Miscellaneous photos around the house

Has it been a while since I've posted a cute photo of Booger? Yes, it has been a while since I've posted a cute photo of Booger. Behold:


And has it been a while since I've posted a macro shot of Roo's schnozz? Yes, it has been a while since I've posted a macro shot of Roo's schnozz. Behold:


Poor sweet, patient Autumn. Still getting squozen:


For some reason, my friend AL saw this card, of wolves on a couch, and thought of me...


Soooooo... my friends and neighbors the Bs plant a beautiful vegetable garden each year. This year, I decided to "contribute" with the "gift" of Asian vegetable seeds. I'm so thoughtful, am I not? The bok choys are coming out beautifully:


I stir-fried them with green onions, garlic, beef, and nian-gao:

A beautiful article about a chance encouter

Author Sonia Luokkala has a chance encounter with one of the Higgs Boson team in Homer. Mingming Yang is traveling the world in search of compassion. She also has the heart of a poet and a gift for quotable sound bites.

Her name, she says, is Mingming Yang. Four years ago, near the Swiss-French border, she had taken a different journey. As a Ph.D. student at MIT, she was one of the central figures in a team of scientists who searched for the Higgs boson, a long-theorized but never-before-observed subatomic particle. It exists for less than a fraction of a second, and yet its discovery, possibly the greatest of modern physics, helps explain the origins of mass in the universe.

...

"The fundamental purpose of science is to enrich the human spirit, to pursue the truth and beauty of this world," she told me.

...

Her message seemed clear to those assembled: "Our humanity is where our brilliance lies," interprets Dylan Braund, a Bristol Bay fisherman who'd come to hear her speak. "We are here to do the best that we can do and thereby contribute our verse to the symphony of humanity."

...

In the days after the Higgs boson findings were publicly announced, Yang remembers, the whole world was swirling. But the center of the storm — the students and researchers whose devotion had led to the discovery — was silent. Sleep-deprived and physically exhausted, they continued their work while the rest of the world celebrated. Though no honors or credit were given, she says, they smiled from deep inside.

"We had already been awarded by nature itself."

...

"I am often asked, 'What is the use of the Higgs boson?' " she says. "I want to say, 'It is not to make use of.' "


This woman is what I dreamed of being when I was 16 or so... Ssssssiiiiighhhhh.

Long weekend!

Charcoal stayed with us...


He is so huge!


He sits patiently by the screen door, watching the world go by. The screen door opens outwards, and as soon as we open hit, he shoves his head outside. So we have to be careful not to slam it behind us or else we'll smack his schnozz!


Goober Linden looking cute and gooberdy:


The elderly ladies relaxing:


Elderly lady walk update:
It now takes us 50 minutes to walk two miles. Oh well, time to enjoy the scenery! After we take our elderly lady stroll, Starbuck and I run another 2-mile loop. :)

Starbuck and I are now also a full-fledged therapy team, and we can set our own schedule to visit our friends at the Denali Center and Pioneer Home. Starbuck lays her head on their laps to be petted. One woman told me, "You must have spent a long time training this dog to do this!" To which I replied, "Yup! Some people just have a gift for training dogs!" :)

After we make our rounds, Starbuck the Roo and I take a short visit to a local park. Fairbanks city parks are quite different from walks in our 'hood. I need to keep a leash handy and pick up all her poop, like the civilized people! I tried to take a photo of her walking into the distance, but as soon as she hears me stop walking, she stops and looks over her shoulder.

"Are you still coming?"


"What're you doing?"


This park has an informational sign on mosquitoes!

Ugh! That drawing of the arm is making me want to scratch my own arms! Ugh!

I have a new charity in my rotation list: K-9 Comfort Dogs of Lutheran Church Charities. I first learned of this team of trained golden-retriever-cuddler-lovers when a group of them were deployed to Sandy Hook after the shooting. Then I saw them show up in Boston after the marathon bombing. Most recently, of course, they showed up in Orlando, visiting memorial gatherings, churches, and the LGBT center where people had gathered. I went to their website to make a donation, and found that the Comfort Dog program is just one arm of a well-organized and effective charitable organization. They do all kinds of disaster response (donating both labor and love, as well as canine love). Anyway, I found that not only can you donate directly via conventional means, but if you donate $35 through this link, they will send you a stuffed comfort dog, and "one additional stuffed LCC K-9 Comfort Dog will be given to someone who is suffering and in need of comfort." And who has nothing fuzzy to cuddle. :((((

RRRRROOOOOOOOoooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!


Whooooooo are these people who don't even have Roo's paw to hoooold? RRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOooooooooOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!


SO OF COURSE out flew my credit card, and here he is! My very own golden retriever puppy!


I also noticed that his bandanna is tied hanging over his chest, instead of over his back. I had Starbuck's tied over her back, until another woman with Companions, Inc. advised me to tie it the other way around, since people lovelovelove to pet the ruff of fur on the back of dogs' necks. And she was right! People cannot get enough of Roo's fuzzy shoulders!

Super exciting!

Finally, a fundamental definition of a kilogram!

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have now officially defined Planck's Constant as 6.62606983 * (10^-34) (kilograms*meters squared) per second. A second is already fundamentally defined as 9192631770 cycles of the radiation produced by the transition between two levels of the cesium 133 atom. A meter is already fundamentally defined as 1/299792458 of the distance light travels in a vacuum in said second, the speed of light also being a fundamental constant of nature. From these two things, we can now back out a fundamental definition of a kilogram, which we could communicate to aliens on another planet, and they, too, would know what a kilogram was.

Until now, most of the measurements we use have had such fundamental definitions, which were universal and describable in words. The kilogram, in contrast, had been defined by a very specific bar of platinum and iridium, declared as such in 1889 by the General Conference on Weights and Measures: "This prototype shall henceforth be considered to be the unit of mass." It's kept in several protective layers of extremely protected, micromanaged, environmentally monitored vacuum-sealed safes, and they have found somehow that recently it's been losing mass, or perhaps its doppelgangers, created and shipped around the world for calibration, are gaining mass. Either way, to define a kilogram as such is terribly inelegant, ephemeral, and specific to our species, place, and time.

How much more beautiful to say, "A kilogram? Why, Planck's Constant is 6.62606983 * (10^-34) (kilograms*meters squared) per second!" instead of, "Uh, please board your rocket ship and fly over here as fast as you can, and measure our special bar here. See you in 8000 years!"

:~D

Wowza! A hail of a storm!

Yesterday afternoon, DL was sweating out in the sun weed-whacking, while I was complaining about the heat and bugs, and all of a sudden, a big gray cloud flew over the cabin and dumped us with pelting rain and the biggest hailstones I had ever seen!





As the later ones fell, they hit the ones already on the ground, and the whole mess of them went leaping and bouncing all over the yard like grasshoppers! Very exciting! Although probably not impressive by midwestern standards of giant hail. But I have no desire to experience that! I cannot believe those photos! I'm like, rreeeeallyy? Those things fall from the sky? God actually does that??

Video!

Oh, last Thurs was DL's birthday, so we took the day off and started it with giant omelettes:


He said it was eggcellent.

Omelette you enjoy the photo.

:)

Miscellaneous photo dump

Starbuck, the Amazing Boneless Husky, comes with foldable appendages for easy storage:


Pretty pink flowers on campus:


After visiting The Denali Center and Pioneer Home last weekend, Starbuckeroo and I went to check out a newly developed park, on the site of what had formerly been a rather rough area, used for drug deals and such. Now it's a cleaned-up city park. I guess this is now its third season, but its my first time checking it out. It has some pleasant little ponds and lakes:




The wild irises were out, and very beautiful!




Starbuckeroo checking out this nice civilized trail:


DL and I have to start envisioning recreational activities with just her and us, and the elderly ladies remaining at home. :( It pains me to think about it, but it's not fair to deny Starbuck all of the fun long hikes that they and I have taken, just because they aren't up for them any more. And I will never, ever, ever deny them their morning walks around the 'hood! We need to get up rather early for those nowadays; the vet warned us that with Autumn's heart condition, she cannot tolerate heat. We still walk a good stretch--2 miles on weekdays and 4 on weekends. Not bad for 17-year-olds!

"Ahhh... this is the life!"


SCHNOOOOOZZZZZZ!!!


"Oh oh! I am getting squozen!"

Starbuckaroo's first stint as a ther-roo-py dog!

Starbuckeroo making friends and trying on heart-shaped glasses at The Denali Center:


She loveloveloves her job as as a ther-roo-py dog with Companions, Inc! She sits right next to her elderly friends and rubs her head against their hands for pettings. :)