100 and Done! (Countries that is...)

-
Image
We are back! This last trip brought the total countries visited to 100! It is a crazy milestone. It is difficult, time-consuming and can be (IS) expensive. After I got back from Antarctica in 2007, I started thinking about it. After 2010 I was thinking about it more (as I moved from NY to Georgia) and in 2014 it had become a real goal. Between Angie and I we have been to 109 Countries. We are tied at 100 countries each. We have 9 countries different in our lists. For example, I have been to San Marino. She has not. She has been to Israel. I have not, yet. There has been some fun competition in this area. That's why we had to establish rules. 1.) Must be listed (as a country) with the US State Department 2.) Being in an airport doesn't count. You have to get through immigration somehow and not in a DMZ or a no-mans-land 3.) A passport stamp is not required. I have been to Canada, Paraguay, and Uruguay without getting my passport stamped. There are friendly borders in many places...
Post a Comment
-

DELAYED! I got a call at about 4:30 AM saying they have postponed my (the 7th flight this year) flight to the ice by 24 hours. So I am in Christchurch another day. I am going to visit some antique shops I saw. Also I am going to figure out how to easily ftp some pics with common ftp tools and work on my laptop. I didn't sleep much last night so I will turn in early and get out to the Airport at 5:30 Saturday morning and hope we can going this time.

Delays like this are common and they are certainly better than a boomerang. The problem is with the weather forecasting. Modern meteorology really uses techniques that are based on examining where existing weather is moving. This technique works pretty good for Topeka or Toyko, but the world's weather starts on the Antarctican continent. Predicting the weather for more than an a couple of hours at McMurdo is difficult. The metrologists are often called "weather guessers".

It is 7:03 AM Friday right now and I am starved. I have to find a breakfast somewhere. The food has been great in Christchurch. I had fish cakes and fish and chips yesterday. Hopefully, I can find some fish for breakfast.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

100 and Done! (Countries that is...)

-
Image
We are back! This last trip brought the total countries visited to 100! It is a crazy milestone. It is difficult, time-consuming and can be (IS) expensive. After I got back from Antarctica in 2007, I started thinking about it. After 2010 I was thinking about it more (as I moved from NY to Georgia) and in 2014 it had become a real goal. Between Angie and I we have been to 109 Countries. We are tied at 100 countries each. We have 9 countries different in our lists. For example, I have been to San Marino. She has not. She has been to Israel. I have not, yet. There has been some fun competition in this area. That's why we had to establish rules. 1.) Must be listed (as a country) with the US State Department 2.) Being in an airport doesn't count. You have to get through immigration somehow and not in a DMZ or a no-mans-land 3.) A passport stamp is not required. I have been to Canada, Paraguay, and Uruguay without getting my passport stamped. There are friendly borders in many places...
Read more
-
Image
Getting used to the "real" world is going to take some time. I will probably not ever totally end up where I was before my adventure and that is ok. I certainly do keep busy. One of the things I planed on doing when I was on the ice was to form an opinion about global warming based on what I saw with my own two eyes in Antarctica. Antarctica certainly was not warm for the most part when I was there but it was warmer on some days than most people would have thought. The sea ice has not melted and broken up in McMurdo Sound for at least 6 years. This year it receded more than it had in some recent past but still it had not receded to the point when Shackleton and Scott were sailing around McMurdo sound. One of the things that irritates me is how the Antarctica card is being played in the global warming arguement. Most people have not and will not personally expereince Antarctica. So the political technocracy can use facts regarding Antarctica to advantage. For example, a st...
Read more
-
Linux on a Badger I feel pretty crappy. Don't know why. I just am. My cousin is moving closeby. It turns out she got a job as a doctor at an Ithaca hospital. It is weird how we have ended up in the same place in the world. She is from Maine originally. I hear they have some lambs on their new property. My Aunt is coming to live with them as well. Weird. "Let's all congregate in between cities in central new york."
Read more
-
Image
Still trying to be in three or more places at the same time. I took a picture of my three key rings (collections). Left to right--- California, Georgia, New York. I am sure there are some from NY that are not needed anymore. But still... A picture of Angie's plane on final for Orange County airport on her way back. A picture of Angie with the Gwinnett mall (walking distance from the house in Duluth) where The Netflix show "Stranger Things" created and filmed "Stargate Mall" in Season 3. A real chopper (#Derelict #Shovelhead) we saw at breakfast today in Orange County, CA.
Read more
-
Fantastically Dangerous Capacitor-bank Experiments This link reminds me of the time when me and a friend were planning to build an ION laser using extraordinarily large capacitor banks. We did all the design work on the capacitors. We just never funded the project. It probably would have cost about a thousand dollars total. It seems like a lot at the time. The other thing about self-funding experiments is the heartbreak when the expensive toys go up in smoke... good experiment... good lesson... It just costs money. These capacitors could be a great source of amusement for many projects. NYSE&G just left. They hooked me up. They didn't want to come back this afternoon. So I called the inspector and he called it in and said it was ok. He is still coming out to look at things, but the service entrance has been switched from overhead via pole to underground via the barn with a bypass load center to the house underground. The NYSE&G guy said I did good work. That made m...
Read more