While we were on vacation this week, near Lake Anna, we experienced a test of the Nuclear Emergency Preparedness system. There's a nuke plant, that provides a decent sized chunk of the power consumption for the southern half of the Washington DC area there. 

I honestly can't explain what that it feels like, being on a beach enjoying the day when the nuke sirens start up. It was a bit like being in one of those 1980's cold-war disaster movies. And as surreal as that was, I promise it was for the best. Obviously it's for the best that they test them, but also that we were in public when they went off. 

My small scientific replica is nervous about things like alarms and emergency signals. And vehicles, and...lets just say there's a family history of nervousness I had a fairly good indication was coming before he was born. We deal, generally positively and without a lot of drama. 

There were probably sixty or so people on that beach with us, and other than the initial jump, none of them cared about the siren. The beach isn't much of a tourist area, it was at Lake Anna State Park, which I seriously recommend, if you ever happen to be in the area (I have literally no clue why you would be). So being surrounded by locals meant the parental units stayed calm about the insanely loud, jarring, faintly terrifying siren when it started. Being calm yourself makes it much easier to keep small people-like things calm too. 

Apparently this is a test they do the third Wednesday of every month at 12pm. Another good thing to know, if you're ever in the area. If the sirens go off times other than that, as my dear-husband and I said on the day, don't get your shit, just get out. 

Fun bit of trivia? I found this newspaper article that talks about a series of false alarms this particular system had, back in the 1980's. Apparently, once in a while, they just went off. Hehe. Cause that's totally not a problem, taking the time to call the radio station to see if you should be evacuating away from the nuclear power plant...

This aren't the exact kind of sirens used at Lake Anna, but I suspect they sound very similar.

Well-Written Wednesday and Sci-Fi Friday will happen over on The Art of Procrastination this week, in deference to the whole just back from vacation thing.

Today's Miscellaneous Monday is a collection of links. Because I came across this and thought I would share it all with you. It seems suitably random.

In 1997 a container ship called the Tokio Express lost a collection of containers when it was hit by a wave. Now, there's not generally any bright side to accidentally spilling twenty containers worth of stuff into the ocean. 

Except maybe a little when it's twenty containers of nautical themed Legos. 

I won't bore you with the details, the BBC did a much better job of it than I would have. You can find the article here.

I'd class that much better than the dead jellyfish I usually find along the beach. 

Lego Lost at Sea -- The Facebook, so you can track the phenomenon. As time wasters go, it's probably one of the better ones I've found lately. 

Because I'm being an over-achiever today. 

Random Fact #5385
The Armadillo is a primary carrier of Leprosy. Once, before European entrance into the new world, both the Armadillo's and the people were free of leprosy. 
This means...
Somewhere in the annals of history a Spaniard touched an Armadillo and it all went down-hill from there. 

Random Fact #5386
One of the most common ways for people to contract Leprosy? Eating Armadillo. If I could draw there would totally be a 'battle armored-pig' comic below this one. Cause it still gets you after it's dead.

Random Fact #5327
When startled, the nine-banded armadillo jumps three to four feet straight up. Get that image out of your head.

Random Fact #5390
The Nine-Banded Armadillo is the only mammal to have fully polyembryonic reproduction. This means every single time the girl Armadillo get's pregenant--and that's a set of facts for another time--she has four genetically identical offspring, all formed from the same egg but growing their own placenta and embryonic sack (do you call it an embryonic sack in mammals, or is that just chickens?). She will do this once a year for her entire adult life span. 

Is it any wonder they're slowly crawling their way north? 

And lastly...Behold, the Pink Fairy Armadillo.
What the heck.

This week's Miscellaneous Monday is just a giant run of my pictures from The Discovery of King Tut. I know, it's all vaca pics, but they're cool, and the exhibit is going to Cali next and staying there until like April 2015 so... Enjoy.

These are supposed to be reproductions of the things found in King Tut's tomb, made with actual museum grade materials and all that. 

Meet Messier Object number 104, better known as the Majestic Sombrero Galaxy.

Can we just take a minute to bask in that name? The Majestic Sombrero Galaxy. I know they don't name Galaxies the way people name planets (I'm not sure we even name planets like that anymore). Frequently they get named for the constellation they're in, or other identifying factors. But not that beauty up there. Nope, it's known as The Majestic Sombrero. 

If you happen to be interested, it was discovered by this guy on May 11, 1781. It's apparently possible to see it using an amateur telescope, which makes me want to drag the telescope back on the deck and look. I don't do this, because there's a high-school behind my house, the parking lot of which apparently needs to be visible from space, and I grew up in the mid-west where you don't borrow other people's fields without permission.

But somewhere, over our heads tonight, there is a Majestic Sombrero. I'm pretty okay with that. 

If you'd like more stats on Lovely M104, you can find them here.

I'm going to risk condemning us all to another few weeks of winter and call it spring. I slept with my window open last night and didn't wake up freezing, and that's good enough for me. 

I could blather on about how much I love spring, and all the things I plan to do, but I'm actually kind of partial of all the seasons in their own way. I like spring, but not more than I like winter or fall. I even like summer, for about two weeks before I'm tired of being hot. 

Spring is special, absolutely. Everything starts to grow again, and I can hear birds, and the light is yellow which--other than making it impossible for me to sleep for the first two weeks--I really appreciate. Sunlight in winter is too white, it doesn't feel like sunlight. I can't find it anymore, but I read something once about this being because of our angle to the sun, and the wave-lengths of light that gets through the atmosphere. 

It's still early spring, so it's a pale yellow, but in another week or two the cherry blossoms will be out, and the trees out behind my house will be a cacophony of bird noise, and the squirrels will re-discover their favorite pastime (i.e. torturing my cat through the screen door). 

And I feel like looking at pretty things, so I'm going to put a gallery down below with some of my favorite spring pictures. Hopefully it's more entertaining than making you all look at vacation pics.

Do any of you have special out-doorsy plans for this spring?