March Miscellany

Here are a few odds and ends that don't quite have enough by themselves for whole posts by themselves.

Both Shelley and Amy attended baby-sitting and CPR classes last week. They are now certified baby-sitters. I'm the only one in the family who doesn't know CPR. Hmm...

The clothes dryer that came with the house died today. Fortunately (well, we'll see if it still works) we have one that we moved up from Oregon (actually came from California -- it's 15 years old, so that may die too -- hmm...) that we need to move up to the house from the garage. I measured the openings in the path that it has to take in order for it to move in (and the old move out), and it looks like there is enough space so that we don't have to do major furniture moves or wall surgery. The only hiccup is that we are going to have to lift the dryer up and over the heater at the bottom of the stairs.

With the roads no longer icy or slushy, Amy's been riding about on her new bicycle. She says it goes much faster than her old one. (Actually, the reality is that the physics of transforming energy into motion is much more efficient.) Anyway she experienced her first flat last week, though she knew nothing of it. I walked down to the bike and saw a rather deflated tire. I got to try out the glueless patch made by Slime and discovered that it works quite well. The problem with previous glueless patches I've tried is that they didn't really stick and stay well. The glue used with regular patches tends to dry out after a few months, making the patch kit useless until the glue is replaced. The one from Slime is very sticky and doesn't dry out. Highly recommended.

Since I was working on Amy's bike, I checked the brakes on my bike and discovered that the front ones had completely worn out. So I replaced and adjusted the brakes, and they work so much better now.

The last few days we've experienced a combination of heavy rains, high winds, and when the clouds break and the sun shines through, some breathtaking scenery. We're also seeing the return of the bald eagles to the trees and posts along the beach. Spring is coming when the eagles show up again. I'm not sure where they go during the cold, winter months, but most of them disappear, leaving just a few to be seen.

Over the last several weeks I've been taking in a series of seminars on video on the subject of dark matter and dark energy. There's been three of us meeting twice a week for an hour at a time. This Wednesday concludes the 24 lectures. It's been a fascinating journey from Newton to Einstein, to the recent discoveries and current theories and speculations as to what really makes up 95% of the observable universe.