To commemorate being completely skunked by overcast skies during Sunday’s lunar eclipse, I give you this Sunday from last year. I don’t think there’s been a regularly scheduled celestial event in years that hasn’t been obscured by clouds where I live. It’s been a frustrating run. I plan to be in the path of the total eclipse of the sun as it traverses the central United States in 2017. At least I know that if it’s cloudy that day, it will still get creepy dark!

And, of course, pisces…
By Jimmy Johnson
Recent Posts

Ghost of Christmas Past
This holiday Arlo & Janis comic strip from 2022 is similar in concept to the new strip that ran yesterday. I thought the latter ...

Spearhead
I have produced a number of comic strips related to Veteran’s Day. Especially in latter years, I have tried to emphasize the universal experience ...

Dark Passage
Remember: it’s that weekend. The return to standard time can be a bit of a shock in the late afternoon, but I rather enjoy ...

What’s old is old, again
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to build a web site, but there are similarities. Everything needs to be just right, or ...

Back to the ol’ drawing board
I don’t have a lot of time this morning. I wasn’t going to post anything, but I’m tired of looking at that old photograph ...

Thursday’s Child
On Sunday, I teased you with the suggestion there are more changes coming here. There are. They will appear soon, and I think you’ll ...
270 responses to “And, of course, pisces…”
Tippy has become king of the house and his 5 lbs is chasing my torties all over the house. No predictions, but I’m just telling you what I see. Maybe a temporary wobble, but the hurricane appears to have moved slightly to the NW and, BTW, is no further north than the Carolinas at the moment. We cannot reach my BIL in NC.
We’re supposed to be in Myrtle Beach for the next few days for a reunion of Bob’s Vietnam unit. Some of the group got there early – we got off I95 (now closed for 70 miles) in Walterboro, took some alternate US routes, and got as far as Florence. Managed to get a motel room for tonight. Will see how it goes tomorrow.
The good news is we’re safe and dry and if we can’t get to MB we can go somewhere else. The bad news is that’s not true for an awful lot of folks in South Carolina.
It was a wobble and has resumed going NE. Good luck and be careful Ruth Anne.
Glad you put that Ruth Anne. I was going to report on you. I hope Trooper is OK on the mountain but I have lots of coastal friends I fear for.
OF due x-x CDT. Blowing now, wind unfavorable. emb
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html
Jerry, Hope you hear from your family soon – with good news. The images I’ve seen look awful.
With the various holidays showing up on the calendar beginning with Halloween:
Why do computer programmers confuse Halloween with Christmas?
Because Oct 31 = Dec 25
😉
TR, 😉
Most of South Carolina under curfew now. I understand the logic, having seen too many drowned cars on flooded roads. For all the folks who got off the road or out of flooded neighborhoods and took shelter in motels, however, it does create a problem when all the restaurants are closed. We got some microwavable mac and cheese at the truck stop next door before it closed.
With the tragedy on the coast I hate to be happy but had a fantastic day with high mass in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis with archbishop, bishop and entourage, mass sung, full choir, organ and cantors, so beautiful, like watching and listening to opera. Even when archbishop smiled and blessed me in processional (I was on aisle standing) it made me smile. New archbishop, not one I’d met. This church is so beautiful, all golds and tiles everywhere.
Ran into the cantor from Micheles wedding who invited me to the Bach cantata at the Lutheran seminary and went to that, think I will join that too. I know I don’t live here but I always loved coming here for last ten or more years. St. Louis has a lot of interesting things going on.
The Shaw Botanical Gardens had the best arts and crafts show I have ever gone to, so I ran back over to buy more pewter jewelry and hit it off so well with the artists I am going to their studio to meet their cats who are incredible too. Saw their pictures already. Pewter artists almost bought the house my daughter lives in! And bought beautiful hand woven scarfs and a handwoven jacket from an East German refugee now an American weaver, kissed both partners and artisans and gave big hugs. I love craftsmen and handmade products, stood behind enough folding tables until I moved some of us indoors and uptown and made us trendy gifts.
Decided to stay awhile, have to go to zoo and some museums, acquire a little more knowledge and fun. Love.
A great old joke:
An elderly Italian man lived alone in New Jersey . He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, since the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:
Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over.. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days.
Love, Papa
A few days later he received a letter from his son.
Dear Pop,
Don’t dig up that garden. That’s where the bodies are buried.
Love,
Vinnie
At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.
Dear Pop,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That’s the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love you,
Vinnie….
Love that Trucker. Made me smile. Actually laugh.
I love the joke too, Trucker. You should have heard me laughing!
Trucker: Stumped my younger niece with base 8 vs. 10. Too bad our ancestors didn’t foresee our binary future. Base 8 would have fit our world better.
Peace, emb
Good morning Villagers…
Ruth Anne, be very cautious and take care in your travels. And may your husband and you enjoy your reunion.
TR…too funny. Every time I hear the name Vinnie, I think of the movie “My Cousin Vinnie”, which is hysterical. But I don’t understand the halloween date and Christmas date.. And I also never understood bases….only when it came to playing softball.
Jackie, never been to St. Louis, even though it’s only about a 4 hour drive there. I’ve read about the various sights, such as the zoo, botanical garden…maybe I should put that on my bucket list.
Emb….the sky is clear. Just came in from my back porch after looking at the stars. Just behind the trees is the brightest one, I am looking East. And no I haven’t wrote down your star gazing guide yet. Then all of a sudden I heard this sound like a horse/cow blowing it’s nose and a thump on the ground….now we have no cattle or horses around here, and open field next to us has been harvested….I ran back into the house.
Jerry, hope your hear from your BIL soon and all is safe with him. Good to hear Tippy is blending in with the others….so, Tippy is a male.
Ya’ll have a blessed day……
GR 😉
this subject came up a little while back, but it didn’t get very far 🙂
https://i.chzbgr.com/full/8411268352/h44EE2209/
….fluff and more fluff….
https://i.imgur.com/3VXlVAx.webm
The title of this blog entry finally reminded me that I need to watch television this evening.
Right after “The Big Bang Theory” is another program that I like – “Life in Pisces.”
Huh?
What?
It’s “Life in Pieces”?
Oh.
Never mind.
Debbbe, I’ve gotten a round tuit. As a matter of fact I have a couple of them around here someplace. Yes, Tippy is daddy’s boy and has gained half a pound already, which is not surprising considering he eats almost as much as 19 lb Elvis.
Still raining in SC; I-95 still closed south of Florence. So many roads under water or washed out that there’s no way we’ll get to the reunion. Maybe next year. Guess we’ll head for the mountains a little sooner than we had planned.
On a happier note, the motel gives out copies of the local Morning News. There’s not much to it but it does carry A&J!
Heard from a couple of SC friends one of whom said he had two feet of rain and more due today. Said if you lived on a hill as he did you were ok. If you didn’t you weren’t. Another said they were OK but isolated by water and shut in. A third mentioned an ark but said a stout dinghy would be better as all the streams were now raging rivers and torrents.
Whether or not you like 9CL/Pibgorn, this may be of interest:
http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/
Brooke has a way with words as well as drawing.
Peace, emb
Debbe (and others who don’t already understand):
Computer programmers work in a number of different number bases, such as binary (base 2), octal (base 8), decimal (base 10) and hexadecimal (base 16). To avoid confusion, they often indicate which base they are working in by prefixing their numbers with the first three letters of the base name (bin, oct, dec, hex). The decimal number 25 is 31 in octal, so Oct 31 = Dec 25.
If you’re still in the dark, that’s OK. You can always google (or bing) Octal for a more detailed explanation.
Having had diverticulitis since my early 20s I can not only relate but say Brooke nailed it and emergency rooms. I wish Brooke recovery or at least management of a painful and sometimes even fatal disorder.
Debbe: “Just behind the trees is the brightest one, I am looking East. And no I haven’t wrote down your star gazing guide yet. Then all of a sudden I heard this sound like a horse/cow blowing it’s nose and a thump on the ground….now we have no cattle or horses around here, and open field next to us has been harvested….I ran back into the house.”
The bright “star” is Venus, currently our Morgenstern. Brightest regularly scheduled* astro. object except for Luna and Sol. [*As opposed to intruders like the meteorite that blew up over the Urals a while back.] Venus will move around but remain the “Morning Star” well into 2016 [cannot supply dates until the Jan. ’16 Sky & Telescope, with its two page Stargazer’s Almanac arrives in early Dec.]. Sometime next spring [I think], Venus will pass around behind Sol and become our Abendstern.
Not sure which “star gazing guide” I’d written down, but you might try searches for “Sky & Telescope” and “phases of Venus” for starters. Skip the astrology/horoscope stuff that often turns up.
I’m guessing the “horse/cow blowing it’s nose and a thump on the ground” was a white-tailed deer wanting to know what you were. It found out. First time that happened to me, I was leaning against a tree in May at midday, squirrel-watching [= research for my doctoral thesis]. Must have been no more than 10 m. behind me. I near jumped out of my skin, and turned. Don’t believe I saw the deer, but others told me what had happened. Watched it many other times: when I was dead still and a deer [either sex] hove into view, it often did not notice me at first. When it did, it would snort and paw. If I didn’t more, it would often circle around to get wind of me, then run off. All in S. MI, on U. Mich.’s E.S. George Reserve.
Peace, emb