The Sacramento Bee

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

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

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....

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....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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....

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....

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

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....

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....

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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...

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...

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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...

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

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

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

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

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.