I received good news from Blue Ash, near Cincinnati, via email last night. The pitiable homeless cat that was hanging out at the Holiday Inn Express has been rescued. It looks like a network of individuals and organizations took action on my emailed pleas and "Howie," as he is now named, is hopefully headed towards a great new life. Here's the message I received:
I just wanted to give you an update on Howie. I caught him yesterday morning; well, I didn't really have to catch him. He just walked into the carrier, and I pushed his back-end in. :) He is a petite to medium size kitty and is just gorgeous. He has tiny eyes. He's a brown tabby with very bold, black stripes. His beauty is just breath-taking. Yes, I think all kitties are beautiful, but oh my goodness! :)
I dropped him off at the blue ash acc. They checked for the microchip, and he had none. So, they went ahead and microchipped him, vaccinated him, tested him (of course they did this first), and neutered him. Yes, he wasn't neutered. I can only imagine how calm he will be now.I will be picking him up on Sunday from the care center. I will be adopting out the other two fosters I have on Sunday and need to wait until they're gone to bring in Howie. But, at least for the time-being, he's safe at the vet's office. -- A.A.
There are actually two observatories at the Cincinnati Observatory Center. The original Cincinnati Observatory was located on Mt. Adams with a cornerstone (laid by John Quincy Adams) in 1843. That facility earned the moniker, "Birthplace of American Astronomy" was equipped with a 12-inch Merz und Mahler refracting telescope. The widespread burning of sooty coal sullied the air such that, by the 1850s, astronomy from Mt. Adams became impractical. A new site for the observatory was sought and that was Mt. Lookout, five miles away from the original location.
The new observatory was built in 1873. The original telescope was installed and used at the new location. To keep up with technological progress, a new telescope was purchased in 1904 -- the 16-inch Alvan Clark machine from the previous post. Happily for the original telescope, and for the public, the older and smaller Merz und Mahler instrument was still valued.
In 1904 a second, smaller, observatory facility was built --the Mitchel Building, named in honor of Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, founder of the Observatory-- to house the fine old 12-inch which has a wooden optical tube assembly! The 12-inch was installed in the Mitchel Building where it helped maintain the tradition of public viewing begun at the original 1845 site and which continues today.
During the conference along with other astronomers, historians, telescope experts, and preservationists, I was afforded full access to the Cincinnati Observatory grounds and facilities. It was a wonderful experience and a joy to see the institution flourishing in the 21st century.
The day of presentations seemed to go on forever at the Antique Telescope Society's workshop. There was really good content but way too many hours of it. So I got up and walked out of the classroom --the former meridian transit room of the observatory-- or shifted in my seat. Often. At times rain poured down in sheets as we heard discussions of the viability and survivability of "Vintage Observatories" in the 21st century. Don't get me wrong... the presentations were both interesting and informative. My bottom still got sore from all the sitting, though. Fortunately the sky began to clear off in the late morning hours and many of us enjoyed strolling around the grounds of the Cincinnati Observatory Center. I shot many photos both indoors and outdoors showing various views of the main observatory building and the smaller Mitchel Building on Mt. Lookout. After dinner I listened impatiently to presenters but was really anticipating sunset and a chance to look through the grand 16-inch Alvan Clark & Sons telescope, showpiece of the Center.
From inside the classroom I heard a rumble. Someone said that was the sound of the dome being rotated. So I ran up the stairs and into the dome room and got to see the huge dome rotate above me. The presenting astronomer for the evening offered me the honor of opening the shutter for the night's observing. He said to be careful to stand directly under the rope-operated pulley so as not to derail the rope and cause it to fall off. I got the shutter opened but managed to drop the rope! {Sigh.} Fortunately it was easy to fix: rotate the dome so that the aperture was over the observer's chair, climb up, loop the rope over the pulley -- fixed!
The astronomer also let me turn the crank to wind the drive weights into position. Or was that something like Tom Sawyer "letting" his friends paint the fence? No matter, I grabbed hold with both hands and turned the crank lifting 300 pounds of cold iron. Conversing with the observatory staff and just hanging around in the dome was a fine time for me, far from the yammering crowd below!
As luck would have it --this always seems to happen-- clouds began to roll in at about the time it got dark enough to spot Saturn. We all got at least one glimpse of the ringed world before solid overcast moved in and shut us down. I was allowed, and requested, to run the R.A. slow-motion control to center up Saturn before clouds could obscure it. That would allow some lead time should another opening appear in the cloud deck (and one or two did) whilst the telescope was tracking. The telescope is the largest refractor I've ever used and it moved smoothly and easily with the turn of a knob. I got one good, brief look at Saturn but that second or two hinted at how good the telescope is: I glimpsed at least three of Saturn's moons, some banding in the planetary body, and my first look at the Cassini Division -- the dark separation in the ring system. And that was on a night of poor seeing!
The conference ends tomorrow (Sunday) with a half-day of sessions, door prizes, and a fond farewell to the Observatory Center. I may post one more photo here, but I'll have much to think about and photos to share and enjoy for quite some time to come. It's been a good visit.
Today I traveled from Northeastern Ohio into Columbus. I ran a little delivery errand there, then headed out for Cincinnati. The trip went fine until I hit the Cincinnati ring road -- I-276. I'd done really well up til then -- not a single missed turn or problem. In Cinci, however, I watched for my first exit and did not find it. I found my motel (it will remain unnamed but it has a red roof) and didn't like the location or looks. So I set off cross-town in the best way I could seeking the address of my Cincinnati delivery errand. Well, if you've got business in two cities and you happen to be visiting both of those cities, why not make it a part of the trip? After long bouts with bad traffic, bad weather, bad neighborhoods, bad maps, I finally found my way to I-71 (thanks to my trusty hand-held GPS), eventually delivered my packages, canceled my previous reservation, and sought an alternative motel. I wound up at the Holiday Inn Express. It's very nice, moderately priced, and convenient to I-71 and, presumably, to my astronomy workshop location -- the Cincinnati Observatory Center. Good high-speed Internet access is included and the entire property is non-smoking which suites me perfectly! I decided to go out again to explore and to find dinner winding up at the gigantic Kenwood Towne Centre shopping mall. (Don't you just love their creative use of "olde-fashioned" and European spellings?). The place was huge. Didn't have enough parking. And is about the busiest shopping mall I've ever seen outside of the Christmas shopping season! Anyway I settled for baked ziti at Sbarro's. I know, ewwww... but I couldn't find anyplace else. That is, of course, until I went across the street to a smaller shopping center to visit and stroll around a Barnes & Noble store. All kinds of trendy and interesting dining places there. Oh well.
Heading back to the Holiday Inn the sky lit up with brilliant yellow-orange colored mammatus and cirrus clouds. I ran to the room to grab my camera as quickly as I could as the clouds were smoothing out and the light was fading fast. I managed to catch the last of the beautiful display but was left wishing I'd been back a few minutes sooner to record the splendor that I had seen.
Walking back to the motel entrance I was greeted by a four-footed resident -- a beautiful male tabby cat that, according to the desk clerk, hangs around this motel in an industry-laden area. He was very friendly and curious walking towards the camera every time I pointed it at him. The sweetie cried and cried and seemed to want to follow me inside. Loved being petted. Heartbreaking. He's so tame he certainly grew up as a pet. I hope he finds a good home but fear he never will.
I came in to find the email server was down. The system power was "off" so naturally I tried to turn it back on. No-go! Power would come on, then go off. Working by phone with a Dell technician, he concluded that the system processor or main board had failed. It's the machine I did a simple backup on last night. It was fine when I used it at 12:20 AM from home as a test. Apparently it was just "its time" and the system went down. So, at the support person's suggestion, I upgraded our support service from next-day to 4-hour turnaround and Dell's dispatching parts and an on-site tech to install them later today. I don't know what time they'll arrive but I'll have to stay til the bitter end. Nice way to start the day... especially before a planned trip out of town on what was supposed to be a pleasant astronomy workshop weekend! On the bright side, some businesses have declared No-Email Days on certain days of the week or month. It's supposed to force employees to make personal contacts through face-to-face or phone conversations instead of via electronic memos. We get to do that today at no extra charge! Surprising, though, how much we really need email now to get our work done.
UPDATE: It turns out there was a misunderstanding down at Dell... I had purchased (for several hundred dollars) an upgrade of service level from next-day to four-hour turnaround with the understanding it would help our immediate situation. Dell wasn't going to put it into effect for about 48 hours but I didn't know that! When nobody called me after three hours, I called Dell Support and was disappointed to learn what was wrong. The Support Technician worked hard and ironed out the issues. Things moved really fast after we got the service grade straightened out. Within a couple of more hours the prescribed replacement parts arrived and five minutes before their promised earliest time. The technician arrived about a half-hour later. By about 6:10 the Mail Server was back up and doing its mail serving thing. At 6:30, only an hour and a half late, I left for home. Our spam filter system had been saving up mail that it couldn't deliver all day and, over about an hour, delivered all of those messages. Apparently the Mail Server failed between 12:20 and about 4:00 AM. Whew! What a day.
I spoke with Dr. B. this morning regarding Tasha's Delicate Condition. He said the lab results of the culture from kitty's urine sample indicated a staph infection bothered her bladder. The particular bug implicated was sensitive to a wide range of antibiotics including the Clavamox prescribed for Tasha. The cat is obviously feeling ("feline" -- hee! hee!) better so we'll finish off the course of medicine at the end of this week as per doctor's orders.
Things have been fairly routine around here. Well, routine can mean different things to different people. Mostly it was the weekend when things were happening....
Tasha developed disturbing symptoms that appeared to be cystitis. Frequent urination, straining at the litter box, inappropriate urination, and restlessness/meowing all presented themselves. The symptoms had come and gone about a week earlier, but reoccurred with a vengeance late last week. So I took off early Friday and delivered one unhappy kitty to the vet; her symptoms had calmed so it was the trip to the vet that displeased her. Tests showed no crystals in her urine but there were signs of a bladder infection so poor Tasha got a penicillin injection and is receiving a week-long course of twice-a-day oral antibiotics to try and knock out whatever bug was causing her discomfort. She's tolerating the dosing well in part because I've (finally) become somewhat adept at the eyedropper. Kitty seems to be back to normal. We'll hear from Dr. B concerning lab results today or tomorrow.
Saturday my car went to the "car vet" --dealer service-- for regular maintenance. They checked our record and found it's time for the timing belt to be replaced! Oh, joy: another big, unexpected expense! It's better than having the darned thing break which, we were told, does enough damage to the engine to cost on the order of $3,500 to fix. Still we didn't see this one coming.
Saturday night I had the observatory open from 9 to 11:00 PM at the behest of the student environmental group. This open night was to be a part of their Earth Day activities. A bat had moved back into the dome and/or shutter as had a bird or two. I chased the bat out of the dome and, before leaving, turned up the obnoxious "sonic repellent" that had been successful in keeping "Baxter" away. Unfortunately --or not, given sky conditions-- this was also the college Springfest and the poor old observatory was up against a pop music concert, an orientation day, and several other activities. With many alternatives and little promotion we had only two visitors --a student couple-- all night. Gave them a look at Saturn with moons Titan, Rhea, and Dione visible and told them about the observatory, telescope, etc. Sky conditions were clear but seeing was generally not very good with high-altitude water vapor preventing the sky from being very black. I couldn't find dim objects, not even M44 (The Beehive star cluster) but Saturn looked surprisingly good; the shadow of the ring system could be seen on the planetary body. Maybe a hint, now and again, at cloud banding on the planet. I took a look at Mars but between seeing preventing high-power views and with Mars receding and becoming quite small, it was less interesting than usual. That was about it for observing! I was happy to head home.
Sunday activity was chosen by She Who Must be Obeyed so we took our first bicycle ride of the season... the flat and easy rail-to-trail facility that runs through Oberlin. The weather was clear and cool with temperatures of about 65 degrees and light wind. The riding was easy and pleasant though we both wound up with sore-ish muscles from that short and easy 27-mile jaunt! Felt pitiable but it's been many months since we've been on two wheels. Lunch at Oberlin's Quizno's was very good and did not make us feel more guilt. One weird experience: when we parked our bikes at Quizno's my wireless bicycle computer, instead of registering zero miles-per-hour was reading upwards of 65 miles-per-hour whilst standing still! Apparently some radio source inside the building was causing the bizarre behavior. We didn't think about photographing the display until later and, when we returned to the sandwich shop to reproduce the experience, nothing happened! Cool photo gets away.
In all this weekend of cats, bats, and bikes was a good one.
We are fortunate to have found, in our favorite grocery store(s), a wonderful locally-baked fresh bread. Miller's Multi-Grain is produced by The Stone Oven Bakery & Café headquartered in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. We haven't visited their bakery but find it hard to purchase anything but their Miller's Multi-Grain. The nine-grain bread is created and par-baked at The Stone Oven. Then it is shipped to the retailer --in our case, Heinen's-- where the staff of the in-store bakery finish the job. The result, if our timing is just right, is a delicacy still warm (hot, sometimes) that has a beautiful deep brown and crisp crust on the outside; the inside is tender, grainy, and sweet. It's hard not to sit right down and eat half a loaf when it's that good! Forget the pastries, gimme this bread! The good folks at Heinen's even have the sense to offer a ventilated take-home bag for the crusty delights when they are asked to machine slice the loafs.
I love shopping the wine aisles. Not that I pick up expensive bottles to stock an ever-growing cellar. Nope. I enjoy finding very good wines in the $10 to $15 range and we never have much around the house -- certainly no collection. A current favorite is Monkey Business wines at about $12 a bottle. No, what I really enjoy is the art, tradition, and humor expressed upon the wine labels. Monkey Business is one good example. Recently I ran across another doozy... Mommy's Time Out. Okay, so the label art is very simple, but the name, well it's precious! I haven't tried them but the wines are said to be enjoyable, with good fruit; excellent with cheese and crackers. Most people pick up a bottle for, yes, the label. Maybe a good gift idea for Mother's Day! Or for a mom who could use a little rest.
Given his position as a famous business leader, I'd have assumed Lee Iacocca would be a staunch conservative Republican and, therefore persona non grata to me. Then I happened across a surprising extraction from Iacocca's book, Where Have all the Leaders Gone? I was shocked and gratified; I really didn't expect this statement. I don't know if I'll ever read his book but Iacocca is delivering a message here we all need to take to heart.
We are enjoying a string of very beautiful spring days. Since I'll go to the office late today, what better way to spend the morning than taking a photo hike along the shores of wooded Hinckley Lake. I imagined fog rising from the surface of the water, backlit by the low sun. I hoped for deeply blue skies. And I hoped I'd see buzzards basking in the first warmth of the day, as I'd seen once before. I got most of what I wanted and I am a happy fellow indeed. I also shot my first digital photos in RAW format, which I will play with later.
The big birds watched me cautiously and some folded their wings preparing to make an escape, if necessary, as I approached and stood beneath their perch. Leaning against the trunk of a neighboring tree, I watched as some of the buzzards took short flights from branch to branch, and others to a nearby tree. As time passed the birds became more and more active, ruffling their feathers and moving around.
One by one, over the ensuing quarter hour or so, the birds took flight and began soaring individually and in groups. They circled, sometimes alighting again on their tree. Once or twice birds landed on branches that could not support their weight and the twigs, without birds, came crashing to the ground. Soon all but one of the birds were in the air and moving off over the surrounding countryside. Vultures are magnificent fliers.
Just in case large carrion-eating birds aren't your aesthetical cup of tea, here's one last shot for you --taken from among the many bunches of spring flowers blooming around the entrance to the park and boat house-- a backlit daffodil.
It was a very good morning and I'm feeling better today than I have in quite some time! Unfortunately, I now must leave for work.
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JamesG said:
I am so happy that the good folks down in Cinci were able to help this cat. He was obviously... read more
on Holiday Inn "Howie" -
S. Le said:
What a beautiful telescope! Wow! The "turning" mechanism is very cool as well. So glad you were able to go. read more
on The "other" Cincinnati observatory -
S. Le said:
Very awesome news. He is very beautiful and now will hopefully find a nice home, INDOORS! Good on you for... read more
on Holiday Inn "Howie"
on Holiday Inn "Howie"