Vortex
All this summer 2008, our Eastern Seaboard's been hit with storm after storm and what fascinates me about it all, deep down inside,
isn't theDestruction and loss of life, theFury and havoc of it all when things blow over,
It's theShape of theStorms themselves.
The Weather(Wo)Men on tv all motion and pander to empty space, Thin Air in their Green-Screened enclosed film studios and cheerfully give you updated information 2 weeks out about tomorrows weather Local and Statewide,
yet I wonder privately if any of them have ever ever Honestly been there,
Out there in theStorm, whether it was a Hurricane, a brief Squall at sea, or perhaps theStorm was elsewhere.
I wondered whether theForecast (Wo)men ever stood in an Oklahoma wheatfield and saw the skies turn black and felt the rains, felt the hail and saw theFunneled Clouds of a Twister,
saw God's own Finger reach down and playfully scratching theSand of this sandbox earth, perhaps in Amusement and Mirth,
Perhaps his finger becomes a fist of an angryGod and a Category 5 or more Twister, became "theDeadManWalking" as my Lakota ancestors had seen once or twice every 3rd or 4th generation, for such things are once in a Lifetime and certainly memorable.
I, myself, have only seen theTwistedVortex from afar as it snaked down from theStormClouds but I've felt theRain, theHail and theIntense Sidewinds of such storms when I lived in Oklahoma,
and through it all, theTwisting action, theVortices I'd read about and even privately drew on Sketchpad for my own curiousity's sake did lend much to my imagination of theExistence of Forces beyond comprehension,
At Sea,
our CarrierGroup was sailing on it's WarCruise to thePersianGulf and an planned stop in Singapore was delayed, then cancelled as an seasonal Monsoon got in our way,
American might grudgingly stepped aside and gave MotherNature a wide berth and continued on to more manly things like, keeping a now-Hanged dictator in Check.
I remember walking thePassageWays of theAircraftCarrier during that "Swayful" ride skirting theTyphoon,
Everyone was sick for a week as we rocked left and ride ever so slowly,
Think of setting a glass of FULL water in front of you, on a table, and then TILT your house back and forth ever so slightly to make that glass of water move it's contents UP a milimeter or two,
it's a small thing, but to an AircraftCarrier,
some people roll off their bunks, loose Odds & Ends in shelfs and in cabinets and cupboards have to be secured to keep from falling upon People,
and everyone feels queasy, even I did.
Thank god that I wasn't on a smallBoy!! a smaller vessel like a Destroyer.
But back then, those of us military men whom did know of storms and their Anatomy,
did ponder and talk about the basics of theStorm we were going "around",
we knew, back then, that tropical storms flooded lowlands, swept villages away and took hundreds if not thousands of lives by direct actions or else by tsunami waves created and sent out thousands of miles away,
There we were, locked inside a ship and yet, in a sense, we saw, we knew, and we shared some stories of our individual pasts, like the many Vortex and vortices we saw up until that time in our lives,
theSpiraling, spinning turbulant flow of Liquid or air, and pressure was great on theInside until at the Very center where things spun so fast,
maybe in theEye of theStorm, pressure dropped and things were calm, and then theStorm moved over and pressure, Winds and chaos resumed again.
we knew back then, and I know now that even in LIFE such "storms" spring up.
Such events rise and fall and rampage throughout theHome, through theFamily'sLife, through theVillage!! or theCity!! and sometimes,
these Storms may rage for years, decades, LifeTimes
I know theVortices.
On theFlightDeck of theAircraftCarrier,
you see thePlanes take off-get Catapulted offShip and then they drop theTailHook and catch the 2nd or 3rd wire upon landing on theBack part of theFlightDeck and get moved aside so another aircraft can land,
The wings of theAirCraft, as they move through theAtmosphere create those vortices.
Sometimes they're visible as water vapor, sometimes steam or smoke lingering can cause theVortices to be seen.
It is a beautiful thing, a fleeting thing really.
and years after that Navy experience, I still got to know theVortices.
I was out in theAlaskanBush on an all Native EFF crew (emergency woodland fire fighting crew) and this small LeadAircraft was flying low over theMountains where our EFF crew was coldTrailing AND hotSpotting,
Two Aircraft flew over us, around us repeatedly and then, after about 40 times, theFollowing (bigger WaterTanker craft) dumped theRedGel about 100yds away from us huddling EFF crewmen,
even though we were a safe distance away from theMain fire that theLeadPlane was assessing and plotting before marking & signaling theTanker where to release theRedGel, we still got hit by the stuff.
LOL,
But months later I looked up photos of flying planes and firefighting crews and saw some nice photos of those WaterTankers as they dropped their RedGel upon forest fires,
as theAircraft flew it disturbed theAir, theWingtips and engines created Vortices in it's wake and some heavyGel got caught up in theFlow, and you could see theWhirling formations, just beautiful.
But theUglySpirals, theDestructiveSpin and sucking of everything into it's core is what storms out in theVillage!! here in Alaska
Those Spouts, those spiral hurricane arms, those trunks columns with smaller feeder twisters shoveling detris and human lives into theCenter are invisible and like my lakota forbearers, I too saw many Dead people walking-those storms.
they're harder to keep track of and much more deadlier than what theWeather can ever throw at us mankind, I could talk more on that, but not right now,
This last week, this last 24hrs I've been studying another more different and tastier-to-sample vortex,
Because I fill a 1 liter MilkPitcher halfway full of COLD milk and use theSteamWand off theEspressoMachine and tip thePitcher jusssst so,
and sinking theSteamWandTip just under theSurface I activate steam and then watch theMilk vortices and see theBubbles form and move,
my creativeMind can see theFlow, can see theExpansion of bubbles and after about 100'F, MOST of theEspresso manuals and books and articles I've so far studied-have said to stop steaming theMilk, because by then, theTexture is smooth, rich and creamy.
Yet funny how some people specifically ask for milk to be heated up to 170'F.
Oh well. Starbucks aims to please!! Scalded milk for you sir and searing Hot Chocolate for your child coming right up!!
School, Church, Life!! teaches you many things if you just look for it.
And I've been looking for the past 41yrs!!
----
luvs,
theSam!!
Samuel L Flyinghorse
Anchorage, Alaska
AlaskaVillageTales
isn't theDestruction and loss of life, theFury and havoc of it all when things blow over,
It's theShape of theStorms themselves.
The Weather(Wo)Men on tv all motion and pander to empty space, Thin Air in their Green-Screened enclosed film studios and cheerfully give you updated information 2 weeks out about tomorrows weather Local and Statewide,
yet I wonder privately if any of them have ever ever Honestly been there,
Out there in theStorm, whether it was a Hurricane, a brief Squall at sea, or perhaps theStorm was elsewhere.
I wondered whether theForecast (Wo)men ever stood in an Oklahoma wheatfield and saw the skies turn black and felt the rains, felt the hail and saw theFunneled Clouds of a Twister,
saw God's own Finger reach down and playfully scratching theSand of this sandbox earth, perhaps in Amusement and Mirth,
Perhaps his finger becomes a fist of an angryGod and a Category 5 or more Twister, became "theDeadManWalking" as my Lakota ancestors had seen once or twice every 3rd or 4th generation, for such things are once in a Lifetime and certainly memorable.
I, myself, have only seen theTwistedVortex from afar as it snaked down from theStormClouds but I've felt theRain, theHail and theIntense Sidewinds of such storms when I lived in Oklahoma,
and through it all, theTwisting action, theVortices I'd read about and even privately drew on Sketchpad for my own curiousity's sake did lend much to my imagination of theExistence of Forces beyond comprehension,
At Sea,
our CarrierGroup was sailing on it's WarCruise to thePersianGulf and an planned stop in Singapore was delayed, then cancelled as an seasonal Monsoon got in our way,
American might grudgingly stepped aside and gave MotherNature a wide berth and continued on to more manly things like, keeping a now-Hanged dictator in Check.
I remember walking thePassageWays of theAircraftCarrier during that "Swayful" ride skirting theTyphoon,
Everyone was sick for a week as we rocked left and ride ever so slowly,
Think of setting a glass of FULL water in front of you, on a table, and then TILT your house back and forth ever so slightly to make that glass of water move it's contents UP a milimeter or two,
it's a small thing, but to an AircraftCarrier,
some people roll off their bunks, loose Odds & Ends in shelfs and in cabinets and cupboards have to be secured to keep from falling upon People,
and everyone feels queasy, even I did.
Thank god that I wasn't on a smallBoy!! a smaller vessel like a Destroyer.
But back then, those of us military men whom did know of storms and their Anatomy,
did ponder and talk about the basics of theStorm we were going "around",
we knew, back then, that tropical storms flooded lowlands, swept villages away and took hundreds if not thousands of lives by direct actions or else by tsunami waves created and sent out thousands of miles away,
There we were, locked inside a ship and yet, in a sense, we saw, we knew, and we shared some stories of our individual pasts, like the many Vortex and vortices we saw up until that time in our lives,
theSpiraling, spinning turbulant flow of Liquid or air, and pressure was great on theInside until at the Very center where things spun so fast,
maybe in theEye of theStorm, pressure dropped and things were calm, and then theStorm moved over and pressure, Winds and chaos resumed again.
we knew back then, and I know now that even in LIFE such "storms" spring up.
Such events rise and fall and rampage throughout theHome, through theFamily'sLife, through theVillage!! or theCity!! and sometimes,
these Storms may rage for years, decades, LifeTimes
I know theVortices.
On theFlightDeck of theAircraftCarrier,
you see thePlanes take off-get Catapulted offShip and then they drop theTailHook and catch the 2nd or 3rd wire upon landing on theBack part of theFlightDeck and get moved aside so another aircraft can land,
The wings of theAirCraft, as they move through theAtmosphere create those vortices.
Sometimes they're visible as water vapor, sometimes steam or smoke lingering can cause theVortices to be seen.
It is a beautiful thing, a fleeting thing really.
and years after that Navy experience, I still got to know theVortices.
I was out in theAlaskanBush on an all Native EFF crew (emergency woodland fire fighting crew) and this small LeadAircraft was flying low over theMountains where our EFF crew was coldTrailing AND hotSpotting,
Two Aircraft flew over us, around us repeatedly and then, after about 40 times, theFollowing (bigger WaterTanker craft) dumped theRedGel about 100yds away from us huddling EFF crewmen,
even though we were a safe distance away from theMain fire that theLeadPlane was assessing and plotting before marking & signaling theTanker where to release theRedGel, we still got hit by the stuff.
LOL,
But months later I looked up photos of flying planes and firefighting crews and saw some nice photos of those WaterTankers as they dropped their RedGel upon forest fires,
as theAircraft flew it disturbed theAir, theWingtips and engines created Vortices in it's wake and some heavyGel got caught up in theFlow, and you could see theWhirling formations, just beautiful.
But theUglySpirals, theDestructiveSpin and sucking of everything into it's core is what storms out in theVillage!! here in Alaska
Those Spouts, those spiral hurricane arms, those trunks columns with smaller feeder twisters shoveling detris and human lives into theCenter are invisible and like my lakota forbearers, I too saw many Dead people walking-those storms.
they're harder to keep track of and much more deadlier than what theWeather can ever throw at us mankind, I could talk more on that, but not right now,
This last week, this last 24hrs I've been studying another more different and tastier-to-sample vortex,
Because I fill a 1 liter MilkPitcher halfway full of COLD milk and use theSteamWand off theEspressoMachine and tip thePitcher jusssst so,
and sinking theSteamWandTip just under theSurface I activate steam and then watch theMilk vortices and see theBubbles form and move,
my creativeMind can see theFlow, can see theExpansion of bubbles and after about 100'F, MOST of theEspresso manuals and books and articles I've so far studied-have said to stop steaming theMilk, because by then, theTexture is smooth, rich and creamy.
Yet funny how some people specifically ask for milk to be heated up to 170'F.
Oh well. Starbucks aims to please!! Scalded milk for you sir and searing Hot Chocolate for your child coming right up!!
School, Church, Life!! teaches you many things if you just look for it.
And I've been looking for the past 41yrs!!
----
luvs,
theSam!!
Samuel L Flyinghorse
Anchorage, Alaska
AlaskaVillageTales
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