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As I lay in bed listening to the thunder last night, I was wondering how long it would be before we were on fire this year? Some of the strikes were pretty close, and the leading edge was dry and dusty wind, but the vegetation is still too green for a significant fire to get going this early. Even the cheat grass is still too green.
To quote Monty Python: And now for something completely different
You ever had one of those "nuclear" sneezes?
You know, the ones where it lifts you 1-2 feet up into to the air, and throws you back some 3-4 feet?
I really, really love my full-face helmet while skydiving....but..... Lord, what a mess......
Full face? Did everything become blurry for the bulk of the descent?
Luckily it was to the end of the dive, and i deployed some 10 seconds later.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker;[URL="tel:5608261"
still a mess….
Was it a case of, "well, I can't see anything, might as well deploy."
This is a really gross conversation.
That makes it pretty much on topic for this thread.
Yeah, pretty much.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker;[URL="tel:5608366"
i did receive the laughs and „ooohhh….gross“ though, when i went to the restroom to wash the visor
I don't go out to restaurants much. Pandemic years and age I suppose.
Son and daughter in law dropped the baby with my ex and picked me up for dinner. They are into "keto" now and thought I might like to treat them to a new place that opened here a few months ago.
The menu was weird, I had the "special." That turned out to be roast light and dark turkey meat, mashed cauliflower with some clear and greasy highly sage-spiced "gravy," some steamed kohlrabi and zucchini, and a very weird dessert. That was finely cubed Gouda cheese mixed with muddled raspberries, a dollop of artificially sweetened cream cheese and gelatin whip, sprig of mint leaf on top.
Wasn't cheap. I just had a water but for 3 people I put out about $130 with tip.
Is that what "keto" is like? Are prices really this high out there? I can't imagine people eat that way very often. No wonder people feel broke.
I'd say that's what fad is like. If you're buying in, you're paying for the experience.
I have to admit that at least it was edible. Not like the weird "tofu dog" I had a few years ago.
lolQuote:
Originally Posted by dilettante
Unfortunately $130 for three at a nice place in CA isn't unusual. Not a real nice place, just a nice place. Kids, they never stop costing you money. lol
It's sort of shocking to look around. So many places we used to go when the kids were small are now long gone. The pandemic ended many, but others were lost to fires or urban renewal projects. Places that were once small village before being overtaken by city expansion have had their entire downtowns obliterated and replaced by weird stuff like 4 story warehouses for the elderly.
I went to a place out in the San Juan Islands. It was the best food I've ever had, to be sure, but I got a piece of meat smaller than my fist, with a bone in it, a few slices of mushroom and about a spoonful of mashed potatoes. Each of those items was the best I've ever had of that item, but I realized I probably could have eaten the entire menu in a single sitting, including all the appetizers. I forget what the cost was, but I think it was around $70, or so, for one person, not counting the appetizer that I got (which was nine scallops). I didn't have any of the wine, but the first bottle was perhaps $600, and the second about half that.
The food was extraordinary. The price tag was, too.
Also, those nine scallops were an appetizer for two. That was a table full of programmers and mathematicians. Nobody commented on an odd number being an appetizer for two.
Nine scallops seems like a lot, if they were the large sea scallops. But if they were bay scallops, that's completely different.
There's no way I could pick the best food I ever ate. I couldn't even say what was the best steak, fish, chicken, casserole ..... I ever ate. It really depends what I'm in the mood for. I cook the same thing various ways depending on what I'm craving at the time.
I love eating, it's one of life's great pleasures. But I'm not a foodie. I usually keep it pretty basic.
Kind of an intermediate size, if I remember.
Interesting and funny video I think only programmers could appreciate:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoQLoKHhohg
Yeah, that's a fun video. Many of the clips used were from movies, but at 1:38, there's a very brief clip that appears to be Hans Niemann. That was a fun choice, if true.
Had another small series of shocks today.
Needed to get a vision test and new glasses, but last the two offices I've gone to are closed and gone.
Inside the nearby mall LensCrafters' still exists. Went to the mall, and wow is that place weird now. What used to be an entrance takes you into some sort of "juice and booze bar" in the darkness with black lights opening onto a strange electric go-cart course and padded cells for faux combat. When I got through and turned around a ratty paper banner proclaimed "High Caliber: West Coast Rallies & Snacks."
In the LensCrafters' itself everything looked run down. Staff looked pretty... minimum wage Millennial and acted very clueless, admitting they haven't been thee long. While the equipment is still there to grind and prepare lenses "in an hour" nobody is left to run it so they send out to get it done in a week or two.
At least the Eye Doc is hanging on. I think he was glad to have a customer with insurance and cash good enough for a full set of testing. He even threw in retina photos for free to forward to my Primary physician.
People seem dumber and the economy seems to have "rougher edges" every day.
Sort of surprised at what people have forgotten.
Young couple moved into the neighborhood a few months back. He was complaining about the cost of clothes. Turns out they've been ditching stuff that doesn't come clean in the wash. Mainly collar and armpit stains.
Showed them the results of treatments based on baking soda and dish soap scrubbed in with a nail brush or old toothbrush, rinsing and wringing out then soaking the stains lightly with 3% hydrogen peroxide followed by air drying in full sunlight.
They came by today to express their appreciation. They both "rescued" a lot of light colored blouses, polo shirts, even tees. He's out there putting in a permanent back yard clothesline now, having returned the folding rack I had lent them.
If I did that, the clothes would end up muddy. Too much dust out here.
It helps that we've had a respite here recently from both dirt and smoke in the air.
What got me was that they thought throwing clothes in the trash regularly was just a normal thing. What's a basic polo shirt go for now? $20 at least I'd think for even a lightweight cotton/poly blend.
It's funny how many words and phrases, admittedly mostly idiom, younger people don't seem to understand or even be aware of. Of course "younger" can be a pretty relative thing too.
I was talking with my son, his wife, and a couple they know. All of them are 36 to 39 years old. The topic was emergency preparedness, and I had to keep guiding it back toward practical things like weather emergencies and power outages rather than more fanciful SHTF which I suppose are more fun (?) to talk about.
At some point I said something like "Well when the balloon goes up you'll want to know where your keys are" and 3 of the 4 started side-eyeing and giggling. They had never heard this before.
I thought that idiom was pretty common currency, but perhaps that isn't the case any longer.
Considering, the "root" of "when the ballon goes up" is from World War 1........ :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by dilettante
Could use a weather balloon, myself. I'm taking a day off on my bike ride to sit out a rainy day. There's a record cold low coming through, with hours of rain, at least where I am. The snow level is supposed to be down to 5000 feet, and my plan had been to camp at 5600 this evening. I think waiting one day wouldn't be too bad.
Oh yeah, I'm on a five week long bike ride that is all on back roads, rail-trails, and the like. I spent most of yesterday on railroad ballast, scraped down to dirt...somewhat. It was pretty scenic, but by the end of it, my arms and shoulders were tired from the constant shaking. Only got to see one snake, too, which was a bit disappointing.
I've always lived in the Great Lakes region, where "mountains" exist but are nothing like "real mountains" in height. Once when I was young I went to San Diego on business, and on a day off there paid a visit to Mt. Palomar Observatory. I'd been into a lot of the usual stuff as a kid: chemistry, mathematical recreation, dinosaurs, electronics and radio, and astronomy. By the 4th grade I'd pretty much been through a good fraction of the school library books in the 500s (Dewy Decimal). Computers were barely known to Average Joes aside from stuff in movies.
No grizzlies, but I did see a mountain lion while ascending. At my destination though the trail was littered with rattlesnake warning signs ("Stay on the path!").
I'm not sure why I hadn't expected that. I suppose I figured there was an elevation where snakes and such ran out. I guess that's a lot higher up than the 6000 feet or so where I was.
You saw a mountain lion? I've been out in the woods my entire life. I've seen one Florida panther (endangered, but still a mountain lion) and three others, which was a mother and two second year cubs (almost as big as the mother) in my entire life. You were doggone lucky to see that.
As for the snakes, when you get that far south, snakes can be found at remarkably high elevations.
What the heck is mathematical recreation?
When i was in grade school we's start math class by standing in a circle. The teacher would call out a number and toss us a ball. We'd have to say the square of that number and toss the ball back. Is that mathematical recreation?
I'm old but have never heard that.Quote:
Originally Posted by dilettante
Surely you've heard of Martin Gardner, right?Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker
I was creeping up the mountain, driving slowly to avoid overheating the rented car and I'd entered the cloud layer on my way up. It ambled across the road in front of me, maybe 30 feet ahead.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker
Having no real clue I just rolled up my window and slowed a bit more until I get past that section of road.
It was about the size of a large dog, with a long tail that was clearly catlike with a slightly upturned blunt end.
Shaggy,
What rail trail were you on? I hope you are on a full suspension bike. Washboards can be tiring and make you sore, whether on roads or rail trails.
Oh yeah. I hadn't seen it that way, but I do see how that would be mathematical recreation.Quote:
Originally Posted by dilettante
Yeah, that tail is distinctive. That was a very fortunate sighting. I have always heard that a whole lot more mountain lions see you than you see. They generally just watch people walk by. We aren't prey to them, so we're a threat. That isn't the case everywhere, and they will attack people running or biking, but generally not walking.Quote:
Originally Posted by dilettante
I have heard that, at one point in the past, mountain lions were about the most widespread predator in the US. They were found in pretty nearly every state, though they were called different things in different places. Mountain lions out west, panthers in Florida and Texas, Catamounts in Vermont, and HOLY @#%@#%!!! when encountered suddenly.
It was a good sighting.
I'm on the Weiser River Trail, and have a few miles left before moving to a Forest Service road over to Donelly and McCall. The bike is a hard tail, not full suspension. Full suspension bikes don't seem like they can take a back rack very easily, if at all, and you lose a bit of energy with every stroke, which adds up on long flat stretches.Quote:
Originally Posted by jdc2000
You can get full suspension bikes with lockouts. That can help with energy loss. For a back rack, I have one that mounts to the seat post. However, that might not be capable of carrying the load that you are likely hauling. I bought my full suspension bike to use as a race bike, so I could run over things that I would have had to go around on my first mountain bike.
I have not yet ridden the Weiser River trail, but it is on my list of trails to ride. I think that there is at least on other trail on the west side of the state that I should be thinking about riding as well. It was on an Outdoor Idaho segment at one time.
I don't know of another one on the west side of the state. The Weiser is a great trail, especially if you are going downhill. I could totally tell the difference between flat stetches and uphill through the canyon. I biked the upper end of the trail (Tamarack down to Fruitvale) twice. That part is nice any time of year, but the open area probably gets pretty brutal in the summer. I guess I'll find out, though, as I'll be going back down it in a few weeks..
All the other rail trails I know about in Idaho are up north. The Trail of the Couer d'Alenes is terrific, but I wouldn't call it west.
Locally I've always heard "cougar" except for some older folks who said "catamount" but then we had a lot of in-migration from New England when the Northwest Territory was opened.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker
While extremely rare here, DNR-confirmed Michigan sitings aren't unheard of. That's far more often in the U.P. than down here "under" The Bridge.
We have three high-traffic international bridges, but everyone here knows what you mean when you say The Bridge even if they've never seen it themselves.
https://www.mackinacbridge.org/history/the-mighty-mac/
I'm almost certain that my Mother never saw it. Looking back, there are many little things like that I wish I'd shared with her before she passed. She kept a souvenir knick knack for decades that my Grandmother bought for her at the original opening celebration. What was a 6 hour drive in 1957 takes a mere 3 1/2 hours now with highway improvements.
I've been with so many people who've said, "look, there's a bobcat!" When I looked, it was gone, so they'd add, "it just left." To date, I've never seen a bobcat in the wild. In fact, I think I've mentioned that in Post Race, before.
Animals are funny that way. Seeing a mountain lion is pretty cool. Seeing one too close...tends to make a story.
Made a grocery run. Prices keep inching and jumping up and as usual random shelves are bare or selection is limited.
But I'm not in any panic. I do think part of it is binge-buying driven by rumors as much as true supply problems.