Easter Day Bike Ride

Today's bike ride: Two large raptors with white band on back of their tails so maybe Northern Harriers? One large raptor with a rosy tail. One smaller raptor - looked Kestrel like. Many canvasback ducks, American coots who move their heads like chickens, canada geese, many pairs of Mallards, doves, pigeons, robins and crows. Redwing blackbirds perched on cattails at regular intervals sounding like spring. Lots of praire dogs and bunnies.  No swallows in the mud nests yet and still waiting for the beautiful migrating pelicans. I like living in a healthy ecosystem.

Nonsense

Beppo aleppo 

Boppo avoom

Frap-Trap a’chinos

Likkitty lakatty loom

Shim sham abingno

Arigno Sadoon

Holy moly poly 

rolly ka’ching

Vabba vabrissa 

Marrisa fah-ling

Zing zong zappaty 

papa tea tree 

Prissy siss sap-a-tee

Tizzy ring ding

Keeping Time

One of my students wanted to study time. So today we went to talk with a gentleman who repairs clocks.  We opened the door to his shop and walked in to the quietness of soft ticking.  It smelled of old wood, varnish, dust and oil.  He showed us how he repairs clocks, the tiny tools, the lathe.  He took out the works of a clock and we learned about energy transfer, gear chains, the escape wheel.  

We learned that the period of a pendulum one meter long is one second.  Coincidence? I think not!  The oldest clock in the shop, 1780, had an ‘equation hand’ so that you can set it by referring to a sundial.  My student made the connection that what we need for keeping time is a way to store energy, releasing it at regular intervals and that could be a wound spring, a quartz crystal or an excited bit of Cesium 133.  

Who would have thought - history, physics, tools and time? I’m a happy teacher!

We were deep in conversation about the eighteenth century race to make a clock for ships so they could calculate longitude.  The grandfather clock behind me struck 11 am, then the coo-coo.  We stopped talking and just listened to all the ancient time keepers strike the hour.

Baby Shoes for Sale

Stories abound about Hemingway.  In one he famously said any author worth their salt could craft a short story in six words. His example:

Baby shoes for sale, never worn.

On the radio this morning I heard about the Race Card Project (http://theracecardproject.com/) where people share their experiences with race in six word sentences.

I thought I try my hand at six word stories and came up with two. I gave them titles, a little bit of cheating as it sneaks in an extra word:

Classifieds

For sale: widows home, fixer-upper.

Voting

Cardinal thinks, "I AM choosing Pope."

I love all comments, but I encourage you to play too and leave a six word story as a comment!

Neanderthal Mondays Part II

On Mondays I go learn about Neanderthals at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  I get so excited when I learn something that challenges my perspective.  Before this class my assumptions about Neanderthals were largely based on the Geico Caveman. 

This evening we learned about Neanderthal genetics.  Our presenter went through the history of studies published in journals like ‘Nature’ since 1987 and the challenges to each conclusion.  Things really began to get exciting in 2006 when analysis of the Neanderthal genome began got underway.  Genetic material was found in common with modern humans.  Neanderthals had the FoxP2 gene, possibly the ‘software’ for language.  We had learned last week that they had the hardware: the hyoid bone and nerves in the mouth.  Red hair showed up with a mutation of MCR1 - although a different mutation than the one expressed as red hair in modern humans.  Finally in 2010 the fist Draft Sequence of the whole Neanderthal genome was published.  Of the genes that make us distinctly human, we share from 1 to 4 percent with Neanderthals.

But then it got even crazier.  There is evidence that 40 thousand years ago there were up to four different hominids wandering the globe at the same time: Early Modern Humans, Neanderthals, Denisovans (found in Siberia) and Floresiensis (found on the island of Flores). All distinctly different from each other, but all shaping stone tools. Both Modern Humans and Neanderthals were using fire, living in organized social groups of up to 16 individuals, constructing shelters, practicing sophisticated pyro-engineering to create birch pitch tar, used to haft handles to stone points. They cared for the sick and old, buried their dead in shallow graves and covered them with flowers.

The Puzzle

After an active morning I told my youngest son that he needed to do quiet things for the afternoon.  He finished his book and was casting about for something else when a jigsaw puzzle box caught his eye.  He went downstairs to the art/project room and sorted the edge pieces out onto a tray.  After working for a while I heard my husbands voice down there discussing where a piece might go.

Dinner time came kids were at the table, but my husband? Still with the puzzle.  Bed time stories and brushing teeth.  I wander downstairs to get a glass of ice water.  The puzzle has expanded to three trays of sorted pieces that fill the kitchen table.  “Who is doing this puzzle?” I ask.  “I’m just helping him out,” he answers.  My bedtime comes, I go back down to the kitchen.  My husband almost has the edges finished. “You’re helping him out a lot.  Are you going to finish it for him?” “I’ll be right up,” he says, “I’m almost done with this bit with the letters on it.”

Snow Day in Three Acts

Snow Day in Three Acts                                              Saturday Snow

I want to paint my face like an ice dragon.                     Saturday snow

No it will get on your scarf.                                            nowhere to go

But it will come alive outside in the snow                      falls on the world

I’ll paint it when you come in                                         soft as

(from upstairs)                                                                cat’s feet

I can’t find any sweat pants!                                          (no that’s been taken)

Where’s my coat?                                                           kisses

Where’s MY coat?                                                        (could be mistaken)

Zip me up?                                                                     blankets the world in a silent shroud

I ate your coat.                                                              (oh, for crying out loud)

Oh so that’s where my boot was.                                   But this moment I have

Ow! My chin's in the zipper.                                          curled up in my chair

I’m going to throw the snow!                                        children outside

Can you throw your boot?                                            snow in the air

I need shoes.                                                                  running and falling

They’re in the bathroom.                                               sliding and calling

Mom, please tighten my boot tops.                                Shrieking with laughter

No! (like a pirate) Never!                                               how could I no?

Mom!                                                                             I suit up and go

(youngest, in the middle of chaos, spins 

around on a stool, chirping ‘no!’)

What?

Can you tighten my boot so I don’t have to take my snowpants off?

I look like a marshmallow.

Take your school backpack upstairs. please.

Mom where are my gloves?

(youngest, still spinning on the stool)

Mom why do gorillas have such big nostrils? Because they have big fingers!

Oh no! My shirt’s on backwards!

(struggles to turn turtleneck around without removing bibbed snowpants)

Mom can you tighten my shoes now? I think I may overheat.

I look like a red marshmallow!

(sister shouts to brother upstairs)

Will you go get my hat? It’s on my bed!

(smallest brother)

I see my gloves! Mom will you lift me up? They are too high.

Get the step stool.

Mom could you help me get my other glove on?

Could you zip me up?

Where’s your hat?

Upstairs in my backpack.

……….

Quiet

sound of the clothes dryer

the dishwasher cycles

snow

click of the computer keys

faint swhirr of the fan

soft flow of warm air from the vent

creak of the chair

Grandmere’s voice in my head

‘snow like feathers sign of good weather,

snow like meal snows a great deal.’

Snow skitters agains the glass

I break off an old leaf from the geranium

blooming a blood read burst against the white window

soft snap as the stem comes away, the smell of geranium

bubble of boiling water

sharp fresh smell of the tea

soft ceramic 'tunck', the lid on the tea pot

……..

Muffled sounds of glee

through the window to the back yard

louder

The door slides open

Mom come and help us! 

We can’t get the ball of snow on top!