Weekly a Dad's Guide to Surviving Beach Trip with Teen Daughters, Friends
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
August 11, 2020 The Our 27th Year of Publishing FREE (979) 849-5407 PLEASE Weekly © 2020 Bulletin mybulletinnewspaper.com TAKE ONE LAKE JACKSON • CLUTE • RICHWOOD • FREEPORT • OYSTER CREEK • JONES CREEK • ANGLETON • DANBURY • ALVIN • WEST COLUMBIA • BRAZORIA • SWEENY Replacing a I know you want to BEE here, but you’ll have to move Secret Beach II: By Janice R. Edwards wheelchair is not The Bulletin People want to Bees – specifically honeybees. that easy I’ve been living where our electric know where it is By Ernie Williamson company refers to as “the end of By John Toth The Bulletin the earth” for 20 years. Yep, I live The Bulletin I spotted a screw on the living way out in the country. In all that A few weeks ago I wrote about room floor. Another screw and a a “secret beach” that is not really a washer appeared the next day. Memories are made of this secret to anyone living in this area, What was going on? but I didn’t use its name because I It was my wheelchair. It was time, I never thought much about don’t want it to become inundated coming apart. honeybees until recently when with wall-to-wall beachgoers on some very domestic (thank good- summer weekends. The View from My Seat ness) honeybees built quite a hive under our stilt house. My wheelchair company had been It was built out in the open – Ramblings advising me for months that it was hiding in plain sight. time for a new one, but I have been That column generated an inor- For several weeks, visitors told dinate amount of feedback. People reluctant. For those of us who never us bees were swarming downstairs, leave home without it, replacing a wanted to know what beach I was but we thought they meant back by writing about. They wanted to also wheelchair is a monumental deci- where the kayaks were hung on the sion. experience this wonderful place back wall (where a hive was built with plenty of space, no traffic, no Wheelchairs have come a between the siding and the inside long way since the first chair was congestion. After the Memorial Day wall before). Look who just moved in and made themselves comfortable. (Photo by patented in the U.S. in 1869. The weekend traffic jams on roads lead- (Continued on Page 11) Jan Edwards) first steel, lightweight, collapsible ing to popular beaches in this area, wheelchair was invented by two and then getting packed in on the mechanical engineers in 1933. It’s sand like sardines, they were ready now a $2.9 billion market for manual A dad’s guide to surviving beach trip with teen daughters, friends for a different beach experience. I chairs and a $3.9 billion market for By Jase Graves don’t blame them. (Continued on Page 6) Special to The Bulletin “Had the chance to read the Bulle- My wife and I recently accepted tin this week. Oh, did I mention I'm My Dynamic this challenge: a trip to the beach from Upstate New York...lol? I read with our three teenage daughters your article on the "secret beach" and two of their friends. We all and immediately was intrigued. I'm Hammock is ready needed a change of scenery from working up in Fort Bend and a little By Greg Schwem the COVID-19 crisis in our home- in Brazoria County. I desperately Tribune Content Agency town so that we could experience it (Continued on Page 7) Hey, vacationers, are you looking in someone else’s hometown. for some reasonably priced sleeping As the sole representative of accommodations this summer? INSIDE THIS ISSUE the dude denomination in an SUV Somewhere to lay your head without laboring under the strain of enough fear that nasty COVID-19 germs luggage and snacks to supply the BATTLING THE are festering beneath you? A place next SpaceX mission, I couldn’t where you can peacefully slumber help but take a few notes-to-self for CORONAVIRUS as long as you’re up by 5:30 a.m. to future forgetting. avoid getting drenched by an under- First, when traveling with a group Churches deliver ground sprinkler system? of mature, even-tempered young If so, then look no further. My food to hospitals; ladies, you should avoid trying to If you dare to inquire about the result in acute spasms of convulsive hammock awaits. determine why they are constantly exact source of their giggling, your giggling that could require medical Companies donate I began envisioning my backyard giggling. Giggling is apparently query will be met by a few seconds attention (for you and the gigglers). (Continued on Page 5) to help people during a complex linguistic tool used by of stunned silence, followed by In other words, just try to ignore it - Like us on Facebook groups of teen females to express an explosive burst of even more and good luck with that! this crisis; Lemonade an array of emotional responses, frenzied giggling. A suggestion by Another strategy to ensure a facebook.com/ you that the giggling might be in any more harmonious environment sales to the rescue. most of which emanate from a cell SEE PAGES 8-9 brazoriacountybulletin phone screen. way related to a teenage male will (Continued on Page 7) Page 2 THE BULLETIN August 11, 2020 (979) 849-5407 www.mybulletinnewspaper.com www.mybulletinnewspaper.com (979) 849-5407 August 11, 2020 THE BULLETIN Page 3 The science of weather forecasting Weather forecasts are made by collecting as much data as possible about Strange but True the current state of the atmosphere (particularly the temperature, humidity By Bill Sones origin or maybe Coordinated Univer- pear if these pants were truly sold as and wind) and using understanding of atmospheric processes (through mete- and Rich Sones, Ph.D. sal Time (UTC), which is the standard “blue” jeans instead of the “half-blue” orology) to determine how the atmosphere evolves in the future. What time is it? time at the prime (Greenwich) merid- or “quarter-blue” jeans that they are. However, the chaotic nature of the atmosphere and incomplete under- Q. When it is noon in New York ian at 0 degrees longitude. Know the story here? standing of the processes mean that forecasts become less accurate as the City, Winnipeg, Amsterdam or Green- Are we getting taller? A. The partly blue happens range of the forecast increases. wich, what time is it at the North Q. For males, tall is always “in.” because real denim has blue warp So, the closer the storm, the better the forecasting. Pole? Are taller men more likely to win a yarns interwoven with white filling, A. It can be any time you want! mate and have kids? Is this why each plus the dyed threads are only blue The concept of time zones, which new generation seems to be getting on the surface where the color pen- are based on longitude, falls apart at taller? etrates, says Iowa State University the poles, where all longitudinal lines A. Yes to the first question, says textiles and clothing expert Grace intersect, says New Mexico Institute Daniel Nettle, lecturer in biological Kunz. Yet, the twill weave allows the of Mining and Technology geophys- psychology at the Open Univer- blue yarns to be more exposed on icist Rick Aster. Here the sun simply sity,Milton Keynes, England. The the outside of the garment. spirals around the sky, moving from average height for men in Britain at If the filling yarns were also dyed, 23.5 degrees below the horizon at the the moment is 5’10”, but the optimum the garment would feel scratchier winter solstice to 23.5 degrees above height in terms of marriage success and less comfortable, and more in mid-summer. is 6’. For women, it is the other way importantly, your legs and underwear Local noon for anywhere is defined around. The average height is 5’4”, would become decidedly blue from as when the sun is at its maxi- but the optimum height in terms of color transfer, at least until after mum elevation, adds University of finding a husband is more like 5’1” several washings, says Kunz. The Alaska-Fairbanks geophysicist Paul or 5’2”. surface-only blue dye explains why Layer. At the poles, the sun does These two forces - the taller man wear to the knees and seat mutes not rise in the morning and set in the advantage and the shorter woman the color, as will commercial sand evening but is at approximately a advantage - roughly balance out, so papering by hand or sand blasting for constant elevation for all of a 24-hour there is probably no genetic change fashion styling. day. “Exactly at the North Pole, from generation to generation. Enough of this will shift the gar- sunrise is on the Spring equinox and The increase in stature we see ment from blue to light blue to white, sunset on the Fall equinox: So a is instead the result of improved toning down brightness, subtling year and a ‘day’ are the same thing!” nutrition and reductions in infectious the appearance, and helping make For scientists doing work at the disease.” “blue” jeans the hit they are world- South Pole (little happens at the Blue jean’s secret wide. For a true hit on the wilder side, North Pole), say Aster and Layer, Q. Vast riches would come to adding to pre-washed, sand-washed, they need to synchronize their clocks anyone paid a royalty of a penny for acid-washed, stone-washed, etc., to an agreed-upon time zone, possi- every pair of blue jeans sold in the notes Ohio State University con- bly based on clocks of the nation of world.