Storm

This weekend we had the first storm of the fall coming in. It's been windy, cold and raining. It's the kind of weather when you would rather stay indoor reading a good book, or playing with your new toy.

Last night I was out in the yard to take down the kids' trampoline before the wind takes it. Sometimes these wind-borne trampolines end up in the neighbors garden, or smashing the neighbors car. I don't want that to happen, so better be precautious.

I made a quick visit to the town center today, to buy a new shirt. Commando shopping as usual; fast in and fast out, with a brief stop in the bookstore afterwards, In the streets people were hurrying from shop to shop or wherever they were going, dressed in raincoats,

All these nasty storms are coming in from the west, even though Russia is to the east. Just joking. I like the Russians. Many of them are very nice people. I always enjoyed traveling to Moscow. I just don't like Putin's aggressive politics, domestic and abroad.

By the way, after the opening of the iron curtain, some precious gifts from the east have come to cross my path.

This storm isn't too bad, actually. There are worse to come, I think. Whatever, we'll probably stay happy as long as there are good books and fun toys >:)

(Picture taken with my cell phone today outside the mall. Not the most interesting picture. I'l try to take some more exciting ones tonight.)

Disappointed?

Some days ago I bought a new pair of sneakers. I tried them after work today at the gym. I didn't run any faster. My endurance wasn't any better.

I was very disappointed.

Money can't buy me running ability, and happiness?  Tomorow I will go back to the store to complain.

After my exercise, I went to the university to attend a guest lecture on astrophysics and cosmology.

The lecture was in the big auditorium where I took my undergrad courses in calculus and complex analysis 25 years ago. Cool to be back.

I learnt that there are some 500 billion planets in our galaxy. Millions of them have conditions similar to the earth.

In the future, Mars will become like the Earth, and the Earth will become like Venus. On Venus the temperature is 400 degrees (Celcius).  The longterm weather forecast is not good. But this is still a billion years into the future.

The best things in life are for free; science, knowledge, maybe happiness ... and a couple of other things >;)

Shopping

This afternoon I did something that I hardly ever do. I went shopping. I bought a Hell of a lot of stuff.

This is what I bought:
o 1pair of shoes (for me)
o 2 pairs of sneakers (for me and little boy)
o 2 pairs of ski pants (for me and little boy)
o 1 pair of goggles (for me)
o 1 jacket (for little boy)

I bought as much in one day as I normally do in one year. It feels like I carry the entire consumer society on my back, alone

That's a heavy load.

Fortunately, I didn't pass by any bookstores >:)