I refilled hummingbird feeders and threw out fresh bird
seed last night. Looked out the window at 6:20 a.m. and sparrows were already
on the ground. They beat me!! I’m sure
it was the fresh seed that lured them out of the bushes. And I heard the hummers before I saw them,
but they were early also…clocking in at 6:21. I didn’t stick around to see what
time the sparrows hit the suet cake because I was out on my bike by 6:30.
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Local news sources
(online, TV, print, etc.) are putting out lots of safety information about
hiking in unseasonable heat, which is what’s occurring right now. Several
temperature records have been broken in the last couple of days.
Some popular
trails in Phoenix are currently closed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; hike earlier or
later but not in the heat of the day. The notices I’ve read made it sound like
these closures are routine in the summer heat. Not so routine for this time of
year, though.
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Today was about showing
Adam the area around here from the comfort of an air-conditioned car. We first
headed to Coolidge for brunch at Tag’s Café, one of Kim’s favorite restaurants.
Interestingly, our waitress was Stacy, the woman who arrived late for the Cotton
Days 5K. Then we headed over to the pyramid on Poston Butte, which happens to
be the burial site of Charles Poston and is one of the quirkier attractions in
Florence; Kim wanted to get some drone footage of it.
From Florence,
we took US 60 through Superior up to Globe. The Top of the World Trading Post
appears to be closed, which is a shame as it was always an interesting place to
stop. In Globe, we took 188 to Roosevelt
Lake. I went there last year on a bike ride with Tammy; beautiful countryside
but we couldn’t find public access to the lake. Just wanted to put our feet in
the water. I suggested we head over there with that objective in mind: find a
way to get to the water without paying a marina fee. We did stop at an overlook
and Kim got some stunning drone footage, but how to get down to the water is
still a mystery.
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Adam had made dinner
plans with a former classmate who now lives in Mesa, so we were back in camp by
late afternoon. After Adam left, Kim and I went to the Pinal County Fair. The
timing was perfect because the sun was setting which meant the heat wasn’t as
stifling as it had been during the daylight hours. It was still overly warm but
tolerable. Had something to eat and then headed to the 4-H craft barn because I
wanted to see what sewing projects the kids were doing. There were more
photography, drawing and art projects than sewing projects. And it was interesting
to see that the ribbons weren’t classified as 1st, 2nd,
or 3rd place, just designated as the color, i.e. Blue Ribbon, Red
Ribbon and White Ribbon. I’m fairly certain that when I was in 4-H, blue
ribbons said 1st place, red ribbons said 2nd , etc. I wonder if that’s a result of the ‘everybody’s
a winner’ mentality. And I have no idea what the purple ribbon indicated.
I know from when my kids were in 4-H with pigs and sheep that come fair time, the animals were auctioned off and no longer our responsibility. No more feeding, cleaning the barn, or other chores connected to the animals. And it meant a break from attending 4-H meetings. I didn’t pay any attention to the small animal barns during our fair years. I wonder what the kids do with the chickens and bunnies when the fair is over. **Kim told me later that some bunny cages had tags attached indicating that the animal was going to be available for purchase in the Small Critter Auction.**
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It was brought to my attention yesterday that Arizona was experiencing triple digit temperatures while it was still technically winter. 😳 Today, at 10:46 EDT (7:46 a.m. in Arizona) the Vernal Equinox occurred, signaling the first day of Spring. Wait! What? Spring started this morning, on the 20th? To quote some familiar song lyrics: Something’s happening here…and what it is, ain’t exactly clear. The site almanac.com explains it like this: Spring arrived on the 21st of March during most of the twentieth century, but the event slides earlier and earlier during the 400-year Gregorian calendar cycle. The final March 21st equinox was in 2007—even if we use Greenwich Time, as many Almanacs do. Now, the 21st is gone for the rest of our lives unless you believe in reincarnation and want to check back in during the 22nd century. In 2026, the March equinox lands on the 20th; in 2027, it will also be on March 20th but at 4:23 p.m. EDT. Then in 2028, it occurs on March 19th, at 10:17 p.m. EDT before landing back on March 20th in 2029. The adult in me says ‘Okay, so it changes. Tell me why’, but the little kid in me who relied on March 21st being the first day of Spring is about to have a meltdown.
This is the AI response to my question about the 400-year Gregorian calendar cycle: The Gregorian calendar operates on a precise 400-year cycle consisting of exactly 146,097 days, which equals 20,871 weeks. Because the total days are divisible by seven, the calendar repeats perfectly every four centuries, meaning dates fall on the same day of the week, and leap year rules ensure alignment with the solar year. This means that the calendar for 1626 was identical to the current calendar of 2026…and will be identical to the calendar for 2426.
I also found this interesting little tidbit on almanac.com: Equinoxes are the only two times of year when the Sun rises due east and sets due west for all of us on Earth! While the Sun passes overhead, the tilt of Earth is zero relative to the Sun, which means that Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the Sun.
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One thing about these hot days is that the nights have been clear, which
allows Kim to do his thing with the telescope. He imaged Sharpless 280 again
tonight to get some more data to process. It’s called Sharpless 280 because
that’s the name of the man who catalogued it, along with hundreds more. It’s also
a faint nebula so, again, more data means the possibility of a better outcome.
