Lastertimeago

Percy and the Winnebago

2010-09-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

Back in the mid 1970s our family took a trip from Eielson to Seward. On the way we had a mishap that almost caused the Winnebago dad was driving and everyone but Matt and me to roll into Kenai Lake. Matt and I would have been orphaned and the family may never have been found. But there is a subplot to this story.

After the Winnebago had been repaired in Seward, Dad had Mom drive it back to Kenai Lake to the campground where Matt and I were fishing and goofing around. While rounding a curve in the road, out of nowhere appeared a Native Alaskan running across the highway. Mom hit the brakes, but could not stop in time. She hit this guy going around 30 mph and he bounced off the grill of the Winnebago line a tennis ball.

The guy, whose name was Percy, who bounced off the front of the Winnebago landed in the grass on the side of the highway. His friends rushed to his side while Mom sat panicked in the driver's seat. Dad, who was a doctor, jumped out to check on Percy. The friends assured Dad that it was Percy's fault because he didn't look for traffic. In fact, he had been drinking quite heavily and probably didn't even think about traffic.

As things turned out, State Troopers and an ambulance finally showed up to check things out. Mom was not found at fault and Percy was fine except for some bruises and scrapes

2010-08-27T04:19:00.000-07:00

Lastertimeago, we lived in the San Antonio suburb of Leon Valley. The house, which my mom absolutely loved, had a pool in the back yard. My younger brothers and I used to do some crazy things that involved running and jumping or diving into the pool.

One day I got the camera and took a bunch of photos of Matt and John doing their crazy things and took this amazing photo.

Matt came running from between the fence and the corner of the house. John started from behing the BBQ grill. Matt flew straight into the pool while John jumped over the grill. Their timing was such that both guys hit the water at the same time with John hitting the water right behind Matt.

Click the photo to see a larger view.

Costumed Skiing at Eielson AFB

2010-08-22T12:16:00.000-07:00

Back in March, 1974, my dad added something to the annual Eielson Winter Carnival. It was called Crazy Costume Day and of course that meant that people would ski in costumes. Our mom made a lot of clothing and created costomes for most of the family. The entire Chapman can be seen here on a brilliant day in late March, 1974

Ralph the Moose

2010-08-22T12:11:00.000-07:00

Lastertimeago I lived on Eielson AFB, just south of Fairbanks, Alaska. It was extremely cold and extremely snowy one winter. The moose could handle the cold just fine, but the snow was so deep in the hills above the base, this young moose wandered into base housing. Ralph would wander the neighborhood eating willow and loking for handouts and he would sleep right next to the house. Here is standing by our house in one of his bedding areas.

Lastertimeago in a Galaxy Far Far Away

2010-08-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

Back in 1977 or 1978, I can’t really remember which year it was, my buddy Kyle was driving my other buddy, Matt, and me from Seward, Alaska to Fairbanks. Well, we never made it.

We limped into Anchorage with a busted water pump. Kyle was a good mechanic and had things figured out quickly, but the auto parts store would not have the new water pump in stock for several hours. Wanting to kill a few hours, we saw a movie theater advertising Star Wars.

Living in Seward, with little TV or news, we had heard about Star Wars, but didn’t know much about it. So we decided to check it out. We were absolutely amazed with the story and the special effects.

So just yesterday I was flipping through the cable channels and saw Star Wars playing on one. It was right when the Death Star blew up Alderaan. Watching the death ray hit the planet, the globe instantly exploded with fire and sparks everywhere. Later in the movie, the X-wing and TIE fighters were lighting things up.

It then occurred to me that the special effects that Kyle, Matt and I enjoyed so much in that Anchorage movie theater were playing to our senses, but many were just not possible in reality. If we had been observing the real deal, we would not have heard and seen what we heard and saw.

Think about it. What makes sound travel? In order for sound waves to make it from a source to an ear drum, there has to be a medium through which to travel. Air molecules are one and water is another. Space has nothing like that. So the tremendous explosions we heard in Star Wars could have not been heard in reality.

How about the excellent explosions in space? Fire needs oxygen to burn. Although there may have been a bit of oxygen inside a vessel as it got hit and explode, the monster explosions were most likely gross exaggerations.

Getting back to X-wind fighters, just what were the wings for? The things were not flying through air so no wings were needed. Instead, any space ship would have a series of nozzles on different parts of that would fire and cause turning and other movement.

Star Wars was not the only movie or series of movies to exaggerate things for effect, but it was one of the first to do a really, really great job of it.

Spock’s Beard

2010-08-10T11:37:00.000-07:00

Does anyone besides me remember the episode of the original Star Trek involving an alternate universe? The characters were all the same people, but they were evil. In that episode, the evil Spock had a beard and he looked pretty cool.

What is interesting to me is a progressive rock band called Spock’s Beard. One of the band’s founders, Alan Morse, came up with that name after a pretty wild party as a joke, referencing the Star Trek episode. It surprised him when the band went with the name.

Xobni is Great With Outlook

2010-08-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

Xobni, inbox spelled backwards, is a great little utility I have been using. Once downloaded, Xobni indexes all of your emails. When they have all been indexed, you can use Xobni.

One feature I like is one that allows you to see ongoing email conversations without having to go from one email to the next. Instead, Xobni has a dialogue looking something like this:

You can quickly look up a contact and see a list of email messages without looking in Outlook. Xobni will list the subject line and date. Xobni will display part of the message and you can click to read the whole thing. You can also respond to or just email the contact from this screen.

My favorite feature of Xobni I really like a lot is having the ability to find email messages. If I am trying to locate a message from Phil in which he wrote the name and contact information for somebody, I can type in that contact's name and Xobni will find that message. The name doesn't even have to be in the subject line, just somewhere in the body of the message.

The free version of Xobni just indexes your primary .pts file, but if you upgrade it will index all .pst files and give you more features. Click to learn more or to download Xobni.

Heat, Water and Wasps

2010-08-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

The image to the left isn't the best, but it is a wasp in my rosemary. Yesterday was the hottest day of the summer this year. It got up to around 101 degrees at my house. That wasps nothing like last summer when temperatures were frequently 101 to 106.

At temperatures like that, many plants shut down. My Coral Honeysuckle, Mexican Heather and Zoisia grass transfer the water inside them to the roots so it doesn't evaporate. That leads to a lot of wilting and skinny leaves.

I was out putting some water on a few plants and suddenly there were wasps and Yellow Jackets all around. They sensed the water and came to drink. The little insects were buzzing all around me but had no interest at all in me. They were just thirsty.

Breakfast Tacos and BBQ at the Smoke Shack

2010-07-26T07:03:00.000-07:00

Around a month or so ago I noticed signs for BBQ almost right next to the Fire Rescue Station at the corner of 620 and General Williamson. Also advertised were breakfast tacos.

I had run to the convenience store at the corner of 620 and Hudson Bend a number of times over the last several years for breakfast tacos. It is close to my neighborhood, Apache Shores, and the tacos are relatively inexpensive. This morning I passed that on the way back from the bank at Four Points and stopped by the Smoke Shack.

James, the proprietor, quickly cooked eggs and mixed them with potatoes, brisket and cheese. $2.50 later I sat at the little table under the burnt orange pop-up canopy and chowed down. The breakfast taco was not just good, it was huge. I couldn’t keep food from falling out of the flour tortilla.

James told me that he had been at the location for just 7 weeks. He offers breakfast tacos primarily because he is there early to prepare the barbeque for lunch and dinner. Offering breakfast just makes sense since he is there early anyway. I'll have to go back in the afternoon one day this week and sample the barbeque.

No offense to the folks at the place at 620 and Hudson Bend, but I think I will go to the Smoke Shack from now on whenever I have an urge for a breakfast taco.

Places I've Been

2010-07-24T14:30:00.000-07:00

The top of Mt. Evans, Colorado on the 60s.

Niagra Falls in the 1960s.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park in the 60s.

Codornices Park in California in the 1960s.

The famous Watson Lake sign posts at Watson Lake, Youkon Territory, Canada.

Portage Lake ice chunks that fell off Portage Glacier in Alaska.

The South Rim Trail at Big Bend National Park in 1979.

Me crossing a stream from melting snow on Mt. Marathon in Seward, Alaska in July of 1980.

Seward, Alaska.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado.

I wish I had a scanner for slides as I have many other images I would love to post.

Photos Around Austin

2010-07-24T13:50:00.001-07:00

Sunset over Lake Travis.

Lake Austin homes.

The Austin Country Club golf course on Lake Austin.

A huge home overlooking Lake Travis.

The top of the Frost Bank tower downtown.

The view looking southwest from Mt. Bonnell in north central Austin.

One of the chutes at Pedernales Falls State Park.

9-11 and the American Flag

2010-07-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

I remember lastertimeago when the World Trade Center towers went down. I was watching the news before going to Lake Travis Elementary School to substitute teach and was absolutely shocked to see the events as they unfolded. The schools were pretty freaked out and did not want to tell the kids what had happened. They wanted that to happen at home.

The image of the burning and later the collapsing towers was stuck in my mind for days after the horrible attack happened. I kept thinking that I needed to do something in honor of those who lost their lives and to show my support for our great country. Then an idea came to me.

I lived in a house with a large, flat roof. I had the idea of painting a huge American flag on the roof, but I could not find a design. I looked all over the place and could not find dimensions for an American flag. Then one day the design for the flag appeared in the Austin American Statesman. I took the dimensions and calculated what they would be for an American flag that was 40 feet long. The result is what you see above.

I painted that flag in October of 2001 and it is still there. I no longer live in the house, but drive by on occassion to look at the flag. If you do an internet map search for 902 Challenger, Austin, TX (or Lakeway, TX) 78734, you will see the American flag on the roof from a satellite or aerial photo. Click any of the images above to see them enlarged.

Andy Erickson – MVP of Texas HS Football All Star Game

2010-07-23T14:22:00.000-07:00

If Superman played football, his alias wouldn’t be Clark Kent. It would be Andy Erickson. Not knowing the 2010 Texas High School All Star game was on TV, I happened to stumble on it this afternoon late in the third quarter. Not only did Erickson play, he played well enough to be named the offensive MVP.

Because I have a daughter at Lake Travis High School, I was listening for Lake Travis names. Andy Erickson’s name came up a lot. He had an incredible game. Erickson returned a punt 73 yards for a touchdown. He returned a kick-off 96 yards for a TD and later caught a pass for a touchdown.

If that wasn’t amazing enough, Erickson did something that most offensive players will never do. After the North scored late in the 4th quarter, Erickson dropped back to return an extra point if it was short, but it turned out that the North was going for 2. The Quarterback for the North threw a pass and Erickson jumped the route and intercepted the ball.

Erickson had an incredible career at Lake Travis High School and he isn’t a particularly big guy. The stats I just found list him as 5 feet, 10 inches tall and coming in at 175 pounds. So he isn’t big, but he has lightening quickness and great vision. Erickson is going to Rice for college and there isn’t much doubt that we will see him on the football field.

The Claw

2010-07-22T07:38:00.000-07:00

My younger brothers and I have been doing “the claw” for many years, but I had no idea how far back it went until I saw an old photograph. First, what is the claw?

Most people will raise a hand and wave it from side to side as a greeting or to wave goodbye. Dad simply raised a hand and left it in a stationary position, but his hand always looked a bit odd.

Dad had a cut on his pinkie when ye was young. As it healed, a tendon was shortened and that finger can never be held straight. The result is like the photo above (click it to enlarge) – the hand looks like it is clawing at something. Hence, the claw.

Now that we are older and have kids, our kids, Dad’s grandkids, do the claw whenever Grandpa leaves after a visit. We all stand, hold up the claw and grin from ear to ear. The funny thing is that Dad never made the connection between his wave and our claws.

One of my younger brothers finally told Dad about the claw a few months ago, explaining that isn’t a way of poking fun, but something endearing. Dad loved it and now looks for the claw.

Getting back to how long we have been doing the claw, check out the photograph above. Coming over my uncle’s shoulder is my hand – the claw.

Skiing in Alaska

2010-07-19T12:50:00.000-07:00

Lastertimeago I used to ski on a little ski hill on Eielson AFB, Alaska. Learning to ski there was great because it was so gentle. As kids, my brothers and sister and I were able to develop good technique fairly quickly. However, after getting pretty good at skiing, the hill became pretty boring.

So some of us started making trails through the woods and building jumps. Some of the kids got pretty good at trick jumps and some were caught on film. Having left Eielson in 1974, I did not have access to most of the photos and I really got curious one day and searched for Alaska ski areas.

A really interesting site came up called the Alaska Lost Ski Area Project - http://www.blogger.com/www.alsap.org/. I was amazed to see photos of some of the guys I used to ski with. Thanks to that site I was able to get in touch with a brother of two of the kids I used to ski with and that reconnection was great.

I was also to send in some photos I had scanned and found with great pleasure that they were posted in no time. The shot above is me when I was around age 15 or 16. I also sent in some information about my family’s experience skiing at the Eielson ski hill and some corrections about the vertical drop.

Skiing lastertimeago was loads of fun and seeing the ASLAP site was awesome.

Stormpulse - A Very Cool Website for Tracking Hurricanes

2010-07-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

If you are a weather nut or someone who owns property or has a business anywhere that can be affected by hurricanes or tropical systems, you will want to know about Stormpulse. The website gets data from the National Hurricane Center, various satellites, NASA and various other sources and combines them.

When you go to Stormpulse, you will see a tracking map for the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico if there are any tropical disturbances, storms of hurricanes and they will be identified on the map. You can click a button to get forecast models for possible storm tracks, for cloud cover and for radar if the system is close enough to land.

If you click on the story, you can then hover over a city and get a distance in miles from the center of the storm to the city. There is also a zoom feature that will take you closer in and there is a description of the system that talks about the probability of it becoming a cyclone.

Another great resource is the Atlantic and Caribbean Tropical Satellite Imagery from NOAA. When you go there you will see images you can click on for various hurricane satellite sectors. Once at the desired sector you can click on still images or java and flash loops of visible, shortwave or water vapor.

July and August, 2010 Planetary Conjunction

2010-07-13T09:50:00.001-07:00

Throughout July, 2010, the moon, several planets and a bright star will be in conjunction. The planets are Venus, Saturn, Mars and Mercury. The star is Regulus and the moon will also be involved in this celestial dance. A conjunction occurs when heavenly bodies are in a close alignment in the night sky.

Through July 15 right at dusk, observers should be able to see be a faint Mercury. Somewhat higher and appearing very bright will be Venus. Above and slightly to the left, Mars and Saturn will be visible. Each night the moon will appear slightly higher in the sky moving through this conjunction.

The nicest viewing should be on August 13, when the crescent moon will appear. With so much of the moon being in the shadow of the earth, this should make for a very special photo opportunity.

I took the photo above on December 28, 2008. Below and to the right of the moon are Jupiter and Mercury. The conjunctions of July and August, 2010 should be much nicer than what you see above.

George Steinbrenner Dead at Age 80

2010-07-13T08:05:00.000-07:00

Just over an hour ago, George Steinbrenner died of a massive heart attack.

Love him or hate him, Steinbrenner took the New York Yankees to places only dreamed of by other major league baseball team owners. Steinbrenner bought the Yankees in 1973 for just under $9 million. He took what had become a mediocre team at best and built it into a championship team

Steinbrenner paid top dollar for big time players like Reggie Jackson, Ron Guidry, Don Mattingly and in later years Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Roger Clemens. The franchise, under Steinbrenner’s ownership, the Yankees were ALC champs 11 times and they were world champions 7 times.

Steinbrenner was an interesting man. One side of him was very generous and charitable. Another side showed a fierce temper. He seemed to change managers as fast as some people change socks. He hired and fired 12 different managers. Billy Martin, another colorful character, was fired 5 different times.

Under Steinbrenner’s leadership, the Yankees became the most highly valued team in baseball. Forbes estimates that the Yankees franchise to be worth around $1.6 billion. Steinbrenner will be missed by many.

Temperature Inversions at Eielson AFB

2010-07-12T12:03:00.000-07:00

Lastertimeago while at Eielson AFB in Alaska, I saw amazing things that had absolutely nothing to do with the Air Force base we were on. These included extreme cold, the northern lights, loads of wildlife and a lot of amazing scenery. One of the more interesting things was the temperature inversion

When it got cold, and I mean really cold, our area often developed a temperature inversion. Temperature inversions form when the air aloft is warmer than the air at the surface. The layer of air often was fairly shallow. When riding up the ski lift we could feel the temperature change just 200 or so feet up. We might go from 15 below at the bottom of the hill to around 0-10 above degrees at the top.

These temperature inversions produced a pretty interesting phenomenon that played tricks on the eye. Denali, known back then as Mt. McKinley was not visible from Eielson. Even at over 20,000 feet high, the mountain was just far enough away so that we could not see it. However, during a temperature inversion, we could sometimes see Denali from the ski slope on the base.

The temperature inversion acted sort of like a prism, bending the light so that objects from afar looked closer. The mountain even looked larger than it should have. This was basically what most people know of as a mirage. Many people have seen mirages on hot surfaces like a highway or the sands of the desert. What many people don’t know is that some of the more interesting mirages can come from temperature inversions.

These mirages not only gave us the ability to see objects too far to normally be seen, but in addition to that and magnifying the image, a temperature inversion mirage could cause the image to be inverted. Imagine seeing a huge mountain, looking very close by, but upside-down.

Now temperature inversions were not just kind of fun, they could also be dangerous. With a lid effectively placed on the cold layer of air, exhaust from automobiles had nowhere to go, causing air pollution. The water from automobile exhaust was also trapped and we had extremely dense ice fog at times. The only way for this to clear was to have a weather change to break the inversion and that involved wind to clear us out.

Temperature inversions – one of the more interesting things about Alaskan winters.

Eielson AFB, Alaska and Some Cool Jets

2010-07-12T11:59:00.000-07:00

My dad was stationed at Eielson AFB between 1070 and 1974. Moving from San Antonio to the middle of Alaska was an adventure, but the trip getting there was just the beginning. As a kid, I saw some absolutely amazing things while in Alaska.

Cold. Yes, cold. Not just cold, but extreme cold. The winters in the interior of Alaska just south of the Arctic Circle were extremely cold. By extreme, I am talking about temperatures down to minus 60 degrees. In fact, the coldest it got when we were there was 64 degrees below zero. We experienced one stretch that had us waking up to temperatures of minus 50 every morning for two weeks straight. It warmed up during the day – perhaps to minus 40 0r 45.

The extreme cold was great for the Air Force. As a pilot in the Air Force could theoretically go down just about anywhere, pilots needed to know how to survive regardless of weather conditions. Eielson’s location made it the perfect location for the Air Force’s arctic survival training school. Pilots would have to find a way to survive outdoors for three days.

The cold weather was also great for testing new aircraft. I remember when the F-15 was brought to Eielson for cold weather testing. I think it set a time-to-climb record that winter. The engines on the F-15 were so powerful, they could get the fighter jet into the air and ballistic very quickly. The F-15 was capable of attaining an altitude of 90,000 feet in just over 3 minutes after starting to roll on take-off.

Speaking of aircraft, from what I remember, Eielson’s most numerous airplanes were the KC-135’s. There were fighters, but the flying gas station was the main one. The KC-135-s would refuel aircraft from other bases on missions we could only guess about.

We saw some, or actually heard rumors of, other very cool aircraft while at Eielson. The SR-71 was known to take off and land from Eielson’s long runway. The U-2 was known to have been there as well. Being so far north and close to the USSR, Eielson was the perfect staging place for high altitude photographic missions.

Another interesting aircraft we saw quite frequently was the RC-135. The RC-135 basically had the frame of a modified Boeing 707, just as the KC-135 did. It had a very large nose that carried sophisticated reconnaissance equipment. There was probably additional reconnaissance equipment on board, but we could only guess as to that.

To stay current and because he just loved flying, dad would go on many flights on both the tankers and the RC-135s. He never told us where he went because that information was classified, but we knew where he was going.

Coll stuff!

California Values Money Over Safety – Digital License Plates?

2010-07-07T13:44:00.001-07:00

Many of us know several things about California. It is a beautiful state, it has loads of high tech, it is prone to some powerful earthquakes, it leans to the left and it is broke. So what are the boneheads in the California government considering doing to raise more money for the state? They want to go with digital license plates.

The idea is to have license plates that digitally display the legal information needed to ID the car, but to turn that same space into digital ads when the vehicle is stopped. OK, I get it – we’re not distracted enough by phones, putting on make-up, reading while driving and texting so now California wants to have us looking at ads rather than the traffic light or the people coming at us from either side.

Simply brilliant!

Record Heat in the Northeast Caused by Man?

2010-07-07T10:54:00.000-07:00

The heat has been unbearable in the northeast lately. Temperatures have been in excess of 100 degrees in places like Boston, Philadelphia, New York City and Washington D.C. I remember living on the coast of New Hampshire around 50 miles north of Boston and anything greater than 80 seemed excessive, especially considering the area’s high humidity. With many homes not having air conditioning, this kind of heat is brutal.

Many people are probably pointing at global warming as the cause of this record heat. But do these same people not remember how unusually cool it was in much of the northeast last summer? Temperatures in these cities should be in the 80s this time of year and that can be pretty tolerable, but 90 to 100 and above is miserable.

I have a theory regarding why the cities are hotter than more rural areas. I don’t attribute it to global warming, but to what I call simple heat retention. All the pavement, concrete and steel in the big cities soaks up the radiation from the sum during the day. Unlike rural areas that have a lot more greenery, this heat is retained better in the cities. Because of this, nighttime temperatures are warmer than in the rural areas. If the temperature starts out around 80 rather than the high 60s like in rural settings, the daytime temperature is likely to be higher.

So can anything be done this heat build-up? It is doubtful that the cities can build more parks and plant more trees to offset all the blacktop, but there is another way. I think cities should encourage any new construction to have green roofs. By green, I mean plants. Rooftop gardens can be very effective in insulating a building and they will not absorb the heat from the sun like pavement will. Some buildings may already be a good fit for a retrofit and designing green roofs for new construction is pretty simple.

Back to the record heat… People need to find ways to stay cool and remain hydrated and then just wait for things to cool off.

Power from the Gulf Stream – Getting Current from Current

2010-07-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

The Gulf Stream is a huge underwater current that moves from the southern tip of Florida up the east coast of the United States and then past Canada. Basically, it is a giant underwater river.

People have been harnessing power from rivers by building dams with hydroelectric generating plants for many years, but nobody has taken the Gulf of Mexico seriously until fairly recently. In theory it sounds very intriguing. Someone builds a large turbine with fanlike blades that turn as the current from the Gulf Stream flows through it. The energy from the current of the water is used to generate electrical current. The electricity is transmitted through cables to the power grid on land and into homes and businesses.

Gulf Stream Turbines LLC already has plans for a turbine. The turbine would need to be anchored in such a way that it would be not only held in place, but also deep enough so ships would not hit it. It would also need to go into military databases so submarines would not hit it.

Giant windmill farms have been proposed off shore in the Gulf of Mexico. There is usually a breeze and the windmills would not be the eyesore they are on land. However, hurricanes could be a threat and the wind isn’t always blowing at an optimum speed.

Turbines off the coast of Florida would be in a place at which the current is constant and predictable. Being offshore, they would not take up valuable real estate on land. After generating and selling enough electricity to pay for themselves, ongoing expenses would be minimal. This would be the closest thing to free energy that we have seen. No hydrocarbons would be burned, no C02 would be emitted. Environmentalists should love these things.

After several of years of testing, designs will probably be modified to maximize efficiency. Another great thing about developing Gulf Stream electricity farms would be that they would put people back to work.

2010 Hurrcane Season May Bring Big Trouble

2010-07-07T08:23:00.000-07:00

The Hurricane forecast from Colorado State University has been out for a while and it calls for a higher than normal season. The forecast made back in December called for 11-16 named storms, 6-8 hurricanes with 3-5 becoming major hurricanes.

The NOAA forecast released in May called for a very active and potentially dangerous 2010 hurricane season. It called for 14-23 named storms, 8-14 hurricanes with 3-7 of those being major hurricanes. These are huge numbers. NOAA is thinking that a dissipating El Nino will result in less wind shear. Wind shear tends to rip the top off of developing storms, causing them to not develop or weaken if they have already become sub-tropical systems.

We have already seen Hurricane Alex, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico in June. The system dropped very heavy rain over Mexico and pulled a lot of moisture into Texas. Much of Texas got quite a bit of rain for several days even after Alex died out.

Alex, although not a very strong hurricane, was a very large system. It caused heavy rain from northern Mexico all the way to the central Gulf coast states. The rain was accompanied by enough wind to wreak havoc on efforts to clean up the Deep Water Horizon oil spill.

Now we have another system developing in the same area Alex developed in. However, it is unlikely that this system will pack the same punch Alex did. This one looks to follow a path similar to that of Alex and will most likely result in more flooding rains for Mexico and possibly for south Texas.

With such huge numbers in both hurricane forecasts, anyone on the east coast of the Gulf coast should be nervous. We potentially could have another Andrew, Katrina or Ike and depending on where a major storm makes landfall, we could see a major disaster. We could even see something forecasters have talked about – a storm actually hitting New York City.

The last major hurricane that hit New York City was in 1938 and it dropped around 11 inches of rain over a huge area. If you understand the mechanics of a hurricane and the geography of the New York City area you can quickly figure out how bad things could get.

When a hurricane makes landfall, the wind howls from the northwest. Depending on the path it took, a hurricane hitting New York City, the wind could push a tremendous tidal surge into the Long Island Sound. Much of the area is just above sea level and flooding could be extreme. The population density is so great, evacuation could be an absolute mess if people don’t start leaving days before the storm hit and how many would actually take the threat seriously several days in advance?

The U.S. has seen major hurricanes make landfall in a variety of places. The most recent bad memories are from Rita, Ike and Katrina, but it wasn’t that long ago that we saw Andrew. We have seen 32 category 5 hurricanes since 1024 and we may see another one or two this season.

The best advice for anyone close enough to a coastline to be affected? Don’t wait until the last minute to stock up on supplies and keep an eye on the weather. Have an evacuation plan and timeline. Do not try to ride a storm out.

My Space Timeline

2010-07-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

My dad was a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force and he loved all things about flying and about space. We used to go outside at night and look for “echoes.” Echo 1 was a communication satellite launched in 1960. As small kids we could not really make sense of a communication satellite so we called everything we saw moving through the sky an echo.

What I really remember as a kid were the Apollo missions. Dad would gather everyone around the TV to watch the launch, reporting during the mission and the splashdowns. He even had us take a tour of Mission Control in Houston one summer. That may or may not have been a hard thing to arrange, but we sure thought we were special! The Apollo 13 mission, which many people know about because of the movie Ron Howard made in 1995, was something we watched very closely.

I remember the Apollo I mission that had the disastrous flash fire in the cockpit that killed Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. That would not be the last terrible event associated with the space program, but it was etched into my memory. The only events more memorable were the explosion of the Challenger in 1986 and the disintegration of the Columbia in 2003. With modern television and more channels than ever, we saw those over and over and over again.

Back to what I remember… Fast forwarding from my looking for echoes days. Dad retired from the Air Force in the late 70s and moved out into the country setting northwest of San Antonio. The interesting thing about the location was that jets from Kelly Air Force Base would fly over the house quite often. One of the coolest sights was watching the C-5 Galaxy, the largest airplane in the world fly over.
Knowing we were in the flight path for Kelly, we watched with great interest when the Space Shuttle landed in California. We were fascinated by this because that would mean it would fly into Kelly on mounted on the top of a 747 on its way back to Florida. That was a very cool sight when it flew over.

There were a couple other things I was able to see that completely fascinated me in later years. One was watching one of the Space Shuttles re-enter the atmosphere over Austin. I was in a park and there were no street lights. Many people were out anticipating watching the re-entry and there was hardly a light on in any house that backed to the park.

Suddenly from the west I saw a brilliantly white plasma trail. The trail wasn’t directly overhead, but it was high in the night sky. The Shuttle could not be seen, but the trail seemed enormous and glowed for several seconds after it went over the area. I probably watched the trail cover up to around 90 degrees of the sky. The oohs and aahs heard from people out watching were pretty loud.

The last thing I saw involving the space program that really impressed me a lot was the International Space Station (ISS). I know of a NASA website I could go to in order to find dates and times for both the ISS and the Shuttle to be visible. I went out into the driveway one evening not long after sunset and there it was. The ISS had two very large solar panel “wings” added and unfurled during this mission and it made the Space Station the 5th brightest object in the sky.

What I saw next baffled me until I read about it in the newspaper the next day. Running slightly behind the ISS was a smaller object taking the same path as the ISS. It was actually the Space Shuttle on its approach.

Planes, satellites and space stations may not do much for many people, but looking up in the night sky and seeing a small speck that was built by man and that has people actually inside it to me is pretty cool.

Americans Who Don’t Know History

2010-07-05T10:25:00.000-07:00

According to a recent poll, 26% of Americans do not know that the U.S. gained our Independence from Great Britain.

OK, just how ignorant are we? Or maybe the question should be how badly are we teaching our children? There was a survey in late June of just over 1,000 Americans ages 18 and older by Marist. Marist thinks the poll is accurate to plus or minus 3%.

Some of the people who answered the question may not have been citizens of this country and some may have been educated somewhere else. But so what? Part of the test people take in order to become U.S. citizens asks what the Deceleration of Independence did. The multiple choice answers sort of give that away.

Now I can’t claim to be the smartest person around, but it seems to me that is just plain silly not to know what country the U.S. declared its independence from in 1776.

My Turk's Cap and Hummingbird Bush

2010-07-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

I have a couple of native Texas shrubs in my yard that attract wildlife, specifically butterflies and hummingbirds. One plant is called Turk’s Cap. When you look at a photograph of a bloom, that name makes sense (click the photo to enlarge it). The other is the Flame Acanthus, also nicknamed the hummingbird bush. Hummingbirds do not linger when I go out so I have never managed to photograph them, but butterflies don’t seem to be bothered by have me standing near by.

The second photo shows the butterfly on a Turk’s Cap bloom again and you can see the Flame Acanthus blooms in the background. They are long and look almost like the trumpets of old.

Both of these shrubs do very well in bad soil and with little water and love the heat. They didn’t bloom this year until the middle of June when the temperature started hitting the mid 90s consistently. They usually bloom all summer and the blooms start to die out when we get our first frost.

New iPhone Has Consumers iRate

2010-07-01T09:12:00.001-07:00

Oh what has Apple done? The iPhone 4 was flying off the shelves when first released, but now there are a lot of unhappy and even irate owners of the new device. Apparently, the phone loses signal and drops calls if the user holds it incorrectly.

Incorrectly? How can one hold a phone incorrectly? The Apple device apparently has two antennas that connect on the outer band of the phone. If a finger touches the band, the signal degrades and the call may drop. Apple has been telling consumers to hold the phone in a different way. What a crock!

This sounds like a serious design flaw and it is amazing that Apple release the phone this way. I can’t imagine that a company as well respected as Apple would release a device without thorough product testing. Did they release it knowing about the problem? An attorney out of Houston think so and has filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple.

Apple does not at this time appear to have a free fix for the problem. They do have a rubber case available for $29.95 that will keep fingers off the antenna, but this doesn’t seem like a fair solution. Apple has had such a good reputation for other products and services, it is hard to believe that they will not come out with a free fix for this.

Giant Carnivorous Whale Fossil Found

2010-07-01T08:52:00.001-07:00

Can you imagine a monster of the sea almost 45 feet long and having 14 inch teeth? That is exactly what researchers found in ocean layers in Peru. The huge, carnivorous whale lived over 12 million years ago off the Peruvian coast.

The whale, which was actually a huge sperm whale, apparently preyed on smaller baleen whales. It would grab a smaller whale and crush it with its huge jaw before devouring the smaller creature. The fossil was found in an area where a fossilized giant shark was also found. Can you imagine sailing in a time when these two huge monsters roamed the sea?

The author of Moby Dick would proud as the scientists who found the fossil named it "Leviathan melvillei" in honor or Herman Melville

Drinking Beer May Help Prevent Osteoporosis

2010-07-01T08:26:00.000-07:00

OK, this is a new one on me, but I have been reading up on how some pale ale beers may help prevent osteoporosis. It seems that these lighter colored beers are brewed with more hops than the darker varieties. Hops contains a high amount of silicone and the kind of silicon in the beer is quite absorbable by the body and it is this silicon that appears to strengthen bones.

India Pale Ale (IPA) seems to be the clear winner in regards to silicon content. Does this mean that woman, some of whom do not like the taste of beer, should acquire a taste for the stuff? One a day is what seems to be the right amount, but just as indulging in anything, too much can be bad for a person’s health.

A question I have not seen in any of the articles of hoppy beer being good for bone density is regarding the lifestyles of the women studied. If they are beer drinkers, what else may they be doing or ingesting that may also help increase bond density? In any case, I doubt that drinking an IPA a day will harm most women.

Portsmouth High School Clipper Marching Brass 1976 Field Show

2010-06-30T14:36:00.000-07:00

Lastertimeago I was in an absolutely awesome high school band in Portsmouth, NH. I was in a marching band in high school that we called the Portsmouth High School Clipper Marching Brass. We were more like a drum & bugle corps than a marching band. We had an assistant director, Warren Muchemore, who choreographed and arranged music for some absolutely amazing field shows.

For the March Brass, all woodwinds except flutes were traded in for brass or colorguard spots. The flutes just changed to piccolos. We must have had 240 kids in the band and colorguard for my 1975/1976 school year. The sound we produced was amazing and the shows got standing ovations everywhere we went. We had a magnificant colorguard. The rifles didn't have a drop in any competition all year.

Our band was selected to represent the state of New Hampshire in a competition that pitted one band from each of the original 13 colonies against each other in Allentown, PA. What an experience that was! We took second in the field show competition, losing by a very narrow margin to a band from Valdosta, GA. What follows is part of that competition’s field show.

Pay attention to the third video. The little band that breaks off is a distraction while the rest of the band and colorguard form a train. Flags are on the side rods connecting the wheels. Four rifles frame a cymbal up front immitating a headlight. The tall tympani player has a fire extinguisher hooked to his back. Another person shoots burstsw to make the bass drum look like a smoke stack. Pretty creative stuff!

The guy who put this together did some amazing work. He found old movies and old recordings and somehow put them together. The entire almost 12-minute show is broken up into four pieces and is on youtube.

Anybody with half a clue about music should be impressed by this. Anyone in a high school marching band should too. Enjoy!

Five Tips For Your Car

2010-06-30T08:10:00.000-07:00

Get unstuck at the beach – take your floor mats and shove them under the tires that are looking for traction. Start driving and when you get going, don’t stop until you get to a place you are confident you won’t get stuck in. Walk back, pick up and dust off your mats and you’re good to go.

Make your car spotless after washing it – Jet Dry, the stuff you use in the dishwasher is great stuff for a car. After washing the car, put a little Jet Dry and some water in a sprayer and spray it all over the car. Do a quick rinse and the car will be almost spotless. You may want to towel off windows, but the rest of the car will look great.

Improve gas mileage and keep fuel injectors clean – use Marvel Mystery Oil as directed on the container. I have been using the stuff for a long time and noticed an improvement in engine performance right away. I keep a bottle in the back of the car and pull it out every time I get gas.

Keep ice off your windshield - If you park outside and expect ice to accumulate on your windshield, turn your windshield wipers on and then shut off the engine so the wiper blades are half way across the glass. Take your floor mats and place them under the wiper blades with the rubber side up. When you get back to your car, remove the floor mats, smack them on the bumper to knock the ice off and you're good to go. Now you won't have to use an ice scraper for as much of the windshield.

Keep your windshield clear during rain - use Rain X, the stuff really works. It contains polymers that fill tiny pores in the glass and that doesn't allow rain water in. The result is water that literally beads off the windshield. It makes the wiper blades more efficient as well. Rain X will not come off with soap and water and depending on conditions. one application can last up to around 90 days. Hint - use if for the rear window as well.

A Real Flying Car

2010-06-30T06:52:00.000-07:00

Terrafugia is a company with a very unique product – a flying car. At an anticipated cost of $194,000, the Transition, as the car/plane is called, isn’t exactly inexpensive, but it might be a great novelty for some aviation enthusiasts.

With four wheels, just like a car, the Transition can fold its wings and drive on any road like any other automobile. This machine has two side-by-side seats and entry is like a car with doors on the sides. No hangar is needed as the Transition can park in a garage. It has a cargo bay that can hold golf clubs, groceries, skis and similar items.

For aviation enthusiasts, the Transition could be a hit. Weather is always a concern for private pilots. For owners of the Transition, they can drive until out of an area with storms and then unfold the wings and take off from any place they have permission to fly from.

Scoop'm-Out Potatoes

2010-06-29T12:29:00.000-07:00

These are a variation of baked potatoes or potato skins. Scoop’m-out potatoes are just plain fun to make and great to eat and kids absolutely love them. My daughter as a little kid really loved potatoes and she loved cheese. Trying to make cooking fun, I made her what I call scoop’m out potatoes. Here’s how:

Ingredients:

2 large potatoes
2 tablespoons sour cream
4 slices bacon
6 slices of American cheese
2 tablespoons butter
milk
onion powder
salt

Microwave the potatoes until done and let them rest for 5 minutes. While the spuds are baking, cook the bacon, drain the fat and set aside. Cut the potatoes in half and scoop the potato insides out, leaving enough attached to the skin so the skin isn’t soft and flimsy. Place the potato skins in a toaster oven and toast until crisp.

With the potato insides in a bowl, add 4 slices of American cheese and the 2 tablespoons of butter and mix until the cheese is melted and mixed completely into the potato. Add the sour cream, onion powder and salt to taste and blend in. The mixture should still be quite warm, but you can also heat the scoop’m outs more later. Crumble the bacon into bacon bits and set aside.

Place the potato skins on a cooking sheet and coat the inside with more butter. Fill the skins with the potato and cheese mixture. Top with enough cheese to almost cover the surface. Top with bacon bits and heat in the toaster oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

This recipe can be changed up by adding bits of chicken or burger to the potato and cheese mixture. Also, if you like a fun presentation you can place toothpicks in the scoop’m-outs and attach pieces of paper to make the potatoes look like sailboats. I’ve also added cooked broccoli to the top to make sure my daughter got her veggies. She always took the broccoli off and ate separately, but it sure added some nice color.

Household and Other Tips

2010-06-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

I have discovered over time some ways to take shortcuts or do things a bit differently around the house and in general and want to share them. Please read all the way through - my favorite is the last.

Clean a stinky garbage disposal – over time, anyone’s garbage disposal with get a little stinky and so will the pipe it drains into. Many people know that you can place ice in the disposal to clean it. When the ice gets ground up, the chips can dislodge bits of debris from the blades. Many people also know that if you drop lemon or orange peels in and grind them, it helps remove a bad odor. What I do is cut lemons up into ice cube size pieces and freeze them. I place a few in the disposal from time to time and grind them up. The disposal is clean and it actually smells good.

Keeping your dishwasher running – If you have hard water, the heating element can develop scale from the minerals in the water and this will lessen the efficiency and lifespan of the dishwasher. Every few months. Pour about half a cup of vinegar in between the rinse cycles. This will break down the scale and that will help keep your dishwasher in good shape.

Get back into a car you locked your keys in – today’s car keys have electronic chips in them and a car will not start without being able to recognize the chip that has been programmed specifically for a car. Go to a locksmith and get a metal key made. Put it in a magnetic hide-a-key. As soon as you close the door and realize your keys are locked inside, get the metal key and open the door. If a crook gets lucky enough to find your spare metal key, he can open the car, but it won’t start.

Unstick doors and windows in the summer – during hot and dry summers I have noticed that doors that don’t normally stick have trouble closing. My theory on this is that the soil under and around the foundation of my house is so dry the foundation actually sags a little. I soak an area that allows water to get back into the soil and the doors don’t stick any more. It should be a long, slow soak to allow water to actually penetrate deep down.

Extend the life of your water heater – people should know this already, but how many of us really do this? Anyone in an area that has hard water should understand that sediment from hard water can accumulate at the bottom of a water heater. If a heating element is low, it may get coated with the stuff. Everyone should flush the water out once a year. I have a water heater that I can’t get a hose screwed on to in order to let it drain. I open the valve and suck the water up with a shop vac and then dump it. You will know when to stop when the water is nice and clear.

2010 Relay For Life of Lake Travis

2010-06-29T11:16:00.000-07:00

I have been involved with the Relay For Life of Lake Travis for 8 years. The event is very popular for high school students and the goal of event organizers is to get more adults involved.

Relay For Life is the signature event of the American Cancer Society and is put together by one ACS staff partner and a whole bunch of volunteers from the community. We Relay to honor cancer survivors, the families and caregivers, to raise awareness of and educate people about cancer and to raise funds for research.

The event is held overnight, which is probably one reason the kids love it, and has traditionally been held at the Lake Travis High School track. This year we moved the event to the Hill Country Galleria Mall in the city of Bee Cave.

We had storms that looked to move in so we could not be outside. A couple of high school students who were on our planning committee talked the mall management into letting us use a middle level parking garage floor. It felt a bit strange at first being in a huge concrete structure, but it turned out very well.

People usually set up tents or canopies and take lawn chairs, sleeping blankets, games and food. This year we moved the event to the Hill country Galleria Mall in the city of Bee Cave and had to shorten it because of heavy rain that might have blown into the garage.

Cancer survivors and others on the track.

The Relay tent city under the lights. The photos are all from our 2006 Relay For Life of Lake Travis.

Dancing on Sharks at Qua

2010-06-29T11:06:00.000-07:00

Qua Bottle Lounge is a relatively new and very hip cocktail lounge in downtown Austin. There is not a cover charge to get in to Qua, but they do want a good quality clientele. Qua only allows people 21 and older in and they do ask that visitors wear business attire.

One of the most interesting things about Qua is the dance floor. It actually has live sharks swimming in it. The tank is made of concrete on four sides and it has a 3 inch acrylic top that makes up the dance floor. Qua has two species of shark that will not eat each other and from everything I hear and read, they take great care of the animals.

Some people may freak a bit about having caged sharks under a dance floor with loud music going on, but many are simply fascinated by the beasts beneath their feet.

If you’re visiting Austin and want to check Qua out, it is at 213 W. Fourth. You can make reservations by calling 512-479-AQUA.

North Pole Chamber of Commerce

2010-06-29T10:41:00.000-07:00

What, you ask? There is a Chamber of Commerce at the north pole? No, there is not, but there is one in the city of North Pole, Alaska. I lived in North Pole lastertimeago. I didn’t drive by the North Pole Chamber of Commerce often, but I did manage to snap a photo of it which I have scanned from a Kodak slide.

As you can see, the Chamber was a log cabin with a grass roof and it was a pretty cool looking place. Wondering what it looks like 32 years later, I did an internet search and found the the photo that follows online. I don't know if this is a newer cabin or if the old one has been rennovated. It is still a log cabin and still has a grass roof.

Kind of cool, don't you think?

So What’s the Huge Fascination with the World Cup?

2010-06-29T10:10:00.000-07:00

I, as many others, have been watching World Cup soccer matches almost like I would usually watch college football. People in the States have been packing bars and friends houses watching it also. People in countries like Brazil have been gathering at huge events to watch their beloved team kick the tar out of their competition. So why are people who normally don’t care about soccer so fascinated with the World Cup?

Soccer, really called Football by those in the know, is the most popular sport on the planet. Saying that people from Brazil, England, Chili, Japan and many countries take great pride in their teams is an understatement. The 2006 FIFA World Cup had more than 25 billion television viewers and over 700 million watching the final match between Italy and France. In the U.S. soccer isn’t hardly as popular, but we do watch the World Cup.

I think it is sort of like the Olympics. How often would people normally tune in to watch track and field, kayaking or women’s softball, which by the way has been removed from the summer games? There seems to be an excitement generated by something that happens only once every 4 years. There also seems to be excitement seeing teams from all over the world competing.

Watching soccer can be a bit like watching baseball. Lots of action, but not much in the way of scoring. It is also pretty amazing to see guys sprinting up and down the field for 90+ minutes. What excellent condition the players are in. Watching what these players do with their feet and heads is also pretty amazing for those of us who don’t usually watch soccer.

Will soccer grow in popularity in the States? With the U.S. team going relatively deep in the tournament before finally losing to Ghana, it might, but I doubt it will continue to grow after the dust settles. Many kids play soccer, but the sport seems to lose popularity as they get older. Basketball, baseball and football will most likely always rule in the U.S.