Time for Science!

     Well, as if the weather this week wasn't enough, these tell-tale flower buds prove it: Spring on her way. I love the Winter, but these first warm days are always welcome and seem brimming with energy. Of course, it's still February and there's still plenty of time for more cold weather and freezes and snow, but it's that glimpse of what's to come that gets me going. And of course, with this relatively waveless Winter, any change is welcome.
     Driving out towards Philly, I have seen a surf shop on Rt. 70 East, but have never stopped there for one reason or another. I think it's because I usually have some place that I'm going to with time constraints, and most times it's too late. Well, I finally got to go to Sunrise Surf Shop in Cherry Hill last weekend, and I was really impressed. I was surprised to find that a shop in Cherry Hill had more interesting boards, both new and used, than many of the shops on the Island. In fact, there's one in the used ranks that I see as a Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree sort of board - one that with a little love and some work could be a pretty cool board. It may join my ranks of boards that never get surfed because we never get waves any more (although, I did get out yesterday after work, which was fun, but I am yearning for some size). Anyway, check out that surf shop when you are out that way.

     We were cleaning out my Dad's storage garage and I found two gradeschool displays from bygone Science fairs. This one was pretty interesting. We built a wave-pool, with one side made of plexiglass so you could see the wave break, complete with a little clay surfer standing on the shoreline, timing the sets. We still have the wave-pool in my parents' attic.

     And this is the other one, and perhaps even more interesting. To determine the learning abilities of earthworms, I built a T-shaped maze, in which the worm was released in the bottom of the T, then came to a crossroads where it had to choose. One way led to a bare electrical wire stretched across the path, the other was safe.

     Well, turns out that worms do not cooperate with science too well:

   

This came on my shuffled iPod yesterday. It's been a while since I listened to this album, and I liked this song, so here it is.