A/V Evolution

Every few years you have to update your home entertainment equipment. No, that’s not exactly right. You don’t have to. Really, you don’t. But you do, don’t you? Because you’re vigorously urged by a zillion ads to get the latest gizmos, can’t live without ‘em, not cool like your buds who have all the latest crap. And so it goes, buying one thing after another, all of which are technically obsolete long before they actually wear out. First it was LP records – the content of which was often loaded onto reel to reel tapes. I used to configure these long-playing (up to 5 hours) tapes for given occasions: there was one for parties, one for background dinner music, and of course the ever-popular hand-picked never-fail seduction tape ending with Ravel’s Bolero. No, I don’t recall the level of efficacy of the seduction tape.
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From LPs, we went to cassette tapes: new inventory and new equipment required. Next came CDs, another new inventory, more new equipment. Now, CDs are virtually obsolete, replaced by mp3 and ipod and online personalized music from sources like Pandora. And that’s only the audio portion.
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It’s the same thing with videos, movies and TV. Remember VCRs? They’re dead, Jim (Bones, Star Trek; he must have said it a hundred times). It went from VCR to DVD some time back, and then on to DVD Blu-Ray which is nearly obsolete also cuz now there’s online download streaming.
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I have to admit I’m a sucker for new A/V technology. Some of it anyway; just upgraded to a Blu-Ray player with built-in wifi for streaming movies and other stuff - slicker than snot on a doorknob. Never went for the Ipod/mp3 stuff, tunes not being all that important to me anymore. Trish has an Ipod and uses it a lot, tunes in music, tunes out the world – and me, might as well talk to a chair.
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Pix are of last night's sunset.  Not bad, eh?

Of Bears and Heroes

Two notable events were reported in the local newspaper recently, the first of which was a black bear in the state park fronting Lake Havasu a couple miles north of London Bridge. This is a first: no other bears have ever been seen near LHC. It doesn’t seem like bear-friendly habitat to me at all; I’m thinking that it must have come over from the California side.
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The flora and fauna are virtually identical on both sides of the river but everybody knows that Californians are a little different. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against people (or bears) from CA. To the contrary, I’m extremely fond of several - despite their numerous bizarre ideas and quirks (people, that is; don’t know any bears well enough to comment on their quirkiness). Besides, I think it’s involuntary, something in the water perhaps, not their fault at all. Many have achieved near-normalcy after living in other states for several years and are to be congratulated on that significant accomplishment.
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Back to the bear (got carried away back there, sorry). Here’s a link to the story:  http://www.havasunews.com/articles/2010/10/04/news/doc4ca964a28b655067215330.txt
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The other event, involving local heroes, is a little closer to home. In fact, the heroes are in our home at this very moment: they live here. Trish and Ranger made the front page of the local paper on Tuesday. While kayaking south of town, they found and rescued a dog that had gone missing from a boat a week earlier. The dog, Chipper, is a Shih Tzu – hardly big enough for a good snack for your average coyote, and it’s amazing the coyotes didn’t get him. Chipper’s owners were ecstatic, had about given up hope; they wanted to put the event in the paper – a good-news story to offset the bleak news of recent times.

Mist and plant. LHC, AZ

The portable misting tower is effective, creates a comfortable mini-atmosphere in a small area like a patio table. Problem is, the water here is full of lime and/or calcium, maybe other stuff, too, and it clogs up the misting nozzles after a while. The vendor recommends using an inline sediment filter to alleviate this kind of problem: I do, it doesn’t. I tried hooking up the garden hose to soft water and that seems to work better. Another challenge is keeping the mist headed in the right direction despite frequent breezes wafting it hither and yon. The expression ‘it’s like herding cats’ has been popular in recent years but I think I’ve one-upped the users of that phrase. Ever tried herding mist?
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There are 2 stepped terraces fronting the LHC house, plus the upper terrace/patio at house floor level, so we'll call it 3 in total. The lowest terrace has 3 irrigation bubblers so it’s a good place for plantings. The middle terrace was originally planned to be part of a pool system, a spa/hot tub I think. The uppermost terrace/patio was designed for a pool; wiring and plumbing are roughed in for both spa and pool – but it ain’t gonna happen on my watch.  Pools are a pain in the ass, wouldn’t take one if you gave it to me. There was to be a waterfall or water feature or some darn thing flowing from the house-level pool to the spa on the next terrace down. Neat concept, I admit.
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One of my house do-list items since day one was to remove 2 butt ugly, rabbit-bitten plants on the lower terrace. I have no idea what kind of plants they were or why anyone would want them – other than the rabbits, that is. One of the plants died of natural causes this summer. Well, actually it died of thirst cuz someone who shall remain nameless shut down the irrigation to the lower terrace. We’re talking plant-slaughter here, plain and simple. This week the remaining plant joined it’s sibling in plant paradise, in this case, murder one.  And, you know what? I have no remorse whatsoever. Cold blooded bugger, aren’t I?
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Pix are of misting tower and lower terrace before the demise – “from the womb untimely ripped” – of butt ugly plant number 2. In the next post I’ll include pictures and descriptions of the new plantings, hope you can stand the suspense.

MKM LHC, AZ

In the early 80s I took an assignment in Egypt for 2 ½ years. My employer, CH2M Hill, was the lead firm in a 4-firm consortium on a USAID project there, expanding and upgrading the wastewater treatment system for the city of Alexandria. My job was to manage the financial, administrative and logistical aspects of the project, in short, everything except the design function. My entire staff of about 100 people was Egyptian, and nearly all of them were Muslim. Muslims have 2 long holiday periods each year: Ramadan and Hajj. The project offices closed during those periods, and most of us Americans went to Europe.

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On one of my Europe trips, my niece, Mary Kay Magistad, and I, arranged to meet in Copenhagen and go on from there to tour Sweden together. MKM was taking a break before pursuing an MA Rotary Fellowship at the University of Sussex in England. This was the first of many shared adventures and visits back and forth. I visited her in Boston and Beijing; she visited me in several OR locations, and now here in LHC. Last summer she joined Trish and me on our North Shore Drive (Lake Superior) excursion. She also climbed Mt Whitney with me – as did her brother Steve and my brother Pat - some 20 years ago.
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If her name sounds familiar, it’s because she’s a radio journalist and a regular on the BBC/PRI program, The World. The program airs each week day on most public radio stations. MKM has lived in Beijing for many years, in Bangkok before that. She’s currently in the States to receive an award (not her first) for a 5-part series “Created in China”. The award presentation will be in Las Vegas – which happens to be the closest major airport to LHC. It’s great to see her again, and to indulge in our sporadic conversations about investments, travel, religion, politics, philosophy, and so on. I can’t think of any social or world problem we’ve not addressed and talked into total and abject submission.

Pancho and Grunt. LHC

Pancho and Grunt were delighted to see us return home, although they pretended to be totally indifferent. One might call them stoics. They are quite reserved, displaying little emotion regardless of the occasion. No doubt they were sick of being cooped up in the hot dark garage for 4 months; like Trish and I, they’re outdoors types at heart. For those who have yet to meet P&G, I’ve included pix (Grunt is the short one) – and some of the LHC house/yard also.

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Trish has spent many hours swamping out the EDGE interior since our return. Four months of occupancy plus 500 miles of gravel road equals one filthy RV. We’ll wait for the weather to cool a bit before cleaning and waxing the exterior, tightening screws and nuts, lubing springs and jacks, etc.

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Speaking of weather, it’s been a least a week since I last whined about it, maybe 2 weeks. Too long entirely. It feels great to be back in the dry heat, but it would be even greater if heat levels were normal. Late September highs are running 10-15 degrees above normal which means daily highs of around 105. We’ve had the A/C on most of the time since our return home and the 10-day forecast indicates it will stay on awhile. The A/C was only on for 3 days in the Jan-May, 2010 period however. It's quite comfortable without A/C with temps up to 90.

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Having recently enjoyed several days of OR liquid sunshine, I’m reminded of an old stale joke – one that is actually better spoken than written but what the hell, you’ll figure it out. In recent years, OR has earned quite a reputation for producing excellent wines, in addition to its rep for long, rainy winters. OR natives, when asked, “What’s your favorite OR wine?” consistently respond with, “I wish it would stop raining!”

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I ordered a couple of portable misting towers to use during hot spells. Misting is a very effective cooling method, should allow us to be comfortable outside on the terrace even with 100+ temps. Will let you know how well they work.

Lake Havasu City, AZ

Home again, home again. We hit LHC at 4 PM on 9-23, found house and yard to be in fine shape despite our 4 month absence. We switched the breakers on, turned on the water, plugged in the fridge, and slept in our spacious, comfortable bed. Woo-hoo!

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Trip summary:
1. Days/miles: 116/14189
2. Gas cost: $3998
3. Cheapest gas: $2.45; Gallup, NM
4. Highest gas: $8.36; Toad Lake, BC on The Alaska Highway
5. Camping fees: $2624 (about 15 nights were freebies, parked in people’s yards or driveways)
6. Number of states/provinces visited: 12/4
7. Number of times we set up camp: 58
8. No flat tires, no mechanical breakdowns, no empty gas tank, no traffic tickets, no hits, no runs, no errors, nobody left on base
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What would we do different if we did it all over again? Not much. Let's see ........okay, I’d leave my long johns at home. We hit some cruddy weather but there was only that one night in Leadville, CO when it got down to 32 degrees. Our pre-trip planning was thorough and we had the right travel references, The Milepost and The Traveler’s Guide to Alaskan Camping. Four months turned out to be a little long, will shorten that up a month or so next summer.
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If you’ve an interest in seeing AK and haven't done the Inside Passage cruise, I suggest you cruise to Homer or Skagway from Vancouver, BC, rent a vehicle and drive back. We might have done that ourselves but I’d already taken the IP cruise.
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For those hundreds of avid readers who are flat out devastated and depressed at the thought of these posts coming to an abrupt end cuz the trip is over, take heart. The blog posts will continue, filled with harrowing tales of life in a harsh, barren desert teeming with venomous snakes, biting spiders, voracious buzzards and hordes of marauding Q-tips. “What are Q-tips?” you ask: people with white hair and white tennis shoes. AZ is heavily infested with ‘em, especially in winter.
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Pix: Mt Shasta, Carina (niece) and I psyching ourselves up for pickleball, wind farm near Tehachapi, CA.

Day 116. Bakersfield, CA

“Oh Lord, stuck in Lodi again.” John Fogerty; Creedence Clearwater Revival
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Headed south out of Sacramento on I-5, we heard a radio advisory to take a different route cuz an accident was blocking 3 lanes up ahead. We jigged left, over to hiway 99, spied a grocery store in Lodi, decided to stop and get a couple things - but had already passed the turnoff. I turned right 2 blocks past the store, into a residential area full of cul de sacs and no side street access back to the store. I did a huey and returned to the main drag, planning to hang a left. No way Jose, concrete divider, right turn only, the hell with it, there’s other stores.
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You may notice a remarkable phenomenon in the day count in this post: the clock got turned back 4 days. I’ve been cavalier about the accuracy of the count but figured I should get it right for this, our last day on the road. So, I did a calendar check and discovered the discrepancy. Do I really care? Uh-uh. Am I going to go back and correct all the day counts in previous posts? What – you think I got nothing better to do? Get real.
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Trish grew up in Sacramento, which she often calls Sacatomatoes. I didn’t understand this until yesterday. On southbound I-5, there are tomatoes on the right shoulder of the highway, mile after mile. No, they aren’t growing there. They’re ripe tomatoes that fell of the trucks hauling them to market. Or, maybe a couple harvest workers riding in the backs of two separate trucks had a running tomato fight, which is not as farfetched as you might think. I vividly remember a lengthy tomato fight with my brother Gerry one crisp autumn day back in MN. It was great fun – more so because the tomatoes were rotten, killed off by the first frost. There are darn few things in life more satisfying than nailing your big brother with a large rotten tomato. Yes!
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Orange Grove RV Park is the scene of our last night’s campout. It’s a large campground with many amenities and hundreds of mature orange trees heavily laden with fruit. Several weeks out, the happy campers here will be gorging themselves on nice ripe oranges. See pix.