Here it is 7:30 AM, I’m just sitting down to write, and there’s no other sound in the house. Kat and both kids are still asleep. Animals are all asleep except for Belvedere lying here on the bed watching me, wondering when he’s going to get breakfast. This is the tone set for the weekend. I think Tipper may have tentative plans with a friend but I’m not sure. She came in from school and crashed hard. G is, unsurprisingly, planning on getting some schoolwork done. He’s still a bit upset at how long it took them to get started. Kat will go to the salon and then head North for the weekend. I’m just here in case of an emergency.
It’s a chilly 57 degrees outside at the moment. Skies are clear. Not much different than 2:00 AM when the dogs decided they needed to go out. That’s really my own fault. Normally, I take the dogs out for the last time around 8-8:30 in the evening. That typically gets them through until 6:00 the next morning. I fell asleep shortly after 7:00 last night, though, which didn’t give them a chance to go out that last time. Thus, come 2:00, someone was needing to go pee quite badly. I slipped on my shoes and took them out only to be surprised by how cool it was. I’ll have a jacket on when I take them out again this morning.
Weekends like this are for reading and there’s plenty to read. Of course, dominating headlines this morning is the crash of an ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This is a story you’ll want to come back to off and on over the weekend as more details become known. All that’s certain at the moment is that the plane went into a flat spin before crashing inside a gated community, killing the 61 souls on board.
We’re also just finding out that a Serbian competitor in the CrossFit Games died while competing in a swimming event Thursday morning at a Texas lake. Again, details are sketchy. An official with the Fort Worth Fire Department said they were called out around 8 a.m. to assist police because there was “a participant in the water that was down and hadn’t been seen in some point in time.” No cause of death has been given and CrossFit isn’t answering any questions.
Boxer Imane Khelif won gold to cap an Olympics marked by scrutiny over her sex. After all the ridiculous fuss, it only seems fitting that she should walk away with the top prize. Sha’carri Richardson was able to finally capture her first gold as the anchor in the women’s 4×100 relay. But 60-year-old swimmer Jim Dreyer apparently gave up after two days trying to cross Lake Michigan. Actually, no one’s sure exactly what happened. Dreyer isn’t responding to questions and the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed he’s no longer in the water.
Making Mars inhabitable seems to be a big issue this morning. The easy-to-digest version is on Reuters’ home page, but the more scientific version is in this week’s Science magazine. What it all boils down to is the possibility that soil samples from the planet can possibly be used to make rods that would warm the planet enough for it to terraform itself. Don’t hold your breath, though, Elon. Even in the best possible conditions, we’re still decades away from even thinking about putting people up there.
There’s an interesting feature in this morning’s New York Times that has cool graphics to go with it if you read it online. It seems that China has been building new villages and relocating people to live all along its Western border, including some disputed territories with India. This is interesting for a number of reasons. One, it feels an awful lot like it did when Israel first did the same thing along its West Bank border, and we see how disastrously that plan worked. Two, the previously uninhabited regions were uninhabited for a damn good reason. Villages in the Himalayas are subject to severe winters with roads impassible several months of the year. Other areas are too rocky for any type of agriculture to take place. China is digging in, though, saying that the towns are critical to the country’s defense. The article is worth the read.
Everything else this morning is war and politics and I’m not inclined to give any more oxygen to those situations when those who could do something constructive sit on their hands or make the situation worse.
I’m crossing my fingers for a nice, quiet weekend. We’ll see if that’s possible.
Morning Update: 08/11/24
If I were a church-going person, and I’m not, I would be struggling this morning. Tipper did end up going with her school friend to the fair, but it was almost 7:00 PM before they picked her up and they stayed until the fair closed at 11:00. The trip almost didn’t happen. Her friend was dependent on their mother to drive and Mom didn’t seem to feel the same urgency the kids did. Tipper was close to canceling when she finally got the message that they were on their way.
It was almost midnight when she got home, and, of course, I couldn’t go to sleep until I knew she was back safely. She was excited, having won a stuffed elephant and purchased a unique water bottle. She wanted to pet all the cats and talk about the trip, so it was after 12:30 this morning before I crawled under the covers. I’m only awake now because the cats are on a schedule and demand to be fed on time. The dogs need to go out before I type the next paragraph.
[Hoo boy. Took the dogs out for about 10 minutes. Tipper joined me and we talked more about the fair. When we came back in, though, I was hit with really strong dizziness that has yet to go away. I’m sitting down and am safe for now, but if this doesn’t get better I’ll have to cut things short.]
G spent a large part of yesterday sprawled across his bed doing math; multiplying polynomials, specifically. What are polynomials? They’re letters and numbers all mixed up and doing stuff. Technically, an expression which is composed of variables, constants, and exponents, that are combined using mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. You know, the kind of math that causes mere mortals to go insane. G was doing them on purpose. All morning. He then took a long nap cuddled with a cat. He likes it when the house is quiet. He also likes it when he’s not forced to interact with anyone else. So, I’m guessing it was a pretty good day for him, too.
I’m not seeing a lot of news this morning that warrants any comment. Of course, I’m sure there are people who are upset that Jordan Chiles has to return her bronze medal. I get it, but the Romanians were quick to challenge the decision and the matter was adjudicated by a court, so I’m not surprised. I’m not saying it’s fair, but I’m not surprised.
With the Olympics ending today, all eyes turn next to Los Angeles for the 2028 Summer Games. LA is already making the games interesting by announcing that the entire Olympic venue will only be accessible by public transportation. No cars. Given how horrid LA traffic is, I can see where this decision makes sense. They’re going to have to greatly improve their transit system, though, if they want things to go smoothly. Like many urban transit systems, the vehicles are dirty, smelly, and unreliable. If they don’t step up their game considerably, the whole thing could be a disaster.
However, there could be some alternatives. If you were watching early this morning, US time, you might have gotten a glimpse at the Volocopter, an autonomous air taxi, as it provided a test flight over Paris. They couldn’t get all the paperwork done in time for the service to be available for these games, but backers are anxiously hoping to have the service operational for the LA Games. I see some challenges, to be sure, but they have four years to work those out. Tesla’s autonomous taxis, though, still won’t be allowed even if they work without killing someone or blowing up.
The New York Times is boring today as well, which is disappointing. Normally, I head straight for the Times Magazine, but it’s a rare yawner today. There is an interesting article about the “orgasm gap” that women still experience but I would have liked a little more science and depth to the piece. So much of what I’m seeing seems redundant, remixed leftovers from what we’ve been reading all week. Even the opinion pieces feel “meh.”
Maybe I’m just difficult to please.
I’m still not feeling great, though. I may go back to bed after checking in with the kids. I should probably check my blood pressure, too.
There’s always something wrong. Fucking cancer.
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