2014-12-19

year end is here

2014 has not been my favorite of years. My mother-in-law passed away in the spring after a long battle with colon cancer. She was a sweetheart. I had the best conversation with her the night before she died . . . just her and me. I miss her. Since her passing, my wife and I have been caring for myfather-in-law. That could easily be a full-time job. He's not in good health and very demanding. We're all he has. We have to be there for him . . . as it should be.

My nephew [who was more like a brother when we were growing up] passed away about a month ago. I didn't see him often, but I miss him. He was a rough character until recent months. He mellowed a lot after he met his one-and-only. She kept him in line [which was a difficult task I am sure].

There have been other trying times throughout the year. Such is life. Some years are awesome, some years as time-fillers, and some years are difficult. To me the most important things in any year are God, family and friends. Good health, good job, and fun times all contribute to one's well-being also, but I think one of the things that brought joy to me the most this year was volunteering, helping others. My purpose in life is help make other people's lives better. In that respect, this has been a great year.

I wish you peace and joy and happiness and a spirit of giving in 2015.

2014-08-03

Some things I've done...or not

Here's a list of questions that someone sent me. If you're interested, answer and post to your own blog.

01. Start your own blog -- Yes, several.
02. Sleep under the stars -- Yes, many times. I love to camp and backpack. I recall sleeping under the stars one time in a town park in middle Tennessee and woke up the next morning with frost in my hair and eyebrows.
03. Play in a band -- No, but I managed a Led Zeppelin cover band back in the mid-seventies.
04. Visit Hawaii -- Yes, lived there for two years.
05. Watch a meteor shower -- Yes, several times. My family and I slept out under the stars, so we wouldn't miss a Leonid shower.
06. Give more than you can afford to charity -- Yes, and never looked back.
07. Go to Disney World -- Yes, several times.
08. Climb a mountain -- Yea, many times... in the Appalachians, the Rockies, the Cumberlands and the Ozarks.
09. Hold a praying mantis -- Yes.
10. Sing a solo -- One time when I was 16.
11. Bungee jump -- No. No interest in it either.
12. Visit Paris -- Not yet.
13. Watch a lightning storm at sea -- Not yet.
14. Teach yourself an art technique -- Many times.
15. Adopt a child -- No.
16. Eat sushi -- No.
17. Walk to the top of the Statue of Liberty -- Not yet.
18. Grow your own vegetables -- Yes.
19. See the Mona Lisa in France -- No.
20. Sleep on an overnight train -- No.
21. Have a pillow fight -- Yes.
22. Hitch hike -- Yes, but not in recent years. Times have changed too much.
23. Look at the rings of Saturn through a telescope -- Yes.
24. Build a snow fort -- Yes.
25. Hold a lamb -- No.
26. Climb to the top of a lighthouse -- Yes, several times.
27. Run a Marathon -- No.
28. Ride in a gondola in Venice -- No.
29. See a total eclipse -- Yes.
30. Watch a sunrise or sunset -- Yes.
31. Hit a home run -- No.
32. Go on a cruise -- No.
33. See Niagara Falls in person -- Yes.
34. Visit the birthplace of your ancestors -- Some of them.
35. Visit an Amish community -- No, driven through several but never stopped to visit...yet.
36. Teach yourself a new language -- I tried to teach myself Cherokee. Learned some but not enough.
37. Have enough money to be truly satisfied -- No, but I'm pretty content.
38. See the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person -- No.
39. Go rock climbing -- I've gone rappelling, but not rockclimbing.
40. See Michelangelo's David -- No.
41. Sing karaoke in public -- Yes.
42. See Old Faithful geyser erupt in person -- No.
43. Buy a stranger a meal at a restaurant -- Yes, I used to do that every Thursday. I should start that again.
44. Visit Africa -- No.
45. Walk on a beach by moonlight -- Yes.
46. Ride in a helicopter -- No.
47. Have your portrait painted -- No.
48. Go deep sea fishing -- No.
49. See the Sistine Chapel in person -- No.
50. Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris -- No.
51. Go scuba diving or snorkeling -- No.
52. Kiss in the rain -- Yes.
53. Play in the mud -- Yes!
54. Watch a movie at a drive-in theater -- Yes.
55. Be in a movie -- No, but I was in the background of one scene of Hawaii Five-O in the seventies.
56. Visit the Great Wall of China -- Not yet.
57. Start a business -- Yes.
58. Take a martial arts class -- No.
59. Visit Russia -- No.
60. Serve meals at a soup kitchen -- Yes.
61. Sell Girl Scout cookies -- Yes, both my daughters were Girl Scouts and my wife a GS leader.
62. Go whale watching -- Yes.
63. Get or send flowers for no reason -- Yes.
64. Donate blood, platelets or plasma -- No.
65. Go sky diving -- Not yet.
66. Visit a Nazi Concentration Camp -- No.
67. Adopt a pet from a rescue shelter -- Yes.
68. Pilot an airplane -- No, but I did sit in the co-pilot's seat on one small-jet flight from Memphis to Tulsa.
69. Save a favorite childhood toy -- No!
70. Visit the Lincoln Memorial -- Yes.
71. Eat Caviar -- No!
72. Make a quilt -- No.
73. Stand in Times Square -- No.
74. Tour the Everglades -- Yes.
75. Visit the Viet Nam Memorial -- Yes.
76. See the Changing of the Guard in London -- No.
77. Drive a race car -- No.
78. Ride on a speeding motorcycle -- Yes.
79. See the Grand Canyon in person -- Yes.
80. Publish a book -- Yes, sort of. I illustrated a book that was a collaboration between me and one of my high school teachers. It was published, but under his name. I am writing several books that I hope to publish some day.
81. Visit the Vatican -- No.
82. Buy a brand new car -- Yes.
83. Walk in Jerusalem -- Not yet.
84. Have your picture in the newspaper -- Yes.
85. Read the entire Bible -- Not as one continuous goal.
86. Visit the White House -- No.
87. Kill and prepare an animal for eating -- Yes.
88. Hike the Appalachian Trail -- Not all at once, but I have hiked many sections of it on many occasions.
89. Save someone's life -- No.
90. Sit on a jury -- Almost.
91. Meet someone famous -- Yes, Bono, Aerosmith and Nelson Mandela.
92. Join a book club --Yes.
93. Own an iPod -- Yes.
94. Have a Facebook page -- Yes.
95. See the Alamo in person -- Yes.
96. Swim in the Great Salt Lake -- No.
97. Cross country snow ski -- No.
98. Hold a snake -- Yes.
99. See DaVinci’s Starry Night in person -- Yes.
100. Read an entire book in one day -- Yes, I love to read. I've read several books in one day...not all of them in one day, rather several books on different one-days.

If any of you should be inspired to answer these questions, copy and paste this into the comments section of this blog or into your own and change my answers to your own and let me know...I'd love to read your answers!

2014-05-18

the trail . . .

the hiker slowly falls behind the others
inching his way across the mountain peak
toward the day’s destination
ten miles hence.
it is peaceful here
walking among the blackberries
ripened by the late spring sun
and eaten by hungry black bears.
the hiker stops to adjust his pack
and takes a drink of tepid water
from the nalgene bottle
which hangs at his side.
white blazes mark the trail
beckoning the hiker to follow
as he quietly sings to himself
a song that has been trapped in his head.
over the peak and down
into the gap the hiker travels
greeted by the rushing waters
of a rocky brook,
shaded by a canopy of laurels.
he sits on the edge of the water
to remove his boots and socks
before he fords the stream.
the hiker is compelled
to sit for a while
feet dangling in the icy waters
of this swiftly-moving mountain brook.

-- Mike Baldwin aka:argon[one]

2014-05-10

nahum 1:7

The LORD is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him.

New American Standard Bible

2014-04-28

are we alone?

This question is as old as humankind itself. For millennia, people have turned their eyes to the stars and wondered if there are others like themselves out there.  

Does life, be it similar to our own or not, exist elsewhere in our Solar System? Our Galaxy? Until 1992, when the first exoplanet was confirmed, it was uncertain whether there were even any planets outside those in our own Solar System. Today we know of over 900 planets around other stars and thousands of planet candidates. Do any of these planets have conditions that would support life? What conditions favor the formation of terrestrial-class planets in developing planetary systems? NASA can help address these questions by developing missions designed to find and characterize extrasolar planetary systems.

Before we can determine if there are other planetary systems capable of supporting life, we must first find them. NASA Science pursues this goal by supporting a focused suite of ground-based observations through the Kepler mission, a space-based observatory which studied the prevalence (how many there are per star) of extrasolar planets, and through the development of the TESS mission which will use an array of telescopes to perform an all-sky survey to discover transiting exoplanets ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants.


-- NASA Science [Astrophysics]

2014-04-26

the beach . . .

the boy sits on the beach
near the edge of the water
arms on his knees
starring at white caps and puffy clouds

cold salt water
rushing in with the tide
tickling his legs
finding its way back into the ocean

tiny effervescent bubbles
bursting all around his
sand covered feet
inhabited shells burrowing into the wet sand

blazing sun beating down upon his back
sweat glistening on his
golden brown shoulders
as a gentle breeze caresses his face

a single gull drifts by
riding on the wings of the breeze
as the cerulean ocean
blends into the sky at the edge of his vision.

-- Mike Baldwin aka:argon[one]

2014-04-13

my mother, bless her heart

Let me start this post by saying . . . if you have been following ArgonOne for a while, you know that I used to actually blog here. Not just a photo and move on, I used to tell you my thoughts for the day. Then life got busy and I stopped posting so much. My favorite time online was the early days of ArgonOne. Well I'm ready to get back to writing. Probably not a daily post, but regular posts at least. I hope you will follow along.

My mother, bless her heart, is 96 years old. She has advanced dementia. On a good day she can remember my sister's name for a while. My oldest sister takes care of her full time. It's a task taking care of my mother. She is quiet and fragile [about 70 pounds]. She gets up in the middle of the night, quiet as a mouse, to go to the bathroom. Sometimes she forgets where the bathroom is, or why she got up in the first place. My sister sleeps lightly. By the time my mother's little feet hit the floor, my sister is there to make sure she doesn't fall and to help her if she gets confused.

I love my mother. She's my hero. I don't get to see her nearly enough. I live 10 hours away. Last weekend my daughters [along with their fellows] and I drove to visit her. On the first day she knew me! She knew my daughters [her granddaughters]! I could tell she really knew us because she was smiling so big. Even here eyes were smiling. She gave us great big hugs and told us how great it was to see us. On the second day she didn't know anyone. She had a far-away look in her eyes when we went in to visit and we knew she didn't have a clue who we were.

It was good to be with my mother, even when she could not remember me. She seems content and happy. She doesn't have a care in the world. She eats well. She sleeps well. When this whole dementia thing started about five years ago, she lost her short-term memory. She would worry about everything. She worried about losing her purse, even though it would be sitting right beside her. She worried about when she was going to have dinner, even though she had eaten only 10 minutes earlier. It was frightening sad to see her going through so much mental anguish. I wish we had our pre-dementia mother back, but we don't. We never will. Even though she may not know me, I know her. I love her. I miss her. I pray for her every day . . . many times every day. I don't know how long God will allow us to have her with us, but she has been an awesome mother. Strong. Loving. Faithful. Wise. Caring. Our rock. Our fortress. My hero.

I love you mom!

2014-01-14

the best prospects for life in our solar system

At the February MAGS meeting, I will be taking you on a journey through our solar system and beyond. The main focus of my presentation, “Hitchhikers Guide to the Solar System”, will be astrogeology–the structure and composition of our closest neighbors in space. During my research for the presentation, I thought a lot about which members of our space community might harbor some form of life. Not life as we know it [breathing, thinking, intelligent, spirit-filled beings], but the building blocks of life. Rudimentary organisms.

Other than our very own blue marble, Earth, the best prospects for life on other heavenly bodies in our solar system might be Mars, Europa, Titan, Enceladus, Io, and Jupiter. Of course life as we know it cannot exist on any of these bodies. Mars is the most Earth-like of all the planets and it was even more Earth-like eons ago. Recent evidence of water on the red planet indicates that it had a very different past than the images and data we have collected in recent years. 

Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter, almost certainly has liquid water beneath it’s icy surface. I recently watched an interesting and very speculative movie called “The Europa Report” about a team of astronauts whose mission was to explore the surface of Europa. The film was very reminiscent of “2001: A Space Odyssey”, evocative of what could be. Who knows what lies beneath the icy surface of Europa. Another moon of Jupiter, Io, has a very complex chemistry, which causes it to be much warmer than most other bodies in the outer solar system. Io is the fourth largest moon in the solar system. With over 400 active volcanoes, it is also the most geologically active object in the solar system. Io’s surface is dotted with more than 100 mountains that have been uplifted from the base of it’s silicate crust. Could there be a unique form of life dwelling on or beneath Io’s silicate rocks and sulfur plains? Jupiter itself might be a long shot candidate for life. It is a warm planet with plenty of organic material. A thick, hydrogen gas atmosphere makes it difficult to determine where atmosphere ends and planet begins. Composition of 78% of the planet is metallic hydrogen. Sandwiched between the hydrogen atmosphere and this molten surface lies a band of clouds, some composed of ammonia and some composed of water. Amino acids, basic building blocks of life, could be part of this cloud layer.


Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, has been described as a planet-like moon. It is primarily composed of water ice and rocky material. In 2004, the Cassini-Huygens probe discovered hydrocarbon lakes in Titan’s polar regions. Climate similar to that on Earth [including wind and rain] create surface features similar to those on our planet, such as dunes, rivers and lakes [although the lakes contain liquid methane and ethane rather than water]. It has been suggested that life on Titan might use liquid hydrocarbon, such as methane or ethane, in much the same way we use liquid water. Perhaps five billion years from now, when our sun becomes a red giant and ultraviolet output decreases, Titan could be transformed into an Earth-like habitat.


Enceladus, the sixth-largest moon of Saturn seems to have liquid water beneath its icy surface. Cryovolcanoes at the south pole shoot large jets of water vapor and some solid NaCl particles into space. Some of this water falls back to the surface. Some of it becomes part of the rings of Saturn. Because of this apparent water at or near the surface, Enceladus may be the best place for humans to look for extraterrestrial life.None of the planets and moons that I have mentioned here are very good prospects for life and there are great arguments that life cannot exist on any of them. Could there be life on other planets, orbiting other suns, in some far distant corner of the galaxy? Your guess is as good as mine. The only things of which we can be certain are that we don’t know and we need to seek more evidence.