My tweets

• Wed, 12:28: RT @ezraklein: Economists to Romney campaign: That’s not what our research says. http://t.co/QJaXofEn
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• Thu, 10:23: Political Animal - Elite Lawbreaking Roundup;Also, Why Did Reuters Purge this Story? http://t.co/mxcT6c0m via @washmonthly
• Thu, 11:47: Mansions On The Hill http://t.co/fCbRbU3h from @firedoglake

A Physicist on Everest

Came upon this link in today’s Lunch Links posting over at The Washington Monthly. I have to get this book:

In 1997 physicist Francis Slakey set out to climb the highest mountain on every continent and surf every ocean – he dubbed it the first “global surf-and-turf.” In his recently published memoir, To the Last Breath: A Journey of Going to Extremes, he describes the geophysics of waves, the body’s physiological breakdown at high-altitude, and the technology of climbing, as well as the people he encounters and the challenges he endures on his 12-year journey.

The section excerpted in last month’s Scientific American describes the effects of a low-oxygen environment on the human body. There is some telling, but mostly, it shows. It is harrowing:

As I made my way down the southeast ridge of Everest, with Ang Nima and Jim Williams now a few hundred feet above me, I saw a climber from our team, Bob Clemey, on his knees, gloves at his side, with his bare hands delicately gliding over the surface of the snow.

Depleted and needing warmth, Clemey saw with absolute clarity that a rock protruding from the snow was glowing red hot. He realized that lava from the very core of the earth was lifted up to the surface of Everest and was heating that rock. So he stripped off his gloves and began warming his hands over the rock like it was a campfire.

In reality, there was no glowing red rock, no lava. There was just a climber with bare hands frozen as solid as clubs, fingers gripping snow in a twenty-below-zero blizzard.

Clemey’s oxygen tanks were drained. There was no way of knowing how long he had been there or when he had run out of oxygen.

Our second crisis had begun.

The first crisis is described earlier in the section.

I have to get this book.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.

Rain!

Nine-tenths of an inch so far, with intermittent showers still to come. It was a perfect rain, sans whipping winds or thunder, falling at a slow-enough rate that the ground soaked it up as it went along.

I don’t see any puddles in the backyard, and I doubt the ground is anywhere near saturated. The sump pump well is still bone-dry, as it has been for months, and the greening that occurred thanks to the half inch or so that we received a few weeks ago was starting to give way to shriveled brown once more. That’s been put off for a few more weeks, at least.

Temps have fallen to the 60s. Tomorrow it’s supposed to hit only 73F, the coolest high in 2 months.

I’ve picked a few tomatoes, enough for munching and salads. Unless the plants start going late summer crazy, I don’t think I will harvest enough to freeze or make sauce. I lost too many blossoms to the heat back in June/July, and most of the plants never recovered.

The only variety that is doing well is the Black Cherry, a black cherry-tomato with a nice flavor. It is covered with greenies, and if they all turn at once, I may have enough to make a very small batch of chili sauce or chutney. The crabapple that puts forth the larger apples–handball-size and sweet–is fairly loaded this year, so I may be able to harvest enough for a batch of crabapple chutney. I still have one or two jars left from the batch I made 2 years ago–it keeps very well in the deep freezer. Good on chicken, turkey, hot dogs. Not so great with burgers. Might make good tart filling with a little extra sugar.

The handyman was able to work on the garage for part of the day. He installed the new side door, a task that included ripping out the old jamb and installing a new one. He also installed a raised strip along the bottom to keep out leaves, dirt, and the odd critter. He also had enough time to switch out some of the garage siding. It’s going to look very nice when it’s done.

We talked about other possible jobs. When I freshen up the kitchen–new countertops, backsplash, sink, an island or peninsula–I want to keep the old cupboards and refinish them as they are real wood. They are very plain, though–the doors are flat and featureless, with no trim of any kind. I asked the handyman if it would be possible to install glass in the upper doors to modernize their appearance, and he said that was a job he could do.

At the moment, the cupboards are stained *green*, and since the stain was applied directly to the bare wood, I may not be able to remove it completely. A pickling stain might work, depending on the amount of green remaining. It will be a job, but I think it will be worth it. I just don’t see solid wood cabinets in any of the stores I frequent. I can only imagine how much they would cost brand new.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.