Rose-Colored Sunrise 31 Dec 2008
When we got up this morning, it was DARK, at a time when it is normally lighter. When I looked out my window, there were heavy clouds, everything looked dark and sombre:
Minutes later, the sun begins to break through and the clouds look less substantial:
And then – the light! The sun breaks through!
And, a short time later, the day shimmers in silver and gold:
All that drama, and the morning is yet young! Wooo HOOOO, what a day this might be!
These are funny days, December 29th – 31st, days in which those who follow the Islamic calendar are already in the new year, and days in which we are still waiting. Tomorrow we will all be back on track, starting off a new year. In Kuwait, schools this week reported 85% absenteeism. Schools were open – but the students didn’t come!
AdventureMan and I briefly reviewed our year 2008 before praying this morning. For us – even though our financial investments are (on paper) in the depths – this has been a very good year. We have each other, and we have our sweet Qatteri Cat.
We have been greatly blessed to have had more time with our son this year than any year we can remember in the last ten years. We love our time with him, and with his wife. We have had weddings, and lots of family times with my family. We have had wonderful times with our friends, old and new. God has blessed us abundantly.
In every way that really matters, life is sweet. We thank God for 2008. We thank God, even for the challenges that 2009 will bring.
Brothers and sisters, we wish you peace, peace in your spirits, peace in your families, peace in your nations, and a desire to meet all obstacles with peaceful intentions. We wish you peaceful times with family, and peaceful resolutions of any conflicts. May your New Year be filled with unexpected blessings!
“I’ll be home for Christmas – if only in my dreams”
This is a nightmare year for people trying to get home for Christmas in the United States – weeks of storms have caused snarled schedules and cancelled trains and planes, stranding passengers eager to be home with family for Christmas.
Worse – my friends tell me – many groceries have not been resupplied, but that’s OK because many of their customers can’t get to the stores anyway. It’s hit merchants hard in what is already thought to be one of the most dismal selling seasons in a long, long time.
Here’s a write up from National Public Radio:
Winter Storms Frustrate Holiday Travel Nationwide
by Scott Neuman
NPR.org, December 23, 2008 · Bitter cold temperatures and snow have placed the northern half of the nation in a deep freeze, affecting travel in planes, trains and automobiles just as the holiday season gets under way.
Some of the worst winter storms on record have cut a swath from the Pacific Northwest to New England. Across the country, tens of thousands of people are without power after freezing rain and strong winds caused transmission lines to come down.
Heavy snowfall in western Oregon has caused traffic to come to a near standstill along Interstate 5, and state highways through the northern edge of the Coast Range are closed.
Amtrak’s Cascades passenger train service between Eugene, Ore., and Vancouver, British Columbia, was halted, but officials said they expected it to resume on Tuesday. Greyhound bus service in Portland and Seattle was also shut down.
At the Seattle-Tacoma airport, thousands of people have been waiting in hours-long lines to re-book canceled flights.
“There’s no flights going into [Las] Vegas that has any available seating,” Air Force Airman Alex James told NPR’s Morning Edition.
James said he and three other Air Force buddies hope to avoid driving from Seattle to Las Vegas, where their families are preparing for the holidays.
“We leave on our deployment on the first of January,” James said. “So, however long it takes us to get back from here is how much reduced our time at home is.”
Alaska and Horizon airlines, the West Coast’s principal carriers, resumed limited service Monday and the carriers said they hoped to resume near-normal schedules Tuesday at Seattle-Tacoma and have things normal flights by Wednesday.
In the East, the town of Eustis, Maine, got nearly 3 1/2 feet of snow. Snow and sleet — but no additional accumulation — are expected Tuesday in the Northeast.
In the nation’s midsection, the situation is just as bad.
In Illinois, which has experienced subzero conditions and wind chills as low as minus 35 degrees in recent days, temperatures are expected to rise into the 20s Tuesday. But with the reprieve will come several inches of snow, according to the forecast.
More snow is expected across the upper Midwest. Michigan could get as much as a foot of snow, while ice, snow and sleet are in the forecast for Indiana, where many people have been without electricity.
Travelers have been stranded in airports as they wait for flights to resume so they can make their way to friends and families for the holidays. Routes to much of the Pacific Northwest have been canceled, and flights to the East Coast, including New York and New Jersey, have been delayed by hours.
You can read the entire article by clicking HERE.
Good Morning, Kuwait
Another gorgeous winter day dawning in Kuwait, with a high expected around 77°R/25°C today, while my poor family in the US is shivering with cold. I have a good friend who had three different family members stranded in three different airports, trying to get home for Christmas, and snow accumulating up to 18 inches while she prays for their safe arrivals.
Have a sweet day, Kuwait. 🙂
I will spend the day preparing for major meals on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Mom, I am making your Cranberry Salad. 🙂
Brrrr. . . . Shiver . . . Cold in Kuwait
When I checked my WeatherUnderground readings for this morning, I laughed when I saw that the weather at 0630 in Kuwait was exactly the same as in Damascus, Syria, and colder than Seattle! Oh you disbelievers! Here is what it looked like:
It is going to be another GORGEOUS day in Kuwait – cold, clear and sunshiny. OK, AdventureMan, you are right . . . it is nice to have sunshine every day. 🙂
As lovely as it is, this weather is very hard on the poor, without adequate protection from the cold. Please, if you are feeling generous, please help out the good people at Operation Hope – Kuwait as they gather gently used shoes, coats and warm bedding to distribute to the poorest of the poor. No matter what you can give (they can always use your monetary donations, too!) every penny will benefit those who need it the most – the very very poor.
Shivering in Seattle
AdventureMan isn’t sure he wants to settle in Seattle. He promised me a long time ago that since I had been such a good wife, following him all around the world, we could settle where I wanted, he didn’t care.
You know how promises like that are . . . as soon as I could, I quickly sold our Tampa Bay area house and bought a house in Seattle. 🙂 Even with the dramatic fall in house prices, our house is still worth more than twice what we paid for it. House prices are not slipping fast in Seattle. The market is slow, but the prices are holding at relatively high levels.
When we go to Seattle, AdventureMan shivers, and talks endlessly about Pensacola. He makes jokes about Seattle’s “two days of summer” and he wears caps that cover his ears. I know he will be a good sport about living in Seattle, but his heart is in the South.
His heart is one of the reasons I want to live in Seattle. In his little town in the South, most people his age are suffering seriously from heart disease and diabetes. The food is SO good in the South – but the major food groups are fat and sugar. We both love seafood, but I am not so sure it does us that much good when it is all deep-fried. Fortunately for me, there are usually also grilled grouper sandwiches, grilled tuna and blackened swordfish, etc. but when give the choice – AdventureMan will usually go for the deep-fried option. 😦
Today, however, he has every right to be cold. Seattle is shivering. This is not my photo, it was sent in to the Seattle Times, and I like it because it has the snow and the Space Needle:
The streets are covered with ice, and people are afraid of more snow is coming, with high winds. When that happens, trees fall on the electrical lines, many of which are still all above ground (ruining the views!) and leaving people without heat or electricity for days.
AdventureMan yearns for the relative heat and sunshine of Kuwait. See you soon!
Q8Geek Sparkles
The Q8Geek sent me a photo to make me miss Kuwait – and oh WOW – I am a total sucker for SPARKLES and look at his SPARKLES!
AdventureMan and I are so COLD! Kuwait looks so nice and warm!
Breakfast at Andy’s Flour Power
We love this place, a local bakery where everything served is fresh cooked. No matter what I order, I always love that it smells of cinnamon when it arrives, because of the home baked walnut-raisin toast on the plate. Normally, I can pass on toast, it is just filler. When it is Andy’s Flour Power walnut-raising toast – I groan, and eat every bite.
After Thanksgiving Dinner, we thought we would never eat again. But after fasting from afternoon until the next day, we find that, after all, we are hungry for breakfast. Here is what we had for breakfast – I had a spinach – swiss cheese omelette:
AdventureMan’s biscuits and gravy were to die for (he says):
Law and Order Man’s Ham and Cheese Omelette:
EnviroGirl got the most beautiful dish of all – a vegetable frittata:
It was thundery and a little rainy on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving:
Sunrise Sunday, November 16, 2008
Good Morning, Kuwait!
It’s another glorious day in Kuwait, only 57 °F / 14 °C at 0630 in the morning. Ansam, the photo was taken at 0613. It took the sun a while to rise above that thick yellow-brown haze on the horizon. The sky is clear, the tide is waaaaayyyy out, beach combers are out looking for shellfish for tonight’s dinner.
I didn’t sleep well last night. We are planning a big Eid trip, plans have changed several times. At one time they were built around a conference, but, as many companies are doing, the conference was killed as a cost-cutting measure, leaving us to decide whether to travel at our own expense. As I was changing the hotel reservation, it occurred to me that we have been piling up points on a loyalty program, and we’ve never use any of those points.
So just for grins, I checked to see if our points would cover any of the days of our hotel stay. It covered the entire stay – with points left over! Whoda thunk?
I was so excited, our entire hotel stay is covered. Or maybe I drank too much coffee yesterday, I don’t know, but I had a hard time sleeping last night.
The high today is forecast to be 75°F / 24°C.
Have a great day, Kuwait.
Post Sunrise November 13, 2008
It’s a little chilly this morning and the Qatteri Cat is cuddled up next to me, right on my left typing arm, so I am pecking away as best I can. It’s another beautiful day – and, as forecasted, there are small, light, fluffy clouds gathering – and a 20% chance of rain tomorrow. Here is what this morning looks like in Kuwait:
Have a great day, Kuwait!
Kuwait Sunrise November 12 2008
Yesterday had to be one of the loveliest days I have spent in Kuwait – driving down the highway, car full of friends, wind blowing in our hair – what a great day. It looks to me like we have another beautiful day coming:
At 0630 it was only 59° F / 15°C, which I also see is close to the high temperature expected in Seattle. Whoa! Get out the sweaters!
Goooood Monring, Q8!
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