It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted anything. This is due to my having been surprisingly busy in my business. Normally the summer months are slow in my line of business, but this year it seems to be different. For instance, I have made five day trips to Whistler and Pemberton during this period, all related to business.
The drive there and back is normally beautiful. Right now, it is complicated by the ongoing construction related the 2010 Winter Olympics. There are numerous temporary lanes (different from one day to the next), low speed limits, and one-lane alternating traffic sections, so the trip time is lengthened considerably, and you've got to keep your eyes "glued" to the road.
The widening and straightening of this "Sea-to-Sky" highway is progressing well. When finished, a drive that has been spectacular in the past will be magnificent. The reconstruction should also help with the reduction of the accidents caused by those hostshot drivers on their way to Whistler, who seem to think that they are skiing already, even though they are just driving.
None-the-less, this highway will still require full attention to the road. Since the wonderful scenery tends to be somewhat distracting, I hope that there will be lots of "sightseeing" areas, where one can stop the car and enjoy the views.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Tickled pink about blue
As is the custom around our house, when the sun shines, as yesterday and today, the little chores which owning a house entails are addressed (one at a time, of course). One of the repetitive chores is repainting those areas in which the last paint job has deteriorated. Accordingly, on the instructions of the boss, the last couple of nice weekends have been dedicated to power wash the back yard (mostly concrete slabs) and to power wash and thereby strip the old flaking paint off the front stairs.
(photo by Derek)
A closeup.
Chaos-theory computer-generated image.
(from "Chaos" making a new science - James Gleick, Penguin Books, 1987)
This makes me think that deterioration is a chaotic process.
I did a bit of that "stair stripping" yesterday - in preparation for painting today. Our daughter-in-law (who really likes the colour blue and who painted the stairs three or four years ago in that colour) and our son, who live in the other half of the duplex, volunteered to do the painting again. After painting our stairs, our daughter-in-law used our power washer to basically eradicate whatever paint remained on the stairs on their side. She finished our side today - I consider that a wonderful fathers' day present. I also had a very nice card from our granddaughters - what a beautiful feeling to have a loving family. Thank you, Aidrie, Derek, Marina, and Lauren.
An update: Derek, Airdrie, Marina and Lauren took both my wife and me out for Fathers' Day dinner at the local Keg Restaurant. We all had a wonderful dinner. Thank you again.
Here's what our stairs look like, newly painted:
(photo by Derek)
The paint stripping is the time-consuming part of this effort. Here's how that looked:
(photo by Derek)
Just as an aside, looking at the stripped paint more closely, I'm reminded of the images which one can create to illustrate the underlying effects of chaos theory:
The flaked paint on the stairs.
(photo by Derek)
A closeup.
Chaos-theory computer-generated image.
(from "Chaos" making a new science - James Gleick, Penguin Books, 1987)
This makes me think that deterioration is a chaotic process.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Upwards
Yesterday was "sports day" at the school that our granddaughters attend. Both girls were part of the "Red House" (the others were green yellow and blue), and the Red House ended up in second place overall. Everyone got the appropriate colour ribbons - and a great day was had by all.
Afterwards, we took our granddaughters to see Daddy at the hospital. Their mom met us all there on her way back home from her work. Derek was delighted to see everyone. He is doing well (still on intravenous drip to help his intestines recover), but he had been given some more solid (soft) food - mashed potatos, cooked carrots, etc., with no untoward effect. We all walked down to the hospital cafeteria, Derek had coffee (with cream and artificial sweetener), and he seemed in good shape. He certainly walks normally, but has to roll the intravenous rack along, which is a bit of a "drag" (pun intended).
As I write this (about 9 am), we don't know whether Derek will be discharged today or tomorrow - I'll let everyone know later.
UPDATE 11:50 am
Derek has just arrived at home. He answered the the phone when we called his home - he sounded as though he was having something to eat, which is good news. I imagine that he'll be blogging later.
Afterwards, we took our granddaughters to see Daddy at the hospital. Their mom met us all there on her way back home from her work. Derek was delighted to see everyone. He is doing well (still on intravenous drip to help his intestines recover), but he had been given some more solid (soft) food - mashed potatos, cooked carrots, etc., with no untoward effect. We all walked down to the hospital cafeteria, Derek had coffee (with cream and artificial sweetener), and he seemed in good shape. He certainly walks normally, but has to roll the intravenous rack along, which is a bit of a "drag" (pun intended).
As I write this (about 9 am), we don't know whether Derek will be discharged today or tomorrow - I'll let everyone know later.
UPDATE 11:50 am
Derek has just arrived at home. He answered the the phone when we called his home - he sounded as though he was having something to eat, which is good news. I imagine that he'll be blogging later.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Ups and Downs
For those of you who read Derek's and this blog: As you've read, Derek has had a problem with a blockage in his intestines. For the last week, he's been in and out of emergency departments at both the Burnaby and Vancouver General Hospitals, put on morphine for pain relief, and has generally had a bad time. At the moment, he's in the VGH GI ward, and he's feeling much better. The blockage appears to have cleared, and he has needed no medication. Intravenous drips are keeping him hydrated and his electrolytes balanced.
My wife and went to visit him last night, and were relieved to see him almost back to his previous, optimistic form. He told us that he expects to be discharged by the weekend, at which time he'll likely give you more details on his blog.
Nobody seems to know why this problem occurred. It appears that this kind of happening is not uncommon with people who have colostomy bags. Derek told us that there are no obvious signs of narrowing or scar tissue in his x-rays, and blood balance and other diagnostics reveal no abnormal conditions.
Looks like this is another complication for which to watch. Derek had been eating very well, and gained all his healthy weight back. We know that Derek always keeps a close eye on his food, because of his diabetes, so it's hard to understand why this problem showed up.
My wife and went to visit him last night, and were relieved to see him almost back to his previous, optimistic form. He told us that he expects to be discharged by the weekend, at which time he'll likely give you more details on his blog.
Nobody seems to know why this problem occurred. It appears that this kind of happening is not uncommon with people who have colostomy bags. Derek told us that there are no obvious signs of narrowing or scar tissue in his x-rays, and blood balance and other diagnostics reveal no abnormal conditions.
Looks like this is another complication for which to watch. Derek had been eating very well, and gained all his healthy weight back. We know that Derek always keeps a close eye on his food, because of his diabetes, so it's hard to understand why this problem showed up.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
More news from Mars
Last week, I referred to the landing of the Phoenix probe in the "Arctic" regions of the planet Mars. Since then that lander has been put through a number of engineering tests and its cameras have taken a number of pictures of both its surroundings and the terrain underneath its landing spot.
The rocket thrusters which brought Phoenix to a stop just as the lander was touching Mars' surface (meaning that it didn't crash) have blasted away some of the surface material under the lander and appear to have exposed what may be the expected layer of water ice which Phoenix was sent to explore and analyze. Phoenix' robotic arm has also used its scoop to dig in an area next to the lander. That arm will be used to dump some of the material into an on-board system of analyzers. The aim is to establish whether it was ever possible for some kind of life form to have existed (or possibly exists now) on Mars, and whether direct human settlements on Mars may happen in future.
Both pictures below were taken from JPLs website.
For more details, link to:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
Images Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Water ice underneath Phoenix?
The "footprint" left by the robot arm's scoop
The rocket thrusters which brought Phoenix to a stop just as the lander was touching Mars' surface (meaning that it didn't crash) have blasted away some of the surface material under the lander and appear to have exposed what may be the expected layer of water ice which Phoenix was sent to explore and analyze. Phoenix' robotic arm has also used its scoop to dig in an area next to the lander. That arm will be used to dump some of the material into an on-board system of analyzers. The aim is to establish whether it was ever possible for some kind of life form to have existed (or possibly exists now) on Mars, and whether direct human settlements on Mars may happen in future.
Both pictures below were taken from JPLs website.
For more details, link to:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
Images Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Water ice underneath Phoenix?
The "footprint" left by the robot arm's scoop
Monday, May 26, 2008
Weekend events
This weekend was another one with several highlights. On Friday, my wife and I attended another 100 year school anniversary, this time it was my wife's elementary school's turn. She attended in the 1940's.
On Saturday, we spent a few hours with my "Texas cousin". She is visiting one of her daughters who lives in the Seattle area. Also visiting was my cousin's other daughter, whom we hadn't met before. It was a beautiful day so we drove there, and a good time was had by all, including my cousin's two young grandchildren. Our Nexus pass proved its worth once again - we crossed the border in about a minute (same on the way back). People without the pass had about an hour's wait in line in each direction at the time.
Yesterday (Sunday) a special space-related event took place. Since you must know by now that astronomy and space are part of my hobbies, that event had me watching the Mars landing of the probe "Phoenix" on NASA TV via the internet in "real time". The planet Mars, from the Earth's perspective, it's on its way to its farthest point away from us, "behind" the Sun, at which time it'll be invisible from Earth. Right now, Mars is about 270 million kilometers (roughly 170 million miles) away. As a result, due to the restriction imposed by the speed of light (300,000 km/sec - about 186,000 mi/sec), it took the radio signals confirming the successful landing about 15 minutes to reach us. You could imagine a telephone conversation with someone on Mars, which would take 30 minutes just for you to know that your call was answered ("Hello, Peter" - your voice takes 15 minutes to get to Mars - "Hi John" [the reply] which takes another 15 minutes to come back to you). Radio signals are the same as light (they just differ in their wavelength), and travel at the same speed. There is nothing that we know of which can exceed this velocity.
Because of this restriction, there was no way to control the actual descent of Phoenix to Mars's surface from Earth - Phoenix had to make all critical decisions on its own. The actual landing sequence was complete (it took 7 minutes) and Phoenix had safely landed well before the first signals confirming the start of the landing sequence were received on Earth.
The whole thing is just marvellous, and a testament to the ingenuity of the engineers and scientists involved. Details can be found at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm
An update (posted 4:05pm)
The two pictures show Phoenix during its actual landing, before separating from its parachute. I enhanced the smaller inset from part of the larger image. This picture was taken by the high-resultion camera aboard the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter (MRO). That camera normally looks straight down onto Mars to record its surface details; for this picture it was set to an angle of about 64 degrees from vertical. There was a roughly 40% chance that this photographic attempt would succeed. Phoenix was about 310 km (193 miles) away from the MRO. Amazing!
picture and overall mission control by: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.
On Saturday, we spent a few hours with my "Texas cousin". She is visiting one of her daughters who lives in the Seattle area. Also visiting was my cousin's other daughter, whom we hadn't met before. It was a beautiful day so we drove there, and a good time was had by all, including my cousin's two young grandchildren. Our Nexus pass proved its worth once again - we crossed the border in about a minute (same on the way back). People without the pass had about an hour's wait in line in each direction at the time.
Yesterday (Sunday) a special space-related event took place. Since you must know by now that astronomy and space are part of my hobbies, that event had me watching the Mars landing of the probe "Phoenix" on NASA TV via the internet in "real time". The planet Mars, from the Earth's perspective, it's on its way to its farthest point away from us, "behind" the Sun, at which time it'll be invisible from Earth. Right now, Mars is about 270 million kilometers (roughly 170 million miles) away. As a result, due to the restriction imposed by the speed of light (300,000 km/sec - about 186,000 mi/sec), it took the radio signals confirming the successful landing about 15 minutes to reach us. You could imagine a telephone conversation with someone on Mars, which would take 30 minutes just for you to know that your call was answered ("Hello, Peter" - your voice takes 15 minutes to get to Mars - "Hi John" [the reply] which takes another 15 minutes to come back to you). Radio signals are the same as light (they just differ in their wavelength), and travel at the same speed. There is nothing that we know of which can exceed this velocity.
Because of this restriction, there was no way to control the actual descent of Phoenix to Mars's surface from Earth - Phoenix had to make all critical decisions on its own. The actual landing sequence was complete (it took 7 minutes) and Phoenix had safely landed well before the first signals confirming the start of the landing sequence were received on Earth.
The whole thing is just marvellous, and a testament to the ingenuity of the engineers and scientists involved. Details can be found at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm
An update (posted 4:05pm)
The two pictures show Phoenix during its actual landing, before separating from its parachute. I enhanced the smaller inset from part of the larger image. This picture was taken by the high-resultion camera aboard the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter (MRO). That camera normally looks straight down onto Mars to record its surface details; for this picture it was set to an angle of about 64 degrees from vertical. There was a roughly 40% chance that this photographic attempt would succeed. Phoenix was about 310 km (193 miles) away from the MRO. Amazing!
picture and overall mission control by: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Time flying
Yesterday, my wife and I attended a celebration of her high school's 100th anniversary. It is a big affair, which will continue today at the Agrodome, with about 2000 former students expected. Yesterday's get-together took place at the school itself. As an "outsider" (I never attended high school in this - my adopted - country), it was interesting to see how my wife's classmates, many of whom hadn't seen each other in decades, came to terms with trying to recognize formerly (now not so) young faces. I have come to know a few of those faces myself, because some of them have made an effort to reunite for a couple of earlier, and smaller, class reunions.
Tonight's affair is slated to be a real celebration, with many illustrious alumni being present (now professors, judges, scientists, architects and artists, etc.). Several well-known bands and entertainers are scheduled. There are expected be a number of former students attending, who now live in many places all over the world.
It's unlikely that I'll ever take part in a reunion such as this of my own school. The closest I came is on a trip we took about three years ago to my birthplace (Berlin), where I made an effort re-trace the path I took to school daily as a young teenager. The building was locked (it was a Sunday); I could therefore only look at the outside gate. Many schools in Berlin were then (and are now) located within normal looking city blocks, among a mix of shops, residences, churches, etc. They may none-the-less cater to many hundreds of students through several grades. My high school is one of these.
Here's a Google picture of my high school (it's called "Leibniz-Gymnasium"). The layout is the same, but the tree in the courtyard is much bigger. Also, there appears to be a statue (shadow at the left centre in the courtyard), perhaps of Gottfried Leibniz (a contemporary of Newton) which did not exist in my days there. Leibniz is the one who came up with the mathematical techniques of integral calculus - Newton is credited to be the inventor of differential calculus. Even now, there is some controversy regarding who should be called the "father" of calculus. In truth, the two techniques are the two sides of one coin; Derek had some comments in the coincidence of revolutionary inventions on his blog a little while ago.
One thing is obvious: time marches on, and leaves no one untouched.
Tonight's affair is slated to be a real celebration, with many illustrious alumni being present (now professors, judges, scientists, architects and artists, etc.). Several well-known bands and entertainers are scheduled. There are expected be a number of former students attending, who now live in many places all over the world.
It's unlikely that I'll ever take part in a reunion such as this of my own school. The closest I came is on a trip we took about three years ago to my birthplace (Berlin), where I made an effort re-trace the path I took to school daily as a young teenager. The building was locked (it was a Sunday); I could therefore only look at the outside gate. Many schools in Berlin were then (and are now) located within normal looking city blocks, among a mix of shops, residences, churches, etc. They may none-the-less cater to many hundreds of students through several grades. My high school is one of these.
Here's a Google picture of my high school (it's called "Leibniz-Gymnasium"). The layout is the same, but the tree in the courtyard is much bigger. Also, there appears to be a statue (shadow at the left centre in the courtyard), perhaps of Gottfried Leibniz (a contemporary of Newton) which did not exist in my days there. Leibniz is the one who came up with the mathematical techniques of integral calculus - Newton is credited to be the inventor of differential calculus. Even now, there is some controversy regarding who should be called the "father" of calculus. In truth, the two techniques are the two sides of one coin; Derek had some comments in the coincidence of revolutionary inventions on his blog a little while ago.
One thing is obvious: time marches on, and leaves no one untouched.
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