madgravity | Tuesday 31

Tuesday 31- I did my stretches, rode my bike, and lifted weights. The hip is feeling much better today.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 71 to 93 degrees, light breeze, humidity around 31 percent, clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 96. West wind around 6 mph becoming calm. Wednesday Night: Clear, with a low around 68. Southwest wind between 4 and 7 mph becoming calm.”
I made a quick stop over at Mat’s to drop off Lauren’s birthday card. Manda was there and I gave the card to her. I also gave her all the Nicorette gum I had stashed in my backpack. It’s been almost a month now that I’ve been nicotine free; yea for me! I’ve probably been addicted to the dang stuff all my life. Growing up I lived in a house of smokers. They smoke in the car, in the house, and at the dinner table. Then in my teens I started smoking. I quit smoking and started chewing Copenhagen in my thirties. About ten years ago I started the Nicorette gum. Now I’m done with all that and I feel good!
I did some cleaning of the battery room, clearing it out, throwing old junk computers away, and storing some others in the trailer.
I did my studies: Latin and pre-algebra.
I read aloud from the textbook “Astronomy Today” about the proton-proton reaction that powers our Sun. Six protons are used to create one helium-4 atom. There are three stages this process goes through. The first uses four proton that collide and fuse into deuteron (one proton and neutron). Also releasing a positron and a neutrino (the positron quickly collides with an electron annihilating both sending out gamma rays). The second stage has two protons colliding each with the two deuterons forming two helium-3 nucleuses. Stage three has the two helium-3 colliding forming one stable helium-4 and releasing two protons. Of this about 1000 Watts per meter squared makes it through the Earth’s atmosphere and falls upon its surface. I think I got this right.
I went for my evening walk listening to Alex Filippenko’s Astro 10 lecture 14 “Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn”.
I watched “Jurassic Park III” (2001). I can’t recall ever reading the book. The movie wasn’t as good as the last two, but still worth the watch.
I went outside to do a little stargazing and listening to Astro 10 lecture 15 “Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto”. I’m kind of getting in the habit of going outdoors and doing this lately.
I wrote my column for the Hi-Desert Star Newspaper and sent it in.
I did my stretches, practiced my guitar, wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night.
Goodbye to August, you been a hot but very interesting month.