In addition to ringing in the winter solstice, today is a great day to wish our fellow reveler Ralph a truly super happy birthday! His comments, links, insights, and feedback have been an invaluable part of this blog nearly since the beginning. So here’s to you, Ralph .. we are wishing you all the best for a beautiful, bountiful year ahead.
With all the talk of the apocalypse floating around, social media has been a wellspring of levity. Side note — while I do know people who are preparing for worst case scenarios, and who do generally strive for and value preparedness, I have yet to hear from anyone who believes in fact the world is really gonna end today. The following are some of the comments I’ve been hearing in the last day or so, definitely more funny-bone-ticklers than dour predictions. A few of my favorites…
from Prince Darren…
“Mayan guy: Hey want a beer? Other Mayan guy: I’m working on this calendar but I guess if I don’t finish it it won’t be the end of the world.”
and my friend Steve Maya…
“My fellow Mayans and I have decided to postpone the apocalypse. Enjoy your your second chance at life Earthlings! #mayanapocalypse #mayans #maya #endoftheworld”
and then a few more serious yet thoughtful ones…
from Victor Masliah…
“I have discovered that, according the the Mayan’s calculations, the world was to end at exactly 24:01, which was the length of a day back then. Over the last 3,000 years, the Earth’s rotation is slowing down, so that there are now only 24 hours in a day. The loss of that minute was not accounted for by the Mayan’s elementary methods of calculating the future. As such, we have dodged their predictions and shall survive. You heard it here first.”
And from Jeremiah of Jeremiah’s Vanishing NY blog (very good blog that witnesses the dying off of New York City as we know it and celebrates the same)..
“Keep in mind that “apocalypse” literally means “a disclosure of knowledge hidden from humanity in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e., a lifting of the veil or revelation.” This is a good thing.”
And last but perhaps my favorite, from my cousin Anna Kalenze,
“People are making Apocalypse jokes like there’s no tomorrow.”
revelgardener 
Thanks for the happy birthday! I like the Mayan ‘jokes’. A friend texted me a Mayan related message this morning and I replied that I had actually walked through the Mayan ruins in Copan Honduras and didn’t see any signs saying “The end is near”.
Well, winter solstice has come and gone- and the days will be getting longer instead of shorter. I’ve already received a couple seed catalogs in the mail, most notably so far one from the Seed Savers Exchange. http://www.seedsavers.org/
I tried to download their online catalog, but my virus software flagged it as infected. It may be a false alarm but I didn’t want to take the chance. I know I will be ordering from them again. I’ve been thinking of growing potatoes for some time, and when a couple in the basement started ‘growing’ I cut off the small stems and put them in water for a few days, then into soil. A couple are growing and may need a deeper pot before long. Yet another competitor for indoor sunlight!
On a sad note is the recent shooting that’s been all over the news. Today I had an email with a couple links to PDF documents from Homeland Security that may be of interest.
Click to access active_shooter_booklet.pdf
Click to access active_shooter_pocket_card.pdf
Click to access active_shooter_poster.pdf
Click to access DHSbombthreat.pdf
And check out the site the links came from:
http://www.threatjournal.com/index.html