B&B, Hum, Renaissance!

Sorry to hear about your missed opportunity to hear Chris Hadfield speak, Don. I’d fork over the $100 in a heartbeat to hear him. Ah, the things we miss for family!

I was intrigued by your tune of greatness on behalf of Harlan Ellison. Out of curiosity, I checked out my favorite website for information, Wikipedia, and discovered a handful of did you know? Did you know Ellison was a tuna fisherman, a nitroglycerine truck driver, a hired gun, served in the Army as a Ranger, recorded audiobooks? I knew that he’d written "City on the Edge of Forever" and that Roddenberry changed it to better fit one of the first Star Trek episodes.  Ellison was not pleased. He has also been instrumental in Babylon 5 and wrote episodes for Twilight Zone. My better half met him some years back – apparently Ellison  is “colorful and eccentric.” I thought those were rather magnanimous words for someone who supplements  his income by suing others… I will admit, he is a great writer.

Our family B&B is now open. We’ve gone through our first wave of family and are now settled in with steady trickle of family members for the next few days. The upcoming weekend could see us camping in the yard to accommodate the family influx.

On Saturday, our grandchildren took us to the Renaissance Festival. We traveled by car guided by OnStar, rode a cushy shuttle and along with what felt like thousands of others, we crossed over the threshold of time into a space that OnStar could not have navigated. The grandkids got an eye-full from the jousting skills to scantily clad wenches, knights, a  Dr. Who skulking through the crowds. Grandson was put out by it all until he got a sword to go along with the shield he’d made, granddaughters (dressed as princesses) had no idea of what to expect or want so they wanted it all.

Me? I got to jump on the trampoline tethered to multicolored industrial sized rubber bands. What a rush! No flips or somersaults – just a magnificent bounce up, a moment of weightlessness, then the downward pull only to bounce up again. I am certain there were no such entertainment devices in the “olde days”, so I’m glad there was a comfortable time warp blend. I don’t think I’d fare as well in a blanket toss.

On Sundays, a low rumble hum invades my hearing. It occurs on bright sunny Sundays, usually in the afternoons and into the early evening. We traced it down to the high performance speedway that is about 20 miles from here. And luckily for us, it is just in the summer months. I bring this up, Don, because in Windsor, Ontario, it has been reported that there has been a low, mysterious hum that is driving people crazy! This same kind of hum has been heard in Taos, N.M., Bristol, England, and Bondi, Sydney, Australia. Apparently it sounds like a  diesel engine, a throbbing or rumbling, is worse at night, is heard only indoors in rural or suburban areas. Some other interesting points are that it is such a low frequency that only 2% of the population can hear it, most of them between the ages of 50 and 70, and no, these folks do not have tinnitus. The suggested solutions at this time are music, white noise, and maybe cognitive behavioral therapy. I was wondering if this has led to your addiction to music…

According to Marc Lallanilla, in his article “Mysterious Hum Driving People Around the World Crazy”, there are a number of speculations as to the cause: gas lines, electrical power lines, wireless communication devices, low-frequency electromagnetic radiation, seismic activity, low frequency earth tremors or we can just blame it all on the military.  Scientists are looking into it, but haven't found the answer yet.

 

On to the Riddle Cave! And yes! Clothes lines was the answer. I figured “a drying affair” would give it away. My guess for your is: compromise. Not totally confident about that answer, but…

Here’s my offering for this week:

Named backward to the event

Gods bowling

Strike light, rumble

Causer of great pain

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All images downloaded from Google Images

 Fig.   - Babylon 5 Wall paper retrieved from hdwdb.com

Fig.    - B&B Theatres on Twitter retrieved from Twitter.com

Fig.   – Renaissance festival jousting retrieved from barretthonors.asu.edu

Fig.   – eD speedway Drift Racing retrieved from www.appszoom.com