I need to get my butt in gear and post here at least once a week – if I go longer than that, it is all too tempting to let it slide just a little bit longer, and so on.
The semester continues apace, with some small modifications. I had abandoned the Quantum Mechanics class I was auditing. I hadn’t been keeping up with the reading and she finally passed beyond my ability to comprehend anything. (Although apparently it has regressed somewhat into more intelligible terminology.) The fact that it was such a late class helped in the decision – it’s nice to get home before 7 pm. E&M (also auditing) is only rarely attended – I usually find something better to do at that time (like eat). She is still teaching pretty much straight from the old notes I already have, so I am not missing much.
That leaves me still auditing Astrobiology (always cool) and taking my normal two classes, Sr. Physics Lab and Intro to Astrophysics. I’m working on the last of the four lab projects now (trying to get ringing to happen in optical pumping of Rubidium). After a quiz tomorrow, all that is left in that class is to hand in the final paper sometime before December 10th. Astrophysics has another homework assignment left and the final exam.
The photography class I took with Washington Photo Safari (night shoot at the monuments) was pretty cool. Sometime after the semester ends, I hope to do some tweaking of the pics and get them posted. In the meantime, here is one of my favorites.
Lincoln Memorial after sunset, shot across the reflection pool.
Maestro, still very sick
In other news, we adopted a new kitten relatively recently. He was found in a feral colony by an LRR worker. She got him some to her vet for some medical treatment and then we adopted him, naming him Maestro (looks like he’s in a tux) and substantially more medical work (mites, an ugly case of worms, very serious upper respiratory infection, very low body weight and a few other issues).
Happily, he is in much better shape now (I was very worried for a bit, especially when he was sneezing blood) and has more than doubled his weight from a paltry 1.8 lbs to 4 lbs since we got him. Of course, that means he is well enough and old enough for neutering, but it beats starving to death in a feral colony.
Not the brightest star in the sky?
Of course, now I have to wonder if he has all his marbles. This was not an action shot. He had his tongue out like this for about 5 minutes.
Maestro gets along very well with the youngest of our other cats, Nikki, and plays, chases and roughhouses with her regularly. He is tolerated by the old man, Ziggy (who occasionally starts to play before he remembers his dignity). The old lady, Stardust, won’t have any of it, though and goes into serious hissy fits whenever he gets too close. However, since she is a total coward, I am not worried about any major catfights happening anytime soon.
Finally, I will leave you with a little bit of nature. After a particularly violent late-afternoon drenching, I spotted a truly brilliant rainbow lighting up the eastern sky. Even the deep purple side of it was very clear. Unfortunately, cameras do much less well with rainbows than eyes do (especially in the hands of inexperienced photographers like myself), but I did the best I could on this one.
Rainbow over Great Falls
