July 2018

Monday, July 30th/18 

As promised, here are some photos from family visiting here.  Also, a few from my flight to Sudbury from Toronto.

Lynne, brother Steve, and Emma-Lee in our living room.

 Momma bear and baby bear, with daddy bear jambon.

 Daddy bear having a nap.

 Emma-Lee with Mogollon and Gustav.

Spa day for Mogi! 

Departing Billy Bishop Airport in downtown Toronto.

 Partial view of downtown Toronto, shortly after take off.

 Clouds and Georgian Bay landscape from 24,000'.

 Smoke from Parry Sound Fire 33 rises between whiter clouds.  This very bad forest fire is still burning.

Thursday, July 27th/18

I'm back!  It's been a busy week of travel and visiting family.  Last Saturday I flew to Sudbury, arriving before 5 pm.  Lynne, my sister-in-law, and Alicia, my niece, picked me up at the airport and drove me to the Sudbury homestead.  I left Sudbury Monday at 7:30 pm, but missed my connecting flight to Windsor and had to overnight in Toronto.  However, I did get to meet up with Amanda for a late dinner in Toronto.  We met at a new vegan Mexican restaurant downtown, and the food was fabulous!  It was great to see Amanda again, and on her home turf.

In Sudbury we also ate out at a vegan Mexican restaurant.  Afterwards, I got to try a custom built, very powerful VR gaming system!!  Wow!  It was amazing!  I flew in a shuttle craft around the starship Enterprise, which was in dry dock in space.  Next I got to go to the moon with the Apollo 11 crew!  A fantastic program!!!  Now I have walked on the moon!!

I enjoyed a good visit with close family, including my parents, my aunt Pauline, Steve, Lynne, and Alicia, and very close cousin Cathy.  I had a most enjoyable time.  I got to spend several hours at Bay Used Books, and purchased about 30 books related to my recent reading and reviewing project.  Of course I could not fly home with that many books.  Steve and Lynne were coming down to visit, so they transported them for me.  On my final day before departing, I met up with my grade school best friend Darrell.  We had lunch and a great chat.  This was our second year in a row meeting up, after a lapse of about 50 years!!!!

On Wednesday of this week Steve, Lynne, and Emma Lee (now aged 9) arrived for their first visit here in 10 years (Lynne had been pregnant with Emma Lee at the time).  We enjoyed two dinners together, and they came here for a visit.  Emma Lee befriended one of our cats.  She is quite a charmer, and one of the smartest and prettiest young girls I have ever had the pleasure to know!  On my visit to Sudbury she had been with friends for a weekend sleepover, so I didn't get to meet her until they came to Windsor.

Now I am back to practicing, at last.  Tonight is a full moon celebration.  It's still touch and go as to whether we will see moonrise.

I happened to be reading the best book I have read in many years on my journey north.  It is an epic novel by Norman Spinrad called "Child of Fortune."  Unfortunately for Sudbury family, I could not put the book down when I was up there.  I just finished it Wednesday, and wish it had gone on for at least two more volumes.  It will resonate with me for the rest of my life, and I will surely read it again.  Photos are forthcoming....

Wednesday, July 18th/18

Summer teaching business is starting to pick up, after a very slow start.  Today I had four students, and next Wed. I already have 5 booked.  I am going to use the money for gas for our upcoming road trip to NM.

We enjoyed another fine night at the observatory last night.  Here are a few of Deb's early attempts at taking photos with her I-Phone through the eyepiece of her telescope...

 Oc 457 in Cassiopeia, sometimes called the Owl or Little Man cluster.

 A small Y-shaped star cluster near Gamma Cygni.

 Guess who?

 5-day old moon. The round dark area surrounded by craters is called Mare Fecunditatis.

Messier 11, an open cluster in Scutum.

The moon is now too bright to make evening observations worthwhile.  We are pretty tired from last night, anyway.  July was pretty good to us, with 5 good sessions.  Part of that is because we have had no rain since June 27th, and there has been plenty of sunshine.  No that dangerous temps have subsided for a time, we are ramping up the exercise program again.  We had a fine walk this evening, and hope to get back on the bicycles tomorrow morning.

Since we had to cut down a large maple tree in our front yard last year, we have been able to witness all the sunsets leading up to summer solstice, and now moving away from it.  It's been nearly a month since the solstice, and the sun is now setting quite a bit earlier, and certainly further south.  By the time the August new moon astronomy session begins, we should be able to begin observing a lot earlier.  It isn't really dark until past 10:30 pm right now, meaning that very late nights are unavoidable.

Monday, July 16th/18 

Our best chance of rain was today, and it has passed uneventfully.  There were scattered storms around us, but none had our number.  The last measurable rainfall here at the Homestead was June 27th.  That's 20 days ago.  Normally not too bad, but verging on desperate.  However, it has been extremely hot and sunny, and that has sucked moisture from the ground, leaving it parched as if it had never rained.  Our next chance for rain is on the 20th.  Good luck with that. 

Caroline's report from London is similar.  England is having severe grass fires, even within the boundaries of London.  Less heat and some significant rainfall would be nice.

Sunday, July 15th/18

I talked to Dad today.  He turned 87 yesterday.  He was watching World Cup Soccer.  It was a very quiet celebration.  Hopefully I can liven things up a bit next weekend when I visit!  He is reading a lot.  Sudbury is also having a major hot spell, though a little less intense than ours.  This weekend we added two more days that reached 90 F or higher, making a total of 8 for July, 8 in June, and 4 in May.  I can never remember that many hot days before, and it is still early in summer.  Incidentally, 90 F is 32.2 C.  That does not factor in the humidity, which frequently makes it feel like it's 40 C or above.  Brutal weather, though we have plenty of indoor activities to occupy us.  A cooler period is on its way, and I fervently hope that when I visit Sudbury it might actually be cold at night!

Deb has finished another short film, one of her best yet.  It should soon be uploaded to her site for public viewing, and I'm certain it will get plenty of festival showings, and quite likely some awards.  Meanwhile, we are still waiting to hear from Cincinnati to see if we are being granted free hotel rooms.  Her Alice film is showing there next month, in a segment entitled "Off Kilter films," as part of their main festival. 

The nights have been very warm.  It is currently clear, so we might be heading back to Hallam again.  I should be able to post a few of Deb's astro photos tomorrow.  If I forget, remind me.

Saturday, July 14th/18 

With four clear nights logged for this observing session, I'd have to say it was a good one.  Getting four good nights out of a possible 14 is not that easy to do anymore.  But that means days of sleep disruption due to body clock shifts.  We've been getting to bed around 3 am instead of midnight.  The effects are the same as those of jet lag.  In fact, we do better with 5 or 6 hours of jet lag, thanks to our program we use.  No such program exists for astronomy.  Deb is using her I-Phone with a special adaptor to take photos through the eyepiece of her telescope.  There is a learning curve, but after two nights practice she is getting some nice results.

Piano practice is on-going, with memorization plodding along.  If you only knew.  So far I have one Haydn sonata and one Bach prelude memorized. or about 10% of the program.  Reading continues to be loads of fun.  I am now reading Silverberg's follow up stories to Gilgamesh the King.  He won the Nebula Award for the first of three short sequels he wrote, as Gilgamesh and Enkidu wander around the Outback of Hell.  Great stuff!

We are watching many series and movies on Prime.  We just finished season 4 of  Mozart In the Jungle, and are nearly done with Tokyo Girl.  Tonight we watched Sanjuro, Kurosawa's follow up masterpiece to Yojimbo.  In wide screen it is just too amazing for words!  Kurosawa's humour is in full bloom in this samurai movie, headed by Toshiro Mifune.  Enough said.  Last night we watched an Indian/Canadian film called Amal, concerning a mini-taxi driver in Delhi, who might just be the genuine honest man.  An unforgettable little masterpiece.

Monday, July 9th/18 

Back into the 90s today.  This will be the 6th day of July for such an event.  Last Friday was a lovely day, reminiscent of what an entire summer used to be like in Sudbury when I was young.  Now, such cool days are rare.  It turned out to be a spectacular night for astronomy.  Deb and I headed out to Hallam, and four other observers were there, too.  So was the farmer whose land we use.  He was spraying his crops.  Luckily, the wind was blowing the dust away from us, but the barn lights were all on, interfering with an otherwise perfect night.  Dang-blasted farmers; who do they think they are, anyway?

Before driving out to the observatory, we stopped off to visit Anita and Randy.  Anita continues to hang in there, but is obviously having a pretty rough time of it.  She no longer has to travel to London for her chemo.  Her next treatment is tomorrow, and we wish her luck and send our love!!

Sunday night was clear again, so back I went.  Saturday had been a bit hazy, so I stayed home.  Glad I did.  According to Larry B, an observer who is usually also out there often, it was full of observers, and the farmer was still at it.  By contrast, last night saw only Larry and I on the site, under a beautiful sky.  We were accompanied by thousands of mosquitoes, however, so I was spraying myself with Deet a lot.  More clear nights are expected mid-week.

Thursday, July 5th/18 

6 days in a row of 90+ temps, including 95 F yesterday and today.  4 days in May above 90 F; 8 days in June likewise; so far 5 days in July.  I dare say this is unprecedented.  I did not mention humidity, which does have many precedents.  It is ending presently, as storms pass over us and a cold front approaches.  The good news is that several fine astronomy nights begin tomorrow, and I can't wait!  However, by Monday we are supposed to be back in the 90s.  We managed an early morning bike ride today, our second of the week.  Usually by 10 am it is already 85 F, so things have to get done early.  Tomorrow is lawn cutting day, and I imagine everyone in the neighbourhood will be out cutting, due to the cooler temps and lesser humidity.

So far we have only played one of the three games we purchased in Columbus.  The Dr. Who Classic Doctor card game was a real bust; it is a very badly designed game.  After three goes we have managed to tweak the rules enough to make it playable and more fun, though a lot of frustration is still present during game play.  Not sure how our rules will work with 3 players, but the original ones were terrible for any amount of players, and seemingly got worse the more players there were.  Players are able to gang up on anyone who starts to pull ahead in points, so the whole game tends to just fall apart, as nobody could win by strategy.  It all came down to the final play, if someone was able to hang on to a point, or score one on their last turn.  Don't really know how a game like this could get past testing phases.  Makes one wonder.

Deb's Alice film has been accepted in a major film festival in downtown Cincinnati.  She might be eligible for a free hotel room; if so, we will likely attend in the latter half of August. 

I am reading a fascinating book by Hal Clement just now, called Close To Critical, and is mostly about a rescue mission concerning two children stranded on an environmentally hostile alien planet.  One child is human, and the other alien.  The only possibility of rescue comes from the intelligent inhabitants of the planet, who might or might not be able to repair the stranded lander with two kids inside.  This is the best SF by Clement that I have read so far--I have an autographed copy!  There is an Earth robot on the planet that can communicate with the natives, but a two-second delay between its sending and receiving info from its orbiting human engineers adds realism and drama to the proceedings.  Very fine stuff!!

Monday, July 2nd/18 

The month of June saw 8 days reach temperatures in excess of 90 F, as well as several more in the upper 80s.  That is more extreme highs than we usually see in an entire summer.  July 1st was also above 90.  We are currently in our 7th day in a row of a heat and humidity extravaganza, and it is supposed to last several more days.  This is more than a little puzzling.  The worst kind of climate one could imagine would be an extremely cold winter, which we certainly had, followed by an extremely hot summer, which we seem to be having.  Usually they do not follow, and for logical reasons.  However, Logic and Nature have never been good companions.  We spent a good portion of the winter indoors, and summer is turning out to be similar.  We have managed a few early morning bike rides, but otherwise have been staying inside.  I have now practiced piano heartily so far this holiday.  My previous piano program was ready much sooner than expected because of the cold winter we had.  It looks like I might be spending a lot of time practicing this summer, too.

Our mid-September road trip to NM is mostly planned.  We still do not know yet if a friend or friends are coming along with us.  It makes little difference to our journey.  Two new hikes are planned, as well as a return climb to a favourite mountain.  On our last ascent of Mt. Taylor I was nearly blasted by lightning.  It literally came out of the blue.  Very scary.  Hopefully the September weather will be more amenable to climbers.  We will spend 7 nights in NM, 4 of them in Albuquerque and 3 at our favourite B & B near Bandera Crater, in the pine forests of the Zuni Mtns.  It has been a number of years now since I last drove the big highway west.  Deb will fly west a few days after I leave, but will drive back home with me at the end.

I managed to read 10 books in June related to my Avon/Equinox project, some of them being very long (one volume took me 8 or 9 days).  I am currently a very old pulp tale (1936) by Jack Williamson.  Following this will come a very early novel by a new favourite writer, Rex Gordon.  Next is Hal Clement, followed in turn by an early novel by Silverberg.  And after that comes #22 in the Avon/Equinox series, an award winning story by Michael Moorcock.  After that, I start all over again, reading through books by each author in turn.  I have read all the books by some of them, so I don't have to read 22 books to get to the next one.  That number would now be 14.  It's a really fun project, and I never seem to get bored with it.  You never really know what the next novel or short story collection has in store.  Several of the books read are not SF, but either just regular fiction, or historical fiction, or, in the case of Silverberg's excellent Gilgamesh the King, a mix of history, fiction, and mythology.  I seem to love the old pulp stories nearly as much as the more modern and complex writing.  I grew up reading Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard, Ace Double SF novels, before getting into Blish and Leiber, two of the best.  If I ever finish with the Avon/Equinox series, I already know what my next project is going to be.

Deb continues to work on her short films.  Her success rate of being shown is quite high, and she has more laurels and certificates than she knows what to do.  She has scored a major showing in England coming up in September, where her films, along with other winners from a festival in Brighton, will be shown on 21 screens across the country!  Not bad for a self-taught amateur!

Mapman Mike