Old Kentucky Roads

Between 1980 and 2000 I took about 10,000 photos, most of which are prints and taking up a lot of room in my closets. So a mini-project to reduce and organize is underway. Target is to keep no more than 1,500 of these and digitize about 200.  

One category I came up with was “pictures with stories” but the stories are not too interesting. Here are a few examples.

In the early 80’s I found myself in Kentucky for a couple of days. I escaped as quickly as I could and these two pictures may explain my rush. Crossing a one lane rickety wooden bridge was a tad worrisome but to do so at 55 MPH was downright terrifying. And immediately T-ing into one lane dirt roads with no stop signs required courage that only alcohol and ample drugs provided. Fortunately we were well prepared for this trip. Note the dogs guarding the intersection.

Down this road there were several shacks of the like pictured. It wasn’t even clear they had electricity or phones (we saw no poles) and plumbing was outdoors, but they all did have state of the art satellite dishes. I had the impression these were provided by the state as some sort of rural improvement programs.  

On Kentucky tv we also saw (repeatedly) early ads for lawyers showing a sad looking couple on a very beat up couch in a very run down room and the wife was saying “the first time he got hurt at work we didn’t anything about it but the next time we called Earl Shie” while the husband just hung his head. I had the impression the goal of work in rural Kentucky was to hurt people.

At the time I was a young banker working for a small bank that no longer exists and is probably poorly remembered. Here I am looking handsome, and I was a much better looking banker than I was an actual banker. I’m with my boss Ed Baumann, who was one of the two best bosses I’ve had (for those counting, I’ve had 18 bosses of which 6 were down-right laughable and 4 pretty damn good).

And here are two of the bank’s “back room” staff: Nanette and Beth Anne. When hired I was told I was to make the back office staff happy and I greatly enjoyed the job until they clarified that I was to make their computer systems work better and thus make the staff happy, which was significantly less enjoyable than what I had been doing. Luckily the sexual harassment laws hadn’t yet been passed.

While I’m back in that time frame, here is my first tech boss, Pat O’Brien. Like they say about kindergarten, I learned almost everything I needed to learn about IT processes and sociology from Pat … or at least everything I was capable of learning.


So I'm half way through the photos and likely you'll read more of my silly little uneventful stories in the future.

Faults

We have lived within 2 miles of the San Andreas Fault for about 15 years and so last week when we decided to get away and see something different, we naturally visited other parts of the SAF.

We first headed to Pinnacles, which is a 23M year old volcano that had the misfortune to be born on top of the SAF near Los Angles. The SAF split the volcano into two and moved the western half 145 miles northwest where it sits just outside of Soledad and is now a National Monument. The eastern half remains near Los Angles, just south of Lake Elizabeth (the home of fearsome cat hating ducks) on private land and is mostly eroded away but you can identify rock features shared by the east and west half.

The west half, Pinnacles, is the nominal home of about half the wild condors in California, but we didn’t see any during our short hike to Balconies cave, which seemed to be closed due to rock falls, although the Park Rangers seem to think it is passable. The trail was littered with chestnuts … Colossal Chestnuts to be precise and they were quite large but as you are not supposed to hunt and gather in the Monument we left them lay.

As I had done the previous week on a walk near our home, I nearly trod on a small snake when I stopped to take a picture. We were not able to identify the first snake and because, as you know, any unidentified snake west of the Mississippi is called a rattlesnake, it was a narrow and lucky escape for me. I made a mistake of taking a picture of the Pinnacles snake which looked just like the first snake and later I found out it was a gopher snake, which isn’t nearly as good a story as rattlesnake. This time Cyndi said “everytime you stop there is a snake next to you” and I looked at her for a couple beats and said “Yes, I know”. She wasn’t terribly offended as she claims snakes are her power animal but she didn’t much care for the real snakes sunning in the paths.

The next day we went to the Carrizo Plain National Monument, which is maybe 75 or a 100 miles further south along the fault. Don’t worry, no one else has heard of it either. It is a quite lovely large and extremely arid area between a couple of small mountain ranges, about an hour east of Hwy 101 and an hour west of I-5. We where probably the only visitors that day and possibly for the week. When we first arrived, Motorcycle Dave immediately found us and spent about 15 minutes talking to us. Not so much listening tho. Dave has lived on the Plain for 30 years. There are not many people on the Plain and Dave was lonely. But not crazy, which was a relief.

Dave told us about the plans to build a huge solar panel array on the Plain and Dave wasn’t happy about it. From what I could tell, Dave was mostly upset about the visual impact the array would have but also talked about environmental impacts. He thought the environmental impacts could be better handled in the Central Valley and, well, nothing can diminish the beauty of the rather unbeautiful Central Valley.

Later we found the park ranger cleaning out the Education Building and asked her what the BLM thought about the solar panels. Her husband, helping her in the background, immediately adopted a warning-warning posture and kept repeating “No Comment. No Comment”. The ranger agreed the BLM had no comment and rather carefully talked about it. Her personal opinion was that the panels would be better off on the tops of buildings in the cities and had some environmental concerns but said it was mostly a not-in-my-backyard reaction.

The Plain has been the home to several previous failed solar projects. The Walton family (of WalMart fame) are behind the project and have had some success elsewhere. The Waltons have managed (or are attempting) to obtain stimulus money to guarantee the project … that is, there is virtually no risk for them but they would get any profits. I guess I object to this part.

Back to the Plain. In the center of the Plain is Soda Lake. There is no drainage out of the Plain and the couple inches of rain annually end up in Soda Lake where of course they evaporate and leave unusable salts and generally screw up the ground water. All the few residents of the Plain haul their water home from the Fire Station, which is managed by the county government and according to Motorcycle Dave, the county will cut off your water if you disagree with their policies, like approving solar projects. Motorcycle Dave seemed to have some first hand experience here.

Migratory birds use Soda Lake in the winter during the rains. The rains also bring wildflowers in the spring. The birds and wildflowers then bring visitors. The ranger explained we were actually in the pre-season and managed to do so without making us feel entirely stupid. She even gave us the Wildflower Watch web site and invited us back in March to see the flowers … that is, if they get some rain and it doesn’t get too cold.  

The San Andreas Fault lies on the eastern side of the Plain and is fairly obvious and in places dramatic. Scattered across the plain are generally failed homesteads and abandoned fields and weird non-functional artifacts. A couple of golden eagles chased kangaroo rats, who spent most of their time scurrying from hole to hole. Unseen redwing blackbirds warbled occasionally. A reflected Temblor range raced along side of us in a thin layer of water on top of the lower soda lake, contrasting interestingly with the otherwise very static scenery. A front was moving in and brought enough moisture to the upper atmosphere to make it a spectacular contrail day. Carrizo Plains has a beauty enhanced by contrails.

This ride from 101 to I5 is through some of the loveliest country in California with grasslands covering smooth folded rolling hillsides and yellowing willows tracing winding arroyos. A bit outside of Santa Margarita is either a retirement home for Hawaiian shirts or a grim warning for trespassing tourists. In McKittrick we got stopped by a road crew and as we were waiting we noticed the flagger’s truck had Hazardous Spill Response Team printed on the side.  We were about to turn and run away when we got flagged through. They were laying asphalt but it wasn’t clear if this was to cover a spill or if the truck did double duty. The road was in good shape and didn’t seem to need to be re-paved.

A few other random events from the trip

• We naturally started off seeing Olga and getting caffeinated. Olga talked about the large number of books they have at home and that they read much of the time. I asked what she read and she was a bit embarrassed, saying she was reading trash right now. When pressed, Olga said she was reading Somerset Maugham and all this endeared her even more to me.
• We ate at Dan’s The Grub Shack in Atascadero … very new, very small, very casual, inexpensive and very good food … I had the best chicken I ever ate. I wasn’t able to determine why the The is in the name. Dan and his wife are very (overly) friendly and eager.  Neither had heard of Carrizo Plains, which is only about an hour away and they thought it peculiar we were going there. People turn left slowly in Atascadero, painfully slow and not even that safely.
• In Soledad our former favorite Playa Azul has shut down, so we had lunch at the only non-fast food place we found open and it was better than anticipated. The staff was surprisingly competent and the greens where especially good, which should be expected in Salinas Valley but you don’t always get. The restaurant had strange acoustics: they had two radios and a tv playing, refrigeration noise, several tables of conversation and an occasional hollering kid … all of which should have resulted in a din but instead I could hear each noise and voice clearly and distinctly.  I could even hear the filling of soda glasses from across the room about 40 feet away. It felt like one of those museum exhibits where someone whispers at one end of a noisy hall and you can hear them if you stand in exactly the right spot at the other end of the hall. I’d go back again just to listen.

More Photos which you must see.

Carmel Valley

On Wednesday we took a Sunday drive thru Carmel Valley. The temperature in the low 80’s was comfortable as diffuse cross-hatched contrails moderated the sun’s heat. The fall colors were subdued, matching the pale blue autumn sky and dry amber hillsides and contrasting with the dark greens of the firs and oaks.  

As usual we started in Rainbow’s End for our iced caffeinated drinks and a chat with Olga in which we learned that white ceramic bunnies are a more effective mountain lion lure than dead chickens. Olga even had photographic proof, showing a rather bewildered mountain lion mouthing a ceramic bunny’s head.

When we stopped for street tacos in Carmel Valley, I found a poster advertising a race scheduled for the day I was born. Cyndi was unimpressed but did enjoy the tacos. Heading further up the valley, we turned towards the Los Padres dam where we encountered fisherman with several 12” brown trout and a nice story of a 2’ monster that got away.  As Cyndi was nursing her blistering feet, we saw that Madrone berries come in at least two colors: red and orange. Like Manzanita, Madrone berries can be eaten, tho people seldom try more than one.

Below Los Padres dam is an ATT Earth Station, which is for sale and comes complete with a 92’ satellite dish, a 2,500 sq ft data center, two wells and a caretaker’s house. The realtor claims you could make a nice living leasing the property to secret government agencies that rely upon 1970’s technology. He even invoked the phrase “Google is interested” to legitimize the technical merits of the property.

This is tarantula mating season and several males were seen crossing the road in search of nooky. They move quickly when horny and chased by tourists in Hawaiian shirts. In the many wineries the grapevine leaves had generally turned yellow, tho there were some oranges and rusty reds as well. One winery had harlequin scarecrows.  I saw no crows at that winery, so while it is plausible the gaily dressed scarecrows were effective, I observed no crows in any winery, so equally plausibly they where simply whimsy.  

As we entered Salinas Valley we saw many fields with very strange machines and many people harvesting cabbages, potatoes, strawberries and a large number of unidentified green things.  Shortly after a quick stop at the Soledad Mission to admire the roses and use the facilities, we were surprised to find a large field of cultivated prickly pears. Prickly pears appear to take well to cultivation.


On the way home we stopped at a few roadside stands and greeted our cats with armfuls of brussel sprouts, strawberries and artichokes.  I think the cats would have preferred a ceramic bunny.


Lookie Here for a few more photos.

Devil's Post Pile

We had to try three times but we finally made it to Devil’s Post Pile. Ten years ago our first attempt was thwarted by the latest recorded significant snowfall in Eastern California: June 16. That was the first snowfall I had experienced since leaving Wisconsin and I was a very grumpy tourist as I slopped thru the snow to the Ranger Station to be told what was obvious:  Park is Closed. A few years later we attempted access again in early September and that time we avoided the snow but not road construction. Closed again.

Devil’s Post Pile is a columnar basalt formation. We saw our first columnar basalt 15 years ago at Devil’s Monument in Wyoming on a lovely fall day. A couple years ago we again found columnar basalt at Devil’s Causeway in Ireland on a miserably cold, windy, snowy February day. OK, it was not a good idea to visit the North Sea in winter and we won’t do that again.  

This time our fall Devil’s Post Pile access attempt beat the snow and winter park shutdown by two days and, as a bonus, we saw some brilliant, almost fluorescent fall colors and found manzanitas and junipers full with berries. The Devil does pick some spectacular locations for his work.

We crossed the Sierras through Yosemite on Hwy 120 (again, a day before it was shutdown for snow).  A light rain provided some drama as we overlooked Half Dome from Olmsted Point. 

Heading out of the park, we stopped at Hetch Hetchy for a quick walk. Shortly after 9-11 I visited Hetch Hetchy with my now departed friend Bill and we scared up a bear. The park service posts “Speed Kills Bears” throughout the park, and we were a bit concerned a drug addled bear would confuse Cyndi’s red hair for a strawberry (well, Cyndi was concerned ... I was hopeful ... errr, watchful). No bears this time.

Even though it seems improbable, we got lost in Modesto and confused in Stockton but we did find a number of road side stands where we stocked up on almonds, pistachios, walnuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and, of course, fudge and caramel corn. And we found the only Starbucks in Calaveras County, which is a very popular gathering spot for construction workers, UPS drivers and kids.  

Now we are safely back home with cats in our laps and rain on the roof eating the last of the caramel corn, GIMPing photos and, obviously, blogging. This retirement stuff is exhausting.

See more Photos

Sleeping Naked on the Balcony

2:30 am and Suerte is restless, standing purring between us. After a few minutes he approaches LIlly at my feet, wanting to wrestle. rrrrRRRSTT. Lilly is not interested. Suerte jumps down thud and aaaarrrough aarrrrrough arrrrouuuugh he voices his boredom for a couple minutes then retreats upstairs.

I’ll be awake for a while. Cricket chirps loud and fast, must be warm out, lets try the balcony. Head upstairs where Suerte awaits wanting food. I check, he has food, really is just bored. I scratch him and go out to the balcony. It is warm enough. I lay on the hammock. Chirps come from everywhere.

BAM Slam ... click ... Bam ... SLAM Bam. Neighbor getting into car? Out of car? Probably the slug teenager next door.

Rustling in the leaves in side yard. Eouw Chrour Errow. What the hell is that? ... and again. Never heard that sound before, some angry bird? At 2:30? Doesn’t sound mammalian ... Again, rustling in leaves, crazy wild sound louder, approaching. Crickets continue to chirp so can’t be a threat to them. Very insistent, irritated, demanding sound ...  Again rustling, again sound, circling partway across yard.   It's not going to crawl up here, is it?

Lots of stars, sky dark grey not black but the moon has already set? Black silhouettes of trees and house against sky, stars. White gutter black in this light, yard is darker than sky ... Slam Slam ... Rustling in side yard approaches house ... Tire noise from distant car approaching quietly on Skyline for quite some time then shushes by and fades ... Bam click Slam. Cyndi thinks the kid is OCD.

Now leaves rustle below .. Aauuo Aauuo softly. Boo Bear, neighbors outdoor cat just below me, probably looking for Suerte. Maybe Boo woke Suerte? Maybe Boo chased bizarre sound in side yard? Anyway, that crazy spooky sound is gone for now ... Bam click Bam Slam.  

Flash!  Meteorite zips by heading north crossing 30 degrees of sky, tail maybe 5 degrees.  Cool ...  Dog starts barking in distance, then another, then another. Something moving thru neighborhood across Skyline, maybe half mile away.  First dog, then second dog ... both big dogs ... stop barking. Third dog is a yipper and continues to yip.  Fourth then fifth dogs, both big, bark a few times then are silent. Barking moving southward about 3 miles an hour. Yipper continues for several minutes, slowly winds down.  

Black shadow swims by overhead a few feet above, below the gutter, slow, small. A bat. Explains lack of mosquitoes ... Crickets in side yard suddenly stop chirping but continue in lower yard. Rustling in side yard leaves, snuffling.  

HACK HaaacK Couuugh from neighbors. Sleeping with window open? ... Car tire sound approaches again, this time car turns into neighborhood, lights up yard briefly, gutter white then returns to black ... car passes by below then turns onto Big Tree, tire noise quickly fades ... Rustling snuffling moves to Party Deck area.

Hoo Hoo ... Hoo ... Hoo Hoo Hoo. Owl in distance, only natural predator of skunks.

An incoming jet overhead heading east towards SFO. Not many jets this time of night, approaches silently until overhead, the quiet throttled back engine noise trails jet by 5 seconds. Can't see plane, only see lights on nose, wings, tail ... appears to be flying trapezoid, UFO. Flash! Another meteorite, again heading north, just behind jet barely missing it by 20 miles.

HaaacK HACK Couuuuugh. Should stop smoking, dude ... At least OCD slug teen has quieted down ... Now chirps come from side yard but not from below. Rustling snuffling from below too. Must be an opossum or something looking for crickets to eat ... A bat flies overhead heading the other direction, again slowly ... must not be many bugs to dart after tonight.

rrrrRRRSTT!  RRRSSST!  RRST! Cat fight near neighbors. Boo again? Over quick, just hissing. Boo style.  

Motorcycle noise. Much much louder than car, can hear from much further away. Coming up hill?  Sound continues one two three minutes ...  More dogs bark, this time closer. Again something moving thru neighborhood, this time northwards. Only larger dogs this time, quickly return to silence ... Finally motorcycle noise starts to fade, going down the other side of the hill. So much noisier than cars. Bicycles noisier than cars too. Rant 30: sometimes I hate pedestrians, sometimes I hate cars but I always hate bicyclists.  

Crickets all chirping again. Slight beat to sound, different groups, different temps? Beat has frequency of about 1 cycle per 5 seconds. What temp difference does that imply? How does a cricket know which group to synchronize with? This implies frequency quantization, digital cricket thermometers. Is quantization inate behavior? Or emergent? Too tired, too much thinking, don’t care. Still amazed at how much temp, weather changes in just a few feet here. Stop thinking, just watch, listen.

Whoosh a large fast black shodow heads north, higher than bats, much larger, faster. Must be owl.

Another jet overhead, leaving SFO. Contrail grey shadow visible against darker grey sky. But it is night, shouldn't see contrails. Too much light from Bay Area, much better when marine layer muffles city lights.  Jet goes by ascending only a small roar, much less than motorcycle.

Wow, stars move fast in sky, those stars are much closer to the tree than before. Can almost see them twist around pole ... Yipping in distance from a few places, coyotes. Maybe the dogs were barking at them? ... Ooooh, that meteorite is large! Slower than the others, yellow-ish, more than 60 degrees north east across the sky, tail half that long, visibly wide and stuttered dashed at the end. Breakup.  

That is enough, killed 90 minutes, can sleep again. Back inside I disturb Suerte. He looks irritated then shoves his head back into his paws and returns to sleep.  I shall do the same.

Season's First Power Outage

We had the season’s first power outage yesterday morning when, somewhere in Greater Sky Londa, a tree fell and took out a PGE pole. Trees normally fall when the first winter storm hits, not when it is 90o and calm. This is supposed to be a wet winter, which implies storms, which implies more power outages.  

Three years ago our first Sky Londa power outage was fun. It was late afternoon on a stormy and cold Saturday. We quickly determined that power outage was widespread by the sound of numerous generators firing up. We inherited a generator with the house, but never tried it. It didn’t fire up. So I started a fire in the wood burning stove while Cyndi found the short wave radio and a couple hurricane lanterns. We had fun sitting by the fire, listening to music and playing chess or cards or something. We felt it was very romantic and old-timey ... until the power returned and we WhooHoo’ed immediately back to the television. Subsequent power outages haven't been as much fun.  

Fall leaves on Party Deck

We recently got the generator working and I started it up to keep the fridge running and the ice cream frozen while we completed staining the fourth of seven wood decks. Yes, we stained decks in the heat but we were at least in the shady side of the house. We started with the hot tub deck and used a stain called Navajo Red. We now call this the Party Deck. Learning from our experience, we turned to a more subdued Redwood stain for the remaining decks. 

After finishing staining and taking a much needed and enjoyed shower, we lunched on the yet-to-be-restained upper deck, then read books for the afternoon. Laying in the hammock, I watched jets on their leisurely landing approach through a cloud of thousands of moths.  

As the sun began to set, a PGE truck stopped under some form of power switch atop a pole that sits well below our house. We impatiently watched Mr PGE ascend to the switch, expecting him to return power and television to us. But he only fiddled, descended and returned to his truck, waiting for instructions.


I grabbed a drink and a radio and listened to Latin hip hop music from the deck while carefully watching Mr PGE for any movement. It got darker, I got another drink and the radio station switched to cantina music. Thousands of stars replaced the moths while I continued to watching landing jets, circumpolar satellites and Mr PGE.  He has great patience. I had another drink.

Finally at 9:30, Mr PGE again ascended, fiddled and WhooHoo! power returned. Cyndi turned to MSNBC while I turned off the generator and staggered to bed. 

It only rains at night

Surrounded by green mountains on a plain punctuated by a few mesas and contoured with several hills sits a city of striking colors and gardens, with people who are kind to strangers and love ice cream.  Public art and parks abound, birds sing gently and dogs are generally quiet.  The daily temperature is always about 85 degrees and moderated by a cool, gentle breeze.  And it only rains at night.

This is Guadalajara, not a dream.  Taxi drivers are polite, friendly, get you quickly and safely to your destination, round the fare down and are appreciative of tips.  Bus service is reliable and ample. The streets are clean but not fussy, tho the sidewalks are frequently buckled by the rapidly growing roots everywhere.  The food is fresh and tasty and healthy, and waiters and chefs genuinely care about you. People are busy but always ready to talk with you; they give with little expectation to receive.  Life matters more than material.  

On every street you will find an unassuming beautiful woman with an engaging smile and lively eyes. People generally agree that Guadalajara has the most beautiful women in Mexico, and for me, that means the most beautiful in the world.

Large and comfortable public squares, block after block of wedding dress shops, acre after acre of silver and gold jewelry.  Sushi and tacos and balloons and factories and universities.  Every few blocks is a nursery (plants) or daycare (kids) or cucina economica.

I am infatuated, but it really is this way.  I think I finally understand the meaning of cielito lindo.

What is easy and what is not

I arrived home Thursday evening and Cyndi tells me the Internet is broken, which was odd since it was working 45 minutes earlier when I was at work. 

Now I have explained to Cyndi that rebooting her Windows laptop will fix a broken Internet, but today a reboot only gave her a strong wireless signal.  Normally she complains about a weak signal so I inferred that the wireless signal strength is inversely related to the health of the Internet, although the specific causal relationship eludes me.

Realizing this theorizing was not impressing Cyndi, I began my arduous troubleshooting.  My workstation found the Internet to be lively and robust as usual.  My workstation is the household Internet gateway, so the first test has been passed.  Still suspecting Cyndi's laptop, I tried pinging the wireless access point and got no response.  Looking across the room I see the AP appears healty but the antenna was in a different configuration than when I left in the morning.  Aha!  My first clue.

"Cyndi, did you use the printer this afternoon?"
"Yes I did"
"Was the Internet working before you used the printer?"
"Yes it was"
"Was the Internet working after you used the printer?"
"Ummm, yes but then it broke"

When Cyndi uses the printer, she brushes the cats off her lap, picks up her laptop and shuffles across the carpet to the printer.  The laptop's battery effectively doesn't work so she first plugs in her laptop before using the printer.  The printer is located next to the AP.  Where all the messy cables live.

Assuming a cable is loose, I check them.  The cables are fine but I note only the power light is lit on the ethernet switch interconnecting much of this.  Hmmm.  I disconnect all the ethernet cables and try one at a time.  Nothing works.

My windows pc is powered off and I decide to power it on to see if it's nic is working.  Hmmm, this machine isn't working either.  I run diagnostics and find the hard disk is missing.  Well, is dead.

So my switch is broken and one of my pcs has a bad hard disk.

"Cyndi, where did you plug in your laptop?"
"On the power strip your computers use."
"OK.  But don't do that again"
"I didn't break anything"
"Just don't do it again"

---hurt feelings follow for a few hours--

So I get a new switch and that is happy and the AP can talk to my gateway and Cyndi's laptop can talk to the Internet and she can shop on-line again and frankly that sort of sucks.

I insert a new disk into the broken pc and yep, it works.  So I go to re-install Windows.

I had purchased this pc a year or so ago and while it came with Vista, I elected to "downgrade" to XP, because XP actually works.  However, they only sent me the activation key for Vista, so now I have to install Vista.

Which naturally doesn't have the right drivers and Vista apparently has no natural ability to tell you what is wrong.  Grubbing around and more or less guessing, I get new hardware drivers and suddenly Vista works.  Only took maybe 5 or 6 hours.  And then it's not really usable because the default options totally suck and finding where to change them is a blindman's adventure.

I created two partitions on my fine new TB disk and installed linux on the second.  I downloaded a LiveCD from Ubuntu, burnt it to disk, rebooted the machine, answered a couple questions and poof!  Linux is running.   All the defaults are right.  Has all the right drivers.  It just works.  It took me maybe 30 minutes from start (looking for a good distro) to having a useful machine running.

Too bad linux isn't consumer friendly like Windows.