Tomatoes are enormous; beans coming along; peas mostly done; squashes getting big.
Watching the steady march of the Tea Party brown-shirts. Everything is right on schedule, according to the time-honored progression of Republics into Empires into Fascist right-wing lunacy, as the unsuspecting masses have had their pockets successfully picked by the bankers, and their emotions successfully inflamed by the man-behind-the-curtain.
Happens every time, as predictable as out-of-control squash plants.
Happy summer, everyone.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
stuff that makes software developers salivate
Over the past few years, I have developed a couple of applications that run under Windows CE, using various Microsoft tools. Since I use a Windows smartphone (and am VERY happy with it), this has been cool.
With the advent of the iPhone and the precipitous decline of Windows Mobile, I have felt like I am locked out of future meaningful development on the phone platform.
Now I see this. It tells me that Android is the way to go, since it does not have the locked-in restrictions of Steve Jobs Universe. Can't wait until this is released.
Will it be enough to have me abandone my trusty HTC Tilt? Hard to say, since I will miss the built-in Word and Excel (which I actually use on the phone). Time will tell.
With the advent of the iPhone and the precipitous decline of Windows Mobile, I have felt like I am locked out of future meaningful development on the phone platform.
Now I see this. It tells me that Android is the way to go, since it does not have the locked-in restrictions of Steve Jobs Universe. Can't wait until this is released.
Will it be enough to have me abandone my trusty HTC Tilt? Hard to say, since I will miss the built-in Word and Excel (which I actually use on the phone). Time will tell.
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Sunday, July 04, 2010
The July 3rd deck project happened!
Today is the Glorious Fourth. I have fond memories, as a kid, of making the drive with family from Elmira to Ithaca, where we watched, every year, the best fireworks display in the world, at the Cornell football stadium. It was a ritual.
As you left the stadium at the end of the show, there were barrels at all the exits. Folks tossed in some cash, whatever they wanted, and some company used the proceeds to spend the next 364 days building next year's show. It was self-supporting for many years. Now, that's Democracy.
We spent yesterday building the framework for the deck in our back-yard, that has been in the planning stage for a couple of years. Thanks to the engineering vision of our friend Robert Perron, the master carpentry of our cousin Rion, and the labor and amazing chop-saw of our cousin Steven, it all came together in about 8 hours. Good thing I dug the six holes for the pier blocks the other day - that saved a lot of time.
After we leveled the square concrete slabs in the holes with gravel, placed the pier-blocks in the holes, and laid the beams in the pier-blocks, came the tedious, necessary task of setting levels.
Steven cut little posts, to raise the beams to the proper heights. This took a while.
Check and re-check all heights.
Are the posts right? Maybe we should shave off another inch?
This took a long time, but had to be right.
OK - looking good. Let's lay out the first joists and make sure they're level, too. They were!
Laying out all the 12 foot joists - we had to fabricate one from a 10-foot piece.
And a couple of hours later, all joists are screwed to the beams! Note the nice indented corners! Next year, the posts for the roof will go there. Rion was an amazing help.
End of the afternoon. There is temporary facia around the entire perimeter, with lovely, precise 45 degree cuts on all corners.
Another view. Next up - decking in a few weeks!
As you left the stadium at the end of the show, there were barrels at all the exits. Folks tossed in some cash, whatever they wanted, and some company used the proceeds to spend the next 364 days building next year's show. It was self-supporting for many years. Now, that's Democracy.
We spent yesterday building the framework for the deck in our back-yard, that has been in the planning stage for a couple of years. Thanks to the engineering vision of our friend Robert Perron, the master carpentry of our cousin Rion, and the labor and amazing chop-saw of our cousin Steven, it all came together in about 8 hours. Good thing I dug the six holes for the pier blocks the other day - that saved a lot of time.
After we leveled the square concrete slabs in the holes with gravel, placed the pier-blocks in the holes, and laid the beams in the pier-blocks, came the tedious, necessary task of setting levels.
Steven cut little posts, to raise the beams to the proper heights. This took a while.
Check and re-check all heights.
Are the posts right? Maybe we should shave off another inch?
This took a long time, but had to be right.
OK - looking good. Let's lay out the first joists and make sure they're level, too. They were!
Laying out all the 12 foot joists - we had to fabricate one from a 10-foot piece.
And a couple of hours later, all joists are screwed to the beams! Note the nice indented corners! Next year, the posts for the roof will go there. Rion was an amazing help.
End of the afternoon. There is temporary facia around the entire perimeter, with lovely, precise 45 degree cuts on all corners.
Another view. Next up - decking in a few weeks!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
amazing Civil War photos
here.
Mouse over photos to see caption (file name) at bottom of browser. Some truly amazing scenes, plus portraits of most of the major figures.
See Lincoln at the 2nd Innaugural, with, apparently, Booth in the photo, in the crowd above him.
Lots of scenes from Antietam and Gettysburg - places I am familiar with, having both studied the battles and visited the fields.
Also noteworthy: the under-construction Capitol and Washington Monument. Check it out.
Mouse over photos to see caption (file name) at bottom of browser. Some truly amazing scenes, plus portraits of most of the major figures.
See Lincoln at the 2nd Innaugural, with, apparently, Booth in the photo, in the crowd above him.
Lots of scenes from Antietam and Gettysburg - places I am familiar with, having both studied the battles and visited the fields.
Also noteworthy: the under-construction Capitol and Washington Monument. Check it out.
Friday, June 18, 2010
I don't mean to mess up your day, but...........
Lots of folks are linking to this OpEd.
Basically, there is a growing possibility that the Deepwater Horizon oil-volcano really is the pivotal event of our lifetimes.
Basically, there is a growing possibility that the Deepwater Horizon oil-volcano really is the pivotal event of our lifetimes.
Monday, June 14, 2010
can there be any doubt?
The Deepwater Horizon oil disaster is the defining event of our times. Even the Texas schoolbooks of the future will be obligated to mention it (probably in connection with a sin of some sort).
The developing scenario is reaching the Pandora's Box realm of released evils. For a truly frightening assessment, from someone who appears to know of what he speaks, try this blog post. Yes, it's very long, but it explains the physical forces at work here, and the slim chances for human engineering to control it.
What we have, folks, is a disaster movie, worthy of the great distopian disaster movies of all times. Unfortunately, Bruce Willis is not going to save everything in the final 15 minutes.
Where did America go wrong? Very simply, I believe there can be no doubt that the election of 1980 set the course which lead us to this day. The folks who brought you the Reagan Revolution set it all in motion, and the most-rotten of the rotters, present at every rotten, slimy, greedy point, is KBR/Halliburton.
Just sayin'.
The developing scenario is reaching the Pandora's Box realm of released evils. For a truly frightening assessment, from someone who appears to know of what he speaks, try this blog post. Yes, it's very long, but it explains the physical forces at work here, and the slim chances for human engineering to control it.
What we have, folks, is a disaster movie, worthy of the great distopian disaster movies of all times. Unfortunately, Bruce Willis is not going to save everything in the final 15 minutes.
Where did America go wrong? Very simply, I believe there can be no doubt that the election of 1980 set the course which lead us to this day. The folks who brought you the Reagan Revolution set it all in motion, and the most-rotten of the rotters, present at every rotten, slimy, greedy point, is KBR/Halliburton.
Just sayin'.
Friday, June 11, 2010
what a world
This morning, our steady Mexican laborer, Rolando, appeared at our house around 7:30, as Karen was leaving for work. Normally he comes by on weekends, and we always have work for him to do, and he does it well.
He does yard-work for several folks in our neighborhood, and he was desperate to find someone with cable, to watch the Mexico vs. South Africa World Cup game.
I told him we don't have cable, but I may be able to find a free stream on the internet. While he nervously watched, I spent several minutes trying several sites, before, magically, I found one, where the commentators were either Russian or Polish.
So, we sat in my kitchen - I made him coffee and toast - one American and one Mexican watching as teams from Mexico and South Africa played soccer, with the audio and video coming from half a world away, on a wireless connection to an old laptop. It's the modern world!
Rolando's joy when Mexico tied it 1-1 was great to see - he stood up and was almost dancing around the room. In the final minutes, he had to get up from his chair and pace nervously. When it was over (1-1), he smiled broadly and left, to go on his way.
I felt lucky to share in his excitement, and am glad I don't have to watch any more soccer for the time being.
He does yard-work for several folks in our neighborhood, and he was desperate to find someone with cable, to watch the Mexico vs. South Africa World Cup game.
I told him we don't have cable, but I may be able to find a free stream on the internet. While he nervously watched, I spent several minutes trying several sites, before, magically, I found one, where the commentators were either Russian or Polish.
So, we sat in my kitchen - I made him coffee and toast - one American and one Mexican watching as teams from Mexico and South Africa played soccer, with the audio and video coming from half a world away, on a wireless connection to an old laptop. It's the modern world!
Rolando's joy when Mexico tied it 1-1 was great to see - he stood up and was almost dancing around the room. In the final minutes, he had to get up from his chair and pace nervously. When it was over (1-1), he smiled broadly and left, to go on his way.
I felt lucky to share in his excitement, and am glad I don't have to watch any more soccer for the time being.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
on israel
Great piece in the NY Review of Books - you should read it. It echoes what I've been thinking all along, that the sweet, innocent Israel of my youth (50's and 60's) is long gone.
It discusses the demographics that today's American Jewish youth are largely ambivalent to the Zionist passions that affected so many in my generation.
The split between the older defend-Israel-always attitude and the but-wait-aren't-they-really-oppressors sensibility was brought home to me a few days ago, during a casual conversation with one of the older guys who sings with the chorus at the Jewish Assisted Living home (where I have been playing piano weekly for several years).
Refering to the current tensions between Israel and Turkey (and knowing that Karen and I were in Turkey a couple of years ago), he asked, "do you have relatives in Turkey?" I said, no, we were just tourists. That seemed to be an invitation to discuss the current bad stuff and I made a comment along the lines of "I just knew when Netanyahu was elected Prime Minister that he would be a disaster."
My friend bristled and said, "what do you mean, he's exactly the kind of tough leader that we need, unlike that Obama."
We changed the subject soon thereafter.
I grew up in a home where the UJA 'pushke' (those little blue boxes with the map of Israel on the front and a coin slot on top) was always present, and I was always encouraged to 'put a penny in the pushke'. I was active in Young Judaea all thru high-school and was even in an (shudders to think about it) Israeli folk-dancing group.
But this Israeli government, and a large segment of Israeli society, seems on the wrong side of history and the quest for Human Rights - you know, the one that began when we were slaves in Egypt.
It discusses the demographics that today's American Jewish youth are largely ambivalent to the Zionist passions that affected so many in my generation.
The split between the older defend-Israel-always attitude and the but-wait-aren't-they-really-oppressors sensibility was brought home to me a few days ago, during a casual conversation with one of the older guys who sings with the chorus at the Jewish Assisted Living home (where I have been playing piano weekly for several years).
Refering to the current tensions between Israel and Turkey (and knowing that Karen and I were in Turkey a couple of years ago), he asked, "do you have relatives in Turkey?" I said, no, we were just tourists. That seemed to be an invitation to discuss the current bad stuff and I made a comment along the lines of "I just knew when Netanyahu was elected Prime Minister that he would be a disaster."
My friend bristled and said, "what do you mean, he's exactly the kind of tough leader that we need, unlike that Obama."
We changed the subject soon thereafter.
I grew up in a home where the UJA 'pushke' (those little blue boxes with the map of Israel on the front and a coin slot on top) was always present, and I was always encouraged to 'put a penny in the pushke'. I was active in Young Judaea all thru high-school and
But this Israeli government, and a large segment of Israeli society, seems on the wrong side of history and the quest for Human Rights - you know, the one that began when we were slaves in Egypt.
Friday, June 04, 2010
children become domesticated eventually
Ben's favorite holiday has always been Thanksgiving. As readers here may know, he moved into his own house last February, and the first milestone was a brunch he organized, a couple of months ago, for about 6 people. It was a smashing success (homemade bagels, champagne, etc).
Next Sunday, he is hosting (and doing most of the planning for) what he's calling 'Half-Thanksgiving', with an 18 pound turkey and (at last count) 15 guests (including us). I was over there yesterday, delivering cloth napkins, roasting pan, etc, and helping him set up the tables and chairs.
He's really into it, which is both amusing and gratifying. Dylan is expected to come up from Ashland for the weekend, which will be nice, too.
There's more shopping to be done, but, this morning, I made a gluten-free cornbread for the stuffing (which is my contribution). Must get busy...
Next Sunday, he is hosting (and doing most of the planning for) what he's calling 'Half-Thanksgiving', with an 18 pound turkey and (at last count) 15 guests (including us). I was over there yesterday, delivering cloth napkins, roasting pan, etc, and helping him set up the tables and chairs.
He's really into it, which is both amusing and gratifying. Dylan is expected to come up from Ashland for the weekend, which will be nice, too.
There's more shopping to be done, but, this morning, I made a gluten-free cornbread for the stuffing (which is my contribution). Must get busy...
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
back from an abbreviated camping weekend
We drove out to Cove Palisades Saturday morning. It was raining hard in Portland, but, by the time we approached Madras, clearing nicely.
Got set up at the campground, then Karen and I went for a bike ride along the rim road, with turnouts to the magnificent views of the Crooked and Deschutes canyons.
Dinner and campfire with the group was fun Saturday night, and Sunday dawned sunny and clear.
Four of us went for a hike up to an incredible viewpoint, overlooking the canyons. There were a ton of colorful wildflowers and lots of birdlife. Here's a photo, from my cell phone, of the flowers, rocks and cliffs. We hiked to the highest point you see, on the left-end of the rim.
It was still sunny and warm as we finished the 4-hour hike, but, around 3 pm, the clouds descended and the rain commenced.
Dinner was cooked and eaten in the rain, and, as everyone prepared for a damp, chilly night, Karen and I decided to bail. We tossed our gear into the car, said our goodbyes to the group, and drove back to Portland, arriving home around 11:00 pm.
Spent Monday doing yard-work and other chores. All in all, a mixed bag, made somewhat sad by both the weather and the fact that this was our first camping trip without a dog in many years.
It's been a week since Zacky left us, and we are adjusting to his absence. Not easy.
Couple of music gigs coming up in the next few days - a welcome distraction.
Got set up at the campground, then Karen and I went for a bike ride along the rim road, with turnouts to the magnificent views of the Crooked and Deschutes canyons.
Dinner and campfire with the group was fun Saturday night, and Sunday dawned sunny and clear.
Four of us went for a hike up to an incredible viewpoint, overlooking the canyons. There were a ton of colorful wildflowers and lots of birdlife. Here's a photo, from my cell phone, of the flowers, rocks and cliffs. We hiked to the highest point you see, on the left-end of the rim.
It was still sunny and warm as we finished the 4-hour hike, but, around 3 pm, the clouds descended and the rain commenced.Dinner was cooked and eaten in the rain, and, as everyone prepared for a damp, chilly night, Karen and I decided to bail. We tossed our gear into the car, said our goodbyes to the group, and drove back to Portland, arriving home around 11:00 pm.
Spent Monday doing yard-work and other chores. All in all, a mixed bag, made somewhat sad by both the weather and the fact that this was our first camping trip without a dog in many years.
It's been a week since Zacky left us, and we are adjusting to his absence. Not easy.
Couple of music gigs coming up in the next few days - a welcome distraction.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
I don't understand
Yes, I should be grieving for my dog, but the knowledge that he is released from his growing infirmity is some comfort.
So, I thought I'd hit Google News, to see what's the news on the Gulf oil disaster (which, I sense, is THE pivotal event of our times). Amazingly, there is no trace of this story:
Lindsay Lohan and Dancing with the Stars? Yes.
Ecological nightmare, not so important...
So, I thought I'd hit Google News, to see what's the news on the Gulf oil disaster (which, I sense, is THE pivotal event of our times). Amazingly, there is no trace of this story:
Lindsay Lohan and Dancing with the Stars? Yes.
Ecological nightmare, not so important...
Friday, May 21, 2010
the Owyhee trip
I left Portland around 3 am last Friday morning (after about 2 hours of restless sleep), and headed east on I-84, stopping every once in a while to add gas, delete pee, and add munchies, eventually arriving in Rome, OR (via western Idaho) around 11:30 am.
It was a beautiful ride, going past several places last traveled/viewed on Cycle Oregon in 2003.
Eric and David arrived in Rome (from Santa Cruz) around 1 and Ann (and her dog) arrived (from far-northern CA) around 2. We rigged up the boats and organized food and gear for a couple of hours. By the time we were ready to launch, it was after 4 pm, and we decided to spend the night at the boat launch in Rome, rather than hit the river with all of us tired and brain-dead.
It was a wise choice. We had pretty-good sandwiches at the Rome cafe (wifi available), and Friday night in Rome was peaceful, with a zillion stars visible. Saturday morning, we had a quick breakfast and headed down the Owyhee, Eric and David in one boat and Ann, Lamu-the-dog, and me in the other.
The first few miles are a gentle float thru farmland, gliding by occasionally-interesting formations. Here's a photo from about mile 4:
Since we had a very early start, we planned on a big-mileage day for Saturday. It was very hot and sunny.
We stopped for lunch and a brief swim (brrrrr) in one of the first big canyons we encountered, then continued down to 'Weeping Wall', where we camped for the first night (about 18 river miles). Very peaceful, totally nice, and Eric's dinner of charcoal-broiled tuna steaks (Trader Joe's), (instant) mashed potatoes, and salad was just right.
Sunday morning, we continued thru varied scenery. The formations grew more eroded and exposed, sort of similar to Bryce Canyon formations of sedimentary rock. We camped at the base of Pruitt's Castle, a formidable formation of multi-colored and fancifully-eroded, crumbly mud and rock.
After setting up camp, I went for a walk up to the castle, taking lots of photos and wandering around under the towers. It was pretty darn cool. Here's a photo of Lambert Rocks, just downstream from Pruitt's Castle - typical of the formation.
I was on for dinner Sunday night, and my menu was a big pot of Cajun Red Beans and Rice (with added canned diced green chiles and canned tomatoes) and a frying pan full of sauteed onion and green beans, with Trader Joe's seafood mix (shrimp, scallops, and calmari) tossed in, at the last 2 minutes. Everyone seemed to be pleased with the results.
Did I mention that there was beer, too?
After dinner, the 4 of us walked back up to the Castle, where we took more photos and climbed around on the hills, getting great views up and down the river. It was pretty wonderful.
Back in camp, I broke out the Trader Joe's (see the recurring theme here?) Lemon Bars, which were pronounced very fine.
Today's river mileage: I think just about 6.
Monday morning: a hearty breakfast at Pruitt's Castle (scrambled eggs with veggies and leftover beans-and-rice folded in flour tortillas, and lots of coffee), before we pushed off.
Great rock formations (see the above close-up of Lambert Rocks), a variety of cliffs and canyons, and a few nice rapids. We stopped for lunch at a cave that Ann had remembered, just immediately upstream from Green Dragon Canyon.
This canyon is astonishing - thousand-foot cliffs rising up from the narrow, rushing river. I took lots of photos. Here's one - really, this canyon was the most-impressive one of the entire run.
We found a campsite in the heart of the Green Dragon and set up camp. It had been a sunny, warm day and, after pitching my tent, I went for a 5 minute swim in the pretty-cold-to-start Owyhee, emerging totally refreshed and happy.
About an hour later, the wind came up, and it started to rain a little. Then a lot. We all retreated to our tents as the gale increased to a wild level. The wind-gusts were so strong that I was actually holding down the floor of the tent, and hoping that the water leakage would be minimal.
This went on for maybe 45 minutes before the storm abated enough for everyone to emerge and compare notes. We all agreed that it was quite a storm, and hoped that the evening would be a little more calm.
It was still windy, though, with dark clouds visible in the slit of sky that we could see (remember, we are at the bottom of a very deep, narrow canyon). We decided to try to cook some dinner, and Eric did a great job, under the circumstances, delivering some instant kim-chee, rice, and a veggie stir-fry (onion, mushroom, eggplant, etc) with both tofu and tempeh. It was hearty and satisfying, as the evening came on, dim, still a little windy, and still threatening more rain.
We went for a brief walk after dinner, then had dessert (Trader Joe's creme brules, served, without plates or utensils, directly onto our outstretched palms - it was a unique approach to camp-dining!).
It did rain a bit more during the night - nothing too major - and Tuesday dawned, chilly and cloudy.
After a mile or so, we emerged from Green Dragon Canyon into a wide-open section, still with high cliffs on either side, but no longer deep in a narrow, enclosed space. The day was improving.
A few more riffles and rapids. We stopped for lunch in Jackson Hole, a broad valley with long vistas in all directions. It was turning into a nice day. One of the maps promised a couple of petroglyphs in that area and we found a couple of small ones.
Later in the afternoon, we pulled over at a sandy beach on river-left, based on Ann's intuition that there was something there, and found an amazing group of petroglyphs - the largest collection I had ever seen - a couple of dozen at least. Here's one group - pretty darn cool to be visualizing the ancient people, bent over these boulders, and publishing the news of the day.
It was time to pick our final campsite. Looking at the map, we saw a marked camp at the base of a formation called "Devil's Tower". It was impossible to miss Devil's Tower, and we stopped at a camp-site that was probably not the one on the map, but having a great view of the Tower and surrounding hills.
We set up camp, and it turned out to be the best one of the trip. The afternoon was warm and delightful, and the scenery was wonderful, as the late-afternoon sun and clouds bathed the surrounding hills with shifting shadows and highlights.
Here we are getting ready for dinner. That's Devil's Tower on the left (only a passing resemblance to the real one, in Wyoming). Can you find the wine bottle?
It was my turn for dinner, and my menu was (after appetizers of smoked oysters and other leftover veggies and dips) cheese tortellini (with a sauce of fresh spinach, two kinds of pesto, and Trader Joe's Red Pepper Spread, with eggplant and garlic) and the rest of the steamed green beans. There was wine. There was joy in camp.
After dinner and scenery appreciation, we all went for a walk on the expansive sagebrush plateau directly behind the camp. It was lovely and peaceful.
Then, it was back to camp for my dessert (which I had made a couple of hours earlier and placed in the cooler): Jell-O No-bake cherry cheesecake. It turned out great - how could you go wrong?
We went to bed. It had been the last full day of rafting, and everyone agreed that it had been pretty good.
Wednesday morning, we packed up the last camp and headed to the take-out - about 5 miles.
We stopped briefly at the hot springs at Greeley Bar, then continued on. It was a hot, sunny day. I took lots of photos. Here's one from the final stretch - can you see the white raft (it's pretty small)?
We got to the take-out, at Birch Creek, around noon, and packed everything up in the two vehicles that had been shuttled there from Rome. We left Birch Creek around 1:30 and, as we were told it would be, it took an hour and a half of steep, twisty, bumpy dirt-road to get to highway 95, just north of Jordan Valley.
We had a minimal lunch at the JV Cafe (we were looking a tad grubby, after 5 days), then drove on to Rome, where my trusty Subaru had been waiting for my return. I threw my dirty, disorderly gear into the back, we said our good-byes, and I took off. It was around 4 pm.
Great trip, eh?
I drove the long, straight miles, north and west, towards Burns. It was a lovely afternoon and the endless miles were mostly deserted. I saw roads I had last traveled on Cycle Oregon 2001 - September 11, 2001, to be exact. That was eerie.
Got gas and a sandwich in Burns (where I finally found cell-phone coverage and could call Karen). I headed west towards Bend, arriving there around 7:30. I stopped for more gas and then decided there was no way I had the energy to drive all the way to Portland.
I stopped in Sisters and got a motel room. First hot shower in almost a week. Clean sheets. Good.
Woke up early Thursday morning - there was a dusting of snow on my car and the motel roof. I grabbed an indifferent breakfast in Sisters and headed home.
It began to snow hard just outside of town, and there was a blizzed blowing as I ascended Santiam Pass. Traffic was slow, but that was OK.
Eventually descended into the familiar, green Willamette Valley, and drove up to Karen's office around 10:30. Arrived in our lush, beautiful yard around 11 - said hello to the dog - unpacked a few things - went to bed.
There's no place like Home, and there's no place like the Owyhee.
It was a beautiful ride, going past several places last traveled/viewed on Cycle Oregon in 2003.
Eric and David arrived in Rome (from Santa Cruz) around 1 and Ann (and her dog) arrived (from far-northern CA) around 2. We rigged up the boats and organized food and gear for a couple of hours. By the time we were ready to launch, it was after 4 pm, and we decided to spend the night at the boat launch in Rome, rather than hit the river with all of us tired and brain-dead.
It was a wise choice. We had pretty-good sandwiches at the Rome cafe (wifi available), and Friday night in Rome was peaceful, with a zillion stars visible. Saturday morning, we had a quick breakfast and headed down the Owyhee, Eric and David in one boat and Ann, Lamu-the-dog, and me in the other.
The first few miles are a gentle float thru farmland, gliding by occasionally-interesting formations. Here's a photo from about mile 4:
Since we had a very early start, we planned on a big-mileage day for Saturday. It was very hot and sunny.
We stopped for lunch and a brief swim (brrrrr) in one of the first big canyons we encountered, then continued down to 'Weeping Wall', where we camped for the first night (about 18 river miles). Very peaceful, totally nice, and Eric's dinner of charcoal-broiled tuna steaks (Trader Joe's), (instant) mashed potatoes, and salad was just right.
Sunday morning, we continued thru varied scenery. The formations grew more eroded and exposed, sort of similar to Bryce Canyon formations of sedimentary rock. We camped at the base of Pruitt's Castle, a formidable formation of multi-colored and fancifully-eroded, crumbly mud and rock.
After setting up camp, I went for a walk up to the castle, taking lots of photos and wandering around under the towers. It was pretty darn cool. Here's a photo of Lambert Rocks, just downstream from Pruitt's Castle - typical of the formation.
I was on for dinner Sunday night, and my menu was a big pot of Cajun Red Beans and Rice (with added canned diced green chiles and canned tomatoes) and a frying pan full of sauteed onion and green beans, with Trader Joe's seafood mix (shrimp, scallops, and calmari) tossed in, at the last 2 minutes. Everyone seemed to be pleased with the results.Did I mention that there was beer, too?
After dinner, the 4 of us walked back up to the Castle, where we took more photos and climbed around on the hills, getting great views up and down the river. It was pretty wonderful.
Back in camp, I broke out the Trader Joe's (see the recurring theme here?) Lemon Bars, which were pronounced very fine.
Today's river mileage: I think just about 6.
Monday morning: a hearty breakfast at Pruitt's Castle (scrambled eggs with veggies and leftover beans-and-rice folded in flour tortillas, and lots of coffee), before we pushed off.
Great rock formations (see the above close-up of Lambert Rocks), a variety of cliffs and canyons, and a few nice rapids. We stopped for lunch at a cave that Ann had remembered, just immediately upstream from Green Dragon Canyon.
This canyon is astonishing - thousand-foot cliffs rising up from the narrow, rushing river. I took lots of photos. Here's one - really, this canyon was the most-impressive one of the entire run.
We found a campsite in the heart of the Green Dragon and set up camp. It had been a sunny, warm day and, after pitching my tent, I went for a 5 minute swim in the pretty-cold-to-start Owyhee, emerging totally refreshed and happy.
About an hour later, the wind came up, and it started to rain a little. Then a lot. We all retreated to our tents as the gale increased to a wild level. The wind-gusts were so strong that I was actually holding down the floor of the tent, and hoping that the water leakage would be minimal.
This went on for maybe 45 minutes before the storm abated enough for everyone to emerge and compare notes. We all agreed that it was quite a storm, and hoped that the evening would be a little more calm.
It was still windy, though, with dark clouds visible in the slit of sky that we could see (remember, we are at the bottom of a very deep, narrow canyon). We decided to try to cook some dinner, and Eric did a great job, under the circumstances, delivering some instant kim-chee, rice, and a veggie stir-fry (onion, mushroom, eggplant, etc) with both tofu and tempeh. It was hearty and satisfying, as the evening came on, dim, still a little windy, and still threatening more rain.
We went for a brief walk after dinner, then had dessert (Trader Joe's creme brules, served, without plates or utensils, directly onto our outstretched palms - it was a unique approach to camp-dining!).
It did rain a bit more during the night - nothing too major - and Tuesday dawned, chilly and cloudy.
After a mile or so, we emerged from Green Dragon Canyon into a wide-open section, still with high cliffs on either side, but no longer deep in a narrow, enclosed space. The day was improving.
A few more riffles and rapids. We stopped for lunch in Jackson Hole, a broad valley with long vistas in all directions. It was turning into a nice day. One of the maps promised a couple of petroglyphs in that area and we found a couple of small ones.
Later in the afternoon, we pulled over at a sandy beach on river-left, based on Ann's intuition that there was something there, and found an amazing group of petroglyphs - the largest collection I had ever seen - a couple of dozen at least. Here's one group - pretty darn cool to be visualizing the ancient people, bent over these boulders, and publishing the news of the day.
It was time to pick our final campsite. Looking at the map, we saw a marked camp at the base of a formation called "Devil's Tower". It was impossible to miss Devil's Tower, and we stopped at a camp-site that was probably not the one on the map, but having a great view of the Tower and surrounding hills.We set up camp, and it turned out to be the best one of the trip. The afternoon was warm and delightful, and the scenery was wonderful, as the late-afternoon sun and clouds bathed the surrounding hills with shifting shadows and highlights.
Here we are getting ready for dinner. That's Devil's Tower on the left (only a passing resemblance to the real one, in Wyoming). Can you find the wine bottle?
It was my turn for dinner, and my menu was (after appetizers of smoked oysters and other leftover veggies and dips) cheese tortellini (with a sauce of fresh spinach, two kinds of pesto, and Trader Joe's Red Pepper Spread, with eggplant and garlic) and the rest of the steamed green beans. There was wine. There was joy in camp.After dinner and scenery appreciation, we all went for a walk on the expansive sagebrush plateau directly behind the camp. It was lovely and peaceful.
Then, it was back to camp for my dessert (which I had made a couple of hours earlier and placed in the cooler): Jell-O No-bake cherry cheesecake. It turned out great - how could you go wrong?
We went to bed. It had been the last full day of rafting, and everyone agreed that it had been pretty good.
Wednesday morning, we packed up the last camp and headed to the take-out - about 5 miles.
We stopped briefly at the hot springs at Greeley Bar, then continued on. It was a hot, sunny day. I took lots of photos. Here's one from the final stretch - can you see the white raft (it's pretty small)?
We got to the take-out, at Birch Creek, around noon, and packed everything up in the two vehicles that had been shuttled there from Rome. We left Birch Creek around 1:30 and, as we were told it would be, it took an hour and a half of steep, twisty, bumpy dirt-road to get to highway 95, just north of Jordan Valley.
We had a minimal lunch at the JV Cafe (we were looking a tad grubby, after 5 days), then drove on to Rome, where my trusty Subaru had been waiting for my return. I threw my dirty, disorderly gear into the back, we said our good-byes, and I took off. It was around 4 pm.
Great trip, eh?
I drove the long, straight miles, north and west, towards Burns. It was a lovely afternoon and the endless miles were mostly deserted. I saw roads I had last traveled on Cycle Oregon 2001 - September 11, 2001, to be exact. That was eerie.
Got gas and a sandwich in Burns (where I finally found cell-phone coverage and could call Karen). I headed west towards Bend, arriving there around 7:30. I stopped for more gas and then decided there was no way I had the energy to drive all the way to Portland.
I stopped in Sisters and got a motel room. First hot shower in almost a week. Clean sheets. Good.
Woke up early Thursday morning - there was a dusting of snow on my car and the motel roof. I grabbed an indifferent breakfast in Sisters and headed home.
It began to snow hard just outside of town, and there was a blizzed blowing as I ascended Santiam Pass. Traffic was slow, but that was OK.
Eventually descended into the familiar, green Willamette Valley, and drove up to Karen's office around 10:30. Arrived in our lush, beautiful yard around 11 - said hello to the dog - unpacked a few things - went to bed.
There's no place like Home, and there's no place like the Owyhee.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
weirdness
Yesterday, on the last day of rafting, Ann asked me how I got interested in piano.
I told her about our family friend, George Feinstein, who played piano and violin, and how fascinated I was with his music and especially their baby grand piano. George gave me his copy of Kammen Book 1 many years ago, and I still have it, yellowed and worn. I hadn't thought about him in at least a couple of years.
An hour ago I got a call from my brother. George died yesterday.
Synchronicity strikes again.
I told her about our family friend, George Feinstein, who played piano and violin, and how fascinated I was with his music and especially their baby grand piano. George gave me his copy of Kammen Book 1 many years ago, and I still have it, yellowed and worn. I hadn't thought about him in at least a couple of years.
An hour ago I got a call from my brother. George died yesterday.
Synchronicity strikes again.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
getting ready to head out
I am leaving Portland around 4 Friday morning, to drive to Rome, OR, to meet up with my brother-in-law, Eric, and friends, for a week-long float trip on the Owyhee.
I am mostly packed - still have a few items to buy for the two dinners I am responsible for. The expectations for fine-dining-on-the-river are very high!
Wrapping up my computer work for a week has been a challenge. Just a few minutes ago, I finished my last victory - a VBA module that permits you to create or modify pass-thru queries (from Access to SQL Server) on the fly (using the VBA code to build the SQL exactly as you need). The pass-thru query can then be linked to a combo-box's RowSource. Cool, eh?
It may sound arcane, but being able to do that opens up a tremendous potential for developing a maintainable hybrid Access/SQL Server application, that leverages the server database engine's power and minimizes network traffic. That's a good thing.
If I don't manage another posting, I'll see y'all in a week.
UPDATE: Don't get me wrong - I sure didn't write that module from scratch! I found an example by browsing around (Google magic!) and made a few slight modifications. Life is too short to try to figure that stuff out for yourself!
I am mostly packed - still have a few items to buy for the two dinners I am responsible for. The expectations for fine-dining-on-the-river are very high!
Wrapping up my computer work for a week has been a challenge. Just a few minutes ago, I finished my last victory - a VBA module that permits you to create or modify pass-thru queries (from Access to SQL Server) on the fly (using the VBA code to build the SQL exactly as you need). The pass-thru query can then be linked to a combo-box's RowSource. Cool, eh?
It may sound arcane, but being able to do that opens up a tremendous potential for developing a maintainable hybrid Access/SQL Server application, that leverages the server database engine's power and minimizes network traffic. That's a good thing.
If I don't manage another posting, I'll see y'all in a week.
UPDATE: Don't get me wrong - I sure didn't write that module from scratch! I found an example by browsing around (Google magic!) and made a few slight modifications. Life is too short to try to figure that stuff out for yourself!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
good thing I'll be dead
It's my genes that I'm worried about.
We are the Ancients that the folks of the Future will shake their heads at and say "how could they have been so stupid?".
Then, again, maybe the nuclear wars that finish us off will cool things sufficiently so that Global Warming turns out to be a hoax, in an ironic sort of way.
This is the way the World ends - not with a Bang but with an Oops.
We are the Ancients that the folks of the Future will shake their heads at and say "how could they have been so stupid?".
Then, again, maybe the nuclear wars that finish us off will cool things sufficiently so that Global Warming turns out to be a hoax, in an ironic sort of way.
This is the way the World ends - not with a Bang but with an Oops.
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