Garaphernalia 7.5

As the US suffers thought a heat wave this summer, its important to note that half of the world considers these months to be winter. Actually, its been one of the coldest winters on record in South Africa.

The purpose of this post however is not to start a debate on global warming, it’s to make note of this quote found in the above linked article from CNN.com:

Weather Service spokesman Siyabonga Mthethwa said a deep low pressure was pumping moist air and gale-force winds onto the southern coast.

But despite the devastation and record rainfall, the rains and icy weather were not particularly out of the ordinary for a southern hemisphere winter in South Africa, he said.

“Although there have been some records broken it is a normal winter …

Because record breaking is of course normal.

I can think of no better subject to get the ol’ blog rolling again than the subject of the elderly having children.

In particular, this bit of news out of New Hampshire. The grandson of Grover Cleveland is running for state senate. You need to read that sentence again if it didn’t make your eyebrows move a bit. The grandson of Grover Cleveland isn’t only alive, he’s only 54 years old.

Grover Cleveland was born in 1837.

My grandparents were born in the 1920’s. My great-grandfather and great-grandmother (both of whom I remember very well) were born in 1897 and 1899 respectively. Going back in time down down my family tree, I know of a great-great-great grandfather who was younger than Grover Cleveland. (I don’t know, but its possible that I have a great-great-great-great grandparent younger than Grover Cleveland)

The question of course is, how in the hell can a guy born 169 years ago still have a 54 year old grandson?

Grover Cleveland was born in 1837. His wife Frances Folsom Cleveland was born in 1864. He was 27 years her senior. (This fact alone should qualify him as one of our greatest presidents) Their second youngest child, Richard, was born in 1897 when Frances was 33 and Grover was 60. (Their youngest child, Francis, died in 1995!!) Richard, following in dad’s footsteps, married a woman about 25 years his younger.

End result is a guy with a 169 year old grandpa.

This is not the most extreme example of this. There is the classic case of the confederate widow who died two years ago in Alabama. Perhaps even better, is the 74 year old, currently living child of a civil war veteran in Tennessee who was born in 1845.

My great-grandfather was a WWI vet, and I can still remember the Spanish-American War vets being paraded out when I was little. There are currently 18 surviving veterans of WWI in the United States, and 68 world wide.

I think its about time I get the old blog back in action.

Since I got back from Hawaii, I’ve been pretty sedate. Except for working on my research project, I haven’t really done shit. I’m now getting active on packing up my life into boxes, throwing stuff away, and I’m starting to work on the trip website.

I’ve decided that I’m going to just use WordPress for the site, get a skin for it that I like, and make a few modifications to the database. I’ll also be monkeying around with Google maps and Google Earth to make some features that I want.

I’ll gladly accept any help that anyone has to offer. My goal is to make the site as low maintainance as possilbe.

I’m home, but very tired. Here is a quick update listing some things I did in Hawaii:

• Went to the top of Mona Kea, and stood at the highest elevation I’ve ever been at (just a hair under 14,000 feet)
• Got to see the largest telescopes in the world (Keck 1 &2, Subaru, Gemini)
• Walked on all sorts of lava flows and quickly destroyed my shoes.
• Swam on the world’s only green sand beach.
• Stood at the southern most point in the US
• Swam with a sea turtle
• Added 3 more national parks to my list
• Walked in rainforests and lava tubes
• Saw the steam plume from an active lava flow entering the ocean.
• Slept out under the stars about 10ft from the ocean.

It was a good trip.

I’m writing from an internet cafe in Kona. I have a ton of photos and updates when I get back.