Sierra Buttes Part 1

Last Saturday, Jim Mike and I decided to take advantage of an unusually warm November day to hike Sierra Buttes. If you click onthe photos, you'll get a much better view.


Our drive to the trail head took us through the Sierra Valley. The valley, surrounded by 7,000 foot ranges, provided food and hay to support the miners in Virginia City, about 20 miles to the east. This is the land of Ben, Haus and Little Joe Cartwright, those righteous cowboys with whom I spent many youthful Sunday evenings. Dun Diddy Dun Diddy Dun Diddy Dun Bonanza!






After a very steep quarter mile, gaining about 500 feet in elevation, we could see we still had some effort between us and the peak. Our trailhead was at just over 7,000 feet altitude, and I felt like my lungs wanted to explode. Guess I don’t get enough exercise.








Looking further up the trail, we still had a way to go.












Our first scenic vista, overlooking Salmon and Sardine Lakes. One guidebook claims these are among the least visited lakes in the Sierras. Given the steep slopes down to the lakes, I am not surprised. The lakes are about 1,500 feet below where I was standing.








Our adventure continues in the next posting.

The Secret to Getting Good Airline Service

We had another wedding to attend last weekend, In Phoenix. Nothing terribly exciting, however I gained this great travel tip: if you want to be treated royally, even on a schlock-service airline like Southwest, travel with an over 80 yr old lady, and push her in a wheelchair. Everybody treats you great, doing all they can to make everything easier for you and your “charge”. The only negative was that one gate attendant spoke to my mother–in-law like she was speaking to an idiot. Sometimes people need to use a chair in the airport because a couple of hours standing and walking around is too rough. That doesn’t justify talking to a person like a six-year old. One attendant let me push the wheelchair down the jet way – I’ve always wanted to do that!

I’ve been busy at work, the typical corporate stuff, spending lots of time being a PC jockey, and lots of meetings over the phone. This job produces nothing interesting that I care to write about.

Ahhh the World Series. If there is any justice in this world, the Cubs’ day is coming soon. I enjoyed watching the parts of the games I saw. Especially rewarding after watching the too frequent and nauseating shots of President King George the First and Barbara (or, was that the Quaker Oats man?) rooting for the Astros. Bush league.

Fall weather has finally come, the soup & stew season is upon us. Made a beef stew today, from Fanny farmer’s recipe. The flavorings are lemon juice, allspice and Worcester sauce. This is my favorite classic stew. Pure fall delight.

I hope all you readers out there enjoyed Indictment Friday as much as I did. I will repeat my promise I make to all my readers: I never have, and never will “out” a CIA operative. Nor will any member of my vast Hangininsac staff. That is my solemn vow to you, my readers. Heck, I won’t even tell you confidential stuff about work. And remember kids, Tubby McTreason (aka Carl Rove) is still under investigation. Tell you one thing, if Rove ends up in prison, no risk of him squeezing out through the bars.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

After Over a Month of Full Time Work. . .

God, I feel like such a tool.

The hanging guy is a little more tired than he remembers being in the past. That’s my excuse for not blogging over the last month. We had a great weekend getaway for my sister’s wedding reception. Fun party, upstairs from a bar with fish mounted on the wall. I saw lots of my sister’s friends whom I haven’t seen for years. It was a great time.

Work, ah work. There is little I can say, since almost everything I am working on is confidential in the eyes of my employer. The lunches are good, and I can get up and take a walk around the building whenever I want to. Plus pretty good free coffee in the morning. The commute is a drag, even though it’s sometimes nice to have a place to go. A closer place to go would be nicer. All I can say is that a corporate environment is what it is. If it was legal to hunt weasels, would anyone go hungry?

We had a neighbor who is soon to visit Guatemala and a Guatemalan coworker of Kathleen’s and her husband over for dinner last night. That was fun. I cooked chicken, since I recall most natives of Latin America like red meat cooked very thoroughly. Since no one likes chicken cooked rare, it’s a lot easier pleasing everyone. I roasted another free range Rocky chicken on the grill. They are the best chickens I have ever had the honor of cooking. They come from Petaluma, and are raised in some way alternative to the usual factory farming methods. I have never inquired into how they are raised, since if I was that concerned, I’d make something vegetarian instead. The Guatemalan husband said the chicken reminded him of “porch hens” from Guatemala. I looked it up and the Rocky Chickens are free ranged. I think the key to their superiority is that the body fat is really well distributed throughout the meat. Very tender and juicy, even the white meat. You can read about it here: http://www.petalumapoultry.com/products/rocky.html . In addition to Rocky, they offer organic chickens calle Rosie. Cute names, but they all get plucked in the end.

Now calm down. Just in case anyone thinks I have lost my trademark stinginess, the chicken was on sale at Whole Foods for about $1.25 per pound. That’s only $.25 more than the de-beaked factory chickens at the “pedestrian” grocery store across the street from Whole Foods.

I also served ratatouille. I make that all summer here, and I am looking forward to soup and stew season. We still have about a month to go. We have left over ratataouille for lunches. I can be a rataterrorist all week!

I am soooo glad the Packers had a big win today, although, 50-something to 3 is a little embarrassing. . The Badgers’ loss does not really bother me.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Grubbing for Money and Panning for Gold

I survived my first week at work, which included a day in San Francisco, band practice on Monday, and Recorder consort on Friday. I’m a little more tired for the wear, but I am hoping I will get used to it. I may be working for a while. The commute is about as bad as I remember, this area has way too much traffic. Being hourly helps keep my days short, and if I do have to work extra hours, I’ll get paid accordingly. The cafeteria at work still has great lunches for about $5, which is a deal. I’ve been mostly eating at my desk, so I can clock a half hour lunch break and get out earlier. I can learn to live with this hourly thing.

MIL just got a new compute form Dell, so Kathleen and I have spent a time helping her set up and transfer files. That project looks complete now. Today we spent some time organizing and housecleaning, and we went to Old Sacramento. On labor day weekend Old Sacramento has Gold Rush days. The streets are repaved with dusty dirt, and horse and history enthusiasts do their thing. Pony express terminal, recreationists hauling around canons with six horse teams, and you usual ethnic and period history interpretation people in their costumes. Last year, we saw a reenactment of a historical squatter’s riot. Lots of fiddle and hurdy-gurdy music too. The recreation stops at the sidewalks, the stores have still tee shirts and similar junk,and the restaurants offer burgers, ice cream and beer, which I think is a good thing. Hard tack and jerky would have been a bit of a drag. I grilled some meat and sautéed a bunch of tomatoes, squashes and onions for next week. Food in the fridge, clean laundry, we are set. I didn’t feel like doing any household work any of the weeknights, although if I could get up the energy to do that, the weekends would be a lot freer. Not a lot more exciting thanthis to report.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Hi Ho Hi Ho It's Off to Work I Go

Tomorrow is the day I go back to full time (at least for a while) work. I look forward to this as a symbol of the fact that I don’t need to act like a sickie anymore. I will miss some of the time I had to myself during the daytime, although afternoons have been getting a little dull. I will also miss my part time math tutoring. I will not miss being occupied on most weeknights with tutoring. In addition to work, my band starts fall rehearsal tomorrow evening. I will have recorder consort practice on most Fridays, so I will be a busy beaver this fall.

I will get to work 8:00 tomorrow for their orientation, which means I need to leave here around 7:20. I would like to go and work out before then, but that will require getting out of bed a little before 5:30. That will only work on nights when neither Kathleen nor I have anything happening. So, we’ll try to work out tomorrow. I am hoping this won’t be too tough, since my stomach usually wakes me up at about that time anyway. The difference is that now I usually get myself to fall back asleep at that time. I don’t really sleep very well after that anyway.

I found an Oregon quarter today! I think that makes our collection up to date until the next release. Imagine the sound of nerdish laughing.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Stop the Insanity

Bob Dylan said it best. Looks like not much has changed in the last 42 years.


http://bobdylan.com/songs/blowin.html

The Original Benedict

I’ve been reading more religious books. Read a book about The Rule of Benedict, "Benedict’s Way" by Laurie Pratt and FR Daniel Hoffman, OSB. I have never looked at the Rule before. I was surprised that The Rule specifies that two meat dishes should be served for dinner, since someone may not like one of the dishes. Further, The Rule requires each Monk gets his own bed. In sixth century Europe, this would be a very high standard of living. The rule demands monks do Lecto Divinia, which is the reading and rereading of holy texts. This tells me all the monks had to be literate, which also seems remarkable in Benedict’s time and place. Most of the rule focuses on what a bunch of guys need to do if they want to live together without being at each others’ throats. One of may favorite things is the repeated references to “murmering”, which is viewed as the root of many evils.

“Benedictine Sprirituality” has become soupe de jour for lots of new-agers. The idea is that The Rule can inform and improve our lives, even if we are not monks. This seems simplistic to me, since the rule, other than specific monastic practices, instructs us to get our avarice under control and work to be nice to each other. As Bill and Ted said, “Always be excellent to each other, party on dude.” However, Bill and Ted probably wouldn’t have liked the chastity business.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Work, Wal-Mart & Old Music

I am going back to my old employer on a contract basis. I should start Monday if they can get the paperwork done on time. It’ll start out full time, so that will be a shock to my ways. I have already bought the clothes I need, so I’m ready to go. Not a lot more to report, since hangininsac will not become a source of corporate gossip. That would be pretty tacky. Besides, every already knows what corporations are like, so there would be nothing new to say.

I bought some stuff at an office max adjacent to a Wal-Mart . Wal-Mart built a store in a smaller mall that previously had an empty Montgomery Wards for over a decade. I am glad they have filled the space, but don’t expect me to shop there. Watching the traffic in and out of Wal-Mart raises the following question: Do people shop at Wal-Mart because they are fat and unattractive, or does shopping at Wal-Mart make people fat and unattractive? Inquiring minds want to know.

Last Friday night, I shared my first practice session with Sine Nomine. It was pretty well attended, with two each of base, alto, tenor and soprano recorders. We played through a bunch of early music, and also some more contemporary music, including an arrangement of an American Indian flute and drum song. Otherwise, most of the music comes from around the time of Europe’s discovery of America. We had tea, cookies and conversation after playing. It was fun.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

On the Way Home

We took the older highway home though Humboldt Redwoods State Park. I recommend this detour for anyone making the trip who has some extra time. Highway 264 itself cuts through miles of beautiful forests, and there are several short trails through groves of giant trees. All the groves are named after people I’ve never heard of, so I cannot remember the name of the grove where we took the following two pictures.


Several giant trees in this grove blew down during a windstorm after a very wet December in 1991. The remains of the trees look like really cool abstract sculptures. The first picture is piece of a tree left standing.
















The second photo shows the roots of a giant tree that fell in 1991. The entire several hundred foot long tree still lies intact.



















As we drove south through Humboldt Redwoods State Park, we kept on seeing signs for “drive-through tree and souvenir shop ahead”. We finally gave in, paid our five bucks and went to one of these places. The reason we ran into almost no one in the woods is that everyone was busy browsing the souvenir shops. Note the redneck watching us drive through the tree, into the parking lot. The great thing about this tourist trap is that SUV’s can’t fit through the trees.


That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Vacation Photos

Just what you’ve been waiting for – vacation pictures. We spent the best part of our trip in the woods, so you’ll notice a lot of trees in our pictures. The pictures are from Patricks Point and Prarie Creek State Park.

The first two pictures are a fern canyon, carved by a stream to the ocean. The canyons are very narrow, damp and shady, so the walls are covered with lush ferns and mosses. The floor of the canyon was sandy. We walked through the canyon to get from the beachside parking lot to the more mature forest.


As we came deeper into the canyon, we found the sun shining on this very cool looking fallen tree. A monument not made by the hands of men.

















After we climbed through the canyon, we came to beautiful redwood groves. The tall trees, wide trunks and filtered light give the feel of a cathedral. This forest was truly breathtaking. Best of all, in this 6 or so mile walk, we got lost only once!









A moment to thank the trees for their hospitality. Once a tree-hugger, always a tree-hugger.


















We visited Prarie Creek State Park on a misty day. In the words of Legolas from Lord of the Rings, “This forest is old, very old.” It felt like the trees were talking amongst themselves. Fortunately, they decided we were fit to be allowed to leave the forest.







That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

On Top of the World

Look mom, we're at the summit. Althoug I am embarrassed to admit it, we made some cell-phone calls to brothers, parents, etc. to say, "guess where I am"











Jim and Michael on the way to the top.












You can read more about this trip at http://hangininsac.blogspot.com/2005/07/pioneers-and-lunch.html

Nearly Bored of the Rings

Among all this other crazy stuff, I have been once again viewing the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The heat has driven me to this. I really enjoyed The Fellowship of the Ring; I felt like I still got something out of another viewing. The Two Towers really didn’t hold my attention after multiple viewings, except the Theodin, the palantir and the ents are still pretty entertaining. I’m about half way through The Return of the King. The dead caves are still really cool. Almost makes me want to take another shot at the Return of the King video game, so I can let orks make a pincushion out of another fellowship character.

This, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I present as prima fascia evidence that someone could probably use a job.

Get a Job, Slacker Boy

You may have noticed several entries over the last few months about my shameless yet lame attempts at self-promotion with the aim of finding more significant employment than my current tutoring gig.

Much to my surprise, it appears that someone other than me has taken note of these efforts. The phone finally started ringing.

I had two short interviews this morning with my former employer (really, former employer under new management) and a scheduled interview Monday with a local service firm interested in talking about possibilities. So now I am the proud owner of a plan A and plan B as far as professional work goes, plus the plan zero alternative, which is to continue my slackdom as a math tutor, which is a pretty good life in its own right.

Now is the first phase of interviewing, when everything that exits my mouth is positive, no fretting about time off for vacations and weddings, employed vs independent contractor status, full vs part time, or money. I take the Isaac Walton approach. Get them stuck on the hook, then fight like hell.

The coolest moment so far:

A manager in one of the interviews missed his appointment for our telephone interview. While speaking with the coordinator of the interviews, I said “ I’d be glad to arrange another time, but Monday is out since I’ll be talking to other people.” I’ve always wanted to say something like that.

All this arranging of appointments is complicated by our plans to vacation in the redwoods Tomorrow through Sunday. I cannot wait to breath the cool moist air under the trees and on the misty beaches. Photos of this trip, as well as my previous Mount Judah excursion will soon appear in this very blog.

Gazpacho!

My Neighbors have been bugging me for this recipe. I started with a recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook, and "de-naturalized" it. This is the best food I know for a hot day.

Enjoy!

Gazpacho

1 large can tomato juice
1 small minced onion
1 can (16 oz) chopped tomatoes and juice
1 minced green pepper
1 tsp sugar
1 large or 2 small cloves crushed garlic
1 diced cucumber
juice of 1 1/2 lemons
2 tbsps wine vinegar
1 tsp tarragon
1 tsp basil
pinch of ground cumin
¼ cup freshly chopped parsley
3 dashes of Tabasco sauce
2 tbsps olive oil
salt & pepper taste (tomato products are usually salty enough)

Combine and chill at least 2 hours. You can puree if you like.
I recommend chunky Style.

Pioneers and Lunch

The trip to Mt Judah was a success. The weather was good, and the base and the summit were both full of wildflowers. A flock of about twenty tiger swallowtail butterflies dropped by while we were at the summit. Unbelievable! Bad news: I won't be able to post photos until I use the rest of the film in my camera. Good news: by then, I will have pictures of the redwood forest. The woes of being behind the curve in technology.

Near the summit, we ran into a wheezing elderhostel group. It looked like some of them wished they chose a flatter vacation spot. At the summit we used my historical map to spot several passes used by pioneers in the 1840s and the gold rush 49ers as well. We walked through Cold Stream pass on the way up, and along the lip of roller pass on the way down. I can’t even imagine how they pulled wagons through that area, especially after dragging themselves across the prarie and desert from Council Bluffs. It is a tough enough walk without carrying all our worldly belongings. Early California was definitely not for wimps.

At the summit, we had lunch, but we decided to have our peanut butter sandwiches instead of the somewhat gamey looking elderhostelers. Bah-ding!

Yesterday I had lunch with a prospective and former employer, and things look very likely there. More about that as things progress. I could use a more substantial role in the workforce, and this would move to working during the day, rather than in the evenings. I find I miss a lot of opportunities to do almost anything with other people outside of work since I have been working nights. Maybe if I get and hold this job for a while, I'll buy a digital camera. I saw a poster in a store that said shopping is patriotic.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Why A Hike is a Big Deal to Me

In my own little world, tomorrow’s trip to Mount Judah is a big deal.

First, let’s talk about history:

When I first visited Sacramento while getting to know Kathleen, I really wanted to drive up and see the Donner area. Lake Tahoe has never captured my imagination in the same way. The terrain and history of that area has always fascinated me. Starting with the early 1840’s stories of the Stephens and Donner party each trying to figure out a way to get over this difficult range (Stephens 1, Donner 0). Followed by a few year’s worth of settlers in the late 1840's, and the gold rush in 1849. In these short years, the parties found cold stream and roller passes, which are higher than Donner pass, but easier for parties to go through. The relatively short hike to Mount Judah’s summit goes through cold stream pass and roller pass. Until the late 1990s, the trail also went through Donner Pass. However, the trailhead was moved in about 2000 to allow Sugarbowl Ski Area to add a new slope. To be fair to Sugarbowl, they built a good alternate trail to replace the closed trail.

Later in the 19th Century comes the Union Pacific, the first transcontinental railway in North America. After a survey of the sierra range, lead by engineer Theodore Judah, the railroad also chose the Donner Pass area as the best crossing. So did the builders of Interstate 80. I think it’s amazing that a few scouts found the same pass as the railroad’s and interstate’s studies.

You can stand on the summit with a map and look down on all this history.

Now, let’s get personal:

For Several years Kathleen and I made sure to have one or two hikes in the mountains. Mount Judah is our favorite because it was our first mountain hike, and the first time I (Mr. Wisconsin) had climbed to a real summit, with a name, a view, and everything!

The last time we went up Mount Judah was our last outing before my major surgery and the sickness that followed. We knew it might be our last chance when we went up on July fifth 2003. I had to eat about 3000 calories of extra food just to make it up the hill.

About a month or two after surgery, as I was beginning to realize that I was not going to spring back to my former state of health, I used some guided imagery CDs to try to get better. When you are desperate, you’ll do almost anything. The CD asked the user to imagine a nice place, where you’d go if you could. I always went back to Mount Judah. As my health continued to not improve, I dropped that routine, since it just made me feel bad that I didn’t really believe I would ever get healthy enough to go up the mountain again.

Well, that’s not what happened. My life may not be perfect, I may not feel great, but I am going back up the mountain!

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

All About Crap Jobs

From the Idler website,

A series of essays written by intelligent people subjected to moronic jobs can be found in Crap Jobs of the U K . Some of these descriptions killed me.

How can you resist short essays that begin like this: "A summer job working at a local mental hospital was supposed to be a bag of laughs. I had envisioned chatting therapeutically to slightly confused older folk over soothing cups of tea, but no. "

Or how about endings like this: "Having heard reports that I'd been 'dancing round the ward with a corpse' and now finding me sprawled across it in the morgue, I was immediately asked to leave. I have never been so glad to be sacked."

I highly recommend this collection, as well as most of The Idler . Now, why could that be. . .

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I’m done reading, time to go outside

Yes, I finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince early last week. I didn’t write about it in the blog for fear of exposing readers to spoilers. Now it’s time to wait for the next book. No use musing over questions like, who is RAB (Remulus Black?), Is Snape really the half-blood prince? (recall the book was from before Snape’s time. Could it be you know who?) Blah blah blah, you can go on for ever this way, but let’s remember, it will all come out however Rawlings decides.

Today has been a pretty productive Monday. Cleaned house, exercised at the health club, did some household business, made a batch of gazpacho that should hold out through the week. It’ll be another hot week, with highs around 100 degrees. Best of all, I have planned a good hike in the sierras with a friend and his new 15 year old ward and nephew. Our hike will include Mount Judah's Summit, and maybe Donner summit, too. Summits are good for you. A Disneyland-like experience for more sentient beings. Not to overlook that the high’s are only in the low 80s in the mountains.

On Saturday we took a walk by the American River. I scrounged some good wild raspberries, and we ran into some interesting human residents of the parkway. When I ride my bike, I never talk to anyone with more than a couple of words as I speed by. They didn’t have a lot to say anyway. We had a pleasant walk, even though we didn’t see any great sights. It’s just great to get out by the river and in the woods.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

2:00 Friday afternoon

Sitting at the Coffee Shop

Written at 2:00 Friday afternoon.

I decided to come out here since I hadn’t gotten out of the house yet today. I slept poorly last night, the usual sore stomach plus some. I haven’t slept well for a few nights, maybe its time to use one of Dr’s magic pills. Often, I use the pills once, and then I’ll sleep normally thereafter. In any event, I felt pretty crummy this morning. It was the first time I remember not finding the energy to get up before Kathleen left for work. I had vivid dreams while I slept in this morning. I dreamt Blue Funk wanted hire me back half-time, but I was too tired to get out of bed and get to work. I finally got up, but then the dream was over. I still felt crummy, so I moped around for the rest of the morning. At about 11:00, one of our sprinkler pumps started spraying like Buckingham Fountain. I reset the sprinkler timer so that pump won’t be activated, and left a message with Dave, our mow and blow and sprinkler guy. He hasn’t called back yet.

That, pathetic as it may be, is my life so far today. After this moment, I will go to the grocery and buy London broil on sale and some taters to cook on the grill, so we can have meat and potatoes around for a few days.

So far, no one is responding to my feeble efforts to contact the world of work. Ah, another day of reprieve from the stresses of the world of employment.

Seated at a table near me are two talkative fat women with high voices and inane dialogue. Think huge talking white fish wearing shorts and matching tops. They are bitching about the lousy service at some hotel they visited. Something about dirty rooms and massage service not being timely. I’d kill myself and a bus full of kids before I’d want to give one of those cows a massage! The fatter of the two just said she’d like to be able to get TV on her PC, you know, for important things like September 11 and the Simpson trial. I am at risk of succumbing to the intense exposure to stupid radiation. I need to move operations inside.

Back indoors, I left the dirty hotel ladies out on the terrace. I was hoping this place has the New and Review (SNR), Sacramento’s weekly newspaper, but I don’t see it. One of my math students is a high school Junior from Redding. Her parents just moved to a suburb so white and conservative, I have never even seen a Mexican there. She likes indie music, which certainly isn’t found anywhere in the suburbs. Sacramento’s far suburbs are about the most boring suburbs I have ever seen in my life. Nothing but square miles of houses with box stores on the big intersections. I was hoping I could find SNR for her, since it’s full of ads for indie stores, which are almost all in Midtown or downtown. Alas, I am sure she’ll figure it out on her own, or she’ll spend the rest of her life in Rocklin watching TV and amassing debt, as is they way of her suburb and its moneyed hillbilly residents.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Going to the Dogs (and Cats)

I have stopped working volunteer at the SPCA here. There have been some goofy management initiatives, including management spying on volunteers and accusing them of besmirching the SPCA’s name on the internet, (Oh Rick, if you are reading this, go get a real job), that makes the SPCA now a poison environment in my humble opinion.

I am told the SPCA has been destroying, as a matter of policy, animals that have been cared for by volunteers. Who wants to volunteer their time to socialize and train an animal that will be killed by autocratic order, rather than put in someone’s home? Unfortunately, this will further erode care for those few animals the management doesn’t choose to kill.

I think the Sacramento’s SPCA’s future may be moving more in the direction of a kill and kill and kill shelter, rather than simply a kill shelter. Over time I think the verifiable difference between the SPCA and local government animal control is thinning. Maybe in the interim I should find some other place to save the world.

That’s the truth and I’m sticking to it