I’ve been away awhile, and it’s good to be back. However, I hope you’ll bear with me as I warm up. I wouldn’t want to sprain anything, so, I’ll talk about the weather. It’s shaping up to be a real crappy winter if the late fall weather pattern holds. Guess I wouldn’t make much of a weatherman.
Christmas Tradition
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 ...
32 responses to “Christmas Tradition”
I live with a weatherman, trained by USAF, he looks out the window and on radar. Right now I have beautiful snow drifts outside my hospital window. At home 90 miles away he says sludgy mud and ice?
Thanks for sharing your upbeat view!
The La Nina temperature anomoly is holding in the Pacific, with the general impact of moving the jetstream north. The southern US will see warmer and drier winter conditions, while the northern tier will see colder and wetter conditions. Here’s a map:
https://www.climate.gov/sites/default/files/LaNina_winter_flat_updated_large_0.png
So far, the prognosticators have been predicting a warmer-than-usual winter for N Illinois, and that’s great by me. I hope my source is more reliable than your source!
That’s a great map. How does one navigate to it from the home page of climate.gov?
Here’s a link to the current Blog on La Nina conditions. It will let you go anywhere on the climate.gov website.
.
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/november-2020-la-ni%C3%B1a-update-just-us-chickens#:~:text=La%20Ni%C3%B1a%20strengthened%20over%20October,hanging%20on%20through%20the%20spring.
Oops! The Blog has been updated since the link I saved earlier…here’s the December version.
.
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/december-2020-la-ni%C3%B1a-update-walking-la-ni%C3%B1a-winter-wonderland
Spitting snow here in Michigan. 28°-32° but with the wind it feels like 19°. So I am wearing a winter coast with pants, rather than my running tights. I might wear both. I am seriously thinking of walking with a mask as the mask keeps my face warm.
Just put my Christmas cards into the mail. Most of them are just a card as family is following me on Social Media and know what is going on. However my letter went something like this:
Well another year has gone by and not much has happened…..NOT.
But then as I tried to figure out what I actually did, it got really hard…. The letter was MUCH shorter this year!
I managed to write almost two pages of not-entirely-fascinating stuff for my Christmas card recipients, but I had thoughts of starting with a large paragraph on what we did NOT get to do this year instead of the usual what we did!! Probably others have had similar thoughts.
We still have not had any official snow worthy of even passing mention – that’d be an inch or more – which is fine with me. On the other hand, I have a sibling in east central PA who is currently getting, likely, 20 or 25 inches! That same storm will do similar stuff for a bunch of childhood friends in NYCity and surrounds from NJ to as far as RI.
Over the weekend we had about three, maybe four inches of snow, and it’s almost all still on the ground because we’ve been having highs in the mid-twenties. Today and tomorrow, it will get into the forties, but Friday there’s a good chance of more in the daytime. This may not seem like much, but I grew up in Southern California and snow is still a bit of a novelty.
Just learned that a box was delivered to a giftee near Columbus, OH, today. From N. Illinois to Columbus, as a sober crow might fly, is less than 400 miles (even so by road). It took more than three weeks to get to Columbus and two more days to its destination. Somewhere in the $13.10 postage must have been a storage fee, eh?
I ordered some coffee from an outfit in Massachusetts which has had good turnaround times on the previous orders. This time it took the post office 5 days just to get it out of Massachusetts. Tracking shows they sent it to CT and back, then let it sit in another MA post office a couple of days and finally got it on its way. No estimated arrival time, and this outfit sends their shipments as Priority Mail so I know someone at the USPS is having a hard time.
My super-deal smartphone case I ordered shows as leaving Kenosha WI at 9:18 AM yesterday; arriving in Oklahoma City at 9:30 AM today; and with scheduled delivery to the house some time tomorrow. (Which usually means mid-afternoon in Eufaula.) By my lights, not too shabby service by the ol’ USPS, especially in the midst of the holiday shipping season.
Of course, as in so many things these days, you pays your money and you takes your chances. (As they used to say before there was “YMMV”.)
Well they had to stop and feed the pony…Feed is not cheap!
This USAF-trained weatherman normally makes his own (somewhat short-range) forecasts from radar data and synoptic weather maps. (I used to have to plot those darn thing from teletype-reported surface weather observations. Yet another way in which I’ve been replaced by a computer, I’m sure.) Recently, I’ve been rather pressed for time, so I’ve just been checking the “Dark Sky” app on my smartphone.
Oh, and the “Thanksgiving Dinner Menu” posted on the refrigerator door I revised to read “Christmas Dinner Menu”? I fixed it again, this time editing it to read “New Year’s Dinner Menu”.
Re the 12-9-05 cartoon (part of the retro series above): Thanks a lot, Jimmy. Santa in a black Speedo is one of those thing you just can’t un-see.
Sure saved paper on our yearly letter. Three notes (16pt type) on a sheet.
What can you say about hibernation?
Awake and enjoying the posts. We got my discharge date December 28. I am so looking forward to New Years dinner with Ghost and the beginning of 2021
A New Year.
Crazy as it sounds my time in rehabilitation has been enjoyable. the food is delicious and healthy, the room is quiet and atmosphere pleasant, staff conscientious and positive .
Great Christmas gift, to learn hiw to live correctly and manage your health properly, to go on living!
Beautiful words and thoughts, Jackie! Because of the onset of a fairly serious chronic health problem that isn’t going to just go away but cn be managed if I pay attention to it, I’ve been learning how to scale back on pretty much everything the last few years. (I tell my sister I was practicing for the pandemic. 🙂 At first it felt constraining and frustrating to have to do this. But slowly I’ve been learning to relax into a slower pace, one in which I pay much more attention to the moment since that’s the only viable option. And to my surprise, a simple but profound beauty has blossomed around me. It was always there, but I was too busy to see it. So I’ve felt just exactly like what you say, that I am finally learning how to live correctly. And yes, it does feel like a gift. Merry Christmas to you and Ghost and Dickens.
Sideburns, good to hear from you. I was afraid that you may have been burned out. Your house, not you. Jackie , I know there must be days when you don’t feel very lucky. All that I can say is that you definitely are. JJ hasn’t been peeking in our windows for a very long time. It looks like I’ll spend Christmas day with the kitties. That’s ok. I’ve done worse.
Saved as a favorite, I like your blog!
Thank you a bunch for sharing this with all of us you really realize what you’re talking about!
Bookmarked. Please also consult with my web site =).
We may have a hyperlink exchange agreement between us
Excellent beat ! I wish to apprentice at the same time as you amend your website, how
could i subscribe for a blog site? The account helped me a appropriate deal.
I were tiny bit acquainted of this your broadcast offered vivid clear concept
I’ll immediately clutch your rss as I can’t find your email subscription hyperlink or e-newsletter
service. Do you have any? Kindly allow me understand in order that I may
just subscribe. Thanks.
Hey there! Someone in my Myspace group shared this site with
us so I came to take a look. I’m definitely enjoying the information. I’m bookmarking and will
be tweeting this to my followers! Wonderful blog and superb design.
Hi my friend! I wish to say that this article is amazing, nice written and include approximately all significant infos.
I’d like to peer more posts like this . quest bars http://bit.ly/3jZgEA2 quest
bars
I loved as much as you’ll receive carried out right here.
The sketch is tasteful, your authored subject matter stylish.
nonetheless, you command get bought an edginess over that you wish be delivering the following.
unwell unquestionably come more formerly again as exactly the same nearly very often inside case you shield this increase.
asmr https://app.gumroad.com/asmr2021/p/best-asmr-online asmr
I always emailed this blog post page to all my
associates, for the reason that if like to
read it next my links will too. cheap flights http://1704milesapart.tumblr.com/ cheap flights
Its not my first time to pay a quick visit this site,
i am visiting this web site dailly and get nice information from here every day.
scoliosis surgery https://0401mm.tumblr.com/ scoliosis surgery
We’re a group of volunteers and starting a new scheme in our community.
Your site provided us with valuable info to work on. You have done an impressive job and
our whole community will be thankful to you. scoliosis surgery https://coub.com/stories/962966-scoliosis-surgery scoliosis surgery
Hey! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I
truly enjoy reading your articles. Can you recommend
any other blogs/websites/forums that cover the same topics?
Appreciate it! quest bars https://www.iherb.com/search?kw=quest%20bars quest bars
When I originally left a comment I appear to have clicked the -Notify me when new
comments are added- checkbox and now whenever a comment is added I recieve 4 emails with the
exact same comment. Perhaps there is a way you can remove me from
that service? Thanks a lot! ps4 https://tinyurl.com/45xtc52b ps4 games