Both Feet on the Ground

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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