My jack o' lantern

Line o' lanterns

Today's awesome t-shirt

Perk of working at a computer shop

:-)

Mt Hood sunrise

It's hard to see in this picture but Mount Hood looked very Mount Doom
this morning.

Sunrise over Portland

New bike report

Four days with the new bike have finished. It feels slow with just 3 gears, but I have a set of wheels with an 8 speed internally geared hub which should take care of the power spread. The seat will be chucked in favor of a Brooks leather saddle. The geometry and handling seem good. And the bike is just fun to ride, if not quite as zippy as my Bianchi.I'm still working my way through all the adjustments and really should have it in at a shop for a basic tune up soon, since it is almost a year old.

Personal Record

I got three (3) 165 pound front squats at the gym on Monday. I felt in control and strong through the set. So I felt pretty good about that.

[big grin]

New ride

Picked this up used on Friday night. I'm gonna try to turn it into a
winter commuter and general fun bike.

Dev refusing to smile

At Lisa and Sean's going away party.

Another contest - this one for a journal

Even though I only jopurnal and write sporadically, I have a bit of a journal fetish. I really like the aesthetics of Moleskine journals. They just have a great feel and weight. The "history" of the journal (augmented for maximum marketing impact) adds to the aura of the brand. But they are expensive.

I started digging around and looking for other brands of journals. And then I found Black Cover.

So I've been following this website for a while now. The guy reviews all the "Moleskine like" pocket journals that he can get his hands on. I get to live vicariously through his reviews. His standards are quite a bit higher than mine, which is good. When he gives high marks to a journal, I know it's pretty dang good. The blog also saves me time in looking for new brands to try.

Well, now he has a contest. I can win a set of journals by posting about the website here on my blog. And I've linked him in the side bar with my followed blogs. That gets me some entries in the contest. But if all of you who read this click through to Black Cover and generate the most number of hits to his website, then I get an extra credit entry in the contest. So get clicking!

And thanks!

Republicans are NOT fiscal conservatives

How many ways can you say it?

Fuzzy caterpillar at the dog park

Thought I'd share.

Pictures from last Sunday

Took me a while to post these.

Breakfast to cheer our marathon-running friends Shirley and Sean.

Beating the rain

I got home about 10 minutes ahead of the rain. Funny how the clouds looked static on my ride home. I didn't feel much wind. Then I get home, and I do a couple of things on the computer. I look out the window and the road is soaked. Good (and lucky) timing on my part I guess.

Clouds over west hills

From Willamette blvd

Clouds over the west hills

From Willamette blvd

Clouds to the west

On my way home

HPL Film Fest wrap up

I had a great time. Instead of a listing of the things I watched, I'll just say that I'm glad I bought a weekend pass and "ate my fill" at the trough. I didn't stay all the way through the end tonight; I got home at 1:30 am this morning. Then Dev and I hosted breakfast for a lot of folks from the gym so we could go cheer Sean and Shirley on their run in the Portland marathon (pics coming soon). I made it through the first session at the film festival today and then just hit the wall. I listened to some good discussion on pop culture and Lovecraft, on Robert E Howard and his Solomon Kane character, and one more spate of comments and funniness from Mike Mignola.

And I won a DVD by knowing some Lovecraft trivia.

So a successful weekend. Now time for pizza, a DVD at home (no, not the one I won) and then the sweet release of sleep.

I won a prize

Re-Animator DVD!

Tiki with John and Jetgirl

ST Joshi question and answer

Bad light. But that's the man. Good speaker. Easy to see why he's the
authority on H P.

Vendor Hall at HPL Film Fest

Good crowd.

HPL film festival day 2

Lovecraft Film Fest night 1

First, I clearly need more practice mobile blogging.

One post the entire night I'm there.

And no pictures?

Seriously.

So, first up tonight I saw "Hellboy" with an intro and a Q&A session from Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. Funny guy. Good answers to questions posed. Best question of the night: "Did you intentionally use Lovecraft in the mythos for Hellboy?" Answer: "No." Mignola said he scoured creation myths for inspiration. He found one that he hijacked, pruned and face-lifted for Hellboy. Resemblance to Lovecraftian mythos critters is coincidental/subconscious.

Next up, I watched the Shorts Block 2. Uneven quality, but generally entertaining. There were two wholly original pieces and a Poe-inspired film and a music video. The rest of the shorts came pretty much from Lovecraft's writings.

Hopefully more pictures from tomorrow's festival happenings.

At the film fest

Waiting for Mignola to come out for a QA priory to Hellboy. The vendors have a pretty good assortment of Cthuliana. Sighco has some very tempting workshirts and hoodies.

Fall's here

Raining.

Lots.

{Sigh}

I wasn't ready just yet.....

Tellin' stories

So I used to be a huge fantasy/sci-fi literature junkie. And one of my favorite authors in the genre is H.P. Lovecraft. I first read him in high school after checking one of his books out of the school library, of all places. I was hooked. His dark universe of implacable and coldly indifferent forces mesmerized me. Reading him led to the first time I had trouble turning the lights off to go to sleep.

I wrote my college thesis on Lovecraft's universe.

While I don't crack the spines very often, I own the hard-bound edition of the complete works of Lovecraft.

And now I live in a city that has a film festival started

in the hope that H.P. Lovecraft would be rightly recognized as a master of gothic horror and his work more faithfully adapted to film and television.

The H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival.

And I just bought a weekend pass for the show. If you're going, then lemme know. If you want to go, lemme know. I'll be there.

Foggy morning commute

Sun breaking through fog onto downtown.

Foggy morning commute

Esplanade in fog.

Foggy morning commute

Steel bridge in the fog.

Foggy morning commute

Broadway bridge disappears into fog.

Foggy morning commute

Highway 405 swallowed by fogbank.

Foggy morning commute

Willamette road

Foggy morning commute

Bullet point update

So no posts of consequence for almost 2 weeks. Here's the skinny, in convenient bullet point format:

*Dev in New York Sept 14th through 17th

*Dev in Chicago Sept 20th through 23rd

*Moxie had (and continues to have diarrhea

*I get bitter when I have to drive in traffic

*"Riding Giants" is a great movie

*"10,000 BC" is a not great movie and is far less not great than my low expectations

*I'm torn between the relaxation of the last couple of weekends just kicking around town and the excitement of hiking/climbing/surfing/adventuring somewhere

*"Hellboy II" met my expectations perfectly.

*I had to work last Saturday (boo)

*I found out last Friday that I had to work last Saturday (hiss)

*I missed a great benchmark workout Saturday morning because I had to work Saturday (grrrr)

*Dev went dancing with the girls from Recreate Fitness on Saturday night

*Dev did not have fun Sunday morning

*I skipped swimming last night because I'm still a little sick from last week, but I'll be working out tonight. Hopefully I'll burn off the last vestiges of whatever this is that afflicts me.

Quote from a T-shirt

Adventure is not a race.

Damn skippy.

Favorite new blog

You Are Dumb

Just as a warning: if you are offended by foul language, excrementory images, parody of ANY beliefs or if you are a right winger then you should probably not read You Are Dumb. If none of that bothers you, then you will be laughing out loud.

A Life More Aquatic

Went swimming last night. I didn't do any flotation drills or balance practice. I just swam freestyle and tried to stay relaxed and control my breathing. My stroke is improving. My breathing is getting better. I still only swim a length at a time but I'm not as out of breath as previously. Next pool visit: Wednesday.

Crazy Math

I bought my bike just over three and a half years ago when I moved to Portland. I ride it to work almost everyday. I bought it to ride in the AIDS ride in 2005. I put some miles on training for the ride. I've put some miles on riding to work. I put some miles on going to the grocery store and running some errands by bike. And most recently I put some miles on by riding out to the coast for a night of camping.

So I did some rough figuring.
My daily commute is 16 miles, round trip.

(multiply by)
I work five days a week.

(multiply by)
40 work weeks a year (I'm subtracting 12 work weeks for my two week vacation and all the sundry times that I might drive or ride the bus to work)

(multiply by)
For three years.

(equals)
9600 miles just commuting to work.

Add the AIDS ride (550 miles) plus training rides for the AIDS ride (????) plus my bike camping trip (140 miles) and I've got over 10,000 miles on my bicycle.

Crazy.

Pictures from Bike Camping

Pictures are here.

I'll write up a trip report later. Short version: it was fun.

Another swimming update

Went to the pool last night. Practiced finding my balance floating on my back. Last time I went, I felt rigid and I kept my back arched too much. Last night I found a relaxed point of float. I found the spot where I could "lay on my lungs" and keep my face out of the water. I didn't find the balance every time. And I got a couple of really good snootfuls of water from other swimmer's wakes. I found the spot enough that I know what relaxed floatation feels like now. I can aim for it. I know when it's right and when I'm not quite there. So I can practice it correctly.

The next drill involves starting on your back and then rotating one side up so that your face is still out of the water, but one shoulder and arm is out of the water. You still aim to lie on your lungs and stay completely relaxed. This exercise is harder than the first. I only managed to get the position once. That one time gives me the "feel" for the position. Now I can aim for that feeling and try to make it effortless and relaxed.

Yay progress!

Gel vs Ball point

I've been using gel pens for day to day note taking. The Pilot G-2. And it's a nice pen. Easy to find replacements when it runs out of ink. I have trouble with the flow rate though. Maybe I don't write longhand enough (being on the computer most of the time and typing most of my written communication). Maybe it's because I'm a lefty. I always seem to write in such a way that the text will smudge or bleed onto the facing page.

So it seems I might be heading back to the ball point pen.

Surfing pictures from this week

Are here.

Enjoy!

Vacation days 8 and 9

Garage sale. Woohoo! Yippee!

Garage sales are *awesome*!

Unless it rains on day two of your two day garage sale.

Vacation days 6 and 7

Surfing.

In a word, surfing.

Dev and I woke up way too flippin' early on a vacation day so that we could drive to Cannon Beach by 9:45 am. Mica (our surf instructor) wanted us at the surf shop by a quarter to 10 so we could get loaded and head out by 10 am. She got us set up with suits and boards and had us sign our lives away on the dotted line of the surf waiver. Apparently sunburn is one of the hidden hazards of surfing that the waiver insists you not blame on the surf shop. She led us over to Indian Head Beach at Ecola state park.

We talked about the rip tide at the beach. We practiced our pop up. We went over the basics of surfboard anatomy. Then she led us into the water to start surfing. The water felt warm. For the first time on a visit to the pacific, the water felt warm. Mica guided us through several runs. Dev started getting up and getting a ride almost every time she started out to catch one. I didn't do so well. I sorta flailed through most of the lesson. About noon, Mica left us. She told us to try the other surf break nearby at Short Sands. She said she planned to be out there later in the afternoon and hoped to see us there.

We took a break for lunch by the car. A very bold squirrel marched right up to the picnic table and proed at our cooler bag for points of weakness. We shooed him but he didn't retreat unless we actually moved toward him. He never stole any food from us.

Dev and I debated about going to the other break. We decided to just ride out the rest of the day at Indian Head; we shouldered the boards and marched back to the beach. Dev continued to catch a lot of waves. I switched my lead foot ( I had practiced regular footed, but I ride snowboard goofy footed) and I started getting up a lot more.

We washed up on shore exhausted a few hours later. We crawled back to the truck and drove south to Nehalem state park. The tent went up fast. Dev made burgers. We hung all our wet things to dry overnight. Beer and wine flowed. Gin rummy commenced; Dev lost by a very narrow margin of 30 points. We sacked out.

Next morning (Friday 8/29 for those of you keeping score at home), we met a doe and her two fauns in the middle of the camp ground. I should explain; the Nehalem state park is almost all drive-in camping, yurts and RV camping. Finding a deer and her offspring in the middle of the camp surprised us. The foraging must be good, because I'm used to deer skedaddling at the first sign of a person. Post-deer we loaded up the car and ate at the Pig N' Pancake. Big honkin' pancakes for me; Denver omelette for Dev. Then we needed sunblock. Then we finally made it to the beach at 11 am. Early start hey?

Despite our tardiness, high tide hadn't come in quite yet. e suited up and ignored the light sprinkles and thick fog and headed down to the beach. The water was warm again on Friday; warm meaning that bare hands and feet felt cold in the water but anything covered by neoprene felt comfortable). We started out pretty strong. Dev got some great rides early on. Then she started trying for bigger and bigger waves. These would often knock her of the board before she could pop up. I didn't get so many good rides to start. Once I started choosing more "mushy" waves I started getting up on the board and riding it in to shore. Next up: learning to turn!!!!

We watched a couple of guys who got outside the shore break and rode the bigger waves outside. They looked good. And they looked like they were having a lot of fun. This one guys rode his short board all the way from a big wave outside to a smaller wave on the shore. Looked like he was having a lot of fun.

Dev got to the car and couldn't contain her enthusiasm for our new sport. She was more excited about surfing than I've seen her be about almost anything (except maybe our wedding, but that's hardly in the same league). We were talking about wetsuits and boards and planning the next summer and how to spend time on the coast. I think we can safely say Dev is hooked. And I really had a good time in the water, which is new for me. Just gotta keep working on my swimming so I can be out in the bigger waves and play safe.

Vacation day 5 (part deux)

We spent Wednesday at home. We unpacked our gear. Started some laundry. Did some dishes. Then we started packing for two days at the coast. We grocery shopped. And we situated ourselves to leave the next day.

Then we organized all the extra stuff in our garage for a garage sale. We piled it all in the center of the garage floor; made a price list; set stuff together in little mini-piles.

Then we watched the Democratic National convention and passed out.

Bojangles got a bone!

Vacation day 5

Vacation day 4

Tuesday started much sunnier and warmer than Monday. Lucy had to jet to work and wished us a safe drive back home before she left. Jason and Cassius led us to the local vegan donut shop, The Mighty O. Now, normally I would expect a vegan organic donut shop to be mediocre and unsatisfying. Let's day that my experience with alternate baked goods has been plagued by failed facsimiles of sweet treats. Not so here. The Mighty O makes tasty donuts; very tasty.

Post donut, Dev and I lounged and primped. Finally we gave Jason some sorely deserved alone time. We headed out for Pikes Place market and wandered through the stacks of hand crafted artsiness. We found an awesome map shop one block up from the market; Metskers Maps. Dev and I lost about 45 minutes there just browsing globes and nautical charts and Moleskine city books.

After taking in our cartographic fill, we swung back to the Greenlake neighborhood to meet Jess for lunch. We caught up; Dev and I hadn't seen him for about 3 years. Good food paired with good company. Jess told some funny stories about his kids. Regrettably, the lunch ended too soon. We started battling our way down I-5 back to Portland. The drive home took more patience than we would have liked, Tacoma and Olympia both did their best to stop us. We survived despite the efforts of the clueless drivers of the northwest rush hour. Arrival home resulted in dog walks, some sort of chicken pasta red sauce last minute whip it up because we didn't want to go to the grocery store dinner that was quite delicious and the last 3 session of the Summer Olympics on the Tivo.

Then bed followed by 8 hours of sleep. (Sensing a theme in the vacation yet?)

Vacation day 3

Dev and I spent a blissful night sleeping on Jason and Lucy's futon. We drove up to Seattle at the end of day 2 (Sunday). Cassius got a little freaked out when he met me. Jason and Lucy got Cassius (a 110 pound rescue German Shepherd) shortly after they moved to Seattle. Cassius is gorgeous and good natured but not well socialized or trained, yet. Jason says that Cassius has made huge strides in his behavior since they got him. He seemed pretty well behaved for most of our visit so clearly the training and treats are doing something to improve Cassius' attitude. Nearest we can figure is that he doesn't like my height, so he gets a little freaked out and starts barking and cowering. Anyway, we went out Sunday night to Duke's Chowder house and had a fabulous dinner catching up with Jason and Lucy.

We slept in until 8 or so Monday morning. Kicked around for a few minutes drinking coffee and chowing breakfast. Before we even got out of bed, we decided to skip the morning workout at Crossfit Seattle. Dev looked at me and we just knew that we didn't feel like jetting to a class that started an hour later. Instead, we tromped over to Best Buy and bought a new digital camera. Our little elph finally gave up the ghost on Saturday. Blue tinting on the LCD screen was followed by no image and no power on the LCD. We did get a nice camera that uses regular AA batteries. We can get rechargeable batteries for our main use and then fall back on store bought batteries on long trips.

Jason took Dev and I out to lunch at a local deli/grocery store. Then Dev and I walked over to Woodland Park Zoo from Jason and Lucy's house. The rain kept a lot of the animals indoors. We still got to see a good number of critters. And the zoo tries hard to make the enclosures look like natural habitats. We dashed from exhibit to exhibit to stay out of the rain as much as possible. The zoo seemed pretty deserted by the tie we left at 6. The rain kept falling pretty hard on the walk home.

Jason and Lucy treated us to homemade pizza and some good white wine for dinner. We watched Michelle Obama speak at the DNC. We chatted about politics for a while. Then we watched "Idiocracy." I'd heard lots of good things about the movie, but really, I wasn't prepared for the cynical goodness of the movie. More chatter followed the movie. And then blessed blessed sleep.

Devon snuggling with Cassius

Vacation day 2

Rainier National Park
Scott and Dev and I rose late (8 am) and feasted on eggs and hash
browns and bacon. Sated, we broke camp and cleaned up. Scott jetted
for home on his bike. Dev and I drove over to the day use area. We
hiked out to Glacier Basin and caught a great view of the big boy
himself. We hiked out after enjoying the fantastic view an a small
snack. We caught a little rain on the hike out. It was better for us
than for the group of climbers heading up to Camp Schurman. Good luck
guys! Stay dry!

From Daily Kos - True colors of Tax cut plans

An important article that details who gets tax breaks and who doesn't under the two presidential candidates respective tax plans. Make note of which candidate proposes to tax the rich and cut taxes for the middle class. Notice also that the tax increases in that plan all go to those making more than 600 grand a year. Hmm. I wonder who plans on helping the working class more?

Quote of the day

"Hash browns are the devil. I cannot resist them."
-Scott Neves (my very clever brother)

The eyes have it

I decided to switch back to contact lenses today after 3 or 5 years of glasses. I have finally got tied of the hassle of glasses and I'm willing to try out the hassles of contacts for a while. No more holding a glasses case in one hand and trying to swap out prescription sunglasses for prescription clear glasses when going into a store on a sunny day. No more lenses fogging up on a moderately cold winter hike. No more moving the goggle off my face and scraping the nose piece of my glasses across my face as they go with the goggle when I'm snowboard. No more moving directly next to the whiteboard at the gym so I can read the work out of the day.

No more.

Given my fickle nature, expect to see a retraction or reversal within six month.

Vote for Christina's sister's recipe!

Swimming update

Last night I hopped in the pool for about 45 minutes. I focused on just staying relaxed while stroking and regulating my breathing. I didn't do great, but not badly either. I used fins for about 20 or 25 laps. I did about 10 laps on my back with no arm stroke and wearing find. And I did about 10 or 15 laps with a pool buoy between my legs and just using my arms to haul me up and down the lane.

New adventures

I just got online and purchased Total Immersion to help me improve my swimming. I had started swimming again last fall. By swimming again, I mean that I took a beginner swim class from the local pool. I finally got some basic technique at the age of 35. I didn't do so well on the follow up. I haven't been to the pool in months. So now I go back.

Why now?

A couple of reasons. Swimming is a survival skill. I should be able to swim confidently for a few hundred yards, at least. If I fell in a river right now on one of my hiking trips, I'd be in trouble. Next up, swimming opens the door for a lot of other activities, like surfing. I can surf in the short waist high breaks at Indian Head right now. If Dev and I get better and start going to bigger breaks, it'd be nice to know how to get myself to shore. also, it makes me more rounded, more of a generalist. I like having a wide set of skills and knowledge. Sadly, my aquatic side has been stunted for a long time. Finally, there's kind of a zen simplicity to swimming that really appeals to me. Much like hiking is so simple and basic and fulfilling, swimming seems much the same way. All you need is some water and some time and you can swim.

I'll try to post progress as I go along.

Riding the Bridges

So we rode in the Bridge Pedal today. Basically the city of Portland shuts down the upper decks of the two big highway bridges in town and restricts traffic on the other eight bridges so all the bicyclists can ride on them. Dev, Jami, Mary and I signed up for the 11 bridge ride (11 bridge crossings). Jami and Dev and I bailed off after nine bridges and rode back to the waterfront for the Bite of Oregon festival. We had some good food and a little good beer and then made our way home. Pictures are here.

And now we're at the Bite of Oregon

Bikes take over the Fremont Bridge

Dev on the Sellwood Bridge

Devon on the Bridge Pedal

Another one....

MO Republican Indicted, Charged With Sexual Assault Of 14 Yr Old Girl

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/07/mo-republican-indicted-charged-with-sexual-assault-of-14-yr-old-girl/

Why is it that all Congressmen getting busted for sexual deviance/perversion/sex offenses come from the party that shouts about Family Values and strong morals?

Ice cream at work

Need I say more?

The invisible before us

I took this shot at an intersection near home on my way to work last week. The view reminds me of a documentary on R Crumb that I watched years ago. One of the most memorable moments in the movie involved Crumb getting a ride around the city and the suburbs. He didn't drive but he wanted to sketch out as many versions of power lines as he could find. The images of the power lines contradicted what I imagined; I always minimized the power lines in my imagination. Crumb's imagery depicted a sprawling tangle of power lines littering the landscape and skyline. I made effort to look for power lines on the way to work. I shocked myself by actually *seeing* something that is always there. I lost the thread of cables by the time I made it to work.

Hawthorne bridge counter weights

I walked along the sidewalk on the waterfront during lunch today. The two big towers in the picture are the two massive weights that drop to raise the middle section of the Hawthorne bridge for shipping traffic.

Good Customer Service is not Dead

All reports to the contrary, many companies apparently still care about doing right by their customers. Some examples:

Outdoor Research will repair all of their equipment that fails due to defects (poor seams, bad materials, whatever) for free, for life. They just ask you to pay to mail the item to them. I thought the foot straps (feet straps?) on my gaiters had failed during my Rainier climb. The ends of the straps pointed out and they didn't seem to be attached to anything. So I dealt with a very nice gentleman in Customer Service who set me up with a RA (Repair Authorization) and gave me all the info I needed to send the gaiters in to them. Turns out the straps weren't broken, I'm just an idiot. Outdoor Research repaired (patched) the holes that my crampons had ripped in the gaiters and replaced the security tabs on the front of the gaiters. Holes poked in the material of an item by sharp spiky things is not generally repaired for free. Awesome guys. You just earned a customer for life!

Petzl makes the crampons I purchased last year. I trimmed the crampon straps to fit my first set of boots. Turns out that I cut the straps so short that they won't work with any other pair of boots I want to use. This is not good. I've mostly got by using a pair of Grivel crampon straps. Those are still too short for plastic boots. So I called Petzl to see if I can buy some replacement straps. The rep I need to talk to is on vacation. He calls me and tells me he has a pair of straps from a used pair of crampons. They don't have any obvious wear and they're mine if I want them. I say sure and ask what I owe him. He says I don't owe them anything. They even pay for shipping!!! What company does that?!

Katadyn make water filters and purifiers. Dev and I have one. We've used it about 5 or times since we got it in May. I pumped some water on my overnight trip last weekend. Then I pulled the inlet hose off of the filter. The hose fitting snapped off the body and stayed with the hose. So I email Katadyn looking to buy a filter housing. The gal in their support office refused payment and asked for my address so they could send me a replacement housing free of charge.

All three companies got a fix for free with no hassle and no run around. Freakin' awesome.

Picking berries at the dog park

Fifteen minutes and we filled a 2 quart Tupperware. I know what's for dessert tonight!

Another day at the dog park

Dev and Jami walking with Shelby and Boj and Moxie.

Another bike commute pic, part ?

This shot looks back north along the floating part of the Eastbank
Esplanade. Those rusty looking spires in the left part of the shot are
the anchors for the Esplanade. When the river gets high, the walkway
rises but stays in the same place thanks to them.

Cool beetle in the parking lot

I saw this bug on the way across the parking lot this morning at work.
I've never seen one with this pattern before. I thought I'd share.

UPDATE: Rob here at work identified the beetle as Polyphylla Decemlineata.

Leopard savaging a crocodile caught on camera

Just amazing....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/07/18/ealeopard118.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox

Don't drink the water

Toxic detox - too much water is as bad as too little.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/health/7521137.stm

This makes me want to buy a Pugsley

Good lord! Look at the size of those tires!!!!
And their trip looks like so much fun!


Untitled from Eric Parsons on Vimeo.

Funny list

If You're on the Fence About How to Vote

http://thegoat.backcountry.com/blog/2008/07/23/if-you%e2%80%99re-on-the-fence-about-how-to-vote/

Caught by a train

Fifty feet from work and I get stopped by a train.

Good news? Bad News?

AK-AL: Palin scandal shakes up House race
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/343043383/659

Lust inducing

I needed a spoke replaced on my bike so I rode over to River City
Bikes during lunch. After I checked my bike in for service, I wandered
around the store. I found the beauty in this picture. Only two things
I would change; more than 3 speeds and hub brakes instead of rim
brakes. Drool-worthy!

Remains of the day

There's something about donuts at work. Yummy!

Today's tasty treat

Chicken Katsu with a side of eggrolls. Normally I bring my lunch.
Today I needed to mail something off so I walked to the post office.
(At the post office, out front, were some LaRouche supporters. I
nearly engaged in a debate with them. That's a rant for another day
though). On the way back to Macforce I passed by Kokiyo. I had brought my lunch but some teryaki sounded very tempting. You can see the result in the picture above.

Still water under the bridge

The water of the Willamette looked pretty flat today. I get a good
view north on the river from the floating part of the East Bank
Esplanade. The Steel Bridge looks striking in profile. Enjoy!

The original Portland rose garden

On my alternate bike commute home I pass the original rose garden of
Portland. Today, the aroma wafting from the garden drew me into an
orbit around the square. I thought I'd share.

View to a commute

I see this every day on the way in to work. Not bad. Not bad.

Burning USA!

Dev and I went surfing today. Or rather we went and tried to surf at Ecola Beach state park. Pratfalls into the water and salt-water martinis actually ensued upon said attempt. Sue came with us. She rocked the longboard, getting up and riding 10 times the *combined* successful rides that Dev and I had. We had fun. We came away exhausted. And sunburned. You'd think that by now I would know that lazing around shirtless in full summer sunlight for 45 minutes after lunch without sunblock would be a bad idea. Apparently I do not know this yet. My wonderful nap turned into a very bright and angry sunburn on my chest. Of course my back is still its normal fishbelly white, so I have the bonus that I look like I just stepped put of an episode of "Friends". Anyway, we had great fun. Thank go to Sue for playing in the water with us and to Anna for watching our stuff on the beach, in between the 5 books she read in the course of the day.

Bojangles begging for belly rubs

So we actually went somewhere else

Boozin with Kate and Aaron

Getting underfoot

Our ancient and broke-down threadbare carpet.

Our awesome new area rug.

Rainier! part deux

We woke up, or rather, our watch alarms woke us up at 11 pm on Thursday. We had crashed out around 4 pm and dozed fitfully for almost 7 hours. I rolled from back to side to back multiple times in that 7 hours. I always dread getting out of the sleeping bag for the mountain assault. Losing all my warmth while I gather my gear and scarf down a cold breakfast. Great joy in those moments. All this in the flat light of my LED headlamp. This time I didn't feel nearly as cold as I expected as I went through my preparations. The warming trend predicted for the Rainier seemed to be tracking the forecast.
We saddled up, got into our harnesses and got moving shortly before midnight. We trucked along the bootpack on the Cowlitz glacier until we reached the bottom of Cathedral Gap. The loose stone and scree slope slowed our ascent and provided a little excitement in the opportunity for rockfall from the team ahead of us. We reached the top and rounded the shoulder to hit some firm snow with a not so great runout below. We stopped to strap on our crampons and grab a quick bite. We looked back to the east and saw a heavy harvest moon low of the horizon. After admiring the sky for a moment, we got moving again. We hit Ingraham Glacier very shortly after. We passed the tents of the camp at Ingraham flats. Headlamps and clanking and low conversation informed us that other teams were preparing for their climb. We passed the camp and followed the bootpack to a snowbridge over a crevasse. My first ever crevasse crossing and it was pitch black so I couldn't appreciate the moment properly; no yawning abyss from which I could shrink. We moved on towards the ridge Disappointment Cleaver.
Either the climbing rangers or Rainier Mountain Institue had set a handline along the bottom portion of the cleaver. A handline is a rope set to anchors in the rock and in the snow along difficult portions of the route. Climbers use a camming device on the rope to prevent slips from turning into falls. The drop off here didn't seem particularly heinous and the footing not particularly treacherous, so I'm not sure the reason for the handline. Since we didn't have any ascenders (camming devices), we moved along the route carefully. Nat ignored the fixed rope, I kept it running through my hand and I'm not sure whether Dan used it or not. We came round the rocky band and hit a upwards snow climb. This climb kept on for a 1000 vertical feet. The bootpack switchbacked it's way up the slope. The constant changes in direction made rope management fun. Good practice for future climbs.
Finally about 3 am we topped out on the last outcrop of the cleaver. A team was resting there when we reached the rocks. We settled in next to them. They left less than 5 minutes later. The wind had picked up. I wrapped myself in my puffy jacket and sat low to gain some protection from the wind, but I still shivered. We ate a quick snack again, and drank some water. While we rested, another team of climbers caught up to us, and started their break just as we stood up and started moving along. The top of the cleaver marked our entry to the Emmons Glacier. The eastern skyline started to light up orange presaging dawn for at least an hour. We marched upward and onward. Nat worked to make sure we followed the wands and the bootpack up the glacier's sides. Dan moved along slowly at the end of the rope. And I tried to minimize the pain to my feet.
I rented plastic boots from REI for the climb. I normally wear 12 or 12.5 shoes and boots. The plastic boots in size 12 fit too snugly which would slow circulation and lead to cold (and possibly frostbitten) feet in bad conditions. I asked for a pair of 12.5 boots; they didn't have any. At all. Not one pair of 12.5 plastics in their rental stable. So I tried on the 13's. They were, obviously, too big. They seemed to fit well enough at the time. Unfortunately the loose fit made my shins and the inside of my left ankle extremely unhappy. The plastic lip of the outer boots bruised and abraded the front of my shin (a condition called shin bang) and made it very uncomfortable for me to walk with my toes points straight uphill. Luckily climbing sideway to the slope is a valuable skill to have in the mountains. I got lots of practice walking sideways up the hill. It minimized the shin bang and let me concentrate on climbing instead of the misery inflicted on my shins.
Once on the glacier, the route goes pretty much straight up for two thousand feet. The trail made switchbacks to ease some of the grade a little and to work through the least creviced section of the route. Mainly we went straight up for the last two grand of elevation. Right at about thirteen thousand feet Dan started struggling a little bit. He had to stop and rest. He had a hard time catching his breath. His energy got low. The altitude really slowed him down. He soldiered on despite the difficulty and we reached the summit ridge at about 5:30 in the morning. We crossed into the summit crater (the crater of a real live volcano) and started tromping towards the true summit. We dropped the rope, and Dan and Nat left their packs near the ridgeline. We thought the hard part was done.

We were wrong.

Those last 300 feet to the true summit killed me. I don't know if I had switched into descent mode. Or if I was just a little out of gas. Climbing that last bit of mountain felt much harder than the last hour I had been moving. We made the summit and shared it with another crew of four climbers. We chatted. Got blasted by wind on the summit. Took pictures. Laughed. Looked around to the mountains and ranges we could see. The crystal skies gave us great visibility. Then it was time to go down.
We left the summit about 7 in the morning after refueling with food and water. The gravity assist on the down hill makes moving easier and faster. Every step brought us thicker air which gave us more energy. We dropped almost 2000 feet in the first hour of the descent. A brief rest at the top of the cleaver, a quick bathroom break and then more descending. As we got lower, the temperature began rising quickly. The sun's heat and the heat reflected back from the snow plus the heat radiated by the rocks meant we got warm fast. The snow started getting slushy. Foot ing got treacherous. And the threat of rockfall became very real. So we trucked it down the cleaver, moving as fast as we could to minimize our exposure to rock fall. Once we hit the Ingraham glacier, we started trucking a little bit faster. We had a wary eye on the icefall upslope from us. Ice fall can happen anytime, but warm weather makes icefall more common. Soon we reached Cathedral gap and descended back to the Cowlitz glacier. Aside from a brief rest at Ingraham flats we kept moving to minimize our exposure to rockfall. We got back to Camp Muir about 10 am in the morning, right at 10 hours from when we left.
Then we had to pack up and leave, which is part of the story I'll continue in the next few days.

Pictures from Rainier

Pictures from the Rainier climb are here.

Come and gone

Bobby came to visit.I have pictures to prove that he does indeed get outside the house every once in a while. He came out to visit some of his buddies out here on the west coast. He visited Scott and a couple of online friends last weekend. He stayed with Dev and I on Monday and yesterday. We showed him around portland a little bit. Took him to dinner on Hawthorne. Drove him out to Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood (and WOW has the snow melted off of Hood fast!) Ran him by Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. And went to a comedy show downtown last night. He's off to see Jim in L.A. as of this morning. Good to see him again.

Pain in the Neck

The kink is still here, though much lessened in intensity. I can turn my head more than yesterday without blinding agony. The bike ride into work this morning proved interesting - I could only have turn my head to check my left side. I slowed my approach where checking left seemed important.

Ouch!

Woke up with a wicked kink in my neck this morning on the left side. Not sure where it came from, but I'd love for it to go away soon!

Dragontail Pics posted

Pictures are here.
Enjoy!