• Forecast: It’s going to be hot

    I want to point you to a couple of links you should check out. They’re both on the same topic, but they’re both worth your time. Here, and here.

    I know what you’re thinking:
    “He’s tried this trick before. There’s no way in hell he knows what I’m thinking.”

    Fair enough.

    If I were you, I might be thinking:
    “I don’t do links. You’ve got a sentence or two before I lose interest, so give it to me now before you lose me to Yahoo.”

    Both links take you to a discussion about a recent climate study. It apparently makes the following finding (if you’re inclined to take my word for it): once we put greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere we’re stuck with what we’ve got – whatever it brings. Well, unless you plan on being around for a thousand years. The concentrations will stick around for a long time.

    Things are warming up enough now to melt the ice at the north pole. Does this mean we could stop emitting everything – NOW – still end up with an ice free north pole? (In addition to some other things that’ll seem a lot less abstract.) I’m no expert, but it sounds like scary stuff.

    It’s no reason to give up though. Things could always be worse.

    Go on now. Time to get clicking. There’s nothing more to see here.

  • Kid comforts dad

    I had another conversation with Beth about bullies in school this evening. Once again I tried to explain why some kids are mean. Once again dad didn’t have all the answers.

    “You know, I was a bit like you when I was in school. Kids thought I was a little different and they picked on me a lot too. You may get a little of that from me. I’m really sorry.”

    “You don’t have to be sorry dad. I don’t want to be like them. I’m glad I’m more like you. I like you just the way you are.”

    How do you not hug a kid after an exchange like that?

    Back at you kid.

  • Surgery set

    It’s official: Cheryl’s having surgery on Feb 12th to fuse two of the vertebrae in her neck. The doctor had some encouraging news. The procedure he described requires less recovery time than some of the others we’ve heard about.

    Of course, this isn’t necessarily a good thing, if he’s giving bad advise, or practicing bad medicine. But he comes highly recommended from several sources. My sister hadn’t heard of the procedure, but she can be excused, in this one case. Pediatric nephrology probably doesn’t get around to the spine very often ;-)

    In the mean time, our prayers are with a member of my small family who’s having heart bypass surgery today.