Stay-at-Home - Day 30 - A Venture Out, An Adventure

Today I have an 8:30 am appointment at the Auto Body Shop for Minion. They'll replace the shark fin and fix the roof. The shark fin is the easy part, the roof repair might end up requiring a complete replacement of my roof. I cleaned the car out on Saturday while helping DH rake the thatch from the grass. The car hasn't been this empty since I bought her years ago. The insurance company arranged for a rental car for me during the time of repair, so I'll have a strange car in my garage for a while. I have no idea how long this fix will end up taking, but it is what it is. I just hope they do a good job. 

At the very least, they'll have to pull up the depression in the roof and
repaint it. At the most, they'll have to pull the sunroof out and pull off
and replace the entire roof with a new one. I have no idea, I'm just very
grateful that my insurance will cover the cost. 

For the first time in over a month, I actually woke up hours before my alarm, at my usual time of 3:15 am, and I couldn't manage to get back to sleep. So here I am, almost on my old schedule of posting times. Not a bad thing, but 90 minutes before I wanted to get up, and WAY too early for me to get onto the treadmill. So I'm catching up with email and doing my blog and other miscellaneous things. 

The rules are pretty simple - don't go anywhere unnecessary, wash your
hands often, keep social distance between you ant others, etc. It's
almost become a mantra. I wonder when hugs will return, I miss them. 

I really don't have much to say today, life has been rather boring while we're housebound. DH still thinks the Stay-at-home will be pushed outward to the end of May, I'm still thinking we'll be able to re-open on May 4th. I guess we'll have to see what happens. 

Did you get a chance to see this amazing photo released by Hubble to
celebrate the telescope's 30th birthday? It's called "Cosmic Reef" and I
loved it so much, I added it to my computer's Wallpaper rotation. Just
stunning! 

So that's life from the trenches of the Frozen Northlands, which isn't frozen anymore (except in the far northern portions of the state) and which has trees that are actually starting to show their first leaves. We're sitting outside on the patio almost every day for an hour or so, just to get a bit of fresh air and enjoy the early Spring. The flowers will come, but they're slow, and DH is chomping at the bit to go to the local Home Depot and buy plants. Maybe we'll do that later today. Have a great Monday, stay safe, stay home, and stay well. I'll be back tomorrow. 

A Celebration of Hubble

The space telescope Hubble celebrated its 25th birthday this week and I, for one, baked it a virtual cake. Can you remember life before the remarkable photos offered up by Hubble?

I love the night sky. 

When I was young, I looked at the night sky with wonder. The moon was my light, the stars were my friends. Since my city was much smaller in those days, I was able to see much of the Milky Way as it spread across the darkened sky.

I've always loved the moon, and even though I celebrate the daylight
hours, I still have a soft spot in my heart for the amazing sights of the night. 

But then light pollution hit as the city grew. Although the moon was still there as well as the evening/morning stars, the broad spread of our galaxy across the night sky was weakened and diluted. My own life changed, I grew up, moved several times, and married. I left my love of the night sky behind me and discovered my love of the sunrise and sunset. And then things changed once more. (All photos below are copyright NASA.)

This photo of Celestial Fireworks was released to celebrate Hubble's
25th anniversary. Look at all of those new stars. FABULOUS! 

Hubble was launched and eventually the photos began to be released. The world sucked in it's collective breath in as the wonders of the universe hit the airwaves and magazine pages with multicolored photographs of images we'd only dreamed of existing. New galaxies and the birthplaces of stars were now on the coffeetables and the topics of breakroom discussions.

Here is some pillars of creation in the Carina Nebula. 

So Happy Birthday, Hubble. You're still producing fantastic photos to demonstrate how small we really are in the great scheme of things. You're still inspiring kids to study the skies and how we can get to those distant points of light. You're still amazing us day after day with new views of the wonders we share. Thank you.

I adore this enhanced picture of the Crab Nebula. So beautiful! 

Happy Saturday to all, and have a great weekend. I don't have anything on my Sunday schedule except working around the house. That's a nice change from the past two weekends and I'm liking the idea of sleeping in on Sunday.

We Might Dodge a Bullet - A House, A Hubble and A Hoot

The snowstorm that has my city under Weather Watch seems to be tracking north of us now, and has almost passed. The next storm is west of us, back at Rapid City, South Dakota and if we're lucky, that one will scoot just south of us. I'm totally crossing my fingers that we might escape this storm track with just fingers of threat instead of shovels of wet, heavy snow. The weather person, however, is saying that we'll get an overnight snow of about four inches. If so, I'll have to shovel tomorrow *sigh*.

This pic of my father-by-marriage's house for sale was just after the first
little snow of last fall. The drifts and piles are as tall as that bush on the left
now. It's a cute little house that has a great main level. I'd be redoing the
upstairs and downstairs, but the main level is immediately usable. 

I had a house showing request for tonight from 8:45 pm until 9:45 pm. I turned it down. Really, I mean, REALLY? A showing ending at almost 10:00 pm? I realize that many of you are night owls and that this time frame wouldn't be unreasonable for you at all, and I also realize that work schedules could mandate that type of schedule, but we have to go over to the house after the Realtor has ended the showing and make sure that the doors are properly closed or opened and that everything is intact. I don't want to be going over there at 10:00 pm. So hopefully they will reschedule for a different day/time that will be more suited to my schedule.

This is one of the spotlighted photos celebrating Hubble Telescope's 24th
anniversary. Yes - our lives have been enriched and expanded by Hubble
for the past 24 years. This is a part of the Monkey Head Nebula in infrared.
So beautiful! 

We're so fortunate that we live in these times when the universe is brought into our homes in such fabulous pictures. Check out the latest Hubble picture, one of several released celebrating Hubble's 24th anniversary. While not as spectacular as the Eagle Nebula, this new picture of a part of the Monkey Head Nebula in infrared is stunning. I love the way the various Hubble photographs over the years have allowed my imagination to fly farther than ever before.

This lovely oil painting by Christopher Smith is entitled Morning Watch -
Barred Owl. It has a lovely and evocative feeling of a foggy morning that I felt
reflected our winter cold. Prints are available if you are interested, just follow the link. 

I had a lovely wake-up this morning - an owl hooting from a tree outside of my window for about 15 minutes earlier this morning (probably around 4:00 am or so). It was such a joy to listen to the hoots ringing out, and knowing that I have such a fabulous raptor living in my general area makes me very happy.

Here is a lovely photograph of a barred owl in a tree by Stephen L Tabone. 

Have a great Tuesday.