Barb was, as usual, a tremendous help with Boomershoot this year. Here are a couple pictures of her:
This was after we had finished putting up all the signs.
We just finished putting up the canopy at the target production facility.
Also in the picture with Barb and I are son-in-law Jacob, daughter Kim, and volunteer Terry.
This is a personal fireball target which Barb helped make. It was shot (detonated) by an immigrant from Venezuela.
The rate of heat transfer for many thermodynamic problems is directly proportional to the difference in temperature between the heat source and the heat sink. This difference in temperature is frequently referred to as “Delta T”.
Less than three weeks ago Barb and I were in Columbia where, with the humidity, the temperature felt like 114F:
We left there and for four days cruised north through the Caribbean Sea, within a 100 miles of Cuba, to New Orleans. Even in the middle of the night you could stand on our stateroom balcony with little or no clothing and be uncomfortably warm. It was during this time that Barb won Miss Norwegian Pearl in her bikini. We were soaking up the heat and humidity before returning home.
Last Friday morning there was snow on the ground. This morning there was more snow and it continues though the afternoon:
Today, with the continuing large delta T and Barb’s surface area to mass ratio approximating infinity, she ran out of heat to give up to the environment. Even with thermostat set at 71F she had to put on multiple layers of clothes, a fluffy sweatshirt, and put the hood up over her head. Her hands still felt like ice cubes:
She now has plans to visit Arizona.
As I mentioned the other day, last Saturday Barb and I went white water rafting and I went swimming in Class IV rapids. I thought I might get some video from Riverbooty.com but they only took stills. Here are what I think are the most interesting of them (sequential frames):
Situation good. I am the person in the right front part (closest to the camera) of the raft. Barb is the second person from the front on the left side.
He needs to change the chant. I just can’t be enthused anymore about, “Ice cold beer.” It should be “HOT. GREEN. TEA.”
Barb L.
September 16, 2017
[Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of our first date and, among other things, we celebrated by going on a white water rafting trip as part of a company morale event. The guide would give orders such as:
There were others, but for the purposes of this story these are the important ones.
To help keep the participants in sync, depending upon the order, we were supposed to chant one of three things in time with our paddle strokes.
Here is a sample:
It got cold. Even though we were dressed warmly we all got chilled and she got cold:
Her suggestion for the change was quite appropriate.
There are more exciting stories from this event but this will have to do until we get the video from when I went swimming in Class IV rapids.—Joe]
I am one with the wall.
Barb L.
August 14, 2017
[We were on Highline Trail near Logan Pass in Glacier National Park and had stepped off to one side to allow people to pass at a wide spot:
The cliff off on the other side of the trail was steep and high.—Joe]
I am one with the wall.
Barb L.
August 14, 2017
[We were on Highline Trail near Logan Pass in Glacier National Park and had stepped off to one side to allow people to pass at a wide spot:
The cliff off on the other side of the trail was steep and high.—Joe]
This morning I was busy reloading ammo when Barb came back from a walk and sent me a text message before coming inside:
Two deer on the front yard.
I grabbed my camera bag and headed for the door. Barb opened it just before I got to it. My disappointed face must have been an easy read for her because she said, “They aren’t going anywhere, but I wish they would.” I carefully stepped out on the front steps and took some pictures:
I came back inside and Barb asked if they were still there. “Yes”, I replied, “Do you want me to make them go away?”
“Yes please. I don’t want them eating my plants.”
“We could have fresh venison for dinner if you wanted.”, I joked.
“No. Just get them out of the yard.”
We went out into the yard and tried shooing them away from 15 or 20 feet away. They weren’t really interested. I had to make some aggressive moves and sounds before they finally moved onto the edge of the street. Two cars drove by and the deer came back onto the edge of the yard.
I clicked my tongue (really loud, I used to find my kids in malls and stores this way because they could hear it some distance away and knew I was looking for them). This was enough incentive for the deer to run down the street a few feet and then walk through the bushes into the neighbors yard.
I came back in the house and reported my results to Barb. “Excellent!”, she exclaimed, “I was afraid they would run at me if I tried to get them to leave.”
While it’s not all that unusual to see a deer or two when we go for a walk near the park, I don’t recall seeing any deer on our street before. It’s not like we live in some rural area. This is a normal suburban neighborhood with houses all around:
Oh well, I thought it was nice to have the visitors even if I don’t think Barb wasn’t quite as pleased about it as I was.
I like these kind of trails the least. These are the kind where you fall to your death.
Barb L.
July 4, 2017
While on a hike near Tolmie Peak Lookout
[While I admit she had a point, I didn’t feel the impending disaster she did. But then, she was convinced I was “channeling my inner mountain goat”.
The picture below was taken by Barb at nearly the same time as I took the picture of her above:
It was a great hike with epic views. And you don’t need to traverse the areas shown above to get the epic views like this:
Highly recommended day hike.—Joe]
Yesterday Barb and I hiked to Wallace Falls again. The trees are still extremely mossy, the falls are still beautiful (they had more water going over them this time), and I’m pretty sure the last quarter mile or so of the trail has some stairs where there were slippery rocks before. Also last time I said it took about two hours each way. But we were in and out in a little less than three hours this time. And although I was a little bit stiff for a while when we got back I was fine by the evening and today. Last time I was hurting bad enough to take ibuprofen for a few days.
Boomershoot 2017 is complete. It was all wrapped up earlier than ever before due to a number of issues. I’ll get into them in a later post but the bottom line is it went well even though it was extremely muddy.
One of the last things Barb and I did before heading down the hill to the motel was to take down the webcam at the road pointing at the shooting area. When we parked Barb suggested we scrape some of the mud off the trailer with the rakes we use for cleaning up target debris. We giggled as we did this after Barb pointed out it was rather amusing to be scraping mud off with a rake. I then wanted to get a last webcam photo with us in a Norman Rockwell pose, as she pretending to do in the first web came image.
We got it:
