27 May 2012
We're Baaaack!
27/05/12 17:55
Sorry for the lack of a letter last week. We were on the road to see the eclipse. We went down to Carson City, Nevada and met the rest of my family. It was a good trip. The drive wasn’t bad. It was about a thousand miles each way so an easy day and a half with an overnight at my sister’s place in Portland. In Portland I discovered that there is such a thing as being too cautious. I was at an odd intersection. The cross street did not have stop signs. The road facing me was not straight ahead like a normal intersection. Rather it was offset some 20 feet or so to the left. There was also a fair amount of cross traffic. So anyway, i was looking for an opening in the traffic and wondering what the car facing me on the other side of the road was going to do. Admittedly this was taking a fair amount of time, but I was being careful. Suddenly I hear someone yelling “For crying out loud, GO!” I looked in the mirror and it was a guy on a Honda 50cc scooter who thinks I’m not moving fast enough. OK so maybe I was a bit timid but I mean, really? A tiny scooter, with a fairly large person on it thinks I’m not moving fast enough? I got the last laugh though. He ended up following me and I lost him on the next hill. I could do the speed limit (30mph) and he couldn’t. (It’s a Prius so I don't get to gloat about the power that often.)
My sister rode to Carson City with us and with three people and full luggage the Prius still got around 50 miles per gallon. On the leg from Alturas, California to Madras, Oregon we got 55.4 miles per gallon. Not bad for a seven year old car. Getting to see the family was fun, we don’t get together that often. We went out to eat and shopped and that sort of thing. While we were there we also did a bunch of chores around my mother's house. We fixed things, my sister, the master gardener, trimmed several plants along with help from Pat and Marsh, my brother and I worked on her computer, and we did general repairs. All of the systems are running well now.
The eclipse itself was fun. We had completely clear skies, and clouds rolled in an hour after it was over. It was annular eclipse rather than total solar eclipse so we saw a “ring of fire” rather than the corona like in the other eclipses we’ve seen. It was nice, the light got weird, it got cooler. Quail gathered on the roof during the event. Apparently they always collect there in the evening prior to flying into the trees for the night and the eclipse made them think it was time for bed. All this was really neat, but it felt somehow slightly incomplete. Like going to Mardi Gras and staying in Baton Rouge rather than New Orleans, or going to the World Series and watching the game in a bar across the street. I mean it was nice but close is not the same as a real total solar eclipse. For that we’ll have to wait for 2017. Right now I’m thinking Missouri but that may change as we get closer.
On the way back we did have one unfortunate event just south of Seattle. We picked up a speeding ticket. Rats! We were in a bunch of trucks and didn’t see when the speed went from 70 mph to 60 mph. We thought we’d finally gotten clear of them when actually they’d slowed down for the lower posted speed. 72 in a 70 they’ll let you by with, but 72 in a 60 not so much.
sigh
In Washington we noticed a sign for Toledo Vader Road. Not many people know this but Toledo Vader was Darth’s brother. He was a used car salesman. As a result the family thought of him, not Darth as the evil twin. We noticed couple of odd things in Nevada as well. First at many of the intersections the left turn lane has a flashing yellow arrow all the time. In effect they are saying, “What the hell, go ahead and turn, it’s your funeral.” We found this to be a bit callus. The other thing we discovered was that Carson City has a visitors centre for tourists. However it’s closed on weekends, which we also found a bit strange for a centre aimed at tourists who are more likely to be passing through on weekends. I’d guess it would save on the budget for brochures but it seems counterproductive. How about being open weekends and closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Just a suggestion.
Once we got home the place was doing well. Barb had taken good care of the cats, but they were still very happy to see us. The garden was healthy. More about that next week. Thursday morning I got up and discovered a quail on the deck. It was trapped by one of the plexiglas panels around the covered section. I had to slip around him and then shoo him out and then had to do it again when he couldn’t figure out how to get through the railing around the deck. I would not have believed it possible but quail are apparently dumber than flies. Quail make chickens look smart. Quail may very well be the least intelligent multicellular creature on earth (or maybe it was just this one.)
Hope everyone is having a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend.
My sister rode to Carson City with us and with three people and full luggage the Prius still got around 50 miles per gallon. On the leg from Alturas, California to Madras, Oregon we got 55.4 miles per gallon. Not bad for a seven year old car. Getting to see the family was fun, we don’t get together that often. We went out to eat and shopped and that sort of thing. While we were there we also did a bunch of chores around my mother's house. We fixed things, my sister, the master gardener, trimmed several plants along with help from Pat and Marsh, my brother and I worked on her computer, and we did general repairs. All of the systems are running well now.
The eclipse itself was fun. We had completely clear skies, and clouds rolled in an hour after it was over. It was annular eclipse rather than total solar eclipse so we saw a “ring of fire” rather than the corona like in the other eclipses we’ve seen. It was nice, the light got weird, it got cooler. Quail gathered on the roof during the event. Apparently they always collect there in the evening prior to flying into the trees for the night and the eclipse made them think it was time for bed. All this was really neat, but it felt somehow slightly incomplete. Like going to Mardi Gras and staying in Baton Rouge rather than New Orleans, or going to the World Series and watching the game in a bar across the street. I mean it was nice but close is not the same as a real total solar eclipse. For that we’ll have to wait for 2017. Right now I’m thinking Missouri but that may change as we get closer.
On the way back we did have one unfortunate event just south of Seattle. We picked up a speeding ticket. Rats! We were in a bunch of trucks and didn’t see when the speed went from 70 mph to 60 mph. We thought we’d finally gotten clear of them when actually they’d slowed down for the lower posted speed. 72 in a 70 they’ll let you by with, but 72 in a 60 not so much.
sigh
In Washington we noticed a sign for Toledo Vader Road. Not many people know this but Toledo Vader was Darth’s brother. He was a used car salesman. As a result the family thought of him, not Darth as the evil twin. We noticed couple of odd things in Nevada as well. First at many of the intersections the left turn lane has a flashing yellow arrow all the time. In effect they are saying, “What the hell, go ahead and turn, it’s your funeral.” We found this to be a bit callus. The other thing we discovered was that Carson City has a visitors centre for tourists. However it’s closed on weekends, which we also found a bit strange for a centre aimed at tourists who are more likely to be passing through on weekends. I’d guess it would save on the budget for brochures but it seems counterproductive. How about being open weekends and closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Just a suggestion.
Once we got home the place was doing well. Barb had taken good care of the cats, but they were still very happy to see us. The garden was healthy. More about that next week. Thursday morning I got up and discovered a quail on the deck. It was trapped by one of the plexiglas panels around the covered section. I had to slip around him and then shoo him out and then had to do it again when he couldn’t figure out how to get through the railing around the deck. I would not have believed it possible but quail are apparently dumber than flies. Quail make chickens look smart. Quail may very well be the least intelligent multicellular creature on earth (or maybe it was just this one.)
Hope everyone is having a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend.