Spring and the Special Operation

Greetings from Spring NotSpring.  It got down to one degree above freezing last night.  Today was actually nice.  Light snow is in the forecast for tomorrow.  I realize this is normal for many locations, but we have not experienced spring for decades, it's just weird.

Last Saturday we were wallowing in our malaise and ennui because it was cold and windy, and we didn't do much of anything all day.  It's not good for a person to sit that much, sitting is the new smoking.  Sunday dawned not much better, and so we decided that we would paint two walls upstairs that were bothering us.  One had water stains on it from what we think was an old window leak.  The other had "dabs" from where I had touched up some holes from picture hangars in the wall and the paint was a terrible match.  So yes, we were so bored that we decided to paint.  It's good that we did it.  The dabs are no longer visible and the water stains are gone.

Here is Jim on the ladder on day two of painting.  I spent day one on the ladder cutting in the ceilings and walls. 

This sunset was from day one of the painting.  It's a pretty cool cloud.

Yesterday wasn't bad.  We walked up the big hill.

Here is Jim, looking up.

We have recently learned that there are marmots here.  I saw this one in the neighbor's front yard, eating grass. 

They've recently left hibernation, and are very hungry.  I thought they were really cute until I read this: "Marmots, also known as whistle pigs and rock chucks are omnivores. They eat insects, flowers, grasses, grains, and ripe vegetables. They will not only cause major damage to crops and gardens, but they can also spread ticks that cause Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Lyme Disease. It’s also possible for them to transmit rabies and hantavirus."  They live in large communal burrows which have been known to go underneath peoples' houses.  It's always something!  Here is a better picture of a marmot local to Spokane.

If you've been following the special operation Putin is pursuing in Ukraine, you've noticed the large number of Russian tanks with their turrets blown off.  There is an extraordinary video up on twitter that shows a turret being ejected after being hit by a Ukranian weapon.  Go here for the video.  It was filmed by a Chinese crew.  If they had been three minutes down the road, it would have been bad for them.  Update 9/10/22:  Unfortunately the video has been removed.  It was amazing, the tank gets hit, and the turret of the tank goes straight up in the air.

Why, you wonder, do the turrets fly off like this? 

The Russians have no protection from their ammunition when they're hit.  US and German survival rates are much better because the ammunition is behind a blast door.