Month of February 2023 (Nat’l Avg $3.501)

Come on Chevy Bolt……give me a price I can afford…….& Fed gov’t, give me a rebate, not this crippling Tax Credit.

 

Hyundai Accent to the river with the 20x60mm binoculars. Sorry, Lucky binocular had to stay at home. Right across from where I parked, were Mergansers. Have always enjoyed the male Mergansers with their fluorescent green heads. However, there were some nearby Mallard ducks, too. & yes, the fluorescent green of the male Mallard out-dazzles the Merganser & even has extra colors, too. So, if all you have in your area are Mallard ducks, enjoy their light show. Few other ducks can outshine the Mallards. & yes again, get yourself some 20 power binoculars. But, have some 7-8 power binoculars too.

 

Oh…..Went for an evening walk. Venus & Jupiter are descending in the western sky. With a wide-angle 10 power binocular, they were framed nicely. With the 20power Pentax, 3 of the Galilean moons were seen. The 4th bright moon & its shadow were transiting across the face of Jupiter. You can’t see transits without tripods & higher power optics. Of course, our Moon was higher in the sky, near the ecliptic. Orion & Sirius were in the southwest. Evening clearness will give way to clouds & possible snow tomorrow. Hope the snow won’t be too much. Anyhow, I don’t have any travel plans.
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2-25-23:
This morning different clouds sets are in the sky, but early sun is shining right now thru thin hazes. Increased chances of rain or snow for this evening. Will take the automatic Elantra with a variety of optics to the river before any precipitation. Yes, the 20x60mm Pentax is best for detail work, but observation with other optics give easy & excellent image pleasure! & Lucky binocular is just…….lucky, ya know.

 

Went to the river with 8x Nikon & 20x Pentax optics. Walking, I saw a duck about a third of a mile downriver, that I couldn’t quite ID with 8x, but the 20x IDed a male Goldeneye. Went to the 10’ overview, saw two Bald Eagles, but not a pair. Saw a Cessna with its landing gear retracted. Such clean lines, I don’t know why retractable gear Cessnas aren’t more popular. Thought it would be nice to have light landing gear, that you could retract by hand. Have good aerodynamics & save some weight. But, maybe not. Started walking back to the car when I head a noisy airplane at altitude. Almost a sure sign that a parachute jump plane was aloft. Watching with the 8power, I saw chutists exit the plane to land at the airport 3 miles away. For 8power, the Nikons are sweet, as I saw one of the divers pop his chute. However, I had to get more detail & switched to the 20power. & detail I got. Even at 3 miles, I could see the parachute lines.

 

No snow here in the Everett area. BUT, Portland got some. They showed Polar Bears & Otters at the Portland Zoo having fun in the snow. & traces of snow are showing on the coast of Washington state. Our snow may come in about 2 hours.
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2-26-23:
A little lighter at 6:30am. Probably would seem brighter if I went outside. But,there is some snow, about an inch plus, so I’ll stay inside & not slip. Don’t need my back going out. I think it should melt during the course of the day.
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Later:
Went to the river with the auto Elantra & the sharp 12x50mm binoculars. Don’t need higher power till the rare need for zoom Lucky binocular or 20x Pentax. This outing, “only” the 12x was needed. Goldeneye, Mergansers & 2 Bald Eagles were seen, along with some Oregon Juncos. Almost all the bottomland snow was gone & only snow in the tree boughs of the higher hills remained. A bit darkish, so when sunshine illuminated some 2 mile distant hills, I liked viewing the brightness. With our many clouds, it’s become a habit of mine to seek the bright patches of sunshine, wherever they be. I even become happier, when I binocular sunshine gleaming on 25mile, even 100 mile distant mountains.

 

We didn’t go to Costco yesterday because there was a chance of beginning snowfall on the higher hills. My wife & I agreed to that. But, we could have gone. Now, my wife wants to go to Costco this morning. This morning there IS light snow on the higher hills. I’ll keep monitoring.

PS…..Change of plans……

 

Feels like a more snowy winter this year with a couple of snow storms a week blowing through lately. 4-8" today and another 8+" expected starting Friday night. Oh, last week included a half inch of ice. My bum still hurts from the many falls I took going down the hill to clear my solar panels.

edit: I bit the bullet afterward and hacked a trail down to bare ground. 2-3" hard pack snow and ice was what I hacked through. Aggressive heel stomping with boots barely puts a dent in it, so imagine if stepping on it and the foot goes sideways, the next stop is the bottom of the hill, or was...

 

Yet, the Arctic temperatures above the 80th parallel are averaging way over their normal temperatures since the beginning of the year……as has been the norm for many decades since AGW started having its way due to the GHGs building in the atmosphere. https://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/meant80n.uk.php

In truth, cold temperatures in non-polar regions often have connections to “warm”temperatures at the poles. When Bill in Massachusetts had cold temperatures like we had fairly cold temperatures here Washington, I thought the Arctic above the 80th parallel might be averaging quite “warm” temperatures for the Arctic……& such was the case.