9 June 2020

0755 sleeping
0822 still sleeping
0827 you guessed it, sleeping
2105 dessert

Food: jerky for lunch, tacos for an dinner

Fact: Qanats and puquios are ancient ways to move water in deserts by constructing underground tunnels to move water with low amounts of evaporation.  Qanats originated in the middle east (although exactly where is debated) and rely on a series of shafts.  Over time they spread throughout the Old World and could be found around the Sahara Desert, southen Europe,and widely through out Asia.  The technology was also brought to Mexico by the Spaniards in the 1500's.  Qanats were also use to provide building cooling by drawing air from a maintenance shaft through the water tunnel, and then this cool air would pass through the house and out through a wind tower on top of the house.  The first shaft acts as a well to provide water to the tunnel while the others allow access to the tunnel for maintenance.  Water flows via gravity.  Puquios are similar, but are found in Peru, and use corkscrew like openings to not only allow entrance to the tunnels for maintenance but also funnel wind into the tunnels to push water where it needs to go.  Based on carbon dating of some of the materials used in the puquios they could be over a thousand years old.  Conversely, Qanat technology is much older, at least 3,000 and maybe as old as 5,000 years old.

Woke up to a bunch of noise and sounds of annoyance.  Emerged to discover the parentals trying (and failing) at fixing mothers mixer.  I retreated to my room and worked until about 1630 when I came back out to discover this scene.  Apparently they had managed to break the mixer more since it wouldn't even turn on.  After father talked me through what they had done i decided we needed a circuit diagram so I found one.  After an hour of messing around with things we figured out a little copper bar needed to be in contact with this other contact point and somehow how much contact there was determined the speed of the mixer (and if it didn't come into contact it wouldn't turn on at all).  Got it all back in place and now it turns on (but the speed doesn't seem to change and it makes a horrible noise).  Mother has decided just to buy a new one (this one is 23 years old, Grandma Mary bought it for her) while father and I continue to mess with with one.  At one point she threatened to get her really old one out for us to try and fix also.  After dinner mother and I went for a 3.25 mile walk.  I'm still walking with my pack even though no backpacking trip.  Ran into Hal and Stephany, apparently they just got done quarantining after one of there kids was exposed.  Luckily they are covid free.  Then we had some Angelfood cake with berries.  Mother and I watched some House Hunters until she went to bed then i lounged with Dumas and the kitties. 

8 June 2020

0926 sleeping
1103 Ornithology discussion group (which wasn't a discussion today)
1623 working on the south Texas lice stuff
1908 listening to the 2nd Yankees game in London

Food: ham and crackers for lunch, enchiladas for dinner with fruit and veggies

Fact: For over a thousand years soap has been used to clean cotton or wool fibers before using them to produce clothing, but was not used for cleaning people until really recently.  The early soaps were good at cleaning dirt and oils away but were pretty nasty (they were made from animal fats and ash).  They also were documented being used to tint people's hair.  All these early soaps were solids, liquid soap didn't become available until 1865.  During the mid 1800's using soap to clean skin rose in popularity, especially once the 1870's rolled around and soaps that actually smelt good were starting to be manufactured.  In 1898 a soap made out of Palm and Olive oil caught on (Palmolive brand) and more soaps that were not derrived from animal fats became popular, especially since fats and oils were rationed during both WWI and WWII resulting in more soaps made from synthetic materials. 

Woke up and logged into Zoom.  Survi was doing her graduation speech for the lab before she recorded it for graduation.  She did really great and it was a nice speech.  After that Sami had a bunch of UCE handing questions so we talked about that for a while also.  Then I spent most of the day working on south Texas lice and Catharus sequences. During dinner I put on the 2nd London game (the one I was at).  It was pretty fun reliving it, although I totally agreed with the commissioner that they needed more merchandise tents because that was an epic disaster.  I stood in line for like an hour.  They really needed to have a separate line for the common stuff (tshirts/hats) and have them cost a round number so you could just walk up hand them a 10 note and walk away with your hat.  But no, not only was it all one line but they would guess what size you were show you all the tshirts of that size you pick which you want, theyd put the other ones back and then charging you.  It was redic.  But not as crazy as listening to brits ask questions like "is this like bowling where if you score in the last round you get to go again?".  Also the stadium sound people kept only playing half of the crowd participation noises so those of us in the know started just filling in the missing parts.  Afterwards mother and I watched some House Hunters and then I lounged with the critters before going to my room and watching TV.