{"id":2770,"date":"2025-08-17T13:02:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T20:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/numberthoughts.ebydurbin.net\/?p=2770"},"modified":"2025-08-17T13:02:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T20:02:35","slug":"ice-in-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/numberthoughts.ebydurbin.net\/?p=2770","title":{"rendered":"Ice in August"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A couple of days ago there was a scheduled power outage in our neighborhood. PG&E were replacing a power pole up the street, and they indicated that our power might be out for up to eight hours. To ensure our fridge stayed cool without power, we froze a couple of large bowls of water the previous night, then left them in the fridge in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the power came back on, we dumped the blocks of ice in the sink, and it got me thinking. It’s August, in Santa Cruz, and I’ve got a big block of ice that I’m just letting melt in my sink. One hundred years ago I would have put it into my icebox<\/u><\/a>, to save me having to buy it from the local iceman. Two hundred years ago I would have been surprised to have a block of ice at this time of year. In theory, a sailing ship coming down from Alaska may have brought some. Or maybe someone carried winter ice from the Sierras into local underground storage; unlikely but possible. Three hundred years ago, the existence of ice here at this time of year would have been a miracle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are different ways of measuring the length of human history. I’ll use the Neolithic Revolution<\/u><\/a>, which marks the development of agriculture, as the starting point of human civilization. This occurred about 10,000 BCE, or 120 centuries ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Centuries ago<\/strong><\/td>Reaction to block of ice in August in Santa Cruz<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
120<\/td>Inconceivable<\/td><\/tr>
119<\/td>Inconceivable<\/td><\/tr>
118<\/td>Inconceivable<\/td><\/tr>
117 – 5<\/td>Inconceivable<\/td><\/tr>
4<\/td>Inconceivable<\/td><\/tr>
3<\/td>Inconceivable<\/td><\/tr>
2<\/td>Extremely unlikely<\/td><\/tr>
1<\/td>Unsurprising, but useful<\/td><\/tr>
0<\/td>Meh, let it melt<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Of course, there are hundreds of examples of how humans adapt to change and then take it for granted, many at a much faster rate than this. This one just struck me because it was physically tangible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of days ago there was a scheduled power outage in our neighborhood. PG&E were replacing a power pole up the street, and they indicated that our power might be out for up to eight hours. To ensure our fridge stayed cool without power, we froze a couple of large bowls of water the … Continue reading Ice in August<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123017812,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jeff Eby","author_link":"https:\/\/numberthoughts.ebydurbin.net\/?author=123017812"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcRTZu-IG","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/numberthoughts.ebydurbin.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/numberthoughts.ebydurbin.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/numberthoughts.ebydurbin.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/numberthoughts.ebydurbin.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123017812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/numberthoughts.ebydurbin.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2770"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/numberthoughts.ebydurbin.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2779,"href":"https:\/\/numberthoughts.ebydurbin.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2770\/revisions\/2779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/numberthoughts.ebydurbin.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/numberthoughts.ebydurbin.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/numberthoughts.ebydurbin.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}