Monthly Archives: November 2020

Air Quality, Art, Cameron Peak Fire, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, East Troublesome Fire, Exercise, Fort Collins, Pandemics, PurpleAir, Space, Wildfire

MUSINGS FOR FRIDAY 27th, NOVEMBER 2020

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“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.” John F. Kennedy

Expedition 1 – this is the official portrait of the first humans to live on the International Space Station. Pictured from left is cosmonaut Sergei K. Krikalev (flight engineer), astronaut Willian M. Shepherd (mission commander), and cosmonaut Yuri P. Gidzenko ( Soyuz commander). They boarded a Soyuz spacecraft on October 31st, 2000 and arrived on the ISS November 2. It has now been 20 years! What began as a competition between countries turned into fruitful cooperation. The United States, Russia, Canada, Japan, Italy, the European Space Agency and over 100 other countries have contributed to the research and science done aboard the ISS in the last 20 years with more than 3,000 research projects either completed or still in progress. Image credit: NASA. To learn more about the ISS and this picture please visit: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/celebrating-20-years-on-station-expedition-1 and https://phys.org/news/2020-11-international-space-station-template-future.html

“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?” Robert Browning

This is a picture of the asteroid Bennu ejecting particles from its surface. The photo was created by combining two images taken on board the OSIRIS-REx space craft. The pictures were taken on January 19, 2019. Back in October this was the asteroid that was the subject of a sample collection by said space craft. It is considered a very ancient asteroid, over a million and a half years old and is orbiting 200 million miles from earth. By contrast the sun is 93 million miles from earth. The OSIRIS-REx space craft will not be back to earth with the sample until September 2023. No telling what secrets will be unlocked when the sample analysis is completed. Image Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin. To learn more about this picture and the asteroid Bennu please visit: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/touching-down-on-asteroid-bennu and https://phys.org/news/2020-10-craters-asteroid-bennu-orbiting-earth.html and https://phys.org/news/2020-10-nasa-delicate-stowing-osiris-rex-asteroid.html

The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn’t have a space program. And if we become extinct because we don’t have a space program, it’ll serve us right!” Larry Niven

This is an image of the galaxy cluster called HSC J023336-053022 (XL SSC 105) and it lies four billion light years from Earth. It was independently discovered by both ESA’s space-based XMM-Newton X-ray Observatory and JAOJ’S Subaru optical-infrared telescope in Hawaii. It is thought that the burst of color shows that it is acting as a cosmic furnace. Heating material to hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius. This is over 25 times hotter than the core of our sun. To learn more about this image please visit: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2020/11/Cosmic_furnace_seen_by_XMM-Newton#.X68LKUK_kGA.link

“Why a journey into space? Because science is now learning that the infinite reaches of our universe probably teem with as much life and adventure as Earth’s own oceans and continents. Our galaxy alone is so incredibly vast that the most conservative mathematical odds still add up to millions of planets almost identical to our own – capable of life, even intelligence and strange new civilizations. Alien beings that will range from fiercely primitive to the incredibly exotic intelligence which will far surpass Mankind.” Gene Roddenberry (Sept. 1966)

This is a photo of the galaxy UGCA 193 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy is located in the constellation of Sextans (The Sextant). Some think that it looks like a waterfall because of the blue haze in the lower portion of the image – giving a sense that the stars are falling from above. The blue color of the stars indicate that they are hot, with some being more than 6 times that of our sun. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Tully; Acknowledgment: Gagandeep Anand. If you want to learn more about this picture please visit these sights: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2020/hubble-catches-a-cosmic-cascade/ and https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw2044a/

“In other words, pretty much every star you see in the night sky hosts at least one planet. The next time you find yourself outside at night, take a moment to stop and consider the implications of this result as you gaze at all those pinpricks of light. Everyone of them hosts at least one world, and most stars will have more than one planet. Solar systems are the rule and not the exception. They’re everywhere.” Adam Frank

How cool is that!? NASA’s SpaceX Crew 1 headed to the ISS on Sunday, November 15th, 2020. It is the first crew rotation flight on the Crew Dragon capsule. From left are mission specialist Shannon Walker, pilot Victor Glover, and Crew Dragon commander Michael Hopkins, all NASA astronauts, and mission specialist Soichi Noguchi, a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut. Image credit: SpaceX. To learn more about this picture and historic flight please visit: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-tv-coverage-set-for-first-crew-rotation-flight-on-us-commercial-spacecraft

“Since, in the long run, every planetary civilization will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring — not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive… If our long-term survival is at stake, we have a basic responsibility to our species to venture to other worlds.” Carl Sagan

HEY!! I AM LOOKING AT YOU!! THAT’S WHO!! LOLOLOLOLOL

If you are reading this then you have continued to survive Covid -19 so far!! And so have I!! That is a very, very, very good thing for both of us. Therefore life continues to be good and I cannot complain too much at the moment. Looking at the stats during the first week of November things were not looking good for Covid numbers. The good old USA was adding over 100,000 cases per day. That was way up from 30 days ago when we were at 30 to 40 thousand per day. Wow and not in a good way?! Of course Texas, California and Florida were leading the way again as usual. The numbers nationally on November 7th stood at 10 million total cases with 243 thousand total deaths.

WELCOME TO THE THRID WAVE…

But… by November 20th, we added 200,000 new cases with almost 2000 deaths for a single day! Let me say that again… 200,000 with 2000 deaths for a single day… The national death count total for this date was at 260 thousand since the pandemic began. That comes out to 17 thousand deaths in just 13 days. Unreal. And we were not even to the end of the month yet?!

WELCOME TO THE THIRD WAVE….

Oh well what are you going to do? So much down playing of the virus was done by the ODT and the WH staff… is it any wonder that the numbers are where they are? All of this was predicted back in March by the scientists and public health officials who specialize in epidemiology. The mathematical models were already in place. Once they had the viral parameters and characteristics of Covid it was an easy plot out. Did the politicians at the highest levels listen? Imagine where we would be or not be, if the ODT and his administration had courageously acted as soon as they knew the severity of the virus. And encouraged people to physical distance and wear masks. AND not continue to down play it during the early months?? It’s not rocket science. Maybe they thought they could pray it away? Or maybe it was economics and lives be damned? I don’t know?

“A total disregard for human suffering in the pursuit of profit.”

And trying to explain this to some friends on FB was like trying to talk to a sink full of jelly beans. No one seemed to be listening or they thought it was all some kind of conspiracy. Of course a few did reach out later, after friends or family members became sick with Covid. The sad part is a lot of this could have all been prevented. Or at least delayed long enough to get an experimental vaccine out to the public at large.

WELCOME TO THE THIRD WAVE…

By the time of publishing (November 27th), the number of cases had started to plateau, but at the new numbers of 160,000 to 180,000 cases per day! Way, way up from the the start of October when we were adding just 30 to 40 thousand cases per day. The death count now is over 270,000 individuals. Greater than 30,000 deaths for the month of November! Of course New York was still in the lead, but Texas has been steadily decreasing that difference.

If you are interested in the numbers this is a good website to visit: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

The plateau was expected by Thanksgiving and now the big questions. What will the numbers be 2 weeks after turkey day? Somewhere around December 12th. After all those well meaning, “I just have to visit family/friends” people get home. After all the “micro” super-spreader events that will have happened. Where well we be?? Will the health care system be over run? We are very close now. Will people be sent home to either die or get better because the Inn is full? Oh well like I said before, if you are reading this then you have survived so far. And so have I. Hopefully we will both be here at the end of December. Welcome to the third and soon to be fourth wave…

Well on a different note, exercising in the outdoors here on Colorado’s front range during the month of October was a little difficult at best. Especially if you did not want to breath in a ton of particulate matter. Janet and I were pretty good about not doing this, even to the point of limiting the time our dog spent in the outdoors. We both had a few “slightly used” medical grade and construction grade N95 masks to use when exercising and these proved to be invaluable. Particulates from wood smoke, in the less than 2.5 micron range, can penetrate a regular mask. These were left over from various construction projects over the last two years and the first wave of Covid. Who knew that I would end up using them for outdoor exercising. Lol. Crazy year.

An eerily beautiful sunset picture taken from my neighborhood in Fort Collins looing West on October 15th, 2020 at 6pm. The waning smoke plume was from the Cameron Peak fire and in hind sight it would be harbinger of things to come. The East Troublesome fire had just started on October 14 and would go on to burn more than 190, 000 acres with the majority of it taking place over the course of a week.

Again I cannot tell you how grateful I am to the makers of the air quality monitoring equipment called PurpleAir. While it is not super expensive to purchase their equipment for your own personal use, it is still an expense, especially with the increase in prices of just about everything else during the pandemic. The nice part is the company allows you to use their website to see what the quality of the air is in your neighborhood without purchasing a monitor. That is if your neighbors have a monitor. I am lucky where I live in Fort Collins, in that there are numerous air quality monitors that show me what is going on in real time.

This was a screen shot from my phone on October 17th, 2020. It is from the purple air website showing what the particulates were before Marvin and I went out for a walk / run. This was at 1am in the morning. I am a night owl so to speak. Lol. These readings were better than what it had been earlier in the day. For most of October we wore an N-95 masks to lessen the exposure to the wood smoke. And we decreased the time the dog spent outside. Of course I am very thankful that I did not lose my home or any property due to the wildfires. Things can always be worse.

If you have read a few of my most recent blog post then you know that I have talked about this company before. I feel that what they provide is very important in that it gives power to the general public. You are not dependent on a public agency to tell you what quality of air you are breathing. There is power in this fact. When developers, politicians, oil and gas drillers want to build, frack, etc… then you can use the data that you have, to show what the quality is now and if it changes during or after a development. If the quality goes down, you now have the raw data to make a case, to hold those accountable that created the issue. There is tremendous power in this. I am hoping that the company figures out a way to monitor other pollutants in our air besides particulates. Things like methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, etc… Then when that “out of town” developer wants to build the 2000 home mega subdivision and tries to tell you the air quality will not change… You and your neighbors will have the power to say otherwise.

This became our “modus operandi” for going on a walk with the dog due to smoke particulates. It was not until October 26th that the air quality got much better thanks to significant snow in much of Colorado. This picture was taken on October 17th, 2020 at 6:45pm.

Just so that you are aware. I do not get any financial incentive from the PurpleAir company. I do plan to buy a monitor sometime in the next 6 months but other than that there is no other connection. I just like the idea of putting this kind of power and knowledge in the hands of the public. If you interested to know more about the company and their products visit: https://www2.purpleair.com/

This picture was taken on October 22nd, 2020 at 1:45pm in the afternoon. This is looking East from my house in Fort Collins. The picture does not really do justice to the apocalyptical feel to the afternoon light that day. The East Troublesome fire was now at 125,000 acres by that afternoon. The day before it was around 20,000 acres. It “rained” ash along the Front Range for most of the day. Unreal…

Finally, October 25th came and the “reality” in Colorado changed and in a good way. A huge snow storm dropped a boat load of snow in the mountains and on most of the Front Range of Colorado. While not putting the various fires totally out around the state. It did damp them down quit a bit.

And then “just like that” – the fires were significantly diminished. This is a picture from October 26th, 2020, at 2:30am in the morning. I told you I was a night owl. Marin and I had just finished doing some “in-town” cross country skiing! 14 inches had fallen by the next AM. Unreal what a few days can make in Colorado. The fires were not put out but they were significantly diminished giving Fire Fighters a “hands up” on getting them contained.

At the time of publishing most of these fires, the Cameron Peak Fire, the East Troublesome Fire, the Middle Fork Fire, the Calwood Fire, the Williams Fork fire, the Grizzly Creek fire, the Pine Gulch Fire, were all 70 to over 90 percent contained.

If your interested to get more information on these fires and others across the Western US check out this web site: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6964/

This picture was taken on October 27th, 2020 at 4:30pm in the afternoon. Marvin and I were out enjoying the sunshine and snow with a trail run . This is from the Poudre River Trail in Fort Collins.

The snow that fell in Fort Collins on the day and night of the 25th / 26th was truly significant. Over 14 inches fell in some places around the city. So much that Marvin and I were able to do a little in town cross country skiing that night, before the city plowed the bike path. If I could change one or two things about where I live and the type of weather it gets, I would turn the average daily temperatures for December, January and February down a few degrees. So that the highs would be consistently right at freezing and below for those months. Then you would be able to convert the city golf courses to temporary cross country ski areas. In my opinion that would be primo! Lol. Of course I am sure there would be a few “golfers” that would bemoan those three months being “out of service” so to speak.

Wow! What a difference from the picture on October 15th – look at the one at the start of this section with the smoke plume. This is the same view at about the same time in the afternoon. Looking West, October 27th, 2020 at 5:45pm. This shot is twelve days later.

The rest of October and most of November were much better in air quality and weather. Of course, the national forest from Rocky Mountain National Park to the Wyoming border have remained closed due to continued fire mitigation and assessment. There are a few trails that are open, but add in the lock downs with Covid and you have to pick and choose when to go due to a significant increase in public visitation. Oh well, again what are you going to do? Hopefully this will all be a bad memory by this time next year.

Before ending this blog post I thought I would include a few pictures of art work that I did over the summer and fall this year. They are all pen and ink, mounted on half inch painted white board, coated and sealed with Mod Podge. They measure 9.25 inches wide and 12.25 inches tall.

HIGH ANXIETY

PORK N CHIEF

STUDY WITH MO

SKITTLES

These are for sale and can be found on my Etsy site: https://www.etsy.com/shop/strugglingprotoplasm/edit?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

Well that is going to be about it for me on this Blog post. On the next one I should have a few more book reviews. I hope you enjoyed the art work. So take care my friends and remember to wash your hands, wear your mask when in crowds or indoors and practice physical distancing. Adios!!

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous…, leading to the most amazing views.” Edward Abbey