The number should be going down day-by-day, not up.
I attribute the crazy readings one or more of these factors:
Experimental error. Stan doesn’t much care for the detector being shoved in his face. The readings change drastically depending on which part of his neck you reach.
Calibration, or lack thereof.
Secondary decay byproducts that are more radioactive. I will research that in a bit. (EDIT: Iodine 131 decays into Xenon 131, which is stable (not radioactive).)
I think I saw an even higher reading, but Stan is a long-haired cat and obscured the screen. The detector doesn’t keep a high-water mark in it’s history, just averages.
There’s definitely some variability to the readings due to experimental error. The highest readings come when I press the device directly against his throat, which he does not like.
I get better cooperation if he’s eating while I take the readings.
He also does not like the sound the detector makes, so I’ve disabled it, but that removes some of the fun (for me) during the data collection.
If I had a bunch of these detectors and placed them in each room then we could track his movements around the house based on sound alone. There are noticeable rises in detector activity when he merely enters the room.
[1] this is a lesson in experimental error. Stan jumped up on my lap at an opportune moment and was willing to rub his face against the detector, leading to the highest score to-date. Figuring out how to get consistent results is going to be a problem.
We just got Stan home from the MSPCA hospital. He’s been there for three weeks while his radioactivity levels fell from highly dangerous levels to merely regular dangerous.
Today’s highest reading: 41.7 µS/hr from the area around his throat. That’s more than four thousand times higher than the typical background levels in my house.
Background
Stan was treated for an overactive thyroid. The modern procedure is to inject the patient with a single dose of Iodine 131 to kill off the hyperactive cells. The normal thyroid cells are generally unaffected because they’ve gone dormant and don’t take up any of the iodine.
For the first three weeks post-treatment Stan was kept at the facility for monitoring but, more importantly, because his pee and poop were strongly radioactive and cannot be disposed of with normal trash. We would have had to hold onto it for 90+ days.
I’m planning on taking daily readings using my Better Geiger S1 scintillator until his levels drop to near-background levels, which are under 0.01 µS/hr in my house.
Jack is now the recipient of a Bachelors in Fine Arts, bestowed by one of the best schools in the country. As his parents we cannot be more proud of him and his accomplishment.
I managed to catch Jack’s attention for a moment as the graduates milled around prior to the ceremonyJack is featured among the sea of mortar boardsJack decorated his mortar board quite nicely. I’m a little surprised how many of his fellow art school students did not.
The ceremony was held at the Leader Bank Pavilion, a seaside open-air venue that, on any other day in May, would have been a gorgeous site.
This was not a typical day in May, however.
Air temperatures hovered around 45° F, winds from right off the ocean gusted over 45 mph, and nearly 2 inches of rain fell over the course of the ceremony. A rare late-spring nor’easter was blowing through. A permanent tent kept the rain off, but the open sides did little to block the weather otherwise.
The temperature hovered around 45F as a late-spring nor’easter blew through. On any typical late-May day this would have been a beautiful spot to hold a graduation, but even with the gloomy weather there was beauty.
Much of the out-of-town crowd shivered their way through the day and purchased ponchos and blankets. Locals are generally made of firmer stuff, and most of us also saw the forecast and knew how to dress. There were lots of winter clothes draped over the finery.
The graduates, however, were probably too excited to be cold. If they weren’t comfortable, they didn’t show it. Most gowns were puffed out as people wore jackets and sweaters underneath. (except for one or two that clearly didn’t get the memo about the weather.)
The speeches were surprisingly good, and held the crowd’s attention despite our collective discomfort. Megh and I agreed that it was one of the better graduation ceremonies that we’ve attended.
One of the graduates of the fashion program
The graduates looked fabulous, some more than others.
The attendees, however, generally looked a bit bedraggled after a long wait in the rain.
About that: we planned to arrive early, get decent parking so that Baba wouldn’t have to walk far, and stay as dry as possible.
Everyone else had the same great idea. Our idea exploded spectacularly in our face.
We were part of the first wave of people. Two lines formed, one to each side of the gate. One side (our side) crossed a bridge over the water; the other (longer) line snaked around the corner and a couple of blocks down. The security check was a bottleneck.
Everyone was soaked upon entry. Late arrivals really weren’t much worse off than early.
I asked Megh to hold my camera for a moment, and she went and took one of the best photos of the day (in an artistic sense). Baba is taking in the ceremony while Bronwyn flashes a sardonic look at the camera.
After the ceremony we headed to the Black Rose for an early celebratory dinner, and enjoyed a stroll around Quincy Market as the rain abated.
Almost 30 years after I first said I wanted to, we went to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy live in concert. It was billed as a “Christmas Concert” but it was definitely NOT just Christmas music. I am still riding high on this.
Final stage prep for Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. A technician was doing… something… with the bass.
BBVD does a great job of recreating the look and sound of swing and big-band jazz. They played a mix of Christmas, old standards, and original music. I really dug their cover of Minnie the Moocher, IMHO it’s as good as Cab Colloway’s.
Things I learned today:
They been playing together, with the original line-up, for 31 years and they still look like they’re having fun.
They’re only slightly older than me.
That the Lexington, MA area crowd clearly didn’t know what kind of band they were buying tickets to see and were disappointingly low-energy.
A little bit on that last point: the band was superb and carried some real energy. Their showmanship was on point! I’m sad that the crowd was overall on the geriatric side and people were polite but not really feeling it. I think they were expecting a slow Christmas show, and this was definitely not that.
Megh and I decided that we’re going to take swing lessons and catch next year’s concert. We want to get up in the aisle and start dancing to fight back against the old fogies. The band deserves it!
After living here for twelve years and mostly limiting ourselves to making repairs, we’ve finally introduced some real improvements to make the house ours.
It’s been over a year in the making, and over a decade of informal planning.
We started out wanting a front porch. We were spoiled by our old home, which had a deep porch spanning the width of the structure. We missed it the first time we had to unlock the new house in the rain. We really missed it when we had use the the storm door to push fresh snow out of the way before we could even start shoveling.
The final straw, spurring us into action, was the chimney.
Our house came with a fireplace and chimney on the outside wall facing the driveway.
What seemed to be a charming accoutrement quickly became a white elephant. Fireplaces are always difficult to place furniture around, and this one was inconveniently located. By making a wall without windows, the room containing it was very dark, even on the brightest days.
We never used it. It sucked more heat out of the room than it generated and made the house smokey, and even when not in use it conducted heat to the outside. Minor leaks over the years had rusted the fascia.
The chimney wasn’t in great shape when we moved in, and suffered ongoing neglect. It was becoming a real problem but I didn’t want to spend money on something we didn’t even use. When chunks of brick started landing in the driveway, we knew it was time to do something.
Meghan came up with the final piece. Our tiny front yard has always been a hassle to care for. Too small to use, hard to mow, and packed with mulch over a foot deep by previous owners. The plot was dominated by two gigantic bushes that were rather healthy but not our style. Meghan realized that hardscaping could be equally beautiful and certainly more useful. We extended the water-permeable masonry across the driveway to catch some of the water, dirt, and sand that tends to accumulate at the far end.
After a couple of false starts, thinking a contractor could handle all aspects, we hired an architect to come up with a real plan. As an aside, I’ll recommend always getting an architect now. Planning, estimating, and permitting took a lot longer than we had hoped but we found somegreatpeople to work with.
Come see the results. Click the pictures to see larger versions.
Looking across the driveway to see all the improvements together (plus my car for scale). Along the front of the house you can see the grime left by the bushes.Looking across the driveway “skirt”Looking down the driveway towards the front door. The project finished a couple of days after Halloween and on a breezy day leaves accumulate faster than you can clear them.We replaced the front door. We really liked the 3/4 view door of our old house, and it looks great here, too. The window to the left sits where the chimney used to rise up the side of the house. We’ve kept our milk delivery box from our old house. Yes, we used to have home delivery and yes, it’s as cool as it sounds.
This Halloween is special because a major home-improvement project, which has been more than a year in the making, is almost complete. It will probably be done tomorrow, but it’s close enough to done that we could host trick-or-treaters!
There are two parts:
the new front porch that replaces simple concrete steps
hardscaping the front yard with pavers
We decided to have a little fun this year as well, by letting Consuela out for for a breath of fresh air.
Our new front porch, and the hard-scaping project that is almost complete
The remaining part of the project involves some stone cutting to define the path leading up to the stairs, and adding some curbing along the far side of the driveway.
Consuela greets all who dare approach her
Above Consuela’s head is a lamp with a deep red bulb. We were going for a spooky look and I think we achieved it. Our younger trick-or-treaters declined the delicious full-sized candy bars. She really creeped them out!
It didn’t help that Beta child hung out on the other side of the window with a small “screamer” that she would set off whenever an older child approached Consuela’s dais.
It doesn’t matter if you believe in souls or not. If Consuela wants yours she will have it.
Megh and I enjoyed a collective life goal tonight: seeing the Aurora Borealis with our own eyes. I’ve wanted to see this for nearly my entire life, ever since I saw the movie Antarctica.
Megh, Beta, and I found a dark spot near Rockport, arrived as dusk approached, and waited for the fireworks. Nature did not disappoint.
It started before the sky was completely dark, and initially appeared to be a whitish haze across the northern part of the sky. We started to despair that high clouds were going to interfere, until we realized… the show had actually started.
I really like this one because the Big Dipper constellation is visible behind the aurora.The camera’s “night sight” mode not only brought out the colors, but also enabled us to see the reflection off the water.You can really see the classic undulations and spiresThe colors were so strong in this shot, the camera didn’t really add much to this photo. I really enjoy the strong break between color and night sky.The aurora climbed the northern sky until it was overhead, which is when I caught this photo.
These photos are color-accurate, but a little brighter than what we actually saw.
