Amazing 3D Surfaces

If you’re “lucky” enough to be running under Windows, you can download a program that displays Seifert Surfaces. You don’t need to know what they are. Just download the program and run it. Be prepared to be puzzled and to feel your brain grumble a little. Note that the 3D image can be rotated with the mouse.

Click Here for Seifert Surface Viewer!

Summer In Vermont

A few days ago, the peepers were almost uncountable in the pond (see picture).  Over the weekend, Spring seemed to take a stutter-step (see second picture).

Spring Comes Roaring In

I saw a wild turkey within about 10 feet of the house on Wednesday. Thursday morning, the pond was virtually covered with ice.  I went out after lunch to wrestle with some tree limbs that had fallen during the winter, and to convince some diagonal trees that life in the horizontical is much preferred.  It was 60 with nice sun, almost perfect weather.    No bugs yet.  By mid afternoon, I realized that the pond ice was almost gone, so I put the waterfall pump back in the pond, and started it going.  As I went to bed, I heard the first of the spring peepers.  From ice to peepers in 12 hours.  I guess winter’s over here.

Rodney’s Tongue is Rough

So, as soon as the stitches were removed, Rodney made it his principle task to lick the fur off of his belly, and then lick the skin off, too.  I tried two varieties of  “yuck”, evil tasting goops that you lather on around the wounds, to try to keep a cat from licking.  Neither worked.  I tried a salve, hoping that it would reduce the itching, and he would stop licking.  He actually enjoyed eating the salve right out of the container.  I tried a small tee shirt, with leg holes cut in it; that lasted about 12 hours.

Now we’re onto a soft E Collar, which is working (he can no longer lick his belly), but he is fairly annoyed.  And annoying.  He licks and scratches at the collar all of the time, which is loud enough to wake me up at night.  He looks ridiculous, and the other cat, Oni, seems well aware that Rodney is now absurd. The collar makes it difficult for him to walk, because he keeps stepping on the thing.  And it can focus sounds, when it is bent forwards, and this seems to make him freak out a lot when the birds squawk.

So.  Rodney’s better.  But not perfect yet.  Another few weeks.  Sound familiar?