Place I've Been - Highlight

Okay. Here's the list: Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, Las Vegas, Neveda, Tinsman, Arkansas, Keflavik, Iceland, Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, Pleasanton, California, Issaquah, Washington, Dayton, Nevada, back to Issaquah, then to Maple Valley, WA and Ballard (Seattle), WA. These are the places I've lived thus far. As for traveling - I think the only states in the US I've yet to hit are up in the NE corner - Maine, CT, VT, NH and the like. Such is the life of a military kid. It was a good life. My sister and I got to see things very few kids got to see (a volcano erupting - we were a safe distance, but you really could see the fire and lava spewing into the sky!).

Lets zero in on that Iceland thing, simply because the country is lovelier than the name implies it might be. We lived there for two years in the early 70s. I still counted my age in single digits. But let me show you some photos and you'll see why the memories are so vivid. (This volcano is one of the more recent and spectacular eruptions on the main island. When we were there, it was Heimaey on Vestmannaeyjar Island. Dad was deployed into the town to help keep the ash off the rooftops - the ash was so porous that when it rained or snowed, the pumice would soak up the moisture and cave in the houses. He spent a bunch of time shoveling rooftops and getting far too close a look at that active volcano.)

 This is an excellent example (borrowed from a tourism site) of the craggy, Icelandic landscape. At the time we were on the island, there were no trees at all. The island had been deforested early in its history. As an itty bitty Girl Scout, I helped plant a few saplings. I understand that a major reforestation project got underway shortly after Dad was reassigned and we left the island.

 

Geysirs. Ah, the Geysers. Didn't misspell it the first time - that is the Icelandic spelling of the word. We spent a bunch of time endangering our lives by being fascinated by the geysers. At that time, no one put up fences around anything. We could rush right up to a steaming hole in the rocks and look down in. The periods of the geysers were posted on nearby signs. The onus was on you to count the super-heated water surges and to take off running *before* the actual eruption. Some of this water was boiling. You did not want to be staring down into it when it shot into the sky.

Is it any wonder I grew up to be such a geek about geology?

This link will take you a live feed of Gullfoss - or Gold Falls - the largest waterfall in Iceland. This was one of the highlights for me. My folks took us out there. You stand on the edge looking down into this chasm. So much water is pouring over those falls the ground shakes. You *feel* the water. It's spectacular. http://eldgos.mila.is/english/gullfoss/ 

More Data Obscura – The Weird Accumulation of Stuff in My Messy Mental Filing System

Passwords. Loads of them. None of them mine. Yet there they are. All tucked into the overflowing inbox of my brain. Why? Wish I knew. How? Easy. I have a problem with pattern recognition. Once I’ve sussed a pattern, or even think I have, it’s in my brain to stay. I seem to be wired to look for connections between unlike things. It may have been part of what made me a reasonably good database administrator. The problem is that when I don’t find links between data points, I have the disturbing tendency to make them up. Perhaps this is why fiction writing works so well for me? I have so much practice making things up.

Most of the obscure trivia bits tucked into my brain are there because I did research for a book – it stuff I thought I’d need, so it got marked for long term storage. The other bits, like Iceland sitting atop the Atlantic Rift and being torn asunder by an average of 2.5cm per year isn’t because I lived there. I was too young to appreciate that when we lived there. No, that’s just geek fascination with geology and the power of natural forces. Niagra Falls wears the rock escarpment backward by 1.16 meters (nearly 4 feet) a year. Seven miles of erosion in 12,500 years. That’s superfast. Do I need to know this? No. But those bits are irrevocably in my head.

My husband likes to say that most of the trivia in my head is there because of my morbid fascination with how Mother Nature might one day kill off the human race: plague, catastrophe, what have you. It isn’t entirely true – there is some info about string theory and the extra potential dimensions the theory entails, some useless data on circadian rhythms, caving, how viruses infect human cells, as well as more plant recognition and critter recognition (several by sound alone!) than anyone would ever need.

It comes down to the fact that I’m an absorber, an observer. My brain and I are most comfortable when I’m sponging up data, as opposed to say, streaming it – super fast writers are streamers – very comfy with pouring stuff out of their heads onto virtual paper. I envy them. Absorbers have to work harder to achieve reverse data flow. It isn’t impossible, it just feels like it. And even then, I’d rather find a nice science video out on the internet about some arcane something I never knew. Failing that, I’ll go with videos or books that are sheer speculation bordering on wishful thinking about ‘facts’ that might never have actually been. We’re talking conspiracy theory and conjecture here, but what the heck.

Why? What makes me an absorber with all these useless bits of crap rattling around my head? Probably something my mother ate while she was pregnant with me. Beyond the genetic wiring component, it’s about feeling smart. Somewhere in my past, I got the message that smart equaled good and I wanted to be both. Having my head stuffed full of fun, cool stuff makes me feel like I might actually have an IQ. Granted, brilliance probably has more to do with curing cancer than being able to mention there’s a place in Antarctica called Blood Falls and that I desperately want to go see it with my own eyes. No. Really. Photo and article here. (In fact, Atlas Obscura is one of my favorite places for useless bits of trivia). The National Geographic Society website is good, too. Have you seen the Crystal Cave? Do you know how long you can survive in high heat and high humidity before you begin accumulating organ damage? I do and I’ve used it in a book. Have a look at some of the stunning photos here. You’ll know, too. See if it doesn’t get stuck in your head, too.