Day: January 3, 2023

The Bomb Cyclone

Fandango38 Comments

“Atmospheric River”
“Bomb Cyclone”
“Pineapple Express”

Those are the words the giddy meteorologists are using to describe the major storm that will rapidly intensify and become a bomb cyclone, a powerful storm associated with a sudden and significant drop in atmospheric pressure, off the coast of California. It will slam into the Golden State, unleashing the risk for life-threatening flooding, damaging winds, and widespread power outages from Wednesday into Thursday.

An atmospheric river, or massive plume of moisture originating from the tropical Pacific Ocean some 2,500 miles away, will fuel the heavy precipitation. Such a weather setup can lead to excessive rainfall and flooding, as well as a thump of snow that can shut down travel where the atmosphere is cold enough. In this particular case, the event can be classified as a Pineapple Express, since the plume of moisture will extend from near Hawaii.

This latest storm is also arriving just days after the previous storm that brought heavy rainfall and created significant flooding. Here’s what the National Weather Service is saying what we can expect starting tomorrow.

Between my back injury on New Year’s Day, which still has me out of commission, and this coming forecast for a Bomb Cyclone, 2023 has gotten off to a rather poor start. At least from my perspective.

Rory’s Morning Dawdler — 01/03/23

Fandango7 Comments

Rory, the king of questions, also known as the Autistic Composter, has come up with a new series of questions that he calls “The Morning Dawdler.” He plans to pose four questions three times a week, questions he says are “inspired by life, humor, conversations and observations, town life, blog posts, writers, gardening, news stories, television, entertainment, and human curiosity, and so on.”

Here are Rory’s four morning dawdler questions for today.

Is it easier or harder for you to make friends online rather than offline and why do you think this is?

At this point in my life, due to my age and the three years of life under the COVID pandemic, I’m not making any new friends “offline” (aka the real world). What new friends I am making these days are those who I meet and get to know on WordPress. So bottom line, it’s been easier for me to make friends online, and I do consider the bloggers I’ve met and follow to be my friends, despite the fact that we’ve never met, and aren’t likely to ever meet, in the physical world.

Do you have a stable of generic answers for comments to your blog, or do you write genuine responses every time to each person?

No, I do not have a bunch of canned or pat comments. All of my comments on other bloggers’ posts are specific. That said, if a response like “Thanks” works, I’ll use that.

If tomatoes are botanically considered a fruit because of the seeds within, does the same apply to cucumbers?

Yes, botanically speaking, the cucumber is a fruit. They have seeds in the middle and grow from the flower of a cucumber plant. Hence: fruit. (And I googled this, so it must be true!)

What five letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?

Oh! I know this. The answer is “short.”

Truthful Tuesday — Fireworks

Fandango15 Comments

Di, of Pensitivity101, is our host for Truthful Tuesday. This week, Di asks us:

Do you think the sale of fireworks should be restricted?

I used to enjoy going to the fireworks displays that many towns, cities, and major metropolises put on, especially for the Fourth of July (Independence Day) celebrations in the U.S. But nowadays it seems that places will find any excuse for shooting off fireworks. So it’s not so special to me anymore.

And for those of us who are dog owners and whose dogs totally freak out at the sounds of exploding fireworks, we dread — or at least I dreaded — fireworks. Our previous dog was one such dog, and watching her shake and shiver and try to hide in a bathtub when the fireworks were going on was heartbreaking.

Fortunately, our new dog doesn’t seem to be fazed by the sound of exploding fireworks. She hears them, cocks her head, but doesn’t seem to be bothered by or scared of them.

Now, as to Dis question, I have mixed feelings. I don’t think the sale for professional fireworks displays should be forbidden. But I do think that fireworks to individuals who irresponsibly set them off at all hours in residential neighborhood should be limited. Especially in areas like mine that have suffered through severe drought situations and where wayward sparks could (and have) set off some major wildfires.

I’m all about freedom, and that’s the argument people will toss out if there are restrictions imposed on individuals who want to buy and set off their own fireworks. But that freedom has to be weighed against the potential damage that the irresponsible handling of those fireworks might cause.

Fandango’s Story Starter #79

Fandango18 Comments

It’s time for my weekly Story Starter prompt. Here’s how it works. Every Tuesday morning (my time), I’m going to give you a “teaser” sentence and your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build a story (prose or poetry) around that sentence. It doesn’t have to be the first sentence in your story, and you don’t even have to use it in your post at all if you don’t want to. The purpose of the teaser is simply to spark your imagination and to get your storytelling juices flowing.

This week’s Story Starter teaser is:

She thought she heard his voice in the hallway outside of her apartment, so she immediately…

If you care to write and post a story built from this teaser, be sure to link back to this post and to tag your post with #FSS. I would also encourage you to read and enjoy what your fellow bloggers do with their stories.

And most of all, have fun.

FOWC with Fandango — Reserved

Fandango25 Comments
FOWC

It’s January 3, 2023. Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “reserved.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. Show them some love.