Odds & Ends: Eclipses, Spring, Printer Cartridges, Private Concerts

 I was in sunny Anchorage yesterday, not in the path of the eclipse.  But in 2019 my daughter invited us to meet her and her family to see an eclipse in San Juan, Argentina.   It was a memorable experience out in the desert.  But at the time I was a bit disappointed that it didn't get really dark, just dusk-like.  My image of an eclipse was that day turned to night for a minute or so.  

My daughter went to Texas to see yesterday's eclipse.  It was cloudy, but the sun poked out through the clouds so they could see the moon covering over the sun, part of the time.  But because it was cloudy, it also got much darker than it was in Argentina.  

So, two things about eclipses: 

1.  Watching the sun covered by the moon.  You can only do that if you have special glasses or other way to darken the image.  Otherwise the brightness of the sun makes it impossible to see the eclipsing moon.  

2.  Experience the change from full daylight to night.  As you can see in the picture (sort of, since the camera's auto lighting affects things a bit) it got twilight in Argentina but not so dark you needed lights if you were driving - as my daughter reported happened yesterday.  So clouds don't completely ruin an eclipse.  You experience more darkness than without clouds.  

SPRING

Anchorage had near record snow for the year - about three inches less than the snowiest winter - so there's still a lot of snow.  But we're seeing larger areas of snowless ground - under the bigger trees in the back yard and along the edges of the snow piles.  Here's Campbell Creek on March 28

And here it is on April 7, ten days later.  Somewhat disappointing that there is now a large piece of trash in the creek.  The trails along the main streets are clear of snow, but the trails along the creeks through the woods still covered.  

The two days of sunshine reminded me that April has often been a wonderful month, but today we have a heavy cloud cover again.  [I just looked up.  It's snowing out.  I really don't need enough snow to set the record.]

PRINTER CARTRIDGES

Lots of people have complained about the printer cartridge scam.  You buy an inexpensive printer, only to be stuck for buying ink cartridges for outrageous prices.  

At Office Depot, to get all four colors for my printer costs $166!!!  

To buy a whole new printer costs $4 more - $170.  They're considerably cheaper online. And then there are kits to refill the old cartridges yourself.  But HP and the others know consumers are too lazy to fill their own cartridges or in too much of a rush to shop around.  Presumably, the market would work if people balked at these prices and didn't buy the new cartridges.  Or is this just a ploy to get people to buy a new printer.  Either way this contributes to waste for the earth and profit for HP.  

What is the cost of a whole printer and packaging compared to four cartridges?  

From Stock Analysis:

"Financial Performance

In 2023, HP Inc.'s revenue was $53.72 billion, a decrease of -14.61% compared to the previous year's $62.91 billion. Earnings were $3.26 billion, an increase of 4.18%."

So they took in almost 15% less total revenue in 2023 than 2022, but increased their profit by 4%.  How much of that profit was from printer cartridges?  

PRIVATE CONCERTS

Before the pandemic, someone invited us to a home nearby to hear a concert.  Since then we've been to four or five such concerts.  Usually it's a $20 donation plus a dish for the buffet to attend.  Sunday we went to a jazz performance there - the first one for us that wasn't classical. 

Here's John Damberg on the vibes and Mark Manners on the guitar.  Bob Andrews hand can be seen on the bass, and drummer Eiden Pospisil is hidden in the background.  The second half connected much better for me - I'm not a big vibes fan and Damberg spent more time on the piano and the guitar had a bigger role.  

But it was a wonderful evening with lots of very friendly people - maybe about 40 or so.  [While I called it a 'private' concert, it was noted in the Anchorage Daily News, so anyone could have come, though there obviously has to be a limit on how many could attend.]