SC's Pseudo-Blog
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26 December 2009
Our prayers and best wishes to all our friends for the holiday season, and for those who share my faith, a very Merry Christmas to you. I sincerely hope that 2010 is better for all of us than 2009 was. My Fox and I plan to exert our every effort to ensure that it is so here on The Range.
I am blessed with some awesome friends. I don't do enough for them, and don't remind them of how much they mean to me often enough, yet they persist in remaining in my life in spite of these faults of mine. I love them dearly, and won't embarrass them by mentioning them by name. You know who you are. Thanks for hanging with the old dog for another year.
Anybody want to talk about resolutions? I learned a long time ago not to delude myself into making promises I won't keep, so mine are few, and are worded more as earnest desires than specific goals. I need to get squared away in my faith, to stop bitching at my God about the way things are and start spending a little time trying to listen for guidance. I need to not be angry when that guidance doesn't come, because I need to stop waiting for someone else to take care of my business for me. I need to take care of what I can take care of, and learn to let go of what I can't fix, and to not stress out about either. I want to spend more time with my Fox doing things that build us and strengthen us as a couple, instead of just working with her on life's menial tasks. I want to write more, and to involve myself in the craftwork of others again. I need to go for walks with my pooch as often as possible.
And a wise friend of mine suggested that, every once in a while, I take some time out just for me, to go and find a mountain somewhere and watch the sun rise from it. I don't know how she knows how therapeutic that is for me, but she does, and it's a wonderful suggestion for the maintenance of my sanity.
So bring on 2010! We're as ready as we'll ever be here in the OC ... hope you are too!
27 November 2009
Another win in front of 15,000 loyal fans at Honda Center, which included me and The Fox and our two younger pups. But it wasn't just any win ... the Ducks took down the number-two-in-the-west Chicago Blackhawks, breaking Chicago's eight-game winning streak even as Jean-Sebastien Giguere chalked up his first shutout of the season. “It feels really good,” said Giguere in the "three stars of the game" on-ice TV interview at the end of the game. He was the number one star for the second time in three games, and was forced to pause after he couldn’t be heard over the roar of the remaining crowd. “Right now we’re playing well defensively, scoring some big goals and everybody’s contributing. It was a huge team effort today.” It was Jiggy's third straight win, extending his own franchise record with his 32nd career shutout as he stopped all 28 shots that Chicago tried to put on his net. He has won three straight games (3-0-0) and stopped 96-of-100 shots for a 1.30 GAA and .960 SV%
Jiggy was ready to go "George Parros" at 8:56 in the second after Chicago's Dustin Byfuglien (pronounced "Buff-lin") crashed into and fell upon the goaltender, knocking his helmet off. JS got up swinging, and would have gone the distance had not the rest of his team also crashed into and then behind his crease to physically express their collected dislike of the treatment JS took. It could have turned ugly, but the zebras took care to separate the most vocal, and play resumed after a few minutes were lost.
Tonights 3-0 win came at the hands of forward Teemu Selanne, who contributed two power play goals, and defenseman Nick Boynton, who scored for the first time as a Duck, also on the power play. "Everybody was playing well and Jiggy played amazing," Boynton said. "When your goalie plays like that, it makes the game real easy.We hadn’t played a full game yet and we are a quarter of the way into the season. Today, it was nice to get a full game in. To beat a team like that, it’s a good feeling and a good confidence boost." Anaheim has gone 9-for-21 (42.86%) on the power play in this series at home.
Corey Perry has recorded points in 17 straight games, tops in the NHL this season and tied with Teemu Selanne for the Ducks franchise record. He has also pushed his assist streak to a career-best eight games (1-9=10), which is the longest assist streak in the NHL this season.
Two nights ago the Hawks beat the number one team in the Western Conference, the San Jose Sharks, 7-2. The Hawks are still second in the west as I write this, but Anaheim has moved up to twelfth and will stay there if the Saint Louis Blues don't win in regulation tonight.
So many tails wagging tonight ...
I cruised by my forum at PF earlier this afternoon, and stumbled across all the birthday wishes for me there. Thank you one and all for remembering me, and my apologies for not acknowledging them individually. It's good to have friends, and I am well blessed.
26 November 2009
For a change, some good news, although some of it does seem somewhat superfluous.
Most importantly, my dad went to visit his neurologist earlier this week, and was told that there has been no significant progression of his Alzheimers. Furthermore, the doc seemed to think that his equilibrium issues might be more physical than side-effects of the drugs he takes, and suggested more good old-fashioned walking about as a solution. So I guess Kayla and I will be visiting him a bit more often than we have been.
My folks pool once again looks like a pool, and not like a huge bowl of watered-down split pea soup. I had some help getting the filter elements cleaned up and re-charged (there are over twenty filter panels in the filter assembly, and they are in different sizes and shapes, and if you aren't careful to make note of exactly what sequence you remove them in and replace them in that exact sequence, bad things happen). That was very possibly the best 70 bucks I've spent in a long time. Filter pressure before the work was around 35 psi, after the recharge it was 12 psi. That cleaning made all the difference in the world. Instead of having to backwash the damn filter every hour to keep the crawler running, now I don't have to backwash the thing at all and the crawler goes round-and-round like it's supposed to. Filter pressure hasn't changed a bit since the cleaning and re-charge two weeks ago. Less backwashing means less water consumption. A clean filter means less crawler operation time, which means less power consumption. Those things mean that the cleaning and recharging will probably pay for themselves by this coming spring.
And this is good pool weather. The temperature was 45 degrees this morning when I got up, it is now an even 75 in the shade on my patio, and my friend Babs, who lives northwest of me in Chatsworth, tells me it's already 90 degrees at her place. (Chatsworth is in the San Fernando Valley and has a different microclimate than we do here in the OC, because there is a range of hills between them and the ocean. Proximity to the Pacific keeps our weather a little more moderate where we are.)
Speaking of Babs, I learned yesterday that she is an author as well! I have known her for a few years now and never knew this. Turns out the stuff she writes would be very marketable at ZZ Studios, too. <thinks> Not sure I want to say too much more about that, but we had an interesting lunch talking about it. The conversation took that turn immediately after I handed her a copy of Amat Victoria Curam by Joan Jacobsen, one of the first batch ever printed by The Raccoon's Book Shelf. I hope she enjoys reading it, and that it motivates her to write more, in a wider venue.
Meanwhile, the Anaheim Ducks are starting to play a little bit better. After resting at the very bottom of the Western Conference for a while, they are starting to climb back. Granted as of this morning they are only one up from the bottom at 15th (ahead of the Minnesota Wild), but they've won their last two and look promising.
And my buddy JS Giguere is backstopping the run. Monday night, in his first appearance since the team's awkward 5-2 road loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on 16 November, he stopped 41 of 43 shots on his goal in a battle against the Calgary Flames that went first into overtime and then to a shootout, where he stood tall and turned away attempts by Nigel Dawes, Olli Jokinen, and Curtis Glencross. The Ducks had held a 2-1 lead in the game from 13:44 in the first period, only to have the Flames tie it up with 18 seconds remaining in the third, prompting the extra play. "It wasn’t always pretty," Giguere said, "but we found a way to win. It was a big game for our team. It was a tough play at the end, but we answered back pretty well. We would have liked to win in 60 minutes, but sometimes it takes a little longer." He accrued a .953 save percentage in 65 minutes for the game. Teemu Selanne got one past Miikka Kiprusoff in the shootout for the win. Miikka had a decent game himself, stopping 29 of the Ducks 31 shots against his goal.
Teemu Selanne and JS Giguere congratulating each other on a game well fought following the shootout victory over the Calgary Flames at the Honda Center 23 November.
"We were under siege pretty much for the whole third period and we basically let them come back at us," coach Randy Carlyle said. "Our goaltender made a bunch of big-league stops to keep the score 2-1. With 18 seconds left, they score a goal where we allowed them to come through the neutral ice and it deflected off our player into the net. The bench was pretty quiet to tell you the truth." But the Ducks prevailed, and the win is what counts.
JS Giguere deflecting a shot on his goal in the second period of last night's game against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Then last night against the Carloina Hurricanes Jiggy held on for another win despite some pretty "loose" play between the blue lines. Once again Teemu Selanne was there with a goal, as well as Petteri Nokelainen, and the captain Scott Niedermayer started it off with a power play goal at 19:44 in the second to tie the game 1-1. Final score: 3-2 in regulation, and the Ducks take their two points to the locker room. Jiggy stretched his numbers over the last two games to 68 stops on 72 shots on goal for a GAA of 1.92 and a save percentage of .944. Looks like the netminder has put his troubles away and is getting back into the game. Welcome home, JS.
This morning I ordered a new laptop for my Fox for Christmas. Her old one is slow and uses ancient technology, and I'm tired of watching her stare in frustration at it while she waits for it to catch up to her input. Hopefully it will get here before Christmas day.
Oh yeah, and yesterday I turned 50 years old. Doesn't feel much different, being in my fifties, than it did being in my forties. <shrugs>
Enjoy your Thanksgiving everyone!
9 November 2009
We're trying to move on from our loss, but it's been difficult, to say the least.
My Fox has been dealt what turned out to be a comforting task, or at least a distracting one. She is the executor of her moms estate. So now she and I are learning all about probate law. There was no real property to worry about, but a few investments and the disposition of a vehicle need to be considered. The processes and paperwork have been a sort of annoying panacea for her, between that and her job she hasn't had a lot of time to sit around and mull over recent events. She is grieving and coping and working her tail off, all at the same time.
She and I would like to thank all those who sent us prayers, wishes, and condolences in the past month. You are too many to list, and the conditions are such that we cannot thank each of you with a card or e-mail or phone call. Know that we are stronger for your support, and that your concern means much to us. Thank you.
Our boys got past their birthdays (19th and 23rd) during the general unrest following Granny's departure. Poor Adam, we finally celebrated his with a cake last week, fully three weeks plus late. He was a good sport about it.
Elder care has come to occupy virtually all of our spare time, and it now involves all of the family. By the time I get done with this small update I'll be expected at my folks house. The weekend following Granny Fox's passing my dad took a tumble into the street in front of our home in the dark of the evening. He was trying to get in the
back seat of Adam's Honda Fit, parked at the curb, entering the rear
passenger door. I think he misjudged / didn't see the curb and lost his
balance when his foot didn't hit the ground where he expected it to. As he stumbled he hit the car and rolled to
his right, and would have been fine if the car were longer, but by the
time he got his shoulders parallel to the side of the car he was past
the end of it, and just went over backwards into the street, landing on his right
elbow. His upper right thigh also took some abuse in the fall, and he
came to rest with his shoulders in the street and his feet on the
parkway.
And he got right up. I made him lay still until I could ascertain that all his limbs were functional and that he hadn't sustained a back or neck injury. He must have been in mild shock, because he said repeatedly that nothing hurt before and after he got back to his feet (with my help). So we took them home, and it was there that we noticed the hematoma developing at the elbow. Long story short, he went to emergency and they took x-rays that showed a clean break of the ulna about an inch out from the right elbow joint, the separation appearing to be about an eighth of an inch.
In the emergency room his shock wore off and the pain set in. Elbow, thigh, and neck. He was taking vicodin full time for a bit, but is only taking it at night now. He had outpatient surgery a little more than a week ago, they put a pin or two (I have yet to hear for certain myself yet) in the elbow joint and ulna to hold things together, and he's going to be in a cast with a part-time sling for at least a few weeks, perhaps as many as three months or more.
Which is causing no small amount of frustration on the part of both my folks and, to a lesser extent, my own family. He has now lost the use and utility of his strong arm. He's right-pawed, and that arm is now virtually immobilized. He has shoulder / rotator cuff issues on the right side as well, which prevents him from raising that arm above his shoulder. His left paw is limited in it's use from a decades-old injury; he can't make a fist or grip small objects with it because of tendon damage. (That's a whole other story, interesting in itself, but irrelevant at the moment.) So the bottom line is he needs help with most of his daily activities, including eating, because he can't grip eating utensils with the only arm and paw that is available. And as I am the only child, and as my Fox is the only part of her family within a thousand miles, it befalls us to help with or take care of everything that needs to be done.
He's kind of blue about it all as he faces the realization that his equilibrium is fading. The two Alzheimer's drugs he takes contribute a lot to that unbalance, but whatever the reason I think he's now a bit afraid of things. He's having difficulty, as anyone would, facing the eventuality and finality of what Alzheimer's is doing to him, and it loads up on him more and more often as the months go by. He's much less conversational now, he struggles to speak in complete sentences because he can't remember words he wants. He's self-conscious about it (who wouldn't be?), so he tends to do a lot of listening.
But in terms of physical health he's still doing real well for a guy approaching his mid-eighties. He'll be 84 before the end of the year.
Swine flu is sweeping my workplace. At one point about a week ago approximately half of our mechanical and electrical teams were out with it. Somehow my own team has avoided that kind of absenteeism, but a couple of my guys have been out with it as well. My former partner in telecommunications just finished up a week off his feet with it, and he's still deep in the bronchial cough stage. I keep warning him about that, about the likelihood of his developing pneumonia if he isn't careful. As I did, he keeps on working. Hopefully he'll be alright.
Meanwhile my Fox has survived yet another round of layoffs that have left her being one of less than half a dozen worldwide doing what she does. When the layoffs started several years ago under Carly Fiorin's scabby paw, there were more than a hundred peers in her group. How she has managed to keep a job this long is a minor miracle in itself, but she feels her luck will run out before she reaches her forty year anniversary with the Happy Palace.
Kayla is adjusting to Granny Fox's absence. My Fox is her only company during the work day now, so she spends more time upstairs than she used to. Back before Granny left us I spent quite a bit of money on our pooch getting a full health workup on her including x-rays, blood work, all the different analyses that need to be analyzed, even teeth cleaning. And before you shake your head in wonderment, let me assure you that her lack of kali-tosis was worth every one of the three hundred plus dollars it costs to get that done. But the short story really comes down to this: she's in fine health except for joint issues. (What would you expect, being part of a crew where every fur has joint issues?) She has displasia in her right hip and also in her right elbow. That explains the occasional limping I was seeing in her, which is becoming a bit more pronounced now that it's getting colder outside. The vet had all sorts of surgical scenarios that were 50-50 in prognosis, but he said that the first and best thing we could do for now is put her on a glucosamine regimen. Funny ... that's exactly what my Fox and I take. Except Kayla gets a bit of cheese with hers to make it more appealing. I don't get that kind of treat ...
On the lighter side of things we have been trying to root for the Ducks as they try to pull themselves out of the basement in the Pacific Division. They are 13th of 15 in the Western Conference with 12 points, compared to (who else?) San Jose, which is first in the West with 26. Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Dallas are 4th, 6th, and 7th to round out the Pacific Division in the West. The Kings and the Coyotes are making quite a name for themselves under their new coaches, and we find ourselves hoping that they will all make it into the playoffs along with the Ducks, which might be difficult at best.
Rumors are floating again about JS Giguere going to Toronto. He left the game in Columbus on the 24th after re-injuring that same groin muscle problem he'd been fighting off and on since the off-season. Publicly the Ducks are saying that he will return, possibly as early as this coming Wednesday night in New Jersey. He's been taking part in full practices the last couple of days and coach Randy Carlyle says he has shown improvement. “I think he looks good,” Carlyle said. “He’s starting to feel more confident and comfortable in a lot of the situations. Our target is hopefully he can start to provide backup status on the road trip.” Look for him to be sitting the bench for Jonas Hiller, which will probably send Justin Pogge, who had been Hiller's backup, back to the minors. If Justin doesn't go back down to the AHL right away, look for some validity in the rumors about Jiggy's relocation. The rumor-mongers say that JS would consider waving the no-trade clause in the balance of his contract ($13 million) in order to rejoin the former Ducks general manager Brian Burke and former Ducks goaltending coach François Allaire in Toronto, where Jiggy would very likely be the unquestioned number one netminder, Vesa Toskala and Jonas Gustavsson notwithstanding.
Other than our pursuit of hockey there hasn't been anything going on around here in terms of recreation or relaxation, at least not on the part of The Fox and myself. All of this verbosity of the moment, then, by way of explaining why my posts are occurring less and less frequently. I haven't even thought about writing anything for over a month now. However, there is one bit of story-related stuff I have to share:
This image has appeared off and on in several of the "missals " that are handed out at the home games, it's from an advertisement for Pepsi (I shamelessly cropped their logo). It was the inspiration for the "ducks" that battled a familiar crew in my last installment of A Little Nothing.
So ...
Again my thanks to all those who comforted and supported us. We will be leaning upon all of you again in the future, I'm sure, just as some of you have sought our shoulders in the past. It's what friends do. So until next time, be well, be safe, be happy.
11 October 2009
Granny Fox
22 February 1923 - 10 October 2009
She came to us with a heart full of love, and that love will live forever in the hearts of her family.
Happy Trails, Granny.
4 October 2009
My daughter turned 16 today, and Granny Fox is in the hospital again.
I'll spare you the detail of how it happened, but she took a fall in our front room that took her left side into an end table on her way down to the brick hearth of our fireplace, resulting in at least one and possibly several broken ribs. Tonight she is facing a slow and painful recovery which could include several weeks or months of assisted care living outside of our home. The prospects for a woman of 86 years are not so good.
Happy birthday, Blondie.
3 October 2009
What a week of highs and lows.
Last Monday I found out that my eldest has been offered a full-time position at the church he's been working at, which includes a formal plan to get his masters degree and become an ordained pastor. The best part of it is that he'll be earning enough to fund that masters degree himself! I'm waiting to hear he has accepted the offer.
The next day, while working alone on a mountain top in the San Bernardino Mountains, I found out that the communications tech job I had bid on had been awarded to the other bidder. I was released that day from the telecommunications team and face an 8% pay cut effective the start of the next pay cycle, which I believe is this coming Monday.
To say it was a shock, not only to me but to virtually everyone else, would be an understatement. I have been involved with "the project" since 2003, have been working on site for the team since late 2006, and have been employed full time as a communications tech for almost eighteen months. The hiring supervisor wrote an annual evaluation for me a couple of months ago in which I was rated as "exceeds expectations" (the highest rating possible) in virtually every category. The two interviews we both went to were oral, and I thought I did quite well in them. Obviously I was wrong.
The other bidder was invited to a third interview the middle of last month, and I was not invited to a similar third interview. I knew then that I had already lost, but tried to remain optimistic even as I redoubled my efforts on the job. In the absence of any other information I guess the bottom line is they liked the words that came out of his mouth better than they liked the words that came out of mine, so much so that they were willing to look past my known and documented work record to hire a virtual unknown. <shakes head> I just don't get it ...
So my fears have come to pass, and I am now back in Control Systems full time. I'm very good at that job, and don't object to the work, but am full of trepidation and uncertainty regards who I'll be reporting to. His management style and my work ethic don't co-habit well.
Last night, in the fifteen minutes following the 1800 dinner hour, there were three earthquakes up in the Owens Valley: 4.7MI, 4.9MI, and 5.2MI, followed over the next couple of hours by at least ten aftershocks of greater than MI 3.0. Alarms went off in my head, and for about an hour my family and I discussed what to do when the floor started moving. We're ready for whatever game ma nature brings to us, I suppose, but it's always a bit of kick in the adrenaline-producing organs wondering when and where she'll drop the next big boot.
While I sweat all those things out I'm off to start my chores, not the least of which is the cleanup of my folks pool filter, a weeks worth of laundry, and the snaking of a drain here on The Range.
Tonight the Ducks face off against San Jose for the first game of the season at the Honda Center. It's being billed as a rematch, a continuation of the battle that ended the Sharks season last year in the first round of the playoffs. I'm sure that's how the players feel about it, based on the pre-season game we saw a few nights ago between those two teams. There's some bad blood between Anaheim and San Jose, along the same lines as that which exists between Anaheim and Dallas. <grins> This may be a great season. And we'll be there tonight to help kick it off properly.
So on the whole I guess I'm a little blown out by recent events. It certainly didn't help, adding the outcome of the job bid to all the other things I've been dealing with that are well documented here. I could have done without that pay cut. Hopefully my son's bright future will help dispel some of the shadows of my own. And hockey can always help.
27 September 2009
Red Flag officially ends tonight, but should be back with the rise of October. It's been a hell of a week.
The dry, hot conditions spawned some new fires here in soCal, but by comparison to the Station Fire none of them are very impressive. Largest among them is the 17,500 acre Guiberson Fire, burning in the hills between Moorepark and Fillmore northwest of the Los Angeles basin. Now 100% contained, the fire resulted in ten firefighter injuries and the loss of one outbuilding. Almost 1,170 firefighters (in 28 crews on 70 engines with 6 dozers and 15 water tenders) are in active mop-up on the perimeter of the fire, which has cost $9.3 million to fight so far.
We also had the Crafton fire (347 acres) near Yucaipa, the Norco Fire (175 acres), and the Vail fire near Temecula (340 acres), all fully contained, since I last blogged here.
Station is 98% contained after consuming 251 square miles of the Angeles National Forest. Firefighters are unable to access the extremely remote, rugged terrain where the fire continues to burn (approximately 20 acres are active in the San Gabriel Wilderness), the incident commander says that full containment will not be achieved until significant rain falls in the mountains, which means the fire could remain active until 2010 given our weather patterns. There are still 668 firefighters engaged in perimeter mop-up and the monitoring of that pocket, which is being controlled by airborne retardant drops for now. $90,723,000 so far, 89 residences destroyed, and of course the loss of those two brave firefighters near Mount Gleason.
Things are fairly quiet around The Range at the moment. That's not to say there hasn't been the usual amount of drama going on, but I've managed to keep a handle on it all and keep things moving along. I've been doing a lot of work on the folks pool, trying to get the pump and filter back into optimal service. Today I go back with a new chemical test kit so I can keep a closer watch on the water quality as I continue to fool with the filter.
Tonight is the Ducks last pre-season game, at the Honda Center, against the Los Angeles Kings. The Ducks' youngsters looked horrible in San Jose the other night, losing by six points in a shutout while we listened to the game broadcast live on line from the "Shark Tank," the HP Pavilion. The loss may not be that surprising when one considers that the Ducks played without several of their key players. Captain Scott Niedermayer, Ryan Getzlaf, Teemu Selanne, Saku Koivu, Joffrey Lupul, James Wisniewski, Jean-Sebastien Giguere, and Jonas Hiller were all left out of the lineup, while the Sharks appeared to have most of their top line players on the ice. Evgeni Nabakov made 15 stops on the Ducks, while at the other end Justin Pogge made thirty stops for the Ducks, but allowed those six goals.
Not a surprise, perhaps, that Justin has since been reassigned to San Antonio in the AHL, along with left wing Ryan Donally. At the same time left wing Kyle Calder and defenseman Jassen Cullimore were released from the tryouts. The Ducks now have a crew of 26: 16 forwards, 8 defensemen, and 2 goaltenders. All of which should bode well for the team and the fans, as the biggest battle to come may be between the pipes as those two net-minders vie for top billing. Having two "number one" goaltenders trying to out-perform each other can't help but propel Anaheim into the playoffs this year, right?
I'm enjoying my brief respite from the horrors of life. If the omnipotent are willing, maybe I can generate a little creativity in my life and get back to writing ...
Be well!
19 September 2009
The Station Fire continues to burn on the Angeles National Forest. It's behavior has been somewhat dormant until yesterday, when the weather began to shift with a rise in temperature and falling humidity. Red Flag returns today. The basic numbers haven't changed in the past week. A more accurate reflection of the cost of fighting the fire was released last night: $83,123,306. That's down a bit from last week's report, but not by much. As of last night:
160,557 acres (250 square miles) consumed, 93% contained
89 residences, 26 commercial properties, and 94 outbuildings destroyed
100 homes and 70 other buildings threatened, but no mandatory evacuations are in place
749 firefighters on scene in 15 crews on 27 engines with 4 helicopters
As you can see, we're in mop-up. Yet the weather has everyone on edge. Firefighters continue to hold and mop up the 132 miles of containment line around the fire.
Some notes on the air war: At the peak of the fire, air operations consisted of 23 helicopters, 8 tankers, 2 DC-10 air tankers, the 747 supertanker, and the Martin Mars. In addition to federal air resources, helicopter and fixed wing air assets from Los Angeles County Fire Department and Cal Fire were used.
Remember the Morris Fire (which burned 2,168 acres in the Azusa Canyon area of the Angeles)? An arrest was made in the ignition of that fire ... a 13 year old boy is facing felony arson charges, and his parents are no doubt thinking about the millions of dollars invested by the USFS, Cal Fire, and local agencies in subjugating that fire. Meanwhile the homicide investigation continues for the Station Fire.
More locally, my father has returned home after his ordeal at the hospital with a clean bill of health. Liberal application of antibiotics intravenously and, now that he is home: orally, have apparently done in whatever it was that was clouding his lung. He seems to be doing well.
We're heading out to a family gathering at my cousin's place in Villa Park this afternoon. Kayla will go with us because I don't want to leave her here at home all by herself. As I was explaining to my Filly earlier, she's still getting used to her new family and her new situation, and I would feel bad knowing she'd cry and be sad and frightened if we all went away without her. I don't think she'd do anything destructive, she's too sweet a pooch, and maybe I'm enough of a softie that I just can't do that to her, leave her alone like that.
So she and I will party in the yard with any others that want to brave the heat with us.
Still no official news on the job bid front, although one of my fellow bidders received a voicemail late Thursday afternoon (the end of his work week) from the HR coordinator that is handling the bid, in which she said that she needed to speak with him "urgently." Maybe a decision has been made and an offer is forthcoming to him, I don't know. We'll find out next week, I'm sure.
I suspect my involvement with the two-way radio project, and any other radio systems issues, will terminate upon the placement of a successful bidder in that job who doesn't happen to be me. I'm not happy about that, but my unhappiness doesn't stem from any envy or jealousy concerning the winner. Rather, it is completely driven by the prospects of the kind of work I'll be doing in Control Systems and, more precisely, who I'll be reporting to.
The Ducks are two for three, they got by Phoenix twice and got clobbered by Vancouver. I missed the game with Vancouver, I was so damn tired and behind on my sleep I crashed upon my arrival home Thursday evening and didn't awaken until my alarm went of at 0345 the next morning. The Ducks will face the Los Angeles Kings in the first "Freeway Faceoff" tonight, and our next home game is Monday against the San Jose Sharks, still in the pre-season. I'm sure the pre-season status will do nothing to dampen the memories nor determination of the Sharks as they look to right a wrong the Ducks handed them in the first round of last season's playoff race.
And the beast needs some finish work. I need to find a good body and paint shop locally.
Be at peace, my friends.
15 September 2009
I met two angels tonight.
And I am sad. And tired.
I was awakened at 0230 Monday morning with the news that my father was shivering uncontrollably and couldn't sleep. Off to the emergency room we went, me fearing swine flu and not wanting to take any chances with one in his eighties. Turns out he has a touch of pneumonia in one lung, which caused him to spike a fever, which brought on the chills and shivers. After all the tests and waiting, another angel by the name of Doctor Amanda explained that he had no signs of flu or bodily infection, just this haziness in one lung and a mild fever, and would we mind if they kept him overnight for observation? Good idea, I thought.
Amongst other things, my dad is a cancer survivor and an ostomy patient. This requires him to perform certain time-consuming and personal functions every 48 hours, and this he has done for years and years. These tasks require certain tools and equipment which he has and is well versed in using. (If I sound like I'm being circumspect, I am. It's not a pretty or polite topic of conversation, these tasks.) Monday night was his "easy" night, when these tasks were not required. But the observant reader will note that this is dated Tuesday night ...
Sure enough, they kept him over for a second night of observation, and that's when the drama started.
As I have already richly learned, the worst thing you can do to an Alzheimer's patient is take them out of their routine and their familiar surroundings, their "comfort zone." Well, we managed to knock pretty much all of those supports down for him, separating him from his family and making him stay in a strange place full of strange people by himself. Then he realized that it was his "busy" night, and all hell broke loose when the staff at the hospital offered him their equipment and supplies. No, that wouldn't do, it had to be his stuff.
There is very little buffer zone in an Alzheimer's patient between calm rationality and a complete breakdown to tears, and I had to watch my dad visit the wrong end of that short spectrum for a lengthy period of time tonight. Even after delivering his own stuff to him, he was so distraught that he couldn't remember the proper sequence of steps, and that escalated the frustration and distress, which caused further confusion and fear, and he pretty much had to be helped through the entire process.
Enter Rachel and Jane, the two angels who more or less ignored me but ministered to him like he was the only patient they had. They spent hours with him, through the worst of the worst, smiling, cheerful, patient, and calm. I admired and envied their strength. And despise my apparent lack thereof. But it's hard watching the man who was your father, the rock who was always there to shoulder the load and save the day, cry in anguish at what he knows this fucking disease is doing to his ability to think and remember and do. Maybe it's easier when it's someone you don't know.
It sure wasn't easy for me. And my mom was a complete mess before sunset, before I even got involved in it.
<sighs>
I need a drink.
But I'm going to go to bed instead, because I'm too disgusted with this day to tolerate any more of it.
Better days, August 1985.
12 September 2009
Gabriel Bouys - AFP / Getty Images
We heard the double-thump of the Shuttle flying over yesterday afternoon, on it's way to an uneventful touchdown at Edwards Air Force Base. Strange that all this technology flying overhead has become so commonplace that hardly anyone notices anymore ...
The Station Fire is still burning, but is approaching the wrap-up / mop-up stage. A bit of information before we get to the numbers: Firefighting efforts continue in the eastern San Gabriel Wilderness and on the north and east flanks of Mount Wilson, where hand crews finished a firing operation which has been called a complete success. Elsewhere 400 firefighters camped on the line to complete a hand line around a large, unburned island within the fireground. Backhaul operations are beginning, as equipment and refuse is cleaned up and removed from the fireground, and damage caused by firefighting operations is mitigated. $88,360,000 so far to battle the Station Fire, as of 1800 last night. Fortunately, FEMA is stepping up to relieve the State of California of %75 of the costs incurred in battling the Station Fire.
If you have Google Earth you can see the fire perimeter map.
There are currently hotshot crews from 14 states on the fire. 9 states, Alaska, Idaho, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming each provided a crew. Nevada provided 2, Montana 7, New Mexico 9 and Arizona 11. 81 crews call California home.
160,557 acres (250 square miles) consumed, 84% contained
82 residences, 14 commercial properties, and 92 outbuildings destroyed
1,500 homes and 350 other buildings threatened, but no mandatory evacuations are in place
2,819 firefighters on scene in 81 crews on 98 engines with 16 helicopters
and as mentioned before, $88 million
And speaking of battles, a new one begins to heat up tomorrow morning as the Anaheim Ducks first training camp of the season opens in Anaheim. On top of almost everyone's list of things to watch is the pending battle for the number one netminder job between JS Giguere and Jonas Hiller. I'm still rooting for Jiggy, even though I like Jonas and think he's a hell of a goalie. If Jonas does bag the number one slot, Randy Carlyle will find himself paying his backup goalie $6 million to sit a bench. Not smart. And one wonders about the dynamic between the two goalies, both products of Francois Allaire's legendary training, and their new goaltending consultant Pete Peeters (who has yet to see a bio appear at the Ducks web site). And the final variable in play: 23 year old Justin Pogge, recently acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs, no slouch himself between the pipes.
Of course, one also might want to watch Saku Koivu, late of the Montreal Canadiens. The former captain of the hundred-year-old Habs is taking up his new position along side of Joffrey Lupul, who came back to the Ducks following the departure of Chris Pronger. The Ducks have a lot of first- and second-line offensive power, but will be looking for a solid checking line to form around center Todd Marchant.
In front of the net on defense we'll find faces from last season belonging to Scott Niedermayer, Ryan Whitney, and James "The Wiz" Wisniewski on the first line. The battle for the second line will be tight with about seven or eight players competing for the posts. Newcomers Steve Eminger, Nick Boynton, Steve McCarthy, and Luca Sbisa will be competing against returning defensemen Sheldon Brookbank, Brett Festerling, Brenden Mikkelson, and Brian Salcido. Hopefully these boys will save some of their energies for the opposing teams!
And speaking of opponents, the first pre-season game is next week! Wednesday, to be precise, against our favorites, the embattled Phoenix Coyotes. Yes, they're still in Phoenix, and according to NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly the league wishes to see the team remain there. "We’re committed to the Phoenix marketplace," Mr. Daly said. "We think this team can be successful here and we remain committed. Obviously, there does need to be some work. We need to sit down with the city of Glendale and see if we can come up with a kind of a win-win arrangement in revising the lease with them, and that’s something we’re committed to doing. But we remain committed for the long term to this franchise being in the Glendale/Phoenix area."
Phoenix welcomes back forwards Scottie Upshall and Radim Vrbata, and pairs goaltender Jason LaBarbera (recently of the Los Angeles Kings via Toronto) with twenty four year old Al Montoya to back up Ilya Bryzgalov. Noticeably absent from the roster is the easily-angered Daniel Carcillo, who is now the responsibility of the Philadelphia Flyers. He and Sean Avery make great bookends ...
So it comes to pass that Jason LaBarbera, JS Giguere, and Ilya Bryzgalov are all here in the southwest again. My heart rejoices ... Game On!
8 September 2009
A new light has risen in the furry world! Congratulations to Sigurd and Patty Volsung on the birth of their son Gavin Sigurd, who came among us on the evening of 4 September at 1954 hours. Eight pounds one ounce, twenty one inches, with hazel eyes and a tinge of red in his hair. Mother and son are doing well. It is my understanding that Sig is now learning the fine art of diaper changing.
Meanwhile, here in soCal, the Station Fire rolls on, and has become the largest wildfire in Los Angeles County history and the state's tenth largest fire since they started recording such things in 1932. The homicide investigation is still underway, and the determination expressed by those involved leads me to believe that an arrest will be forthcoming. As of this morning the numbers look like this:
160,357 acres (250 square miles) consumed, 60% contained
78 residences, 2 commercial properties, and 86 outbuildings destroyed
13 residences and 29 other buildings damaged
5,000 homes and 2,000 other buildings threatened, but no mandatory evacuations are in place
4,687 firefighters on scene in 210 crews on 222 engines with 55 dozers
11 firefighter injuries and 2 firefighter fatalities, 3 civilian injuries
19 helicopters and 8 fixed wing aircraft fly the fire during daylight hours
$57,600,000 of the state's dwindling budget have been consumed fighting this fire
The Martin Mars making an approach to Diamond Valley Lake southeast of March Air Reserve Base.
Jim Pankey
If you have Google Earth you can use this link to see the perimeter of the Station Fire as of yesterday morning .
The Mars on Diamond Valley Lake.
Jim Pankey
The fire is still very active on the northeast front, but the towering columns of smoke are absent with the weather change. A firing operation on the north and northeast slopes of Mount Wilson had been planned for today but was cancelled earlier this morning with a flare-up on the northeast front. Crews that have already cut sixty miles of control line still work this morning to cut over forty miles more on the eastern and southeastern flanks of the fire to protect the communities of Arcadia and Monrovia in the San Gabriel Valley. Everyone monitors the weather forecasts for the anticipated return of Red Flag conditions or the advent of Santa Ana's armies of wind. If Santa Ana does make an appearance the conflagration could very well revisit the urban / wildland interface with devastating results.
A day off for me due to my odd work schedule. Yay me!
5 September 2009
Governor Schwarzenegger is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the arsonist responsible for the Station Fire, and for the deaths of Specialist Quinones and Captain Hall. "We are going to find out what we can and present it to the District Attorney," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lieutenant Liam Gallagher, who is heading the homicide probe and whose investigators worked through the night. "We are considering it a murder investigation." At times over a dozen investigators were working at the crime scene in Arroyo Seco Canyon.
Spencer Weiner - Los Angeles Times
Meanwhile over a thousand weary firefighters, who have fought on the front lines for the past eleven days, took off their caps and helmets and bowed their heads in a tribute to Captain Hall and Specialist Quinones, held before dawn at the incident command center near the fire lines.
Last Sunday, as flames approached their camp, the two firefighters helped save about sixty members of an inmate fire crew by setting a backfire that allowed the group to get to safety, said Los Angeles County Fire Captain Glenn Goulet. The pair died near Mount Gleason when their truck plunged 800 feet into a steep mountain canyon after the rapidly advancing flames overtook them during their escape.
Don Bartletti - Los Angeles Times
Captain Hall's mortal remains passed across the Los Angeles basin on the trip to his final resting place in the Inland Empire, his way lined by those who still honor the ultimate sacrifice.
Members of The Mill Creek Hotshots take a break on the southwest flank of the Station Fire near Sierra Madre
Robert Gauthier - Los Angeles Times
Meanwhile the battle goes on. The entire western side of the fire is contained by control line and burning operations, and remains quiet this morning. Behind Mount Wilson the situation has stabilized as well, with firefighters using cut fire line and the Rincon Truck Trail as a control line. Still, the fire is wild on the eastern front, and yesterday made big runs in the San Gabriel Wilderness with the resultant column of smoke and pyrocumulus cloud. The eastern side of the fire is burning in terrain that has had no recorded fire history, meaning the fuels there are well over one hundred years worth of growth. As of last evening's Situation Status report the numbers looked like this:
154,655 acres (241 square miles) consumed, 42% contained
76 residences, 2 commercial properties, and 86 outbuildings destroyed
5,000 homes threatened, but no mandatory evacuations are in effect
5,244 firefighters are on the lines in 148 crews on 343 engines
If you have Google Earth you can use this link to see the perimeter of the Station Fire as of Thursday evening.
Things are quiet here on The Range. I'm dreading our next Edison bill, as our central air has been on 24 / 7 since the Station Fire erupted. My Fox and her mom both have asthma and are tortured by the ash and smoke, so we're working diligently to keep it outside of our home. And The Beast sits out in the driveway waiting for my attentions, covered in ash and dust, looking like a square chunk of mud. Three nights ago the weather changed and brought us heavy overnight dewfall that mixed with the ash and soot on everything, and ever since then all of our automobiles have looked horrible. I now plan to go and rectify that.
Still no word on the job front. I'm now beginning to fully understand my friend Pat's tales of woe regards building user templates for a wide area trunked radio system. This Motorola TRBO stuff is daunting. Still, it gives me something to do on those days that I am sentenced to stay at the Yorba Linda plant.
Be well, my friends.
2 September 2009
One of the big dogs of the air war, one of Aero Union's P-3 Orions makes a drop on the western front of the Station Fire.
David Cook.
The monster continues to feed, but she has settled down just a little bit. Even so, a pall of smoke darkens the skies over southern California, and has since the onshore breeze started the night before last. A nice inversion layer formed keeping the moist, humid air close to the surface, but also trapping much of the smoke and ash close to the ground. I've been in the northern part of the basin working for the past two days, and let me assure you that the acids and particulate matter in that smoke will mess you up over a prolonged exposure. Yesterday before sunrise the ash was falling like snow in Eagle Rock, just south of La Canada / Flintridge. This morning shortly after sunrise the smoke was so bad at the mouth of Big Tujunga Canyon (the "Big Tee," the firefighters call it) that traffic slowed considerably on Interstate 210 because of the reduced visibility. It was like fog, only it made your throat burn and your eyes water.
Tonight at the 1800 briefing the numbers looked like this:
140,150 acres burned (almost 220 square miles), 28% contained.
4,735 firefighters on the lines tonight in 107 crews on 427 engines backed by an air force that includes the usual S2 and A26 twin-engined bombers, the P-3 Orions, an armada of helicopters including the Sky Cranes, Tanker 910, the Martin Mars, the Evergreen 747, and two Canadair "Super Scoopers."
64 residences lost along with 3 commercial properties and 27 outbuildings.
Thousands of homes still threatened and mandatory evacuations are in place tonight in Acton and Agua Dulce on the northern front, in Glendale, Altadena, and Tujunga on southern flank, and in Sierra Madre on the southeast flank.
There are 95 miles of fire line to build with dozers, shovels, and sweat.
Estimated containment 15 September ... provided the weather holds.
She came to life with a little help. A USFS official announced today that the Station Fire was caused by humans. They won't say how, but they are treating the area where the fire broke out as a crime scene. Do the math ...
I won't bother you with a lot of my own images tonight, or with images from elsewhere. These links should say more than anything I can write or any image I can show you:
Time lapse video of the Station Fire taken 30 August from southern Orange County. This is the best illustration I've yet seen of what a monster fire really looks like.
A Mail Online (the electronic arm of England's Daily Mail newspaper) article about the Station Fire from their World News column, including some good satellite images.
Additional satellite imagery (including daily views) of the Station Fire from the NASA Earth Observatory web site.
Gains were also made today on the two fires burning in the Oak Glen / Yucaipa area of San Bernardino County, northwest of Banning Pass. According to Cal Fire the 1,159 acre Oak Glen Fire is 75% contained. 1,744 firefighters in 49 crews on 182 engines have gained the upper hand, although three firefighter injuries were sustained in the effort and the price tag has risen past 3.6 million dollars. The 860 acre Pendleton fire in Yucaipa is 95% contained, 816 firefighters in 40 crews on 50 engines doing the work there to the tune of $655,000. Even with these successes, one home was damaged, and thousands remain threatened.
Everyone watches the weather now. If General Santa Ana can leave us alone for two weeks we'll get through this. If he decides to invade ... it'll be a whole new war.
Still no word from on high regarding my job bid.
I thought of my friend Kellan today. I was in a server room at one of our facilities, and it was an unholy mess - cables running every which way between racks, tools and parts strewn about between stacks of empty boxes and broken furniture, the main electrical panel for the room blocked by a baker's rack full of boxes of coffee, filters, and powdered creamer, someone's old component stereo system stacked in a pile in a corner, boxes of records and plans heaped in another ... it was a joke. And a fire hazard. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera handy. My partner's observation immediately upon entering: "Wow, this looks a lot better than it did last time I was here!" <shakes head> It just makes you wonder, doesn't it?
31 August 2009
"They are my heroes."
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Station has taken 105,300 acres along with the lives of Specialist Quinone and Captain Hall. Tonight 3,655 firefighters are on the lines in 44 hand crews on 399 engines supported by 48 dozers, 43 water tenders, 8 air tankers, and 13 helicopters. The the fire is still only 5% contained. Thousands of families are out of their homes tonight, some of them have no homes left to return to. As I write this at 1945 hours the eastern front of the fire is making the long anticipated run on Mount Wilson. Only time will tell if the ardent preparation work the firefighters and air crews spent the past two days staging will pay off. History, science, and technology are all at stake, not to mention the lives of all those folks in harms way.
A second fire erupted in Yucaipa today, next door to the Oak Glen fire that ignited yesterday. The state seems to have the resources now, but at the rate fires keep breaking out across California one must begin to intelligently speculate on how much longer we can be in this operational state before we bottom out. Firefighters from all over the state and hotshot crews from other states are in the San Gabriel Mountains tonight.
My next post will be in 24 hours. Tomorrow I have to be at our EOC in Eagle Rock, and will probably be there all day. I'll have the numbers and data for you as soon as I can when I get home.
30 August 2009
The sunrise is orange this morning, and even though I am over thirty miles away upwind from the nearest fire zone, the smell of brush smoke is faintly noticeable on the slight breeze this morning.
Pyrocumulus cloud rising above 20,000 feet on the Station Fire Saturday, 29 August.
The Station Fire has become a juggernaut, devouring everything in it's path. As I begin writing this at 0630 I am waiting for the next situation report from the fire Unified Command. At 1800 hours yesterday the numbers were impressive, staggering even. The fire quadrupled in size in 100 degree heat with humidities well below 10%, growing to over 20,100 acres. It is still less than 5% contained and making active runs in all directions, primarily north and west. Flame lengths in excess of 80 feet have been observed by firefighters. 1,804 personnel are on scene on 124 engines in 48 crews. Along with all the other rotor- and fixed-wing assets, Tanker 910 is flying on the fire. Amazingly only three homes have been lost so far, on the Angeles National Forest in Big Tujunga Canyon. The fire threatens more than 10,000 homes, 500 commercial properties (including the Mount Wilson communications site and observatory), and 2000 outbuildings. Forecast behavior for today calls for conditions and activity similar to yesterday.
Three civilians were injured by the fire yesterday, all burned to some extent. The worst was a man that had to be airlifted after power lines fell from a burning pole onto him in Big Tujunga Canyon. No firefighter injuries of significance have been reported.
Apparently the fire burned past but not over the Mount Lukens communications site some time yesterday. As our systems there appear to still be operational this morning, I'm guessing I won't have to visit there any time soon. There have been intermittent power losses at Mount Lukens because of the fire.
I was called to our treatment plant in Yorba Linda yesterday afternoon on a situation unrelated to the fires in southern California. Because of the heat and the load all those air conditioners are placing on Edison's generation and distribution systems, the voltage sagged on the 4,160 volt primary feed to our plant. Our backup generator fired up and took over as it should have, but then had trouble switching back, and that's when the real trouble started. I was one of the last called, and by the time I showed up there were plenty of crew on scene, mostly electrical forces. Still I was kept quite busy until 2200 hours. Driving home last night in Orange County I could clearly see the flames of the Station Fire burning above Altadena, Glendale, and La Canada from thirty five miles away.
I'm sure I'll have more on this as the Incident Status reports are released later this morning and the media begins to catch up. Stay tuned ...
Update 0845 hours
35,200 acres consumed (an increase of 15,100 acres overnight). 5% contained. New evacuations ordered for the community of Acton on the northern front: all residences to the south of Soledad Canyon Road from Highway 14 to Crown Valley Road and all residences in Alison Canyon from Angeles Forest Highway to Soledad Canyon Road. Station is growing, and airborne assets have increased to eight tankers and twelve helicopters assigned.
Upslope winds are likely, with the potential for a convective column like yesterday's (see image above) and spreading on all fronts in all directions. Right, wrong, or indifferent, Station will more than likely pass over Mount Wilson today.
Update 2100 hours
Graham Owen
The bitch. Two firefighters lost their lives today on the Station Fire. 2,575 of their fellows wage war in 54 crews on 290 engines, supported by an armada of air power that includes Tanker 910. They battle against a worthy enemy who appears to be getting the upper paw, at least for now. 42,500 acres gone, and the fire is still less than 5% contained. 18 homes destroyed. In the words of the outgoing Incident Commander today: "All thresholds in place for determination of active fire behavior have been exceeded." I interpret that as meaning that this fire is behaving like no computer model or wizened wildland firefighter could have predicted, a situation we haven't seen since the Cedar Fire in San Diego in 2003. Station is creating her own weather system. Convective clouds of smoke and ash, rising above 25,000 feet, are hampering air operations. The containment area is now hoped to be west of Mt. Wilson and Angeles National Forest access road 2N45, south of State Highway 14 (the Antelope Valley Freeway), east of Interstate 5, and north of Foothill and Alta Dena Drive in La Canada. That is a huge chunk of the western San Gabriel Mountains, and the fire has burned almost completely across the range northbound to the city of Acton, not too far from Palmdale. A smoke pall hangs over southern California and reaches all the way to Las Vegas, Nevada. Surt would be proud.
Mayra Vega
Meanwhile another fire broke out on the San Bernardino National Forest near Oak Glen, a small city southeast of San Bernardino near Banning Pass. The Martin Mars, Tanker 910, six more airtankers, and seven helicopters are backstopping the efforts of crews on 40 engines on the ground. No containment is specified on this rapidly spreading fire that has caused the evacuation of 1,500 homes in the city of Oak Glen.
Another callout this afternoon, this time to the pump station in south county. Communications failure between our RTU and the master PLC that controls the variable frequency drives. No big deal.
28 August 2009
Station. Cottonwood. Morris. Ridge. Palos Verdes ... thousands of acres, hundreds evacuated, thousands engaged in battle.
Red Flag
It was 102 degrees in Yorba Linda today, down from 104 yesterday. The humidity hovers in the low teens. The only thing that's missing is the east winds, and then we'd have the classic Santa Ana fire weather. Our home A/C is still grinding away at 2100, as it is still well above 80 degrees outside.
For a while it seemed like the southern California area was surrounded by volcanoes yesterday and today, as the heat from the fires drove smoke and ash high enough into the sky that it actually formed pyrocumulus cloud. The entire Los Angeles basin was blanketed by a thick smoke layer this morning. Fortunately, as the afternoon wore on a weak breeze did come up out of the east, clearing the skies over much of Orange County.
My beloved Santa Ana mountains have been spared, so far. Not so for the San Gabriels ...
The Morris Fire by Irfan Khan and The Los Angeles Times
Note the Sky Crane helicopter in the lower center of the image, dwarfed by terrain and the rising clouds of smoke.
Morris started it all in the early Tuesday afternoon, breaking out just above Morris Dam in the San Gabriel River Canyon above Azusa. It has since consumed almost 2,200 acres. Tonight 1,369 firefighters are on the Angeles National Forest, closing perimeter lines and beginning mopup as the fire stands 85% contained. No structures are threatened at this time.
The Station Fire, Francine Orr, The Los Angeles Times
The Station Fire is also on the Angeles, and ignited just off the Angeles Crest Highway about a mile above the Angeles Crest Fire Station midafternoon Wednesday. Station has consumed 5,100 acres. 564 personnel are on the lines, the fire is 5% contained in rugged and inaccessible terrain. Approximately 630 residences in La Canada are threatened at this time and 875 homes have been evacuated.
Al Seib, The Los Angeles Times
Cottonwood is burning on the San Bernardino National Forest . It started on the shoulder of Highway 74 Thursday afternoon and grew to threaten the community of Idylwild, east of Hemet in the San Jacinto Mountains. It is currently 10% contained after consuming 2,200 acres. 306 personnel are on scene, including the Big Bear Hotshots, who completed a successful firing operation overnight on the eastern flank of the fire, which is holding, preventing growth toward Idyllwild. 20 engines are on this fire with 9 hand crews, 1 water tender, 1 dozer, 4 helicopters, two airtankers, and the Martin Mars Airtanker.
Down on Camp Pendleton the Ridge Fire was the first of three that broke out on 26 and 27 August on the Marine base, followed by the Case and 219 Fires. Over 1,000 acres have been consumed, but the terrain is unpopulated, and the Marines seem to be having a good time with it.
A Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter making a water drop on the Palos Verdes Fire overnight.
Alex Gallardo, The Los Angeles Times
And then last night still another fire broke out on the heavily populated Palos Verdes Peninsula. Los Angeles County Fire responded in force and their air crews flew water-dropping helicopters into the fight all through the night. Tonight the fire is 90% contained after burning 230 acres and damaging three structures in Rolling Hills Estates.
Remember the La Brea Fire up north in Santa Barbara County? Finally at 100% containment after almost 90,000 acres have been burned, there are still over 500 personnel involved with ten engines on nine crews, and up to 35 helicopters. As Red Flag conditions sweep across Santa Barbara County these crews are digging in and preparing for the worst, even as they stand down from their current assignment.
Forecast weather calls for a gradual cooling trend, but it's going to stay hot and dry through the weekend.
In other news tonight, Michael Jackson is still dead in spite of the fact that the Los Angeles County Coroner has ruled his death a homicide, a sure lead-in to a mega-million dollar tell-all story, if only he could speak. The Los Angeles Police Department seems to be preparing to go after his personal "physician." <shrugs> Dead is dead ...
Finally, still no word on whether I was the successful bidder on that communications tech job. And to add insult to possible injury, the A/C in 3099 decided to take a vacation. When it's 105 outside, inside 3099's cab it's about 95 with everything running at max power (there are two A/C systems, front and rear, driven by one compressor). <sigh> Like Doc used to say, if it ain't something, it's something else ...
22 August 2009
This one's for Kellan, who recently posted an image of his work companion on his own blog.
Please meet my former and current work vehicle, Kel. This is "3099" (pronounced "thirty ninety-nine"), a 1994 one ton GMC panel van, four speed auto behind a 360 cid V8. Strong, but as I recently proved yet again, dangerous off road. It only has 70,000 miles on it, about half of them put on by me. I originally inherited this vehicle from the group in 2002 (when it had less than 35,000 miles on it), and worked out of it continuously until a little over a year ago, when I was assigned the four wheel drive Ford half ton.
When I inherited 3099 it was a cast-off, eight years old and almost exclusively used on the plant. Poorly equipped, it was a pain to work out of. I stripped out all the heavy, custom-made wooden cabinets (which were battered and abused, falling apart) and built up the interior with Weather-Guard cabinets and added the ladder rack and ladders as well. It served me well for quite a few years. Gets horrible mileage, but it's a good performer otherwise.
While I was driving the Ford, 3099 sat in a parking stall at our plant in Yorba Linda, totally neglected. I took me a full day to clean it up, get my gear on board, and get it ready to work with me again. Because I'm still working in telecomm, my re-fit this time included the installation of three different radio systems.
This last week I had the "opportunity" to drive 3099 into the Santa Ana mountains, up out of Corona to Main Divide road. This time of year that's a fairly well-used pair of dirt roadways for the most part, but washboards abound. I learned that coming downhill on those washboards at any speed above about 10MPH will cause an almost complete loss of directional control as the suspension goes non-synchronous and the entire vehicle "floats" over the road. It's a creepy feeling as the rear end comes out from under you and at the same time you realize that turning the steering wheel has little to no effect on your course over the ground. Especially when you've got a 60 degree slope on one side and a sharpe curve directly in front of you.
Needless to say I was slow coming out of the Santa Anas.
My time in 3099 may not be long, rumors hint at a replacement in the pipeline. It may not be new, but hopefully it'll have four wheel drive and a utility body on it, whatever it is. Much of my gear is stored in the open in 3099, and bounces around quite a bit en route.
(Oh yeah, that is an old picture. 3099 isn't nearly that shiny any more, and I am a bit ... thicker ... in some places.)
17 August 2009 / 0800
Some follow-up on the La Brea Fire to correct some erroneous information. The fire is most dangerous on it's southeast flank, those evacuations I mentioned yesterday are in Cottonwood Canyon, more precisely along Foothill Road as it passes through the canyon and over a low ridge to the east, where crews this morning are constructing and holding a line in adjacent Schoolhouse Canyon. Structure protection crews are in place in Cottonwood Canyon, and the plan for this morning is to contain the fire in this area using thermal infrared imagery to identify hotspots for targeted helicopter water bucket work. This area is about twelve miles west-northwest of New Cuyama Airport, 21 miles east of the city of Santa Maria, generally north of Santa Barbara.
One of the structures that burned was the non-operational (i.e. unoccupied) White Oaks Ranger Station and the other a hunter's cabin. The total loss this morning is 87,490 acres, and the fire is 75% contained. 2,078 firefighters remain engaged, and the Mars is still flying
Kayla is a little under the weather this morning and doesn't want to eat, yet seems otherwise happy and calm.
Today I pretend to recover from yesterday's work at the homes even as I fire up the beast and head over to Home Depot on a parts run. And speaking of the beast, she sure is showing her age these days with some rust appearing on her roofline. As my Fox and I are not in a position to replace the beast (which is 15 years old and has over 190,000 miles under her tires), I'm going to have to drop some money into a new windshield and seal, some light body work on the roof line, and some primer. No longer appearing the purebred she once was, I'm sure that primer will stick out like a sore thumb from any distance, but what are you going to do? As my friend Pat used to say, "It's always something. And if it isn't something, it'll be something else."
Finally, today is Babs' birthday. Happy birthday, bunny!
16 August 2009
California is burning again ...
This is the La Brea Fire. It is one of several wild fires burning in the state of California this evening. It started at approximately 3 in the afternoon of 8 August, caused by a cooking fire at a marijuana trafficking operation in the hills east of Santa Maria. Almost 2,100 firefighters on 59 crews are doing what they do in extremely rugged terrain on both sides of the Sierra Madre Ridge this evening, and almost 87,000 acres have been consumed as of 1900 hours. An evacuation order is still in place for 23 threatened residences in Cotton Canyon. Two firefighters have been injured on this fire and two commercial buildings have been lost. Other resources on scene include 141 engines, 29 dozers, 54 water tenders, 14 helicopters, and 5 fixed wing aircraft. So the air war is in full flight.
This is a Martin JRM-3 Mars flying boat (second only to Howard Hughes Hercules when claiming the title as America's largest flying boat), making a drop on the La Brea Fire. This aircraft was originally delivered to the United States Navy 23 April 1946 as a JRM-1, Bu.No. 76823, and known as the Hawaii Mars, the second Mars to wear that name (the first was lost in an accident 5 August 1945 in Chesapeake Bay). She was initially assigned to NAS Alameda with VR-2. She was converted to a JRM-3 with four 2,400 horsepower Pratt & Whitney R3350-24WA engines turning 16 foot 8 inch Curtiss-Electric props, of which the inboard two engines were fitted with reversible-pitch devices, and after a successful transport career retired from active duty 22 August 1956.
Hawaii Mars began her firefighting duty in 1963 with Flying Tankers, Inc. of British Columbia. Now also known as Redtail, she is now owned and operated by Coulson Flying Tankers of Sproat Lake, British Columbia, Canada, and wears call sign C-FLYL. She is the worlds largest scooping water bomber, carrying a payload of 7,200 US gallons of fresh or salt water to each drop. Currently under contract to the United States Forest Service, she is based at Lake Elsinore (Lake Smell-Some-More, as the locals know it) in western Riverside County when not on operations.
Meanwhile other fires burn in the state. Up around Santa Cruz the Lockheed Fire is still threatening homes. Starting in the evening of 12 August, Lockheed has consumed 6,800 acres, injured four firefighters, destroyed two outbuildings, and is occupying the attention of 2,165 firefighters in 28 crews on 291 engines with the support of 31 dozers, 21 water tenders, and 14 helicopters. The fire has cost almost $9 million to fight, and is only 65% contained. More than 100 residence are currently threatened in the Swanton and Bonny Doon communities.
As of 0700 today there were twelve major incidents working in the state for a total of over 132,000 acres burned. Its an early start to what most are saying will be another record-setting fire season.
Thor Pendragon is paying attention! Thor sent me an e-mail to advise me that my beloved Jeffco, the general aviation airport northwest of Denver in the city of Broomfield, has officially changed it's name to Rocky Mountain Metro. As I explained to him, I was aware of that change, but due to the volume of edits required to bring my story up to date decided to leave it Jeffco in The B Team.
We've heard Kayla bark a few times now, and an authoritative bark it can be when she doesn't know the owner of the uniform on the other side of the door. She so greeted the USPS carrier, and also the UPS driver. And she barks playfully at me when I rough-house with her sometimes. She's still a cutie and absolutely no trouble at all, although this evening she had herself an almost subtle lick of my father's empty dessert plate as it sat on the coffee table. I had to suppress a chuckle as I yelled at her to back away from it, which she promptly did.
My official interview for that communications technician job was last Wednesday. I thought it went well, but my opinion isn't the one that matters. We'll see how it goes. I should know in about a month whether or not I made the grade. Meanwhile, I have apparently worn out a truck. No, the beast is fine ... but my erstwhile trusty Ford half ton four by four has gone the way of the Studebaker. It seems I have worn out a ball joint and a pump in the transmission as well as a couple more tires, and the bushy-tailed nut-munchers (AKA "bean counters") downtown have determined, in their usual vacuum, that the vehicle is not worth repairing. Never mind that I'm off road with it every week, never mind that I put 10,000 miles on it in the past half year, never mind that my service area is from the Colorado River on the east to Ventura County on the west ... the gods have spoken, and "3475" is headed for salvage and eventually the scrap yard.
So now the fun begins. How many mountain top and desert sites can I get to in a one ton two-wheel-drive panel van before I either break something or roll old "3099" off a hilltop somewhere? Time will tell, and probably sooner rather than later.
Stay tuned ...
03 August 2009
We needed something good to happen here at The Range. Something to help us pick up our spirits a bit.
Enter Kayla. She is a classic German Shepherd, big of chest and shoulders, square and strong, larger than her American counterparts. We adopted her yesterday from the German Shepherd Rescue of Orange County, who in turn had rescued her from a shelter in West Los Angeles where she faced certain euthanasia.
Yesterday my Fox and my daughter convinced me to go "dog shopping," and had a list of locations they wanted to visit; various shelters and "presentations" at local PetSmart and PetCo stores. We never made it past the second stop, which was the GSROC's presentation at the PetSmart at the Fullerton Metro Center. That's where we met Kayla, and before we knew it my wallet was $325.00 lighter and we had a new 75 pound companion under our roof.
GSROC's vet guessed that Kayla is about four years old. The little bit of gray at her muzzle inclines me to agree with that guess. Kayla is very different from other dogs we've had in our home, much more calm and quiet. She's been with us almost a full day already, and none of us have heard her bark yet. We really don't know what her voice sounds like. Other than some gentle growls while somebody rubs her tummy or a whine or two around dinner time, she's been very quiet.
Kayla has been neutered, is caught up on her shots, and has a microchip in the ruff of her neck should she become lost. Even so, I will be calling our old vet later this morning (when they open) to make an appointment to introduce her to "Doctor B" and the crew at VCA College Park.
Katie and The Fox are tickled, and I'm pretty happy too. It's good to have another companion in the home. You'll be hearing more about her as the days and weeks go by.
I found out something interesting about that job I bid on. You may remember that I was lamenting a while back that I had to go through the entire bid process to continue to do the job I have been temporarily assigned to for well over a year. Well, I found out how many bidders I have to compete with for the position:
One.
Surprised me, too. In a company of roughly 1,800 souls, only one other fool wants to do the job I've been doing. And the kicker is, I know who the other applicant is, and he's in the same shop I was loaned from! We're co-workers in the Orange County Unit! And I didn't find this out subversively, he told me to my face that he was bidding, not because he wanted this particular job ("You've got that locked up," he said), but because he wants the experience and face time with the supervisor of the team so when he bids the next job that comes available in that team he'll know what to do and what to expect.
And he shouldn't have long to wait. We vote to ratify our new contract tomorrow, and at least a couple of the gray-beards in the telecomm team have let it be known that if that contract goes into effect they will be submitting their retirement papers as soon as they qualify for the increased benefit the new contract will provide. One of those gray-beards works on my project. Which means in English that my "competitor" could have his opportunity as early as this coming winter.
Interesting times.
Tomorrow I'm back home in the Santa Ana mountains, doing project work and working on low band systems at Pleasant Peak. The weather seems to be moderating a bit, the humidity is still sky high but the temperatures are a bit lower than they had been (Fremont Canyon peaked at 88 degrees with the humidity bottoming out at 50% yesterday). Right now here on The Range it is an even 70 degrees under partly cloudy skies with the humidity at 74%. If I didn't know any better I'd guess that we might get a sprinkle or two, but I'm sure that this stuff will burn off by noon and we'll warm right up. But for the moment it is pleasant.
So now I'm off to make that appointment for Kayla with VCA. Catch you later ...
30 July 2009
Today is Granny Coyote's 84th birthday. Happy birthday, mom!
By way of celebrating I am posting chapter 45 of Precious Cargo, titled Dawn of Darkness. It has been seventeen months since I last posted a chapter to this story. Real Life is certainly interfering with my creativity, it seems.
I've gone 48 hours without a fever or a lung hacking cough. I'm not well by any means, but things are looking up for me personally. Professionally things are a whirlwind right now, as by all accounts (except my own) I have this telecomm position "in the bag." But suddenly today there was a major shakeup at Galactic Hindquarters, and my friend who happened to be the project manager of the project I'm assigned to is now ... no longer my project manager. Information is conflicting and garbled, but it seems a very politically charged and sensitive situation and, I feel, an incorrect action. Perhaps it will correct itself, perhaps this is the cloud with the concealed silver lining of a bright career outside of this project, I don't know. I'm being positive and supportive for my friend, whose ego has taken an understandably big hit.
It's cooler in the Los Angeles basin than it is in Seattle, by about twenty degrees. Interesting, but I doubt it will last. Here it's very humid and in the 80s under hazy skies after the morning overcast burns off. Being a son of the desert I am most uncomfortable in humidity exceeding 25%, and the 75% plus readings we're getting locally ... bug!
I'll be in the mountains next week. What do you want to bet that the air will dry out and the temperatures will rise to their more traditional triple digits by then? We'll be able to commiserate with the Pacific Northwest then! At least I'll be more comfortable ...
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention Pete. As in Pete Peeters, late of the Edmonton Oilers and now the new goaltending coach for the Anaheim Ducks, coming to them after eight seasons with the Oilers. He knows neither Jonas Hiller nor JS Giguere, and claims he will be more of an "advisor" than a "teacher." (See this article for detail of the conversation.) It will be interesting to see how this change affects the goaltending situation for the Ducks. I'm still pulling for # 35 to start between the pipes. No offense, Jonas, but I still persist in the belief that JS has another Cup in his future.
Other notes from the Anaheim ice: Ryan Getzlaff underwent a successful surgery to repair a "sports hernia," and is expected to be in fine shape when training camp starts this fall, and Petteri Nokelainen has signed a one year extension with the team.
Be well, friends.
29 July 2009
This stuff, whatever it is, is still kicking my tail.
I felt pretty good for about a week, ending Monday with the onset of another fever at work. I struggled through my task, begged my project manager's indulgence, and was home by 1030 to sleep off and on through the rest of the day. My temperature hovered around 102 most of the afternoon and evening, but broke later that night.
I was fine all day yesterday during the day, most of which was taken up by another visit to the doctor (remember that I go to an HMO, so nothing happens quickly with them). This visit included blood work and a chest X-ray, both of which indicated that I have no infections to fight and that I have no pulmonary issues to deal with. My lungs are clear.
So my body retaliated with another, more moderate fever (about 100 degrees) last night, which came on about 1900 and broke around 2200.
This morning, as I get ready to start my day at 0520, I feel pretty good. 96.3 degrees. We'll see what happens.
Some interesting if unverified information courtesy of the doctor I saw yesterday. There is a 98% chance that whatever I have / had is swine flu. She said 98% of the flu cases they see are swine flu, and based on my symptoms she says I fit the classic profile: onset of cold symptoms with fever that lasts off and on for three days or more, the cold rapidly descending into the chest and becoming at the very least bronchitis, which will very likely progress to pneumonia if not treated quickly and aggressively. She said the age group most susceptible to fatality, based on their observations, is late teens and early twenties. According to her, they are the ones that seem to contract a viral pneumonia as a result of this flu, and once they get that it's apparently all over for them. She said swine flu behaves very much like the Spanish Flu, which killed millions worldwide in a pandemic between 1918 and 1920.
On the plus side for me, if I survive this incessant fever thing, I should have a strong immunity built up when the swine flu returns in force this September. According to the doc, that's the timeframe in which they expect the "big outbreak".
Take it seriously, my friends. I was scoffing at all the media reports about swine flu and what a killer it is, figuratively and literally, until it visited my home. This shit will take you down.
And on that happy note, I'm off to work.
20 July 2009
Still hacking, along with the rest of my family, but at least I'm not bringing up blood any more.
While trying not to die I found myself browsing through some old files and I discovered a couple of things you might find interesting. Therefore I placed links to them at the Stories Page in the Other Interesting Things section. Pot O' Gold is an amusing little bit of nonsense written in the ALN story arc, while The Needs Of The Many is a bit darker and is also very incomplete. Happy exploring!
11 July 2009
Perhaps the Lord, in His infinite wisdom, decided I needed to be slowed down some. "Reigned in", one might say, for all my questions, for my cynicism, and for my frank and one-sided "conversations" with Him. Or maybe, my personal worth notwithstanding, He's not paying attention to my cause at all. Surely He knows of my various responsibilities, plights, and terrors, for we are assured that He is The Architect of All There Is. Or perhaps not, and my current state is purely coincidental. Whichever, I've finally been kicked down a rung or two, at least in the eyes of those who count on me to get stuff done. I haven't met my objectives. I've been pretty much worthless all week.
A week ago today my son came home from the mountains with his foot wrapped tightly and a noticeable limp, and by way of greeting me asked if I would take him to a doctor because he thought he had broken his foot, several days before. Being a father of moderate worth and loving my son dearly, we spent the balance of the evening at our local HMO's "Urgent Care" facility in Santa Ana. The good news is that his skeletal structure is fine, no breaks to fix, but the bad news is that he hyperextended the smallest toe, and would be in some pain for a while. And the other bad news, as relates to my small story here, was the Urgent Care facility itself. Or more specifically, one of those malandrínes we shared it with.
For Adam and I came home with some damnable virus that night, which incubated all day Sunday, and which manifested itself in the early evening immediately upon my return home from dropping him off at his place of work in the San Bernardino Mountains. I spiked a fever that laid me out within a quarter hour of it's onset. He had fevers as well, up in the mountains, but thanks to his youth appears to have dodged the long term consequences.
Along with the fever came cold symptoms, mostly chest congestion and a damnable cough, which got progressively worse as Monday faded into Tuesday, by whose morning I was already short on sleep. I have never before coughed myself awake from a dead sleep, and never before spent literally half an hour on one continuous coughing jag. By noon Tuesday my chest and gut and back ached from the simple activity of trying to clear phlegm from my bronchials, and an hour's uninterrupted sleep seemed only a distant, forlorn dream.
Meanwhile my folks were desperately needing help with a major home improvement, and I had to beg off of the entire project for fear of infecting them with whatever it was I am afflicted with. Same with my responsibilities at home, most of which went by the wayside as I sought, eventually in vain, to keep it from my own family. My Fox and my youngest are also now similarly infected, although like Adam they seem to be spared the more evil, retaliatory forms of whatever it is.
Comes Wednesday and the fistfuls of aspirin and Claratin D and Mucinex appear to begin to pay off as the cough diminishes and my fevers seem to abate. Feeling ambitious, I decide to try to return to work before the responsibilities there overload my desk and the floor. And Thursday is then blessedly non-complex at the office as I shuffle through it, smiling and nodding as friends greet me with "You don't look well," or "You look tired," or again "Damn ... what happened to you?"
I didn't make it past noon Friday, and had to call The Fox to come get me. Dehydrated, feverish, and run out, it was all I could do to stagger upstairs and fall asleep. And of course, the coughing returned in force, so I was up within an hour. And up again. And again and again into the evening.
Shortly after midnight I started coughing up blood.
Even without the lights on I know what blood on a Kleenex looks like. "Ah," I said quietly to the warm, damp darkness that is the humid late night in Orange County. "Now I'm getting it back in spades for all my questions, my doubts, my accusations. Color this divine justice. Payback."
So off we trotted, my Fox and I, to the doc today. I don't have TB, nor pneumonia, nor lung cancer. Not yet. The doc says it's only acute bronchitis, and that my week-long gut-wrenching, rib-cracking coughing jags have actually torn up my bronchials to the point of them bleeding. Yay fucking me, thanks for that, doc.
So now I've got antibiotics and steroids and pain killers to go with my coughing fits. Doc says in three or four days I should start feeling better. If I don't start hacking up pieces of lung first.
I am sincerely thankful that it is nothing more serious, though, thankful I haven't introduced my family to an early demise through my own belligerent relationship with The One.
Concurrent with all of that my sister-in-law made her appearance here to see her mom, anticipating the worst, spending a bit more than a week with us. She was happily puzzled and the rest of us astounded when granny effected an overnight change in demeanor, appearing to age at least ten years in reverse with the rising sun. In the place of the granny we knew, shuffling and staggering about, wracked with pain, barely able to navigate half the length of the house without collapsing and gasping for air, there suddenly appeared another granny who dressed every morning and expected to go shopping, or sightseeing, or to the movies. So while I stayed home bemoaning my inability to help anyone for fear of infecting and eventually killing them, granny and her "good daughter" had the time of their lives gadding about town.
The sister fox left this morning while my Fox and I were at the hospital, reasonably secure in the knowledge that her mom has many years left to go, and that The Fox and I are at best either complete morons or, more likely, lying malcontents who simply wish to dodge their responsibilities in elder care. A concept which makes me want to destroy something just because of it's damnable inappropriateness, all things considered.
Meanwhile there may be a light at the end of my classification uncertainty tunnel. I'm praying that I am not, in my disease-induced muddle, simply sitting in the middle of the road staring at the headlights of DF Thompson's rapidly approaching truck, because it seems that a position has been "created" and a need now exists for a full-time telecommunications technician. Or, put another way, I can now bid on the job I've been doing for over a year now. I could start a whole new rant on that subject, but am simply too tired to do so.
<shrugs listlessly>
Maybe next week.
Finally, up until my bout with divine intervention, I was slowly working towards the next chapter of Precious Cargo. I have about 3500 words down, and a lot left to cover. And this morning, after pleading my case to a triage nurse and while waiting for my appointment time to draw near, I for the first time in a week checked my e-mail. And there it was, the next chapter of Fire On High, ready for proofreading. So this week will end on at least one cheerful note. Thanks, Tiger.
30 June 2009
The furmeet at Styx place was a smashing success. My few images are available at the small album I put together here, others are at The Old Raccoon's web site and still more are (or will be) at Kellan's web site. Kellan also took digital video of us greeting Aslaug, which can be found at his main page. If others had cameras there I didn't notice, but I'd certainly like to see the images!
I started my new work schedule today. Instead of Monday - Thursday I am now Tuesday - Friday. Instead of full time for telecomm I am 50% telecomm, 50% control systems. We'll see how this goes. I am not optimistic. I did spend eight hours at various meetings in our La Verne facility today, not terribly far from Styx' pad.
Things are reasonably stable for the moment around The Range. The Fox's older sister will make an appearance here on the 3rd and stay with us for a little over a week. I'm sure I'll get hooked up in some sort of road trip or other as part of that activity. Hopefully all the hoo-rah about Michael Jackson dying will be over by then (doubtful, but I can hope).
Am I the only poor slob in all of soCal that doesn't get the big deal about EmmaJay's (Michael Jackson's) passing? Don't get me wrong, he was a popular and talented artist in his day, but c'mon ... one might think Christ himself had returned, only to be shot down in the village square by an errant toddler playing with a bazooka. It's Elvis all over again. He's dead, folks. Get out of the road, stop crying, and if you can't get back to work, at least get out of the way! It's all that I've been able to see or hear about in any of the local media outlets ... it's even all over CNN! Is this really the most important, earth-shaping event of the year?
<shrugs> Whatever ...
So thanks again, Styx. That gathering was absolutely the high point of the weekend, probably the week.
13 June 2009
A lot has been happening to keep me away from my friends. I have a few moments to catch up this Sunday before I plunge back into the vortex ...
Granny Fox has been back to the hospital and home again since having her pacemaker put in and, until recently, has not been doing well at all. Between those two trips to the hospital she was visited by her grandson, my Fox's sister's son, who drove here from Tucson with his wife to spend the weekend with us all. A couple of days after they left Granny went to the doctor for a checkup, and complained of chest pains while she was in the doctor's office, and the next thing she knew she was in the emergency room. All the tests the hospital took were negative, but she checked herself out before they had completed the tests they wanted to take. She was quite agitated about them wanting to keep her, and to her credit she seems to be doing much better today.
Even so, The Fox's sister will make an unprecedented appearance here in soCal this summer.
Historically Granny has gone back to "Loozy-anna" every June or July to see her other three children, usually for a couple of weeks, sometimes three or more. Once, many years ago when the beast was new, she spent over a month there, traveling ahead of us by air as we went over the road to the same destination. We all spent two weeks at my brother-in-law's place near "Louie," Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. Granny has visited her pups there without fail since moving here to soCal in 1990.
'Til now. Even she is finally admitting that she just doesn't have the physical strength or stamina to make that kind of trip anymore. And with the recent multiple trips to the hospital, the pacemaker, and her failing general health, my sister-in-law has seen the light, as it were, and will be here before too many days have gone by us.
Meanwhile my daughter has fully recovered, although she has been far too busy catching up on schoolwork to spend any time of consequence on the ice or doing skill drills. I imagine that will change after the school year ends next week. Those three weeks of school attendance Katie lost with her back injury had a huge, detrimental effect on her grades, one which has taken her the rest of the school year and all of her spare time to overcome. I'm the very proud parent to report that her grades have recovered to their pre-injury levels, maybe even better. She has been giving it everything she's got, and it's showing. If she plays hockey with as the same dedication, effort, and energy she may make the NHL after all ...
Adam is working in the San Bernardino mountains this summer at a Christian camp. He's been up there just a few days, but seems to love where he's at and what he's doing. I told The Fox I wouldn't be surprised if he wound up staying up there full time. She didn't think that was such a great idea. His absence makes it much quieter around here, especially while Mike is working. The other day, with the pups gone and granny in the hospital, it was very quiet here.
We've been slogging along in "June Gloom" here in soCal. The skies are gray and overcast most of the time in the coastal basin. Highs in downtown LA are near 70, but on the east side of the mountains in Palmdale they're closer to 90. Some of the sites I visit on my job are socked in, visibility less than a hundred yards in cloud, at other sites I get damp in the sprinkles that pass for rain here. But head east into the desert and it's all about humid, hot air under clear blue skies with a bit of haze.
The above was taken in the Santa Ana mountains late last month, on the way towards Pleasant Peak from Beek's Place on Main Divide Road on the Cleveland National Forest. Elevation here is about 3,800 feet. I had just climbed out of the cloud and drizzle that had the entire coastal basin blanketed in all directions. I worked in the sun all day, and then returned to the gloom and drizzle on the way home.
Last week I had a bit more of an interface with nature than I wanted to. I got stung by a bee early in the week while unloading a cable spool out of my truck at the plant. I don't have much of an issue with bee stings, no allergic reactions or anything like that, but they do make for soreness and swelling around the sting site, so I was uncomfortable for a day or two afterwards.
On my trips to the high and remote sites I almost always see the usual suspects: squirrels, roadrunners, snakes, hawks, ravens, and tecolotes ... buzzards. Occasionally I see some deer and the occasional cousin, a coyote or two. But the day after the bee sting, coming down from Johnstone Peak, I ran into this guy ...
This is actually quite an occasion, as it is the very first time in my 49 years of residency here in soCal that I have seen any kind of bear in the San Gabriel Mountains. Oh they're out there, for sure, but they tend to stay in the wilderness back country. I snapped this picture outside the gate at the bottom of Angeles National Forest 1N15, the Sycamore Flats Motorway, just above the city of San Dimas. Populated areas apparently drew this guy down from his natural habitat to inspect the local garbage cans and back yards. Here residential homes lay between him and the natural environment he's headed for. He seemed to be unconcerned by my presence as I locked the gate after pulling my truck through, but scampered off a few moments later when a sedan approached quickly from uphill on the paved road.
Then last Wednesday I had the opportunity to be chased off Chuckwalla Mountain by a swarm of bees.
Chuckwalla is out in the desert between Indio and Blythe, near the community of Desert Center. One of the more difficult four-wheel-drive access roads we are required to travel leads to the site. A couple of days before my scheduled visit our line crew was out there to do some inspections and periodic maintenance on our tower, but they never got out of their trucks. Now these guys are robust characters, not in the least bit timid about climbing eighty foot towers in forty mile and hour winds (as I have seen them do). So when they reported back to dispatch that they couldn't get out of their trucks because of bees, I took notice. They said they bees were attacking them with such ferocity that they were literally splatting on the windows, as if the crew had been moving down the highway instead of standing still. They estimated their number to be in the hundreds.
Enter yours truly two days later, fully informed but crazy enough to try anyway. I got there early, around 0830, before it got hot. My job was to put a new amplifier in service and test a system, which I immediately set about doing even though I was greeted by a couple of inquisitive bees. They paid me no mind, and I paid them very little, but did interrupt myself regularly to glance out the door to check on their kin. Sure enough, as the morning wore on and the temperature rose, their numbers began to increase, and their activity as well.
I was making several trips back and forth between the vault and my truck for tools and parts. As I finished my preliminary testing and was putting some stuff away I noticed a marked increase in bee activity around the back of my truck, where the water cooler is. As I approached I noticed about twenty or so bees clustered on the cooler, and as soon as they noticed me they got airborne and began swarming.
"Nuts to this," I said aloud (or words to that effect) as I quickly returned to the vault, shutting the door behind me. I dispatched two bees that had followed me in, and then finished packing up my stuff, forgoing any additional testing. Gathering my stuff and opening the door, I made a quick but unobtrusive approach to my truck, noticing that most of the bees had returned to the cooler. (The air temperature was near 85 already, they obviously had more interest in getting a drink than they did in watching me. My cooler always leaks a bit of water bouncing around on the trail, the floor of the truck bed around the cooler was wet and the bungee cords that supposedly hold the cooler in place were drenched. It was these cords that held the greatest attraction for the bees.)
I hastily deposited my gear, grabbed the keys for the vault, and went to lock the door. Those bees were swarming again when I turned around, but I made it into the cab of my truck uninjured and only slightly impeded. There must have been at least a couple dozen bees around my truck cab, maybe more. I sure didn't stick around to take a nose count. They were very active, bordering on agitated.
Thirty minutes later, at the bottom of the hill where the gate is, there were still a half dozen or so buzzing around the back of my truck, but while they made passes at me they seemed less agitated as I unlocked the gate to let myself off the mountain. Again, no injury. I left them behind in the dust as I headed northwest towards Red Cloud Mine Road and thence to Interstate 10. Reporting to my peers at one of our desert pump plants I made them aware of my jobs hasty conclusion, and informed them that I would return to finish my work sometime in the future, before sunrise.
Or maybe not. My tour of duty with the telecommunications team takes a major step towards ending altogether when I go to my "50-50" schedule starting next month. I will work two days a week for telecomm, and two days a week for control systems. How they work out my pay will be fun to watch. I still have fond hopes of winding up in telecomm full time, but sometimes it feels like the company is doing everything it can to rain on my little ray of sunshine.
Speaking of things that sting, the Red Wings got spanked on home ice, giving up game seven of the Stanley Cup final to the Pittsburgh Penguins, who hoisted the cup after taking Detroit 2-1 in regulation. Meanwhile, and just as painful, François Allaire has decided not to renew his association with the Anaheim Ducks, instead announcing on 10 June his intent to follow Ducks former GM Brian Burke to Toronto. This is a huge loss to the Ducks in general and to JS Giguere and Jonas Hiller in particular. Allaire brought up some of the best: Patrick Roy, Guy Hebert, Jiggy, Ilya Bryzgalov, and now Jonas. JS has admitted recently that Allaire is one of the big reasons he wanted to continue to play for Anaheim. My big concern is that Jiggy will follow his long time coach, mentor, and friend to Toronto. Good for him, if he starts for them, although Martin Gerber may have something to say about that (not to mention Vesa Toskala, Curtis Joseph, and Olaf Kolzig, who also mind the net for Toronto). But I will miss him if he leaves Anaheim, and pray he does not. I think Jiggy has another Stanley Cup in his future, and would like to be there when he backstops the winning team again.
Today we go pick out our seats at the Honda Center for the next season. 2009 / 2010 preseason games start in three months.
Not much else of interest to report, I suppose, except that the soCal furmeet is still on for the end of the month, and that I'm still planning on being there. It may turn out to be my only social event of the summer.
25 May 2009
A quick update -
Granny Fox is home with her new pacemaker. She's sore as hell and short on sleep, which she is catching up on now. Her pulse is now up in the mid-70s, a big improvement from the low 30s. The thirty minute procedure was done under a local anesthesia due to her age and asthmatic condition.
Katie is swimming at my folks house, one of the things the therapist suggested for her. She's getting around fairly well without her crutches at home, but every now and then will wince as she reminds herself that she isn't fully recovered from the groin pull. She'll be on those crutches at school for at least another week.
For any of my loyal fans ... <looks around the large, empty room and spies Kellan way in the back, drinking a soda and talking on a cell phone> ... well, for any of you that are RF communications geeks, I've spent a large chunk of my holiday off studying the Motorola MOTOTRBO System Planner, a basic information and design document for the new radio system we are considering / evaluating. Dry reading, to say the least, but it is informative. After that's done I'll do some burgers and 'dogs on the grill for my crew and try and unwind for the evening. Tomorrow I'm back in the mountains, perhaps for the rest of the week.
I need to find somefur that makes jewelry and is good at working sterling silver. I need to have a simple yet custom pendant made, and don't know anyone that does that kind of thing. Sure, I could go down to the fancy stores here in the OC, but those folks command a high "design" surcharge that seems a bit excessive. If I'm gonna pay that kind of money I want to keep it in the furry family.
High 70s here after the morning overcast burns off. Mornings are cool and damp. We've had our fires and earthquakes lately, but nothing that adversely affected us here on The Range. Yet. With the earthquakes you never know what's gonna happen next ...
The furmeet is on. I plan to be there.
23 May 2009
It's been a while since I've written anything here. My posts are getting farther and farther apart.
Rough times on The Range. Granny Fox went to the emergency room for the second time in a month last Thursday afternoon. She's still in ICU. Her pulse was down to 34 when she was admitted, her BP was around 135/55. Not so good for a woman of 86 years, especially one that isn't in good physical health to begin with.
The initial prognosis was that she was adversely reacting to the new heart medication she had just recently started taking. The doctor wanted to keep her overnight for observation while they stopped that medication. But that prognosis was apparently incorrect, they kept her all day yesterday and overnight last night, and now they are planning on putting a pacemaker in her chest tomorrow. The Fox is ... well, not terrified, but deeply concerned. She's of the opinion that Granny Fox may not be with us much longer.
Tomorrow happens to be the 19th anniversary of my marriage to Granny Fox's daughter.
Meanwhile, our youngest pup is still struggling with her physical injuries. She was about a week into the drills that the physical therapist had set her up with, drills that made great reductions in her lower back pain and improvements in her range of motion, when she suffered a groin pull in a phys-ed class at school a week ago yesterday. She was so upset by this that she was crying when I picked her up, not so much from the pain but from the frustration caused by the certain knowledge that she would be that much longer before she could get back on the ice. We spent over four hours in the ER making sure there were no broken or fractured bones. She's been hobbling about on crutches ever since, although she is able to walk without them now.
As much school as Katie has missed with these injuries it is very likely that she will be in summer session this year, a prospect that only adds to her frustration, and ours. The Fox and I are steeling ourselves for the day, which I think is already at paw, when we will not be able to go anywhere away from home for any length of time as a family, because someone will need to be here to take care of the elders. Considering that both of our older pups have jobs to go to this summer and that Katie will most likely be in school through most of it, we probably wouldn't have been able to do much anyway, but still ...
Long hours on the road for me. While I love the work I do, and I'm told I do it very well, the commute times to some of these remote communications sites is stretching my work day longer and longer. In the winter I'm used to starting and ending my day with the headlights on, because around here in the winter the sun is up from 0630 to 1800 or less, and my work hours are supposed to be 0600 to 1630. But now nearing the longest day of the year I find myself on the road regularly at 0500 (sometimes as early as 0200), and may not return home to my Fox until 2100, dusty and sweaty and worn out.
We've made some major progress in our projects, but a couple of trouble-making issues are now on the radar of top management thanks to some of my impatient and less-technically-oriented customers. It's always nice, when you're trying your best to get something done, to have someone metaphorically perched on your shoulder screaming like an inebriated chimpanzee "Not Good Enough! Not Good Enough!" It gives me such a warm feeling of camaraderie and esprit de corp that I almost want to cry myself, lest I break somebody's nose.
And while that's gathering steam on the front side, on the back side there is the team leader of the outfit I may wind up reporting back to at the end of next month, rubbing his paws and cackling like Mr. Burns as he gleefully anticipates all the different ways he can torture me once I fully become his to torture. <sighs>
When I worked for the state of California I was on an at-will ninety day rotating contract. Every three months I had to go through the process of wondering if I'd have a job, justifying the job I had, and worrying and fretting about my family and how to take care of them unit the next ninety day contract was approved. That went on sporadically for a couple of years. Once I got out of that silly loop I swore to myself: "Never again." I don't ask much of life, but I like to be secure in the knowledge that my family is safe and comfortable and happy, and that's a difficult expectation to meet when you're unemployed or about to become so.
And now, here I am finishing my second at-will six-month contract, scratching my head and wondering what my career will look like come 29 June. On the one paw is the almost certain probability of being "installed" permanently in the telecommunications crew I have been working in for the past year and change. On the other paw is my return to the Control Systems Team, the prospect of which took a very dark and gloomy hue last January with a team leadership change. I enjoyed and prospered through my work in the CST for years, but that kind of work is gone now, and what is in its place is very unappealing.
I wonder if the BNSF is hiring?
The Ducks didn't make it to the Western Conference Finals. They missed it by one goal in the seventh game of the semi-finals against the Detroit Red Wings. Of course we were disappointed, but we're still proud of our team and all that they accomplished in the regular and post-season. My only real concern is what will become of Jean-Sebastien Giguere. “I really like playing here," number 35 said in his post-season media interview. "Right now, this is what my heart is telling me, to stay here and try to find a way. Now if the team and Bob Murray feel like it's better for them to move me, I'll see. But at this point, I have no intention of going anywhere.” He was quite blunt when asked if he would accept the number two netminder position: "No," he replied grimly. "No."
So it is with some trepidation that we look forward to the 2009 -2010 season.
Finally, there is a fur meet gathering momentum here in soCal. I plan to be there if at all possible, to meet old friends, make new ones, and have a little fun. If you're interested check out Styx' post about the soCal furmeet at the Planet Furry Forums.
03 May 2009
Well, for better or worse, the album from our Easter '09 trip is up for your viewing (dis)pleasure. A little added bonus at the end, for those of you who suffer through it.
The Anaheim Ducks showed the San Jose Sharks that there's only one trophy that counts, taking the Western Conference quarter finals in six games. They have just gone even against the Detroit Red Wings a game each, after today's second semi-finals game at the "The Joe" in Detroit ended at the beginning of the third overtime period on a goal from Todd Marchant. These guys are playing like a different team in the post-season, and are still riding on the goaltending of Jonas Hiller who stopped 59 of 62 shots today, delivering another excellent game. They look very much like the hungry guys that skated to victory in 2007, and if they can get by Detroit they may actually make the run this year. We're keeping our fingers crossed for them.
I haven't been to church for several weeks now, and don't particularly miss it. I find that I can deal with my conflict better in solitude. I miss my friends a little, but the demands of life preclude me from giving up half a day to the pursuit of idle indulgences and false bravado. There's too much work to do.
Now that the game is over it's time to grill dinner. Of course, the Eastern Conference game between the Boston Bruins and the Carolina Hurricanes is starting in about half an hour ...
25 April 2009
A few images that will probably make it into the album I'll eventually put together for Easter Break '09 ...
My dad, 83 years and still standing tall in the back country. Taken in northeastern Arizona one cool day in early spring.
My Fox, who continues to wait patiently (in this case on the banks of the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico) while I try to figure it all out.
And this is for my friend Aramis, and any fan of A Little Nothing who might have wondered about the inspiration for Tsé Bit’ A’í, (the Rock With Wings). This is Shiprock, a huge monolith of volcanic rock in northwestern New Mexico, taken on a blustery day in early spring that saw us chased across the southwest by snow flurries and rain showers.
Both of these images were taken from the same location, one with the "standard" kit lens that my Canon 20D came with, the other with the 135mm zoom lens I have for it. The location is a mile or so south of US64, just west of the town of Shiprock near the settlement known as Rattlesnake, and is about eight miles distant from Shiprock itself. I hiked a bit to get this view, unencumbered by the numerous transmission lines and towers that race across the landscape in the area.
Been watching the Ducks and the Sharks? We're all kind of impressed with the opportunity Jonas Hiller has presented his teammates, they have ridden into the playoffs on the back of his excellent netminding. It's been interesting watching the Ducks, who pulled themselves up from a very mediocre regulation season (42-33-7) that at one time saw them 12th in the Western Conference, to make it into the playoffs facing the team with the best regulation season in the NHL ... and beating them resoundingly three games out of four to date. (The Sharks won the NHL President's Trophy as the team with the best regulation season: 53-18-11 with a season point total of 117.) In fact, Jonas got shut-outs in two of those three games, facing a combined 66 shots on his goal in those two games. Across the four games played so far Jonas has allowed only five goals on 145 shots to earn numbers like this: GAA 1.51, save percentage .959. That's some damn fine goal tending, there ...
Apologies to my buddy Kellan for rooting for the "wrong" team, but hey ... that's hockey.
4 April 2009
I wish I had good news about my youngest, and I sort of do, but mostly it's a tale of ongoing frustration at the paws of our HMO. The good news is that the doctors that have seen her and seen the results of her MRI agree that surgery is not necessary at this point. The bad news is ... she's still in pain and not making any progress towards getting better.
Consider -
We started this in late February with a visit to her pediatrician on the 24th. Hearing "back pain," this individual immediately jumped to the conclusion that scoliosis was the problem, and did in fact find some curvature of Katie's spine during a very cursory examination. After listening to our input about where the pain was and how it felt, she also admitted that muscular injury might be a possibility. We had X-rays taken that evening at the hospital in Anaheim Hills. Shortly after this Katie had to start staying home from school, as sitting in chairs for prolonged periods of time seemed to exacerbate her pain.
And we waited almost two weeks for results. We visited the pediatrician again on 5 March because things weren't getting any better, and she had not seen the X-rays yet. We filed an official complaint with the HMO on 9 March, telling them that we thought it was ridiculous that we had to wait so long for a doctor to view an X-ray. Surprise, the very next day the pediatrician called me on my cell phone (while I was in the middle of my work day) to give me her diagnosis over the phone: "I want your daughter to see an orthopedic surgeon."
Yay. That's inspiring. So off we go on 12 March, already sixteen days into this, to see the ortho doctor, who performs a very thorough examination and estimates that scoliosis isn't the primary issue. There may be some, but there is something else going on. She orders up an MRI, the very thing I had asked the pediatrician for two weeks and change ago. And while I made multiple phone calls every day looking for a cancellation that we could avail ourselves of, we had to wait another two weeks before we could get the MRI images made. All this time my little girl suffered, which made (and continues to make) me a somewhat ugly fur to be around.
The ortho doctor did get her a simple lower back brace, and that at least helped her get back to school. It's the kind of brace dock workers, construction workers, and longshoremen wear a lot, about a foot high in the back and tapering as it comes around to the front of the lower torso, and it is held in place with velcro. Very efficient, and it has in fact helped Katie recover somewhat.
I documented in my last entry about the results of the MRI. A referral was made to the physical medicine unit in Orange, and we went there yesterday expecting to begin some sort of physical therapy regimen. Wrong!
Another doctor, very polite, makes another detailed examination and tells us exactly what the ortho doctor had told us. OK, I'm thinking, well and good. When do we find out about the therapy? Another surprise! This doctor also tells us that the physical medicine department will be calling us to schedule a time for Katie to start her therapy. That's word for word what the ortho doctor said to us! "Whiskey Tango Fox," I say with emphasis. "That's what the ortho doc told us last week. That's what you're supposed to be doing now!" Alas, to no avail.
So here we are, waiting some more. We know what's wrong, we have some sort of idea what to do about it, but we're still waiting on the capriciousness of the HMO. Somebody, some day, will get us started towards re-habilitation.
In the meantime, we prepare for a road trip to New Mexico with my folks, which in itself may be a last hurrah of sorts. Since my dad can't drive any more and my mom probably shouldn't be, it now falls to my Fox and I to help them with vacations. This will be the first for them since my dad lost his license. We'll see how it goes for them, this may be a one-shot deal.
The Ducks are clawing for every chance to stay in the playoffs, they have won eight of their last ten and are currently seventh in the hotly contested race for the bottom of the Western Conference playoff berths. There are five other teams within four points of their position with four games left to play, so it's anybody's guess whether or not they will actually make the playoffs.
Randy Carlyle has been playing Jonas Hiller exclusively since he relieved JS Giguere on the 27th against Edmonton in Anaheim. Before then JS had been making an appearance every third or fourth game. Hiller's stats include a GAA of 2.31 and a save percentage of 0.920, compared to Giguere's GAA of 3.13 and save percentage of 0.900. JS is still struggling. I hope he and Francois Allaire can hone his skills through the off season and that Jiggy can return to his rightful spot in goal in the 09/10 season. Don't get me wrong, Jonas is a damn fine net-minder, and he is a key component in the Ducks current assault to stay in the race for the Cup ... but I miss seeing number 35 between the pipes, and miss the calm assurance Jiggy brought to his game.
Our other Pacific Division favorites, the Los Angeles Kings and the Phoenix Coyotes, are fourteenth and thirteenth in the West, respectively, with virtually no chance of making the playoffs. Still, both teams are young and strong, and display the qualities necessary to make the run. With time and practice and patience it may well be that the Cup returns to the desert southwest. Here's hoping ...
28 March 2009
Well, the good news is that my littlest coyfox doesn't have anything wrong that requires surgery. Her MRI images (all 45 of them!) seemed to indicate that invasive remedies were unnecessary. The bad news is she still hurts. She has what her doctor calls a "protrusion" in a couple of her disks, meaning that they are misshapen or misaligned and pressing against her spinal cord. Supposedly physical therapy will correct this. We'll find out soon enough. We're waiting for the referral to make it's way through the HMO's byzantine processes, and hopefully next week we can get started towards a recovery, and get her back on the ice.
I was present when the MRI was done. That is some cool technology. Once the technician taking the images got comfortable with the fact that I was a fellow tech-geek, he opened up with me about the improvements that have been made over the past few years, and explained in such detail how the images were derived and what they showed that I was pretty much able to draw my own conclusions about what my little girl's issues were. Not to blow smoke about my medical skills, 'cause I was just making educated guesses, but my assumptions were confirmed by the orthopedic doctor's diagnosis.
Any of you that have had an MRI know that claustrophobia is a concern for any patient. You recline on a table which then slides head-first into the center of a big machine that has a small tube in the middle of it. The interior dimensions of this tube are very similar to the interior dimensions of a coffin, and the only open area is the place where your feet are located. If you've ever wondered if claustrophobia is a problem for you, this will put it to the test.
And then there's the noise. Clicks and buzzings and rumblings and whirrings, some very loud, can make the close-knit experience even more frightening. While earplugs are provided, they don't seem to offer much in the way of comfort.
I didn't know I was claustrophobic until I had an MRI for my back years ago, it lasted almost an hour. Katie, on the other paw, was in the machine for about fifteen minutes and seemed to have no problem with it at all. She seemed as relaxed and comfortable coming out of the tube as she was going in, and her only comment about the experience had to do with the noise. I didn't know whether to be relieved or jealous.
Upon reflection I was relieved. She enjoys the wide open as much as I, but can function in places that drive me crazy with no ill effects. Good for her. She's a better fur than her old-dog pop.
Granny Fox's T-bird has committed one too many sins, the throttle cable breaking while my younger son was on the 91 freeway. Quick reactions and critical thinking avoided an accident, but he had the you-know-what scared out of him none the less, standing on the brake pedal at 70 miles per hour with one foot while trying to shove a toe under the accelerator pedal with the other, all the while changing lanes to avoid collisions. So we're shopping for a replacement, which means yours truly has to involve himself in one of the most unpleasant of life's tasks: talking to those who make a profession of selling vehicles.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not generalizing and saying that all sales furs are self-absorbed, profiteering scum, but if any of them are not, I haven't yet met them. So I am not looking forward to the balance of the day. Even as I blog here I am being pressured to go and participate in this grand tour of joyless, pointless frustration. Yay me ...
Any of you who are NHL fans don't need me to tell you what's going on in the West, so I won't bother. Too much ... The roller-coaster ride goes on with Anaheim and Los Angeles both. Sadly, as hard as the Kings have struggled and as well as they have played, I don't think they'll make the playoffs, and I think they know that. Yet they fight on, thrilling their fans at every game. Meanwhile we watched the Ducks blow a five game winning streak last night, and it breaks my heart to say that JS Giguere was complicit in that, allowing four goals on seven shots. He had a lot of help in making that happen, turnovers from some of their most experienced players directly contributed to three of the four goals. But the fact of the matter is that Anaheim is one berth out of the playoff race, and depending on what happens with the various games in the West that are being played today, Anaheim could remain at ninth in the Conference or could find themselves as low as thirteenth going into their game against Colorado tomorrow night at Honda Center.
Whatever their ranking, we will be at Honda Center cheering them on. I pray Randy Carlyle starts JS Giguere in that game, if for no other reason than to allow the netminder to vindicate himself after last nights horrible opening. Hiller was great in relief, but the damage was done, and we never could fight back to a lead. Hopefully Sunday will be better for us. We clobbered Colorado in our last match with them at the Pepsi Center ...
Lots of mountain time coming up for me in the next two weeks. I don't know how my muse will take that, she's been quiet after keeping me up all night with The B Team two weeks ago. We'll see how that goes.
Finally, great news. The Raccoon's Bookshelf has re-opened! Go and pay Mike a visit, and tell him his desert-dog friend sent you.
16 March 2009
My proofers worked overtime too, it seems. Tonight "Backcourse" takes a bow here at The Range. This is the latest chapter of The B Team. I hope you enjoy it.
I'm also hoping this will be posted at The Raccoon's Bookshelf after my friend Mike gives it his blessing. I have sent him the document file, hopefully he won't find too much wrong with it.
RL rolls on. When I can catch my breath I might catch you all up on what is going on. 'Til then ... peace!
15 March 2009 / 0400
Too damn tired to say much. For some reason my muse shoved my butt in afterburner this evening, and chapter 29 of The B Team has been sent to my proofers as a result. Hopefully we'll get it on line before the week gets too old.
My little girl still suffers. Damn insurance adjusters that call themselves doctors ...
9 March 2009
In case you hadn't noticed, I'm in disappear mode again. I tend to do that when the going gets tough, in order to spare my friends the vitriol that builds within my soul when the hard stuff rains down.
My daughter is still laid up. Still no comments / results from the insurance adjuster masquerading as a doctor regards her X-rays (taken two weeks ago tomorrow!), in spite of repeated calls I have made. Tonight we filed a grievance with the provider. Tomorrow, while I'm on the job, I will be making calls to another organization in preparation of drilling down to a solution instead of politely trying to work up through this provider's hierarchy. Meanwhile my youngest is still home, two weeks plus out of school now, getting worse instead of better. All I wanted was a referral for an MRI or CT scan, I didn't think it would have to come to blows before I could get that. But if it requires the letting of blood, I'm gonna get my baby's share starting with the rising of the sun.
Meanwhile a long anticipated workplace event transpired today that cast my immediate future in telecomm in a very dark and foreboding light. As if I didn't already have enough to worry about, now I have to start juggling a potential re-classification and change in basic working conditions as well. This is not the economy to be getting aggressive with one's employer in, but for some reason the unfairness of the timing, coupled with the sugar-coated slap in the face I got today, has got me itching to break a nose or two.
One small victory, after several years of concerted effort, my Fox and I managed too pay off our last credit card obligation this month. We're still too poor to do much of anything by way of celebration, but at least the household cash flow may turn positive next month, and we can actually start rebuilding instead of decaying further.
It's been a week or more since I've visited any forums. I just don't have it in me to be playful or chatty in the evenings. When I'm not solving some small family crisis or other, I just sit and mull over the day's frustrations or pace about aimlessly trying to refine a plan for some sort of success that doesn't involve me hurting someone. This behavior is nothing new, any of you who have known me for any time at all shouldn't be surprised.
I just thought I owed my friends an explanation for my latest absence.
28 February 2009
The Fox is dancing around here at The Range. We just watched the Ducks battle down to the last seconds of a 4-3 victory over the Dallas Stars. And while it was an awesome afternoon for Bobby Ryan, who made some amazing moves on the Dallas defense, the winning goal belonged to none other than Teemu Selanne, who wristed one past Marty Turco ten minutes into the third period. The Ducks battled back, losing a 2-0 lead they built in the first to a 2-2 tie by the end of the second, and finding themselves down by one five minutes into the third. Teemu and Corey Perry decided that wasn't good enough, and by the time the final horn sounded they were up by one.
But the game didn't stop with the final horn. In the last moments of the third period, right in front of the Anaheim goal, Dallas winger Steve Ott repeatedly hammered on the back of Ducks defenseman Scott Niedermayer, who was guarding his goal and net-minder just as he should have been. With the sound of the final horn signaling the end of the game, goalie JS Giguere stepped forward out of his crease and clocked Ott in the back of the head with the handle of his stick. Ott understandably objected to this and retaliated with a couple of swings at Giguere, and things rapidly turned into a barroom brawl from there. When the dust settled Giguere had drawn a two minute roughing minor penalty, and Ott drew two five minute majors: one for fighting (with Ducks winger Travis Moen, who also drew a five minute major), and another as a match penalty.
Bad blood between these teams, even without the presence of Sean Avery.
JS Giguere won his 200th game for Anaheim, and made some impressive stops and blocks during the battle of the third period, saving 30 shots on his goal. He's still not back to the top of his game (he got pulled in the game against Boston two nights ago), but he's looking better with every outing, so our hopes are high.
The Ducks are back in the playoff race at seventh in the West, and are 3-2 on their six game road trip. Their next game is on March 3rd in Chicago.
My youngest coyfox would be dancing too, but she is still laying low taking care of her back. She's improving slowly and is frustrated by having to stay indoors. I feel her pain. Whenever I have to take time off with my back I get cabin fever pretty quick, and can become a downright unpleasant fur to be around if I have to stay down for more than a few days. I guess she's a chip off the old block ...
84 degrees on my patio this early afternoon, with a mild Santa Ana condition. Temperatures are supposed to moderate in the coming week, returning to more normal sixties. We're way behind where we're supposed to be rainfall-wise. No big surprise there. We're in a prolonged drought in spite of the recent rains, and could use a lot more snow in the Sierra and the Colorado River drainage.
25 February 2009
Hard times over at the Planet Furry forums right now. Apparently there's been a lot of crap being exchanged in a particular thread, and the fallout of the exchange has prompted The Old Gray Raccoon to pull up stakes and move on from Planet Furry. As of this date, the only folks who posted to that troublesome thread that I am personally aquatinted with are Mike and Sigurd, furs I have met eyeball to eyeball and whom I very much respect and whose company I enjoy. I don't know anything about the rest of them, and really have no opinion about the thread's subject. It is interesting to see what happened to the direction of the thread, and the fallout is considerable. Mike is an overarching presence in the furry community. I'd say he will be missed, but he and his operation won't be. You just have to know where to look for them.
Meanwhile my youngest coyfox pup is suffering from some sort of back injury or malady. The first trip to the doctor netted the usual results: the assumption of muscular injury and X-rays. We're still waiting to hear the results of those images. Meanwhile her pain is increasing, even though she's not going to school, has been laid up all day for the past two days, and has been taking over-the-counter Ibuprofen per the doctor's instructions. Her mom and I are very concerned, to say the least, and the majority of that concern is driven by the fact that none of us know what's causing the pain. My daughter is a normally active young lady, and doesn't remember falling or being hit or doing any of the things that usually cause back muscle injury to a young, fit fur. Tomorrow I feel that the doctor may be paid an unscheduled visit by a large, unhappy canid looking for some answers.
As we prepare to enter into the next round of contract negotiations at work, rumors of expected pay cuts and loss of benefits (concessions, they call that) abound. Our union leadership is all but telling us to expect that situation, asking us to fill out surveys that quiz us about how we feel about losing this or sacrificing that. Meanwhile management is ramping up the dialog that sounds very much like we're "lucky to have a job in this day and age," along with the now-stale stories about the money crunch and resource shortages. So imagine our collective surprise when we hear the rumor that management has voted themselves a 12.5% pay raise! And imagine what that does to the morale of the rank and file ...
Thank God I work alone a lot of the time, or work harmoniously with one or two furs I trust who think very much like I do. I get pretty wound up about how things are sometimes. Seems like everyone with money is trying to figure out how to keep it, and maybe take away what little the rest of us have, while more and more of us are losing our jobs, our homes, our sanity, and our lives. Individual responsibility, civic pride, a work ethic, and a little bit of old fashioned honor and integrity are lost concepts, it seems, and I am way too quick to jump on my soapbox these days to rail against the problems we face.
It's better that I don't have an audience, ¿qué no?
So tonight, after I ensure that my daughter is as comfortable as possible, my friend Jack and I will spend a few quiet moments together, and then I'm going to hit the sack. Tomorrow promises to be a busy day.
If you have an opportunity, drop by The Raccoon's Bookshelf and say "hi" to Mike.
22 February 2009
Granny Fox turned 86 today.
Yesterday my dad was looking at a picture of himself, taken a couple of years ago in the front room of my home. "That's a great picture of you," he commented to me. "That's you, dad ..." He was mildly surprised, but seemed to not give the incident much thought. I haven't been able to forget it, though. If he's having trouble interpreting what his eyes are telling him, he's farther along with Alzheimer's than any of us thought. His next checkup is coming up in May sometime. Suddenly, I'm not looking forward to it.
The economic troubles of our nation have begun to come home to us. My Fox, along with every other employee in her company, took a pay cut. It started at the CEO's office, he took a 20% cut in his base pay, and worked down from there through all levels of management to the rank and file, the percentages getting smaller as he descended through the levels. Meanwhile, even though I am working ever-longer hours, we are forbidden to enter any overtime in our timekeeping database.
Speaking of economic troubles, as I have stated here earlier I used Turbo Tax this year to get my taxes done. Well and good, except that it uncovered a problem. It seems that the Social Security Administration (SSA) somehow garbled my birth date, and guess who the Internal Revenue Service gets their information from? That's right ... so my return was rejected out of paw by the IRS pending agreement between the birth date I filed on the 1040 and the birth date they were getting from SSA's database. "No problem," thinks I in my blissful ignorance. "It's a simple thing, should be easy to change with a phone call or two, right ... ?" Well ... no. You basically need to fill out an application for a new Social Security Card, get your original birth certificate and a form of picture ID (like a driver's license), and go on down to your friendly SSA office and take care of it in person.
Which I did, and it was an experience. The records have been updated, but the change took half a day to implement and will take up to three business weeks to go into effect (why?), so meanwhile I'm not sure what my birth date is, officially. Upon completing that adventure in social awareness I returned to The Range to print out my electronic return. The IRS demands a printed return any time an electronic transaction fails, so I came home and stuffed an envelope. Another trip out to the Post Office and, $1.70 later, my return is on it's way. All this for a lousy thirty bucks. The days efforts hardly seem worth it.
And then there's this:
Her formal training starts this week. We're all pretty excited about it.
I'd talk at length about the NHL but the Ducks, the Kings, and the Coyotes are all chasing a playoff berth, and it's getting mighty frustrating watching all the local teams flounder, especially when they have so many great players. Anaheim still has a chance, they are tied with eighth place Edmonton at 63 points, but have played two more games to get them, so they are ninth in the West. The twelfth place Kings and thirteenth place Coyotes share a similar predicament, same points but separated by number of games played. Having split between Detroit and Columbus, the Ducks are 1-1 on their road trip that will take them through Buffalo, Boston, Dallas, and Chicago before they return home to Anaheim on 6 March to face Dallas for the last time in the regular season. The pundits say that Anaheim will make or break their chances for a playoff berth on this road trip. We'll see ...
Meanwhile the skies are gray here. A huge low pressure system is holding several hundred miles west of the Oregon / California border, sucking a lot of warm moisture up out of the sub-tropics and dragging it across soCal. It's not terribly cold here, but it looks like it ought to be. The temperature has dropped a couple of degrees to 68 as I type this at 1600. The forecast is for rain tonight and tomorrow, so I'll most likely not be in the mountains working tomorrow.
14 February 2009
Happy VD!
Uuhhh ... that'd be for Valentine's Day. Right.
I did my taxes today and filed electronically, it took me about four hours start to finish. TurboTax is good. It was my first experience with it and I was favorably impressed with how it worked. I was not favorably impressed with the results, but that's not Intuit's fault. I know California is hurting for some income, but the new holes in my backside where my behind used to be indicate that they got a little more than their fair share, I think. Meanwhile I got just enough back from the feds to buy my Fox a cheap bottle of wine. <shrugs> Oh well, at least I've got a job, which is more than some of my friends can say these days.
While waiting for the evening to get started I updated the About SC page. If you're of a mind to, check it out and let me know what you think.
This afternoon I watched the Los Angeles Kings in a real cliff-hanger against the Edmonton Oilers. They eventually lost in a shootout, but not before Dustin Brown made a spectacular goal with seconds to go in the final period to tie the game and force the overtime and shootout. The Kings are developing into a competitive, physical, no-nonsense hockey team under Terry Murray, and that is a good thing to see. Even though this is the second loss in a row for them (they lost to Calgary in an embarrassing 2-0 shutout last night), if they continue with the same grittiness and keep the quality net-minding of Ehrsberg and Quick behind them, they may make the playoffs this year. They are 21st in the league tonight, four points out of the coveted eighth berth in the Western Conference playoffs at 24-22-8.
We saw Jason LaBarbera play in goal last night for the Canucks against Dallas. They lost 2-1, but not for lack of vigilance and performance on Jason's part. He turned aside 28 of the 30 shots against his goal for a save percentage of .933. His save percentage for the season is now .899 and is climbing. With a little help from goaltending consultant Ian Clark, hopefully Alain Vigneault will see fit to keep Jason backstopping for Roberto Luongo. I was happy to see Jason on the ice doing what he does.
Dinner out tonight with the pups and the folks. Something carnivorous, I'm sure.
11 February 2009
Happy Birthday, Vixen!
OK, so I'm a day late with the public well wishes. But that's OK, because I spent the entire evening with her yesterday, consuming some great grilled swordfish and sharing an even better bottle of wine with her, all the while indulging ourselves in an official date. It was awesome.
And before we went out we watched the Los Angeles Kings win their third in a row, taking the New York Islanders in a shootout victory 4-3. Jack Johnson scored the winning goal in the shootout, while Wayne Simmonds, Anze Kopitar, and Alexander Frolov contributed in regulation. Jonathan Quick was strong in his eighth straight game, turning aside 22 of 25 shots on his goal. As of tonight the Kings are only three points out of a playoff berth at 24-21-7, eleventh in the West.
Tonight my Fox and I were at Honda Center with our youngest to cheer on the Anaheim Ducks in their overtime victory over the Calgary Flames, the score 3-2. Scott Niedermayer fired the winning goal past Miikka Kiprusoff 55 seconds into the overtime period. Miikka was strong in goal for Calgary, turning aside 37 of 40 attempts on his goal. And at the other end JS Giguere was equally strong, although his defensemen kept attempts at his goal relatively low. JS turned away 21 of 23 shots on goal for the Ducks. Scott Niedermayer also scored a power play goal in the second period and Brendan Morrison scored in the third to tie the game and force the sudden death overtime round. George Parros and Andre Roy threw down the gloves in the first period, much to the delight of the fans, as did Mike Brown and Eric Nystrom in the second. The Ducks are now fifth in the West at 28-24-5.
My girls each wore dark black, clip-on imitation mustachios from the Team Store, as did many other fans in the arena, publicly supporting George Parros and respecting the 'stache. It confounded the many Calgary fans that were there, all those dark mustaches ...
Elsewhere in the NHL tonight the Phoenix Coyotes subjugated the Dallas Stars, and the San Jose Sharks fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Smiles abound at The Range tonight, despite the chilling rain and snow showers that are once again moving into soCal.
8 February 2009
A good night for hockey last night. Los Angeles and Anaheim both won!
But better than that, up in the Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary the Ducks took the Flames 2-1 with JS Giguere in goal, looking very much in control of his game as he saved 26 of 27 shots against him. It was good to see him making some of the great saves he's known for again. Corey Perry and Bobby Ryan scored the two goals for the Ducks, Corey's the game winner with 29 seconds to go in the second period. Calgary came back in the third with a goal, robbing JS of a shutout he worked hard for, but the Ducks came away with the win in regulation and are now fifth in the West at 27-24-5. My daughter was elated as George Parros, her favorite enforcer, dropped the gloves with Andre Roy in the second period. Andre drew blood on George, but George got the take-down. Steve Montador also took a five minute tour of the sin bin after throwing them down with Cory Sarich with less than a minute to play in the third. As Katie has grown fond of saying about George, you gotta respect the 'stache.
Meanwhile, in Jersey's Prudential Center, the Kings prevailed over the Devils in a stunning 3-1 victory. This hard on the heels of their 5-4 win over the Washington Capitals last Thursday night. Both the Caps and the Devils are top-five teams in the East, so the Kings had to be really on their game to pull these victories out. Jonathan Quick made a combined 66 saves on 71 shots against him in those two games, appearing virtually unbeatable. Patrick O'Sullivan widened the Kings lead to 3-0 with a successful penalty shot on Devils net-minder Scott Clemmensen after Devils defenseman Mike Mottau closed his glove on the puck during a scrum in Clemmensen's crease. The Kings are now eleventh in the West at 23-21-7, only two points out of the eighth playoff berth currently held by the Minnesota Wild. LA is on a three-game winning streak, one of only four winning streaks currently in the West.
No writing these days, obviously. As I was explaining to a friend just now, there's too much drama going on. She was surprised that I regularly expected something dramatic. I told her I always expect the drama to come, and am not often disappointed. Even so, it's quiet here at the moment. Showers still fall between bursts of sunlight, and the temperature this afternoon appears to be peaking at 61 degrees here on The Range.
Mike is in the local mountains to bring a friend down to help celebrate the engagement of his (Mike's) long-time mentor Matt. (Another wedding ... drama of the good kind.) The mountains are dusted in new snowfall with a snowline up around 4500 feet or so. Good thing Mike's Jeep is a "real" one with four-wheel drive and good tires. TIt hasn't been cold enough to dump anything of consequence in the Santa Anas, except maybe up on Santiago Peak. Even so, I'll be down in the basin for the most part this week, although next week I'll be up in the Santa Anas again working on my multitude of projects there.
Not much else to report. I guess all the factions of the family are taking care of internal issues these days. Fortunately my Fox is her usual vivacious self, so here in the coyote's den things are bright-eyed for the moment.
Peace ...
7 February 2009
This is the upper end of the west fork of Ladd Canyon in the Santa Ana Mountains, taken in late morning light shortly before noon. By mid-afternoon the rain was falling up here, and it's been raining off and on in the southland ever since. We've had about an inch and three quarters of rainfall in Fremont Canyon since this picture was taken.
Work has been keeping me busy. It seems like the more corrective maintenance I do on my systems, the more problems I uncover. Or perhaps some of the equipment I'm employing in this servicing and upgrade process is defective, I'm not sure which yet. Whichever, I seem to have a lot to do in some pretty remote areas, and for that I am thankful.
Dark clouds of another sort may be visiting us at The Range once again, this time even closer to home. I won't say too much at this juncture for a couple of reasons. First, nothing is certain. Second, out of respect for the privacy of those concerned, it's better I keep my mouth shut anyway. The only reason I bring it up at all is to once again explain my lack of participation in the community. I've had my paws full.
Meanwhile, the Ducks struggle on. We watched them lose to the Predators 4-2 Thursday night, but were happy to see JS Giguere back in goal and making some grand stops and saves. Coach Randy Carlyle gambled a bit at the bottom of the third period with the Ducks trailing 3-2, pulling JS with a little over two minutes to go. Of course, the Predators found the empty net. Still, Jiggy saved 30 of 33 shots, a save percentage that is markedly increased from his performance since the death of his father Claude last December.
"It's nice to go one full game and have some positives to build on," JS said afterwards. "I felt my energy was good. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a better second half." We hope so to, JS.
Across town the LA Kings beat up on Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals, taking them 5-4 on the Caps home ice. It was a stunning victory over the league's fourth ranked team. Jonathan Quick lived up to his name in goal for the Kings, stopping 41 of 45 shots against him. It's his fourth win in his last five games, year to date he is 2.47 GAA with a .918 save percentage.
The Ducks (26-24-5) are still sixth in the West behind Dallas (25-19-7 on four games less), and the Kings (22-21-7) are thirteenth. The point spread between Dallas and Colorado (fourteenth) is only six points. It's going to be a tightly contested race for the playoffs in the west. As I type this the Ducks are about to face off against the Calgary Flames, third in the west at 30-17-4, and JS Giguere is in goal.
My Fox celebrates her birthday this coming Tuesday. I plan to get her away from it all for a few hours and reminder her just how much she means to me.
30 January 2009
I guess most of you will be watching the Super Bowl this weekend.
I might too, but maybe not, depending on what the NHL has to offer. In particular I'll be watching to see what's happening with a couple of goal tenders, JS Giguere and Jason LaBarbera.
The Ducks have been struggling, and aren't making headway. They are still tied with the Coyotes for second place in the Pacific Division and trail them at sixth in the Western Conference. Good enough for a berth in the playoffs if they can hold it, but the recently hot and rising Dallas Stars may take that away from them as they continue to waddle in their doldrums.
Teemu Selanne has returned, debuting against the Blackhawks last Wednesday night at Honda Center in a 3-2 loss with over 17 minutes of time on ice, his first game since he sustained the thigh injury 19 December in Edmonton. Meanwhile George Parros has signed a three year contract with the Ducks (at $875,000 a year ... nice, George!) that will carry him through the 2011-2012 season. And Francois Beauchemin is skating under his own power again, although nobody will say if and when he'll return to the Ducks defense corps. Francois was injured 14 November in the game against Nashville.
Jiggy is struggling, and it is my personal opinion that life outside the game is taking it's toll. Coach Randy Carlyle held him back in the game against the Blackhawks, starting Jonas Hiller two nights running. Up until that time Jiggy and Jonas had been alternating games. "It's disappointing," Jiggy said. "But at the same time Randy is in a situation where we need to win. Right now I'm not getting the job done when I'm playing. He's got to coach and that's the decision he's come to. I don't like it, but I have to respect it." In his past nine starts JS has gone 1-5-2 with a GAA of 3.68, not the best of stats.
He's working at it though, with goaltending coach Francois Allaire, but concedes that technique is not the problem. "At this point I just think the whole thing is mental – not getting down when you give up a goal, not being nervous when you give up a goal," he said. "It becomes a mental game after a while. It just wears on you … it makes it hard to come to practice and hard to come to the game."
Still, Jiggy soldiers on. "It's a challenge thrown at you, and you have to find an answer," he said. "It might be tomorrow, it might be the next day. It might be next week. I don't know. But it's got to be soon. Obviously the team needs me and obviously I want to be successful. I want to get some wins and play some games." Right on, JS. We here at The Range have faith and confidence in your eventual return. (Quotes taken from an article appearing today in the Orange County Register by Curtis Zupke.)
Meanwhile, Jason LaBarbera has been sitting the Canucks bench in spite of the less than stellar return of fellow net-minder Roberto Luongo. It hasn't been a good run for the Canucks recently, they have lost seven straight and now stand fourth in the Northwestern Division, well out of the playoff berths at eleventh in the Western Conference. It's a tight race in the West, with five teams at the same point standing of 51: the Minnesota Wild, the Edmonton Oilers, the Dallas Stars, the Columbus Blue Jackets, and the Vancouver Canucks ranking 7th through 11th, respectively. This state of affairs has so affected the Canucks team that they are now fighting amongst themselves during practice.
Jason started like a hero with Vancouver, coming in from the Los Angeles Kings to try and shore up the Canucks goal-tending in the absence of Luongo, who was recovering from an injury. He went 2-0-2, giving the Canucks reason to breathe a little easier. But then he blew it 9 January, allowing six goals to St. Louis. He was promptly pulled from the net in the 13 January game against the New Jersey Devils after letting in two goals in the first three and a half minutes, and he hasn't played since. Meanwhile the Canucks have lost the four succeeding games under Roberto's net-minding and captaincy. Still, Jason seems upbeat about things, happy to be back in his native British Columbia, and happily expecting to be a father within the next five or six weeks. Hopefully the Canucks will keep him on, and get him in a game now and then.
And then there's the Los Angeles Kings and the Phoenix Coyotes. Both of these teams are on the way up, the Kings have won their last three in a row (Wild, Avalanche, Blackhawks) and are 20-20-7. While the Coyotes have lost their last two, they are 21-24-5, one point ahead of the Anaheim Ducks in the Pacific Division. These are much better stats that either team enjoyed last season. So the rest of the NHL regular season may hold some surprises for us all, some pleasant, some not so. But whatever, it's hockey. Game On!
As for us here on The Range, it's business as usual. I have been in the mountains quite a bit, and was up in the Santa Anas yesterday while the strong northeast winds blew steady at 30MPH with gusts to 60MPH. The visibility was awesome in the early morning, but by noon the dust had made the distant horizon fuzzy, dropping the visibility to less than 100 miles from my vantage point.
My work is challenging. The more things I fix, the more problems I uncover. I enjoy it, but at the same time it is mildly bugging. There is a particular facility I keep returning to, one above my home in the Santa Anas, that is a hub in our system, and my "project list" there keeps getting bigger and bigger. I guess that's OK, as long as my customers don't get too impatient. I don't want to step on the paws of another, but some of this stuff has been neglected for quite a while, no doubt because my compatriot has had many other things to keep track of besides the stuff I'm tasked with maintaining.
Meanwhile The Fox plugs along with her employer, each of us amazed by the dual facts that she still has a job and that her employer hasn't mismanaged themselves into oblivion. In the modern economy their "old-school" methods of cutting resources and personnel to the bone to artificially maintain profit margins for the shareholders has somehow, miraculously, worked so far. The shareholders are either duped or indifferent to the fact that this house of cards cannot go on indefinitely in this economy, sooner or later the increasing lack of customer support will come around to bite them all in the tail. I wonder if my pretty Fox will be one of those bitten, or if she will have by then, like most of the rest of their productive workforce, been done away with.
I spent the morning with my folks at various doctors appointments. Overall the feedback is good, they continue to enjoy their lives and ours. The workload on my Fox and I is increasing, but we understand that this is what life is, and we adjust and do what we can. As I tell my pups, we need to love and enjoy them while we can, none of us knows what tomorrow will bring.
It's been in the mid eighties under gorgeous if blustery skies here in soCal. This is the kind of weather that makes my ravenous beast whimper in the driveway. In the old days we would have been somewhere (anywhere!) with the beast on as fine a day as this was, exploring something, getting something, doing something. But the beast's recreational activities were sidelined with the economy and the needs of family, so it sits quietly for the most part, although sometimes late at night I think I can hear it weeping. <shrugs> What can you do for and old, recalcitrant, gluttonous friend?
And speaking of friends, Tigermark dropped me a line the other day to let me know that the ice storms back east had affected he and his; an ice-laden tree fell and took out the utility connections to his home. I don't know how he is staying warm, although I suspect the immediate presence of TL is involved. Still, I hope he's got a wood-burning fireplace or some other means of heat generation while they wait for the utilities to get repaired. Our overnight lows out here are at least twenty degrees higher than their daytime highs were during the storms.
Take care, T. Let us know how we can help.
Finally, I see from the forums that work slowly moves forward at The Raccoon's Bookshelf, even as they remain closed for the duration. The economic downturn has not been kind to Mike and Chris. If you value your furry reading pleasures, drop by their web site and check in with them.
16 January 2009
A busy week for me, but immensely enjoyable as I spent virtually the entire work week in the mountains of southern California.
The week started and ended in the Santa Ana Mountains, my home. The above view of downtown Los Angeles is evidence of the persistent Santa Ana wind conditions that have kept us rather warm (temperatures in the eighties in the basins) and quite dry for going on two weeks now. The fuel moisture is moderate at the moment thanks to the rain we had in December, but it is drying out, so fire danger is increasing and will probably return to "extreme" if we have another week of these conditions. Even so, I can't help but marvel at the view ... those are the western San Gabriel Mountains on the right horizon, the Santa Monica Mountains on the left, and way in the distance the Ventura Mountains and the Los Padres National Forest, some ninety miles away.
A side note - a prize to the first fur who can tell me what important (to me) facility is visible on the perimeter of this image.
While at one of my job sites up there in the Santa Anas, up around four thousand feet, I was visited upon by some gentlefurs of the California Air National Guard, who obliged me with a small airshow. <tips hat> Thanks guys ...
I also spent two days on the Angeles National Forest in the San Gabriel Mountains working with our tower crew on antenna systems. The first day we finally got into the job in early afternoon, and by the time the job was done it was getting quite cold in the thirty to forty mile per hour wind gusting from the north. By the time we got out of the mountains it was almost dusk. The second day up there was much better, even though we were much higher in elevation at almost six thousand feet. We started early enough, and the wind abated somewhat, that it was a pleasant day's outing, even though the tower guys had to climb higher and do more work while up on top of the one hundred ten foot tower.
That afternoon, headed out, I took the above image of Los Angeles. This view looks due south in late afternoon, with the Palos Verdes peninsula and Santa Catalina Island in the distance. Catalina is about sixty miles away from our vantage point at the top of Dunsmuir Canyon, just east of Mount Lukens. The air appears hazy but in fact is full of dust, thanks to the persistent north winds. All that dust heads off shore, making the horizon seem milky and indistinct.
Long days come of this kind of work, I'm learning. Starting at 0600, either at the job site or a meeting place to head to the job site, I was arriving home anywhere between 1800 and 2100. And of course, meeting up at 0600 means rolling out of the rack as early as 0315. So yeah ... long days. But the time is worth the sense of accomplishment I feel, knowing the our little team is contributing and making a difference in how things work. And I do love the work I do in the mountains, and I'm just a little fond of the four-wheeling required to get to some of those places. <winks>
Things are relatively quiet around The Range. We're all healthy if you ignore cases of sinus congestion, coughs, runny noses, dry eyes, and those types of things brought on by all the dust in the air. Excessive dust bugs me on occasion when it's really thick, but not badly. It will lay waste to some members of my family, so I have to watch out for them. The winds are slowly moderating, and even though its almost eighty degrees outside right now, the weather-guessers are telling us that the winds should turn to on-shore, and that we should soon return to more seasonal temperatures and weather. <grins> We'll see. That General Santa Ana, he sometimes doesn't persuade that easily ...
I just finished a charming little book that my friend Aramis gave me for Christmas called The Daily Coyote. It's a love story about a woman who raises a coyote pup from infancy, and how she comes to grips with the canine way of doing things. For the most part the author avoids the general conflict that always arises when folks discuss adopting and raising "wild animals" in exchange for an emotional yet intelligent examination of the way humans and canines interact, and she discusses major changes that had to come about in her life in order for she and "Charlie" to remain friends and co-habitants. I very much enjoyed the book, and learned something from it as well. It isn't terribly long, but is illustrated with some fabulous photographs that make me just a little jealous, not only of the author's equipment but also of her location and living conditions. The author has a web site dedicated to Charlie, and this site was the pre-cursor to the book. Drop by for a visit.
I have passed the book on to my daughter, who not surprisingly is also an avid fan and admirer of the coyote. I am certain it will eventually wind up in my folks house, my father will enjoy it not only for the story but also for the images, some of which border on the amazing. Thanks, Aramis!
Finally, the Ducks and the Kings both continue to struggle. The Kings (17-20-6) have dropped to last in the Pacific Division, three points behind the Dallas Stars. Apparently dumping Avery has helped the Stars out some. Meanwhile, the Ducks and the Coyotes are tied for second, each team is 22-18-5 with 49 points. And of course, Kellan can crow about the Sharks, they're way out front at 32-6-5 with 69 points.
The Ducks and the Coyotes are marginally ahead of the Canucks in the Western Conference, Vancouver has one more loss at 22-19-5, but has the same points as their Pacific rivals. Roberto Luongo is back in goal for the Canucks, and Jason LaBarbera is now the number two goalie on an NHL team. I wonder how that is sitting with him. Getting any play time worth mentioning while standing in Luongo's shadow will be tough for him, would be tough for just about any net-minder.
Speaking of net-minders, JS Giguere is holding his own at 12-10-4 with a 3.04 GAA and a .906 save percentage. Not his best stats for a season, but he's got a lot going on. He was in goal for the win against the Devils and more recently for the loss against the Red Wings.
Los Angeles is ahead of the Saint Louis Blues in the conference. The Ducks and the desert dogs are amongst the top eight, trailing San Jose, Detroit (31-7-6), Calgary (27-12-4), and Chicago (24-10-7). If either team has a hope for the Cup, they'd better get on their sticks and play hard, old fashioned hockey for the rest of the season!
The Ducks and the Kings are both starting road trips. Hopefully they can get some wins, get some momentum going, and play those hard games after the All Star break. The Ducks face off tonight in Pittsburgh (21-20-4) at 1630 local time tonight, it's a safe bet all my crew here will be camped around the idiot box, rooting for them.
9 January 2009
While our boys were industrially engaged in the Freeway Faceoff at the Staples Center last night in downtown Los Angeles they had a little unscheduled rock-and-roll sideshow. About half way into the first period, at 1950 local time, the San Joaquin Fault slipped more or less directly under downtown San Bernardino. I didn't feel a thing here on The Range, but the Fox and our youngest pup did. They were sitting down watching the game. I was up moving around doing something (throwing something in the trash can outside, I think). Originally announced as a 5.0, Cal Tech downgraded it to a 4.5 after review of the data. Meanwhile, the Ducks played on to a 4-3 loss, in spite of an absolutely stunning third goal of Bobby Ryan's, earning him an old fashioned hat trick and a rookie record for the team while tying the game at three all. (Ryan's three goals came less than two and a half minutes apart, another record for the team as well.)
Yet in spite of the rain of caps from the Ducks fans in attendance, Anaheim lost to the Kings on an Alexander Frolov wrist shot from a rebound halfway through the third period. The Ducks tried to battle back but couldn't even the score before the clock ran out.
JS Giguere, who will start in goal for the Western Conference at the All Star Game, spent the first period in goal for the Ducks, allowing a goal by Dustin Brown with six seconds left on the clock after saving eight. Thirty seven seconds into the second frame Wayne Simmonds sent a snap shot past him, and Randy Carlyle pulled JS and sent Jonas Hiller in. Hiller fared better, but did allow a third goal eight minutes later by Anze Kopitar.
Ryan Getzlaf, Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Scott Niedermayer
"I'm not having my best season so far, so I needed help," Giguere said [of being voted the starting goalie for the Western Conference All Star Game]. "And I got it. This one goes to the fans. This is all about them, not me."
I know that JS lost his father recently, and wonder if he's still preoccupied with that. He looked resigned as he sat the bench through the remaining minutes of last nights game, frustrated to be sure, but also kind of drained. I hope his play at the All Star game in his home town is stellar, and brings back the master net-minder we all saw two seasons back. Jiggy is 11-9-4 on the season with a GAA of 2.99 and a save percentage of .908. Jonas, by comparison, is 10-7-1 on the season with a GAA of 2.10 and a save percentage of .931.
Jonathan Quick was in goal for the Kings last night, minding the net formerly occupied by Jason LaBarbera. Jason has kept busy. He's 2-0-2 with the Canucks, 7-8-6 if you include his season play with the Kings. In the four games he's played with Vancouver he has saved 122 of the 130 shots against him for a save percentage of .939 and a GAA of 1.92. His season save percentage (including games as a King) is .903 with a GAA of 2.65. Draw from that what you will, but it looks to me like his move to the home town is paying off for him despite back-to-back shootout losses to the Dallas Stars and the Atlanta Thrashers before their victory over the Edmonton Oilers Wednesday night. Tonight, as my crew readies for a trip to the Honda Center to watch the Ducks battle the Tampa Bay Lightning, Jason and the Canucks face off against the Saint Louis Blues.
Another kind of game is on this weekend as well:
HIGH PRESSURE CENTERED IN NEVADA WILL CAUSE LOCAL STRONG GUSTY
SANTA ANA WINDS FRIDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH SUNDAY. GUSTY NORTHEAST
WINDS WILL DEVELOP LATE FRIDAY MORNING IN THE NORTHERN AREAS AND
THEN SPREAD INTO THE RIVERSIDE AND SAN DIEGO COUNTY MOUNTAINS
DURING THE DAY AND CONTINUE THROUGH SUNDAY. THE STRONGEST WINDS
WILL BE THROUGH AND BELOW MOUNTAIN CANYONS AND PASSES WHERE WIND
GUSTS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH ARE LIKELY. ISOLATED GUSTS TO NEAR 80
MPH WILL BE POSSIBLE THROUGH AND BELOW THE CAJON PASS AND SANTA
ANA MOUNTAINS.
And yes, the Red Flag warnings are already up, although prognosticators are slightly mollified by the fact that fuel moisture content is moderate, and by the fact that the air temperature should only climb into the eighties. "Only." So I'll more than likely be posting some wind speed numbers from Fremont Canyon this weekend, and maybe be picking up pieces of tree from my yards by Sunday.
Finally, the economic situation is beginning to hit close to home. As of 6 January The Raccoon's Bookshelf has temporarily closed, citing mainly financial concerns. Mike and his enterprise are one of the anchors of our furry community, it's hard to watch this happen and not want to do something about it. I'm not willing to sit idly by and watch my friend struggle, and plan to lend a paw. If you're interested in that, drop me a line in e-mail or at the forum.
3 January 2009
I'm not sure yet if it's a good thing or not, but Jason La Barbera has been traded by the LA Kings to the Vancouver Canucks. He seems happy about it, even though it's a 100% certainty he'll be a distant second to Roberto Luongo when the Canucks' captain returns from the injured reserve to the ice after the All Star game. Jason appears tickled to be playing for the home team, he's a Burnaby, British Columbia native. Wearing number 31, he got a win his first night out against Nashville, saving 31 of 32 shots against him. Last night, however, the Canucks lost in a shootout against the Thrashers. Jason saved 34 of 37 against him, but allowed the only shootout goal when Eric Christensen got him with a "double deke." I'm sure Jason is a bit frustrated by that, but hope he maintains his cheerful outlook. I think his stats will improve quite a bit now that he's out of the Los Angeles organization.
Meanwhile my crew and I went to watch the Ducks fall to the Blue Jackets at the Honda Center on New Years Eve, and caught them on Center Ice in their loss to the Flyers last night. JS Giguere was in goal for both games, stopping 27 of 29 against the Blue Jackets and 28 of 32 against the Flyers. His save percentage currently stands at .910, and his GAA is just below 3 at 2.96. Yet he absolutely dominated the voting for the Western Conference net minder in the All Star game, and will be the starting goaltender in his home town of Montreal on that day. Roberto Luongo was a distant second to JS, who is joined by teammates Ryan Getzlaf (F) and Scott Niedermeyer (D).
Meanwhile, I spent the day here at The Range assembling a small photo album of our recent exploits in Arizona that my Fox and I enjoyed. Prescription Arizona is now available for your enjoyment. And now I'm off to grill dinner for my crew.
[edit]
It's much later in the evening, actually very early Sunday morning. My folks have gone home with full tummies and big smiles, we watched the LA Kings beat the Philadelphia Flyers in a shootout with Jonathan Quick in goal, and I have finished another album for you. The Summer 08 album, such as it is, is finally done. Three months late, but it's done.
Don't look now, but the race for the middle slots in the NHL Pacific Division is getting tight. Anaheim and Phoenix are tied for second with exactly the same numbers: 19-15-5 and 43 points. Meanwhile Los Angeles is but a point ahead of Dallas, LA is 16-16-6 / 38, and Dallas is 16-16-5 / 37. Of course the Sharks are far and away at number one, 29-4-5 with 63 points. The only other team in the league with more than sixty points is the Boston Bruins with 62, they are 29-6-4. Playoff prospects for local teams is not looking so good at this point, but Kellan may get a seat to see the Sharks take it all, if they can do it.
I hope you all managed to get your tails into 2009 without any permanent damage ...
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