sw00924d39-danger

 Around PM 3:15 severe storm/tornado sirens.  Since I was
online, I went to the weather service I use.  Map showed a
red in northern Springfield.  Darkening sky.  Thunder. Shut
down and unplugged computer system.  Rain.  Heavy rain.
Intermittently for the next half hour, ice pellets zipizapzutted
against my windows.  Water droplets seeped onto the sills
inside.  Wiped them with towling sheets.  Nearing PM 4, when
it seemed the storm was passing, sirens again for about the
fifth time.  At 4 I turned on the one radio I use for weather,
and while I was listening/ the National Weather Service
discontinued the storm warnings for this area.  Later this
evening, though, and all day tomorrow, more chances of 
severe weather.


-
Brian A. J. Salchert    2008-06-19   

sw00920d37-drenched

 Yesterday was an extremely heavy rain day here in Springfield,
drowning the old record of 1.67 inches set in 1964 by around 2 
inches.

sw00910d31--daynote

 On what was predicted to be a clear day, the leading edge
of a thunderstorm at 9 AM, with clouds moving mostly north
and a tad east.  To the south clear sky was visible.  At 9:15  
a moment of heavy rain, and cloudiness to the south.  By
9:25 the satellite showed the storm had passed east and
to the north.  It is now 9:37 and I am hearing thunder again.
About 9:40 the thunder ceased.



2008-06-04

sw00849d9

 From 3:14 PM beyond 5:30 PM/ thunderstorms were coursing
through this city.  For most of that time I had my computer system
unplugged, but I had slowly been constructing a post over at my
Rho- blog, and so I was constantly checking the online weather
map I use; and when it appeared there would not be much more
rain, I went back on and completed my post.  Have been trying
to rid myself of stacks of old mail, and that is the project I was
working on during the storms.  Early on I saw the thickest bolt
of lightning I've ever witnessed zap in the distance, and for a
short while the winds were whipping the rain nearly flat.  Three
tornadoes did some damage in and near small towns.  One farmer 
was blown about forty feet through the air, but dropped into soft
grass.



Brian A. J. Salchert    2008-03-31

sw00714st44-snow.sun

Opened drapes: to a thin overlay of snow.  At AM 8:48/ the sun
(though somewhat hidden) is already melting it.



-------------------------

        Brian A. J. Salchert                                                       

sw00648st19-war.religions

Overcast day with winds whooing and sometimes wheweeing.
The storminess that was hanging out to the west of us appears
at this PM 12:37 to be edging closer, partly because the storm
band has widened.  I'll know soon.
-
Continued updating.  Made several homepage changes.  Have
begun working on January.  Having changed the page background
from 808080 to 8080c0 forced me make color changes on some
entries.  Shades of red have been problematical from the first.
808080's luminosity is 120.  8080c0's luminosity is 151.  It seems
kickin' crazy that I'm using colors I've been avoiding, but this page
color, this purpled gray, is both soft and more luminous, and so it
does not blare at my eyes and it contrasts well with black text.
Even the link color I've been using seems more solid on this shade.  
-


-------------------------
Ken Wilber's "Why Do Religions Teach Love and Yet Cause So Much War?"


-
Brian A. J. Salchert                   

sw00634st12-activities

A narrow band of stormy weather extending into Oklahoma 
where it forks into two bands is rising toward Springfield.  The
forecast, nonetheless, calls for 100% precip.  It does feel muggy
in here, and that with the temp at 71F.  For now, though, the
skies are fairly clear with a high-cloud haze.  Temperatures are
not expected to get into the eighties the next 5 days, and night-
time temps will be falling into the forties.  Yesterday I did note
a few leaves turning as I watched a brown one waffle into the
parking lot, but green remains 99% dominant.  In this complex
most of the trees are evergreens.  It is AM 9:41.  The whip
from the west is about to lash us/ alive in the ah before the ~.
PM 2:03 - The storm band has drifted east.

-

Have been doing some sorting and rearranging.  Found I had lined
the bottom of a box I was emptying/ with the Green Sheet from 
 The Milwaukee Journal   Monday, April 26, 1976.  Obviously
in order to save the UPI photo on it, which is captioned:
          A man of many titles, strong man Arnold
               Schwarzenegger goes Hollywood.

-

On Archambeau's Samizdat blog is an informative post about the
history of poetry in Chicago.  Go to the October 2007 archive.  


-------------------------
the photo I kept shows a biceps pose,
 but it is otherwise similar to this one
of The Austrian Oak when you click on his name
  at the History of Mr. Olympia: Photo Gallery
[ NB: This has nothing to do with politics. ]


-
Brian A. J. Salchert                   

sw00630st9-greg.rappleye

Today the skies are clear to partly cloudy.  A warm breeze persists.

-

Greg Rappleye has an excellent post about the "poet-self"
from Wordsworth's, Eliot's, and his view.

-

I have a special pair of glasses for computer use.  Today the thin band
holding the right lens in its frame/ snapped, and the lens popped out to
the right across the rug, stopping on a large sheet of semi-soft plastic.
My sister said she'd take me to the eyeglass store tomorrow morning.
I've called the store.  They may be able to fix them there.  Not sure.

-

Brian A. J. Salchert                   

sw00627st7-errands.storm

Didn't turn computer on until after PM 2.  My sister and I, from 
about AM 9, were out running errands for me.  I don't drive.

-

The weather today is warmer and iffier.  There's a line of storms
heading northeast out of Kansas.  It may flow to the north of us.
PM 5:15 - The storm flow out of Oklahoma is not friendly.  Here
I have had to turn the desk lamp on.  It sits at the left back
corner of the deep 2-drawer filing cabinet to my right.  I have it
pointed toward the wall corner behind the deep 2-drawer filing
cabinet straight ahead of me.  My system monitor sits at this
cabinet's right front corner.  I sit 3 feet back from the monitor.
PM 9:19 - Storminess did arrive but now is passing east.  I had
to unplug for a while.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                   

sw00278aih-muttob.etc

10    As It Happens
 -


 When it rains quietly, nearby above is a metal thing
 upon which the rain's sounds seem like a tune being
 played on a distant marimba.  This morning I found
 possible words for the chorus of that tune:
                         Whoooole an-nd gentle
                         Is the only way I need you;
                         the only way I want you..

 ~

 Pulling the left edge of the drape in my living room
 back/ to ostensibly check the sky, which moments
 ago was ridge cloudy, my eyes fixed on the staunch
 bush I had taken several photographs of when ice
 sheathed it: scintillant ice when the sun shone.  This
 day it is pushing forth light green leaves and white
 blossoms.

 ~

 Yesterday I slid into my docs space and cleaned up
 Usta Mari, and then printed both it and The Forty-One
 Days of Kim.  Not sure I'll be posting them today in 
 Venturings, but I may.

 ~

 In The Best American Poetry 2006:
 Billy Collins, Editor | David Lehman, Series Editor
 is "Toward Some Bright Moment", a poem by
 Stephen Dobyns which centers on experience,
 reflection, empathy, regret, and self-knowledge.
 In my inner self, I applauded Stephen, and
 thanked him.

 ~

 Mutt Object
     -

     "Dog On"

     Matching
     mongrels  

     merrily
     marching

     mountainous
     miles

 ~

 Much of this afternoon, as dark rolls of clouds coursed
 from northwest to southeast, rain with thunder & lightning
 and/or thunder & lightning and/or thunder coursed with
 them.  So, after unplugging my computer system a second
 time, I moved my surge protector, monitor, cpu, and
 keyboard/mouse/modem/phone table to locations I am
 more comfortable with.  I sit on a medical stool three feet
 from my monitor.  I also changed how the keyboard and
 mouse wires connected to the cpu, and how the cord for
 the surge protector ran to the wall socket I plug it into.
 -
 It has become my habit when thunder grumbles/ to turn
 my computer off if I am using it.  [ Partly because it is 
 programmed to turn itself offwhen I am away from it
 for ten minutes, I do not leave it on unless I return to it
 in less than seven minutes to make afew key strokes so
 it "knows" I do not intend to shut downyet. ]  If I hear 
 thunder grumbles more than one time, I shut this system
 down, unplug the phone/highspeed jack, turn off the surge
 protector, and unplug the protector's cord.  I would unplug
 the protector's cord before turning the protector off, but
 I have sometimes noted sparks from sockets in this place
 when I was unplugging a cord.  Paranoia?  Some sometimes.



Brian A. J. Salchert