Vacation Vignettes

Apropos Sign
Originally uploaded by sgh2002.

It was a great week in the Sierra. Perfect weather, cool nights, warm days. Club Med with horse manure. The same old gang running the place, with guests from various California locations, but also Houston, Atlanta, and even the UK. As usual, it's a bit hit-and-miss when the horses are handed out. Kyla the polo queen ended up with a spirited little number called Jericho, which she handled with no problem at all. The rest of us had kind of a mixed bag of mostly "duded" horses -- ones that have gotten so many conflicting signals from so many dudes over the years that they just kind of take it in stride. Of course, nobody in our little group would give a conflicting signal to a horse!

Since our previous visits, they added lessons and different kinds of rides -- beginner, intermediate, and advanced. You had to pass the "lope test" to ride on the advanced ride. However, even the intermediate rides had a great deal of loping, which was a welcome change from the usual trail ride plodding and dust-eating. Kyla stuck to the advanced ride all the time, and Dara and I brushed up on our 3-year-old skills.

Karaoke was a big hit one night. The wranglers all have their favorite tunes, and that gets the guests going. Even Kyla got up there and belted one out with friends. Much to Aisha's disappointment and Garrett's delight, Aisha and Garrett didn't arrive until the next night. Both of them went on the breakfast ride, in spite of Garrett vowing he would not get on a horse the entire time. Aisha, who hadn't been on anything resembling a horse since the pony ring, even went on another ride afterwards.

The rodeo was a lot of fun. It consisted of barrel racing (going across the ring, all the way around two barrels and then back to the beginning); pole bending (across the ring, weaving between poles 20 feet apart from one end of the ring and back again, and then back to the beginning); and the keyhole (across the ring into a keyhole shaped thing drawn in lime on the ground, turning your horse around in the small circle at the end, and then out, without touching the lines). It's all timed, and they give awards on the last night for the winners. Kyla took first on every event, bringing back the coveted golden horseshoe award from the wranglers for Cowgirl of the Week.

The guests also put together a pot and had the wranglers race for it. The race was billed as a drag race, because the object was to race to the far end of the ring, get off your horse, put on one item of clothing from each of five bags at the far end, and come back across the finish line wearing all five articles. Clothing was bought at the local thrift shop in town. Nothing like seeing a bunch of crusty wranglers in women's clothing!

I did catch a few fish, some on dry flies, some on wet, but nothing worth writing home about. If you're interested in all the pictures, you should be able to see them all by clicking on the picture at the top of this post. I put titles on them, or you can look at them as a slide show. Yee ha!

Look what I stumbled on

Just fooling around yesterday and came upon this site Eric Grohe - This guy is incredible!

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Well, well, well

Of course, we had nothing much planned for Sunday because it was the final day of the Tour de France. It was going to be a great day of rest for Mike, because if there's one thing that's better to sleep to than Golf on TV, it's Cycling on TV (though I didn't miss a stage).

1st, we discovered our Chlorine Generator wasn't working so... after a couple of hours in our spider filled, damp, and unventilated pump room under the pool, he was unable to salvage the new Chlorine Generator which apparently took a lightning hit. Bummer, it's less than 2 months old...

No sooner did the old boy start his recovery nap from that ordeal than I realized we had no water. The well drama went on and on. The easy thing would have been to screw the pipe into the hole, to pull the cable to the "Pitless Adaptor" and lift the whole thing up... No such luck, the cable to the release thingy was not attached anymore and the pipe wouldn't screw in. Eventually, with lots of improvising, 6 lbs of sweat, and 3 hours later, Mike got the #@$%-ing out of the little hole. He even got it fixed 1/2 an hour before guests were supposed to arrive. My hero! Nothing like living in luxury and asking your guests if they wouldn't mind flushing the toilet with buckets of pool water.

The moral of this story is that it is easier to be "Cadillac Woman" than it is to be "Construction Man. "

Stink Potter V Ragbender

An Old Salt's Sea ChangeKirsti clipped this article for me knowing I would want to blog it along. I always enjoyed boating either way but never had enough dough to make a solid committment to power or sail. Although this article and its subjects seem to favor power it reminded me of some great things about sailing. The memories of weekends sailing with or without wind all seem to be good ones for me. I was willing to read this and remain nuetral but they keep on with the wisecracks untill I personaly took offense. Maybe I never went enough to get burnt out on it but the throttle of a power boat could never match the excitement of a stiff wind and the rail of the boat in the drink. I guess that just doesn't happen everyday, but the throttle is there everyday.

Off to the Ranch

Dara, Kyla, and I are leaving early tomorrow morning for Greenhorn Creek guest ranch. No phones in the rooms, no cell phones, and no Internet connectivity. Garrett is following on Monday with his friend Aisha. The usual routine is a couple rides a day using a horse that stays with you for the week (unless you improve and "move up"). Meals are all family style, and the nightly entertainment varies from frog racing to line or square dancing and other corny things. You can walk across the fish in the stocked pond. Dara claims she will keep me company some. I'll try not to snag her. It will be interesting to see how Kyla the polo pro will do in a western saddle, and how much guff she gets when the wranglers learn she plays polo. I'm just hoping to avoid spraining my ass again. We're pretty well stocked up on books, as usual. Dara will be trying to tackle the new Harry Potter, since both Garrett and Kyla have finished it.

I'm counting on you guys to keep up the blogging.

Step Up or Step Aside

Thanks to my ever resourceful wife, the whole famn damily went to see Christopher Titus at the San Jose Improv last night. We used to watch his show faithfully a few years ago before Fox cancelled it. He also had a special on HBO a while back that was hilarious. Titus is to dysfunctional families what Foxworthy is to rednecks. It took us over an hour to get down there. San Jose is like LA these days, except for the fact that the dot com crash improved the traffic remarkably. The improv is a dinner theater, and Dara had made reservations. We were worried that being late would leave us in the back, but they seated us at the center table next to the stage! The warmup act was very good, and Titus was great. There had not been any real advertisement of it, and I suspect he could fill up a larger forum. However, he was working on a completely new spiel, so he was trying various things out. He said that if he ended up going off in a direction that wasn't funny, it was because it wasn't funny, and he was using this show to see how people reacted. The result was that for people like us who were pretty familiar with his regular spiel, it was all new material. Great show! Afterward, Dara, Kyla, and Garrett all bought tee shirts and had him sign them. He chatted about the show and what worked well while he was signing and leaving a little message on each tee shirt. Dara's says "Peace". Kyla's says "Be Fierce". Garrett's says "Get Help."

Scotty Has Beamed Up

James Doohan died. This may put a damper on the plans for the upcoming sequel.

Do you love me? Do you not?

I've been absent from the BLOG for so long that I feel the need to ask permission to join in. Between finishing school, taking vacations, having a bizzarre emergency illness, my computer crashing only to subsequently be replaced by my De-Light-Ful new wireless laptop, my little surgical drama, and basic lazyness, I'm crawling back to see if you guys still love me and will let me join in and play.

I hardly know where to begin, from Chris Isaack to Emergency Jobs, Bees, Walmart... It's a veritable smorgassborg(sp?) of topics.

Though I'm not recommending this to anyone, I've determined that major surgery is an excellent way to shed a few extra pounds while garnering sympathy & visits from those who know and love you, but have children, jobs, and a life outside of a 2 hour commute up 95. Since I chose to move so far away from everyone I typically have to go visiting. However, all that's changed since my surgery. I don't think the visitation period to last forever since the word is getting out that I'm no longer and invalid, but it's been great.

My friends have come in droves to the wild frontier of Cecil County expecting to wait on me and take care of me. Luckily for them, I'm no longer hanging around in my "Ellie-May" nightgown strung out on Dilaudid and anit-nausea medication. Instead, they arrive to find me pretty darned happy, healthy, and mobile. For their trouble I've been providing gourmet meals (I have plenty of time to cook these days), diving lessons for the kids, fresh flowers, pool-side lounging, complete coverage of the Tour de France since I've seen each stage at least 2 times, and of course - witty conversation.

My friend Jackie is here today and we are venturing out on "The Lucky Girl" for the first cruise in the boat without Mike. As a stinkpotter, our first stop must be the dreaded gas dock. I will have to prove my docking abilities by pulling up to and not into the gas dock. I'm hoping the unassuming 19 year old giggly girls are there and not the 40 year old waterman who could dock a supertanker in gale-force winds with both hands and half his brain tied benind his back.

Well, I've got to go swab the decks before Jackie gets up. Stay tuned for more on our exciting gas dock adventure later... If I don't join back in you'll know the gas docking adventure was not too successful.

Hugs to all

Blackberries and Pizza

By way of background for the technology impaired, a Blackberry is an essential tool in the wireless world. It started out as a souped up pager, but it morphed over time into a way to get your EMail wherever there is a signal -- which is everywhere. The latest incarnation includes a phone, of course, in a very sleek package. Personally, I drew the line on the other side of the Blackberry a long time ago. I just don't need to be any more connected, thank you.

What does that have to do with pizza? It's hard for me to believe this isn't a joke of some kind, but apparently you can get the latest in Blackberry technology by supersizing it at Papa John's Pizza

For a limited time, get a FREE* BlackBerry 7100GTM (after rebate) wireless handheld with integrated cell phone, email, SMS text messaging, web browsing and personal organizer (a $349.99 value).

Just add any Papa John's side item and two 20-oz. beverages to your online order to get this great offer.

Hmm. I still don't think this offer is going to cause me to get a Blackberry. I don't like 20oz drinks that much.

Did you say Wal-Mart

The Front Royal area has had a long running dispute with the idea of building a Wal mart in town. Without going into to much detail let me just say it has divided our community very sharply, so much so that county council members have sunk to civil disobiedience on the con side and outright lawbreaking on the pro side. The site has been rezoned once to let them in, then back to its old status as a result of a particularly nasty lawsuit brought by opponets. By the time it all gets ironed out maybe costco will be king and walmart will be looking to downsize rather than swallow up the entire retail market in the valley. I will go on record as saying I hate walmart but where else can I go to buy underwear and auto parts under the same roof. For me when it comes to shopping the most important thing is when can I get the hell out of the store and get back to doing anything else. To that end wal mart is not to bad. As Jeff Foxworthy says it is probably one of the last places in America where it is acceptable to beat your kids, you havn't lived till you have been to the Luray Walmart the saturday before school starts, you will see more children whipped in an hour than you will see the in your lifetime provided you don't return. I'm all for costco and the brave CEO who dares to pay a decent wage. Maybe the upscale atmosphere will cut down on the whippings.

Costco vs. Wal-Mart

I watched a perfectly good local hardware and paint store go out of business when the Home Depot moved in. And I try to stay away from the chain bookstores. Still, the worst of the worst in the bigger-is-better, race to the bottom is Wal-Mart. I guess there could be better heroes in the fight against Wal-Mart than Costco, but after reading this article in the NY Times it's hard to see. Imagine the nerve:

Costco's average pay, for example, is $17 an hour, 42 percent higher than its fiercest rival, Sam's Club. And Costco's health plan makes those at many other retailers look Scroogish. One analyst, Bill Dreher of Deutsche Bank, complained last year that at Costco "it's better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder."

Good wages and benefits are why Costco has extremely low rates of turnover and theft by employees, he said. And Costco's customers, who are more affluent than other warehouse store shoppers, stay loyal because they like that low prices do not come at the workers' expense. "This is not altruistic," he said. "This is good business."

Even more shocking, the guy who runs it seems happy with a net worth of only $150M:

Despite Costco's impressive record, Mr. Sinegal's salary is just $350,000, although he also received a $200,000 bonus last year. That puts him at less than 10 percent of many other chief executives, though Costco ranks 29th in revenue among all American companies.

Something must be done. Perhaps shopping at Costco is in order.

Going Native in Hawaii

I don't think the legal status of native Hawaiians is getting much play in other than Hawaii. At least this was the first time I read about it.

Now, 112 years after United States troops helped overthrow the independent Kingdom of Hawaii and 12 years after Congress apologized for it, that Hawaiian distinctiveness appears close to being formally recognized by the United States government. A bill that for the first time would extend sovereignty to the native Hawaiian people is poised for a vote - and likely approval - in the United States Senate

It's supported by the governor. It would be interesting to know what the view is from the Harris haoles in Oahu. For some reason, the view from the New York Times is just never quite the same.

Re: Mystery Blog Guest

Thanks for the introduction, Steve, and the invitation to join in. Time and miles have separated us, but blogging is the world-shrinker. Being a Mystery Blog Guest is the most mystery that’s surrounded me in some time!

Greetings to my Harris cousins whom I have missed knowing better all these years! AJ, I knew you least well, ‘cuz you were just a kid … I must say, though, at this stage your reputation precedes you, and I like you the better for it. Hawaii … nice move … congratulations on following your heart!

I am marooned in Wisconsin, with my wife, Jane, and three sons. Matt, my oldest, just turned 21, Alex will be 18 end of August and Danny (the baby) turns 14 next week!

I don’t want to take ‘Harris Online’ too far afield, but I’d love to hear from you if you feel like dropping me a note offline; alcal@sbcglobal.net.

Best to all!

Mystery Blog Guest

Did you notice the mysterious ALCAL in the contributors list on the right and his comment? Mom gave Al Callaway my EMail address, and after a brief exchange, I pointed him at the blog so he could see what was going on. Since an injection from an unwanted commenter a while back, I had set things up so only contributors could comment. So, I invited him to join in. Maybe we'll hear from him every now and then.

Last of the Bottled Up Blogging

I thought people might be interested in this picture, which I took on my cell phone. It's the Canadian parliament building in Ottawa at about 10:00 at night. In the summer, they do a light show on it. People bring picnics and sit out on the lawn in front of it. The show includes movies and slides of various things Canadian, music and narrative, and lots of colorful lighting. It was pretty cool. Mostly, though, I was thinking, "Can you imagine them allowing this kind of thing on the US capitol building in DC?"

Harry Night

Dara had purchased a "magic ticket" a month ago, so she and Garrett could reserve a copy of the latest Harry Potter book for pickup at midnight last night. Kepler's, the Harris bookstore of choice, was planning a big party. Aside from it being a great independent bookstore, we like Kepler's because it is next door to a cafe that serves great food and occasionally has live entertainment. Turns out they had a bluegrass band playing that evening, so all four of us went down there to eat, listen, and party -- depending on our inclination. This never seems like a small town, but we met all kinds of people we knew. It started with the more booky restaurant types and moved on to the Harry Potter types as it progressed toward midnight. One person we met and spent the evening with was Frank Smithson. Frank and Jane Smithson were very close friends of ours when our kids were growing up. Dara and Jane met at Gymboree, and Kyla and Meg were great buds nearly to high school. Around 10PM, the Stanford band came roaring in to the party, drowning out the bluegrass and generally doing what the Stanford band is famous for: raising good natured hell. Garrett said they were in the middle of doing some big, loud drum number when they stopped and all yelled out, "We read the book. Ron Weasley dies!!!" I have no idea if this is true, and far be it from me to spoil things for all you Harry fans. But if you're not in on the joke, one of the cliffhangers dangled out by JK Rowling in the leadup to this book was that one of the key characters was going to die. Pretty funny. Garrett is almost done reading the book as I'm typing this!

Bees Buzzing Around the Trees

At work yesterday afternoon, I got a call from Garrett on his cell phone. He doesn't say "Hello." He says, "I'll give you a million dollars if you can guess what I'm looking at right now!" It's not often I get such a straight line presented to me, and of course, I was so dumfounded I couldn't think of a thing to say. Feel free to contribute your snappy responses in comments for my future reference. It turns out he was standing in the yard looking at a gigantic ball of bees hanging from one of the Chinese elms. By evening they had gone away, leaving nary a trace behind. He took this picture for posterity.

Back from Ottawa

On Monday I flew to Ottawa, and I just got back this evening. On the flight out, the plane was over the middle of California climbing to cruising altitude when the "check engine" light or something came on. So, we turned around and came back and had to rebook, making it a late night arrival. I had a meeting of a bunch of managers and technical people there rather than out here in California. It turns out I have people in so many places, it just didn't make much difference if we did it in the Ottawa office or back here. The meeting was a success. Ottawa was pretty much steaming hot. There was some kind of music festival going on. One of the big headliners was ZZTop, but that was not much of a draw for me. Nice restaurants, friendly people. There was a huge thunderstorm last night. We don't get those out here, so it was fun. I have one picture on my phone that I'm going to blog about, but I'll spare you the details until I figure out how to get the darn thing off the phone!

Virtual Fishing

I did drag my equipment out and practiced on the deck to make sure I remembered the basics. Seemed a bit much to aim at the hot tub, so I concentrated on snaring Kyla as she was reading. I found a plastic gear in my reel had broken, so I went with Dara to a local fly shop (on the same day that town was having an arts, crafts, and wine festival, which is how I got Dara to go with me). The best they could come up with was some Super Glue, but it seems to have worked. I refreshed my supply of flies. I asked what you were supposed to do with all the crud you need for flyfishing, since they did not seem to have any tackle boxes. I'm sure it's not every day she runs into such a newbie. She patiently explained that you must have a vest, and when you wear that one out, you get one with even more pockets. Since this seemed like a great solution to a problem, and a fantastic way to embarrass Kyla and Garrett, I got one. I may have to rub some fish guts on it before I go anywhere. It's a bit sad, though, that the biggest danger to my fishing gear is that it becomes brittle for lack of use.

I almost forgot how to blog

A recent demand at work has kept me from my office where I do all my blogging. Unfortunately I have also fallen behind in my real office duties also so when I do get in here I don't seem to have time to do much more than read the entries. With the heat of summer on and my day spent mostly in 95+ degrees I have been spending the evenings in the river fishing. Normaly smallmouth bass concentrate in turbulent areas in the river and are easily caught on helgremites and mad toms [2 local baits you can catch before you start fishing] But this year there was a reported fishkill this spring according to experts it was due to a sudden swing in water temperature not pollution which everyone else seems to think it is. No matter what the cause my usual honey-holes have rendered very little to talk about. But as usual the fishing is great but this year the catching stinks.

Now That Missy Has Mastered Kite Surfing

Of course, all really worthwhile extreme sports are born in Australia over a beer, and dirt surfing is no exception. But don't worry, Mom, when the highest point in the state is an overpass near Orlando, I don't think there will be much chance of it becoming big in Florida. It's good to know, though, that when your ability to kill yourself on a skateboard feels limiting, there is a path forward:

"I was riding a regular longboard down Ygnacio Valley Road in Concord, getting a tow from Joe at about 40 mph. It was during noontime traffic when all of the sudden I hear this loud noise," says the stocky Middlebrooks with a smirk. "It was the wind from this huge truck passing by. The force was so strong that I flipped. My hands scraped against the pavement and the crash took off all my fingernails."

Physically forced to take time off from riding his long skateboard, that night Middlebrooks did what seemed only natural. He mined the Internet for something faster.

I think the expansion of this sport is going to be pretty much self-limiting in the Darwinian sense.

Road Trips

Road trips have always been a highlight of our vacations, although over time they have morphed into being less about the journey than the destination. Still, when you get in the car for a vacation, the atmosphere changes. I always remember driving past the Holiday Inn in Alexandria on the way to Wicomico Shores, and Dad looking over to see if all the windows were closed. Open windows were the signal for the beeper going off, and someone needing to be dispatched to fix the air conditioning. Getting that view behind us was always a milestone. For me the corresponding view is of the Oracle towers off of 101.

In a few weeks we'll be off to Greenhorn Ranch again. The trip goes up over Donner Pass to Lake Tahoe, and then an hour north. Even on busy Route 80, the scenery is fantastic, with granite faces and rushing mountain streams. I wondered whether Keith&co have ever done the official Blue Ridge Parkway road trip. When you live close by, it doesn't necessarily occur to you to take advantage of what's at your doorstep. Plus, it's always easier to take the highway, eh. I often see the Blue Ridge Parkway compared to the Coast Highway out here as being one of the top scenic drives in the country.

Chris Isaak Charges Our Battery

Dara arranged for us to go see Chris Isaak in concert at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, about a half hour south. It's actually a Paul Masson winery, and they have a cozy outdoor concert venue with bleacher seating and chairs out under the stars and trees. To get there, you go into the hills for a bit, and then you take a winding road up the mountain through the vineyard. They have restaurants up there, so we went early and ate while enjoying the great view over the south bay. You can drink while listening, so it felt like a cross between a bar gig and a concert. Chris Isaak was great! We used to watch his TV show on Showtime, but I think it's reduced to reruns at this point. Now that we've gone to this concert there, I expect we'll look for some others. We also know the right place to eat, that you should bring seat cushions (ouch!), and that you should wear your woolies, since it gets quite cold when the usual summertime fog starts to creep in over the mountains.

We had an unfortunate adventure on the way home when we returned to the Prius only to find out that I had left the damned thing running the whole time. In my own lame defense, I will say that when it is running on the battery, which it was while I backed into a parking place, it's a little difficult for the inexperienced to tell if it's on. Anyway, when we got back, I pressed the "On" button, which turned it off. Then I pressed it again, and every warning light on the dash came on. Basically, this high tech beast drained its own battery when left on and parked for three hours. Since it was all downhill off the mountain, we cruised out of the parking place and down the hill, foot on brake to cause the battery to charge. At the bottom of the hill, it still would not automatically start the engine when I pressed on the gas, but it was running reasonably on the electric. We then pulled over, turned it off and back on again, and everything was pretty much okay and back in running order. We are left with a "Check Engine" warning light, but according to various Googling, that will go away after a few more drives in the car, when the computer then decides that everything is really okay and stops warning you about the previous problem. Way more adventure than either of us wanted.

Shocking Addiction

I wonder if there is any connection to obsessive blogging in this article about Internet addiction. The cure may be worse than the disease, though.

The routine begins around 6 a.m. and includes sessions on a machine that stimulates nerve impulses with 30-volt charges to pressure points.

Picture Posting Revisited

I see that Blogger has finally glommed onto the fact that being able to post pictures to the blog is something you shouldn't have to brag about. I posted the one below by clicking on the new picture icon ("Add Image") when I wrote the post. It lets you select a picture and choose small, medium, or large, and a layout, pretty much the same way as Flickr.

Laid Back July 4th

Not much going on out here on the 4th. Living in a tinderbox tends to dampen the good will towards backyard fireworks. In fact, they're illegal almost everywhere around here. And I don't just mean things like helicopters, cherry bombs, and M80's; we're talking no sparklers or coiling black snakes.

Yesterday's project was to install an arbor at the back of the deck heading into the untamed wilderness of the back area of the lot. It only took one extra trip to the hardware store, which is a pretty good record for me. I know if Keith was doing it, he'd have designed it and cut the pieces himself, but I was pretty happy with just getting the prefab version from Home Depot installed. Today my big task is to resurrect my fly fishing equipment and skills in preparation for returning to Greenhorn Ranch in another three weeks. Tomorrow it's off to Hal's traditional July 4th barbeque. They live on a hillside in Moss Beach overlooking the Pacific, and if we're lucky the fog will lift long enough to see it.

Who Needs Hawaii...

... when you have great waves in Orlando.

The Versareef will generate four types of wave, named after the places in which they are typically found: Hawaii, Indonesia, California and Australia. The Hawaiian has a steep take-off leading straight into a wall of water, while the Californian is a slower, easier wave, which is better for beginners

I've been -- and I use the quotes on purpose -- "surfing" in Hawaii. I can say with confidence that the reason this invention will be successful will have nothing to do with the quality of the waves. It will have to do with the fact that you can walk around the pool to get beyond the surf line.