Category Archives: GeekWorld

GeekWorld, Great Work, Jefferson County, Our Land and Home, Shadow Mountain, Weather +Climate

Friday Matters

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Samhain                                                                      Thanksgiving Moon

20151119_134532Installation mid-point inspection today for solar panels. A steady snow came down when the Jefferson County inspector climbed on our roof with Nathan. What he said I don’t know since I was asleep at the time, but I’m sure we passed. Fortunately the remainder of the installation will take place on Monday, forecast as clear.

Kate and I drove to Home Depot and picked up various items, most relevant to the season. Fuel stabilizer for the snow blower fuel? Yes. Chains for the snow blower? Nope. Lighted, moving deer for a holiday inflection? Yes. Trufuel for the chainsaw? Yes. Clothing hook for the loft bathroom? A nice one from the pine cone cabin shop. Material for decorating the pine cone wreaths we bought at the Conifer High School Christmas boutique? Kate got those yesterday at Target. Lighted fox made from grapevine? Also from Target yesterday. Tire rack for the Michelin Latitudes now awaiting the end of snow? Nope. A normal sweep for this and that.

We had a mid-morning break at Lucile’s, another fine New Orleans food place. There’s a Luciles in Denver, too, but this one is closer to us. Chicory coffee cafe au lait and beignets. Delightful.

The snow has been coming down since sometime around 11:00 and it’s now almost three. This is wet, but not bulky. Pretty though.

 

 

Dogs, GeekWorld, Weather +Climate

Winter Has Come

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Samhain                                                                         Moon of the First Snow

With the moon of the first snow in its last quarter and poised next to Jupiter the early morning sky here on Shadow Mountain was crisp and lovely. Below these two hung red Mars and bright Venus. They’re gone now, hidden behind the faint gray-blue of imminent sunrise, but they’re worth seeing if you’re an insomniac or get up well before the sun.

The lodgepoles retain flocking from yesterday’s snow, our third this winter. The solar snow shovel cleared our driveway. Here on Shadow Mountain the snow comes straight down, linear bands of white falling with a certain relentlessness. Little of the northwest wind driven, parallel to the ground blizzards familiar to those who live in Minnesota. We get the romantic beauty of snowfall, white grounds and flocked pine trees, then the snow leaves. Nice.

Our dogs love the snow. Gertie puts her head down and pushes her muzzle through the snow, then rolls around in it. Vega and Rigel wander, nose to the ground in search of critters inconvenienced by the wet stuff. Kep slides on the deck, runs through the mounded snow.

Glad winter has finally come to Shadow Mountain.

 

Beyond the Boundaries, Faith and Spirituality, GeekWorld, Memories, Myth and Story, Science

Not Even Gone

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Mabon                                                                     Moon of the First Snow

It is so beautiful here around 5 a.m. when the sky is clear, which is most mornings. The stars leap out of the sky, reminders of the power they had when the only light pollution was an evening’s campfire. Orion stands high in the south, moving toward Black Mountain. The Big Dipper disappears behind the roof of the garage in the east, but the pointer stars are visible, showing the way to true north. Cassiopeia, that unhappy queen, extends her jagged W, a slash of stars.

Time travel has been with us since the first human looked up in wonder at the stars. What we see unaided and what we can see with telescopes comes to us from the distant, distant past. So distant that the miles come in units of time. Perhaps, in a way, our lives are like the heavens, still shining after long years, even after death, radiating out from our small sector of space-time to the far away future.

So you might go out and look at the stars and consider the bright lights in your life, still strong and beautiful, wonderful. And remember that someday, you too will shine for others. Not gone, not even absent.

GeekWorld, Great Work, Our Land and Home, Science

Power to the People

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Mabon                                                                          Elk Rut Moon

We sat down with Kaleb Waite of Golden Solar yesterday afternoon. He impressed us both. He had a clearer plan for our panels, which ones we needed. Smart panels. He had a nifty gadget that can project shadowing throughout the year from any tall object near the roof, like trees or chimneys. He did not dumb down his presentation and walked us through the particular advantages and challenges of our roof. When he finished, we’d made up our minds. Golden Solar will get our business.

With the eventual development of capable storage batteries, we may be able to go off the grid entirely, though for the time being we will still be connected to the Intermountain Rural Electric Association (IREA). The concept of radically distributed power generation, a form of disaggregation, is a small piece of the path leading to a sustainable future. Our choice, by itself, means almost nothing; gathered with others though and through that putting real change forward, an individual choice is not a small piece.

 

 

Colorado, GeekWorld, Great Work, Science, Travel

Martian Meteorites, Dinosaur Skeletons and Peyote

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Lughnasa                                                      Elk Rut Moon

The Denver Gem and Mineral Show. “Largest in the nation.” I believe it. Vendor upon vendor occupying all the audience circulation area around the seating in the Denver Coliseum (where the hot dogs and beer get sold. And big on its own.) The coliseum floor and the circulation area around it, plus tents in the rear parking lot. We ran low on energy before we could get outside.

Spoke with three vendors, each unique. One wore a t-shirt that said Save Our Sacrament. He’s part of a church in Arizona that considers peyote its sacramental substance. His church welcomes all races, so they’re not covered like the native americans though he claims using peyote as a sacrament is legal in five states (actually 6 according to the churches website): Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Nevada and, drumroll please, Minnesota.

Second guy was a Colorado rockhound who clearly loves rocks. He told us about geodes with water inside (think how old that water is), how to tell jade from other rocks that look similar (put your hands on it. if it’s heavier and cooler than its neighbors, probably jade) and showed us his personal pendant, a space owl, a piece of agate (I think.).

Meteorites were the domain of the third guy. eegooblago meteorites. I asked him what an ungrouped meteorite was since a row of small pieces were labeled that way. He started slow, but got excited as he moved into his explanation. It involves an organization that is the only official meteorite naming authority. They have lists of meteorites by type, a sort of “canonical taxonomy”, great phrase. If, after a lot of checking a chunk doesn’t fall with the canonical taxonomy, then it’s ungrouped.

He went on to show us the Martian meteorite, the only one certified and named by the authority. (see picture) Not cheap. But, to own a piece of Mars? Wow.

I learned from him that deserts are great places to find meteorites and the Maghreb is one of the best. “Morocco,” he said, “has a very sophisticated meteorite market. The Maghreb itself not so much.” He and his partner do occasionally hunt on their own, but mostly they go to rooms in which many collected rocks have been gathered.

In the Maghreb they rely on the folks who travel the desert regularly. They pick up various rocks and bring them back to a collecting spot. Then, using a handheld device that can “read” elements, he and his partner decide which ones to buy.

There were things I wanted to buy. The Dinosaur Brokers had a very nice fossilized skeleton of a small meat eating dinosaur for only $4,200. Another outfit had a huge Woolly Mammoth tusk, gorgeous. $14,000 plus but they were willing to wheel and deal. Their words. Fossilized fish, Woolly Mammoth teeth and vertebrae. Dinosaur tracks. Most well out of my price range. Didn’t buy anything though Kate got a number of things for grandchildren gifts, including some coprolite, fossilized poop. For Gabe, of course.

 

 

Family, GeekWorld, Science, Weather +Climate

Harm No Human

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Lughnasa                                                                      Labor Day Moon

Fog this morning. Which reminds me. When we have thunderstorms here, often the lightning strikes and thunder are right on top of us. At 8,800 feet we’re at a height where cumulus clouds live. This gives the storms much more immediacy.

Longmont robotWe went to Longmont yesterday to their municipal museum which has a hands-on robotics exhibit. In one exhibit several buttons allowed control of an animatronics robot. It had a plastic face, with titanium bars for shoulders, arms jointed at the elbows and legs with knee joints. Pressing the buttons would make the robot bow and smile, jiggle its arms, wave in a chaotic fashion. Gabe thought it was the funniest thing he’d ever seen.

Another exhibit had several robot muscles, hydraulic powered for the most part, and buttons activated the muscles. It was interesting to see the parts and imagine fitting them into a robot. At one stop you could control lights and sounds using hands and feet. At another a joystick allowed control of a disaster robot as it investigated the site of an explosion.

Both Gabe and Ruth, but especially Ruth, have built several robots using a sophisticated lego kit we bought for them for their birthdays. Yesterday there was an article about purchasing used robots from industry as newer, better robots replace older models. It seems that the age of robots for domestic use, already evident with the Roomba, may be emerging. Asimov we need you now.

 

Family, GeekWorld, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant.

Memory Imperfect

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Lughnasa                                                                 Labor Day Moon

4-A5C54CF7-1230171-8004-CA2E3357-1456389-800Today the grandkids again. Tomorrow with them the Georgetown Loop Railroad. I took them and their parents on it in 2012. Here’s a couple of photographs to show you how they liked it then. Now, they want to go back. Memory is an imperfect thing.

Yesterday we got Kate her birthday present. At 71 Grandma got a smart phone. The grandkids made fun of her old-fashioned phone, a flip top cell. They have no idea what an old-fashioned phone really looks like. Lots of bakelite.

I know I’ve been waxing philosophical over the last few days, maybe even the last few weeks. I think it’s a response to renewed life, getting serious about work again and the gradual, but steady finishing of the loft. This latter gives me a space where I can be serious and I need a certain quantum of seriousness in my day to feel balanced.

 

 

Family, GeekWorld, Our Land and Home

More Real Life

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Lughnasa                                                                            Recovery Moon

ruth250Grandson Gabe is up here watching you-tube videos on his I-pod. I’m shelving more books, trying to get an accurate estimate of how many more of the tall shelves I’ll need. Maybe only 4.

(Ruth yesterday after Buffalo Bill. She’s 9.)

Eric and the other 3 men of Alpha Electric came out this morning, inserted steel piping into the holes underneath the generator and carried it like a sedan chair, placing it near the stub of gas pipe Herb and John installed last Monday. Alpha Electric has a lot of work right now, just finishing up the El Rancho remodel off I-70 in Evergreen and about to take up the 40,000 sq foot horse barn cum enclosed practice area. That one is very close to us.

Kate250Both Kate and I are enjoying the time with the kids, longer periods where we can interact with them more. Ruth is in Denver today, having a chipped tooth repaired. The chipper, Gabe via a thrown remote, will pay for the repair out of his own money jar. Family life has its complications, but that’s part of what makes it so interesting.

(Grandma after Buffalo Bill)

Friend Tom Crane observed in a recent e-mail that the third phase shifts priorities from intellect driven achievement to matters of the heart, especially focused on those close to us. True that.