Tuesday Bits & Pieces

Good morning.

After a quick review of the morning's news, it seems it would be very easy to get depressed. But I refuse to do so. There are too many assurances of God's love and too many promises of ultimate salvation to get down in the dumps. Things may look bad now, but God is still in charge - and He promises to set things aright, in the end.

There's light in the sky before 8 a.m., these days, although the official sunrise isn't until well after 9:00. I love how the days get longer even as we go into some of the coldest & bleariest part of winter. It's a promise of the spring to come, and thank God for it!

In spite of some warmish weather (highs just below the freezing mark), we still have snow on the ground. Believe it or not, that's a good thing if you're in Alaska. It insulates the underground utilities & keeps water and sewer pipes from freezing.

Governor Palin is speaking out, once again, against the so-called stimulus (read spending) package, or so a local TV station is reporting, this morning. I'm trying to find details on what she said, but haven't located anything yet. I'll keep looking.

Representative Young and Senator Murkowski both voted against it; good for them! Senator Begich is trying hard to convince Alaskans what a good thing it will be, thereby toeing the Party line. He addressed veterans yesterday, who - strangly enough - seemed unimpressed. Go figure.

There continue to be earthquakes in diverse places around the state. Alaska has more earthquakes every day than the rest of the U.S. combined, so the USGS tells us. You can check out the daily crop (usually in the dozens) here, if you're curious.

AccuHunch is forecasting clouds and snow flurries this morning, a fairly safe bet for this part of the planet.

Mt. Redoubt hasn't erupted yet, but continuyes to do a lot of shaking & rumbling. You can check it out here.

Today should be fairly quiet, at work. There are some appraisers coming around, who want copies of the as-builts and other documents, but I've digitized everything for them already. All I need to do this morning is copy the files to a CD.

My friends Dana and Sandi-with-an-i had a quiet 3-day weekend at Mark Twain Lake in northeast Missouri, and send pictures. I'm glad they could get away; their lives are much more hectic than ours, and I'm not sure I could do what they do.

That's about it for now. Be blessed and happy!