Daily Report
It's Friday once again, but it's Friday the 14th, so we can all relax and enjoy a day without disasters (I certainly hope that's true). It's cloudy and 64 degrees outside at the moment. The meteorologists say we've got a 1% chance of rain. While I'm sure all the folks who just cut their grass are enjoying that prospect, this area of Texas needs more rain. I plan to water the garden and Sandy's potted plants shortly, which also means the fish will get fed. As a side note, Max and Clemmy now have a competition going to see who gets to eat the fish food I deliberately spill for their enjoyment. Max is an interesting dog. He is obsessed with his toys, and the more they squeak, the more he likes it. Clemmy is still a puppy, but she's presenting new problems for us as she gets bigger. She can now lean against our cabinets and the kitchen island and get things off of them. I was planning to do dishes after lunch, but they're in the dishwasher now after her latest escapade. She's also decided the best things to chew on are cardboard boxes. Little pieces are strewn all over our bathroom after she demolished the puppy pad box. The pads are now sitting on the bathroom cabinet. Puppies are fun, though. They have all the enthusiasm of a whirlwind and almost as much destructive power.
New Mexico
Sandy and I got to spend eight years in New Mexico, and we loved the place. When we moved there, I mentioned that there was something about it that made me think of it as home, even though I spent the first 45 years of my life in Oklahoma. If you've never been there, I highly recommend adding it to your bucket list. They don't call it the "Land of Enchantment" without reason. We lived in Bernalillo, which is just north of Albuquerque off I-25, which means it's only a 35-mile drive to Santa Fe. I worked in Santa Fe on occasion, and I can assure you that drive is not one you want to make during the migration of Albuquerque folks heading North in the morning and heading south for home in the evening. While we were there, we visited all four corners of the state and much of what lay in between. From Carlsbad Caverns to Aztec ruins to desert to forests to magnificent mountains to volcanos to the Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico is a land of beauty and diversity. Facebook has a page dedicated to New Mexico called (amazingly) "Pictures of New Mexico." I highly recommend a visit. Today's picture is from an area close to Farmington, NM, up in the NW corner of the state.
Secrets
It seems the federal government is not happy when people leak secret information. They've arrested a young man who posted top secret material on Discord (a social media platform for gamers and people far younger than me who can figure it out). He also took them off-base and showed them to his friends. A certain amount of his behavior might be attributed to poor judgment and the desire to look important to his friends (that's how it will probably be portrayed in the inevitable movie-of-the-week/television series, or such), but it appears he was politically motivated. He'll be celebrated as a hero by some, including the ever-so-vocal Marjorie Taylor Green. She's the epitome of the phrase, "Put your brain in gear before engaging your mouth." She's defending him because his actions are very similar to her favorite ex-President. Defending this young man is akin to saying, "Taking federal secrets home with you and showing them off is a normal thing to do." Hopefully this will result in tighter control over access to top secret information.
Megaquake
The other day I mentioned the hole in the bottom of the sea that has scientists concerned about a major earthquake off the northwest coast of America. What's happening is "fault lubricant" from the Cascadia Subduction Zone off Oregon's coast is leaking upward into the ocean. As I understand it, what that means is the stuff that keeps the tectonic plates moving smoothly instead of suddenly jerking this way and that is escaping. It's a little like having an oil leak in your car and not taking care of it before the engine shudders and dies (at least that's how my vast mechanical knowledge relates to it). This has the potential of causing a 9.0 or greater earthquake impacting cities all along the West Coast (think Portland, Seattle, and all the way up to Anchorage). I'm not sure what the solution (if any) may be. In the movies, they always try nuclear bombs on things like this. I think that's not a good idea. What if a bomb makes the hole bigger? They could try filling the hole up, but it is more than a half mile underwater! The Pacific Northwest is a beautiful place, and it already has its share of potential problems with a ring of volcanoes dotting the landscape. Put the two together? Where's Superman when you need him?
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