Oh, and the Packet's status as the only "paper" paper in my life is changing. I took advantage of an offer from The Wall Street Journal for 12 weeks for only $12. The only issue is that I had to give them a credit card authorization to automatically charge me $32.49 per month after this special introductory rate runs out, unless I cancel my subscription before they submit that charge at the end of the 11th week. Now, I won't forget that, because, while I like the The Wall Street Journal, there is no way it is worth $389.88 a year. Over the years, I once paid $149 for a year ( I believe it was 2006, but I could be off by 3 years or so....) but never more than that. Where was I? Oh, yeah, "... the warmest year on record..."
I still am not sure where I read that, I should look it up, but there's that habit. The habit? I am trying to stop looking up every thing that slips my mind for more than a moment by "googling" it on my smart phone. I swear it is causing me to lose faith in my own memory. I fear becoming completely reliant on Google for remembering everything for me. I'm even tempted at times to "google" where I left my socks, and, pray tell me what I will have to do when I misplace my smart phone and it doesn't ring when I borrow someone else's phone to call mine so I can find it, and so on..., and don't tell me about that locator app you can put on your phone, I know the FBI is involved in that one somehow, so I have no intention of even "googling" what that app is much less putting it on my phone.
So, the gist of the article was that, globally at least, the average temperature on Earth will set the record for the warmest recorded. The World Meteorological Organization, a United Nations Agency, announced this as a "preliminary finding." It became mind-numbingly detailed about the increase of
What's So Hot About 2014?
1.03 degrees in the average temperatures from January thru September of 2014 above the 1961 to 1990 reference period, yada, yada, yada.... My point is that everyone I know who lived in North America has pointed out that last winter was one of the coldest or snowiest (or both) winters they can remember, This winter is shaping up to be even worse (tell those poor people in Buffalo, NY where more than six and a half feet of snow fell in a day or so this is the warmest year in recorded history. Tell everyone in the Midwest who are seeing snow in November and freezing temperatures nearly every night since the beginning of November. People, people, people, this average temperature stuff is slippery. You cannot tell me it's getting warmer than ever when we keep having harsher and harsher winters.
Try telling me. I now own a "space" heater, purchased to supplement the heat produced by our nearly new heat pumps (these really ought to be called "no heat pumps," but that's another story). And I live on the South Carolina coast! Why did we invest in this machine from space? The mah-jongg ladies were unable to get warm when we hosted last week! Now, they were sitting at a tablee on a ceramic-tiled floor (not known for its warming properties) adjacent to our screen porch on one side, and backing up to an expanse of four windows approximately 18 inches above the floor, and extending five and a half feet up from there facing west in the morning. These were not exactly prime conditions for staying toasty warm, but we did buy a "space" heater (What do these things have to do with outer space, anyway?). Don't believe everything the United Nations tells you.
P.S. Yes--you guessed right--I did "google" the article after all. It produced "about 15,600,000 results in 0.44 seconds," only slightly faster than the half hour it would have taken for me to remember where to look for the article.
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