Elevated Portions Of Mare Island

Looking southeast from the heights of  Mare Island towards Carquinez Strait Bridge. 

We weren't supposed to drive up here, but Sally relied on her 'disabled' status (because of her knee surgery last year) to get past all that.

An Amtrak train zooming eastward along the water of Carquinez Strait on its trip from Emeryville to Martinez.

Vallejo in the distance, as seen from the flower garden.

A big vessel heads west into San Pablo Bay (the northern portion of San Francisco Bay) from under the Carquinez Strait Bridge.

Odd sculpture?  Alien sacrifice? Cargo cult?

Radio tower.

Looking west, past the tidal marshlands, across San Pablo Bay, into the haze, which obscures the hills of Marin beyond. 

Interestingly, the haze blended with the sky, so when the western-bound vessel entered the haze, it appeared to be suspended in the air above the water (which I found disconcerting).

Naval base in foreground; City of Vallejo beyond.

Boat.

Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve Visitor's Center

Visitor's Center.  Sally and I had a picnic under the yellow-and-white umbrella.

A few items for sale.

Aerial photo of Mare Island (above strait) and the City of Vallejo (below strait).

A colorful jumble.

When these figures representing Mr. & Mrs, Vallejo aren't being used in the annual Vallejo parade, they are stored at the Visitor's Center.

Mare Island Historic Park Museum

Mare Island Historic Park Museum

Life-size Polaris missile mockup dominates the park across from the museum.

As I recall from when studied this stuff as a teenager, the Polaris missiles were propelled from the submarine tubes from just under the surface by steam.  The solid fuel of the missiles was ignited once they cleared the surface.  Range:  1,600 miles for the first generation (later superseded by the Poseidon missiles).

Knots.

The latest in WWII communications technologies.

A clandestine radio transmitter.

The Iwo Jima flag was made at Mare Island.

Racial history, with the Japanese and the African-Americans at Port Chicago, is given its due.

Hiring now!

A prosthetic leg.

A Mekong River Delta patrol boat.

Under construction - the control room of the submarine USS Vallejo.

More on the Vallejo.

Model of the USS Vallejo.

Figurehead from the USS Independence, War of 1812.

Michael Flowers Presents "One Beautiful Evening"

Michael popped this on the Web just ten minutes ago. Dark music and thoughts by Laurie Anderson.

Tropical Storm Chantal

TS Chantal is in a perfect place to mess around with Florida in about a week, should it stay strong. Current forecast shows it falling apart before it reaches Florida, though. Still, something to watch!

Deborah Is Always Up To Something

Plane Crash In San Francisco

These things are scary. Two teenage girls from China perished, one of them possibly by a stupid accident on the ground. I wonder if fatigue is a factor? Those trans-Pacific flights are L-O-N-G! It was interesting watching Wolf Blitzer getting irritated on CNN about the slow flow of information. He couldn't believe there were 60, or so, people "unaccounted for" for the longest time. The fact that they might have a limited staff chasing several hundred highly-agitated people didn't seem to occur to him. Or that what counts for "accounted for" might be different for officials than for CNN. Wolf got snippy with aviation expert Patrick Smith when Smith seemed to imply that news coverage of disasters by cable networks isn't always top-notch. In general, a sub-standard performance by Wolf. Condolences to the families of the Chinese girls, who deserved much better:

The two teen girls were close friends, each looking forward to a summer trip to California to improve their English. Ye Mengyuan excelled at the piano, just as she did in her academics. Wang Linjia enjoyed calligraphy and, according to local media reports, her work at the school's TV and radio stations. Classmates since junior high, the girls often ate lunch with each other at school, and few were surprised that they chose to sit together on the 10-hour flight that led to their deaths Saturday.

Shopping For The Baby Shower

I do not know what I am doing.

Is that how much this stuff costs? No wonder people have baby showers!

St. Peter's Chapel, Mare Island

Oldest naval chapel in the Pacific, and first interdenominational chapel in the Navy.

Fishing Sabotage

M.: So, how was the fishing at Minden Lake?

E.: It was terrible!

M.: But you said you caught a 24-inch catfish.

E.: Yes, but so many got away! I had one, and then the line broke; then I had another one, and then the line broke; and then I had another one, and then the line broke; then I had another one, and again, the line broke. I think C. is replacing my fishing line with older fishing line when I'm not looking. Do you think he would do that?

M.: No, I can't imagine he would ever do that. Why would he ever do that?

E.: Because he's a man. It's one of those man things. He's got to be number one!

It's A Bad Bet, But What Else Can They Do?

The drought continues:

The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, which serves farmers from Cochiti to Socorro County, released the last of its irrigation water from storage in El Vado Reservoir at midday June 30. With that water gone, the only water in the Rio Grande downstream from Cochiti Dam is federal water to meet Endangered Species Act requirements for the Rio Grande silvery minnow and water earmarked for Pueblo irrigators, who have earlier and higher-priority water rights.

“We are now up to 36 months of consecutive drought. It’s the driest three-year period on record for much of New Mexico,” Bureau of Reclamation Albuquerque area manager Mike Hamman said in a statement Wednesday. “Reclamation is focused on working closely with the Pueblos and MRGCD to ensure that the water in the river is reaching its intended destinations.”

The conservancy district notified farmers Tuesday that it was cutting off deliveries to non-Indian farmers after July 4.

The only way that will change, according to the district’s announcement to its farmers, is if enough rain falls to raise river flows to allow irrigation with natural flows. While the week of afternoon and evening storms has helped slow the river’s decline, there has not yet been enough water for the district to resume deliveries to non-Indian farmers.

While some middle valley farmers have supplemental groundwater pumps to help them through the drought, most depend on river water from the conservancy district, said Chris Sichler, a Socorro County farmer and member of the conservancy district’s board.

Alfalfa farmers can get by on limited irrigation, but farmers without wells who planted chile or corn will have problems without rain, Sichler said Friday.

“I guess they’re going to take a gamble and hope it rains,” Sichler said.

Got Interviewed by "Albuquerque - The Magazine"

Best wishes to Tom Sandford, staff writer at "Albuquerque - the Magazine", as he embarks this weekend (and perhaps well into next week, and the week beyond) on the all-important field-research phase of his 'Drinking Bad - the Bars of Breaking Bad' article in the upcoming September issue. I know that there are plenty of able-bodied Research Assistants in the UBBFT (particularly if there is an expense-account involved) should he need any assistance.

Roger Shah, JES & Brian Laruso - Higher Than The Sun

Farewell, Magnolia Tree

Back when Sherry and Gil lived next door, Sherry would take care of the strip between the apartments to the east, and my house, as if her own. When they moved away, the plants there suffered from lack of attention. Although the strip is technically mine, it is in the yard next-door, and rarely in view or mind. And with new, corporate-style management, care of the magnolia lagged. Which was OK, as long as the rains were plentiful, and regular.

But the rains weren't regular. December, 2012 was great, but the rest of the rainy season - January, February, and March - were singularly arid: the fourth-worst driest spring since records have been kept. And with lots of "Urinetown" rehearsals, I didn't check on what I never would have checked on anyway.

And so, the tree died.

And on Saturday, I cut it down and into pieces.

I'm sad for the tree. Drought is hard.

Just a stump left now....

"I Am Into You" - Screaming Rachaels

Michael Flowers got inspired by the Fourth of July.

Gaga by Gaultier

Michael Flowers is very persuasive here, in urging everyone to watch this documentary, where Lady Gaga first meets Jean-Paul Gaultier.

DMTC "Spamalot" Cast Announced

Apparently I am Sirs Bors. In "Monty Python And The Holy Grail", Sir Bors appears (I think) just once, as the knight first sent in after the Killer Bunny:




One of my favorite scenes in "Holy Grail" is this scene, where they mock the Scholastic reasoning process - why do witches burn? - the sort of thinking that the Middle Ages was justly famous for:

Flash Flood At Ojo de Amado (Bursum Springs)

John W. saw this on the Topix news page for Socorro, which was carried on CNN's Ireport video blogging service. What was most impressive was the story was only a day old when John saw it: essentially brand new!:

Published on Jul 3, 2013

I was taking lighting photos on July 2nd 2013 just off the Quebrada Backcountry Byway, at the Ojo de Amado spring, when I captured this video, and some images of a fantastic flash flood.

I knew this area would be likely to flood, and I was awed by the power and ferocity of the flow. This is normally a dry channel with a small little pool of water that attracts birds and other wildlife.

Heavy rains have hit New Mexico tonight, with areas in neighboring Catron County receiving up to 2.5 inches of rain according to total precipitation maps. The Quebradas area received between 1 and 2 inches total, and the arroyos are filled to levels beyond what I've seen here before.

The roaring of the water was simply incredible.

Thank goodness, we've been so desperate for this rain - we'll take it however we get it, let's just hope that everyone stays safe out here tonight.

I posted this on Facebook, and Walt was amazed. We were familiar with this place back when we went to NM Tech together, but it's so strange to see a brand-new video about an exceedingly-obscure place like Ojo de Amado spring.

My sister wondered:

Wow! So who was the nut with the camera at the arroyo? Curious...that person must have known the gush of water from the storm was on the way...

I replied:

Beats me! His story mentions something about hunting for lightning pictures when he saw the flood. I wonder if he's based at Tech?

Walt and I had a running joke about the immediate area. When we hiked on the hillsides, I could see the rows of rocks indicated man-made disturbance: possibly Indian ruins. With his East Coast eye, though, Walt was skeptical. To him, it just looked too natural. So, I started looking more closely. Even as I pulled pottery shard after arrowhead after metate from the rocks, Walt feigned total skepticism. A source of amusement to us both. Apparently the spring was a Piro Indian home hundreds of years ago. So, a fond memory ....

Get Out Of The Way

Romy & Michele's High School Reunion - Business Women Special

The other night on the teevee, they featured a favorite movie from 1997, "Romy & Michele's High School Reunion". Here Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino are on their way to the reunion at Sagebrush High in Tucson. I love how they give the best line of the movie to the waitress, and the scene ends with one of the longest, most awkward, and funniest pauses in movie history.

July Fourth DMTC Fundraiser At Davis Community Park

Jan, and the DMTC booth.


Daniel Watts (former 2003 California Gubernatorial candidate, and Davis City Council candidate too), his girl friend Kayla, and Alexis Padilla (daughter of Leonard Padilla, also former 2003 California Gubernatorial candidate), came over and said "hi!" We had a nostalgic 2003 good-ol-time! Daniel is now a Sacramento attorney. Julie Padilla now lives in Denver. When I mentioned my book, they were like, "we will totally read your book, like, if it's available on Kindle!" I was like "I'm totally from the dead-tree old-school generation, but I will make my book available on Kindle!" (And, in fact, I have done so.)

Davis Youth Softball make Sno-Cones.

The heat was truly beastly: on the order of 108 degrees F. in the late afternoon. I looked up Phoenix, AZ, temperatures and they were the same, so we were in the same boat as the Phoenicians.

There is a weather station that reports for Slide Hill Park in Davis on Weather Underground, and they showed temperatures above 100 degrees from about noon to about 6:30 p.m., peaking at 109.4 degrees shortly before 4 p.m. We were out in the elements from about 1 p.m. to about 11:00 p.m.

Stacy took this photo. They eventually forced me to eat the cotton candy, because while waiting for customers, it calcified into an unappetizing blob. "It looks like one of the wigs from 'Hairspray'," Stacy said.

At the end, fireworks!