THROUGH THE GENERATIONS

I'm not sure how much sense this entry is going to make. I had one of my sort of weird, not quite out of body, WTF experiences this morning. I'm working on rebuilding the family tree on my computer, I've been reading on Geology, especially the Northwest which may have left me open to this.

Every atom in this universe was created during, just after the Big Bang or in the death throes of stars. The universe is the great recycler. Hydrogen and oxygen make water, the water molecules go through life forms, get incorporated in rocks. Those molecules get broken down, the hydrogen combines with carbon ends up in rocks, the the rocks weather, the atoms end up in an ancient fish, a leaf, a dinosaur, a grain of wheat, us. A vast network stretching back in time. 

Sections of my family tree stretch back into Europe, Central Europe, back to the nameless ones who tilled the soil, hunted the mammoth, ground the grain, looked up into the skies the first time to wonder what those tiny lights are, created the first calendars by watching the moon. Knocked rocks togther, visualized tying a rock to a stick, tamed fire. Past being human to the distant ancestors, to the first moleules that mastered the chemistry of reproduction, discovered sex, hunted other life forms. For all any of us know the atoms in our bodies spent time in rocks, plants, jellyfish, trilobites, volcanoes. 

Perhaps that's the real reason organized religion never seemed like enough. That enveloping feeling of connection, almost warmth looking down the generations. The wish that I had known these ancestors, known their lives. Even if they did turn out to be perfect assholes that time those atoms were part of that human being.

Does this make any sense at all. I had to get this down before it faded. 

FMILY TREES

When we had to leave Springfield it happened very quickly. My sisters did the best they could to get the move organized and things moved out. The sale was handled by a professional company. And to make a long story short some items didn't make it to me and didn't, as far as I know didn't make it into the sale. Or were put aside because they might bring a good price. I was in rehab, no way I could make it over.

Anyway I didn't find out until this summer when I replaced my aging laptop that two of the priciest and hardest to replace copies of software went missing. Photoshop and Ancestry. I really don't care much about Photoshop. I used about two percent of the features and spent a lot of time cussing because frankly they'd made simple jobs about ten times harder than they needed to be. As in where the heck did you hide the photomerge. 

The other was copy of Ancestry's software. Which wouldn't be so bad except. Darn it when I backed up my tree on the computer I did not back up in a GEDCOM file. That is the universally accepted, works across all platforms program. Ancestry has their own, only works with THEIR software language. I do have some earlier versions, not nearly as complete, backups in GEDCOM and after turning around three times and spitting in the wind I went with another program. 

So now I have two hobbies to keep me out of trouble. Oregon geology and the family tree. I guess my family is lucky. We chose our ancestors wisely. LOL Runs heavy to Puritans, Quakers, and German pietists. New England, Mid Atlantic, almost no southerners. People who often immigrated as families or attached to a family as an apprentice or servant. Valused education, being involved with local government, looking out for each other.

Family history also gives me a good comeback when someone doesn't like my politics and suggests that "if you don't like it here go someplace else." I never have gotten an answer back from "if you can beat 1636 we'll talk about it" and "I'm Scots, Irish, English, Welsh, German, heaven knows whatelse where do you suggest I go?" 

It's jsut that the one I'm working from is a stump. It'll take awhile to fill it out. 

THE STUFF OF NIGHTMARES

What is it about blogger. I write the entry in Word, with paragraphs. I paste into Blogger and the pragraphs are gone. Good thing I stick with Left Justify or I'd never find the darn things.

I'm a member of a science fiction page on FB. The other day one of the other members asked us to name what we were reading right then. No matter that the genre was. As is happens I was working on part of the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Got the answer back, "it's a big book."

Well it is a big book. Which I pretty much swallowed whole when I was a fourteen. Right after Judgment at Nuremberg on the movie of the week. For a kid growing in up in a logging town in Oregon. I mean I was raised Methodist, in Oregon. The only Jews I had heard of  lived on the other side of the world. A long time ago. The film clips shown during the movie were a "what the heck was going on, the war was bad enough."

And what I knew about WWII was couple of stories my uncle Jack told about the navy in the Pacific. (that's a whole other story to be told later). So I went to the library. And took home a brick of a book. Which I pretty much swallowed whole. I'm not really sure how many hooks I had to hang the information on at the time. I mean what did I know about wars for heaven's sake.

However one chapter did stick. The New Order. This wasn't just about the Holocaust. It was the whole program laid out for the occupation of conquered Europe. The deportations. The victims hauled off the street to be executed in retaliation for attacks on German soldiers or authorities. The slave laborers who were basically worked to death. The companies that were more than happy to use those slave laborers. The companies that vied for contracts to build crematoriums and supply the Xyclon B. The medical experiments. And genocide. When I finished that chapter I never looked at the human race the same way again. Incidentally, once the war was over Hitler planned to spare just enough Slavs to serve as slave laborers. The rest could starve.

Shirer was a journalist. He never claimed to be a neutral, or semi neutral historian. He despised Hitler and just about everyone in power around him. In his opinion the history of Germany and its philosophy created a people who were obedient to authority. An opinion that has been challenged as the war years have faded.

William Shirer was a journalist in Germany in the thirties. He watched Hitler's rise to power. Watched as the rest of Europe basically stood by as Hitler's Germany swallowed one piece of real estate after another. He covered the trial in Nuremberg and had access to the literal tons of translated and declassified documents.

Anyway you don't have to read the whole book at once. It is divided into sections that include the rise of Hitler, the years leading up to the war, the "successful" war years, the beginning of the end, Germany's fall, and an overview of the trials.

Judgment at Nuremberg is a hard movie to find. It deals with one if not the last trial. In this case of the German judges. With pressure on the court to deal leniently. The Cold War was on the horizon and it looked like the west was going to need Germany. After all the war was over and all that.  

WHAT IF YOU PLANNED A DEMONSTRATION

and nobody showed up. Or only two or three hundred instead of the boasted of thousands. That's what happened to the so called "Proud Boys" planned demonstration Saturday in Portland, Oregon.

The governor declared a state of emergency. In the end nothing really happened. The wing nuts gathered at Delta Park. I wonder if the group had a permit to use the the park under the corona virus guidelines. The group was projecting a turn out of 10,000. Still weren't wearing masks but the turnout was more in the damp squib neighborhoord. Two or three people got shoved. Nobody was arrested.

As the small group began dispursing they were met by this. Don't know if he was actually a fire fighter.  But he was out there.

One spokesman was quoted saying that they would be monitoring the ballot drop boxes to "protect" them. Or do you mean try to intimidate folks dropping off ballots. Oregon ballots go out on the thirteenth of next month. Arrived by the fifteenth at least. In theory folks could be dropping off ballots from the day after until election day. Better bring some comfortable chairs and a sack lunch. One of the drop boxes in Springfield was in the parking area below the City Hall/library. Don't know what the city would make of folks camping out in the parking lot.

Actually their little whatever it was lasted about an hour and a half. I don't want to downplay the potential for violence from these haters. I'll be curious to see how they spin this in the next few days because almost no one was there to offer them convenient targets.

Well there it is. Glad it turned out the way it did.

WAS THIS MEANT TO BE A JOKE?

Looks like my cranky genes are in full flower today. This jsut did not strike me as funny.

You know I don't know what this was meant to be. Obviously somebody put an increble amount of work into this. Personally I would have spent the time more usefully. Watching paint dry for example. Right now there are individuals who will believe almost anything is true "because it's on the internet." It used to be because "it was on TV." Amd before that it was probably the radio, the church, the loudmouth at the bar. Perhaps we need to bring back some of those posters from WWII. "Loose lips sink ships." 'Careless talk costs life." That sort of thing.

Thnks to the internet almost any, and I mean any, idea no matter how ridiculous can make it around the world three times while truth is putting its boots on. Ok rant over. I just cannot imagine anyone spending time on this. I mean trying to decipher the geology of Oregon. Watching the leaves turn, Something that won't hurt anyone else. Headaches from a subject I wish I'd taken instead of sociology. Found out it didn't count toward my ed. credits because I was a) an anthropology major b) I had taken psych classes. The same guys are pretty much the founders of all three disciplines. Think of a totem pole with three sides. Ok rant finally over.

GET OUT THE VOTE

My dad's mother was born in 1889. . Mom's mother was born in 1905. The 19th amendment, votes for women, was passed in 1919. So they were never without the right to vote. How often they voted I never thought to ask. Especially grandma Heaton, I was all of 18 when she passed. 

Fast forward three years and I turned 21. Around 1970 or so the age to register to vote was 21. So was the legal drinking age. In celebration I got hauled down to the county elections office to register to vote. I came from a long line of Republicans but, Richard Nixon was president and no way was I going to register as a Republican. After Watergate my folks switched parties. Never missed a presidential election, nor most of the others. May have missed a bond measure or two over the years. 

You see voting was that important to my dad. And now that I think about it grand dad may have been a poll worker back in the day. I figure the eight am opening of the polls was geared to the time it took the local farmers to get their morning chores done and get to town. Then it was raise the flag, announce precinct so and so, town of so and so, Washington County, Oregon is now open." In the evening it was the reverse and lower the flag. Probably around five or six in the evening. It wasn't as if anybody had anywhere to go after dark in rural Oregon. I wonder when smalltown Oregon finally got street lights. Probably about the time the first electrc lights were strung. 

Now I have to admit I'm probably about fifty fifty choosing  winning presidential candidate. I admire Jimmy Carter but, at the time he was the candidate endorsed by the 700 Club. I was channel surfing OK. Then the good christians of the Robertson cult discovered they really had a Christian on their hands and didn't know what to do with him. Except vote for saint Ronnie as quickly as possible.

The last Republican candidate for senator I voted for was Mark Hatfield. A good and honorable man. He got out in the nineties as the partisan rhetoric started to heat up and the candidates got a full bubble off plumb. 

So this year vote as if your lives depend on it. And that vote earns you the right to bitch about the results. 

And BTW anyone reading who doesn't live in Oregon. We have statewide vote by mail. We've been voting by mail since the nineties. Oregon was the first and we had to fight to get it and fight to keep it. There has been little to no fraud. Our ballots will be mailed the 13th of next month. If you are already registerd in Oregon and are basically changing your address you can register up to election day, pick up a ballot at the county elections office and vote. If you are a new voter in Oregon the cut off is October 13.

I NEED TO KNOW WHO THE AUTHOR IS

I promise I'll get the geology going. Honest. But I feel like Alexander with the Gordian Knot and I left my sword back home.

The very small blog of a self described Christian geoscientist. I am Quaker/I'm still trying to figure it out with a seldom used degree in Anthropology with a minor in secondary ed. Frankly my "oh really sense" rears its head when the word Christian gets attached to any science discipline. I mean how often to you run run into a Christian English Majo? Or a Christian Fine Arts Major? Not very darn often.

Up front I did not manage to get through most the material posted. To be honest it attempts to contradict most of the material in the three texts I've read, or attempted to read the old syapses don't fire as fast as they used to, or is available on the net. There are three other entries and the one that really got my attention tried to use the eruption of Mount Saint Helen's to explain the creation of the Grand Canyon. Except there are no volcanoes anywhere near the Grand Canyon.

Also the Washington eruption was not the biggest boom witnessed by human beings. Compared to Krakatoa in the nineteent century. That baby blew up the mountain and causes tidal waves that killed nearly forty thousand people. The pressure wave literally circled the world. Oregon's Crater Lake serenly sits in the crater of a mountain the geologists named Mt. Mazama. When Mazama blew it sent ash and tuff twelve hundred miles away.It seems each volcano has a signaure unique to the lava flows.

And the Grand Canyon? Water and time. Halfway around the world there is a gorge in Nepal. It was cut by the Kali Gandaki rivers and is the deepest in the world. Annapurna is on one side, Dhaulagiri on the other. But here's the catch. The rivers were there before the Himalayas began to rise. As the land rose the river kept cutting away.

Back to the Grand Canyon. I am geologic amateur here so bear with me here. There was a period of what is called flat plate subduction that is theorized to have resulted in the creation of the Rocky Mountains and the raising of the Colorado Plateau. As the land rose the river cut down through the layers of sediment laid down by the ancient inland seas.

Long shot of the canyon. All those lovely, level rock layers going back a billion years or more.

OK. This wandered off down the road and took the long way back. Anyway this writer is an example of first, a particular religious/science hybrid. In this case what looks like a believer in Young Earth Creationism. They start with the assumed by some folks timeline of Genesis and then try to fit the science to fit the scripture. No matter how freaking ridiculous it gets.

Two. I don't know who this author is. All I have is the pen name. Aeropagus. Meaningless. There is no way to find out where this author was trained. No way to find out if they have actually written any research that has been peer reviewed. Some authors are quoted but a quick check of the work they've done makes me wonder if they would agree with how their research has been used.

One comment boiled down to "your example uses a flat surface, but the earth is a sphere."

Anyway thanks for putting up with my ramblings.

THE MIDGELET

This is Midge AKA several other names like Henreietta Hairball, Miss Invisibility, Hard Find etc. She is about two in this picture. Light just catching one eye. I can't find offhand the shot I really wanted. At about ten months her beautiful, brand new red collar. It did really look great on her. I did the whole "you look really great," etc. And she was probably thinking "yeah right." Three days later it disappeared. Looked high and low, not that energetically I will admit.

About four days later she came trotting in, collar in mouth. And she had worked over thar collar six ways from Sunday. It was in no condition to be used again. She sat there. Very prim and proper. Looking like the cat that got into the cream. Never tried the collar bit again. She does look like those colonials with the lace ruffles. Very elegant.

STARS TURN ON

OK. I am not an astronomer. I'm interested. I can identify some constellations when a hill or a lot of tall trees are in the way. So I'll do the best I can on a part of creation that is had to wrap your brain around.

Scientists call it the "Big Bang." Although if there was a real "bang" there was no one to hear it. The elusive evidence of the beginning of all there would ever be hasn't been discovered. Knowledge gained from our modern telescopes put the age of the universe at approximately 13.8 billion years.

"In the beginning all space, energy, and matter came into existence from and unknowable void. Nothing. Then something. The concept is beyond our ability to craft metaphors. Our universe did not suddenly appear where there had only been vacuum before, for before the Big Bang there was no volume and no time. Our concept of nothingness implies emptiness. Before the Big Bang there was nothing to be empty in.

Then in an instant, there was not just something, but everything that would  ever be, all at once." Robert Hazen, The Story of Earth pp. 7-8.

It may have taken half a million years for the baby universe to cool down to several thousand degrees. Cool enough for the first protons and neutrons or just protons already formed to be joined by electrons, giving birth to the first atoms. Mostly hydrogen, some helium and a little lithium.

Image courtesy of the Gemini Project

A hydrogen molecule is the simplest atom, number one on the periodic table of elements. One proton and one electron. You wouldn't think that gravity would have an effect but it does. When enough hydrogen atoms get together they start twirling and swirling and getting closer and closer together until enough atoms get close enough that fusion begins and and the star "turns" on. To bad nobody was around to see it happen. Of course the whole process can take hundreds of thousands of years. And we're like mayflies compared to the age of the universe.

THE NUMBERS WOULD BE GREAT

if it wasn't for the "blue" states. So tweeted the current occupant.

So geology is kind of slippery. I'm not really sure where to start. Start with the Big Bang and try to work it that way? Start in the middle. Start with Oregon and work backwards. In the meantime. The current occupant twitted that if you took out the death tolls from the virus in the so called Blue states the numbers wouldn't look so bad. Jim Wright over at Stonekettle gave his opinion that the when the rest of the world thinks about American they usually don't think about Arkansas for example.

Honestly I believe Arkansas just popped out. Bit some of the folks in Arkansas took offense at the compariason. He just pointed out that when it comes to films, plays, books, food, trouble folks overseas don't usually think of Arkansas either. It's Las Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, New York City, Boston, maybe Miami or Houston.  The first four are from so called Blue states. Although they're only blue because just enough Democrats got a majority to count in the electoral college.

For starters the virus does not know or care what your politics are.It's just looking for a nice, warm host to hijack to make more viruses.

When Tony Bennett sang tht signature song of his it wasn't "I Left my Heart in Kansas City" and Frank Sinatra didn't sing "Cleveland, Cleveland." Same number of syllables but Cleveland kind of falls with a dull thud. And why is there Chiago: the Movie and not Tulsa? Damned if I know. And Albuquerque might by famous for some because Bugs Bunny used to say "I knew I should have taken a left turn in Albuqurque" instead of whereever he took the right turn at.

I didn't really mention Portland. Portland's problem is the same problem Oregon has. It's north of Frisco and south of Seattle. These cities have the big hub airports. These cities have the big ports. Face it. If the merchandise is coming from Asia the shortest distance is to the west coast ports. It's that, or go around Africa. I'm not sure if the big tankers or container ships can even get through the Panama Canal.

I almost forgot about New Orleans. jazz, food, Mardi Gras. Honestly I think New Orleans is in a class by itself. It's in the south but isn'texactly "southern."

And sir, the electoral votes may have gone "blue?" But there are plenty of "red"voters in those states that ae just as vulnerable, and need just as much help as the folks in the so called "red" states. Somebody really needs to take that phone away from you. Heck you couldn't even hancle a town hall without making a fool of yourself. What excuses will you come up with to avoid the debates.

THE MILKY WAY OVER CORNWALL

While I try to figure out how to work with Northwest geology here's a beauty from NASA's website. The island can be reached by foot on the path during low and mid tide. 

This is a composite shot copyrighted to Simon R. Hudson. The building at the top of the small hill has been a monastery originally established by Edward the Confesser. By the 18th century the village buildings had been improved and St. Michael's was decent sea port. Pictures were taken on the same night in July. Cleaned up and enhnced. That's Jupiter off to the left and a neteor on the right. 

Between the smoke and the meds my brains are a little fried this week. Information seems to go in one set of brain cells and out the other. 

THE LAND OREGONIANS LIVE ON

 I have a couple of maps. The first shows the lava flows from approximately seveteen million to about two million years ago. This map does not include lava and ash flows from the volcanoes in the Cascades. That is a whole different story.

These arethe basic flows that deposited up to two miles of basalt. Geologists are still working on where flows originated. Much of the basalt is what is found under the ocean, no extra minerals mixed in. Mixed lava is what is usually found in flows that originate on land. The basic shape of Oregon was already here. Then it was over run by molton rock from vents like the Siberian or Deccan traps. Some of those flows made it all the way to the Pacific, three hundred miles away.

This is a topogaphic map of Oregon. The green is the reletively low level, mostly flat terrain. There isn't very much.

The Columbia River forms part of the border between Oregon and Washington. The bend to the north is where Portland is located. Relatively little of Portland is actually on flat terrain Eugen/Springfield is down as the south end of the Willamette Valley. Hemmed in on three sides by the coast range and the foothills of the western Cascades. Most of the blue green to almost white running down the high Cascades are volcanoes ranging from extinct (we hope) to active in the last two hundred years. Hood, St Helens, and Ranier.

East of the Cascades you have the high plateau, the Ohocos, the Blues, the Wallowas, the Steens. They are not volcanic, they are what managed to stay above the lava flows and not pressed down under the weight of the lava flows.

The green. That's where most Oregonians live. Or close to it. Our mountains are young and steep, hard to access. No place in Oregon has recieved average rainfall for several years. And parts of southern Oregon are classed as in severe drought. And we only have records for say one hundred years. For all we know there were some years that were unusually wet. Hermiston averages about ten inches of rain a year. Less than that qualifies as a desert. There's a lot of scrub, small trees, bushes.

Anyway look at the topo map and try to imagine fighting a fire under those conditions. There were small towns on the McKenzie where there is a little flat land. At least one of those is gone. Nothing but ashes and rubble. This is a video taken by KGW in Portland Thursday. It runs about two hours with information from different locations.

UNDER A CLOUD OF SMOKE

You can't really fight a fire until you can get a line around it. And you can't build a fire line until the damn fire slows down.

I've said it before. I'm a logger's kid. My dad told stories. About the meet and greet for the new forest ranger and the wife "I hope he learns how to fight a forest fire before he has to."

The ones my dad used were made of metal. This is a five gallon can (plastic here) that could be carried on the back and operated as a hand pump. Five gallons weighs about fourty pounds by the way. They could be stored and the landing (where the logging crew started work) and holds five gallons. The populat term is "piss can." Don't ask me where the name comes from. Anyway. It was probably late May. The ranger came through, forest was drying out. "Well you need to start filling your piss cans. We've been doing that since April. Cecil (dad) would do that!)

When the woods dry out work shuts down when the humidity goes down. Might have been a crew out of Hines in Westfir. Little town about four or five miles from Oakridge. Ranger came through and ordered a shut down for the day at least. When the ranger says "shut 'er down" you shut down. The bulldozer should have been shut off and left where it was. The crew boss ordered the 'dozer brought down. Sound carries in the woods. The ranger didn't even go back he went straight to the main office and gave the company a choice. Fire the crew boss and face a two week shut down. Company didn't shut down for two weeks.

Some call it fire fighting. You can't "fight" a fire. At best you try to guess where the damn thing will go and try to get a line around it. By hand at first and then with heavy equipment. If you can bring the heavies in. Planes can drop fire retardent and water. Helicopters can drop water. But you can't do either when the wind is blowing a gale or you can't see through the smoke.

More later about the disaster unfolding on the west coat this week. California was already burning and Oregon and Washington are too now. The wind shifted from east to west last night and both states are under the smoke  cloud. I think I'll just try to sleep through it. Apparently my weather ap only recognizes smoke if it knows a fire is in the area. Otherwise it keeps telling me it's foggy. It certainly is "foggy." Monday can't get here soon enough.

STATE ON FIRE

And Denver is under a winter storm warning, Snow included. Too bad they can't send some our way.

It has been a hot, dry summer. Drier than usual. Most of the Northwest is under some degree of drought designation. There had been some fires in Oregon and Washington but from what I've heard nothing out of the ordinary. Then the jet shifted, eastern flow heated us up over the weekend and Monday the wind began to blow from the east. Here in Umatilla/Hermiston it probably didn't get gusts over thirty miles an hour. There was grass fire near town but it was contained. Smoke was bad for a few hours but gone by evening.

Not so on the other side of the mountains. High winds into Tuesday, gusts up to sixty miles per hour. Or more. Fires that were already burning blew up. Some folks up the Mckenzie didn't know there was a fire until they woke up in the middle of the night with flames at the back door. They made it out.

You go east up the McKenzie and EWEB (power company) has a small dam/power station at Leaburg. There's a small lake behind the dam. Was anyway. The lake has been drawn down probably to protect the dam. That meant that the Leaburg fish hatchery had to be emptied. The fish released. There was a video on youtube of the hatchery workers opening the pens to release the fish. Fire was at the top of hill as everyone left. One of the workers made the remark that his son's school was gone and his house was probably gone too  Unfortunately the video has been marked private by someone and pulled.

Updates today. Vida is mostly OK. Most of Blue River is gone. They managed to save the High School. It's a brick building. I haven't heard about Leaburg except for the lake and the hatchery. My grandparents had a little store up there when I was a little girl. Last I heard, or saw, it was a pizza parlor.

You won't know their names I can only describe the town I grew up in. Oakridge, Oreon. Logging town, once upon a time mill town about forty miles SE of Springfield. Highway 58 is a state road, it's the truck route to eastern Oregon hooks up with north/south bound 97. And there isn't much after you leave Oakridge until Willamette Pass. Ranger station and the staging area for snow plows and repair equipment.

It's a beautiful part of the state and part of me will always be there. But the road is two lane, fairly narrow with the odd slow taffic cut out. The mountains are steep and trees tend to run very close to the highway. And often the river is on the other side of road either has steep banks down to the water and more trees. And it's probably a good thing it didn't sink in when I was a kid. There is one road in and one road out. Especially southbound there's at least ten miles with trees right next to the road with nice steep mountains on one side and the middle fork of the Willamette on the other. To be honest the river isn't all that impressive until it hits the valley.

And then that devil wind hit Monday and everything went to hell in a handbasket.

AN IMMODEST PROPOSAL

Anybody who’s read my journals for awhile knows that I have a rather twisted sense of humor. Spending an evening researching the Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster can leave you looking at some things in a slightly different way.

I suspect that we take the Creator/Creatress far more seriously than God/dess takes themselves. The human foot and back don’t suggest an Intelligent Designer. It gives me the impression of somebody who was definitely making things up as they went along. I mean flat feet and bad backs. You’d think somebody could have planned things a little better.

And take the human body itself. I mean you have a two legged, barely furred critter with its you know what’s bobbing in the wind. SOMEBODY had a seriously twisted sense of humor. After all once gravity, time and fast food get their clutches into you your bod does not look the same as it did when you were a twenty something. Our ancestors may have invented clothing for protection, but I’m sure it was adapted very quickly for “show.” There is a certain aura that goes with that well tailored three piece suit made from the best fabrics.

You may have seen portraits of Henry VIII. The young Henry was a tall, slender athlete. Henry in his late forties definitely needed all the velvet, jewels, and satin camouflage he could get his pudgy bejeweled hands on. 

I mean the heck with the three piece and bring on furs and jewels. Although in an era before banks the rulers wore much of the treasury on their bodies

And check out Henry's daughter Elizabeth. Sparkling to the hilt for the Armada Portrait. Although I believe those pearls used to belong to Mary of Scotland. I'd love to know the value of the bling in today's dollars. And somewhere under the hooped skirts and padded sleeves was a human being. Part of me wonders how much one of those outfits weighed much less cost. 

Can you imagine any of our politicians, broadcasters, or religious leaders being taken seriously with their (sniggering, hand-waving) you know what’s waving or in many cases sagging in public. How seriously would anyone take Mitch McConnell or heaven help us  if they had to speak in public in the buff. In fact how seriously would you take any politician if they had to do their stump speeches in the altogether. No lecterns allowed. 

I know. I’ve got a new slogan. “No clothes for politicians.” I bet the speeches would be a lot shorter and more to the point. I mean even you allowed them a towel that was barley large enough a lot would still be hanging out. 

THE CRAB IN THE SKY

NGC 1952 The Crab Nebula a supernova remnant described by the Chinese in 1054. Shot in a composite from NASA, ESA, HUBBLE. Visible in Taurus with binoculars. The nebula spans about ten light years wihile the neutron star pulsar in the center is probably smaller than Chicago. The nebula lies about 6,500 plus or minus 1,600 light years away from earth. The light astronomers are seeing now left the nebula more about six thousand years ago. About the time we were building the first cities.

ROCKING IT

OK it's a lousy title. However this geology professor does talk rocks. And great floods, volcanoes, tsunamies, earthquakes. Mostly in Washington because that is where he teaches Geology at Central Washington University, His name is Nick Zentener. This is his home page. He has done public lectures over the past several years. Does shorter videos on specific areas and I believe the local PBS station might carry them. He's also done YouTube videos during the lockdown. Both for his students and to keep from going stir crasy.

It seems that I am more visually oriented than verbal oriented. I read new material and absorb it. But it makes a lot more sense if I can see and hear the material too.

In an era of high tech visuals he uses chalkboards for his primary presentations then follows up with prepped visuals. I knew that the high Cascades were a string of very dormant to gee, I hope Mt. so and so doean'r wake up any time soon. I'm living in Eastern Oregon now. About three or four miles from the Columbia River. And it turns out on top of a series of ancient flood varieties of basalt and granite. The Columbia River Basalt Group flows cover parts of Western Idaho, Eastern Washington, and North Eastern Oregon. Some of the flows made it all the way to the Pacific Coast.

Anyway if you are  curious check him out. He is up front about being a teacher, not a researcher. He is one of the best presenters I've come across in a long time. He lives and teaches in Washington so that is his main focus, but what the heck, he's up front about it.

PUTTING IT ON THE TABLE

While I'm trying to figure out how to describe the Big Bang here is (I hope) a blast from the past. And it fits perfectly with my opinion of media that doesn't show families shopping for their ingrediants or cooking them. And if they do it's with a mix or with pre prepped, pre measured stuff that comes in a box.

I’m not sure this ended up where I thought it would when I discovered this quote in one of Wendell Berry’s books. It might come from the Unsettling of America, I'm not sure. But, for better or worse, here goes.

“But just stop for a minute and think about what it means to live in a land where ninety five percent of the people can be freed from the drudgery of preparing their own food.”

James E Bostic Jr. former deputy assistant secretary of agriculture for rural development. I didn’t find much on the net about him. I believe he was in the agriculture dept. during the tenure of Earl "plant fence row to fence row" Butz. He got a degree from Clemson in chemistry. Did the government stint and has held various positions with outfits like Georgia Pacific. You know the “we never met a tree we didn’t want to cut” guys, among others.

Ugh. I wonder where this person would have placed on the psychopath/sociopath diagnostic scale. Apparently he lumps actually growing the food along with preparing the food for your family.

There is nothing more basic to being human than the growing, preparing, preserving and sharing of food within the family or with friends. One of the basics of the school garden movement beginning the mid nineties isn’t just the garden itself. The students learn to cook what they grow and share it with their classmates. Preferably around a table with all the trimmings.

Some of my craziest memories involve dinner time. When dad was disabled mom worked at the U of O as a cook. Which meant that you know who ended up doing a lot of cooking. Robbie did try to help. I came through the door after classes one evening to be greeted with “how do you make a cream sauce?”  She’d almost pulled it off on her own except for the fatal mistake. She turned her back on it for about twenty seconds and it was lump city. Then there were my experiments with pasta sauces. My youngest sister loves mushrooms. Now. Back then it was “are there mushrooms in this?” No sis that bowl has no mushrooms. Then there was dad and the chili. He’d slip in when he thought we weren’t looking and add a little more Tabasco to the mix. Didn’t take us long to just hold back on the final seasoning until just before we were going to serve it.

Then there was the three layer cake baked with baking powder that had lost its oomph. Good thing they liked frosting. And that chiffon cake. Nicely mixed, just turned into the pans with I spotted the measuring cup with the oil in it. That recipe was VERY forgiving. And the divinity that steadfastly refused to set. Pass the spoon. I guess the weather wasn't cold enough or dry enough that day. We had a bowl of basically gooey marshmallows. It was still good. Sticky, but good. 

Maybe it’s a guy thing, I don’t know. It was a challenge to step up and make sure that dinner hit the table on the days mom worked late and that it was something they’d eat. I have to admit dad and the girls were very patient with me. And some things got eaten then that have never graced our table again. Stuffed peppers spring to mind. Heven't eaten one since, at least not if I had a choice.

There’s a satisfaction to that and it’s a feeling he’ll never share.

EARLY MAP OF OREGON

What Oregon looked like about four hundred million years ago. And yeah, I'm still have trouble sorting out the official names. The information is a little more complicated than it was when I was in the ninth grade. I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew. And I really hope I don't bore the heck out of anybody.

PUTTING A CRAZY QUILT TOGETHER

I've always had an on and off interest in Geology. And now I have some time on my hands. And I am going to try and work this out here. The geology of Oregon and the northwest anyway. And to be honest the only way I know is to start at the beginning Because the end of the story won't make much sense without the beginning or middle. And this part of the country does have one heck of a mixed up history.

Ninth grade science class in 1964. Earth Space science. Any Mr. Eginck was a heck of lot more intesested in earth than space. Mid sixties they were doing the first deep core drilling. Continental drift was on the edge of becoming respectable. Scientists were looking at the map and it sure did look like North America and South America once fitted together with Europe and Africa but didn't understand the how. More on that later. Now the earth may be about 4.5 billion years old but most of the rocks in Oregon are only approximately four hundred million years old. And the rock map of this state looks like a crazy quilt.

The map. And the keys. Looks kind of like an abstract painting doesn't it? If half the words don't make a lot of sense to you that make just a little more sense to me. A little.

My strongest memory of that class has to do with the rock identification unit. Some sedimentary rocks have a limestone base. Rocks like that react to acids such as hydrochloric and nitric. We were informed that if any of that acid got anywhere near our faces that the head was going in the sink, hairdos be darned. And those were the days of teased hair and hair spray. Nobody got near drowned that year. And it was a great class.

He taught eighth grade science too. Tall man and his voice started out down around his big toe. Spent about a week or so scaring the daylights out of us. Then we discovered he was really a big teddy bear. Most of the time. There were weekly quizzes in the earth science class and one week just about everybody flunked. His reaction was earth shaking. It didn't affect me quite so much. I spent that previous week out with the mumps and I had the extra weekend to study, think I C'd that one.

MINI RANT

The ususal protestors counter protestors with the "All Lives Matter" sign. Well prove that is what you really believe

All lives matter only works if all lives truly matter. The old ones, the sick ones, the foster kids, the kids on the border, the ones working three jobs to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads, the poor ones, the homeless ones, the hungry ones. 

And that is only the beginning. All those lives in the countries we have nearly destroyed in our fights against all the isms that scare us matter too. The children and the oldersters who fell by the way side trying to get to the refugee camps. The massacres carried out by troops trained at the school at Fort Benning know in the rest of the world as  The School of Assassins. The death raining down labeled "Made in America."                 

Since this country has made it pretty damned obvious that all lives is just a slogan please don't say it if you don't mean it. Because I am F***ing tired of hearing it.

And a good anylysis of our "war against the poor." it's actually a short book bbut it's a good read.