Robots

Heartfelt thanks to all of you for your lovely comments, stars and hearts on my 1,000th blip entry entry yesterday.Your words were touching, uplifting, humbling and, well, excellent. I am so fortunate to be part of such a fabulous group of people> Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. You are better than three glasses of bubbly!


 The day began today with OilMan rattling around trying to look at the lunar eclipse without his glasses. When I pointed this out to him, he went back to bed, leaving me to freeze outside in nightie and sweater trying to get a decent photo. I failed because my hands were shaking so much with the cold that I couldn't hold the camera still. It was 39 degrees F.Never have properly warmed up all day….

Maya and Owen arrived at a more civilized hour for a final celebration of Tim's birthday, which he would probably just as soon have ignored. While he and OilMan visited St Florian's brewery, started by a firefighter here in Sonoma County and named for the patron saint of firefighters, Joni and I took the kids to the Environmental Discovery Center at Spring Lake Park.

In a well camouflaged building on a hill above Spring Lake, the center has hands on exhibits,..some rather ratty looking stuffed local species of birds and animals, a couple of enormous wasps' nests, hikes, a little "tech center" consisting of two computers and some art projects, and a tide pool with touchable (starfish) , sea urchins, mussels and other denizens of  the Sonoma coast beaches, plus some fish straight out of Spring Lake.

We were just in time for one of the hourly science projects, which consisted of making little robots out of toothbrushes, batteries, and stickers (which didn't stick, causing great consternation to some of the participants.) If the battery wires were connected correctly, the bristles of the brush would vibrate and the little robot would careen madly about the table. The trajectory depended entirely on careful placement of the batteries. If they were even slightly off center, the little robot would spin in circles, race suicidally for the edge of the table or tip over.

I think the kids learned how energy, in the form of electricity, is passed from a battery into another object. They probably learned a little something about the physics of moving objects and weights, and the teacher learned, just before the class started, that the tiny wires wires needed to be stripped, so that she didn't have time to build a demonstration racetrack out of toilet roll centers.

It was a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. We made a racetrack at home. There is more to do than drink wine in Sonoma County.