Category Archives: Spring

Pets and Us: Emotions of Doginess

13 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by in About Reno, All Rights Reserved, Lessons of Life, Life, Nevada, parenting, Relationships, Reno, Spring

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

I’m using a reprint of an article I first published on 22 February 2014. I should explain that today, 12 April 2018, our dog, Jasmine, was attacked by another dog that was not on his leash. As I felt the emotions of the drama in the park today, and then read the emotions of the article I wrote four years ago, it reminded me of the attachment we have with our pets.

Jasmine’s wound. Broke the skin, but otherwise okay

Pets Under Attack

I should also say that it was much more traumatic for me to watch Jasmine being attacked than it was for her. The dog, likely a pit bull, was bigger than Jasmine and instantly grabbed her by the throat. The dog’s owner and I pulled them apart and I saw the wounds on her throat and took her immediately to our veterinarian. She had to have the wound opened and cleaned, but she will be fine.

From My World, 365 Days, 360 Degrees

A good leader is easy to follow

A good leader is easy to follow

[From 22 February 2014, minor revisions]

I overuse our animals in this blog, but they are great subjects that don’t object to being photographed.

Jasmine has been with us for about a year and a half. She still has some anxious quirks, but she is getting better. She loves to run, but we can’t let her off leash. Our solution has been to ‘allow’ her to pull us to and from Alexander’s school every day. Her top speed is about 22 mph, but I would guess that she could do almost 30 mph if she was not pulling a human on a bike. She doesn’t need guidance as she knows the way, and she would prefer to not slow down for Stop signs.

Her special talent is the ability to make people smile. As college students walk to class, they can’t help but grin when they see this 40-pound dog pulling us down the street on our bikes. I’m sure it can be nerve-wracking for them as Jasmine comes racing up from behind, but she almost never breaks stride when passing a pedestrian.

As I’ve gotten older I’ve come to appreciate the gift of animals. It is hard to understand why pets love humans so much, but I completely understand why humans love them.

Jasmine’s Joy of Running

First Day of Spring is Fake News

20 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by in About Reno, All Rights Reserved, Astronomy, Global warming, Journalism, Lessons of Life, Nevada, Print Media, Reno, Science, Spring, Traditional Media, United States, Weather

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Today at 9:15 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) the Sun will be directly over the equator. For this reason, the news media will relentlessly remind us that Spring is here. They will tell us it is the return of warm weather! Yea! But, don’t be fooled by their fake news.

Springtime in the Northern Hemisphere. Bah!

You Call This Spring? 

The Vernal equinox may be the date that the Sun comes back over to our side of the equator, but let’s be real, warm weather doesn’t rush back the northern hemisphere. At least not to those over 35° north latitude. Some of us will be lucky to see our shadow on the first day of Spring. Forget about the stupid groundhog that never, ever is correct.

The northern hemisphere will continue to be smothered in cold air masses and bring snow down across much of the lower 48 states. (Don’t get smug Hawai’i. You can have snowstorms after the Vernal equinox, too. You just have to climb a really tall volcano to get to it.) The media calls them ‘Spring snowstorms’ as if that is supposed to make us feel better about them. News flash: It doesn’t.

And don’t get me started on those people who like to slip down a snow-covered slope while trying to stand on bent slats of fiberglass. They are all smiles when a new storm dumps more solid water in the mountains. After the third week in March, skiing and snowboarding should be done on ice and melting snow, as God intended. None of this ‘fresh powder’ crap.

Spring Reality Check

For the next three months, the axis tilt of the Earth will increasingly favor the Sun in the northern hemisphere. For those of us that are done with cold weather, we have to remember that warm and cold are like new lovers can’t get enough of each other.

As the lower latitudes of the northern hemisphere heat up, the cold air in the higher latitudes rushes down to embrace the warmth. Tornados in northern Florida are an indication that the Sun is heating up the northern hemisphere and the winter cold is rushing down to meet it. As we move from March to April to May to June, tornados will show up farther and farther north.

The Script

News media will still try to convince us that the weather significantly changes on 20 March. I’ve stolen an advance copy of the script that is to be used by local television weather people across the northern United States:

Weatherperson:

(Try to sound homey) Well, it looks like Spring is here, but we still have some Spring snowstorms hanging around for the next few days, weeks, or possibly months. These storms are Spring storms so the temperature will be one half a degree warmer than during the Winter. We should see only a trace of snow, up to two meters if your house is located within the area of snowfall. It will quickly melt off in May, so get out there and enjoy the Spring weather!