Weekly Activity Summary
7/24/2011 - 7/30/2011
running (3x) - 25.3 mi
riding (2x) - 32.8 mi
walking/hiking (10x) - 13.1 mi
paddling - 0 mi
JMH
Friday, July 29, 2011
That's a Lot of Honeybees...
Friday, July 29, 2011
Over the last 50 years there have been alarming reductions in the numbers of both wild and beekeeper-supported honeybees. This hit the news about 5 years ago when entire colonies of honeybees began dying off (Colony Collapse Disorder) for no apparent reason. I know some folks look at that and think "What's the big deal? They're just bees..." but the truth is honeybees are very important in both the pollination of wild plants (allowing them to reproduce) and many agricultural crops (I had never realized prior to reading about CCD that there are commercial beekeepers who travel with their hives to farming operations to provide bees for crop pollination.) Honeybees are a vital part of the ecosystem and the agricultural system.
I got word last night that this week the Albany Academy (my employer) had a company in to remove a honeybee hive from under part of the roof. The company that did the removal is called Everything Honey Bee Inc and performs live extractions - they save as many of the bees as they can, as well as removing the hive and honeycombs. Big kudos to AA for taking this approach when it probably would have been cheaper to just bring in an exterminator to kill all the bees and then a contractor to remove the hive and repair the damage.
Everything Honey Bee's youtube video of the removal/extraction gives a good idea of not only what a big job this was but also the sheer size of the colony living under the roof...
JMH
Friday, July 29, 2011
Over the last 50 years there have been alarming reductions in the numbers of both wild and beekeeper-supported honeybees. This hit the news about 5 years ago when entire colonies of honeybees began dying off (Colony Collapse Disorder) for no apparent reason. I know some folks look at that and think "What's the big deal? They're just bees..." but the truth is honeybees are very important in both the pollination of wild plants (allowing them to reproduce) and many agricultural crops (I had never realized prior to reading about CCD that there are commercial beekeepers who travel with their hives to farming operations to provide bees for crop pollination.) Honeybees are a vital part of the ecosystem and the agricultural system.
I got word last night that this week the Albany Academy (my employer) had a company in to remove a honeybee hive from under part of the roof. The company that did the removal is called Everything Honey Bee Inc and performs live extractions - they save as many of the bees as they can, as well as removing the hive and honeycombs. Big kudos to AA for taking this approach when it probably would have been cheaper to just bring in an exterminator to kill all the bees and then a contractor to remove the hive and repair the damage.
Everything Honey Bee's youtube video of the removal/extraction gives a good idea of not only what a big job this was but also the sheer size of the colony living under the roof...
JMH
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Distracted... Excreting?
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Be warned... this topic is more than a bit different from the things I usually write about... though I do tie it in to one of my most common complaints/concerns at the end...
On my way back to Albany this evening I walked into a Thruway Service Area restroom, as I often do (it is a 3 1/2 to 4 hour drive, after all.) Tonight, though was a first, when I was greeted by the sight of a guy at one of the urinals, presumably doing what guys do at a urinal - with his phone out texting.
I know I'm a luddite when it comes to cell phones and texting, but I'd like to think this would seem like too much even to the texting-savvy folks I know. I'd ask... but then I might find out that this is more common than I realize... oodle of people all over the world texting "Peeing now..." to each other, ack!
Of course, afterwards I had plenty of time to think of other possible explanations... maybe he was a congressman sending a photo (yuck... and another reason why I believe cell phones should be put away while in restrooms.) Or maybe this was his first time using a urinal and he was googling instructions (which caused me to flash on a 2nd season episode of the superb science fiction program Farscape, "Out of Their Minds", where one of the alien characters has switched minds with the human lead and needs directions on how to urinate: "Unzip. Pull it out. Point it like a gun... and shoot.") Maybe his urine was an unusual color and he was looking up possible medical explanations to see if he had any hope of surviving to reach his eventual destination.
Or maybe he was just the latest example of a multitude of people who apparently can't survive without being distracted every second of every day...
Sigh.
JMH
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Be warned... this topic is more than a bit different from the things I usually write about... though I do tie it in to one of my most common complaints/concerns at the end...
On my way back to Albany this evening I walked into a Thruway Service Area restroom, as I often do (it is a 3 1/2 to 4 hour drive, after all.) Tonight, though was a first, when I was greeted by the sight of a guy at one of the urinals, presumably doing what guys do at a urinal - with his phone out texting.
I know I'm a luddite when it comes to cell phones and texting, but I'd like to think this would seem like too much even to the texting-savvy folks I know. I'd ask... but then I might find out that this is more common than I realize... oodle of people all over the world texting "Peeing now..." to each other, ack!
Of course, afterwards I had plenty of time to think of other possible explanations... maybe he was a congressman sending a photo (yuck... and another reason why I believe cell phones should be put away while in restrooms.) Or maybe this was his first time using a urinal and he was googling instructions (which caused me to flash on a 2nd season episode of the superb science fiction program Farscape, "Out of Their Minds", where one of the alien characters has switched minds with the human lead and needs directions on how to urinate: "Unzip. Pull it out. Point it like a gun... and shoot.") Maybe his urine was an unusual color and he was looking up possible medical explanations to see if he had any hope of surviving to reach his eventual destination.
Or maybe he was just the latest example of a multitude of people who apparently can't survive without being distracted every second of every day...
Sigh.
JMH
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
2 Days & 4 States...
Monday, July 25, 2011
... though, to be fair, I only drove through 2 of the states (NY & MA.)
Drove a total of about 700 miles over slightly more than 2 days (about 7 hours more.) Ugh.
Ran one race, 13.1 miles, at a glacially slow pace... sigh.
Walked 7.2 miles in 5 different parks in NH and 5.5 miles in 4 different parks in ME.
But it's still nice to be home again.
JMH
Monday, July 25, 2011
... though, to be fair, I only drove through 2 of the states (NY & MA.)
Drove a total of about 700 miles over slightly more than 2 days (about 7 hours more.) Ugh.
Ran one race, 13.1 miles, at a glacially slow pace... sigh.
Walked 7.2 miles in 5 different parks in NH and 5.5 miles in 4 different parks in ME.
But it's still nice to be home again.
JMH
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
2 Mile Walk at Odiorne Point State Park
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Got off to a later start than I originally intended, plus my GPS didn't have the right address for the Seacoast Science Center (it was actually several miles up the coast from where the gizmo thought it was) so I didn't reach Odiorne Point State Park until a little after 6. But that still left plenty of time for a bit of walking before the gates would be locked at 8 PM.
The drive up the coast along route 1A brought back memories of running along there back in 2006 at the Eastern States 20 Mile road race... maybe it's getting to be time to tackle that one again (of course, it helps that the section I drove today is the most scenic part of the course... the really tough miles were the last 8 or so, running through the shoreline towns in March...) I was surprised at how much cooler it was along the shore, and also glad that I wasn't stopping before the park, since there were people everywhere.
The park wasn't very crowded, probably in part due to the late hour... I walked along the shore line and enjoyed the views of the ocean. There were cormorants out on the rocks off the southern end of the park, and further north I found a spot with quite a few gulls and a large number of some sort of duck (including quite a few youngsters.) And of course the rocky shoreline has its own beauty, even if there were far too many boats out in the water for my taste.
Also passed several historical sites, including a marker commemorating the first English settlement and an old WWII Seaman Battery bunker, built during the war to protect the nearby Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Unfortunately I didn't have a trail map with me, so I didn't walk as far as I might have otherwise - I turned around about halfway out to Frost Point and didn't see the second bunker. Another time...
The only minus to walking here was the flies... little buggers that swarmed me whenever I stopped to take pictures and occasionally bit... pretty unpleasant. I had foolishly left the bug spray in the car, so they encouraged me to keep moving and kept me hopping when I was trying to get photos of the birds along the shore. Another point to remember for next time...
JMH
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Got off to a later start than I originally intended, plus my GPS didn't have the right address for the Seacoast Science Center (it was actually several miles up the coast from where the gizmo thought it was) so I didn't reach Odiorne Point State Park until a little after 6. But that still left plenty of time for a bit of walking before the gates would be locked at 8 PM.
The drive up the coast along route 1A brought back memories of running along there back in 2006 at the Eastern States 20 Mile road race... maybe it's getting to be time to tackle that one again (of course, it helps that the section I drove today is the most scenic part of the course... the really tough miles were the last 8 or so, running through the shoreline towns in March...) I was surprised at how much cooler it was along the shore, and also glad that I wasn't stopping before the park, since there were people everywhere.
The park wasn't very crowded, probably in part due to the late hour... I walked along the shore line and enjoyed the views of the ocean. There were cormorants out on the rocks off the southern end of the park, and further north I found a spot with quite a few gulls and a large number of some sort of duck (including quite a few youngsters.) And of course the rocky shoreline has its own beauty, even if there were far too many boats out in the water for my taste.
Also passed several historical sites, including a marker commemorating the first English settlement and an old WWII Seaman Battery bunker, built during the war to protect the nearby Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Unfortunately I didn't have a trail map with me, so I didn't walk as far as I might have otherwise - I turned around about halfway out to Frost Point and didn't see the second bunker. Another time...
The only minus to walking here was the flies... little buggers that swarmed me whenever I stopped to take pictures and occasionally bit... pretty unpleasant. I had foolishly left the bug spray in the car, so they encouraged me to keep moving and kept me hopping when I was trying to get photos of the birds along the shore. Another point to remember for next time...
JMH
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