Thursday, March 29, 2007

A sort of sister blog....

And now a word from my sister, living in the great Midwestern plains of Canada, in Saskatoon:

"Here's my house after the big blizzard. That white building in the background is actually a treehouse when the ground is at the normal level."


...Perhaps I should add that my house usually has two stories showing rather than one. Next picture is after I hired the guy with a front end loader to dig me out.

...Needless to say, two days after the guy with the front end loader dug me out ($150), another storm (termed a "sub-blizzard) hit, followed by -40 degree temperatures. Couldn't get car near garage, so that;s why the 150 foot extension cable.



(In case people don't know what the long extension cord is for, that is to plug in her car, so the oil will run and the car will start in the -40 degree temperatures!) Also look and see that in the picture before, you can see all of the garage door - compared with only half in the pic directly above!- Chuck

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Running and Spring

Today was a very nice, sunny day, with a high of around 16. Since I got to work on time for a change, I left at a reasonable time. We ate dinner, and then I got to go our for a short run before it got dark outside.

The last time I ran it seemed soooooo hard, especially at first. THAT was on a treadmill, indoors. Today it was much easier, as I finally got to run outside. The birds were chirping, spring was in the air, there were interesting things to look at - good distraction, I guess.

When running on the path (trolley trail) I met a rather large (35 cm?) snapping turtle trying to cross the path from one pond to the next. (S)he was in no hurry. I didn't stop, but rather told myself I would look for her on the way back. Well, when I returned, no surprise, there was no turtle.

On the way home, I heard my first spring peepers. These are small frogs (actually I have never seen a spring peeper) that sing in the spring - by the hundreds! They really make me smile, and remind me that spring, and then summer, with all of the various night sounds, are coming. Winters long quiet is now done, being first replaced by the trickling sound of melting ice, to rain and thunderstorms, to peepers, and to birds.

Also, at the top of the road I saw a fox again. I am always amazed at how FAST foxes run! They look like the streak fast at twice the speed of any other animal! Nina tells me that they appear so fast because their body travels absolutely flat and straight like an arrow, while the little legs just fly underneath, at the speed of sound. Or rather at the speed of quiet.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Peeps!

OK, it's that time of year again to talk about peeps. These are as American as, well, anything! But for now, I am going to just send you to some fun links about peeps.

First, the official web site, the classic web site (a must see), and the all important Peeps Wikipedia entry!

Enjoy!
You know you are a geek if....

... these cartoons make sense to you at all:

http://www.xkcd.com

And some specific ones:
http://www.xkcd.com/c55.html
http://www.xkcd.com/c152.html
and finally, a classic favorite of mine:
http://www.xkcd.com/c123.html

Enjoy!
Cool puzzle..

This is simple to explain and really interesting. You are given 9 eggs. 8 weight exactly the same, and the ninth is slightly heavier. You also have a balance beam (you know, a balance with two pans). How many weighing are required to find the heaviest egg? (no, this is not a trick question, and the answer is not "none required - just use your hands to find the heaviest, etc.)

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Been too long...

Well, between one thing and another, I have not really run for over two weeks, and even then, only occasionally. Well, my brain, the weather, and my waistline says to get back to it.

Last night ran for a "mere" 5 km. Boy was it a fight! Like my sister once told me, "the first 2 km are the hard ones". Well, these were. I kept telling myself to keep going, but it was hard. After that, it got easier. My heart rate was higher than normal for my (treadmill) pace, but that is probably because I am 3 kg heavier. But only one good way to solve that.

Spring will help! It was 16 degrees today! OK, it was raining much of the time, but still, I think Spring is really coming this time!
Happy Vernal Equinox!

Imagine a world where night and day are the same length, and where the sun rises from the same place and sets in the same place in the sky... every day.

Well, some day I would like to travel there perhaps, but that place is most definitely not Earth! I have no idea how it happened, but our Earth rotates at a skewed angle relative to it's orbit around the sun - 23.5 degrees tilted, as it happens.

But today (or yesterday, depending on your concept of time and what time zone you live in), we get a sample of that world. What does this mean for us? Well, for long-time readers of this blog, write down the answer now, and compare with the rest of this post - this is a quiz. Otherwise, read on and remember - there will be a quiz next year.

Here are the special things for today (and also on September 21st):

  • The "equi" and "nox" part - everywhere on earth today (unless you are at the exact poles, in which case you are probably quite cold at the moment) has 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night, at least theoretically (we will ignore diffraction for now). No long summers or short winters for Russia - everything is the same, everywhere. And, since most roads run exactly east west, if you are driving at the crack of dawn or dusk, you will have the sun exactly in your eyes or rear-view mirror. (I have to check to see if the car accident rate statistically goes up this time of year).
  • Unlike most of the year, the sun actually rises in the (true) east, and sets in the (true) west. From now on, until June 21, it will start to rise more and more in the north, then start moving back until Sept 21. Actually, if you get technical it is a bit more complicated. If you want a good explanation, go to http://www.analemma.com and click the "other phenoma" link.
  • At its highest during the day, the sun's elevation (angle above the horizon) will correspond to 90 degrees minus the latitude where you live at. For us in Rochester, that is 47 degrees. For those in, say St. Petersburg, it is 30 degrees above the horizon. I know it seems higher, but go measure it - that is the highest it will get today. (To see the highest it will EVER get in the peak of summer, add 23.5 degrees - got it?).
  • Lunar and solar eclipses strongly cluster around the equinoxes. To understand this you really need to get out an orange, paint an equator around it, and imagine a moon orbiting while it (tilted, remember) orbits the sun (a light source). Read about it - this is the stuff everyone needs to know! :-)

There will be a quiz, so study hard!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

SNOW!!

Big white fluffy snow! Friday morning we had green grass all over, now we have 10 cm of snow, with another 10 cm possible today!

Should I be happy? Should I be sad? Should I be angry? Should I be glad? (That little ditty is in the spirit of the Suessical, which is high school musical we went to last night)..

Friday, March 16, 2007

Here again, gone again Spring

Well, we certainly aren't surprised. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday it was really warm here, with highs getting up to 16 several times. But this is March - and sure enough, the thermometer early this morning was at -7.5. Tonight they say we could get 15 - 20 cm of snow.

Are we surprised? (No). BUT - we have daylight savings time three weeks early this year (it's a new law to save energy). So it actually doesn't get dark until after 7 pm. Soon, maybe we'll have both long days and warm!

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Classic ChuckDream...

Last night was one of those strange, fractured sleep nights. I was initially too tired to sleep (go figure....) but eventually fell asleep around 3:30 am. I must have dropped into a pretty deep sleep quickly, because I had this long dream, then later woke up and saw the clock read 4:15.

This is yet another in a long series of classic dream I would have, all revolving around school. I pretty much stopped having these about 10 years ago, but perhaps walking through the crowded halls for Fairport High School while delivering Nina to the nurse's office brought them back again. Here goes, at least what I remember:

I am in a class room taking a math class in Calculus. There are about 20 students in the room. The classroom is wide and three tiers of desks deep. I am in the middle row. The clock at the front of the classroom says it is 11:15.

I am clueless about the calculus. The teacher is talking about something, and although I for some reason have good grades in this class, I am feeling like I am a fake - that that was all just a trick of mine somehow, and in reality I don't know what I am doing. And impostor.

Furthermore, I can't remember my class schedule - I can't remember what over classes I have to go to next. In fact, the entire semester I have never really learned it, and there is a chance that there are courses that I am registered for that I am not showing up for because I forgot what period they were. And as a result failing in them too.

Since I can' t understand the math being taught, I am very restless in my chair. I squirm around and am generally uncomfortable. There are girls behind me and to my side - unlike "normal" for some reason they are flirting with me, and I have to ignore them because I don't what them to see me like this.

Then the teacher passes out a test for us to do. I am filled with dread - there is no way I can do this material. When we get it, for some reason the lights in the classroom go out, and there is not quite enough light to read. Everyone else just takes out their flashlights and starts to busily work on the test. I just sit there and get depressed.

Sometime here I then go outside of the classroom (taking my test with me) - I am in the basement, sitting in the hallway. Prisoners dressed in black are walking by me to go to the bathroom - they ignore me. Later I return to the classroom. The lights are on, everyone has handed in their tests, and they are going onto the next topic. The clock reads 12:45 pm - this seems to be a long class.

I take the teacher into a corner, start to cry and tell him that I don't know what to do, that I don't know the math. He is very kind, reminds me that I am a fine student, and to come back some other time to take the test. I open it briefly and then notice that the questions are really simple - all of this panic was for nothing.

For some reason at this point , while it still feels like math class, everyone folds up their chairs (they somehow have changed from desks to wooden folding chairs), turns around to face the back of the classroom, and sits on the floor. Somehow the topic has changed to photography.

Today the teacher is teaching how to develop color prints. This is a complicated process, but I have done it many times before, so am happy to hear that for once I will be ahead of the class.

Later on, the teacher demonstrates something having to do with colored dyes. He is teaching us how to do pysanky. The designs they are doing are very elementary, and I have done much more complex designs myself. I tell him this (privately) and he is glad to hear it.

That's where it ended for some reason. I remember being surprised when I was awake again and the clock said 4:15 - about one third the time the dream had felt.

My normal school dreams (and I am certainly not the only ones to have these, I think they are quite common) revolve around several central themes:
  • (most common) - cannot remember my class schedule, or what classes I am taking. It is the beginning of a new semester, and I have lost my class sheet.
  • It is the end of the term, when I suddenly realize that there is a class (almost always an English class, usually taught by a Mrs. Bickle, who is a high school teacher I had that resembles the Calvin and Hobbes kindergarten teacher) that I have to take a final exam in. I don't know the material, because I have forgotten I had this class all along, and had not attended for months.
  • I can't either find my locker (they all look the same), or can't remember the locker combination.
  • I somehow have succeeded in some class, but (don't ask me how) it is because somehow I have deceived the teacher - in reality I don't know what I am talking about.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007


Nina broke her foot! :-(


Or rather, someone broke it for her....
Not the most pleasant news, but news never the less. In gym on Monday, while playing speedball one of the girls on the other team which Nina describes as "one of the lightest, smallest girls in her class" tried to kick the ball and kicked Nina's foot instead. It took several hours to figure it out, but later that day the x-ray confirmed it - one of the bones in Nina's foot was broken. Technically this is called an "avulsion fracture to the fifth metatarsal", but to Nina it is just a big pain, both literally and figuratively. The pain, especially at first is quite severe, and Nina will be in a cast for a month or possibly more. May everyone wish her the best!