Tag Archives: kentucky

And over he goes!

This morning as I drove past SFOJ on the way to work, there was a bulldozer working on the road construction there. It was driving up the side of a large heap of dirt, and I said to myself, said I, it’s going to roll over. As he approached the 45 degree angle, I thought, surely he knows, he’s about to roll over, doesn’t he?

And, sure enough, as I was alongside, he went to the 46 degree mark and over it went, landing with a loud thump on its side.

I wasn’t able to stop, due to traffic, but I noticed a few folks going the other direction pulled off. I hope he wasn’t too badly hurt.

Ichthus

Every year in Wilmore, the Ichthus music festival brings 15-20,000 kids to town. This has been going on since 1970. I’ve been in town since 1989, and have never been to one.

One year, I rode my bike through the campgrounds, using my wrist band from a recent hospital visit as a pass. But it was just while they were setting up, and hardly anybody was there yet, so that doesn’t really count.

Lisa gave me a pass to the festival, so that I could go out there to talk with Jason about getting the photos up on the website.

I went out around lunchtime just to look around, and then a little later to take Jason the detailed instructions for getting the photos up there when the festival is over. I’m reasonably sure I was the only person on the campground wearing a tie.

Towards the end of the work day, I went back out to see how things were going, and to look around a little more. This time I changed so that I wasn’t so conspicuous, and got some interesting pictures.

I went to hear some strange band on the third stage, whose music consisted primarily of the lead “singer” screaming at the top of his lungs. When he took a break in the middle of the song to play the trumpet, it turned out that he was rather talented. Unfortunately, then he went back to screaming.

As evening wore on, I listened to a band called “Kids in the way”, and they made up my mind to call it a day and go home. They had a lot of energy, but very little talent. This would have been a mistake, because I would have missed the real experience. As I was about to leave, I saw Paul, who was taking pictures with his fancy camera. He offered to meet me by the backstage entrance and show me around. Woah!

So I stuck around a little bit, and a little later, we went backstage, and then went across in front of the stage, close enough to feel the sweat, to listen to Relient K. They were really good. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. And, despite the earplugs, they were really really loud. Paul’s pictures are better than mine, because he has a real camera, but I had a lot of fun.

At the end of their set, the MC announced that there was a tornado coming in, and that we should take shelter. After a few minutes, he came back on and said, I really mean it. Take shelter. Now.

Then the wind started. People started taking it seriously. We went backstage. A bunch of people were under the stage. I was a little more out in the open, but still behind a lot of concrete. It rained for about an hour, harder than I’ve seen rain here for some time. The lightning was very impressive. Ichthus is known for being muddy – we used to call it Mudthus, in college. And the rain made up for the two sunny days.

So, I’ve experienced Ichthus, at least a little bit. Sarah wants ot go out there today, but I don’t know for sure if we’ll actually get to go. We’ll have to see. We’re doing the “Reforest the Bluegrass” project today, if I can find where they are doing it.

Explorium

Yesterday we went to the Lexington Childrens Museum and several things struck me about the experience.

Of course, as always, it was a *ton* of fun. They’ve got some very cool new things, including a bubble wall – a horizontal pole that you lift out of a tank of bubble solution to create a vertical wall of bubble. When you blow gently on it, you can set up standing waves. It is *very* cool. I could spend all day in the bubble room, I think. To be honest we were in there for at least an hour.

Oh, and the new wind exhibit is amazing.

So here’s what struck me.

First, no dads. Why is that? This is the sort of place that the dads I know would *love*. Yet it’s all moms. And moms are, for the most part, *not* the folks you want at a place like this, as noted in some of my other observations below. This is the place for dads to come with their kids and teach them all the amazing stuff that there is to learn there. (Yes, I know, this is stereotypical and politically incorrect. Tough. I don’t buy the “men are exactly the same as women” nonsense. So sue me.)

Oh, and the few dads that were there seemed to be hanging back, playing “too cool to get in there and play”. What’s up with that? Sheesh, guys, your kids think you’re cool when you play with them, not when you act all stand-offish. My daughter thinks I’m cool, and I completely realize that this state of affairs won’t last for very long, and I intend to make the most of every moment of it. So what if I look like an idiot crawling around on the floor? Whose opinion matters more than my daughter’s?

Next, the most often uttered phrase was “be careful.” (Followed closely by “don’t.”) Um. Yeah. This is a hands-0n museum for kids. That’s the entire point – for the kids to get in there, get dirty, try everything out, touch it, knock on it, shove it around, sit on it, climb on it. “Be careful” is not a helpful phrase here. But all these over-protective moms didn’t want their kids to actually experience any of this.

Then, I was alarmed at how concerned these moms were that their kids do the experiments *right.* This seems to demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of the the scientific method, as well as a desire for their kids to learn only approved knowledge. I was very proud that Sarah found creative ways to do the various experiments. Her attitude seemed to be, sure, I can see what happens if I do it the way that you tell me I’m supposed to do it, but what happens if I do *this* instead? That rocks. And it means that she discovered things that maybe some of the other kids missed.

So, anyways, you gotta go. Visiting hours here. $5 for kids over 1 year old. If you’re not a kid any more, then send your kids with someone who is.

50 degrees

Apparently, 50°F is just a little bit too cold to have the top down. But it was fun, anyway. The sky is so perfectly blue, and it’s going to be warm all day, and I’ll just be looking for excuses to not be inside.

Weather graphs

I had hoped for a cool weather graph today. It started out very warm, but then the rain and wind struck.

However, Weather.com picked this morning to change the HTML on the page I fetch to get the temperature, and so at about 8:50 this morning, my temperature graph stopped updating.

Bummer

An afternoon in the mountains

This afternoon I had the unexpected, and completely unplanned, pleasure of spending several hours with my aunt in the mountains of eastern Ky. I was in Jackson, Ky, for reasons not worth mentioning in the public record. When I got done there, it was just 3:15, and the most beautiful day one could hope for. Since I was just a few miles from KMBC, I decided to drop in and visit for a few minutes.

I ended up staying for about 3 hours, and I’m really glad I did. Things move at a slower pace up there, and it was very, very nice.

My aunt went geocaching with me, as she wanted to see what was actually involved. Turns out that the cache in question was exceedingly easy. When we got there I said “Well, if *I* was going to hide this, I’d put it …” and I reached out and grabbed it. 🙂 But at least she got the general idea.

Then, I stayed for dinner. The board of trustees was there, and so apparently I picked a very good day to visit. Dinner was excellent, and the company was even better. After dinner, the college choir sang, and they were excellent, too.

In all, although not how I planned to spend my afternoon and evening, it was by far the best thing. Very enjoyable, and relaxing.

Oh, and I got to meet Romeo, too. 😉