The San Diego Zoo has a Panda Cam.  The yet unnamed baby panda was having its weekly checkup.  Watch the video, then click the link below to see what the Panda is doing now.

Here’s the link for the Panda Cam.  This is live and there are also some interesting links there.

Marilynne

I know what it looks like, but rainbows require two things:  sunshine and rain.  Could it be raining?  It hasn’t rained since March or earlier so I don’t feel qualified to say for certain.

When I went outside to take the picture, a few wet, cold drops landed on me.  I think that’s rain, but when I called to my husband he said maybe it was raining in the front of the house, but not in the back.  Well, don’t tell him, but when I returned inside by way of the “back” there were some saucy wet sprinkles on the patio.  I didn’t see them fall there, but I see it as evidence of rain.

How else could we have a rainbow?  Maybe it will really rain this evening. Maybe the drought is breaking into wet things.

But, of course it will rain.  We’re planning to go camping this weekend.

Marilynne

I went to Curves today.  I go three times a week so it wasn’t an extraordinary thing.  The difference is that I wore my grey sweatpants with the pink stripes going down the leg and a pink shirt to match.

Still, no big deal, but it was special to me because that’s what Natasha often wore.  Natasha was young and pretty, an exchange student.  I’m guessing she was cutting school to go to Curves because I went mornings and she’d be there.  She was so young and vibrant with blond hair, blue eyes, and a nice figure like only the young seem to have.  She was friendly too and outgoing.  She was fun to have with us.

There is about 47 years between us.  I weight about twice what she does.  In Zumba class she’d take position in the front line in front of the teacher.  I’d watch her from my spot in the back corner that I chose because I couldn’t do the moves as fast as the class and I didn’t want to get in anyone’s way.  I wasn’t ashamed of not being able to do Zumba as well as everyone else.  But to ignore my slowness and my awkwardness I’d watch Natasha in the front row.

She had so much energy.  To keep going, I’d pretend I was as good as her.  I really envied her youth and vitality.  I wanted to pretend I had that too.

Natasha has gone back to her home country now.  I still think of her when I wear my pink and grey outfit that’s something like the outfit she used to wear.  While I exercise I pretend to be Natasha.  I pretend so I don’t have to think about getting tired before my two circuits (30 minutes) are done.  When I pretend I work a little harder and the time goes faster.  I enjoy the workout a lot more.  I get more exercise, because Natasha never got tired.  Natasha just toweled  away the sweat and went on to her next project.

So, today I wore the pink and grey sweats with the pink Tshirt and I pretended I was Natasha.  I do pretty good for an old lady.

Marilynne

Val from Monkeys on the Roof expressed interest in our solar power and asked “Where in the world are you?”

Here’s my answer:

Preparing the roof for solar panels

We are in Southern California, USA. We did a most of our research on the web.  There’s a lot of information out there.   Once we felt we had enough information, we began going to classes and talking to people who sell the solar installations.  It was great to have a place to go where they are selling the concept, not the panels.  That’s The Center for Sustainable Energy .  It’s just in California, but they have a lot of  information available.

You need a large area exposed to full sunlight – like a south-facing roof, but panels can also be set on the ground.  It takes a lot of solar panels.  We have a 2300 sq. ft. home that’s just one story (a lot of roof).  I believe we have 42 panels on our roof and porch roof.  You would go for more or less panels depending on the amount of power needed.

You need to live where there are a lot of sunny days. We discovered that it doesn’t depend on how hot it is, just on how long and bright the sun shines on the solar panels.

You have to wash the panels twice a year. I suppose a good heavy rain would qualify as a washing.

I’m not sure what your situation is.  You could possibly be self-sufficient if you had a lot of sunlight all year round and could store power in a bank of batteries.

It’s expensive. However, we expect to break even (power not purchased) in about nine years.  Not showing in the calculation is that I don’t feel guilty now for turning the air conditioning down an extra notch.

I hope this helps you.  We looked at solar a long time before we were able to buy.  Now we’re investigating whether it would be useful to add a solar water heating device.  We’re already running solar power to our existing water heater.  Would solar water heating be a benefit?  We don’t know yet, but we’ll let you know when we do.

Marilynne

I suggest you visit Val at her Monkeys On The Roof blog.  She lives in a very interesting part of the world.