brain

My Mind Leaks

I am not a conspiracy nut, nor am I jumping on the End of the World 2012 band wagon but folks I am really thinking that this oil leak will alter our planet and potentially can change the earth we know into a system unfamiliar.

Consider the too many rats experiments where Norway Rats were put in overcrowded cages and the resulting  physical and behavioral problems. Human populations tend to follow the same patterns that rat populations do. Rats fought rats and resorted among other things to cannibalism.  I am not suggesting we will resort to cannibalism but food is going to be scarce.

In the late 1700’s Thomas Malthus  an economist) published an anonymous pamphlet  in which he  stated while populations grows geometrically (2, 4, 16)  food sourced grow arithmetically (2, 3, 4) .  Without any checks on population growth, i.e. war, disease, and natural disasters, the ultimate check would be famine.

A species is innately driven to survive.  We Homo sapiens (Latin: wise  or knowing man) at minimal require air, water and food to survive.  As a species we also influence our environment. Lately, for the sake of argument , the past thousand years or so, we have not done such a good job of it IMHO.

Earths eco cycle in a simplistic explanation is the storage and movement of water between the area where life lives, the layer of gasses surrounding the planet, held there by gravity, the crust of our planet , and all the water on the planet.

Did you know that ~ half the oxygen on Earth is produced by phytoplankton the microscopic plant like organisms that live in the ocean?  So the phytoplankton need sunlight and oil blocks the sun. Not good I am thinking. We already have enough dead zones (low oxygen content) due to humankind’s intervention. The microbes used to consume the oil would also add to the reduction of oxygen in the water, with effects being felt higher up the food chain.

Weeks ago scientists confirmed the spread of oil from the massive Gulf of Mexico spill at a depth of 3,300 feet and more than 46 miles from the disaster site.  It is just gonna get worse. Call me negative, call me a naysayer, call me whatever you want but the further I research this further my mind heads toward the negative. It appears obvious that BP and some of the best minds in the world have NO IDEA ON HOW TO PLUG THE HOLE.

As I mulled this around my pea head I started wondering, wondering what if the problem is not plugging the hole because there is a leak somewhere else.

I was out in the backyard when one of the connections in the drip system came loose. Water was squirting out all over the place. I had to shut of the water valve in order to re connect the hose to the drip valve. What if the valve did not work? When I was setting the system up I left the plug out of the end of the line so that I could add the drip valves in along the line. I would put my thumb over the end of the line to test the drip valves.

What if capping the dang thing is doing this? Is there a leak further on down? When a city water or sewer pipe leaks unnoticed under a roadway eventually the roadway collapses down as the underground dirt gets cut away and there is not enough support for the land above.  Will the ocean floor collapse?

Umm, less food, altered eco systems, more dead zones . …

Well if nothing else the oil leak has sure altered my minds thoughts and some of it has leaked out here.

Chilly and Bright

DSC_0407_cropIt has been a wacky past few days. My brain fog was in overdrive the other night.  We left our friends house and I was following KRP down the freeway. All of a sudden it dawned on me I had not a clue as to where the heck I was. At night the freeways all look well, like a freeway. Until I finally came across a road sign I was hoping not to find myself halfway to L.A. . I had forgotten the she was going to stop by work to pick something up and when we were separated on the roadway I just kept going LOL. After a few u-turns I got back on the freeway and hit the interchange to catch the right road home. I have only lived here since 1981 amazing how baffled I can get anymore as to my location in space and time.

My pal Mike surprised me with a resurrection from the dead. He took my old computer and pulled out all the melted components and after electronic surgery gave it back to me!  It is missing a few parts and has a few new ones. But the nifty exciting thing is it runs XP.  And, XP means my photo software – YEAH!!!!!  Amazing what the man can do with used components and a solder gun. His warranty is not bad either: sixty seconds or 60 photos processed -which ever comes first ;). This is just so cool because the learning curve on the freeware software combined with Vista Vs the XP I am used to was nutting me all up. Johnnie Fives Alive! Needs Input . …

Billy stopped in over night on his way to San Francisco and unjammed my computer desk keyboard shelf. I swear I pushed and pulled and then he just reaches down grabs it gives it one yank and out it comes. Geezzz I am a weakling anymore.  I was still up when he left at 5am sleep has not been coming easy lately. I usually just read until I fall asleep and then I keep waking up more than usual  for no reason that I can figure out.

A cold front has come in and it started to rain it is cooling off. After the summer heat it feels good.  Catfish dog is bundled up on the foot of the bed as he seems to think he has not gotten his winter coat yet and that it is to cold for puppy dogs. LOL

I went outside in hopes of finding a bug or some other little creature to photograph and they apparently are all hidden somewhere – snug as a bug in the rain. So I played around with lime for awhile. Nice and chilly from the fridge but bright color.  Going to poke my head outside again and smell the rain . …

Right, Left, I dunno

aha – bet some of you expected a political article – NOT. My little brain can not go there. Although it has a left and a right side, it has been letting me down a little as of late. The old saying – left hand does not know what the right one is doing sort of applies.

Best explanation example of the week? emmmm ok …

Looking into the viewfinder of my camera with my left eye ( the one I always use) I can not see the meter anymore. Change to the right eye and there it is. After an eye exam where they pronounced me as having great vision and a prescription with a slight change in reading glass off I go. I look into the viewfinder, same deal. Wow, what a smart camera I have it knows not to show the meter for my left eye just to irritate me? It likes my right eye better I guess – NOT. I use a few internet eye test and decide that I still have great vision only it is a contrast problem yup that is it – like when you turn the monitor settings way crazy so you have to really try hard to read the letters because of the lack of contrast between white and black. Try it and see – it is wracked when it is your eye and not the monitor.

Adaptation is one thing I have learned in the last few years – I am constantly adapting to the point of being tired of adapting. So, being the little trouper that I think I am, I now use my right eye to adjust the settings and my left one to compose the photo. Why? seems my right eye does not get what a good composition is or it does not speak the same language as my brain – oh wells for now it is working.

But of course – my little brains circulation has once again gone on strike – hopefully for only a few seconds as the living cells in in such close confines of their home (my brain) really do not enjoy loneliness and if this keeps up they few remainders will miss conversing with their dead buddies. Brain gossip is a good thing – really – it is.

Ok back to the eye – MRI is scheduled to investigate my brain further –  until then . …

The good thing today is that I found a great new pair of boots to hike about in. Last weekend my old trusty pair seen here in an earlier shot:
My Boots

finally  broke down and stopped doing what boots should do – keeping ones feet safe from damages. I did not notice the total break down until I had walked over 7 miles. I should have realized something was up as I did have to keep tightening the laces often and my feet seemed hot. But nope not I and my little brain we just kept hiking and noticed all the blisters later when we decided, my brain and I to take off our socks and look.

Well my new boots seem to fit ( since  I have very little sensation in my feet I guess they do) and the cool part is that the lower part where they lace have eyelets where the lace runs through them and they do not have to be hooked each time, the opening is easy to get my feet into, the pull tab is actually in a place where it is easy to pull and get the heel of the boot onto my feet ( you no some are way to high on the boot to work),  although heavier than my last pair they are not too heavy, and woo hoo they have a higher ankle top so I walk easier in them.

Well that is all for now from my little brain and I – we are getting tired.