Astrovelo

OK! Time for some juvenile humor.

Recently, I came across a couple of store signs that made me think about ShivSena’s "store signs in Marathi" agitation from a few months ago. I can only imagine snickering people as they walked past these places, if they were in Maharashtra.

झवला, a mexican restaurant in New London, CT.
 

झवाडी, a store at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.

We are enjoying this beautiful beach-weather while it lasts.

Here is a link to a video I shot with my cellphone: Adit and Ashwini on the beach

On Friday, Ashwini came with me to my work. She was very excited to get her own badge and was thrilled to ride elevators and escalators. She sat with me drawing and reading while I did some work. A big dry erase board was her most favorite thing in my office. She bravely stayed alone in my office while I went to my lab to finish some work.

We left work around lunch time and went out to a diner where Ashwini enjoyed pancakes filled with chocolate chips. After lunch, it was time for a movie: “Wall.E” We heard a lot of praise for this movie and it was all appropriate. The animation was very beautifully done but, the story was a little complicated and Ashwini didn’t follow it all. Thankfully, there was nothing scary or mean and we could watch the whole movie. Previously, we had to walk out of “Shrek 3″ and “Cars”.

It was the first time I took Ashwini to work and wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. Adit on the other hand will have to wait a few more years to do this.

I am not sure if it was the 2nd or the 5th but, it was August of 1987. My first day at College. This was the day when I met V for the first time. She spoke fluent English with her friends. I could understand what they were talking about but, had no experience and confidence in English speaking like that. I was even afraid to talk with her. It took a few weeks before I figured out that she spoke Marathi, too. She had good handwriting and seemed to be very serious about taking notes in classes: a perfect candidate for me to copy class notes from, as I was busy doing everything except paying attention to our professors. Later on, I found some other more studious students to copy notes from and realized that V, although a little more serious about studies than me, was in the same category of lollygaggers. We were classmates, then friends, then good friends and then very good friends before getting married more than 8 years later.

During this last week, I got in touch with a couple of friends from college after about 16-17 years. One of them is very close by in New Jersey while the other one is in the farthest part of the world: Melbourne, Australia. It was so nice to talk with them after such a big gap and hear about what they have been doing all these years.

Sunday evening was just perfect for going out to the beach. It was sunny and clear but, not too hot. This time, we decided to explore a beach in neighboring town instead of our usual one. Kids had a blast in the water for more than an hour. They came home famished and tired. Ashwini finished her dinner in record time and was asleep within 2 minutes from getting in bed. We should go to the beach everyday.

I had created images with cloned children like this one here, a couple of times before. This was before Adit was born and only Ashwini appears in them.

Star trails from an hour long exposure.
Nikon D70: 18-70mm at 18mm: ISO 1600: f/3.5: 120 thirty second exposures: Stacked using Gimp.

Click to see bigger version

Ashwini's aaji sent her a couple of nice dresses with me back in January. Now that Summer is upon us with all the heat and hunidity, it is time to use them. This colorful number came with a necklace with seashells.

First attempt at capturing star trails by stitching multiple images instead of one long exposure. Seems to work better. This is composite of about 20 minutes of images in the Northern sky. Pole star is quite obvious. Some day, I’ll have a few hours of star trails in one image. Click below to see a bigger photo.

Ashwini: When I grow up, I am going to be a doctor and a teacher. How about you, Adit? What do you want to be when you grow up? Adit: When I grow up, I want to be a pig.

Me: Good night, Adit. I'll see you tomorrow. Sleep well. Adit: Your wish is my command.

Adit: When I grow up, I will be a girl. (Now, that is scary!!!)

Sometime earlier this year, I changed my electricity supplier to Community Energy, which produces electricity using renewable (reusable) resources such as wind and water. Their energy mix for our area was 50% wind and 50% low-impact hydroelectric. Recently, they changed it to 66% wind and 34% hydroelectric. That is even better, I guess. The cost of this electricity is slightly higher than the traditional coal/oil-fired generators. I started paying about 4% more after switching to this supplier.

Around the same time, I started changing all the light bulbs to CFLs. Now, there are about 30 CFLs around the house and increase in my electricity bill is more than offset. After taking an inventory of light bulbs, I realized that another 2 dozen bulbs need replacing. I had no idea that there were so many light bulbs in the house. Placed an order for 30 more CFLs. This should take care of our lighting needs for a long time. The estimated lifespan for CFL is about 5 years.

On Saturday, Adit turned two and half years old.

I think the last progress report I wrote was on his second birthday. In the last 6 months, Adit has grown by leaps and bounds. I am going to categorize his progress in different categories that his teachers use:

• Gross motor skills:
  
  
  
  • Adit can run around without tripping. He even manages uphill and downhill slopes very well.
  
  
  • Adit can jump and gets both his feet in the air. He can jump down from heights and balances on his feet as he lands.
  
  
  • He can now somersault. Sometimes it works perfectly and other times, he goes on the side.
  
  
  • Adit can ride a tricycle. He mostly uses his feet to push on the ground to move forward, but lately, he has started to use peddles.
  
  
  • He likes to play on the playset in the backyard. He climbs up on the ladder to go down a slide all by himself. Sits in the swing properly but, needs help in pushing.
  
  
  • One of the things we were hoping he would not learn: Pushing little tables and chairs to get to things that are out of reach. But, he is doing that well, too.
  
  
  
  








• Fine motor skills:
  
  
  
  • Adit holds pen/pencil/crayon correctly to draw on paper. Knows how to draw lines and perfectly round circles.
  
  
  • He uses his fingers and other objects to spread the paint around and to make stamps on paper. We have been getting a lot more artwork from his school these days.
  
  
  • He likes playing with jigsaw puzzles. Finds the right matching shapes (and colors) and puts a few pieces together.
  
  
  • Adit turns pages of books properly without tearing.
  
  
  • As seen in photos below, he has finally figured out the art of bubble-blowing.
  
  
  
  








• Comprehension:
  
  
  
  • Adit likes reading books. He follows the story and answers question about it or fills in the gaps if asked.
  
  
  • He can differentiate letters from numbers but doesn't know the alphabets and can't count properly. He can recite the numbers from one to twenty, but doesn't know how to associate those with counting things.
  
  
  • Adit can recognize all the colors properly.
  
  
  • He likes watching Thomas, Dora, Diego, The Backyardigans, Blue's clues etc. on TV. Remembers phrases and songs from these shows as well as stories.
  
  
  
  








• Speaking skills:
  
  
  
  • Adit is becoming quite a chatterbox. His mouth is constantly busy talking except while eating which is his other favorite activity.
  
  
  • Thanks to his sister, Adit is learning a lot of big words and talks in big sentences. V was asking him to throw a band-aid that he had pulled off, in the trash. His answer was: "It is very very sticky and yucky. Maybe, you should pick it up and throw in the trashcan."
  
  
  • Just like Ashwini, he speaks clearly; no babytalk. There are very few words that he can't say properly. He has the same problem with some 'r's : just like Ashwini.
  
  
  
  








• Eating skills: (not used by his teachers)
  
  
  
  • Adit eats just about everything except boiled veggies that his sister adores so much. The only outlier is edamame. He likes eating those.
  
  
  • Pasta, Sandwiches, and Indian dishes like Khichdi, Upma, Pohe are his favorites. Finely chopped vegetables in these dishes are allowed but, a bowl of steamed beans are left untouched if we are lucky. Mostly, the end up on the floor under the table.
  
  
  • He loves bananas, pears, applesauce and oranges. Recently, he started eating apples, too. Grapes are hit or miss.
  
  
  • All milk products are his favorites: He can live on milk, cheese and yogurt.
  
  
  • Other than chicken nuggets, he doesn't like to eat any meat offered at school.
  
  
  • When V and I eat dinner, Adit eats from our plates and the spices don't bother him at all.
  
  
  
  

Partial Analemma.

Click to see a bigger version.

As the Earth makes its trek around the Sun, due to the inclination of Earth's axis, different parts of Earth get exposed to varying amount of sunshine during the changing day/night cycles and seasons happen. The position of Sun in the sky keeps changing all through the year. A curve representing this change throughout the year is called 'analemma'.

This photo shows the Sun on or around the important dates: the Winter and Summer Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Last December, I started capturing the Sun's position in the sky at the same time of the day. I don't have a full analemma yet and it may take a couple of years to get a complete one due to cloudy skies and my naptime on weekends. As I started this experiment, I didn't know if I was framing the photo correctly as I wanted to capture both the ends of this curve in the same frame. As it turned out, the framing was alright. Both the Solstices are covered in the photo. Now, I just have to work on getting enough photos at an uniform interval.

Kids await very eagerly for warm weather as they both love blowing bubbles. Cold temperatures are not good for this purpose. Ashwini is a champion bubblemaker while Adit is still learning the craft. He gets more misses than hits. I tried taking a photo of him but, every time I took a picture he wasn’t successful and finally he wanted the camera, so I gave up on the idea of capturing him in a pose similar to Ashwini’s.

As always, click on the photo to see a bigger version.

Click for bigger version.

As we got out of the house this morning, we spotted this huge turkey vulture sitting on our neighbor's roof. Its wingspan must have been about 5 to 6 feet. Adit and Ashwini were thrilled to see it at such a close distance. It wasn't phased by all the noise we were making and just sat there warming its back and wings. It flew away after I brought my camera from inside and took a few photos.

Stop the presses…. Adit just peed in the potty! Another year and we’ll be diaper-free. Yeay!!!

Ashwini and I were lounging on the couch the other day. I was reading “Sky and Telescope” and she was finishing off her last book of sudoku puzzles.

Ash: Daady, did you know that my friend x*** doesn’t have any boys at her home? Me: How come? Ash: x*** has two mommies and two grandmas; no daddy or brother. Me: Does she like that? Ash: Oh yes! She loves her mommies and I think it would be fun with no boys in the house.

I knew about this girl who joined Ashwini’s class a few months ago, but I didn’t want to ask her any questions. I was waiting for her to talk about her new friend. It is very nice that children at Ashwini’s age are getting exposed to these concepts of different family structures, before they form prejudices just from hearing things from others. It is also very commendable how her teachers have handled this issue in the classroom. I have a few gay and lesbian friends at work and outside. If and when we meet them socially with their significant others, I am glad that Ashwini surely won’t be surprised.

Ashwini always likes to ride the "Merry-go-round". This photo was taken on last weekend at Hoffman Playland in Latham, NY. I like her expression and how camera panning worked out nicely. Click on the photo to view a bigger version.

Adit has decided to address me as ‘Father’ over the last few days. Whenever he does that, I start to think my name is…. धोंडो भिकाजी कडमडेकर and my mind slips into these memories of…
शंकरया, शरी, आप्पा भिन्गार्डे, केशर मडगावकर, नानू सरंजामे, मद्रासी राम, मुख्याध्यापिका सरोज खरे (आपली), जीवनाचं आरसपानी दर्शन, इत्यादी इत्यादी