Sarah Phillips

Flying with my Family - Part I

After my mother and brother Matthew arrived in Williamsburg to visit me last week, I figured that they would enjoy the opportunity to go flying around in a glider and experience the magic of motorless flight.  They were pretty enthusiastic about it, so relatively early the next morning, we headed out to the gliderport.  Gary met us at the gliderport (and we even beat him there!  Heh.  My navigation skills may be poor, but Matt's are not.) and inspected the glider and made sure that everything was ready to go.  At first, we were afraid that we would not get to go flying since it had rained heavily the night before, and the field can get pretty soggy.  However, the field was just dry enough, so the gliders were taken out of their hanger and the tow plane started up.  Boom was our tow pilot for the day!  I managed to get a photograph of him in the tow plane just before he took it for its check-out flight before starting to pull up gliders for the day.  Despite the somewhat soggy conditions, there were quite a few people in the soaring society who came that day, including instructors and students.  I took a picture of some of them gathered around the tow plane before Boom started it up.  That day, one of the instructors was working with one of her students about the procedures for an emergency situation known as a "rope break".  This is when the tow rope breaks before the glider is up to altitude.  If the rope breaks while the glider is really low (under 200 feet), there is not enough height above the ground for it to turn around and land back on the runway safely, so the pilot has to land straight ahead on whatever field is available.  If the rope breaks above 200 feet, there is enough altitude to make the turn safely, and so the student pilots practice this.  To practice, the instructors release the tow line at some point when the student is not expecting it, and then they land.  One instructor that day was drilling a student on this, so she had him do this at several different altitudes.

    While the tow plane was towing them up, Gary took a few minutes to show Matt some stuff about the glider and about the pre-flying checks, as well as some information about things that Matt would be interested in once they were in the air, like the air speed indicator and the altimeter and how to adjust the pedals so that Matt could use them.

I managed to get them to pause in having so much fun to let me get a couple of photographs of them looking at the camera!

Then something interesting happened to liven things up even more.  As they went to take off, the tow rope broke!  They were not even off the ground yet, but it seemed really odd to have this happen after a whole morning of people practicing this.  Rope breaks are not all that common either.  However, this did not cause much of a setback.  The spare rope was brought out and attached, and later on while Matt and Gary were in the air, a new spare tow rope was made.

So, Matt was lined up for his second attempt at take-off.  In the picture that shows them before they closed the canopy, you can see Gary talking to Boom in the tow plane.  The next picture shows Matt and Gary just before the tow plane started to slowly move forward to get the slack out of the tow rope.  You can see Gary giving the signal that he is ready for them to proceed.  After they did that, they took off, leaving Mom and I to wonder what Matt was thinking about being towed up aloft.

After they landed, Matt said that he really enjoyed it.  Gary let him try flying the glider, which he thought was really fun.  While we were all on the ground, we had a picture taken of the moment.

Well, I should quit procrastinating and get back to work on my analysis for the moment.  I will talk about the rest of the day (my Mom went flying and then finally it was my turn) in my next entry.  But before I close, below is another picture of my brother in the glider, one of my favorites that I took.  I am really glad that he enjoyed it.  I knew that he would!  :)

It's a Bird!

Well, to be more specific, it is actually some sort of hawk.  I was walking up at William and Mary a few days ago, and I saw this hawk fly over and land in the top of a tree that was not too far from the path that I was walking on.  I quickly pulled out my camera and took a picture just before she flew off.  The picture is not so great, but it is not so bad for my first bit of wildlife photography (unless you count the black chicken in one of my previous entries).  :)  I saw the hawk fly to a tree that has a suspiciously large heap of sticks in it, so I am wondering if there is a nesting pair here now.  I will have to keep an eye out and watch them.  Maybe if I am lucky I can get an image of the pair in the nest or something.  I hope that they like it here.

 

I found some amazing tiny yellow flowers that were spread out on a lush green carpet of leaves deep in the shade beneath the trees.  There were hundreds of them just everywhere in a little depression between two hills.  I also could not resist taking some pictures of some of the daffodils nestled under the trees on the edge of the little bit of woods.  I love Spring!

The Cape Henry Lighthouses

My mother, my brother Matthew, my Uncle Chuck and Aunt Nancy have been visiting me this past week in Williamsburg.  During their stay, we have done quite a few really cool things.  Yesterday, after celebrating Easter, we decided to go see the ocean and look for boats.  Sadly, much of the coastline is so built up that it is impossible to see much of the ocean from the roads.  In the midst of our wanderings, I remembered that we were not very far from the Cape Henry Lighthouses, and since I was determined to actually be able to see the water, I figured that it was a good place to have a view of the ocean.

The lighthouses are located at Fort Story, which is an Army base, so of course, our vehicle was searched and our IDs checked.  Then we drove up to the old lighthouse and parked by the hill where the old lighthouse stands as a sentinel. 

There are two lighthouses: the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse (which is the official symbol of the city of Virginia Beach) and the new light house.  The construction on the Old Cape Henry lighthouse began in 1791, and in 1792, the oil-burning lamps were first lit.  The lighthouse is octagonal and made of stone.

Well, the weather was getting colder and more and more windy as we arrived.  We hurried into the little gift shop that is sheltered by the hill, where the extremely friendly woman on duty there told us about the lighthouse.  Matt and I decided to climb the 191 steps to the top, so we embarked out the door and up the hill.  The hill itself has a steep staircase, and we figure that those stairs were not in the calculated distance.  :)  The lighthouse entrance is surrounded by the sand of the dunes, and the wind whipped around the lighthouse, blowing the sand.  I could easily see the new lighthouse nearby, only about 350 feet to the southeast.  It was built in 1881 due to concerns that the old tower would become unstable due to some cracks that appeared in the masonry on its sides.  As I went into the lighthouse, I took a picture to show the narrow spiral stairs that wind up to the lantern at the top.

As I dawdled taking pictures outside, Matthew zipped up the winding spiral staircase, arriving at the top in about a minute-and-a-half.  I joined him a few minutes later.  The view was great, even on the very grey and rather stormy day that we were there.  The wind howled against the glass of the lantern room where the oil lamps burned brightly in the old days to warn approaching ships of the coastline and guide them into Chesapeake Bay.  The lighthouse stands right at the southern entrance to the bay, and the nice lady in the gift shop told us that on clear days one can see the Cape Charles lighthouse on the northern entrance to the bay.

I got some pictures of Matt looking out of the lantern windows trying to identify a ship in the distance.

 

The job of a lighthouse keeper must have been pretty difficult on stormy days, and rather lonely the rest of the time. 

While up in the lantern, I took a bunch of pictures of the New Cape Henry Lighthouse, since the view was so great.

Near to the lighthouse is the Cape Henry Memorial, a granite cross which marks the location of the first landing of the settlers who eventually founded Jamestowne, the first permanent English colony.  Also there in that little park is a stone map that commemorates the Battle of the Capes, the Revolutionary War battle where our French allies prevented the British from sailing up to Yorktown to reinforce the army there.  Without the reinforcements, the British were forced to surrender to General George Washington, and the war ended with US independence.  There is a statue there of the French Admiral Comte deGrasse who led that naval force.

There is also a walkway that leads out over a sand dune, which gave us all a great view of the slate-grey ocean.  We even saw a cargo ship of some type sailing along, with the help of a tugboat.

I even managed to get a couple of pictures of my family, even though they were making fun of me at the time!  After that, we were all pretty cold and decided to head back to the warmth of the truck.

 

 

 

All in all, it was really fun, and the best view of the white-flecked ocean was from the top of the lighthouse!

 

 

 

 

I found several websites about the Cape Henry Lighthouses, so I have recorded them here for anyone who wants to find out more!

http://www.apva.org/apva/cape_henry.php
http://www.cheslights.org/heritage/henry-old.htm
http://www.cr.nps.gov/maritime/nhl/capehenr.htm
http://www.seathelights.com/va/capehenry.html
http://members.aol.com/valights/oldhen1.htm

Moving Day

The sad day finally came, and on Tuesday, I went to help Gary load up his stuff so that he could leave for California.  My mother and brother Matthew are visiting me right now, and they quite gamely volunteered to help Gary move his stuff into the enormous diesel Penske truck that he has rented to haul his assorted worldly goods across the nation.  Gary figured that we would load up all of his stuff and then he would head out that day just after noon, but of course it ended up taking much longer than expected, as these things always do.

As Gary finished up some last minute packing, my mother and I started to make up some sugar syrup to put into his bee feeders so that his bees would have some extra sugar to start the season.  I'll have to talk all about his honeybees in another blog; they certainly merit it!  My brother expertly nabbed the moving dolly and started to take out the already sealed boxes.  I managed to get a picture of Matt effortlessly pulling one of the boxes up the truck ramp.  I do not know how he does it! And of course, Gary had to be a ham for the photograph!

Pretty soon we were all moving stuff around, taping up boxes, and then loading them into the truck.  Matt and Gary did the actual loading and arranging of all the boxes in the truck, which is a puzzle of its own, as all who have ever moved anywhere with lots of stuff know.

Late in the day, we had a surprise.  My mother said that she saw a chicken run across the yard and head into one of the bushes in Gary's yard.  We all laughed, since as far as I knew, no one kept chickens nearby!  When Matt and I went to investigate the bush, it started clucking angrily at us!  We discovered a rather large black chicken perched on a branch in the bush.  So Mom was right after all!  We laughed a lot about it, and I took some pictures of it.  Matt even crawled into the bush to get the close up shot of the visiting chicken.  I wonder what a black chicken running through a yard is an omen of?  :D  :D 

Since it took so much longer than he had thought, he waited and left early the next morning.  I went over and had breakfast with him, and then he headed out with Kohl gleefully exploring her way around the cab of the truck.  I am sure that it will be an interesting trip.  I will miss him.  He has promised to come back and dance tango with me, so I will hold him to his promise!

Symphonic Nights

On Saturday night I went to listen to the York River Symphony Orchestra perform a concert of Russian music, including works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninov, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Gliere, Borodin, and Stravinsky.  This was the concert in one of my earlier blogs that I mentioned that I had organized sponsored tickets for the Jlab Graduate Student Association as a social event.  There was a really good turn-out for the tickets, which I am very pleased about.  In addition, I was very much looking forward to this concert.  Having spent so much of my life devoted to making music, it is always very pleasant to sit and listen to others do the same.

The concert was great.  During the concert, they performed Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme in A major Op. 34, which is a work for cello and orchestra.  The cello solo was performed by Katia Chaterji, who is the daughter of the Head of the Accelerator Division at Jefferson Lab.  She is a high-school sophomore, and she played beautifully.  She is seated just to the left of the conductor in my photograph.  Watching her reminded me of all those concerts and recitals I performed in back in high school and college.  I remember that in the first violin recital I was in (in middle-school), I was so nervous that my hands were like ice, and I clutched onto that violin like it was my very best friend ever as I walked out onto that stage.  Everyone said that it went really well, and I thought that it went pretty well, but I have no idea how I got through those songs with as cold as my fingers were.  Things got significantly better after that concert, and later on I laughed at how nervous I had been.  I guess that it is just a hurdle that everyone who performs for others faces and overcomes. 

Incidentally, the concertmaster, who is the violinist seated just to the left of Katia and the conductor, is Stephen Wood, who is a Hall C physicist at Jefferson Lab.

Two weeks ago I went to experience the William and Mary Symphony Orchestra perform their concert entitled "Tunes of Travel", which included Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, Bizet's Carmen Suite No. 1, and Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture, Op. 9.  I really enjoyed the concert, with its diverse pieces that were so evocative of distant lands and time periods.  They were conducted by Shizuo Kuwahara, who amazed me by his presence on the stage and how he just exploded into the music, feeling every nuance and every note with enthusiasm.  He was also really fun to watch, as he directed the orchestra from softly lilting melodies to great crescendos with soft, gentle guestures and then sudden, energetic motions as sweeping as the music they guided.  Watching them also reminded me of the various chamber ensembles I have played with, and how marvelous a conductor like him really is, because you always know exactly what it is the conductor wants you to do when he is so enthusiastic about it.

There was also a girl in the trombone section that had wonderfully, brilliantly blue hair that looked really cool.  Since there were blogs earlier by Caolionn and Ursula about changing hair color, I was wondering if anyone had considered blue as an option.  :)

Anyway, I was inspired to practice my piano pieces more diligently in the future.  I have let it drop a little since I have been so involved with first the running of my thesis experiment, and now the analysis, but it is time to go back and enjoy the making of music.

 

An Afternoon in Hall C

This afternoon I spend the day in experimental Hall C (see Claire's or my blog about Hall C for information about it), doing a task that all experimental nuclear physicists are very familiar with: pulling cables.  All the signals from the detectors, and all the control instructions for the systems, and all the power for all the equipment goes through cables, and someone has to be the poor soul that goes through the tedious task of connecting all of it up and then testing each one to be sure it all works.

I was one of the group that cabled the G_zero octants.  In the G_zero experiment, we have eight octants, or detector arrays, that surround the beamline.  Each of those octants has sixteen scintillation detector pairs, and each detector has two photomultiplier tubes at the ends of the light-guides that connect to the detectors.  For anyone who is not familiar with plastic scintillators or photomultiplier tubes, a scintillator is just a material that emits a small flash of light when a particle or some radiation passes through it.  The light-guides guide the light back to the photomuliplier tubes, which are amplifying electron tube devices that convert light into electrical current, which can be read out by the electronics.  The photomultiplier tubes require a high-voltage power cable, and a signal cable that carries the signal to the electronics to be processed and recorded.  So, that is 512 high-voltage cables and 512 signal cables for just this one bit of the experiment.  It is a lot of work.  The summer that we cabled the octants, there happened to be a fairly large group of female graduate students (including myself) working on G_zero equipment in the Jefferson Lab cleanroom, and we were tasked to do the cabling.  Gary led the group, and supervised how it went.  I remember this well, since we all talked about him after we got back to the cleanroom.  Heh.  While I was down in Hall C today, I took a picture of the back of the Ferris-wheel-like structure that the detector octants sit in.  There is nothing really to give a sense of scale in the photograph, but the hole on the center of the Ferris wheel is some 15 to 20 feet high.  If you look closely at the picture, you will notice that the octants on the diagonal are slightly different that the ones that are lying in a direct cross.  That is because the diagonal ones where built by the French members of our collaboration in France, and then shipped here.  The North American part of the collaboration built the other four here at Jlab in the clean room (I was one of them, actually).  The green blocks in the photograph are there to shield our detectors from the radiation in the hall when other experiments are running.

Anyway, today the task was to untangle a mess of cables that someone had left in a heap.  They are needed for the next G_zero run, so they needed to be unknotted.  It was a real mess, as the photographs show.  We did not finish, so there will be more untangling to do next week.  The guy in the picture is Glen, one of the post-doctorates, and the main person working with the electronics that these cables are needed for right now.  The cables are really heavy, so it is pretty hard work to tug them around, untangle them, and then hoist them to where you want them.

While I was in the hall, I took some other pictures of the work that is presently going on down there.  There is a lot going on.  There is a whole new detector going in, and all the pieces of the various parts are lying around the hall ready to be installed.  It occurred to me while I was taking pictures that I have been so absorbed in my data analysis and thesis work that I have not been keeping up with what is going on and am not sure what the equipment that is being installed is actually going to measure.  I will try to find out next week.  It certainly looks like it will be interesting.  I took these pictures from the top of the high-momentum spectrometer.  In one, you can see the G_zero detectors are just visible behind the green shielding wall.  The last picture is of the high-momentum spectrometer. 

Well, hopefully it won't take too much more to untangle the rest of the cables.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

Cheesecake for the Soul

Last night was the last tango practica (a practice-time that includes dancing and working out new moves) for our Argentine tango group that Gary will be able to attend before he leaves for San Diego next week.  Since I forgot to bring my digital camera, so I have a complete lack of pictures of the event, but it was great.  We all had a great time working out new dance moves and polishing previous learned ones, finding new ways to fit together the intricate pieces of movement that form the overall art of the dance.  We held a "good-bye" dance for Gary as well.  Whenever someone has a birthday, or is going away, there is a special dance held for them.  The music plays, and all the members of the opposite sex have their opportunity to cut in and dance with the honored person.  Since the person that is so honored has the entire dance floor completely at their service, it gives the leaders a chance to do showy and fun moves that take up lots of room.  Everyone else gets to watch and cheer as the often very intricate dances unfold before them.  So, Gary danced with every lady in the room, doing lots of cool stuff that made us all realize how sad we are to see him move away!   I had some really nice dances with him as well, to some of our favorite songs.  I will miss dancing with him!

    Afterward, we all headed to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and to hang out.  We enjoyed the Irish coffee there immensely, and we all nourished our souls with the divine substance known as cheesecake, as well as with the laughter of good stories told and fun times remembered and created anew.  After all, isn't it times like these with good friends and yummy food that bring such warmth to a happy life?  And everyone needs some chocolate cheesecake to warm their soul...  :)

Spring Returns to Virginia...Almost

Today is a good day.  Spring is coming!

Despite the fact that it is somewhat snowing today in Williamsburg and at Jefferson Lab, Spring finally seems to be returning to this part of Virginia.  Actually, I am not sure that the type of precipitation we are experiencing today should be dignified with the name "snow".  Rather, it should be called something like "sky slush" or something more descriptive and accurate.  I also have said that it is somewhat snowing since the sky slush is only vaguely falling out of the sky intermittently.  But despite all of this, the spring flowers are appearing, especially the lovely and sunny daffodils.  Daffodils always make me laugh and want to dance.  In fact, here is William Wordsworth's 1815 version of his poem (he did two versions) about this very subject:

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

	-- William Wordsworth

A fun poem, and certainly one that I have always enjoyed.  Interestingly, the critics of the time did not like it.  They felt that it was too trivial.  I guess they had never stopped working long enough to wander through a field of daffodils and experience them dancing in the spring breezes.

Spring has always amazed me, filled me with wonder.  Living in New England, I was always enchanted to see the purple crocuses and delicate snowdrops push their way up through the last of the icy snow to bloom and herald the coming of Spring.  They were soon followed by the daffodils, and then the progression of spring flowers until the blossoms of the purple lilacs (New Hampshire's own flower!) and lady's slippers covered the countryside and woodlands.

Spring is a time of renewal.  Last year was a very hard year for me.  Immediately after my thesis experiment finished running in May, my wonderful father suddenly and unexpected passed away.  I am still trying to cope with this great loss in my life.  A few months later, my beautiful little beagle, who had been my companion for so many years, also passed away since she just would not eat much of anything after my father died.  Spring is always a time of renewal, and for me it is more so than before, a time for new beginnings.

Today is also a good day because it is Saint Patrick's Day.  Being from a Scottish background, I always take this opportunity to wear one of my kilts and remember my ancestors and the land that they came from.  I also dispense kisses to those who are worthy!  :)

 

 

Changes

Life is ever changing and evolving.

My tango instructor, Ernest Williams, has headed off to study tango more deeply in Uruguay and Argentina for the next six months.  This is really cool, since it means that he will have all sorts of new perspectives on the dance and new movements to amaze me with when he returns.  However, it also is quite upsetting since it means that I will not be getting any lessons from him for the next six months.  He has been merrily sending emails to his tango friends back here in the States, telling us about all of the adventures that he is getting himself into as he learns Spanish, and all of the interesting people that he meets as he studies more about tango and its roots down were it all began.  I am pretty envious of his travels, and I miss his brilliant lessons and wonderful dances.

In addition, there is an even greater change coming in my life soon.  Gary's post-doctoral position at the lab has ended, and he has accepted a new position in San Diego, California.  I am happy that he has a new job, but sadly, it also means that he is moving very soon.  Post-doctoral positions are very transient, only lasting two or three years, and then it is on to another post-doc or an actual position somewhere.  I am really upset that he is going.  I will really miss his friendship.  I know that I should be really happy for him (and I am), but I am also frustrated that I will not longer have him around to dance with and take me flying.  It is really difficult to progress much in a complex dance like Argentine tango if you do not have a good partner to practice with on a regular basis.   So, it appears that my progress in tango will be stalled for a little while.  There is a tango group in Richmond that Gary and I used to go to, so maybe I will still go there, even though I will not have a partner that lives nearby now.  Why does San Diego have to be so very far away on the other side of the country? 

I spent a large part of the weekend and much of last night helping Gary pack all his books from his library into boxes for the move.  Moving is really a headache.  Packing is not so much fun either.  Packing up his books serves to remind me that I will be doing precisely the same with my own early next year.  Gary's cat Kohl helpfully inspected the interiors of each and every box and the tops of each stack of books.  I am sure that she would not be too excited about the imminent move if she was not so happily distracted by jumping into and investigating all the boxes.

His departure will leave a void in my life.  But I am confident that I will be able to keep myself busy causing trouble until I get to hang out with him again.  And of course, we will dance!

Driving Miss Sarah

I have been thinking for some time that it would be a good idea for me to learn to drive a vehicle that is larger than my beautiful little diesel Volkswagen Jetta, just because one never knows when such skills will come in handy.  To be honest, I have actually never driven many other vehicles than my lovely car, and those were so long ago that I seem to have vaguely forgotten how to drive a car with an automatic transmission (mine has a manual transmission).  When I happen to be in a car with an automatic, I keep looking around for a clutch pedal and a way to shift gears, which is really annoying.

Therefore, in the pursuit of this educational enlightenment, Gary has been teaching me the fine art of driving a large truck in his 1978 Chevy Blazer, which weighs in at a good three tons and takes up a significant amount more road space than my little Jetta, to be sure.  Mailboxes seem an awful lot closer when you are driving something so much wider...  So far, I have not run over any tiny compact cars, and have acquired some skill in backing up with a rather long truck.  Next on the lesson plan is how to deal with a trailer.

Learning to drive his truck has not ended up being nearly as adventurous as when my father taught me how to drive a car with a manual transmission.  My father took me out into the hay fields and grassy meadows of the family farm in my brother's Volkswagen dune buggy, which has a full roll cage made of heavy, square-shaped, steel bars.  It has no gauges or instruments whatsoever (no dashboard, even!), so I had no speedometer or tachometer, or even a gas gauge, for that matter.  I was not so sure about that.  Dad told me that he wanted me to learn when to shift gears based on how the engine sounded (and since it was right behind me with no decent muffler and an open engine bay, I could not help but hear it), not based on what the tachometer read.  It was pretty frustrating.  I stalled A LOT.  The landscape is pretty hilly in those New Hampshire fields, so when Dad wanted me to practice starting off on hills, I ended up rolling back into a lot of trees in the woods that ring the fields.  I crashed into a granite boulder once, actually...  Sorry Matt!!  No wonder Dad wanted the full steel roll cage. 

Of course, Dad was right.  When I got my pretty little diesel car, it does have a speedometer (heh), but it does not have a tachometer (since most of them measure the timing of the spark plugs to work, and my car does not have any spark plugs since it is a diesel).  I am much more attuned to the sound of the engine and what is actually going on.  And I am great at starting off on hills and not rolling back a bit.  :D

I have discovered that it is really a lot of fun driving around a big cool truck.  Gary has also shown me that this is the best vehicle ever to drive around in the snow.  If you ever want to do really cool doughnuts in a snowy and icy parking lot, this is the vehicle to do it in...