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    Aurora

      This story begins Friday night when I learned that a large coronal mass ejection (CME) sent a burst of solar radiation from the sun headed toward Earth. It was predicted to intercept our atmosphere on the evening of the 8th, producing auroral activity in the high latitudes. Given the size of this solar storm, as described by spaceweather.com, I was a bit suspicious that the auroras migh be big enough to see all the way down here in northern Idaho. So, I kept a watch looking for evidence of such activity. On the evening of the 8th, I checked…

  • Mexico, Auroras, and other June Fun

    I’m a bit late getting some updates out, so I’m going to condense about 3 posts in to one in the hopes that I can get caught up. So let’s start with my trip to Mexico. If it wasn’t obvious from my last post, I went down to the Mayan Riviera with Erin and the rest of my family to celebrate the marriage of my sister and now brother-in-law. We all stayed at an all inclusive resort on the beach in Playa del Carmen, which sounds like a great idea, but in practice, I don’t think I’ll ever do it…

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    Chickadees

    For Christmas, I bought Erin a new bird feeder to replace one that had been broken earlier in the summer. A few weeks ago, we finally got some seed and put it outside, but this was in the middle of a cold snap where daytime highs remained in the low 20’s, and the nighttime lows, well, we just won’t go there. For about a week, the feeder hung with no activity. Then, as the cold began to lift, there was a single chickadee in the lilac tree. It must have spread the news because a few days later, the feeder…

  • A Spiritual Moment

    My trip to the Redwoods had a profound effect on me. I can’t really explain what it was or why. I’ve been to many amazing and beautiful places never come back as humbled and rejuvenated as I had on this last trip. But everything about it just put me at ease and at awe. It was a combination of spending time with the kids while experiencing a mature old-growth forest among some of the oldest and tallest trees on the planet. I came back to Williston ready to take on the world and maybe inspired to leave in search of…

  • Flight Paths

    [map style=”width: auto; height:400px; margin:20px 0px 20px 0px; border: 1px solid black;” maptype=”ROADMAP” gpx=”http://www.mineral2.com/wp-content/uploads/Flights.GPX”] If you don’t already know me, I have a thing for maps and geography. It’s an absolute delight to see the landscape from the air. I’ve been bringing my GPS with me when I fly, mostly to keep track of flight progress and to identify what I’m seeing out the window. But it’s also interesting to see how the FAA routes flights. Spoiler Alert: it’s not a direct path between cities. The two tracks above show the flight path between Phoenix and Cancun in both directions….

  • Photography

    Grafton Street, Dublin Originally uploaded by mineral2. I’m scanning old photos again. Its the first time in probably a month since I’ve been archiving photos. I skipped over a few and am doing a more “recent” set from the summer of 2001. Ireland. Its 6 rolls of color and one of black and white. I’ll probably post a few up here as I scan them, but expect the full set on the website when they are all completed. To scan after this: London 1999, 2000; Scotland 1999; Drew University 2000, 2001 and some random bits in between.