Sunday, February 26, 2017

Quote for today

Wise original quote from Tom Stienstra, the long-time outdoor writer for the San Francisco Chronicle:
"The odds of being born, according to one legend, are the same as if you were to throw a life ring on the open ocean, and at that exact moment, a blind sea tortoise poked its head through the ring.  The odds of dying, on the other hand, are 100 percent.  For each day in between, since it's a miracle you're alive in the first place, you'd best treat today as a blessing."

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Back from Tahoe/Donner

We were up at the Tahoe/Donner house for a week.  There was already a ton of snow there when we arrived and it snowed more during several days of our stay.  I was going to go snowshoeing on the watershed land up above our place, but the plowed snow was do deep and high that I literally could not find a way out of our seven-unit compound to get up to the watershed land.  And, at some point it had rained and then froze, making the snow walls so hard that I could not even shovel an entry point!  So, I just hung out and did some binge watching, enjoying the Showtime offerings of "Narcos" and "Jessica Jones," and the Amazon production of "Mozart in the Jungle."  Good stuff.

Here are some photos that I took during our stay:



That's our unit on the right.  You can barely see the front door.


Our place from another angle.  The driveway is plowed and clear at the time of this shot, but the next day we got another 14 or 15 inches of snow, which had to be plowed.  The plow guys are running out of places to put the additional snow.


We are a bit worried about the snow load on the roof.  The forecast is for another foot or so of snow in the next few days, but we're cautiously confident that the roof will survive it.  These places were constructed to stand up against severe winter weather.


This shot was taken from out the window of the second story guest bedroom at about 3:00 pm.  It looks like a black & white photo, but it turns out that there was literally no color to be seen, even with the naked eye.  Pretty amazing.  You can see all the way down to the main road, and you can see the snow-covered power lines.  (Be sure to click on this one to blow it up)

Thursday, February 2, 2017

The classics seem appropriate these days

I'm pretty cynical about how this whole Trump nightmare is going to play out, so I, (like many of my friends and acquaintances) am purposely avoiding too much exposure to bad, aggravating news.  It just ain't worth the old blood pressure ticking up a notch or two.  So I have been looking for mellow input that will give me some joy to balance out the woes.  To that end, I have been watching more classic movies than is my usual wont.  While  there may be better "classic" web sites that I have yet to discover, one that is elegant and very informative is "Classic Movie Favorites."  Check it out right here.  Enjoy.