Vaux's Swifts

I think I forgot to mention something about last weekend. We didn't make it to Whidby Island, but we did get to Chapman Elementary School in Portland to see the Vaux's Swifts gather for the evening.

These are psycho little birds that spend almost all day flying and only stop at night to sleep. They are not outfitted properly to perch, so they eat, drink, gather nest materials, and whatever else without stopping. They're crazy fast too. And at the school, there are thousands of them every evening for much of September and sometimes into October. The largest recorded flock was 35,000, although I have no idea how that compared to the night we were there.

In 1980-something, they just started showing up and using the school's chimney as a mass roost at night before flying to Central America at the first real cold snap. They fly around all day eating and then gather around sunset in the sky above the school. Shortly after sunset they start flying in a huge spiral getting tighter and tighter until one of them decides it's time to drop in, and then it looks like a giant whirlpool heading down into the chimney. For 20 or 25 years, they school just resigned itself to forgoing heat until the birds decided to leave. Then, a few years ago, they built a new natural gas furnace and left the old chimney as a permanent roost for the visitors.

Now, every evening for about three weeks in September, the Audubon Society has a regular event to watch the spectacle from a conveniently placed hillside. On the evening we went, there were maybe a couple hundred people and many brought dinner and cardboard for sliding down the hill. It was obvious that this was a regular event for many of them and I think we'll have to see it again too. Everybody even clapped and cheered after the last of the birds disappeared down the chimney. I'm not sure the birds cared, but we all had a good time. It reminded me a lot of people in Waikiki stopping at sunset to clap and cheer just as the last sliver of sun dips below the horizon.

We got the extra special version of the show the night we went. Right in the middle, a bird of prey flew right over the crowd and through the flock. It looked like a trick from an airshow, and the crowd reacted in much the same way. I assume it was a peregrine falcon, since they do live around here and hunt other birds. It seemed about the right size anyway. This must have looked like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Imagine birds flying everywhere overhead and making a huge chatter. Now imagine they all suddenly go silent at once and dart away from the chimney as this much larger, and much less maneuverable, bird barrels right through them. It didn't get anything that time, but a couple hundred (at least) of the most ill-tempered swifts followed it like a swarm of gnats. I'm not sure what they thought they were going to do to it. They could fly much faster than it could and darted back and forth trying to annoy it into leaving, I guess. All they managed to do was follow it as it made a large circle and came back quite a bit above the flock that was now back at the chimney. And this is where it showed them its trick. Although the peregrine falcon is not particularly fast in regular flight, it showed its fastest-bird-in-the-sky credentials by tucking in it's wings, leaving the gnat swarm in its dust, and dive bombing right back down through the middle of the flock scattering it again. A valiant effort, but still no luck. Those little guys are quick. Time for a change in tactics. It made a big circle again (with a new gnat swarm) and this time came in at treetop level and popped up into the birds that were much slower and fluttering right as they entered the chimney. The third time must have been the charm. It looked like it got something and it flew straight off without slowing or turning. A somewhat violent version of the show, but hey, a falcon's gotta eat too, right?

I made it for Tutu: the sequel

Apparently there's going to be a whole series of boot sculptures for Tutu.

Movie review: Ray

I finally got a chance to see Ray yesterday. It was an excellent portrayal of the first few decades of the life of Ray Charles. By the time I ever heard of him, he was already an old guy who had already made much of the music he was ever going to make. This film was a very in-depth, and from what I hear, rather accurate portrayal of his rise to fame and fortune. I highly recommend it for anyone remotely interested in him.

Jamie Foxx did a wonderful job as Ray. According to the DVD extras, he really went the extra mile to ensure accuracy. He is apparently trained as a classical pianist and learned all of the music so he is actually playing in the movie. As an added twist, he wore prosthetics over his eyes which effectively made him blind for 14 hours a day during shooting. So not only did he really have to learn to move around as a blind man, he learned to play the music without seeing anything. Ray Charles had 15 or 20 years to get good at it and another 40 to perfect it. Jamie Foxx did at least a portion of it in maybe a year.

The version I saw was extended beyond the theatrical release. However, it was released on the same DVD, so you choose when you start the movie which version you want to see, and as it turns out, there is a disconcerting pause each time you see an extra scene. It's even more unnerving since the extra scenes are what are listed in the 'deleted scenes' on the DVD, so you are seeing things that might not match in timing, lighting, etc.. There's even one that has several versions of the same scene and comes across more like a blooper reel. Although the extra scenes made for a somewhat jarring viewing, I did enjoy the extended musical numbers. The movie was somewhat disjointed for me anyway, since due the Mizz's short nap, I ended up seeing the movie in two halves anyway, separated by several hours. If all the scenes didn't work together just so, it wasn't really my worst problem.

[Incidentally, this movie must have made an impact on me, as I had a dream that I was going blind last night. It was obvious where it came from, as it very much mirrored the scenes in the movie depicting the onset of Ray's blindness. My chief concern seemed to be that I could no longer drive myself around. However, unlike Ray, my oncoming blindness was cured by putting in new contacts. I was happy that I could drive again. I can't decide if I was really a medical mystery and the doctors thought I was going blind too, or if I was just an idiot who forgot to put in his contacts. Profound, huh?]

Stuck with the Kid

This was going to be called "Fun with the Mizz" until dinner started. Right now he's sitting at the table wondering why spitting out his food and screaming his freaking head off might have driven Daddy away. Seriously, I mean the insanely loud high pitched scream that makes my ears ring from down the hall. Since he was strapped into the chair, it was easier to take a time out by leaving him and walking away. I'm just around the corner, but he doesn't know that. Any other response just made him laugh, and since hauling off and clocking him is obviously not in my plans, a break was in order. I'm sure he'll be okay soon enough, but I'm not about to guess a time table.

The rest of the day wasn't bad really. We had a break in the rain so we wandered to the zoo this morning. He had a great time "hikin ina backpack." We had lunch there and he still wanted to see more aneemals. So we checked out the elephants and saw the beginning of the bird of prey show and he conked out like a light before we even got out of the amphitheater. He ended up taking a great nap and then we went to the mall so he could run around in a dry playground. He's still apparently got some work to do on the whole "I NEED SPACE" thing. Any time other kids got near him, he yelled it at them. On a rainy Portland afternoon, you can imagine how often that happened. Anyway, he had a good time there and everything was good until dinner.

He seems to have stopped spitting and screaming after spitting and screaming and the saying "No spitting no screaming." Now he's alternating between pretend crying/saying "I cryin," and chanting "bad behavor." I think something might have sunk in. I'll go save him now.

[Some time goes by.]

Sorry for the whining. It's a little hard to think with your ears ringing though. The Mizz and I made up, which means that he stopped screaming, but I only managed to get crackers and cheese into him for dinner on top of the 4 rotinis that I actually got into him before the crisis. Better than going to bed hungry, I guess, but I'm hardly putting it in my top 10 parenting moments list. Somewhere, lots of people, but mainly Franny and Tutu, can hardly stop laughing at me long enough to breath. Rest assured it probably wasn't as bad as I might have made it out to be and was a rather minor moment in an otherwise fine couple of days. (For the record, I never actually considered "clocking him", which I would hope everyone understood. Part of the reason I had to take a break was that I was having a hard time not laughing, which wasn't helping anything.) I was actually expecting more of this, so I should feel lucky, I suppose. Anyway, I'm sure I'll live.

Guys Weekend

Well, the Mizz and I are on our own this weekend. Franny left this morning to visit a friend in Chicago, so it's just us guys for the next couple days. It's new for me, since I've never been totally in charge of him for even a whole day. The Mizz seems to be taking it pretty much in stride, although "Mama ona twip" seems like a vague concept to him. He still tells me that "Mama takin a shower" or "Mama ina bafwoom" from time to time. This whole thing is new for Franny, as it's her first night away from him ever. I'm sure she'll miss him, but I'm also sure she'll enjoy the respite. Due to work, I've been away from the two of them far too regularly, but it's an experiment for her.

I wasn't sure how I'd do, but I think I'll be alright. I've had him solo lots of times at various points of the day; it's just a matter of stringing them together for four days straight. And actually, it isn't that much different than a normal work day for me. For the most part, I'm pretty much committed by work or the Mizz from the time he wakes up until he's in bed for the evening, just now I'll remove the "work or" part of that phrase. I still get about the same evening time for personal stuff plus and hour or two during nap time. And like it or not, my nights on the road have more than prepared me for quiet evenings alone. So, although I'd prefer to have Franny here, both for the company and the assistance, I think I'll survive, and I know she deserves the break. Have fun in the Midwest Babe.

Body Worlds

I just got back from the Body Worlds exhibit at OMSI. Fascinating. If you don't know what that is, it is a travelling exhibit featuring real bodies that have been partially dissected and preserved through plastination. Plastination means removing the volatile compounds (i.e. the stuff that decays) from tissue and replacing them with resins or plastic that essentially last forever. The results looks much like the parts would look in life. These specimens can then be displayed out where they can easily be seen and understood. It's a very interesting exhibit, but not for the squeamish.

I've always been fascinated by anatomy and the idea that bodies are essentially complex machines made of interdependent, and much simper pieces. This exhibit showed the pieces in great detail in a way that you could get close to and examine. It also showed how the various parts work together.

It was very interesting to see the various muscles and how they interact and work around each other to produce motion. The big muscles that are easy to see from the outside are interesting enough, but even cooler were the smaller and more complex structures like the hands and feet that have lots of muscles and tendons moving next to each other and even bending around each other. My physical therapist sister probably can't help seeing this stuff in her sleep, but a lot of it was new to me.

Even more interesting to me were the depictions of the organs and systems inside the body. I wasn't aware that type of stuff would be there, but it was also (to wear out a word) fascinating. There were nervous systems, circulatory systems, a complete digestive tract, and all sorts of other parts shown in great detail. Some of them even showed signs of disease. It is very educational to see just what problems like cancer and emphysema are actually doing to a body. These are things normally dealt with in the abstract without really understanding what's happening. Its the difference between saying your car won't start and understanding that you've burned out a coil in your starter motor, so it won't turn the engine. In either case, your car is still not running, but in the latter, demystified version, you might be able to do something about it, or at least know how to prevent it in the future.

I can see how some people might have problem with this exhibit, either from a squeamish, ick-factor point of view or from a general moral problem with the idea of displaying deceased people, especially dissected. I am not easily grossed out, so the first is not a problem for me at all really. I find that my interest in the subject far outweighs any issue in that direction. The moral factor is not really a problem for me either. Everyone involved was very well informed about what was going to happen and how their bodies would be used. Every one of them understood that they were no longer going to need their bodies and that they might still be of some value to society, and since most of them were probably old enough or sick enough that they would not have been good organ donors, this gave them a way to find that value. I found their generosity very refreshing and very educational.

If you are at all interested in the details of the human body, I highly recommend seeing one of the Body Worlds exhibits if you get the chance.

I made this for Tutu!

I don't usually post pictures of my son in his underwear, but this was too good. For whatever reason, he put his cowboy boot on the empty post of his ring stacking toy, and then when he liked what he saw, he held it up and announced, "I made this for Tutu!"

(If you are unaware, Tutu is Hawaiian for Grandma. The Mizz's Grandma isn't remotely Hawaiian, but she loves being called Tutu, and the grandkids love saying it.)

Oxygen is Good

Well, I did make it home, and this was waiting for me. I'm not sure what the Mizz was doing with that first "E" there. Franny "helped" at bit, with the scribbles, I'm assuming.

I had to see this by myself though, since we got back at 10:30 Friday night. I wouldn't have done such a long day myself (Pocatello, ID to Portland, OR; almost 700 miles), but there were two of us and we were well fueled on Starbucks, so we decided that it was worth getting home to our own beds, even if it was late. The decent mattress was worth it, but I was wrecked Saturday. The Mizz still gets up early. Apparently I'd have to be gone a lot longer than two weeks for that to change. Franny and I both were in no mood to make the 5+ hour trip up to my folks' place just to turn around and do it again the next day, so we'll have to catch them again later. We're hoping to make a slightly longer weekend out of it and make the drive more worth it. Hopefully in about 3 or 4 weeks when we can open up a weekend.

I've been playing catchup since I got back, and I'm still tired; thus the dearth of blogging. I enjoy rambling to the world, but you know I'm tight on time and energy when I forgo the opportunity to spout my opinions about things. I think I'm about done with the critical stuff though, so tonight's a normal sleep night, if I still remember what that is, and maybe I can get back to blogging insignificant drivel.

Oh, and we had an earthquake Sunday night. It wasn't huge, and if I was asleep, I certainly would have missed it. But it was sort of amusing to see my lamp shaking just a little and try to figure out what was happening. At first I wasn't sure I actually saw anything, but then I realized I was feeling something too. It felt like when our washing machine is on the spin cycle. The machine is on the second floor, and although this is great for use, you can slightly notice a shaking when the spin is on, maybe like a large truck speeding by your house. Anyway it felt like that, but the machine was not on. I had a slight suspicion of earthquake, but it's been so long since I felt one (about 25 years or so), that I had no way of knowing. Anyway, I caught the news Monday morning and found that, indeed, there had been a 3.6 quake about 40 miles away and 14 miles underground. No reports of damage, but it interested a science geek.

The oxygen reference has to do with the lesson I learn every time I travel to Idaho or Montana. At four or five thousand feet, I feel insanely out of shape. At first, I always blame it on lack of sleep or crappy food or whatever. However, after a few days of getting winded after one flight of stairs, I usually remember the altitude and cut myself some slack. The first, and worst, example of this was a couple years ago in Burley, Idaho (motto: Nothing to do but drop out of high school and get pregnant early.). I went out for a run, and although I wasn't in the best shape (as if I am now...), I felt absolutely pathetic running for maybe a half mile before I had to stop and gasp for breath. I felt like a complete schmuck walking back to the hotel, although being Burley, there was nobody around and therefore no reason to feel too much embarrassment. I didn't think until the next day to check and find that Burley is at 4150 feet. Anyway, it took me a few days again this time, and it felt great to take the Mizz out in the backpack when I got back and realize that I could, in fact, handle some physical exertion, at least at the 200 feet or so where I live.

Missing in Action

Well, Missing in Idaho anyway. I apparently haven't been in a blogging mood lately. I tend to get out of touch when I'm travelling for work. I get some news and such, but my only real connection to anything else is Franny. Outside of her (and by extension, the Mizz), I don't really deal with the rest of the world much. Odd, since I have more free (stir crazy) time out here than I do at home, so I can't say I've been too busy.

I'm in Pocatello (still). We've been here since Friday night. We had Sunday off, but that's it. Other than that, it's been pretty busy days.

We actually had a pretty rough day Monday. We went to Soda Springs, Idaho, which is a little town not on the way to anywhere. From what I hear, at the time when Brigham Young founded the town in it's current location, there were a number of geysers in the valley that had coated the area in mineral deposits. So of course we built a dam and made a lake over the geysers. Now the best they have is the only man-made geyser in the world. Building a hotel, they dug in the wrong spot and found the aquifer that fed the old geysers, which started leaking or geysing or whatever. They decided to attach a bunch of plumbing and regulate it, so now they have their own old faithful. All the excitement of a small town fountain mixed with the slight smell of rotten eggs. Cool.

They also have, and actually are proud of, a slag heap. For those who don't know, slag is the leftover stuff from smelting ore into metal, in this case, into phosphorus. And a heap is a big pile. In this case, a REALLY big pile. Anyway, the slag comes out of the furnace REALLY hot, and when they pour it on the heap at night, it supposedly looks like lava flowing down the sides. This was mentioned to me several times that day, so either it's REALLY cool looking, or they REALLY don't have much to do there. From the looks of the town, I'm guessing the later.

I actually worked at the phosphorus plant with the slag heap. Apparently they make the purest elemental phosphorus in the country. It's used in all sorts of things: food, fertilizer and weed killer (go figure), toothpaste, etc. Plus it's insanely reactive in air and melts at around 100 degrees, both of which make it interesting to handle. It's kept under water at all times, as it bursts into flame when it touches air. Nice stuff. But, mix some other chemicals with it and it whitens your teeth or grows your potatoes.

(start complaining) Anyway, this place made for the rough day. When we first got in town and contacted them, they said that we'd have to wait until later because their power was going to be cut off for a couple hours. I went to help our other guy work on some stuff elsewhere, when I got a call that the power wasn't going to be cut off after all, so come on over and get started. Needless to say, after an hour of safety video and discussion and stuff, the power went off. I was resigned to having to make the trek back some evening to finish, but the other guy got so delayed working on his stuff that we were still in town when the power came back on. By this time, it was too late to do anything back in Pocatello, so my partner waited in the van while I went in and calibrated for two hours plus. He hadn't done the safety stuff earlier, so he was out of luck. Longer work for me and boredom for him. Everybody wins. Anyway, we rolled back into our hotel at 8:30 that evening after leaving at 7:00. And by the end, we had barely managed to do work that should have taken one person a normal day to finish. Good times. (end complaining)

Other than that, it's been long days, but not near as annoying. One of our customers even gave us cake today. It was their September company birthday party, and they weren't taking "no" for an answer. Since they had triple chocolate something cake, I wasn't giving "no" for an answer. Everybody wins.

My Favorite Applebee's

Applebee's isn't really that cool of a restaurant. I've been to many of them, but never really cared about them one way or another. They are one of those safe restaurants where you know what you're in for and you're okay with it even though you'd probably never bother to recommend it to anyone. But I've now had a really good time at a particular Applebee's location twice in a row, separated by six months. I'm in Pocatello, Idaho now and this restaurant is located within walking distance of our hotel, which, after a long day of driving, is a clear bonus. However, it's the experience that's been fun.

When I was here in March, Rob (a coworker) and I sat at the bar for dinner due to a huge waiting list. It turned out to be a great decision as we sat around with a bunch of locals playing "Guess the 80's Song Currently Playing". We had a good time guessing, but it got way better when the bartender decided to reward correct guesses with free beers. It even got ridiculous when a student who was there pulled out his laptop and cellular PC card to Google things for us. The bartender decided that he did not deserve free drinks for that and he decided that his minutes were to valuable to waste on a bar game. We kept thinking that the bartender was going to get tired of giving out free drinks, but we didn't pay for anything for the rest of the night and had to cut her off from giving us any more, since we did have to work in the morning. The best part was when an old guy (not old, maybe 50, but old enough that 80's music wasn't his music) pulled out his Blackberry and found a particularly stumping one for us. He made the laptop guy feel pretty silly too.

Tonight we pulled the bar thing again due to the line out the door. And tonight we had a great time with a couple guys from the gulf coast. Both were from Louisiana, but one lives in Houston now. They were up here on business too and were a hoot. They one still living in Louisiana was especially playing up the fish out of water game. He's apparently from a bayou about 90 miles from New Orleans. Every time you see Louisiana in the movies, that's his town. The swamps and mosquitoes and alligators and everything. He's very proud that he lives at +9 feet elevation. Much smarter than those NO folks. The Houston guy seemed to think that everywhere smaller than his hometown might as well be run by Boss Hogg. (For those keeping score, Houston is the 4th largest city in the country, behind, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.) He wasn't sure he was going to know what to do with himself in Pocatello, Idaho. Both guys worked together for some consulting firm that was closely related to the oil industry. The main thing that they had to say about that was that maybe we should give the industry a break and if we really want to get away from it, we should stop buying stuff and driving everywhere. They didn't seem too concerned that we might do this, but if we do, they are ready to jump into other industries instead. Good consultants can suck money from whoever has it.

I suppose I'll have to go back next Spring when I'm back this way again, just to see what's going on at my favorite Applebee's.

More-Ida

Well, I'm back working in Idaho again. More of the same stuff from last year. First, it was Boise for a couple days. Now we're in Twin Falls, and tomorrow it's on to Pocatello and the rest of the eastern end of the state. Colleges, food processing plants (cheese, sugar beet, potato, etc.), government labs, and all sort of other fun places. The theory is that we'll work straight through as quick as we can manage and be home next Friday. That'll probably mean late days and working through the weekend.

However, if I can get home Friday, then on Saturday, Franny and I and the Mizz can turn around and hit the road again to see my folks new house on Whidby Island. I need to see it before they remove too much of the 70's from it. Plus I hear the view is awesome.

I happened to notice a weird story in the Oregonian the other day. The main bridge coming into Twin Falls over the Snake River Canyon made the news. Some genius was parachuting off it when a gust of wind caught his chute and gently snagged him on the bridge. By gently, of course, I mean he broke his leg, ankle, and arm and dangled in the breeze for two hours. I'm not sure jumping off bridges is such a great plan. I'll try and avoid it myself.

9/11

I'm a tad late with these thoughts, but I took a little time to digest them. I heard a lot of lead up to the anniversary of the September 11th attacks yesterday on the news and such, but it felt kind of contrived. It was like the various news outlets looked at the calendar and just realized that it was almost September 11th and they should probably do or say something about it. You really should acknowledge it, right? They were mainly along the lines of USA Today wondering "Is 9/11 becoming just another calendar date?" The news accounts came across as obligatory and insincere.

I was pretty jaded about it myself during the lead up and most of the day. Although I had heard about it and certainly was aware of the upcoming date, I didn't really have strong feelings about the event. The only mention of anything was the media, but during the day, I never once heard anyone I was around even mention it. I thought about it a lot myself, since, due to my job, I write the date often. Usually I just noted the coincidence and moved on.

Until I got back to the hotel and flipped on the TV.

The first thing that was on was a retrospective of that morning. One tower already had a hole in it and the other was just being hit by the second plane as I tuned in. The commentators were completely lost as to what to say about it. It brought the actual morning crashing back to me. I suddenly remembered exactly what I felt that day, watching as the news showed the crashing and falling videos over and over again. I felt a sudden rush of adrenaline, and I remembered the feeling of just being mad as hell at whoever had done this.

Moreover, I felt pissed off all over again. First, I was pissed at Osama and his minions. How could anyone possibly think this was a rational action? How could intentionally killing civilians be justified? How could we tolerated the existence of someone like that? But the more I stewed about it, the more I realized that I am still very angry that we have not remedied the situation. The person most responsible, both by our accusations and his own admission, is still running around taunting us with videos on the anniversary of the most devastating attack on American soil in 60-odd years, and the best we can do is debate whether or not he has dyed his beard. We're wasting time and money and lives running around in the wrong damn desert while the person who started us out on the War on Terror is still out there, as effective a figurehead as he ever was, at least in part because he has so far evaded the most powerful military on the planet. Why, after all the American (and even world) outcry, did we send only 11,000 troops into Afghanistan, where we knew the man and organization responsible for the attacks was taking refuge? And why did we then send over 100,000 troops (and now over 160,000) into a country that had been pinned down and helpless for 10 years, effectively hamstringing ourselves from doing anything further on the original problem?

Yeah, I'm still pissed. At the original problem as well as our response to it. Sorry for the rant, but yesterday affected me a lot more than I thought it would.

Knick Knacks

It's been slow blogging lately. I've been busy and other things have seemed more important. However, in order to keep from becoming too stale, I bring you a cartoon that caught my eye. This struck a chord for some reason.

I'm not sure just who I'm thinking of when I see this. Although I grew up in a house full of collectibles (including hummel figurines), I myself have been known to have a few dust magnets too. If my wife had her way, everything that isn't nailed down would be in the trash after a week of not being directly used. I, on the other hand, can't throw away anything that doesn't currently include rotting food. Everything else might have some use and you never know when you might need it and the stores will be closed and China will stop making them and there will suddenly become a black market for them, but I'll have one. And then you'll understand. You'll see. It could happen...

Maybe this is why we have some ugly tension around cleaning up/sorting time.

I'm also not sure what it says about me that I noticed a "Pickles" cartoon. As best I can tell, I'm not it's target audience. Although what if I am...? Scary.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

That's right. Franny and I are at 8 wonderful years so far. Unfortunately, someone scheduled our anniversary for a Wednesday this year. I'm still happy to see it though. Here's looking at a whole bunch more of them.