The uses of arithmetic. Capturing family history. Our cats.

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The recent Russian attack on Odessa destroyed 60,000 tons of grain bound for China.  That's a big number.  What does it mean?  What's the human impact?

It calls for a little arithmetic.  The stuff Eddie is learning.

Per the Internet, wheat weighs about 800 kg/m3.  That makes sense.  One ton is a thousand kilograms, and water weighs one ton per cubic meter.  You knew that much already.  Right?  So, wheat weighs .8 tons per cubic meter.

Therefore, 60,000 tons /.8 = 75,000 cubic meters. 

Hmmm.  How big is that?  The cube root of 75000 is about 42.  It would be a cube 42 meters, or 140 feet, on a side.  That is only somewhat easier to visualize.  Let's go further.  My house is about 1000 cubic meters from the slab to the rafters.  The grain the Russians destroyed would fill 75 houses the size of mine floor to ceiling.  That you might be able to imagine.  Or, to use a more common comparison, it would fill 20 Olympic sized swimming pools.

All right.  How much food is it?

Everybody knows (right?) that the average human needs about 2,000 calories of food per day, and that grain has about 4 calories per gram.  One kilogram of grain is enough to feed somebody for two days.  Very approximately.

So, one ton of wheat would feed a person for 2,000 days, or 5.5 years.  60,000 tons would be enough to feed 60,000*5.5 = 330,000 people for a year.  Or China's entire population for half an hour.

That's what the Russians blew up this one time, in this one city.  The total carnage, in food destroyed, stolen, and not grown on account of the Russians is indeed considerable. The total tonnage is given periodically in the news media. I'm taking a note to translate that into human terms next time I see it.

Our neighbors, Gennady and his wife Valya, live here only in summer. Their house is active – Gennady is only a couple of years older than me but already several times a great-grandfather. As the song said, doing what comes naturally. I could wish that my life's path had been so uncomplicated.

Grandfather Sasha is occupied these days cutting apples to be dried into what we call sushka.  All winter long we can make compote by boiling them.

Eddie loves to talk, and he is a good listener.  Sasha tells him the story of his life, bit by bit.  Yesterday Eddie learned that when Sasha was in the Air Force his job was to affix the nuclear warheads to missiles. I told Eddie that I am going to buy him a handheld voice recorder, so he can dictate his grandfather's stories. I installed Dragon NaturallySpeaking 16 on Eddie's new computer and mine, so we are both somewhat more productive. Now is the time to use it.

When they are here, Gennady and Valya feed the cats. I suspect that they feed them pretty well, because in the summer the cats are far less interested in the cheap dry food that I buy to put out for them. Somewhere on their property the cats retreat to have kittens. Here is a picture of the fourth or fifth generation to appear since we moved in a decade ago.

The cats are rather shy. The adults will tolerate being petted while they are eating, but generally avoid getting too close to the people. I am sure that if we allowed them to become house cats that could change in a heartbeat.

House cats involve spaying, litter boxes, veterinarians and all that sort of stuff. I am perfectly happy to let them live their natural feline lives, begging for food, running away from dogs, and making kittens when they feel like it. It comes at a price. This mama cat showed up initially with four kittens, one of which we saw only once. I was expecting there would be three kittens when I grabbed my camera today, but it appears to be down to two. That's certainly enough to keep the cat population stable.

We occasionally find a dead mouse, and occasionally see a squashed rat in the street. We have found carcasses of big rats that the cats have obviously killed. We have not found the remains of birds that they have eaten. I doubt there is enough wildlife for the cats to live off the land. We are glad to feed them, let the kids observe their domestic lives, and glad that they keep the rats down. I wish there were some way to train them to go after moles.

The cats share their supper bowl with the hedgehogs. Nobody messes with those guys. Last night there was a big one right at the front door as I walked out. He disappeared into the vinca.  He stood still as I parted the vines enough to expose him.  He was patient as I stroked him a couple times. Hedgehogs fear for nothing. Sadly, the evidence in the streets is that they don't have an appropriate fear of cars. Though it is not a written bargain, cats also share with the crows and the magpies. The birds will fly into the cat bowl, grab a bite and fly away to eat it elsewhere.

That's the news from Lake WeBeGone, where the strong man just returned from bicycling to kindergarten with the girls. We had to bundle up –it's only about 62° after last night's thunderstorm. The forecast for today is 75° and sunny. What more could you ask for?

Graham