Bad Weather
there is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather
Snow in New Mexico
As far as I’m concerned the weather here is bad today ~ gale force winds and driving rain, courtesy of an Atlantic storm sweeping in from the south-south-west. Some fool decided that severe storms here should have names, and this one is called Erik ~ pathetic. Hurricanes should have names, minor storms over the British Isles shouldn’t. (Actually it’s Met Éireann, the Irish Meteorological Office which names storms here ~pathetic.)
For all of history, today, and into the foreseeable future mankind’s activities have been /are / will be dependent upon the weather. Agriculture relies on the right kind of weather at the right time, travel can be disrupted due to high winds rain, and snow, and power consumption rises if the weather is too hot or too cold.
Right now 70 million Americans across the Midwest are bracing themselves for dangerous storms bringing high winds, cold, rain, hail, and the possibility of a tornado or two. Now that’s really bad weather. But then America does have extremes of climate.
Weather refers to what’s going on in the atmosphere at a particular place, over a short period of time; temperature, humidity, wind, rain / snow, clouds, visibility….. Climate is the long-term weather pattern over a large area over many, many years ~ long enough to generate meaningful statistical data ~ say a hundred years or more.
Which is why all this brouhaha over catastrophic anthropogenic climate change is just so much crap. If global temperatures show a significant warming over the next 30 years or so, then maybe there may be something to it ~ or more likely it’s still just changes in long-term weather patterns driven by the usual suspects.
Our weather is created by the sun, and sometimes catastrophically modified by rare events such as a very major volcanic eruption, (Krakatoa), or a comet / meteorite hitting the surface of the earth, (whatever killed off the dinosaurs). Occasionally local weather can be catastrophically changed by the actions of man; the Great London Smogs for example, but those events are rare and temporary.
Some say that man is killing the planet. And that we need to stop using cars, aeroplanes, electricity, living in houses, and definitely stop eating meat. All I know is that every now and again Chicken Little runs around screaming that the sky is falling.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
snow on the high plains isn’t so very rare
Scenes on Sunday ~ 2019 Travels
These are the places I will be visiting this coming year.
California ~ perhaps take a road trip.
Lanzerote
Olu Deniz in Turkey
Crete
Malta
London ~ again
jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
the issue is,
finding a travelling companion
Scenes on Sunday ~ Favourite Pictures 2018
These are among my pictures I like most of all.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
taken by the girl riding shotgun
Unrealistic Standards
I like American women. They do things that French women never do ~ like showering.
It occurs to me that my expectations are usually way off what is likely to happen, my manners and mores are ridiculously old-fashioned, and my standards are way too high for any girl to reasonably meet. Does that make me wrong, or stupid, or just English?
Being an older English guy isn’t always a bed of roses. And being a cool English guy in the USA can make one realise why England and America are two countries separated by a common language. More than half the time American woman have no idea what the fuck hell I’m talking about.
On the other hand, dating an American woman is so much better than dating a Parisienne girl. Body odour and the smell of cigarette smoke tend to follow them around like a personal raincloud.
I love American women. Just not necessarily in New York.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
the circle line is cool too
Too Many Vacations?
Travel broadens the mind and the waistline ~ at least there were trains.
In the past year I’ve visited California, Turkey, Wales, Crete, New Mexico, back to England a few times, Lanzerote, and today I return to England for the Holiday Season. And, I’ve seen more high art than you can shake a stick at.
The weather has varied from burning hot, to freezing cold, poring rain, and driving snow.
My favourite travelling companion is The Girl Riding Shotgun, and my favourite place, Balboa Island, in Orange County CA.
I’m glad to be going home to England today.
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Jack Collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Hyatt, near Albuquerque NM
Going Home
“Too much of anything is bad, but too much of a good time is barely enough.”
I had my flight back home to England confirmed last evening. I leave this pretty, (and pretty weird), island at 15:55 tomorrow, arriving back in my local airport at 20:10. So, I should be back in the garret at about half-past-nine tomorrow evening.
I enjoy being a solitary tourist, Lanzerote is cool, and the group of fellow solitary travellers I’m with are friendly, but something has gone a little bit wrong on this vacation. Perhaps I’ve had too much time to think, or too much sun, or I’ve had too many vacations this year….. Whatever it is I am going to be leaving here feeling uneasy, dissatisfied, and anxious. Which is not the point of a sunshine vacation at all.
Some say that you can get too much of a good thing. And, that wherever you go you take yourself with you. All I know is that I’m going to be glad to be home again.
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Jack Collier
Ijackcollier7@talktalk.net
Solitary Tourist
Alone again ~ naturally.
At half-past-eight this morning I’m heading off on an all Island Grand Tour ~ although how much of 326 sq mile Lanzerote one can see in one day I’m not certain.
What’s just as interesting is why I’ve chosen to do this while nobody else in my little collection of vacationers wanted to take this tour. It seems that I still have this odd desire to be on my own, doing my own thing, without ever wanting to ‘fit in’ with a group. As it goes, I really don’t like being in a group.
I never ‘join’ groups, clubs, associations, or societies. In fact, a lot of the time I live outside of day-to-day, ordinary ‘society’. Most people both bore and irritate me ~ those people who blog here on WordPress are notable exceptions. Perhaps that withdrawal from society is my loss, but I think I’m too late to change myself now.
It’s true that my lifestyle makes it harder to meet women…..
Oddly enough, the women in my little group of fellow holidaymakers seem to recognise that, and have suggested that I join a dating site ~ Match.com. They were only half-joking.
Maybe I’ll think about that while I’m sitting on the coach during this Island Tour. In-between taking lots of pictures.
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Jack Collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.com
Lanzerote is pretty
Vacation Introspection
If you do what you always did, then you’ll get what you always got.
As I don’t need to earn a living these days, some may say that my whole life is just one long vacation. Actually it doesn’t quite work like that ~ when I’m at home in the garret my time seems to be filled with lots of ordinary and everyday stuff. Whereas, now I’m here holidaying on Lanzerote I seem to have much more time to just sit in the sunshine and let my thoughts drift where they will.
It seems that I needed to resolve some issues, to reject the things that have blocked me in the past; the people, the choices, the mistakes, the material possessions I thought were so important….. It seems that I need to move away from the material world towards spiritual and emotional growth, and that I need to place less importance on relationships that do not, and perhaps never will, provide what I need and desire.
I need to awaken the strength within me, the spiritual self, the masculinity, ready to fight back against all the negative influences, the misleading promises, the illusions and delusions about what real happiness looks like for me.
There are some dreams and personal ambitions I want to fulfil, particularly in terms of interpersonal relationships, and particularly sexually. I need to fully assert myself to reconnect with my own internal courage, fortitude, and drive.
This vacation has allowed me to see that I need to progress, for the physical desires I have allowed to be unfilled to really come to fruition, that it’s time to leave behind negative people and influences, even if those people have been very close to me in the past.
It’s time I told people exactly what is on my mind, and it’s time for me to take charge and stop shying away from speaking the truth of my innermost wants, needs, desires, and dreams.
Some say that you can get 80% of what you want for just 20% of the efforts you’ve been putting into a relationship. And that if you give some people an inch they will take a mile. All I know is that if people don’t like the truth they can live their lives without my help.
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Jack Collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Lanzerote is pretty nice
Scenes on Sunday ~ Albuquerque
Bugs Bunny should have taken a left turn in Albuquerque.
This was the Best B & B Ever
Might be the Old Town
Generic Albuquerque Store
A bar, I think
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
This has to be the coolest locomotive ever,
and it’s in Albuquerque.
Time for Thought
Lanzerote, a modern sub-tropical Atlantis set in a silver sea.
Unsurprisingly I like Lanzerote, and I also like the big hotel I’m staying at, despite it being a typical tourist haunt. I’m here courtesy of a solo traveller company, and there are 3 other like-minded people here with me. That’s cool because there are people I can talk with, yet I’m not actually on vacation with them.
The picture is taken from my private balcony, and in the early part of the afternoon I have the time to sit up there in the sunshine and indulge in some deep thought.
My identity and place in the world are clear to me now.
Friendship, sexuality, and love are about acceptance and openness, through and through.
I am aware of my feminine subconscious, but my sexual identity and consciousness are strictly masculine.
Political correctness is not particularly important to me, I can live my life at the edge.
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Jack Collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
I can live my life at the edge
