Yesterday was overcast. Not heavily, but enough to cast a grey pall over everything. Nevertheless, I tried taking some photos outside in the afternoon. I posted a few to Flickr, but I was unhappy with most of them. They are absolutely colorless. The "greyness" of the light was so pervasive that even brightly colored toys appeared dull and washed out. The posted images have had the color saturation boosted considerably, and they're still dull.
Today started out similarly dull. I finally managed to haul my lazy carcass outside to wash the car, which I've been procrastinating about since, well, the last time I washed it, which would be -- I can look this up on 43Things.com -- what?! December 2006? Naaahhh... I must have washed it at least once since then. Not more than once, but at least once. Anyway, I got the outside washed, including scrubbing the wheels. Didn't get the inside cleaned out. It really needs to be vacuumed. The last time I vacuumed the inside was... never! It's a 2002 model. You can do the math. I recently had to put some ant traps under the car seats. I can't imagine why.
In the late afternoon the sun broke through the clouds for an hour or two. I was tempted to haul my photo gear out again, but everything was put away. It was a bit irritating. Where was that warm glowy afternoon light yesterday?
I finished reading Vroom With a View today. In keeping with the "It's a Small World" theme that recurs in this blog from time to time, I was quite surprised when author Peter Moore, in writing about Rome, mentioned by name a friend and former team-mate of my father! I'm reading along and all of a sudden, "Hey! My dad knew that guy!" In fact, Harry Jerome and my dad were on the same university track and field team, and competed in two separate Olympics together. I need to ask my dad about Moore's claim that the Vespa company provided scooters for the 1960 Olympic athletes to ride.
Ten more school days until spring break. Funding from the NASA Explorer Schools Program for my trip to the NSTA conference in Boston has not yet been approved, so I do not yet have flight or hotel reservations. Apparently release of the funds has been "delayed." NASA has experienced some serious cuts in funding recently. A few months ago I heard they reduced their educational outreach staff by about two-thirds. They just sacked the lot of 'em, basically. At this point, I think it unlikely that NASA is going to foot the bill for a spring break flight from Hawaii to Boston; and that's assuming any flights are available this late in the game. Despite initial misgivings about having been "urged to volunteer" for this opportunity, I was kinda starting to look forward to the trip.
molecularman49 is gonna be there, and there is the opportunity to spend a full day at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. This is an example of why I dislike planning for events in the future, why I rarely like to talk about things until they've actually happened, and why I have a pretty pessimistic outlook on anything interesting, fun, or good ever happening. My entire life has been a series of "some days" and "what ifs" that have never happened. As soon as I started looking forward to the NSTA trip, it began to fall apart.Busy week at work coming up. If I'd kept more up-to-date on things, it wouldn't need to be so busy. Still, it'll be okay, as long as I can shake the last lingering vestiges of this cold and get enough sleep.
Smart Girl Birthday Season wraps up today: best wishes to
pastilla, and many thanks for the thought-provoking, intellectually invigorating discussions! 