Cousin Gerald shipped me a moose

It’s been bally ages since I posted a decent picture of a moose. This was forwarded by Cousin Gerald. Cousin Gerald is, in no particular order, one of my favourite cousins, a cartographer, a granddad, a tireless scourer of the inertnest in search of cool pix for my blog, and a guy whom I’m yet to meet.

Yes, one of my favourite cousins is somebody I have never met! Can such things be?! Well, if a guy can travel 2500 miles to hook up with somebody with whom he’s been text messaging for 2 years, I guess so. There were four things that Cousin Gerald did that made me love him, even at this remove; he sent me a picture that was nothing but rebuses of band names, which required myself Keith and Kate to review it for about half an hour, as it was one of those puzzles that could only be solved with intergenerational cooperation; the expression on his face in any pictures where he’s holding his grandson; the way he now checks snopes.com before he forwards me stuff (some people never get this, and Cousin Gerald had no trouble….) and the picture he sent me of his workspace. Even if he never sent me another moose pic, I would still smile every time I see an inbound message from Cousin Gerald.

YES this pic is heavily photoshopped. That is indeed part of its charm.

By copy to the Toronto posse, I am COMING. I will descend upon you mid-February for a long weekend of insanity and mayhem, and then flee back to warmer climes.

Keith is one step closer to being admitted to Optician school. There’s only 15 spots so keep your fingers crossed.

Ball lightning in the lab

pOp has probably already seen this, but in case he hasn’t….

Ball lightning created in the lab in Brazil.

pOp has a wonderful story about watching a very large sphere of ball lightning travel right down the middle of the Argus he was flying in. He managed to control the urge to touch it, and considering it zorched a damned bit hole in the aircraft, that’s prob’ly a good thing.
Also, proof that the FSM is indeed in us all.

Look for the post entitled FSM DNA