A week like no other…..A week in words.

I have found it very difficult to find the strength to even publish a blog that would sum up this week in words. When you take away the small problems that we all encounter every day and look at the situations of others it really pushes your troubles in to insignificance doesn’t it?

I am not strictly a religious person, and I don’t want to go in to that subject but you sometimes have to beg the question…Why me? Why him? Why her? I am sure you know what I mean. I don’t want to go in to specifics regarding those concerned but they will know who they are. Don’t you?

We may not be close in terms of distance, we may not see each other every week, or even every month but, each of us knows that when one of us is in need the others will drop tools and come running that very day. This is not friendship, this is so much more than friendship, this is a special bond forged between very special friends. Friends that have become so much a part of our lives they feel like brothers and sisters. In recent months I have being a member of the “running party” that has responded to a cry for help. I have also been at the opposite end of the scale by having to place a cry for help. These are the people who respond with no request; no physical cry for help is needed….they just know. They are so close they actually know something is wrong. In times where a request is the only way to get the message through, these friends will down tools with no questions asked and knock on your door.

I am proud to be called a friend, proud to be a friend and the group of people who are friends need no reminding. You have all been there for Elaine and I over time and for this we are eternally grateful.

This is for you….. SF, DM, LE, GRB, WB, DM & PM, SC.

FRIENDS

As we walk our path of life,
We meet people everyday.
Most are simply met by chance.
But, some are sent our way.
 
These become special friends
Whose bond we can’t explain;
The ones who understand us
And share our joy and pain.

Their love contains no boundaries.
So, even we are apart.
Their presence enhances us
With a warmth felt in the heart.

This love becomes a passageway,
When even the miles disappear.
And so, these friends, God sends our way,
Remain forever near.

And the words that sum up this week…….

SADNESS, HAPPINESS, FEAR, PAIN, LOVE, PEACE, SANCTITY, SURPRISE, JOY and finally FRIENDSHIP

Thank you for reading……

D-Day….Do it !

The Pain has gradually got worse over the last couple of weeks until it eventually made me sick. In truth I am not sure what actually made me sick. It could have been the excessive medication or the pain, either way it wasnt very nice. So ten days ago I booked a doctor’s appointment to see try get some pain management sorted out once and for all. Ten days to wait for an appointment, what is the world coming too. Ok, Easter had positioned itself right in the middle but what can you do about that. The whole system seems to grind to a halt for that reason yet aircraft still fly, Hospitals still care, Police still patrol and shops still open.

So I carry on, the pain is there but I still…carry..on…. I must, I have a wife and children and I have a purpose too. Otherwise we give up.

I am now going to grumble about the weather again. Yesterday I ventured out early in the frost to be greeted by a very clear but beautiful dawn. Tarnfield Park at sunrise is sublime. Less than half a dozen people are around at 6:00 am and it feels like you have the place to yourself. That is of course if you choose to ignore the abundance of bird life. Yesterdays sunrise was somewhat bland; a distinct lack of clouds to create some colour and the whole image lacked another dimension if you know what I am getting at. It looked more like a small silhouette with an enormous orange to blue graduated filter; something I could have created in two minutes using Photoshop.

Bad news….this morning was exactly the same. This got me thinking so I decided to look back through my archives and in particular last years images from this time. Guess what?

Cloud !! Well, just a little bit. Every image from around this time appears to have very little cloud. I have studied sunrises and sunsets for years and if you look through my pages on here you will see a full article on them.  The temperature has a huge influence on clouds; during sunrise and sunseta good opportunity arises to observe different aspects of clouds. During these periods, changes in the contrast and colour are observed as well as structure of the clouds. Such sunrises and sunsets can develop into some of the most spectacular events that exist in meteorology.

Obviously, sunrise and sunset are mostly noted for the associated changes in the colour of the sky especially around the sun. On some occasions, clouds will also reveal different colour patterns if present around sunrise and sunset. It is very difficult to describe the various colour changes that occur with the different clouds around these times. But there are general stages that are associated with the times from dawn to sunrise and sunset to dusk.

The heights of the clouds have an important influence on the length of times that cloud reflections occur. The higher the cloud, the longer the cloud bases will be able to reflect light. In fact, high clouds will reflect light for periods of up to 30 minutes whilst low clouds will typically reflect light from their bases for around 5 to 10 minutes. The reason for such a vast difference is that lower level clouds near the horizon are much closer to the observer ( around 1 to 15 kilometres away) than clouds at higher levels which may be up to a few hundred kilometres away. The cloud bases of higher clouds therefore reflect light well before sunrise and remain so until just before sunrise. The same situation still applies for sunset but in the opposite order. The process of sunrise and sunset obviously occurs in a set pattern. Let us consider only one level of cloud in the sky. The cloud closest to the horizon will reflect light first. Gradually, clouds further away will also begin reflecting light. The process continues with colours changing from red and pink to yellow although occasionally some blue or violets are also observed. This of course depends on the heights of the cloud and the patterns of their bases.

Now, if combinations of clouds occur, then different patterns will be observed representing the different reflections of light from different levels of clouds in the atmosphere. This means that the higher clouds are still reflecting light from the sunrise for instance and lower level clouds are only observed as darker regions with no light being reflected from their bases. In the case of the lower clouds in particular, their shadows are observed as well as the sun’s rays. This provides the observer with the opportunity to observe the outline structure of the clouds, especially cumuliform clouds with rounded tops such as cumulus.

During sunrise and sunset, even the same types of cloud may appear different in various regions of the sky. Cumulus, for example, will reflect more light at the opposite regions of the sky to that of the sun as compared to cloud closest to the sun. This creates a varied contrast and must be taken into account by observers trying to determine the different types of clouds in the sky.

Sunrise and sunset represent a short period of time where there are changes in the intensity of light and the colour of the sky signifying the transition between day and night. It is important to note that sunrise and sunset occur as a result of the earth’s rotation and not the movement of the sun around the earth. We obviously know the sun does not revolve around the earth. Nevertheless, it is more “convenient” to associate the sun as the object moving across the sky (which is its relative observed motion) especially when referring to and explaining weather concepts.

Both sunrise and sunset reveal changes in the colour and intensity of the sky during the morning and evening respectively. The changes in colour occur due to light passing through the atmosphere being scattered at different frequencies. The frequencies that lie in the spectrum of red will be scattered by light particles more than those frequencies in the blue spectrum. This means that the sky near the sun on the horizon will appear red since the light will be scattered to the observer. On the other hand, red light from the sun whilst it is well above the horizon will be scattered away from the observer. The light from the blue spectrum will be scattered least and hence pass through the atmosphere straight to the observer. The sky therefore during the day will normally appear blue. The light during the period from dawn to sunrise increases in intensity near where the sun will eventually rise and eventually covers the whole sky area. The intensity also increases radially away from the sun’s rising position. It therefore becomes easier for an observer to predict where the sun will rise. The process during sunset occurs in reverse.

Of course there are other factors that influence how sunrises and sunsets vary from one location to another. The latitude is one of the most important factors and is directly associated with the length of sunrises and sunsets. For instance, in the most extreme case, both the north and south pole during their respective summers have 24 hour sunshine just above the horizon and therefore have the longest sunrises at certain times of the year. During winter, the sun is non existant with complete darkness.

Another factor is the altitude. In fact, altitude can influence the appearance of sunrises and sunsets in two ways. First, if the observer is located in high mountains, the sunrise and sunsets may appear earlier or later depending which way the mountain faces . Second, if other areas exist to disturb the pattern of the normal landscape, then this will influence the amount of colour visible during sunrises and sunsets.

I am yet to edit the images from yesterday so this morning’s is at the back of the queue. I will post the image as soon as I can. Breakfast next, then the doctors waiting room. Cross fingers.

Bye for now.

If you only do one thing today…….for me, read this.

Taken and shared from Brain Tumour Buddies http://www.btbuddies.org.uk/
As you will all know this is something very close to my heart

Stronger

This doesn’t need words……Vide by by Megan Kowalewski

The Faces of Me….

I saw this on the wall of the Oncology Centre at St James Hospital, Leeds.
I took a photo with my phone and recreated it for my blog.

Draw me with a happy face
a first prize
a big surprise
a favourite seat
a chocolate treat
kind of faceDraw me with a sad face
a lovely lost pet
a dad I never met
a granny’s chair
something not fair
kind of face
Draw me with a fearful face
a noise in the dark
a bully in the park
a really bad mood
smelly noxious food
kind of face
Draw me with a bored face
a monday morning
great big yawning
a couldn’t care less
if I make a mess
kind of face
Which face is my face?
I must face the truth

A poem by Les Baynton

Why do people judge you by what they see….?

This sounds like an odd post doesn’t it? I just felt I had to write this following incidents recently. Whether we like to admit it or not, people usually make up their minds about a person before they have even met them let alone spoken to them; from their looks even or following an incident. This affects how people treat each other. People often judge or misunderstand other people’s appearances in a less than equal manner before they even know the true nature of the person. Every day people make assumptions by what others can see physically. Everybody judge people because of the way they are, the car that they use, the type of job they have, their physical looks, the football team they support or the way they dress. When people shop at Asda they are able to define whats good for them and what they don’t want to purchase. People are able to choose good products over bad products because they don’t have broken packaging, cracks and bruises. Everyone just assumes that the “good looking” products have good qualities and taste good too.

If we judge other human beings based on how they look, isn’t this called prejudice. Prejudice is to form an opinion about someone or something in advance based on insufficient knowledge. In fact, prejudice disadvantages or harm people’s feelings because of how the media describes other people’s personal lives. Judging a person is very common in today’s society. People every day judge one another, whether it’s judging another’s appearance (which is the most common) or judging the way one behaves, everyone is guilty of it. People are prejudiced against race, family and poverty. However, in most cases, you may be making judgments about someone without even knowing a person at all. It is wrong to judge someone because one can really hurt someone’s feelings or it may backfire on them and they may be the one to end up getting hurt. The worst part about judging someone is the fact that most people’s judgments are wrong, considering most people judge in a negative manner.

Why Do People Judge Others then? I have no idea. How can someone make a decision based on what they see. I was on the receiving end of this a few months ago. I have a brain tumour and life is difficult, I will admit that. I cope with pain 24/7 and just get on with my life. I am awarded certain benefits because of the nature of my illness. After rigorous tests and form filling-in you are “judged” based on information supplied by yourself and information gathered by the officer conducting the interview. If they get the decision correct then all is good for both parties, but what happens when it goes wrong. When the person doing the “judging” misses something that influences the decision and subsequently fails to provide that person with the correct award?

So, why do people judge others so negatively? Do you think it’s because of jealousy, dislike, disappointment, or is it just human nature. I mean, is it natural or normal to judge people because they are only human?

I really get upset when I see other people judge others wrongly. I have experienced a lot of instances where I have been judged just because I don’t meet up with their standard of what a person should look like; or the way I act isn’t “normal”. What is normal?

I parked in a disabled parking space at my local supermarket. Upon exiting the car an elderly gentleman came charging over demanding to know what was physically wrong with me that warranted me parking in that space? What detriment was it to him that I was parked in the space? He didn’t need it, he had already parked up and saw me pulling in. Was he gunning for an argument? He picked the wrong person for that one as I chose to ignore his question.

What do you think he would have said had I replied and said “I have got a brain cancer”?

Comments welcome.