L'enfer du Nord

Paris-Roubaix, The Hell of the North, L'enfer du Nord, Queen of the Classics, The Classic Classic, runs for the 110th time today. Watch it LIVE on TV at 6AM Pacific  on NBC SportsNet (Ex-VERSUS) If you only watch one bicycle race this season, this is hands down the one to watch. Those who fancy sleeping in over watching World Class bicycle racers flail through northern France, can watch the three hour wrap-up on NBC SportsNet at 4PM PDT

The first section of pavé at the Carrefour de l'Arbre

Miles of Roman Empire Era cobblestone roads await cycling's biggest stars. I saw a Tweet Saturday morning saying the start was foggy and 4°C cold, 39°F. Bright side? The fog should keep the dust down on the pavé sections. These men earn their big paychecks!

I did a weirdly satisfying thing Friday evening...I took the temperature of some flower beds in the Ancestral Diggin's 70°F at six inches deep! Oh man, did I get excited...that's tomato-friendly soil temperature people!

Saturday morning about 11AM I probed the garden with the soil thermometer again...sigh only 50°F. I'm too far behind the calendar to start my heirloom tomatoes from seed now. Friday morning was pretty cold, but we're in for a little warming. I'm hoping another two-three weeks will warm the soil enough to go hog wild.

I'm going to deploy some "Wall-O-Water" little greenhouse things and plastic mulch to try and hurry things up a little. These work great in Truckee, doing the same duty only in late May.

Baseball Update:
My Giants lost again Saturday. Another disastrous first inning for Giants pitching...the Giants threatened to come back in the end but fell short.

After winning their first two games, the Reno Aces fell to Colorado Springs Saturday night, 5-2. This is why there's 162  regular season games in the Majors, and 144 in the Minors...

@GirlsLoveGiants remind us that four of the last five World Series Champs started their triumphal seasons with two opening losses...the one that didn't was Your 2010 San Francisco Giants.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here...the Giants and Aces will make the post-season...

Happy Easter everyone!
PPParis-Roubaix the

Uncle!

Christ! It's started raining again here in the Inland Valley again!

The local TV Weathermen said this wave would miss us, and the Tahoe weatherpeople said the miniscule amount of precip would have trouble dropping any lower than Susanville...March is over...and yes, the almost miracle added to our paltry pack, but the measurements say we're at roughly 50% of "normal" now.

Mother Nature, get over it now, it's Baseball Season, OK?

The Not Quite March Miracle played hell with my fun. The False Spring had all the fruit trees blooming along with the daffodils and paperwhites here in the Inland Valley.

Around the corner from the Ancestral Digs there's a home on a corner lot, with a teensy-weensy circle driveway and mature landscaping. The little driveway makes an island with the sidewalk and curbs. There's three well trained trees on the island...two Flowering Plums and another fruit tree with white blossoms.

Ten days ago, those flowering plums burst into bloom with their lovely purple flowers. The branches weren't covered with blossoms, more like the sparse, artistic smattering of blooms in a Japanese painting. These were set off by the heavy lichen encrustation on the stout-ish limbs. Deeply textured bark with hospital green lichen colonies larger than apples breaking up the long dark branches. When I first noticed the show, I thought I've gotta get down here in the evening when the golden hour will make for some amazing photos...I'll bring my tripod and reflectors and make some awesome photos...

Cue Mother Nature...it started pouring rain the next morning, and didn't stop until every blossom on all three trees was stripped off unceremoniously and deposited right into the gutter. Life goes on...springtime is nothing if not ephemeral...

The rain will stop before the weekend, so I can move a clump of gladiolis, to make room for two rows of pea pods before putting in some more summer-y vegetables.

During Saturday's rain squalls, I watched bicycle racing LIVE from Belguim. The incredible Tour of Flanders really sparked-up my bicycle racing receptors...This weekend the Spring Classic, Paris-Roubaix will be LIVE on NBCSN (exVersus) at 6AM PDT. I may play a Fantasy Team for the one day classic.

This would be wholly three months early compared to years past...I may make a team for the Giro d'Italia, the first Grand Tour in late May/early June...

Spring is shaping up nicely...Formula One is still another 10 days away...Easter Sunday will be mostly quiet on racetracks around the world...thank God MotoGP kicks off it's season on Easter!

Steady Rain

I'm still up at 2:20AM. By my calculations, it's been raining steady for 24 hours now.

About four hours before the storm...

I just put the trash and recycling out at the curb here at the Ancestral Digs. It's been really raining all day...the gutters are running high and wide.

I stayed up too late last night too...I awoke to a knock on my door after falling back to sleep at the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix replay on SpeedTV...My alarm roused me at 0600, I listened to Armstrong and Getty until the race started at 9AM, and I noticed a little scratchiness in my throat...a good day to stay home, I thought...

The tickle in my throat is gone, thanks to Sister K's Barley/Minestrone soup, and the copious amounts of water I've been guzzling all day. I got a couple of naps in...I guess it's just what my body ordered!

I feel like I ran up the White Flag when I fled down the hill Monday afternoon, but the bright side is I can get a headstart on the Ancestral Diggins. There's still time to get a crop of Chinese Pea Pods in before the heat of summer sets in...hopefully...

I want to move some gladiolus before they push up, and a hydrangea that would be much happier on the shady side of the house.

Tomato seeds start this week, and I need to research the supposedly frost resistant variety of Dwarf Meyer Lemon trees newly available to home gardeners...

The forecast says there'll be a break in the rain Thursday...I'll take it...the 11 O'clock News said there's already been 4 inches of rain in the Bay Area.

Team Oracle, the America's Cup racing team is in San Francisco for another two weeks of training on the Bay before heading off to the America's Cup World Series round in Naples, Italy. If the weather clears Thursday, and the winds cooperate, I'd love to see the AC45s work out...

Sleepin' In

Damn, I didn't mean to sleep in...I awoke to my alarm at 8:15. I wanted to listen to Farmer Fred's Garden Show on the radio. I fell back asleep after 20 minutes or so...crap. I was gonna call in, too...

Fred's guest was Debbie Arrington, garden writer for the Sacramento Bee, the subject was roses.

I need some advice about automated irrigation for Dad's roses.

I had another question for Debbie about a column she wrote in October 2009.

I was listening to her on Farmer Fred's show and she'd written a column about the Mavericks' Surf Contest WeatherDudes. They were forecasting "30 Major Winter Storms to hit Central California" I remember the chill that ran down my back when I heard that! I wrote a blog about it: "Thoughts On The Beach" Sadly, the link to Arrington's original column is broken now.

I've always wanted to know if the Surf WeatherDudes nailed that forecast or not. Looking back at the 2009/2010 season, I think we were a little shy of the 30 storms they promised. Perhaps we did get all 30, and they've paled in memory after the pounding we took during the 2012-2011 season?

Anyway that was gonna be my second question...

My Take-Away Lesson? I better get to work on my BodyClock Reset!

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!

Winter Nears?

There's a lot of buzz on the Internets about an Early Winter, and I guess you could say the flipside...Late Harvest. We are entering October after eight months for sure (Jan-Aug) of below average temperatures. I've been pestering the members of my Online Fishing Club for the answer to this question: "How far behind normal is the (insert species here)____ bite?

There's no definitive answer yet, but anecdotal intel says we're running behind by a few to several weeks when it come to King Salmon staging off the Marin County Coast. Halibut in San Francisco Bay were late as well.

My friend the Home Winemaker says his Tempranillo came in two weeks behind average.

Today I saw a tweet from @LavaCapWinery that pointed to the Mountain High Wines blog, where the Lava Cap Winemaker says they're starting their latest harvest ever...going back 26 years!

Wednesday evening, I caught a Sacramento Local News tease about snowfall next week for the Sierra. I've managed to miss every newscast since, but I was downtown doing errands and the coming change in the weather was on everyone's lips.

Down at the Auto Parts Store, there was a flatbed truck parked out front loaded with pallets of Tire Chains. The Counterman said: "Yeah, they're forecasting snow down to 7000ft .

Fellow blogger and friend, Chef of the Jungle, posted this on Facebook Wednesday:

"Getting ready for the coming winter/taking advantage of Indian Summer here in Oregon. Evenings are down into the high-40's and it happened awfully fast. The experts (Kathy included) are predicting and early and cold winter"

Folks, that's a lot of Early/Cold Winter Noise for September. It's about time I start keepin' my ear to the rail.

This I do know...La Niña is back, so odds are good that Winter will be cold in Central California. This year, we have a Negative PDO and La Niña together. Typically when these two cycles align in this manner, we have slightly below normal precipitation, and slightly colder temperatures than average.

I don't feel compelled to issue a Winter Prediction just yet...when I've paid a little more attention, I'll come up with this year's model.

Heart Attack City

Friday was a weird day for me. I got up early and was out of the house before 10AM. Errands done, I was home in time to view most of FP2 (Free Practice 2) from Montreal. 90 minutes of Formula One cars going for it on the track. A couple of racers found themselves hitting "The Wall of Champions". The Montreal track's most infamous landmark, the concrete wall is hard out of the final chicane.

The wall is arguably the most renowned feature of Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, named for the late Canadian F1 driver who's son Jacques was F1 World Champion in 1997. Jacques is another driver who's found the wall in the Canadian Grand Prix.

In FP1, defending World Champion Sebastian Vettel added another Champion to the wall's panoply of World Driving Champions who've come to no good against this wall. (To do a fast lap on this track you must throw caution to the wind and court disaster by shaving as close as you dare to this wall outside the final turn before the Start/Finish line) Vettel's crew had the right front corner of the Red Bull RB7 repaired in time for Vettel to record the 2nd fastest time in FP2 behind Fernando Alonso's Ferrari 150° Italia.


The wall is emblazoned with "Welcome to Quebec" (I can almost hear Bugs Bunny whimpering "Oh Irony, Irony" in his grimace voice)

Two other drivers found the wall Friday, all emerged with only bruised egos.

I wanted to do some stuff in the garden, but I wanted to enjoy some heat and opted instead to do some audio/video housekeeping. It was windy outside...even blustery, and colder than the two glorious sunny and warm days that we just enjoyed.

About 3PM I finally found the will to hit the garden for some maintenance...I did an hour of clipping before my forearm started to pump up, and I called it a productive day!

I made Emerald Stirfry for dinner and settled in to watch the Giants vs Cincinnati. The game was another nail-biter. As has become all too common this season, another Giants' player had to be helped off the field after an injury...

Freddy Sanchez, the Giants' 2nd baseman (and hottest hitter lately) made a headlong, sliding stop of a line drive, and dislocated his shoulder...I didn't need to see that. The Giants tie the game in their next at bat, and went on to win it Walk-Off Style in the 9th. Heart Attack City! The sold out crowd didn't want to leave when it was over, and it turns out they didn't have to...there was a fireworks show slated for the Post-Game Festivities.

Yet another SF Giants infielder goes down to injury...it's getting to be like a stuck record. Freddy will get an MRI Saturday...best case scenario is 2-3 weeks on the Disabled List.

I can't dwell on it tonight...my alarm is set for 5:30AM. Saturday is the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying for the Canadian GP, and IndyCars from Texas.

It's a motorsports marathon that runs overnight into Sunday. Saturday after the IndyCar race, Le Mans goes from night into the day. Visually stunning, sunrise over the 8.5 mile Circuit de la Sarthe is always exciting in the steadily simmering style of endurance sports car racing.

The front rows of the grid are all diesel AUDIs and Puegeots. The first gasoline powered car is the 8th fastest of the LMP (Le Mans Prototype) Class.

Just an hour after the F1 cars light 'em up in Montreal, the MotoGP motorcycles race at Silverstone in the British GP. My DVRs will be workin' overtime!

The Giants vs Cincy games are on National Television all weekend. Saturday's 1PM game is on your local Fox station, while Sunday's game has been moved up to 5PM on ESPN to make room for the hockey playoffs on NBC.

I'll quote the late rock n roll tunesmith, Warren Zevon..."I'll Sleep When I'm Dead"!

Feeling the Sun on My Skin

How excellent is it to feel the infrared rays coming from 93 million miles away? Warming my skin while futzing in the garden...making the breeze not matter...Celestial Summer is under two weeks away, and I'm beginning to believe that it will actually arrive...

When the sun went down, I made some chicken soup, which I consider to be a basic skill, before searching the internet for some Paleta recipes.

Paletas are Mexican Popsicles or Ice Cream Bars. Summer weather will be time to make some Cucumber/Lime/Chili Paletas, some Paleta de Durzazno con Miel (Peach/Honey) and maybe some Adult Beverage-Style Creamsicles.

A week or two of warm temperatures will bring tree-ripened stone fruits to my local Farmer's Markets. I am so ready for some of my Lumpy Peach Cobbler. Melons need some help from Ol' Sol too...I've been trying to buy a decent cantaloupe for a month now. I can't seem to find one with "creamy netting over creamy skin" to quote the late Greengrocer Joe Carcione.

I haven't even looked at a watermelon yet...I haven't seen any non-seedless varieties in the markets yet...Watermelon Seeds=Watermelon Flavor in my humble opinion!

Finally! That's What I'm Talking About!

The sun began to shine a little after lunchtime here in the Inland Valley. It's a welcome change. I watched the Noon News from KCRA3 in Sacramento and the weather gal said the rain was over except for some possible thundershowers for the foothills and Sierra Tuesday afternoon.

After the news, I made myself lunch and after lunch I checked the internet to see if some garden stuff I ordered was going to be delivered anytime soon. While checking my email, I saw a new Tweet and clicked on Twitter to find this welcome gem from KCRA3's Mark Finan: 

"Time flies... Example.. Yesterday (67) was March. Today (77) is April. Tomorrow (82) is May. Thursday (87) is June"

Man, I hope he's right! I need some days of solar rays to recharge my soul.

After lunch was properly settled, I hit the Diggins for some sunshine. I started in the rose garden which has been in full bloom in defiance of the rain regime. Last time I took a close-up gaze at Dad's Roses was about three weeks ago. The rain hasn't been kind. I found Rose Black Spot on five roses that were clear three weeks ago. I spent an hour picking infected bits off the roses and put the refuse out for pickup tomorrow.

A look at last year's Rose Black Spot problem.

After the recycle truck comes Wednesday, I'll finish cleaning up the rose garden and apply my secret anti-fungal weapon, garlic spray.

Cabin Fever

Let me up! What did I ever do to you, Mother Nature?

I stayed inside all day Sunday save for a quick sortie to the Farmer's Market for an in vain search for some vine-ripe heirloom tomatoes. Two great races, a stock car race to ignore, and a horrible baseball game.

High drama, intense action and the rarefied atmosphere of Monte Carlo was the algebra of excess at the Monaco Grand Prix. Without a doubt, the most exciting Formula One race I've seen in years. Lots of passing (which is nearly impossible on the tight streets of Monte Carlo), hammer and tong racing for the lead, and tire wear/strategy that turned the volume up to the proverbial Eleven!

A little later the "Ladies and Gentlemen Start(ed) Their Engines" at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 100th running of the Indy 500. Aside from the production screw-ups during the pre-race hoopla (I always look forward to hearing Jim Nabors sing "Back Home Again In Indiana") the race was a welcome throw-back to the days before American Open Wheel Racing's split between CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) and the Indy Racing League (IRL) Double-file restarts combined with a fairly decent three wide start, recalled Indy's Glory Years. Not a lot of crashes...certainly no serious ones...

A Cinderella Story was just waiting to happen as a Rookie was leading the 500 into the last corner of the last lap...only to be dashed when he passed a slower backmarker and got "up into the gray" and slid into the wall! The second place car passed the hapless skidding rookie for the lead down the home straight, and the rookie slid across the finish line in second. Man oh man!

So far, so good...

Monday was blustery and wet come newspaper retrieval time. I busied myself with editing and burning DVDs of the Monaco GP and more of the AMGEN ToC stages for BajaBabe and my collection. There was a Grand Am race and AMA motorcycle road racing on TV too. I tuned in the Grand Am, but it seemed awfully tame compared to Sunday's socko fare. When I tuned in the AMA races, to my horror they were contesting the road race in the rain!

Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City is only a few years old, and a good track. Monday it was like rubbing salt in an open wound! Just a light drizzle, but there was a fair amount of standing water on the racing surface. Lots of riders were losing the front end and skidding off into the mud. Those who could restart were muddy from head to toe and their bikes dripped mud for half a lap as they tiptoed around.

That was enough...I couldn't take it and tuned out. I took refuge in a trip to the local hardware store. I needed to use my 15% Off coupon before they closed at 6PM. I picked up a sprinkler timer and called it a day.

I set my alarm for 0315 so I could view a "double pass" of the International Space Station followed by the Space Shuttle Endeavour. I got up and looked outside...no stars, just total overcast...sigh...back to the rack...

I'd intended to do a big shopping trip Tuesday morning, but it was raining when I fetched the paper. I busied myself getting a package of DVDs ready to mail to ChicoDupre.

I finally headed out about 1PM...it was still raining lightly. Post Office, then out to COSTCO for a tank of gas. Jeez, everybody and their uncle was in line to the pumps...more than I've ever seen there. I figured everyone else was fighting the Post Holiday Cabin Fever...I hate it when I'm right sometimes.

After filling up, I found the parking lot mired in Gridlock...no way was I going in the warehouse today. The rain really picked up...I didn't want to be on the roads anymore. I bagged the rest of my errands, and stopped at the Safeway for a few things on my way home to the Ancestral Digs...Giants lost in the 9th...blecchh...

Winning?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Making Progress

From where I sit, it's hard to tell where exactly I'm at.

I have slept all the way through the night for the past two nights, so the BodyClock reset project seems to be on track...I'm still feeling body weary in the evening...maybe a few more days then...

My first week at the Ancestral Digs has hit most of the bases so far. Mom's doin' fine, BajaBabe made it to town and we're having a fine old time. The San Francisco Bay halibut have gone on the bite, but the wind is still keeping a lid on Salmon Season.

I did see some disturbing Tweets this evening however...KCRA3's @MarkFinan tweeted this...then this...and now this! Steady Dave...Sunday's five days out still...and the models Finan cites are the Sacramento Office's runs...best taken with a grain of salt!

There is a lot of snow on the ground over Old Highway 40's Donner Summit (Stage 2 of the AMGEN Tour of California) I can't imagine that there's much chance of measurable snowfall in mid-May...though there's still some La Niña residual hanging around...and I have seen snow every month of the year up there...the Morning News showed radar echoes of showers over the Tahoe Sierra, Jeweler said: "Just a dusting on Donner Summit, but four inches reported in South Lake Tahoe"!

I checked the webcams, but I didn't actually see any evidence of new snow...

We'll put all this weather speculation on the back burner for a few days and wait to see what shakes out...

I watered the Ancestral Diggins for the first time today, and researched for some solid answers on my irrigation automation install. I haven't checked the soil temps yet, but I'm definitely not late planting-wise. I've got all my difficult to find seeds in stock and they should be sprouting soon. BajaBabe and I will scout the local nurseries this afternoon for candidates to cultivate.

We had a visitor to the Diggins in the morning too..she was camera shy, but I got a snap of her before my ham-handed "stalking skills" spooked her...

We squired my Mom to her monthly Church Social today and had a grand old time in spite of the fact that attendance was off by maybe 40%...Lot's of God's Children opted for tropical renewal after the long cold, wet Winter I'd wager!

I Gotta Get Back To Work!

These days off are killing me! Fortunately, all my technology has been making life easy on me!

NOT!

My email got hacked around the 10th of April or so. And everyone in my address book started getting spam for Caribbean Time Shares and Canadian Drug Stores that specialize in Boner Pills.

So for several hours Monday and Tuesday, I went through my email accounts and upgraded my passwords to two dozen symbols...up from nine. I'm ditching the email address I've used since the mid-90's, so I've created a new account, with a new address...which means I've got to migrate my address book to the new account, and email everyone with my apologies and new address.

That's barely the half of it! I haven't counted the number of online places that the old email address is my log-in or user name...I've got some online orders in progress...A couple of Amazon orders of artist supplies, printer ink, and kitchen gadgets, so I don't dare change those until delivery. Three more orders from garden supply websites...heirloom tomato seeds, garden supplies, and herb and veggie seeds for the Ancestral Diggins.

I foresee another month of changing my online aliases at bulletin boards, forums, and the few membership sites that would have me as a member...

So, after burning the Midnight Oil knocking out the Lion's Share of the eMail Project, I awoke to find that our local CableTV vendor had turned off the analog portion of their feed, and remapped the digital feed as well.

No problem, a rescan fixed me right up on my 2011 HDTV...the problem came when I rescanned my 2006 DVR...the old Philips has the fashionable for it's day hybrid tuner...digital tuners weren't FCC mandated until 2007. So the legacy tech is more than a little cranky...not one atom of fuzzy logic in it's parts or firmware...so far I've rescanned three times, and manually entered 30-40 channels, and there's still a dozen or so channels that are holding out on me...cranky bastards!

Tonight I will return to the comfortable embrace of my Legacy SnowCat...my BR350 has 8800 hours over most of four seasons, with still robust hardware specially designed to fit the application...hey, I'm the firmware, so glitches will be few and far between!

A Good Tired

All this family togetherness, and my lingering chest cold have taken their toll on me today...It couldn't be the frenzy of errands and chores I churned out once the Siskiyou Wing and Sister Sweetly headed home to the Great Green North this morning. Sister K made her exit Sunday afternoon...the better to get home to Hubby and her Birthday Dinner!

So, the trip to COSTCO, Trader Joe's, Smart & Final and Safeway are behind me. The Christmas Tree has been undecorated, moved outside and limbed so that it will fit in the Green Waste Recycling Bin.

I've managed to get an hour of packing some of my books and files in, so that my life may once again be lived in a single location. On my "To the DaveCave" list are a bunch of hobby stuff...Sewing Machine, fabrics, and sewing notions. A bunch of my Builder's Tools and Kayak Building goodies, too. My seedstarting stuff and my seed collection for the Diggins.

Part of the joy of starting your own plants from seed is the extension of your "Personal Growing Season" Over the years, I've learned to start my tomatoes around the Daytona 500...mid-February. I used to warm my seed flats for a few days atop my aquarium, but my last anemone fish dissapeared a few years ago, so I broke down the 30 gallon marine aquarium...the freedom to travel without enlisting an aquarium service has been wonderful, but I miss the atmosphere generated by the salt air and full-spectrum lighting...my own personal slice of The Tropics, as it were...

Mr Clownfish was over 11 years old when he went missing...I'm guessing that he lived two or three times as long in my little tank than he would have in the wild...not that he ever lived in the wild, Anemone Fish are among the first marine fish to be bred and raised in captivity...no coral reef ecosystem was raided for my enjoyment!

So, come seedstarting time, I just re-purpose some aquarium heaters to heat some flooded Rubbermaid Totes, and voilà, heated seedbeds! Before you know it, you've got a little garden crowding all your windowsills!

Though I won't be building anything before Summertime, and my sea kayak is already seaworthy, I have developed a re-purposing habit over the years...or more accurately a sort of cross-hobby hybridization habit.

I've kept aquariums since I was a teenager. In the ensuing decades, I've applied aquarium tech to Homebrewing as well as gardening. The old "Rubbermaid and Aquarium Heaters Algebra" made my chilly, second bathroom into a very controlled, consistent Alehouse, where I turned out 10 gallons of all-grain IPA and Porter every three weeks for an entire Ski Season. I filled the extra bedroom with cases of Ale...I finally had to procure a hand truck to move all my "product"

I brewed a batch of "Celebration Ale" and "Porter in the Snow" every three weeks, all winter, and as a bonus, the spent grain went into my three-bin composter and produced a whole cubic yard of the best compost I've ever seen! More hobby cross-pollination.

Looking at the remote sensors this weekend makes me think of gardening and summer sports...damn, it's been warm! Monday's Reno AFD all but promised record High Temps for the Reno/Tahoe Region...they even mentioned that meltwater runoff would be up for a couple of days.

The 6 O'clock news showed heavy traffic coming out of the High Sierra into the valley fog...glad I'm goint the other way Tuesday!

Rested Up

Mea Culpa!
I kinda did a throwaway this morning...my apologies...I'm much better now!

Niche Sports Sunday
Pretty good race under the Singapore streetlights. We're on the Home Stretch in Formula One, too. High tension...just like September Baseball...

I found the America's Cup News I missed during my Reno Air Race Sojourn. The Organizers had published the specs for the new boats, and introduced the 34th America's Cup Regatta Director. I can't express how excited I am for this to happen on San Francisco Bay!

Time to manage my Belgian Fantasy Bicycle Racing Team...the UCI World Championships come up in October. This is where the Rainbow Jerseys come from...

September Baseball Update
My SF Giants prevailed in Denver this afternoon, the win putting them back in 1st Place in the NL West with six games to play in the regular season. There was a little torture in the 8th inning, when Giants pitcher Matt Cain lost his bid for a No-Hitter just five outs from the feat. A second hit halved the giants' lead, but the Boys in Orange and Black prevailed. September Baseball Torture is so sweet...when it's your team that wins!

Rally Time
I actually got off the dime and ran downtown to the Farmer's Market between the HDTV Replay of the Singapore Grand Prix and the Giants' Game. It was really heating up...but that means more vine ripe heirloom tomatoes! I grabbed a week's worth of Red Zebras, and snapped some photos.

I set about watering in the Diggins for the second time this week...Indian Summer is going to be the longest "Heat Wave" we've had this Summer...I'm happy to report that the buried soaker-hose scheme is working perfectly!

Smokin'

The Sturgeon Moon rises over Mt Diablo Tuesday evening

It's Tuesday afternoon and it's 99F here in the Inland Valley.

I spent a cool two hours making up some more PVC irrigation plumbing in the Ancestral Diggins. I made a mad dash out to lunch, HomeDepot, and the grocery store. The local weather station had 97F when I got home.

I spent a cool couple of hours looking around the Internet for Primary Election News, and listening to some radio. That's when I heard the top of the hour news report smoke and fire in Mount Diablo's Curry Canyon. The news reader threw it to the WeatherDude who said it's 108F up on the mountain.

There's a sliver lining today however, little to no winds. There's still about three hours of daylight left to get every helicopter they can up there for initial attack. No structures threatened at this time 5:21PM PDT.

I've been watching streaming video from KPIX Channel 5 and watching KTVU Channel 2 on HDTV. KTVU has the bird's eye view, and I've seen three textbook drops from the CalFire S-2T bombers. With little wind, the pilots are laying down a swath of Fire Retardant ahead of the fire. When the fire marches into the retardant-covered fuel, a huge plume of white smoke goes up, and the flames dim.

I just heard a resident from near the fire call into the Channel 2 News. She said there was maybe 50 structures up in Curry Creek Canyon. She said a mix of homes, trailers, and outbuildings. She said there were many fire trucks and police cruisers on narrow Curry Canyon Rd. She didn't see any signs of an evacuation, and said the wind was calm.

10PM Update
CalFire reports the 375 acre Mt Diablo Fire is 50% contained. Air operations ended at dark. Air attack will resme at first light. No structures lost today, no evacuations...yet.

Lack of wind has been crucial as high temps and low relative humidity will reign for another day at least. Fortunately, a cold front is forecast to come through for the weekend, bringing colder temps an a chance of rain.

Meanwhile...
Back in the  Atlantic, Tropical Storm Danielle became a hurricane, briefly strengthened to a Category 2 Hurricane, and died back to tropical storm strength, before becoming a Category 1 Hurricane again. Danielle is casting about the Mid-Atlantic headed WNW at around 18mph.

San Francisco Bay Today
Record heat all around the Bay. Wiser heads appear to be prevailing in the America's Cup kerfuffle. Way to get it together Stakeholders!

Baseball Blues

I'm a little verklempt tonight. My SF Giants got clobbered again tonight. Clobbered with two outs to be exact...ouch!

I did some more irrigation plumbing this morning, and I returned some stuff that wouldn't work for my application to HomeDepot.

I had lunch at Casper's Hot Dogs, the Bay Area's treasure. Casper's dogs are especially good in the summertime because the tomatoes taste like tomatoes!

So, I got plumbing, errands and lunch all taken care of in plenty of time to settle in to watch the Giants' game from Philadelphia a 4PM.

I made a new recipe while I watched the Giants take the early lead. "Chopped Italian Salad"

I found the recipe in the Local Weekly a few weeks ago. Today I made it a second time, this time I layered the ingredients instead of tossing them. I didn't bother to make the vinaigrette, because we've been loving Trader Joe's Tuscan Italian Salad Dressing around here this season.

After the game, I spent an hour and a half doing some computer maintenance before I got hungry enough to put together a plate for dinner...I microwaved the last leftover Eggplant Parmigiano, and served the Chopped Italian Salad on the side. Delicious with a Gordon Biersch Czech Style Pilsner to "wash it down".

After dinner I watched my twitter feed and surfed the news, while I listened to some radio podcasts from earlier today. Some Organizers from the Amgen Tour of California bicycle race were in the Tahoe Basin this week to scout roads and towns for the 2011 race. There are some stupendous roads around the Basin for bike racing, replete with stunning scenery that every self-respecting multi-day bicycle race need to make the TV Coverage interesting to non-cycle racing geek viewers.

We've had another bicycle tour a little South of the Basin for several years, the ultra marathon "Tour of the California Alps" More familiarly known as "The Death Ride". The 2010 event marks the 30th Anniversary of the tour.

This extreme bicycle ride traverses as many as five huge Sierra Nevada Passes in a single day! This year, there were 3500 riders, and 2417 completed all five passes...the most to date.

Another bicycle story was featured on the Reno News, Burning Man Bikes. We're just two weeks from Labor Day Weekend and the Burning Man Festival north of Reno, NV on the Playa of The Black Rock Desert.

The New Age Art and Camping Festival attracts lots of Art Bicycles and related Kinetic Sculptures. This funky Counter-Culture Campout has always appealed to me, but every year I see the Burners come through Truckee on their way home and the fine coating of pale white dust from the Playa that covers every square millimeter of their cars, trailers, RV's, Sculptures. etc, reminds me that maybe I'd rather look at some photos and YouTube Videos, and not add the Playa Patina to me and mine.

Weird Weather Wednesday

I was up and at 'em early this morning. Yesterday I dispatched the last bit of old irrigation stuff that's in the way of my Ancestral Diggins digging...so I planned to get an early start and have the lion's share of the heavy lifting done by the time the Sun burned through the marine layer's low overcast and heated things up.

I ground the beans and started the coffee and trundled out to retrieve the newspaper from the driveway...where I was greeted by drizzle! I could see actual raindrop prints on the driveway. It was almost chilly...and the breeze, perfect to give a wind-chill to the proceedings. I demurred...

I grabbed another cup of French Roast, and set about the internet. The AFDs from Reno and SFO/Monterey cited the entrenched Upper Level Trough with it's approaching Short Wave that'll keep things cool until the weekend. SFO/Monterey said the marine layer in up to 2500ft deep.

I killed the pot of coffee and headed out to dig. I wore long pants...it wasn't exactly cold, but the long sweats worked for me. I dug and put together some of the PVC plumbing. I ran out of plumbing fittings...so I watered instead.

The Sun made an appearance...for a minute or two. All across my world temps were down. Sacramento topped out at 77F, well below the average for the day of 93F

Cold was the word of the day. South America enduring record cold, the Atlantic Hurricane Nursery cold, cold, cold, cold.

Well, fire danger wanes when it's cold. They say it's going to warm up for the weekend. These are supposed to be the Dog Days of Summer...jeez, I hope it warms up for the Reno National Championship Air Races in Mid-September!

Procrastination Pays Off

Some days anyway...

Tuesday's surprise lesson
The big bad plumbing nightmare back in the Ancestral Diggins didn't turn out to be as tough as I figured. The best part is, I didn't open any cans of worms! I was worried about that, too. Rust Never Sleeps goes the old saw, and there was plenty of rust on the old piping I needed to remove and remodel.

I dug the access holes a month ago, and worked on other irrigation stuff while I put off the inevitable. Tuesday the day finally came that I couldn't go forward unless I addressed the task at hand.

It turns out that the rust that I feared would thwart me at every turn was bad, but it only changed my choice of tools...the only truly mission-critical fitting that could be my mega-colossal trophy "Can Of Worms", was the single cooperative one! Once I had everything removed, a quick blast down to the local hardware emporium filled the parts list, and all I had to do was make up the valve stack, install it, and I could turn the water back on.

Just one problem...wouldn't you know it...

I'm trying to match an existing 3/4 inch union that's poured into the sidewalk slab. The new union from the local Medium Box Home Improvement store was different where it counts...it wasn't a match inside where the seal is. Drat! This meant a trip to the Real Plumbing Supply two towns away...grrr...

I pulled my sweaty t-shirt off and kicked back with some iced French Roast for an hour...resigning myself to the late afternoon visit to the plumbing supply.

After a half an hour, I threw on a clean shirt, wrapped up my WD-40 soaked union in a rag, and headed to the shop. I caught the red light downtown, and in the 30 seconds I waited for my turn, I decided to hit the other hardware store on the off chance that they might have the mate to my union.

Saints be praised, the Helpful Hardware Man had just what I needed...at just over twice what I paid a quarter mile away...but twice the price was still under $9.00, and saved me an hour of back and forth motoring..."green" too!

There's a new wrinkle to our weather today...humidity...lots of it, too.

The marine layer never completely burned off today, and there's not enough breeze to mix thing up either. Consequently, the marine layer is acting like a lid on a saucepan and I feel like poached eggs!

I saw a tweet from @CBS13rightnow touting a fire at a junkyard in Roseville, so I clicked on it and what a dreary looking sky they have up in the Big Valley! It looks just like high overcast on the webcast...similar to what we have today in the Inland Valley.

Well, breaking news being what it is, when I tuned in the Channel 13 News, it turns out the "junkyard" wasn't a junkyard, and the fire wasn't in Roseville either...

The weather tease at the end of the fire segment said hazy sunshine today with cooling ahead...

Thursday's drizzle
Our weird summer weather continues with drizzle and cold blustery conditions today. The Sun didn't burn through the marine layer until after 2PM.

The gardeners come Thursdays, so I stayed out of their way...I went grocery shopping instead of getting on the Diggins job. By the time I got back and had leftover pizza for lunch, my fervor to dig had waned...I watched the internets for political news...Tennessee Primary...and some Weathergeek goodies.

NOAA issued their Hurricane Outlook Update...nothing to see here...they stood pat, no changes to their prediction...they still call for an active hurricane season.

I looked again at the SST Data for the Atlantic...it's just not that hot. Most of the area where hurricanes are born is at normal temps to +1.5C. The Gulf of Mexico is normal to -1.5C.

We are going into the heart of Hurricane Season, and we've had three named systems so far. I still don't think this will be one for the record books. It seems to me that there's just not enough heat in the system to get things off simmer.

I found another Ocean Oscillation too...the Arctic Oscillation. This one impacts the Ice Cover in the Arctic. This one will be difficult to find a proxy for going back through historical records...not a lot of data collected up in the Pack Ice Region...

Most of the historical oceanic data came from Ships' Logs. This is a problematical source given the wide range of care in taking and recording such data, not to mention the variability of the instruments. Early thermometers all erred to the cold side.

Random Thoughts Again

It's almost "The Dog Days of Summer" on the calendar, but the diffusion of thought has already arrived in my head. Nobody is in the driver's seat of late. All I've got are snippets...random snippets.

Gee, it seems like Reno has been having a rash of fires since the Red Flag Warnings first went up last week. It's not what you'd think...these are structure fires, not wildland fires sparked by dry lightning...homes, both occupied and empty (read abandoned), apartment fires, the Bio-Diesel fire, motel rooms burned, and travel trailers went up in smoke.

It seems like a lot to this observer, though I must admit that I usually don't pay attention to municipal fire calls, unless they're in Truckee or near the Ancestral Digs.

I see the Red Flag Warnings are up again on the Eastern side of the High Sierra...Hwy 395 corridor from Susanville South to Carson City. Reno's AFD cites the winds, temps, and low humidity, not lightning.

Perhaps my diffusion is a product of sleep deprivation combined with the void left by the absence of Le Tour de France. I set my alarm for 0500 this morning to watch Formula One Qualifying LIVE from Budapest. I watched for about 35 minutes until I fell back to sleep. I woke up again at 0830...just a little late to catch the yellowjackets still snoozing in their underground lair...I blasted the nest with half a can of Black Flag Wasp&Hornet Killer before the yellowjackets began arriving from their morning sorties...no stings again...but there's still those annoying loose ends. Next up, I'll give 'em another blast before I hit the sack tonight...they should all be in the nest after midnight!

What a satisfying ballgame!

The San Francisco Giants hosted the Los Angeles Dodgers, and played a close game at AT&T Park today. It was another in the century-long blood feud between the two teams.

Today's game had the atmosphere of a Playoff Game. There was high drama in front of a sellout crowd, three Giants batters were hit by pitches, and with the Giants trailing 1-0 in the 8th inning, Giants' left fielder Pat Burrell blasted a two run homer into the bleachers to give the Giants a 2-1 lead that they held for the win. The crowd went wild, and they even lingered after the game to celebrate the victory over the arch-rival Dodgers. For Pat Burrell, who grew up in the Bay Area and rooted for the Giants as a kid, it must have been a dream come true.