May 06 2007
Pic, Video and Stream of Thoughts
On a recent trip to a neighborhood park, Ben looks at the pool. (click for better version)
My parents will arrive sometime today (Sunday), and will stay until Tuesday. I’m not sure how often I’ll post over that time, but there’s sure to be lots of content from it. I’ll show mercy when deciding what and how much to post.
I’m off work all week, and my lunch hours provide the best respite for writing. Yes, I’m that guy often huddled over his laptop in the upstairs breakroom where, by the grace of some higher force in the universe, the TV is off and, by the grace of an even higher force, not spewing forth Fox News like the one downstairs.
Speaking of the universe…
I’m still amazed that scientists have found a planet with a climate similar to Earth’s. It makes the trip around its sun every 13 days, but is not super-hot because the sun is only a red dwarf. The average surface temperature is 32 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. How astronomy-geeky-cool is that?
Speaking of higher powers, my thoughts go out to everyone affected by the horrible tornado that ripped through the small Kansas town of Greensburg Saturday. This story and this slideshow are from the newspaper where I cut my teeth as a (now defunct) photojournalist, and where my “bubble girl” picture made its first public appearance.
Our area was fortunate to receive a considerably gentler blow from Nature this week. Here’s my video from our front porch, to accompany my Pic of the Week.
Update at 3:30 p.m. Monday - The visit with my parents is going well. I’m the only one in the house not asleep right now. Everybody else is catching a few winks after our walk around the historic downtown area.
We got hit by the same storm. I wonder if you live in our area.
And here I was complaining that we got so much rain over the past week. Thankfully it brightened up just (like with a half hour to spare) for the boy’s birthday party on Saturday. Your kind of rain there was just crazy!
Enjoy your time off with the family coming to visit. I’m anxiously awaiting my first vacation this year during the second week of June. Only we’re going to drive south to visit some family. Damn, that’s going to be nice…
wordgirl - We’re in the Dallas metro area and all that that implies. (Man, I just hate when I type two words in a row, but sometimes it says what I want to say.)
Simon - Glad you guys had sunny weather for the birthday party! I’m sure a smashing time was had by all.
Yeah, it was the Texas version of a blizzard. The video doesn’t show the worst of the wind. I went back inside once that started.
Yay for vacation! I’m going to be taking a lot of time off these last couple months of our company’s fiscal year, because our PTO (paid time off) policy is changing and a lot of us are due to lose tons of hours to the ether if we don’t use them.
I love the composition of this shot Mark. I love shots where kids are yearning for something just out of their graps…..the eagerness and wonder is captivating.
Oh, and the cool thing about a new planet with a 13-day orbital period is that the year is way too short to have seasons. So just move to a nice warm locale that doesn’t get any storms, and you should do fine. Sort of like living in LA but without all the pollution. Of course, then there’s the 2.5 times Earth gravity to deal with… which just blows a person’s diet success right out of the water!
Excellent pic of Ben…. and good for you being on vacation!!
Have a great week bud.
Actually, Si. I’ll contend that there would be seasons…they’d just last a few days. Huge temperature swings leading to larger closets since out of season clothing could not be stored away in the basement.
And sure, the gravity would be rough on the scale…but just imagine what it would do for your leg muscles. Even office drones would have bikers’ calves.
Oh, sorry. Got wrapped up in the geekery and forgot to mention that the photo is very cool, Mark. I had no desire to go swimming before looking at the picture, but the shot makes that pool look so like paradise, that I desparately need quick dunk.
Anna - Originally I was going for the iron fence leading the viewer down to Ben, but ended up with this much more interesting shot. One of my favorites in quite a while.
Simon and Moksha - The running joke around here is “if you don’t like the weather, just wait a few hours.” I guess on that planet it would be “just wait a few minutes.”
Ouch. I hadn’t read that about the mass difference (hey, that almost rhymes with “vas deferens.”)
Dave - I trust your vacation went well?
MG - Swimming!
The photo is grate, it makes the fence look round. (I decided not to change my typo, the whole grate/fence thing.)
I was looking at the photos of the town, they were unbelievable. Katrina has nothing on this storm, it just hit a larger area.
Looks like it was raining so hard that your gutters couldn’t keep with with the amount of water coming down.
BK - I noticed the “grate” spelling and I’m glad you left it. (but not “left tit,” which is a whole different discussion)
I’m not sure it just “makes the fence look round.” I think I shot this photo from a 90-degree corner in the fence. I think.
Sadly, we haven’t any gutters on this house yet. Nearly two years and still we’re just watching the rain pour right off the sides. On the upside, the foundations here need all the watering they can get. People watch their foundations crack because of our severe drought conditions every summer.