(no subject)

I see by the statistics box on the login page that LJ now has 1,048,556 accounts. Sometime today, then, it will probably reach five times the number it had when I started my journal (#210,624.) That was less than two years ago. Gee, if LJ accounts were stock, I'd be rich by now! Rich, I tell you!

The weather reports say there is a strong possibility of thunderstorms here this afternoon. So far this year, we've only had one really good one, and a couple of piddly ones. As long as they don't fry my electronics or take out any of my trees, I like thunderstorms. The air always smells very fresh after they pass through. I could use some positive ions, I think. I've been rather sluggish and muddleheaded the past couple of days. Lacking in vigor. Unable to focus. Prone to rant about nothing. Ready to rip my own brain out and stomp on it. Not particularly pleased with myself, in other words. Maybe a thunderstorm is just what I need. A jump start for my sluggish synapses. It beats sticking a fork in an electrical socket, that's for sure.

Dear Raed Returns

For those who were following the web log of Salam Pax from Baghdad before he quit posting as the coalition forces invaded, he is back. There are entries he has written over the missing weeks, and has now e-mailed to Diana Moon of New York, who has posted them to the web log. Interesting stuff -- much more so than the natterings of news clowns and stuffed uniforms and fatheads running for office. This is the stuff the media either ignores or never gets quite right -- the view from someone living day to day in a city under fire. The page may load slowly, as multitudes are bound to flock to it, but it's worth the wait.

Not Electric

Evening is slipping away, and still no thunderstorm. There is merely this monotonous drizzle falling through gray light. The afternoon was full of promising (threatening, to those who dislike thunderstorms) clouds, periodically parting to flood the fresh green fields with sunlight. (Where is all that alliteration coming from? I'm turning into a medieval Saxon.) But the promise was unfulfilled. So, I'm drinking coffee. If I can't have a thunderstorm, at least I can make lightning in my brain with caffeine. And I did manage to get out for a walk before the drizzle began, and took a few pictures with nice big cloud banks in them. Now, I must write some e-mail. Maybe there will be thunder tonight. The lightning always is more impressive by night, anyway.