{"id":5681,"date":"2022-01-15T00:46:23","date_gmt":"2022-01-15T00:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=5681"},"modified":"2022-01-15T00:46:23","modified_gmt":"2022-01-15T00:46:23","slug":"my-week-that-was-and-wonderfully-weird-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/my-week-that-was-and-wonderfully-weird-worlds\/","title":{"rendered":"My Week that Was, and Wonderfully Weird Worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"South<\/p>\n

Monday afternoon was sunny and warm. For central Minnesota in January. The high was around 32\u00b0 Fahrenheit, 0\u00b0 Celsius. Our sidewalk and driveway were free(ish) of snow, with a bit over a half-foot covering the yard.<\/p>\n

\"Sauk<\/a>The weather station at Sauk Centre Municipal Airport was back online Thursday afternoon, and then the National Weather Service posted a Winter Weather Advisory for this area.<\/p>\n

Sauk Centre Municipal Airport isn’t in the Chicago O’Hare class.<\/p>\n

But with two runways, hangar space for 11 private aircraft, a fuel pump and a private airplane maintenance facility, it meets our needs.<\/p>\n

Granted, one of the runways is a grass surface marked with yellow cones. I don’t know if it’s usable in winter. And that’s another topic.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Weather This Week<\/h4>\n

\"National<\/a><\/p>\n

Where was I? Monday sunny and warm. Local weather station back online. Winter Weather Advisory and Sauk Centre’s airport. Right.<\/p>\n

\"Sauk<\/a>Technically, Friday’s weather was “Hazardous Weather Conditions.”<\/p>\n

We got a little snow and a little wind. That makes “slow down and use caution while traveling” good advice.<\/p>\n

Particularly, maybe, for folks who didn’t grow up around here. In any case, I don’t mind having access to weather advisories and warnings – along reviews of why frostbite and hypothermia are bad for us, and to avoid both.<\/p>\n

<\/a>More Weather This Week, and Taking Care of Tech<\/h5>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

Anyway, Friday afternoon it was 15\u00b0 Fahrenheit, -9\u00b0 Celsius. The sun was shining, above the clouds, but down here we enjoyed nature’s own indirect lighting.<\/p>\n

There wasn’t as much snow on the sidewalk as on the rest of the yard, but it needed to be cleared before we would be in compliance with municipal standards.<\/p>\n

Sauk Centre’s plows went by more-or-less regularly, so streets were clear. Around here, at any rate. Well, clear-ish. There’s still packed snow and ice between pavement and tires, so engaging situational awareness while driving is prudent.<\/p>\n

Speaking of which, the household van is back from the garage, after minor maintenance.<\/p>\n

That’s good news.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the van’s steering jerked to the right a few times on Wednesday on my way back from the Adoration chapel. But I got home without incident. Even so, I’ll want to drive it more to see whether or not we’ve still got issues with the steering.<\/p>\n

More good news. At least one of the furnace’s replacement parts arrived. Next step(s) will be swapping them out with the worn tech.<\/p>\n

My computer’s been frustrating me. Make that I’ve been feeling frustrated because my computer hasn’t been running quite right. My son and I talked about it, and he’s planning on replacing my hard drive with an SSD \u2014 technospeak for Solid State Drive.<\/p>\n

Sounds like a good idea.<\/p>\n

I’ve long since passed the ‘computer guy’ mantle on to my son. It’s nice, having a computer technician in the family.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Meanwhile, COVID-19 is Still Around<\/h4>\n

\"Minnesota<\/a><\/p>\n

The COVID-19 pandemic is headline news every day: so I’ve been seeing headlines about the pandemic, with plenty of politics and pathos. And, arguably, bathos. I’ve also touched base at the Minnesota Department of Health’s COVID-19 Situation Update page.<\/p>\n

Those four charts are from Friday’s display. Upper left shows how many folks are sick with COVID-19, upper right are how many died from the disease each day, and lower left shows how many were hospitalized. Finally, there’s the total cases by age.<\/p>\n

None of it’s exactly good news. But the situation could be worse. This winter’s death count is substantially less than last year’s. Again, that’s not good news.<\/p>\n

However, I’m still pretty sure that we’re looking at a serious health issue: not an apocalyptic calamity brought about by [insert ‘bad guy’ label here]. I’ve talked about life, death, health, and making sense, before. And probably will again. Eventually.<\/p>\n

And that’s yet another topic.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Wonderfully Weird Worlds<\/h4>\n

\"NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/NASA's<\/a>So, how come I’m talking about the weather, my town’s airport and the like?<\/p>\n

Basically, because otherwise I’d have written a woefully inadequate rush job about exoplanets.<\/p>\n

Between technical issues and an unexpected abundance of new material, there’s no way I could finish what I’d planned for this week.<\/p>\n

There’s a backlog of exoplanet-related items I’ve been intending to discuss, including WD 1856 b: a planet that’s roughly nine times as massive as Jupiter. And considerably wider than the white dwarf star it orbits.<\/p>\n

Then on Friday I saw this:<\/p>\n