Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  Well, last night we had a lovely dinner with our friends Jim and Suzy F., at the Maddox Ranch House.  Debbie and I had cheddar vegetable soup, followed by ribeye steaks, and cherry pie with ice cream for dessert.  We all had the raspberry lemonade.  Our steaks were perfectly cooked (rare!) and delicious.  Jim and Suzy had filet mignon, and they reported the same.  The cheddar vegetable soup managed to be nicely cheesy without being overly salty, the usual downfall (for me, at least) of cheese soups.  I quite enjoyed this one.  The raspberry lemonade was a big hit with Jim, who (we just discovered) absolutely loves anything raspberry.  The cherry pie was good, but not in the same league as the peach pie we had last time we were here (they were out of it last night).  Great company, great food – what more could one ask for?

This morning we said goodbye to Jim and Suzy; they headed for the airport just after 8 am.  Just before they left, we were all treated to a beautiful Paradise sunrise:

Later I took Race and Miki for our usual walk.  The wind was blowing at around 10 MPH, temperature was 62°, and we had puffy clouds overhead.  Very nice walking weather!  We saw Bucky by our canal bridge both on the way out and on the way back.  Some photos:

The logical conclusion...

The logical conclusion...  Bill Whittle.  Listen to the man...

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  Our neighbors Alan and Nikki L. invited us to the local Mormon church's “fall festival” last night.  Actually the event was a function of just one of the four wards that use the northern Paradise church (there's a southern church as well).  That meant the attendees were all people who live quite near us, and that we know many of them.

So what exactly is a fall festival?  Well, mainly its for the kids – and there were a lot of kids there!  There was food (soup, bread sticks, and desserts), games (all oriented toward kids of various ages), a talk by another neighbor (Wayne N., speaking at the left of the stage in the first photo) on the history of Paradise, and a log-sawing contest (last two photos).

Wayne's talk was interesting – several generations of his ancestors lived in Paradise, and he has lived here his entire life.  He's full of stories about people who have lived here, and who still live here – all the way back to when the townspeople fought the local Indians.  Prior to this talk I had no idea he knew so much about the local history, but perhaps I should have – because every time we see Wayne, we hear another story or two.  Some of the stories involve our property, which makes them particularly interesting.

The log-sawing contest involved teams of two people being timed as they cut a nice, dry, 8" log with an old-fashioned lumberjack's cross-cut saw.  Alan L. and I worked hard together to set the bottom bar for the rest of the teams :)

We had a nice time at this event, which normally would not be our kind of “thing” – kids and a room full of people would usually make us flee.  But this time it was a room full of friends and neighbors, with kids so well-behaved you'd think you were watching “Leave It To Beaver”.  Lots of people came over to say “hi!”, and were especially solicitous of Debbie (still on crutches).

We love living here!

This morning I took my usual walk with Race and Miki (who's completely recovered from whatever made him limp).  Other than the beautiful scenery, a perfectly clear sky, crisp temperatures perfect for walking, and raptors in every direction, we didn't see anything in particular.  Oh, there was the covey of 20 or so quail that we flushed – that had the dogs quivering at the end of the leash for a while :)  Some photos:

This afternoon Jim and Suzy F. are returning from their week at Yellowstone. They'll spend the night with us, then fly back to San Diego tomorrow morning.  Jim reports that they had a wonderful time at Yellowstone, and enjoyed perfect weather the entire time.  We're going to take them out to Maddox Ranch House tonight for a send-off dinner, and we hope to see them again up here.

The Golden Spike folks were here yesterday afternoon.  They got both generators and both propane tanks placed on their pads.  Each of these weighs between 1,000 and 2,500 pounds, so that was quite a bit of careful work.  They'll be back on Tuesday to do the wiring, then on Wednesday morning the gas expert will be here to plumb the tanks to the generators, and on Wednesday afternoon the “startup guy” will be here to run through each generator's provisioning and startup process.  The latter triggers the beginning of the generator's warranty period, so it's an important step.  Starting Wednesday afternoon, we'll be immunized from power outages.  Hooray!

Wanted: Speaker of the House...

Wanted: Speaker of the House...  Via friend, former colleague, sufferer with my code, and reader Tim B.:

With the clown collection currently found in the House, one could be forgiven for thinking that the selection for this position is nearly irrelevant.  But ... remember that the person in this position is third in line for the presidency.  That will sober you up!

Curiosity's tires are looking a little shabby...

Curiosity's tires are looking a little shabby...  A recent photo from the Mars rover.  The drivers are being very careful these days, as if the tires get too torn up Curiosity won't be able to make it up Mt. Sharp...

This is so stupid!

This is so stupid!  First, the headline:

Wind now competes with fossil fuels. Solar almost does.

Why do I say this is stupid?  It sounds awesomely sweet, doesn't it?  A green dream come true.

Except it's only true if you neglect one niggling little fact: that wind and solar power are massively subsidized by government, while fossil fuels are massively penalized.

It's as if they're saying that Mercedes-Benz limousines cost no more than a Ford Focus, and forget to mention that the government (with your tax dollars!) is paying a $150,000 subsidy for each of those Mercedes-Benzs.

Why, it's almost as if they writers (in Fortune magazine, no less) think we're all stupid or something!

Oh, wait...

This is awesome!

This is awesome!  The Chromoscope – an interactive map of the sky in various wavelengths of radiation, from gamma rays to radio waves...

Here's a great rant...

Here's a great rant ... by Yossi Kreinin, whom I don't know at all, about the breezy criticisms leveled by pundits about conventional computer hardware, and their lack of substance about alternatives.

I read this on two levels: first, on its actual subject, which I found fascinating. Second, as an analog to another rant I'd like to see by someone qualified on that subject: artificial intelligence.  There's a subject much pontificated upon, with remarkably little substance underlying the hand-wavy assertions that gush from the lips of the pundits...

Progress in Paradise...

Progress in Paradise...  As planned, Tyler Thompson and his crew from Golden Spike Electric got started on our backup generator project.  Most of the day was consumed by getting a pad poured on the north side of our shed to hold the shed's backup generator and propane tank.  Tyler and his crew may be electricians, but they are also more than competent concrete fabricators, too – they did a bang-up job on this pad.  It's 5" thick, rebar-reinforced, tied into the shed's foundation, and sitting on a bed of 8" of gravel.  I don't think it's going anywhere :)

The concrete truck was 90 minutes late, so Tyler and his crew repaired to the Hyrum Pizza Plus (one of our two favorite pizza places) for dinner, then returned after sundown to put the finish on what they'd just poured.  I couldn't get photos of the finished job in the darkness, and besides, I was busy holding a flashlight so these poor guys could see!

They also delivered both actual generators, and they are substantially larger than I was expecting.  I forgot to get some photos of them; I'll do that after they're placed – which will hopefully be later today, but possibly not until next Tuesday if the concrete hasn't cured sufficiently.

As has happened up here quite a few times before, I'm impressed with the work these guys are doing – and that's such a refreshing change for us after hiring contractors in the San Diego area.  All three of these guys are hard-working, concerned with quality, and skilled in their crafts (and even in some they aren't actually claiming!).  They're also very accommodating (for instance, they're not only pouring the pad for the generator they sold me, but also for the propane tank I bought separately), full of good advice, and cheerful in the face of any challenges (like seriously late concrete trucks).

We love living up here!

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  I took my usual morning walk, but with only one dog (Race), as Miki has a limp and we're letting him take it easy.  We left about 30 minutes before sunrise, and were walking as the valley lit up.  Some photos:

In the first photo you can see a lighting effect that I enjoy – the tip top of Box Elder Peak (in the Wellsville Mountains) east of us is lit up by the sun rising over the Wasatch Mountains to our west.  In the last photo, the grassy field in the foreground used to be a barley field!  We've had so much rain since the barley was harvested that lots of grass has sprouted and grown, in some places nearly a foot high.  I can't tell what kind of grass it is, but I don't think it's barley – so I'm wondering where the heck all the grass seed came from.  I'm certain it wasn't planted.

When we walked into the driveway, we spotted Bucky (our injured buck deer) hanging around the bridge over the irrigation canal.  We haven't seen him for a few days, and we were a little worried about him.  It's good to see him back.  I put down some feed corn for him.

I spent most of yesterday afternoon with a home inspector, at a house near Newton, Utah that we're in the process of buying.  Working with the inspector is an interesting process, and useful beyond the obvious purpose.  The inspector (Keith D.) is methodical, where we (as prospective buyers) tend to be much less so.  He has a checklist of things to look for, and a specific method for each particular thing.  He keeps track of it all with a program on a laptop, which then generates a very professional-looking report.  The real value for me, though, is that I can hover around him as he works, and that leads me to check all sorts of things myself.  I wrote down quite a few of my own observations as we walked around.  I also get to ask questions of him, which he very politely pretended weren't a huge pain in the butt :)  It's amazing what you can learn simply by talking with an expert.  He's done thousands of these home inspections over the past 30 years, so I'm comfortable calling him an expert.

Today we have a bit of excitement on the home front.  After waiting months for them to be delivered, we're getting backup generators installed.  This is quite an involved process – the generators and associated propane tanks have to be set down on a concrete pad (in the case of our shed, we have to pour one).  Then an automatic transfer switch (a big electrical device) has to be attached to the outside of the buildings, and wired into the existing meter and circuit breaker panels.  The transfer switches each handle 200 amps (house and shed, separately), so the wires and conduits involved are big and bulky.  Then the generators have to be hooked up to propane and the transfer switches.  The folks doing the installation will be here for several days getting all this done.  I'll be helping a bit today, using my backhoe to dig out the pad we need to pour for the shed...

Depression-era and WWII image collection...

Depression-era and WWII image collection...  Yale University has posted a huge collection of scanned Depression-era and WWII photographs taken in the United States.  There are several ways to search the collection, but the default is by clicking on a map.  In just seconds, I found the image at right, taken in 1940 at a home in Paradise, just down the street from our house.

He's “not interested” in meeting with Obama...

He's “not interested” in meeting with Obama...  Well, imagine that.  I've wondered in several past instances why someone did agree to meet with him.  I'm not surprised in the least that Chris Mintz doesn't want to...

Some folks think it's crazy that I collect slide rules...

Some folks think it's crazy that I collect slide rules...  I submit that collecting AOL disks is at least an order of magnitude crazier yet!

NASA dumps a whole bunch of photos...

NASA dumps a whole bunch of photos ... from the Apollo missions.  The example (from Apollo 12) at right is just one of thousands...

Science isn't perfect, part 29,479...

Science isn't perfect, part 29,479...  Warmists should ponder this...

Robots are not about to take over...

Robots are not about to take over...  Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and other very smart people are amazingly (to me, anyway) credulous on the subject of artificial intelligence and the dangers thereof.  So far as I'm concerned, that's on a par with people in the 1800s being terrified that going 50 MPH would prevent us from breathing (an actual, published, widely-believed fear).  Why?  This fellow has a good post about that.  And here MIT offers some additional evidence, though that's not their intent.  They're saying “Wow! Look at this!  We built a robot that (sort of) learned how to grasp things, on its own (sort of)!”  I read that article and think: 60 years of research and AI can't even duplicate one of the many feats of learning of a human infant. 

The singularity isn't close at hand, folks.  It's not even within sight of the Hubble telescope, wealthy and smart pundits notwithstanding...

Quote of the day...

Quote of the day...  This time from the blog of Eric S. Raymond, on the subject of gun violence in the U.S.  He says:

Nobody wants to be honest about this except a handful of evil scumbag racists (and me).  Thus, the entire policy discussion around U.S. firearms is pretty much fucked from the word go.

He concludes that the right policy decision would be to decriminalize drugs and then see what the next highest driver of gun violence is.

I agree with that, though I don't share his optimism about how much gun violence would decline absent the war on drugs.

Eugene Volokh has a great post today on the same subject, too...

Birthday in Paradise, continued...

Birthday in Paradise, continued...  Yesterday afternoon we went (per Debbie's birthday wishes) for a wildlife-seeking drive up Blacksmith Fork Canyon toward Ant Flats.  We were a bit disappointed with the wildlife at first, as all we saw was some trout.  Then Debbie spotted a kingfisher (we think they're belted kingfishers we're seeing, like the one at right, which is not my photo, dang it!) and we felt a bit better about our success.  Shortly afterwards Debbie spotted something much more interesting: a young beaver!  It was roughly half the size of the adult beavers we've seen, and chugging fast downstream.  We're guessing it was born this past spring.  This was in Mill Creek, roughly a mile on Ant Flat Road from the turn off of state 101.  We had two good sightings of it, just 30 seconds or so each.  It disappeared from our view fairly close to its lodge, so we suspect it ducked in there to get away from us.

After that we headed to Jack's, Debbie's choice for a birthday dinner.  There we had a delicious soup (“chicken velvet”), an equally delicious pizza, and a killer dessert we've had several times before – their lemon cake, which we split a single gigantic piece of (my photo at left).  We always have great food and friendly service at Jack's, and yesterday was no exception.  But we had a special treat yesterday: the woman who creates their soups was there, and actually served us our soup.  We had a chance to talk with her, and telling her how much we've enjoyed her soups over the past year and a half.  When we discovered who she was, I told her that I felt like I should get out from my booth, then bow and genuflect before her.  Her smile and obvious pleasure at our enjoyment of her soups was a lot of fun for us :)  We talked with her for a while about her various creations, and she brought over a sample of another of her soups (one I couldn't possibly eat, though: cream of jalapeno).  That was a great experience, and especially nice as it was Debbie's birthday dinner.

Then (again at Debbie's request) we headed out over the pass toward Liberty for some more wildlife viewing.  We saw almost nothing this time.  There were a few deer in the farmers' fields before we got into the National Forest, but otherwise not a darned thing.  We did hear some intriguing bird calls (like a meadowlark, but with a different “tune”), but never managed to spot them.  Instead of wildlife, we got weirdness and a beautiful sunset.  In the first two photos below are bundles of bamboo sticks we found carefully hung on some tree trunks.  There were five bundles within a few feet of each other.  We couldn't imagine what the heck they were for, but guessed it might be an insect habitat.  A little googling led me to think they are intended for either mason or leaf-cutter bees.  Then about a quarter mile away, we found the “thing” in the next three photos.  It was lying on the ground, semi-hidden from the road behind a tree trunk.  On examining it carefully, I saw that it was made from layers of plastic foam with cardboard tubes inserted.  Five sides were covered in thin aluminum held together with duct tape (is there anything that duct tape can't do?).  The sixth side was open, but facing down.  After photographing it, I put it back exactly where it was.  Another insect habitat?  I couldn't find anything by googling, so this one remains a mystery.  Finally, the last photo is of the gorgeous sunset we enjoyed as we exited the canyon and drove toward Avon.

It was an especially lovely day in Paradise...

Debbie had a little birthday celebration...

Debbie had a little birthday celebration...  She had a beer with a couple of her best friends!

Putin vs. Obama...

Putin vs. Obama...  Reader Simi L. passed these along.  I was incapacitated for a while by a potent combination of laughter and despair...

Great low-key rant...

Great low-key rant ... from an old TV show.  Reader, former colleague, and fellow Duke's mayonnaise lover Doug S. passes this along.  He was reminded of it by the Bill Whittle video I posted a couple days ago.

My first thought on viewing it: I can easily imagine this happening here in Paradise.  Today.  I cannot imagine it happening in San Diego anytime in the past 50 years.

I'm not entirely sure what to read into that thought, but it's a good example of why I feel so much at home here...

Dowsing for water...

Dowsing for water...  This is very popular here, a bit to my surprise because in general the people I know here are big on science, and not at all believers in magic or direct supernatural intervention (at least not in everyday life).  It's also surprising to me for another reason: so far as I can tell, you can drill for water anywhere here and you'll strike water.  I've also had people use dowsing in an effort to locate underground water pipes.  We have a large number of such pipes here (mainly for irrigation), so there's a very real danger of digging into one and breaking it.  Of the five efforts to locate a pipe by dowsing that I have witnessed, all failed outright.  Yet the belief continues :)

This article has a great discussion of the entire phenomenon, including a possible explanation for the generally unexplained (and documented) success of dowsers for siting wells.  The explanation makes sense to me...

Flying past Pluto...

Flying past Pluto...  All images forming this video are from the New Horizons spacecraft, of course.  The apparent time is greatly accelerated, but slows down near the planet.  You'll want this full screen!

Microservices cargo cult...

Microservices cargo cult...  A good post, and a good example of the plague of “cargo cults” that the software industry suffers tremendously from.  I count the entire “agile” development methodology craze amongst them, along with the Ruby programming language (which reminds me strongly of dBase of years ago), and the more fervent practitioners of functional programming.

There: in a single sentence I've probably alienated 90% or more of my colleagues :)

Rainy birthday in Paradise...

Rainy birthday in Paradise...  It rained off-and-on most of yesterday, and today is shaping up the same way.  The rain has been very gentle, so we haven't accumulated much, though.

Today is Debbie's birthday – a “milestone” birthday that she'd really rather not think about, or discuss.  I'm just thankful that we live in a time, place, and circumstances that allow us to reach such a pinnacle of ancientness and still be at least partly functional :)  Her birthday present is a day to do whatever she wants (which I suspect means we'll be out looking at wildlife) and dinner wherever she wants (which she's now whittled down to a list of four places).  It will be a nice day...

An amazing story...

An amazing story...  I hope Americans never forget it...

Friends in Paradise...

Friends in Paradise...  We spent the last couple of days with Jim and Suzy F., friends from our former life in San Diego.  I've known Jim since the late '70s, when he and I worked together on a custom version of Tarbell Basic to support automated power supply testers.  How's that for weird?!?

In the photo at right, we were all at Herm's having wonderful breakfast together.  Note the gigantic cinnamon roll to Jim's right – that put a big smile on his face.  We did a lot of talking, showed them a couple of local spots (Porcupine Reservoir and Hardware Ranch), and then this morning saw them on their way for a week in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park.  This is a great time to visit there – lots of wildlife and much smaller crowds – and neither of them have ever been there before.  We're hoping they have a grand old time.  They'll be back again next Saturday just before they go home...

Good neighbors in Paradise...

Good neighbors in Paradise...  On the advice of Debbie's physical therapist, I ordered a treadmill (exercise machine) last week.  It came yesterday morning, in a box that weighed 300 pounds.  I knew ahead of time that it would be quite heavy, but I expected it to be a kit – lots of parts and even more nuts and bolts.  I figured that no one part would weigh more than 100 pounds, which is small enough that I could carry it upstairs to be assembled.

Well, that would have been true of just about anything big and heavy we've purchased – but not this thing.  There were a number of parts that were small and light, but ... there's also one gigantic piece (the actual treadmill) that weighed 205 pounds.  I was able to strap that to a cart and get it near the front door of the house, but there's no way I would be able to get that into the front door and upstairs to the TV room where Debbie wanted it.  It wasn't just the weight that was a problem, either (though that was bad enough!).  It's also the shape and dimensions, which would require tilting it onto its side to get it through the doors.

Once I concluded that I needed help, there was only one thing to do: call my neighbor Alan L., who is my connection to the local adult male Mormons – the members of the ward that we live in.  I made that call, and he organized five strong men to come to our house this morning.  At the appointed time, they all gathered – big, burly men with broad smiles and firm handshakes, all eager to lend a hand.  Sixty seconds after we started, the 205 pound behemoth was in its appointed place.  With all those muscles available, it wasn't even challenging.  More handshakes and broad smiles, and all but Alan went about their day.  Alan, his son Zack, and I talked for a while about lots of different things, just socializing, and then they were on their way too.

That's a completely normal thing in this neck of the woods.  If they need help on something I know how to do, they know they could call on me, too.  It's very comforting to know there's plenty of help all around us, anytime we need it.  It's part of the very strong sense of community here, which is most definitely a big part of why we love living here.  So different than California!

Morning walk in Paradise...

Morning walk in Paradise...  The dogs (Miki and Race) were excited this morning, because for the first time in three days they got to go on our morning walk.  It was wet and muddy from the rain the past two days, but at least it wasn't raining on us this morning!  Photos from our walk below.

Yesterday we picked up a fifty pound bag of corn for “Bucky”, the injured buck who's staying on our property.  I put some out yesterday, and this morning it was all gone.  I've put out some more now.  We figured we'd better feed him since Scott N. mowed and baled all the alfalfa that he's been living on.

The big attraction of today's walk, for me, was all the dramatic lighting.  For the dogs, it was the smells that the wetness brought to them, plus the 8 million piles of dirt from the voles digging new tunnels in the rain-softened soil.  Those piles make the dogs so happy to smell!  They must be drenched in vole stink!

In the next-to-last photo below, you can see the five birches I just planted, along with (in the background, toward the left) one of the three willows.  This is for those readers who complained that I had all that verbiage about planting them, and no photos!

Paradise town council excitement...

Paradise town council excitement...  Two open seats, three candidates – an actual contest!  Woo hoo!  Break out the popcorn!

I don't know any of the three people running (Vic Little, Martel Lowe and Terrill Preece), which is at least slightly surprising as Paradise is quite a small town and I've met a significant fraction of the inhabitants.   Debbie and I won't get to vote for any of them, though, as we live just outside of the town's boundary...

The stupid!

The stupid!  It burns!  It burns!

When I first saw this, I didn't believe it was real.  It just had to be a parody.  Published in the Onion, right?  But then I did a little googling, and discovered that it really did happen. 

I don't want to believe it.  But Google wouldn't lie...

Light blogging alert!

Light blogging alert!  We've got guests this weekend, so I won't find myself sitting in front of my desk very much.  I know they think of “early morning” as around noon, though, so I might have a bit of time in the mornings :)