Palindrome Days

Palindromes abound this month and every year there’s usually a streak of them to be found. The date in digits today (5-15-15-without the dashes 51515) is a palindrome, in this case a group of numbers that read the same either backwards or forwards. Palindromes can also be words like racecar, but I like number palindromes. You can turn any set of numbers into a palindrome by simply adding the digits in reverse to the original the digits in their original order. Example: 123+321=444 or 1203+3021=4224. I could go on and on but if the numbers don’t add up into a palindrome right away things get a little trickier. You just keep adding them reversing the sum of each pair until eventually they do. It took a whole sheet of notebook paper to turn the digits representing the year I was born into a palindrome but it finally did happen! But I will give you this hint; it is easier for peeps born in the 2000s to turn the year they were born into a palindrome and if you were born in 2002 you don’t have to do any addition at all!

Kids on Bikes, in Cars

Another one on a bicycle got into it with a car and the car won again. We saw the young man (on his way home from middle school – he is on the same grade level team as my grandson) in the ditch with his mangled bike beside him. He was sitting up surrounded by first responders looking pretty animated. From what we could see as we drove by, the boy will be ok but the bike was basically totaled and of course there were no bike helmets anywhere. School is almost out. I've turned the A/C on in my house because summer temps are heating up. And then I saw on the news that another child has died after being left in a hot car. This is a risky world for kids and this time of year seems like the riskiest. Time to insist they wear a bike helmet. Time to look where you are driving because once school is out everywhere kids are may as well be considered a kid zone. And if you are a parent of a little one, please throw your shoe in the backseat beside the car seat so you won’t go off to work and leave the baby in the car. One child gone and another injured is hard enough to handle. Consider these incidents a very sad and scary wake up call. Let’s work together to keep kids safe this summer.

Fugitive on the Lam for 56 Years Found!

For the last three days in a row, on my morning commute to a grand’s school, I've been hearing about this on the radio. In the 1950s he did part of his time for speeding and killing a pedestrian in the Ohio State Reformatory which closed in 1990 and was used as the set for the movie The Shawshank Redemption. He escaped from an honor camp near the reformatory unlike the prisoner in the movie. The now wheelchair bound fugitive has waived his rights to expedition back to Ohio. If he is returned this time-they passed the last time in 1975 when he was recaptured in West Virginia, so he was re-released. He has basically been on the lam for 56 years and of all places he turned up in Melbourne Fl. It’s enough to make me wonder about other folks, acquaintances, in my age category that could be on their second or third career, I mean chance, with a false identity. This guy has even been collecting social security. In a way a return to jail could be considered another kind of social security, I guess. Most of the people weighing in on social media say too much time has passed-just let it go. It will be interesting to see if that happens. There was a stakeout and fancy plan to get his fingerprints in order to confirm that William Cox was indeed Frank Freshwater. This will probably replay as a made for TV drama at some point. There is that and that’s the latest from my current locale. Other than Cub Scouts, baseball, house painting, and visits to the beach this trip has been rather undramatic, just the way I like it! 

Micronations

By definition a micronation is any entity (physical or virtual) that purports to be or has the appearance of being a sovereign state. Interestingly enough there are about 98 active micronations on our planet (and one on Mars) right now. There was even a conference, called MicroCon2015, earlier this month, the first in the U.S. A., held amid chalkboards and school chairs in a public rec room of Anaheim, Calif.’s Central Library and dignitaries representing 40 different micronations attended. Micronations have been around since 1851 with the first one consisting of a literary group of Cambridge students who appointed themselves clerics and consuls of the Upware Republic Society. More recently (in 1982) we have the micronation called the Conch Republic, a Key West succession movement created in response to a U.S. Border Patrol roadblock that was meant to stem an influx of Cuban immigrants. And today micronations can be found that range from the virtual to actual places, parcels of private property located in various countries. Maybe when I finish this blog post I’ll look for directions to a Margueritaville micronation destination for me!   

Tesla and Lithium Ion Batteries

Tesla is taking the lead (and a big risk) developing stationary batteries for storing solar energy in homes and businesses. Some think lithium ion batteries may not be the type of battery (definitely not the traditional battery tech either) that will be the leader in energy storage of the future but nevertheless, Tesla is planning to build the battery packs at its $5 billion Gigafactory just outside of Reno, Nevada. The massive plant will employ 6,500 workers and has the potential to crank out a half-million lithium-ion batteries by 2020. The batteries are my height (just over five feet), about a yard wide and only seven inches thick. Like all technologies these days, I wonder if they will continue to get smaller. In any case, they are made to easily mount on a garage wall either inside or out and are designed to work with your solar system right out of the box. The price range from $3000-$3500 isn’t too bad either. Of course on top of all this, these batteries also come in a variety of colors too make it easy to find a palatable complement to where ever you choose to install them. Interesting things keep popping up on the green energy horizon.  

Dad Writes a Letter Re: his Kids Absences from School

On Face Book, I saw a letter that has of course gone viral that a father wrote to a school Principal after receiving a form letter about how family vacations are not considered excused absences. The kids missed school to go and cheer their Dad on in the Boston Marathon and also visited historical landmarks. There is a lot of history, old and new, there for sure. The kids did miss the standardized testing window at school which as a retired educator I’d consider a major no-no despite the opportunity for experiential learning. Some of the readers’ comments portrayed the father, his actions, and response to the form letter in such a positive light I could honestly say they were convinced Dad was heroic. On the other side of the issue this same letter writing father was labeled by some as arrogant and perhaps a less than stellar role model for his kids. Perhaps it is one thing to disagree with a form letter describing the school’s attendance policy and another to send a scathing response to the school’s Principal that basically left me with the impression that the father didn’t have much respect for the school folks and their efforts to provide an education for his kids. I think he took his position too far because I know firsthand how much time and caring goes into that education. Teachers don’t get enough credit for the work they do from the parents’ and politico’s side of society. That being said, the testing window here has closed and my grandsons are going to miss a few days of the less than last four weeks of school for a family emergency, the details of which I will not reveal here. That will be the excuse they turn in. If and when we receive a letter regarding the schools’ attendance policy (and these absences) I will just accept it and give no written response.

Capsule Wardrobes

This is an interesting current concept I just might try. I have a closet filled with clothes I don’t wear and that doesn't even include the jeans just gathering dust on my over the bathroom door hanger. And looking at the big picture, the capsule wardrobe seems to encourage mindful clothes shopping which for many is probably a good thing. I am not a fan of shopping but I have managed to accumulate lots of clothes and after a year of focused fitness most of my clothes consist of items that are either completely out of style or don’t fit. Hence I have all the more reason to consider a capsule wardrobe now. Simply defined a capsule wardrobe is a fixed amount of clothing items (often one capsule for each season- which here in south GA, means basically two capsules- hot weather or cold weather). Shoes are included along with clothes but in my research I haven’t seen underwear mentioned so I won’t count undies. The number 33 (for thirty-three items, Google-Project 333) is a popular one so when I get my wardrobe pared down to 33 items (tops, bottoms, dresses, and shoes) for every new purchase over that number an old item must go. Simplifying my lifestyle at least as far as my wardrobe goes appeals to me and Goodwill and the Salvation Army can always use a donation. I’ll let you know how this latest venture works out for me!