Aftershocks

The Napa Earthquake held the local TV News Cycle through the end of the Late Sunday Night News. It's dialed back Monday morning, however the clean-up will take weeks and the recovery years. I saw photos of the Trefethen Winery, it looks like a total loss. Monday's Noon News is reporting sixteen structures are red-tagged, meaning they are unfit for habitation. The 4PM News says there's nearly 50 red-tagged structures.

Trefethen Winery

Many wineries are reporting big losses of bottled wines and wine in the barrel.

Closer to home, Kirk Vallus messaged me via Facebook: "Spoke with Richard tonight, good news, went up to the Ranch today and not a stone had moved in the ruins..... That is a good thing...."

Richard owns quite a bit of the historic Napa Soda Springs Resort in Soda Canyon on the flanks of Atlas Peak. Richard's place has ruins of some of the original buildings that date to the 1860's, and many of the named mineral springs still flow. Soda Canyon is on the east side of the Napa Valley, well above the destruction of old downtown Napa.

Today drone images of downtown Napa's damages were posted to YouTube:
 

My heart goes out to the People of Napa...lots of work ahead...

It's certainly stunning footage, and drones are all the rage lately, but it's another Information Age connection that caught my fancy today: Jawbone UP

What's Jawbone? What's UP? I'd never heard of them before I saw this tweet this morning: "Wearable tech maker @jawbone says 93% of its users woke up at 3:20AM during earthquake"

I read the linked blog, perused Jawbone's UP website, and my blood's running a little colder now. It turns out I do know what Jawbone is...they are makers of the Bluetooth ear pieces that make mobile phones "hands-free", and they make Bluetooth speaker systems to stream your phone or iPod music to.

Jawbone UP is an "Activity Tracker", favored by people who want their entire lives and beings digitized for use by Mobile Apps and computers. A bracelet interfaces with your phone and records many channels of data including heart rate, physical exertion, time at rest or sleeping. Once saved and accessed the data is your to "Share" on social media, or embellish your daily diary or exercise planning. UP tracks your activity, diet and sleep. UP's website touts:

• Healthy Food Score
• Simple Water Logging
• Popular Restaurant Menus
• Enhanced Calorie Tracking

I wonder how long before the NSA is selling this personal intel to Insurance Companies to finance yet another covert (read Unconstitutional) surveillance program (or worse). Facebook is snoopy enough! At least there you must first chose to report your thoughts, activities, and post photos of your meals at the newest trendy restaurants!

I removed the Facebook App from my smartphone 3-4 weeks ago, when the latest Facebook "Feature" seemed too invasive for my sensibilities.

Being awakened by earthquake tremors is one thing...plugging in my vital signs to the cloud would keep me up all night!  

Again With the "No Rest For The Wicked" Deal

I was awakened by the shaking at 0320 Sunday morning. I don't know if I thought it or said it out loud: "Wow, this is a good one!" I was expecting to be awakened at 0430, I'd set my alarm clock so I could watch the Belgian Grand Prix LIVE from Spa-Francorchamps.

I didn't even need to "rub the sleep outta my eyes" I was wide awake! I hit the internet running, and in under a minute, I had the USGS Quake Sheet up informing me of the (then) Magnitude 6.1 quake four miles south of Napa, CA.

At the Ancestral Digs, the local TV News outlets were wall-to-wall in under a half hour, while the local 24/7 News Radio Station was taking calls while their reporters got to the scene.

Twitter was on it like white on rice. I tweeted the quake at 0323...three minutes after it shook.

 

I heard from Chico Dupré in mere moments. He didn't feel it, though it was felt up to 400 miles from the epicenter...Carson City, Nevada...on the far side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range!

The radio had harrowing stories of damage and shaking, and this kept me in rapt attention until the TV Newsfeeds began. There were fires...why is it always trailer parks? Tornadoes love 'em it seems...

At 4:30AM, I changed the channel to the Formula One Pre-Race Show. The three weeks of "Summer Break" were over and the racing would resume in just under 30 minutes!

I switched up my Twitter Feed to a Formula One List...of course it was sprinkling in Pit Lane! Spa-Francorchamps is high in Belgium's Ardennes Forest, it's the longest track on the F1 calendar and it often rains up there...sometimes it'll rain on one end of the circuit while there's bright sunshine at the other end. It always makes for dramatic racing, and I expected nothing less than Broadway-Worthy Drama!

I wasn't disappointed! The rain never was a factor...it was the human side of F1 that provided the drama. The two Team AMG Mercedes teammates were on the front row. Together they have the top two spots in the Drivers' Championship.

The lights went out, the Mercs sped towards Turn One and it was ON! Points-leader and Pole-Sitter Nico Rosberg was bested by teammate Lewis Hamilton, with my guy, Red Bull Racing's Sebastion Vettel right in the mix. On lap two, Nico made his way outside Lewis and they touched! Nico's front wing clipped Lewis' rear tyre and all hell broke loose. Lewis' tyre went flat, and part of Nico's wing went flying. 

There was good racing up and down the track, the rain stayed away and the race was decided on the merits, not the luck of the draw (as is so often the case with wet races)

It was all over but the post-race chatter when I plugged back into the earthquake coverage...which I quickly grew weary of. I turned it down, reset my alarm for 8AM and shut my eyes...baseball pre-game chatter would start at 0800, and my San Francisco Giants are in a pennant race with the Los Angeles Dodgers!

More later...No Spoilers...You're Welcome!

Unseen Things

A lot of things I like are happening this week: Sochi Olympics' second week, NASCAR is ramping up to the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Formula One teams are testing in Bahrain, and another cold front is approaching the Northern California Coast.

Unfortunately, there's lots of stuff happening that I wish I wasn't seeing...Venezuela and the Ukraine are aflame as their citizens are protesting in the streets against  their respective tyrannical rulers. Many are dead in Kiev, and blood is beginning to flow in Caracas...

NASCAR kicks off their season with their Super Bowl, the Daytona 500. The teams have been at the Daytona International Speedway for a week, practicing, qualifying, racing an All-Star race, the Sprint Unlimited, and running the Twin Qualifiers to decide the running order for The 500. The front row is locked in during qualifying...the two fastest runs take the Pole Position, and the other front row slot.

NASCAR is pretty tame stuff as motorsports go...I do love the Daytona 500 though, it means that Formula One is coming over the horizon, and that Spring is just weeks away. Still, there are surprises from Daytona. Long time readers will remember the weird Red Flag during the 2012 500.

Jet Dryer spewing flaming fuel after Juan Pablo Montoya sideswiped it under caution!

This week, the Sprint Unlimited provided another head shaker...

That's the Chevy SS Pace Car on fire...during the race! Everyone got out OK, a back-up Pace Car took care of things, but it was really weird to see the Pace Car towed behind the Pit Wall by a wrecker!

NASCAR has a new aero package for their Restrictor Plate Races (Daytona and Taladega) this season, and it's the best they've had in many years! The draft looks like the draft form the Golden Years, long trains of cars nose to tail are gone, as are the two-by-two pairings for the last few years. I think they finally got it right!

During Thursday's second 125 mile qualifier, they had "The Big One'" on the final lap when Jimmy Johnson's number 48 Chevy ran out of fuel causing a huge melee...one unlucky racer ran into a spinning car, turned sideways at 185 mph, lifting off the track and did a 360° barrel-roll, landed upright, blasted through the infield grass, and finally drove, under control into the pits! The onboard footage was awesome...good television!

I've mostly forsaken the TV coverage of the Olympics in favor of streaming the events LIVE. Seeing every racer from the first bib number to the last is storytelling in it's most visceral form.

Conditions are a huge part of the Sochi2014 story, you can see and hear the conditions change when you see the whole event. The PrimeTime Package barely qualifies as a 'Highlight Reel', much less storytelling. I will watch the NBC package tonight on Women's SkierCross to see how they handle the mid-qualifying delay while some clouds blew through the middle of the course, causing local whiteout conditions, and holding up the proceedings for 10-15 minutes.

Who knew that Iran sent a Giant Slalom racer to Sochi? Did NBC show their run?

The Formula One circus is in Bahrain testing. No TV, no LIVE Stream...Still there is an information stream or two online. BBC Radio is doing a LIVE Text stream, as are several Grand Prix magazines and websites. These are informative and can be dramatic. Most of these chat-like streams include comments or tweets from fans.

Most compelling is Twitter of course, F1 Teams, drivers, F1 journalists all tweet every interesting tidbit of on-track info-tainment...in RealTime.

As the preeminent technological racing series on Planet Earth, it amazes me that F1 doesn't have an internet streaming service for sale like Major League Baseball's MLB.TV.

This gem  gives you every MLB game, from every team, across every device including your Big Screen HDTV LIVE with your choice of home or visitor audio for $129/year. Every single game is available, except in local blackout areas (generally within a team's 'FanSphere')

All games are available On Demand all season, again with choice of broadcasters...worth every penny to rabid baseball fans.

I'd happily plunk down $130/year for the Formula One equivalent!

That's all for today, the San Francisco Giants are streaming LIVE from Spring Training at 10AM PST Here If you can't stream the full screen version, clear your browser's cache.

Play Ball!

Warm And Fuzzy

The weatherman says we might get some drizzle overnight tonight...we'll take whatever we can get! They say the wet will hold off until the Chinese New Years Parade is over, but the truth is most of this system is trending north of the Bay Area...

Friday morning felt like Spring had sprung...I didn't get out, though the temps were Spring-like, instead I spent a very generous morning LIVE streaming the San Francisco Giants #SFGLive. They were streaming from Scottsdale, AZ where Pitchers & Catchers were reporting for Spring Training. #SFGLive went a little over Four Hours! The Giants' Opening day is 44 days away.

I didn't watch much Olympic coverage, opting to luxuriate in all things Giants' Baseball. The webcast featured interviews with new and returning players and coaches, Giants beat writers, even groundskeepers. They threw in some studio features on Giants' Promotions for the coming season...everything from Bobbleheads to R2D2 stocking caps!

Hunter Pence Bobblehead Wed April 9th, giveaway

STAR WARS Day Sunday August 31st giveaway

You know Spring Training is almost magic to baseball fans...during spring training reality doesn't carry as much weight as dreams. During Spring Training, every baseball fan's team is going to the World Series!

Sure reality is still reality...players will make the team...or not. Some will be surprises, some will fall to injury, but overall Spring Training is like Springtime, a time for renewal and rebirth.  3rd Baseman Pablo 'Kung Fu Panda' Sandoval played Winter Ball in Venezuela, and worked really hard losing around 40 pounds. Back-up catcher Héctor Sánchez lost 20 or so pounds too...that will help his endurance when he starts behind the plate.

Everyone's champing at the bit to get going, lots of position players are in camp already too. Groundhog Day is behind us and baseball season is just six weeks away. That'll take care of that pesky Seasonal Affective Disorder!

As I write tonight, I'm listening to Baseball Talk on KNBR 680AM...more specifically I'm listening to Marty Lurie do his first show of Spring Training. Marty's Twitter handle is @baseballmarty Marty loves baseball, and the Giants...he has Reverence for baseball. He does KNBR's SF Giants pre- and post-game shows on weekends, and he's their Super-Substitute, sittin' in whenever they need him during baseball season. There is a LIVE Stream, and you can tune in KNBR on your smartphone with the iHeartRadio App.

As a Talk Radio listener for 35+ years, I hate SportsTalk...on talk radio, sports is like religion...nobody is persuading anybody...they're just spewing their 'doxies, and there's no genuine discussion. Marty's shows are different...yeah there's still SportsTalk Dolts that make it past the CallScreener, but for the most part it's compelling listening. Thanks Marty.

I'm off to watch some Olympics with the sound off...

Sochi2014 It's All Downhill From Here

The Winter Games are heating up. The Men's Downhill is in the books, as is the Men's Snowboard Half-Pipe. America's Favorite Sons, Bode Miller and Shaun White misstepped in their attempts to step up to the top of the podium.

Conditions at Rosa Khutor look pretty tough on the competitors...every Alpine Event I've watched (save the Men's Downhill) has been contested in what you call 'Spring Snow'...Bode Miller lead the time sheets on two of three sunny Downhill Training Sessions, only to face the infamous 'flat light' on race day.

I just streamed the Half-Pipe, Qualifying, Semi-Finals and Finals...the pipe looked a little soft, save for the walls...they even sent a pack of skiers down the gut of the pipe midway through the Finals to sideslip the 'mashed potatoes'

Aside from the American Bobsledder who made a sensation on the web when he got locked in the shower room, broke out through the locked door, and tweeted a photo of the breached door, getting stuck in an elevator (no destructive escape this time around), for the most part the Snark from Sochi has been reduced to a softening mylar birthday balloon a week on...there are, medals being won and lost after all!

Well...there is the @SochiProblems Twitter account that has a third more followers the the Official @Sochi2014 verified account... Not all Snark from Sochi is dead, it's just been on the 'Down Low' for a day or two now...

@MagnifeyeRoads's man in Sochi, Truckee's own Jonathan Sass takes requests!

That's how it got started, I emailed him, and he blogged the photos two days later!

I don't remember if it was during the SlopeStyle or the Women's Combined Downhill coverage, but for a fleeting moment I saw a Bombardier MP Groomer with a Troop Carrier body on the back, parked on the side of a trail! It was still the original Bombardier Yellow, all waxed and shiny, too... It looked great considering that it was probably 10+ years old.

Seeing this snowcat was the genesis of my photo request. I was curious whether Sochi made a deal with Prinoth/Leitner or Pisten-Bully for a fleet of machines, and if they did, was there special Olympic Livery like Bombardier showed on the Salt Lake2002 machines?

Jonathan's photos showed a nice array of groomers. It doesn't look like what I think of as a 'Fleet' however. To me a fleet is all of a single manufacturer, and of a single tractor model. This keeps the parts inventory at the cat shop down to a dull roar...

My Mountain has had a mixed fleet from time to time over the years, and more down shifts and over-crowded parts rooms are the price you pay.

Photo: Jonathan Sass 2014

Pisten-Bully PB400

Photo: Jonathan Sass 2014

Prinoth BisonX parked next to an Everest Winchcat

Everyone who's into Sochi2014 should follow Jonathan's Magnifeye at the Olympics Blog, and while you're all at it, please follow CorduroyPlanet's Tumblr as well...thank you very much!

Going forward, I suspect there'll be more grousing about Sochi2014's Sub-Tropical climate. The forecast has Highs in the low 50°F's and Lows in the high 30°F's for the rest of the week. Tuesday's Women's Downhill Training was cancelled due to the balmy weather.  Women's Combined looked really juicy Monday as well. The early Downhill didn't look too bad, but the afternoon Slalom portion looked ridiculous!

Another thing caught my eye while streaming the Women's SlopeStyle Skiing last night, it was a CameraDrone following the action! I didn't see any DroneCam footage on NBC's LIVE stream, I'll look for it on Tuesday night's big broadcast.

There's plenty of Sochi2014 still to be contested, Stay tuned!

 

                                                                                                              

The Hits Just Keep Coming!

Sochi2014 is turning into just plain SnarkTastic Fun!

In today's busy world it never ceases to amaze me how fast the Scolds and 'Debby Downers' can get their panties in a bunch! We can thank/blame SocialMedia for that.

With so many wordsmiths tweeting #SochiProblems, and Network TV's magazine and chat shows featuring the snark, is any wonder the Killjoys have fired up their TwitterMachines to exact their pound of flesh...

It's all in good fun...unless you're 'sense of humor challenged'...

Just in time to stir the pot, Breitbart Sports covers the media's 'Goody Bags' from the Sochi Hosts...

Still amazed that the Russian Olympic Organizers would site their games at a sub-tropical seaside resort where Russians holiday to escape their bone-chilling winters, I found this fascinating story about Sochi 'Snow Hoarding' Good plan, Russkis!

The authors needs a spot of Snowmaking 101. Snowmaking machines do make snow...but nothing resembling 'powder'...still stockpiling nearly a million cubic yards of snow 'just in case', is a good plan. Should Mother Nature forsake Sochi, the groomers could move the stash onto the courses and work them over until they're ready to race on. I've got news for the authors...powder is the last thing ski racers want on the racecourse! To a competitor, they want the hardest sheet of ice they can get!

Snow stockpiling can't cost that much...I'm still musing over the $51 Billion spent on Sochi...

 

Even if the Sochi Organizers paid Roscosmos to fly their Olympic Torch to the International Space Station and spacewalk it for the cameras, that would run, what...$10-$20 Million tops? A drop in the 51 Billion Dollar Bucket...

I wonder if 'The Russian Judge' is gonna be a thing this time around?

Oh jeeze...Never a dull moment when it comes to Sochi2014, there's another kerfuffle. I don't remember this kind of outcry when the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition hits the news stands...every...single...year. You know what? The female Russian athletes don't look a bit like 70s East German Lady Olympians any more. I've got your progress right heah!

Freestyle Schadenfreude

I do love me some Olympics, especially Winter Olympics, and the Sochi 2014 Olympics TV coverage starts tonight in The States.

The Sochi Buzz has slowly been ramping-up over the past six-or-so weeks. I haven't written about it because until the hordes of Athletes, Western Sportswriters, and TV Talking Heads began to arrive in Sochi, most of the stories were political in nature.

All the Sochi coverage before this week was in the  'Is Sochi Safe From Terrorism?' vein...not exactly my cuppa tea...I remember the 1972 Munich Massacre vividly to this day...not a pretty picture.

Putin's Russia does have regional enemies, and they're using terrorism to bloody effect in Stalingrad (now called Volograd) in October 2013 and December 2013. Enough said.

This week the Sochi News is the comedy flip-side of the dark worries that went before.

As with all things human of late, social media have carried the ball to hilarious effect.

This morning, ABC's Good Morning America did a story on @SochiProblems the snarky new Twitter account that tweets all things #SochiFail

Russia's spent uphill of $51 Billion to build the seaside Olympic Village and Alpine venues...but they're running just a little behind. Hotels without running water, missing finishing touches, WiFi network Phishing MalWare, even streets missing manhole covers!

 

Toilet Humor abounds in Sochi it seems...

 

I've been ice fishing many times...but never considered the indoor angling opportunities cited in this Sochi Bathroom Plaque!

Long time readers will remember my recommendation of @MagnifyRoads the local that tweets all of CalTrans' I-80 electronic signboards every time their message changes. I've written that these messages are more useful than a weather app in telling me what I need to know about the weather on My Mountain in Real Time.

Magnifeye's proprietor is in Sochi as a volunteer, and has a Tumblr Blog you can follow for the latest. Today's entry mentions his three foot fall into an open manhole!

@MagnifeyeRoads' Jonathan Sass

Somehow in the run-up to Sochi2014, I missed the fact that Sochi is a resort built on the shores of the Black Sea! Wikipedia says Sochi has a Sub-Tropical climate!? Wow, think 'Lake Effect Snow' on steroids!

I found an online story about avalanche control above Rosa Khutor, the Alpine resort where Sochi's Alpine events will be held. Rosa Khutor lies 25 miles from the Black Sea Shore, where 3+ foot snowfall in a day is not uncommon...hence the linked story that features  explosives in a Non-Terrorism context.

Sochi2014 is on NBC-TV in The States, and Sochi is 12 hours ahead of the West Coast of America, so most of NBC's Broadcast coverage will be Tape-Delayed.

With SocialMedia saturation, it's going to be hard to avoid spoilers...thankfully, NBC is streaming everything that happens in Sochi LIVE online.

I for one am ready to settle in and watch The Games...Best of luck to Sochi2014, the athletes and Organizers!

Let The Prognosticating Begin!

August 25, 2013
I'm scanning the Sunday Chronicle online, and on the Entertainment Tab (Think Pink Section), I found a story about the '2014 Farmer's Almanac' which publishes Monday August 26th, 2013.

Last week I blogged about the Fire Weather. KirkVallus quizzed me: "no snow news? but you cover all the rest that I need to know, thanks Dave...."

Even my Sainted Mother has been asking about 'the signs'...wooly worms and such, that help make those folksy winter weather predictions...

Truth? I haven't given it any thought lately...oh, the one weathergeek who I respect (for his accurate forecasts going out three weeks) @TahoeWeather tweeted: "Some Winter hints... http://www.opensnow.com/dailysnow/tahoe" on August 13th.

Tahoe-based snow forecaster, Bryan Allegretto was checking in early with some thoughts on our upcoming winter...when KirkVallus quizzed me and I gave the coming winter a bit of thought, I came up with the same data points as @TahoeWeather... ENSO Neutral, PDO Negative. I keep an eye on the Sun's behavior too, and it's still quiet...too quiet.

In his August 13th Blog, @TahoeWeather demurs from offering a forecast this far out.
  
October 15, 2013
I tried to view the Climate Prediction Center's website, to view the September 90 Day climate Outlook Discussion, but the site is unavailable to civilians due the the incremental Government "Shutdown". Shutting down 17% of our $3.8 Trillion+ Government is hardly a shutdown...even the furloughed "Non-Essential" bureaucrats will get paid when all is said and done (think extra paid vacation) 

October 20, 2013
OK, the "Shutdown" is over, and Government websites are open to Citizens again. The CPC's 90 Day Outlook published October 17, 2013, says ENSO Neutral through the 2013-2014 Winter. No El Niño, no La Niña. The PDO is still negative too...in short the "Signs" look about like last year.

The Siskiyou Wing of the family was here at the Ancestral Digs for a long weekend telling tales of near-suicidal squirrels braving traffic to collect as many sugar pine nuts as possible before winter sets in.

Here, hundreds of miles south, Indian Summer holds sway. There's a notable dearth of yellowjackets, and this isn't wooly worm country. There's a slight cooling trend forecast for this week, roughly 1°F cooler each day through the weekend, so we'll still be in the high 70s. There was a 'nip' in the air overnight. The mercury fell to 43°F between 6-7AM this morning.

The Reno NWS Forecast Office put a photo of the famous "Blocking Ridge" up on Facebook.

This was the culprit that kept us dry last winter.

It's eleven days until Halloween. A quick look at Boreal's webcam shows one snowmaking fan sitting forlornly near the bottom of their hill. The forecast says no snowmaking weather up there this week. They're gonna need a modicum of luck to blow enough snow to sell lift tickets for Halloween, in my humble opinion...

OK, so what about my winter forecast? I'm waffling still. In 30+ years on My Mountain, we've never had three below normal winters in a row (read dry winters) so the odds say normal or above precipitation. Why am I not sold on the wet winter forecast? Too many cold signs so far.

By cold I mean the Negative PDO, the sun is still hibernating even though we're at or near the Solar Maximum for Cycle 24, plus another weak Atlantic Hurricane Season. (Last year's Hurricane Sandy, that slammed New York and New Jersey was the second named system that made landfall on the United States during the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season)

Sandy came ashore as a Category 1 hurricane, but did massive damage to the Jersey Shore and coastal areas of New York City as it came ashore at high tide and was 'funneled' into Lower Manhattan by the shoreline topography. Beachfront developements were especially hard hit.

With under two months of the 2013 Atlantic Hurricane Season left, there's been only eleven named systems, of which two have become hurricanes. Hurricane Season ends November 30th. No hurricanes have made landfall on The States yet this year. Pretty quiet overall.

Gotta say...I've got a bad feeling about this...

Stay tuned...

Snow Forecaster Bryan Allegretto

Snow Forecaster Bryan Allegretto

Snow Forecaster Bryan Allegretto

Déjà Vu

I was out the door early today. My plan went this way: COSTCO Gas, COSTCO, Saw Shop, Chick-Fil-A for lunch, Drug Store, Safeway...all so I could get home to the Ancestral Digs and do a little baking before things heated up too much.

Too late... it was hot when I left...but when I returned it was 93°F.

As I was getting ready to leave, I strode down the driveway to get a clear view of the sky and I was struck instantly with a sense of the ol' déjà vu. I could feel the sun's heat on my skin, it's heat reflecting up from the driveway, and I smelled wood smoke...my encoded memories took me south of the border...all the way to Los Cabos, at the southern tip of Baja.

That's how it felt...Tropical, though the relative humidity was only 22%, and not a breath of wind.

That smell of smoke is coming from the newest wildfire to settle into my consciousness, the Morgan Fire, on the southeast flanks of Mount Diablo.

As the crow flies, the Morgan Fire is the same distance east from the Ancestral Digs, as San Francisco is flying west from the Digs. It takes 30 minutes from the Digs to go through the tunnel, across the bridge, and into The City. It's funny, Mt Diablo seems so much closer...I guess it's a human thing...almost everytime I go anywhere out of town, there's Mt Diablo towering over everything. It takes almost an hour, given the tiny neighborhood roads to get to the South Entrance to Mt Diablo State Park from the Ancestral Diggs.

KirkVallus and I made the trek up the Devil Mountain in 2012 to see a stage of the Amgen Tour of California Pro Bicycle Race.

The last time Mt Diablo burned was in 1977. At that time I lived in Walnut Creek with a buddy. We could see the peak from our kitchen window. Back in '77, I was at the kitchen sink when I saw lightning strike Mt Diablo's southwestern flank. It burned for three days.

I did Chick-Fil-A for lunch because their parking lot has a panoramic view of the mountain...there were no spaces that faced Mt Diablo, so I headed south and pulled into one of the many alleyways between small businesses, found a shady east-facing spot, and had lunch.

The mountain looked fully engulfed...at least the backside did from my vantage point. Even the North Peak had a pall of smoke rising up from behind it. As I took in the scene, a commercial-sized aircraft came into view as if it came from the Livermore Airport.

It flew high above the fire, and just past the summit, it turned 180° and dove towards the southern ridgeline. It was a huge jet air tanker, and it laid a line of pink fire retardant just west of the ridgeline. That swath was nearly a half mile long!

I recorded a video of the whole thing...sadly my vantage point was through a bunch of powerlines and the camera's auto focus had trouble coping. However, I found a photo from the backside of the mountain capturing the same drop! Thanks Twitter!

By the time the 5 O'clock news came on, the almost 800 firefighters on the line and the air attack had really tamed things up on the mountain. The near lack of wind helped a bunch too!

Once I got cooled off in the pool, I settled in for some Giants Baseball pre-game radio blather, and I went online...fired up twitter and searched #MorganFire.

Through the magic of twitter, i was treated to an almost continuous stream of tweets loaded with photos, news and views. Much less dramatic that Sunday night, when photos from AT&T Park showed the towering plume of smoke over the East Bay Hills!

I found out the big jet air tanker is called a VLAT DC-10 that is, it's a DC-10 widebody, converted into a Very Large Air Tanker. You gotta love government-speak...

Last I heard it was 'some kid doin' illegal target practice in his yard' that sparked the thing off. At 8PM Monday night, CalFire is reporting the Morgan Fire stands at 3,718 acres and 20% containment.

Reports from Reno/Stead Airport, home of the Reno Air Races say the unlimiteds have arrived, speed trials are underway...and oh yeah, the smoke from the Rim Fire has dissipated!

My next shot at an America's Cup race (and my first trip across the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge is Thursday, so I won't be in the Valley Of Speed until Friday morning.

This Sunday afternoon photo covers all the bases...so to speak...

The whole story: America's Cup recer, new Bay Bridge, Morgan Fire pyre.

More later...

The Sound of Freedom

I'm headed up the hill today...just as soon as my new camera arrives!

Tomorrow I'll be in The Valley of Speed for the 49th Reno Championship Air Races!

The camera is another Samsung pocket-sized point and shoot camera. There's nothing wrong with my "old" Samsung TL225, but the new WB750 shooter is two generations newer, has much more sophisticated systems and a much longer zoom lens...oh, and it's shoots HD Movies in Full 1080 at 30fps. TL225 5X zoom, WB750 18X zoom, 24-432mm in 35mm-speak.

As I scratch this out, I've got Reno's ABC-TV affiliate, KOLO8 open in another tab.

The weather is gonna be great all week out at Stead Field, with light winds and highs in the low 90s Thursday and Friday, and just a little cooler- high 80s Saturday and Sunday.

The speed trials began Monday, and I was following along on my favorite Air Racing Board. RARA has the info on the Official Site too.

Today reminded me of the Good Old Days at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The first tally of speeds came across the transom around noon.

Strega did a lap at 493.299 MPH Tuesday, the fastest so far this week. Rare Bear turned a 493 also but was disqualified (DQd) for flying too high around Pylon 8. The Bear recouped it's losses at the end of the day with a good lap at 490.002.

My sentimental favorite, Precious Metal upped her game to 463.301, adding 12 MPH over Monday's lap.

No serious drama yet...Heck, it's only Wednesday morning at midnight! They don't start turning those big beautiful Hamilton Standard props in anger until Thursday.

These engines are older than yours truly, yet the race tuners are getting twice the design horsepower out of 'em than when they were new! With the exception of multi-time Reno Unlimited Gold winners, Rare Bear and Strega, I'd expect the speeds to rise carefully until Saturday's final Gold Heat 3A that sets the field for Sunday's Breitling Gold race.

If you burn a piston you just don't go down to the local NAPA Store, some of these parts are rarer than hen's teeth already.

If you can't make it to Reno/Stead Field this year, or you can't get here until the weekend, here's where you can catch the action streamed LIVE over the internet:

Loaded TV is where the LIVE stream will be.

Live AirShow TV has plenty of video too.

KOLO8 Reno streams their 11 o'clock news AM and PM

More Reno Air Races links:

The Official Reno Air Racing Association RARA website has searchable qualifying and race results, as well as everything you need to know about attending the Air Races.

Air Racin' Forums at Wayne Sager's All Aviation Flightline Online

Reno Gazette Journal. Be careful with RGJ, they recently moved to a pay to play regime. You only get a few looks before you have to subscribe, so make sure you have the time to make the most of each visit. Once a day will let you see everything without running afoul of the new sheriff's rules.  Excellent Photo Galleries.

KKOH Radio AM 780 should have live updates at :05 after the top of each hour

And of course you can follow me on Twitter where I'll tweet anything interesting from Stead and beyond about this week's Air Races at @CorduroyPlanet provided I find a decent WiFi cloud somewhere near Stead...

Unlimited Class racing begins Thursday, qualifying continues Wednesday

Full

I'm sure everyone is weary of me referring to myself as "A Glass Half Full" guy. So sue me...

I saw an old favorite racecar driver's name in my Twitter timeline this morning. Then this photo appeared on my Tumblr:

Alex Zanardi won the Men's Road Handcycling Individual Time Trial Gold Medal Wednesday at the London2012 Paralympics

Zanardi is NOT a "A Glass Half Full" guy. Zanardi's glass has always been Full! Full of Sunshine...if you ask me...

Back during the 1996 American Open Wheel Racing Split, where Indianapolis Motor Speedway's Tony George "had a better idea" and carved the IndyRacingLeague out of CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams), Zanardi was the big deal in IndyCar racing.

Zanardi came to CART after four years of Formula One racing for second-tier teams. Racing for CART's Chip Ganassi Racing, Alex scored the Pole in his second race, won three races, and finished the season as CART Rookie of the Year, tied for Second Place in the Championship with Michael Andretti.

"The Pass" as it's now known, of race leader Bryan Herta, on the last lap at Laguna Seca, featured Zanardi taking to the off-track dirt apron entering the Corkscrew, blowing by Herta in a cloud of dust for the win...legendary stuff.

Zanardi originated the Post Win display of tight donuts at the Start-Finish Line in a cloud of tire smoke. He'd already been given his nickname, "Pineapple Head" for his ebullient, prickly style. I'm not positive, but I think the nickname was coined by Zanardi's Race Engineer, Mo Nunn.

In 2001, Zanardi was nearly killed in a ChampCar race at the former East Germany's Lausitzring circuit. Zanardi's legs were amputated when he spun onto the track exiting pit lane and was speared by Alex Tagliani who couldn't avoid Zanardi's car. Zanardi lost 3/4 of his blood at the track and was saved only by the grace of God (and CART's crack medical team)

I remember vividly watching the accident on TV. I was weirdly numb, to tell the truth...I only saw "highlights" of the accident on Mexican television while SturgeUrge and I were on a fishing trip to San Jose del Cabo, Baja California Sur. I wouldn't see the race on tape until we returned to the States a few days later.

My numbness was due to the race being run on September 15, 2001...just four days after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Throw in a close encounter with a hurricane that developed overnight, and kept us off the water, and I'd spent far too many hours watching unedited footage from Lower Manhattan via Mexican TV.

Zanardi rallied almost immediately after his hospital stay, embarking on an ambitious rehabilitation program, designing his own prosthetic legs with an eye to returning to the cockpit, and getting back in the racecar in 2003, completeing the 13 final laps he missed at the Lausitzring race in a ChampCar fitted with hand controls.

Zanardi went back to Professional Racing in the FIA Touring Car Championship racing for BMW. He tested a BMW-Sauber Formula One car at Valencia, Spain in 2006 saying: "Of course, I know that I won't get a contract with the Formula One team, however having the chance to drive an F1 racer again is just incredible."

Zanardi began handcycling in 2007, grabbing 4th place in his class at the New York City Marathon after only four weeks of training. He set his sights on making the Italian team for the 2012 Paralympics, winning the Venice Marathon in 2009, Rome City Marathon in 2010, and in his fourth attempt, the New York City Marathon in 2011.

Read about Zanardi's Gold Medal TT at ESPNW

Well done, Pineapple, well done...and thanks!

Slowing Flowing Waters

I just put Friday's blog "Ebb and Flow" to bed and grabbed a quick shower before the first power nap on tonight's agenda...I looked at Twitter before closing my eyes and I saw all the teams at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix tweeting about the torrential rains coming down. The LIVE stream of FP1 is scheduled to begin in under two hours...just damn...

I went to WeatherUnderground and typed in Silverstone, United Kingdom. Double damn! Chance of rain today is 80% (FP1, FP2), Saturday 70% (FP3, Qualifying), and Sunday British GP) 40% I read a tweet that said pit out is below the water table...who knows if the F1 TV cameraman even knows what a water table is..or where Silverstone's is!

Silverstone Circuit is built on a former RAF Airfield where huge Wellington bombers launched their night bombing raids on Europe and Germany during WWII. Wide and fast, with long straightaways, the average speed in F1 configuration is 215kph(133.594mph). A lap is 3.660 miles, and 65% of each lap is run at full throttle...unless it's wet or raining...

Friday Evening Update:

Well, both Practice sessions were wet...the big news was 80K British race fans totally clogged the motorways leading to Silverstone and many never got to the track...including some GP2 drivers who missed their practice sessions while mired in traffic. I turns out the soggy grass parking lots were the problem...such a big problem that organizers have asked 20K fans not to come to Practice and Qualifying Saturday!

Silverstone says the record rainfall has made the parking lots impassable, hence the request of the 20K parking pass/ticket holders who will have nowhere to park Saturday.

Early tweets from the track at 8:45AM Silverstone time say it's not raining...yet. The forecast pretty much promises rain on Saturday, but less so for Sunday's Grand Prix. There's nothing like a Formula One race that starts wet and finishes on a drying track...it's the most thrilling racing possible.

Saturday 3AM Update:
Free Practice 3 is finished, all of it run in the dry. Teams were radioing their drivers on track saying "Light rain will be here in __ minutes...some rain will be here soon...the end of the session...it never came before the LIVE stream ended. The skies were definitely threatening however, so everyone expects wet qualifying...good more uncertainty for race day!

Cycles Again

Like a scene from STAR WARS, there was a disturbance in the Force this weekend. In the midst of the much reported and tweeted Mid-Atlantic Heat Wave, a huge Derecho caused widespread power outages across several eastern states taking down internet servers, which in turn made several internet services unavailable for several hours.

Instagram the popular photo sharing site, Pinterest, and mighty Netflix all were down for several hours. Now I don't use any of these sights directly, but I did notice the absence of Instagram when several "TwitPics" wouldn't display on Twitter.

Saturday afternoon I saw @ExJon tweet:
"El Niños & Derechos are doing the damage American storms won't do."

Though snarky like I like it, the tweet made me wonder what the state of ENSO was, as I haven't kept track since my ski season ended way back in February. I went to the Climate Prediction Center's 90 Day Outlook Discussion, and waddya know? A weak El Niño is trying to build in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific. Curiously, the Central Pacific is still trending cold like a La Niña...a yin and yang thing I don't remember seeing before.

The Outlook Discussion's High Points:

THE OUTLOOK FOR July/August/Sept 2012 TEMPERATURE INDICATES ENHANCED ODDS FOR ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES FOR MUCH OF THE CONTINENTAL U.S., EXCEPT FOR PARTS OF THE NORTHEAST, THE NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS, AND ALONG MUCH OF THE WEST COAST.  ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES ARE FAVORED IN NORTHERN ALASKA, WITH THE CHANCES OF BELOW NORMAL TEMPERATURES ENHANCED IN COASTAL REGIONS OF SOUTHWESTERN AND SOUTHERN ALASKA.

THE PRECIPITATION OUTLOOK FOR July/August/Sept 2012 SHOWS AN ENHANCED LIKELIHOOD FOR BELOW-MEDIAN TOTAL SEASONAL PRECIPITATION FOR PARTS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST AND NORTHERN ROCKIES.  ABOVE MEDIAN PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS ARE FAVORED FOR FLORIDA AND PARTS OF ADJACENT STATES.

Alas, it looks likely that the Central Rockies are in for a "Long Hot Summer" while Florida floods...steady as she goes, I guess...

Good News, Bad News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now It's Fire Weather

I'm still wide awake...I just finished Wednesday's blog, "Whew!" I thought about addressing the Colorado Springs wildfire at the end, but I didn't want to be a "Debby Downer"

The truth is I watched streaming coverage for a couple of hours Tuesday afternoon as The Waldo Canyon Fire continued to burn outside of Colorado Springs. I became aware of the fire Monday when a blogger I read regularly tweeted that she was evacuating.

The Waldo Canyon Fire started Saturday west of Colorado Springs. Tuesday is the fifth day in a row of Record High Temperatures in Colorado Springs. The mercury hit 100°F while I watched Tuesday afternoon. Wind weren't unreasonably high, and they were Southernly, keeping the fire contained to a North/South ridge well west of town. About 3000 souls had been evacuated along with my blogger and her family. No deaths or injuries to residents or firefighters were reported, but some structures, including homes were reported lost.

Wildfire has wormed it's way onto my thought railroad over the past couple of weeks because the Reno NWS has been issuing many Red Fire Warnings for the Tahoe Basin, and last week the temps here in the Inland Valley hit triple digits.

Monday, Truckee's local newspaper tweeted news of a fire within Truckee's Town Limits. Monday was the five year anniversary of the Angora Fire that destroyed 242 homes and 67 commercial structures and burned 3,100 acres in South Lake Tahoe.

I found myself drawn like a moth to flame by the ongoing scenes from the Waldo Canyon Fire. Local TV station KKTV was doing yeoman's work covering the fire, evacuations, traffic, weather and Forest Service press conferences.

Just before the Giants-Dodgers game began (8:15PM MDT) the weather threw a hanging curveball to the firefighters. Record afternoon heat kicked of a string of thunderstorms that steered the prevailing winds from southernly to westerly, and in mere minutes the fire leapt off the containment ridge and down Queens Canyon headed at a fast clip right into the western outskirts of Colorado Springs.

Nighttime came early as the plume of smoke blew across town, and another 7000 evacuations were made mandatory.

The smoke crossing the valley like a squall line on the sea. The Sun obscured enough to see sunspots with the naked eye.

I snapped a photo from my laptop's screen as the smoke plume descended on Colorado Springs.

I couldn't bear to leave the Giants shutout of the Dodgers...it was yet another exciting contest. When the game ended I looked back in on the fire coverage. Evacuations had ballooned to 32,000 souls, and the video showed homes burning in the darkness.

My heart ached watching the young TV newspeople trying to report the unthinkable while trying to soft pedal the horror, and offering encouragement to their viewers who are after all, their neighbors.

Pray for Colorado Springs, and for Christ's sake be careful with fire!

Wednesday Postgame Update:
Prayers for Colorado Springs appear to have been answered. No T-Storms bloomed today, thus no outflow winds to wreak havoc on the firefighters, and reports of light rain and rainbows are giving hope to residents Wednesday evening.Though Red Flag coditions still persist, the winds are SW again, which keeps the fire from entering Colorado Springs wholesale.

Back at AT&T Park, Tim Lincecum finished the breakout from his deep, two month long slump, and lead the SF Giants to a three shutout sweep of the arch-rival LA Dodgers!

Thanks to @TheMelkmen who retweeted the link to "Whew!" I fielded more than 120 page views and counting. Thanks @Melkmen followers!

The Giants have a day off Thursday...It'll give me an opportunity to put together my Tour de France Fantasy Racing Team!

Whew!

Whatta weekend!

I'm still wide awake after another exciting San Francisco Giants game...the Giants shut out the hated LA Dodgers for the second game in a row! AT&T Park was magic again...the Giants' fans are just another attraction to enjoy...

What is it with costumes and The City? I'm sure the 100 year old "Bay To Breakers" footrace wasn't always about costumes and costumed centipedes traipsing drunkenly over the storied San Francisco hills to Ocean Beach at the western end of Golden Gate Park!

This season a new force arrived at AT&T Park, "The Melkmen". They're fans of new Giants' left fielder, Melky Cabrera, who's taken Giants fans' hearts by storm. Melky got 51 hits in May! The Melkmen made their first appearance at the yard in the third week of May...with plenty of signs and attitude.

Dressed as Old-Timey Milkmen, with white long sleeve shirts and matching pleated white trousers, the Melkmen sport those 1930s style milkman hats and orange bowties. They wear Cabrera's uniform number, 53 on their breast pockets.

Over the past 5-6 weeks, the Melkmen have become "a thing" at the Park and on the TV coverage of the games. @TheMelkmen joined Twitter early on, and Giants' fans on twitter were quick to welcome them to the fold. They've been guests on the pre-game telecasts from home games and some imposters even showed up in Seattle for a Mariners-Giants game.

Tonight...a new costume made it's debut at the Park...enter The MelkMaids, two comely lasses dressed in sky blue dresses and white aprons, and orange bows on their pigtails...no occasion escapes The City's love of costumes.

The MelkMaids and The Melkmen on the Pre-Game Show

The Melkmen number six, alas there are only two MelkMaids...a few short of a Dairy I'd say...

Tomorrow's game is the third in the Dodgers' series. It's an afternoon game 12:45 PM PDT On the strength of the first two wins of this series, the Giants can tie the Dodgers for the lead in the National League West if they take the game for the series sweep! Go Giants!

Maintain Radio Silence

After staying up writing most of the night, I slept through the big event on the Internet this morning...Twitter was down for more than an hour...the longest outage since November 2011.

Lots of Twitter users were freaking out because many were waiting for the Supreme Court rulings to come out. The two most anticipated rulings in several years, ObamaCare and Arizona's Immigration Law didn't debut Thursday after all.

The Twittershpere has been all wound up anyway, due to the Fast & Furious hearings in Congress, so equal parts of Snark, Seriousness, and Conspiracy Theory were on display...something for everyone...

I realized in the aftermath, just how much I've come to rely on Twitter for Real Time News. It's way faster than my beloved radio, even...

Fail Whale, MIA

Missing in action this time around, the Twitter "Fail Whale" was nowhere to be seen during the outage.

In the days before the crash, I found a few more History Tweeters, and made a mental note to share them here.

I find it curious that we are in the midst of the 200th Anniversary of the War of 1812, our second victory over the British, and yet if it weren't for Twitter, I wouldn't have known of it because of the omission of it by the Mainstream News Media.

Thanks to @warof1812online, I'm privy to an ongoing stream of history tidbits from 200 years ago. Another cool thing about this tweeter is they've alerted me to several other History Tweeters by retweeting them, so they show up in my Twitter Timeline.

One of these new-to-me accounts is really a gem. @navalhistorian has been tweeting details of The Battle of the Philippine Sea the past few days, including the story of "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" from 70 years ago.

Twitter being a Social Network is all about connections...think branches on a tree, and these seem to multiply if you're curious. With every new account that you follow, oftentimes they will lead you to other accounts with a similar outlook or interest, and then you can follow them too.

My new history "follows" are stacking up:

@SpitfireMuseum 
devoted to the famous British Spitfire and Hurricane fighter planes
@NavyHistoryNews
The Naval History and Heritage Command is the official history program of the United States Navy
@sommecourt
 Military Historian & author who works in Television: visiting & interpreting battlefields all over the world. Working on a big World War One archaeology dig in Flanders.
@MayHillWWII
May Hill began to keep a Diary, and write poetry, not long after the outbreak of the Second World War. Son in the RAF: 'Waiting for news'

So  today is "Follow Friday" on Twitter. This is a convention that organically started on Twitter where many tweeters tweet  a list of accounts to follow, fronted by the hashtag: #FF

Hashtags make searching Twitter easy, and I play #FF most Fridays. I tweet my list of History Tweeters, Astronomy and Spaceflight Tweeters, San Francisco Giants Accounts, Sierra Weather Accounts and Skiing Tweeters.

Because I keep finding new History Tweeters, it's going to take more than one History #FF from here on out, and I'll probably need a fourth Giants #FF tweet...talk about Happy Warriors...

Perfect

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Is This?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's Like Déjà Vu All Over Again

God bless Yogi Berra, baseball's Patron Saint of malapropisms. Can you blame baseball, of which Yogi quipped: "90% of the game is half mental.", for loving the guy?

But I digress...today is one of Yogi's  "Déjà Vu All Over Again" type days. I watched the fourth and final Giants/Cubs game from AT&T Park on the TV. It was drizzling at the yard, but not enough to stop the game. It was another nice pitching duel that the Giants won, making for the four game sweep. Soothing, winning Giants baseball...thanks Giants!

As is my new fashion, I was on Twitter during the game...Giants' fans are the best tweeters, plenty of snark, stats and silliness in 140 characters or less!

Anyway, as the low key game languorusly unfolded, some tweets from the High Sierra caught my eye...viewed together they tell a little story:

2:24PM @rgj: "It's snowing over Donner Summit, but no travel restrictions http://on.rgj.com/Kb4NFv"

2:56PM @R5_Fire_News: " Receiving snow across the upper reaches of several National Forests in the #Sierra #CAWx"

3:31PM @KirkwoodMtn: "Seriously - Chains required on SR88? Snowing my friends... Stay Thirsty, Coop"

5:39PM @TheSkiChannel: "http://bit.ly/KGHGoR| Squaw Valley Welcomes Summer | Head over to @SquawValley for fun Summer activities"

I surfed to the Sierra webcams...yep, snowing. Sugar Bowl looked like 2-3 inches on their picnic tables. The CalTrans webcams showed snow down to Soda Springs, with misty rain at Kingvale.

I tuned in the local TV News, yup Déjà Vu all over again! KTVU2 the Bay Area Fox affiliate had a live remote, NOT from Blue Canyon, but atop Donner Summit (I guess CalTrans finally finished the two year long remodel of the Summit Rest Areas)

The snow wasn't sticking to the roadway, and apparently, the rest stop was filthy with foreign tourists in shorts, who were happy to gush to the camera about how surprised they were by the snow...good sports they were all breathlessly smiling and carrying on. It was good TV, and chillingly, it reminded me of last Spring!

It's OK, I did a quick scan of the AFDs, this is just a fluke system passing through...not a "pattern Change"

So, the Ancestral Diggins benefit from the .10 inches of rain, and the rest of the week will be warm, but not scorching. I can dig it!