Terrible Grand Canyon movie

I went to see an IMAX movie with people at work. I thought it was supposed to be on the Grand Canyon, instead it was about the Colorado River and why it was at risk. Oh, and the movie was crap.

One of the major points they made about the river was that it was terrible how low the water level is going because of drought. Of course the drought is being caused by global warming. Then 10 minutes later they talk about a Native American tribe that stored water from the river. The tribe was wiped out when they had a 50 year drought. So when the Native Americans ran into problems it was mother nature, when it happens to us, it's our fault.

If that were the only faux pas, I might have let it pass. But they went on to talk about the dams on the river. First they talked about the Glen Canyon dam (which they just called the grand canyon dam) and Lake Powell. Then they went on to talk about the Hoover dam, saying it was built in the 60s. Just a little bit of effort would have corrected this problem, putting the right dam in the right decade.

And apparently engineers are evil. So are dams, since they only provide abundant clean energy and prevent flooding. Oh, and they make the water nice and clear by letting the sediment settle out. BUt apparently clear water is a bad thing (although they never explained why that might be, except to say that it was how the river got its name, which also wasn't explained).

They also showed before and after pictures of what the river looked like when it was first explored, then finding the places and taking new pictures. So the result was a sandbar disappeared (which given the 80 years between pictures was likely inevitable because that the sort of things sandbars do), and the other picture showed a lot of plants. Apparently when the river still flooded it killed all the plants (although in fairness the type of plant that was shown was a non-native species, so maybe a bit of biblical cleansing would be a good thing).

Anyway, the three minutes of factual, and perhaps useful, information hidden in the movie were completely submerged in garbage. Oh, and the information/misinformation was further submerged against in the story of a writer writing about the Colorado river and taking a rafting trip with his daughter. Because apparently in 40 years there won't be a Colorado river anymore.

Busy Weekend

Last Friday I had a meeting down in Virginia, and another meeting scheduled for Monday. Rather that make two trips, I went down for the entire weekend. Of course, I had other reasons for staying the entire weekend.

My friend Carrie got married on Saturday. Hi Carrie! She was lucky enough to schedule her wedding on the day tropical storm Hanna blew through town. So there were quite a few wet guests at the wedding, but in spite of that a great time was had by all. Also, the DJ at least had a sense of humor about the wedding, since the first song at the reception was "Rock you like a hurricane."

So, my new look, bearded with a shaved head, was sufficient disguise to prevent Carrie's family from recognizing me. Of course, it had been a few years since I'd seen any of them, aside from Carrie. But, it was enough to cause one of the guests sitting at my table at the reception to comment to her friend that I reminded her of her friend's father. The bald head and facial hair and an apparently distinguished look. Oh, and apparently he looks good for his age.

One, really disappointing aspect of the storm, was that I didn't get to take White's Ferry. I could have, but I figured taking a ferry across a river in a tropical storm, might not be the best option. Although it wouldn't actually have saved much time anyway, since it takes miles of backroads to get there, compared to miles of interstate.

I also got to spend some quality time with my dad this weekend. After work Friday, I drove to his house, and then Dad, Tracy and I went out to dinner. Saturday morning we got a chance to do some bonding over breakfast and then watching Monk and Psych.

Not to take anything away from the wedding, or bonding with my dad... The most exciting part of the weekend was getting a call from my sister. I had literally just walked in the door of my father's house when she called to tell me that she'd had her baby! Veronica Marie Bartholomay is the newest member of the family, and absolutely precious. Of course, I've already decided I'm going to call her "Nica" because I'm going to be the cool uncle. And I have a lot of competition on Roger's side, or at least competitors.