Today is Absolutely Today

UK Visit - July 2011

2011-09-02T15:33:00.000-07:00

My last trip back to the UK, in July of 2012, was primarily to visit my mother and to help celebrate my last remaining uncle’s 90th birthday. A nice stay with, for the most part, lovely weather and a Test Match win over India to boot.

For a long time my mother and I had been threatening to visit the seaside for some time now, but we had always found some reason not to. This time, however, we persevered and made it to Whitby – a one-time beautiful seaside town on the east coast of Yorkshire. I have fond memories of Whitby from my younger days, and while the town itself is still quite beautiful, when it is full of holidaymakers and tourists it doesn’t quite have the same appeal. The crowded quay area was particularly unpleasant being thronged with people eating fish and chips, hot dogs, smelly shellfish (cockles, whelks, muscles), or ice cream. Litter was abundant and the whole place was just not that inviting. It had none of its charm of older times.

We did however consume the best fish and chips that I have ever had at a rather upscale fish and chip shop – Trenchers. While this is perhaps not typical of English Fish and Chips (even the cooks wear chef’s hats) it is perhaps some of the best battered fish you can buy.

This was perhaps more typical, a coffee shop catering to the English palette with the usual range of coffee drinks and for the non-caffeine lovers, Horlicks!

We escaped out of Whitby and went a little further up the coast to Runswick Bay – a beautiful and picturesque spot if ever I saw one. We had afternoon tea in the garden of the Hotel overlooking the bay – very pleasant indeed.

On my last Sunday there, I met up with my friends Steve and Yvonne for lunch. Since Steve and Yvonne live in Cumbria and I was in Derbyshire, we met half-way in between – in the little village of Hudswell, near Richmond in the Yorkshire Dales. The village of Hudswell has a rather fine Community Pub, The George and Dragon. We had a nice lunch there. The whole idea of a Community Pub is that the residents of the village, town or whatever buy shares in the ownership of the pub and run it for the benefit of the community. They usually exist where a commercially operated pub has failed to survive and they attempt to be more than just a commercial operation, they try and preserve some of the architecture and historical significance of the public house. This is a very good thing as far as I can see. In Hudswell, there was also a Community Shop adjacent to the pub. Again there to provide a service to the village community when the local shops were no longer commercially viable after the Morrisons or Tesco move into the area.

Finally a quick mention of the birthday party for my Uncle Geoff’s 90th birthday. It was a surprise party and he took it very well - you have to be careful with surprise for a 90 year old man. Here’s a picture of him with my mother.

And here we all are - cousins, grand-children, the lot.

More pictures of everything are here.

Nevada Trip - June 2011

2011-06-23T17:24:00.000-07:00

Last week I had the opportunity to go on an off-roading trip to Nevada. It was kind of a continuation of the previous weekend’s trip to Barney Riley Hot Springs and many of the same folks were there.

My friend Alvaro and I drove up from Sacramento on the Wednesday. We picked up the three frenchmen (Guillame, Jean-Phillipe and Thierry) in Minden (their borrowed truck had broken down the previous day) and we took them over to meet up with the rest of the group in the middle of Nevada (just north of Tonopah in Belmont).

The drive through Nevada is always interesting. From Minden we headed over to Hawthorne and then down Highway 95 to Tonopah. The town of Hawthorne itself is surrounded by obscure military bases (what are they storing in those hundreds of buildings) and there is evidence of those military connections everywhere. On the north side of town is the attractive and colorful array of bombs lined up alongside the road. To the south, the road is divided into sections dedicated to the wars that the US has been involved in – all the way from the First World War, to World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War and now “The Global War on Terror” – it’s nice to keep these things current and they have plenty of miles of road left for future conflicts. Near Mina there is the Boat converted into a restaurant, and Lobster Crossing where someone started a lobster farm, then there is the garishly pink and exceedingly sleazy roadside brothel in the middle of nowhere. There is not a lot out in that part of the world but where there is something then it is usually pretty interesting.

The artistic array of bombs outside the town of Hawthorne

A late dinner at the Burger King in Tonopah (it was Jean-Philippe’s first American hamburger – not the best of starts for him), and we headed north to the campsite in Belmont where we me up with the remainder of the group.

The next morning we set off south east from Belmont – I think we went along the Salisbury Wash but I am not sure. Then a bit of backtracking and we headed north into the Toiyabe National Forest. I can’t quite be sure of the route but all I know is that we were in some beautiful country. All day we came across charcoal kilns. These were apparently quite a common feature of the mining landscape. Wherever there were trees near a mining area, they would build kilns to produce charcoal that was then shipped to the mines to be used in the smelting of the ore. In their semi-ruined state, these are now quite beautiful additions to the landscape.

One of the many Charcoal Kiln sites we came across.

We explored the old mining town of Tybo where there was quite a lot of old mining equipment and decaying buildings. It is always interesting to look at this stuff and imagine how on earth they got it to such a remote place in the first place. This is not light or compact equipment and the locations are quite remote.

Mine shaft and Headgear in Tybo.

That evening we found a beautiful campsite by a stream and we were treated to many delicacies from pate de foie, fine cheeses, smoked salmon, top shelf Margaritas from Dan and Venezuelan Empanadas prepared by Alvaro. However, one of the finest things that evening was the unlimited supply of hot water heated by Tom’s Land Cruiser, that provided us with showers to wash off the dust of the day.

The next day was more wonderful scenery, wide open spaces, overgrown trails, the volcanic craters of Armchair and Lunar Crater, and of course the usual charcoal kilns. We camped that night near the White Pine Mountains not too far from Hamilton. Another evening of very fine food – home-made sausages, crab cakes, lamb chops, and peach cobbler – if only I ate so well back home.

On Saturday we did a little more exploring around the White Pine Mountains and the town of Hamilton, then we headed out to Highway 50 and civilization. It was mid-afternoon when we reached Eureka on Highway 50 so we decided to keep going and get home to Sacramento that night. An early evening stop at Cabelas in Reno to show the French guys what an extravagance of outdoor gear it is and then it was over the hill to Sacramento and home.

The whole gang in Middleton on the way home.

Here is a link to some more photos of the trip.

Barney Riley Hot Springs

2011-06-22T17:51:00.000-07:00

The East Fork of the Carson River near Barney Riley

A couple of weekends ago I did a short weekend trip in the Land Cruiser to Barney Riley Hot Springs. Barney Riley is on the east fork of the Carson River near Markleville. There is a camp site there and a really nice hot spring. It was the site of my trip earlier in the year, back in January. This time the conditions were much different - not so much snow, but a lot of water from snow melt in the river. This time we entered from Monitor Pass rather than from Highway 395 south of Gardnerville which we used last time.

I haven’t figured out who Barney Riley is or was and how this area was named – perhaps he was an old miner…. who knows?

There was quite a group of us this time – Alvaro, Andy, his son Jeff and myself from Sacramento, Tom from Marin, and three Frenchmen (Guillame, Jean-Phillipe, and Thierry).

We headed in on the trail mid-afternoon on Saturday, just about the right time to set up camp before nightfall. The trail from Monitor Pass is a nice one – not too challenging, but interesting enough and simply wonderful country.

We arrived at the Carson River late afternoon, and found it to be running quite fast. It has been quite warm recently and the snow melt from a heavy and late snow season meant the river was very high. Crossing the river to get to the other side, where the best hot springs are, was just not an option. So we settled in for the night on the east bank of the river alongside several groups of rafters who were rafting the river from Markleville to Gardnerville (a nice rafting run, and perhaps a more exciting one at these water levels – at least a relatively quick run).

Later that evening we were joined in camp by Bill from Sacramento in another of his beat up Toyota’s.

Next morning, Sunday, we decided to go to a crossing further downstream and see what the conditions were like there (the river is wider there and it might be crossable). Though only a short distance downstream it necessitated a circuitous route of several miles around the impassable river bank.
When we reached the river again the flows still looked way too high even in this wider section of river.

We had pretty much decided not to cross the river when Bill took off and surprised us all by driving over to the other side. A bit of a risky proposition, but well executed and he reached the other side to the amazement and cheers of everyone around. This then spurred on a young couple, not a part of our group, to drive across in their big Ford F-350. They too made it safely across.

The rest of us remained on our side of the river, thinking that things were just too risky to venture across. Certainly myself, being relatively inexperienced, I was not about to follow any of these folks into the water.

Then it seems to have dawned on everyone, including Bill, that coming back might be more of a problem that the initial crossing. That crossing had been on a diagonal moving downstream with the flow of the river. The return would be a similar diagonal crossing but this time moving upstream against the flow of the river. That’s a whole different kettle of fish as we soon found out.

OK so now what do you do?

So how do we get Bill and his truck back to this side of the river? We made an attempt to get a length of tow strap across to the other side with the aid of a passing kayaker. We tried, the kayaker tried even harder, but that attempt failed. Bill, rather cavalierly, then set off to return unaided by the same route as he crossed earlier. This went well until he was midstream and the force of water pushed him around, into deeper water where he floated, and then sailed downstream. That was not a good situation but fortunately the vehicle stayed upright. Had it flipped over with him inside then the consequences could have been quite serious.

Ready for the retrieval

The top was all we got back

Now the recovery started in earnest – Bill was on top of the truck in the middle of the river. What to do? We managed to throw a thin line to him which we then attached to tow straps which he pulled across to the marooned truck. Alas, the flow was so high that all he could attach the end of the strap to was the roof of the cab of the truck – nothing substantial like the bumper or the frame. A kayaker then helped out by giving Bill a life vest, and towing him behind his kayak to shore (to the wrong side of the river but at least he was on dry land). That left us with the job of pulling the strap attached to the truck with the hope of pulling everything out of the water. This went well for a few seconds and there was some movement of the truck but eventually the force on the top of the cab was too much and we just pulled the top off the truck, leaving the truck cartwheel downstream a ways. Not a great outcome, but at least the truck landed right side up – but this time it was definitely out of reach and the end of our rescue efforts.

We were getting ready to leave when the Ford F-350 decided to return across. We anxiously gathered to watch the results. Again all went well for a while and I thought he had made it, until the engine cut out, and the river took over and pushed him downstream. So now there are two vehicles in the river. There is also a guy and his now quite upset girlfriend on one of them and they need to be rescued. Not a good situation, the water is flowing very fast, the water is very cold, and they don’t have life vests or anything.

And now there were two....

A kayaker again comes to the rescue – he reaches the truck, gives the girl his lifevest, gets a line to shore, kayaks to shore and then takes charge of getting both people off the truck (using a pendulum action with a rope to swing each person into shore downstream of the truck).

Quite the eventful day! Not a good outcome though – there were two vehicles in a relatively pristine river that really should not have been there. Everyone was safe, but things could have gone horribly wrong in so many ways. Those kinds of risks should not be taken.

Postscript: The next day the guy returned to recover his F-350 with a backhoe of all things. Somehow he managed to pull it out of the river. Bill returned too and after failing on Monday, managed to get his truck out on Tuesday. The truck was surprisingly intact, though I am sure all it is good for is parts.

The Recovered Vehicle

Here is a link to some more photos of the weekend on my SmugMug site.

A week in Stinson Beach

2011-05-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

Yours Truly, Yvonne, Steve, Colin, Mel

Last week I got to spend a week by the ocean. My college friends Steve and Colin with their wives Yvonne and Mel were over from the UK and we rented a house down on Stinson Beach for the week. Stinson Beach is a little beach community on Highway 1 just north of San Francisco. Our house was right on the beach at the end of the sand spit that runs out between the Pacific Ocean and the Bolinas Lagoon – a perfect location for a relaxing week. The weather cooperated too - it can often be foggy on the coast but we had great weather all week.

View of Stinson Beach from the back of the house

While Stinson is just a few short miles as the crow flies from San Francisco – you can see it quite clearly and it lights up the sky at night time – it is a long and winding route to anywhere by road. So we didn’t stray too far from that part of the world. We did the usual things – Bolinas, Muir Woods, Mt Tamalpais, Point Reyes, Tomales Bay, Mill Valley but we didn’t get over to the busier areas of Marin or to San Francisco save for a run to Costco in Novato for supplies.

This is a beautiful part of the world and it is hard to imagine that you are just a stone's throw away from a major city like San Francisco. One of the highlights for me was driving Bolinas Ridge Road - it has to be one of the most stunning pieces of road in California – not to be missed, though I had missed it for 35 years.

View of Stinson Beach and Bolinas from the Bolinas Ridge Road

Steve, Col and I all studied Geology together at University in London (yes I did actually study it once upon a time) and we are all 60 this year. That was the main reason for the get together. And what better place for a group of geologists to meet but on the exact intersection of the San Andreas Fault with the spit of land sticking out into the Bolinas Lagoon. If the earthquake didn't get us the Tsunami surely would have.

Here are all the photos from the trip.

Death Valley

2011-05-06T07:22:00.000-07:00

The other week Alvaro R. and I took our Land Cruisers down to Death Valley to explore some of the remoter regions of the park. This was to be the first real long trip with my new ‘old’ Land Cruiser. There were six of us on the trip – John G, Andre H, Catherine M, Alvaro, his wife Monica and myself.

It was an early morning departure from Sacramento up to South Lake Tahoe, over the hill to the East Side of the Sierras, and down Highway 395 (my favorite part of California). Lunch in Bishop at Schat’s Bakkery then down to Big Pine where we turned into the hills and the northerly entrance to Death Valley (via Eureka Valley to the Saline Valley).

Our first night stop was at Warm Springs in the Saline Valley. A small oasis in the middle of the valley floor with warm springs (and unfortunately people with a predilection towards parading around the springs without any clothes – these people should be covered up, it’s not pretty – well most of them should be anyway).

We camped nearby the springs in a pretty exposed c amp site – at this time of year, it was very pleasant except for the wind but I could only imagine how hot and intolerable it might be further into the summer.

The next day we had a dip in the springs – very nice, just the right temperature, and very clean. Then we were off down the Saline Valley, up Lippincott Pass and down to the Racetrack Playa. Lippincott was a nice climb out of the valley floor – nothing too challenging. The Racetrack Playa was fascinating – it is a salt flat playa which by itself is amazing, but then there are these rocks on the playa with trails behind them – they are called Sailing Stones. These are quite big rocks and the theory is that they are moved by the wind – quite remarkable. I guess the playa is really slick when it rains so the wind can actually push these large rocks across the floor.

Further down the valley we came to Tea Kettle Junction where folks have gone crazy with tea kettles. Check out this picture of the junction in 2005 and then today below.

From Tea Kettle it was over to Ubehebe Crater – another geological wonder in the valley. Ubehebe is the native Indian word for “big basket in the rock” – very descriptive.

At this point it was time to fuel up so we headed over to Beatty, Nevada. I had stayed in Beatty a few years back and was somewhat familiar with it. It is not the most inviting of towns. As the “Gateway to Death Valley” it has cheap hotels, gas and the basic food items. Alas its only industry – the Barrick Gold Mine – looks like it closed in the late 90’s.

After refueling we set off in search of a camping spot for the night. We had thoughts of finding something near Rhyolite, a ghost town adjacent to Beatty, but there was nothing suitable. We then set of through Titus Canyon thinking there would be a good spot somewhere along the way. Alas this wasn’t the case either, but by then it was getting dark so we were forced to camp alongside the road – a no-no in a National Park but there was not likely to be any other traffic at that time of day. Apart from the wind which was howling while we were cooking dinner it was not a bad spot. Dinner was John’s barbeque ribs that were flown in from Memphis for our enjoyment.

We made an early start the next day to break our “illegal” camp and get on the road. We followed along down Titus Canyon to the remnants of the town of Leadfield where we stopped to cook breakfast and enjoy the sites. Traveling through the lower part of the Canyon was just beautiful - it is a spectacular canyon, well worth the trip, either motorized or on foot as I did it last time.

After exiting Titus Canyon, we went through Death Valley proper (very well maintained roads) through Stovepipe Wells and on towards Panamint Springs to the West. Before Panamint Springs we took the cut off towards Emigrant Pass and then on to the town of Ballarat. Ballarat is an interesting place indeed – named after the Australian gold mining town of the same name, it is almost a ghost town, but still has a few living residents - strange living residents. The Manson Family hung out nearby in the 60’s, a scene from Easy Rider (where Peter Fonda threw his watch away at the start of his motorcycle trip) was shot here, and we bought drinks from the store (that’s all they sell) while we tried not to get too familiar with any of the locals.

From Ballarat, we took the road up to South Park Canyon. This was the more challenging bit of trail. Rover Death Hill (as in Land Rover Death) and Chicken Corner (where one shouldn’t be afraid of cutting it close to the edge – “the edge is your friend” as Alvaro says). On our return I heard that the BLM closed this road shortly after our visit. Apparently more than one person has come to grief on Chicken Rock and they figured it just wasn't worth risking others getting into trouble.

We had a look around the Brigg's Cabins. A couple of relatively primitive cabins up South Park Canyon that are equipped with most things you will need. Available free of charge on a first come first served basis, these were a wonderful discovery. They are maintained by a local group and the BLM allow them to be used provided everyone has access. You just hoist the US flag to show you are in occupancy and then leave everything clean and replace what you use. I would like to come back and stay here a day or two.

We pushed on higher up to an area called Middle Park where we camped close to a jaw-dropping view of the valleys below. A fairly high camp ground with a nip in the air the next morning.

Onwards the next day, we went back down Pleasant Valley Canyon to Ballarat. There were some interesting mining relics down the valley. Lots of fun to explore these old sites.

On towards Panamint Springs to gas up (thirsty vehicles these Land Cruisers) and then off in search of a camp spot for the last night on the road. We were lucky enough to stumble across a road up Telescope Hill (from where you can see the highest spot, Mt Whitney, and the lowest spot, Badwater in the lower 48). On the way up there were 10 charcoal kilns in almost perfect condition – the Wildrose Charcoal Kilns. The local forests were harvested to provide wood which was converted to charcoal to be used in the smelting operations in the local mines. Quite impressive, if you like kilns that is.

That night we camped at Mahogany Flat. At around 8300ft this was our highest camp, almost at snow level. A fine Cottage Pie for dinner from Alvaro – a traditional English recipe with a Venezuelan accent provided by Alvaro.

Sunday was the return home. A long drive up 395, over the Kingsbury Grade into the Tahoe basin and down the hill to Sacramento – total miles this trip 1135. Alas we used 107 gallons of gasoline for a very economical 10.6 mpg. Not quite a Prius, but we did some rough roads and some high speed driving there and back.

Here is a link to my Smugmug photos.

Niteroi, a Favela Tour and Rio de Janeiro

2011-05-03T17:16:00.000-07:00

While I was down in Brasil, I did get to check out a few tourist type things. I was staying in Niteroi - across the bay from Rio and linked by ferries and a bridge. It is not as affluent as Rio and it is the more industrial port area. Nevertheless a nice area, with great views across the bay towards Rio.

Street scene in Niteroi

On one of my morning runs (actually my only morning run), I stumbled across this wonderful building - more like a space ship than a building. It was designed by Oscar Niemeyer and houses a contemporary art museum. By all accounts the building is much more impressive than its contents.

Niteroi Contemporary Art Museum

I went on a Favela tour over in Rio on the Saturday afternoon. It was an interesting look at a different side of life in Rio. I was worried about it being a little too voyeuristic but these tours are becoming fairly common now and they are promoted as being run by Favela residents and allegedly they do give some money back to the community. Whether that is true or not I don't know.

I was picked up in front of the Copacabana Palace Hotel (one of the best hotels in Rio - what an unusual choice for such a trip) and whisked off up the hill to Rocinha where the housing changes from super expensive to extremely poor in the matter of a few meters.

According to the guides, the slum areas are governed by a mafia-like organization of drug dealers and crooks and the police don't even venture inside. They said that these mafia types at least organized things in the community and got a few things done, while the local government did precious little for the residents. The houses are a chaotic jumble climbing up the hillsides. Hardly anyone has a proper address as the streets and buildings are somewhat free-form, electricity is just stolen by tapping into the power lines, and when you need a new house or a room, you just build it on top of an existing one (4 or 5 levels high sometimes).

If you need electricity, just take it!

That being said there were parts of the Favela that were quite attractive - very colorful, some quite modern, and some with great views of Rio and the Ocean.

One of the more colorful and modern sections

Yours Truly and some kids in Rocinha

On the Sunday, I did the more standard tourist things - the downtown area, Corcovado, Sugar Loaf, Copacabana, etc. It was a nice day out with lots of wonderful sights. Lots of pictures. Then on my return to the hotel prior to going out to the airport, I was taking a taxi and I realized that I needed some more money to pay for the ride. I asked the driver to stop at an ATM, and then foolishly got out of the taxi, leaving my day pack in the cab. When I completed my transaction and turned around from the ATM, the taxi had disappeared along with my pack. I guess he figured that whatever was in the backpack it was more valuable than his $20 fare. He was right - 2 cameras, an iPhone, lots of miscellaneous bits and pieces. I am up to over $2,000 on the insurance claim.

That made for a sour end to the trip and a lack of photos of from that day. I can't believe I was so stupid as to do that, usually I am very careful, but I had been getting along fine with the taxi driver and I trusted him. Oh well - there's a lesson learned there. And it could have been a lot worse - I did not lose my passport or my credit cards so I was still able to fly home.

Rio de Janeiro Trip

2011-04-26T21:35:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I made a trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brasil - a business trip to give some software training to one of our customers down there. Rio is one of the most beautiful cities in the world (IMHO) and I really didn't think twice about going down there, even though training is not something I usually do.

Our clients, Odebrecht, put me up in a nice hotel in Niteroi - just across the bay from Rio. I was initially expecting to work in their office but there were rumors that one of their rigs was in port. When I walked out the back of my hotel I was very surprised to see the rig sitting a few hundred yards offshore. The rig was new, having just been built in Abu Dhabi and was undergoing final fitting out before going to work offshore Brasil.

The Norbe VI Rig as seen from my Hotel

The Rig at Night - Note the statue of Christ all lit up on Corcovado

I had not visited a rig in years - it is so difficult these days to get on board without having all the required safety training - so this was a real treat. So off I went by boat to the rig where I was winched up onto the rig in a basket on the end of a crane. The device is actually something called a 'Billy Pugh Transfer Net' - named after its inventor. It's biggest claim to fame outside the oil industry was when it was used to pluck various Apollo astronauts out of the ocean. Anyway it was an interesting way to go to work, particularly with the view of Sugar Loaf, Corcovado and downtown Rio.

The actual work was fine though it morphed from a training session to a software redesign session. I came back with a long list of things that they needed adding or changing. More work for us I suppose.

The Land Cruiser Purchase

2011-01-28T18:05:00.001-08:00

Well, as you may well know, I have fallen in with a bad crowd - the Land Cruiser Off-Road crowd. Both of the last two years I have taken a trip as a passenger with my friend Alvaro to Southern Utah to do some off-highway traveling. I have thoroughly enjoyed these trips and so I figured it was about time that I got my own vehicle.

The choice of vehicle was not a question - everyone in this "group" drives a Toyota Land Cruiser. Specifically an 80 Series Land Cruiser which was produced between the years of 1995 and 1997 in the US. There was no point in buying something different when there was so much expertise around to fix this type of vehicle. Had I bought something else, I would have been on my own for repairs and advice. Not a good place to be.

So I have been looking for a vehicle for some time now on Craigslist and other car sites. Nothing quite caught my eye until I found a Lexus LX50 (the same as an 80 Series with plusher interior) in Reno. My friend Dan who lives in Reno did a quick check of the vehicle and then one Saturday Alvaro and I drove over the hill to Reno to inspect it.

Alas the vehicle did not live up to expectations and we were getting ready to come back to Sacramento when Dan said that his friend Jack had been trying to sell his Land Cruiser. A quick call and yes it was still available. We drove to the house and behold - a relatively good condition Land Cruiser equipped with every piece of off road equipment that I could ever need - 4" lift, Skid Plates, Front and Rear Bumpers, Sliders, Winch, Air Compressor, Second Battery, Second Fuel Tank, Auxilliary Fan, PIAA Headlights, 2 Meter Radio. Fully loaded. Alas 186,000 miles on the clock - a little high but you can't have everything.

So without much hesitation I closed the deal and became the proud owner of a fine Land Cruiser. Here are some pictures.

If you want the details of the vehicle - here they are:

1996 Toyota Landcruiser

Factory Lockers
Factory Toyota Hand Throttle

Upgrades:

Full Slee 4 inch Lift Kit:
Slee 4 inch springs (HD rear springs)
OME L shocks
Castor Plates
Stainless Brake Lines
Weld-In adjusters for upper rear control arms and both Panhards
OME bushings in Upper rear control arms
OME steering stabilizer
Bump stop extensions
Sway bar drop down brackets
Tacoma rear DC shaft re-tubed and installed in the front
Slee Washer Bottle relocation bracket to allow for second battery tray
4.88 gears (solid spacer on front third).
Nitto Terra Grapplers, 315/75R16’s (approximately 60% tread)
Mark’s Speedometer correction box
Slee Step Sliders
Slee AC dryer skid plate (attached to ARB bumper).
Iron Pig Offroad Full Skid plate/crossmember.
Landtank performance MAF with new Toyota sensor
Safari Snorkel
Air-Lift air bags in rear springs.
ARB front bumper
Winch
York Air Compressor with air lines to Front and Read Bumpers
2M Radio
PIAA 525 (Dual Beam) lights are wired with an on/off switch that allows the headlight switch to actually turn them on or not. The low-beam activates the "Fog" lights and the highbeam position activates the "Spot" lights in the PIAA’s.
Auxiliary Fan (90’s 4runner) wired so that it can be turned on full-time or the AC will activate it via the pressure switch.
4X4 Labs Rear bumper Kit, dual swing arms, with my uppers (spare tire, fuel/water can mount, Hi-lift mount). Toyota 4runner License Plate mount with light wired into factory wiring.
Man-A-Fre/Long Ranger 24 gallon Auxiliary Fuel Tank (mounts in place of stock spare) with Dual Filler neck (Unleaded restricted for smog reasons) pump and fuel transfer switch/gauge combination.
Dual batteries with brand new Sears Platinum Gel batteries
National Luna Dual Battery controller/charge system.
2 "always hot" 12v outlets in center console
1 "always hot" 12v outlet in rear compartment area
Auxiliary wiring for extras is wired separate from the main electrical system on it own fuse blocks and relays to keep everything as reliable as possible
GT Covers seat covers (stock seats are not ripped or torn)
LED in Dome light
Door lights replaced with LED’s also (rear hatch/tailgate can stay open without draining the battery).
Kenwood Ipod controlling head unit
Pioneer replacement speakers in the doors
Viper Alarm with Remote Start feature

Baja Motorcycle Trip

2011-01-12T17:44:00.001-08:00

The week before Christmas I set off on a motorcycle trip to Baja. It was supposed to be the final ride on the motorcycle before I sold it. I haven’t been riding the motorcycle much this year and it seemed like a bit of a luxury to keep it around. Not to mention the fact that if you don’t ride frequently then your skills get rusty – and that’s not a good thing on a big motorcycle - on any motorcycle.

Yours Truly and the trusty BMW

A ride from Sacramento to Cabo San Lucas, on the tip of Baja, seemed like a good destination and the timing was right, so I packed my bags and set off south on Saturday 11th December.

Here is a link to the photos from the trip.

Day 1 - Sacramento to San Juan Capistrano

Interstate 5 south to LA is not a particularly inspiring ride on any mode of transport. On a motorcycle it is similarly uninspiring but it has smells – a lot of nasty smells (the worst of which is the Harris Feeding Company’s lot near Coalinga – so many cattle they are visible on Google) and the smell is just disgusting. Riding through LA is always fun - heavy traffic, high speeds, very scary indeed.

I made it to San Juan Capistrano by late evening of the first day and did my final preparation for crossing the border. This included buying motorcycle insurance, arranging cell phone coverage and an e-mail data plan while I am there – all of which can be done very quickly from a web browser these days - how spoiled we are.

Day 2 - San Juan Capistrano to Vicente Guerrero

The next morning, Sunday, I headed for San Diego and the border. What on earth is that monstrosity alongside the freeway in San Diego? A Mormon Temple that’s what. Very disturbing indeed.

Going across the border into Mexico at the Tijuana crossing was not a big deal. I made it more of one by actively seeking out the purchase of a travel permit, which all the books say you need, though no one actually checked it while I was in Mexico. The permit involved queuing several times, filling out a form, paying over some money and dealing with a surly Immigration Man.

One wrong turn after the border led me into the chaos of downtown Tijuana. Not what I wanted to do before I got my foreign driving skills honed but I soon backtracked and got on the Toll Road that runs down the coast from Tijuana to Ensenada. That road was a much easier introduction to the traffic and roads of Mexico, though it is not very typical and you could still be in Southern California except not so much traffic.

The Coast South of Tijuana

After lunch in Ensenada, I headed south on Highway 1 or the Trans-Peninsular as they call it. By this time I had figured out a few things about driving in Mexico, namely:

watch out for the speed bumps or topes as they call them – they are large and they should not be taken at speed.
be extra careful to watch out for these speed bumps as you leave town as well as when you enter town – they are there too and just when you think you are in the clear they have one last one to surprise you.
keep a sharp eye out for the Stop signs - “ALTA” – they are not always conspicuous, they are not consistently placed on the left or right or even close to the road, and they don’t always need to be located at an intersection.
all the gas stations are PEMEX and only PEMEX and they don’t take credit cards. It is cash only.
outside of the towns themselves you don’t appear to have to worry about the speed limit. Everyone speeds, often quite excessively. Rule of thumb - use the same number MPH as the posted KPH and add 10 or 20 MPH.

The road south was in pretty good condition. Much better than I expected. But that first afternoon there were a lot of rough sections of dirt where the road was being rebuilt. On a motorcycle that meant the ingestion of a lot of dust.

I had planned to be in a hotel long before dark, but nothing looked good until, well after dark, I pulled into Vicente Guerrero and found a nice motel with a courtyard. I figured with a motorcycle, the last thing I wanted to do was to leave the bike unattended on the street at night so my choice of motel was usually dictated by the security of the overnight parking.

Day 3 - Vicente Guerrero to Mulege

The road south on Monday morning led just inland of the coast through a lot of industrial scale farms. I was quite surprised at the scale of the farming operations but I suppose it makes sense – a good climate, proximity to market, cheap labor, apparently good soil and availability of water. It looks like they grow a lot of berries for the US market here.

Cirios

After passing through El Rosario, the road traverses inland across a sparsely populated desert landscape. The Saguaro cacti are spectacular but what is really amazing are the Cirios. These strange plants are only found here in Baja and in a small area of the Sonoran desert and they are the weirdest things as you can see. The English name is the boojum (named after a Lewis Carrol character in the Hunting of the Snark).

This section of road was the longest section between gas stations - 196 miles by my clock. That’s pretty convenient as I was averaging about 200 miles per tank. I was running on empty when I came into the gas station in Villa Jesus Maria. Of course I had bottles of gasoline in my bags so I had a little extra gas for a few more miles but still 196 miles is a long way.

The next major town was Guerrero Negro where I had a late lunch. Guerrero Negro is the jumping off point for whale watching tours in the Bay. No whales quite yet, and anyway, in the town itself you are a long way from the ocean so I don’t think you can see much without going out on a boat trip.

From Guerrero Negro the road crossed to the other side of the peninsula, and dropped down into Santa Rosalia on the Sea of Cortez. Santa Rosalia is an interesting and atypical town - an industrial copper mining and smelting town. Built by the European Boleo Mining Company (a Rothschild company), it’s architecture is more European than Mexican and it is a lot more industrial. It has an interesting church manufactured by Gustav Eiffel for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris and later shipped over to Mexico in the late 1800’s. Of course the mine and the associated smelting is long gone now so the town is a shadow of its former self, but it still has a nice atmosphere despite all the crumbling industrial sites around it.

Gustav Eiffel's Church in Santa Rosalia

I pushed on that evening into Mulege reaching there just after dark. The Hotel Mulege was in the center of town with a nice protected area for the bike so that was my home for the night. In the next room to mine were Ernie and Jerry - two contractors from the Bay Area driving to their coastal plot of land with a load of lumber and tools to continue construction of their vacation home. We had a nice evening sipping peach and vodka cocktails outside the hotel, followed by beer and tequila at the restaurant across the road from the hotel. Thankfully the tequila shots didn’t get too out of hand.

Day 4 - Mulege to Cabo San Lucas

The next day was an early start on the final leg down to Cabo San Lucas. Some nice riding across the peninsula to Ciudad Insurgentes. Such a long straight road - a chance to get the motorcycle up to speed. No one seems to worry about speed limits - they are so ridiculously low that just about all the time you are speeding - often significantly.

From Insurgentes it was a short hop down to Ciudad Constitucion where legend has it the police shake down tourists for on the spot fines for missing stop signs or the slightest of speed infractions (check out the last paragraph in the Wikipedia entry). I was especially careful and had no trouble. Actually a gringo in the local coffee shop said that the Mayor had been aware of his town’s reputation and had told to police to lay off - the dismal state of the tourism in Baja means that they can’t afford to annoy any brave tourists that do venture that way. One thing about the tourists - there just didn’t seem to be many of them. All the bad press about the crime and drug related violence near the border means that no one is coming here and all the locals are suffering from lack of business - lots of empty restaurants, bars, hotels, campsites and the like.

From Constitucion it was over to the Baja side of the peninsula to La Paz. La Paz is a nice town but I had visited it before on my kayaking trip in 2002 so I just filled up with gas and continued south. I took the dual carriageway down the westerly route to Todos Santos - a very nice and very underutilized road.

Todos Santos was a nice place too, but again it seemed to be suffering from a lack of tourists - and the town did not seem to have much else going on except tourism. I made the obligatory stop outside the Hotel California - rumoured to be the inspiration for The Eagles song of the same name (alas its just a rumour) and took the obligatory photograph of the motorbike parked outside.

Hotel California in Todos Santos

From there it was a short hop over to Cabo San Lucas on the most southerly tip of the peninsula. I wasn’t impressed by the Cabo - arriving late to the chaos of rush hour traffic didn’t put me in a good frame of mind and the town has just made too many concessions to the tourist industry and to the particularly bad side of the tourist industry - the Spring Break crowd and the Cruise Ship crowd.

Day 5 - Cabo San Lucas to Mulege

On the road by sun rise the next day, a quick look around the now quieter streets of Cabo before heading east towards San Jose del Cabo.

San Jose is altogether a nicer town than its neighbouring Cabo San Lucas - a lot quieter, a bit more artsy with a nice old town area. I liked the town. I didn’t stick around too long and from San Jose, it was back north again to La Paz. There was some nice countryside north from San Jose on the east side of the Peninsula. Much more attractive than the westerly road I came down the day before. Again no stopping in La Paz, a short coffee break in Ciudad Constitucion, and then on to Loreto where I took a break and looked around town. A nice seaside town with an interesting old town area and a wonderful mission. I pressed on tthe last 80 or so miles to Mulege, arriving just before nightfall.

Day 6 - Mulege to El Rosario

Another early start and I was on the road north to have breakfast in Santa Rosalia. This is the Boleo Mining town, and I had heard of a French bakery there that was supposed to be quite good. The Panaderia El Boleo was now more a Mexican-French bakery since all the French miners left, but it was still well worthy of a stop. I took time to wander around the mining company artifacts scattered around Santa Rosalia. Lots of old steam locomotives, old smelting plants, office buildings from the late 1800’s. Definitely one of the more interesting spots on the peninsula.

The Mission in San Ignacio

Next stop was San Ignacio. A delighthful oasis in the middle of the peninsula with a beautiful mission.

Guerrero Negro was next where I spent time chatting to 3 cyclists (on human powered bicycles that is) who were riding from San Diego to Panama. That is a tough road through Baja at least and I have a lot of respect for those guys. 60 miles or so a day, stopping by the side of the road and camping when it was nightfall. The 186 miles between gas stations, for me a 2-1/2 hour ride, would be 3 days of gruelling riding for them. Hats off to them.

Fish Tacos for lunch in Jesus Maria and then on with a full tank of gas to El Rosario where I spent the night at the Baja Cactus Motel - a fine place - cheap and surprisingly good quality.

Day 7 - El Rosario to Mission Viejo

The last day in Mexico. I had been told that the border in Tecate was an easier one to cross than the one in Tijuana where the backup of traffic can take 3 or 4 hours to get through, so I took the scenic rout from Ensenada through the wine country to Tecate. Tecate was a typical unattractive border town, and the line of cars waiting to cross the border was relatively short - probably less than an hour if you were in a car. That being said, on the motorcycle I just passed everyone and went to the front of the queue, so perhaps Tijuana would have been fine too.

The border crossing was straightforward, no baggage searches, just a scan of the passport and I was in. For the next 10 or so miles north of the border there was an amazing amount of law enforcement traffic of all kinds - Sherrif’s officers, Highway Patrol, Customs Patrol. That’s probably par for the course around our Mexican border these days.

Now I was back in California again, all I had to do was get home. Straightforward you would think - alas no - the rain started just north of San Diego. Not being dressed for the wet weather, I stopped at a hotel thinking the shower would pass quickly. When I checked the weather channel, this turned out to be quite a serious storm and the next break was forecast for some 6 days later. That’s too long to wait in a Motel 6, so I suited up with rain gear and continued on. I spent the night with my old friend Lynn in Mission Viejo.

Day 8 - Mission Viejo to Sacramento

The last leg home was nothing but a wet slog up I-5 to Sacramento. It was a major storm system and traffic through LA was mess - lots of accidents, lots of stop and go. I tagged on to a bunch of riders from the Sons of El Shaddai Motorcycle Ministry going through LA up to the Grapevine. There was me on my BMW purring along and there they were roaring along on their Harleys looking as mean as could be. What an unusual pairing - but the weather was fowl and we were fellow motorcyclists - you have to respect that.

Backpack trip on the John Muir Trail

2010-09-07T17:27:00.000-07:00

I finally got to go on a short backpack trip in the Sierras. We (my friends Brian, George and Paul) decided to do a small (37 mile) portion of the John Muir Trail from Red’s Meadow to Tuolumne Meadows. I haven’t been backpacking other than overnighters for nearly 10 years now and with my ankle/foot problems of the last year I hadn’t been hiking in well over a year, so I was looking forward to seeing how it all felt.

We couldn’t get a permit in advance, so we decided to show up at the Ranger Station at Mono Lake and try and get one of the "next day" permits. Apparently they reserve 40% of the permits for walk-ins like us. Since we didn’t really have a backup plan, other than sitting in a bar in Mammoth for a few days, we were quite pleased when we were successful in getting the permits. Of course the permits were never checked on the trail, and one wonders what they would do if they encountered you deep in the Sierras without one.

We left one car at the North end (Tuolumne Meadows) and then drove down to the other end (Mammoth Lakes) where we stayed overnight. Next morning we caught the shuttle bus from Mammoth Lakes over the hill and down to Red’s Meadow, the start of our trip.

In the first few miles of the hike we passed by Devil’s Postpile National Monument – a magnificent example of a columnar basalt. Add to that the glacially polished hexagonal cross sectiond and you have two interesting geological phenomena in the same place.

Further on up the trail we crossed the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River. Seeing the San Joaquin River at this point is a bit disturbing as the San Joaquin flows into the San Joaquin Valley and out into San Francisco Bay. At this particular spot you definitely feel like you are on the East side of the Sierras and water should not be ending up in San Francisco. But check the map - it does.

Onward and upward, we pushed ahead under the weight of our no longer so light packs (mine was around 35lbs - not an insignificant weight on an uphill climb). Fortunately the scenery was spectacular and that made the effort all worthwhile. On that first day we did around 9 miles before setting camp by Gladys Lake - as nice a spot as you could wish for. I was really really exhausted after the day's efforts and so it was early to bed that night - we were all in our tents before nightfall. I had a great night's sleep, thanks to the new Thermorest NeoAir mattress - sheer luxury.

Next day it was on towards a series of lakes - Shadow Lake, Garnet Lake, Thousand Island Lake…. It was cooler and there were threatening clouds hanging over the mountains to the west. We met a couple of folks who said there was bad weather ahead and this started the rumblings of concern within the group. On the hike up to Garnet Lake, we met the hiking grannies – 5 or 6 women – the oldest of which was 79 – who were turning back because the weather was bad. They were older and turning back is understandable, but we were young(er) guys and the weather was not that bad. Alas, my friend’s decided to call it off and hike back to an exit point on the trail (Agnew Meadows).

So this left me alone on the trail with perhaps inclement weather ahead. Fortunately after cresting the pass into Garnet Lake basin, I could see the clouds and snow (yes there was some very fine snow drifting down) were keeping around the summit and the western side, and were dissipating before they reached me. I pushed on, and being solo, I had nothing to stop for. I walked on past Thousand Island Lake, to Island Pass and then on until I set camp just before dark (around 6:30). When you are hiking solo, there's not much distraction and no campfire chats to keep you up. All there is to do is to go to bed - it's quite efficient.

In the morning before sun up, I poked out of the tent to find snow on the ground. There wasn't much and the skies overhead were clear but it had me worried about trail finding higher up the trail – surely there would be more snow over Donahue Summit, the high point of the day at 10,500 ft.

Fortunately, the snow was just around the meadow in which I was camping, elsewhere there was no sign of it - quite strange. I was on the trail by 7:00 am (again hiking solo is so efficient when breaking camp). I crested Donahue Summit at 9:00 am amid almost perfect conditions. That left me a straight downhill shot of some 12 or more miles down Lyell Canyon to Tuolumne Meadows - good progress indeed. I was at my intended camp ground for the night before midday and so I made the decision to hike out to Tuolumne that same day.

Lyell Canyon is long, but it is an easy mostly downhill hike and by 5:00 pm I was at Tuolumne Meadows. A bit extra was tacked on by accepting a ride on the Shuttle Bus at Tuolumne which took me a mile out of the way from my car, but other than that all was well.

A quick stop at the Tioga Gas Mart (perhaps the most interesting Mobil Gas Station and convenience store you will find anywhere) and I was on the road back to Mammoth to swagger boastfully around my wimpish friends who made the wrong weather decision. Those guys who had bailed the previous day had only that afternoon made it back to the hotel in Mammoth, and they had encountered rain – myself I was blessed with good weather all the way.

Here is a link to some more photos.

A French Wedding and a few Days in Paris

2010-09-07T17:04:00.000-07:00

Back in June I was lucky enough to attend a wedding in France. My friend Bill's son Nick was getting wed to a young lady from Orleans.

Of course I tied everything into a trip to the UK to visit my mother in Chesterfield. The trip from Chesterfield to France couldn't have been easier - the train from Chesterfield goes to St Pancras in London, which is now the new and very fine terminal for the Eurostar train to Paris (catching a train to go south to France from a station on the north side of London doesn't seem logical, but that's the way they built it).

The short trip across Paris on the Metro and another train to Montargis was not quite as stress free. Paris Metro and the train station did not (on that day) appear to have any human ticket vendors, just hundreds of machines taking the dreaded chip and pin credit cards which we Americans do not have. I purchased a highly inflated Metro ticket from a dubious character on the Gare Du Nord, and then gave up completely on the train ticket to Montargis and just got on the train sans ticket (not that I would encourage this behavior, but no one collected the fare, and I just walked out the station at the end of the line in Montargis).

Montargis is a delightful little town - home of the praline (first made in the time of Louis XIII) and once visited by Joan of Arc. On top of that, if Chinese history is to be believed, it was also instrumental in the formation of the Chinese Communist Party - who would have expected that? It will soon be visited by the Tour De France, it being the finish and start of stages in this year's Tour (the course was decorated with these nice little cycling jersey flags).

The wedding was quite wonderful - a bilingual ceremony in a little Catholic Church, a long reception in a nearby Chateau, and a lunch there the next day. I had heard the wedding reception could be long, but I didn't imagine it to be quite so long - we started at the church around 2:30 and we left the reception around 1:00 am after the cake came out. Apparently the younger guests saw the dawn come up.

Interestingly outside the church a Frenchman approached me and asked if I was American (yes was the simplest answer). He then went on to relate the story of Americans passing through the town in their tanks during the liberation of the Second World War. He was 4 at the time and he remembers the Americans distributing sweets and chewing gum to the children.

Axelle, the bride, being a cabaret dancer, had many cabaret dancer friends which provided wonderful entertainment for the wedding (this was after the hors d' ouvres and champaigne and a 6 course meal, just before the elaborate cake and sugar sculptures).

After the wedding, we (Bill, Cathy, Brian, Allison, and Nigel) met up in Paris to enjoy a few days in the city. We did a few things I hadn't done before like climbing to the top of the Eiffel Tower (see aboove), and riding on a river boat on the Seine. I finished up sipping a Pernod at a cafe outside the Gare Du Nord before stepping aboard the oh-so-fast Eurostar to London, and the not-quite-as-fast Midland Mainline to Chesterfield.

Here are some photos from the trip.

Amgen Tour of California

2010-05-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

The Tour of California rolled into town today - Sacramento was the finish of the first stage of the race. My friend John and I had what we thought was the perfect spot for watching and photographing the riders as they made a turn around mid-town. All was well until just before the riders arrived, when a couple of chaps with big red flags showed up and stood right in front of us waving the flags to point out the very obvious fact that their was a turn - of course there was a turn - there was a barrier and a crowd of people where else where they going to go.

Anyway the lads with flags thwarted my attempts to take any decent pictures.

Here are a couple of HTC folks - one of them couldn't be Mark Cavendish - the cheeky chap from the Isle of Man who won the sprint to take the stage? They all look the same to me.

Here is the peloton going round the corner at high speed - how do they manage to stay upright? Of course the answer to that is - they don't - poor old Tom Boonen and George Hincapie both had accidents shortly after this photo.

Utah Off Road Trip

2010-05-07T16:15:00.000-07:00

I did my second annual off road trip in Southern Utah at the end of April - the same people as last year, more or less, the same vehicles, more or less (except this time we were not encumbered by Land Rovers, we were all in Toyotas and all bar one was a Toyota Land Cruiser).

It was another fine trip to this spectacular part of the country. I am really taken by this remote part of the US and I can't get enough of it. It is probably viciously hot in the middle of summer but in the spring it is just absolutely wonderful.

I am also quite taken by this mode of transportation. I didn't actually ever expect to be doing this kind of trip, committed environmentalist as I am (was), but in my defense, I must say that we were all quite respectful of the environment, we packed out everything that we packed in, and these vehicles do allow you to see places that you wouldn't normally get to see with more environmentally conscious means of transportation. Of course, to top it all, it was a whole lot of fun. I notice that on my return I keep scanning the Land Cruiser for sale ads on Craigslist but so far it is just scanning.

We started off in an area called the San Rafael Swell. The first day's trail was something called the Devil's Racetrack.

Day two was in the same San Rafael Swell area where we ended up on the Behind the Reef trail and spent a few hours rebuilding the road by hand so that we could squeeze by.

On day 3 we drove up to the Bears Ears (9000 ft elevation) where the heavy Land Cruisers bogged down in the snow forcing a retreat to more temperate climes. We finished the day on the Arch Trail which required some 59 (yes we counted them) stream crossings (some more eventful than others) to our campsite at the end of the canyon.

Day 4 we exited the canyon with another 59 stream crossings followed by a roadside radiator repair for a few hours before retreating to a hotel in Moab.

On the fifth day we entered Canyonlands National Park and passing by an area called The Maze to the most beautiful of campsites you can imagine at a place called the Doll's House.

Day 6 was in the same area Canyonlands area and a campsite at The Maze Overlook. Each night the campsites kept getting better and better.

Photograps are up on my Smugmug site - there are two galleries - the highlights and, for those with more time, patience and/or interest all the photos.

Nothing in particular

2010-04-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting much lately, perhaps nothing much has been happening. But wait, it has been a great time for music - there was a solo Elvis Costello concert last week in Davis, then a not quite solo Mark Knopfler concert on Tuesday in Oakland. Both of which were excellent and great opportunities to see folks I had admired but had never seen live before. To top if off the Mark Knopfler concert was at the Paramount in Oakland - a truly remarkable art-deco theatre dating from the 1930's. Why can't we build places like that any more? OK, I know the answer, or one of the answers - because we all want to sit at home watching things on our home theater systems - but I am afraid that is our loss and it's worse for me - I don't even have a home theater system.

Anyway, I though I would also point out a couple of blogs I have been enjoying lately. The first is Bike Snob NYC - a very funny guy that writes about all things bicycle related and a whole lot more. Then there is The Inexplicable World of Outa Space Man, a blogger from the old country, whose post today was quite moving. Enjoy.

A day in the life of a Software Salesman

2010-03-03T22:09:00.000-08:00

Today, I was playing around with Xtranormal's web app to convert written text into a movie. It is quite a fun little product that allows you to create characters, assign them dialog and gestures and convert it all to an animated movie.

I created the video below as an homage to our illustrious Sales Department here at Infostat and while a little tedious to most, it will probably raise a smile in anyone who has attempted to sell software.

The Xtranormal Text to Movie product is an interesting product and a lot of fun.

Choctaw Bingo

2010-03-02T20:35:00.000-08:00

I have been listening to a lot of James McMurtry lately. Yes that's James McMurtry of James McMurtry and the Heartless Bastards fame, and son of author Larry McMurtry. Well he has this song that I really like called Choctaw Bingo - well worth a listen.

As a frequent visitor to Texas and Oklahoma and a onetime resident of Texas, I think this song paints a fairly realistic picture of one aspect life in that part of the U.S.A. - that part in the middle away from the coasts. But before anyone complains, note I said one aspect, not all you folks in the middle are cooking meth and shooting guns, not to mention getting on good terms with your second cousins.

I also went to see Ray Wylie Hubbard last weekend and what did he end up playing - the very same Choctaw Bingo.

To top it all today, I ran across this article in Slate suggesting that Choctaw Bingo become the new anthem of the United States. OK it's tongue in cheek, its too long for a start, but look on the plus side it doesn't have that same extreme vocal range that The Star Spangled Banner does - hey even I could attempt it!

As the Slate article says the song is "new-national-anthem-level genius" and is "a song that more truly represents the America of today: post-crash, pre-apocalypse, meth- and money-addicted, heading down the highway to self-destruction." Worth a read.

The Beatles, Bournemouth, 1963

2010-01-13T18:25:00.000-08:00

Recently my friend Lee made a post on his blog about "the first concert he attended". Apparently it is something that is going around. For me, I was quite lucky in that before all the great bands I saw in my college days, before the weekly appearances of Joe Cocker at the local pub while I was at school, I got to see The Beatles in concert in Bournemouth. It was in 1963 (and OK I would have been 12, if you really need to know) and it was the peak of the "Beatlemania" phenomenon in the UK. All I remember is that while you could just about hear the band, the loudest thing was the screaming of the girls in the audience. I haven't been in such a situation since.

Just out of interest I decided to Google "Bournemouth and The Beatles" and lo and behold there is a U Tube video of the event. Apparently the video is courtesy of the US News media who were examining this strange phenomenon.

As an additional piece of related trivia, during their visit to Bournemouth, The Beatles were photographed and one of those photos became the cover of the "With The Beatles" album. One of my favorite early Beatles albums.

Infostat Christmas Party

2009-12-18T16:50:00.001-08:00

It's that time of year again and this lunchtime was the annual Infostat Christmas party. With the addition of Brian, Zach and Kevin this year, we are now up to 9 employees. A far cry from the old days.

Here we are in all our splendour beneath the Christmas Tree in the Wells Fargo building in downtown Sacramento.

3 degrees of separation from Obama

2009-11-02T11:43:00.000-08:00

I was surprised to find out that my friend and, some time running buddy (he's really too fast for me now), Phil Boerner, has a close tie to President Obama. It turns out that Phil was Barack's roommate when they were in college together in the arly 80's. Of course Phil, in all his modesty, never mentioned this during the election but now the news is out.

Here is Phil's description of those days.

I think he should be able to parlay that relationship into a night in the Lincoln bedroom, or maybe not, perhaps Barack remembers Phil's banjo playing and just doesn't want to be reminded of those days.

Coffee Art

2009-10-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

I have a friend, Peter, in the UK who is in the coffee shop business. When I was over there last week we met up and had a fine cup of coffee at one of his shops. This morning after receiving a particularly nice piece of art on my latte at Old Soul (thank you Meredith), I thought I would show him how our coffee looks here.

This caused Peter to respond with the following.

OK I admit it, that's nice. But that's just showing off.

Starlings

2009-10-24T21:16:00.000-07:00

One of the blogs that I follow - The Friends of Charles Darwin blog - The Red Notebook - had a link today to a video of starlings and their amazing in flight acrobatics. I remember seeing such flocks of starlings as a child in England but I hadn't noticed such phenomenon since that time. However as the video shows they are still up to their tricks.

The funny thing, or perhaps not so funny, is that Google Ads in the USA throws up a banner ad along with this video for starling eradication services. One man's wonder is another man's pest.

While you are looking at starlings - check out this other video and marvel at how such a small bird can sway such a large tree.

India Photos

2009-10-23T19:06:00.000-07:00

India is such an exotic and wonderful place. There was something interesting to photograph around every corner and, of course, I did take a lot of photographs. I have tried to filter out some of the best ones and they are collected here in my Smugmug album (or here for the slideshow).

For those with more stamina, patience or interest, then we have more photos organized by city in the following albums: Calcutta, Varanasi, Jaipur. Or if you just want the slide show here: Calcutta, Varanasi, Jaipur.

I hope you like them.

Jaipur

2009-10-09T08:35:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Jaipur on Wednesday evening, after a long day of travel by train from Varanasi (via Delhi). Jaipur is in Rajasthan to the west of Delhi, north on Bombay and it is known as the "Pink City". For the most part, it is not so much pink as a muddy brownish red, but that's probably for the better - pink's not my color.

So Jaipur is the last city on this three city tour of India and, while interesting, it does not match the weirdness and wonderfully exotic flavour of Varanasi or the big city chaos of Calcutta - it is a little cooler and a lot less humid though so that is most welcome. I also think I am starting to suffer from temple/palace overload so I am not so excited by the things I see here - it's not quite "once you've seen one you've seen them all", but they are starting to blend into eachother now.

I started traveling by bicyle rickshaws in Jaipur. In Calcutta and Varanasi, I needed the speed of a taxi or a tuk-tuk (auto-rickshaw) just to get a little bit of cooling air flow, but in Jaipur the heat's not so much a problem and the biclycle rickshaw makes for a wonderful leisurely open air ride around town. (Leisurely may not be the right word considering the cacophony of horns and the chaotic unstructured traffic flow but it is a certainly slower paced mode of transport). However, I do feel a bit guilty sitting in the back of the rickshaw while some poor guy pedals away, and I feel even more guilty when he has to get off and push the thing (with me in it) up a hill. Still it beats walking and I have done a lot of walking in these last few days, and, in some small way, I am providing someone with an income.

Again, here are some photos from Jaipur.

This is a rather impressive place - the Hawah Mahal.

A photo at the fort at Nahagarth which sits atop a hill overlooking Jaipur.

There are camels over this side of the country.

A scene from one of the many bazaars in Jaipur.

A shot taken outside a school.

Varanasi

2009-10-05T05:10:00.000-07:00

I left Calcutta on Sunday evening and caught the overnight train to Varanasi.

Varanasi sits on the banks of the Ganges and is one of the most sacred of cities of the Hindu religion. It is a wonderfully exotic place where you can see all the most intimate rituals of the Hindu religion played out in public on the banks of the river. This might be the bathing ghats where Hindus come to bathe in the mornings and evenings, or the funeral ghats where their bodies are creamated, or the assorted weird and wonderful saddhus (holy men) that roam the streets.

The river itself is so polluted, yet people young and old bath in it not to mention the sacred cows that cool off in it. This morning I went on an early morning boat trip down the river (it's the thing to do when in Varanasi) and right next to where people were washing themselves in the river comes a body floating along. No one takes much notice, everything is taken in its stride and it all seems quite normal here in Varanasi.

Below are some photos starting with the sacred cows which get to roam unhindered everywhere in the town.

A rather colorful Saddhu, meditating in the streets of old town.

One of many temples.

Another Saddhu, down by the river.

Floating candles down river - an auspicious thing to do.

The burning ghats, apparently they process a few hundred bodies a day here, and the fires have not gone out for thousands of years.

Calcutta - Day 2

2009-10-04T06:12:00.000-07:00

Today, I am feeling more comfortable with all this heat, humidity and humanity and today was a great day. It started off with learning the first lesson about photography in a humid climate - don't expect to use your camera for an hour or so until it is acclimated to the surroundings. A cold camera in a humid climate is not much good - pretty foggy.

I did a lot of walking today - interesting streets with all sorts of interesting stuff going on. The begging does get a bit much sometimes. While it is somewhat an accepted profession over here - any foreigner is prime target. Last night I walked 2 blocks with a young woman trying to push her baby's bottle in my hand so that I could buy milk for her baby. It's hard to turn that down but after a while you get hardened to it. My tip - don't make eye contact.

I made a trip across the Howgly (Ganges) this morning to Howrah (the city on the other side from Calcutta). This afternoon spent a while looking around the Park Street Cemetry - a wonderful peaceful cemetery full of Raj era mausoleums and elaborate tombs. So many English men and women buried in this far off place. Who can imagine what it was like for them over here in the late 1700's.

Here are some photos.

The ferry to Howrah

Stalls everywhere selling every imaginable thing. The fruit stalls are more photogenic than the others.

It's a tough life being a chicken. These guys were alive but couldn't manage a squawk.

Here's an example of the tombs in the Park Street Cemetery.

Taking a bath in the street.

Calcutta

2009-10-03T20:21:00.000-07:00

This is day 2 of my India trip and here I am in Calcutta. We are just out of Monsoon season, so the climate is supposed to be better, but this is one hot and steamy place - I am one sweaty and damp individual let me tell you.

I got round a few of the sites yesterday, the Victoria Memorial, St Pauls Cathedral, the Hoogly River which is in fact the Ganges which undergoes a name change somewhere along the way. There are so many people in this city, the streets are bursting with cars, taxis, buses, trams, rickshaws - it is one seething mass of humanity.

Above is the Victoria Memorial - very photogenic, however, this is perhaps not typical Calcutta. The photos below are more representative.

So far all is well. I have an overnight train to Varansasi tonight but now I am off to sweat a little more.

My New Passport

2009-09-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

I just got my new Passport today, and I have a few complaints.

The old one was fairly plain vanilla and professional looking just like a passport should be. The new one is more like a picture book with each page depicting some scene designed to stir the heart of every American patriot. There are scenes with riverboats, sailing ships, trains, bison, eagles, cowboys, and other memorable sights, each paired with a nice little quote, but it just doesn't look like a serious document anymore.

Being a train fanatic, I do rather like the steam train on page 22 (see below) but I would as soon not have it in my passport.

My other complaints are that my passport number has changed from one that was easy to remember to something a bit more cryptic not so easy to memorize and, last but not least, the picture of the person inside is of this old guy who I hardly recognize. In the interests of vanity, I will not reproduce that photo here.

A letter to the President

2009-07-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

Last Christmas my friend Jean, a teacher in a local school, requested contributions of various things that her children had a need for in the upcoming year. I don’t remember all the things she asked for but I do remember there were things like crayons, pencils, gloves. I opted for pencil sharpeners – they seemed practical. Now buying 40 pencil sharpeners was not an easy task, it seemed like all the big box stationary stores didn’t quite stock that many of the same kind. However in this internet age we have www.discountschoolsupplies.com who will gladly furnish you with any number of pencil sharpeners and deliver them to your door.

So I donated 40 pencil sharpeners and thought no more of it. After Christmas I got 40 cards from all the students thanking me for the nice present. It was all quite touching. Anyway I got over it and I again thought no more of it until the other week Jean gave me a copy of a letter that one of her children had written to President Obama. The point of the letter was a response to President Obama’s request for everyone to pitch in and work harder towards the common good (or something similar) and all her class had written to the President.

One of the children – Destiny is her name – mentioned me in her letter. How cool is that, she wrote to President Obama and mentioned Mr Steve who donated pensil shaprenrs (sic) to her class. Take a look at her letter below. Apparently Ms. Destiny doesn’t use her pensil shapenr for sharpening pencils but for saving laddy bugs (ladybirds).

Now before you readers in the UK get all critical about the spelling and the dire state of English Language instruction in American Schools just be aware that Ms. Destiny is quite young and in a “special needs” class so she deserves some slack. While you (can I still say we) can rightfully decry what the Americans have done to the English Language this should not be taken as a good example of that.

Wentworth Springs

2009-05-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

I did a little camping trip this last weekend. Alvaro and his 4-wheeling friends were going to play on the Rubicon Trail so I decided to take my motorcycle out for a spin and join them at their campsite at the start of the trail in Wentworth Springs.

On the map the road to camp looked reasonable, and the word was that there was just a little bit of water to cross - no big deal. It was a great motorcycle road - well maintained, with great views of the Crystal Basin Wilderness area - absolutely spectacular. Alas when I arrived at the water crossing it looked a little more intimidating than I had expected. Had I been on my own, I would have turned around and returned home, but with an audience and a bit of egging on I decided to give it a try. Of course not being experienced in crossing streams on my motorcycle, I made it half way across and promptly fell over into the water. No harm done, just my pride and my iPhone which was in my pocket on my wet side.

The bike is too heavy for me to pick up on a flat pavement never mind a flowing stream so a bit of assistance was required - thanks guys for dragging me out of the water. Of course they took me over the stream so there was no point in turning back at that point so I pressed on to the camp, gaining a lot of experience with water and rough road on the way. Way more water than I was expecting.

The Rubicon Trail is an old trail through the Sierras that has become the domain of the 4-Wheel community. Hikers and back packers leave it well alone and seek solitude elsewhere. For the 4-Wheelers it is quite a challenging trail (as you can perhaps see from the photos) and it becomes a slow and technical crawl over bolders and slabs of granite. You can truly hike it faster than they can drive it.

A good time was had by all, and on the way out I nailed the stream crossing - it didn't look quite as intimidating on the way out, as you can see below.

Cuisine on the Trail

2009-04-29T17:55:00.000-07:00

The food on our four wheeling trip to Utah was certainly worth a mention. We ate very well indeed. As I mentioned in the prior post, we were 9 vehicles so storage space was not an issue. Most vehicles had refrigerators so keeping food cool and fresh was also not a problem. We had a variety of cooking utensils from Dutch Ovens to pressure cookers up to seriously large grills so we had no limitations there.

The Chefs at work.

Of course, we also had the best of cooking implement of them all - the engine itself.

I had heard of cooking food on the manifold before, but had never tried it (not that it is appropriate for my daily drive car). The whole thing just sounds so unpredictable and it is perhaps not the most hygienic of conditions for food preparation. However, that proved not to be the case, and we had many several engine prepared meals. We wrapped pork ribs in foil and placed them around the engine in the morning and by the end of the day they were perfectly cooked. Tamales wrapped in moist paper towels and then in foil were ready by lunchtime. It was also great for warming things like burritos and the grilled cheese sandwiches were superb.

Careful placement is what it's all about.

Googling the topic of engine cooking when I got home shows that it is not that unusual – there are even books on the topic with cooking times measured in miles rather than minutes.

As far as the drinks went, not only could we keep the beers cold in the fridges, Andy made great Gin and Tonics at the end of the day. When Dan caught up with us (he had mechanical problems before the trip) he brought along an excellent espresso machine that made the most wonderful cappuccinos and espressos for our early morning caffeine fix. Check out the nice layered cappuccino below.

Mine was a double-shot cappucino with 2% milk

The Off-Road Trip to Utah

2009-04-29T17:21:00.000-07:00

Last week I had the opportunity to do something that I never thought I would do – I went on an Off Road trip in Utah and drove all over the wilderness in a four wheel drive vehicle.

As somewhat of an environmentalist, I had never contemplated doing this, but when the opportunity came along (courtesy of my friend Alvaro), I though why not give it a try and see what it is all about. Now, after spending a week in Southern Utah, I have modified my feelings towards off-roading somewhat and I don’t see it in quite the same light as I did before. A four wheel drive vehicle enabled me to see places that I wouldn’t normally get the chance to explore since it can took me beyond the range of any normal bicycle or hiking trip, and, yes, it can be done responsibly (more or less). But of course the big factor in all this was that it was really a lot of fun – serious fun.

There were 9 vehicles on our trip (a mix of Toyota Land Cruisers and Land Rover Discoverys), originating from as far afield as Chicago, Albuquerque and Northern California. Of the nine vehicles I was the only ‘passenger’ – so there were 10 people in 9 vehicles – not the most economical way or efficient way to travel. However, I soon realized why that was - while sitting in the passenger seat is certainly enjoyable, actually driving the vehicle on the trail takes it to a whole different level.

We set off by driving some 1000 odd miles from Sacramento to Grand Junction Colorado – a nice 2 day drive across the “loneliest road in the US” (Highway 50 through Nevada) and, in a remarkable piece of timing, people from Chicago, California, Albuquerque and all arrived within 30 minutes of each other in Grand Junction.

The next day we set off to do Kokopelli’s Trail – a 140 mile trail from Loma, Colorado to Moab, Utah. It is actually a multi-use trail with four wheelers, mountain bikers and hikers sharing parts of the same trail. The start of the trail was quite congested with mountain bikers and the occasional trail runner, but as we got further along all but the hardiest of bikers fell away.

Kokopelli’s trail was a nice mixture of different trail conditions from spells on country roads, to stretches of dirt washboard, to relatively technical sections. It gave me a nice introduction to the sport/pastime. Thanks to Alvaro, I did get to try my hand behind the wheel of his Land Cruiser and had a great time negotiating the various obstacles. Actually, for the most part it seemed like the real skill was in ‘spotting’ someone through the more difficult areas – that is, from outside the vehicle, guiding the driver where to place the wheels. As a driver in those sections, I simply put my faith in the ‘spotter’ and obeyed his instructions and drove slowly….. very slowly.

All went well and we had no real incidents. Just the breakage of a drive shaft on one of the Land Cruisers half way up a hill. It didn’t seem to faze anyone, in fact they relished the challenge and the resourceful group had it replaced in a little over 30 mins.

Towards the end of Kokopelli’s Trail we entered the area around Moab, famous for its slick rock terrain. Here the trail followed a course over the bare rock and there was no well defined trail, except for the rubber tire marks on the rock (sorry about that). The Moab area seems to be the mountain bike/4-wheel capital of the world and it is covered with hundreds of trails. We took a fun little excursion on a trail called Fins and Things up and down some amazingly steep hills. I would not have imagined a vehicle could handle such steep inclines without tipping over. Check out these videos on U Tube of this trail to get a feel for the experience (1) (2).

After resupplying in Moab we took off again on another trail – an old Mormon Trail called the Hole in the Rock Trail. This trail ran from just outside Blanding, Utah to the Colorado River and was quite challenging in places. To think that it was crossed initially by a group of Mormon settlers in the latter part of the 19th Century with wagons and cattle and horses, albeit taking 6 months to our 2 days. They were certainly tougher in those days.

Here are some photos from the trip.

The Crooked Spire

2009-04-15T02:56:00.001-07:00

The nearest sizable town to where I grew up in the UK, is Chesterfield. Most noted for a mediocre 4th Division Football Club (at least in my day) and a construction project gone slightly wrong. The construction project gone wrong was the spire on the church, St Mary's and All Saints, but better known as the Crooked Spire.

The spire was built in 1362 so it's quite old, but as you can see, something went a bit wrong and the spires timbers warped and it has a pronounced twist. The reason given is poor design and lack of craftsmen as a result of the Black Death and the use of green oak. To this day it remains the most memorable thing about this market town in the middle of England.

The Workhouse and Cathedral in Southwell

2009-04-13T01:55:00.000-07:00

In the town of Southwell not far from where my mum lives there is a fine example of a Victorian Workhouse. Apparently one of the only ones remaining untouched from its original form. Built in 1836 it provided housing, food, work and education for the local poor.

In its original incarnation, the Workhouse had some interesting and quite harsh methods, including the seqregation of the poor into the 'blameless' poor (the aged and disabled) and the 'undeserving' poor (the able-bodied who it was deemed were quite capable of working and earning a living). The residents were further separated into male and female and children with the result thar a family would be separated during their stay at the Workhouse.

When today in my home town of Sacramento we have a sizable tent city of homeless people squatting by the river, you realize we still, some two centuries later, have some of the same issues that the Victorians were dealing with in this workhouse.

Southwell is a beautiful town with more than just a Workhouse. It has a wonderful Cathedral in the middle of town. A spectacular and dramatic building.

A few more photos are to be found here.

Mum's 90th Birthday

2009-04-12T02:27:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was my mum's 90th Birthday. We celbrated with lunch at one of my mum's favorite spots - the Robin Hood in Elkesley. Good food and good company, it all went very well.

Here is my mum with her younger brother Geoff. Both looking good for their age.

A great opportunity to get the all sides of the family together for a happy occasion (as opposed to the other way folks get together now - funerals). Back at the house we have an over abundance of cards and flowers we are trying to accommodate. Here are some more photos.

A swarm of bees

2009-03-31T18:06:00.000-07:00

I came home this lunchtime and just happened to take a look out back where the bee hives are and, lo and behold, a swarm of bees were hanging outside one of my hives.

This last winter has been disastrous for my bees. In the fall I had three healthy and productive hives and then slowly through the winter, one by one, they died off. I am not sure of the cause, but it wasn't like the prior years where hives just disappeared without a trace, this time there were lots of dead bees left over. Anyway, I cleaned up the hives and left them outside through the winter and then a couple of weeks ago I noticed some bees had occupied one of the hives. My good luck I thought, but now today, even more good luck, and we have another swarm outside one of the other hives.

I just checked this evening and they are still there - though they are now inside the hive where they should be. Perhaps I won't even need the 2 packages of bees I had ordered earlier in the spring. We will see if they stick around.

A New Camera

2009-03-29T23:07:00.000-07:00

I just got a new camera - a nice new Nikon D90 with an 18-105mm lens.

I suppose I didn't really need another camera. I have a perfectly reasonable camera already but that one's only a point and shoot - I now have a single lens reflex - very cool. It is a great piece of equipment, but pretty complicated with so many controls and buttons. It will take me a long time to become comfortable with it.

Anyway, I took it out on the streets of Sacramneto this afternoon just to get a feel for it. The results never quite to live up to my expectations, but here's a link to the photos.

Pirates Cove 30K

2009-03-22T13:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterdy was my birthday, so I thought I would celebrate it in relative obscurity by going out of town to run a trail run in the Marin Headlands. Alas it seemed like everyone knew it was my birthday (I blame Facebook) and so the event did not pass with the intended obscurity. I had birthday presents and birthday cup cakes before the race and a chorus of Happy Birthday as I crossed the finish line. Nevertheless it was a great day out and thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.

Pam,Dianne and your truly

Pacific Coast Trail Runs are a group that put on excellent runs around the Bay Area. Pretty low key, but well marked courses and great aid stations. The Marin Headlands north of San Francisco are absolutely wonderful. Spectacular scenery with views of the Pacific Ocean, the San Francisco Bay, the Golden Gate and the city itself. Most of the time you feel like you are in the wilderness and then you pop over a ridge to see San Francisco, or Tiburon and you know you are pretty close to a major urban area. However, there’s not much flat ground around there, so the run was pretty arduous. We were either going up or going down; there was not much easy going.

It was an overcast day that was perfect for running, and the rain held off until after I finished. Here are some photos from the event.

Philip Glass Concert

2009-02-20T15:38:00.000-08:00

Wednesday night I got to go to a concert by Philip Glass at the Mondavi Center in Davis. It was a nice selection of Mr. Glass's work from the span of his career. Some pieces were solo piano, some pieces were solo cello and some pieces were piano, cello and percussion.

I had great seats right in the middle about 10 rows back and it surely is fine to hear someone play a concert grand in a great hall like the Mondavi Center, not to mention the Cello which is one of my favorite instruments.

The cellist was Wendy Sutter a stunning women in her 40's who just so happens to be romantically involved with the 70+ years Mr. Glass. That aside, she was playing this beautiful Stradivarius Cello made back in the early 1600's and which has spent most of its life in the Vatican. You can read about it on her site, but what a history this intrument has had. Thankfully, Wendy Sutter's Cello, unlike Lance Armstrongs bike, did not get stolen in Sacramento.

I think it is time to revisit those Philip Glass movie scores - Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, The Thin Blue Line, Kundun. He has been quite prolific.

Tour of California - 2009

2009-02-14T22:03:00.000-08:00

Today was the start of the Tour of California here in Sacramento. It was a pretty big deal, at least in the cycling world. This is the one of the best lineups of riders for any race on American soil that I am aware of. Of course having Lance Armstrong in his first race in the US since coming out of retirement and a hopefully clean Floyd Landis trying to re-establish himself with his new hip and new team helps an awful lot.

It was a little cool day, certainly for the spectators, but it was great to see these guys powering down the streets. Actually what was even more impressive for me was the motorcycle riders accompanying the cyclists. While the bicyclists just go as fast as they can and assume all will be clear in the road ahead, the motorcylists have to stay close, but not interfere in any way, while all the time on the watch out for errant spectators wondering into the streets - very impressive riding on their part.

There was a lot made of Lance's return to racing and there is a big media machine around his Livestrong organization. The scene around his team's warm up area was just ridiculous, with people climbing on vehicles, climbing up trees, just to get a glimpse of the man doing his warm up. The price of celebrity is a high one. Here he is in the photo below.

I actually got some half way decent photos after figuring out how to anticipate where the riders would be when my shutter clicked open. The first few I missed the rider completely and got the trailing cars.

The old guys go skiing...

2009-02-09T20:06:00.000-08:00

This weekend we aged and somewhat decrepit guys went skiing up in Tahoe. While George and Dave skied more days, Bill and I were quite satisfied with two half days on the slopes. I did an afternoon at Homewood on Friday, and an afternoon and evening at Squaw Valley on Saturday. Quite enough for my old body. And while I used to relish the challenge of the black runs, these days I really enjoy the easier way down.

That being said we represented ourselves pretty well in the speed department. It's all about conservation of energy and if you avoid the turns and just point yourself downhill it takes a lot less effort. However, it's perhaps a little scarier as I am led to believe our bones are a lot more brittle at our age.

As you can see it was overcast and pretty cold, but nonetheless when the clouds cleared it was quite beautiful.

While there is very little snow up in the mountains this year (we are surely heading for a drought this summer), there was fairly good coverage of man made snow on all the runs. Homewood was nice but Squaw Valley was one impressive resort - I had never seen a 6 person chair lift before - they can move a lot of people up the hill very quickly. And RFID lift tokens were something new for me too - what is more, they seemed to work, most of the time.

Motorcycle Show

2009-01-18T21:23:00.000-08:00

This weekend there was a Motorcycle Show in Sacramento, so being a motorcycle owner I thought I would drop in and see what it was all about. Of course, I am a BMW owner and the show was almost entirely Harley Davidson's and custom motorcycles - not the kind of bikes that appeal to BMW owners.

I just don't get the custom motorcycle thing - sure some of them are amazing feats of construction and they are perhaps wonderful to look at but they are not built for comfort and not for speed and there's no way they can be safe. Of course I admit, I was in the minority here. There was hardly a BMW owner to be seen; just noisy Harleys all over town this weekend (I don't get the noisy bike thing either - the quiet purr of my engine is much more appealing). And yes the bikes weren't the only interesting sights - the riders and their partners were equally 'interesting' but I am afraid I need to find a BMW show, that would be more my style.

More photos here.

The Sacramento Bee

2008-12-23T21:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon I got the opportunity to tour the production operation at our local newspaper, The Sacramento Bee.

We were shown the whole process from the bulk paper and ink coming in on one side of the building, the content being written in another part of the building, this content magically being transferred to the drums of the printing presses and then thousands and thousands of folded newspapers coming out at the other side.

The printing presses are huge complicated machines - lots of heavy moving parts moving in a very coordinated and precise fashion. The adjustment of the alignment of the paper in the press is measured in thousands of an inch - that's a pretty amazing tolerance for such a heavy piece of machinery. I was surprised to find out that the most modern printing press at the Bee was actually manufactured in England, in the Midlands, not far from my home.

The Bee is a strange name for a newspaper, I know, but it is supposed to reflect both the industriousness of the bee and the sting in the bee’s tail. You will probably not be too surprised to learn that The Sacramento Bee is actually the largest circulation newspaper named after an insect – how about that for a claim to fame.

The Infostat Christmas Lunch

2008-12-23T21:07:00.001-08:00

Today was the Infostat Christmas Lunch. Yet again we went down to Il Fornio's in downtown - its becoming a tradition.

For this momentous occasion, it was certainly a terrible morning in the office. Just one of those days when lots of support calls came in and we didn't seem to be making any headway. This too shall pass. Happy Christmas everyone.

Pre-Christmas Dinner

2008-12-17T14:11:00.000-08:00

Things have been quiet for a while. Not much to report - a trip to the UK over Thanksgiving but nothing memorable to report.

But it's now that time of year when dinners and parties abound. Last night we all got together for a Christmas dinner at Lucca's here in Sacramento. Ostensibly to wish bon voyage and Happy Christmas to Anna, who's going to England, and Jeff and Nancy, who are going to Texas.

Here we all are ....

Oklahoma City....

2008-11-14T11:19:00.000-08:00

I just returned from a trip to Oklahoma City. Not one of my favorite places, but when it’s the headquarters of our largest customer, then you have to do what you have to do – besides the people are nice there.

I often wonder what it would be like to live in a place like Oklahoma City – I am sure there are things of interest there but other than the art museum and the memorial to the OKC Bombing I haven’t found them. So my evening’s entertainment was to go to Border’s Books and browse the shelves. I did find a book on the places you should avoid when traveling this world (titled - Don’t Go There). I was intrigued to see if there were any reasons I shouldn't visit Oklahoma City - and yes there were two. One because it is one of the most likely cities to be hit by a tornado, and two because it is a place where the inhabitants have an unhealthy diet (apparently it always features high on the list places where fast food is the staple of the diet). Well we didn't have a tornado, but I did eat at Quizno's.

So anyway after a reasonably successful trip, I escaped back to California. I got to fly first class this time, and, I must admit, I much prefer that mode of transportation. They still feed you, and the wine and drinks just keep flowing the entire time. It’s not that we at Infostat travel first class for business, it’s just that upgrading is the best thing to do with air miles these days – I never seem to be able to cash them in for a free trip, but I have been lucky with using them for upgrades to first class.

Here's a picture of Denver airport - which I always think looks interesting with all those tent like stuctures, and in the late afternoon sun the other day it looked particularly beautiful.

Finally, it's over....

2008-11-04T10:58:00.001-08:00

At long last, the deed has been done, and I cast my ballot this morning for Mr. Obama. I am optimistic about the results and I believe this will truly be a significant day for us here in the US.

I was at my polling station by 6:45 this morning and there was already a long line, which all bodes well, I think. However, I couldn't believe after all this fuss about scrutinizing the voting process, at 7:05 they were slowing up the line because they didn't have enough pens. Really wouln't you think that the standard kit would be a box of pens just in case they needed extras? .....Apparently not!

David Sedaris

2008-10-24T11:42:00.000-07:00

Last night David Sedaris, the writer and humorist, gave a reading in Sacramento.

I have been a fan of his since the Santaland Diary days on NPR, but had not heard him live before. I must admit I didn't have very high expectations of the event - its just a guy on stage reading from a book for heaven's sake - how interesting can that be? However, he is seriously funny and he had the audience rolling in the aisles. I love his deadpan style of delivery and his almost whimpy nasally voice and he certainly is the master of his craft of a humor writer.

He gave some readings from his own works, most of which, I think, were works in progress, all of which I had not heard before. You could see him penciling in notes as he was reading - I guess he fine tunes his work by reading it over and over again to audiences and then goes back and edits it each night until it is ready for publication.

He also read from a book by another author George Saunders' The Braindead Megaphone. To give a reading of your works and then to branch out for 10 minutes to read someone else's work was unexpected and probably a little unusual. Nevertheless, he had high praise for the author and the book and it too sounded well written and funny.

This was the third performance event of the week - Eliza Gilkyson on Sunday, Laurie Anderson on Wednesday, and David Sedaris on Thursday. Just like London buses, they all come together, now there will be nothing happening until next year.

Eliza Gilkyson et al

2008-10-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

Another nice show at The Palms last night - Eliza Gilkyson performed with an opening act by Hayes Carll. Eliza played to a packed house and was very ably assisted by the very excellent Nina Gerber (one of my favorite guitarists). The opener, Hayes Carll, a Houstonian would you believe, was talented and amusing and just all round enjoyable - I would recommend him to anyone.

Google and the Queen

2008-10-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

Her face may be on the currency and on the stamps but surely nothing could be cooler for Her Majesty than getting her image embedded in the Google logo.

Thanks to Janet for pointing this out today.

Bees Make Honey

2008-10-08T14:44:00.000-07:00

I finally finished harvesting all the honey from my bees the other night. It has been a good year - at least compared to my miserable returns with them last year (I didn't harvest any honey at all).

This year I retrieved just over 60lbs of honey - 24 from my first and oldest hive, 38 from the second hive, and none (or at least nothing worth disrupting the hive for) from the third one. The variance in the production of the hives is surprising, they are all adjacent to each other in the back yard, they all look reasonably healthy in my eyes. The best producer and the worst were even acquired from the same shipment to the bee store and were installed on the same day. I wonder why they are so different.

Anyway, this is all well and good but now I have to get rid of the stuff. I have been driving around with honey in the car for the last few weeks giving anyone I know a jar or two. I still have over 30 lbs to go, so anyone who needs honey please get in touch.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

2008-10-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

This last weekend there was a free concert in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park – Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. The primary theme was bluegrass (perhaps not my all time favorite music genre), but as the name of the event suggests it was not limited to that and the list of performers was across the board (MC Hammer appeared on Friday afternoon – hardly strictly bluegrass at all).

Emmylou Harris

I went down primarily to see Elvis Costello on the Sunday afternoon, but, due to my late start, the horrible traffic in the city and the dearth of parking near the event, I missed Elvis completely. Nevertheless, I did eventually find a parking spot to squeeze into and thankfully I had my bike with me to speed my way over to the park in time to see The Waybacks, Loudon Wainwright, Iris Dement, and Emmylou Harris. I was well satisfied. Actually The Waybacks were the most enjoyable in that open-air environment. I had heard bits of them before but they really did a great set and when they launched into the Grateful Dead’s Saint Stephen it was like the 60’s all over again except with old people (there was even lots of fragrant smoke wafting around and lots of people selling brownies and cookies).

I guess I had never been aware of this concert series before, but this was its 8th year. It is put on by the billionaire financier Warren Hellman (a kind of San Francisco Warren Buffet) who loves music and who has the means to put on a really good concert - for free. He also happens to be a banjo picker too (he played along with Emmylou Harris on one song.

Iris Dement at the Piano

Noah's Bris

2008-10-03T16:56:00.000-07:00

Another first for me this week - attending my first bris. My friends Julia and Greg had a baby last week - Noah Michael - and, in line with Jewish tradition, when a male child is 8 days old he should be circumcised (apparently it says so in the Bible or is it the Torah - one of those).

I guess I knew such things were common in the Jewish faith, but I didn't realize they made such a party out of it with friends, family, food and all. We all congregated at Julia's mum's house and the deed was done right there in the living room in front of everyone (with a camera man on hand to record the 'happy' event).

I never cease to be amazed at the things we all do in the name of religion, and bringing what is a surgical procedure into your living room is certainly one of the more interesting rituals. Still the whole reinforcement of community and family ties is a good thing and that's what was happening - something we atheists have to work harder at. Of course not that poor old Noah will remember much about bonding with the family quite yet, hopefully not anyway or else he might resent his dad holding him down while the cut was made.

Congratulations to Greg and Julia and best wishes for a speedy recovery to Noah.

The Grand Canyon Trip

2008-10-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

I am back in civilization again after a wonderful trip down the Grand Canyon.

We paddled (kayaks) or rowed (rafts) for 225 miles of the Colorado River from Lee’s Ferry to Diamond Springs in 16 days and I must say, as far as scenery goes, this was one of the most spectacular trips that I have ever made. It was, however, hard work - rowing and kayaking that distance was a work out and loading and unloading all the ‘stuff’ we were carrying each day, setting up camp and cooking meals made for some tired bodies at the end of the day.

I am not sure I can adequately describe all the wonders of the trip but perhaps my photos will help show what an impressive area of the country this is. A collection of the best are here but if you want to see all 600 or so then these are here.

While there are a lot of people traveling down the Colorado River (some 29,000 per year) we were relatively isolated. Every now and again we would pass, or be passed by another group of rafters but mostly we were alone – the fifteen of us – 5 rafts and up to 5 kayaks depending upon how energetic or brave we were feeling.

Things were relatively calm and uneventful, though we did have 3 rafts flip over and several ‘swims’ down rapids by the kayakers. I was fortunate to not be in a raft when it flipped over (it can be a little dangerous) but I did make a three swims when I was in the inflatable kayak. The first two were good fun and refreshing on hot days, but the third was of more concern and involved swallowing more water than I needed to and being held under water for longer than I would have liked. It gave me a healthier respect for the rapids.

Regretfully in one of the raft flips, one of our group, Len, was injured (a torn bicep muscle). Relatively speaking, not necessarily too serious, but something that might have compromised his ability to row/swim if that were needed later in the trip, so he made the safe and wise choice of hiking out of the canyon at Phantom Ranch to seek medical attention. (Phantom Ranch some 70 miles into the trip was the only contact with the outside world – if it can be called that – that we had during the trip. There are two bridges across the river there, a campground and a “rustic” resort there.)

We averaged about 15 river miles per day and the daily routine was pretty much as follows:

• Breakfast – usually we awoke just before sun up (around 6:00 am) and staggered around slowly getting our act together. It was more work for the cook crew as they had to feed everyone, clean up and then pack their own camp up but usually we all chipped in to help. Breakfasts were sometimes quite elaborate for camp food (French Toast, Pancakes, Omelettes).
• Loading the rafts – this was a time consuming job with everything needing to be loaded in order and strapped down really tightly. In the case of a raft flipping over the last thing you need is boxes or coolers becoming detached and flying through the air. Not only could you lose important supplies, they could cause serious injury.
• On the river – we usually got going around 8:30 + or – and we would row downstream more or less in a group – the idea being that you don’t lose site of the raft behind you. If there were any points of interest (side canyons, springs, Anasazi ruins, etc) we would stop and take a look. Lunch of course was one of these stops and again we went through this big procedure of unloading tables, water, food, etc, etc and then reloading it all when done (a lot of work).
• Setting up camp - we would aim for arriving at our camp site by at least 3:00 pm. There are many campsites all the way down the river, typically on a sandy beach area, hopefully, with a little shade from trees or the canyon walls. After off loading all our equipment we would set up camp, giving priority to the positioning of the kitchen and the ‘groover’. Then we would each set up our individual camp sites. I took a tent but didn’t need it, though threatening clouds made me set it up a few times, all to no avail, we didn’t get any significant rain at night.
• Cooking dinner – we divided into 5 groups of 3, with each group taking a turn at cooking meals for one day, so over the 16 days each group did three days. The meals were quite elaborate for a wilderness experience – we had steaks, salmon, and lots of fresh (at least at the start) food packed on ice. Sometimes the recipes were a bit more involved than I and many would have liked. It would have been better to eat a simpler fare and relax more in camp rather than making some of the elaborate 3 course meals that we did. But
• Dish Washing – the procedure for washing dishes was an interesting process – 4 buckets – cold water wash to get the food off; warm soapy water wash to really clean the dishes; warm water rinse to get the soap off; cold water bleach wash to disinfect followed by drying in air. To avoid contaminating the river the wash water was then filtered into the river with the solids being packed away with our trash. Great pains were taken not to contaminate any of the camp sites with food debris so that critters like ravens or ring-tailed cats or worse condors don’t become habituated to humans and their food. For the most part this works and all the campsites we visited were pretty clean.
• Sleeping – all of the effort typically left us weary by 7 or 8 o’clock, so we tended to retire early and sleep long – a good 10 hours each night (alas even with the extra thick Thermarest, it was still not like sleeping in a bed and my sleep was disjointed). I took books along intending to read at night – that didn’t happen – I was exhausted.

So a great trip – one that I would recommend to anyone. If you are not up for rowing/paddling or for the 16 days it takes, there are commercial trips that are motor powered that take of the order of 7 or 8 days. As an indicator of how desirable self guided tours down the canyon are and how difficult it is to get a permit, our trip leader, Jim, made the application in 1994 and it wasn’t until 14 years later that his name popped to the top of the list. That’s a long time to wait. Now the Parks Service operates a lottery system so if you are lucky maybe you won’t have to wait so long.

To the Grand Canyon

2008-09-09T20:18:00.000-07:00

I am off later today to the the Grand Canyon. I fly to Flagstaff and meet up with the rest of my party for a raft trip down the length of the Grand Canyon. There will be 15 of us in our group - mostly from Sacramento. Myself, I am a bit of a novice, but I am assured there will those amongst us that know what they are doing when it comes to the odd rapid.

We have contracted with an outfitter in Flagstaff who is providing the rafts and the food and all the miscellaneous bits and pieces. They are going to drive us out to Lee's Ferry on Saturday morning, show us how to load and rig the boats and then leave us to our own devices with a rendezvous some 16 days later at Diamond Creek. All being well, we will pop out of the other end in time to be picked up.

The trip from Lee's Ferry to Diamond Creek is some 225 miles and we plan on taking 16days to complete the distance. No phone, no e-mail, no contact with the outside world, nothing - so I will be out of touch for a while. Actually that is a bit of an exaggeration we will have a satellite phone for emergencies, but we don't plan on using that piece of equipment.

From what I can gather it is supposed to be quite a trip - some say life altering experience - I don't know if I am expecting that but it should be an adventure that's for sure.

Frank Lloyd Wright in San Francisco

2008-09-02T15:16:00.000-07:00

To top off the cultural day in San Francisco, after the Frida Kahlo exhibit, I wandered over to this beautiful little building near Union Square designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

It is the only FLW building in San Francisco and is a real fine example of his work. Tucked away down a small side street, Maiden Lane, it now houses an Art Gallery (the Xanadu Gallery). It was closed when I was there but the interior is supposed to be lovely also with many similarities to the curling ramps in the Guggenheim Museum which he was designing at about the same time.

Frida Kahlo at San Francisco MOMA

2008-09-02T15:05:00.000-07:00

I went down to San Francisco this last weekend to catch the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) before it moved on. I like a lot of her paintings and she certainly was an interesting character with a much troubled and difficult life.

Of course everyone else wants to see her art work too, so even with timed entry tickets the gallery was very very crowded. It was shoulder to shoulder two or more rows deep so perhaps not the most relaxing atmosphere for appreciating art. Still it was well worth the trip.

There is a nice little interactive presentation from SF MOMA here.

Chalk it up....

2008-09-02T14:52:00.000-07:00

Again this Labor Day Weekend (why does America celebrate Labor Day in September when the rest of the world do it in May?), it was Chalk It Up, the sidewalk drawing event in Sacramento's Fremont Park.

Usually there are some outstanding chalk drawings (see my post from a couple of years ago), but this year's event, I thought was rather uninspiring. Not to denigrate the effort that all those people put in for a good cause, but it just wasn't quite as good this year.

Here, in my humble opinion, are the best of the bunch....

A fine cup of coffee....

2008-08-29T15:04:00.001-07:00

I don't do well without my morning cup of coffee, and usually it is a latte. It has been my custom for many years. But for the last year or so I have been going to the Old Soul bakery and coffee shop here in Sacramento. These guys are way above the usual Starbucks, they are even a level higher than Peet's, and making a latte is a work of art for them.

This was my latte this morning.

Don't you agree it is a work of art - its all in the pouring of the foam. It's a shame to even think about drinking it.

The Largest Living Things

2008-08-24T23:06:00.000-07:00

After visiting the oldest living things last weekend, the Bristlecone Pines in the White Mountains, this weekend it was time to visit the largest living things, the Giant Redwoods (Sequoia Giganteum) in the Calveras Big Trees State Park.

This park is just a couple of hours away from Sacramento and is one of the most northerly groves of these monster trees here in the Sierra Nevadas. They are truly amazing things - bigger and taller than anything else in the forest with huge branches way up top that are larger than the trunks of most other trees. Alas no pictures that I can take can do justice to these fine specimens.

Next week I will have to visit the tallest living things the Coastal Redwoods (Sequoia Sempervirens). We have them all here in little old California.

Here are some more photos.

Attending Synagogue....

2008-08-22T22:22:00.000-07:00

Friday evening I went to a Jewish Synagogue for the first time. It was to celebrate my friend Greg's conversion to Judaism, the religion of his wife Julia.

I remember when he announced his intention to "convert" to Judaism a couple of years ago how surprised I was that it was so much work. You don't just show up at synagogue and you are in, you have to work for it. It is a long period of study, essay writing, interviews, and of course the dreaded cicumcision. There's even a ritual drawing of blood for the already circumcised - so even they don't get away that easy. All in all, a very significant effort, enough to put anyone off.

Anyway, Friday night, was the culmination of Greg's labours and his acceptance into the Jewish community and it was my first time attending a Jewish ceremony. Thankfully there were a few other gentiles there so I didn't feel too much of an outsider. And really they were all quite welcoming even though I had no idea what was going on. The ceremony was, I believe, a normal Friday night Shabat, and was quite informal really (it was a reform jewish community), lots of singing, lots of clapping of hands, standing up, sitting down, and then these cute little half bows - half curtsies at certain points of the ceremony. However the majority of the service was conducted in Hebrew, and so was meaningless to me.

It's easy for an atheist like me to get all cynical about this stuff, but I did like the really strong sense of community and family among the congregation and I did like and was pleasantly surprised by the informality of it all. So, all in all, it was very interesting to observe. I don't think I will be signing up for the conversion myself but I have respect for Greg and what he undertook.

The oldest living things....

2008-08-21T11:04:00.000-07:00

The White Mountain area, where we hiked and camped this last weekend, is also the home of the oldest living organisms on the planet – the Bristlecone Pines. These gnarly old trees grow just below the tree line where they don’t have much competition from other species and where, over their 3,000, 4,000 year plus lives, they have developed some very interesting shapes.

The oldest one, known as Methuselah, is around 4,800 years old. It used to be identified as the oldest tree but now the Forest Service have removed all identification since people were apt to want to take home a bit of Methuselah as a trophy.

After our ordeal on White Mountain on Saturday, we hiked around the forest on Sunday. A nice gentle stroll to stretch out our tired legs. At the end of the hike, that Park Ranger showed us a National Geographic Magazine from the 1950's with a picture of the oldest tree, Methuselah. It might be the one shown here with my friend Dave preparing to carve his name in it.

More photos here.

The White Mountains

2008-08-19T11:58:00.001-07:00

This past weekend I took a couple of days off and had a long weekend hiking and camping down in the White Mountains on the Eastern edge of California, near to the town of Bishop. I rode the motorbike - the first ride of any distance this year. It was good to blow the cobwebs off the bike and off me.

The Easter Sierras are my favorite part of California, particularly down by Bishop where the Sierras get really high and really impressive. This is where Mt. Whitney is, at 14505 ft, the highest point in the lower 48, and a group of peaks called the Palisades that look so beautifully rugged and dramatic.

We camped on the eastern side of the valley at around 8,000 ft. and we had beautiful views across the valley to the Sierras. It was also a full moon so it was just perfect. Admittedly the photo below of White Mountain itself is not very inspiring - it isn't a pretty mountain - but trust me the views in the other direction were awesome - I just don't have any good photos.

On the Saturday we climbed White Mountain - at 14252 feet - quite a high altitude slog for us lowlanders. I must admit, I was not feeling very comfortable at all when I got to the top, and although our summit photograph shows us all smiling, I think it doesn't quite reflect our actual condition. I had quite the headache from the altitude and the thought of the 7 or 8 miles back to the trailhead did not make me feel any better at all.

White Mountain is the third highest peak in California, and it is known as the easiest of the Fourteeners (peaks over 14,000 ft). I think when I heard it was the easiest fourteener, I somehow translated that to it being easy. Well it was nothing of the sort and we all were pretty exhausted at the end of the day. There was not much light conversation going on on the way down, just a lot of gritting of teeth and putting one foot in front of the other. Why do we do this?

Of course later that night at the campsite, with food and wine inside us, we were all a bit more positive about the whole affair. Strange how you forget the bad bits and only remember the good bits. While I am not ready to tackle something like that for a while, give me a couple of months and I will be ready to do it all over again.

More photos here.

Balloon Ride

2008-08-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

I took a ride in a balloon this past weekend - a commercial trip down in the Sonoma Valley. It was quite a nice experience - nothing wild or scary, just a very calm and peaceful ascent, a float along with the wind for a few miles and an equally calm and peaceful descent.

I am not at my most comfortable when exposed to great heights and it was kind of weird being in a basket so far above the ground (I think we went up to around 1500ft). I do recall thinking I should have checked out the floor of the basket more carefully before take off, because that is all there is between you and a very nasty surprise. But I suppose that doesn't happen very often and the real risk is power lines or high winds and the like, not basket floor failures.

The only controls you have in a balloon are up (more heat) and down (allowing the balloon to cool, or in more extreme cases, opening a flap on the top of the balloon) and rotation (by opening flaps on the side of the balloon). Of course there is a lot of lag built into all these controls so it is a case of making small adjustments, and waiting to see the result before making the next adjustment. The pilot of the balloon (yes, that's what they call them) likened the process to 3-dimensional sailing. You are always looking for subtle changes in wind at different heights in order to guide you where you want to go.

All in all it was a lot of fun. It was great to help out in the rigging up of the balloon and the repackaging when we were done. It is actually quite a lot of work - almost an hour to rig up and an hour to rig down, and the flight was only about 1 1/2 hours. So that's a lot of work for a relatively short trip, and with a support vehicle following you along on the ground you need a lot of help to make it all work. Anyway, I highly recommend it, at least once anyway.

12 Hours at Cool

2008-08-04T13:29:00.001-07:00

For want of a better thing to do on a Saturday night, I ran in something called the "12 Hours at Cool" this weekend. It is a 12 hour race in Cool California that starts at 7:00 pm Saturday and finishes at 7:00 am on Sunday with the idea being that you run as many laps as you can of the 9.5 mile Olmstead Loop Trail - in the dark.

I had been sort of interested in running the trails at night just to see what it is like. Normally you don't get to do that unless you are in some extreme 100 mile race and I know I am not that crazy so this seemed to be a good idea.

The race was pretty small - less than a 100 folks - so there was plenty of solitude - for my last 2 (of 3) laps I was entirely by myself so there was plenty of time to ponder the weirdness and the wonder of it all. It was a dark and moonless night and I found you really had to pay attention to where you are going. You couldn't relax and appreciate the stars or the silhouttes of the trees, you had to keep focused on that little patch of light from your headlamp or else you were in trouble. And then there was every little rustle in the undergrowth that was probably only a field mouse or something but you couldn't prevent your mind straying to mountain lions and whether they were out hunting that night. I nearly jumped out of my skin when a couple of dear bounded across the trail in front of me.

Anyway, I did manage 3 laps, albeit with a long nap in the back of my car between laps 2 and 3, so that was almost 29 miles. Not bad for someone who hasn't run more than 5 miles in the last couple of months.

Just to put it my measly performance in perspective - the winner did 8 laps - that's 76 miles - pretty amazing.

A Drive By Doughnutting

2008-07-29T11:06:00.000-07:00

So I was out this morning for an early morning run with my friends Dianne and Cyndy. We were over in rural West Sacramento a place where we hardly ever see any traffic at that time of morning (06:00 am).

This morning, however, a car came by us and the back seat window rolls down and this young kid threw this doughnut at me. I took it full on the chest and was, I must admit, a little surprised. It's not every day someone throws food at you when you are running through the fields. I was so flabbergasted, I turned and angrily gesticulated, but as, I expect, with all expat Brits - I was confused as to whether I should give the two fingered British gesture or the single fingered American gesture and I ended up giving a half-hearted wave as the car sped away.

I am glad to say no harm was done - it was one of those maple sugar rolls with considerable heft to it, but a bit spongy so I wasn't harmed - thank goodness it wasn't a currant scone or a bagel - that could have been nasty.

Lyon's Lake with the best of intentions

2008-07-28T07:36:00.001-07:00

Some weeks ago we planned what was going to be a fairly significant back-packing trip into the Desolation Wilderness up by Lake Tahoe. The initial plans were to camp two nights at Lyon's Lake and do some hiking to the nearby peaks. One of the purposes of the trip was to scatter the ashes of our friend Mike on top of Mt. Price, a mountain we had climbed with him just last summer.

We got the required permits and everything was looking good, but as we got closer to the time our resolve got weaker. We dropped back to a single overnight trip, and then our departure time from Sacramento slipped back through the day and we didn't get on the trail until 3:00 pm, a little late by any standards. We did however get to Lyon's Lake which is just a beautiful little mountain lake nestling below the granite peaks of Desolation Wilderness with just a hard enough climb up to it to deter many of the casual hikers.

We arrived in camp about 7:00 pm with just enough time to pitch the tents and cook a meal before it got dark. It was quite the tribute to Mike, since we all had inherited pieces of his camping gear - I had one of his tents, Paul had another tent, Brian had his backpack. Alas the one thing we didn't have was Mike - we had forgotten his ashes and they were back in Sacramento.

Still Lyon's Lake is really an idyllic camping spot so it was all well worthwhile. Unfortunately, however, while we went to sleep under a clear sky full of stars, at about 3:00 am smoke started drifting into the area and when the sun came up everything was hazy. Not the pristine clear wilderness experience we wanted and our throats and lungs knew that something wasn't quite right. So it didn't take much discussion for us to bail on our plans of hiking to Mt. Price and retreat back down the valley to the car and the road back to Sacramento.

The epic weekend of activity was a mere 6 miles hike in, a night's sleep (if that's what you can call it when you toss and turn every 30 mins wondering why you are doing this), and a 6 mile retreat in time for lunch in Placerville on the way home. I am sure we will do better next time.

How to tell when the air is really bad in Sacramento...

2008-07-08T20:42:00.001-07:00

As you may or may not know, California has been suffering from glut of forest fires over the last few weeks. The end result for us here in Sacramento is that the air quality is quite bad and we are constantly being warned to stay indoors and avoid any form of exercise outside.

That's all well and good - it's good to take precautions, but this afternoon I noticed the following sign outside the local Episcopalean Church.

I suppose it's good that the Episcopaleans are flexible enough to modify their worship, but isn't it strange that they have to advertise it on a billboard outside the church - like that might swell the congregation on Sunday now their's no nasty incense around.

Checking on the bees

2008-07-07T14:26:00.000-07:00

In the continuing saga of the bees - all is going well this year. As I previously mentioned, I now have three hives, way more than I need, and unlike the previous couple of years, they seem to be thriving.

So this week it was time to check on them and see about putting another box on top of the new hives. The way it works is that you need a couple of boxes for the hive to raise their brood in and to maintain adequate food supplies to last them through the winter and then you can add a third of fourth box (honey supers as they are called) which the bees fill with honey that is what you harves at the end of the nectar flow (around September in these parts).

So I suited up and opened up the hives to investigate. All was indeed well, and the boxes were almost full - so it was just the time to add the honey supers.

What is more, I now have a new toy - a Flip Mino - which is a small, cheap and ultra simple video recorder, so I was able to record my escapades for posterity (see below). I am quite impressed with the Flip Video camera - nothing of any high quality but very very simple indeed and ideal for internet posts. I thought it would be a good camera to run with and document some of our runs - we will see how that works.

A short absence...

2008-07-07T09:58:00.000-07:00

Well I have been quiet for a while – half of May, all of June and now we are into July. Mainly I have been taking care of Mum during her 6 week visit and then since then I have been sick with some terrible thing I picked up on the return flight to the U.S.

Mum’s visit went well and we had a good time together. The only hitch was a small tumble she had just before her return (and at 89 years of age there are no small tumbles). She slipped and fell at the house and bruised, but thankfully did not break, her ribs. She was in a lot of pain, and she is still not quite better but she managed to handle the flight home ok and now she is back in her normal routine at home in Derbyshire.

There are some photos of mum’s visit here on my Smugmug page.

To England and back...

2008-05-10T11:14:00.000-07:00

My mother has been deliberating as to whether she should come out to California for a holiday for some time now. After finding a lot of excuses why not to do it, she finally decided a couple of weeks ago to give it a try. So, at the grand old age of 89, she has made another trip to California.

Since she needed assistance in traveling that far (and who wouldn't at 89) I flew back to the UK to pick her up. In trying to find the most painless way of doing this I decided that flying in and out without spending much time there would be the easiest. That way I wouldn't suffer the disruption of the time change and be jet lagged too much. For the most part that was true, though it was a lot of sitting in airplane seats - and, of course, all of them were in coach class.

So I left San Francisco on Wednesday night, arrived in London on Thursday afternoon, my step-brother brought mum down to Heathrow and we then flew back to San Francisco on Friday morning. We arrived back home in Sacramento on Friday afternoon - all told a 48 hour round trip for me. It wasn't too bad at all, though I don't think I will make a habit of it. Of course, my mum took it all in her stride and didn't have any problems at all. Here we are waiting in Heathrow for our flight...

I flew out to the UK on United and I flew back on Virgin Atlantic. That coupled with my earlier trip in the year on British Airways means I have sampled all the carriers serving that direct San Francisco to London route recently (sorry about my rather large carbon footprint). In these troubled times for the airlines, it was interesting to see how they are coping and what services they are trimming to save money. The best flight, by far, was Virgin. They seem to have maintained a reasonable level of service with an OK meal, a continuous series of snacks and drinks (at no extra charge), and a very good entertainment system. Poor old United on the other hand were by far the worst - an atrociously basic meal, an extra charge for wine and beer, a miserable entertainment system, and no extras (like a glass of water) between dinner and breakfast. The saddest thing was the puny ear-bud style headphones that United give you now, which rendered the entertainment system just about unintelligible so close to the engines as I was.

Bee Progress

2008-05-04T22:02:00.000-07:00

We have gone from famine to feast on the bee front lately. As I already mentioned, I inherited a swarm of bees in one of my empty hives. Furthermore, I had already purchased two packages of bees (a package is a queen plus 2 lbs of bees in a box – all ready for installation in a hive). Well, the packages were delivered last weekend and I installed them in two more hives. So now I have 3 hives of bees in the backyard – that’s a lot of activity, and it might even be illegal (I think you are only allowed 2 hives in the city of Sacramento – but who’s counting).

With all the nice weather this last week and plenty of flowers in the local gardens all is well with the bees and it was a veritable hive of activity in the backyard. They are all surprisingly mild mannered too. So far no aggressive behavior and no stings.

To cap the week off, I went to a bee keeping class last weekend. Dr Eric Mussen from U.C. Davis gave a one day class on Intermediate Beekeeping on Saturday. It was quite the information packed day, he covered a lot of ground and I certainly learned a lot. I only wish I liked honey more - that would make it the perfect hobby.

American River 50 mile Run

2008-04-09T07:06:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was the American River 50 mile run and again I didn't run it, at least not all the way, I just paced my friend Dianne over the last 10 miles. I ran the race back in 2006 but I am not sure I have it in me to do it again. These days 10 miles is really enjoyable for me but I must admit I was really inspired by all those runners making it all the way through the entire 50 miles.

What a beautiful day it was on Saturday though - California at its finest - a nice sunny day with a cool breeze. The California poppies and lupins were blooming - it was just a delightful day. The picture below is Dianne, still moving quite well, around mile 47 - just 3 miles to go. Unfortunately the most difficult 3 miles of the run - all uphill.

Snowshoeing in the Sierras

2008-03-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I bought a new pair of snowshoes on sale at REI and on Sunday I finally got to try them out. It is a bit late in the season, and the snow was not at its best, but, nevertheless, it was a nice hike in the snow and the shoes worked very well indeed. My friend Sheilah and I went up to Matrimony Ridge, a ridgeline to the west near Donner Summit with a great view across the Sierra’s towards the Summit and the Desolation Wilderness to the South.

The location, Matrimony Ridge, is so called because the great view and the wonderful old weather-beaten Jeffrey Pine trees on the top make it an ideal place for those more adventurous couples to get married . Well today, the view was great but the wind was howling and it was not a place to hang around for too long. No one getting married today either.

Bees take up residence again...

2008-03-23T16:35:00.000-07:00

As you might know, it has been a terrible time for bees here in the U.S. of late. I have been unable to keep a healthy hive going this past couple of years despite my best intentions. Nevertheless, I am determined to keep trying.

I had an empty hive in the back of my yard, just a couple of empty boxes, ready for my bees which I ordered recently and which should be arriving in April. Well this week I noticed some activity around the hive and at first I thought it was just the odd wandering bee that was looking around inside for perhaps some old honey. But the activity was sustained and today I took the lid off to find a more than just a few bees. Although I didn't see the queen, it looks like a swarm has taken up residence. How nice is that. Of course I just ordered two packages of bees (a package is a queen and 3 pounds of bees) that will be arriving in April, so now I might have 3 hives in the back yard - feast or famine.

Incidentlally, a truck carrying bees hives up the Sacramento Valley overturned just south of here last weekend and caused quite a stir. As you can imagine some 400+ hives tipped over on the side of the road would be quite a big deal - not your usual clean up job. I wonder if my bees are refugees from the overturned truck - who knows.

A pair of bridges

2008-03-23T10:16:00.000-07:00

This week I made a couple of bridges for Nancy and Jeff's back yard. Not anything elaborate, just backyard landscape bridges but they turned out pretty good in the end so I thought I might show off the fruits of my labour.

It has been ages since I did any woodworking projects and I really enjoyed it. I ended up using some tropical hardwood - something called Ipe (I had never heard of it before) but it was beatiful wood and not much more expensive than the more typical local Redwood. According to the sales website, Ipe is sustainably grown so no Amazon rainforest was destroyed in the making of these bridges.

A pair of Steve White's

2008-03-17T10:21:00.000-07:00

This weekend I ran in the Shamrock Half Marathon in Sacramento. It was a chance to meet up with my running namesake, Steve White – a much younger and much faster runner than I. The other Steve started running seriously a while ago and keeps getting confused with me and me with him. Since I am slower, I was always getting credit for his much faster times (I will take the credit any way I can get it), while he was always receiving the dubious attributes of my slower pace. Of course, anyone who looked at the ages could tell the difference but people don’t always do that.

So at the weekend, the other White Steve, was running as the 2hr pacer for the race (that means he runs with a sign saying 2:00 hours and he is supposed to keep to an even pace that will cross the finish line in exactly 2 hrs). This made him easily identifiable and I was able to meet him and thank him for improving my performance. Also, since he was slowing down to 2 hours in his role as pacer, I was able to run with him, and we crossed the finish line together – me a fraction of a second ahead of him, for the first and likely only time.

There is also a Steve White who was District Attorney in Sacramento and is now a judge. This lead to some confusion and misguided estimations of my position in the community. There’s also, what looks like a cheesy author called Steve White, even a black actor, and a British musician, a drummer. It’s apparently a very common name. A Google vanity search does nothing to uncover anything about me – thank goodness.

A long farewell to Mike

2008-02-27T21:43:00.000-08:00

These last couple of months my friends and I have been saying a long goodbye to our friend Mike Reid. Mike was diagnosed with a brain tumor the week before Christmas and he passed away this morning, 27 February.

The prognosis was not at all good, the cancer was inoperable and within a month Mike was in a wheelchair, having difficulty in finding certain words and struggling to follow trains of thought. Radiation treatment at the best only offered a temporary stay. So Mike decided, some 13 days ago, to take things into his own hands and he stopped radiation treatment and stopped taking any further nourishment – a very brave step indeed.

I can only imagine what thoughts went through Mike’s mind when he was wrestling with what was now his very limited future, and I cannot really know what kind of resolve it takes to stop eating and drinking until you die. All I do know is that, if you are otherwise healthy and strong, which Mike was, then this route is not particularly rapid - it took Mike 13 days. (Alas we are not as enlightened as our neighbors to the north in Oregon who passed a “Death with Dignity Act” to assist the terminally ill depart this world. It’s time we had something similar.).

I am not sure that I would advocate for the other extreme of too quick and easy an exit (everyone needs time to come to terms with the decision), but 13 days was a long struggle and, while I do not believe he was in any discomfort at any time, the latter stages were drawn out.

He will be dearly missed by all of us here.

The photograph below was taken in September of last year on the way up Half-Dome in Yosemite. I do believe at this point he was as fit as he had ever been, at least in this stage of his life.

Here is a link to some other photos of Mike - mainly taken on hiking trips over the last few years.

Skiing in Tahoe

2008-02-11T21:01:00.000-08:00

This weekend I finally made it up into the mountains to go skiing. While I enjoy skiing tremendously, and while we have some great ski areas close by Sacramento, I have been a very infrequent skier in recent years. I just don't seem to have the enthusiasm to get organized and get up the mountain and fight with the crowds in the lift lines and on the slopes. Over the last 5 or 6 years the only time I have skied is when my friend Dave comes over from Austin for his annual week of skiing, and then I usually only manage one day. Must be getting old.

So anyway, this week Dave was over and a few of us Sacramentans (the usual suspects from the Ex-Exlog crowd) went up to Tahoe to ski with him.

We skied at Homewood, a ski area that I had never even considered before – it is a little further away from Sacramento than most resorts, and I had always considered it a pretty lightweight ski area – small, not particularly challenging, etc. Well, I was wrong – it provided us with a magnificent days skiing. Yes, it is smaller than the Squaws and the Northstars, but that has some benefits – we could park the car 30 ft away from where we put our skis on, it is much cheaper ($51 per weekend day versus $75 or so for the big resorts), and relatively speaking it wasn’t at all crowded. The slopes were very well groomed, and it certainly has some challenging slopes (but at my age I don't need to be challenged too much on the ski slopes – that can lead to broken bones). To top things off, Homewood has unsurpassed views of Lake Tahoe - it sits right by the side of the lake and once you get up the hill a little there are these jaw-dropping panoramas of the lake below.

So all in all a good days skiing. I should really do more of it, I know.

The Death Valley Marathon

2008-02-03T20:31:00.000-08:00

This last weekend a few of us went down to Death Valley to run the Death Valley Trail marathon. Nine of us rented a large van and drove from Sacramento, others drove themselves or flew down to Las Vegas, and my friends John and Gabrielle came over from Houston for our annual marathon weekend. It was a great time with some great friends (about 16 of us in total). A lot of driving however - 1180 miles to be exact but it was well worth it and a great time was had by all.

We were very lucky with the weather. California has been a little wet of late and there were concerns that the race would not run on its intended course, which was through Titus Canyon - a spectacular canyon running from near Rhyolite in the east to the floor of Death Valley in the west. The canyon was closed for most of the week, but on Friday, the powers that be in the Park Service decided that the conditions were right and the race could go ahead as planned.

It just happens that Titus Canyon was purpose built for a marathon. It is almost exactly 26.2 miles from it's entrance on the main road near Rhyolite to it's exit in the valley floor and it is truly spectacular. I carried a camera and there were lots of photo opportunities - here's a link to my album. Alas the real grandeur of the canyon does not come across in my photos.

This was the first (and probably last) marathon that I have ever run with negative splits (to those non-runners that is running the last half faster than the first - this is what you are supposed to do but I have never done it before). However, the negative splits were not at all due to my fitness level, they owed everything to the course - a climb of 2,300 ft in the first 12 miles and a drop of 5,000 ft in the next 14 miles. As you can imagine, it is a lot easier to run down hill than uphill -hence the negative splits.

We bumoed into a group of runners who were shooting video out on the course (albeit a very low resolution and very low quality) but they posted it on YouTube here we are (Dianne, Lisa, Ed and myself) in our (or at least my) very first YouTube video.

David Lindley

2008-01-30T22:30:00.000-08:00

David Lindley played in Sacramento last night. Now, I have always admired his work - he has played with just about everyone in the music business over these last 30 years from Crosby, Stills and Nash, to Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan, and Ry Cooder (check out the list on his web site - a vertiable who's who). However, it was his work with Jackson Browne that I really, really like. His accompaniment on Jackson Browne's Late for the Sky is just a beautiful thing and I have enjoyed listening to it for well over 30 years now.

Alas, last night's show did not quite live up to my, admittedly, high expectations. He is, no doubt, a very accomplished musician and the show was not bad by any standards, its just that I was expecting something more and I didn't quite get it. He played a lot of accoustic slide guitar (there's a limit to how much you can take of that) with a little bit of oud and bouzouki thrown in, and, alas, I didn't recognize any of the songs.

Presenting Data and Information

2008-01-29T20:27:00.000-08:00

Today I attended Edward Tufte's course on Presenting Data and Information in San Francisco. Mr Tufte is a bit of a guru in the data visualization area and has produced several beautiful books on the subject - all very interesting and highly recommended.

One of the things that Mr. Tufte is well known for is his recognition of and analysis of Charles Joseph Minard's graphical presentation of Napoleon's march on Moscow in the War of 1812. The graphic was produced way back in 1869 and is quite a novel depiction of the tremendous loss of life in Napoleon's disastrous campaign in Russia. A great anti-war document.

On more recent presentations, Tufte came down pretty hard on the use of Microsoft Power Point which he sees as one of the evils of modern software. He quite rightly feels that Power Point makes it too easy to generate visually appealing presentations that are so often poorly reasoned and devoid of meaningful content. He has been quite a critic of NASA's reliance on Power Point presentations and has linked the reliance of NASA Engineers on poorly crafted Power Point presentations to the Columbia disaster.

A different way to the City

2008-01-29T20:04:00.000-08:00

I went down to San Francisco for the day today (a work thing) and this time I tried a different route. I drove to Vallejo then took the ferry from there to San Francisco. It turned out quite well - for the 60 mile drive to Vallejo the traffic was pretty light, the parking in Vallejo was plentiful and free, and the 1 hour ferry ride to the city was relaxing and scenic and avoided all that rush hour traffic.

The return was equally convenient and enjoyable. I recommend it.

India Photographs.

2008-01-25T11:39:00.000-08:00

I posted the photographs from my India trip on the web so if anyone wants to see what I got up to in India check them out.

There is an album for the Mumbai photos, then an album for the Delhi photos, and then another for the Taj Mahal and Agra.

Of course you would have to have some serious patience to wade through all of those albums, so there is an abridged "Best of India" album that will show the highlights.

Back in the UK...

2008-01-21T02:44:00.000-08:00

Well I finally arrived back in the UK last Thursday, safely though a little delayed by the "incident" at Heathrow that afternoon (at least the 777 that I was on made it to the runway with full engine power).

The India trip was great - a little short but I got a good feel for Mumbai, Delhi and Agra and, these days, how much intensive sightseeing can I do without a break - 6 days was just about right.

Next time it will be Calcutta - Varanasi - Jaipur - that would be worth doing.

Now it is a restful week in, what looks like being, a wet and miserable weather week in the UK.

More Delhi Sightseeing

2008-01-16T06:45:00.000-08:00

Today, Wednesday, was my last full day in Delhi. Tomorrow I fly to the UK.

I was tired of inhaling all the fumes in the open air auto-rickshaws, so I rented a car for the day. At 600 rupees per day for a car and driver that is just over US $15 - not a bad deal at all.

I took in a few temples - there are so many of them - I am just about templed out now. Still the relatively new Bahai faith Lotus Temple (below) was quite spectacular.

The similarly recent Hare Krishha temple (below), however, was not quite so inspiring. Still you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, or a faith by its architecture, should you? Maybe you should.

Later in the day I went to the museums for Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi (no relation). The Mahatma Gandhi museum is in the house that he was staying in when he was assasinated in 1948. It was well worth the visit. There are a few of Gandhi's artifacts in the house, a modern multi-media exhibition on his life and then outlines of his last steps from the house out to the garden where he was assasinated by a Hindu radical.

The Indira Gandhi museum was not quite as peaceful, it being thronged with visitors, so many that you were really carried along by the crowd before you could really read any of the exhibits. The museum was also in the house where Indira lived at the time of here death and there was also a marker of her last steps in the garden to the spot where she was killed by members of her own security guard.

At the end of the day I visited the Red Fort in the old part of Delhi, another spectacular site, but I have seen so many in these in the last few days, that they are all blurring together. Besides after the Taj Mahal yesterday, its kind of hard for any of the other sites to really stand out. Temple overload I am afraid.

The Taj Mahal

2008-01-15T19:36:00.000-08:00

Tuesday was an early start to catch the train to Agra. The Bhopal Radjhani Express got me into Agra before 9:00 and then it was a short auto-rickshaw ride to the Taj Mahal itself.

There's not much to say about the Taj Mahal - words, at least mine, can't do it justice. It is simply one of the most amazing buildings you can imagine.

Of course because of its stature it is quite popular and there are lots of people doing the tourist thing along with you. And of course, as you can see from the picture below, it is India and just outside the gates of the Taj, Indian life goes on with all its variety.

Delhi is closed on Monday

2008-01-15T09:54:00.000-08:00

It just happens that most of the tourist type things are closed on Monday, so I couldn't do many of the typical tourist things - I will have to catch up with that later in the week.

Still there was plenty to do - a visit to the one place that was open, Humayun's Tomb was well worth it; a walk around the park where Nehru and various Gandhis (Mahatma, Indira and Rajiv) were cremated was quite peaceful compared to the bustle of the rest of the city; a ramble around the bazaar in the old part of the city; and lots of time spent inhaling petrol fumes in the back of an auto-rickshaw while weaving in and out of the chaotic traffic.

Abve is a picture of Humayum's tomb - I hadn't heard of Humayum before, but apparently he was one of the early Mughul emperors whose wife built this rather elaborate tomb for him. The whole idea reached its zenith with the Taj Mahal which will be revealed tomorrow on my trip to Agra.

And here is a photo of the auto-rickshaw I hired for part of the day. There are thousands of these vehicles in Delhi and, apart from their pollution issues, they are quite efficient people movers - you would be surprised how many people you can fit in them.

Mumbai to Delhi

2008-01-13T21:03:00.000-08:00

I just arrived in Delhi after the overnight train from Mumbai.

I traveled on the rather exotically named Mumbai Rajdhani Express. It was quite a nice experience. The station, of course, was heaving mass of people - but once I figured out the platform it was all straightforward enough - there was a list of reservations for the train showing each passengers name and which compartment and carriage they were in. The train left exactly on time. Apparently the express trains at least have a good reputation for punctuality.

Everything was quite comfortable, we were fed and evening meal, and then breakfast the next morning. The big choice here seems to be Veg or Non Veg - for airlines, trains whatever. I have been sticking with the Veg choice and it has all been quite nice. Some of the Non-Veg looks a bit dicey! Here is me enjoying the delights of Indian Railway cuisine.

Delhi train station was a bit of a rude awakening this morning. Everyone warns you about the tricksters who try and hijack you on the way to your hotel, and sure enough they were in force and quite persistant too. You end up almost being rude to all these folks that are ostensibly trying to help you, but really all they want to do is redirect you to the travel agencies or hotels that they are in cahoots with. Its a shame that you have to run the gauntlet of these folks, but I suppose everyone has to make a living where they can.

The driving over here is amazing - kind of free form, with lots of use of the horn and scant attention to many of the normal conventions. Basically, if there is room to fit your car in with say an inch on either side, then they go for it. No one gets too excited however, and I have never seen any actual contact between vehicles. Everyone is constantly mindful of what is going on all around them and when necessary they take the appropriate just-in-time evasive action.

Mumbai sightseeing

2008-01-12T11:19:00.000-08:00

The weather is not too hot here, though it is certainly quite humid. Nevertheless, after an hour or so of walking around I was just a bit sticky so I went back to the hotel and to hire a driver to take me around the city. A much more sensible idea. These are the highlights:

The Gateway to India - the archway built to honor the arrival of King George V and Queen Mary back in 1911. It is quite an impressive archway on the shore of the bay, but it was undergoing a bit of renovation during my visit, making it a bit of a construction site.

The Victoria Terminus Building - the railway terminus built in the late 1800's which is a spectacular piece of architecture. Inside it is crowded and chaotic, but from the outside it looks beautifully calm - not at all like a railway station.

The Gandh Museum - a museum devoted to the life of Gandhi in a house where he used to stay. Interesting photographs and bits of history from the life of Gandhi including a letter to Herr Hitler asking him to give some thought to preventing World War II.

The Dhobi Ghats - a huge laundry where hundreds, perhaps thousands of men beat and pummel laundry in outdoor troughs and then hang it out to dry. Apparently if you send out your laundry in Mumbai, there's a good chance it gets manually processed here.

Tomorrow its more Mumbai and then on by overnight train to Delhi.

Mumbai

2008-01-11T21:18:00.000-08:00

Well I made it to Mumbai after quite a long day and a half of traveling.

Taipei was cool, overcast and quite unremarkable but it was a chance to stretch the legs and have the bags x-rayed one more time. I was only there for a couple of hours.

Kuala Lumpur was hot and sticky and perhaps the most notable thing about it was the airport itself - quite a modern wonder - spacious, clean, well laid out, a real contrast to the chaos of LAX. Apparently it was voted the best airport in the world in 2005 and 2006. Certainly one of the nicest I have seen.

I had about 6 hrs to kill in KL so I took the express train into the city to take a look around. However, when I got there the train station was not quite in the city center and things didn't appear that enticing. The Petronas Towers were still a ways off, and I was just too weary to do anything strenuous like walking, so I simply returned back to the airport. It passed the time.

Mumbai was quite the contrast- a scruffy airport terminal, throngs of people, streets busy with traffic (even at midnight when I arrived). The sights, sounds and smells were were an assault on the senses - ramshackle housing, poorly maintained roads, people sleeping on the side of the street, little black taxis, everywhere (literally hundreds and hundreds of them - all of the Fiats) and then as we approached the center signs of the colonial past with wonderful old Victorian era buildings and then lots of signs of the new Indian wealth with many modern tower blocks.

I had arranged for a pick up from the airport to my hotel so I didn't have to deal with too much. I just met the driver and he delivered one weary traveler to the hotel.

Off to England, the Long Way Round

2008-01-09T07:04:00.000-08:00

This evening I set off on a trip back to England, but this time I am going the other way round. I have bought myself a round the world ticket so I am off for a week in the UK with a little side trip to India on the way.

It has been something that was pulled together quite quickly, but it is amazing how much you can do in an evening on the internet. The round the world ticket sites have nice web applications that let you point and click your way around the world building a ticket as you go. At the end, however, it turned out to be not quite so automated, at least not in my case, as I was led to a travel agent (remember those folks) who manually re-built and priced the ticket – Sacramento – LA – Taipei– Kuala Lumpur – Mumbai – Delhi – London – Los Angeles – Sacramento.

I have also been making travel arrangements within India on the train and for those I have e-tickets. I am going from Mumbai to Delhi by overnight sleeper, and then from Delhi to Agra (the Taj Mahal) and back in the same day. The Indian Railways reservation system is internet enabled and I have got my tickets with reserved seating/sleeping. Despite what you see on the travel programs, all the long distance trains are assigned seating so there is no overcrowding problem. I even think it will be relatively luxurious. In doing this I discovered a great train travel website - The Man in Seat 61 - everything you want to know about train travel anywhere in the world.

So there will be a lot of flying in the next few days and something is bound to go wrong with all those connections. In fact something already has gone wrong. As I was sitting at my desk this afternoon, the phone rang and it was United Airlines telling me that my first flight down to LA was cancelled. They didn't have much else to offer other than get to the airport right now for a flight leaving in a couple of hours. Not a good start but I did manage to get to the airport and I am just about to board.

So, I have always wanted to see India, and have kept putting it off for a time when I could have lots of time to do it properly – well that hasn’t happened yet, so I am taking the other approach and taking advantage of a very brief trip while I can.

Stay tuned for posts along the way.

The Resolution Run

2008-01-01T22:21:00.000-08:00

While my New Year's Resolution was to give up a little on the obsessive running and take things easy, it didn't stop me from running on New Year's Day in, what else but, the Resolution Run in Auburn.

While Sacramento was a little chilly, Auburn had its head out of the clouds and it was warm and sunny - a great running day. The course, a 10 miler down from the Auburn Dam Overlook into and around the canyon of the American River was gorgeous, though a little muddy (but I must admit I like slopping through the mud).

Here we all are at the start.

New Year's Eve....

2008-01-01T22:05:00.001-08:00

Another year has gone by so very, very fast and we are celebrating (or should it be mourning) the passing of 2007 as we move into 2008. I am not sure I am happy about this accelerating passage of time with age, but c'est la vie, I suppose.

Last night, New Year's Eve, was spent celebrating with all the usual suspects (most of them ex-pat Brits who worked with me at ExLog back in the 70's and 80's).

A grand time was had by all as can be see below. Thanks to George and Elaine for hosting the event.

Christmas Greetings

2007-12-21T20:41:00.001-08:00

Once again it is that time of year again - the inflatable snowmen are up on the roof of the house across the street. Land Park Drive (one of the main streets near my house) looks like Disneyland with everyone competing for the best display of lights. Oh and this year there are some particularly tasteless examples... definitely some candidates for the Ugly Christmas Lights website. (Thanks for the link Janet). Haven't people heard that we have a bit of a situation going on with this global warming thing - we are supposed to be conserving not lighting up the night sky!

OK, enough of this Scrooge like behavior, I really am full of the joys of Christmas - so long as I keep away from the Shopping Malls that is.

As you can see below we were out for the annual Infostat office lunch this week - here we are standing under the Christmas tree looking relatively joyous and somewhat festive. (more photos)

Again this year I am using this blog as a proxy for a Chrismas letter. It's a periodic ongoing Christmas letter that continues throughout the year saving you the trouble of having to read it all in one go.

So I would sincerely like to wish all of you a very happy Christmas - even if you have your house festooned with enough lights to be seen from Outer Space. May your Holidays (that's the politically correct term these days - right?) be joyous and may we all be grateful for what we have in our lives.

And if you haven't seen this White Christmas flash video, its pretty cool, check it out.

The California International Marathon

2007-12-02T21:51:00.000-08:00

It was the 25th running of the California International Marathon in Sacramento on Sunday – and of course I couldn’t resist doing it. The weather conditions were perfect – cool, dry, just a little windy. However, as usual with my recent marathons it was 16 miles of wonderful enjoyable running, about 4 miles of not so great, but not too bad running followed by 6 miles of walking with the occasional bout of really ugly running. At 4 hr 53 mins it was one of my slowest times but I suppose I did eventually finish so it can’t be so bad.

I just need to be smarter and not do these things unless I am ready for them – I should know that by now and I know I have said the same thing before many times. Actually the marathon is not really my distance, I enjoy the halfs or 30Ks much more. Perhaps I will stick to those for a while.

However, don't count on it. I am already registered for the Death Valley Marathon in February - now that should be a good one!

Auto Racing at Thunderhill

2007-12-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

This weekend I did something I had never done before – I went to an auto racing meet up at a racetrack north of Sacramento called Thunderhill. My friend Tim from Houston was over participating in a 25 hour race (1 more hour than Le Mans). He races Mazda Miatas and he and 2 other drivers were on a team that took it in turns driving over the 25 hour period.

It was actually quite exciting – when the race started the noise was quite deafening and the speed was cetainly scary. They would come barreling into the corners at what would appear to be impossible speeds and somehow come out the other side intact - something to get the adrenalin going for me as well as the drivers.

So we hung out for a while and eventually the adrenalin rush wore off – how long can you watch cars going round and round anyway. We got to hang out in the pits and watch the crews at work. Not quite your Formula 1’s 8 second refueling and tire changes, but it was somewhat choreographed.

I actually got to sit in one of the cars – a stock Mazda Miata with a serious roll-cage and only one seat. Just getting in was a quite difficult process – you have to somehow thread yourself through this roll cage assembly into the seat. And getting out was even more difficult – a procedure requiring strength, agility and a certain degree of limberness. Apparently to be licensed to race you have to be able to disable the car, activate the fire extinguisher system and extract yourself from the car in 15 seconds. It took me a couple of minutes at least, as I had to rest halfway through the process and I wasn’t even encumbered by a helmet and any harnesses.

Racing cars may not be in my future, but I can see where the attraction and excitement is. Here are some more photos.

Hawaii for Thanksgiving

2007-11-26T11:46:00.000-08:00

I just returned from spending Thanksgiving in Hawaii. About 10 of us from Sacramento went over there for the week and a great time was had by all.

There were lots of memorable moments – snorkeling with the turtles and the multitude of brightly colored fishes, visiting the most southerly tip of the US, marveling at the delightfully warm and balmy atmosphere while minutes later suffering under what seemed like the most oppressive heat and humidity (I don't know how the atmosphere or my body's reaction to it can change so quickly). The most wonderful thing, of course, was being there with a great group of friends – my thanks to all, especially Bill and Cathy for coming up with the idea and for providing us with the impetus to do it.

One of the most interesting things we did was to visit the top of Mauna Kea – this majestic volcano in the middle of the island is some 13,796 ft above sea level. It’s a relatively short (couple of hours) drive from sea level up to the top and the road is not at all bad (just a few miles are unpaved). Of course, it is quite cold up there – there was snow on the ground (not a lot, but at certain times of the year you can ski there) and the wind was howling. It was a nice change from the tropical temperatures we had been experiencing down at sea level. On the top of Mona Kea are a cluster of telescopes from various institutions from around the world (the UK are there with an Infra Red telescope). It makes for quite a surreal landscape – the lunar landscape of the volcano, the surrounding mini-calderas, and then the collection of brightly shining telescopes.

The most significant telescope is the Keck telescope – actually there are two of them and at 10 meters in diameter they are currently the largest reflecting telescopes on the planet – quite impressive. I guess I had heard of the Keck telescopes, but what I didn’t realize that they were named after the project's financial sponsors, the Keck Foundation who are the heirs to the Superior Oil Company wealth. It’s always nice to see the oil industry doing some good (for a change).

Here is me at the top of Mona Kea.

And here is me just a few hours later, frolicking (not quite) in the surf down by the ocean.

And finally if anyone wants to view more exciting photos of the Hawaii trip, follow this link to my SmugMug gallery.

A cool exhibit at SF MOMA

2007-11-19T13:17:00.000-08:00

I was down in San Francisco at the weekend and I visited the SF Museum of Modern Art. Lots of the usual stuff hanging from the walls, which is all very nice, but there was one more unusual exhibit that was quite interesting - a car sheathed in ice.

So they have a specially constructed refrigerated room that keeps the temperature down at 11 degrees F, and inside they have this ice covered thing that barely resembles a car at all until you peer in side the shell to see the seat and steering wheel or when you look underneath and see the wheels.

The car is, or perhaps was, a BMW experimental Hydrogen fuel car that is now sheathed in an interesting steel mesh which is then covered with ice. The whole idea is to make you think about effect our cars and our driving them has on the environment (driving -> increased CO2 -> global warming -> less ice - I suppose). I don't think that you are supposed to think about the environmental impact of having a room perpetually at 11 deg F for months on end - or perhaps you are?

Anyway, it was pretty cool in more ways than one. The SF MOMA even had a supply of blankets for you to use to keep you warm while viewing the exhibit.

Here is a video about the project.

Lucy Kaplansky

2007-11-05T11:11:00.000-08:00

So I went to see Lucy Kaplansky perform last night. She has been around the folk scene since the 70's but I first came across her when she did a track on that excellent 60th birthday tribute to Bob Dylan, A Nod to Bob.

Anyway, she was talking a lot about family and it turns out her father, Irving Kaplansky, was a relatively significant mathematician - chair of the Maths Department at the University of Chicago. He was also a somewhat accomplished musician who, among other things, wrote a song using the first 14 digits of Pi for the melody (mi, do, fa, re, etc)- she sang it - it didn't sound bad. He also invented an mnemonic for the first 15 digits of Pi, namely - "Boy, I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after all those lectures involving quantum mechanics". The number of letters in each word corresponding to a digit of Pi - 3.14159265358979.

Why I should find that interesting is a testament to the sad state of my life.

Scott Amendola Band

2007-10-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

Saw some nice jazz last night - the Scott Amendola Band.

A fine San Francisco Band with one of my favorite guitarists, Nels Cline. It seems that Nels plays in the Scott Amendola Band, and then Scott plays in the Nels Cline Singers and the sound is somewhat similar - they probably just take it in turns to whose name is on the bill.