New High School & Return to SUMMER!

Almost 4 years after being broken in "our" 5.8 magnitude earthquake, the new, much improved Louisa County High School welcomed back students this week to lovely weather and rave reviews. There was and will continue to be a little shock from the many steps but mostly it was smiles and dreamy looks of amazement. Earth rules: Adapt, Migrate or Die were on full display as students, teachers, staff and parents all adapted to our migration to the new school; where is my class, who's my teacher, look at all these new faces, steps again, where's the bathroom, how do I get to the cafeteria and lots of, "hey, great to seeya, how about this school". So many firsts still to come, first pep rally where we all fit in the gym,  first band concert, first choral and theatre productions, so many, "I didn't know this was here..", OMG!!  We are still a little star struck and there are many bugs, kinks, issues to work out (the building has only been legal a week) but the smiles far outweigh to frowns.
In Earth news, the weather for the opening was a taste of fall, mornings in the 50's, low humidity and sunny warm afternoons but that is changing ('cuz that's all there is…) and both the temperature and humidity will continue to sneak upward because we are still have 5 weeks of the summer season left.  The trough or dip in the jet stream, that big high altitude wind that does so much to determine/drive our weather, will retreat north this week and that means the southern air returns to the mid-Atlantic (much of the rest of the country has been locked in with heat and humidity for some time). A hot, muggy week is coming with no quenching tropical systems on the horizon.
A powerful El Nino is building as warm water in the western Pacific sloshes eastward and while that may bring rain, and later snow, to California and the burning west it likely will not be a gentle rain but deluge after deluge triggering flooding and massive mud slides for this fall and winter and into next spring. El Nino's depress hurricanes in the Atlantic basin and that seems to be what's happening this summer with none in the satellite views. The planet is warming and bigger, more powerful storms and wilder swings in weather were forecast, 50-60 years ago, and still big business, driven only by short term greed, force/push/buy off an inept, re-election driven Congress to do nothing, or even less than nothing. Human influenced or not, Earth is warming and while there are proactive communities, businesses, and countries planning for future sea level rises our "leaders" fiddle as Earth cooks. And, the planet doesn't care! We ought to, for our kids and grandkids, for a much different future that is coming.
A 6.6 quake rattled the Solomon Isles today, not uncommon there and Oklahoma, now broken but fracking greed, also continues to shake on. The week's equake list wouldn't load for me so not sure what went on world-wide this week; lots of quakes, the earth shimming and shaking, adjusting, mostly along plate collision and expansion zones would be my guess. The volcano list is down a bit this week and Mexico's Colima seems to be the most troublesome on the short list but even it is taking a break.
The Perseid meteor showers was in the news all week and put on quite the show, the sky darkened for fine viewing by the lack of  by moon, our satellite passing between the Earth and Sun late yesterday morning. Watch for a thin crescent moon to return to the early evening sky maybe tonight but certainly tomorrow, but no planets to dance with until it passes by Saturn on the 22nd at a right angle to the Earth/Sun as first quarter moon. Venus is at inferior conjunction today, passing between the Earth and sun (although above or below not directly between - still 100+ years before that happens again) and is certainly not visible. By month's end it will be ahead of the sun in the pre-dawn sky and a bright beacon, the morning star.
Today's pictures are from the new LCHS, Emily P. and her amazing locker and some fisheye looks at 3 of my 4 new classes - I need to get closer to the classes, it's a fisheye lens.

Emily and her locker, notice the disco ball, lit at the top.

 1stH (above) and 3rd (below)

 4th block (below) I moved closer with camera!!