The Road Less Traveled

A blog for mindfulness...and various items. This just goes to show that even old farts can blog and go active in cyberspace. I have a 92 year old grandmother who does e-mail ! That's the kind of stock I come from !
I've had an inclination to write for as long as I can remember. I was Sports editor on my high school paper but left that post to enroll in literature courses where I got turned on to poetry. I was also into guitar and long-distance running. These have been life-long endeavors.
In college I briefly considered church ministry before setting my sights on becoming an educator. Then I got into psychology, transcendentalism, spiritualism, and existential philosophy. These have all had an impact on my work.
Not until well after marrying and establishing a family and career did I return to the pen with any regularity. In the mid 90's I experienced a creative outflow which produced hundreds of poems and lead to my first musical compositions. An avid rock guitarist I use the instrument to sonically parallel the lyrics I've written.
The creative flow is cycling again after a dormant period. Will it lead to Shangri-La or to Mordor ? I've reached that "fork in the road". I'll take "the road less traveled."
Fri Dec 23

A Whirlwind Finish to 2011

By Shrivedog  Dec. 22, 2011

With two December tornadoes touching down in the Eastern United States, arguably the wildest tornado season ever experienced in the nation may not quite be over.  While 2011 is the second deadliest year in U.S. tornado history, one can speculate that the very accurate 22 minute average advanced warnings saved many lives that would not have been spared had the 2011 season taken place in 1925 (the record year for tornado deaths at 794 and the single-deadliest storm; the “Tri-State Tornado”; Missouri/Illinois/Indiana; of March 18, 1925 with 695 fatalities).  Although current technology has made tornado warnings so prolific an occurrence in places like “Tornado Alley” that many people ignored them this year; the proverbial “little boy cried wolf” effect; the fatalities likely would have been in greater numbers had the same storms occurred in the same areas during past decades.  What follows are tornado statistics gleaned from the files of the NOAA and current weather reports:
Tornadoes in 2011:
Most in one state –171 (Alabama) includes today’s tornado in Columbiana.
Most in one day – 226 (Apr. 27)
Most in one month – 875 (April)
Total inCalifornia – 15 (including 3 on May 25 in theSacramento valley – one of them an EF2 that occurred northwest of Oroville).

Deadliest single tornado – Joplin, Missouri– May 22 (157 directly killed – more died in the aftermath from infections inflicted by debris; is 7th deadliest tornado in U.S. history).
Total in the U.S. (through Dec. 22) – 1,883 (includes Dec. Columbiana & Dequincy, La. Tornadoes)
Total direct tornado fatalities in U.S. – 552 (ties 1936 for #2 tornado death toll).
By Month:
January 10                    May                 370                  September        65

February          61                    June                 177                  October           24
March              95                    July                    92                  November        60       
April                 875                  August                52                  December          2
Enhanced Fujita Scale ratings with EF5 strongest (confirmed through Nov. 11):
Total EF5’s -    6                    
EF4’s –            17

EF3’s –            59

EF2’s –            196

EF1’s –            591

EF0’s -            710