My Little Baby

My little baby is getting married on Saturday.
Toddler
Kindergarten
4th or 5th Grade
High School Graduation

Why Did the Raccoon Paint his Toenails Red?

To hide in a cherry tree. :)

In this photo, the raccoon is the black lump about 25 feet off the ground, very high in the tree.

What's my latitude?

Today at noon local solar time, I noticed that an east-west line of the sun on the floor under a skylight was 4 feet to the north of the edge that made the line. The edge that made the line was 9 feet off the floor. How many degrees would I need to travel south to get the sun to be directly overhead today? What's my latitude?

No takers? On June 21, the sun is about 23 degrees north of the equator. So, if my latitude were 23 degrees north, the sun would be directly overhead at local noon. But the shadow is slanted at an angle whose tangent is 4/9. Now whip out your handy-dandy scientific calculator, and find the arc tangent of 0.444. Arc tangent may show up labeled as "tan-1". You say you don't have a calculator with arctan? Open Excel or any other spreadsheet and enter the following formula in a cell

=180/PI()*ATAN(4/9)

The arctan function (ATAN) delivers its result in radians, which is why you need to multiply by 180/pi.

Okay, now can you tell me my latitude?

Favorite Songs

I figured out that my Ipod does not credit a song as being played until it finishes the song, so I have been intentionally cutting off songs that I do not enjoy, so that my “Most Played” list would grow to include only the songs I most enjoyed. After doing this for about a month, I finally played my “Most Played” list. It was great concert! FYI, it includes 8 songs from the Wreckers (including #1 and I only have one album of theirs), 5 from Reba, 4 from Sugarland, 3 from Trisha, 2 from Erika Jo, and 1 each from Terri Clark, Wynonna, and Jamie O’Neal. Yup, my favorite artists are women singing country music. Especially blonde women. Hmmm.

What is

A lysimeter? I heard the term during a seminar recently.

307 Gas

Why do I feel lucky to find Chevron regular gas for $3.07 per gallon?

I guess because I paid $3.37 for my last fill-up.

Why Republicans don't articulate their positions well

“... elected Republicans tend to be essentially the second-rate people. People who believe in the free market go into the free market. So it’s the Democrats’ A-Team which in government, against the Republicans’ B-Team, since the Republican’s A-Team is out in the market.”

Thomas Sowell, paraphrasing a book called “The United States of Ambition,” by Alan Ehrenhalt, in the June 2007 issue of the Limbaugh Letter.

Way Too Soon

From this week's Washington Times newpaper:
I like politics, but even *I* think the 2008 presidential primary elections are scheduled too early, and the campaign has started far too early! I think the primaries should be held in the summer of 2008, just before the conventions. I would hate to put limits on when campaigning would begin, but two years before the general election is ridiculous, especially in this age of instant news and high-speed internet.

Waitress Wisdom

Today, I overheard one waitress say to another:

"You know, sometimes you can't do anything about the inevitable."

Ain't that the truth! Global warming, volcanic eruptions, death, taxes?

It is a similar message to the Serenity Prayer, "God, grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference."

Memorial Service

On Saturday, our family held a memorial service for my mother at my father's house. We has 44 persons in attendance, most relatives of mine, ranging in age from 18 to 93. My little sister had invited a retired pastor from her church to perform a casual service, with me reading a eulogy which consisted of the long version of the obituary we had written last March. As folks arrived, food was laid out in the house, and we all stood around greeting each other. I remarked to my wife before the service that I thought I knew everyone there. Most people did not, since they were either from one side of the family or the other. My dad knew them all as well, but my sisters did not. For example, they did not know two nice young men with whom my dad and I had gone on a backpack trip about 7 years ago; they were grandchildren of his cousin.

I decided to introduce the pastor to kick things off, and the service began. He opened with a prayer, I read the eulogy, he read passages from the bible and led us in a discussion of our memories of my mother. It was very heartwarming to hear the fond memories my relatives had of my mother, and how much they appreciated the opportunities that had had over the years to visit my parents. Some had stayed and worked on the farm for many months in their youth as a respite from school or as a time to ponder their own futures. Most marveled at her ability to prepare dinners for 6-10 persons, day after day. Shortly after it began, two more people arrived, and I struggled to remember their names. At the end of this, my next older sister came forward to thank everyone for their kind and heartfelt comments, and then my wife blurted out a request that I introduce everyone. Me and my big mouth! But several encouraged me to try it. So I introduced each person by name, family, and relationship to my mother or father. I needed a little help with several, including the last two to arrive, who were not relatives, but a mother and son who owned the vacation property across the road. I figured out who they were and remembered their last names, but was only close on their first names (I said Tom instead of Bob, and Deedee instead of Ceci). After that was about 4 hours of eating and talking, a dozen conversations going at once, all of us trying to catch up with each other.

My dad and his cousins, all in their late 80's (I think they look much younger) (photo by Diane).