lookec

Friday 9-22-06 6:20pm

The Caravan of Trust, Innuendo & Supposition

We, the campers of Troop 388, were to meet in the parking lot of South Main Baptist Church in Pasadena, Texas at 6:30pm.  Mustering for a weekend canoeing trip down the San Marcos River about 180 mi. west of Pasadena, the idea was to caravan en masse to Camp Shady Grove in Martindale.  Upon arrival at the destination, we would set up camp and get a good night’s rest before beginning the big weekend.

Derek, Iain and I turned into the parking lot at about 6:20.  A few campers were already there.  We were waiting for Darryl the assistant scoutmaster to show up with the troop’s trailer of camping equipment.  The scoutmaster, Rob, may have already arrived, but not knowing him...?

“Class A uniforms only!”   Iain had asked if they were supposed to wear their boy scout shirts.

“Dad!  I forgot my boy scout shirt!” Iain announced not without angst.  Derek’s eyes began to roll back, his eyelids slowly closing.

Iain had brought his football – a camping contraband item we were to discover later.  Several of the scouts began to pass it back and forth over near the fence.  The fence was a 7’ chain link topped by three strands of barbed wire strung slanting outward to greet any potential fence-climbers.  It surrounded the inventory lot of a car dealership.

After a few minutes, one of the boys decided to (gently) punt the ball to the others, and they, of course, reciprocated. 

I said to Derek, still sitting next to me in the car, “It’s only a matter of time.”

“Till what?” he replied.

“Till the football goes over the fence,” I said.

The trailer pulled in!  We were about to leave, and it was only 6:45!  So let’s gather up, coordinate, and shove off.

“Wait... where did everybody go?”

Seems the first order of business was to disperse and talk amongst ourselves.  Derek was out scouting around the parking lot trying to determine if there was some sort of pre-consensus, and we were the only ones who didn’t know what to do. 

Nancy had still not arrived.  She was on a parallel task delivering the dogs to weekend dog storage.  (The exigencies of that task and its attendant transportational stochasms had expanded so as to exceed the time imagined for their completion.)

As Derek returned to the car where I still waited in the air conditioning, Iain came up and yelled, “Dad! My football went over the fence and we can’t reach it!” or words to that effect.  Dad told him the lot belonged to the car dealership, and he (Iain) would have to go ask permission to enter and retrieve the ball.  Off went Iain and another scout, trundling forth on their mission. (Iain is a first-rate trundler.)

Derek meanwhile had noticed another possible information source gathering, and wandered over to it.  During that tête-à-tête, I saw the panzer – that’s what Derek & Nancy call their huge and aging Mercedes – coming down the back fence line of the parking lot.  She must have picked up Iain returning from the football-fetch. I further surmised that she and Derek must have been in cell phone touch because a few minutes later – about 7:10 – the scout trailer pulled out; Derek got back to the car, and we were headed back to home to pick up Nancy, Iain & the class A.

Back at home, Derek invoked a ruling by parental fiat that Iain’s skateboard and basketball were not to make the trip.  (Good job, I thought silently.)  After several false starts, we were On The Way – 7:30pm.

The “plan,” as near as Derek could determine, was for the caravan to rally up at the roadside park past Columbus to make sure everyone was entrained.  Failing that, the next rallying point was the Chevron in Luling.  Derek had asked if there were plans to get something to eat along the way.

“Yeah, we’ll probably do that I guess,” was the reply.

We were hungry, and we needed gas, so we stopped in Sealy for gas and a Whataburger.  By eating in the car, the whole stop cost only about 15 minutes.  Still, we wanted to catch up and make the Columbus rallying point because we weren’t real confident in the instructions we had on how to get to Shady Grove Camp.  About 3 or 4 miles past Columbus, sure enough, there was a public rest area, but no caravan.  “Hmmm.  On to Luling.”

Found the Chevron in Luling, but again no caravan.  On the other side of town Nancy & Iain made a pit stop at the “Food Store,” a gas/convenience store.  I only mention this because the place was packed.  All 8 gas pumps were being used, the car passageway between the pumps and the store was blocked by 3 more cars, and 3 cars were parked along snippets of curb at the corners of the property.  As one would pull out, another would pull in.  10:35pm in Luling, Texas.  I hadn’t expected this...

Back on the road.  Finally arrived at an endarkened campground at about 11:00pm.  No caravan.  About 15 minutes later, it arrived.  Seems they decided to rally up at the Chevron in Columbus (you can’t see it from the highway), and skip the one in Luling altogether.  The Chevron in Columbus was substituted for the public rest area (which you could see from the highway).  “Oh, well, we all made it didn’t we?”

“HORSESHOE!!  PANTHERS!  TROLLS!  HORSESHOE!!”

“DINOSAURS!  PARALLEL HERE!”

Tent layout instructions blasted through the tranquil river bottom night.  Parents are dinosaurs.  I’m falling in line as best I can.  Derek and Nancy have a tent.  I have a tent.  Iain is a panther and is sleeping in the panther arm of the horseshoe.  It’s dark.  And hot.  And still.  And very humid.

I have never seen my tent in its deployed state, but there is a picture on the tent bag.  Thank heaven for the head-lamp Derek brought.  Thank Derek, actually.  With some help from him regarding the basic structural idea, it finally goes up.  Midnight.  We’re here, we’re hot; we’re sweaty and tired.  Let the fun begin!

Saturday 9-23-06 12:20am

Hot Nights & Slippery Skin

Zzzzzip!  In the tent, I am wet with sweat.  Whatever breeze there was in the river bottom is effectively stilled by the tent.  If there is a disease where the symptom is sweat glands which don’t function, I don’t have it.  Mine work great.  In fact, they wouldn’t stop.  Got out and removed the rain fly trying to increase the chimney effect.  Could be it worked on a grand scale, because shortly thereafter a light, intermittent, but very blessed breeze kicked up.  Saved my life I think.

Saturday 9-23-06 1:30am

The Scout Serenades.  A long-distance night.

Another hour or so of listening to pre-pubescent and pubescent males trying to force each other to be quiet, and I fell into a fitful gooey sleep.

After a couple dozen awakenings, I realized the sky was getting light.  I had made it!  Night was over; I was nearly dry, and only a little warm.  I had come to expect the worst and had calibrated by comfort meter to register from Very Uncomfortable to Misery.  I’m happy to report that it wound up a little off the scale on the Very Uncomfortable side.

It's amazing what sunshine & breakfast can do for the soul...

(I originally wrote this in response to a USA Today Online article, but to post it I had to join their their little group, and I didn't like their Privacy Policy.)

Regarding the recent NPR interview by Steve Insky with NASA chief Michael Griffin:

I believe any questions involving the state of the Earth should necessarily involve NASA, and perhaps NOAA, perhaps often in a combined role.  No other elements of our government, have global perspective combined with a mostly unbiased point of view (though NOAA's position in the Department of Commerce renders it more likely to be tainted by short-sighted politically-motivated assertions).

As we move forward from the initial "shock" of learning that mankind's actions are having an impact on global weather, the next well-reasoned debate topic appears to be forming as "Is this the best climate for us?  If not, what is?"

Regardless of the answers evolving from those questions, the one following them is very likely to be "What can we do about it?"  Whether we are talking about halting global warming, controlling it to another, different status, or learning to live with a system more highly variable and "tippy" than we previously realized, a thorough knowledge of how the global weather system works - "weather laws" interacting with random elements of the system - is essential.  Primary research, theoretical studies and practical modelling of the global environment becomes of increasingly high priority as our global industry increases, our human population increases, and perhaps random major events shape the relatively near future of our environment.

Even if the current major priorities of NASA are lunar habitation and human exploration of Mars, a significant and large portion of their research budget should be in support of our understanding of Earth's response to both long and short term influences.  Some examples of each are

• Industrial effluents
• Solar disturbances
• Direct injection of particulate matter into the high atmosphere:
  • Major volcanic activity
  • Above-ground detonation of nuclear devices
• Agricultural practices (deforestation)
• Cultural practices (burning of hydrocarbons)
• Increased release of methane clathrates in arctic regions

To be clear, NASA is properly a research organization, and should have no responsibilities for attempted management of or position advocacy regarding the global environment. Their job must be to measure, hypothesize and test.  We need to keep them healthy and focused, and as unfettered as possible from evaluations by politically-oriented entities.

Mr. Griffin's remarks were on target, even if they seemed to fly in the face of current knee-jerk worries.  We must allow science to be science, not an agency for manufacture of justifications for emotionally charged responses to new data.  Clearly there is a role for emotion - to galvanize us into action - but it is not a good basis for directing the action.  We should act based on fact, not fear, and if there is indeed a threat, to fill our hearts and bodies "full with the charge of the soul,"* and get to work.

* Thanks, Uncle Walt