Hurricane Spin Art

What you see here is not another doppler image of the hurricane.  This is spin-art, something we decided to have some fun with this afternoon, as the weather outside is somewhat scary.  This is the moment we were anticipating, when a spinning tropical storm named Irma would strike North Georgia.

A perfect distraction to the outside weather was this Tinker Crate project we made using the supplies given.

Madison and Daddy put together the electronics and the structure of the thing, and then we got it spinning.  Madison tried the first one, and it turned out pretty good!  Here's her first attempt now:

Inspired, she tried several more, creating different styles and images using the ink dropped onto the spinning surface.  Here's one of her efforts here:

This actually looks like the doppler radar of Georgia today.  Literally the entire state is covered by Irma, which used to be a hurricane, but is now a tropical storm.  

Nana got into the act as well, giving it a try.  She and Ba-Ba came here to escape the wrath of Irma, but I suspect we got the worst part of it actually here in North Georgia.  The trees bent and the wind howled - it was the strongest sort of storm we've ever seen here.  Meanwhile, here was Nana's accomplishment, something you'll soon see at a museum of art:

But Nana wasn't the only artist on hand!  Ba-Ba was there to give it a try as well.

Carefully, he was dropping the ink in, joining Madison at the spin-art table.  We stayed together indoors today, ready for the power to go out (although the spin art machine ran on battery power - no worries there!).  We played the Ratatouille themed Uno game, and made the best of a fairly tumultuous day of weather.  Here's Ba-Ba's creation:

Hurricane Irma has been on everyone's radar for some time now, this nation collectively watching it with a wary eye, even while Hurricane Harvey was dealing its damage to Texas and Louisiana.  By this time in a few days, the hurricane will be completely gone, outside of the tremendous rainfall these things tend to bring.  Currently, the storm here is very violent.  Listening to social media, there are many friends and family here in the area without power.  Ours has flickered from time to time, but never really completely gone out.  Here's Daddy's creation with the spin-art, something you'll see soon at the High Museum.

If you'd like to buy this, it'll cost you $400,000.  It's somewhat of a period piece, something you'd see from the late 60's or early 70's.  I love how the top half didn't get paint on it, and yet the bottom did.  It's because Daddy was using very tiny drops of paint that didn't last that long.  It just so happened that they all fell to the same side, I guess.

And here's Mommy's, which sort of reminds us of the sun, something we'll hopefully see again soon.

The spin-art helped pass the time today.  Madison had off of school, as did most kids in Georgia.  We're all waiting it out to see what will happen, to see what is safe and not so much.  In fact, the determination for Forsyth is that we're out of school tomorrow too.  Colleges and universities were out, as were some businesses.  It's that serious.  Even ballet was cancelled tonight.  That's when you know it's real.

So we stayed home.  Madison and Daddy watched "Kiki's Delivery Service," another notch in the Miyazaki belt, and one themed with this time of year.  Madison enjoyed this one, although not as much as "Totoro" or "Spirited Away."

Afterwards, we had a really good proper tea party.  With the Brits in the house, that being Nana at the moment, it was essential to do the tea right.  We accomplished this mission, and the five of us enjoyed a spot of tea today, a real tempest and teapot sort of scenario.

It was a memorable day.  It was Madison's first tropical storm, and obviously that isn't necessarily something to celebrate so much.  But we had fun today, riding the storm out together.