

I feel like I've captured all the seasons at Greenwood now, on film or rather my iphone. And posted them here, instagram and FB for posterity. I've taken pictures of the same statues and hilltops and trees from multiple vantage points and at different times of day, year, seasons - so they all look different. Goes to show you - things change, and there's always something new to see.

On the way back, I stopped at the grocery store and got annoyed.( Read more... )

Back home - the super had been busy and had managed to put up even more Christmas decorations.



I don't know, I think they've gone a bit overboard.



And of course to top it all off - this weird snow globe thing that plays Christmas Mall music non-stop...which I stared at for about ten minutes mesmerized in disbelief. It has moxie, I'll give it that.



The picture doesn't quite do it justice. And it kind of defies description. I took a video of it - but I'm not sure its possible to post it. (It's not I tried. Sorry.) Just imagine that it works like a snowglobe and plays things like Jingle Bells, and the First Noel but with no voices, kind of like how you'd hear them in a mall.

Oh well, Happy Winter Solistice Folks! Soon the sun will start to climb back and with it better times.