bensdiorama

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:39:00 GMT

It's being a bit wintery in Davis. Morning bike rides into work and it's hovering just above freezing. I know it's not that big a deal, but it seems like it, just being newly Winter. Also, with Univ of Calif in the poor house, the building heat is turned down and many keep their scarves and jackets on right through the day. My office is fine with all the computer heat. :) I'm tempted to go on about other measures of starkness at work, but that's another post. Despite the new season of cold, it has only barely gotten to freezing and Mike and I each were commenting at Thanksgiving that we're still pulling the last of fresh bell peppers out of our summer gardens. (Mine are somewhat sheltered from frost by weeds. Nice!) I guess that was a brag. :) Plus, it's been sunny for a good two weeks at least. (Yeah Holly, in case you wondered, I read Polly's post about UK weather so I suppose I am rubbing it in a little.)

Tonight Bev and I were completely fried out from long work days, and not enf decent food at home, so went out to dinner at Katmandu. I'm not nearly as big on Indian (or Nepalese) food as Bev, but what the hey, we were way over due for that sort anyway. It was pretty darn yummy. Lamb vandaloo and a Sudwerk Marzen for me, btw. It was also the downtown businesses shopping season(?) open house night, where we've traditionally visited all the shops that serve good cookies. Once again tho, we were too late for that. Oh well, still a nice night, and I've always got a chocolate chip or two, or .... at home in the cupboard.

Thanksgiving scheming #2

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:39:49 GMT

Yesterday, work got rather crazy, when it should have been slowing down. While waiting for a 5 minute data copy, I took the chance to jot down a list of some things I might get on the way home for the turkey stuffing. A little wild rice, 2 onions, 2 fuji apples, currants, etc. All good.

Work and it's trouble du jour kept going, and going. Finally I left, and about half way home on my "commute" with thoughts returning to my stuffing list, I realize OMG, I forgot the turkey!!

How's that for a "Doh!"? It turned out fine tho. The guest of honor -- a 17.75 lb reserved free-range Tom -- was there waiting patiently for me, and is just about to come out of the fridge to greet a big pile of good lookin stuffing. :)

Thanksgiving scheming

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:24:10 GMT

OH!, okay, now I feel like posting another 'favorite Thanksgiving' -- this one really Thanksgiving as opposed to my last fake substition of Christmas -- and I guess it does have a little to do with "preparations" as prompted by some of the topics from J, i.e. "What to have".

It was 1975, just Bev and I, on our honeymoon. We were in an old Volvo stationwagon, camping mostly, out through Utah (brrr) and making it into Grand Junction, CO on that fine Thursday afternoon. We had been looking forward to the splurge of getting a motel, but then had to stress a bit with all the 'no vacancy' signs as we were just getting into town. But alas, we found one, with a kitchenette and tiny oven, as hoped. Score! It was even starting to snow. We got a nice semi-large roasting chicken, a few goodies to stuff it with, and other simplified Thanksgiving food items at a small, independent grocery store. One moral of the story ...it doesn't so much matter what you have for the meal, as much as it matters what, who, and how things contribute to it. Of course, if it's your honeymoon, things are likely to be pretty good no matter what.

back from London

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:27:18 GMT

Hi, I got back from my 10day London holiday last night --- wallked in the door somewhere around midnight, which was (I think) 8am London time. Being couped up for long airline flights is pretty awful. For some dumb reason I woke up this morning at 630 so am still a bit zombied! Going across the pond that way, I always think about 2 things: Lindbergh's first (still amazing), and that it might have triggered Mom's failing health 3 years ago (and yes, if not that, something else would have).

But enf drudgery.... It's such a joy to have Theo!!! There are a few more pictures up, in case you've not been there recently. http://picasaweb.google.com/Ransom.Ben/Theo# and one more slightly silly video at http://www.youtube.com/user/bensclips

US Coast Guard C-130 collision

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:49:12 GMT

I'm not really sure why I'm posting this, other than it being a solid dip to my otherwise pretty happy mindset these days. Che Barnes, the pilot of the C-130 that collided with a USMC helicopter (http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/31/california.midair.collision/index.html), was somewhere between acquaintance and friend. He was part of our pool of friends at UCD airport. He had a Pitts S1 and I shared his hangar for a few months last winter. He was a real nice guy, and it's darn sad he got cut short. It's also just such a weird freak accident that, over all that water, instead of one search aircraft finding a missing rowboat, it instead smacks right into another aircraft. It seems more like "getting hit by a bus" than an airplane accident.

Grampa me

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:49:47 GMT

Sort of a double post from facebook for starters: Theodore is wonderful ...expressive, wiggly, soft, warm, and Cute!

He's awake for 2-3 hours in the morning, very self-content. Same for an hour after dinner. Otherwise he does a lot of sleeping, eating, and diaper changing, the latter being almost the only thing he's not too charmed about, and indicating a healthy set of lungs. Holly says too that his stomach has been upset from time to time, cause for a little discomfort. For my part, holding little Theo is just like holding Holly and Chelsea, seemingling not so long ago, and the same tricks (and limitations) still work. It's really really nice.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Ransom.Ben/Theo#

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJMjjffYpfc

this wknd

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:36:31 GMT

This wknd I went mountain biking with Jonathan to a new place, Salmon Falls. It isn't a water Fall so far as I know, but after last week's rain, is a sizable tributary flowing into Folsom Lake. It was a nice Fall day with overcast and a breeze, so just perfect. There were wide open areas with surprisingly expansive views, dry now but covered by the lake in wetter times. For contrast, maybe half of the bike trail was single track through chaperel and oaks, some parts easy riding and others technically challenging. Darn fun and not all too far from home.

After that, I finished reroofing the shed as it was trying to sprinkle Sunday evening. I was just doing the ridge crest, but since it was coolish, I had to first lay each shingle piece over a heat lamp so they would take the ridge bend without cracking. Then scurry up the ladder and shinny along the roof top to place and nail down a few at a time. Glad to have finished another summer project ...ps, a summer 08 project, done in 09.

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:03:33 GMT

We took our 'not so tall ship' up to Silver Lake yesterday. Thunder clouds, short bouts of heavy rain drops, a cold swim, and some relaxed reading....


From Silver Lake

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:08:36 GMT

I finally received the Hoerner wing tips for my plane. (Big $ check to Dave Fife last March, tips received Sept 6 after much unanswered prodding). In the photo, the Murphy factory wingtip is black, the Fife tip is white. The photo lighting is done poorly, but the difference in shape is fairly apparent. Chord is ~5 ft, max thickness is 9 inches.

Aside from the worry that these would never show up, others report they work extremely well ...reducing stall speed about 5mph, and dramatically improving low speed handling overall. So, I'm glad they are here! I got them with halogen landing lights and lense covers (cutouts visible in the photo), as well as mount bumps for position lights. I'll mount one landing light pointed high for approach, the other pointed low for taxiing.

Great Oshkosh video

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:12:51 GMT

if you like airplanes...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKU0uQki5Dc

My Cinderella yacht episode

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:26:17 GMT

I wrote this private (posted to just myself) about a month ago. Finally, what the heck, I'll add public evidence to my craziness.
-----------------------------------

Since vacationing in Puget Sound earlier this summer, I went through a spate of pleasure shopping for waterfront property. Not just any such property, but the kind that moves around, to any waterfront of choice, powered by big colorful sails. This was admittedly fantasizing about future possibilities, but as I think we all know, pleasure shopping on Craigslist or Ebay has a bit of playing-with-matches built in.

On these shopping excursions, I sometimes included the search term “partner”, wondering what the market looks like for those realizing that they can’t possibly use a whole boat. Of course, I soon found a Screamin’ Deal. By the next day, I caved to temptation and replied to the seller with a question or two. To know how screamin, the ad’ claimed: “Own half of an Ericson 28 in excellent condition, on Lake Tahoe, for $5000 and half the expenses.”

In pondering this, on the plus side I’m thinking of course about a more upscale style of sailing than I’m used to -- i.e. no wetsuit required – on Tahoe no less, weekend overnights to coves, dinner and wine with friends, etc. Good grief, a sailboat with a stand-up galley, comfy sleeping for four, and the mast is already stepped! Why have I not recognized this possibility before?

But I’m also thinking that at least as important as the boat, is the partner. So, my purpose with the Ericson ad’ was 90% information gathering, for perhaps similar possibilities down the road with someone we’d enjoy partnering with. I did, however, google the owner’s name and found that he showed up as a 1999 UCD graduate, where-upon I even wondered if his name was familiar. It wouldn’t be impossible to have known the guy and have it turn out to be a compatible partnership as is. Wouldn’t that be nifty!

So anyway, as mentioned, I replied to the ad'. Getting a message back from the seller (I’ll call him Eric here …sort of like the boat) I somehow sensed that he was in a financial league way beyond mine. His first reply was automated from his iphone – simple, perfunctory, in charge, don’t waste time emailing questions, etc. I could tell, I was already taking directions …from him! Not my idea of a workable partnership.

Five minutes later we connected, and I was primed to get to the point with just a few salient questions. Again, “Eric” was complete, but simple, friendly, and easy going. Background noise indicated he’s on the road. I know I’m imagining this part, but I pictured a Jaguar Xj6 convertible, top down, heading toward Tahoe Keys along the West shore of Tahoe. So yeah, I guess I am gullible.

Eric quickly gets past the howdy do’s. Me too, as I jump in with, “Look, $5k for half an Ericson 28 in excellent condition …is this really a $10k boat, because it sounds like there’s something more involved, or ….” Eric politely interrupts with, “Yeah, well, here’s the situation. I bought the boat in Florida a couple months ago for $7200, paid 3 to truck it here, and another thousand to have it rigged and detailed. Yes, it’s worth more, but I don't really care that much about the money. I just have so many things going on that I can’t possibly use it much. I’m just looking for someone else that would like to use it and make my keeping it more reasonable.”

I should add, that at the beginning of the phone call he needed to clarify whether I was calling about the Ericson 28 or the Islander 30, which he bought a week after the Ericson. I’m thinking, “Man! It’s like I have a twin!” Only this guy really IS stinkin rich (and I just like to think I am). At no point in any of this did the guy sound fake or fraudulent. I can’t explain it; everything seemed too unstaged. I asked him just a couple more things, such as where on the lake, and slip fees, then finished off saying, “just like you, I’ve got way too much going on, and honestly just better let it go”. Again, a polite, perfunctory good-bye from Eric, and that was that.

In the days following that phone call, I looked a little wider for perspective. The boat was on the bargain end of the range, but with the slack economy, great looking boat deals are easy to find. As for Tahoe slip fees, good grief, Eric said $1000/year for the Ericson, while my checking around showed six to seven times that. Plus, one marina contact told me it is uncommon to leave boats in the lake year round, in particular those with liquid cooled engines. So,the slip fee may turn into a storage fee, but it still totals $4 to 5k. I don’t get the guy only saying $1k.

Honestly, I'm not sure where I was headed with this. A big part of my drama is that I'm weary of my airplane project requiring so much (all) of my spare time, for so long -- 5 years going on 8, in the garage regardless of weather, poking at aluminum. I sometimes feel that once finished, I could name it "Opportunity Cost". OK, that's way too bleak; I do enjoy it usually, and in fact there is something nice about a long-term project. But my eyes do wander, and someday -- maybe after the airplane -- we will be on a "proper" sailboat.

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:26:55 GMT

I have a bit of tendonitis in my right arm. The cause: operating the hand drill on some of the 20,000 rivet holes for my airplane. Darn.

The tendonitis adds to bursitis pain I have in the same arm/shoulder. Double Darn! The bursitis is from swimming, set off in particular from starting to add a reasonable amount of backstroke into my workout starting last May. I finally went to the Dr a week ago to get a referral to a physical therapist. The bursitis had already begun to improve, but I'm really glad to have a solid diagnosis (rule out any rotator cuff problems) and get a regimen of exercises to fix and prevent further shoulder trouble. The tendonitis is still not so good, and the only good cure is reduced use. I've tried to improve the dexterity and accuracy of left-handed work on the airplane. By now I've finished another major section of drilling/deburring, so that should help too.

This was to be the summer I finally took up kiteboarding. But alas, so far this would have been a bad idea. Now I'm using the arm trouble as an excuse when the real trouble is, like most mortals, I really can't figure out how to take the time for another project. I'm not done with the 20,000 holes yet, but I bet I've got at least 16,000 done.

conflicted

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 17:02:31 GMT

This is about as far from a real problem as one can get, but...

If i have a very small group of 'friends' on facebook and an even smaller group in LJ, how do I resolve posting something nearly pointless in the first place, to both groups, just because of my poorly understood urge to post at all?

Obviously this is only a dilemma in my thinking about two people that are in both my facebook and LJ groups, and with whom I have actual conversations with fairly often. Honest, I don't really have some inflated sense of the importance of my "news".

Homer Kolb

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:49:33 GMT

Homer Kolb, the co-designer of my "ultralight" passed away recently following complications from heart stent surgery. Last night I read through the nice things said about him on the Kolb listserv (and added my own). Here's a picture of one of his early and lesser known planes that I'm sure Mike will appreciate, and a link to an obit article in the Philidelphia Inquirer. It even sounds like his Kolb Flyer will end up in the Smithsonian. Now that, I'd love to see.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/obituaries/20090716_Homer_E__Kolb__78__plane_designer.html
The plane pictured in the article is essentially the same as mine.

vacation photos

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 19:33:11 GMT

Here are some pictures of our mini-vacation to the San Juan Islands...

http://picasaweb.google.com/Ransom.Ben/SanJuans2009#

This is our 6th vacation there I think:

1985
1997? in the turtle
2001? meeting Mom, R2, and Kateri after Jim and I flew up in the Grumman
2004 Bev and I to the Canadian side
2006 me only, and really only to Arlington fly-in plus Seattle
2009 this one

and I'd go again in a heartbeat

UC furloughs approved

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:57:27 GMT

UC Regents yesterday approved a one year furlough plan to cut costs. For Bev and I it means we now have 93% time jobs. (Furlough amounts are lower for low income employees, higher as you go up the scale.)

In a more applied sense, it means 7% pay reduction and 18 "days off" over the 12 months beginning September 1. It is likely that 12 of the 18 days will be set, such as those days between Xmas and New Years, days between academic quarters, etc. I personally am grateful for a part time job -- a pretty darn good one at that -- for the first time in almost 30 years.
:)

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:10:47 GMT

This is so amazing I just don't know how to get to it.
Today we saw multiple pods of Orcas, spectacularly zooming around catching their dinner. The photos don't do it justice... there musta been at least twenty of them spread out over a couple acres, with groups up to 4 circling or thrashing up a big scene, undoubtedly cornering their prey.

We were just minding our own bees' wax heading toward Anacortes on the ferry, soaking in the last bits of a fabulous mini-vacation. The ferry cut to half speed as we approached thick fog blanketing everything a mile off the bow. As we entered, the fog just as quickly began to clear and show numerous boats -- probably about 15, and I wishfully thought, what might cause all those boats to be here other than an Orca sighting? The ferry captain was probably also perplexed, being behind schedule, encountering thick fog, and a whole bunch of boats visible only on radar, dead ahead!

Here are the photos I got... keep in mind that at any time the human eye could see much more than what these show, and it went on for at least 5 minutes as we passed less than a mile from the action:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ransom.Ben/Orcas#slideshow/5358934799883808498
(slide show --- F11 to toggle full screen on/off )

And here on the same day -- and this only seems to add to the craziness -- I'm sitting at my dining room table in hot ol Davis writing this post.

More on our short vacation later,
-B

Tomales Bay

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:34:27 GMT

On Saturday Bev and I took our sea kayak, for the first time, to the sea! It was absolutely fantastic. For starters, we exchanged our 105F Davis day for a 79F beach day. That should be standard policy! We went to Tomales Bay, just under 2 hours from home. To my pleasant surprise, the water on the west side of the bay was fairly clear, so we had pretty views of the underlying kelp, sea grass, and rocky shoreline. The tidal in-flow was strong enough to make it interesting too. We found slower water near very small bays to make headway, then paddled with more modest gains around the points showing swirling, faster water. There were small "deserted" beaches to picnic on, and good wildlife viewing: big ospreys carrying fish, curious sea lions and seals that would pop up and look us over, and my favorite -- great white pelicans. I think the pelicans were juveniles, i.e. hatches from this year. They were practically all white and their feathers were lighter, fluffier than what I'm used to seeing. Here's some pics:

( on most browsers F11 toggles full screen on or off)

http://picasaweb.google.com/Ransom.Ben/TomalesBay02#slideshow/5352524311136520130

Look forward to going back!

UC Budget woes

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:58:50 GMT

Not surprisingly, the bad economy is showing it's face in our neck of the woods. UC employees will see an 8% pay reduction (slated as temporary, 12 month) beginning this August. Likely to take the form of holidays changing to unpaid, plus a combination of additional furlough days and pay reduction to total 8%.

I just got word Friday of funding levels for the support of our computer related teaching stuff and it is 40% of last year's level. Yikes.

And in other bad news, my "r" key is sticking!

On the upside, I won't mind having some furlough days ...if that is how they implement the amount of pay cut beyond the unpaid holidays.

Father's Day

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:44:36 GMT

Bev and I went so far as to try some JQMold song hijacking in lieu of searching (and searching) for the right card. This is taken from the opening scene of the music man. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ9U4Cbb4wg

ps: We're big on the Music Man these days because our neighbor Laura (Jonathan's sister, about Holly's age) is playing Marian in a local production of Music Man over the next few weeks, and she is excellent!

Here goes with our version.....

Cheers for the windmill
Cheers for the Tweedy pump
Cheers for the water runs
Cheers for the solar cooker
Cheers for the pool heater
Cheers for the chicken eggs
Cheers for the dog walks
… And the kids
And the grandkids
There’s a guy out there
He’s a dad, …an inventor
Look, whaddaya talk
Whaddaya talk, whaddaya talk
Whaddaya talk, whaddaya talk
Where do you get it?
Whaddaya talk?
You can talk, you can talk
You can bicker, you can talk
You can bicker, bicker, bicker
You can talk, you can talk
You can talk, talk, talk, talk,
Bicker, bicker, bicker
You can talk all you want
But it's different than it was
No it ain't, no it ain't
But you gotta know the territory
Shh shh shh shh shh shh shh …
Why it's that darn Al Gore
Made the trouble
Made the people wanna browse
Wanna click, wanna click
Wanna point and click
Seven, eight, nine, ten, twelve,
Fourteen, twenty-two,
Twenty-three kilo-bits
From the DSL
Yes sir, yes sir
Who's gonna patronize
A little bitty two by four
Kinda store anymore?
Whaddaya talk, whaddaya talk,
Where do you get it?
Gone, gone, gone
With the gas station service
And radio
Gone with the Do-it-yourself
Fix it up Know how
Gone with the bailing wire
And the Gerber jar carb.
Ever meet a fellow
By the name of Roger?
Who?
Roger.
Roger?
Roger!
Just a minute
Just a minute
Just a minute
Never heard of any teacher named Roger
Now he doesn't know the territory
Doesn't know the territory?!?
What's the fellow's line?
Never worries 'bout his line
Never worries 'bout his line?!?
Or a doggone thing
He's just a bang beat, bell ringing,
Big hole, great go, neck-or-nothing
Rip roarin', every time a bull's eye
Engineer.
That's Roger Ransom
R Squared
What's the fellow's line?
What's his line?
Thinks he’s a teacher
And he doesn't know the territory!
Look, whaddaya talk, whaddaya talk,
Whaddaya talk, Whaddaya talk?
He's an engineer
He's a what?
He's a what?
He's a tinkerer
And he shows off gadgets
To the kids in the town
With the big moving parts
And the rat-a-tat gears
Big brass bushings
Big brass bushings
And the sundial, the sundial
With explanations, too
With a long white tube,
PVC galore
And a big wire sparking
Well, I don't know much
About learnin’
But I do know
The kids take it in,
Learning physics. Yes sir.
Classroom demos, perhaps
Here and there a moving part
No, the fellow sells intrigue
Kids think it’s big
I don't know how he does it
But he lives like a king
And he dallies
And he gathers
And he plucks
And he shines
And when the man sings
Certainly, boys
What else?
The piper pays him!
Yes sir, yes sir
Yes sir, yes sir
When the man croons
Certainly, boys
What else?
The piper pays him!
Yessssir, ……Yes ssssir
…… But he doesn't know the territory!

Geek note

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:36:00 GMT

I recently upgraded the hard drive and ram in my MacBook Pro -- my daily portal to work and beyond. Part of the scheme here was to get to the point of dual booting Windows 7. Previously, I've used the Mac OS, and WinXP as a virtual OS (via Parallels).

I gave up the third year of my Apple warranty to put in the hard drive, so that ain't so good, but I think the pay off is going to be big. I now have that 'new car' feeling! The ram went from 2 to 3gb (max) and hard drive from 5400rpm to 7200rpm, plus 2.5x bigger.

I just installed Windows 7 pre-release, and all the drivers appear to be working. I had never really stayed in love with Mac OS -- it is no where near as cool as their marketing folks pretend. And, now with Win 7 running natively, it gets all the memory, and avoids other hassles of the XP virtual environment. Add to the coolness, this means that I dodged ever having to live closely with Vista. Yay again! 7 is way way faster, and AFAIK from others, fully stable too.

off geek mode

ps: we'll see if I'm still happy in a week

mini vacation

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:44:31 GMT

Bev and I went to Laguna Beach last wknd. It's pretty idyllic, and the prices reflect that of course. Nicely, one of almost any income can still visit the place and enjoy the wonderful beaches. The most outward sign (to me) of being in a stinkin' rich area is the cars. $80k Porsches and Mercedes everywhere. On one short walk to the beach I spotted two recent model Rolls Royces dwarfing their 40 year old women drivers. I don't even understand what kind of statement or image these people are going for! Men drivers seem to enjoy specialty model Porsches, Ferrari's, and BMWs that I didn't even know existed. (I'm afraid I almost do understand the deal there.) The houses on the other hand, well, it's obvious they are stupendously expensive, but still, they mostly look like houses (add in a few palaces scattered along the bluffs).

The most outward sign California did good, is that Joe Average can get to the beach at almost every single block. California Coastal Access --- The Best! (Comparatively, Washington State is terrible.)

Our minor disappointment about the trip was cool, cloudy weather. We knew of the possibility of gray may or june gloom, but there was something abnormal that kept the sun behind clouds for all but our last afternoon there. Still, we needed the break from our normal to-do lists at home and enjoyed reading and some time in galleries -- finding some possible keepsakes such as Picasso or Chagall numbered lithographs (price range: $12k - $22k ...and I tracked sand into that gallery). At least we got to enjoy hanging out on the sunny beach for Monday afternoon. :) I had also brought surf suits and snorkeling stuff, so did some of that Sunday. Water was cooler than I expected! (61F) I got used to it though and enjoyed reliving a little of my youth I guess.

This was our beach spot Monday, and where I went snorkeling Sunday --- check out the other 3 photos as well.

ps: It was fun to see J&O too. The four of us hit on an economic stimulus dinner deal at a American/African restaurant. $10 specials, and that included lobster, with a mango, canteloupe side thing . ...and it was yummy!

borderline maniac

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Tue, 26 May 2009 05:17:35 GMT

...me.
I like to think I'm pulling up short of maniacal, but I do find myself pretty set on getting a lot done in these glorious 3 day wknds.

Fri eve:
- BBQ hot dogs with friends at the airport --- good to start out by relaxing!

Sat:
- dug up most of the garden (late for our zone, but not too late) ...mowed the lawns
- little bit of airplane work, maybe just an hour
- we went to a little jazz concert thing Jonhathan had in Old Sac, then lemon pie at D&B's house
- came home after pie and worked a little, half-heartedly, on work.
- stayed up late enf to watch Dixie Chicks at Austin City Limits with a small but good snack (bourbon)

Sun (seems so long ago):
- another 2 or 3 hours on the airplane ...finished a two month phase of the cabin floor, got everything tidied up and flipped the plane back upright with help from Bev and Dave
- searched for vege starts for the garden ...so late that no one has 6 packs anymore! The bigger event tho was driving to Sac to buy a replacement kiwi plant. Kiwi replacement is blog in itself, perhaps with the same subject as this one.
- stopped at the causeway fruit stand to stock up (on food).
- Read a page or two about vacation property investment. (Guess you have to be very lucky for it to work out well.)
- we cooked a Jamie Oliver scallop/pasta dish that was good, but mostly has good potential for our next try. We didn't have any angel hair pasta so used whole wheat fettuccine, so you can see, not quite the right stuff.
- went to see the Star Trek movie -- pretty good! -- and I'm not at all into "that stuff"

Mon
- Dug out the poor kiwi that croaked last August. Dug Deep, added some sand into the clay/dirt to improve drainage, and planted my newest hope. This is the second replacement at this particular spot. ps: I got great advice from the nursery and have good reason to be hopeful (again). Misc other backyard work ...mowed the out of control side weeds, etc
- Repaired my old desk computer after ignoring it for the last 4 months. Did this mostly for odd reasons of no interest, I guess the point being I still have very little need for that computer.
- Drove all over the place to buy just a few vege starts for the garden --- this was lousy to do, and only barely successful.
- a load of laundry ---whoo hoo, I'll have clean underwear!
- put up shade cloth on part of the patio trellis and a little more backyard work
- another couple hours on the plane
- boiled some really good corn on the cob and we went to our annual neighborhood cul de sac potluck. Food much better than usual this year! :) Bev brought a chocolate cake.
- got home and planted some of the veges in the last 20 minutes before it was just too dark. Fun part of this was hearing Max and Nate (about 11 and 8?) next door squeezing the last out their weekend too ...they just got a trampoline so you know they're in hog heaven.

OK, that's about it, I guess. Blog-worthy or not.
ps: the weather so so perfect I almost thought I was in Camarillo.

Sunday Mornings

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Sun, 24 May 2009 19:55:18 GMT

I like to watch the CBS Sunday Morning show. It's got funky sweet stories ...the all too rare nice kind of news.

This morning they replayed some of even their oldies but goodies. Check this one (and do so by watching the video instead of reading the text):

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/30/sunday/main4764541.shtml

salmon: quickly heading toward extinction

bransom@ucdavis.edu — Sat, 09 May 2009 21:10:29 GMT

I'm not a fan of alarmist subject lines, so I certainly wouldn't use one myself without being ...well, alarmed.

About a week ago we channel surfed onto a documentary on sea lice as a biproduct of salmon farming, and the resulting rapid decline of wild salmon. Google something including salmon and lice for substantiation or further detail. In short, sea lice bloom from salmon farms and cause an 80% mortality in juvenile wild salmon heading from spawning beds to the sea. The lice affect salmon 75km up or down channel from a farm, and even second generation lice extend the duration and area of parasitic mortality.

I have cooked farmed salmon for at least the last 10 years and consider it one of my favorite meals. I'm embarrassed to not have known about the side effect of salmon farming, but will not be buying any more of it. I request the same of you ...and to pass the word. Salmon populations had suffered over the years due to logging run-off and diverted water, but the current lice situation will result in extinction within 10 more years. Loss of salmon also means loss of Orcas where salmon is their primary food, such as the Pacific NW. Talk about tragedy upon tragedy. This has been called God's country, and although I'm not very religious, I believe that much. It is absolutely beautiful. Orcas already are found to be traveling extended distances to find salmon, so the stresses are underway.