Dreary days of November
Why is there this penchant for dreary days when the
weather changes? Who thought this
up? Why not just slide directly into
winter: clean clear cool weather? Dump
the drain of rain on our parades. Clear
up. Clean up.
Shovelling is easier than slogging. Snow is the icon of purity. Grey is the colour
of down. Seven days in the fall of
grey. Without the thought that, the end
is near and freeze and frost will convert our weather to bearability, we would
surely not persist through the month of November.
We need frozen lakes and clear skies. The azure of clarity warming our face as we
stroll the avenues of winter. With water
frozen sustaining our weight, the streams of icy consciousness coaxes us toward
thoughts of gaiety and festivities of the season. Winter ought to be cold. Ought to be clear, ought to be crisp. The shoes of the southern Ontarian will
rejoice in the clean dry roads underfoot.
The footwear of northerners will comfort with a dryness
and heat of wool beside skin. Westerners
will thrive with comfort at the Chinook dried foot clad habiliments of
pleasure. We all feel better, work
better, and strive harder when our comfort is buttressed by enchanted
tootsies. Why the wet where we want it
not?
Small dome type coverings over all our abodes allowing
sunshine showers through and deflecting dank cold drips of fall should be common
place. Willing rain into the earth and
off our feet. A coffee on a walk, is
like a crutch to the injured.
Invigorating and stimulating. An
assistant unequalled in time. Not like
tea, steeped in tradition and basted with lemon or honey. What would that getcha?
With fall and November drearies eliminated we would be
gayer and more festive with fewer growls from the disenchanted and not as many
weather related colds form the less immune of us.
And I quote, “Mickey says, "Yah we get two days off in the cold, bleak, dreary days of November. If I'm correct, Canadians cleverly plan their
Thanksgiving for the golden sunny
days of October, right? Sure, pretty
clever of us..or maybe our
puritanical forepersons wanted to be sure we
don't enjoy it all quite as
much?"
There those ubiquitously damndable Americans go in 1995, Wed,
22 Nov 1995 11:27:47 CST to be exact, leaving their detritus all over the
interweb thingy for what seems eons in cyber time. These notes from the only literate person in
Arkansas at the time really steam me! Do
they or he think that the web is the best place to keep this predilection to ‘dis
their northern neighbours? To top it off
it seems this is the only person in the south with a puter at the time. Literally clicking these messages off on a
Coleco or Adam hooked up to the teletype machine used as a modem!
Now a short snippet from the Irish Times. Yeah, yeah I know who has the time to browse
the Irish times news paper site? Who
knows? Here it is anyhow: The Irish
sailing team has lost their boom in the Indian Ocean. Still leading the charge apparently without
the preciously though essential piece of
hardware!
Read more.
http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/other/2008/1120/1227137520703.html
Here is the ditty I like.
“Two shuttle Endeavour astronauts ventured outside the orbiting
International Space Station today, vowing to take extra care to make sure their
tool bags are in tow after losing half their gear during the mission's first
spacewalk.”
What they fail to mention is losing the $100,000 worth bag
of tools they were using. Someone send
NASA a karabiner or two!
Or the better idea the Obama is choosing someone with a
nearly unpronounceable name with so many letters the ink media is gonna go
broke if there is an international crisis somewhere. Janet Napolitano. I know I know, it’s a proper Italian/American
name. But, what if..... Geesh
Louish! Those 1995 emails in Arkansas
will have enough trouble with more than one syllable. All appologies intended for those in the
southern states.
It’s nearing that time.
Let’s take Leonardo’s directions and decorate accordingly and not
accordianly.
Decorations
for feasts.
762.
THE WAY TO
CONSTRUCT A FRAME-WORK FOR DECORATING BUILDINGS.
The way in
which the poles ought to be placed for tying bunches of juniper on to them.
These poles must lie close to the framework of the vaulting and tie the bunches
on with osier withes, so as to clip them even afterwards with shears.
Let the
distance from one circle to another be half a braccia; and the juniper [sprigs]
must lie top downwards, beginning from below.
Round this
column tie four poles to which willows about as thick as a finger must be
nailed and then begin from the bottom and work upwards with bunches of juniper
sprigs, the tops downwards, that is upside down. [Footnote: See Pl. CII, No. 3.
The words here given as the title line, lines 1--4, are the last in the
original MS.--Lines 5--16 are written under fig. 4.]
763.
The water
should be allowed to fall from the whole circle _a b_. [Footnote: Other
drawings of fountains are given on Pl. CI (W. XX); the original is a pen and
ink drawing on blue paper; on Pl. CIII (MS. B.) and Pl. LXXXII.]
_VI. Studies
of architectural details._
_Several of
Leonardo's drawings of architectural details prove that, like other great
masters of that period, he had devoted his attention to the study of the
proportion of such details. As every organic being in nature has its law of
construction and growth, these masters endeavoured, each in his way, to
discover and prove a law of proportion in architecture. The following notes in
Leonardo's manuscripts refer to this subject._
_MS. S. K.
M. Ill, 47b (see Fig. 1). A diagram, indicating the rules as given by Vitruvius
and by Leon Battista Alberti for the proportions of the Attic base of a
column._
Sorry diagrams not available.
No better way to defer the drearies than to redecorate. Perhaps you can pass this on to your better
halves?
Mark in Decorum
nee Mark Hull
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