So go ahead, your secret is safe with us few readers: what do you really think of the weather where you are? Remember to click on the "X Comments" (X is some number, usually 0 for our blog, but we're trying to change that) or "Post a Comment", not the envelope that sends an email. And if you don't have weather where you are, think of something else to comment about - but be nice! If you can't think of anything nice to say, don't say it at all. Channeling my mother, just for a second...How'd I do, Ma? (By the way, Ma, just wanted to let you know that when we said E was our favoritest babysitter, we meant here in Europe - you're still the best at home! Maybe we could have a diaper-wrangling contest to determine the world champion...)
Today was the quintessential summer day for me. What says "Ah, Summer!" more than skipping church and going down to the lake to wheel around on a gorgeous 80+ degF day with thousands of your closest friends? And then coming back home to kibbutz with people you barely know - that's right, the same people you sit next to at church every Sunday, except not this Sunday because you blew them off to go wheeling around...That's right: nothing! (Hmm, maybe there's a reason why I don't know them so well - ah! too much to think about on a Sunday...)
The wheelin'round opportunity came courtesy of the annual Fetes de Geneve (the French/German/English program brochure is an 8MB download), which I mentioned before. Today was the "SlowUp". (Unfortunately this web site is completely "flash-based" - hopefully you have the flash plugin, otherwise the site probably won't come up - and it also means that it has no scroll bar on the right, you just have to make the window as big as possible. Go ahead and click on "Entrer", and then when the page finally comes up, click on "Le Parcours" for the route map. You can rest your mouse on the Commune icons - the ones that look like a cathedral - and see pictures like the ones I took.)
Basically (for you prairie-bound Minnesotans back home) it's similar to the Minneapolis Aquatennial Fun Ride - back when Minneapolis Aquatennial had a Fun Ride, and I used to enjoy them immensely. (I would skip church to go then too.) Did Minneapolis even have an Aquatennial this year?
Anyway, you start near the Jet d'Eau, and then walk-bike- skate-RazorScooter-any-unpowered-locomotion-you-can-come-up-with on the prearranged 26km (15-16 miles) route. They've gone ahead and stopped the traffic for you. And put up barriers to keep you on course. And provided refreshments along the way (for a fee - did you know "fresh" and "fee" translate to the same French word? what does that say? Too much to think about on a Sunday...).
Interestingly, they have slow-ups all across Switzerland. A guy could spend a lifetime just skipping church! - not that I'm recommending it. I think once a year in the summer for this kind of activity is about the right amount. I mean, there are plenty of churches worth skipping out of permanently - gotta be particularly careful if you're running for high office - but then you just go find a better one, and then stick with it. But not to get off-topic...
So I took my skates down to the starting point
and took off.
Almost immediately there was a sustained climb. Slow and steady will help get you to the end. You get nice views too along the way.
Plenty of stops with refreshments too.
For lunch I stopped at the "Ferme de Merlinge" and ordered the "Saucisse au rotir" with salad and bread made fresh on the spot in a firewood oven. And a teeny glass of wine. This is one reason why I think the Slow-up beats the old Fun Rides: home cooking from a Swiss farm.
...And finally back "donna-shore" (a little South Philly-speak for my sister) to the start.
That last mile was "l'enfer sur roues" (pardon the French) - my feet and legs were screaming at me by this point. I've been trying to flog this going-on-46-year-old body back into shape, and it's taking me the whole summer - being behind the camera I spared all of us the pictures. I suppose a sausage, bread and red wine meal doesn't help - notice I did have the salad too. But the quintessential summer day wouldn't be quintessential if you didn't throw yourself at it completely. And I bear the marks on my body. Since it was the first extended exposure to the sun this summer, I had completely neglected the sunscreen, and now sport a tank-top-burn, only slightly better than the farmer's tan we used to joke about.
So the ride was a complete success. I collapsed sweaty and exhausted into the nearest public transport back to St. Genis.
Now I wouldn't have necessarily had to skip church for this - the web site says you can start the course at any time. It's no competition. But I wanted to get back in time for the second event of the day that I mentioned (and anyway they were going to the bench for the sermon - lead pastor is on vacation). A couple we know from church had just moved in to an apartment in the same complex we live in yesterday and already today they were having a birthday for their 2-year-old in their new place. So: insert in-between the last element of the quintessential summer day: a shower cold enough to make you yip, yowl and yell, and bring the life back in to your body again. What could be better?
Fireworks! Ah, yes. But K and I partook of those last night. They actually have fireworks just about every night I think for the Fetes de Geneve. The big finale is next Saturday. But we did get a couple babysitters to come over - not our Euro-favoritest, she ran off and got married yesterday, congratulations - and headed downtown to see the show - this one was dubiously translated "Fire Art Concept" and hopefully soon you will be able to see a highlight video on our dropshots web site, complete with commentary at the end.
As promised previously we do have beaucoup de photos from our Swiss vacation last week, still sifting through them all! Hope to blog them soon.
And another CERN update. This is the executive summary from an email of the minutes of a recent CMS meeting; the email was received on the 3rd of August:
Executive Summary of CMS News, T.Virdee, G.Tonelli
--------------------------------
* As of today all detectors of CMS have been installed!
* Given the limited time to checkout EE and pixels, highest priority is given to their commissioning
* Overall aim to have full CMS by CRUZET4 (August 18 -PRD)
* Accelerate schedule wherever possible to close CMS and re-commission magnet
* Tentative date for having CMS closed and begin magnet turn-on is Aug.25
* Official LHC start date is Sept.2-3
This is the endgame. They've done an amazing job shoehorning the last installation tasks into a short time. As mentioned last time, the four ECAL endcap ("EE") "D's" have been installed (the gentleman in the picture is standing in front of the two plus-end D's),
...as well as the barrel pixel and forward pixel detectors (pictures taken by someone else).
And yet there's still a lot to get done, and the big question is what'll happen when they turn on the magnet again with everything assembled. We will have limited time to fix anything that breaks, because the LHC schedule is hot on our heels. Cooling on all sectors of the ring have finally reached near absolute zero now, so it won't be much longer.
Check out the "LHC rap" on youtube. Embarrassingly, all versions of this rap have the same bad audio. But it is otherwise quite clever - and the physics have been rigorously checked for correctness.
Brief B update: We've been wondering whether to report this actually...for some time now B gets into a preachy kind of mood. When you hold him, he'll hold forth his hand and chant "Algore! Algore! Algore!" He did this to a lady at church today and the lady asked K if he was all right. Well, I'm kind of worried about him myself. I mean, isn't he a little behind the times, like eight years?? Maybe that's part of his delayed development. He should be chanting "Obamabamabamabama" like all the other babies by now, shouldn't he (cf. Psalm 8) ?
Then again, maybe we're misunderstanding what B is trying to say. Maybe he's saying "ego, ego, ego, ego". Or more likely it's just "eggo, eggo, eggo", as in, "I want breakfast", or something, and I'm just reading into it.
Take care,
-PKBD
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