Happy Valentine's Day to the Planet

Overnight--2/3rd" of rain!  The last few weeks have been unseasonably mild.  Spotted green tips on the lilac outside the front window.  Can't help but flinch/ wince/ too early/ not safe/ don't come out yet!

A bit of good news:
California--they have announced it has emerged from drought conditions.  (Find references?)

Some numbers about spring:
https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/albuquerque
Today - 6:27am to 6:15PM (11hr, 45min)  +2min 1sec from yesterday
Civil Twilight - sun is 6degrees from the horizon.  The brightest of the twilights.  (Nautical is 12degrees, Astronomical is 18degrees) >  https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/different-types-twilight.html

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Non sequitur:
Memorable from yesterday, the NPR story about the woman who sells grief/ condolences greeting cards.  Emily McDowell  Wrote a book with Kelsey Crowe There is No Good Card for This
http://www.npr.org/2017/02/13/514164179/there-is-no-good-card-for-this-what-to-say-when-condolences-isnt-enough

On what you should say to a sick or grieving loved one
Really, I think it's all about listening. And I think a lot of what we go into in the book is that we operate under the assumption that we need to find the right words, and the good news is that Oprah can't even do that. Nobody can do that. And so you kind of are off the hook in that really all you need to say is, "I'm here," and "I'm thinking about you," and "How are you doing today?" and then let the person talk. ...

On the problem with finding a silver lining instead of allowing someone to be angry or sad
Culturally, we're just not comfortable with a lot of those emotions and anything that I call "death adjacent," where the end could potentially result in death — which is ironic because all of our lives will result in death. That's the one thing we all have in common is that we're all gonna die. So, yeah, we do feel like this sort of internal pressure to come up with a silver lining. And when you are a person who is going through something, that feels like your pain, which is very real, is being minimized.