Good News, Bad News

It's been a long day...I was up early to watch the Supreme Court's Healthcare Decision. I kept an ear to the wildfire rail, did a COSTCO run, and watched yet another great SF Giants game with another happy ending, and yes another Team record!

Giants' 22 year old lefthander, Madison Bumgarner pitched his first complete shutout game against the Cincinnati Reds, gave up but one hit, walked two and struck out eight. MadBum even got a hit in the 7th, and scored on a Gregor Blanco triple. The Giants won it 5-0.

The Giants tied a record that goes back to July 26-30, 1948! The Giants have played 36.0 innings without allowing a run to score! Tim Cain, who pitched that Perfect Game 15 days ago didn't even pitch in those 36 innings! He starts tomorrow's game...

Tonight's game was the fourth shutout in a row by the Giants, and they are now in sole possession of 1st Place in the National League West for the 1st time this season. Since Cain's Perfecto, the Giants have gained six games on the Dodgers. The Giants have not pitched four consecutive shutouts in the entire history of the club, until tonight.

There's something magical happening with this team, and it's been pure joy for us fans. Tonight while MadBum and crew were setting more records, the New York Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, sending the Giants one game ahead of their SoCal rivals. The go-ahead RBI in the Mets/Dodgers game was hit by Andres Torres, the Giants' 2010 center fielder.

In the background all day were the twitter updates on the Waldo Canyon Fire. Colorado Springs had a good day in the main. Winds were civil overnight, and popup thunderstorms were not in the offing. Some evacuated neighborhoods were OK'd for the return of their residents. Unfortunately, the Devil's Due included 347 homes destroyed and one confirmed death. Nine souls are still listed as missing.

During the Giants game,  @R5_Fire_News (National Forest Service Region 5) took to twitter and let it be known that:

"23 U.S.Forest Service Hotshot crews from California are  battling wildfires in 4 western states including Colorado. Twenty wildland firefighters per crew."

"1,346 California based US Forest Service firefighters and support personnel on western wildfires including: CO, UT, NV, MT, NM, AK, WY, and AZ"

"54 California based U.S.Forest Service Type 3 wildland fire engines +5 assigned to wildfires in CO, NV, UT, and MT"

Box scores for fires? I mused before @rgj (the Reno Gazette-Journal) sent a chill down the back of my neck:

"Third of Sierra Front fire force tapped for other western fires" http://on.rgj.com/MEJugp

Independence Day comes on a Wednesday, so the celebration will last all week long, instead of a long weekend. Some cooling has been forecast for the Tahoe Sierra, but the 4th is still five days away, and conditions change fast in the mountains this time of year. We're already into a bad fire season so be extra careful like Smokey Bear says...our ability to do heavy initial attack on wildfires is already compromised by some 33%

Another chill blew down the ol' posterior from this report of how truly depleted the Forest Service Air Tanker Fleet has become.

This is all so much Perfect Storm Arithmetic. Sub-par winter precipitation across the West, and shortages of initial attack resources could spell disaster. BajaBabe reminds me that western forests have been severely stressed by the Pine Beetle, turning evergreens into fuel. Expect the worst this Fire Season, and give a call to your congress people to get the ball rolling on bolstering the Fire Air Force

What Is This?

No news is good news says everyone except TV News people and TV News producers.

This afternoon, my Mom asked me to read a note she was sending to a fellow church member who does all the planning and catering of Mom's monthly church luncheons. In the letter Mom bragged on all the kids (of course), talked about my writing (blogging), and mentioned that I get "email responses" to my blogs...or as Mom calls 'em, "writings"...

So I thought I'd write a blog explaining the whole blogger shebang as a way to delicately shame her into rededicating herself into getting friendly with personal computers.

Then this thing happened...The Pacific Battleship Center linked to my "Sunday Bonus: Penultimate USS Iowa Update" blog from last Sunday on their Facebook Page, and retweeted my tweet that linked the same blog...

Mom came into my room about 19 minutes after the links went up, and I explained how all this worked. The hits were up to 155, and I explained the Blogger Platform, that it's owned by Google, and that Blogger has a feature called "Stats", that's a rudimentary version of Google Analytics, that gives the blogger some stats about how many visits his blog gets, where the visitors come from in both the geographic sense (what country the visitor is in), and the internet sense (referring URL)

I refreshed the Stats Page...227 Page Views...Mom perked up...299 page views...I started explaining the concept of linking...333 page views...I explained that I don't write to start a conversation, or to feed a forum...that most of the comments I get come from BajaBabe, but a few of my most read blogs did attract some other commenters.

Mom really perked up each time I refreshed the Stats Page and read the latest count and amount. So I'm thinking maybe I could get Mom to start blogging...

I'm gonna sleep on it...I'll come to my senses when I get up and watch streaming P1 from Montreal's Formula One Canadian Grand Prix...

Venus...In Passing

Tuesday's Transit of Venus was a once in a lifetime event for those who missed the last one on June 8, 2004. The next time Venus passes between the Earth and Sun isn't for another 105-1/2 years. Because of our relative orbits about the Sun, the celestial mechanics insure paired transits eight years apart, separated by extrahuman gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years. Next one comes in 2117, followed by the second in 2125.

So I wasn't surprised when I got a whiney email from BajaBabe lamenting the cloud cover hanging over her corner of the Emerald Empire Tuesday morning...I whined back at her about my skies and the Leonid Meteor Showers every November, that I've actually seen once since moving to the mountains in 1980...that one year that I could observe, was a weak year for the Leonids, coupled with a full moon...I saw a couple of meteorites, but nothing like the Leonids in full fury when there can be thousands of meteorites an hour. Look up the 1833 Meteor Storm, when estimated rates were in the hundred thousands per hour!

I made sure that I was ready for the 3:05PM start of the event, and kept my calendar clear.

When the appointed hour neared, I was dumbfounded to see towering cumulus clouds scudding overhead heading south!

Even without a telescope, I still wanted to view the moment that Venus first "touched" the Sun's disc...no such luck, these were juicy, dense clouds, and I didn't get a clear look until the trailing edge of Venus had long since passed onto the face of the Sun.

Undeterred, I watched online images from a giant telescope atop Hawaii's Mauna Loa.

Finally some gaps in the clouds gave me a clear shot at the spectacle, but then I was just confused...the web images from Hawaii showed Venus at the 11 o'clock position on the Sun's face, but from my viewpoint  in the Inland Valley, Venus was at 2 o'clock, and with the eclipse glasses and no magnification, it took my mind a while to resolve the tableaux.

Finally my eyes and brain were firing on all eight cylinders, and the experience was filed in my brain's database. This felt good...I instantly relaxed, and went back to what I was doing...waiting for the Giants vs Padres game to begin. I wandered back outside every few minutes to gaze up at the show. The Sun felt good on my face after the too-cool Monday cold system passage.

NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center put together a great time lapse video of the transit that runs about three minutes. The whole transit from start to finish lasted 6:41, but only 4:21 was visible before sunset here.

I've gotta get a real solar telescope!

Vector Control

Last week I got an email from BajaBabe asking me to send her some Bay Laurel Leaves-'They cost a fortune in the bottle here' she wrote.

It just happened that I was heading over to the SturgeUrge Compound anyway, so when I got there I told him I was going to snip a bough or two to send north. "Not to worry" says Urge, "I've got some I cut today, just a second. I'll grab some you can have" and out the door he went.

The SturgeUrge Compound sits on about an acre near the bottom of a northeast facing wooded canyon. A half dozen similar lots up the canyon all share the private road, and every lot has the mixed redwood, California bay laurel, and coast live oaks. The little enclave disfavors suntanning, but it's definitely an oasis when the mercury reaches into the 80s. The California Bay Laurels are a culinary extra...everywhere you look it's like a pantry...Bay Leaf City.

Urge came through the front door and thrust two huge branches of bay leaves at me and we sat down in the front room and chewed the fat for a beer or so. I grabbed the branches and said "Thanks and goodnight, I'll drop you a DVD of our day on the Bay with the USS Iowa next time I'm in the neighborhood". Out to the car I strode, I tossed the bay leaf branches in the back seat, and hit the road.

A day or two later, I grabbed the branches from the car and gazed on them for the first time in bona fide daylight. The leaves looked like they had Black Spot Rose Disease, like I battled in the summer of 2010 in the Ancestral Diggins. Into the green waste container they went. I phoned SturgeUrge this afternoon and asked about the spots. I remember that Urge lost an oak tree over his driveway a some years ago to the then newly discovered Sudden Oak Death Syndrome. I quizzed him about Sudden Oak Death Syndrome, and if the Bay Laurel was susceptible to the pathogen. Urge said the Bay trees are a carrier species..."Looks like Rose Black Spot Fungus" I replied. Urge said between his oak and the neighbors, they'd lost at least a half dozen Coastal Live Oaks in their little canyon hideaway in the last few years. We finished up by making some plans to get a fishing trip in this weekend...if the winds allow it...stay tuned...

This afternoon I had to go to the grocery store for a few staples...milk, OJ, grapefruit juice and another bunch of watercress. On my way to the store, I made a detour through Canyon, CA in search of bay leaves and to find an old feral Damson Plum tree that I remember from three plus decades ago. Those now wild plums were like candy, and they made incredible preserves.

The plum tree is MIA, the sunny wide spot at the canyon bottom didn't hold it's sweet surprise anymore. I pulled into several turnouts with bay trees...every one displayed the telltale spots. I thought better of sending any probably infected but asymptomatic bay leaves to BajaBabe's locale.

Back at the beginning of the Sudden Oak Death Syndrome epidemic, BajaBabe herself spent a summer on the front lines of the SODS war with the US Forest Service doing an inventory from south to north in California looking for SODS infected plots of forest. To hear her tell it, she earned every penny that summer! Bushwacking is the word that comes to mind...

I'm sure I can get a glassine envelope full of bay leaves next time I'm in a market with a Mexican Spice Section, for 99 cents.

That's all this afternoon...I've gotta get in a cold shower before the Giants game.

After Dinner Update:
OMG the Bitten Word's Beet Rhubarb and Orange Salad rocks when you remember the Feta Cheese!  ★★★★★

Whew!

That was one fun filled weekend!

The battleship USS Iowa is almost to Los Angeles now...spending the day with her on San Francisco Bay was a peak experience, and a high watermark so far this spring.

The Monaco Grand Prix was in danger of becoming a procession when Mother Nature decided to mix things up with some sprinkles and a threat of genuine rain as the laps wore down. We have a sixth winner in six race weekends, but it's a repeat victory for Red Bull Racing, so there's five teams who've climbed the podium this season. I was rooting for six and six. Team Lotus and Team Sauber could be the 6th and 7th team to win this season...and any of their four drivers could be winners. It's gonna be an amazing Formula One season!

The Indy 500 was OK...to tell the truth, I was kinda out of it after getting up in the middle of the night (4:30AM) to watch Sunday's Formula One race after a long day bouncing around San Francisco Bay. I started paying close attention with 40 laps to go. My fave, Brazilian Tony Kanaan was out front with 16 to go...but yet another yellow flag bunched up the leaders, and Tony got jumped on the restart. Dario Franchitti's third Indy 500 victory suits me fine. Back in the 90s, I played a pay to play IndyCar Fantasy League. CART Rookie, Kanaan was one of my guys, as was Dario. I made $111.00 thanks to Dario one weekend.

In the afternoon I ignored the NASCAR race from Charlotte, NC. I was too busy tending to all the photos and video I shot Saturday

A Canadian, Ryder Hesjidal racing for an American team, Garmin-Barracuda won the Giro d'Italia, while I lead my fantasy bicycle racing league for the first week of the Giro, I finished dead last after all three weeks...as I predicted.

The next Grand Tour is a month away. Le Tour de France rolls out of the gate Saturday June30th.

While downloading, editing my videos and burning DVDs, and managing my photos of the USS Iowa and the AMGEN Tour of California, I was struck by the stark difference in the weather this year versus last year...

This year it's all fun in the sun. While doing all the video, I realized I never downloaded the video I made on top of Mt Hamilton for last year's Stage 4 of the AMGEN ToC. My email entreaty to BajaBabe convinced me that I'd been remiss last year so I ran the gamut and got 'er done. Man it looked miserable up in the fog and clouds last year! A stark contrast to my day on Mt Diablo with KirkVallus that was marked by plenty of sunscreen applications. BajaBabe and I were all bundles up in parkas and ski hats last year.

Mt Diablo was a party in the sun with thousands of fans lining the course, Mt Hamilton was more like serving in a lonely outpost in the Aleutians during WW2.

Gravity

"Full results are up for Stage 6 of the Giro d'Italia. Despite not scoring any points today our leader remains Team Corduroy Planet with 158 points. Closing the gap today in 2nd is BooRiders with 156."

...From Friday's headline at my Fantasy League.

I didn't expect to score any points in Stage 6, but then again I didn't expect two Team CorduroyPlanet riders to abandon the Giro either. Two of my sprinters, Tyler Farrar and Thor Hushovd couldn't go on. Young phenom, Taylor Phinney and sprinter Mark Cavendish both suffered mightily and soldiered home 33:12 behind the winner.

Since winning the Stage 1 Prologue and the maillot rosa, Taylor Phinney has had nothing but bad luck. Caught in a high speed crash 100 meters from the finish in Stage 3, Phinney crossed the finish line in an ambulance and required three stitches to close an ankle wound. I guess it was lucky that the next day was a transfer/rest day.
  
In the TTT Phinney gave his all, and took an off course excursion through the grass as his reward. He had to coast for several meters to dig the turf from his drivetrain...and surrender the pink leader's jersey...

There's three more stages where I'm likely to score points with Mark Cavendish. My days atop the standings surely will end Saturday.

Starting Sunday, the AMGEN Tour of California takes to the road in Santa Rosa. Last years lingering winter scared the race out of the mountains...pity. 
  
I haven't a clue who to run in my fantasy team. Three time winner Levi Leipheimer will race, though it's a given that he can't compete for the win as he rehabs from getting run over by a car in Spain on April Fools' Day...

Friend of CorduroyPlanet, and fellow bike racing aficionado, KirkVallus is coming to town for the race and a Giants game. I'm guessing that we'll need sunscreen more than the extra layers we needed on Mt Hamilton during last year's ToC Stage 4 when the "Marine Layer" (read cold, wet fogbank) settled right on the mountain's summit, foiling the TV helicopters and thus the beautiful video that graces the VersusTV coverage...clowning around with BajaBabe took the sting outta that letdown.

It's a Formula One weekend, and it's starting a great week in the Month of May!

Up and Down

...with my San Francisco Giants...

Whew, what a weekend! Yesterday the Giants played against the LA Dodgers in their stadium, and lost 9-1 while looking like an unsteady Little League time without their ritalin...it was painful to watch.

Tuesday evening, they looked like world beaters. After going down in order in the 1st, the Giants got it together in the 2nd. Buster Posey hit the first pitch for a single. Brett Pill knocked the 1st pitch he saw out of the park! The Giants never looked back, turning four double plays, and commiting zero errors.

Winning Pitcher, Ryan Vogelsong: 7.1 IP, 8H, 1R, 1ER, 3BB, 1K, 0HR, ERA 2.94 Santiago Casilla notched the save, while the Giants handed Dodgers' Ace LHP Clayton Kershaw his first loss of the season.

Once again the world is spinning in greased grooves...

...which brings me to my Giro d'Italia fantasy team...My Young Lion, and Giro d'Italia leader, @taylorphinney tweeted: "Last night I couldn't walk, tonight I can hobble. We have a TTT tmrw and #PINK to defend. Pain? What pain. This is what dreams are made of!"

Thank God today was a rest day! Wednesday's Stage 4 is a TTT, the Team Time Trial, my favorite cycle racing event. Nothing else in sport is like it. Beautiful, dangerous, dramatic...it has everything  you could ask for.

Tonight TeamCorduroyPlanet is on top of the heap in my Giro d'Italia Fantasy Bicycle Racing League. Phinney and my World Champion Sprinter, Mark Cavendish, both hit the ground hard at 75KPH Monday...100M from the finish.

Phinney crossed the finish line in the ambulance, and needed three stitches in his left ankle. Manxman Cav has road rash all the way down his left thigh and calf. Sanctions were made for dangerous riding by the racer that caused the pileup. X-Rays showed no broken bones in Phinney's ankle.

I can sleep in Wednesday because my guys don't start until after 0600 PDT. The TTT isn't on TV in the States, but Internet streams are available.

I'm off to a satisfied sleep...good night, and Happy Belated Birthday to BajaBabe!

The Sky Is Falling

...Again! Well, not actually the sky per se...it's another dead satellite...another Russian one. This one won't reenter over North America, and it's little compared to Phobos/Grunt, ROSAT and UARS. Molinya 1-89 only weighs 1600KG, about a ton and three quarters.

My Springtime plans are beginning to gel. Friend of CorduroyPlanet, Kirkvallus is coming down to the Inland Valley in May to catch a couple of stages of the AMGEN Tour of California. Stage 3 San Jose to Livermore climbs Mt Diablo, so we'll be up there watching the action. Here's a .pdf of the Stage 3 Map.

There's much less chance of fog ruining the TV view on Mt Diablo than at last year's Stage 4 that climbed Mt Hamilton between Livermore and San Jose. Baja Babe and I spectated from the Mt Hamilton summit, and it was an awesome spectacle.

Sadly, Perennial ToC contender Santa Rosa's Levi Leipheimer won't be contending this year. Levi was hit by a car while training April 1st for the Vuelta al País Vasco in Basque country, and suffered a broken tibia. Levi sounds like he's game for the challenge though...

I grabbed a couple of tix for the SF Giants vs St Louis Cardinals during the week, too. It's a Day Game and should be a blast! Our seats are out in right-center field over the archways, under the Splash Hit water cannons and Fog Horns...note to self, remember to bring ear plugs!

There's Reno Air Race News this week. The NTSB will hold a press conference next Tuesday, to release recommendations to improve safety at air races and give an update on the ongoing investigation into last year’s tragic crash at the Reno National Championship Air Races.

Tickets for September's Reno Air Races went on sale a couple of weeks ago, but there's still uncertainty whether the Races will go on or not. 

Tonight was Opening Day for the Reno Aces Triple-A ball club. They defeated the Colorado Springs Sky Sox 5-2 after a...wait for it...snow delay!

Lookin' Up

Remember our old friend AR1429, the active sunspot region that kicked out a series of M-Class solar flares, or Coronal Mass Ejections in early March?

Well the view from NASA's SDO satellite shows the region is still kicking up it's heels on the farside of the Sun. AR1429 which will come around the Sun's limb after two weeks traversing the farside, has kicked out a couple of C-Class flares showing the region's ongoing activity.

I'm still trying to see the Northern Lights for the first time. Perhaps AR1429 will deliver.

The night skies have been busy over the past couple of weeks, but the show has been obscured by this year's Miracle March cloudy regime. Jupiter, the Moon, and Venus aligned this week above the clouds...

Later this spring there's two big deal astronomical events that truly are events of a lifetime.

On May 20, 2012 there's an Annular Eclipse who's path of totality comes right over Truckee! Then on June 6th, Venus will transit the Sun in a six hour event which can be seen across North America, and won't be seen again until 2117!

Looking ahead only five years to August 21st, 2017, the United States will be blessed with the Real Deal, a genuine Total Solar Eclipse!  This time the path of totality favors friends of CorduroyPlanet, BajaBabe and KirkVallus

Seeing any of these events is like hitting the lottery which reminds me of another factoid from today's background static...

The big Mega-Millions lotto jackpot for Friday night's drawing is over a half a billion dollars...that's $640 Million bucks. This Mega-Millions Game is the redheaded stepchild to PowerBall, the other multi-state game of chance. California threw in with Mega-Millions, while neighboring Nevada doesn't have any lotteries...they have plenty of gambling to tax already.

The lure of millions has caused a traffic "situation" west of Reno, NV on Interstate 80. The Reno paper has the deets. I don't normally play Mega-Millions, but a buck buys a ticket and more than a dollar's worth of fantasy when we're talking real money, so I'll pick up a ticket before Friday's draw...

Changes

Not much change on the weather front this week...or for next week either, say the weather gurus. I'm getting a little verklempt what with all this waiting. I want to have some skin in the game!

Yesterday I put away my builders tools and tidied up the garage to give myself some elbow room for the pickup's distributor project.

Friday I ran down to Reno for some provisioning and a tank of gas. As I entered the Truckee River Canyon, I realized that I forgot to grab my camera.

I'd hatched a little photo scheme in the morning...I'd take the Mt Rose Highway home and maybe get some photographic evidence of the Temperature Inversion Layer that's been giving us fits all month.

As it turned out I didn't need the camera...the air has been so still that the air is heavy with haze...it has been wood-burning cold in the valleys while the higher elevation have been barely freezing. No need to climb Mt Rose I thought...with this heavy haze, I probably couldn't even see the Lake...never mind the inversion layer!

Reno was a madhouse! I pulled right up to the pump at COSTCO, but I couldn't find a parking place anywhere at the warehouse. I bailed, and made my way to WINCO and grabbed a couple of sacks of groceries while the last of my patience evaporated. Way too much hustle and bustle for such a fine fall afternoon.

I cancelled a trip into downtown...those were discretionary shopping lists anyway...I wanted to hit the Truckee Safeway before the rush.

Heading up the Truckee River Canyon in the afternoon light, I noticed something new. The hills were golden...golden like California's grassy hills once summer heat toasts them. These hills had always been Sage Green...they were sagebrush scrub on volcanic soils and rock...they were supposed to be sage grouse color, period.

These were the hills that burned in 2001. The Martis Fire burned for two weeks and consumed 15,000 acres between Hirshdale, just east of Truckee, Incline Village, over the ridge on Lake Tahoe's North Shore, and Verdi, NV where the Truckee River Canyon opens into the Washoe Valley. Even Peavine Mountain, south of Stead Field, which has burned annually for a decade, had the new coat on. Whatever had been the indigenous ground cover had burned off and had been replaced by a low growing grass that didn't turn the hills green in spring, but did turn golden before winter.

I wondered how the Sage Grouse were holding up now that their camouflage was useless...

I pulled into Truckee, picked up my mail, and found a parking spot right in front of Safeway. I got everything on my Safeway list except the first item on the list, the best Loss Leader in this week's circular, T-Bone Steaks $6.99/lb in the Extreme Value Pack...damn

Back at the DaveCave, I put the groceries away and fired up the internet...I wanted to know more about that grass that took over the Truckee River Canyon...no luck. I searched and found the Truckee River Watershed Council...no luck...I spent an hour or so before I surrendered. I filled out a Contact Form to email my question to the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest Info Address...we'll see next week...

I watched another Martin Scorsese film, "Casino" I won't belabor the Academy's slights come Oscar time. Scorsese is one of the living legends of American Cinema. Not only does he make amazing films, the music he puts in his soundtracks is sublime.

While I finished dinner and my movie, I opened my mail. BajaBabe wins the Christmas Card Sweepstakes.

She gets me...notice the lack of snow?

The Devil's Arithmetic Visits The Valley of Speed

 I've been thinking about this all day. News is slowly leaking out from Reno and Stead Field. I'm struck by the misinformation that the field reporters are providing the viewers of the 24/7 CableNews channels. One handsome guy on FoxNews reported that mechanical issues might have caused Friday's crash...then went on to call the offending part an "Elevator Trim Raise"

I'm pretty sure he means "Elevator Trim Tab"...

It turns out there was a similar incident at the 1998 Reno Air Races.

Seven time AMA Motocross Champion, Bob "Hurricane" Hannah piloting another highly modified P51D, lost his left elevator trim tab during the Saturday Gold Heat Race, and "Voodoo" shot straight up pulling 10+Gs of deceleration, causing Hannah to black out. Hannah regained consciousness  at 9000ft, regained control, called a Mayday and landed safely. Voodoo sat out the rest of the weekend.

Voodoo's missing left elevator trim tab

I witnessed this from the fenceline in the Valley of Speed, far from the grandstands and the Home Pylon. Until today I'd never heard the whole story of Hannah and Voodoo's narrow escape.

It's the rare man who can keep it together when confronted with 10Gs. I think it's fair to assume that Jimmy blacked out when the Galloping Ghost shot skyward in front of the Pits Friday afternoon. The plane's lazy tumble from the top of the climb into the fatal dive without any throttle input, would imply an impaired-pilot situation.

That so many eyewitness pilots said the Jimmy did everything he could to keep his craft out of the crowd, indicates to me that Jimmy was probably coming to and instinctively pulling back on the stick in the final second or so of the fatal dive. There's no substitute for experience, and Jimmy Leeward had experience...in spades. The 50ft or so difference between impacting the tarmac and the VIP Boxes versus crashing into the grandstand probably reduced casualties by a factor of five...Godspeed Jimmy, good on ya'.

The Devil's Other Arithmetic

The Metric System...sorry European Readers, not your Metric System...we Americans don't cotton to your metric system (unless we're American Soldiers, who've been conversant in meters and kilometers since the Marshall Plan)

No I'm talking Web Metrics here...that's American Geek Dialect for Web Measuring...click counting at it's most basic and downright intrusive data collection at it's most extreme.

I've been writing my little...what does KirkVallus' sister call it..."his blog about the weather and other stuff?" for a couple of years. Until Google's Blogger Service added their "Stats" feature in the spring of 2009 I had no idea if I even had any readers aside from a couple of characters who are friends and appear in CorduroyPlanet from time to time. Since last spring I've been averaging 30-35 page views a day. CorduroyPlanet is a labor of love, I like it advertizing-free, and outside of posting a link on Facebook or Twitter from time to time, I've done nothing to try and build a commercially viable audience.

So imagine my surprise when I had six comments in need of moderation this morning! After I published them, I clicked on the Stats Tab and my jaw hit the desk! Over 4000 views of Friday night's "Chilled" blog!

I was dumbfounded! I clicked through the Stats Tabs and found that commenters on a couple of Tech Blogs had linked to my blog. Throughout the day, I looked in every hour or so and the hits just kept coming. Page views hit 10K in 22 hours.

Blogger Stats is "Web Metrics Lite" It tracks a few things, but it isn't intrusive to visitors to my blog, and doesn't give nearly the in depth, detailed info that the industry standard Google Analytics does. I do get a look at Referring urls and Referring Pages...curious, I clicked through and found links on several Techie and Gearhead websites.

Devil's Arithmetic

I got pounded on a British Gearhead Forum for being "The blogger on that link doesn't have a clue what he's talking about" I followed that guy's link to the 1998 Voodoo story and photo.

Here's the links that linked CorduroyPlanet...these were the major drivers of the click storm:

SlashDot linked James Gosling's Blog link, and about half the page views came from these two sites.

I'm grateful to have all these folks read my screed...I just wish it wasn't a Train Wreck Event that caused all the commotion. I'd have preferred the traffic went to the posts I'm most proud of like my Father's Day Blast, or my Proposal for a Lincoln Highway Centennial Bicycle Tour.

I did get a hint last year when I wrote daily from the Valley of Speed about the Reno Air Races and a non-fatal crash on Saturday. I got many visits from European readers for those blogs.

As much as I hate what happened Friday, the Air Racing Community will regroup, emotions will ease, the NTSB will issue their findings, and everyone can relax once again. The Leeward family will go on with their hearts heavy, and we all will pray that the Reno Air Races will return to us next September.

Life Is Funny Sometimes

I don't remember who said it first..."Life is what happens while you're making other plans"...

The quote is usually attributed to John Lennon, but I heard it from Ruth Gordon in the 1971 movie "Harold and Maude" a couple of years before Lennon uttered it on the Dick Cavett Show. Honestly, it sounds like something Mark Twain would have rattled off back in the day...

I've been hanging in the DaveCave for the better part of the last week...ostensibly to work on my pickup, which needs a new distributor. I need the truck on the road so I can haul the lumber and other materials to finish my maintenance around the Ancestral Digs, and to finish the improvements to the Ancestral Diggins' gardens.

One small problem...I haven't turned a wrench yet!

It turns out that doing a little mental  housekeeping was more important in the greater scheme of things than getting my fingernails dirty, and the pickup road-ready just yet.

I didn't realize that I was coping with the emotional bends until I returned to my Fortress Of Solitude and let my hair down a little, so to speak.

The Dog Days' misfortunes of my San Francisco Giants have eked their way into my delicate psyche...allowing me to self-deceive myself...running my psyche into the emotional ditch...to cite the currently favored political meme...

Taking my malaise by the horns, I did absolutely nothing for five days, save some TV viewing of my favored Niche Sports, and lazing about the DaveCave much to the consternation of Mr & Mrs Landlord, who are desperate for me to move the pickup outta the garage to enable their summer update plans.

Somewhere in those five days, I regained my station keeping resolve, and remembered to not allow other peoples' problems to rule my life, psyche, or plans.

I decided to block out my Giants' woes, and take a different tack on the National Pastime. I took in a Triple-A game in Reno. The SF Giants' AAA Farm Team, the Fresno Grizzlies were in town for a four game series against the Reno Aces, the AAA affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks (who are beating the pants off the Giants in  the NL West as we speak)

Aces' Ballpark in Downtown Reno's Freight House District

I wanted to get a look at the Giants' prospects Brandon Crawford and Emanuel Burris, both of whom have been up to San Francisco and sent back down to the minors. Regular readers may remember my blog about Crawford's first Major League Hit, a Grand Slam in Milwaukee. To this day I still believe it was a miracle from above.

Everything about going to that game enforced my belief in Human Nature. I bought mt ticket online, and printed it on the DaveCave's EPSON R280 printer. I did some errands before game time, and parked right across the street from Aces' Ballpark, the barely three year old home of the Reno Aces.

Did I mention that my seat was In The Front Row!? yes, Section 103 Row 1 Seat 14 was right on the field, less than 30 ft from the third base line, adjacent to the left field edge of the infield dirt. This was a great seat, much closer to the action than my Dad's longtime seats at Candlestick Park that were also front row box seats on the left field side of the infield.

A beautiful night in downtown Reno's Aces' Ballpark

Believe me, I paid attention to each and every pitch...I was lethally close to the action. About a half a dozen foul balls sailed over my seat through the nine innings, one I would have jumped up for had I brought a mitt...bare handing that one was out of the question...it was smoked, and landed two sections past us!

The Grizzlies lost, the Reno Aces clinched a playoff spot, and I headed home rejuvenated, even though I heard the bad news of yet another Giants loss on the radio.

Back at the DaveCave, I blogged about the game on CorduroyPlanet's Tumblr Page, and listened to some radio podcasts before falling asleep around 4AM.

I woke up at 0830 and drifted in and out until 11:30 when I got up, made the French Roast and a Vine Ripe BLT for breakfast. After ignoring the noon -1AM NewsBlock, and monitoring the 1-2PM business news, I headed up Old Hwy 40 to Soda Springs to post a letter and to do a little Lincoln Highway exploring...

When I came over the summit Wednesday afternoon, I noticed a new storefront HQ of the Donner Summit Historical Society in the old Soda Springs Hotel building. The storefront had been Soda Springs' espresso store for several seasons before going legit. The place had a Lincoln Highway sign in the window.

I passed the DSHS shop, hit the Post Office and headed west on Old Hwy 40 in search of Lincoln Highway touchstones. I motored past all four houses on the Lincoln Highway that I've lived in over the years, and all the way west to Cisco Grove where some Lincoln Highway associated buildings still stand. My digital point & shoot recorded the whole shebang. I spent a couple of hours stopping to photograph vestiges of the old road before stopping at the DSHS storefront for a look-see. BajaBabe suggested that I stop by the US Forest Service's Big Bend visitor's center...I did, but they were already on off season hours.

Cisco Grove's Lincoln Hwy Era Forest Gift Shops

I walked in to the cluttered, library cum museum space and announced to nobody in particular: Hello!

I heard a hello from the very back of the rooms, and walked towards the voice. There sat Norm Sayler at a computer on the cluttered desk. Norm was one of the first Donner Summit Denizens I met when I first started to frequent the Summit back in the late 70s. At that time, Norm was the Owner/General Manager of Donner Ski Ranch, and Donner Spitz Snow Removal and Backhoe.

Today, Norm is the Donner Summit Historical Society...lock, stock, and barrel. I quizzed Norm about the Lincoln Highway's Donner Summit history, about the concrete bridges I'd just photographed along Old Hwy 40, and wondered aloud how Mount Lincoln atop the Sugar Bowl Ski Resort got it's name.

3:19PM Monday

Norm is a walking, talking Donner Summit History-Bot. He knew that the bridges weren't part of the Lincoln Highway, but dated to the Late-20s advent of US Hwy 40...I'd asked if they were WPA-Era construction because they were built before the advent of plywood.

Norm opined that Mt Lincoln's name dates to the Transcontinental Railroad Days...It was President Lincoln's baby the Coast to Coast R/R...Norm knew that nearby Mt Judah was named for the visionary R/R engineer who surveyed that Trans-Sierra Route and lobbied Congress for the Transcontinental Rail Road. Judah, who died before the Transcontinental railroad was even authorized by Congress, wasn't honored until 1937 when the peak standing above Donner Summit was named in his honor.

I told Norm my story of visiting Utah's Promontory Summit in 1964, and how I didn't realize until I spent some time on Donner Summit how that field trip had sown the seeds of my lust for history. Norm likes my idea for a Lincoln Highway Centennial Bicycle Grand Tour, and my AMGEN ToC Stage from Placerville to Donner Summit.

We spent better than an hour catching up before I said adieu, and headed back down to Truckee, where I put Mr Landlord at ease before making pizza and watching my Giants lose to the lowly Chicago Cubs...

Still I'm buoyed by this week's events...that distributor will go in tomorrow, and I'll head back to the Ancestral Digs 'till I come back up for Reno Air Races Week mid-September.

Leavening

Hmmm...reality came to my fantasy bike racing world today  all the way from Europe.

125 meters from the field sprint finish of today's Stage 7 of the Vuelta a España, a crash in the front of the peloton took out Team CorduroyPlanet's sprinter Tyler Farrar and GC contender (and defending 2010 Vuelta Champion) Vincenzo Nibali, along with contenders Joaquím Rodríguez (Team Katusha) and Michele Scarponi (Team Lampre-ISD) All riders appear to be OK except Team Garmin-Cervélo/Team CorduroyPlanet's Tyler Farrar who couldn't put weight on his leg, and went straight to the hospital.

“The first X-rays seem to indicate that nothing is broken, but there is a lot of muscular and tissue damage. We are still waiting to hear what the doctors have to say.” Garmin-Cervélo sport director Bingen Fernández told VeloNews by telephone." 

As I write, I'm monitoring Twitter for up-to-the-second intel on Farrar's condition, while taking in the LIVE coverage of Stage 4 of the US Pro Cycling Challenge from Steamboat Springs, Colorado. If as is likely, Tyler can't continue Saturday, Team CorduroyPlanet will have lost both sprinters...I'm cellar-dwelling already after coming out of the blocks tied for second for a couple of days.

I'm getting used to my cellar-dweller pallor...no sunlight can penetrate the depths to which Team CorduroyPlanet has descended this season.


While not yet descended to the cellar, my SF Giants continued their slide Thursday evening, losing to the lowly Houston Astros, 3-1. It probably seemed worse than it actually was because I listened to the game on the radio...everything gets more dramatic when the listener's brain provides the pictures!


While I'm in Truckee, I'll be taking in a Triple-A ballgame. The Fresno Grizzlies, the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants play the Reno Aces, the Arizona Diamondbacks Triple-A farm club Monday evening. 

SF Giants' Shortstop Brandon Crawford is starting for Fresno after being sent down in late July. Giants' Center Fielder Andres Torres is with Fresno to rehab a lower leg contusion. I expect both players to be back with the Giants come September 1st when the MLB rosters expand from 25 man to 40 man.


Also playing for Fresno until the roster expansion allows them to move up the San Francisco club, are infielders Emmanuel Burriss and Conor Gillespie, and RH Pitcher Waldis Joaquin.


I never have attended a AAA game, but I'm told the Reno Aces' new ballpark is a beauty. 

You can't beat the Old-Timey ticket price...I just bought my ticket online for $16+$2.50 service charge...though I'm not sure that I got the service...I printed my ticket on my printer in the DaveCave...maybe I got "the business", not service, but it's nothing compared to the Big League Business (er Service Charge that the SF Giants ticket website charges...how much was that BajaBabe?)

Looking forward to Monday night's game leavened my troubled mind a little...as I chronicle my CorduroyPlanet daily, injuries to many of the Pro Athletes I enjoy continue to mount.

The SF Giants Injured Reserve List looks like an All-Star Roster. Just 3-6 weeks ago, the Tour de France turned into a La Niña-Lubricated Meat Grinder, and today's crash-marred sprint in reminded me of the perilous nature of cycle racing. Formula One returns this weekend at Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian GP, and both of Friday's Free Practices were rainy. Sunday's forecast is Partly Cloudy, though anything can happen high in the Ardennes Forest.



Cool! Twitter delivers: @Vaughters: "Tyler seems to be doing better. He wants to start tomorrow. We'll see what the Doctors say in the AM."


I'm afraid I'm gonna need all the Niche Sports (plus Giants' baseball) I can stand to drown out the 24/7 buzz concerning Hurricane Irene. Even though the storm has calmed back down to a Cat 2 hurricane, when one of these messes with the Eastern Seabord DC/NYC Media/Government Axis, the caterwauling will be deafening!

I don't suppose the denizens of the Old Coast will ever get over their own damn selves. If we Westerners flooded both the Legacy Media and the New Media after a puny magnitude 5.8 earthquake the way the "highly nuanced" Eastern Crowd did, we'd never hear the end of it!

Oh, I put a lid on the Spam Musubi experiment for now...today's lunch? Bakesale Betty's Fried Chicken Sandwiches, Baby!

Both Feet on the Ground

I heard BajaBabe when she implored me to "put down the binoculars"...it's an inside joke that speaks to obsession and flying saucer lore. I think it had it's genesis in a clip of some dim-witted "Abductees" telling their story on one of those syndicated late night UFO Hunter shows way back in the 80s.

Now I'm probably not being fair to said dim-wits, after all most folks when hit with the cameras, microphones  and bright kleig lights tend to lose a few IQ Points...the deer in the headlights effect...if you will...

It's just that these two (if memory serves) were deliberately slow-talking, sturdy stock, who I now realize wouldn't be out of place on RealityTV's "Swamp People" show, though I couldn't imagine either the guy or his wife putting a high powered rifle to the head of a 14ft alligator laying in the bottom of their aluminum boat...in the gator-infested swamp...and pulling the trigger with predictable results to the gator and the integrity of the tin boat's hull. There's an appropriately snarky comment in here somewhere...

Anyway, today's news stream is enough to jolt me from the miasma of my possibly caffeine induced cranial cross-polinization...(awww, just when I was beginning to fancy myself as the Luther Burbank of Bicycle Stage-Racing Hybridization, too)

Since last weekend's flood of bicycle racing schemes, I've been pondering just how would a person go about creating something as big...continental big...as my Lincoln's Tour Across America? I suspect I'll be scratching my head over this for a while anyway...

I'm not saying that this is the recipe for my weekend mania...but it is a nice photograph.

OK, on to things less rhubarb pie-in-the-sky space program-ey...

In today's Truckee Fishwrap online, there was a weather story: "Will potential La Niña lead to another epic winter for Lake Tahoe?"

Missed it by that much...today the NWS' Climate Prediction Center issued their 90 Day Outlook for Sept/Oct/Nov, the bottom line of which is: they call for a 50% chance of a new La Niña developing in the 90 day period...tic-tock, tic-tock...

High above my fever swamp kerfuffle, the daytime highs in the High Sierra are about the same as here in the Inland Valley, low 80's...I see another new wildfire alert, this time from Modoc County: @R5_Fire_News  FS crews, engines & other resources en route to Annie Fire on BLM (CA-Modoc County) 200+ acres. No containment. Just North of Ft. Bidwell.

Thanks Twitter for bringing me back to reality for a while! Wildfires without monsoonal thunderstorms are a sure sign of Autumn's approach.

Excuse me now...I've got some head scratchin' to take care of...

The Dog Ate My Homework!

No, really!

Updating for the 21st Century...
I wrote half of today's blog before falling asleep around 1AM. At 0330 I woke up again and looked at the screen of the notebook, and clicked to finish my thoughts.

*POOF* All everything disappeared, vanished, zero, zilch, zip, nada. I clicked all over, tried history, refreshing...everything. Resigned to my fate, I thought of the Homework Eating Dog Excuse, and closed my eyes again.

My original title was "Cooling Trend" In the blog I brilliantly weaved a tale of the falling fortunes of my beloved San Francisco Giants, the cooling of the weather here in the Inland Valley, through skiing news from New Zealand, then ricocheting to the falling temps in the Arctic and Antarctic, and the continued trend of the PDO into the cool phase. I was Brilliant...honest!

So, I woke up, made a pot of French Roast and mixed up a loaf of Banana Bread. Not my old favorite recipe...it's still safely ensconced in my recipe file at the DaveCave. I thought it came from one of my Mom's cookbooks, but I was mistaken. Old Fave uses honey in lieu of white sugar, and 1 1/2 cups of mashed bananas. It always turns out very moist with a heady banana aroma, and a fine texture. Next time I'm home, I'll make a recipe Word Doc for the Family Cookbook.

Today's Banana Bread was chosen because it didn't require mashing the fruit, and it uses sour cream, which I had in stock. I can smell the sour cream two rooms away from the kitchen as the loaf cools. Even the heel, eaten warm is rich...the recipe is named "Janet's Rich Banana Bread". Thanks allrecipes.com!

As I was writing, I heard the mailman drive down the street. I looked at my watch...too early...I looked down the street, and it was a mail truck. I slipped on my jungle mocs and opened the door...voilà there was a package on the front porch! My copy of "The Lincoln Highway: California" has arrived!

I browsed the book, it's very nice, and the list of my personal connections is growing exponentially! Chapter One: Verdi, Nevada to Sacramento is all about my piece of the Lincoln.

I've driven Dog Valley Road a dozen or so times over the years, it was even the detour for Interstate 80 during a wildfire a few years back. I built a couple of houses on Prosser Dam Road. Near Cisco Grove, BajaBabe worked at the Big Bend Ranger Station. Old Highway 40 over Donner Summit...lot's of touchstones.

I'd often wondered if the Lincoln used Ophir Road between Auburn and Newcastle...yes. In Sacramento, Auburn Blvd and Greenback Lane were once the Truckee Branch. Folsom Blvd, the Pioneer Branch.

In my youth, the family always stopped at the Nut Tree in Vacaville...on Monte Vista Avenue, of the1928 Lincoln Highway. North Texas St, West Texas St, Suisun Valley Rd in Fairfield...

Lots of exploring ahead! History...Ho!

Winning?

It's not what you think...I enjoy the Charlie Sheen show as much as the next single guy, but the title is not an homage to the Torpedoed Truther.

I was feeling pretty good today...rested up from a week of motoring all over California chasing the AMGEN Tour of California and simultaneously trying to stay an hour ahead of the lingering winter, it's snowfall, and the resultant chain controls.

I did some shopping this morning...catching the last day of grocery store sales for those staple items here at the Ancestral Digs. This afternoon I headed out to the HomeDepot for some irrigation timers, seed starter mix, and On Sale 5" vegetable and herb starts...I totally wiffed...struck out...failed...lead down the garden path by the lying HomeDepot Website that claimed my Local HomeDepot Store had 17 of the timers I need in stock...Imagine my surprise when they had a different timer with a different part number that I had not researched. No seed starter mix and the On Sale Starts were Sold Out...zero, zip, zilch...nada...

Deflated, I gave up for the day...tomorrow I'll go back to the manufacturer's website, download the Operator's Manual and compare...these things are kinda complex, and I need them to be. I need close control over fifteen unique sprinkler or soaker hose runs, with a rain sensor so I won't water when it rains.

After dinner I settled in to watch the Giants' game...they lost. Not the end of the world, but I was getting used to their dramatic, come from behind, walk-off wins...hey, Torture is exciting when it ends with a "W" Yeah...you win some, you lose some...life goes on...

Then the sky fell on me! I tuned in KCRA3's 11 O'clock News and the satellite images were disturbing! There's a big, classic Winter Storm wound up in the Gulf of Alaska that's coming to California Wednesday evening. It's forecast to be just a glancing blow...NWS Monterey says showers in the North Bay Area, and the Reno Office says showers in the morning, picking up in the afternoon, with ridge gusts 80-100MPH! Snow level 7500-8000ft...Jesus!

You know, Squaw Valley recorded three feet of snow since the AMGEN Stage 2 start was moved downhill to Nevada City from Squaw last Monday May 16th. Gentlemen...Start...Your...Snowplows!

That reminds me, rain did play it's hand at Indianapolis last weekend. Pole Day wasn't impacted, but Sunday, or "Bump Day" did have a couple of Rain Delays that upped the blood pressure of the yet-to-qualify teams, and broke a few hearts of those who couldn't get onto the track before time ran out.

This weekend, Memorial Day Weekend has returned to normal, that is two of the greatest spectacles in motorsports will be contested on the same day as they have for 50 years until some fools "had a better idea" last season...

At 0430 PDT Sunday May 29th, the fun begins in Monte Carlo, where the Formula One cars run through the city streets of the tiny Principality to the delight of the assembled glitterati (fresh from Cannes Film Festival) I looked, Grandstand seats start at $450USD and I quit looking when half way down the list of grandstands the tix were up to $1450USD! And I thought $89 was steep for a Giants' Game! (Thanks BajaBabe!) I didn't check on the Yacht Mooring Fees..."If you have to ask, you can't afford it" goes the old saw...

At 0900, the ABC-TV coverage of the 100th Anniversary Indianapolis 500 begins...weather permitting...OK, I checked the Indy AFD...things could get a little bumpy for the next few days. Saturday looks like lingering thundershowers, but Sunday looks decent for the 500. Sister K and her Hubby may be in town...I'll be ready to make a batch of Homemade Ice Cream in case they can make it down.

In years past, I hosted an intimate "Ice Cream Social" on Indy 500 Day, but all my gearhead racefan friend are scattered across all four point of the compass today...sigh...

Taking Stock

The AMGEN, the late snowfall, Mt Hamilton, AT&T Park, San Francisco Giants, Old Highway 40, Reno/Tahoe International Airport, COSTCO Gas, Pole Day at the Indy 500...

These are a few of the places and events that consumed the past week. I drove up the hill Saturday morning and dropped BajaBabe off at the Reno Airport for her flight home. She phoned about 8PM to say thanks and that she was home safe and sound. We left the Ancestral Digs a little after 8AM

Truth is, her call woke me up...I'd fallen asleep watching the Giants' game. I checked the Giants' website...they won 3-0, and Tim Lincecum pitched the whole game. The Giants are 2 1/2 games ahead of the Colorado Rockies in the National League West.

Later today, I head back down the hill with stops at IKEA, HomeDepot, COSTCO, Asian Grocery shopping...so what am I doing up at 3:14AM? I dunno...I fear it's some BodyClock reset backsliding...and I'm in a quandary whether to stay up for the 5AM start of the Spanish Grand Prix or to try and get some sleep and watch the replay later this week...I'm not sleepy yet.

Whatta Week!

BajaBabe says: "She can't wait to get back to work...and rest up"! I'm beat, BajaBabe's beat, and we have nobody but ourselves to blame...OK, a little blame should be directed at Mother Nature for all the pot-stirring snow!

BajaBabe's brother was in The City for a weekend conference...the Giants were back at AT&T Park to begin inter-league play against the Oakland A's...Babe got the tix and events were set into motion.

The SF Giants were giving away a premium to the first 20,000 fans to enter the park for the 7:15 game...they opened the gates 15 minutes early due to anticipated heavy earlybird demand. Boy howdy, they weren't kidding! Lots of happy fans out for a Friday night game and an Orange Snuggly.

They were lined up for miles at every entrance. I came by BART, the Bay Area's Subway System. Lot's of Giants fan on the train, it's the best way to get to the Bayside park. Once you get into The City, you catch a MUNI Light Rail at the Embarcadero Station and it stops right in front of the big bronze Willy Mays statue at One Willy Mays Plaza...couldn't be any easier.

BajaBabe called as I was walking down 3rd Street towards the park. They were on the left field side in line near the Marina. I was approaching the home base side. I looked at the huge lines and opted to get in the shortest of the right field side lines.

I took over the end of the line from an A's Fan. The line wasn't going to move until 5PM...it was about 4:15. After ten minutes or so, the A's Fan's wife joined us. She was wearing a Giants 2010 World Series Champions t-shirt and matching ballcap. I'd seen several "Mixed Couples" since I boarded the train in the Inland Valley.

Right at five the line started moving. It only took 2-3 minutes and they were scanning the ticket that BajaBabe bought online and printed on the Ancestral Digs' network printer. They handed me the Orange Snuggly and I was in...what a fascinating Modern World we live in...

I met Babe and Bro in our seats, it was two hours 'till the first pitch. We got to watch both teams take batting practice. While the Giants were taking their swings, the loudest cheers were for injured third baseman Pablo Sandoval who was running the bases because he won't be able to hold a bat for another three weeks. Pablo, better known as "The Panda" broke the hamate bone in his hand, had it removed surgically, and though the hamate bone (in the palm of the hand) isn't structural, it is surgery...it is professional baseball, and the hand takes lots of shocks on both offense and defense. The Panda has been looking downright grumpy in the dugout lately...he was having a career season when he was injured, and was leading the team in all batting stats.

The crowd was anything but grumpy! The Giants entered the game with a half a game lead over Division rivals the Colorado Rockies. Outfitted with their new Snuggly wearable blankets, they were ready to cheer, raise a ruckus...whatever it was going to take to root the Giants to a win.

Batting Practice Voyeurs

Finally it was time for the National Anthem. It was The Blue Man Group to perform it. Of course the didn't sing it, but played the tune on these weird looking, wearable tuned percussion things made of PVC Irrigation piping and these loopy gray hoses looking for all the world like they came from the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" animated movie. They started off oddly, and a little off, but soon found their groove about the time the crowd started singing the Anthem out loud. They ended to thunderous applause and laughter...I loved it! (I hope that NBC showed it on the telecast that my DVR captured for me!)

I'd been looking forward to having a Ball Park Dog, some Garlic Fries (that are the best I've ever had), and a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, but the game was too intense to leave my seat!

I knew we were in for a Pitching Duel...both teams have league leading pitching staffs, each featuring a five man rotation that's very strong. The Giants turned a walk, a stolen base compounded by a throwing error and a Freddy Sanchez ground-out to 2nd into the game's first run.

The A's got four hits and tied it up...the crowd was eatin' it up! Hanging on every pitch, they scoffed at the Umpire's calls and were boisterous to a fault. They came to root on the World Champions, and seemingly every pitch was for all the marbles...no time to trade my seat for a line at the Food Court!

Sold Out...again...

Lots of impassioned fans yelling at the top of their lungs, drama and dashed hopes every inning through the middle innings. It seems like every single fan sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the Seventh Inning Stretch. Our relievers got into and escaped serious damage slipping out of a lead-off walk, a strikeout/stolen base and a passed ball that moved the runner to third, thanks to a highlight reel play by Freddy Sanchez at second base.

The Giants won it in the 10th Inning on a Walk-Off RBI single. It was nearly 10:45 and the 42,224 happy fans poured out of the park and into the night. We hoofed it the six or seven long city blocks back to Market Street and the BART station. The train arrived as we stepped onto the platform and we miraculously found seats. At the next station the crowd from the trolley filled the aisles with hangers-on, and we whisked through the TransBay Tube to Oakland and finally back to the Inland Valley.

This was one long, great day. Saturday we zoom back up the hill so BajaBabe can catch a flight out of Reno.

Formula One from Barcelona and the Finale of the AMGEN are on tap this weekend, then the Ancestral Diggins need my attention.

KOM

King Of the Mountains!

We finally took our place out on California's roads during a stage of the AMGEN Tour of California! In baseball terms, we came into today 0-2 against superior pitching.

Undaunted, we made a Game Plan, followed it, and were rewarded with an excellent day and a peak experience or two to boot! (forgive me...alliteration is my life!)

After fanning at our chance Tuesday to mine some AMGEN Swag in Auburn, we made our way to Stage 4's Start City, Livermore, CA. I'd spent a few hours pouring over "the internets" researching all the details that could impact our "Day at the Races".

We parked in Livermore's free downtown parking structure right at the appointed opening hour of 10AM, and hoofed it a few blocks into the closed-off Start Area lookin' for swag. Leaving as little to chance as possible, we made our way to the Livermore Chamber of Commerce Office where we bought our AMGEN ToC Cowbells, and the Stage 4 Yellow Bandanas. We went looking for the Hospitality Tents to no avail. Everyone with Official Garb that I asked: "Where are the Team Hospitality Tents"? couldn't give an answer...I guess all the changes of venue, and double-clutching had taken it's toll...besides it was raining again.

Near the Start 1:15 before the starting bell.

We snapped some photos and beat feet back to the car...I didn't want to be too late to the dance, the start was scheduled for 11:45...My plan had us taking the Race Course from Livermore through all but one KOM spots to camp atop Mt Hamilton to watch the racers as they crested the hors catégorie Mt Hamilton Summit. The top of Mt Hamilton is home to UC Berkeley's Lick Observatory where several telescopes scan the night sky for all sorts of astronomical wonders...pure science, and a bonus for photo buffs...iconic views to juxtapose the racers with...woohoo!

We made our way south through Livermore, skirting the downtown until we finally found our way onto Mines Road, the Race Route to Mt Hamilton that winds through tidy vineyards and boutique ranchettes slowly climbing out of the Livermore Valley. Mt Hamilton was obscured by clouds from our vantage point, but I wanted to drive the course in the same direction that the peleton would to better understand just how tough an hors catégorie climb is. I'd looked at the Mt Hamilton webcams just after 0900, and the view was all fog and mist, but no visible raindrops...

We enjoyed an hour and a half of discovering some beautiful country. Mountainside roads gave way to high meadows and valleys that were vivid green from La Niña's lingering winter storms. Seemingly there was water everywhere, even a couple of places where rivulets crossed the road!

1st KOM of the day Catgory 4 1512ft 17.8 miles out.

Lots of avid cyclists were spread all along the way...some already camped along side the route awaiting the peleton, others in their colorful togs riding towards Mt Hamilton.

We soldiered on snapping photos of race signs, race fans, and the countryside.

The Toyota climbed up the road without complaint as we approached the summit some 92Km from the start, the crowds along the road began to grow. Most of the turnouts were already occupied with cars, motorcycles, and fans. A mile from the top we entered the cloud deck...deadly fog...ugggh! Things were looking a little dire for film making and photography.

We crested the summit, but the KOM Flags were MIA. We found them about a quarter mile down from the actual summit in the midst of all the telescope domes and ancillary buildings and scientists homes. Unbelievably, there was one parking spot left with a view of the approaching racers with the big telescope dome towering over the roadway!

The way the big white dome appeared out of the fog was magical. We parked, made lunch and met the neighbors...a nice bunch of real cycle racing fans...decked out in lots of beautiful NIKON DSLR Cameras and lenses...nice.

Mt Hamilton's iconic dome.

Across the road I saw a Hairy Woodpecker land on a telephone pole. As I pointed it out to BajaBabe, more flew into view...there must have been a half dozen in the digger pines and a couple of well-worn cedar trees! These birds came and went several times during the hour or so we awaited the race.

Everyone was worried about the fog...mostly we worried aloud about the TV choppers. The TV Motos relay the LIVE video to helecopters that follow the peleton and breakaways and chase groups. The signal is relayed by the hilos to the TV trucks at each day's finish area, where satellite uplinks feed the LIVE coverage to the world. All this magic is grounded if the clouds or fog are right down on the roads...the clouds had been lifting a bit since we reached the Mt Hamilton Summit, but we had no experience evaluating such minutia.

According to the smartphone users near us there was an early breakaway of eleven riders who's been caught by the peleton on the first kilometers of the Mt Hamilton Climb. Every few minutes, new information was received and shared...then "They're four miles from the top"

From the west, KGO-TV's NewsCopter came into view and vanished to the east.

I started my camcorder rolling. The KGO Bird came back and hovered to our east off the actual summit. Then the AMGEN Relay Chopper came into view! Soon the first Race Vehicles started passing by...then plenty of CHP Cars and Motos with lights blazing...more cars...lots of motos...photo, medical, TV motos, Moto Commisars...then the peleton!

They blew by at better than 35mph, zipping their jerseys, tossing empty water bottles, and setting their jaws for the steep technical descent into San Jose. I was amazed at how fast they accelerated on the little flat where the telescopes live.

The dropped riders trickled by in twos and threes, and the knowledgeable race fans yelled encouragement to every rider, calling many by name. BajaBabe rattled her AMGEN cowbell and I watched the passing circus via the LCD Screen of my digicam snapping pix like crazy.

Like the first time I saw Formula One Motorcycle racing in person (after years of watching the spectacle on TV) I was struck by the not so subtle violence of the high speed cyclists. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not talking about sharp elbows, brake checks, or flying water bottles, but the pure violent physics of men tearing the air as they hurl down steep mountainsides at high speeds. These Pro Racers are tough, hardened men.

The Sweep Wagons brought up the rear of the procession, we bid our new friends adieu, and pulled onto the road headed back towards Livermore. Heading down the climb I got a better feel for it's steepness...I put the Toyota in 2nd gear, and I was all over the brakes just keeping our speed to "Safe and Sane" This was one serious climb...I now understood the grim faces of the riders as they flew by us towards the final mountaintop finish on Sierra Road in San Jose.

As I drove off Mt Hamilton, we scanned the shoulders for discarded water bottles and other potential swag, but the sweepers really are sweepers.

On our way back to Livermore we saw more beautiful vistas (Now under blue skies) I saw a big Red Tail Hawk, we saw a couple of herons, turkey vultures and just a dozen miles out of Livermore, a Bald Eagle!

Back at the Ancestral Diggins I made Barbecued Chinook Salmon Stakes with rice and steamed broccoli. Rhubarb pie for desert, and the SF Giants vs the LA Dodgers on TV.

This was one great day I won't soon forget.

Racing to Catch Up Again

Ah,yes I remembered this weekend the old saw about "the best laid plans of mice and men"...

BajaBabe and I headed up the hill Saturday to spectate atop Donner Summit as some of the World's Greatest Bicycle Racers contend Monday's Stage 2 of the AMGEN Tour of California.

Winter weather also headed up the hill Saturday, though it didn't arrive until almost midnight Sunday morning. I watched a little of the AMGEN Press Conference online Saturday afternoon the gist of which was..."stay tuned, we'll announce our "Plan B" for Stage 1 Sunday morning.

The AMGEN's website wasn't moving fast enough to keep up Sunday morning, but Twitter was reliably feeding all the info that told the story as it unfolded minute by minute...

First, the start was delayed and the route shortened. The race was supposed to begin in South Lake Tahoe and run clockwise around Lake Tahoe one and a half times before climing Brockway Summit and finishing at Northstar Resort near Truckee. Mother Nature had other plans...Ditching the circumnavigation of the lake and just racing over the Emerald Bay climb and on to Northstar was the fall-back plan, and the riders made their case to call the whole thing off when the skies really opened up and the weather turned to near white-out conditions minutes before the new start time...Good call as far as I'm concerned!

Sunday night I set my alarm for 0530 and went to sleep. When the alarm roused me, I logged onto the internet and looked for the announcement...nothing...at about 0630, I received an email from Mr Landlord...with three photos attached.

Approach to Old Hwy 40's Donner Summit ~6:30AM Monday 5/16

The pix were of the last half mile of the climb to the Donner Summit on Old Highway 40 past the spot BajaBabe and I intended to view/film/photograph later in the morning, showing plenty of ice on the pavement...a little later, I caught the announcement on the Train Wreck News: the start is moved west to Nevada City...the route from Squaw Valley USA over Donner Summit and down Highway 20 was correctly deemed unsafe...hence the move.

We lollygagged around all morning, then shoveled out 5-6 inches of new snow, and hit the road around noon with cameras in hand. We drove up Old Highway 40 to our chosen spot about an hour later than the peloton would have crested the Summit. I snapped photos from the same vantage points as Mr Landlord's photos for comparison purposes...with slush still on the pavement, the change was the correct call.

Approach to Old Hwy 40's Donner Summit ~ 1hr after the peloton would have past

Spectacular roads and vistas atop Old Hwy 40! Donner Lake, Rainbow Bridge

Doing the tourist thing, we stopped by my mountain, snapped some more photos, and headed back to Truckee to pick up some groceries. I made Bakesale Betty's Fried Chicken Sandwiches for dinner, and we watched the Giants lose to the Colorado Rockies.

Our "Plan B" was to head down the hill Tuesday and stop by the Stage 3 start town of Auburn and browse the "lifestyle faire" for some AMGEN swag (I fancy one of those Rabobank foam fingers, some AMGEN cowbells, and whatever looks good from Team Garmin/Cervello, Team Leopard/Trek, and Team HTC/Highroad...again Mother Nature had other plans...it was raining cats and dogs when we arrived in Auburn, our "New Plan B" was now lunch at TacoBell.

After our harrowing trip over Donner Summit and out of the High Sierra (Near white-out over the Summit, and difficult visibility all the way down the Foothills) we weren't filled with much ambition anymore. We fought fierce winds crossing the Big Valley, and gassed up and re-provisioned in Vacaville, before making the final push back to the Ancestral Digs.

Once we put the groceries away and schlepped the rest of the stuff into the house, I logged onto the internet and researched Stage 4 so I could formulate a Game Plan.

OK here's our plan...we hunt swag at 10AM in Livermore the Start City. Then we head out on the Stage 4 route to Mt Hamilton, the summit of the hors catégorie climb that's the toughest of the day's five King Of the Mountain climbs.

We'll be well below the snow line at 4130ft (knock wood), but the NWS is forecasting scattered showers in the morning and isolated showers in the afternoon, so we're not out of the woods yet...Allez all! (Cue the Woodstock Cheer: NoRain-NoRain-NoRain...