Ouch!

I woke up to hear that gasoline prices went up in California as much as 50 cents/gallon overnight! I'm listening to the top of the hour National News now, and California's gas price hikes are the second story of the package. They say it's a supply problem caused refinery troubles, a contaminated pipeline and California's "only-in-California" low-pollution gasoline regulations.

Thursday Truckee's Local Newspaper posted an article on Facebook: "Gas Prices Soar Above $5 a Gallon in Truckee" Here's the accompanying photo:

This reminded me of a photo I took on February 25th, of the Chevron station's price sign across the street from the 76 station's sign featured in the Sierra Sun's story.

The $4.59/gal was outrageous at the time...

No new photo for Friday's freight...yet...

I don't know what they pay for petrol in Japan, but the Formula One cars are burning it as fast as they dare this weekend. The Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka Circuit is Round 15 of the World Championship. The race is LIVE on SpeedTV Saturday night at 10:30PM PDT

Redeemed

Sadly...not yours truly...and I need redemption for my slacking this week...two of five blogs published eight hours late...Slacker City...

Tonight I watched the San Francisco Giants game from AT&T Park versus the Houston Astros. As is my wont, I was playing Twitter and Facebook while I watched the game. Usually these social websites are a rollicking snark-fest of trash talking when the Giants win, with hyperbole and commiseration when things don't go the Giants way.

Tonight there was a difference in the air...the vibe...the volume...the traffic was subdued...staid even...very atypical given the venue...

There was a reason for the unusually unsocial behavior on the social sites...we were all collectively holding our breath for our Ace pitcher, two time Cy Young Award Winning, four time All Star right hander, Tim Lincecum. Nicknamed "The Freak" a tip of the hat to his long hair and slight build, Lincecum looks like a skinny dustbowl kid in a Diane Arbus photograph, but armed with fearsome pitches and a competitive fire that burns white hot. Lincecum's tall skinny visage is something to see as he delivers a pitch with his unconventional motion.

Lincecum has gone from Giants Ace to the worst pitcher currently active in the Major Leagues in the first half of this season. Opinions vary wildly on just what Timmy's problem is on the mound. He's had control issues, he's lost a little speed with his fastball...from 97mph to 93mph.

This loss of speed wouldn't be a problem if he was putting the ball where he wanted, but he's been unable to keep his pitches down in the bottom third of the strike zone, and too often he "hung" a breaking ball out over the plate where Major League hitters were teeing off on them like kids playing in the town T-Ball League.

Lincecum's last two starts on the road were shockers for the struggling right hander, and for Giants fans. Against the Washington Nationals he threw only 3 1/3 innings and gave up seven runs on nine hits. His next start in Pittsburgh wasn't much better...3 1/3 innings six runs on seven hits.

In the other troubling games, Lincecum had trouble early, especially pitching from the stretch, but found his groove and dominated opposing hitters like he does at his best...but the last two starts shook even the most faithful. One could only imagine what Tim himself was thinking and feeling!

So it was against this backstory that fans were watching and hoping for the best. Somehow The Freak was his old self, bedeviling batters like his glory days. Lincecum made a quality start of 8 innings pitched, allowing 5 hits, no runs, no errors, he walked two and struck out eleven!

AT&T Park was electric from the get go...a playoff atmosphere as they say. Timmy got a standing O from the fans behind the Giants dugout after he retired the Astros 1-2-3 in the 1st inning! At the end of the 8th the cheers were deafening as Lincecum triumphantly returned to the dugout for the final time with the Giants ahead 2-0

The Giants bullpen set out to finish off the Astros in the 9th. Houston scored a run and put two base runners on before getting to two outs and two strikes. The crowd was roaring as Giants' closer Santiago Casilla threw the final strike which the batter swung at and missed!

The ball caromed off of catcher Héctor Sánchez and bounced towards third base as the batter broke for first. Sánchez got to the ball, turned to throw out the batter, but hurried his throw and pulled first baseman Brandon Belt off the bag, allowing the runner from third base to score when shell shocked Casilla forgot to cover home plate in the melee...game tied!

The Park went silent...Lincecum's redeeming masterpiece was now in jeopardy, and Lincecums Win was now a No Decision. All 42,171 attendees felt like they took a Mohammed Ali body punch...group despair isn't pretty...

The game went 12 innings. The Giants makeshift bullpen rose to the occasion. Héctor Sánchez got the walkoff single that won the game for the Giants, redeeming himself for the blown throw that tied the game.

So the theme of the game was redemption squared...just a few minutes before the Giants pulled it out, at Dodgers Stadium the San Diego Padres stole home, and a wild throw allowed the second run to score defeating the Dodgers and giving the Giants the lead in the NL West!

Of all professional sports baseball is the most Human...baseball at times is like Greek Mythology, Fairy Tales, Biblical Passion Plays, or Aesop's Fables. Depending on the day, baseball can be like Great Literature or Pulp Fiction...but it is never without the human element...there's a life lesson in umpire's bad calls as well as in perfect pitches. Baseball...Always changing...Always the same...redeeming or heartbreaking, sometimes surprising...it can seem slow, but it's never boring.

Ebb and Flow

I'm a little verklempt this evening, my Giants broke my heart in the 9th at Washington DC. Call it the bottom of the tide...

I finally triumphed over biology and got my power nap in before I woke up at 5AM and watched the LIVE broadcast of the Tour de France's Stage 5 from Saint-Quentin, France.

It turns out I should have fallen back to sleep with 3km to go because once again I had to watch a Team CorduroyPlanet sprinter hit the pavement at high speed.

Yesterday it was World Champion Mark Cavendish who was lucky to escape with only road rash and torn clothing. Seeing Cav sitting on the pavement with his helmet all cracked up, and his jersey in shreds, you could see his disappointment as his goal of winning the green Sprinter's Jersey vanished into the sodden French atmosphere.

I expect Cavendish will not make it to the final stage in Paris...he'll say screw it, and save his body and mind for the London Olympics.

Today Team Garmin-Sharp's Tyler Farrar was knocked to the pavement near the end of the stage. Bloodied, he picked himself up again and soldiered home, dead last, 4:07 behind the winner's bunch.

Farrar had to be restrained after the stage as he was marching towards the team bus of the rider who knocked him to the ground. I understand his frustration...Tyler has been knocked off his mount three days in a row. I'd want to give the latest guy with sharp elbows a piece of my mind too...and maybe poke him in the chest with my finger while I was at it.

Today's Stage 6 is the last pure "Sprinter's Stage" until that final stage on the Champs-Élysées in two weeks time. Tyler Farrar has Olympic aspirations too, so I expect he'll bail in enough time to fully recover for London 2012. Such is the ebb and flow of pro cycling's Grand Tours...

Mayors To Your Battle Stations!
There's USS Iowa news from Independence Day, it too is the bottom of the tide as it turns out.

The bigwigs of the city of Los Angeles hosted Iowa bigwigs for the dedication of the USS Iowa Museum at San Pedro in Los Angeles Harbor. Unfortunately, Iowa's Governor Branstad choked on a piece of carrot and was sent to the hospital at the insistence of his hosts. Branstad protested, but made the trip to the hospital. He was fine, just as he claimed before the trip to the big building full of Doctors, nurses and sick people...

Across the country, on New York City's Coney Island, svelte Californian, Joey Chestnut ate 68 "Hot Dogs and Buns" to win the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest for the 6th year in a row. NYC Mayor, Michael Bloomberg made a speech congratulating the winners, then wondered aloud: "Who wrote this s**t?" The video is on YouTube, bottom feeders.

I found this just a little ironic. Mayor Bloomberg has been making a name for himself as NYC's Nanny Mayor, legislating against salty, fattening, and sugary foods in the Big Apple... to see him praise Joey Chestnut for gobbling down 68 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes, while crusading to outlaw soda pop to-go in cups larger than 16oz, seems to this observer of the passing scene, as capital H hypocrisy...low tide indeed...

British Grand Prix Weekend Begins
On tap overnight? Formula One's Free Practice One from Silverstone streams LIVE at 2AM PDT...gotta nap in shifts to get it all in LIVE...good night!

USS Iowa, Meet Online Wargaming

Our Big Stick got some ink and electrons from Forbes Friday:

"World of Battleships Publisher Wargaming.net Blends History With Online Gaming Aboard USS Iowa"

So far in my life I've resisted computer gaming, but I may have to take a look at World of Battleships...

America's "Battleship of Presidents" can use all the love she attracts...

Here Comes History

My world has been heavy with history for a month. The last week of May was wall to wall battleship. The USS Iowa's transit through San Francisco Bay made for a peak experience for SturgeUrge and I as we followed the big battlewagon from Richmond to Angel Island on an uncommonly calm afternoon.

Astronomically it was a couple of good weeks with the Annular Eclipse and the Transit of Venus.

I marked the 70th anniversary of the pivotal Battle of Midway in this space.

Last week we marked the 68th year since Allied forces landed on the Normandy beaches. D-Day the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany's reign of terror.

History was made in space when private contractor SpaceX successfully sent a cargo ship named Dragon to the International Space Station, docked, and a few days later, undocked, reentered and slashed down safely in the Pacific off the Baja California coast.

The 96th Indianapolis 500 and the 70th Monaco Grand Prix marked motorsports milestones, and this week I watched Matt Cain pitch his Perfect Game.

Looking ahead, Truckee will be hosting some history the first week of July, when two of the original Tuskegee Airmen will be feted at a dinner kicking off the Truckee Tahoe AirFair & Family Festival.

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first black aviation unit in the Army Air Corps during WWII. The heavily decorated all black 322nd Fighter Group is told in the George Lucas 2012 film "Red Tails"

All this excitement has me plumb tuckered out...perhaps this weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans will recharge my batteries...

Perfect

It's almost 2AM, and I'm wide awake...adrenaline will do that to a man. I was lucky enough to witness something very, very rare Wednesday evening.

I watched the Giants game as I do most games. The Giants are playing very enjoyable ball these past few weeks as the team's injured players return from the Disabled List, and get back into their respective grooves. The Giants outfield is as good as any in the Majors...the Giants' young infielders are getting their feet under themselves in the field, and they're starting to produce from the batter's box too.

With the exception of the Giants ace pitcher Tim Lincecum, who's been bedeviled with mysterious control problems, the Giants' starting pitchers have been shouldering the load as the team jells. Tonight it was Matt Cain on the mound against the Houston Astros.

Cain struck out the Astros' leadoff batter, and retired the side in order. Giants LF Melky Cabrera, fresh from three days off to heal a strained hamstring, knocked a two run homer into the bleachers in the 1st. Giant lead 2-0 going into the 2nd inning.

The Giants scored in each of the first five innings, Matt Cain retired the Astros in order each time the Giants took the field.

The crowd in the sold-out AT&T Park was festive to say the least, once they began to realize that Cain was well on his way to a No-Hitter, somehow they turned up the intensity a little more. It was totally a "playoff atmosphere"

It was intense at home too...the normally boisterous social networks turned it down once it looked like Cain had the No-No going...it's a thing in baseball, you don't talk about a no hitter if one is happening...don't jinx it.

In the seventh inning, Astros' Jason Schafer crushed a Matt Cain fastball into the gap in right center, coming from right field Gregor Blanco ran to the gap and made a diving catch on the warning track, and held onto the ball for the out. The catch looked impossible when the ball was hit, and still looked impossible when Blanco, in a dead run layed out to make the catch in mid air...think "The Catch", Willie Mays' famous over the shoulder basket catch in the Polo Grounds during the Game 1 of the 1954 World Series vs the Cleveland Indians...only horizontal!

That's when I knew Cain would not only get the no-hitter, but the Perfect Game as well. The crowd was off the hook from then on. The TV announcers were being swept along with the building tension. Everyone in the yard was standing from the bottom for the 7th, until the final out of Cain's masterpiece. In the 9th, the TV cameras caught Matt's wife Chelsea standing with some other Giants' wives as Matt hurled for his last three outs.

In the aftermath, the dugout reporter interviewing Cain told him he was the first pitcher in 135 years of Giants history to throw the perfect game. "Wow" Cain excitedly replied. Chelsea Cain made it down to the field as the interview was wrapping up, and a big hug and a kiss sealed the deal. The post game show ran about two hours...not the usual 20-25 minutes.

It was a big deal, I feel so lucky to have seen it! It's been four hours since the game ended and Twitter and the baseball side of Facebook are still crackling with energy. #MattCain is trending worldwide on Twitter and the baseball bloggers are all posting their stories. ESPN has a good one.

Only 22 perfect games have been pitched since baseball began in the 1870s Cain's Perfect Game featured the most pitches 125, and the highest score 10-0. The high pitch count came from Cain's 14 strikeouts, tying Sandy Koufax who did it with 113 pitches against the Chicago Cubs in 1965.

I watched the ground crew dig up Home Plate and the pitching rubber from the mound...destination Cooperstown, and the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I think this occasion will be the catalyst that sets the Giants chemistry into motion. I'm thinkin' contending come September...Go Giants, Well done Matt, and thanks a ton!

Tables

I was out for a meal twice in two days. Monday evening the family visited the new-to-us Asian restaurant in our little town, and Tuesday I took Mom to her monthly Church Luncheon.

Monday we had a great meal at our local organic Chinese food restaurant with a sushi bar, and we had a great time too!

We've had take-out a couple of times and finally made an appearance for an early (6PM) table. Good first impression time...as we strode towards our booth, we passed a small table in the dining area that was piled high with fresh green beans and pea pods...the wait staff would work on the prep between orbits around the dining room.

As a matter of fact, along one side of the restaurant several small tables were piled high with cartons of produce. The rest of the tables were nearly full of customers. Rambunctious for an early  Monday night, I was already having a good time.

We ordered a sushi plate and a seafood salad for openers, water all around, Sister K ordered a glass of chardonnay, and I ordered a Sapporo. "Large or small?" asked our waiter, "Small" I replied.

Our waiter was back with our ice water...it came in pint sleeves, like ale in a brewpub, our wine, soda and Sapporo followed a minute later. We asked for more time to pore over the menu.

A different server brought a seaweed salad, confusion erupted...then the sushi plate arrived. The salad was the traditional seaweed with a toasted sesame oil dressing, sprinkled with sesame seeds and dried chili flakes...delicious. The sushi was divine, nigiri style maguro, hamachi, sake (salmon), hirami (halibut) , and tai (red snapper). Our waiter returned and Sister K asked about the seafood salad...the noise level was medium-high, so the mistake was easily made.

About now, I tipped the last of my Sapporo into my mouth...just as the owner flew by and placed another 12oz Sapporo in front of me and said "On the house" Great cheer all around the table...a minute later he was back, this time with an appetizer/desert plate..."on the house"...a half dozen tempura shrimp and four pieces of baklava. Not two minutes later, the second server was back with the seafood salad. More tempura shrimp on a bed of spring mix with a delicate honey mustard vinaigrette.

Our entrees arrived...mushu pork and cashew chicken. Everything was delicious...I don't give marks off for flour tortillas instead of true mushu pancakes...hey, it's California...press two for Engrish...the owner was back...this time with a 22oz Tsingtao...more laughter all around...I poured half a glass, and foisted the rest off on my brother-in-law...I was driving after all!

We were slowing down and filling up now...but the owner was still doing his best dervish impression...before we asked for the check, he was back with two grocery bags of fresh, organic produce (you take this home, on the house), and another plate of baby salad greens with more of the honey mustard dressing, "on the house", and an "Easter basket" presentation of fortune cookies!

As we trundled out, the owner handed my brother-in-law and I yet another 12oz Tsingtao each! Even though we left a tip "to-remember-us-by", I felt like a cat burglar making off with a pillowcase full of the family jewels!

Dinners for the rest of the week will feature mango chicken with sesame rice...and Caesar salads!

The contrast between Monday evening's to-do at the organic Asian joynt, and the brunch at Mom's church wasn't the eye-opener you'd expect. This month's theme was Flag Day (which comes up Thursday 6/14). We arrived later than usual, and there was almost nobody there.

The regulars all straggled in a bit later than usual, but we had a full house. Tossed green salad, wedges of seedless watermelon, a nice potato salad (Mom said it was like Indiana potato salad), and grilled chicken breast, with a strawberry shortcake style desert.

Though not exactly rambunctious by Monday night's standards, everyone had a good time, the laughter level was medium-high, and I'm sure everyone else went home and went down for a nap too.

After my good nap, I watched a great Giants game! Two home runs by youngsters helped propel the Giants to a 6-3 victory over the Houston Astros. 22 year old LHP Madison Bumgarner launched one way up into the left field bleachers to tie the game 1-1 in the 3rd. It was his first major league knock.

He had quite the start as well, 7.2 IP, 6H, 2R, 1ER, 0BB,12K.

All in all a very enjoyable, satisfying game.

USS Iowa Veterans Information

An interesting post appeared on CorduroyPlanet's Facebook Page Friday.

A veteran named Bill Sandlin asked:
"There are a lot of us veterans that would like to be there for the Grand Opening. I would like to make this a big event for USS Iowa and veterans. Is there anything I can do to make this happen?"

I responded:
"If you're a USS Iowa vet, the USS Iowa Veterans Association is holding their 2012 Reunion in San Pedro for the Grand Opening July 2-6" http://www.ussiowa.org/mbrship/reunion/2012/index.htm

"Veterans who served on other ships or in other services could pose their questions to The Pacific Battleship Center http://www.pacificbattleship.com/ or on their Facebook Page":https://www.facebook.com/pacificbattleship

Mr Sandlin replied:
"Thanks, I will pass this information on to other veterans. I am sure some served on the USS Iowa"

"Thanks for your service Bill! God bless you and all Allied Veterans". I replied.

That happened twelve hours ago. I've spent a little time since then looking at the USS Iowa Veterans Association website, and it's a little gold mine.

History comes a-knockin':
It occurs to me that another WWII milestone needs marking. The Battle of Midway, June 4-7, 1942 was fought seventy years ago this week. This naval battle was the turning point in the Pacific Naval War, and though the USS Iowa wasn't launched until August 27, 1942, Iowa would play her part in Imperial Japan's surrender, the surrender that became a fait accompli as the result of the Battle of Midway.

Perhaps ironically, the Battle of Midway also foretold the end of the Battleship Era. Though 49 ships fought in the battle, only two were battleships, the real business end of both navies were the aircraft carriers. Japan brought four carriers to bear on Midway Atoll, the American Navy fielded three flat tops.

The USS Enterprise, USS Hornet and USS Yorktown and their combined Air Wings sank all four Japanese carriers, Kaga, Akagi, Hiryū, and Sōryū, four of the five fleet carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor just seven months earlier. The Yorktown sank after twice suffering devastating direct torpedo strikes. Japan lost 248 aircraft and 3057 men. The Americans lost around 150 aircraft and 307 men. American air crews suffered near total losses while devastating the Japanese carriers.

Japan stubbornly fought another three years and three months across the Pacific before the surrender was signed on the Iowa Class battleship USS Missouri while much of Missouri's crew was temporarily billeted aboard the USS Iowa on Tokyo Bay.

There's lots of these anniversaries coming down the pike. We all pray that there will never be a Total War like WWII again. Those of us who came after the war, and those that didn't serve can never repay our veterans for the sacrifices they made on our behalf.

If you know a veteran, thank them for their service to our country, and tip them to the upcoming Grand Opening of the USS Iowa as a floating museum on Independence Day weekend in Los Angeles Harbor. Talk up the USS Iowa Veterans Association as well, and point them to the Pacific Battleship Center's Facebook Page.

If you're going to be in LA before the 4th of July weekend, the LA Times has a guide to getting a closer look until Iowa opens for business.

USS Iowa On the Move Today:
The Pacific Battleship Center: "USS Iowa is expected to transit from Berth 51/52 to Berth 87 on Saturday, June 9.  Invited guests on a pre-approved manifest will be the only people permitted onboard USS Iowa and within the secure zone established at both berths.
The transit will begin at approximately 1430, with arrival at Berth 87 at approximately 1530/1545.  Access to Berth 87 prior to transit will currently be limited to those on the pre-approved manifest.
It is expected that there will be a lot of traffic within the San Pedro area.  The Pacific Battleship Center Outreach Center is located at 437 6th Street for further details on USS Iowa and for purchase of hats, t-shirts, tickets, and membership."

USS Iowa veterans salute the Big Stick.

It would be awesome to volunteer on the USS Iowa don'tcha think?

Settling

Not exactly...you could say I'm splittin' the difference.

I'm off early Sunday morning to see a battleship on San Francisco Bay. Once I get my fill of snapping photos, I'm headed up the superslab to Truckee and my date with the Annular Eclipse. Multitasking Me...

I can't recommend highly enough that anyone near San Francisco Bay get to a good vantage point and watch the mighty USS Iowa cross the Bay and pass under the Golden Gate Bridge. Alcatraz or Angel Island would be great viewing locations, as would Crissy Field, Fort Point, and the Marin Headlands. Private boaters have a leg up on the landlubbers...

The Pacific Battleship Center, the non-profit that shepherds the Iowa, has hooked up a satellite webcam so everyone can watch LIVE video of the Iowa's voyage south.

Check it out about noon Sunday May 20, 2012 PDT on their website.

Baseball fans get in on the show too. The San Francisco Giants' broadcasts have been blessed with the services this week of the Hanger 1 Vodka blimp. You can be sure that the blimp will provide plenty of beauty shots of the Iowa on the Bay. The game starts at 1PM PDT on CSN-Bay Area, so most cable subscribers in Northern California will get a peek.

Sunday evening, the eclipse takes the helm, and will amaze and delight millions. The middle of the show...max eclipse is around 6:30PM PDT. Consult your local media outlet...your mileage may vary!

I'll post pictures in an extra blog Monday May 21st.

Enjoy the big shows...and be careful everybody!

Willie Mays #24

Happy 81st Birthday to "The Say Hey Kid"

Willie's Hall of Fame plaque

Willie greets the kids on his 80th Birthday

The greatest baseball player I ever saw play...thanks for all the fun, Willie!

"They invented the All-Star Game for Willie Mays" - Ted Williams

Schizophrenic

"Nobody multitasks like Americans", I heard myself say Friday evening at our table in our favorite local Chinese restaurant. Our waiter was taking our orders, as we were catching up with our dining companions...and being Americans, we somehow had our just-off-the-boat waiter's head spinning.

He's going to make a fine American it turns out...he has patience...these days you need lots of patience in America.

As always, dinner was great! Yan's chefs know their way around a wok. They have a special way with vegetables...the Garlic Asparagus and Dry Cooked Beans especially stand out.

We dined at 6PM, right in the middle of the Giants' game from New York City, which is why I found myself multitasking later at 1AM Saturday morning, and why I'm writing today's CorduroyPlanet more than 12 hours later than I usually post it.

After we finished dinner and settled the check, I grabbed the car and pulled it to Yan's front door, with the game on the radio. Pulling onto the main drag, Kruk & Kuip announced that the Giants had just come back to tie it in the 10th inning. So much for after dinner conversation.

The Giants won it, thanks to their new bullpen/closer by committee. Ball Game!

So at 12:30, CSNBA replayed the game. I'd watched the first four innings before we left for dinner, and wanted to see how the G-Men got in and out of trouble during dinner...

Small problem...at 1AM, LIVE all the way from Bahrain's Sakhir Circuit, SpeedTV was streaming Formula One's Practice 3

This is how I ended up multitasking in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

Protests in Bahrain have neither subsided, nor ramped up since F1 arrived in the Island Kingdom.

I'd watched both P1 and P2 Friday morning, and today's images were very different. The air looked exactly like Shanghai's polluted air last weekend...gray and dark.

I tweeted some questions to SpeedTV's Pit Reporter Will Buxton and to the Pirelli Tyre PR Team who were actively tweeting news from trackside:

@WillBuxton How's that sandy air at Sakhir, Will? It looks like Shanghai Smog. Can you feel it on your skin? Is it playin' hell w/ grip?

@Pirelli_Media  #F1 What's the forecast for winds at Sakhir? There's enough sand in the air now that it looks like Shanghai Smog #Traction?

 It was the residual dust from morning sand storms that swept across the desert island that is Bahrain. As each practice I watched went on, what looked like a groove of tire rubber was laid down on the track, only to disappear by the beginning of the next session.

It turns out that the groove was not in fact rubbering in per se, but the cars were blowing the sand dust off the track, only to have the winds blow in a new coating of dust before the next track session.

@WillBuxton replied: "Yeah its pretty heavy air today. Sandstorms this morning. Will be playing havoc out there."

@Pirelli_Media replied too, much more personally by Twitter DM (Direct Message): "Winds are hard to forecast but it looks like the sand will clear by lunch time."

All the while, the Giants replay was passing by on the TV. I tore myself away from the cars on the dusty track and watched every pitch of the Giants' turnaround and win, before watching the waning minutes of P3.

When F1 wrapped up, I was just an hour and a half from Qualifying, and wide awake...thanks adrenaline! I made a snack and set about reading up on P3 minutia and set the DVR to watch Qualifying lest I fall asleep before the pole was decided...

Well, I made it to Q1, but zonked out midway through Q2...

I watched all three rounds of Qualifying this afternoon...after the Giants came from behind to tie the Mets and lose it all in the 9th inning!

NYC Weatherfolks say Sunday's Giants-Mets game should be rained out, oddly the WeatherUnderground.com  forecast for Bahrain's Sakir Circuit says 40% chance of rain for Sunday morning's (our time) Grand Prix.

Yes, I'm setting the DVR, and no I don't think it'll rain. Wind and dust are something else all together...

Grinding It Out

How did I get this tired? I got a full night of sleep, languished in the sack this morning, before I ran the snow blower for a whole five minutes before sitting around the Truckee DMV Office waiting for my number to come up...or my appointment time to arrive.

Time won...the woman in the cheetah print overcoat loved the low number I handed off to her...I bet it made her day...I saved her an hour+ of waiting.

I went back to my bank for my new ATM Card...to the post office to see if a Good Samaritan found my wallet and dropped it into my Post Office...sadly, no...

Longs Drugs sold billfolds...CVS doesn't. Grabbed a $10 Nylon Billfold at Porter's. It's better than the one I lost...though the olive drab camo of the old one did start a conversation or two!

I was back at the DaveCave by 3PM, and spent the rest of the afternoon shredding junk mail...mostly pre-approved credit card solicitations, and old credit card statements. I pay my bills online, the paper bills remind me to do my due diligence every billing cycle...saved me $10.05  once...

Anyway, why am I so tired? Couldn't have been watching a lot of the 37 Hours of the Daytona 500! I laid about Saturday morning while the race announcers vamped for hour upon hour...raggin' on and on about the rain and Twitter of all things. There's only so many questions that race car drivers can pontificate on...Finally, the Daytona 500 was postponed for the first time in 54 years.

No problemo...Monday was gonna be snowy outside, I'm without my wallet and Debit Card, and the pantry is stocked...I'm set for NASCAR's Super Bowl! The race is postponed again, now until 4PM Pacific.

Still snowy out, I prepped a batch of Bakesale Betty's Fried Chicken Sandwiches...lunches for the next couple of days, anyway...

I turned up the sound on the TV just before the green flag fell, and Darrell Waltrip shouted: "Let's go racin' boys, and Danica!"

That didn't take long..."The Big One" happened on Lap 2...Danica's car caught enough of it to send her car behind the wall for a new rear end housing and all that goes with it...she started near the back after starting from the Pole in Saturday's Nationwide Series Race...after quite a while she rejoined 38 laps down.

Rules changes brought back Pack Racing for the most part, and the late start and cool temps all but eliminated the two-by-two drafting that we saw all week. Under the Florida sun, in 80° temps there was a hybrid of pack racing and two-by-two drafting. Two cars could hook up and escape, but they couldn't stay paired for more than a couple of minutes before the pusher started to overheat. It was the best of both worlds...

Back at the Daytona 500, the pack stayed together through the race. Needless to say, the Lap 2 wreck was just the first Big One. There were 9-10 yellow flag periods...plus a red flag that stopped the race with 40 Laps to go...for another Two Hours!

Here's what happened. During a caution period, Juan Pablo Montoya exited the pits after some work was done on his #42 Target Chevrolet and was accelerating along the bottom of the track to catch the rest of the pack behind the Pace Car. A couple of Safety Trucks were towing Jet Dryers at the top of the Turn 3 banking (31° steep banking!) blowing tire debris down to the infield.

At about 100MPH, something under Montoya's #42 broke in a shower of sparks, and he spun up the track right into the leading jet dryer causing a huge explosion!

Montoya's car was destroyed, but he climbed out of the wreckage as soon as it came to a stop in the infield. The Safety Truck driver was shaken, but not stirred, and helped by the Safety Patrol to walk down the extreme banking.

When they were halfway down the track, the spilled jet fuel found an ignition source and a huge river of fire ran down the track.

I've never seen anything like it! In the darkness, it looked Biblical...the fire burned for several minutes before track fire crews finally doused the flames. It turns out the jet dryers carry 200 gallons of Jet-A fuel!

Take a minute to ponder the irony..."Safety Truck" = hot jet engine+200 gallons of Jet Fuel in a simple aluminum tank, not in a fuel cell like the race cars, all mounted on a slow moving trailer, with 30+ racecars whizzing by at 70+MPH under caution

A funny thing happened during the Red Flag...the race cars were all parked on the back straight, while the fire was doused and the track dried and repaired. From his #2 Miller Lite Dodge, Brad Keselowski took a photo of the fire scene with his iPhone and Tweeted it.

 The rest is history... Read the linked article, especially if you don't "get" Twitter...The TV talk quickly turned to twitter before the race was finally restarted.

Who was expecting a Green/White/Checker Finish? Only everybody watching! Matt Kenseth won his second Daytona 500 in his #17 Roush-Fenway Best Buy Ford.

Twitter during the race, and especially during the red flag was almost as much Snarky Fun as Live Tweeting the Oscars Sunday night! Getting a laugh with 140 characters or less takes some doin'...

Jeez, the wind is really howling now (12:15AM) I'll wrap this up and log off before the power goes off! Good Night!

A Matter Of Perspective

It's raining on the Daytona 500 this morning...a nice drenching rain that's stretching the FoxTV producers bag of tricks a little thin...

NASCAR apparently discovered Twitter during their off season (or more likely FoxTV discovered Twitter recently)...So the pit reporters are making the rounds of the motorhomes and haulers, interviewing the drivers to pass the time. At least one Twitter question for each interview so far.

Kevin Harvick #29 Chevrolet, Tweeted a TwitPic of a box of diapers...awww... Kevin talked about being a new parent, they sold their race teams to concentrate on parenting, and had The Dog Whisperer in to help with their dog.

I seem to remember that the Harvick's dog lived in their garage...no wonder it copped an attitude...Harvicks' huge country estate, and the dog's relegated to the garage?

I continued wandering the web:
Here's a different kind of weather story...too much snow last year impacting Lake Tahoe.

Sounds like NDOW needs a snowcat, I've ridden my mountain bike up to Marlette Lake a couple of times, and the trail is a popular cross country ski destination. A milk run for a groomer!

I found these amazing photos on Photojojo!'s Tumblr. see them all here. Talk about a large canvas!

I know I'm all over the place today, but can't a man have as many perspectives as he wants?

No Spring Training stream today, but Twitter has been crackling with SF Giants News from Scottsdale. Buster Posey catching Matt Cain...Lots of fireworks during Live batting Practice...Matt Cain hit by a Héctor Sánchez comebacker...Pablo Sandoval drilled by LHP Jeremy Affeldt...and again on the shoulder both are fine.

Afterwards Affeldt quipped: "We don't need to be dropping our 3-hole hitter on the first day." Brandon Crawford hitting it hard, Posey crushed a couple of Sergio Romo pitches.

Willie Mays in the clubhouse today. Legacy Giants, JT Snow and Jeff Kent on the field, Will the Thrill in da house!

T minus 2 Hours and Counting:
Daytona rain delay now at three hours...10+ jet dryers on the track between storm cells. Rain has stopped...Twitter tweets on...It's 4:05PM in Daytona...they have lights...should get it in tonight...

Time to make lunch...Bakesale Betty's Fried Chicken Sandwich...

Things Are Lookin' Up

Remember this?

That was on the Local Fishwrap's Facebook Page Thursday.

Same scene Friday...I took the photo Saturday afternoon...right after I lost my wallet at the grocery store...however I wouldn't know my wallet had escaped for another 5-10 minutes when I was putting away the bag of groceries and discovered the gaping hole through which the billfold surely escaped...

Upon further inspection, my wallet must have been named Houdini to escape through this hole...a damn perfect storm...or escape act...

It's frustrating that a glass half full guy would come home with half a sack of groceries that's fully empty wallet wise...

As it happens, there were three Debit Cards and two Credit Cards in the billfold. Thankfully everyone who I talked to at the banks' Customer Service phone banks were helpful, understanding, and spoke in understandable accents.

Of course I'll have to get a new Drivers License now. It looks like yours truly will be doing the "New Air Jordans Camp-Out" early at DMV Monday morning. The DMV.ca.gov website let me make an appointment at their earliest convenience,Tuesday afternoon!

Prologue:
Before I turned in for the night, I surfed the web for the day's news. Tom Stienstra's story about Tahoe Basin Bear Trouble in today's San Francisco Chronicle really put my lost wallet into sharp focus as a puny problem in the Big Picture compared to the plight of the local bruins.


With hungry bears emerging early from their hibernation, a small war amongst Incline Village residents has been brewing over Nevada Department of Wildlife's efforts to capture a problem bear in their neighborhood.

Alas, it's gonna shake out as a bad spring for basin bears...

NHRA to the Rescue

Careful what you wish for! Only yesterday in this space, I lamented the lack of "M" on MTV...

Today I awoke from my afternoon nap, and my twitter timeline was alive with RIP Whitney Houston remembrances...so sad...

@mtvnews says: "Join us for an hour-long music video tribute to Whitney Houston, tonight at 11:30pm on @MTV. #RIPWhitney "

Sadly there will be some "M" on MTV tonight after all...

I logged off Twitter and surfed around the channels for some distraction, and found motorsports! NHRA Qualifying from Pomona, ancestral home of drag racing!

There's a new Force in town. John Force's youngest daughter Courtney, 23 is running a funnycar for Dad's team. Big sister Ashley Force-Hood retired from competition on January 28, 2012. She's president of John Force Entertainment, a subsidiary of John Force Racing.

It feels kinda like baseball's Spring Training...a new beginning...hope springs eternal...

One week until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training, two weeks until NASCAR's Daytona 500, five weeks 'til F1's Australian Grand Prix.

Jeez, it figures...persistent afternoon rain showers force the cancellation of the final round of qualifying at Pomona.

Paradox

You can take the groomer outta the tractor, but you can't take the weathergeek outta the groomer I guess.

I awoke after my afternoon nap (it is Body Clock resetting time after all) and turned on the TV news. They said showers were coming...a quick click to Magnifeye.com's webcams told the story.

Wet roads in the foothills, Blue Canyon had rain (hence no TV reporters doing remotes) Sunshine from Donner Summit to the State Line.

It's almost 1AM and the precip never got here...or much past Blue Canyon for that matter...

I had a fine old day watching C-Span. They had extensive coverage of CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington DC. The three leading GOP candidates speechified, along with pundits galore. Fully half of the attendees are under 25 years old.

After the late news, I saw MTV's Kurt Loder on a late night chat show. I remember him from when MTV came to Truckee in 1988. He looks old...what the hell? I'm old now too!

24 years have past...does MTV have any M on it anymore? I gave up on MTV when it became all game shows and reality shows back in the 90s...

A Life Aquatic

I've spent much of the last two days on or about salt water.

After motoring by the Red Oak Victory in Richmond Harbor for the past five years, I finally found cause to visit from the hard side. What gave me the long awaited nudge? Tuesday we went to visit a battleship.

After a decade at anchor in The Mothball Fleet, the USS Iowa has been moved to Richmond's historic Kaiser Shipyard #3 to be prepared for a tow to Los Angeles where she will become a floating museum.

The siting of the Iowa couldn't be worse...she's tied up a quarter mile from the nearest public space. Long lenses are in order, and though my pocket camera has a modest zoom lens, the big battlewagon deserves a big fat expensive telephoto lens on an advanced DSLR.

Even a quarter mile distant, the Iowa is an awesome sight. There's no mistaking the beautiful lethality of an Iowa Class Battleship when viewed from the bow. We spent the better part of two hours driving around Richmond's working waterfront trying to fine a close-in vantage point. The temptation to trespass was hard to resist, but resist we did. Finally after covering most of the compass in our quest for the perfect "Kodak Picture Spot" we headed down to the quay where the Red Oak Victory is tied up.

What a difference a little dry dock time can make for a nearly forgotten  77 year old Liberty Ship. The Red Oak Victory was shining like new. New paint from stem to stern shone in the brilliant November sun. Even the big bronze propeller received some love...years of marine growth was cleaned off, and the prop was sharpened! About a 6-8 inch swath of the edge of the blades had been ground, exposing the noble alloy to the sun's rays.

We spied an osprey nest atop the old Shipyard #3 crane, and we snapped photos and jotted down names of some of the other historic vessels lurking around the waterfront awaiting restoration by the National Park Service. Finally we headed home with a stop at the Asian market for a box of frozen squid.

Wednesday, SturgeUrge and I put that squid to good use on Tamales Bay where we reprised last week's dungeness crab hunt.

Upgrades included departure from the SturgeUrge Compound an hour and fifteen minutes earlier. The tides were more favorable, and we decided to crab "string-style" where we drop all our pot in a line, relatively close to one another.

Our early start allowed us to miss most of the commute traffic. In fact we arrived at the Boat Ramp two hours earlier than last week. The weather was even better this week, so still that we ended bobbing about for a half hour after we launched, waiting for the fog bank to lift enough so we could see the fishing grounds.

Fishing the string allowed us to make a halibut drift after each set, but the only fish we hooked was an angel shark...a sort of combination of a shark and a sting ray. They're called Guitarfish on the East Coast. We pulled the traps four times vs 7-8 last week, and we caught two limits (2 X 10 crabs each) vs 13 total dungees last week. Two thirds of the crab were big enough that we didn't need to even measure them.

Aside from losing a half an hour at the boat ramp on the way home, we still returned to the SturgeUrge Compound well before sundown. We flushed the outboard, washed the pots, boat and trailer, tow rig, and rods and reels. Urge steamed the crab, built a salad, and we enjoyed a great crab supper.

A Funny Thing Happened on Veterans Day

Armistice Day commemorates the end of hostilities on The Western Front of World War One. It went into effect at eleven o'clock in the morning: "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918. Armistice Day became Veterans Day after World War Two. I've always felt the day's solemn weight, and I try to thank any Veterans I meet on their day. My father and uncle both served in WW2, Dad was a Navy SeaBee in the Aleutian Islands, Uncle George survived the Battle of the Bulge.

In the font-driven world of Social Media on the internet, this year Veterans Day gets special attention because it looks so good: 11|11|11

Thousands, if not millions of snarky geeks have been riffing on the date all day. Lost in the avalanche of tweets, Facebook status updates, and blog posts is the name of the first wag to see corduroy in the elevens lined up... voilà, Corduroy Day! or Corduroy Appreciation Day. Someone's thinking Big too: National Corduroy Day and International Corduroy Day!

I'm amazed that the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The New Yorker all had print on the fabric's big day.

I'm not surprised that Twitter was the launching pad for so much snarky fun.The Twitter hashtag  #Corduroy went viral, sucked me in (duh!) and then I searched Corduroy People. There's an awful lot of us on Twitter!

Who knew there was a @CorduroyClub?

Corduroy food? @badfeather asked: "Has ramen been proposed as a potential #corduroy food? Dried as rumpled, wet as deconstructed?"

See what I mean?

It's all great fun for CorduroyNation I suppose, though it is bad form to have so much goofy fun on an otherwise solemn holiday...and holiday doesn't set right for me either.

Oh, I understand that "Holiday" morphed from "Holy Day"...but I feel the pangs of guilt when I'm doin' a spit take while reading some snarkmeister's fractured funny business on such a weighty day.

Thoughts on the Passing Scene

It's 2:18PM PDT. I just lit the pilot light on the heater. NWS Reno has issued a Winter Storm Warning for tonight into Wednesday afternoon. Snow level lowering to DaveCave level by morning.

My brief brush with our dystopian digital future has turned into a trend.  I ran into Reno Friday to pick up some specialty mechanic's tools, and provisions. On my way down the Truckee River canyon, I noticed CalTrans was busy trying to wrap up their paving project on Westbound I-80 before the rain arrives. There was a two mile long backup in the Work Zone, and I made a mental note that I might want to go home via the Mt Rose Highway.

It was a lovely day in Reno...90°F of nice desert-dry heat. I filled up at COSTCO but demurred on the warehouse visit (I don't do COSTCO on Fri/Sat/Sun) I heard a traffic bulletin about the slow going on WB 80 as I wrapped up my errands and turned south towards the Mt Rose Highway.

The desiduous trees were beginning to show their autumn color as I reached the summit. There was a heavy haze in the air (It's prescribed burn time in the Tahoe Basin) There was lots of fellow motorists up there on the mountain...that traffic bulletin I guessed. Even obscured by smoky haze, there isn't a better vista than Lake Tahoe looking south from high above Incline Village. I reached Lakeshore Drive, and headed towards Kings Beach...where I ran into another road construction project. I wasn't following close enough, so the flagger twirled the SLOW/STOP semaphore to STOP as I arrived.

I watched the eastbound traffic go by for 7:00 minutes...on the radio the news of Bank of America's new $5/month Debit Card Fee was breaking...I payed it no mind and gazed instead at the lake views and fancy boats playing on the glassy water.

Hours later I tried to logon to BofA's site to balance my checkbook, and it was unavailable. A few minutes later the website's troubles were a story on the 11 O'clock News. It was Sunday before I could do my online banking. Millions of BofA customers were logging on to file complaints about the new $60/year fees, slowing the website to a crawl. I washed my hands of the whole thing...I want perfect performance, without any drama or glitches when I'm banking online!

Tuesday I ran up against crashing websites everywhere again! About 10AM PDT Tuesday morning, I (and millions of iPhone Fans around the world) hit various tech websites to find out about Apple's latest whiz-bang gizmo. Rumor Central said the iPhone5 was going to be the greatest thing since sliced Blackberries...

Now none of these websites were streaming live video of Apple's presentation, these were LiveBlogs, where geek journalists type a sentence or two every minute or two, that are posted to the various websites for visitors to read. Very low bandwidth compared to video, and still these websites were driven to the brink...several lockups, drop-outs, and 404 errors...my, my... the power of Apple's marketing is really something!

I gather the Apple Fanbois are a little crestfallen since the iPhone 5 didn't make it's long lusted for debut. Apple followed their usual MO and introduced the iPhone 4S. A new faster, dual core processor, new camera and 1080p HD video, an new operating system with 200 new features and voice control, all in cahoots with iCloud, Apple's move to cloud storage and computing.

So, what was I doing...paying attention to the iPhone hoopla? I don't need a smartphone. Well I was hoping some of the new goodies would show up in the Generation 5 iPod Touch...especially the fullHD video and the upgraded camera. No such luck...

My iPod is now two years old. It's a Gen3 without the cameras. I've got a month and a half to follow along with the early adopters who upgrade to the new iOS5 before deciding to get one on Black Friday, the only day of the year to get Apple products on sale. I've never upgraded to iOS4 because so many Apple iPod owners had tons of trouble with their upgrades...specifically their battery life dropped by half...no thanks.

I have all the capability of the 5th Gen iPod between my 3rd Gen iPod and pocket digicam now, except for Apple's FaceTime and iCloud. I fancy FaceTime the iOS Video Chat/telephony app, but I can wait until next October in case the iPhone4S' chips, cameras, and video capabilities trickle down to the Gen6 iPod.

Ten hours later, all the Geek Websites are firing on all cylinders. I'm happy to soldier on with my bag of digital goodies until there's a pocket-sized quantum leap in Gadgetville. Technology never sleeps.

As I get ready to call it a day, I can hear the rain pelting the front door. I might be shoveling snow in the morning...that's OK...the weather is supposed to warm back up by the weekend.

Spam Musubi Revisited

On my way up the hill, I stopped in Vacaville. Going back and forth, I usually stop for gas at COSTCO...it's just under a mile off the superslab, and with many of Travis Air Base's airmen deployed abroad, the COSTCO itself never seems that crowded (of course I avoid Fri/Sat/Sun!)

Earlier this summer my favorite Asian market in the Inland Valley closed suddenly. The Landlord doubled their rent and the owners balked. Happily it's still sitting empty! Fortunately there's another store near the Vacaville COSTCO. Saturday I got a tank of gas and hit the Country Square Market.

I wanted some baby bok choi, and Country Square Market has the baby-iest anywhere! As luck would have it, they had the missing ingredients for Spam Musubi, and the little plexiglass musubi mold.

I made some after I watched the replay of the Singapore Grand Prix. Much better this time!

Better is a relative term however...I did everything differently this time:

The rice...this time I made standard sushi rice, washed medium grain rice, flavored with seasoned rice vinegar, and quickly cooled with a fan.
The Spam...this time I used the "Reduced Sodium" flavor.
Furikake...the missing rice seasoning, it's salt, sugar, seaweed and sesame seeds.

The Build...I used the plexiglass musubi form...a little easier than the modified Spam can I used last time out. I built one batch with it, I made the rest as handrolls...cone-style. I found using the form more fussy than helpful, so I went lazy school.

Results...this time the Spam Musubi was much better...just salty enough (I used less of the sugar/soy sauce in the pan with the Spam) I sauteed the spam to a lighter color than last time (I don't like BBQ flavor potato chips either) This batch was well balanced, and the furikake tied everything together on the palette.

I guess it's what you grow up with...for me, growing up near San Francisco, with a native San Franciscan Father, it's dungeness crab...growing up in Hawaii I guess it would be the Kahlua Pig, musubi and pupus...I get it. Will I make it again? Maybe...but spam isn't ahi tuna! Not even close. Is there even a Latin word for Spam?