Another Eagle Nest

What is it about Rocky Mountain eagles? Here's another who prefers a nest on a power pole:

Lake Granby Eagle Nest.

Compare with a cousin's nest in Silverthorne.

Grand Lake Experience

Rented a pontoon book from Grand Lake Marina on Grand Lake, Colorado.

The boat and the temporary captain.

Captain takes the helm.

Note the wake...

Happy passenger Rita, focused captain.

Rita takes the helm. Uh, oh.

Captain Matt. Watch out!

Tony and Andy (Kelly's brothers) - passengers and entertainers.

Rita, Kelly, Matt.

Andy at the helm, Tony, Kelly.

We're not the only vessel on the lake.

Kelly takes control. Forward is forward, reverse is backwards.

Blue Bloat houses under a dock house. Very cool.

Star Wars on Grand Lake. Beebudulbeeedoopdoop.

R and R, lake and mountain.

Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria?

Papa hiding...

Yesterday I (Grandpa Rex) served Mass at our local parish. In the chapel (family room separated from the main worship space) were Grandma Rita, Mary and Abbi (age 2 1/4), Andrew, Sarah, and Mackayla (age 13 mo), and Matt and Kelly.

As part of the rubrics (instructions) for the Mass, during the Eucharistic Prayer, the deacon kneels at the Epiclesis (invocation of the Holy Spirit), and remains kneeling until after the priest-celebrant (Fr. Joseph in this case) elevates the chalice and genuflects. Both priest and deacon then rise at the same time.

After Mass I'm told some of what was going on in the family room. First, Abbi pointed at the distant altar and said, "I see Papa." Then, later in the Mass, Abbi is a bit disturbed. "Where did Papa go? Papa hiding." Fortunately, in a few minutes, "There's papa!"

Abbi, Deacon Grandpa, Mackayla

It's great being a deacon-grandpa.

Skyride & Fox

Morning in Winter Park:

 Skyride to the Village

Village

Lunch at the Back Bowl - Recommended!

Skyride back to the car (in the rain).

Rita, standing on air (so was the photographer).

Waterlogged fox.

10,000 yr old artifacts from Yellowstone

While Rita was trying on clothes at Coldwater Creek in Silverthorne I picked up the Summit Daily newspaper and saw an AP article about artifacts in Yellowstone. I didn't want to take the store's copy and forgot to pick up another. But, since it was an AP article, isn't that what search engines are for?


A Bing search for 10,000 yr old artifacts yellowstone park produced this link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38005209/ns/technology_and_science-science/.

BOULDER, Colo. — Researchers say they've found a 10,000-year-old hunting weapon that had been preserved in melting ice near Yellowstone National Park. ... [Research associate Craig] Lee says increased global temperatures are causing glaciers and ice fields to melt, releasing artifacts as well as plant material and animal carcasses.

Craig Lee and artifact.

Of course, as others have pointed out before, if global warming is exposing evidence of previous human activity in such locations as Yellowstone, doesn't this imply that those locales are no warmer today than then? What mechanism was responsible for a warmer climate 10,000 yrs ago? We need to explain not only now but then; fortunately, such mysteries can keep earth and climate scientists off the street. 

(The web version of the Summit Daily AP article, without photo, is here: 

From Another Time

Christmas 1985:

Grandma Louise with Andrew, Brian (hiding), and Paul, Kymberly, Michelle, Mary, and Beth.

Brian, Andrew, Beth, Kymberly, Uncle Barry, and Paul.

Twitteranalysis

A recent Princess Expedition & Cruise to Alaska by daughter Beth and Rita produced a lot of TwitterTraffic, as one analyst has learned. I thought it might be interesting to go beyond Twitter into the larger Internet to see how much activity Twitter posts by Beth and her compatriots generated on other websites (some of which, admittedly, are operated by the Tweeters). What I did was search for either a single term or a simple combination of two terms and how many results Google produced. Here are the results (of course many are duplicates from one search to the next):

"#FollowMeAtSea": About 17,100 results

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@PrincessCruises": About 6,900 results 

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@earthXplorer": About 1,930 results 

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@CruiseBuzz": About 1,730 results 

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@BethBlair": About 1,600 results

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@theplanetd": About 1,480 results 

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@OrlandoChris": About 1,520 results 

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@Gadling": About 1,120 results 

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@traveldudes": About 906 results 

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@RickGriffin": About 761 results 

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@Travelogged": About 501 results 

This is a lot of Internet activity for an 11-day adventure.


One could try this experiment on other search engines as well to see what results they might give.