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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:
> Moreover, peaceable man that I am, if anyone harms, threatens to 
> harm, or makes the slightest overture or suggestion of harming any of
>  my family or neighbors ... I do not possess the capacity for mercy.
>
> And I am not alone. Your army of phone telemarketers and 
> pharmaceutical route salesmen would have to go through a thousand 
> people like me to even get here.
>
> I don't care a wit what your capacity for barbarity is, I only care 
> what your practica capacity for mayhem is.  And that adds up to nil 
> in my estimation.


Two more things to add about living in the boonies...observations from
Saturday night, when we drove the 55 miles over to babysit my 'reason
for living'...
Truck has an outdoor temp sensor..
We leave the kids' house right at 11pm..she lives in an apartment in
Canton, GA...bright lights, suburban city.  As we left the apartment,
walking across the parking lot, I realized that it seemed like near
dusk.  There was so much ambient light that by comparison, I would have
thought that the sun was _about_ to set...all this occurs under a waxing
moon(full is this coming weekend).  Having just left a warm apartment,
it feels cold, so we check the temp as we crank the truck...38
degrees..(it felt colder<g>)
So we are driving along and within a mile outside of Canton, before we
even get to Waleska, the outside temps have dropped to 35...we are
heading north and west from town.. of course, the further you get away
from a city, the darker it becomes..there is a lot of timber
country(Bowater) between Calhoun and Canton, so it is pretty dark, twice
as dark as it was at the apartment, maybe 3 times as dark.  I could see
plenty of stars as we drove home. By the time we got to Calhoun, temp
was 32 as we sat at a red light in town.  At this intersection (Hwy 53
and Hwy 41) in the middle of Calhoun, it was darker than it was over in
Canton.  As we continued westward, leaving Calhoun, the temp dropped
quickly...I live about 15 air miles(18 road miles)from that
intersection.  It was 26 degrees in my driveway, and it was so dark that
I could see mag 6 stars(and that with bad eyes, too).

Point is, if one is walking from the city or the burbs, it's gonna get a
lot darker and a lot colder before they get to me.  We have astronomy
meets here at the farm and people have always said, "it gets colder here
than at my house"(even those who live north of here like closer to
Chattanooga).  We have now verified that indeed it does, and I think it
is because I am surrounded by trees..no heat island here..just coldness
and darkness.  That's 6 degrees colder than Calhoun, and 12 degrees
colder than Canton.  I'd bet that those further east of the great heat
island of the Atlanta metro area are even warmer.

B

--
“Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to
hate. Hate leads to suffering.”        Yoda