We saw the conjunction plus one day last night; it was pretty darned impressive. The photos I took with my iPhone weren't great, but they were better than the ones I tried through my Canon PowerShot SX50 HS. Here's the best of the phone shots (it's also posted to Facebook, so some may have seen it before).
The darker lines are what you may have thought they might be, tree branches. We were watchingfrom both our second-floor and first-floor decks, and they aren't taller than the trees. We're going to go down the road a bit to try for a tree-less view tonight assuming the clouds don't go beyond the wispy they currently are. We don't have a telescope, but Son #1's rifle sights worked so well that we could see some of the moons of Jupiter. Saturn's rings weren't visible, but that probably would have been asking too much.
2020 has turned out to be the deadliest year in US history. We're going to have somewhere around 3.2 million deaths or at least 400,000 more than we had in 2019. Right now, someone in the US is dying from covid-19 every 33 seconds. Every. 33. Seconds. That's close to two people per minute, 120 people per hour. Yes, we've made America great again.
Taking the pandemic in a humorous direction, yesterday's New York Times ran a column by Megan Nolan with the title "The Joys of Frivolous Sex." It can be difficult to hook up for frivolous sex when the bars and clubs are closed and you can't stroll the sidewalks. Some countries took that into account when dealing with the pandemic. From the column:
"In Holland, officials advised coming to an arrangement with a sex buddy. Denmark's health chief said, 'Sex is good, sex is healthy. As with any other human contact, there is a rick of infection. But of course one must be able to have sex.' Whether you agree or disagree, at least these countries were capable of addressing what was a serious concern for many of their citizens."
I'm not sure I want to imagine what The Lame Duck might have to say on this topic. Shudder.
Speaking of The Lame Duck, this morning's Guardian included this line:
"It means a cloud of uncertainty over what Trump is still capable of and how to assess the threat level."
He is still focused on overturning the election results, now discussing how to get the House of Representatives to throw out the electoral votes from certain states. He's also handing out pardons right and left. Pardons, like executive orders, do not require approval or ratification by any other body. It's pure and simple executive power, and that's right up on the top of The Duck's list for Santa.
At least The Duck isn't Vladimir Putin, who signed a bill granting lifetime immunity to former Russian presidents and their families, immunity that covers anything they may have done or will do in their lifetime. It's not term-limited. Before, they were only immune in terms of crimes committed while they were in office. This immunity makes them exempt from questioning, searches, or arrests. The Lame Duck would not need to pardon The Ducklings. This would cover them as well as himself.
And on the nature front, Norwegian lemmings are evidently "bloodthirsty, hairy berserkers.' You think we have problems getting along.
Time to go assess the cloud cover to see if it's worth Son #2's time to come out from town. Tomorrow, it's supposed to rain all day, so this may be our last chance to get a close-up view.
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