Solstice. Rode my bike today. I could write about my nifty insights about suspension design and rolling losses (pneumatic tires vs. spring and damper — the tire compresses every revolution but the comparable spring only compresses on bumps), or I could report on the new battery pack (’bout the same as the old one, unfortunately). I won’t though. Instead I’d like to try raise the level of my contributions here by writing about less trivial matters. I’ve wanted to, but I’ve been holding off, perhaps because it never seemed pressing (not like linking to some evanascent news piece), or perhaps due to the generally low quality of my writing, too low to express what I feel I want to say. Still, I should probably just give up hope that it will somehow improve. Besides, even the important things will get lost if not captured.
My son was talking to my dad on the phone last night, trying to convince him to smelt playground sand in his kiln to make glass. I think he succeeded, though my dad will probably add lime and soda to the sand, and jury rig something with a bottle of oxygen and a MAPP torch rather than use the pottery kiln. Or maybe electrodes and 20 amps at 60 volts, it’ll conduct well enough. This inspired my dad to talk about his father, my grandfather, who melted aluminum oxide with three-phase power in a crucible, taking it up to 2000 C before pouring it into steel buckets (melting point of steel, 1500 C, but large specific heat) to cool before being smashed and made into grinding wheels. Yes, an industrial process, not something that he was doing in his backyard. When they tapped the crucible, the sky would light up fifteen miles away, and my grandfather would go down to the river to watch the sky. This story is from the old Niagara Falls, the American, industrial side, and power was cheap close to the plant, close to the giant flood of falling water, so easy to extract huge quantities of power from. Electricity then and there cost 3 mills/kWh, or could be had for one, if you were willing to let the utility turn it off whenever they wanted to. Of course, you could buy a 1/4 lb candy bar for 5 cents then. Later, the laws changed to make prices the same everywhere, and industry declined. When I was courting my wife, I told her about Niagara Falls, and my family connections there, and told her that they turned them off at night, to make more power. And it’s true, almost, and they still do.
My grandfather died going over the falls. It’s an odd story, really. I’m not certain what happened, and maybe nobody else is either. They did a lot of sailing on the Niagara river, above the falls. My grandfather fell off a dock, and ended up downstream, below the falls. I don’t know why fell, though, or why he didn’t swim for shore. Maybe he had a heart attack, though at fiftysomething he seems kinda young for that. Maybe he fell accidently, hit his head, drowned — I’m clumsy, maybe he was too. Maybe he jumped, killed himself. That also happens. I was going over this story with my son (perhaps in itself a bad idea), and this last one really confused him. It just made no sense. “Why would anyone want to do that?” I tried to explain. “You know how sometimes, you’re happy, and sometimes you’re sad… uh, it’s biochemical, something in their brain… uhhhh…” Bedtime is not the time for long lectures on mood disorders and pharmacological therapies. I changed the subject. Perhaps, like sex, it’s good for kids to hear about the what and the how long before the why becomes conceivable. It’s too late, anyway, so I might as well tell myself that.
Got email this morning about another person. Male, 65, Caucasian, self-inflicted gunshot wound, alcohol use, yes, tobacco use, yes, other substance use, no, BMI, 25.1. I’m offered his liver, $75 per million cells, minimum order ten million. Somebody’s dad, somebody’s grandfather. Hopefully that won’t ever be me. Completely by coincidence, I signed my organ donor card last night. Any needed tissues or organs for transplantation. “Or any other purpose” I added in pen, with a smiley, before signing and getting my wife to sign too. Reduce, reuse, recycle.