Low Down

WISHY-WASHY: We spent a lot of time today wishing CJ was better and washing laundry. Lots and LOTS of laundry.

Last night was not a good night for CJ, unfortunately.  But today we didn't make any hospital runs for an IV, though, so I guess that's an improvement. More test results back today. He's negative for E. coli and salmonella, thank goodness. But it remains a mystery ailment, which means there's no silver bullet.  I wasn't too happy this morning when a consulting nurse's treatment plan was "hope for the best."  My response was "Hope is NOT a plan."  

Frustrating.  

This evening, CJ spent some time outside on the swinging couch, while Christian, Annabelle and I rocked out.  Here's Bee, working the line, pulling the hand truck back up the hill.

She also did some rock climbing.  It was a good workout and I'm happy to say our rock stacking was very stable as she was scrambling.

Out of nowhere, late this afternoon CJ surprised the heck out of me by sitting down and writing a haiku. It reads ...

This is a haiku

It's not a very good one

I should stop right now

I was happy he had the energy and initiative to produce anything, so I was quite pleased with it! 

FIRE SIGN: This afternoon in a bright blue sky with a few wispy cirrus clouds, I noticed a very bumpy, columnar cloud peeking up over Queen Anne hill, in the distance, to the east.  I pointed it out to CJ and told him it reminded me of the type of 'cloud' I'd see over Mt. St. Helens when it erupted.  

This evening, a story in the Seattle P.I. clued us in on what it was.  To quote the story:  "What you're seeing are smoke and the "pyrocumulus" clouds created by the wildfires burning in Eastern Washington. The heat from the fires is its own engine for creating rising air that cools and condenses into clouds."

Wow, I had no idea. Wish I'd taken a photo of it. 

The cloud was from the Carlton Complex, the largest wildfire in Washington state's recorded history, having surpassed the 1902 Yacolt Burn.

Cliff Mass, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington, has a good explanation of what we saw on his blog: http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2014/07/pyrocumulus.html

OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD RECORD:  A couple of days ago, NASA's Opportunity set a new record for off-planet rovers.  On Mars, Oppy has traveled a total of 25 miles (40 kilometers), surpassing the former record holder, the Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2, a moon rover which did its driving in 1973. 

What makes the feat even more amazing is that Opportunity was really only intended to drive about one kilometer - it wasn't designed with distance in mind. 

Photo: NASA/JPL