Merry Christmas!

A bit belated, but not much time to blog when you are having fun!

We have been in The Great White North (literally and figuratively) since Christmas Eve, enjoying time with The Thomas and The Parents, among others.

We got a late start on the trip because Mrs. Pion had been seriously under the weather, but a real doctor and some rest took care of that. Fortunately, we had built in a lot of slack in our schedule so we really did not miss anything. Even more fortunately, the weather was even better for our drive north than it would have been on our original plan.

Even better than that, it was all white when we got here!

It is not Christmas in the Pion family without food. Suffice it to say that we arrived at 3 pm, Parents arrived by 4:30 pm (barely enough time for us to unpack the car), and the ham dinner was served by 6 pm. SisInLaw had knocked herself out as usual, with a choice of 4 pies (chocolate cream, pecan, banana cream, and lemon meringue) and banana pudding, all home made, along with Christmas cookies and ice cream. I settled for a half slice of pecan and a half slice of chocolate cream, with ice cream on the side.

Santa arrived while we slept. (The great bulk of the gifts exchanged within The Brother's family are piled around the tree by Santa. They don't accumulate them under the tree during the weeks - or days- before Christmas like we do.) Oddly, Mrs Pion and I were well rested during our trip, so we were first to get up and have breakfast, but resisted the temptation to unwrap and rewrap the gifts. The others were all worn out from getting ready for us to visit.

We were all well remembered. The gift that keeps on giving, a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle, has kept me and their kids entertained for the last few days.

Christmas dinner, a huge turkey and trimmings, was as good or better than the night before. Although I could complain about the lack of sage in the stuffing, I really can't because Mom can't enjoy spicy food like some of us can. Besides, the stuffing was highlighted with the addition of cherries, which add their own special flavor.

Boxing Day was spent on the road, to visit Mrs. Pion's big brother in the even greater, whiter, north woods. Close to Hemingway country, if you know where I mean. We had a special delivery to make: part of our grapefruit harvest. These came from a tree that his wife had started from a grapefruit seed, and gave to us after we had moved south. It rather amazingly has survived enough winters to bear fruit. Great visit, and a beautiful drive through the north country. Once again we were favored by good weather and clear roads.

Finally, we worked in a day for a family dinner at my Parents new home, a townhouse that is part of a wonderful retirement community. I'll have to blog about being Homeless (for the first time in my life, I don't have a bedroom or even a bed in my parents home) some other time. For now, I'll close by being thankful for yet another pleasant evening with family, including a brother who should be immensely proud of how his kids are turning out.

Hope you all had a great holiday as well.

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Mixed Messages

A couple things seen in the last month or so.

False advertising?


Are those "wireless margaritas" free, or do they cost $1.99? Either way, it is a bargain for such a high-tech innovation.


High class town?

From one of those homemade small-town billboards:

Homes of Xyzzy

Buy * Sell * Free Delivery

Something tells me that the housing in this town is more mobile than the population.

He is risen!

Sign in front of a rural church:

Jesus is WAZ UP!

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More of Middle America

Success! Got a good shot of the sort of highway sign I noticed on the first leg of the trip.

Now I just have to get some info from highway department and turn it into a physics problem. The approximately 2 foot wide base makes it ideal for a torque problem, and treating the two trusses and the sign as if each was a uniform object is probably not a bad approximation.

The shortage of "W" stickers continues, with a new twist. I saw the first example of a "coverup" - an oval sticker in the style of the "W'04" ones, except this says "GOP". Looks like the perfect way for a disgruntled Republican to show they line up with Hagel (and now Lugar) rather than Cheney and Bush. Still rare, however.

I also saw a regular "W" sticker and, more interestingly, one that read "May God Bless W" printed in a flag pattern. The latter was in a car with Florida plates driven by white haired folks who, apparently, think that their God would bless someone who ships people off to be tortured after even less of a trial than Pontius Pilate gave His Son. The United States is, truly, a land for everyone.

Puzzling over the mindset of the half of the Republican Party that still thinks things are going as planned in Iraq kept me awake for another hundred miles, but I prefer roadside delights like that pictured below to break up the monotony.

The sculpture is huge, by the way, and would not come cheap.

Then there are the things you don't want to see. Stopped traffic:

For an hour, parked on the freeway.

It did, however, turn out to be an interesting break from the road that contained an interesting lesson in chemistry and physics. Got a chance to talk to a wide variety of people who were on the highway, a truly interstate group. Among them was the driver of the truck you see in front of me. He filled us in on what he had heard over the radio about the wreck. Later I asked him about his load, since his tanker truck had an amusing warning sign suggesting a corrosive liquid.

He said the truck was carrying Maleic Anhydride, used in everything from making epoxy type resins to food products. (Google, in addition to confirming my memory of how to spell the name, confirms that it is used to make artificial sweeteners as well as epoxy hardeners and oil additives.) It was being transported in the liquid state at 150 deg F. It is solid at room temperature, so he needed to keep his truck running to avoid a very nasty problem. Although it reacts to become Maleic Acid when it encounters water, a spill is more likely to result in a white solid when it cools and hits the ground. One web link gives the MSDS info on it, and shows the "corrosive" symbol I saw on the truck. I'm glad I don't have an iPhone, where I would have known that info while parked behind it!

Bet you never guessed that a pretty truck like that would be carrying a hot chemical.

Anyway, the accident had occurred hours earlier. Reportedly the driver had either fallen asleep or had a heart attack, although there was also another vehicle involved. In any case, a truck hauling a double trailer (like the one in the parade picture) had run off the road, dumping his load in the ditch. You can't see any of that in the picture below, but you can see part of the response team.

Traffic had to wait while the back hoe was used to right the truck, because it had to swing across the only lane available for traffic. At the same time, a "bobcat" was being used to clean up the load from the ditch.

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Side Trip Notes

Some odds and ends picked up on the side trip.

It is a good thing that Paris Hilton did not get caught driving under the influence in a northern Michigan county. The following is from the "Court Reports" published on 28 June in a weekly paper. Operating while visibly impaired or intoxicated (two examples), first offense: 93 days in jail, $1100 fine, 12 months probation. Operating while visibly intoxicated, second offence: 365 days in jail, $1375 fine, 18 months probation. Paris Hilton's "harsh" 45 day sentence (23 served) for violating probation with a second DUI offense, after getting nothing but probation for the first, looks pretty lame compared to what they dish out in the north woods.

If you plan now, you can catch the Baby Food Festival on July 17. Just don't drink and drive afterwards.

It is easy to forget that there is really nothing quite like a small town 4th of July parade. Before we get to the sublime part, it is worth noting that the group of active duty, Marines (veterans of Iraq) deferred to the Vietnam Veterans, telling them to lead the parade. I was struck by the observation that the vets of my generation's war are now a lot older than WW II vets were when I was a kid. And that they got more sustained applause than the Marines.

Now on to the small town parade:

After all, what is a parade without a beautiful big semi, with two trailers.

Or without a float promoting a bowling alley.

One of the great places in the world to visit, Mackinac Island, will be featured on the CBS Morning News on 23 August. Their weatherman was up there in June to film segments that will be cut into the live program in August. This visit made the top of the front page, with a color photo, in said local weekly.

• The name Mackinac is from the French and is pronounced mackinaw, like the British term for a jacket that originated in that area. Pronounce it any other way and you are marked as a clueless tourist.
  
• The Island has no motorized vehicles other than an ambulance, a fire vehicle, and a truck that washes the streets before dawn. Everything else is bicycles and horses, included horse-drawn delivery wagons and taxis. It is eerily quiet at night.
  
• They do allow snowmobiles in the winter. Access in winter is either by plane or across an ice road from the mainland.
  
• A featured food item is fudge. The odors on main street (horses and fudge) are totally unique.
  
• The Island was used as the set for "Somewhere in Time", which contained the absurd premise that you can drive there from Chicago. Special approval was required to have a car on Mackinac Island for those scenes.
  

The Discovery Channel program Dirty Jobs spent some time in that area. One set of jobs was on Mackinac Island, where he shoveled horse manure and collected garbage. Another set was spent working on the Mackinac Bridge, changing light bulbs and painting 500 ft above the water. These will probably air next season.

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Side Trip

Took a bit of a side trip yesterday to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to see "The Thinker" at the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. If the name seems familiar to you, it is because he built a local grocery store into a major regional chain.



This casting of The Thinker (made in 1904) is on loan from the Detroit Institute of Arts while they do some renovation. Seeing it outside is remarkable, but there was much more. For example, there are two others by Rodin that are part of the permanent exhibit. If you get close, this place (northeast of downtown) is well worth a visit. Afterwards, you can go up to Muskegon and ride one of the top wooden roller coasters in the world or hit the Lake Michigan beaches.

This photo shows the outside setting in context.


The Thinker is contemplating a wonderful Koi pond with a waterfall that hides road noise from just over the berm. Click the picture to view the full size original and look on the left side.

The gardens, besides being in full bloom, had a traveling exhibit featuring "the chocolate tree" scattered through the grounds and in the various indoor greenhouse spaces. (The main sponsor, Dove, gave out complimentary chocolates.) No photos of that, however.

I also cannot show you any photos of the sculptures of Sophie Ryder, which were in two of the indoor museum spaces. No photos were allowed of her wonderfully strange rabbit headed people. This picture shows part of a display banner by the entrance.




The signature piece of the outdoor display is a recreation of a horse sculpture designed and modeled by DaVinci but never cast full size. This one and the one in Italy were commissioned by Fred Meijer.



You do have to see it to believe it, although the people in this photo do help put it in scale.



Personally, I think this sculpture of a giant trowel, perfectly set in a field of native grasses ready to be turned into a garden, best captures the whole concept of blending a large collection of sculptures into a large horticulture garden.




There must be a mile of trails, some leading into garden "rooms" containing themed groups of art.




I'll let a group of them go without commentary, except to say that I included this next one ("Listening to History") because it reminds me of how The Little Professor seems to be so tied to her book collection.




This is not a Calder, but it really belongs here because of the large Calder stabile that is on the city hall plaza downtown.



Hard to believe this collection was assembled by a grocer, isn't it?

There is more than art and gardens. There is a large children's art and activity area near the entrance. It includes some hands-on sculptures, art activities, a tree house, and a recreation of the Great Lakes basin complete with plastic boats.


That is the mitten of Michigan, with Lake Michigan on the left, Lake Superior at top left, and Lakes Huron (top right) and Erie (bottom right). It even has Niagara Falls out of the picture to the right.

Finally, some more sculptures:







This last one is "Torso of Summer", which seems appropriate for the season.

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Observing Middle America

One can see almost anything while driving across the country, but one thing I had trouble seeing these days is a "W" sticker. I only saw one sticker in two days on the Interstate. This is a major change in one year, particularly since the route I take goes by two major army installations.

This suggests that even the 25% who still support W are not so sure they want their neighbors to know that they do.

English Only irony continues:
I saw a "Yo Soy el Army" bumper sticker. Interesting that the Republican Presidential candidates are not exactly playing the 'support our troops' game on this one.

I also proved that a physicist can see physics problems anywhere. I saw a really nice "statics" problem in a cantilevered highway sign in Kentucky, which used a box truss rather than a pole for the vertical part. Perfect.

Forgot this one:
Indiana has a new specialty license plate. I have to wonder if they know it translates into Arabic as "We Trust in Allah".

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Visiting Thailand ... mostly for profgrrrrl

I have a colleague who visits Thailand regularly. (He is married to a Thai woman and they own a second home in the northern part of the country.) PG's latest blog about her planned trip reminded me to ask him some travel questions when I ran into him today between final exams.

His comments, in no particular order, from memory:


There is no major difference between May and June. Both are equally hot. As in 100 to 110 F hot. The rainy season comes much later in the year, so you probably won't have to worry about scheduling a trip around bad weather. It is only "cool" in the winter when they visit. Winter is also the only time there are a lot of tourists. (The resorts were packed when the tsunami hit near Christmas.) The north is only cooler in a relative sense, but he said that Bangkok is particularly hot because the tall buildings block any breeze, plus the usual urban heat island effect. Running in San Diego is just the thing to prepare you for the trip!

If you are in Bangkok, you can spend days just touring places in the city. Lots of temples, for example. One very cheap way to do this is to hire a car (sedan with driver, not a taxi). Your hotel will be able to set you up with some reliable choices. You can get driven anywhere you want to go for an entire day for a very nominal fee. Sounds like a great travel tip. I expect lots of temple photos in return!

Bangkok has nothing resembling zoning. A 5-star hotel could be one block from a slum.

The country is larger than it looks on a globe because it is dwarfed by India. He said it is something like 900 miles north to south, and it is not a "day trip" from Bangkok to many places of interest (like the beaches). Several hours on a train each way, so you would have to plan for an overnight stay if you go very far afield.

One side trip he recommended was to visit the ancient capital, which is upriver from Bangkok and can be reached via a beautiful boat ride. There are regular tourist excursions up there.

He did not think there would be any trouble traveling as a single woman, but he did recommend avoiding the southern part of the country. There have been problems with terror groups down towards Malaysia, but nothing major. (The major beach resorts, like the ones hit by the tsunami, are down there, but he said those are safe. His concern seemed more with the countryside in between.)

I also asked him about crossing the border to visit Angkor Wat, a place I've always wanted to see, but he had no experience with that. His wife cannot cross that border on her Thai passport. (Not sure what that is about, but must go back to the Vietnam War.)

Finally, he added, if you like riding an elephant ... there are week-or-two excursions into the jungle on elephant, moving from camp site to camp site. Sounds totally exotic.

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