Search This Blog

Tuesday 25 December 2018

The Return of Mrs. Phred

Mrs. Phred has returned from her expedition to the remote islands off the coast of Ecuador and mountaintops of Peru. She mailed some pictures back to me.


Mrs. Phred and her friend Felicia are in the foreground above a scene of Machu Picchu
15th-century Inca citadel, located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru, on a mountain ridge 7,970 ft above sea level. It is located in the Cusco RegionUrubamba ProvinceMachupicchu District in Peruabove the Sacred Valley, which is 80 kilometres (50 mi) northwest of Cuzco and through which the Urubamba River flows, which cuts through the Cordillera and originates a canyon with tropical mountain climate.-WIKI


Some sort of lizard or dragon? ...ooh...it's a Galapagos land iguana....it eats cactus pads...


The mountaintop at Macchu Picchu gets about 65 inches of rain. It was a good place to grow things. I read that mists float up from the river past near-vertical cliffs on three sides.
Machu Picchu is situated above a bow of the Urubamba River, which surrounds the site on three sides, where cliffs drop vertically for 1,480 ft to the river at their base. The area is subject to morning mists rising from the river. The location of the city was a military secret, and its deep precipices and steep mountains provided natural defenses.-Wiki


A group of seals is called: "bob, colony, crash, harem, herd, pod, rookery, spring, and team".


That is some impressive agricultural terracing.
Heavy rainfall required terraces and stone chips to drain rainwater and prevent mudslides, landslides, erosion, and flooding. Terraces were layered with stone chips, sand, dirt and topsoil, to absorb water and prevent it from running down the mountain. Similar layering protected the large city center from flooding. Multiple canals and reserves provide water throughout the city that could be supplied to the terraces for irrigation and to prevent erosion and flooding.-Wiki

An island in the Galapagos. Lot's of cactus pads for the land (non-marine) branch of the iguana family. There is a 3rd species of pink iguana on Isabella but you can't visit them.


She was on a boat about this size for a week. There were three similar boats anchored. This might be hers. Or not.


The blue-footed booby below has a relationship with the strange vampire finch. The vampire finch pecks the booby's neck to drink its blood. Boobys spend a lot of time in courtship with foot display. Those with the bluest feet are considered younger, healthier and more desirable as mates. Not sure if masked boobys or red-footed boobys can inter-breed with these...for sure they don't want to...

Booby
 Mrs. Phred taking a break


The islands were named after these giant tortoises. You put one upside down in the ship's hold and you have no-maintenance fresh meat for months. Galapagos is an archaic Spanish word meaning tortoise.


n his April 26, 1535 letter to Charles VI of Spain, Berlanga reported his detour to islands which he did not name, and informed His Majesty of what he saw there:
“… muchos lobos marinos, tortugas, higuanas, galápagos, … .” “… many sea lions, turtles, iguanas, tortoises, … .”

Monday 17 December 2018

Macchu Picchu

Mrs. Phred is in Peru today, hiking up to the ruins of Macchu Picchu. She probably left her wetsuit and underwater camera behind with her glitter sandals and she's got her regular camera, canteen. hiking boots, sunscreen and other paraphernalia appropriate for the day.....


I'm mopping the floors in the RV and doing laundry, recovering from another surgery on my temple and scalp. They took a 4x5 inch chunk from my temple and scalp back in November. I'd show you my pix, but I don't want to scare the kiddies. Going back for another round in January....



So all that got me thinking about the Mayan base 20 numbering system....why not use your fingers AND toes for counting?

So let A represent zero
The letters B through T represent 1 -19.....

Therefore R=17
and BA=20 (1x20^1 +0)
and BT=39  (1x20^1 + 19)
and CAA=400 (2x20^2 + 0x20^1 + 0)
and FAS=2018 (5x20^2 + 0X20^1 +18)

If you followed that, your IQ is higher than mine....it took me an hour to work out again...corrections welcome...


So Mrs. Phred will be back from Peru just in time for our 52nd anniversary on Christmas Eve....an unusual date perhaps, but the only thing the Rabbi had open. 52 is CL in my base 20 system and CAROL is a huge number...just the C is 6,400,000...2x20^5.


Has she changed much? She might have gotten easier to live with? Looks about the same....she says the climb to Machu Picchu is very steep and the air is thin....she's feeling dizzy from the altitude...the natives have given her leaves to chew to help her complete the climb...


So I think maybe the Mayans used the numbers above. The zero looks like an empty basket or bowl...cool....there are three types of people in the world....those that can count...and those that can't.

Monday 10 December 2018

Winter Storm

Raleigh is kind of a Southern city, not well equipped to deal with ten inches of snow. My return trip to Tampa on the Silver Meteor is canceled because of the winter storm I reschedule for two days later and splurge on a sleeper compartment.


That's my Civic and my old "creeper" van under all that white stuff.


The three youngest walk with me into a park. The snow has only our own footprints.


Warren has me stand under a tree so he can shake its snow on me. Unfortunately, the tree is dead and it falls on my head when he shakes it and I lose my glasses under the snow.


The one with the "Noles" shirt is going with us this summer to Barcelona, Lisbon, England and Paris.


My newly reformatted iPhone 5s has a bunch of my pictures in Icloud folders. I have no idea how they got on my iPhone.


I like the picture above of the two youngest.


My oldest grandson playing some kind of volleyball or something (not today).


Here he is again helping us with our selfie stick