Sunday, October 30, 2011

Around the World

Adam departed his Colorado apartment eight days ago just prior to 6 o'clock in the morning. Twenty-eight hours, three flights, and two continents later, he found himself at a snazzy hotel in Singapore. Adam's stay in southeast Asia was brief, as it was merely the point where he had to rendezvous with a U.S. military aircraft in order to reach his destination of Diego Garcia. He did make the most of his short visit to Singapore, though, by taking a tour of the city. And, thank goodness he knew not to chew gum there because it is against the law and punishable by a fine of up to $1,000. I am assuming that Singapore must be one tidy city!

Adam and his atmospheric science colleagues met up with their transportation to DG - a U.S. Air Force C-17 - on Tuesday afternoon at a Singaporean air base. Apparently, the huge military plane provided an interesting ride. While snapping photos of the outside of the aircraft was prohibited, pictures could be taken inside. Diego Garcia houses a U.S. Navy base that has graciously allowed (or been monetarily compensated to allow?) the DYNAMO climate project to operate from there. Upon arrival on the island, Adam and the others settled into their hotel rooms, then went through some training with the grad students that had already been there for the past month. While chatting with Adam on Skype this afternoon - and our Skype connection was less than perfect; actually it was not very good at all - Jim, Jacob, and I learned more about the research work that is going on in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Adam's weather balloon launches sound quite intriguing and I will post more about them in my next DG update.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Student of the Month

Jacob was recently chosen as one of the "Students of the Month" for October at the high school. Around 60 kids out of 6,300 are given the honor each month. To be eligible, Jacob had to go to class prepared, participate and contribute, treat teachers and peers with respect, etc., etc. We were invited to an early morning ceremony last week where Jacob received a couple of certificates, a hearty handshake from his vice principal, and some enthusiastic applause. And a bagel and juice for breakfast. All in all, it was a nice little reception and we are, of course, very proud of Jacob.

Monday, October 24, 2011

The Maize

On Sunday afternoon the weather was unusually nice in southeast Michigan. Jacob, Nancy, Richie, Jean, Jenna, and I decided to take a trip to a local corn maze. This particular maze is one of the largest and most difficult in the state. In fact, they sell maps in sealed envelopes for $1.00 in case you get hopelessly lost among the corn stalks. If you make it to the exit without opening your envelope, they will refund your $1.00. We walked up & down row after row of corn. We passed the same groups of people over and over again. We probably traveled through the same intersections repeatedly. We contemplated peeking at our map, but resisted the urge. Fifty-five minutes after entering the maze, we triumphantly emerged with our envelopes unopened. We sure were proud to get our map money back.


Jacob sauntered down a path.


Jenna got up close and personal with some stalks.


Lost, but not too worried.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Focused

Jacob had his final 80-question driver's ed test this afternoon. He passed. As soon as class was over, he bounded out of school and hopped into the car. We then zipped over to the Secretary of State office and arrived five minutes before they closed. Luckily, that gave us just enough time to pick up Jacob's learner's permit. (And, oddly, none of the other 21 kids from his class showed up to get their permits today.) Once he was legal, Jacob climbed behind the wheel and, after taking an abnormally long time backing out of our parking space, proceeded to drive us home. He did a great job!

Jacob cruising down Cherry Hill Road.

Monday, October 17, 2011

South of the Equator

This weekend, Adam will be taking off on a five-and-a half week long expedition to the other side of the world. From Denver he will fly to Singapore via San Francisco and Hong Kong. After spending two days in Singapore, he will hop onto a U.S. military aircraft for a six-hour flight to the island of Diego Garcia. Diego Garcia is a small atoll in the middle of the Indian Ocean that has no commercial airport, just a U.S. military base. Adam and two other atmospheric science graduate students are going there to participate in a climate research project called "Dynamics of the Madden-Julian Oscillation," or DYNAMO. Diego Garcia is tropical, hot, & humid, and appears to be quite scenic. If I can persuade Adam to send me some pictures while he is there, I will post them.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Flea Market Fracas

Last Friday and Saturday, Nancy and I booked a table at the Finnish Center Flea Market to sell some of our old stuff. Nancy had a lot of nice things for sale, I had a few items, and Irma donated several pieces of jewelry. When the doors opened Friday morning, lots of shoppers came pouring into the flea market. Not very many stopped at our table despite the fact that we had awesome items at very reasonable prices. Luckily, Nancy was able to sell some of her pieces of fancy crystal, or we might not have even made enough money to pay the price of our table. After buying lunch for myself, any profit that I earned had disappeared. We looked forward to the next day, as Saturday shoppers typically come in droves and make big purchases.

The next morning, flea market customers were few and far between. Nancy and I walked around a bit and discovered that the lady in charge of the sale had decided to lock the front doors of the Finnish Center for the day. We found a sign outside telling people to use a side door. We were confused. It ends up that a few of the Finnish Center bigwigs had set up flea market tables - free tables, I might add - in a side room and wanted to corral shoppers past their wares before they went into the large, main selling room. The problem, however, was that most customers just tried the front doors, found them locked, and then left. Or, if they did find their way to the side door, they thought that the whole sale was in that small room, and exclaimed, "This is all there is?" I can't tell you how many people walked away. Nancy and I spoke to "Lady-in-Charge" and politely asked her to unlock the front doors. She refused. We talked to her husband, who is an executive on the FC board and who also had a selling table in the side room. He agreed to unlock the doors. "Lady-in-Charge" saw her husband opening the front doors and all hell broke loose. After she screamed at him, she screamed at us. She wanted those doors locked and that was that. There was no reasoning with her and she proceeded to rudely tell everyone that she had the right to make that decision. Word spread through the flea market like wildfire and many vendors were so frustrated with her decision that they vowed never to come back. At the end of the day, the doors stayed locked and we made very little money. If nothing else, though, it was definitely the most interesting flea market in which we had ever participated!

Friday, October 7, 2011

Beware of Student Driver

After waiting 14 years and 9 months, Jacob finally reached the legal age to take driver's education in Michigan. His class began this week and, besides sitting through 8 hours of lessons, he has also driven twice. In an actual car. On real roads. For a total of 120 minutes. Driving has always been one of Jacob's dreams, so, as you can imagine, he is beyond thrilled. His driving instructors - or "coaches," as they are called at this school - say that he has done a great job on the road so far. Hopefully he will keep up the good work because soon they will be taking him on the freeway and letting him accelerate a two-ton vehicle to 70 miles an hour. Jacob has a few more weeks of classroom work and 4 more hours behind the wheel with a "coach" before he earns his learner's permit. I have a feeling that once that happens, I will be sitting in the passenger seat and Jacob will insist on driving everywhere.