"Biking"

Since the weather was reasonable this morning (it's getting ready to rain right now), my wife and I decided to take our regular walk around the neighbourhood. We do this as often as weather permits. For us that means that it's not raining or snowing. In that case, I substitute a half hour on our stationary bike. I've been using that bike basically by myself; my wife does her exercise by doing her normal housework - we have a "split-level" home, and she's constantly walking up and down the stairs.

By now, the bike's odometer reads just over 6043 miles (over 9700 kilometers). I commented on this exercise bike in March, 2009, at which time the odometer read 3000 miles. At an average of about 9 miles per half hour that additional distance represents roughly 330 days on which I used that bike.

It shows how often the weather around here is bad enough for us to forego taking a walk, because this means that there have been something like 170 inclement days per year during that interval; it's an indication that we live in a "high precipitation" city.

Here's the link to that previous post:
http://penmachinedad.blogspot.com/2009/03/turning-3000.html

True friends

Last night, since Derek has been feeling a bit better for the last couple of days, he had a date with some of his buddies to go to dinner. They arrived in a limousine to pick him up, much to Derek's surprise. The dinner took place at Gotham's - one of the "in" dining institutions in this city (http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fflic.kr%2Fp%2F9c7N4i&h=6d43a. Fortunately, Derek has not lost his appetite; food is one of the things he can still enjoy.

What a considerate thing to do - true friends indeed.

Other "Earths"

For many years, astronomers, physicists, geologists, and scientists in other disciplines, as well as science fiction writers, have speculated whether there are planets circling other stars, much like our star (the Sun) has a retinue of large and small planets circling it. Our Earth is one of those planets. The ultimate aim is to establish whether there are other planets (exoplanets - not part of our solar system) which could perhaps have liquid water on their surfaces. We see liquid water as the absolute basic necessity for life as we know it, although we are beginning to see variations of life even here on Earth which may perhaps lead us to a possibility for other life forms, not necessarily requiring water.

In any case, the underlying reason to look for Earth-like planets elsewhere is to come up with a reason to think that life is present throughout the universe (at the moment, we have absolutely no evidence that life exists elsewhere).  Exoplanets have been known to exist for a couple of decades or so, but they are very hard to detect and the first ones we knew about were extremely large and could be called "failed stars".

There are a number of telescopes in orbit which are specifically designed to look for the extremely small effects which such planets have on their "suns".

http://www.astro.ubc.ca/MOST/  - This is a Canadian project, directed by Dr. Jaymie Matthews of UBC, which has detected some exoplanets as a serendipitous byproduct of its main mission (to measure tides and wave propagation in distant stars).

There are orbital telescopes specifically designed to look for exoplanets, and one in particular is designed to look for Earth-sized ones. Here's a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_Mission

It has just succeeded in detecting one exoplanet which is just slightly larger than Earth, albeit unlikely to be earth-like. This is the news release from NASA:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-007&cid=release_2011-007&msource=11007&tr=y&auid=7605855

(Artist's concept, NASA news release)

It'll have a profound impact on human thinking if we ever find another planet on which intelligent beings are present. If we ever get into direct contact with such a "civilization" the course of human evolution may be permanently altered.

Nostalgia

We celebrated our family Christmas with a wonderful dinner at my sister-in-law's again this year. There were also plenty of presents - practical for the adults and appropriate ones for the young ones. Among the presents we received I'd like to single out just one: Derek, Airdrie, Marina, and Lauren gave us a set of DVDs of the great series "Cosmos" by Dr. Carl Sagan. At the time it was first broadcast on TV (about 1980), Derek (who was then eleven years old) and I watched it with great fascination and admiration. It left a lasting impression on both him and me (See Derek's blog here: http://www.penmachine.com/2010/11/save-a-step).

I just finished watching the first three episodes again - the series has lost none of its significance and is in little need of updates. These are included as visual appendices on the DVDs. I still feel as I did the first time around and am hopeful that young people, many of whom were not even born when the series aired will have a good look at it. The series is available on youtube: (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cosmos+carl+sagan&aq=0). While I admire the great strides technology has made since then (I am an electronics technologist myself), I think that quite a bit of its use is superficial and will have no lasting meaning.  By contrast, the Cosmos series has "staying power"; it will impart a much more realistic perspective of life to our younger generation.

Watching the "rerun" (from my perspective), I was transported back to the time I first watched it  - with family memories coming to mind, along with the changes in our family since then: Derek (and our nieces) growing up, getting married, having their own families, etc. - nostalgia.

Thank you, Derek, Airdrie, Marina, and Lauren.

Xmas 2010

Christmas 2010 is a couple of days away, and the granddaughters Marina and Lauren have been busy with school and recital Christmas activities. Here are some pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiandpapa/sets/72157625619202316/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiandpapa/sets/72157625654178184/,

Also today, they continued their tradition of baking some "Pullaa"(Christmas bread) with grandma Mimi.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiandpapa/sets/72157625654207184/.

Perhaps these occasions will be something they'll remember fondly when they've grown up and have their own families - long after we're gone.

Long-distance practice

(click on picture for larger view)

Our granddaughter Marina has taken up the baritone horn for the school band, and is very diligent about practicing for the school Christmas play. She has a friend in the neighborhood who lives half a block away, and who plays the flute for the band. Both of them have been practicing together. Yesterday they played their instruments far apart, Marina from our front steps, and her friend from the balcony at her home. They could see and hear each other, but communicated mainly by cell phone. Who but the new generation would have thought of doing it this way? I'm really proud of the imaginative ways these two think. There is hope for the future.

Along these lines, another comment: we have a party room in our house, and Marina and her sister Lauren play there quite often. Their play is always original and inventive, and it does not involve video games, but often they select music on the juke box and integrate that music into their play. We are lucky to have Derek, Airdrie, and the two granddaughters (by now young ladies) next door. It keeps us young.

Parents' nightmare

As parents, you don't expect your child to die before you. Unfortunately, that is the reality for us. Derek has stopped chemo treatments, because they do not work any longer. See his blog:http://www.penmachine.com/2010/11/endgame. Our only consolation is that he'll live on for us in his daughters Marina and Lauren and our daughter-in-law Airdrie. Still, it's devastating.