Steve and Judy's Travels!

I don’t know why, but I got to thinking about congressional districts.  As the populations of each state change, states get allocated more or less votes in congress so that every voter in the country gets equal representation.  With every new census, if the number of representatives changes for a state, the state has to redraw districts so that each district represents roughly the same number of voters.  Don’t want to have a thousand voters in one district getting a representative, and then ten thousand voters in a different district, still getting only one representative.  It all makes sense.

It is up to each state to determine how to redraw their districts, but there are guidelines from the National Conference of State Legislatures for redrawing congressional districts fairly.  This is a clip of the major points.

Pick a state at random, like say, Iowa.  It’s a simple rectangular state.  It could easily accommodate the first three concepts listed above of compactness, contiguity, and preservation of counties; and it appears that it does.

One might quibble over which counties on the district borders should go with which districts, especially between districts 1 and 4.  Maybe they had to draw that ragged line just to make sure each district had the same number of voters.  Maybe not.  But overall, this map might be in alignment with the guidelines.

So how about a look at Texas.

All districts are contiguous, that’s cool, but it’s obvious that the map leaves something to be desired in terms of compactness and preservation of county lines.  I’m looking particularly at where we live in Way South Texas.  It could easily be covered by one square or rectangular district.  Instead, it’s divided into three.  There is absolutely no pretense of drawing districts in a way that follows the guidelines of the National Conference of State Legislatures.  District 15, the one we live in, goes 250 miles north, all the way past San Antonio and is only a few miles wide, transecting multiple counties without encompassing them.  It is anything but compact.

Buzzing chattering little balls of energy!

I’ve found the world’s most perfect reusable water bottle.

It holds the same amount as a Dasani bottle, 500ml, about 17 ounces.

Lightweight.  It is about the same diameter as a Dasani bottle, so it fits in a back pocket.  (One in each back pocket for a longer hike.)  It doesn’t have any plastic flavor like those old Nalgene bottles we used to backpack with.  It is BPA-free, so it shouldn’t poison us.  It’s not made out of metal, so it doesn’t clank against teeth or taste like metal.  It’s not insulated, so we get the most capacity without any wasted space.  It has a nice tight seal on the lid, so it doesn’t spill if it’s knocked over or stored on its side.  The lid pops open at the push of a button and it has a built-in drinking straw.

It’s everything nature intended a reusable water bottle to be!  We refill it with RO water at the sink, so any new single use Dasani water bottles are a thing of the past at our house.

First, Matt’s saltwater tank is awesome!  Rocks, corals, anemones, crabs, shrimp.  And fish.

Here it is in a video.

And second, Austin’s high school orchestra is amazing.

At the end, Austin is the kid with glasses in the middle standing up in the violin section on the left.

What a difference between middle school and high school!

The summertime grass is high.

Spotted a nighthawk perched on a branch.

Nicely camouflaged.  You can’t see him very well with the branches in front of him.

And a little blue heron camouflaged as a white bird.

All the youngster little blues are white and don’t turn that beautiful purple/blue until their second year.  Then they look like this.