Avogadro's Number

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Archives for August 2016

On This Anniversary

August 22, 2016 by Avogadro Mole

A storm with some claim to fame,
One Hurricane Katrina by name.
Politics most dire
Set DC on fire.
And poor Katrina gets all of the blame.

Copyright © 2005 Lin Daniel

Filed Under: Commentary, Poetry-mine

Morning Balloons

August 8, 2016 by Avogadro Mole

Why I get up at 4am Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Why I get up at 4am
Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Dawn Patrol, Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Dawn Patrol, Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Mass Ascension, Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Mass Ascension, Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Filed Under: Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, Balloons, Beauty

Happy LooNahSah

August 1, 2016 by Avogadro Mole

Thus the pronunciation of Lughnasadh. The Slavs and the Celts got extra consonants, while the Polynesians got extra vowels.

LooNahSah, or Lughnasadh, is a pagan holiday of harvest, the first harvest so say my notes. I suspect it is the celebration of the harvest of summer fruits and veggies, which anyone who has a veggie patch or fruit tree is fully aware. I have a friend with a plum tree. I now have a refrigerator with plums on every shelf and hoisin sauce coming soon. My friend thinks I’m great as I’m one of the few people who doesn’t run when he walks up with a bag. He could bring me all the plums off the tree (that the birds hadn’t nibbled already) and I would be happy. Plums freeze. Plums dry. Plums turn into hoisin sauce. Plums ferment. The downside to plums is that I can eat too many, at which point I spend long periods of time in the bathroom with a good book.

I used to live next door to an apricot tree and for two glorious weeks every year, I would gorge myself on fresh, golden, tree-ripened apricots. My family didn’t appreciate it but short of chaining me inside, they couldn’t stop me. You see, this house had four people . . . and only one bathroom. But it was only two weeks, two golden weeks before the fruit got too ripe and fell off the tree.

Summer also meant green apples. Now, we have all sorts of apples all year, but when I was young, the tart green apples would show up in early summer. My mother would bring some home and we all knew summer vacation wasn’t far off. Even now, my preferred time to eat green apples is summertime. They don’t seem right any other time.

Lughnasadh may be a pagan holiday, and in these days of evangelical Christian vocalization, mentioning it may annoy some, but the sentiments are worth sharing, worth remembering. Harvest of the first fruits of the season, the blessings of the gardens and orchards, remembering the bounty of the earth and of our hearts. There are many things that were . . . uncomfortable about my childhood, but those few short weeks of fruit were not among them.

Filed Under: Holidays & Celebrations

My Favorite Quotes

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.

— Charles Kingsley

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Years of Nattering

2018

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2016

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About Avogadro

Sanity is the trademark of a weak mind. — Mark Harrold

Avogadro's Number and I go 'way back. When I first started writing in what might be considered a blog precursor, a fanzine, I called my 'zine "Avogadro's Number". Named after...[more...]
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