Our trip to the Burlington City Park got more interesting than intended yesterday. We were playing down in the creek when one of the kids needed to make a “pit stop”. As we walked up to the restrooms we could smell smoke. At first we thought maybe someone was grilling on the other side as there are tables and such there. However, as we got closer we could see smoke wafting from a broken window and the vents on the men’s side.
Got the kids to step back and I carefully pulled the bathroom door opened to be greeted by a wall of smoke. No flames but a lot of smoke. Kind of reminded me of an old Cheech and Chong movie only this was wood smelling not weed!
Called 911 and the Burlington Fire Department was there in just a couple minutes. Devyn and I sat down on the bleachers by the ball fields and watched the firemen do their work. Was very interesting to watch and made sure to explain to Devyn wath they were doing and that even though they weren’t seeing flames they were still be very, very careful. In just a couple minutes they were done. Still don’t know what exactly was burning but the Firemen took care of it wonderfully.
After they were done, we took both kids up the hill so they could actually see the fire trucks. we went just far enough to be able to see them and still be absolutely sure that we were not in their way. We stood there for just a moment when one of the firemen spotted us and waved us over. So we stepped to the curb as we didn’t want to get in the way of their work still. When he looked back up he waved us on over. Stopped what he was doing and went and got both kids small firehats and stickers. He told them they couldn’t help if they didn’t have their firehats on. He took the time after the hoses were all put away and put the kids up in the firetruck and all.
A big kudos to the Burlington Fire Department. Not just for taking care of the facilities but for doing so much more that really made the kids day!
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So here’s a good one from the truth is cooler than fiction category this morning.
A team of scientists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico were experimenting to create diamond films when one of them (guessing it was the 20-something college undergrad based on my own history, though the article doesn’t say) came up with the bright idea of using Tequila instead of the ethanol-water compound they had been using. So, on the way to work he picks up a bottle of “cheap white tequila” and they run their experiments with it. Turns out it works wonderfully and the team ended up with some nice diamond filsm. Full article is here
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Now this is cool. These guys built a fabricator using open source software and such. It creates only plastic “stuff” right now but the plan is to have other options soon. Reminds me of sci-fi movies where someone pushes a button and out of nowhere a new whosit or whatsit is made. 
Check out the video.
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Saw this a couple days ago. Japan launched their Kaguya lunar satellite awhile back and one of the things it sent back is HD images of the lite and dark site of the moon. I have to say this is simply amazing to watch. Click here to go directly to the JAXA site hosting the movie file.
The first half of the video is done over the dark side. It’s interesting in what you can see. But the real neat part is the lite side part of the video. You can get a better feel for the landscape in that part.
Enjoy!
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Get out today and go vote. Yeah, this is an off year election. No national races but these could be considered to be some of the most important elections you will have a chance to vote in. These are the people on your city councils. These are your mayors and your sheriffs and the like. These are the people that are the closest to you in the political chain of command. And they have a huge affect on how you live and work. They will decide on zoning issues, local tax rates, school boards will decide how, when, where and what your children will do and learn in school. All this from elections that people ignore. As an example, there are about 80,000 registered voters in my county. The expected turnout today is about 10-13 percent. Amazing.
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Ran across a great article on tips for taking better pictures for Halloween. Some of the tips are pretty obvious but it’s nice to have the reminders every once a while. And with the low-light environment some helpful ideas on how to still get great pictures is worth the read!
You can read the full article here.
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And all this time I thought Cannonball Run was just a movie. Evidently, the old land speed record across the use was something like 32 hours and 7 minutes set in 1983. To cover 2795 miles means they averaged 87 miles an hour. This guy took breaking that record to extremes!
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I’d love to have one of these.
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Whew! Have to love when your fantasy goalie gets called one of the best goalies in the league. Cam Ward and crew pulled off a great 3-1 win against the Canadiens. After an early sloppy goal, the ‘Canes, and Ward, got it together. After two periods the Canes had outshot the Habs 30 – 8. Matt Cullen got the nod for game winner and Chad LaRose put the icing on with an empty netter in the closing seconds.
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Welcome to Bouncing thoughts.
With a little luck this will become my alter ego and place to spout off about anything and everything….or it will languish in history and the Google cache.
Guess you’ll just have to check back to find out
For those of you who are used to the old site. It hasn’t changed, just gone into hiding. Go to http://www.tuki.org/tuki_old to see all the old stuff.
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