Sabbatical -- Day 43: Where Does the Lone Ranger Take His Trash?

August 7

I drink coffee in the mornings. I am a coffee snob according to Kelly. I own it. At home I drink coffee from Lexington Coffee and Tea/Coffee Times. I have been a pretty steady customer there since the early 1990's.

After coffee I set out to take the full trailer of fence boards to the landfill. The front end of the trailer was a little light so I decided to add as many of the fenceposts as I could. I got all but three of them that Kelly Henderson and I had taken down the day before. The trailer was full. I stopped by the ATM for some landfill cash and off I went.

At the landfill you drive onto the scale. They measure your weight and tell you where to go to dump. I didn't count the number of boards and posts I had on the trailer, but that's ok, the scale measured the weight of the boards and posts. I was a bit surprised. 2,100 pounds. Yep. One ton. It is small wonder my lower back is a bit sore.

I finished reading "Seven Brief Lessons in Physics," by Carlo Rovelli. I first heard of Carlo Rovelli when I was on my way back from Oklahoma in July and listening to a series of On Being with Krista Tippett podcasts. The particular episode of that podcast can be found here. If you have any curiosity about Physics or the nature of all things, I would recommend this book. Rovelli says at the open of the book that it is written for those who have no knowledge of Physics -- but I think that's a bit of a misdirection. There's plenty heady stuff in this little volume. The seven brief lessons are organized in a way that they build on each other and lead to the conclusion that all reality is interaction -- which is Rovelli's unifying theory to join Relativity, Quantum and other strains of Physics.

In this book, Rovelli asks a question that fascinated me. What is heat? Turns out heat is an interaction. I suspect I knew this at some level but Rovelli reminds the reader that heat moves to cold and not the other way around. He offers this example. Put a cold spoon into a hot cup of tea and the spoon will heat. I am deeply fascinated when people with great minds ask a question that makes us realize something new about what we assume, take for granted, or haven't figured out how to question. It was Newton's brilliance that he pondered the question, why do things that go up return to the earth? Nobody had thought to ask the question quite the way he did and it opened a new door of exploring the physical universe.

Next up on my reading list is, "The Elegant Universe," by physicist Brian Greene. I don't have any understanding of String Theory, and I hope to get a clearer picture of what that is through this book. I will keep you updated.

Peace and Love,
Jerry

P.S. -- in answer to the question in the title: to the dump, to the dump, to the dump, dump, dump (to the tune of the William Tell Overture)