Les Fleurs du Mal - 03 February 2022 - Plague Journal Day 693

Micah 6:8
Song of Solomon 2:11-12
Yes, your life matters.

Some of you are still sheltering in place, but fear not: I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Today is Doggy Date Night! I think Billie will be getting a good walk today. Yesterday she was neglected in that area as I spent far too much time clearing the heavy, wet snow from the driveway and sidewalk. There wasn't nearly as much as they predicted (no surprise, really), but good grief it was heavy to move.
At any rate, she didn't get a walk, so I need to make that up to her tonight.

By the way, the Soviet unmanned spacecraft, Luna 9, made the first ever soft landing on the Moon on 03 February 1966. I'm not sure what happened to Lunas 1-8, but at the very least their landings weren't soft. The Soviets/Russians have a problem with landing things other than on the Earth for some reason. Mars (the Red Planet! Ha!) sure doesn't seem to like them.
http://iheardacouplethings.blogspot.com/2011/11/russians-asteroids-and-mars.html
http://iheardacouplethings.blogspot.com/2011/12/nasas-opportunity-rover-has-found.html
http://iheardacouplethings.blogspot.com/2012/01/are-russian-space-troubles-from-beyond.html
http://iheardacouplethings.blogspot.com/2012/02/russians-cant-get-to-mars-so-theyll.html

Today's freewrite prompt word is Blossom:

I know there was a TV show called Blossom, and that one of the current Jeopardy hosts played the title character, but I don't really have any memory of it. It might have been the greatest show ever, but if it was, I must never have seen it. If I saw any of its episodes, they must have been bland enough that they made essentially no impression on me.

On a related, yet totally unrelated note, the State flower of Michigan is the Apple Blossom. You know what they say, Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice!


Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our insane lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

20 July 2020 - Plague Journal Day 130 - UPDATED

Micah 6:8
Psalm 136:1-9
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

July 20. To those of us of a certain age, that can mean only one thing: the Apollo Moon Landing.
Yes indeed, I remember sitting on the floor of our living room in front of that big-screen TV (certainly in the 20" range!) watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin kangaroo hop around on the surface of Luna in glorious black and white! (Here's one place where our staying well behind the leading edge of technology didn't really hold us back much - there wasn't a lot of color to be seen in that transmission. The patches on the spacesuits, the US flag, and any pictures of the Earth were the only areas of color we had to fill in with our built-in cerebro-colorizers (that's our imaginations, I suppose).
Anyway, I don't remember ever making this connection before, but July 20 is also my maternal grandmother's birthday. It's odd, but I've never noticed that we landed on the Moon on Grandma E's birthday. Quite a present! (or maybe not - who would have paid attention to her birthday when there were men on the moon?!)

So, celebrate Moon Day responsibly - please keep your trousers at full staff!

UPDATE:
I came across this project today. It's a short film using archival footage of the Apollo 11 mission and then the latest deepfake technology to show then-President Nixon reading the speech that was written in case the mission failed and Armstrong and Aldrin were not coming back to Earth.
Watch it here. It's actually pretty good, and the speech, written by William Safire, was at least excellent. I'm glad I heard it, but I'm gladder I didn't hear it in 1969.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.