12/15/2025 to 12/21/2025, Trailblazer, Grouse, Target 🎯, Winter Solstice ⏰, Asymmetrical, Declination

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12/15/2025 to 12/21/2025

Last week, the Trailblazer’s power steering pump catastrophically failed and the four-wheel drive control unit hasn’t been working. Automotive Electric replaced the power steering pump but some of the fluid burped out of the reservoir causing the pump to work incorrectly so we had to bring it back to have all of the fluid changed. The powering steering works now but we are still waiting for parts to fix the four-wheel drive unit.

On Thursday, Tiffany and Willow went outside to meet the Amazon delivery driver and Willow accidentally knocked Tiffany off of her feet. Luckily, Tiffany’s hair saved her and she escaped with just a big bump on her head and some soreness for a couple of days. Lack of sunlight and slippery walkways/driveways are two things I hate about winter. After hearing about Tiff’s fall, Steve dropped off a five-gallon bucket of sand/salt and a couple pairs of crampons on Saturday.

While Andrew and I were getting ready Friday morning, a grouse flew into the south side of our house. After work, I cleaned it and saved the fantail. On Sunday, Tiffany made me Grouse Fingers for lunch before I went to work. After deboning the grouse, she cut the meat into slices, coated them with Shore Lunch and red pepper flakes, and then sautéed them in a pan with a little bit of olive oil and butter.

Andrew was hired by Target on Friday and Sunday was his last day at Caribou Coffee. Tuesday, December 30th, will be his first day at Target. He is really excited for the change.

Sunday was Winter Solstice! Day length is increasing asymmetrically; with noon pinned, December stretches the evening and January finally pulls the morning earlier. I like this description; it visually helped me understand “asymmetrical” better. I was a little confused as to why sunrise continues to be a bit later after the solstice until the asymmetry explanation. The solar declination between the Sun and the Earth’s equatorial plane at maximum is approximately -23.44 degrees.

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Along with the Winter Solstice, I mentioned declination back in July while talking about the Moon’s short-term lunar declination extreme in July which caused the Earth to spin faster for a day...

End of blog. Thank you for reading!