Travel Tuesday: Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

A couple of weeks ago, I wanted to get out of the house for a few hours while some maintenance was being done. I hopped the subway into the city, and spent a couple of hours in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. I was there when the museum first opened for the day, and had an hour or so, before the children descended with the accompanying cacophony of noise. I would pay to have a couple of hours of silence in a couple of the museums. 

 

Monday Moods: Free yourself from Regrets

If you are reading this you woke up still alive this morning. I sincerely hope that you see that as a good thing. Human life is surprising robust and at the same time shockingly fragile. Someday, we will not see the sunrise again.

What can we do today to reduce the regrets when that morning arrives? 

Reach out and tell others you love them. Leave a kind comment on a blog, stop and visit, make a phone call, send a text, send an email, send a "just thinking about you" greeting card.  I regret not reaching out to my grandmother in the last few months of her life. 

Take a moment to savor your meals today. Slow down, smell the coffee, let the chocolate slowly melt in your mouth. You will never regret the enjoyment of even the simplest of meals. 

Step outside, even if only for a couple of minutes and breathe.  Even if cold, or hot, or wet. You will never regret a moment to just breathe. 

Take a moment to forgive. Forgive others, not for them, but to free your mind from the burden of holding onto past transgressions. 

Take a moment to forgive yourself. We all make mistakes, the burden of which is regret. Forgive yourself, say you are sorry, free yourself from the burden of regret. 

The Sunday Five: People!

1: Are you an introvert, or an extrovert by nature? 

2: How do you cope with People? 

3: Is it easier to be alone in a city or the country? 

4: Are you ever intentionally difficult, just because you feel like being difficult? 

5: When was the last time you wondered how someone made it out of the house without assistance? 

My Answers: 

1: Are you an introvert, or an extrovert by nature? I am probably more of an extrovert, but I am also very comfortable spending time alone. 

2: How do you cope with People? As long as they are not trying to hurt me, I ignore them. 

3: Is it easier to be alone in a city or the country? I can be perfectly alone in a city, I don't really like crowds. 

4: Are you ever intentionally difficult, just because you feel like being difficult? Very-very seldom. 

5: When was the last time you wondered how someone made it out of the house without assistance? Everytime I drive my car, I wonder how some these people made it out of their driveway without hitting anything. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

 

The Saturday Morning Post: Take Ten Minutes

Ten minutes, that is all it takes. Find a photo on your phone or computer, go to Chat GPT, or Google, or whatever AI program is running on your phone, your tablet, or your desktop, and ask the AI to create art based on your photo.  The product is not a photograph, it is art created based on a photo with tools that are now readily available.  

Work with it a little bit, the first version of this, added a person just over my right shoulder looking at the viewer.  I didn't like that, so I used the magic eraser function on my phone to take him out - what it did was turn him around facing in the other direction.  

Before we mire ourselves in the debate of "is it art?" We can pause and think of the past. The guys and gals painting on cave walls with the burnt end of stick, very likely raised the same question, when someone tied a tuft of hair on the end of a stick and created the paint brush - is that really cave painting? It is, but it is different, technologies change, the creative process evolves. From oil painting to photography, portraiture changed, but it is still an art. 

I took this ten minute art challenge one evening with a group of friends.  I was surprised by how fast and easy it was. Try it and see if it brings you joy. 

This one is going into a show with the theme of Portraits and Self-Portraits, clearly described as AI created art based on an original photograph. 

Freestyle Friday: Pardon Me, Do you have any Breton Whisky?

A couple of decades ago, we rented a Gite in rural Normandy for a week, and discovered Breton Whisky in the local Carrefour Supermarket.  As I recall, it was inexpensive, something like 15-20 euros a bottle. I am always up for a novelty - so I packed a bottle in my bag for the trip home.  The French generally do things very well, or not at all, and this was no exception. It is very-very good. 

Several times in places that claimed to have an extensive whisky selection I have asked, "do you have any Breton Whisky." The response is almost always a dull stare, only once has the answer been yes. 

It is a single malt, the primary grain is malted barley, very much in the style of what is made in Scotland. Light, flavorful, with a little smoky wood in the background.  The bottle became a treasure, kept in the back of the cabinet.  As the level went down, and I went in search of a restock. Virginia does not offer it - liquor sales in Virginia are run by the state with a large catalog, but few rarities. I found a store in New York city that stocked it. And I have bought a couple of bottles there. The last of those was in the back corner of the cabinet, tasted once in a rare while. 

A couple of years ago we were in Provence, and I looked for it, asked about it, and the answer was "that is from Brittany, not here in the south." An honest answer, but it didn't replace my diminishing supply. 

A YouTube video recently talked about those open bottles, the special one's saved for just the right moment, sitting there oxidizing in the back row. And the YouTube was right, once in the bottle whisky does not get better, and a partially full bottle is slowly oxidizing. Better to enjoy it while it is at it's best. Hence as I write this I am sipping the last of the last bottle from Nestor in New York. 

You can see Washington, DC from the top of the building across the parking lot, and DC has a very liberal liquor sales licensing. As long as the city gets the tax, they don't care how the retailer gets it. (There a several shops that buy and sell unopened rare bottles.) 

A careful Google search revealed a couple of places with it on their websites. The first one listed it and showed it as out of stock- they would special order it and let me know when it came in. The second place, a small shop on P Street near Dupont Circle, showed it in stock. They can't ship to Virginia, but I can pick it up. And I did. They had three varieties, the standard bottling, one aged longer, and one finished in sherry casts. And they had it on the shelf, just below a single malt made in India. Talk about a wide selection of rare and exotics. The aged in sherry casts is wonderful.  

Friday Face Off: 

Nicole at DVArtist, Art, Food, Gardening, regularly features the Friday Face Off, a chance to post a portrait you have been working on. 

Here is my latest. 

The Thursday Ramble: Dumb Luck

AI Generated image from original photo of the Jones Point Lighthouse. The building is one story and the light tower on the top is missing. There are no mountains across the water. 

Two days in a row last week, I solved Wordle in three without resorting to any help or reference works.  Some of that is knowledge, starting with words that contain commonly used letters, knowing what letters are most likely to appear in second or fourth place, knowing what letter combinations are most likely, but most of it is luck. Very bright people that I know, struggled with the same two puzzles. 

At times like this it is easy to react or have people say, "you are on a lucky streak, you should buy lottery tickets this week!" Smile, my rational brain tells me that luck does not run in streaks. The impulse of our random reward brains is to think that because we have received rewards recently, luck is more likely to pay off again. But the reality is that luck is entirely random.  Casinos make their money on people who win a little and keep losing thinking that because they won a little the big jackpot has to be next. The big jackpots are often won on the first spin of the slot machine. Luck is random, and unpredictable. 

The weather forecast across the middle of the United States this past week talked about a large winter storm. Literally the forecasts for our corner of the world ranged from 1 inch to 24 inches of snow. I have been here when we had 24 inches of snow in one week, it takes a while to dig out from. But I have also seen snowmageddon forecast, only to get 2-3 inches. In either case, don't panic.  It is down to the luck of the winds, the drift of the clouds, sooner or later the big snow will hit, sooner or later the snow will entirely miss us. There is no reason to panic. 

My World of Wonders January 28, 2026

Where have I been this week? Aldi for a little shopping, the gym, the pool, the community center for a couple of meetings, and the Dentist. 

Who have I talked with this week?  Jack, Veronica, Shelly, Mary, Giuseppe, Marcel, Zack, Linda, Amy, Warren, my Sweet Bear, and Dr. Z. 

What random thought occurred to me this week? I remember being deeply disappointed as a kid, that comic books were not funny. I expected them to be funny. I only bought one. 

Who did we hear from this week? We received Bob and Kel's holiday letter, mailed before Christmas, most of it arrived in the mail this week, not all of it, but most of it. 

Yes, I know the photo is blurry, the non-blurry one has my actual address on it. 

What change is happening slowly on my blog? The advertising has been turned off, what is appearing now is finishing out contracts that were agreed to before I changed the settings. As those finish the rest of the adds should go away. 

What have I been up to in the kitchen? We had a couple of days of not cooking. Steak and baked potato, bacon and scrambled eggs,  a chicken and rice casserole that was not very good. Beef stew. Pizza rolls - more on those in a couple of weeks, and roast turkey with homemade cornbread dressing. 

Who am I sending healing thoughts to? Larry a neighbor, who has received conflicting test results, and is still in pain. 

Who deserves a slap this week?  One of my credit cards was compromised, the bank denied the charge, sent me a message and is replacing the card. Fraudsters deserve a slap, not a pardon. 

What was the outcome of the storm? We had probably 6 or 7 inches of snow and sleet, frozen precipitation. There is a layer of fluffy snow with a crust of slippery ice on top. The weather is staying well below freezing, with intermittent sunshine. It will take longer than usual to clear or melt because of the temperatures. That is the freezing temperature of water, if it was the freezing temperature of oxygen we would not need to worry about the weather. Fortunately we didn't get freezing rain, an ice storm is probably the worst storm I have ever endured.