Monday night – near miss !

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As we all went about our business today the earth barely missed an encounter with Asteroid 2011 MD. The little otherwise unknowable chunk of rock came withing 7500 miles of hitting the earth. I’ve read that it’s diameter as somewhere between 5 (yawn) and 20.. (yikes) meters.    7500 miles ?  That’s just  the distance between Burlington and Bombay !!!!!!!! I was both relieved.. and I admit a little disappointed to learn that even a 20 meter chunk of rock would be reduced to just some big chunks of very dangerous junk by our atmosphere.. Nothing big enough to kill off the dinosaurs.. if they were still with us. Not even big enough to create a crater big enough to call for a national park..

 

Still the prospect of a collision and the collective sigh of relief that we all would have breathed had we known this was coming was quite spectacular.

I love tat the fact nothing happened was newsworthy

I can take much more of that.. ..

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

 

 

 

Sunday night – Cora Bow

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Today was as active as yesterday was quiet .. We met up with friends Peter and Dana   and all of our dogs and took a hike up the Nebraska notch trail on the flank of Mt. Mansfield. It was an overcast and cool day.. promising rain and it delivered.. We did about a half of the hike in a steady rain.. we were wet through.. cold and soggy.. but not so soggy that we didn’t enjoy our friends and the beautiful scenery. We took a small side loop called the Clara Bow trail. it went through a steep valley full of ferns.. It looked so primordial that it woulld not have been surprising to see a pterodactyl swooping down on us.

One of the coolest feature of the trail  was a small cave  that you had to walk thought. The trick was the 8 foot ladder at the end to get to the exit.. That involved carrying the three dogs up the ladder.. None of them were excited about that.. hauling three pretty big dogs (chai is about 65 pounds)  op a steep ladder in a narrow chink between rocks was an adventure for us all

 

We all made it…. The conversation was great despite the rain.. maybe even made better by the rain..

We even ran into more friends.. and more dog =s on the trail.. Here are mary and merrill and their dogs.. and Kristie (whom we just met) and her dogs..

By the time I got back to the car, my eye was bugging me.. looks like I either got a bug byte.. or soemthing else.. kinda gross.. but kinda cool too !

 

OK.. that was the day… we’re now having an icecream party with all the ice cream that hannah and Ian bring back from work.. I think we’re going to have an ice cream sundae/sunday every week to get rid of it..  let us know if you want some..

 

OK. that’s it.. I nede to go check out this eye..

 

more tomorrow.

nite all, nite sam

-me

ps. Last night gabe and Ian went meat frenzy.. .. not something that happens often in this household.. It was fun and mildly repulsive watching them get in touch with their inner carnivore

 

Staurday evening – quiet

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Peaceful day.. amazingly, incredibly and eerily peaceful day.. Gabe was out camping with Ian and Hannah.. leaving just me and Diane here . Not only that.. but I had nothing big to do.. no huge deadlines.. no big projects.. (but a big stack of small ones) and no plans . I slept late, .. Diane and i then took a run with the dogs, did some yoga ate breakfast.. .. then came the tough job of figuring out what to do with my free time.. How do people deal with leisure..maybe that’s why folks have TV’s It’s a tough concept coming off of a week where I didn’t even have time to think.. It’s a bit like running off the end of one of those moving sidewalks at an airport… and forgetting to slow down at the end..
In the end we found good ways to fill the day.. Diane and I solved the mystery of the broken dryer.. we’ll Diane figured it out, actually.. she discovered that the cover of the ironing board had fallen down into the air inlet of the dryer causing it to burn out two thermal cutoff switches.. We cleaned the garage .. (sort of).. and we cleaned the three wood bins preparing for the 6 cord of next years fire wood which will come on Monday or Tuesday.. . I also dismantled, debugged and replaced and errant silicon control rectifier in the repulsion coil that my friend Marty had built for me.

That got me to till about 1 PM. when I was overcome with a strong need to sleep.. despite nearly 8 hours of sleep last night.. I couldn’t fight this off.. Next thing I new it was almost 4.. I woke to a call from Max.. he had a welding question.. two welding questions actually.. and I eased back into consciousness trying to imagine the machine he was trying to fix..

Now it’s 7:30 and I’m alone in the house.. everyone’s out shopping (I think) .. It’s extremely calm and quiet

now what ?

nite all, nite sam
-me

Friday night – goodbye columbo

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I was in a conference call at work in my office with the door shut this afternoon.. As I st there listening I distinctly heard my friend Don’s voice come through the wall saying that he’d just heard that Peter Falk had died. It was strange to hear .. because Don’s office is an aisle and a half a way.. but I knew what I’d heard.   I got up from my call and, walked over tO Din’s where I found a small group of people sitting around talking about Falk.

I’ve never been a big TV watcher.. but I loved Falk’s show Columbo.. I have always felt a deep kinderment with Lt. Columbo.. his rumpled appearance.. his distracted and disorganized conversation.. his humility and and his sharp mind beneath. II loved the way that this dishevelment and  bumbling disarmed good guys and bad guys alike…. He’d mumble and walk away.. then at the last moment turn and say “there’s one more thing/…” and reveal the clue that crAcked the case.

I think I’ve always used Falks. success as an excuse for my own lack of attention to grooming.. hey.. if it worked for Columbo.. why not for me.. ?

As much as I loved Columbo,Falk’s favorite role for me was as himself in Wim Winders great film WIngs of Desire.. In the movie.. which is half in English and half in German, two angles watch over the grim city of Berlin in the early 80’s .. they can hear peoples thoughts.. Falk has a long cameo as himself.. claiming to be a former angel who fell to earth. He can’t see the real angles.. but he can sense them . The movie is so beautifully shot in black and white.. I found this scene of Falk in the movie

I was trying to find my favorite scene in the movie.. it’s of an old man wathcing a sunset.. saying to himself that none of knows how many sunsets left we have to watch.. the scene has always stuck with me.. I’ll keep trying to find it.

for now.. I need to say goodnight columbo.

but wait there’s just one more question….

nite all, nite sam
-e