Circle Line

Hello World, Strange days indeed! This week started off with a bang, featuring what I can only consider an ironic blanket of snow on the first day of Spring (haha) (NOT) to really send some mixed messages for the occasion, I dare say. Then out of nowhere, hard on the heels of our early crocus, suddenly the yard was over-run with windflowers everywhere, which seemed way too early to me, but there was no arguing with their delightful lavender, periwinkle, and creamy white blossoms brightening up the shady spots in front and back. Speaking of early, two weeks ago I was coming home from work and got stuck in a traffic circle (living up to its name, one supposes, since it was full of traffic at the time) and glanced over to see what could be described poetically as "a field of golden daffodils." In fact, William Wordsworth did just that a century ago with his lovely poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" in 1807 - and taking nothing away from Wordsworth, it must be said that it's much more famous (or perhaps infamous) recited to humorous effect by Bullwinkle Moose in the "Rocky and Bullwinkle" cartoons. Speaking of daffodils, alert readers may also recall at the very beginning of the month when I mentioned early shoots and buds of daffodils in our flowerbeds, but asserted that it would be several more weeks before they actually opened. Don't you believe it! They summarily popped open right after that (before the last snow, and I have snow-covered daffodil pictures to prove it) lending a blaze of sunny yellow cheerfulness all over the yard. These also seem exceptionally early to me, although it has been relatively mild, and that might have made all the difference. Around the house, the fresh palms from Sunday were a huge hit among the feline novices and the old-timers alike, and they needed no prompting to snag them off the coffee table and start attacking them all over the living room - so that the whole place ended up looking like a crime scene just before the forensics team shows up. Of course, Holy Week wraps up with Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, made even more special by having the day off from my temporary job, and unexpectedly so, since they didn't close for Martin Luther King or Presidents Day. As I said, strange days indeed, to bring it all back around full circle, as it were. On the subject of cats and crime scenes, it reminds me of an incident last week when our little mischievous Miss Mittens decided to launch a broadside against a CVS plastic shopping bag in the bedroom, and scattered all of the contents from one end of the room to the other, and doing her best to thrash them into an unrecognizable pulp along her merry way. Mind you, this bag was full of nothing but packets of cough drops and throat lozenges, which you would expect to have no appeal to cats whatsoever, but young Mittens has yet to outgrow the "everything is a toy" phase of her upbringing, so it goes without saying that nothing is safe. (In fact, I finally had to hide my computer mouse when I wasn't using it, because otherwise, I had to go looking for it under the furniture, behind the radiator, or any other darned place when they got finished playing with it, thanks not.) The Sucrets in the small metal tins came out unscathed, but the little paper or plastic packages were no match for this onslaught from the mighty jungle beast (in her own mind) and were very much the worse for wear when I finally wrested them from her clutches. At least I know she won't be coughing for a while anyway. In other wild and woolly news, after spending $300 million to construct a state-of-the-art polar research vessel, the UK's National Environment Research Council figured it was only fair to give the public a chance to name the hulking behemoth of the seas, on its way to scientific discoveries great and small. Of course, like any massive undertaking, there are bound to be those unanticipated glitches that crop up, hither and yon, and this was no different. Our friends at www.nbcnews.com describe it this way: ================================================ 'Boaty McBoatface' Dominates Poll to Name Polar Research Ship by ALEXANDER SMITH When scientists in the U.K. asked the public to name their new $290 million polar research ship, they expected the name of an explorer such as Sir Ernest Shackleton or a naturalist like David Attenborough to eventually be emblazoned across the vessel's bow. However, they didn't factor in the Brits' oddball sense of humor. By 9 a.m. Monday, more than 27,000 people had voted to name the ship "RRS Boaty McBoatface," almost 10 times the votes of any other name. The web site had been crashing over the weekend under the weight of the unexpected increase in traffic. When contacted by NBC News early Monday, a staffer at the research council said no public affairs officials were available to speak because they were all in a "crisis meeting." =================================================== [ DUH! ] With typical British understatement, Lord West, a former British sea lord in charge of the U.K.'s navy, said the organizers had set up the voting system expecting voters to be "mainly marine research fans" who would come up with more serious names. (Personally, I can't imagine why anyone would possibly think that, especially in these lunatic times of social media run amok nowadays, heaven knows.) Also attempting to be the wet blanket and busily throwing cold water all over this public relations inferno, NERC Director of Corporate Affairs Alison Robinson said in an emailed statement: "We are very much enjoying hearing everyone's ideas." But she pointed out that the poll was not binding, with the research council reserving the right to have the final say on naming the vessel. Spoil sports! I don't mind saying that my vote goes to the indomitable Boaty McBoatface, from sea to shining sea, and not to mention, the gem of the ocean. Ahoy! And speaking of technology, I was out in the street when I spotted a tiny curious device, that even after I picked it up and examined it, I still had no idea in the world what it could possibly be. It plainly said VISTO on one side, but that was all I could determine about it. A cursory online search revealed it to be something along the lines of a Visto Safety Light, which for me, begged more questions than it answered. It features a very small flexible rubber strap (so narrow that you could only fit about 3 fingers inside) and I can't for the life of me imagine anything else that you could possibly do with this tiny (not to say impractical) strap, since it would never fit on your wrist or ankle, or anything else that I would be able to come up with. It has a bright red LED light that you can activate in two modes, either solid light or blinking, and even the poor cast-off from the street was still working when I picked it up. I wish I could tell you exactly what you would do with this handy technological wonder, but unfortunately, it appears to have already been discontinued by our friends at Visto, and you can't find any information about it, no matter how hard you look, and I ought to know. (Visto also makes a variety of other safety products - such as lights for bicycles and shoes - to presumably protect the users in dark conditions.) So now I find myself the proud (if unwilling) owner of a strange electronic gadget, which even though working perfectly, still manages to defy explanation and seems to have no purpose that I can ascertain. Of course, it goes without saying that abandoned strays are always welcome here, and I'm prepared to give it a good home in spite of its rather questionable past. I'm thinking of calling it Boaty McBoatface. Elle