Shallow Thoughts

Trinity Site

Last year in April, Dave and I finally got around to driving down for Trinity Site day.

Trinity Site is where the Manhattan Project scientists detonated the first prototype for the "Fat Man" plutonium atomic bomb that would eventually be dropped on Nagasaki.

Trinity Site is technically part of the National Park Service, but it's located on White Sands Missile Range and therefore is closed to the public most of the time. They open it two days a year, usually the first Saturday in April and the third Saturday in October — except that this year's April opening was canceled for unspecified reasons, and apparently they're going to cancel the April opening, leaving only October. This year it's October 21.

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How to Move Around More (Being an "Outdoor Person")

I like to think of myself as an outdoor person. I like hiking, mountain biking, astronomy, and generally enjoying the beauty of the world.

Except — let's not kid ourselves here — I'm really more of a computer geek. Without some sort of push, I can easily stay planted on my butt in front of the computer all day — sure, looking out the window and admiring the view (I do a lot of that since we moved to New Mexico), but still sitting indoors in the computer chair.

Earlier this year, the science podcast "Short Wave" played an NPR series called Body Electric that had a lot of interviews with scientists who have studied some aspect of the health benefits of motion versus sitting, and specifically, the idea of getting up and moving around for five minutes every half hour. They challenged listeners to try it, and featured statements from listeners about their improved health and energy levels.

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Alligators ... in Colorado?

A recent trip through Alamosa reminded me that I'd never written about my trip to see the gators. High time!

As you drive up Colorado highway 17 north of Alamosa, you pass a series of old, faded, hand-painted signs saying things like "Alligators? In Colorado?" and "COLORADO GATORS Discount Tickets sold HERE!" I'd seen them for years, and chuckled a little but didn't ever give them much thought. The desert is full of signs for roadside attractions that were abandoned fifty years ago.

But five or six years ago, someone told me that Colorado Gators actually was quite an interesting place, too bad it had recently closed. Darnit — why couldn't someone have told me that before it closed? Oh, well.

Then last year, we were heading up 17 on our way to visit the relatives, and I couldn't help noticing that there were really quite a lot of signs for an attraction that was supposedly gone. And some of the signs looked fairly new. We had some time to spare, so we took the detour and found Colorado Gators still very much open for business.

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Fetching OpenStreetMap Details with OSMPythonTools

I was talking to a friend about LANL's proposed new powerline. A lot of people are opposing it because the line would run through the Caja del Rio, an open-space piñon-juniper area adjacent to Santa Fe which is owned by the US Forest Service. The proposed powerline would run from the Caja across the Rio Grande to the Lab. It would carry not just power but also a broadband fiber line, something Los Alamos town, if not the Lab, needs badly. On the other hand, those opposed worry about road-building and habitat destruction in the Caja.

I'm always puzzled reading accounts of the debate. There already is a powerline running through the Caja and across the Rio via Powerline Point. The discussions never say (a) whether the proposed line would take a different route, and if so, (b) Why? why can't they just tack on some more lines to the towers along the existing route?

For instance, in the slides from one of the public meetings, the map on slide 9 not only doesn't show the existing powerline, but also uses a basemap that has no borders and NO ROADS. Why would you use a map that doesn't show roads unless you're deliberately trying to confuse people?

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A Bullsnake Imitating a Rattler

Riding my bike to the market, I came across a bullsnake stretched across the road, sunning itself ... in danger of becoming snake pizza.

I nudged it to try to get it to move off the road, which annoyed it into doing its pretend-rattlesnake defensive posture.

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Antifreeze and Critters

My Miata blew a radiator hose and dumped out all its coolant, so I needed to do a radiator flush and fill.

Turns out that's kind of a nasty job on an NB (second-gen) Miata. The radiator drain plug is accessed through a hole in the tray under the engine. Once you get it loose enough that coolant has started to drip out, if the screwdriver slips, it's impossible to get it back on without getting coolant all over the screwdriver, flashlight, your arm, your face and hair, etc. And once you do manage to loosen it enough, it pops out, sending coolant gushing everywhere onto the engine undertray, from which it comes out the back and sides and it's impossible to catch it all in a drain pan.

So that left me with quite a mess to clean up afterward. I started by pouring the used coolant into a container with a secure cap: I've always heard warnings about how kids and pets will try to drink the poisonous stuff because it tastes and smells sweet. We don't have kids or pets, but there are plenty of wild critters and we want them to stay healthy too.

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New Hiking Route: Ancho Rapids to Lower Water Canyon

Can you follow Lower Water Canyon (in the DOE open space lands south of White Rock, NM) all the way to the Rio Grande?

In the decade we've lived here, we've heard that question and asked it ourselves, and have heard a few anecdotal reports. You can follow it down most of the way, but there's a pour-off near the end that you won't want to do without a rope. Or there was a pour-off fifteen years ago that wasn't that big a deal, but it's changed since then and isn't passable now. Or ... well, anyway, the story kept changing depending on who we asked, and nobody seemed to have tried it in many years.

Now I've done it. It's a beautiful hike, and right now there's an abundance of wildflowers in bloom along the canyon.

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Bighorn on the Trail

On a mountain bike ride on the White Rock Canyon Rim trail yesterday, we stopped at one of the overlooks to admire the view, and turned to see three bighorn sheep crossing the trail behind us.

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