Wednesday President Obama signed a bill to repeal the military's "don't ask - don't tell" policy related to gay soldiers serving in the military. It's about damn time!!!

Congress also passed a bill giving medical benefits to the first responders who have become sick after working at the site of the 9/11 attack. Apparently many are experiencing a wide variety of medical problems from being at the scene, not only for the initial emergency response, but also during the long clean-up process. Seems like a good bill to me.

Conservatives want to take us back to the "good ol' days"

The rains have finally stopped. I found this rainbow on the way home from work Wednesday. It was still sprinkling and the sun was breaking thru to the west.

As you can see, my unofficial rain gauge is basking in the sun. As much as I like the rain, it's good to see the sun again. We should be dry now until Sat. night when another storm is supposed to drop by.

The rain gauge is measuring 5 3/4" for a total of 13 1/4" for six days. Over a foot of rain in less that a week!!! Our house and neighborhood seemed to do fine in all the rain. The same can't be said for a few other neighborhoods that were swamped with mud.

Today is the winter solstice, the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere. There was also supposed to be an eclipse of the moon, but I couldn't see it thru the rain and clouds.

It's still raining. I had to empty my rain gauge this morning at 7 1/2". Got home tonight and measured another 1 1/2" at dinner for a total of 9" of rain since Friday. As you can see from the radar display below, we have more on the way. The forecast is for heavy rain, thunder storms, and a 30% chance of a tornado!!! It's supposed to all be gone my Thursday morning with a nice sunny Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

This morning's commute was really sloppy. The commute home this afternoon took 1 1/2 hours, for a 30 mile trip. Tomorrow promises more of the same.

"Zen Santa"

It rained on and off all weekend and is raining as I type this entry. As you can see by the radar display below a strong front is approaching and will be here in a few hours. There is supposed to be an even stronger storm approaching for tomorrow with an inch of rain an hour and gusty winds. Sounds cool to me!!!

As you can see, I have my unofficial rain gauge out in the back yard again.

We are at 4.5 inches of rain for this storm system. With more falling now and much more predicated for the next three days. The weather folks are saying that these storm are being fed from the south in what is called the "pineapple express," which pumps a lot of moisture into the clouds.

Today the House and Senate passed the repeal of the 17 year old military rule called "Don't ask, Don't tell" allowing gays to serve openly in the military. The votes were 65-31 in the Senate and 250-175 in the House. I'm sure John McCain is beside himself.

All I can say is it's about damn time!!!