Final USS Iowa Update: A Tale of Two Cities

Uh-oh someone put bees in my bonnet on my day off...come to think of it, the SF Giants have the day off too...

I happened to glance at the "dead tree edition" of the Contra Costa Times on the kitchen table this morning, and a story on the SS Red Oak Victory caught my eye.

Actually the story is more about politics than the historic Victory Ship. Though not directly laid out in the story, this looks like a hissy-fit from a Richmond City Councilman named Corky Booze (you can't make this stuff up, Folks!) who was out maneuvered by another Councilman named Butt (see what I mean?) Fellow Councilman Jeff Ritterman, quoted from the Times story:

"Corky just wants to attack (Councilman) Tom Butt."
Butt, who has a reputation for pushing for restoration and preservation of historic landmarks in the city, has been at odds with Booze over several issues, most recently Butt's successful bid to steer port security grant funds to a building near the Red Oak.

My fantasy is the "steer[ed] port security grant funds" cited are going to preserve the Streamline Moderne Style General Warehouse building that's the most architecturally significant structure near the Red Oak Victory...on a historic par with the "Whirley Crane" that stands between the ship and the warehouse.

Volunteer cars parked at the SS Red Oak Victory

Every time I've been down to the Rosie The Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park to see the SS Red Oak Victory, I could count the visitors to the ship on one hand...no way can the Non-Profit Organization that cares for her pay the city $10K/month! 

Back Side, General Warehouse, Kaiser Shipyard No. 3

There's a photo album of the General Warehouse on my Flickr Page.

Meanwhile in San Pedro:
Bigwigs from the city of Los Angeles will join with Iowa's Governor, Iowa's United States Senator Harkin, Representatives and USS Iowa Veterans at the USS Iowa Museum, to celebrate Independence Day on The 4th of July before the USS Iowa museum opens to the public on Saturday July 7th, 2012.

I'm thinking the City of Richmond could do a little promoting of the Red Oak Victory like LA Mayor Villagairosa gives Iowa, and maybe toot the horn for the Rosie The Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park while they're at it...say on those special holidays that honor the men and women who built those ships that helped win the War and preserved our way of life? How about honoring Memorial Day...4th of July, and  Veteran's Day for starters...then maybe they'll see the wisdom and tip the city's hat to VE Day, VJ Day, D-Day...

OK, enough Politics. Forgive me...here's some little things that you can do to help both ships. 

Richmond residents, please attend the Richmond City Council meeting on July 10th, and let the City Council know that the SS Red Oak Victory is a valued attraction at the Park and should enjoy continued favor from the City as a partner in Richmond's revitalization.

7PM Tuesday July 10, 2012
Council Chambers, City Hall
440 Civic Center Plaza
Richmond, CA

Visit their Websites:
USS Iowa
SS Red Oak Victory

Like Them on Facebook:
USS Iowa
SS Red Oak Victory

While you're at it, please like CorduroyPlanet on Facebook, too! 

Thank you all! Happy Independence Day, and lets be careful out there...Be Fire Safe!

Meltdown

I'm wilting...it's still almost 80°F in here at 1:23AM...

It's not like I didn't plan for this...I planned my day with the afternoon heating in mind.

In the last couple of days, I stumbled upon a great, new-to-me Food Blog, The Bitten Word. Therein I found a great looking recipe for a Beet, Rhubarb, and Orange Salad.

The new produce store downtown has these gorgeous Golden Beets, as well as the regular Detroit Improved classic red ones. Rhubarb is at the peak of the season, so hell yeah...I'm in.

So the beets are roasted in a 400°F oven for an hour...the perfect recipe to heat the kitchen and most of the rest of the house...so I was preheating the oven at 10:30AM, and the beets were cooling by noon...I even poached the rhubarb early...the first time...oops, 30 seconds too long on the rhubarb,so it turned to mush instead of the desired "crisp tender"

Anyway, I picked up another pound of rhubarb and poached it to perfection, in time for everything to cool enough to cache in the reefer until dinnertime.

The salad was a hit, though six servings must be as the entree...I've got enough for dinner for four again tomorrow. (This time I'll remember the feta, so it'll be like it's not even leftovers!) Now that I think about it, I shoulda taken some pictures...This salad is nothing if not colorful!

Thursday Night Roundup:
The Giants had the day off...their first in 20 days!

I found out that you can watch the whole Indy500 online! It's the best 500  in a long time, and runs about 2 hours 45 minutes. Turbos are back, baby!

The forecast says Friday will be hot before the pattern turns cool over the weekend...there's even a chance of rain for Reno this weekend.

Wow, the Pacific Battleship Center posted a link to my USS Iowa Tow Video Blog, and more than 600 people visited CorduroyPlanet. Thank you all!

Don't forget to Like my CorduroyPlanet Facebook Page.

Thanks again everyone!

Knocked Out!

That's what this cold did this weekend. It knocked me out...Late Saturday night I played fast and loose with bedtime to watch the rain-delayed Malaysian Grand Prix (and was rewarded with a bang-up race). I went to sleep at 4AM...and slept right through IndyCar's opener from St Petersberg, FL, and the NASCAR race from SoCal.


Darn thing is, now I'm sleeping from 2AM to 2PM in round numbers...the weather isn't helping either...a new March Miracle is tryin' to get born. Sunday (or was it Monday?) it rained more than 8 inches up in Marin county. I think we got 2-3 inches in the Inland Valley from that wave, and another inch or two today. Rain Wednesday, and more for the weekend.


It's been tough being sick and trying not to infect the rest of the family. Sister K started a new job Monday, and I wanted to cook dinner so she wouldn't have to, but I didn't dare to until Tuesday. I did a baked chicken dish with rice. I announced that dinner was ready, but everyone has to serve themselves, 'cause I don't want to give you my cold...oh, and there's salad in the refrigerator...


SturgeUrge phoned and we caught up. Salmon season opens April 7th, and we haven't been crab fishing since before Thanksgiving. This week's rains should flush the crab out of the bays, and back into our evil clutches!

Looking south from Richmond berth. Click for larger view.

We're trying to get a trip to Richmond in to tour the USS Iowa, but dodging these rainstorms makes it tough to visit the battleship because it's only open Saturdays and Sundays. They're painting the Iowa now, and servicing the hull and decks before she moves south to Los Angeles Harbor.

Was That

...Sweat?

Why yes! After lunch I dug out the car and finished clearing my side of the driveway. Even though the snowblower does the lion's share of the heavy lifting, I still raised a good sweat...It felt like it was 70°F out there...thank God the champagne powder was still light as a feather! The forecast winds must have sneaked thru while I was getting my beauty sleep, because the only real work was shoveling the layer deposited by the snowblower on top of the deep dry drifts atop the car...

I put the car back in my parking spot, and trundled back down to the DaveCave for some re-hydration...After a few minutes, I grabbed the new billfold and headed out to the Post Office and grocery store.

At the Safeway's Customer Service Counter, I inquired again if "anyone turned in a camo wallet?" Again, no...I paid for my bag of groceries and left.

The Post Office Box held my replacement Credit Card...Oh Joy! I zoomed home and fired up the laptop. When my desktop rendered, Carbonite's notification window materialized, reminding me that my automatic renewal had been stymied by my Invalid Credit Card.

My cell reception was especially horrid this afternoon...the sliding hoards tweeting the Hero Snow Powder Orgy and posting Twitpics by the thousands, no doubt...it sounded like a windy day thru the earpiece, but it was still as a funeral out. The noise wouldn't let me activate the new CC via the automated self serve system, so I went out to the front porch while I waited for the human CS Rep to pick up...shorts, no shoes, no shirt. The front porch was already dry and warm. The human breezed me thru the process, and I fed the new CC# into Carbonite's dropdown form...in a minute, Carbonite began backing up the 79 new files since the automatic renewal failed Tuesday. 77 of those files were photos...

That's a relief! This is the first time I've been without Carbonite since my major laptop crash in July, and Carbonite restore in September. I have a couple of new applications that I've been holding off installing lest they crash my system in my naked state.

At 2PM I saw the first tweet about the heavy eastbound traffic heading out early to beat the rush to the mountains. I shut the browser and turned off the lights and headed to Reno.

I paid $3.89/gal at COSTCO Gas, touched bases with COSTCO Customer Service to make sure my lost COSTCO Card wouldn't be an ID Theft issue, and that the 1997 card in my desk drawer was still good to go...Thanks COSTCO CS!

I guess I'm living right. I left downtown Reno right at 5PM. The Sun was low over the mountains, so visibility was compromised in a big way, which was exacerbated by the eternal highway construction on I-80 thru Reno. Arriving home around 5:30PM, I settled in and launched the laptop. Twitter blew up around 6:30...seems there was a 12 car pileup on WB I-80 at 6:05...Damn, that's all I need! I really am living a charmed life...despite the hiccups... WooHoo!

Phobos/Grunt Watch...Epilogue

What a pleasant surprise! Phobos/Grunt news after all this time.

The truth is, I need some distraction tonight...it's been a tough couple of days...

We've been hunkered down during the biggest storm period of the Winter...avalanche warnings were up, as were the winds during the storm period.

Today three skiers decided to do a little backcountry skiing in Ward Canyon, despite the heavy snowfall and wind loading that caused the Sierra Avalanche Center to post High Avalanche Danger first thing in the morning. The lure of Champagne Powder can be hard to resist...especially this lean Winter...

The three found their avalanche, and one skier was swept 300 feet downslope. Luckily two were unhurt...one skied out for help, one stayed with the victim. I saw the story in @CorduroyPlanet's Twitter timeline. The local paper had the story that lit up all the regional news outlets from Sacramento to Reno.

On the evening news, a Placer County Sheriff's Deputy said: "The victim was wrapped around a tree with several fractures"

After my "evening nap" I saw the tweet announcing the victim's passing...so sad...Unofficial Squaw had the story. Avalanches are serious business, especially in the uncontrolled backcountry...

So, it was a happy distraction when I discovered this Phobos/Grunt story at Space Safety Magazine.

I find it disconcerting that the only manned space program on Earth has returned to Soviet Era Secrecy. American astronauts ride Russian rockets and spacecraft to and from the International Space Station. Only a willingly blind fool doesn't see trouble on the horizon.

I pray that the next few years are uneventful. NASA won't have manned launch capability until 2015 at the earliest. Godspeed, indeed...

Hunkered Down

It's a good thing the weather's been frightful because I've been cleaning up after my lost wallet all day! It's 2AM now, and I just made a nightcap...

Still Life With Piña Colada

I never realized how many monthly bills I've automated! I think an encrypted document with everything in one place is in order, with a copy on CD stored in the safety deposit box!

I talked with one helpful Customer Service agent in Ohio, and they've had an unseasonably mild winter too...

My day began  at 10AM when Mrs Landlord called. She said she was down with a chest cold and taking a sick day, that Mr Landlord was on the road, and not to worry about taking out the garbage and recycling...she'd made arrangements for a special pickup Friday!

I couldn't have agreed more! The wind blew like crazy all night (It's still blowing now) The DaveCave's front porch is still clear of snow, but up in front of the garage, copious drifts have accumulated.

I told Mrs Landlord that I'd blow the berm as soon as the plows came by. The sooner you get on a fresh berm the better.

I made a pot of French Roast and did the dishes. Looking out the kitchen window, I could see the neighbors' driveway was still berm-free. An hour or so later I clicked on Where Is My Snowplow and saw that there was a plow getting close to the neighborhood.

It was now noon newstime...I tuned in Channel 13 for the Blue Canyon Live Remotes and the forecast...about 15 minutes in I heard the plow lumbering up the street. I was already in long pants with shoes and socks on. I wanted to wait until KCRA3's 12:40 weather report before I suited up and hit the driveway/berm project. At 12:30 the plow made it's downhill pass, I watched it go by while warming up my coffee. I felt a pang of guilt when I sat back down and waited for the KCRA3 weathercast.

While watching the radar images the plow ran up the hill again...that's a lot of snow! Pulling on my slicker and putting in my ear plugs, I heard the plow make it's second downhill pass...that's gonna be some berm, I thought...

The front stairs were almost scoured of snow as the wind was blowing a steady 15-20. The drifts between the cars in the driveway were two feet at the garage door giving way to 18" or so out at the berm. This was the highly prized Champagne Powder...Utah's Finest, so to speak...

I blew my way out of the garage and through the berm...not much resistance...perfect timing! I blew the berm in front of my car first...It's the downhill direction...The wind wasn't making this easy...Five passes, and I turned around and began blowing the berm across the street.

The wind was definitely on my team now...I blew the berm past Mrs Landlord's Subaru and Mr Landlord's Pickup. The deep snow and the stately speed of the plow made the berm very manageable. I left a solid pass in front of our cars to help catch the next berm.

Sometime around 6PM I went down for a "nap"...I awoke at 8:30...I may have missed the plows, but hey...It'll wait till morning! This snow is so dry, even if the berm has 12 hours of set-up time it'll be a piece of cake to blow!

Well, the 3:09 AM AFD says there's more snow on the way, and that the big winds will blow again between 5AM and 10AM Winter Storm Warnings are up...looks like the wind will be on my team again when I blow the driveway berm!

Good night, thanks for reading!

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!

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...

Streams Of Consciousness

All things considered, I've had a wonderful day.

Up at 0600, I listened to Armstrong & Getty who were in rare form.

Perusing my Twitter timeline, I noticed that the San Francisco Giants would be streaming the day's practice at their website.

I clicked over just in time to watch batting practice. It was great to see Buster Posey knocking them outta the park again! His injuries appear to be fully mended. So many Giants were hurt last season. They're all back to work, and the team looks hungry.

During the webcast, the announcers were soliciting questions via twitter. I fired off a bunch, and lo and behold they answered one on the webcast: "@CorduroyPlanet asks: How many catchers will make the 25 man roster?"

Answer: Two. Posey and a back-up.

I'm pulling for Chris Stewart to be the back-up, but I figure Héctor Sánchez will get the call because he's a switch hitting powerhouse, and it takes some time to "season" a young catcher to Big League reality. Sánchez stands to get a day or two behind the plate weekly, until Buster Posey finds his legs.

It was so great to hear the crack of the bat again! Spring doesn't start for almost a month, but spring training makes nothing but springtime music!

The Spring Training Stream ended in time for the Noon News. I tried to tune in KPIX  channel 5 from San Francisco, but CableTV wasn't havin' any of it.

I've been tracking yet another Winter Wildfire up in Napa County since Thursday afternoon. The Soda Fire started mid-day Thursday when a vineyard contractor was burning pruning debris and root piles, and the forecast high northeast winds blew embers into the underbrush. The contractor was unable to arrest the flames and the fire escaped into the steep Soda Canyon terrain.

I have good friends who have 1000 acres at the bottom of Soda Canyon Rd, with a turn of the century farmhouse, and a few acres of Syrah vines. I was the cat skinner who cleared those acres on a vintage cable-blade Caterpillar.

 Oakland's KTVU2 recently began streaming all of it's newscasts, so click*click, I watched on the really small screen. The news was good...yesterdays gusty northeast winds, had turned into light southerly breezes, and temps are forecast to fall back into the mid-60s.

Fortunately, the fire is up canyon, and well east of my friends' Soda Canyon Ranch, on the other side of Atlas Peak.

It's almost midnight at the DaveCave now, and the winds have been howling for the last hour. It must be the next approaching cold front which is forecast to give us a dusting Saturday night...if we're lucky...

Just so I can fall asleep tonight, I scanned the PWSs around the Napa Valley. They're recording mostly westerlies...10 MPH and under. Perfect.

Back to my perfect afternoon...My plan was to run over to Reno for a tank of gas, some HomeDepot stuff, a stop in Hirschdale for the fishing report, and to reconnoiter Boca Reservoir's ice.

SturgeUrge will be over at Lake Tahoe for his annual ski week, and traditionally we go ice fishing on Boca for a day....Truth be told? I'm really looking to see if there's any open water at the inlet end of Boca. It's been so warm that the ice is rotten, even down by the dam where we usually slay 'em.

Remember what they say about the best laid plans...I bagged the Reno trip so I could watch one more streaming event....

Back in Florida, NASA was making it's third attempt at launching their new Atlas 5 rocket carrying the NAVY's new communication satellite MUOS1 into orbit. High winds and rain forced the scrub of the first two launch attempts. SpaceflightNow provided a very robust stream, that I watched along with about 10K other stream viewers.

A picture perfect launch, and streamed without a glitch.

After the launch, I ran downtown to the Post Office and grocery store. Jeez, gas went up another dime today.

Reno is on for Monday...gas at COSTCO is 80 cents a gallon less than here in Truckee. I can buy lunch and still pocket some savings!

Too Early?

...for Spring Fever? I may have an early case coming on...

It's 11AM, I'm halfway through a pot of French Roast, as I prep an Asparagus Frittata for "brunch"...

Both asparagus and artichokes are appearing in the grocery stores at mid-season prices now...can "real" springtime be far off? The Spring Equinox is still a month away...

...oh yeah, the Green Flag just dropped on the first Gatorade Duel at Daytona International Speedway! The Twin 150s are qualifiers for Sunday's Daytona 500. The slower cars are trying to race their way into the Big Show. The final four spots are up for grabs...oh, and ambient temps are above 80F under sunny skies!

Of course I'm multitasking...I'm following Formula One pre-season testing from Barcelona via Twitter too.

The F1 teams are trying to log as much data as possible about Pirelli's new tires, and how the tires interface with the new aero rules. The blown diffusers are history, and strict new Sporting Regulations prohibit using exhaust gasses to generate downforce.

The 2012 Sporting Regulations specify reduced downforce, the tires are closer time-wise between compounds, and have improved longevity, with the bonus of generating much fewer "marbles" which will preserve the more novel "passing zones". I'm not sure my ticker can stand better racing than last season, but I can't hardly wait for March 18th's Season Opener in Brisbane, Australia!

OK...having caught up on F1, I can focus now on the Good Old Boys in Daytona. (It's already 9PM in Barcelona!)

NASCAR has new aero rules this year too...on the restrictor plate tracks the two car draft is gone, and they're racing in a pack again...this is another of those Good News/Bad News Deals...

The restrictor plates are mandated to keep the speeds on the super speedways below light speeds...to tell you the truth, I'd like to see them can the plates and slow 'em down with aero restrictions. I love the draft and the old "slingshot" moves.

There's another new regime in NASCAR this year. Say adios to carburetors, and hola Fuel Injection. I don't know how much driver adjustability NASCAR new rules allow, but this could really obscure the fuel mileage strategy, especially on super speedways...

In the first Gatorade Duel today they had a little "Big One"...nobody hurt, but lots of wrecked race cars...No "Big One" in today's second qualifier.

What I said about Springtime? Judging by the local gas station it must be Memorial Day in Pepperland!

Braised

If I had to pick a theme to describe the past week, it would be colorful.

The Inland Valley was a riot of color, even when it was drizzling.

Fruit trees are in blossom, acacia trees are fully ablaze with bright yellow blooms, and emerald green shoots of emerging grass color every hill and dale.

At the SturgeUrge Compound, the moss is vivid green and his camellias are a riot of blooms.

Everywhere I traveled, the daffodils and paperwhites were at their peak. Hat tip to CalTrans for the white narcissus along westbound I80 just west of Davis!

I crossed the Big Valley on my way home Wednesday. It was so warm I fired up the air conditioning...even though I was wearing just running shorts and a t-shirt. Sacramento reported 68°F...it had to be chilly at the airport, it was toasty along Interstate 80!

Back on the mountain, the colors faded to gray. It's been a week since the last measurable snowfall, so it's just so much dirty spring snow...and Spring is still a whole month away...

The resorts reported 12-18 inches last week...only vestiges were visible alongside the roads.

I did stop at my favorite Asian market in Vacaville for a tray of Mini Bok Choi and some shitake mushrooms. These are the tiniest Bok Choi I've ever seen!

Sticking with my theme, I made a colorful dinner Tuesday night:

Rhubarb-Braised Pork Chops. The recipe is really for Rhubarb-Braised Chicken Thighs, though I've yet to make it with chicken...

Comfort Food

I finally touched bases with SturgeUrge tonight. We (I should say he) barbequed dinner tonight.

Recently SturgeUrge was the lucky recipient of an antique Komodo Kamado BBQ. This Japanese BBQ was the model for the more widely known "Big Green Egg" BBQ. Urge thinks this one is 50-60 years old.

It does a great job making juicy treats of everyday meat and poultry. (SturgeUrge hasn't cooked any seafood in it yet)

Urge cooked excellent pork loin chops, and some chicken breasts that I had in stock. They needed to be cooked because they've been hanging in the reefer since last Friday! I used half of the tray Monday in stir-fry, and the family has been chowing on leftovers all week!

While SturgeUrge handled the flesh cooking, I made the vegetable course. I made Garlic-ey Baby Bok Choi with Shitake  Mushrooms.

On my way across the Big Valley Monday, I stopped in Vacaville at my favorite Asian market, Country Square Market. It's the last of (I think) three stores. Last summer the store two towns away from the Ancestral Digs closed their doors when their landlord doubled the rent with 30 days notice...I stocked up at close-out prices, but their produce and seafood offerings are sorely missed. None of the remaining Asian markets in the Inland Valley have baby bok choi as "baby" as Country Square...try three timed taller! These little babies are just an inch and a half tall...two inches tops! I end up cutting barely half of a tray in half before cooking!

Dinner was a hit! The Kamodo pork chops were perfect, and my bok choi was awesome too!

The main course was planning our next dungeness crab trip. The tide calendar says not this week...next week SturgeUrge is spending his week at Tahoe. We're hoping to get a day of ice fishing in, but there better be a cold snap first.

I reconnoitered Boca Reservoir before I came off the hill, and the ice is too rotten and thin to fish through. The forecast isn't promising either.

I will be grabbing some more baby bok choi on my way back up the hill...ice fishing my have to wait...Ocean Salmon is still two months away...

Another crab trip is definitely in order!

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...

The 700

this would be the 700th time I've tapped out one of these screeds! That's a lot of hunting and pecking...you know I am feeling a little peckish this afternoon.

I just fired up the snowblower for 15 minutes. It was warmish out, with some high overcast. Sacramento tallied a 70°F this afternoon. I blew the pile of snow where I park on the street. I'm gonna need the driveway space to work on the pickup. Save for the street-side edge, the pile of snow was soft as a Slurpee™ In a couple of days, even the muddy shoulder will be dry, provided the forecast is correct...the Reno NWS says "cloudy with a slight chance of snow showers" from Friday night thru next Wednesday...we'll see...I'm going to be on the road for a week, so all should be clear when I return.

While warm out for early February, I found an interesting global warming story from Britain's Guardian. I'm not surprised...the satellite data show zero warming of the sea surface temps since the last big Pacific El Niño in 1998.

Many true believers cite the loss of snow cover on Africa's Mt Kilimanjaro as "proof" of global warming...sorry, no. It's deforestation that's to blame. Cutting of forests for firewood has robbed Mt Kilimanjaro of the moisture that turned into snowfall.

Once the trees were chopped down, they no longer transpired the moisture that  was orographically lifted and then fell as snow.



I didn't need any excuse to post this awesome video taken from the International Space Station...then it occured to me that each of these brightly lit cities are where the official thermometers live. These are the instruments that provide the temperature records that show warming temps worldwide...Urban Heat Island much?

Game Change

What a shock! I got laid off Monday! A bunch of us did. There was even a news story about it on the 11 O'clock news Tuesday...there's some smart thinking in the front office.

We lost both Christmas Weeks, Martin Luther King weekend yielded about 20% of it's potential. Next up is President's Weekend Feb 18/19/20...It's lost as of today...or, If the long-range models are right, it could be snowed out...stop the bleeding...I would.

I'm gonna sprain my elbow from patting myself on the back...you see, I've been banking every paycheck this season...putting off those non-essential purchases in case the season fizzled. Turns out I'm psychic!

On the positive side, I can quit obsessing over the weather until November!

I can now devote my full attention to the Ancestral Diggins...I'll get my tomato seeds into their seed trays next week.

Gotta wire up the automatic irrigation system, and replace a couple of fence posts.

I'll be doing some traveling, more Lincoln Highway sleuthing, too.

Last week I scored some GPS aids on close-out from the Lincoln Highway Trading Post to help with the search.The 2010 Edition of the Official Lincoln Highway Maps cd was $5, marked down from $39.99 DeLorme's Street Atlas USA 2010 was marked down to something like $15-$20 too. The 2010 E The GPS reciever was $25.99 at Amazon

Between chores and travel, there's weatherproofing and wiring to do on the camper too...

Since Tuesday, the 2012 Formula One teams have been testing at Jerez, Spain. Most are trying to gather data on the new Pirelli tires...the performance gap between super-soft, soft, medium, and hard have been narrowed. Pirelli hopes the difference will be approximately 0.85sec/lap this year...down from about a second and a half last season.

The new Sporting Regulations have again taken away downforce, the blown diffusers are history, and the exhaust gasses are effectively prohibited from producing any aero advantage.

All the new cars I've seen have a new nose except the McLaren MP4-27. The new nose is being called the stepped nose because the Sporting Regs dictate the nose be lower, forward of the front bulkhead. To my eye, it's a broken nose...think Streisand...

There's 37 days of waiting until the F1 boys turn their wheels in anger. The Australian Grand Prix takes the green lights Sunday March 18th, which should be Saturday night in the States.

The Daytona 500 runs Sunday February 26th, and baseball's Spring Training Games begin in March!

Play Ball!

Obsessed

My three day weekend ends tonight. Over my weekend, I made a conscious effort to not obsess about our weather...It turns out I obsessively avoided digging into the forecasts, webcams, and remote sensors. The truth is, it was nearly impossible to avoid the seat-of-the-pants temperature observations while walking around town. Save for the low angle of the Sun, it could have been a warm April weekend...in the afternoons anyway...

It wasn't easy avoiding the obvious...everywhere I went, total strangers couldn't wait to make weather small talk, or whine about our lack of snow...admittedly, I gave as good as I got...My Twitter stream and the TV Weather Reports trumpeted the record high temps, which the Reno AFD says will continue for another few days

My weekend wasn't short on diversions, there was some great College Football played in the various Bowl Games...the Rose Bowl was great, then faded into the background noise floor as the Fiesta Bowl went into overtime! Whatta heartbreaker for Stanford's place kicker...Ouch!

Though temps were balmy, the night time skies were problematical for astronomical observations as clouds associated with the cold fronts that didn't visit screwed up the seeing every night save for Tuesday morning.

I was up for the Armstrong and Getty Radio Show (their first day back from two weeks of Christmas Vacation) and surfing the Web for something new on Russia's Phobos/Grunt. Waddya know, a visible pass was minutes away! I popped up and threw open the front door...nothing but stars above! I pulled on some sweats and a long sleeve T-shirt and shoes, grabbed a AA Maglite, and my compass, and hit the streets.

I walked down the street a hundred yards to the neighbor's driveway where the trees didn't obscure the Southwest sky. A minute and a half later I found Phobos/Grunt speeding overhead. 71 degrees above the horizon, she was stable, and her reflected light showed no variation, she's not tumbling. Phobos/Grunt came over at Magnitude 1.3, and traveled to the SSE where she disappeared into the morning twilight. 

By most accounts, Phobos/Grunt has about ten days left in orbit. I'll fire up CorduroyPlanet's Phobos/GruntWatch next week, or when reentry looks eminent...Stay tuned!

Christmas Shopping

I don't have a big Christmas Shopping List. There are no little children in our family, so we adults have downsized the gift exchange. I've been making presents for the family for the last few years.

When my Dad took ill a few years ago, I became the Thanksgiving Chef for the family. Aside from Mom's famous jello ring salad, there was no paper trail to Thanksgiving Feast Nirvana.

Now Dad was no Galloping Gourmet, but he did enjoy making the Thanksgiving turkey feast. The feast was Dad's culinary Mt Olympus...but no known recipes survive him. I never saw a scrap of paper in the kitchen while he joyously prepared the bird and all the fixins.

I found my recipes in my email inbox! I subscribed to "Fine Cooking" magazine from their first issue, and for several years before I didn't renew as part of the simplification jag I got on when I moved to the DaveCave. When the magazine came to the internet, I signed up for their weekly newsletter, and many of the key recipes I used came from their Thanksgiving newsletter that first year. Without exception, they were all a hit.

The next Thanksgiving was our first without Dad. The recipes I'd printed from the ,magazine's website were lost in the shuffle. Fine Cooking's website evolved into a membership site, and I couldn't search it unless I joined and paid up. This was no way to run an airline...fortunately Thanksgiving was still a couple of months away.

The November newsletter arrived, and the recipes were no longer pay-walled. With a sigh of relief, my idea of a Family Cookbook was born. Everyone in the family got a copy for Christmas, and every Christmas since, I give new pages with new finds from Mom's recipe file, and recipes I've culled from the newspaper and my Food Channel favorite chefs. The cookbooks are looseleaf binders with a photo of Dad carving the turkey on the front, and Mom watching the show from the kitchen table on the back. I print the pages on National Geographic's Adventure Paper, which is waterproof once the printer ink dries. It's not actually paper, it's tear proof too. It's heavy and has a surface feel like velvet. I suspect it's made of spun olefin fiber similar to Tyvek housewrap.

This year's pages are the Thanksgiving recipes. Some of the Juicy ones I blogged about in November.

So I finished my shopping when I woke up a little early tonight. I won't be home for Christmas...not on the 25th anyway...I'm taking the train home from our family Christmas, when we have it later in the week.

My Dark Places

OK, here I am on my first night off of the season. I had planned to chronicle last night's shift when I punched out this morning. After sleeping on it, I've decided to protect the guilty. We made the unrecoverable mistake during shift change, and circumstances prevented us from recovering before tonight.

So I guess all the anticipation and waiting, coupled with the excitement and emotional investment since I climbed back into my BR350, catalyzed by last night's failure follies, have caused my brain's give a damn center to shut down...a temporary condition one hopes...

Given my position as a card carrying "glass half full" guy, I'm sure I'll recover full function when I get back on the hill tonight. Prime snowmaking conditions hold sway tonight, so the recovery will be complete by the time I grind past the scene of the crime.

Well then, I'm off to the grocery store for some midnight retail therapy.

Exhausted

What a week. I sure missed the Giants Monday! Going into their day off, their offense came alive, and they resembled World Beaters, winning eight games and gaining ground in both races to the playoffs. They trimmed Arizona's lead by two games to 5.5 games back for the NL West, and moved up in the Wild Card standings now 4.5 games back. Even when the Giants play their nail biting, come from behind brand of baseball that earned the moniker "Torture", the pastoral nature of the game comes through to soothe this savage beast. I needed the Giants games this week in the wake of the tragic crash at the Reno Air Races.

Watching the Media Feeding Frenzy over the tragedy is amazing. Four days out the pretty field reporters still can't name aircraft parts by their correct names! The NTSB has been to Stead Field, mapped and collected all the crash debris, and the bigwigs have already returned to DC. Latest word is the NTSB will issue preliminary findings Friday. Interestingly, investigators found several digital memory cards in the debris. The Galloping Ghost had both an out-facing video camera, and a digital data logger on board, both stored their data to the SD Cards. The data logger is an analog to commercial aviation's "Black Boxes", though with many fewer channels of data, and without a voice recorder.

Hopefully, the data on these cards wasn't lost on impact. Much could be learned from the data logger files...airspeed, engine RPM, oil temp and pressure plus GPS info. Alas this data does not include control surface data. The wild speculation of the first week aftermath won't help the Reno Air Races continue into the future, and the last of their kind Races should endure.

Changes in Altitudes
On the winter sports front, the Skiing Press seems to be ramping up. Twitter had more early snow pictures from the Alps and Rockies. Friday's Autumnal Equinox is the first day of fall, and while the TV Forecasters haven't used the phrase "Indian Summer" yet, it can't be far off. Our current Heat Wave will continue into the weekend with a slight cooling Monday and Tuesday. Forecast AFDs say another warming trend after the short chill will bring back above normal temps. Better stay Fire Safe out there!