Science Fair....and Feelings of Inadequacy

For over twenty years Meghan's Dad has been on the board for the Flint Regional Science Fair.  A few years ago, we both started assisting with the judging efforts.  Evaluate the projects Friday night to determine the finalists and then interview participants the next morning.  The first couple of years this was a fairly simple process: we show up, get handed a sheet of 10 - 15 projects to look at in the Junior level (middle school students) and evaluate them.  These projects ranged from topics such as "Which Disinfectant Works Best" to "Which Bridge Design Hold the Most Weight."  Pretty creative projects, but none were too mentally-taxing to evaluate.  

And then there was this year.  This year, we were both "promoted" to the Senior level (high school students).  Still, these are high school students and it's easy enough to think that since we both have college degrees and engineering jobs - we got this.  Wrong.  So wrong.  These are some seriously impressive students.  Some of these projects, I could understand and objectively evaluate.  Others were so far over my head that by the end of the night my brain was firmly in the "too much science" information overload zone.  Actually, it was probably closer to throwing itself off of a cliff zone in response to the things I made it try to analyze...on a Friday night...after an already long week of work.  Just to give you an idea, the winner of the 2014 Science Fair was "A Novel In-Clinic Patient and Cancer-Tailored Targeted Drug Delivery System."  Feeling inadequate yet?

Diving a Sub-Aquatic Village

In the diving industry, Sundays are often referred to as Dive Day.  This winter, 3 weekends out of 4 each month, we can usually be found diving somewhere.  Whether it be White Star Quarry in Gibsonburg, OH, or Colchester Harbor in Ontario Canada, we usually have found something interesting and unique to dive.  Earlier in December we were fortunate enough to be invited to dive on a wreck discovered by Mike Drexler of Drexler Diving Systems.  Our friend Andy Morrison wrote a great article and many of his pictures from that day can be found on the Toledo Blade Website. Last weekend and this weekend, we dove at somewhat more local quarry that had ceased operations and was allowed to filled with spring water.  When it was closed, large machinery, smaller artifacts, buildings, and even power lines were left in place.  Over the years, as the quarry filled with water, these all became submerged making for some fantastic diving opportunities.

We have been fortunate enough to become close friends with people who knows the gentleman that owns the quarry.  With them, we have been fortunate enough to dive this quarry three times - twice on some pretty impressive sites left over from when the quarry was operational.  Last weekend it was a rock crusher.  This weekend it was the village.  It's really isn't a village per say, but there are five buildings and some power lines still standing.  It's approximately a half mile trek each way to get to the site - while hauling about 100 pounds of gear per person.  The air temperature was 18 degrees and the wind felt like it was blowing at 50 miles per hour on the lake (in reality, it was probably  closer to 20) creating quite the wind chill.  The dives are relatively deep (my dive computer read a max depth of 81 feet) and it's a strange feeling when you get in to the water, sink below the surface, and get warmer than when you were standing on top of the ice.  It's not all that uncommon for the water temperature to be 10 - 25 degrees WARMER than the air temperature (not factoring in the wind chill).  

Meghan under the Ice.  Photo by Kent Klemz

Anywho, back to the actual dive.  A buoy had previously been tied off and so it was easy to descend on the line.  At first, one can't see the bottom, but as you descend deeper, out of the mist, the power lines start to appear, followed by the buildings.  It very surreal to see a little village appear, seemingly out of thin air (or thin water?).  The buildings still have their air conditioners hooked and and ropes hanging on the wall.  It looks like they walked away from it.  Unfortunately, the batteries on our small underwater camera died due to the cold temperatures before we even got in the water, so no pictures from today.  One of our dive buddies had his GoPro with him today and was filming me as I was performing my safety stop at 15 feet.  Once I was done, I ascended to just under the ice and swam directly towards him.  However, he wasn't videoing, he was taking pictures.  As I went to touch his hand, he got a great picture of me.  And I apparently got quite the scare out of him (he couldn't see me coming).  As soon as I was out of the water, the gear was packed up and we trekked back to shore.

In recap, we got dressed in three layers of undergarments and a dry suit, loaded all of our gear on sleds (about 40 pounds), walked a half mile out to the site, chainsawed a hole through 18 inches of ice, and walked a half mile back to shore, for a twenty minute dive.  Some might call us insane (heck, we sometimes call ourselves insane!), but for the most part, we consider ourselves very fortunate to be able to experience and see parts of this world that few ever will.

If you're interested in learning how to dive and explore the fascinating underwater world, please get in contact with us.  While we don't teach ourselves, we can hook you up with some pretty impressive instructors.

Wishing and Waiting and Hoping for Spring

The winter of 2013 - 2014 was the second worst winter on record for Detroit - ever.  To date, over 84 inches of snow has fallen.  To give you some perspective, the snowiest winter had a total of 93.6 inches.  While the total snowfall for this year is just another winter storm for those in Houghton (where Michigan Tech, our alma mater), for those of us downstate, it's downright brutal.  Not to mention it's also been the winter of the "Polar Vortex" where it wasn't uncommon for HIGHS to be only a few degrees above zero, Fahrenheit.  

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Now it's the middle of March, a time when it SHOULD be warming up.  At this point, I would gladly take anything over 40.  Over 50 would be a bonus and just might call for me to break out the bikini and open the pool.  Two years ago, on St. Patty's Day weekend, we were sitting outside, at a local Irish pub, enjoying some beverages with friends while wearing shorts and t-shirts.  This year, the high for March 15 was 25.  But sunny.  Oh was it sunny.  It was one of those days where sitting inside, warm, with the sun pouring in, one could look outside and think that it was 50 degrees outside.  It was a beautiful day for a stroll in the park.  So, that's what we did.  We set off with the dog in tow and went to take some pictures in the Van Buren Township park.  Only one problem...it was still frigid outside.  But, we persevered in the name of photography on a beautiful (albeit, cold) afternoon.  

We were able to grab some really good pictures at the park.  The birds are starting to return, the squirrels are coming out of their hibernation (wait, do squirrels even hibernate?) and the bunnys are starting to hop again (something Scout is excited about...now only if he could actually catch one once in a while).  But I digress, back to our nature walk.  We also discovered the location of the University of Michigan Rowing Team's boathouse - quite impressive.  They were trying to break open the ice on Belleville Lake so they could start practicing.  I think it's going to be a couple more weeks before they have enough open water to row.

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Beautiful Front door of Ford Hydro plant

After leaving the Van Buren Park, we headed over to a smaller one we discovered while looking at the map.  There were two right next to each other called "North Hydro Park" and "South Hydro Park."  Apparently, there is a hydro electric dam built by Henry Ford sitting on the river.  The building appeared to have been built at least 60 years ago, probably more, and had some great architectural details.  Scout was very interested in the rushing water below.  Unfortunately, we couldn't get a good picture of his curiosity.  Our model wouldn't cooperate.

All in all though, it was a beautiful day.  If only it had been a little warmer.  Some further information and pictures can be found at Sherlock Photography.

Germans

Boy does it feel good to be back in Texas!!! It has been too long.  Almost 14 months since I had been here last.  The weather here has been 62 degrees and windy, while back home 4-6 inches of snow fell.  Meghan is not happy about about all the shoveling that she will be doing.

As my day of meetings in Houston draws to a close, it is a great time to reflect on the opportunity that I have to work on such as awesome project.  I will be able to share more details in the coming months with the rest of my friends.    Two of my German colleagues and I went to eat at Saltgrass steakhouse.  It was fun helping them convert ounces to grams of protein, and their reaction to portion sizes drove home the ridiculous portions of US proteins.  While I was helping them with unit conversions, they were helping me with my German.  They taught me two new words that I feel are very important.

Left = Links

Right = Rechts

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Unfortunately I was unable to grab a meal with my good friend Megan.  It looks like I will be back in Houston during the next two months so I am not worried that we will be able to grab that meal.

The most unforgettable experience of this trip has to be the giant cow that was in the parking lot of the hotel in Houston.  The three of us were trying to figure out if a cow of this size would taste good.  

I have an early flight in the morning, and then a full day of work tomorrow.  It will be a long day for sure.  Gute Nacht

Logo Time

I have used the site Horrible Logos in the past to build the Empty Show Brewing logo as well as to create the Tequila Mockingbird logo for my friend Jerry.  I have asked for their help once again to create a horrible logo so expect to see that posted in the next 2 weeks or so.

I really need to find a side job like that, that allows me to make a little side money for booze on the side. 

Kershaw Half-Ton Review

Well, looks like I lost another soldier.  TSA grabbed another one of my wonderful Kershaw knives.  I have begun buying these in bulk as I somehow forget to remove these from my carry on luggage.  So while this is on my mind, I will post a little review.  

Kershaw Half-Ton 1445

The Kershaw Half Ton 1445 knife has been a great, cost effective knife.  The blade is made from 8CR13MOV steel which holds a great edge.  The body is a textured plastic material with a lanyard hole, and some nice rubber pads.  The knife locks back very firmly, with no fear of it slipping while open and cutting open your newest toy from Newegg.   While haven't been able to hold on to one long enough to sharpen this steel, but from what I have read from other reviewers is that it sharpens easily and takes an edge very well.  The Kershaw website does not list this item, but Amazon does for the time being.  

The above picture is not mine, it was taken from the Amazon website.  This is new territory for me, so I may have to take my own picture for this...

In summary, I would recommend this knife as a great Every Day Carry that works excellently as a tool to open and cut things.

Blog Format

So I think I finally decided how I am going to post to this blog.  I'm gonna pick one maybe two days to get outside and to make an effort shooting some photographs and then posting them throughout the week as the mood strikes me.  Fortunately for me, my good friend Matt Tupps let me borrow his new Canon 70D while Meghan and I scrape together the necessary funds for one ourselves.  So I went out back and shot some pictures of the quickly disappearing snow.  I will start with a couple of Scout since he is probably the best subject I have for the time being.