Red Hills State Park April 2024

On Sunday, April 28th, 2024, we went for a walk along the Red Hills State Park South Loop Trail and saw several critters beside the trail. 

Black Cat Bart - Weather Wizard

We’re getting sleet here in Olney this morning. It’s supposed to be in the 70’s F again by Sunday. My new theory is that Bart has attained a new level of consciousness, and is now in total control of Olney’s weather. Suddenly the last week makes much more sense to me.

Sundog - Sun Halo - Solar Halo in Olney, Illinois

Due to our work schedules, we had our Thanksgiving dinner with friends last night (Friday night, November 24th, 2023). I had never seen anything quite like this sundog / halo display that we witnessed just as everyone was arriving at our place. I’ll never forget it.  

 

Narrow Bridge - “Geshar Tsar Me’od” (in English)

Shannon and I used to sing together, along with many of our mutual musical friends, in Monterey. Boy do I miss all of you! But, The Acapella app has made it possible for us to sing together again. Back in about 2008, our UUCMP minister Greg Ward asked us if we could sing this as a duet for one of his services. This was what we came up with. It is such a joy and a privilege to be able to harmonize with such a beautiful voice.

~ A shortened chant based on “Geshar Tsar Me’od.”

July 24th Thunderstorm

Another thunderstorm post??? Yes.

We've had so many thunderstorms in the area lately. This was one that my wife and I spotted east of Greeley, Colorado on Tuesday, July 24th. We were taking the dogs for a walk at Glenmere Park. At first it was still too light outside to see any lightning. By the time we were headed back home, the lightning was giving us a good show. I then drove out east of town to try to get a less obstructed view.

*

Looking east across 11th Avenue from our house.

As seen looking east from the eastern edge of Greeley.

***

Thunderstorm in Crook, Colorado

*

My wife and I were in for quite a treat from the cab of the truck in Crook, CO on the night of May 29th, 2016. We witnessed this amazing, silent, lightning show. We were expecting that the storm would probably pass right over us, but it actually missed us. This was a spectacle that neither one of us will ever forget.

***

Truck-Side Iowa Sunset

*

*

A short video of the truck-side view
and the red-winged blackbird that had a lot to say this evening...

***

Putnam's Cicadas at Hewlett Gulch in Poudre Canyon, Colorado

*

Great Horned FOCO Sunset

*

We found a family of great horned owls in Fort Collins this week.

***

UFOs and Nukes?

*

Coast to Coast Radio tonight is discussing the claims from several military personnel who have openly discussed the fact that their nuclear missile systems were affected at different times and in different ways by UFO's. I know... sounds crazy. I'm not saying that I believe that this set of accounts represents the truth, but experience has taught me that you definitely can't trust the official story all of the time.

Researching strange sounding stories is just another way to practice leaving the mind open to new potential realities. I certainly can't say that I know for a fact that these claims are beyond the realm of possibility. I am not a zealous believer in anything; I'm also not a zealous denier of anything. If nothing else, this topic is good for entertainment purposes when conversation has run dry. Here are some links to more information.

UFOs and Nukes

UFOs and Nukes - Book

OpenMinds TV - UFOs and Nukes Author Creating Documentary

***

Wildlife at Grand Teton National Park

*

There are many wonderful sights and vistas to view at Grand Teton National Park. On our first and last days camping in Gros Ventre Campground near the park we saw moose. The first sight upon entering the site was a cow and her calf. On the last morning, as we were leaving, we spotted the bull pictured above. We were at the park from August 30th - September 2nd, 2014.

Bull elk alongside the road towards Jenny Lake.

We spotted the antelope pictured above in the National Elk Refuge between Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and the entrance to Grand Teton National Park. We saw many more on our road trip between Fort Collins, CO and Jackson Hole.

This bald eagle was spotted near the Snake River Overlook.

A chipmunk spotted on the Hidden Falls Trail beside Jenny Lake.

Clearwing moth sighted at the Oxbow Bend Turnout.

***

Cold War History Programs

*

NOVA: Astrospies

Produced by C. Scott Willis and James Bamford ". . . Millions remember the countdowns, launchings, splashdowns and parades as the U.S. raced the USSR to the Moon in the 1960s. Few know that both superpowers ran parallel covert space programs to launch military astronauts on spying missions. In Astrospies, NOVA delves into the untold story of this top-secret space race, which might easily have turned into a shooting war in orbit. In Astrospies, viewers meet the elite corps of U.S. military astronauts, several of whom have never before talked about their clandestine training missions during the 1960s. As seen in footage broadcast for the first time, they practiced in full-scale mock-ups of the spy station, complete with spy cameras capable of resolving three-inch objects on the earth below. While the Apollo astronauts enjoyed ticker-tape parades, their astrospy colleagues trained in total obscurity until cost overruns and the new satellite technology doomed the program. Meanwhile, in response, the Soviets actually built three manned spy stations named Almaz and flew five missions during the 1970s. NOVA gains first-time access to a surviving Almaz station in a restricted Russian space facility, where an ex-cosmonaut demonstrates the high-powered spy cameras that were trained on U.S. cities. With a cannon designed to destroy hostile satellites or attack American astrospies Almaz was probably the only manned spacecraft ever equipped for space war."

*

Access to History - Blackbird: The Fastest Spy Plane - SR-71

Published on Oct 15, 2013 - In this episode of Access to History, we leave the studio for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar Hazy Center, where student veterans who are part of Montgomery College's Combat2College Program got up close to aircraft that made history. They also spent time with Retired Air Force Colonel Joe Kinego, who recorded over 900 hours piloting the famed Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird in military reconnaissance missions all over the world during the Cold War. Traveling up to 17 miles above the Earth at over 3 times the speed of sound, foreign powers tried to shoot down the Blackbird but none were successful. Colonel Kinego's presentation to the students during this visit contained information that at one time was Top Secret.

*

American Signal Corps 1947-1960 


* 


Cold War Spies (1944-1994)

***

Marmots and Pikas at RMNP

*

We saw marmots and pikas on our drive through Rocky Mountain National Park on July 12th, 2014. These photos were taken near the Rock Cut turnout, which is at an elevation of 12,090 feet. Rock Cut is the only area in RMNP where blasting was necessary to build the road. The views from that area are absolutely stunning. We saw several marmots and a few pikas. One marmot in particular was bullying the nearby pikas, waddling over to commandeer whatever rock they were sitting on at the time.

A marmot in the flowers.

Photogenic marmot.

Video of a marmot posing.

Marmot wedged in the rocks.

What a view this marmot has!

Pika on a rock.
If I didn't know better, I'd name it the Colorado Rocky Mt. Chinchilla.

Marmot and pika in the pic above.

Video of pika and marmot.

Flowers, Clouds, Trees, Marmot, View.

Marmots running away from the camera...

***

FYI:  Just a few minutes before these pictures were taken, several people were injured, and one man was killed by a lightning strike at the Rainbow Curve, which is just a short distance from the Rock Cut turnout. We were (naively) oblivious to the extreme lightning danger at this altitude. Being above the tree-line in CO during the month of July after noon is one of the worst possible place/month/time combos, as far as the risk of being struck is concerned. If you're going to be that high in the summer - it's safer to plan your adventure before noon, when the risk of lightning is lower. Don't become a statistic. In the future, we'll either go before noon, or stay in the car on cloudy days, after noon, above the treeline.

***

Evening at Pineridge Natural Area

*

We took the dogs for a walk at the Pineridge Natural Area in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Prairie dogs are a normal, and entertaining sight there. Our chihuahua thinks that they're calling him to join their tribe.

Prairie Dog Video

A group of four American White Pelicans landed in the reservoir.

I got several bad pictures of a killdeer 

that followed us a short distance along the path.

We did spot some mystery ripples in the water near a group of ducks that we decided might be from a muskrat, but a long wait with the binoculars didn't reveal the source. Eventually, the light was fading fast, and it was time to head home.

***