Some fireworks to start the new year off with a bang! OK, well…floral fireworks. It’s the closest thing I could come up with. Just squint your eyes and pretend you hear a loud explosion while looking.
It’s interesting how just one page turned on a calendar feels like a fresh start, but it does somehow. After witnessing the last few years, one thing’s clear. We’re all connected. So, let’s make 2011 a good one. Deal?
Where were you when the “big one of 2010″ hit this morning? Well, unless you’re a REAL heavy sleeper, or maybe you were singing in the shower with the water running, or driving in your car at the time, or somewhere else insulated from noise and vibration, then you probably felt “something” for a few seconds this morning around 8:00 am. I wouldn’t think that even any minor damage could have resulted from it around here. Just something fun to talk about around the office water cooler, or Tweet to everyone, or post on your Facebook Wall. As for me, I was at home, and it felt and sounded like something heavy bumped into the house, like if someone backed a truck into it at 3 mph. Just a little noise, vibration and dishes rattling in the kitchen for 2 or 3 seconds. Kind of interesting actually.
I’m sure the media, once they get behind this though will have us all convinced that we were lucky to survive our brush with death. The Richter Scale is just too vanilla, too clinical to describe it for them though. I think they’ll eventually need a new term, sort of like a ”windchill factor” is to an actual temperature, to rate just how scary things felt, instead of how they really were. Like maybe a ”Fear-factor” rating? The reporters can go out on the streets like they always do and interview the people that had the scariest, most exaggerated versions of what really happened, and/or the the people that were the weakest and most afraid of it and then come up with a Fear-factor rating for the event.
Like this morning, even though the quake was actually 3.8 on the Richter scale, when you apply the Fear-factor, the ”real” Richter Scale rating was 5.2. Is that right? My gosh! …we really are lucky to be alive.
With holiday time on my hands, cool temps and snow covering everything, it felt like a good day to go to the Eiteljorge Museum. I’ve been there a number of times before of course, but hadn’t been for a while. Their collections are fabulous, and I always find something I haven’t seen before. I’m fascinated by American history and there are some early, colorful chapters of it on display there. It’s impossible to imagine completely, but this place helps to understand just how awesomely beautiful this land must have been before it was touched by the modern world.
Afterwards I cruised for a few minutes through the gift shop which has a lot of really interesting things there. This Bison head trophy was overseeing the crowd, and I thought his photogenic expression was just asking for a photo. I couldn’t help myself though from remembering, especially when looking him in the eye later in this photo, that Bison were sacred and vital to native American people. According to legend, huge herds with thousands of them used to travel through, near this area on their annual migration route. So, it made me a little sad actually to see this noble animal reduced to an adornment on a wall. The Bison themselves really are authentic native Americans too.
I know it’s the day after Christmas, but I’d still like just one more gift…please. Well, that’s of course until next Sunday again too! Mathematically, both of the next two are important, but everyone senses this game today with Oakland will be the tallest hurdle of the two compared to Tennessee next week. They’ve all been must win games lately. But, you know, I like the Colt’s position better than last year, with their backs up against the wall…where every game is “win or you’re done”. What a difference a year makes. Remember the anguish from all the fans (and team members too, although never publicly stated) about resting the last couple games before the Superbowl instead of going for wins and a perfect season. Look where that strategy got them. Rust vs Rest? Come on. So, I’m expecting another close one today. But I like this team and their chances. Another win? We’ll see.
