The Wind and the Rain

Central Illinois has been wracked by storms recently. All is well here at home -- but the roads are flooded deep and swift on either side of us. Some friends south of us live in a county that's been declared an emergency zone due to flooding. In Terre Haute, where some other friends are, the flooding is bad enough that officials are talking about opening sluice gates to save the city -- which will, of course, drown most of the old floodplain. Lots of service outages; our ISP connection was down much of yesterday and just came back. We're deeply grateful to have escaped the worst of the weather, and we're sending positive thoughts for other folks who aren't so lucky.

And this is what global warming looks like in the Midwest. Torrential rain in summer: when the front rolled over yesterday, the rain poured down so hard that I couldn't see the edge of the yard. Floods the like of which we should only see in autumn and spring; but spring was fairly dry. The fruit is growing thick and green on trees and bushes; but for all I know it could turn fuzzy with mold as soon as it starts to ripen. We'll see. The ground is so wet we were afraid to drive a truck over it, so there went today's plans to fetch more mulch, even before we discovered that the roads were impassable.

The weather bucks and snarls across the sky, in no mood to listen to anyone, more often than not. The forecasts are less reliable. Instinct and senses outstrip logic and memory, when everything is in flux. It's down to the weight of water in the air and the taste of ozone, estimating a storm's distance from the way the downdraft feels over tightening skin.

Keep us in your thoughts, if you will. The land needs all the grace and temperance it can get.

The Wind and the Rain

Central Illinois has been wracked by storms recently. All is well here at home -- but the roads are flooded deep and swift on either side of us. Some friends south of us live in a county that's been declared an emergency zone due to flooding. In Terre Haute, where some other friends are, the flooding is bad enough that officials are talking about opening sluice gates to save the city -- which will, of course, drown most of the old floodplain. Lots of service outages; our ISP connection was down much of yesterday and just came back. We're deeply grateful to have escaped the worst of the weather, and we're sending positive thoughts for other folks who aren't so lucky.

And this is what global warming looks like in the Midwest. Torrential rain in summer: when the front rolled over yesterday, the rain poured down so hard that I couldn't see the edge of the yard. Floods the like of which we should only see in autumn and spring; but spring was fairly dry. The fruit is growing thick and green on trees and bushes; but for all I know it could turn fuzzy with mold as soon as it starts to ripen. We'll see. The ground is so wet we were afraid to drive a truck over it, so there went today's plans to fetch more mulch, even before we discovered that the roads were impassable.

The weather bucks and snarls across the sky, in no mood to listen to anyone, more often than not. The forecasts are less reliable. Instinct and senses outstrip logic and memory, when everything is in flux. It's down to the weight of water in the air and the taste of ozone, estimating a storm's distance from the way the downdraft feels over tightening skin.

Keep us in your thoughts, if you will. The land needs all the grace and temperance it can get.

The Wind and the Rain

Central Illinois has been wracked by storms recently. All is well here at home -- but the roads are flooded deep and swift on either side of us. Some friends south of us live in a county that's been declared an emergency zone due to flooding. In Terre Haute, where some other friends are, the flooding is bad enough that officials are talking about opening sluice gates to save the city -- which will, of course, drown most of the old floodplain. Lots of service outages; our ISP connection was down much of yesterday and just came back. We're deeply grateful to have escaped the worst of the weather, and we're sending positive thoughts for other folks who aren't so lucky.

And this is what global warming looks like in the Midwest. Torrential rain in summer: when the front rolled over yesterday, the rain poured down so hard that I couldn't see the edge of the yard. Floods the like of which we should only see in autumn and spring; but spring was fairly dry. The fruit is growing thick and green on trees and bushes; but for all I know it could turn fuzzy with mold as soon as it starts to ripen. We'll see. The ground is so wet we were afraid to drive a truck over it, so there went today's plans to fetch more mulch, even before we discovered that the roads were impassable.

The weather bucks and snarls across the sky, in no mood to listen to anyone, more often than not. The forecasts are less reliable. Instinct and senses outstrip logic and memory, when everything is in flux. It's down to the weight of water in the air and the taste of ozone, estimating a storm's distance from the way the downdraft feels over tightening skin.

Keep us in your thoughts, if you will. The land needs all the grace and temperance it can get.

The Wind and the Rain

Central Illinois has been wracked by storms recently. All is well here at home -- but the roads are flooded deep and swift on either side of us. Some friends south of us live in a county that's been declared an emergency zone due to flooding. In Terre Haute, where some other friends are, the flooding is bad enough that officials are talking about opening sluice gates to save the city -- which will, of course, drown most of the old floodplain. Lots of service outages; our ISP connection was down much of yesterday and just came back. We're deeply grateful to have escaped the worst of the weather, and we're sending positive thoughts for other folks who aren't so lucky.

And this is what global warming looks like in the Midwest. Torrential rain in summer: when the front rolled over yesterday, the rain poured down so hard that I couldn't see the edge of the yard. Floods the like of which we should only see in autumn and spring; but spring was fairly dry. The fruit is growing thick and green on trees and bushes; but for all I know it could turn fuzzy with mold as soon as it starts to ripen. We'll see. The ground is so wet we were afraid to drive a truck over it, so there went today's plans to fetch more mulch, even before we discovered that the roads were impassable.

The weather bucks and snarls across the sky, in no mood to listen to anyone, more often than not. The forecasts are less reliable. Instinct and senses outstrip logic and memory, when everything is in flux. It's down to the weight of water in the air and the taste of ozone, estimating a storm's distance from the way the downdraft feels over tightening skin.

Keep us in your thoughts, if you will. The land needs all the grace and temperance it can get.

Look! Composing Magic has a banner!

I needed a banner for my book Composing Magic and the nice people in New Page's publicity department made this for me:



What's particularly interesting is that this isn't the way I would've made a banner. I was thinking, put a thumbnail of the whole cover on the left, and some text on the right. I've seen banners like that. But I think this one is better. While I'm not a professional designer, I am keenly interested in graphic design/layout theory. I've been making my own business cards, panel flyers, and other stuff for years; and I know it works, because I get traffic and compliments. (Oh, and there was the year I and three other people put together most of the high school yearbook.) It's just really cool to learn something new in this area.

Anyone else into graphic design? Particularly as applied to self-promotion?

Look! Composing Magic has a banner!

I needed a banner for my book Composing Magic and the nice people in New Page's publicity department made this for me:



What's particularly interesting is that this isn't the way I would've made a banner. I was thinking, put a thumbnail of the whole cover on the left, and some text on the right. I've seen banners like that. But I think this one is better. While I'm not a professional designer, I am keenly interested in graphic design/layout theory. I've been making my own business cards, panel flyers, and other stuff for years; and I know it works, because I get traffic and compliments. (Oh, and there was the year I and three other people put together most of the high school yearbook.) It's just really cool to learn something new in this area.

Anyone else into graphic design? Particularly as applied to self-promotion?

Look! Composing Magic has a banner!

I needed a banner for my book Composing Magic and the nice people in New Page's publicity department made this for me:



What's particularly interesting is that this isn't the way I would've made a banner. I was thinking, put a thumbnail of the whole cover on the left, and some text on the right. I've seen banners like that. But I think this one is better. While I'm not a professional designer, I am keenly interested in graphic design/layout theory. I've been making my own business cards, panel flyers, and other stuff for years; and I know it works, because I get traffic and compliments. (Oh, and there was the year I and three other people put together most of the high school yearbook.) It's just really cool to learn something new in this area.

Anyone else into graphic design? Particularly as applied to self-promotion?

Look! Composing Magic has a banner!

I needed a banner for my book Composing Magic and the nice people in New Page's publicity department made this for me:



What's particularly interesting is that this isn't the way I would've made a banner. I was thinking, put a thumbnail of the whole cover on the left, and some text on the right. I've seen banners like that. But I think this one is better. While I'm not a professional designer, I am keenly interested in graphic design/layout theory. I've been making my own business cards, panel flyers, and other stuff for years; and I know it works, because I get traffic and compliments. (Oh, and there was the year I and three other people put together most of the high school yearbook.) It's just really cool to learn something new in this area.

Anyone else into graphic design? Particularly as applied to self-promotion?

In Which the Sun Briefly Gets Lost

Does anyone know of a phenomenon which would make the sun appear to unset?

I was watching the sunset tonight. The sky was clear, with only a few wisps of cloud, so the sun was plainly visible as a large orange disk. It disappeared beyond the western horizon. The orange sky around it faded to peach.

And about a minute later, the sky there abruptly brightened to orange. A spark of sun appeared, then the top of the disk. Then it went back over the horizon and the sky faded back to peach.

I stared very hard at the spot for some time, wondering WTF just happened. The sun seems to have stayed down this time.

The horizon there is fairly flat and clear, without a lot of trees or houses in the way. I've watched the sun set many times in that location, and I've never seen anything like this before. I mean ... WTF? I know the cardinal directions around here are prone to some odd shifts, but that is the first time I've seen the sun directly affected. The incident involving a trip from Carbondale to Danville by way of St. Louis was, I believe, confined to the surface/roads mutating and the effect on the sun was just a side effect. I'm hoping that a rational explanation for this is available, because the potential mystical ones are ... disturbing.

In Which the Sun Briefly Gets Lost

Does anyone know of a phenomenon which would make the sun appear to unset?

I was watching the sunset tonight. The sky was clear, with only a few wisps of cloud, so the sun was plainly visible as a large orange disk. It disappeared beyond the western horizon. The orange sky around it faded to peach.

And about a minute later, the sky there abruptly brightened to orange. A spark of sun appeared, then the top of the disk. Then it went back over the horizon and the sky faded back to peach.

I stared very hard at the spot for some time, wondering WTF just happened. The sun seems to have stayed down this time.

The horizon there is fairly flat and clear, without a lot of trees or houses in the way. I've watched the sun set many times in that location, and I've never seen anything like this before. I mean ... WTF? I know the cardinal directions around here are prone to some odd shifts, but that is the first time I've seen the sun directly affected. The incident involving a trip from Carbondale to Danville by way of St. Louis was, I believe, confined to the surface/roads mutating and the effect on the sun was just a side effect. I'm hoping that a rational explanation for this is available, because the potential mystical ones are ... disturbing.

In Which the Sun Briefly Gets Lost

Does anyone know of a phenomenon which would make the sun appear to unset?

I was watching the sunset tonight. The sky was clear, with only a few wisps of cloud, so the sun was plainly visible as a large orange disk. It disappeared beyond the western horizon. The orange sky around it faded to peach.

And about a minute later, the sky there abruptly brightened to orange. A spark of sun appeared, then the top of the disk. Then it went back over the horizon and the sky faded back to peach.

I stared very hard at the spot for some time, wondering WTF just happened. The sun seems to have stayed down this time.

The horizon there is fairly flat and clear, without a lot of trees or houses in the way. I've watched the sun set many times in that location, and I've never seen anything like this before. I mean ... WTF? I know the cardinal directions around here are prone to some odd shifts, but that is the first time I've seen the sun directly affected. The incident involving a trip from Carbondale to Danville by way of St. Louis was, I believe, confined to the surface/roads mutating and the effect on the sun was just a side effect. I'm hoping that a rational explanation for this is available, because the potential mystical ones are ... disturbing.

In Which the Sun Briefly Gets Lost

Does anyone know of a phenomenon which would make the sun appear to unset?

I was watching the sunset tonight. The sky was clear, with only a few wisps of cloud, so the sun was plainly visible as a large orange disk. It disappeared beyond the western horizon. The orange sky around it faded to peach.

And about a minute later, the sky there abruptly brightened to orange. A spark of sun appeared, then the top of the disk. Then it went back over the horizon and the sky faded back to peach.

I stared very hard at the spot for some time, wondering WTF just happened. The sun seems to have stayed down this time.

The horizon there is fairly flat and clear, without a lot of trees or houses in the way. I've watched the sun set many times in that location, and I've never seen anything like this before. I mean ... WTF? I know the cardinal directions around here are prone to some odd shifts, but that is the first time I've seen the sun directly affected. The incident involving a trip from Carbondale to Danville by way of St. Louis was, I believe, confined to the surface/roads mutating and the effect on the sun was just a side effect. I'm hoping that a rational explanation for this is available, because the potential mystical ones are ... disturbing.