Yearly Archives: 2016

Sunflower Party

This entry was posted in Fun Stuff on by .

Last night Sunflower Outdoor and Bike had its annual customer appreciation party.  It is usually the first holiday deal of the year around here.  At least for me.  I was a little apprehensive about going there, thinking that I only have a short amount of time I can keep an energy level up good enough to enjoy a holiday party.  But, I did alright.

Downtown Lawrence Kansas around the holidays is great.  It is really decorated and pretty.  The downtown area is sort of the original downtown from the 1800’s.  Many of the building, including Sunflower, have limestone foundations and walls.  I like that.

Dan Hughes is the proprietor of Sunflower, so the MC.  It is a great shop.  If you ever have a chance to go by, you should.

Dan has won the DK 200 more than a handful of times.  Anyway, Dan is great and keeps a festive atmosphere.  He gives away a ton of stuff and does a raffle that gives away a lot of other stuff too.  A guy I ride with from Lawrence, Marcos,  young daughter won a Rockshoc Sid 29’er fork.  She said that she was giving it to her dad for Christmas, which is sweet.

Everyone there was so nice to me.  Wanting to know how I was doing and saying that I looked so much better than they thought I would.  I guess that is good, I think.

Anyway, I held up okay.  I took a stroll down Mass. St. during the middle to get some fresh air, which really helped.

I slept nearly 8 hours last night, which is a record by miles.  I don’t feel that great, but it has to be a good thing.

I have two doctor’s appointments today.  This will be the last ones for a couple weeks.  I’m sort of tired of the whole routine, even though I understand that it is important.  The deal is I’ve learned just about everything I’m going to know about what is the matter with me. And that seeing a doctor isn’t really going to help much in the near term.  At least if it stays status quo, which is good.

Okay, tomorrow is the Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade in downtown Lawrence. Over a 100 horse-drawn carriages.   I usually ride there, but not this year.  But it will be great getting out of the house for sure.  Hope you have a good weekend.

Dan talking to the masses.

Dan talking to the masses.

Upstairs at Sunflower.

Upstairs at Sunflower.

The parade a couple years ago.

The parade a couple years ago.

Massachusetts Street is all like this. Very festive.

Massachusetts Street is all like this. Very festive.

 

 

 

Airplane Flights

This entry was posted in Important Society Issues on by .

I woke up early this morning and was listening to the BBC.  They had a pretty good segment on airplane flights and greenhouse gases.  Man, there is a lot of information to digest on this subject.

They said something like there are 100,000 flights per day currently.  And that 3.5 billion passengers per year currently fly.  That number is nearly 1/2 the population of the planet now.

Obviously jet planes use fuel, which causes warming.  The fuel a flight uses, per person, is quite a bit more than an automobile, considering how much distance a flight covers.

Burning the fuel also cause clouds.  They are addressing that there are so many flights and the flights obviously make contrails, which affects the greenhouse gas problem.  The contrails create clouds and these clouds are high clouds that are complicated.

The high clouds contain warmth for the planet, that has a next warming effect. But these clouds also reflect the sunlight, which has a net cooling effect on the planet.  So the problem is to figure out which is stronger.

They tried to compare the amount of sun reflected from volcanoes, even 9/11, which grounded nearly all aircraft for 72 hours.  There was a study during 9/11, when the flights were grounded, that showed that with no planes in the sky, the nights were cooler and the days were warmer. This gap was over 1 degree, which seems extreme for only 3 days of no airplane flights.

Anyway, it is complicated and, I’m sure, won’t really be addressed until it is too late to correct. I’m pretty sure that the US is going to be contributing way more to the heating of our planet the next four years.  At least if the president elect keeps his campaign promises.   Funny that the rest of the world is intent on addressing this and, currently, we’re dragging our feet.  Go figure.

Contrails are pretty, but maybe not so good for the planet.

Contrails are pretty, but maybe not so good for the planet.

On a happier note, a hunter's trail camera filmed a mountain lion in Shawnee County, where I live. This is the first photoed mountain lion near Topeka. They are very stealthy and shy.

On a happier note, a hunter’s trail camera filmed a mountain lion in Shawnee County, where I live. This is the first photoed mountain lion near Topeka. They are very stealthy and shy.