Magazine Posts

The day has started
with a burning Sun.
I would enjoy the weather
if I were still young.

She was sweet, with manners refine.
She was my first love,
My Adeline.

Mind your manners, when out to dine.
Stay on the outside, when with ladies,
then you will be divine.
She taught me well
My Adeline.

Treat people with respect,
do that all the time,
she said to me,
my Adeline.

She raised me well;
my manners did shine,
Thank you Mother,
my favorite Adeline.

Long ago, some TV Programs the
Ponderosa, Quick Draw McGraw,
and Have Gun Will Travel. Paladin with
Richard Boone; Adult cowboy stuff.
My friend and I were enamored
with these "Western Adventures, so
we both purchased replicas of
the Colt revolver. He bought
a Colt Single Shot Revolver and
I bought a Ruger Single Six.
Both were caliber .22 Long Rifle.
We made our own holsters and
would practice "fast drawing", daily.
Not face to face but side by side.
We were young and dumb, not stupid.
I remember one day, on the RR Tracks,
by the River. No one present except the
two of us. This time we had "live" ammo.
I must admit that, as we stood side by side,
ready to "draw" that I was a tad
faster than my friend. On this occasion ,
we drew and he beat me. I looked
at my friend and his gun hadn't
cleared his holster. There was a
wisp of smoke coming from his holster.
We saw a small circle in the fine grit,
near the track, along side his foot,
where the bullet had struck.
I recall that being the last day
we had a "fast draw" event.
I miss my friend. He's been gone
quite a few years, but when I think
of that time, it brings a smile.
Farewell my friend, for it may be soon
when I join you in the proverbial
room, sharing these stories
from our past. Miss you Gary.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Where are all of these meteors coming from? In terms of direction on the sky, the pointed answer is the constellation of Small Harp (Lyra). That is why the famous meteor shower that peaks every April is known as the Lyrids -- the meteors all appear to came from a radiant toward Lyra. In terms of parent body, though, the sand-sized debris that makes up the Lyrid meteors come from Comet Thatcher. The comet follows a well-defined orbit around our Sun, and the part of the orbit that approaches Earth is superposed in front of Lyra. Therefore, when Earth crosses this orbit, the radiant point of falling debris appears in Lyra. Featured here, a composite image containing over 33 meteors (can you find them all?) from last month's Lyrid meteor shower shows several bright meteors that streaked over a shore of Seč Lake in the Czech Republic. Also visible are the bright stars Vega and Altair, the planet Jupiter, and the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. Notable APOD Submissions: Lyrid Meteor Shower 2020

Photo by Petr Horálek

Tell me father.
Please tell me why,
all men who live,
may soon die.
The time for death
comes in many ways.
Some leave at night
others, in simple days.
Life is a precious journey,
towards a star,
of our choosing,
that's what we are.

I'm writing now, in a small book.
Perhaps I need to have a look
at a larger version, within to write.
Sound logical or am I being trite?

A small wayward waif,
passed me by,
on his way to play,
once more,
in a Park, with others,
like it was before.
A long time will go by
prior to this virus end
where he will once again
play with a friend.

He does not fight to set you free.
He fights to protect his hypocrisy.
Perhaps he is, "not right in the head"
and should be locked up instead.
The death toll from this virus
continues it's rise,
when the trust of this Nation,
decimated by his lies,
continues to erode
until it's demise.
God help all in this land,
vote out this wretch of a man.

Shouldn't the word Crow
be pronounce like now,
or even like the word how?
Why is it pronounced like know
or like a bow
that is worn in your hair,
or in respect you would bow.
The usage of words like tow
instead of words like wow.

It is not often I get tripped up with math, but this one got me.
The reproduction rate of influenza: R naught = 1.3
The reproduction rate of COVID-19: R naught = 3
Not much difference, right? It’s just the flu, right?
So if I have the flu, I pass it on to 1.3 people on average, those) infected people pass it on to 1.3 people. After 10 steps of
human transmission, my flu has infected 14 people.
So if I have COVID-19. After 10 reproductive steps, my infection has infected 59,000 people.

This is not the flu......

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What's behind Betelgeuse? One of the brighter and more unusual stars in the sky, the red supergiant star Betelgeuse can be found in the direction of famous constellation Orion. Betelgeuse, however, is actually well in front of many of the constellation's other bright stars, and also in front of the greater Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. Numerically, light takes about 700 years to reach us from Betelgeuse, but about 1,300 years to reach us from the Orion Nebula and its surrounding dust and gas. All but the largest telescopes see Betelgeuse as only a point of light, but a point so bright that the inherent blurriness created by the telescope and Earth's atmosphere make it seem extended. In the featured long-exposure image, thousands of stars in our Milky Way Galaxy can be seen in the background behind Betelgeuse, as well as dark dust from the Orion Molecular Cloud, and some red-glowing emission from hydrogen gas on the outskirts of the more distant Lambda Orionis Ring. Betelgeuse has recovered from appearing unusually dim over the past six months, but is still expected to explode in a spectacular supernova sometime in the next (about) 100,000 years.

Photo by Adam BlockSteward Observatory, University of Arizona