Well, well, well. I'm back from my epic reunion weekend. Whew. What a great trip! The whole Branson thing ended up a non-event. We were reuning several miles away on the shores of beautiful Table Rock Lake. It was nice. The only exposure to the "Branson Experience" was by way of a handful of appalling billboards. That was about it. There is some beautiful country in the hills of Arkansas and Missouri.

For bonus points I attended not one, but two reunions this weekend: My maternal grandmother's family reunion (the Howe family) and Kara's paternal grandfather's family reunion (the Allison family). I had a great time in both cases. Reuning is fun.

...

Clark said something interesting today: because of all the pavement a big city like Tulsa is probably five degrees warmer at night than the surrounding area. I don't know if that's precisely true but it's interesting to think about. There is so much concrete. What an immense thermal mass. I wonder what the broader implications of that are. Concrete, unlike trees and grass, can't do anything with the energy it stores other than release it again. It's like moving the temperature drop that comes with nightfall to a time three hours later in the evening or something.

Wacky.

Extra

Jaeger and I listened to the Gorillaz vs. The Space Monkeys CD on the way to the reunion this weekend. Great stuff. Huge reggae breakdown of the Gorillaz tunes. That Oasis dude can say whatever he wants about Damon Albarn... personally I think he rocks.

Just wanted to take a second to re-plug Citizen King's (can't find a useful link for them) _Mobile Estates_. I rediscovered this album while cleaning out my car. It's fruity... that's the only way I can describe it. Happy without being irritating. It's cool stuff... Take every musical style you've ever heard and then rock out with it.

Links

Greasecar
Saw this on today. How cool is that? I know this sort of thing has been in the offing for a long time but it's very cool to see it so readily available. Maybe I can buy an old diesel Volvo wagon and convert it. Kill off two fetishes with one stone. Hard to beat that!
Slashdot
Saw this on today. How cool is that? I know this sort of thing has been in the offing for a long time but it's very cool to see it so readily available. Maybe I can buy an old diesel Volvo wagon and convert it. Kill off two fetishes with one stone. Hard to beat that!
I'm hatchin a gold mine, spreadin the fever... take it all over... jalopy style
jaeger
Citizen King == Good Stuff
Here, at least, is the cdnow.com link for the Mobile Estates album. I think it's the only one they've made. Me gusta mucho.
fathom
5 degrees cooler in the 'burbs
you know i don't know about the whole idea of it being 5 degrees hotter in the city because of all the cement. the reason i say this is because i live a decent clip outside of tulsa and it doesn't seem to be any cooler where i live than it is in tulsa. but then again i have trouble telling the difference between tempatures these days. as long as it's not hotter than about 85 i'm good to go. if it's hotter than that i'm not going to last very long.
m4dd4wg
sea-meant
I can't speak to Tulsa specifically, but I do know that Philadelphia never cools off in the summer. Philly has a a lot of brick rowhomes that abut each other, or are at least very close together. The heat gets trapped in the bricks and never cool down all the way at night, so there's an oven effect. Many people don't have air conditioning, since the summer is relatively short. The houses are built to trap heat, since the winters are fairly cold, and they used to be colder. (in contrast, most houses in the sun belt built before World War II are going to be wood with lots of windows, to let heat escape.) Although you don't see iceb ergs like this anymore, the Philly climate was actually that cold during the revolutionary war. Anyway, in a very dense brick city like Philly or New York, its easily five degrees cooler in the suburbs, particularly at night.

The sprawling city of Atlanta is now large enough that it has unique weather patterns created by all the heat rising off of the pavement. However, Tulsa is neither as dense as a northeastern city like Philly, nor does it sprawl out to the degree that Atlanta does, so I'm a little skeptical about significant weather patterns resulting from all the pavement in Tulsa. That said, Tulsa is damn hot in the summer.

sjbrodwall
A stranger far from home...
Jared...hi.  After reading this entry of your headspace, I  figured I'd drop you a line.  Kristian Riley, of Citizen  King, is my cousin-in-law, actually.  Small world.    I'm living in Norway now...have been for the past three and  a half years or so.  Didn't you live here for a little  while when you were a kid?  Despite the fact that it rarely  gets above 90 here, and despite the fact that I used to  bitch about the Oklahoma heat, I miss Tulsa's weather.  I  miss the feeling of coming out of a carefully climate- controlled building onto the blacktop and feeling my skin  shrink two sizes from the heat.  I especially miss the  thunderstorms.  Never thought anything could make me miss  that state, but Norway has done that quite successfully.  Take care, Sarah Brodwall (née Hurley)
loophole
Wow!

Heya, Sarah! We were just talking about you the other night, oddly enough. I'm glad to hear things are going well for you.

Dad did, indeed, live in Norway for a few years. Unfortunately (at least from the standpoint of seeing a new country) I never got to go visit.

Tell your cousin-in-law, should the opportunity arise, that they are making some very very cool music.

-Jared