Personal Narrative

Waking Up Sleepy Teenagers

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Have a teenager that has trouble going to sleep at night and who can’t be gotten out of bed in the morning by any means short of explosives? They might have  “delayed sleep phase syndrome” and a simple therapy using special sun glasses and blue colored lights might be the key.  

My son has this pattern. He becomes very active around 9pm and then cannot sleep until 2am or so. Needless to say, he doesn’t want to get out of bed in the morning.  I did the same thing when I was his age.  

I wonder if this is related to artificial lighting? It has been long known that artificial lighting alters the human body in unexpected ways, e.g., causing puberty in girls to start sooner, and this might be another “lightbulb” related phenomenon.

I’m going to give this a whirl with my son using the sunglasses. I’ll let you know if it works.  

Note to Self…

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… don’t put up a post touching on religion and then ignore it for the weekend.  

Unexpected Flying Objects

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So, I’m standing in my front yard just now when I hear a really loud aircraft drone. I look up and it’s a freaking B-17! It was just flying along majestically at 300-500 feet. Gape jawed, I just stood there watching it drone out of sight, wondering where the hell it came from.

Turned out it was this B-17 that was in town for an exhibition. *Sigh* I never seem to find out about these things too until to late but I do have a knack for spotting odd aircraft at odd times. A couple of years ago I was just outside the small town of Lampases, Tx, a hundred mile from anywhere, when I looked up and saw a Mig-15 with Soviet markings zipping along at less than 200ft. Back in the early ’90s, I was walking out of a mall when I looked up and saw a V-22 Osprey shoot overhead. At the time, there were only two prototypes in  existence.  

The B-17 seems to capture the imagination of a lot of  aviation  buffs as few other  aircraft  do. For example, few seem to feel the same way about the B-17’s  contemporary,  the B-24 Liberator. In addition to the romance of its wartime service, there seems to be something aesthetically  appealing about the aircraft itself although I doubt anyone could articulate exactly what that might be.

It sure did look pretty, flying by.