Baby It's Cold Outside!

Mrs Cardinal in my backyard today.

Winter is finally here! We had 52 degrees last Thursday and a mild Fall and early Winter. It blew in the day before my birthday last week Friday with snow. What a nice surprise to wake up to a world of white. I am now 48 years old and look at the world differently now. I keep hearing "things will be great in '48!"  Hope so.

Tonight it is minus ZERO here in Wisconsin, and baby, it's COLD outside!  I cannot help but worry about my feathered friends Mr & Mrs Cardinal, chickadees, sparrows and other birds that come to my feeders in the backyard. What are they doing tonight for warmth and how are they surviving this cold? I put extra Cardinal blend from Kay Tee birdseed in the bird feeder to keep them warm with food. I imagine they are all puffed up and cuddling on their branches in the evergreens nearby. Poor fellers. 

It is days like this I wish I were someone warm like Florida, or on a cruise somewhere I have never been. But I am afraid of taking a boat now after the Costa Concordia disaster.

Titanic's final moments

Imagine 100 years after the Titanic and nearly 97 years after the  Empress of Ireland disaster in the St. Lawrence seaway with more loss of life than the Titanic, things are still not okay with taking a ship somewhere! Dianne Sawyer on ABC News will be doing a story on shoddy cruise companies tomorrow.
And, did you notice the Costa Concordia's smokestack is the same color as the four on the Titanic's - buff yellow?  Strange!


Titanic's bell on exhibit



In 2007, (like the person here looking at the ship's bell) I actually touched the Titanic at the national exhibit in Denver with a piece of the hull in the display case. I saw things like an autopsy from the ship, like a hairbrush with hair in it from some victim. There were clothes and leather bags that had survived being in the ship underwater all these years. Everyone was given cards with a real passenger's name on it upon the tour. My person, of course, went down with the ship.  I didn't like it, and it freaked me out. Seeing the display made me realize the horror of that ship disaster and the cold night when 2700 people drowned or died of exposure in the cold water in the North Atlantic. When I got home, I immediately threw out all my Titanic memorabilia in the dumpster, including authentic Titanic coal someone gave me. I wanted nothing to do with that death ship. Do you know that there is a new cruise ship with a deck on board called the Titanic deck?   No thanks!



Costa Concordia disaster



Perhaps they need to bring that chicken of the sea captain of the Costa Concordia to a Titanic exhibit to see parts of the ship autopsy, and the horror of it all? Every new cruise ship captain should see that exhibit before running a ship. Then they would know safety first.  At least the Captain of the Titanic stayed with the ship and helped with evacuation of people. They still have not found everybody inside the Concordia, and I didn't realize a huge hunk of rock was stuck in the hull where the damage is. Unbelievable in this day and age. It is sad how history has to repeat itself with laxness and then new laws have to be enacted to reform things that were already reformed for safety after the Titanic. 

Oasis of the Seas Cruise Ship



Which brings me to the next point. Have you ever noticed the mega cruise ships today have only a few lifeboats on each side of the ship?  How would they be able to evacuate 5000 people  if one side dips like the Costa Concordia? Ever look at the new Oasis of the Seas and the other boats? Scary. A megaTitanic disaster just waiting to happen, I am afraid.  

Cunard's new Queen Elizabeth
(I'll take the old QE2 over this ugly version.)

And, have you noticed the family resemblance of the Concordia to Cunard Line's new Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria ships? Both only have 8 or so lifeboats on each side. (Another Titanic waiting to happen? ) Turns out they are built by the same builder in Italy, and are owned by the same company, Carnival.

I think Florida would be fun to visit though, staying on land and beach when it is minus 0 here in Wisconsin. I love boating, but until regulation gets better for cruise ships, I think I will stay off a cruise for now.

Say...I wonder how my birds are doing....