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.

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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.