This is my channeling a bit of my dad’s perpetual anger at people who yield the right of way that is rightfully theirs. I don’t think it’s nearly as big a deal as he does. For instance, when you’re pulling out of your driveway on an empty residential street and a driver coming by stops [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Outdoors'
Please Don't Yield to Cyclists When You Have the Right of Way
May 8th, 2008 No Comments
Tags: cycling · psa · trafficrant
Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary
May 6th, 2008 No Comments
The garden is coming along quite nicely now. I visited today, did some digging, and mulched around the brussels sprouts. Three cubic feet of mulch didn’t go nearly as far as I thought they would, and I gestimate it would take about ten bags to mulch the whole garden. Probably cheaper to plant chives, clover, [...]
Tags: garden · locavoracious · symbiosis
Grand Canyon: Day 6 (Kept you waiting, didn't I?)
April 22nd, 2008 No Comments
I didn’t write in my trail journal on Day 6, so this entry will be based on photographs and memory.
A Graphical Summary of the Trip
Tags: canyon · cops · desert · maps · ruins · spring break · strange places and foreign planets · Those Who Came Before · vacation · volcano
An Irrational Number Between Five and Six
April 20th, 2008 No Comments
This is technically the sixth day in the desert, but by that count there were seven. We Spent this day mostly on the road, so I do not count it–I give it an irrational number between five and six. Or maybe a complex number, with five as the real part and some non-zero [...]
Tags: desert · gps · joshua tree · spring break · strange places and foreign planets · vacation
Day 5 Part 2: The Oasis
April 20th, 2008 No Comments
The walk from here to Lost Palm Oasis is only about 40 minutes. From the overlook, you see two oases–one down in the canyon, and one on the opposite rim. The trail descends steeply into the gorge, where we immediately encounter fan palms. Some are still well-covered in shag; others have recently burned. The canyon floor is very sandy and these are the beaches we read about–beaches without water. There is very little water here, only sparse seeps leak above the ground. Many of the seeps are fouled with decomposing organic matter. We find a few bones, too small to be Bighorn Sheep, too small to be rabbit. Coyote, maybe?
Tags: desert · joshua tree · spring break · strange places and foreign planets · vacation
Six Days in the Desert: Day 5
April 17th, 2008 No Comments
3/18/2008
9:36 AM
Cottonwood Camp
Warm morning: everybody slept well. Ginger feels better. I’m wearing my kilt and t-shirt at 9:00 AM–a vast improvement over previous days! We cooked the rest of the bacon today, but fully half of it was consumed in a sudden grease fire. I washed the pair of pants that [...]
Tags: desert · spring break · strange places and foreign planets · vacation
Worth Bagley Bit the Dust (Day 4)
April 8th, 2008 3 Comments
In today’s edition, our intrepid heroes climb a mountain and hike through the desert to abandoned mines and the tomb of a desperado miner who died by the hand of a rival, fighting over a few scraps of land in the desert.
Tags: desert · joshua tree · legal history · spring break · strange places and foreign planets · vacation
Six Days in the Desert: Day 3
April 1st, 2008 No Comments
From my hardcopy trail journal. Some of the first paragraph overlaps in content with the last post, but it moves on from there.
Monday, 3/17/2008 11:00 AM
The Sonoran Desert
Yesterday was angrily, bitterly cold.
Tags: desert · joshua tree · military · spring break · strange places and foreign planets · vacation
Day 2: Pot o' Shit
March 23rd, 2008 No Comments
Random Encounter in the Desert Table–Roll 1d8:
1: Unexpected Volcano
2: Abandoned Mine shaft with 1d4 machines lying around
3: Boy scouts
4: Jerky stand
5: Ghost Town
6: Man biking across desert
7: Old friend
8: Abandoned mine with full industrial works still standing
Tags: desert · random encounter · strange places and foreign planets
Six Days in the Desert: Day 1
March 21st, 2008 No Comments
This and the next several entries consist of a report and pictures of my spring break trip to the desert. I will post them sporadically as I get photos edited.
We arrived at Las Vegas McCarran on schedule, and to my surprise, Delta got all of our bags there on schedule as well. The only thing that didn’t go according to plan was that Thrifty was out of midsize sedans, so we got a convertible instead. Fun, but not so practical–after we got all of our gear and groceries, there wasn’t enough room in the trunk to put the top down! Still, Las Vegas was sunny and 75 degrees–perfect weather!