A lesson in Longitude and Latitude.

   My niece was getting married in Wisconsin.  Because we had to travel so far we had to check my son out of school for a couple of days.  I talked to the teachers and got the materials that he would be missing and needed to make up since I had gotten it cleared by the principle for him to be out during this time.  Most of the teachers seemed to think he wouldn't miss much and could figure the stuff out on his own.  The only teacher who had some concern was his geography/social studies teacher.  She said that they were studying something that kids have trouble grasping.  I asked her what it was they would be studying and she said maps.  The thing they have the most trouble with is learning about Longitude and Latitude. I told her that wouldn't be a problem because I had taught that stuff before and I could teach it to him.
    To teach him longitude and latitude I thought it would be fun if we looked at my Louisiana Atlas and Gazetteer and also the Wisconsin one and then compare the two locations where we would be. We would get the longitude and latitude and see how they differ and how you could tell exactly where in the world you were by using these two numbers.   When we went to the Wisconsin map we saw a marker on it that was labeled as a geologic marker.
  It marked the place where it was Longitude 90'00" W   and Latitude 45'00" N.
  The afternoon before the wedding we had some time to kill and so we decided to drive out to this location to see if we could find the bench marker. 

Here's the photo's I took.

Geological Marker in Wisconsin

  The bench mark in Marathon County showing  45 degrees north and 90 degrees west.

bench mark for 45'00"N  90'00"W in the United States

 With modern technology as it is today they had to put up this sign because the marker was slightly missed placed.  We didn't try to go into the field to find it since it was fenced off.

 I've blown this up so you can read what it has to say about it. 

    I explained to my son that when you are living in North America all of your latitude readings are going to be North (North Am.)- and longitude readings are going to be West (Go west young man).  Then I told my son to think of Latitude as a horizontal lane ( LaNe.  The La of Latitude and the N for North) and all latitude numbers must fall between 0 and 90. Longitude are long vertical lines that are west and go from 0-180.  If you are looking at someplace other than North America - look and see where you are in the world.  If you are below the equator you are south.  Then look and see where England is  - if you are to the east of England than that is east if you are west of England but before the international date line then you'll be west.  
   
  If you have a number greater than 90 you know automatically its the Longitude number.  Also I told him to think of where he is located.  If he is in  Louisiana  he is between 89 degrees and 94 degrees.  Lets say he's at a 89 degrees spot- that makes it just one degree from the north pole if he put it as latitude  (n)  and he would be wrong because he knows Louisiana is way too hot to be near the north pole so it must be the longitude number and west.  Once you figure out the Longitude number then the other has to be the latitude north number.
 
 It was a fun exercise to do and I think my son really enjoyed seeing this and he had no trouble taking the test.   

I'm updating this post since I've gotten some hits for this post.
I went to The Great Smokey Mountains national park; while there I went to Clingmans Dome - Tennessee which is  the highest peak at 6643 ft in the mountains.

 As we were walking the trail we came across the bench mark.  I could tell a lot of people have looked at it and have rubbed the information off but here's what it looked like when I saw it.

Here's what Wikipedia says has about Clingmans Dome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clingmans_Dome .
So  its Longitude and Latitude are (copied from Wikipedia):  Coordinates 35°33′46″N 83°29′55″WCoordinates: 35°33′46″N 83°29′55″W^[2]

To make it easy we'll just round it to Clingman Dome Tennessee to   35'(degrees) N  (Latitude) and 83' degrees W (Longitude) and up in Wisconsin its  45'N and 90' W. 

I don't know if this helps any but it was a fun way to explain it to my son.

This Blog is now two years old

Today is my Blog 2nd anniversary. 
It's hard to believe I've been blogging for two years.
 
    I must admit that my blogging has been sparse lately and that's because my life is interfering with blogging. But it is giving me some ideas for some great posts, I just wish I had more time to work on them.  Some of the things that have kept me occupied -  was helping take care of elderly parents, doing volunteer work, traveling, and finally doing things with my family and friends.  If I ever get the time some of the posts I would like to write about are:  The fossil park in Sylvania- OH, Horeshoe Lake-OH, The glacier erratics of the area I grew up around in OH,  mushroom fairy rings in my LA neighborhood, Eau Claire Dell - WI, Vicksburg MS and how the geology effected the battle, and to help people teaching - how I used to teach how old the earth is by using the bible quotes and proving  how it really can be billions years old (which always shut my creationist students up because they couldn't quote things like I could).  If you would like to see one of these things, please leave a comment and I will make it a priority and try to get it out soon.
   All of these ideas are being put on hold for awhile because like I said I have a lot of volunteering scheduled for the next few weeks.  Next week I get to teach about 1000 students ages 2-5 about pumpkins at the St. Luke's pumpkin patch.  Then the rest of the month I get to sell pumpkins.   And on a day when I'm not selling pumpkins I get to play with one of my favorite hobbies but don't do it very often because of spaces limitations and that is  giving weaving demonstrations at the LSUS - Heritage center - Pioneer Days celebration or going to one of the local schools Colonial Day festival.  Let just say it takes a while to warp a loom and people get bored seeing that and prefer seeing you do actual weaving - so I've been getting my looms ready so they can be ready to give demonstrations with, since I wont be able to work on them while I sell pumpkins. 
    Also during some of this time my son who is a marine will be home on leave for a couple of weeks - I plan on getting as much time in with him as possible since he'll be going overseas for two years.  But I'm a realist about some things and know most of his time will be spent with his friends - he has a lot of people to visit and so little time so visit with them. The only time I'll probably see him is when he comes home to get fresh cloths on or to sleep or to eat free food. To lure him and his friends I'll plan on making some of his favorite meals- now I just have to figure out which ones.
   

But enough what I have planned for the future and now going back to the past.

With other blogs I notice they give an overview.     
I wanted to see what my top post for the year were but realize all I can do it from the start so here: my stats

Posts

Entry	Pageviews
ACCRETIONARY WEDGE 32 -CALL TO POST Feb 8, 2011, 19 comments	3089
Accretionary Wedge - 29: What Geologic feature abo... Dec 1, 2010, 4 comments	1014
Gavleston Texas trip Jul 16, 2011, 1 comment	772
Ocean Star Offshore Rig Museum - Galveston Texas Sep 16, 2011, 2 comments	585
Galveston trip - the Aquarium at Moody Gardens Sep 16, 2011	462
Hodges Gardens State Park, LA Jun 2, 2011	267
A FOX @ Cypress Bend Resort Mar 22, 2012, 2 comments	252
ACCRETIONARY WEDGE# 32 Mar 8, 2011, 4 comments	229
Hot Springs AR Feb 6, 2012	211
WHO WILL HOST ACCRETIONARY WEDGE 33? Feb 24, 2011	210

I started to blog so that I could participate in the Accretionary Wedge and its nice to see Accretionary Wedge items are some of my top posts.  If nothing else the monthly topics do keep this blog active and I hope the AW continues to succeed.  I am glad to see that hosts have been lined up into next year and that people are participating in it like it was intended to be.  Here's the link to the AW and who's hosting next. So for the next couple of months there will be things at least once a month at this blog.

At one point I was thinking about posting some of my favorite picture or the pictures that get hit on the most, but its not going to happen now.  If you want them let me know or better yet let me know which ones you like and I may edit this post later and include them in.

As  you can see I don't get very many visitors and when I do I do notice it.  I just want to thank the few people that do seem to visit my blog. I do appreciate it & wish I could do something special to show how much I do care about you.  If you ever have any suggestions I'm open to them. In the mean time all I can do is just thank you and hope you'll come back to visit again.

I Muse:  I wonder why I had so many (3089) views of the Accretionary Wedge call to post for #32 yet only had 229 actually view the final product? 

Mushroom Fairy Rings

When I was in graduate school I had a boyfriend whose major was botany.  I still had a year to go in graduate school when he graduated with his undergrad degree.  Because his grades were so good they gave him a full scholarship to go to graduate school.  He took them up on it.  He had to come up with a thesis topic and he had always been interested in mushrooms.  He decided to do it on 'Fairy Rings.'  At first I thought he was joking but I now know he wasn't.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushroom_ring ,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_ring_mushroom Sometimes when I walk I come across these rings and just have to get pictures of them since they remind me so much of him.

 I got this one because it had a fly on it.

I did this one because it was so typical of those mushrooms.

 The year before I had seen a fairy ring at this place and could see the circle impression of it still.

 A couple of weeks later when it started to rain I noticed the circle had some mushrooms coming up out of it.

 The circle again later in the day after it had stopped raining.

I was out walking again and got some more images to update this post
Heres the same fairy ring a week later

 These were in other yards.  I do notice that they have a tendency to show up after rains.

A Flash of Lightening

The other day I was at my son's first football game of the season.

 It was half time and I noticed the the sun was setting.  Since I had my camera with me I decided to take a photo of the pretty sunset.  To get a good shot that didn't have the press box in it I moved to the top of the bleachers. This is the first image I got and it was looking more to the northwest than due west due to the color play in the clouds.

 I was surprised that there was a flash when I took the next one since the first one didn't flash and I hadn't changed anything.  It ended up being a lot lighter than the other one.  I still thought it was pretty and kept it anyway. I headed back to my spot because the other areas of the sky were not near as pretty and it wasn't worth trying to get an image.

 Then I realize why I saw a flash, there was lightening in the distance to the north. And turned my camera on it and was able to get these images. (I know these aren't the best - but I was using a point and shoot camera and was surprised I could get anything at all since there's such a delay in getting images with this camera.)

 This one I cropped so that you can see it better. 

We only had those couple of bolts and no rain.You could tell it was in the distance and really wasn't headed our way but was heading north.  Yet, I was surprised that the game continued on- I felt it should have been cancelled.  I wished it had since my son's team ended up loosing.  But then again that's the nature of sports one team wins and the other looses.

I muse:  I've never had gotten an image of lightening before.  I'm glad I've finally gotten one.

I muse:  It was nice being up high and being able to see the lightening like that.

A mosaic of the Sun Setting on Lake Erie

This summer I ended up going back to Ohio to help take care of my aging parents.  My stepfather is 95 and my mom is 89.  Due to some health issues my mom was having troubles taking care of herself and him.  So when the call came I didn't think twice about going up there and helping out until other arrangements could be made. 
   My mom has a place on lake Erie and to rejuvenate ourselves we would go out to the lake and spend a couple of days there.  One of the things I loved to do with her was to watch the sunset.  Each day it was always so different from the next.

One of the reason's why the sunsets are so spectacular in this area is because of this:

The Perry Power plant.  As you can tell its not too far from the place we stay at.  In fact here's what it sometimes looks like when I step outside.

 Can you guess were the power plant is?

In both of these pictures the wind was blowing from the west to the east.  But sometimes in the summer the wind direction is from the south and the clouds of steam get blown over the lake, and when they do its amazing how pretty sunsets can be.  I might also add that sometimes lake effects also produce some spectacular clouds over the lake too for some different looking sunsets too.
Enough of my ramblings and here's what I'm trying to share with you.
A typical sunset  with the clouds coming from the plant.

 I don't know if you can see the sea gulls or not so here's a closer view, and one with more color to it.

 Here's what it looked like the next day. Quite a difference.

And this was a little later.
The reason the color is so different was due to the angle at which I took the picture.  You wouldn't think something like that would make such a difference but it does.  That and also the sun had a chance to go down more. 

  And this was the next day.  I liked this one because there were ore boats on the lake when I took this.

Ore boat on  Lake Erie

 This was a pretty blah sunset.

 The next day was a whole lot more interesting. I kinda like this one because it almost looked like an eye.

Sun setting on Lake Erie

 The next day was blah again but I like this one with the jet skier.

Jet skier on Lake Erie

And this one with the purple martin headed home.

Purple Martin heading home, with the sun setting on Lake Erie

And here are some from other visits that I never got around to using.

Sun set on Lake Erie

Here's one showing the lake effect, generating clouds and effecting the sunset.

 And one day this is when a storm was rolling in and my brother was showing me where it was.

 And here are the sunset pictures thanks to that storm.

  This was a different day with the same type of weather pattern.

 What amazes me is this is the way the images have turned out and I've didn't even have to auto enhance them since the colors that turn out are pretty spectacular in there own right. These are taken just a couple minutes apart but the closer the sun gets the water the more intense the colors become, and the darker the background gets.

  I really liked this one because it almost looked like it was eyes in the sky.

 

 I thought this was going to be another blah one but in the end the colors were so vibrant.  It surprised me.

 I just love the way the light sometimes reflects off of the water.

 And here are some that are just a couple of seconds to minutes apart yet it shows how rapidly things change with the sun setting.

 I really liked the way the light reflects of the clouds sometimes.

 Well that's it for now.  Now you can see why I like looking at the sunset on Lake Erie.

I muse; I wonder what the next one will look like.