Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Vacation week; day 8.
It sure went fast and now only one more left to tie up whatever loose ends and maybe relax and enjoy. Maybe someday I'll have a real vacation where I do mostly relax and enjoy. And maybe even go somewhere far away. Perhaps to Appalachicola to relax on a beach with the girl of my dreams at azalea and dogwood time while snowflakes may still be swirling back home.

This week it's a lot like spring time on the Redneck Riviera in southwestern Pennsylvania with dogwoods and azaleas in bloom just about everywhere I look and all the mid spring flowers like the Leucojum aestivum, creeping phlox and shooting stars are either faded or past peak bloom, Jack in the Pulpit and the late Trilliums are still holding on and other late ones—the Crested and Vernal Irises are reaching or even passing peak. And I was glad I took the trouble to take a few pics of the Iris verna: Cleo Chapel Road.

CLODs again: Compulsive Location Obsession Disorder common with many plant collectors—but this one is definitely worth obsessing over given its exquisite beauty that is definitely superior to other specimens of that species I've grown before!

Too bad it is so fleeting. The very next day it was already looking like it was on the wane.

And time and life goes on. And as I said it went fast. Time tends to fly when you are on vacation let alone busy with various projects like moving plants and critters back outside. Not to mention planting new arrivals and a shovel ready project in the way of a week long quest for a "Turtle Ready" pen that was finally finished on Saturday afternoon.

It can't be said that it was a bad week weatherwise. As for Ray in Wisconsin it is a somewhat different story. Of course Ray always has something to gripe about when it comes to the weather in his neck of the woods.

That 4 letter word: S N O W.
Yep the flakes are apparently flying where he is or close by today and I feel his pain. And I'm glad I live here instead of where he is because it would suck to have everything blooming a month later and precipitation of the frozen variety lingering longer too.

Yet he and I along with most who read and like this journal are apparent crazy—according to one of the voices that has emerged to lead the recently begotten March for Science movement: Bill Nye the Science Guy who's apparently teaming up with second most famous Climate Scientist in a Pennsylvania—like Gus the second most famous groundhog in the lottevry commercials—Michael Mann to proclaim "we've already put enough carbon into the atmosphere to prevent the next Ice Age.

Bill Nye? Bill Nye “Is Not The Right” Guy, Would Prefer an Ice Age Over the Current Warming I kid you not!

Ray and I visited a similar thread a few moths back in the depths of Norseman's Hell which was less than hellacious in contrast to previous years. Like about this time last spring when issues and concerns about the heating system emerged while Bruce the Historian was helping me install the Pex manifold during an untimely cold snap and there were snow squalls raging while I had to wade into my spring house to plug and unplug the water line. And 14 degrees for a projected low in the forecast for that night!

And a little later that May I had to scrape my windshield one morning. Which also makes for a lot of worrying about tender plants. So again I have to ask who the real crazies are. But when you consider that most of the people on the March for Science and climate issues have generally bought into progressivism—you know it's obviously craziness like that of a fox we are talking about since "climate change" is just one of the latest pleas of necessity.

Remember the Younger Pitt: Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants, it is the creed of slaves.

As for skipping a whole glacial cycle. Is that really a bad thing?

While we were pondering that particular thread I stumbled across a guy who was pondering the Palms of Cape Hatteras. http://www.brucebyersconsulting.com/pondering-the-palms-of-cape- hatteras/Funny how the place was underwater millennia ago during the previous interglacial between the Wisconsin and Illinoian Ice Ages. At a time when the world was populated by Paleolithic man who's biggest industry was chipping flint arrowheads and spear points. Meaning that we have not reached the full potential for warming and sea rise in this interglacial. This is also supported by the fact many plants are winter hardy far north of their native ranges and still in the process of northward migration.

Of course this is considered heresy in the Church of Gore Bull Warming.

Ray was all glum that day as he continued to resign himself to a doom of glaciers blanketing half the continent.

He's probably right. We could never get lucky enough to turn Washington back into a natural swampland which would be a vast improvement over the wretched hive of scum and villainy it has been for the last 100 plus years.

There is or was dwarf palmetto growing in a flower bed outside the U.S. Botanical Garden. It and others people are growing in the area could seed the entire area and there are bald cypress trees planted in the green between Capital Hill and the Washington monument—plus at the Zoo and the National Arboretum!

Alligators from the zoo could populate the swamp and maybe even eat some of the vermin/ politicians that linger. I keep thinking of that joke about the gator who shakes the shit out of politicians and ends up with just an asshole and a briefcase!

I'm guessing the Hatteras Blue palmettos I tried came from down there in Buxton Woods. They did poorly here and died out in the colder winters. Only the McCurtain Oklahoma and northeast Texas ecotypes are making it here. Have some seedlings of the Warren Arkansas population yet to try in a few years when they get big enough.

(McCurtain Oklahoma ecotype a few months back)

Amazing to think the Sangamon Interglacial was so much warmer than the warmest parts of this one so far. Hopefully we'll still get some of that. Climatologists—even the ones who are skeptical of anthropogenic climate change—have been all over the place with predicting the onset of the next glacial advance. Some say the next Ice Age is just around the corner and others say it's centuries or millennia in the future. 2,000 years seemed to be the most common prediction. Long before then we'll have exhausted fossil fuels and more likely replaced them with fusion and solar and CO2 will be back to preindustrial levels.

If we are a space faring civilization—we'll be able to build orbital mirrors to increase solar input or just use our waste heat to compensate. We could even import hydrocarbon fuels from Titan! Might have to do that someday just to feed the plants when all the CO2 gets sequestered by natural processes and the planet becomes geologically dead and volcanism stops.

Or just move off the planet and live in the O'Neill halo or turn the asteroid belt into a Dyson swarm. That is a solution for both warming and cooling as well as other problems.

Of course the whackdoodles will say nay. Fine. They can stay here on Earth if they wish and freeze or bake. Or get swallowed by the sun when it turns into a red giant!

As for the week of vacation that I have mostly skipped over in this essay—it actually turned out well after a somewhat chilly start back on Errf Day. By mid week it turned hot and summer like as the forecast promised and was very enjoyable to say the least. However the effort to renovate the turtle pen in the greenhouse took up most of the time and I did not finish that until Saturday afternoon when the two pieces of 11 inch Trex boards that wall off the corner were nailed together ; making it turtle ready—which almost sounds like Shovel Ready back in the early days of Obama. And progress was slow and careful because the last thing I want to have to say is an admission that a pen was not as Turtle Ready as expected after somebody escapes or dies. And that has happened a few times.

So it is now Sunday. Last day before I go back to the salt mine. Time to tie up a few loose ends. Happy to report that the three marbled Bullheads and the sunfishes that were living with them in a tank in the basement finally got back out to the 300 Rubbermaid yesterday after I moved the turts back to their pen. Now there are the Voodo Lilies and other spring bulbs to go outside before spring before they start breaking dormancy. And then I'll be somewhat caught up.

At least the major transition back to warm weather routines will be done.

Before closing; an addendum.

Bruce the Historian has been nagging me to make mention of the historic fact that vinifera grapes that are normally at their northern limits on the French Riviera were routinely grown in England during Roman times. And to think it would be a bad thing if that happened again? Bah humbug! Happiness is a warm planet. So says the flora and fauna and most rational human beings.

And even the polar bears managed to survive then.

End Notes: Another Addendum

In regard to the "swamp" in DC that a badly in need of draining or something; Donald Trump's mission is not going so smoothly. Rather than circling the drain like in the iconic editorial cartoon that came out during the election—the denizens of the swamp are circling the wagons in defense of their natural habitat and the phony baloney jobs and largess that goes with it. Figuratively and in real life as well—swamps are notoriously difficult to drain.

I wonder what Bruce will think of this one.

And it was snowing in Colorado. In addition to spoiling a Climate March event last weekend ; there are reports of hardship and cattle deaths coming from the region.

Meanwhile it was pushing 90 degrees on my back porch. But that did not last long. Early in the week post vacation a very strong frontal system pushed through in the evening while I was at work and for a while I was as worried what I might find when I got home. Everything was ok but in other areas—mostly north—there were tornado watches and warnings and reports of wind damage and power outages.

That was a start to a rather chilly week that was punctuated with another 70 degree day that ended with another line of severe weather that marked the beginning of a wet and chilly weekend and they're not calling for it yet I won't be surprised if we get frost.

This and other stuff mentioned here will probably be covered more in depth in the spring edition of the Norseman's Diaries to be ready in the coming weeks.