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Playing catchup, we all went to Houston for the Geologic Society of America meeting.  Cathy Connor and Rob Fatland were there as well, and lots of good scientific presentations went on.  In the “Global Warming Science: Implications for Geoscientists, Educators and Policy Makers” Matt made an afternoon presentation.  James Hansen was the special featured one hour lunch lecturer.  One of the biggest impressions I got from his great talk (“Target Atmospheric CO₂: Where Should Humanity Aim?”) was that a major challenge in understanding climate change is the difference between knowing and understanding.  We can “know” about gigatons of carbon dioxide, but can we understand it?  Anyway, enough of the good science, and on to the cute pictures!

Downtown Houston was very nice–the rail, Icon Hotel, and conference center were great.  We got into town after a long and crazy flight (with an overnight in Seattle, Carrie and Torsten going through Dallas, while Matt waited in SeaTac for a direct to Houston flight).  We caught up at Grandma and Grandpa Talus’ house.  We were all time-zoned and jet-lagged.  We walked in the sun down to the playground, and checked out the hurricane damage in the neighborhood.

We went downtown, and Torsten was in heaven:

   

It was a great visit with Mike and Ellen.  We went down to NASA, enjoyed the tour of shuttle and ISS training facilities, the Apollo Mission Control, and a Saturn V rocket.

   

Matt had to give his presentation, then head back to Juneautopia to teach some classes.  Carrie and Torsten hung down in the sun for a big dose of Vitamin D.  They went to visit Nana and Grandpa Bob, enjoying pool time in the backyard, go cart racing at the awesome pizza place (including a first place ribbon for Torsten in the go cart race!), catching up with the Buckis, and a fantastic trip to the renaissance fair.  Here are a few photo highlights:

        

And, you can enjoy the full gallery of photos:

 

We are getting an idea of where to look for Torsten for the next 15 or so years.  He loves going to the skate park in Juneau.  Three days in a row so far!  We like to go early in the morning, before it gets too crowded.  Torsten wakes up and asks about going!  He is getting brave!

(These photos were all in picasa – it migrated to google photos but the links and galleries broke.. So one of the photos as placeholder until I do a more permanent fix. Hopefully the link to the photo will endure for a while.- Matt 02025/09/21)

The story from earlier this week (KINY Juneau news) is below.  Luckily we can have three more dry days this year (the last line of the report).

The most recent update is: “Meanwhile, today ( Wednesday) is the 26th straight day of measurable precipitation. The record is 31 days set in September of 1991.”

I have heard (from reliable Anthropologist type people) that when the local Tlingit first were confronted by Christian missionaries and heard the story of Noah’s arc, the response was generally “only 40 days and nights?!”–sounds great! Sign us up! 🙂

Rain records in danger of falling in Juneau
Juneau is working on a number of rain records.

One is wettest year ever, according to Meteorologist Rick Fritsch, who says as of this morning (Monday) this is the fourth wettest year on record.

Since January 1, Juneau has received 55.85 inches of rain. The forecaster says the normal amount is slightly over 44 and a half inches. So, he says, Juneau is a little less than a foot above normal for the year at this point.

The all time record is 85.15 inches in 1991.

Consecutive days of measurable precipitation at the Juneau Airport, which is considered one-one hundredth of inch or more, is currently at 24 days through this morning. (Monday)

That ranks as fifth all time so far.

Fritsch says of those 24 days, the airport as averaged slightly less than a half inch per day.

The record rainy streak of measurable rain is 31 days set in September of 1991, he says.

Juneau is also currently on track for a record number of days of measurable precipitation in a year. This year so far through this morning is at 206 days.

The record is 277 days set in 1999.

The forecaster says between now and the end of the year, the town can afford to have three dry days and  still tie that record.

What does the Juneau forecast look like?  Why lovely, of course:

During Logan’s goodbye party (we miss ya!), Torsten was checking out the rock collection–he was quite impressed.  He got Cathy (the expert–the new edition of her “Roadside Geology of Alaska” should be out soon!) to check it out with him:

Torsten is excited to be an astronaut for Halloween this year. He has a costume party to go to today so we put it on for the first time. We just wanted to share with you how cute he looks. We also had fun decorating his space shuttle!

The best time to visit Fairadise!  Carrie, Torsten, and Matt went up to Fairbanks in late September.  We stayed with Don & Anne (thanks for the great hospitality!).  We caught up with Dana, Martin (welcome back!), Curt (glad you were in town!), Gina, Harlow, Shawna, Blair, more, more, etc!).  We ran a relay: Carrie leg 1 (great run, she looked ready to keep going at the end!), Matt leg 2 (he got the “Juneau weather” treatment on Ester Dome and had the best “drowned rat” look going when he finished), and Gina leg 3 (the ringer!  We couldn’t get a picture of her–it was just a blur!).  What a great time.  Here are a few photos from the marathon.  More Fairbanks pictures soon.  And more marathon pictures in the gallery.

Carrie, running up the hill by the muskox farm with Peter giving support:

 Gina, blazing through leg 3:

At the finish line (Gina just kept going! Not really.. 🙂

1) wifi should be free in all airports.  Juneau finally added it.  Anchorage provides it.  Albuquerque has it.  Seattle seems to still want to force folks to pay up.  More and more airports are doing it right though.  And hotels!  I’m shocked when hotels want to charge for networking, and totally floored when they don’t even have it as an option–I’m so used to them having it, that I don’t think to ask anymore–and about once a year I got surprised.

2) I think the airlines/rental car/frequent flier plans are getting more stingy.  Not so much in the rewards (which is true), but they seem to “forget”/”lose”/”delete” the number from their records.  I find this when flying airline partners, rental car companies, etc.  The number goes in when I make the reservation, it isn’t there when I get the rental/boarding pass, I have them add it back, the miles never show up, I fax in receipts, boarding passes, and blood samples (as required to get the mile credit), then never hear anything…  If it wasn’t in an attempt to get Carrie & Torsten along on trips, I would give up on keeping up with it. (I suppose that is the hope, eh? airlines?)

3) I noticed–and I want more impressions of this:  European airport bookstores have great science (like Einstein, Darwin, etc).  US airports generally don’t have a science section.  If they do it is “The Physics of Reality TV shows” (I’m not kidding–I really saw this one in SEATAC today!).  I hear recently that the Anchorage airport bookstore does have a science section (but I looked for it when I was there two weeks ago!  I was distracted by hangin’ w/ Torsten, so I’ll stand by my premise/observation/anecdote).  US airport bookstores have no reasonable science book section for the importance of science and technology to our lives.  (heck–the fact that we are getting on airplanes should emphasize this!!) And my impression is that European airport bookstores (given, my main impression is from Amsterdam–a nice big airport.  But Oslo as well!).  I’ve recently done my survey in DFW, Seatac, ABQ, JNU (ha!).  I’m gathering anecdotes and impressions–let me know what you think!

And what else do you notice about travel?

Still catching up a bit.. Up Mt. Roberts with Jono, Sara, Grandpa Bob, Nana, Carrie, Torsten, Matt and Suka. We got some good sliding down the snow in at the top. Matt ran up and down with Suka while everyone else went up the tram.

 

 

As usual, there a lots of photos in the gallery.

Torsten makes lots of great art.  Here are just a few of the recent drawings to share.  One of Torsten’s first pictures were of his good friends DeeDee and NeeNee (DeeDee has a peanut on his nose–can’t you see it?).  Next is a picture of Torsten and Carrie (Torsten is giving Carrie a hug).  Then Torsten with a Rainbow (Torsten is 4, as you can see in the signature).

 

To say it once again–what a weekend!  We loved hanging out in Tenakee.  Here’s a sunset photo:

 Here’s a photo of Torsten and Adam playing down on the beach:

 

 Torsten joined us in using binocs and spotting scopes to whale-watch all weekend: