Arts and Sciences and Anomalies

Around here, the dog days of summer officially end with what some locals call the August Anomaly. The end of July through the beginning of August when the dog star, Sirius, rises and sets in conjunction with the sun is usually hot and dry. Then suddenly, for a few days late in August, the weather suddenly turns cold and rain storms descend. The leaves on the bushes get the first of their fall color and the nights get chilly. The rest of the country is still sweltering, but we start getting out our wool socks. Hot weather always returns, but from that point on, fall is clearly making inroads, with stretches of glorious Indian summer interrupted by rainy or snowy sit-by-the fire days.

This summer started out unusually cold and wet, but the dog days did not disappoint. Generally hot and dry, they saw the green grasses of early summer turn golden and a few wildfires smoke up the skies. In town the thermometer rose to the 90's for days at a time (85 was the highest it got up here). Then came the August Anomaly with a few days of cold rain followed by more summer, but this time with leaves turning red and seed pods rattling where wildflowers had been. Even when the temperature lingered in the '80s there was a clear sense of autumn's approach.

This bittersweet end-of-summer time brought the final visitors of this busy summer. Tom came home (which is something of a welcome anomaly in itself) and a week later his friend and colleague Mike Fienen arrived from Madison, Wisconsin. Tom and Mike have been working together all week on their research, filling the living room with computers and talk of adjoint states and parameter sensitivities. This is a prime advantage of modern technology. Two scientists can get together to collaborate on advances to their field, not at a boring facility in a city, but in a rustic cabin in the mountains. They have internet connections and telephones courtesy of cell towers and power for their computers courtesy of solar panels. When they take a break from working, they can go for a hike up the ridge or a run on the road, or split and stack the firewood I've been cutting. In the evenings, they play cribbage with our new elk antler cribbage board and tell stories and relax. Here they are admiring the moonrise over the Absarokas.

After six days of staring at computers and brainstorming together, they took a day off Saturday and we all went to a beautiful spot up Pine Creek in the Absarokas for the first annual Paradise Valley Music Festival. The day before had been cold and rainy again. The road was so muddy that we had to hike down to the little car we had left at Orea Creek. We worried that rain would put a damper on the festivities, but we were in luck.
A warm sun shone all day long on the revelers, even while huge thunder clouds paraded up the Paradise Valley in the background. The music started shortly after noon and continued into the dark of night, when a storm finally arrived with lightning and thunder and some rain. That still didn't stop the show. Poncho-clad fans crowded together in front of the stage and danced to keep warm. They were still rocking when we left. The music covered a wide range of genres: folk, country, bluegrass, jazz, and rock. There was a mix of local talent and nationally-known acts. Here is a picture Mike took of the David Grisman Quintet performing their unique style of jazz:This perfect, sunny day of music and mountains was a small anomaly in the local weather which continues cold and rainy. After their break from science for a dose of the arts, Tom and Mike are back at work with a fire in the woodstove and rain falling on the roof. Mike leaves tomorrow (and we're sorry to see him go, he has been such fun to have around) but Tom will stay and finish up what they have been working on, then take a vacation week to help me with firewood. The weather report predicts summer's return late in the week. Still, it is clear to me that I need to seriously start getting ready for winter. (thanks to Mike for about half the pictures in this post)