From the East Wing Remembering Ugly, and Sophia Gets Mad

Greeting to all and welcome my new friends to the East Wing.

On the way home last Monday after work, I realized, from the position of the moon, that I may be able to view the moon from inside the East Wing. Now any time ya can look through your telescope and not have to go outside in the cold, well it don’t get any better than that. Only had about 12 minutes of viewing time till the moon moved outside the view from the East Wing. I could have taken the show on the road, moved the telescope to the north deck and continued to view, but too lazy, and after all, I had just had a very unusual stargazing experience, looking at the moon from inside the East Wing. It was kinda cool, will be something to remember.

Another hobby of mine is weather watching (predicting?) Now unlike stargazing, ya don’t have to wait for a clear night to do the weather thing. It’s a go every day, any day . Most of the weather stuff I look at is old school forecasting based on what ya see in the sky, how animals act and things in nature. This type weather watching was used long before weather came to TV.

Kinda got into the weather watching by accident, when Regina (1wife) and I got married, my first job was at the Tell City Medical Clinic, Tell City Indiana. Tell City sits on the Indiana side of the Ohio River and we got our television signal, only one channel, from Evansville IN, just down river ‘bout 30-40 miles. We were on a high bluff 200 feet up the river bank. One time the river came within 10 ft. of our house. Soon after that water passed, we moved to Chicago, but I’m getting off the track here, the story’s ‘bout the weather watching.

As part of the 10 O’clock News each evening from Evansville was, of course, a weather segment. Too bad we only had one channel, ‘cause the weather was presented by a woman whose name was Marsha Yachkay and she was ugly.

She was the ugliest woman I’ve even seen to this very day. No matter what I say to describe her ugly, I’m not doing it justice. She was so ugly it hurt to look at her. I couldn’t understand why the TV Station had her on air, but later did figure it out. When ya see something that ugly, ya gotta go back and look again to just make sure you’re not going blind.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse ugly than looking at Marsha Yachkay doing the weather. On the 4th day of July 1965, Marsha Yachkay comes on air to do the weather wearing a bikini, honest to God, this ugliest woman ever, came on television wearing a bikini. Ugly had, in fact, gotten worse.

Keep in mind that Regina and I had been married only six months and five days, but I was so traumatized from having to see ugly Marsha Yachkay in a bikini, I thought I would not want to look at my wife for a year, if ever. But that thought passed. I think maybe that same night as I recall.

I had always believed in the saying that “ya can’t improve on ugly, till I saw Marsha Yachkay in a bikini. That girl was living proof that ya can improve on ugly. I’ve always thought that maybe Marsha Yachkay had ugly she didn’t even have to use, you know, kinda like backup ugly, just in case. To this day I get a cold chill just thinking ‘bout that 4th of July Weather Forecaster.

As a way of coping with my traumatic weather experience, and to flush my mind of ugly, I turned to studying the weather, and found a lifelong hobby, Weather Watching.

Many old saying of weather do work, and they work ‘cause there are scientific reasons why the work. Such an example is “Rainbow in the morning gives you fair warning”. A rainbow in the morning indicates that a shower is west of you and you will probably get rained on shortly. Over 90% of the time when you see a rainbow in the morning, you will get rain where you are in less than one hour.

“The higher the clouds, the finer the weather” When ya see delicate, thin clouds way up where jet planes fly, expect some nice weather for a few days. I watch this one in the winter. This one has more to do with wet or dry than warm or cold.

“Clear Moon, frost soon” When the night sky is clear, Earth's surface cools rapidly—there is no cloud cover to keep the heat in. If the night is clear enough to see the Moon and the temperature drops enough, frost will form. This one is an October no brainer.


“When clouds appear like towers, the Earth is refreshed by frequent showers.” When you see large, cauliflower-like clouds that look like castles in the sky, there is probably lots of energetic weather stuff going on inside those clouds. These are the clouds ya can see ‘em grow. Peaceful clouds look like cotton balls, ya don’t see cotton balls grow in the sky.

“Ring around the moon? Rain real soon.” A ring around the moon usually indicates an advancing warm front, which means precipitation. Under those conditions, high, thin clouds get lower and thicker as they pass over the moon. Ice crystals are reflected by the moon's light, causing a halo to appear. Now this ring ‘round the moon deal is good for both summer and winter weather watching.

“Rain foretold, long last. Short notice, soon will pass.” If you find yourself carrying an umbrella around for days "just in case," rain will stick around for several hours when it finally comes. The gray overcast dominating the horizon means a large area is affected. on the other hand, if you get caught in a surprise shower, it's likely to be short-lived and over almost as fast as it came.

“Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning.” A reddish sunset means that the air is dusty and dry. Since weather in North American latitudes usually moves from west to east, a red sky at sunset means drive weather—good for sailing—is moving east. on the other hand, a reddish sunrise means that dry air from the west has already passed over us on the way east, clearing the way for a storm to move in from the west or southwest. This is the weather one most everybody has heard about, but few know what it means. This one is extremely accurate year round. It happens more often in the summer time, late summer time, when it’s not rained for a while over much of the country.

Some of my favorite, and most fun ways to predict weather is watching the 2girldogs and Sophia The Republican Cat. The Gray Lady James knows when it’s gona rain every time. The Pup Baby (Mustina) sometimes and the Republican Cat knows before everybody. I’m not sure how she knows early, she just does. By her actions I can expect a distinct change in the weather within 24 hours and she is right almost every time I notice. I’ve not yet been able to predict the weather by any actions of the 1wife, but I still look for signs.

One thing for sure, Sophia the Republican Cat is having a field day with the Health Care Reform Issue. She is laughing at the democrats and republicans. Told me that as long as this mess don’t spill over into her Vet Care. Oh Well. Kay Sara Sara.

Sophia Tells me she’s thinking ‘bout joining Sarah Palin on her book tour. Asked if I read the book, said no. If I wanted to read the book, said no. Why not? Just don’t want to. Just for fun I told Sophia I didn’t like to read fiction. Well ya would’ve thought I’d insulted Herbert Hoover, the way the cat carried on. Accused me of being un-American, a dog lover, a cat hater, and a damn democrat. I’m telling ya that cat don’t jerk around when it comes to Herbert Hoover. Said she wished I would run for public office, just so she could vote against me.

I asked Sophia if she thought Sarah Palin would run for President. She said “is Barack Obama Muslim? (Damn Republican Cat) and then she smiled. It’s hard to be mad at a smiling Republican Calico Cat. It’s turning out to be much harder to get the Angel into the Red Cat Republican Registry than Sophia first thought. Said she thought that maybe the Angel was in a union or something like that. Or maybe all angels are just democrats, either way it’s not yet a done deal.

Sophia has been visiting the Blue Cat Democrats to the east of us. She may be trying to organize another demonstration or something. I know the 2girldogs want nothing to do with demonstrations if Sophia is involved. They learned their lesson well, those 2girldogs.


For all holidays, it seems the anticipation is much too long and the holiday is much too short. So it was with Thanksgiving past. We had family over for Thanksgiving Dinner. It was such a time, a good time, a good and very special day. Thanksgiving 2009.

If I’ve been asked once I’ve been asked a hundred times, how do ya tell the difference between a cold and the flu. Rather than make it 101 times, here is a web site that will tells ya the same thing I’d tell ya only looking a lot more professional than me. http://www.tamiflu.com/about/coldflu.aspx Sure hope the flu stays away from you and yours this season. It turns out that so far this H1N1 Flu has been more scare than problem. Oh well, better safe than sorry.

The thing that worries me on the flu issue is with all the publicity and dire warnings being made on this flu and then such dire warnings not coming about, the next time such warnings are issued, the Chicken Little Syndrome kicks in and all hell breaks loose.

A cold wet dark dreary day of the year, this last Sunday in November. I predict that before we talk again the snow will come, the weather will turn to the dark side in the eyes of many. Not for me.

There’s always something good to be had if ya look for it. Snow Angels, the 2girldogs and Sophia along with the Angel are all looking forward to the Snow Angels. We’ve all been practicing on the oak floor of the East Wing, but just not as much fun as having the snow. We look forward to watching it snow while setting by the fire, telling stories in the blizzard. Making Snow Cream. Lots of fun things are coming up in the winter time.

This time of the year the night time is here before I even start to say hello. The evenings are long and dark. Maybe ya think better on long dark evenings. Much less to see, and more time to just ponder on anything and everything that may flow across the back roads of my memory. Ya sure don’t set and watch that little brown eyed friend of mine, that hummingbird this time of the year. I hope she’s safe. I’m sure I think more often of her than she does of me. But that’s ok, she’ll be back and we’ll pick up where we left off. In the spring time next.

Stay safe in Baghdad, South Iraq, and Afghanistan

From the East Wing Looking at the Weather, Remembering Ugly, and Sophia Gets Mad

I wish you well,
BobbyRay