There are a few pics this week.

We had rain on Monday, then it got frigid. Highs Tuesday and Wednesday were below freezing. Thursday was a little better, with highs in the low 40s. Then it was back to being cold Friday. At least we didn’t have any snow. Riding has been limited.

But there’s lots of other stuff going on. Danita and I went to see the movie “Interstellar” last Sunday afternoon. I thought it was a great movie. I don’t think Danita enjoyed it as much as I did. Part of that might have been because of her allergic reaction. The roof of her mouth was irritating her and she started having some other symptoms. I would have left the movie early, but she didn’t say anything until after we were home. She must have reacted to some cleaning chemical they use.

Fine Arts Building – “Thumbprint of God” or wrinkled plans?

Friday we went to a concert at UMBC. They built a fine new arts building. I think the outside is ugly. One wall has a huge dent, which the architect calls “The Thumbprint of God”. I think the plans got wrinkled and nobody noticed. The inside of the building is beautiful. It includes what must be the ultimate concert hall. It’s large for a campus their size, seating 300 people. To keep sounds from other parts of the building from disturbing the concert, the hall is totally self-contained — a building in a building. The heating and air conditioning is done without using fans, so that fan noise won’t interfere either. They have the capability of “tuning” the hall for the number in the audience and the type of music. The musicians giving the concert had been on campus giving masters lessons. The concert was as good as the hall.

Saturday was the neighborhood Thanksgiving party. SOCA provided the turkey and sodas. Neighbors brought the sides. So many people came, they had to set up tables in the vestibule. Our family Thanksgiving dinner will be the smallest one in many years. We will have 4 — Bud and Mark are coming. Ed & Lynne are going to Florida to visit Lynne’s parents. Her mother is suffering from dementia and is in a care facility. Their boys will both be visiting their in-law families.

This afternoon we will go to Duane Sabiston’s art reception. http://blog.duanesabiston.net/. Dot has been through some very tough times with her health. But things seem to have turned the corner. She is optimistic of getting a kidney transplant this year. You can read her posts here, if you create an account. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/dotsabiston.

Cool Book of the Week: “The Martian : a novel” by Andy Weir. Interstellar was a cool movie, but like most science fiction, they made stuff up. This book is totally within the realm of known science and probably technology. And the author gets his facts right. His story respects the time it takes and the possible routes for a ship to move itself from Earth to Mars, and how many calories per square foot one can get by growing potatoes, and every other detail that would be involved in living on Mars.

Cool Tool of the Week: I’ve been playing with our trip to China. Half the fun is in the anticipation. I noticed that most of our hotel rooms will have internet access, but not WiFi. Every device we own requires WiFi. Even my laptop does not include an internet jack. Obviously, we HAVE to have a device that turns Internet into WiFi. ;-) I found the Edimax N150 Wireless Personal Hotspot and Travel Router (BR-6258nL). It’s a terrific device. At just $20, it’s an unbelievable device. It has more features with access to more settings than anybody would ever need from such a thing. Yet, it is set up to be drop-dead easy to use. Of course, the proof is in the pudding. Having a device that works in my home is nice. Having a device that works for 3 weeks in China is not yet proven. I predict amazing things for my $20. We’ll see.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.