Tutoring

I am doing my on-line tutoring thing right now. I asked a student what -8 divided by 2 is. It took him/her 2 full minutes to respond. I am really worried how I am going to explain graphing a quadratic equation to this person.

A New Bike

I received an early birthday present from my family Saturday. They bought me a new Shwinn hybrid 21-speed bicycle as pictured here. I cannot remember how old I was when I got my last bike. I was no more than 9, and I bought it used from some kid in Lowry City. It has functioned for many years, roads and trails. I am very excited about this bike. It is the same model my father has, so I know I will enjoy it.

Unfortunately, I have yet to take the new bike for a spin. Jill will tell you that is because it is not my birthday yet. However, the real reason is that it is to stinkin' cold. We have had snow, ice and sleet this week. Thankfully Sac Osage Electric Cooperative had already had all the trees in our territory torn down, so we did not suffer any outages. I understand that this is just how winter is supposed to be in Missouri, but I do not like it. Bring on the heat and the humidity.

Global Warming

I have seen the statistics that tell of the earths surface temperature warming. As a marketing representative of a power utility that gets its power mostly from burning coal, I also see a lot of evidence that points away from man-made global warming. (By the way if global warming is caused by CO^2 released into the atmosphere, it just makes me want to leave my engine running longer; bring on the burn.) Next week I get to attend an event that I am really looking forward to, a renewable energy conference. I will not go into all the details, but one thing really excites me. Supposedly the event is going to have three bicycles hooked to generators to power the conference center. Volunteers are going to ride in shifts during the entire conference. The conference center holds 600-700 people. It is being held in the middle of February in Missouri so I can only think that the heating has to be natural gas or something else you burn on-site. But even if they they think they are going to provide light and sound for the event, I think they are out of their minds. We do an energy demonstration for kids where we let them ride a bicycle to power different appliances. A high school student powering a 100 watt motorized airplane (it's a cool demonstration) only lasts about 5 minutes, and you have to insult their manhood to get that out of them. The announcement said that the bicycle generator will be hooked to the grid so anytime they are providing more power than the conference needs, it will go to Springfield's general power supply. I hope these people are there. This is going to be fun.

At the Theatre

This post was supposed to be written about three weeks ago. That is when the theatre in good old El Dorado Springs reopened. Mom and Dad went to the first showing, and Jill and I went to the late night show handing Cannon off in between the two. The theatre owners remodeled the 19th century building to look as it did when it was last a theatre. Here is a glimpse, although it looks much better in person. For instance, the pole, which is prominent in all the pictures I took, is not really noticible when you are inside. Their is only one screen, and they are showing second run family movies. Our show was National Treasure: Something about Gold. It was an enjoyable evening. Mom and Dad took Michele's kids (my nieces and nephew) to Veggietales: The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.

If you are keeping track, El Dorado now has: three stoplights, a radio station, two grocery stores, a hardware store that has everything (if you just ask), two newspapers (three if you count the buyers guide), a community center (with an indoor track and raquetball court), a skating rink and a movie theatre. What is it missing? A real coffee shop. I don't know how we could economically sustain one, but then I don't know how two newspapers have survived for 50 years. Maybe they could charge for gossip. This is a picture I took on the way to the downtown theatre. I think it adds to the big city image.

Dad's Birthday

My father, Michael Loren Ash (by the way does everyone know that his father's name is Loren, my middle name is Michael, and my son is Cannon Aaron Ash?) turned 60 this year on January 30. My sister threw a party for him at her house. She also gave him a framed document of "60 reasons why we love Dad/Grandpa" with very personal wonderful things about our father. I gave him a water bottle that attaches to his bicycle, and that was 8 days late. She puts this kind of thought and energy into his birthday, and she gave him three grandchildren. It's a wonder that I'm the favorite.

A Word About Rope

A Google search for the "best length of rope" turns up nothing. How is that possible? Also, "best size of towel" gives you zilch. Doesn't this seem like the kind of thing that would be debated on a Hitchhiker's Guide message board ad naseum? I'll put the question to you, Dear Readers. Eventually, when Google's spiders have crawled over this page your answer may be the "Feeling Lucky" page when it is next searched. What is the best length of rope to have handy? I'm talking about in your car or on hiking trips. I think it is six feet, and I usually prefer cord. So many uses, if only I could remeber the knots from The Dangerous Book For Boys when I need them.

Holdover

In case anyone happens to be checking for a new post, which happens to be 3 weeks late, I wanted to ask you to check back after tonight (Friday).