This is just a short “status note”.
I’m landed in Florida. I’ve done the “meet and greet” and caught up on some of the missed sleep. Even had dinner… first meal since dinner yesterday. I tend to do that sometimes, just forget to eat for a day. It really isn’t that hard. Dinner out with spouse, drive to airport, on a plane, airport, plane, drive to house dead tired, sleep, talk with friends, dip in the pool, discover “dinner time” is soon…
So, three giant BBQ Burgers later…
I tend to be a Sleep Camel. I can skip sleep for a day or two as long as I ‘fill up’ eventually. Similarly I’m a Food Camel. Good for a few days of not eating, but eventually the “push” of an event (like travel) ends and I discover I’ve not eaten… so I “tank up” again.
Now the Sleep Camel is reminding me that those 4 hours mid day were more a ‘nap’ than a night’s sleep. It’s after 1 AM here, and I’m drowsing… Time to refill the “sleep hump”…
So that new WSW posting will wait another day. That posting on Greek Debt and how Germany announced a 10% increase in expected borrowing (as the Greek Debt gets washed through the German Credit Rating for that bailout package…) and that Italy and Spain have lined up for their credit limit increase and German Loan too….. that will have to wait as well.
On the flight out, I got to ponder how, if convection ends as the sun goes down, I was having sporadic turbulence? Clearly vertical convection continues, as does sinking columns. I also got to see a variety of cloud forms, from fog in Atlanta to thunderstorms of 30,000 ft hight giving lightning flashes at “eye level” in the distance. A posting about our “Spherical Heat Pipe” and convection dominated air flow, with water condensation as the limiting heat dumping mechanism gets to cool in the queue too… just as the rising air cools (from 80 F near the ground to -41 F / C at altitude, per the onboard real time readings) Talk of “back radiation” to the surface from that -41 C at altitude just looks very silly from the vantage point of a ride in the sky… but seeing tons of water condense, dump heat into a ‘cold end’ at -41 then drop back to the surface to pick up more at the hot end, that speaks clearly.
Also of note: Watching fireworks from above is fascinating… I recommend it at least once in your life. Given the number of “illegal” fireworks I saw, the spirit of “Up Yours Government!” rebellion still lives. I recommend that our “keepers” keep that in mind. Just below the skin of “passive citizen” beats the heart of the “We don’t need no steeenking Politician telling us how to live!”, waiting for something to set it free. There IS hope. But that posting, too, must wait…
My car needs some tending tomorrow to get it ready for the trips I’m hoping to make in the next week or two. My Florida Friend has run into an old friend who just happens to have a patio with a direct view toward the launch pad area (built for watching launches…) and we need to load up on “party goods” to take there (expected attendance at said patio party about 25 and counting).
And, to top it all off, I’ve got a “phone interview” for a job already. Tomorrow morning. Unlikely to have much feedback afterwards (need to give things time to percolate). But still, promising. Saying “on the other coast” is just not as interesting as “in town this month”…
So, pleasant to be in Florida again. Pleasant to see old friends again. Pleasant to have the prospect of progress again. Pleasant to be anticipating a launch One More Time.
Now it’s time for sugar-plum dreams and wonderland hopes… to realize that life still holds anticipations and packages with ribbons…
To sleep, perchance to dream…
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Musings from the Chiefio 
In Florida again?
Well, since you’ve already got the t-shirt from the last trip, you might as well spend the mad money on beer.
Hope the launch goes as planned- wish I was there. BTW- those could have been my fireworks in north Atlanta. Godspeed…
I wish you good times and a ‘happy launch”.
Really hope King Weather doesn’t screw up anything this time.
As for:
“if convection ends as the sun goes down, I was having sporadic turbulence? Clearly vertical convection continues, as does sinking columns”
Convection continues long after the sun goes down.
Only the convection sources = area’s change.
From experience I know that during the late evening and night forests that have been absorbing heat all day and functioning as sinking area’ during the day time start releasing convective heat during the late evening and night.
Also water area’s can be a source of convection during the night.
For detailed information and understanding of convection (thermals) read
the books: Segeln über den Alpen from Jochen from Kalckreuth and “Strecken Segelflug” from Helmut Reichman. You will find information about convection at a level you can’t find anywhere.
@George: Love that guy… Think I saw him on a news show promoting his book.”The New Road To Serfdom” (which I was reading on my last trip out).
Pretty much lays it out straight. Bail the Greeks and Euro works only for a short period of time and only until it sinks the next boat over…
Basically, you have someone in a small lifeboat busy drilling holes in the bottom. You can:
a) Tell them to stop, explain why, and hope.
b) Pull your boat up next to theirs and bail water from theirs into yours.
c) Invite them into your boat, drill and all.
d) Demand that they stop drilling holes in exchange for b or c.
e) Pull a ways off and await the arrival of insight as they get wet.
Prior to The Euro, Greece was in (a) and the Drachma was inflating away.
Periodically the IMF would try (b) (with some amount of d).
The Euro Zone was formed, that’s (c). Now we are firmly in (d), but they are not listening to the demands and the folks from Spain and Italy are getting their drills greased up too…
Only the Swiss and Scandinavians seem to “get it” that (e) is the only long term viable strategy… (In the USA we are watching both the Democrats and Republicans drill holes in our currency boat, with only the Tea Party really saying “Stop the deficit spending now.”
Ah well, we live in a world where folks think that having a credit card is the same as having income…
@all:
BTW, I’m now “scaled out” of stocks in the trading account, only holding long term investment positions and ready to put on “short trades” against it to defend, if needed . This is trading on about a 1 week time scale doing “swing trades”. Partly as I’ve made some jingle on that last run up, partly as I’m going to be a bit busy over the rest of the week and not paying as close a focus as I ought for doing “day trades”. I still have some other trades on (like an energy trade with UNG on that experimental fast timing chart) but mostly in cash. I’ve made my target for the trip, so now I get to enjoy it a bit ;-)
@R. de Haan:
Thanks for the titles, I’ll see if I can find them…
@all:
I’m here “for the duration”. Don’t care how often or how far they “slip” the schedule, I’m going to watch this, the last one. Just need some fair weather is all…
Get your supplies ready early and don’t leave the launch watching house all day. Brevard County is going to be a zoo!
Right now doesn’t look good for launch on Friday. I’m hoping for Saturday when I can stay home and watch from the front yard :-) Enjoy.
Polly Wally Doodle All Day, Fare The Well…
Hummmm… my Pally and Wally is working OK but my Double-E Key is kaputski. I say again Louder, Words Twice – ‘Fare Fare Thee Thee Well Well’..
I wish you good times and a ‘happy launch”.
Really hope King Weather doesn’t screw up anything this time.
As for:
“if convection ends as the sun goes down, I was having sporadic turbulence? Clearly vertical convection continues, as does sinking columns”
Convection continues long after the sun goes down.
Only the convection sources = area’s change.
From experience I know that during the late evening and night forests that have been absorbing heat all day and functioning as sinking area’ during the day time start releasing convective heat during the late evening and night.
Also water area’s can be a source of convection during the night.
For detailed information and understanding of convection (thermals) read
the books: Segeln über den Alpen from Jochen from Kalckreuth and “Strecken Segelflug” from Helmut Reichman. You will find information about convection at a level you can’t find anywhere.
I have never bought the concept of the AGW based on this knowledge.
Have a restful, party-ful, and joyful (inlcuding launch) time. Glad you could fly, although sometimes cross-country driving can be easier on the nerves than flying. Wow! Viewing fireworks from on high? A unusual Fourth of July blast!
Am looking foward to WSW. Know I have said thank you for a unique and wonderful blog before, but your policy on commenting makes it stand out even more. Always an intelligent and fascinating experience.
You mention “Meet & Greet” so if you have another such occasion planned, this camel would like to be there. For the next few days I will be in North Carolina before returning home to the Space Coast on Monday, July 11.
It sounds as if you have a near ideal situation for watching the shuttle launch. Here’s wishing for the clearest of clear skies!
@All:
Well, after “Adventures in Auto Registration Land” I have a 10 day temporary plate for my Florida Car… (It’s a long story… the short form is I left the car here on the last trip, but could not renew the reg in California a that requires a California smog check that they can’t do in Florida… but could not do a Florida reg as the “title” (‘pink slip’) is in California… OK, temp reg while the pink slip gets sent Fed Ex w/in the next 10 days… then more Adventures in Government Land…)
So I’ve got a car again, as of today…
We do the launch, then I’m “free” to go where I want, when I want, and have the car with which to do it (for 10 days…) and at some point will have a “round 2” interview and find out if on day 7 I point the car toward California, or complete the Florida reg and become a Floridian part of the time, or complete the Florida reg and become a full time Floridian (bi-coastal)… or what…
I can’t help but wonder how much it really improves the world for me to be spending days visiting car registration facilities and having papers FedEx coast to coast and paying government employees to be on the other side of all the transactions… or if the world would be a better place if cars were just cars and not objects of State Management & Taxation…
Ah, well. I have wheels again, at least for now.
Next up is “schedule the trip to the launch site – whenever…” and then “see whom where when?”.
Isn’t it fun having your life entirely up in the air with no idea even what coast you will be living on in 3 weeks? Or what you will be doing for a living?
For now, though, I get to take a break and think about markets, and postings, and have some “pool time’…
Life’s a bitch without wheels.
@R.deHaan
Life’s a beach, too!
(-;If you want to sound like you have some cooth and have been around the Horn a few times, use the Cockney or New England pronunciation. It also works well in mixed company with little old ladies who know exactly what your saying but you didn’t actually say it. Blog speak spelling gives it a multiple meaning too, one that works swell and conjures up all kinds of images; ergo my minipic for pascvaks;-)
Bad Weather?
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9OB09400&show_article=1
Looks as if it is actually going ahead. I hope you get a really clear view.
I’ve never seen a big honkin’ rocket fly from up close, but I’ve seen smaller ones fly, both from alongside the runway and from on board. I prefer riding the thunder to watching it :)
Video of Rick & Mark at Oshkosh:
Well, back from the traffic jam getting out of the Space Coast,
Wonderful time had by all. Had a view from the beach front across the waters.
Intellectually knew that sound would come later; was not emotionally ready for a dead silent lift off into the clouds, THEN a rolling rumbling roar…
More when I get a chance to “settle”…
Glad you had a good day, E.M.
I wish I could have been there.
In a couple of years, there will be more people that were at the last launch than were “at Woodstock.” ;o)
So glad you did not have to wait!
Last Shuttle flight to land on anniversary of Moon walk
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/07/last_shuttle_flight_to_land_on_anniversary_of_moon_walk.html
just makes me want to puke – and vote Nov. 2012!!
@Jerry:
That first paragraph or two kind of captures the sentiment for me…