On November 24 (the day after Thanksgiving), I did the kite thing again. Barbara was indisposed, and doing it alone has some associated difficulties. The wind was a bit on the stiff side, so I didn't let out much string, but I did stack three kites. Last Sunday, I offered to take the kites to a scout campout and based on my previous experience, that may be the best way to get rid of them. I suspect that if you gave them a four foot cube of steel, the average scout troop could destroy it inside of 45 minutes. Still, it could be fun trying to get it out to the end of the twine. I have the intension of mounting a bicycle speedometer on the O2 reel, such that I can easily measure the distance to the kite.
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| I have been waiting to see more photos of the families newest addition, but to this point they have not appeared. (Braxton did mention that they are on his website [something like www.salty.sites.net]) but when I typed in that address, a porn site popped up. Obviously I got something wrong.) So... here are a few that I have. |
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| The first was taken at the hospital, on the first day of Piper's life. The other images were captured when her family came to Oracle on 25 November. It may be too early to tell, but looking at the above photo one might come away with the impression that this young lady may have an opinion as to appropriateness of the current world order... |
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| In my experience, new mothers are not only proud of their baby, they are also highly protective. I can't imagine what Sabrina was thinking when she arranged the photo below... |
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| Piper is an aircraft company, and the only one of their long line of products that I care much for is the J3 Cub. Perhaps I'll call her, "Cub"... |
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On the second of December, I took a short hike with David Ellis. I had previously located fossil beds near what AJ calls "El Capitan" between Winkleman and Globe. Dave and I hiked up the hill on the east side of the chasm (the west side is next to the road). The hike itself was probably not more than 2 miles round trip, but the elevation change was estimated (by Dave) at close to 1300 feet. I neglected to take my GPS, so I don't know for sure. The light colored things coming out of the side of the vertical sides of the large rocks probably started life as sponges. |
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What I do know is that I was so sore the following Monday that I needed a very good reason just to arise from my seat. The arches in my feet, my ankles, my calves, and my thighs all competed to see who could produce the most lactic acid during the hike, and (as it turns out) all were highly successful. I suspect I will live, but at this point I'm not sure I want to... The photo above is the only example of this type of fossil that we encountered. I think it looks a lot like modern day coral. |
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Still (assuming I survive the next 3 days), I think it was worth the price of admission. We glassed the area (using binoculars) before we actually went, and decided which formation should yield fossils, then hiked accordingly. Our guesses were right on and we encountered at least 10,000 fossils. There are two other areas that would bear exploration, but I suspect (that at least for me) that will have to wait for my next incarnation. I'm not sure what to make of the above fossil, but a close up of it is shown below, including some branched tubes. |
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Although it doesn't look like it, all of these tubes are sill partially embedded in the limestone. They look as if you could just pick them up. |
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Most of what we saw were some species of "horn coral." They appeared to me to have some internal structure, perhaps to move water around to harvest food, but Dave suggested that modern coral is a microscopic organism that live then leaves it skeleton and another coral organism build upon it, such that the whole structure was never "alive." |
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That may be, but they definately have some internal structure. Still, today's Stag Horn Coral also has structure... |
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I think this structure started life as a sponge. It certainly has lost any softness it may have had... |
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I don't have any idea what caused this round impression, be we encountered a half dozen of them, all about the same size. |
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It is impressive to me how they just protrude out of the rock. I think of rock as being permanent (Firm As the Mountains Around Us), but the only mechanism I can postulate for this observations is that the rock is weathering away leaving the harder fossils exposed. |
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Many of them appear to be just setting on the surface, but in fact they are still anchored. Apparently the fossils protect the rock that they cover. Well, it is late and this has taken longer than anticipated (by more than a week) so I had better get it posted. Dad. |
