A Peck of Purple Peppers

Hidden Cathedrals

I have a faithful reader that has quite an interesting job. My friend Paul (who is married to my friend Vera, father of Eliot and Adrienne) is a physicist. Now, often, when people ask him what he does for a living, he's kind of apprehensive about responding because it seems that when he tells them what he does, they get that glazed look on their faces and generally have no intelligent response in return. Well, at least that was my response anyway. That is, until I read Dan Brown's book Angels and Demons. That was my book choice for my book club and we were all too happy to have Paul come to our meeting and tell us all about what he does at a facility called CERN.

As you may read on their web site, it's the world's largest particle physics laboratory located in Geneva, Switzerland, well it's partially in Geneva, partially in France. Paul is there right now. I recently got an email from him explaining what his project is at this time.

Here's a picture of Paul and an exerpt from his email, because there is just no way I could possibly paraphrase what it is he's saying.

"Enclosed is a picture of a colleague from Duke and me standing at the location where the two beams of protons will collide once the ATLAS detector and the accelerator are finished and running.Behind us is the barrel portion of the "inner detector", the outer part of which the Transition Radiation Tracker, the part I have been working on for 12 years now. The barrel will be moved towards the camera so that the center of it will be where we are standing. The two other pieces of the inner detector will slide in on either side of the barrel. We are standing the bore of a very large electromagnet that is used with the inner detector to measure the momentum of charged particles leaving the interaction point. The yellow thing we are standing on is just a platform that will be removed once the barrel is hooked up.

You can watch the webcams in the cavern at:http://atlaseye-webpub.web.cern.ch/atlaseye-webpub/web-sites/pages/UX15_webcams.htm

Eventhough I don't fully understand all this, it's still pretty cool, and is certainly a project that when completed will be quite satisfying I would imagine. Paul, we still think you're a spy. ;P

Little Pink Heinies

I saw a lot of this over the weekend....and not the usual asses....this cute little pink heinies were attached to these....





Aren't they just adorable??? We went to the York Fair over the weekend, also known as the Southern York County freak show. Why couldn't I have had a Sociology experiment to do this past weekend????

If you're not going to the York Fair for a concert like Brad Paisley, Larry the Cable Guy or some such stuff, then the only other reason you would go is for the food; deep fried twinkies, oreos, onions, potatoes and whatever else people get batter dip and put into hot oil.

Sunday was another visit to Hersheypark. However, this time, it was about 80 degrees and very sunny. I'm not complaining, but I think I have shaken baby syndrome. I think my brains got rattled around this last time. My head still feels kinda queasey.

P.S. Happy 19th birthday to my nephew Patrick!!

A Divine Purpose

I believe in Divine intervention, karma, what ever you want to call it. I think there is most often a higher power showing and teaching me things in the events in my life.

Yesterday I was not only shown something, I was the teacher in a Divine episode. I was at the vet with Lester. He was getting his weekly supply of fluids in the hopes of keeping him comfortable as he goes through this kidney disease. He has lost more weight, but still wants to eat, go outside, etc. So, in my unprofessional opinion, he is not feeling all that badly.

So, I got to talking to a woman that had an enormous cat. He was probably only about 15 pounds or so, but he was tall and long. He looked like that cat that would just kick every other cats ass in the neighborhood given the chance. He slinked around the waiting room checking out every nook and cranny. He rubbed against my leg and smelled me and let me pet him.

I got to talking to her about the issues Lester is facing and what I'm doing about them. She became very emotional as I was telling her these things. I am surprised at myself for not breaking down and bawling my head off knowing that Lester is never going to get any better, only worse.

She finally said that she believed that I was put there at that exact time so we would have that chance to talk because she's facing some of the same issues with her cat and she was scared and wasn't sure what to do about the situation. I was glad that I was able to maybe calm some of her fears. I was glad to be part of the bigger plan.

I Will Remember You

I read recently on a blog that many people cannot even remember what year the September 11 attacks actually occurred. Is that possible?? This thing that effected the entire world and changed the way we go about our daily life has been so easily forgotten? Thousands of families all over the world lost loved ones and friends, and the average person cannot remember the year?

If you ask, I'll say anyone over the age of 40 what year John Lennon was shot, or what year Kennedy was shot, I would be willing to bet they'd know the answer. So why then, has this devestating act of terrorism been so quickly forgotten? Are we as a society just so eager to move on with our lives because it's just too difficult to deal with pain and suffering so it's easier just to forget it exists?

I have said for a long time that our society so quickly and easily disposes of things we no longer want or have a need for. We throw out food, clothing, household items, sometimes our pets, spouses and even children for something that pleases us more, makes us happy, fits in with our lives.

Several days ago I decided to sign on to the 2,996 tribute to the 9/11 victims via Smoke and Mirrors. Because I can think of an even greater tragedy than 9/11. And that is to let the victims of that day simply fade away. It's easy to move on and move forward. It's the remembering that is difficult. And we should always remember so these peoples lives didn't end in vain.

I looked into the face of the victim to which I was assigned for this project. Brian Fredric Goldberg. He was 26 years old and worked in the World Trade Center. 26....at 26 years old, I had been living on my own for just one year. My father had just passed away. I had been dating, for about a year, what I consider my first "adult" relationship. When I look back at that time in my life, I knew nothing. I can only imagine Brian was somewhat the same.

Click on his name. See his face, read a letter from his mother about how precious her son was to her. And always remember, if we continue to talk about these victims and remember September 11, 2001, their memory will live on.

Let's Get Ready To Rumble!

I am very much looking forward to this game this weekend. I hope it's a really good game and not a runaway game for either team. Really, what fun is that???

I've been proudly flying my ND flag outside my house since last week. My neighbor came over and told me it was brave to have it out. Yea, I guess I am knee deep in PSU country. They'll just have to get over it!

In light of the competition this weekend, and the potential war that may break out between me and NittanyBri, (eventhough he's pretending like he doesn't really hate ND, and isn't at all worried that ND may give them a run for their money) I'm asking for you, my throngs of fans to help us with a wager. Should ND win, NittanyBri must...., should PSU win Carnealian must....

Go Irish!!!

Eyelets

This image is from an artist named Jonathan Green. His show is opening at the art gallery at school. He's from the "low country" in South Carolina, and I am in love with the colors he uses in his art work. The artist reception is tomorrow night which I plan on attending. He will be visiting my art history class on Friday morning too. I'm looking foward to hearing his lecture.


Update: Mr. K (my cat) is still hanging right in there. He ate almost an entire can of tuna this morning complete with all the smacky, yum noises a cat can make. Thanks for all the comments and emails from everyone.

Update

My buddy is still with us. I can see him getting increasingly weaker and drinking more water which are the symptoms of this disease. I consider myself fortunate that I have this time to say goodbye and continue to love him until that final moment comes.

He still wants to go outside, eat grass, chase butterflys, jump up on the bed and eat. Until those desires leave him, he's not going anywhere.

Thanks friends for all the kind words, they are really appreciated. Thanks Brian for your support and love through all this.

And on a side note....how bout those Irish?? Next week is the big match up between Penn State and Notre Dame. It's been 14 years since they've last played. Should be an interesting day at my house with two big fans on both sides of this match up.

Goodbye Old Friend

I was given some very bad news today from the vet about my very best buddy in the world. He's in full renal failure. I have the choice of putting him through intensive IV therapy or euthanasia. He's been my friend for 14 years, and I don't want him to suffer with this any longer. This is going to be a very difficult and very sad weekend.

I will miss him tremendously.