Christmas Greetings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

The end of a never ending job....

Probably everyone who has been around me this past year has heard about my disastrous construction project at the house – a replacement of the driveway and back yard patio. Well after 15 months it might be over.

It all started innocently enough back in the summer of 2006. I had some plans drawn up for re-landscaping the back yard which entailed remodeling the patio. As my 50+ year old driveway was cracked in places, I decided to replace it at the same time. The company I engaged had done some good work for a friend and they seemed professional, so I thought I was alright. However from the very start it all went wrong – they did work sporadically and dragged things out over 2 months or more and when the work was complete the quality was pretty shabby.

I of course made the blunder of all blunders by paying most of the $15,000 price tag before I inspected the work closely (you aren’t supposed to walk on concrete for a while, so I wasn’t aware of all the defects until later – but still how stupid of me to pay before making sure I was satisfied). Anyway, all parties recognized that it was a bad job, the company that laid the concrete blamed the materials, the concrete materials company blamed the guys that laid it, and I was left holding the bag.

To make a long story short, I got nowhere by myself so I complained to the California State License Contractor’s Board. They looked at things and arbitrated a settlement which at the time looked great for me - they would tear out the entire project and redo it. Well that work finally started in August but things again went wrong. Since there was no money in the job for anyone (they had already been paid) there was no incentive to complete things so over the last 3 months I have had sporadic work done and I have been given every excuse in the book. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong – they severed the phone cable to the house, they broke my neighbor’s sprinklers, they left me without a driveway for months! For the last month I have had the job 3/4 done, but pouring the last section was being put off again and again.

My patience, which had been unbounded, finally broke this week and I threatened legal action if the job wasn't done this week. This appears to have gotten through to them and yesterday evening the final pour was made.

Note that I said evening, I came home from work to find everyone working on the final drive section. However, this was 6:00 in the evening - it was going to be dark in an hour. Sure enough as darkness fell they were still working, with a truck pointing its headlights down the drive. Someone went to get lights which then turned out to be defective and so they went on a search for bulbs. Finally at 10:30 they applied the finishing touches and it is finished!

So it has been since August 2006 to the end of October 2007 that I have been without a backyard. I can't say I have missed it really - life is a lot simpler without a yard - very low maintenance.

As for the concrete company, he informed me that he is now out of the business - I was his last customer. He is a victim of the downturn of construction in the area. That's why downturns are good - it weeds out the people who shouldn't be there in the first place.

A Doc Watson Concert

Last night I went to the Mondavi Center, the fine new concert hall in Davis to see Doc Watson – a guitarist who is now in his 80’s and still performing. He is one of those legendary figures in the acoustic guitar world, having developed his own distinctive finger-picking and flat-picking styles in the middle of last century. He is now an old man and is stooping and a little frail, but he was in good voice and his playing was still good. Though, I think even he would admit, not as good as in his prime.

A strange thing happened as I was picking up my tickets. I bought them on the internet, and arranged to pick them up at the hall (in the US they call this “the Will Call” – a strange name that I never quite got, but it is just one of those quirky American English things - there are more here). There was a long line, and when I get to the window, I gave my name and the lady pulled what should have been my ticket. However when asked to confirm my address things didn’t match. Meanwhile, I hear someone a couple of windows down having the exact same problem. He was also Steve White, he was being asked to confirm what was in fact my address. So we switched windows, and all was well.

I suppose Steve White is a fairly common name, but two of us picking up tickets for the same concert at the exact same time – now there’s a coincidence.

Entry into the USA

On my way back from the UK the other day, I happened to peruse the questions that were asked on the visa waiver form for UK residents entering the USA. There's a strange mix of questions that I am sure raise some eyebrows amongst the applicants. Still we as Americans can rest soundly in our beds knowing that we are weeding out the ‘bad guys’ as they try to gain entry to the country. Question C is particularly good, it asks the applicant:

"Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage; or in terrorist activities; or genocide; or between 1933 and 1945 were involved, in any way, in persecutions associated with Nazi Germany or its allies?"

That's how we catch them - those unsuspecting would-be terrorists check the wrong box and the authorities swoop in!

I wonder how many people have responded in the positive to this question. The other questions were similar – things of a nefarious nature that you would never own up to if you wanted to come to the USA.

At least now there wasn’t any question about membership in the Communist Party. I seem to recall in my earlier visa applications for the US there was a question about this, and presumably if you answered yes, then you were in for a lot of trouble.

Who is Oded Behr anyway....

Thanks to my friend Janet for pointing me at a site that uses face recognition technology on an uploaded photograph to try and determine which celebrities you resemble. So I had to have a go and apparently I have a 752% match with Oded Fehr. I had never heard of Oded Fehr before (he apparently is an Israeli actor), and I am not sure that I resemble him, but, on the bright side, at least I more closely resemble Oded than Cameron Diaz who only comes in at a 63% match.

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

The rest of the Yosemite Weekend

Following our trek up Half Dome, the remainder of the weekend was a little less punishing. Starting off with Sunday Brunch at The Ahwahnee. This has to be one of the highlights of any trip to Yosemite. The Ahwahnee is a spectacular Arts and Crafts style hotel in the valley floor, and its dining hall is just a wonder to behold. If you can’t affort the $400 or so room rates, then the Sunday Brunch allows you to soak in a bit of the atmosphere at a more modest cost.

A piece of trivia about The Ahwahnee is that it was used for some of the indoor shots of Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining", the exterior shots being from another famous hotel, The Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood. Oh and the Queen stays there when she is in the valley.

George, Steve, Mike in the Ahwahnee post Half Dome

Brian and Allison - 5th Wedding Anniversary

After the excesses of Brunch, we then drove out to Wawona (the south entrance to the park) and paid a visit to the grove of giant redwoods there in the Mariposa Grove. What wonderful things these trees are. Much more impressive than the coastal redwoods.


We were staying in the tent cabins in Curry Village. While this is not the wilderness experience by a long way it is quite a nice atmosphere and I like it a lot. There are some 500 or more tent cabins and they are all full during summer weekends. There are people moving around and making noise at all times of the day and night. If it isn’t the late arrivals, or the early departing hikers, it’s the people shouting at the bears as they do their nightly pass through the camp looking for food. Apparently this year there have been a lot of bears in the valley and it seemed like there were people shouting and screaming at them all night on Saturday. I didn’t get up to investigate, though I wish I had now.

Here are some more photos from the trip (same ones from the previous post).

The Half Dome Hike

This weekend a few of us went down to Yosemite with the intent of climbing to the top of Half Dome. The main impetus for the trip was the celebration of our friends’ Brian and Allison's wedding anniversary (they were married on top of Half Dome 5 years ago by yours truly who became “vicar for the day” in the Universal Life Church – now lapsed, very lapsed). Of course, most of us also had a secondary reason for the trip, namely, to see if any of us, after 5 years, were still capable of making the ascent.

After a shaky start (getting 7 or 8 people to the trail head at the same time is a little like herding cats), we were on the way in near perfect conditions - a little hot, and a bit smokey from the forest fires, but good enough. This year being a dry year, the so-called Mist Trail up the side of Vernal Falls was as dry as a bone so the going was good.

The Half Dome ascent is an epic though grueling hike – some 17 miles round trip from the valley floor, with nearly 5,000 ft of vertical gain. It is topped off with a very exposed and very intimidating scramble up the last 500 or 600 ft aided by wire cables strung over the back side of the dome.


The hike is extremely popular and the Park Warden estimated that in excess of 500 people made it to the top on the same day as we did. The climb up the cables over the last section to the summit is not for the faint of heart with near vertical drops to the valley on either side (two people have died there this year – somehow slipping off the cables to the valley below). Because the last section on the cables is pretty much a single file exercise everyone is slowed to the pace of the slowest person and given the wide range of skills up there this can be quite slow and tedious (it took us almost 1 hour to cross that section). This is a frustration to many of the fitter and more impatient hikers causing some to take risky and, in my opinion, unnecessary maneuvers outside of the confines of the cables. That's how accidents happen - very scary!

After 6 grueling hours of hiking, we finally reached the top. I must admit I was pretty fatigued at that point - it would have been nice to have a nap - but no, we had to get down before it got too dark. So, after a brief rest, we started on the way down again. Since it was towards the end of the day, there were fewer people coming up the cables so traveling down was a lot quicker (just as well, as you don’t need to spend time looking down and contemplating what could happen if you slip).

Going down is faster and takes less effort, though it is potentially more damaging to the body. The stone steps alongside Vernal Falls are tall and steep and particularly punishing on the knees - I don't think we were built to do that sort of thing. Nevertheless, we all survived and we were all still walking upright at the end. The whole trip took almost 12 hours with the last mile or so being finished in the dark. The pizza and beer in Curry Camp were never so inviting.

Here are some more photos of the trip.

Mt Price Backpack

This weekend I, along with my usual hiking friends, made a backpack trip into the Desolation Wilderness (on the east side of Lake Tahoe) with the intent of climbing to the top of Mt Price and scattering the ashes of Paul’s dog Millie from the summit. Millie was a great hiking dog (here are some photos of her in her prime) and had made it to the top of Mt Price a few years earlier so the honor seemed fitting.

It had been a while since I had backpacked and I had forgotten how uncomfortable and exhausting it is schlepping all that gear around on your back. I think it is time to spend more money on new gear that is even lighter than the perfectly good stuff I have now. Nevertheless the rewards of the effort were significant and, that evening, camping at Twin Lakes with a near full moon was quite wonderful. It was a shame about the wind flapping the tent mercilessly all night though.


The hike up to the summit of Mt Price (9,975 ft) on the next day was quite challenging, there being no real trail just a lot of steep accent over boulder strewn slopes with some nasty loose scree at the top. What is more the summit approach is not very spectacular, the view from the summit is amazing, but the actual summit itself is unremarkable, it is just one heap of rock that is a bit higher than the others around it. It’s always better to hike to something significant and obvious I think.

Anyway, Paul got to scatter some of Millie’s ashes, as you can see below, and it wasn't even the anticipated Big Lebowski moment where we all got to ingest the ashes. Paul tells us that he has a lot more ashes back at home, but there didn’t seem to be much enthusiasm in the group for scattering them over any other peaks. At least not right now, we are too tired.



Here are some more photos from the trip on my SmugMug site.

Sicko

Last weekend, I went to the theatre/theater/movies/cinema (not sure which is correct anymore) to see the latest Michael Moore film, Sicko. It’s about the sad state of the American Health Care system, and the apparently wonderful free health care enjoyed by our European and Canadian counterparts. The US Healthcare industry is easy to poke holes in and Michael Moore makes a nice job of pointing out its shortcomings while taking a few jabs at the Bush administration at the same time. Quite frankly it made me angry at the direction this country has taken in adopting for profit healthcare. Too many people fall through the cracks.

But that’s wasn’t the most worrying thing that evening. As I approached the cinema box office, I asked for two tickets for Sicko – the young lady looked at me and said, “Is that two ordinary tickets?” I was puzzled for a while, until I looked up and saw the price list – Adults, Students and the dreaded - Senior Citizens. Obviously she mistook me for a much older person. She didn’t see the spring in my step and the youthful gleam in my eye. After my protests, she said that she asked everyone the same question – I don’t think so.

Oh well, I suppose these occasions will become more and more frequent, until I just breakdown and accept the cheaper rates.

Haystacks

To recover from the excesses of the prior day’s wedding, Colin, Mel and I went for a short hike on Saturday. We walked around something called the Haystacks – a group of small peaks above Buttermere that apparently looked like hay stacks to someone. I am not sure that I quite share the recognition. The 5 mile loop is a popular hike since it was apparently one of the favorite walks of the grandfather of English hill walking Alfred Wainright. He liked it so much that he had his ashes scattered at the top.

When I walk in the UK, which is not often, I am always impressed by the way everyone is so well equipped for adverse conditions – sturdy boots, heavy duty waterproof jackets and leggings. No one is put off by bad weather over there. A bit of a contrast to hiking in the Sierras where if it’s bad weather we just don’t go and sunglasses, sun screen, and abundant water are the vital equipment.

Haystacks

Looking down on Buttermere from near the top of Haystacks

A Lake District Wedding

This weekend I went up to the Lake District in the north-west of England to the wedding of the daughter of my good friends’ Steve and Yvonne. I was at Queen Mary College with Steve, so we go back quite a few years (far too many to really want to count them). Also joining us from our college days in the Geology Department was Colin (and his wife Mel). We had quite a nice time reminiscing on our past times together.

As for the wedding itself – everything went off wonderfully and a good time was had by all. This summer in England has been the wettest since records began so you can imagine the anxieties over having a good day for the wedding - the odds were against it. Nevertheless, the weather gods were smiling on Fridat for the wedding and while it was a little overcast, it stayed mostly dry and there was even sunshine for the photographs.

As you can see from the photograph, the bride and groom looked absolutely splendid. My congratulations to Ben and Anna who are now sunning themselves on the beach in Cancun.

Richie Havens

I went to see Richie Havens perform this evening. He put on quite a show. Of course he is getting fairly old now – 66 by all counts – and his audience were of a similar age (there weren’t too many youngsters in the crowd); but his voice still sounds the same as it did back in the 60’s (remember his opening act at Woodstock?). He still does that percussive rhythmic guitar strumming while his thumb frets the notes and his foot stomps up and down. He is pretty hard on his guitars, breaking 2 strings during the show, and re-tuning without missing a beat.

He looked like a genuinely nice guy who has grown old gracefully. Of course he did many of his old classic songs – Freedom, Here Comes the Sun, etc. One can only imagine how many times he has performed those tunes in his life.

The Western States 100

This weekend was the Western States 100 mile trail run - the premier ultra run in this part of the world. Unlike last year when it was very hot indeed, this year's conditions were close to perfect (20 degrees cooler I bet). A couple of friends were running this year - Leslie and her boyfriend Grant - so a few of us went up to the finish in Auburn to see them come in. It was Leslie's first time for the race and she seems to have run a smart race, coming in comfortably inside her 30 hour goal and looking strong at the finish.

As she crossed the finish line, they announced that Grant had proposed to her at the start and that from all accounts she had accepted his offer (we didn't know that this was going to happen). How romantic is that? Never mind the fact that Leslie was getting a bit emotional and crying during the night (running that distance can be emotional), that Grant was throwing up and unable to keep any food down in the latter stages, and that Leslie left Grant behind somewhere in the last 20 miles, they both survived and as far as we know the proposal and acceptance still stands.

Anyway, congratulations to all the finishers of this epic race, and a very special congratulations to Leslie and Grant.

Leslie - in the middle

Grant - on the left

I am writing this in Denver airport (I am stranded here on my way to Oklahoma City) having on my way here sat next to one of the cameramen who were filming the race for a documentary. Apparently he has a particular knack for running while holding a camera and filming the action going on behind him, while not bouncing around too much and at the same time looking where he is going himself. A rare skill I am sure.

The film crew were featuring various runners along the route and following them through the 100 miles of canyons capturing the agonies and ecstasies along the way. Apparently one of the featured runners was a stripper from Los Angeles. Not sure why, but that seems an unusual combination - you don't get many exotic dancers in the ultra running world.

Fleetwood Mac - it's come to this....

I was more than a little dismayed when I visited Costco this evening (for those in the UK Costco is one of those membership warehouse stores – perhaps you may even have Costcos in the UK by now). Anyway, I went in the store this evening to be greeted by a sign announcing Mick Fleetwood, of Fleetwood Mac fame, was going to be there on Friday afternoon. Not playing music (that would be a strange venue indeed) but signing wine bottles; a wine signing they called it. First I didn’t realize there was such a thing as a wine signing, but I was kind of disappointed that one of the icons of the 60’s music scene was doing this.

In checking his website this evening, I find that he is a big wine “connoisseur” (he had a reputation as a drinker in the early days too) and that he is doing a tour of Costcos signing wine bottles.

I know that after their early days with Peter Green, Fleetwood Mac were never quite the same and they got a bit too “poppy” for my liking but isn’t he getting enough royalties from the records? I hear them all the time on the radio.


I have fond memories of their 1968 Album – Mr Wonderful – the cover above, I believe was Mr. Fleetwood himself.

The Florida Keys

I stayed over in Florida this last weekend and took a drive down to the Florida Keys. I had always been intrigued by this thin strip of land extending from the bottom end of Florida and thought it would be a good idea to take a look. I think perhaps part of my interest was fueled by such films as Key Largo and by reading Hemingway when I was young, but alas I was a little disappointed. Of course, I knew I wasn’t going to find old run down hotels with Lauren Bacall running the front desk, but I did hope for something more inspiring than what I found which was nothing to inspire me.

I expected something more remote, less populated, less developed, but instead there was no such thing. There was development all the way down and it was mostly tacky development. As is the way these days, the area is catering to the tourists, and I think in Florida, the tourist appears to be the younger tourist (its party land for students – oh I must be getting so old now). Anyway, alas for me it was a series of tacky motels, bars and mediocre restaurants.

On the positive side there are some nice older parts of Key West – it must have been quite an interesting place in its day and the ocean always looked inviting and beautiful. Of course, the one thing that I didn’t take time to explore, which is a big part of the area, was the beaches and the diving and all that water related stuff (ok so that’s a huge part of what the Keys are about).

I did stay in Key Largo for the night in an overpriced run down old motel. But the place where they filmed bits of Key Largo is just a bar – a very tourist bar – and apparently most of the film was filmed over in Hollywood. Another strange link that Key Largo has with the movie industry and Humphrey Bogart is that it is the resting place of the African Queen. How it ended up there (in a marina across the street from the Key Largo bar) I don’t know but there it is in a marina – apparently it still works sometimes.

As far as you can go without a boat....


And the number one reason to avoid Florida.....

Space Shuttle Launch

This evening I drove from Orlando over to the coast to watch the space shuttle launch. The closest place outside of restricted NASA property is a town called Titusville. Just south of Titusville is the Astronaut Hall of Fame where there is a viewing area (actually just a lawn at the back of their space museum but they charge you $17 to sit on it and it was full).

I guess I got there about 6:00 pm which gave me a 90 minute wait for the launch. The wait wasn't too bad - lots of people, lots of kids, lots of talk about delays, and the usual heat and humidity, but things got off on time and it was well worth the wait - very spectacular indeed. We were quite some way away from the launch pad, so the initial views were silent and then this wave of sound rolled over us as the shuttle crept up into the sky leaving this great plume behind it.



I don't know how long it took to disappear from sight - maybe a minute, certainly not more than 2 minutes, and then we all applauded and went home. Definitely well worth it - a spectacular sight - truly awesome as we say these days.

Life at Tech Ed, Orlando

I am almost through with my week at Tech Ed in Florida. It has been a great conference, lots of good stuff coming down the pike from Microsoft – each with its own cute project name - Silverlight, Orcas, Cider, Acropolis, Katmai to name but a few. They probably have fun deciding on those project names.

As for Orlando, I still can’t say that I am a fan. I have hardly been outside for the entire week. It’s just not nice out there in that “not so-fresh’ air.

Last night (Thursday), Microsoft rented out one of the local theme parks for use the of conference attendees – Universal’s Islands of Adventure. The deal was that we all got the run of the place for the evening with all the food and drink that we could handle thrown in – that could be the makings of a good party. But actually not – it rained just as we got there and when it rains here it ‘really’ rains here. The park was well equipped though handing out ponchos to everyone. Still there were thousands of software developers wandering around like drowned rats eating and drinking way too much.

But even without the bad weather, I don’t think I would have been raving about it. I just don’t get this theme park thing – yes its great for kids, but why would an adult do it and why would an adult do it in a hot steamy place like Orlando.

However, the shuttle launch is still on. That is 80% for go at 7:40 this evening.

Florida, Tech Ed 2007 and maybe a Shuttle Launch

So here I am over in Florida for Microsoft’s Tech Ed Conference. The conference, Microsoft’s annual tech fest, is in Orlando, at the Orange County Convention Center – a monstrous place so big that with 12,000 computer geeks wandering around it barely seems crowded.

Florida is not one of my favorite places. Or should I say Orlando is not one of my favorite places as I have not yet visited any other parts of Florida, I hope to do that at the weekend. Orlando seems to have little going for it other than a lot if mega-amusement parks – something I can live without. And it’s oh so sticky and humid at this time of year.

So what to do in Florida is the question. Since I am over here, I decided to stay over the weekend and take a look around. I figure a drive down the Florida Keys to Key West will be the thing to do. It looks so impressive on the map – a long thin string of islands connected by bridges to the very tip of America. It’s something worth doing before global warming submerges it and takes it away from us. Of course the other thing I thought of was the Kennedy Space Center and to my surprise, there is a Shuttle launch scheduled for Friday evening. How convenient is that –the conference finishes Friday afternoon, and then at 7:30 there is a Shuttle Launch. The odds are not great as they frequently run into delays, but if all goes well I will be out there on Cocoa Beach watching the lift off.

The Whales are on their way - again...

For those of you over in the UK who have been asking, the two whales that visited Sacramento the other week are, as far as we know, out in the ocean and on their way north. They were in San Francisco Bay on Tuesday and Wednesday and then they were gone and the assumption is that they are out at sea. So a happy ending to this story, for now at least (who knows how weakened they were to spend that much time in fresh water).

It was interesting that all attempts to coax them along seemed to be to no avail. They moved when they wanted to and they didn't pay much notice to the banging of pipes, spraying of water, piped in sounds of killer whales or anything else we foisted on them.

Not quite qualified to live in England

My friend Janet recently wrote about the process she, as an American, has to go through to continue to live in the UK. Apparently having an English husband isn't quite enough these days and she has to take the "Life in the UK Test".

So I thought I would give it a try to see if I could pass the test - regretfully I failed. Well not quite failed, I just got the indication that I would probably fail if I took the test right now and I should study before the exam.


Oh dear, what a shwme and I aced the U.S. Citizenship test. However, the U.S. questions, as you would expect (wouldn't you?), were somewhat less challenging.

The questions I got for US Citizenship were:
1. Who lives in the White House? They were looking for the President, not necessarily the name of the President.
2. Who would become President if the President dies? Again they were looking for Vice President only. Of course now, if they asked the question and you had to answer Dick Cheney everyone would reconsider and leave the building.
3. What was the 49th State of the Union? - it could only be Alaska or Hawaii, and I guessed right - Alaska.

It was interesting the questions asked. In the US Citizenship test it is almost all historical stuff or government stucture whereas the questions on the sampling I did were mostly related to benefits for health and dental care. And for some reason there were a lot of options about Scotland - seems like that is another country now (and one with better benefits as well).

Lost Whales in Sacramento

As everyone here in Sacramento now knows, a couple of whales got way off track in their migration up the coast to Alaska and ended up in the Sacramento harbor. Somehow a week or so ago they got into the San Francisco Bay, and carried on up the Sacramento River, and then into the Ship Channel to the end of the line in the Sacramento Harbor. That’s about 90 miles out of their way.

This morning I went over to the harbor to see what they were up to. They were not up to much - just going round and round and catching a breath every now and again. However, the occasion is causing a lot of interest in the community and even at 7:00 in the morning there were crowds of people there to watch the specatacle.

Hopefully, later in the week, these directionally challenged whales will be coaxed back down stream to the Bay and put back on their way north.

The Nels Cline Singers

I made a new musical discovery at the weekend. On Friday night I got to see the Nels Cline Singers - a jazz trio of guitar, bass and drums with not a singer among them. They are a bit avant garde-ish at times and they get out there on the edge with lots of electronic effects and obscure percussion. I know it’s not for everybody but I loved it. They are fronted by Nels Cline this quite amazing guitarist (Jazz Times recently called him “The World's Most Dangerous Guitarist” – that might be a compliment, but I can see what they were saying).

You can check out some of his work on his myspace page.

Should I really ride a motorcycle.....

I had lunch this week with an old friend that I hadn’t seen for a while. She has recently (last year) donated one of her kidneys to her then boyfriend and now husband, who was in desperate need of one (imagine the coincidence of being that compatible). I was telling her about my motorcycle acquisition and how I was enjoying riding. She sounded enthused not so much because of me enjoying the riding, more because motorcycle riders are the most significant group of organ donors (in their search for a kidney they had done a lot of research in this area). Apparently, 4th of July weekend is the best time for finding a donor too. Perhaps I will forgo that motorcycle trip I was planning this 4th.

Poor old Wordsworth

What is this world coming to? I was dismayed when I was back in England recently to hear that in Wordsworth country (The Lake District) it had been a poor year for daffodils and so, to compensate, one establishment was actually planting artificial daffodils so that people could enjoy their expected Easter floral display.

Now today I heard on the radio that in another attempt to enhance tourism in the Lake District and to make Wordsworth more acceptable to younger folk, Wordsworth's most famous poem - I wandered lonely as a cloud... - has been updated and set to a hip-hop beat. What's worse there is an associated video with some guy dressed up as a squirrel prancing around these fields of artificial daffodils.

I'm sorry - I just don't see the need for this.

The Hot Club of San Francisco

I got a chance to see the Quintet of the Hot Club of San Francisco at the weekend. These guys play so-called gypsy jazz and are modeled after the Quintette du Hot Club du France (the famous band with Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli who played in the 1930’s and 1940’s). This San Francisco version are pretty faithful to the style – all acoustic – a lead guitar, a violin, two rhythm guitars, and a double bass. They played lots of the old Reinhardt and Grappelli material along with a few modern ones.

They were excellent – the lead guitarist Paul Mehring was just a wonder to behold, however, when you think that Django played all this stuff with only three fingers on his left hand, then that is even more remarkable.

Interesting guitars that they all had too – apparently the favored instrument for this type of music is something called a Maccaferri (played by Django himself) and made back in the 30’s and 40’s by the Selmer company. You can buy an original Maccaferri for $17,000 here, though its had a few changes in its long life.

Mr Maccaferri the designer of these instruments had an interesting life too – originally a luthier, then a classical guitarist of some renown and then after his performing career came to an early end he became creative with plastics making plastic saxophone reeds, and then a plastic guitar (not as something cheap, but as a serious quality instrument). At the time of his death he was working on a plastic violin. Somehow these plastic instruments never really caught on – I wonder why – check them out.

A Dead Dog Story.

So a couple of weeks ago, I was driving to work and the neighbor a couple of doors down was going to, what I thought was, his work. The scene was idyllic with him getting into the car and his wife and two daughters waving goodbye at the front door. I stopped and commented to him how that was the perfect image of domestic bliss – one happy family. His reply was a bit a bit terse and I drove on.

I saw him again today and he explained he was not going to work - he was carrying the body of the family dog into the car to dispose of it. The dog, older than both their children, had died in the night and they were all grief stricken. I was a little off the mark with the domestic bliss and happiness thing.

Trainspotting

I am back home in England right now, and yesterday I got a chance to re-live my youth when a steam engine passed through a station not far from home. As a youngster, I was an avid Trainspotter, spending many hours sitting by the side of a railway track noting down numbers and names of the steam engines passing by (I have not heard of a similar thing in the USA, even though their steam trains were much more impressive, but, it was a big thing in the UK among boys of my generation). Some of the most impressive of steam engines of the day were the A4 “streaks” (so-called for their streamlined profile). It was one of these A4s that came along on Sunday and stopped in nearby Retford to take on water.



What a beautiful thing these steam trains are. Hissing, creaking, groaning, and puffing – they are living pieces of machinery that can’t help but stir the imagination – regardless of your age – but perhaps it is more a guy thing.

Indian Grinding Rocks

Just down the road from the start of the Way Too Cool (the race that I ran this weekend) there is a fine specimen of Indian Grinding Rocks up on the hillside above the road. The area is not well known or sign posted in anyway (there is no path to the area) and I only learned about it from someone walking his dog one morning whilst I was out running.


There are some 20 or more holes in a rocky exposure half-way up the hillside away from the road. The area is wooded with Oak trees, the source of the acorns that were ground into flour on the rocks. The repetitive grinding eventually formed the depressions that we now see today. I think the Indians were the Maidu tribe (though I am not absolutely sure - they could be the Miwoks).

Way Too Cool - 2007

Saturday was the running of the Way Too Cool 50K Trail Run in, where else but, Cool California. This was the race that I have been training for all year so it was the culmination of all my efforts. This has always been one of my favorite runs – it is extremely popular in the running community with the race filling up this year in about 5 minutes after it opened for internet registration. You have to be quick to get in.

Admittedly the race is a bit of a struggle for me – a lot of hills as the course climbs up and down the canyon of the Middle Fork of the American River – and 50 kilometers (31 miles) is a bit on the long side – but the countryside is absolutely wonderful and the weather Saturday was almost perfect (a few degrees too warm but as close to perfect as you could hope for).

As in all my long runs these days, there were the high points, and the low points. The first 18 or so were great – nice sociable running where I could appreciate the scenery, then a period around the infamous Ball Bearing Hill when I was so exhausted I wasn’t sure how I would finish (you know the hills are bad when they have to name them - this one is particularly bad being over a mile straight up), this was followed by 5 miles of miserable shuffling walk-running that just was not fun at all, and then a final burst of energy (I don’t know where that came from) for the last few miles to the finish. It's always nice to finish on a good note.

My European Capital Marathon friend John and his wife were over from Houston for this one (we’ve done Paris, Rome, Dublin, Berlin, Florence, Stockholm in previous years). Of course, he's so fase he was well rested and fed by the time I crossed the finish line.



You can check out some more photos here.

Bill and Steve's Tahoe Adventure

Sunday afternoon was quite warm and sunny in Sacramento, and the idea of visiting friends up in Lake Tahoe sounded like a good idea at the time. Despite the forecasts of snow it just didn’t look that bad from the valley floor. So, against our better judgement, my friend Bill and I set off to have dinner with our friends, George and Dave, who were already up in Tahoe.

We sailed past the poor folks installing chains on their two-wheel drive vehicles with our fine 4-wheel drive Volvo but things soon came to a halt and it was slow going all the way up the hill. The snow was coming down pretty heavily, the winds were swirling around, and the driving became decidedly ... interesting. The odd jackknifed truck, and the occasional car off the edge of the road, made for slow progress and what is normally a 2 hour trip took us 5-1/2 hours. Still we made it unscathed.

Of course, the next morning the car was under considerable snow as you can see below and it needed digging out. Just another chance to play in the snow.

Bill, Steve, Dave and George

Unfortunately the trip down the hill to Sacramento was more than we bargained for – another 5-1/2 hours of slow going, but this time livened up with a little unplanned slide across to the other side of the road narrowly avoiding the Truckee River and an oncoming car, and then the loss of one of the windscreen wipers (I abused it too much when trying to free ice from the blade and it just fell off). Again we made it but, I think next time I will wait for better weather before being so adventurous.

Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz at The Palms

Wednesday night Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz played over in Winters (The Palms of course, that’s about the only place around here that hosts this kind of music these days).

I have been a long time fan of Bill Frisell but I didn’t know much about Greg Leisz until this week. However, Greg Leisz turns out to be this legendary pedal steel/slide guitar player who has played with just about everyone from Joni Mitchell to Smashing Pumpkins, Lucinda Williams to Joe Cocker in his long career (he must be my age – that’s old). I am not normally a big fan of the pedal steel guitar but in this jazz accompaniment setting, it was just wonderful. The two of them played so well together. They were both so un-assuming and gracious and perfectly suited to the small club atmosphere of The Palms. What made it even better was that it was so obvious that they were enjoying every minute of playing together.

If you want an example of how they sound, check out Bill’s Happy Dog Happy Man album. One of his best in my book.

The Tour of California

This afternoon the Tour of California Bike race came into Sacramento. Stage two of the tour started in Santa Rosa and finished with a few laps around downtown Sacramento. This is quite a significant race and all the big teams and the big names are here – Discovery, T Mobile, CSC, Rabobank. It's not quite the Tour de France, but perhaps the closest thing this side of the country.

Anyway, I took a late lunch and went down to spectate. I have never been to a major cycle race before and I was really impressed at all the organization and all the support that goes into making it happen. From the volunteers every few 100 yards to keep people off the course, the police to close of streets (there were lots of them), the motorcycle escorts (again so many of them), the lead cars, and then trailing support cars, not to mention the riders themselves. It was quite a production.


The trouble is that the riders all pass by so quickly. The peloton had chased down the breakaway by the time they reached downtown Sacramento and so they were all together when they passed me. It was just a blur of colorful lycra suits as they sped by. I couldn’t recognize anyone.


One of the more remarkable things was the following team cars, chasing the cycles through town at speeds way over the speed limit. What a job that must be to drive a team support car – chasing after the peloton, avoiding lagging cyclists, avoiding other team cars and the odd stray spectator. The whole thing looked very risky indeed. Not a job for the faint of heart.

Yoga

I have been trying to do a bit of yoga lately. After threatening to do it for many years, I am pleased to say I finally got around to doing it. The type of yoga I have been doing is Bikram Yoga – that’s the so-called “hot” yoga where it all takes place in a room heated to 105 deg F. Allegedly the high temperatures make you more flexible and more able to stretch but, in reality, while it makes you more flexible, it also makes it completely exhausting.

It has actually been quite a humbling experience for me. I felt that I was reasonably fit, but trying to make it through a 90 minute yoga session in 105 degrees of heat left me absolutely exhausted and acutely aware of how inflexible my body is. There are so many poses that I can’t even get close to doing at this point because my old body is just not flexible. Everyone says that you are never too old and that the flexibility will return but I am skeptical.

Anyway, I think the whole thing is doing me some good. Let’s see how long I keep it up and if some of that flexibility comes back (was it ever there I wonder?).

Still here, still running....

Not much new happening lately, so not much to write about I am afraid. This year is the same as last year – I am in the middle of training for the Way Too Cool 50 K in early March. I know I vowed never to run any ultras again, but 50 K is only just an ultra so I thought I would have another try.

However, yesterday's training run made me question what on earth I am up to. It was a 22 mile run from the cemetery on Sliger Mine Road down to Rucky Chuck and then back on the Western States trail to Auburn. Everything went well until mile 17 or 18 and then it all fell apart. There are good days and not so good days, and the last 4 or so miles yesterday were just really nasty. It's probably something to do with not drinking enough, or not eating enough or not eating the right stuff anyway.

Sliger Mine Road, by the way, offers a wonderful view of the American River Canyon. One of the nicest vistas around that area.

The Concrete Project

Over the last 6 months I have been involved in a contruction project at my house that has turned into quite a nightmare. Back in August, I contracted with someone to replace my cracked concrete driveway and patio with a new one. It was all very expensive - apparently the construction boom in China is sucking up all the raw materials and the price of concrete has gone through the roof.

Well the job didn't start off very well (delays and sporadic work habits) and it just went downhill from there. After the concrete was poured it became apparent that the quality of the finished product was really, really bad.

There's is one thing about concrete, once it is poured and set then it is pretty difficult to do anything with it. The contractor blamed the raw materials delivered by the concrete company, the concrete company said they didn't see anything wrong with their material and I was stuck with a pretty shoddy driveway.

After trying unsuccessfully to get some resolution myself, I decided to see what the California Contractor's State License Board could do form me (they have a complaints process). I filed a complaint with them and after a lot of paperwork and discussions my case got accepted and finally today we had the arbitration meeting in the backyard of my house. I met with two people from the Board along with a "Concrete Expert" and told them what I wanted and then they then met with the contractor to see what he was prepared to do. Their discussions took a very long time and I was not hopeful of the results, but, when they came back to me, the contractor had agreed to tear out and replace the entire job. How about that - there is justice in this world after all.

Of course now all I have to make sure is that they make a better job of it the second time around. The bad news is they will not start the job until they are sure of good weather - apparently that is not until June (I know this is California, but at this point I am not going to argue).

If anyone is interested in seeing photographs of bad quality concrete here's the link but really you should get a life, as should anyone who documents concrete work on their photo site (actually it WAS all part of the documentation for the State Contractor's Board).

Angel Island Run - again

I went down to San Francisco and ran the trails over on Angel Island (again) the other weekend. It was a beautiful weekend - cold - even icy in places - but clear and sunny and great running weather.

The photograph below shows how wonderful Angel Island is. Just a stone's throw away from San Francisco, but it's like being in the countryside. Thanks to John's friend for taking this photograph. I have some other photos posted on my smugmug site.

Here we are all smiles in the first mile, by mile 15 we were not quite so cheery.

A cautionary tale for visitors to the USA

It was somewhat interesting to see what happened to a visitor from England in Atlanta the other day. It was made even more interesting by the fact that the poor soul was a visiting professor from my alma mater, Queen Mary College. I don't hear much about Queen Mary College these days so its good to see them getting at least some recognition even if it is only for one of their professor's being arrested.

The poor guy was wrestled to the ground and carted off to jail for jaywalking. Something that is completely legal in the UK and in many other 'civilized' countries. But quite illegal here in America and in some other places like Australia.

So those Australians have another thing in common with the Americans - the other being a failure to ratify the Kyoto Agreement. Don't get me started on that one but did you see that Daimler Chrysler's chief economist said that Global Warming was way in the future and still uncertain. So much for Chrysler's recent moves into the green world - perhaps its not so heartfelt.