Thursday, September 29, 2011

Trip Report and Visit to Ridge

Yesterday we returned from two weeks in England. We went to attend the wedding of a good friend's daughter at Bath. The wedding took place in a church that had Saxon origins and was of largely medieval construction ( Norman, Early English and Decorated Gothic in style, for you architecture aficionados ). It was in a beautiful village. The wedding reception was in the Roman baths (ca. 300 AD but only uncovered in the nineteenth century) and the Georgian Pump Room. This was a once in lifetime opportunity to enjoy these facilities at an exclusive party.

Bath has many other interesting sights including other Georgian social gathering spots and a truly beautiful and huge late medieval Abbey. Throughout this trip, I was continually reminded of the amazing amount that was accomplished by manual labor with relatively small populations. The number of huge cathedrals, large churches, and other structures made of stone, usually intricately and beautifully decorated, puts our current architecture and civil buildings to shame, particularly when you consider the technology and resources we could bring to bear if we weren't so tied up in amassing personal piles of junk.

We then went to the Cotswold countryside, walking through wonderful villages perfectly sited on green hillsides and in pleasant valleys. Verdant fields, well fed cattle and sheep, and lovely mature forests were everywhere you looked. The stone buildings blended in with their locations perfectly. Several villages had streams serving as their main street. The weather was very good, only one day of real rain and a few showers at other times.

We also visited some larger towns and a couple of cathedrals. The food was fine and we will not discuss the beverages on this blog. Driving on the left is always a thrill, especially on roads that we would call bike paths here.

You can see from the above that we had a very good trip.

Now that I am rejuvenated I can get back to work on the barn and house, but even more taxingly, I can come visit Ridge. I will be there on Thursday October 6. I'll try to be in 506 when its not being used and I'll try to post my whereabouts near the 506 door at other times.

Right now, both my old and new email addresses are working. The new one is robertcherd@gmail.com.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Post Post Irene Post

Completed a root canal yesterday with essentially no pain. Good dentists are worth their weight in physics books ( good physics books).

Well we had five or more inches of rain in the past 60 hours so a lot of the mud and gravel I shoveled out of the barn basement decided to revisit. Spent two more hours shoveling. As much as I enjoy brainless manual labor, this could get old quickly. I think I enough of the debris restricting the stream's normal channel that I stand a good chance that there will not be a repeat soon.

Reread article on Einstein's general relativity, it's growing on me _ the article, not general relativity.

Sent out instructions on recommendation letters to 33 students. If you expected these and did not receive them, email me at my bernards address.

Good luck and have fun in the new year. I'll try to visit this fall.