Aquacentric

Suzuki Saturday

2009-11-24T15:23:00.000-08:00

Issaquah Suzuki Recital

Elizabeth and the Troll

Our visit to Seattle included every kind of activity from an architectural tour of the new downtown library to shopping at Pike's Place Market, taking in the view from the top of the Smith Tower and of course Elliot Bay Books. But nothing topped an evening with the Issaquah Suzuki Violionists. I had predicted (quietly to myself) that the evening might be a bit slow, but the actual event was completely captivating. The recital was studded with sparkling performances of fun and challenging music by many of the great composers. Thomas and John both distinguishing themselves, playing with great confidence, precision and verve. All the hard work and practice paid off. Thanks for including us!
Seattle visit photo album HERE

Earthworks

2009-11-18T21:23:00.001-08:00

Some hunt,others gather!

Somewhere in Northern California where water, woods and god's magic create wonders, there is a happy natural man living off the bounty. Here he is with his good friends the Chanterells, the abalone of the forest. (Until now I thought The Chanterells were a Motown Group)
Neighbor Tim can always be relied upon to tune into the good things that are all around us. Hope he shares with his pals- and I don't mean Roxie the tortoise.

Moby Meridian

2009-11-17T22:05:00.000-08:00

"She was apparelled like any barbaric Ethiopian emperor, her neck heavy with pendents of polished ivory. She was a thing of trophies. A cannibal of a craft, tricking herself forth in the chased bones of her enemies. All round her, her unpanelled, open bulwarks were garnished like one continuous jaw, with the long sharp teeth of a sperm whale, inserted there for pins, to fasten her hempen thews and tendons to. Those thews ran not through base blocks of land wood, but deftly traveled over sheaves of sea - ivory. Scorning a turnstile wheel at her reverend helm she sported there a tiller, and that tiller was in one mass, curiously carved from the long narrow jaw of her hereditary foe... A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy." Moby Dick, description of the Pequod, Chapter 16

James Kirker

"And they saw one day a pack of vicious looking humans... bearded, barbarous, clad in the skins of animals stitched up in thews and armed with weapons of every description... and the trappings of their horses fashioned out of human skin and the bridals woven up from human hair and decorated with human teeth and the riders wearing scapulars or necklaces of dried and blackened human ears and the horses rawlooking and wild in the eye and their teeth bared like feral dogs...the whole like a visitation from some heathen land where they and others like them fed on human flesh." Blood Meridian, entry of the scalp hunters Chapter VI

Worm City

2009-10-28T16:19:00.001-07:00

Worms comprise a significant part of planetary biomass - and of our living room biomass. It was bound to happen sooner or later. UPS recently delivered a 2 lb package at our door. 'O Boy! My worms are here!' exclaimed B on seeing the package. 2 lbs of worms is a lot. When I heard worms were in our future, I lobbied for freeing captives from the bait shop, but low class crawlers wouldn't do for our composting (or whatever they are supposed to be doing for us). Instead, our worms - Red Wigglers- were special ordered from wine country, the S onoma County Worm Farm. Nothing but the best for our coffee grounds.

But why are the still in the worm growing box --in the living room? And why must they be fed only the best finely chopped garbage? I don't know, but I'm sure that in time I will. Watch this space for breaking worm news.

Summer's Gone - Not Forgotten

2009-10-23T11:57:00.000-07:00

Last week's pounding rain and this week's mackin' swell ( shown here breaking at Mavericks) makes it clear even to hard core season change deniers that summer is no more.
But the sun is shining today and it's time to pull out the past season's classic video of Sarah's cousin Andy Haumersen and friend Ricky popping major skim board moves in the Long Beach Island shore dump. Notice - no wet suits! How different the east coast is. This vid is sure to put you back into summer daze- if only for a moment. Good work, boys! The sponserships are sure to come.

Brass Mania

2009-10-15T20:32:00.000-07:00

I've been on a brass craze lately and want to share two great bands I'm particularly grooving on.

The first, The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble is an amazing street band from Chicago & New York with loose, swinging progressions and latin echoes. I really enjoy them. Apparently most of the band are sons of the famous Phil Cochran who played with Sun Ra. A piece in the June New Yorker gives the background and a good description of this crew. Read HERE. Even though a street band they have been recording since 2004. Check out their myspace site HERE

The second video is Dave Douglas and Brass Ecstasy. It is sweet and sometimes sad - a more composed jazz virtuosity full of funkiness and humor and old time New Orleans jazz references. It also includes some interview time. The NPR "Tiny Desk concert" shown in the video (about 17 minutes) was my introduction to Brass Ecstasy - I had to get their new album ( from the library of course) called Spirit Moves. They totally grabbed me, jumping out from a bunch of concert podcasts I was surfing through on a long drive. You can download this Tiny Desk concert and other full length live concerts free in the podcast section of the iTunes store under NPR All Songs Considered.

Hope you like!

Yosemite Revisited!

2009-10-12T21:08:00.000-07:00

Last week an ace team of veteran Yosemite adventurers returned to base camp in Upper Pines Campground to renew friendships, attune with vast glacial spirits and push the most challenging routes into the beyond. The weather was stunning; a sprinkle of snow on day one, clearing to brilliant blue skies and moonlit evenings. Hiking and biking was a blast. Breakfast buffets at Curry Village were staggering, first fueling a successful assault on Glacier Point(both Marty and Kristin summitted)and then a day of bike touring of the valley with an extended hike to the Half Dome rock slide at Mirror Lake. Evenings were filled with gourmet feasting, prescription strength margaritas, a dirty joke contests dominated by those with good memories and bad taste, (Conrad, Dirty Dave and Beverly what a surprize!) Sadly we had to return home, but hardier souls stayed the rest of the week and explored ever farther. I hope we don't have to wait a whole year for our next Yosemite outing. Steve's picture album HERE Marty's album HERE

We missed you Sarah! Thanks John Muir!

Ballistic Waterslide

2009-10-01T10:39:00.000-07:00

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

"Since the dawn of time, man has battled the forces of gravity. We've built gliders, wings and contraptions of all sorts. In the end, all it took was a simple giant water slide down the side of a mountain."

OK - this video isn't family or friends, but the foolishness meter is pegged! Could easily have become Darwin Award material. And it is aqua oriented. That's my excuse for posting. Plus of course a demonstration of the indomitable human search for transcendent experience through stupid stuff.

Thanks to Robert Church for finding this one!

Half Moon Bay Surf Club @ Santa Cruz Meet

2009-09-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

1) Men's Long Board Finalist - Michael takes 2nd!
2) Sean Rips and Burns
3) A Santa Cruz Jump Start

Photo album HERE Courtesy Duke and Marty

Message from Coach Phelps:

Surfers and Parents,

Yahoo!!! What a fun day!! I’m so proud of our whole team, and all the support from all the friends and families that showed up to cheer our kids on. I want to express a huge thanks to Kaitlyn for being our first alumni to return as an assistant coach. Her commitment to give back to her community is very inspirational to all of us!!

I was so impressed by the sportsmanship displayed by our teammates throughout the day. All of you kids encouraging each other and acknowledging each other’s accomplishments. I was very impressed with our veteran Audrey (our new recruit from MA) and how she took Hannah under her wings. Again, a true display of teamwork! Honorable mentions go to Skylar for taking 4th overall in Men’s Shortboard, and Michael for taking 2nd in Men’s Longboard. This was a great display of our teams depth of talent!! Also to Tom for the fantastic “TomBurgers”…. Hmmm… I think he’s stealing my thunder..As for Hannah….. Wow! Taking 4th place in Women’s shortboard in our very first contest!!! What can I say. We’re all so proud of you!

Core Interscholastic Surf Contest Results: Team Event: HMB 59 over Harbor 54 Skylar 4th Shortboard Finals Michael 2nd Longboard finals Hannah 4th Girls Longboard Finals
Complete Results HERE

St. Louis Story

2009-09-22T14:18:00.000-07:00

A Rosalinde Block painting

A delightful thing happened on the way to my email server - I looked at my Facebook account and there was Roz Block mentioning the completion of a section of her St. Louis memoir. I haven't kept up with Roz but I certainly remembered Block's Books, her dad's great bookstore at Skinker and Millbrook. Many a happy hour of mine was spent there and I remember the shock when it closed down because of repeated hate attacks and vandalism, both against the store and the Blocks themselves.

So, seeing a chance to learn something about Block senior and the story of the store I wrote Roz and asked for a copy. " To the Old Block From His Oldest Chip" is really great as is another piece she sent me on the same period called "The Dog Who Didn't Keep Kosher." In learning about Rosalinde and her current work I discovered she is a one women fountain of creativity - music, writing, art, children's books - you name it! If you have minute take a look at her site HERE and
HERE. Pretty cool!

The Kings Mountain Art Fair -again!

2009-09-15T12:00:00.001-07:00

Sarah Facepainting with Mac in the Mirror
The annual labor day weekend Kings Mountain Art Fair is quite an unusual event. This year it was fantastic -again! It is amazing for the art - absolutely. The quality and variety is stunning. None of the junky trinkets & crafts that characterize many art fairs. Year to year there are many artists who return to be enjoyed anew, but there is also usually an infusion of new artists too. Of course the outside setting under the redwoods with all the variability of weather and nature make the experience unusual too. But what really sets the event apart is the community support. It is hard to believe that everything - really everything -is planned organized, staffed and pulled off by neighborhood volunteers. I've never seen the figures, but I'd be willing to bet that 50% or more of the households on the Mountain have a least one family member who volunteer a day. And many show up to work the whole three day fair as well as inputting tremendous levels of sweat both pre and post fair. I challenge anyone to find that level of involvement in a community for a fun raising event, anywhere!

You know where to find me next labor day weekend - bunnin' and baggin in the cookshack! More cookshack oriented pictures HERE

Estivate Now!

2009-09-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

Okay. We all -sooner or later- estivate. It's natural. No shame. This is the 21st century, and we live not so very far from Esalen. Even so, to discover (stumble upon would be more accurate) an honored house guest who though an adolescent, is from a (presumably) good family, well brought up by positive role models, abandoned to a biological imperative right there in our ivy like some…some mammal for goodness sake! The air temperature was about 90, but I mean, really! All I can tell you is that it was a quite a shocker. Thank goodness Beverly wasn’t home. Of course I didn’t make a scene that would embarrass our guest (Roxie is her name) but just as though such things happened every day and were in the normal household routine, I calmly approached her without being noticed and in one fluid motion pulled her from the dirt and gently carried her to bed, placing a blanket over her whole body including her head. (I had been instructed by her parents as to the appropriate response, though I never dreamed I would actually be called upon to react to this situation which I had regarded as a highly unlikely contingency.) She then proceeded to sleep the whole night through and was up the next morning as though nothing had happened at all. No mention was made of the previous afternoon and I placed her in the morning light and brought her a breakfast of fresh strawberries and a little left over sweet potato (which she loves and never gets at home.) We’ve never spoken of it to this day although I see her with some regularity since her parent’s live one street over. In every other respect she was an ideal guest and I look forward to her next visit.

Roxie and Her Parents Tim and Katy

Welcome to Mills College!

2009-08-25T20:57:00.000-07:00

Wow,what a day! This was our high energy welcome to dorm move-in day and the beginning of Freshman orientation weekend at Mills College last Saturday. Sarah is moved into to her spacious accommodations in Orchard Meadows Hall on the beautiful campus. She has registered successfully for the classes she wanted and tomorrow is the first day of classes. Amazing. Congratulations Sarah! A few more pictures HERE

Elasmotherium Skull Pocked with Iron

2009-08-12T15:19:00.000-07:00

Jon H is at it again! Visiting the Natural History Museum in London he found a late Pleistocene Elasmotherium skull (cross between a rhino and a horse) from Siberia. It was completely peppered with tiny magnetic metallic pellets! Just like the mammoth tusks found earlier. I wonder if this sort of evidence of an ice age apocalypse is lying around lots of museums, but no one has thought of looking for it before.

In the close up photo you can see the pellet impacts with little rust rings around them. The largest, just to the left of center is about 1cm across. The other picture gives you an idea of the structure and size of the skull. Man ,that must have hurt - although just the beginning of what was an undoubtedly rough patch for mega fauna.

Aquacentric Closed for Now

2009-01-22T13:31:00.000-08:00

Hey you! no more Aquacentric for now.

Maybe I'll revive it in the future

Thanks

Steve

Pity the Poor Crab

2008-12-13T07:55:00.001-08:00

It is tough on crabs this time of year. The catch has been poor. But we all want to eat 'em up anyway. I know, usually we don't expend much fellow feeling on bugs and as arthropods , crabs are big bugs. Compound eyes on stalks, shells, lots of legs, scary mandibular mouths. And according to some (UC Berkley) they are the real rulers of the earth,with 3/4 of all living and fossil species in their exalted phylum.

But we got over our crabbie pity to feast TWICE in the last week - the first another incredible Ciopinno Feed at the I.D.E.S. (Irmandade do Divino Espirto Santo Do Estado Da California) Hall in Half Moon Bay. Thanks to Dave for making it all happen. They kept bringing the crab ciopinno, bread, salad, wine and White Russians until we could take no more and fled to the Ritz for a late evening confab around a fire pit on a terrace overlooking the beach. Ferris (our attentive waiter) brought hot coffee in china cups. Warming by the fire in Adirondack chairs wrapped in blankets, we sipped coffee, watched a bright half moon over the breakers and pondered it all.

And last night, another crab slaughter in honor of Erin and Roark who are on their way to a multi yearAustralian Adventure. Man, it was good!! The huge pots were a' boiling out on the deck of the KM Community Center and out came crab for thirty! Magic. What a great party. Good luck Erin and Roark - we will all be visiting you soon.

Poor little crabbie

Uh Oh...Pictures Captured Directly From Brain

2008-12-11T20:37:00.001-08:00

This research was published in the December 11 issue of the journal Neuron

Abstract

"Perceptual experience consists of an enormous number of possible states. Previous MRI studies have predicted a perceptual state by classifying brain activity into prespecified categories. Constraint-free visual image reconstruction is more challenging, as it is impractical to specify brain activity for all possible images. In this study, we reconstructed visual images by combining local image bases of multiple scales, whose contrasts were independently decoded from fMRI activity by automatically selecting relevant voxels and exploiting their correlated patterns. Binary-contrast, 10 10-patch images (2¹⁰⁰ possible states) were accurately reconstructed without any image prior on a single trial or volume basis by measuring brain activity only for several hundred random images. Reconstruction was also used to identify the presented image among millions of candidates. The results suggest that our approach provides an effective means to read out complex perceptual states from brain activity while discovering information representation in multivoxel patterns."

--------------------------

Or, as described in the blog Pink Tentacle:

"Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep.

The scientists were able to reconstruct various images viewed by a person by analyzing changes in their cerebral blood flow. Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, the researchers first mapped the blood flow changes that occurred in the cerebral visual cortex as subjects viewed various images held in front of their eyes. Subjects were shown 400 random 10 x 10 pixel black-and-white images for a period of 12 seconds each. While the fMRI machine monitored the changes in brain activity, a computer crunched the data and learned to associate the various changes in brain activity with the different image designs.

For now, the system is only able to reproduce simple black-and-white images. But Dr. Kang Cheng, a researcher from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, suggests that improving the measurement accuracy will make it possible to reproduce images in color.

“These results are a breakthrough in terms of understanding brain activity,” says Dr. Cheng. “In as little as 10 years, advances in this field of research may make it possible to read a person’s thoughts with some degree of accuracy.”

The researchers suggest a future version of this technology could be applied in the fields of art and design — particularly if it becomes possible to quickly and accurately access images existing inside an artist’s head. The technology might also lead to new treatments for conditions such as psychiatric disorders involving hallucinations, by providing doctors a direct window into the mind of the patient."

The Hand Made Visible

2008-12-10T12:33:00.001-08:00

Thanks Conrad! This one is from Tom Tomorrow at Salon.com (That's a pretty good likeness of Paul Krugman in panel three)

Another Winnah!

2008-12-08T21:55:00.000-08:00

Emily scores again at the Half Moon Bay Ritz, continuing Gingerbread House dominance!

The Half Moon Bay Ritz Carlton's Annual Gingerbread House contest is over. Gingerbread houses from all categories were featured in a silent auction to benefit Coastside Children’s Programs in Half Moon Bay. Emily's North Pole Surf Board Workshop with Santa's little penguins hard at work won "The People's Choice Prize" as well as 2nd Place for "Home Cooks" and raised over $250 in the silent auction. Wow! Congratulations Emily.

We enjoyed the display last Saturday. After studying the contestants there was no question - Emily blew the competition away. Definitely the first time ever appearance of surfboards and penguins in a Gingerbread house.

"

Nautical Adventures In the Midwest

2008-12-07T19:53:00.000-08:00

Matt forwarded these pictures and the following description of his recent adventures bringing a new sailboat to StL from Chicago... Thanks Matt!

Photo Matt F.

Here's a fun picture of Gibson and I on day 4 delivering my new boat from Chicago to STL. Great trip, on my "new to me" boat a 30' Seidelman. Gretchen and I are excited about next season. Learned alot about river travel fast. Cold, Coal and Corn everywhere. Two really nice days the rest were very cold, total trip of 6 days 335 miles. Until Gibson joined me near Peoria on day 4, It was around 50 miles a day, with his help up to 80 miles a day. Giving me time to cook better food and have a drink.

Photo- Matt F.
Second is a guy we stopped and talked to while waiting for a lock to open. He almost went over a dam in that little rig and was so close an Army Core tug retrieved him, escaping total boat loss and possible death. He was fun to talk with and was so shook up he dropped his phone in the water. He said he was better off with out it anyway. We think he was pretty fatigued and made an slight oversight. It did kinda look like a way through but, you just couldn't miss all the lights and signs of the lock. Barges were filled to the brim with scrape metal, maybe waiting for a better price?

Art , Play, The Prairie Garden Trust (and Henry) Explained

2008-12-06T15:49:00.000-08:00

I really like this short video Henry recently placed on his website Check it out.

Two Big Days At Mavs

2008-12-05T09:28:00.000-08:00

View from the Cliff ( 800mm) Photo Credit Agrinberg

Sunday's Action at Mavericks - more the view I had-( Frank Quirarte Photo)

"We are the luckiest organisms in the history of the universe."
Grant Baker after surfing Mavericks last weekend.
_____________________________
A big swell came in Thanksgiving weekend. I managed to paddle out and witness the action as well as catch a few mackin' wild rides (kayak surfing) about midway between Mushroom Rock and the Mav's peak. I found out my adrenal glands are still working, if not my prefrontal cortex.
Some, including Jeff Clark said Sunday was the best day ever for Mavericks.

Saturday night the sound of the ocean was strong,even at up at my house. B and I went out to Montara beach and watched the massive breakers and rips, roaring like freight trains and looking more mysterious and awesome than ever by starlight.

The big news of the weekend was the Robert heroically paddled out into the maelstrom for a first time ever kayak adventure. The picture below shows us getting into the water with Sail Rock beckoning in the background. Even the protected waters of the lagoon were pretty crazy. WAY 2 GO ROBERT!

Beautiful Thanksgiving

2008-12-05T09:10:00.000-08:00

Beverly, Robert and Sarah came to El Granada for T Day. The combined efforts ( esp Beverly) and appetites made it a bounteous feast day followed by a late afternoon walk at the Fitzgerald Marine Preserve at low tide, and an expedition the next day to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Why didn't I become a marine biologist? The marine/nature theme was carried through on the pumpkin pie decorations created by Robert and Sarah for some artistic eating. Yum!

He's Baaack! (Yet another trip to a mysterious and remote N CA surf spot )

2008-11-26T09:45:00.001-08:00

PICTURES

(Roark Photo)

The Man himself!
Not seen for months due to fearsome surfing injuries, King Neptune Jordan has surfaced and made the scene for Novembers' Bsecret spot trip. Not yet cleared to surf he nonetheless made the hike in fine form and was probably a stabilizing presence in camp when confrontation with locals loomed. (He knows that headlocks [see Jordan bio] aren't the solution to everything, but aggro moves in your repertoire creates some room for diplomacy. Nixon opened China, right?) Looking good, dude!!

(Roark Photo)

Roark - full combat load, ready for anything, belly pack full of Fosters Ale - outside now, inside soon!

It looks to have been a fabulous trip catching the weather and waves just right. Way to go boys! Roark's pictures HERE

Beautiful glow and impressive swell - not sure who is on the wave

Roark on this one?? ( Still goin', still goin', still goin'.....)

Galapagos Adventures Continued

2008-11-25T14:21:00.000-08:00

Mike and Dan swimming with the iguanas

Elizabeth -thoughtful girl that she is- forwarded an updated set of pictures from the Galapagos Isles. featuring more big reptiles (All right!!) and their friend Mike who recently visited.
Thanks!. Check them out Here.

In other Galapagos related news: evolutionists have been flocking to a Charles Darwin image that has appeared on a wall - a miracle! Being in its presence gives one an overwhelming feeling of logic.

Excerpt: "I brought my baby to touch the wall, so that the power of Darwin can purify her genetic makeup of undesirable inherited traits," said Darlene Freiberg, one among a growing crowd assembled here to see the mysterious stain, which appeared last Monday on one side of the Rhea County Courthouse. The building was also the location of the famed "Scopes Monkey Trial" and is widely considered one of Darwinism's holiest sites. "Forgive me, O Charles, for ever doubting your Divine Evolution. After seeing this miracle of limestone pigmentation with my own eyes, my faith in empirical reasoning will never again be tested." Read the article HERE
(Courtesy "The Onion")

Sunday Solarity Sears Sunbathers &Surfers

2008-11-19T09:32:00.000-08:00

Bob finds the Lagrange point, unaware his high albedo noggin is causing retina damage to children on the beach. MORE PICS
________________

We now know why the Hawaiian tourist economy is suffering - no one from N CA needs to go because we've got their weather!

The same high pressure system over the Great Basin driving the firestorm winds burning up Southern California created a warm offshore flow for us resulting in killer beach weather. Glassy waves and a small, clean swell made for sweet surf conditions. A few pictures of the beautiful beach afternoon on Sunday HERE. Nice!

Yosemite Conquered

2008-11-16T19:58:00.000-08:00

We made it! Happy trail crew Beverly, Kristin, Dave, Cindy, Marty, Steve & Sarah at lunch turn around point in Little Yosemite Valley after hiking up past Vernal and Nevada Falls during last weekend's outing. First night of cold rain cleared to allow perfect hiking & biking weather. The day after this picture was taken we biked to the Yosemite Falls trailhead and cranked up the unending switch backs to tremendous views of both the lower and upper falls. Kristin and Marty almost made it to the top of the upper falls but group capability and short daylight necessitated their turn around before summiting. The meals were fabulous (My only camping experience that included being served rack of lamb on a rainy night - or any night!) and the company unbeatable. What a great group! More pictures HERE

Half Dome captured under an almost full moon by Cindy (Ansel Adams) Phelps.

Note to Obama: as we traversed the Yosemite trail systemi we enjoyed the benefits of incredibly crafted riprap and stone work of all kinds including eroded patches of pavement . We encountered several crews doing the backbreaking work of splitting and moving rock to maintain the trail. I stopped and talked with one of the guys to thank him and mentioned that his crew was probably repairing work that had been done by the CCC in the '30s. He had never heard of the CCC. After I explained it was part of FDR's effort to put unemployed young men to work during the depression, he said 'Hey, that sounds like a great idea!" Hmmm....

Athelete of the Week!!

2008-11-02T16:30:00.000-08:00

Yep, that is our Sarah, this weeks' athelete of the week! Check out the article in this week's HMB Reveiw recognizing Sarah's contribution to the tennis team! Pretty cool. Congratulations Sarah! The photo above is from the same edition of the paper for the athlete of the week award. click on the photo for a larger view.

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Half Moon Bay Review Oct. 29, 2008

HMB wins tennis title

By Mark Foyer

The sun was setting on the day and the tennis season.
Yet, there was still doubt about the outcome of Half Moon Bay High School’s final match with Terra Nova on Oct. 21.
It was 3-3 and the No. 4 singles match was still on the court. Half Moon Bay player Sarah Knight wasn’t aware of the significance of her match.
If she won, not only would it clinch the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division match for Half Moon Bay, it would also clinch a co-title.
Westmoor had done its part, beating El Camino that day.
Knight, a senior, came close to winning her match in straight sets. But Terra Nova’s Isabel Claytor rallied, forcing the third and decisive set.
With the lights coming on, Knight turned on her game, winning the third set, 6-2.
The win allowed Half Moon Bay to play in the PAL playoffs, where it lost to Burlingame, 7-0, Thursday.
But to get to Thursday’s match was a challenge, more so than Knight thought.
“If I knew the situation, I would have worked harder in the second set,” Knight said.
Simone Vandroff and Rebecka Joshua won their singles matches in straight sets. But Lauren Davison and the doubles team of Kristen Kalkin and Paige Farrell lost their matches.
Half Moon Bay’s No. 1 doubles team of Alyssa Brinkmeier and Sophia Whiting would win their No. 1 doubles match in three sets. Meanwhile, the team of Elaine Oldham and Hanna Ingraham lost in three sets.
All eyes turned toward Claytor and Knight, who rethought her strategy.
“I figured if I hit the ball harder and to the corners, I would prevent her from hitting lobs,” Knight said.
She then learned of the win’s significance.
“I never imagined us being co-champs,” Knight said.
It was just as exciting for the other players as well.
“It was a great season for us,” Whiting said. “It’s nice to end with the league title.”

Storm Paddle

2008-11-02T08:43:00.000-08:00

The first big storm of the season came through yesterday.
And of course my phone was ringing -why not take this wonderful opportunity for a delightful paddle? Why not indeed. This photo shows Marty trying to get past the shore break near the jetty. The specks in the sky are kite surfers on the other side of the break water in the calm harbor. Some of them were catching 30 feet plus of air in the high wind of the storm.
Our plan was to paddle around the breakwater and out to Mushroom rock. We spent a crazy 90 minutes trying to battle our way out, but there was no way, the wind waves were stacked one on the other with no intervals and there was a tremendously strong littoral current washing us toward the breakwater. But we did get to work the paddling muscles,
practice combat rolls, swallow some sea water and enjoy some nice sideways rain.

Marty seemed happy...

Big Boys at Secret Spot

2008-10-29T10:44:00.001-07:00

One for the ladies

Bob, Roark & Eric: The Masters of Big Surf

I don't have any details except Roarks's pictures, but it looks like another successful expedition to a Secret Spot on the North Coast. The adventurers appear to have survived the long, low-tide, in the dark, hike-in and were rewarded with both weather and waves. Way to go! Roark's expedition pictures HERE

Rednecks For Obama

2008-10-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

Two days ago I was lucky to be able to visit Henry in his natural habitat, the Prairie Garden Trust. The day was cool and wet which brought out the fall/earth colors for our walk around the property. The highlight of the day was a visit to Tree House III. As faithful followers of this blog know, the tree house is masterful in concept and execution, a bold human foray into the world of bird nesting. For pictures of the structure and of our walk click HERE.

Thanks for a great day, Henry, and the update on your amazing projects of natural preservation and restoration, health care, art and good living.

Iguana Pie

2008-10-20T12:30:00.001-07:00

Elizabeth has forwarded more great pictures she has taken in Galapagos Isles.
Here is the link to view them> LINK

Adam's Pumpkins

2008-10-12T22:23:00.000-07:00

Photo credit: Cindy Phelps

Adam Winnen is an incredible gourdologist!
He has somehow mastered the secrets of the great pumpkin as this picture shows.

Last night he oversaw a major pumpkin moving and loading operation at Kings Mountain pumpkin patch ( undisclosed location) in preparation for today's weigh-in prior to the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival.

Pumpkin moving was followed by a massive feed and Sarah P birthday celebration at the Winnen homestead. Click HERE for pictures of the festivities and the giant gourd moving operation.

Up date: See video of the weigh-off here: KTVU VIDEO
(Sorry - you have to let a commerical roll before the weigh-off report starts). At about 1:19 into the video, see Holly and Adam in their pumpkin hauling truck answer a question on growing secrets.

Tree House Blog

2008-10-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

This is a must see blog - Henry is at it again! LINK

Science in Action

2008-10-10T15:47:00.000-07:00

The harsh realities of the global financial crisis is hitting hard in the Galapagos Islands, but trooper that he is, Dan carries on in the cause of science. Whatever it takes! More pictures HERE

Bad Day in the Ice Age

2008-09-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

Ice Age Siberian Bear Skull showing possible micrometeorite impacts (Taken by Jon at the Krasnoyarsk Museum this summer.)

34,000 yr old mammoth tusk with detail of confirmed micrometeorite hits surrounded by carbonized rings

Let say you are a woolly mammoth, wandering with your mammoth pals across the North American Savannah, not thinking bout nothin, certainly not the sub-prime mess. It's a good day - the friggin' paleo-indians are leaving you alone for once, no saber tooth tigers are trying to get at the kids, you're just soaking up sun, munching your veggies, thinking maybe this winter head the herd for Nevada, when all of a sudden- what the...? O man!~! a micro-meteorite shower, little grains coming at thousands of kilometers per second! Yow ow ow ow! You don't feel the radiation, at least not right away, but the temperature seems to be rising......,

Bill first pointed out a great work by Paul S. Martin, called Twilight of the Mammoths which lays out the case for human agency in the extinction of the vast majority large land mammals coincident with the timeline for the spread of human populations.

Another line of research has been pursued by Richard Firestone at Lawrence Berkley Labs. The pictures above show micrometeorite impacts on Ice Age mammals and are evidence of the effects from a supernova that hit earth in several waves (separated by thousands of years). The waves included intense radiation, small particles, comets and asteroids. The particles have been analyzed to show composition that is definitely extra terrestrial. Jon Hagstrum has assisted in some of the analysis in the USGS Paleomagnetism Laboratory.

As a part of the waves of cosmic events stemming from the supernova Firestone and buddies have postulated that comet impacted earth about 13,000 years ago accounting for the large mammal extinctions in North America. Summary HERE Check it out.

Something Willie This Way Comes

2008-09-27T23:19:00.000-07:00

Willie off the hook at 'The Hook' in Santa Cruz
OK Half Moon Bay Surf Club- here is who is coming up the line to compete in the coming years. Willie Eagleton 8th grader in Santa Cruz, has the aloha spirit and kills the competition with his athletic surf style. Word has it his mom, (Beverly's pal Ellen), is talkin' trash about Half Moon Bay, so get ready!
Click Willie's name for more pictures of him on Surfline.

UPDATE: The ISF junior surfers are arriving from Santa Cruz to take on HMB Dec 21st at the Jetty. Be there...

Fine Dawn at 'Africa'

2008-09-23T21:43:00.000-07:00

Marty Studies His Immediate Future

Steve Goes Left

Last weekend Bob,Roark,Marty and Steve were accompanied by Oscar, Cindy and Sarah P. on a dawn patrol outing at Redondo Beach. (Poor Tim remains on injured reserve, at home nursing two broken ribs.) Cindy took these great pictures. See more of her shots of the morning session HERE

Mike in Paradise

2008-08-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

There has been a Mike Shobe sighting! Thought I'd share... Excerpt from a Mike message:

"We're at Lemon Lake a few miles west of Vallecito. (In CO. He's with girl friend Kari and their dog Banjo - SK) It's a forest svc cg, just 12 sites, pretty unknown and pretty empty except for weekends and awesome. as u can see we're right on lake and my inflatable is up on shore. Been here 2 mos and probably stayin till Nov. Tons of trout! Just yesterday finalized being camp hosts (GodI'mgettingold!) for next summer. We get a great site just above us, there's hardly any work to do and $500/mo pay. Also full hookups. This way we can still manage the house rental ourselves (Mike is renting out his home near Durango for the summer season-SK) and not be nat. forest gypsies. We've been booked up almost solid all summer... In Oct. we're setting up camp north of Silverton and doing the infamous Alpine loop to Lake City and back over Engineer and Cinnamon passes. 13000 ft!

It's That Time of Year

2008-08-21T12:42:00.001-07:00

All Pro Corner-Back, John "The Hammer" Jakle
is starting practice for the coming season. After a lengthy suspension from the league for unnecessary growling at the line of scrimmage and off season surgery to remove excess brain cells, The Hammer will soon be sweating it out on the practice fields of August, trying to get back into shape for the season opener against arch rivals, the San Francisco Mutants.
If Jakle can stay focused, listen a little more in the huddle and completes his anger management therapy (big ifs ) he could be a major asset to this year's team.

Also in the sporting news, it looks like a new star may be rising in the Northwest. Finally out of stir on work-release, Thomas "The Mauler" Jakle is saving up for a complete uniform. Once he is able to afford shoes he may make this year's starting team as a clutch field goal kicker. Known for his icy nerves, Jakle is the go-to guy when the game is on the line. Don't forget to trim your toenails, Mauler.

Go get 'em boys!

Girl In the Curl

2008-08-18T10:37:00.001-07:00

Sarah came back from two weeks on NJ shore having adjusted to the watery surf world. We took advantage of her new gills and spent a few hours kayaking off Pillar Point. A foggy, but warm afternoon, with a beautiful feel. We paddled past mushroom rock to the outer buoy and across the Maverick's break zone. On the way back in, we stopped to play in the breakers a hundred yards off shore, inside Mushroom. Here are two water blurred shots: one of her paddling up and over, the second taken moments after punching through a wave that broke over her head. An aquacandy rinse. Yeah! She paddled into several of nice curls and surfed beautifully -once showing off some trick rodeo moves, side surfing, 360s etc. Wow. And a couple of swells caught her, providing an opportunity for open ocean swim practice. Doesn't get any better than that!
A few more pictures HERE
(Question: are sharks really attracted by mammal urine?)

CCA Graduation

2008-07-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I had the opportunity to attend an open house of student work at the California College of the Arts. The occasion was Sarah's graduation from the intensive pre- college program she took this summer, focusing on print making and drawing. The range of students was amazing, from all over the world and I think about 20 states. The range of work was incredible too as the photo album indicates - and there were many of the display buildings I didn't get to. Sarah's work was prominently displayed and we received some glowing comments from her teachers. Enjoy the pictures of the graduation HERE

Play - the Universal Language?

2008-07-25T10:21:00.000-07:00

A most amazing brief slide show and talk by the founder of the National Insitute of Play

Click the window below to view the show.

Dan & Elizabeth in Otovalo Ecuador

2008-07-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

Excerpts from an email from Elizabeth on 7/23.
___
Hola Steve!

Como estas? Estoy bien. Dan y yo estamos en Otavalo , Ecuador . We arrived on Sunday after a tough few days in Bolivia of high altitude, stomach issues, little sleep -- all in LaPaz, which is, well, a dump. We´re so glad to be here.. The difference is like night and day. We´re living with a family and going to language class every day -- 2.5-hour siesta included. Tomorrow we have an all-day field trip, which will be fun. It´s nice to not have to eat every meal in a restaurant and grapple with deciding what is safe to eat. The food is quite good and certainly better than what we eat at home. My profesor still can´t completely understand that neither Dan nor I cook.

Ecuador is nicer than both Peru and Bolivia , though we enjoyed our time in Peru , particularly visiting Machu Picchu , our trek, and our couple days in the jungle. Just yesterday, we received our plane tickets for Galapagos. We go there 2 August. I am really, really looking forward to finally getting there.

...I was pretty miserable.[in Bolivia] I had a cold, was quite hungry (we both have lost quite a bit of weight), tired, homesick (our tour ended the day before and all our tour friends were gone), and not enjoying dirty, overcrowded, noisy, hectic LaPaz. Did I mention that we didn´t really like Bolivia ?! We both are much better now. Dan has had stomach problems for much of the trip because of the altitude. My stomach hasn´t been so bad, but we´re both glad to be down a bit lower. I think Otavalo is at about 8,000´. LaPaz and Lake Titicaca are both over 12,000´, I believe. "
__________

Later in the day they SKYPEd me from an internet cafe. It sounded like they are really enjoying lush Otavalo where the air is oxygenated and they have a friendly family to stay with and looking forward with excitement to the last leg of their trip to the Islands.

Blast FromThe Past: LOK in Appalachia

2008-07-15T15:27:00.000-07:00

While shuffling through papers during my recent move, I came across a copy of a 1965 WellesleyAlumni Magazine piece written by Louise on her experiences volunteering for the Frontier Nursing Service in Appalachia. I thought you might enjoy it. (The scan isn't the best - set the size of the pdf up to at least 100% and you'll be able to read it.) Pretty amazing. I wonder: what is the current state of the areas she did her volunteer work in?

Kentucky Mountain Courier

"An American eyesore about which we have been very uninformed until the beginning of the Anti-Poverty Campaign is an area in the Cumberland Mountains of southeastern Kentucky, well known now as the Poverty Pit, the heart of Appalachia. As a courier for the Frontier Nursing Service this past summer I have seen first-hand the plight of the most backward and underprivileged part of our country. A child's tomach bloated with worms; a toothless mouth and saddle nose, the defects of familial disease brought about by two centuries of inbreeding...."
Read the rest of her magazine article HERE

Father of Economics Says: "Just Chill."

2008-07-14T11:58:00.000-07:00

Adam Smith : "don't worry- be happy!"
He was one laid back in-the-moment dude. Maybe a closet Buddhist. OK, I haven't been reading Adam Smith in my spare time as I should, but I happened to run into the following unlikely quote while reading a transcript of a radio interview of Pankaj Mishra, author of "An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World."

I'm sure Adam would have been a cowboy surfer if wet suits had been available in 18th century Scotland. I think now I'll check into Max Weber's rumored formative years at an ashram followed by his brief stint on the pro skateboarding circuit. Maybe there is something to it after all.
---------------------------------------------
Here is the quote:

"The poor man's son, whom heaven in its anger has visited with ambition, admires the condition of the rich. It appears in his fancy like the life of some superior rank of beings, and, in order to arrive at it, he devotes himself forever to the pursuit of wealth and greatness. Through the whole of his life, he pursues the idea of a certain artificial and elegant repose, which he may never arrive at, for which he sacrifices a real tranquility that is at all times in his power, and which, if in the extremity of old age, he should at last attain to it, he will find to be in no respect preferable to that humble security and contentment which he had abandoned for it. Power and riches appear, then, to be what they are, enormous machines contrived to produce a few trifling conveniences to the body. They are immense fabrics, which it requires the labor of a life to raise, which threaten every moment to overwhelm the person that dwells in them, and which, while they stand, can protect him from none of the severer inclemencies of the season. They keep off the summer shower, not the winter storm, but leave him always as much and sometimes more exposed than before to anxiety, to fear and to sorrow, to diseases, to danger and to death."

From: "Theory of Moral Sentiments" by Adam Smith 1759.

HMB Library Drill Team In Action!

2008-07-10T09:47:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to experience this in person at the July 4 parade. Take a look and see our home town library spirit in action. The first part of the video is their rehearsal & prize award followed by the live parade. Librarians Rule!!

Fire Pictures

2008-07-08T14:28:00.000-07:00

Click the picture for beautiful and frightening set of photos from the CA fire scene taken by Alan Taylor of the Boston Globe

July 4

2008-07-06T10:29:00.001-07:00

Some of the July 4th goings on: Half Moon Bay parade ( the Library Drill team spinning their reshelving carts shown) Wonderful dinner on Ferdinand St. with the jordans and Phelps, fireworks though the fog at the HMB Harbor, Poplar St. surf session (Marty taking off) and a long hike with B around the harbor to Fitzgerald Marine Sanctuary. Nice vacation in place! Now off for a Sunday afternoon bike ride to the library on the Coastside Trail. and later dinner with Sarah. (Click on links for more pictures.)

A Happy Anniversary on The Current River

2008-07-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

Here we are, Monday eve, June 30, 2008, on a gravel bar on the Upper Current River celebrating our 57th Anniversary. It was a wonderful trip. Bill and Angela are great river rats!- Papa Jim
Photo Bill Knight/image edit H.Domke

California on fire

2008-06-28T08:58:00.000-07:00

Surface Smoke Map

Major Fires Map
As of Thursday afternoon, officials had identified 1,088 fires in Northern California that covered 159,000 acres. Pretty much unheard of.
More coming with dry lightening predictions this weekend. The air looks like LA on a very bad day. Yuck.

Jakles in the News!

2008-06-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

The Los Altos Town Crier publishes clips from the past as a regular feature. This clip is from 1958. Sharp-eyed Beverly spotted the photo in the current issue. Mrs. Jakle is standing on the left. Unfortunately, the 'Crier' doesn't include this feature in their electronic edition, and this scanned version is poor quality, but B. has saved the clipping.

High Impact Anniversary

2008-06-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

This coming Monday June 30th is the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska blast! Now thought to be from air-burst comet pieces, I remember the discussions as a kid about the idea that it could have been a particle of anti- matter. That was tough to get a grip on, a comet I can picture.

Last Monday I went for an early morning run with Jon H. who wanted to aerate his system in preparation for boarding a flight to Frankfurt,connecting to Moscow and from there to Krasnojarsk in Central Siberia to present two papers at a scientific conference on the Tunguska impact. He will have an opportunity to helicopter into the remote Tunguska region for a field trip. We expect pictures!

Here is the beginning of an Scientific American article well worth reading, summarizing past thinking on the event as well as current findings:

"June 30, 1908, 7:14 a.m., central Siberia
Semen Semenov, a local farmer, saw “the sky split in two. Fire appeared high
and wide over the forest. . . . From . . . where the fire was,
came strong heat. . . . Then the sky shut closed, and a strong
thump sounded, and I was thrown a few yards.... After that such
noise came, as if . . . cannons were firing, the earth shook ...”
Such is the harrowing testimony of one of the closest eyewitnesses
to what scientists call the Tunguska event, the largest
impact of a cosmic body to occur on the earth during modern
human history. Semenov experienced a raging conflagration some
65 kilometers (40 miles) from ground zero, but the effects of the
blast rippled out far into northern Europe and Central Asia as
well. Some people saw massive, silvery clouds and brilliant, colored
sunsets on the horizon, whereas others witnessed luminescent
skies at night—Londoners, for instance, could plainly read
newsprint at midnight without artificial lights. Geophysical
observatories placed the source of the anomalous seismic and
pressure waves they had recorded in a remote section of Siberia.
The epicenter lay close to the river Podkamennaya Tunguska, an
uninhabited area of swampy taiga forest that stays frozen for eight
or nine months of the year......Read the rest of the Scientific American Article HERE

John & Thomas Favorite Summer Movie

2008-06-20T14:43:00.000-07:00

A classic from the King County Library Summer Reading Program. Aclaimed as top movie for writing, acting, cinemetography and stunts by the Jakle Bros. Relax and Enjoy! Thanks, boys.

Bike Mania

2008-06-19T22:58:00.000-07:00

Daughter and Dad (Em and Marty) take a break from bombing down Harkin's Ridge Trail to enjoy the immense sun glittering late afternoon vista over HMB and Pillar Point. Ahead: a drop into the deep, cool redwood & fern shade of Purissima Canyon and a long, long granny-gear grind up the Purissima Creek Fire Road.

A paucity of surf has driven the Kings Mountain Surf Team to static wave (a.k.a. mountain) thrill seeking. Unlike the ocean, since the start is on the peak, the killer paddle-out comes after dropping down the wave. So far, the prize for mountain bike madness goes to -you guessed it - Mr B. A. Bob who pedaled UP the Grabtown Gulch Trail (an unthinkable climb)instead of down as the normal do, to conduct a successful search and rescue on my camera, lost the day before. I really didn't want to have to tell Beverly that it was gone. Thanks Bob, a big bottle of Chimay comin' your way, dude.

Two recently favored bike routes.

The 'A' Team

Fly Away Home

2008-06-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

Jon Explaining a Chart of Pigeon Vanishing Bearings

The earth is ringing; an ultra-low frequency bell. The reverberation of ocean water in motion is the most consistent clapper, although there are many other sources. Jon Hagstrum has shown that these ultra long sound waves, (infrasound) modulated by atmospheric conditions and topography, create the sonic map used by pigeons (and perhaps many other animals) to navigate.

A few weeks ago I met Doug and Beth for dinner and an evening listening to Jon present a updated summary of findings in his 30 year long quest to understand avian navigation

The research has moved to a new level with Jon's discovery and updating of HARPA, a powerful, if somewhat antique program written by Mike Jones in the 1980s (in FORTRAN !) that allows the user to enter atmospheric information like wind speed, temperature, barometric pressure, altitude and topography and to then model the propagation of acoustic waves –including infrasound. After much work to enable the program to run more reliably on today’s computers, Jon is able to input atmospheric and geophysical data from specific days and locations, model infrasound propagation under those conditions and to then search for correlations with changes in the homing behavior of pigeons.

Speed Of Sound by Temperature and Elevation

(Including angles of reflection from various surface sources angels)

What I find striking in hearing Jon’s research is not only his key finding of the role of infra sound as the map pigeons use in navigation, but also the building process of science in which one advance is made possible only by many others. The work of Mike Jones provides an essential tool, but more important is the work of William Keeton, a great biology professor, researcher and member of the Neurobiology and Behavior Department at Cornell, whose research and passion for the subject provided the spark and much of the data to make Jon’s work possible.

As an undergraduate at Cornell in the 1970s, Jon heard a lecture by Dr. Keeton .

William Keeton & friend

Having kept homing pigeons as a boy, Keeton was a pioneer in avian navigation studies and he founded a research pigeon loft. At its peak over 2000 pigeons were kept at the Cornell loft. Students and researchers compiled detailed data on the homing behavior of pigeons released in the area. Many experiments were conducted on the variables that seemed to influence the ability to home. My personal favorite: pigeons released with small bar magnets attached to their bodies to test the role of magnetic fields in navigation. (Result – the bird’s ability to orient quickly was affected, but not their ability to home.) Keeton’s research revealed that there are multiple cues used by homing pigeons and that when one failed, another was used. For example, the sun clearly played a role in orientation, but trained pigeons could orient and home quite well on overcast days too. And adding to the mystery of avian navigation and the value of Keeton’s data was the presence of two locations in the research area where homing ability was predictably disrupted. What was going on? He spent his life as a researcher trying to tease out the mechanism for pigeon homing. From the efforts of Keeton, his colleagues and students, much was learned and a huge data base was amassed documenting pigeon homing behavior on an almost daily basis over many years in the Cornell area. But key problems remained unsolved.

Essentially the ability of the birds to use a variety of cues as a compass became fairly well understood. But you can't navigate with a compass alone. For a compass to be useful you must have a map. What do pigeons use for their map?

Although Jon heard only that single lecture, William Keeton’s quest to crack the mystery of pigeon navigation – and by extension other long range animal navigators- permanently and powerfully aroused his own curiosity. The possibility of infrasound playing a role seemed plausible to him and remained in the back of his mind- a thought to be re awakened, more than 20 years later, after reading of disrupted pigeon races in Pennsylvania. Jon knew that if he could identify a source of infrasound that could have caused the disruption that he would have an important confirmation of the role of infrasound. And he did find the link – the infrasonic shockwave of the Concorde landing at JFK. Hagstrum.

Armed with the HARPA software, NOAA's detailed records of amospheric conditions and Keetons data, Jon will now be able to run analysis for correlations between pigeon navigation patterns and infrasound propagation under the the wind, temprature, pressure, humidity of that day, location and time. And of course be able to run new experiments. I'd say the role of infrasound in navigation is about to be irrefutably nailed down!

Next research frontier: How do tiny little pigeons heads have room for a mechanism able detect wave lenghts in the 100s of meters? Could it somehow be akin to the fractal antennae used in cell phones?

Can't wait for Jon's work on infrasound to be applied to other long distance animal navigator mysteries.

Bombs Away

2008-06-05T09:45:00.000-07:00

A Douglas SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber;
fully armed, dive brakes extended, a beautiful admirer standing by and a veteran pilot in the background displayed on the hanger deck of the USS Midway in San Diego. The Midway was in service from WWII through Desert Storm and is now a huge floating museum anchored in San Diego. Aside from being able to see the many of the most important parts of the ship's facilities, it is also a major aircraft museum with every prop plane, jet and helicopter that had operated from the carrier including the F/A 18 Hornet, F-14 Tomcat, F-4 Phantom and A-6 Avenger among many others. Beverly and I had a chance to do a quick tour last Sunday and it was well worth it. GO if you are in San Diego. Building and operating these has to be one of the more amazing feat of organization in human history. Too bad it's for blowing things up.

More pictures from our tour HERE

The George Washington,
seen over Midway's flght deck
While we were touring the Midway we were able to glimpse a currently operating carrier, the George Washington anchored across the harbor, behind big anti terrorist booms on the water. This modern nuclear powered super carrier had arrived in San Diego only a few day earlier after being damaged by a below deck fire that occurred off the coast of South America. Coincidentally, the GW was on its way to Yokosuka Naval Base, the last home port the Midway had. The GW will be the first nuke powered carrier to be based in Japan.

The Air Boss's Launch-Recovery
schedule board overlooking Midway's flight deck

We Need A Space Rock Defense !

2008-06-04T11:53:00.000-07:00

Price of gas got you down? Does the dog have fleas? Wish Hillary got the nomination? Put it all in perpective: watch this Gregg Easterbrook video narrating the key points from his current Atlantic Monthly article on the high probability of earth impacts and the need for NASA to get with it if they want to save the planet(Come on guys!) Maybe you don't have to clean out the garage after all. One of these babies could solve global warming -after the rain of superheated particles, of course. The video is about 11 min long.

Jon H. is attending a scientific conference in Siberia commemorating the Tunguska impact which occurred 100 years ago this June 30th. Even though it was an air blast scientists believe a crater has now been located. We expect a full report from him on Tunguska as well as an update on the current understanding of impact frequency and consequences!

Set the Forward Spring First!

2008-05-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

Bob at the helm

One would think that after 7 days on board the 42 foot motor yacht Sequel, I would have learned to “set the forward spring line first,” when we came alongside a dock because, if I were not already doing it, the skipper would call out, “Jim, please set the forward spring first!” I was slow to catch on.

Bob Knight, my cousin, had sold this beautiful boat as it was too large for him and his wife Andrea to handle easily. They were downsizing to a smaller 34-foot craft and he was meeting the new owner, Don, in Rochester, New York where I would disembark. Bob and Don were to go East on the Eire Canal to Albany where Bob would turn Sequel over to Don and head home. On May 6, 2008, I boarded Sequel at the elegant Grosse Pointe Yacht Club at Grosse Pointe Shores Michigan on Lake St. Clair, to serve as Bob's crew. Bob, Andrea, and a friend. Corky Swengaard, had brought the boat from Charlevoix, Michigan to Grosse Pointe. There Andrea and Corky had to leave. I was replacing them to help Bob take the boat down Lake Erie, through the Welland Canal and east on Lake Ontario to Rochester, New York, a trip of about 400 miles. This water-loving, dry-land yachtsman was very excited.

Now about “Set the Forward Spring First!” There are six lines to choose among when tying up Sequel. Two at the bow, two at the stern and two amidships called “Spring Lines” but please don't' ask me why that is their name. Having sailed a lot over many years, I thought I knew something about small ships and about which lines to use for docking. However, to me docking conditions always seemed to be variable. I thought it was up to me to use my judgment to decide which line would be best to use first. When Bob skillfully pulled Sequel alongside a pier, I'd forget the standing order, and do what I thought most appropriate. Invariably, I'd toss the wrong line to the waiting dockhand. Then, I would hear, “Jim, please set the forward spring first!”

Even though I was a challenged line handler, this trip was a great adventure. The first day we went down stream on the Detroit River along downtown Detroit and Windsor, Canada, passing the Ford Motor Company's vast River Rouge foundry and plant, and then into the islands of western Lake Erie. We spent our first night at the charming village and marina of Put-in-Bay in the Bass Islands. As Bob brought Sequel alongside the dock the Harbor Master was standing by and called for me to pass the bow line to him. I dashed forward, responding to his order just as Bob called out, “Forward Spring First, Jim!” Darn, I should have anticipated my skipper's wish and ignored the Harbor Master's command. A bit chagrined, I managed to tie us up safely.

We were at Put-in-Bay just ahead of the yachting and tourist season and few ships and people were there. Put-in-Bay was now a lovely quiet town. It was a short walk from the dock to the village green and the Canadian - U. S. Peace Memorial commemorating the victory of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry over the British Lake Erie fleet on September 10, 1813. This was an important victory leading to the U. S. take over of Fort Detroit and helping to secure the Northwest Territories as part of the United States. I knew about this battle, but had no idea about where the engagement had taken place or the nature of the fight. So, in going to the museum and seeing the short movie, I added to my knowledge of the lore of our country. It is an exciting tale.

The next day, it was on to Mentor, Ohio, a harbor town a few miles east of Cleveland, cruising under ideal conditions with moderate waves on the port bow. The twin 450 horsepower Caterpillar engines rumbled along at 2,000 rpm for cruising at 11 knots. The automatic pilot kept us on course. We alternated watches at the helm to oversee the course, track and plot of Sequel on the computer monitor. Boring? Not at all for me. I love to be on the water! Rough water is an adventure, but smooth water is a delight and there is always something to be looked after or to observe, gulls, cormorants and a few other ships. Time was filled with wonderful, leisurely conversations with Bob about our families, our lives, successes and disappointments and just plain good story telling. Later when I headed home from Rochester I was sorry my visit with Bob was ending.

Back in December 2007 when Bob had asked if I'd like to join him for the trip, my immediate response was, after a quick calendar check with Janet, “You, bet, Bob, I'd love it!” I also said, “I do insist that I buy one load of fuel because on our last adventure, I'd bought none! Bob, said, “Oh, Jim, you don't need to do that.” When we arrived, at Mentor and as we pulled up the fuel dock, the dock hand called for the starboard stern line, as I handed him the line, too late Bob called, “Forward spring first, Jim!” I noticed a touch of exasperation in his voice. A few moments later, after we had finished tying up I handed the dock hand my credit card and said, ”Filler' up!” Well, 20 minutes, and 278 gallons of diesel fuel later, I signed a credit card bill for $1,180! Now, I understood another reason why Bob was going to a smaller boat.

Mentor had such a beautiful marina and a yacht club that served great meals, we decided to spend a lazy Friday there as the weather looked doubtful and the Saturday forecast was good. On Saturday morn under a sunny sky and on calm seas we crossed Lake Eire to Port Colborne Ontario, to spend the night at the entrance to the Welland Canal. The Canal and its 8 locks would allow us to go “down the 180 feet of Niagara Falls.

On Sunday, May 11, we passed through the locks during an amazing eleven hour transit. Some of the locks dropped our boat 46 feet. This required constant attention to fender location so as to protect the Sequel from the abrasive concrete walls. We also had to attend continuously to the bow and stern lines that we paid out slowly so as to keep our position among the other craft in the lock as Sequel rode the water down.

I'd been fascinated with these locks for years as they made ocean ports of Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee and Chicago and I was thrilled to be passing through them. It was very physical as fenders and lines had frequently to be reset. We started the transit with our 8:30 AM phone check in and completed it at 11:00 PM. There were extended periods of waiting for locks to clear huge 700 to 800 foot long lake freighters. At the north end of the Canal the last four locks came in quick, exhausting succession. But the passage was exhilarating,

For a stunning finish to the day, Skipper Bob, in the dark of the night, safely took us to St. Catharine's Harbor and placed us securely in a narrow dock slip. I was very impressed at his navigation and seamanship! And wonder of wonders, I set the forward spring line first. I was catching on. After a late Mother's Day phone call to Janet and one to our son Steve in California who had been born on Mothers Day in 1952, a glass of wine, and a quick snack, Bob and I both fell into a sound sleep. I was dreaming of a possible visit the next day to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a delightful resort town just a few miles East, still in Canada. However, we awoke early to a lovely day and very calm Lake Ontario, Skipper Bob said, “We are headed to Rochester, New York. We can easily get there by 5:00.”

It was a great run with a gentle “following sea.” The views along the North Shore of New York state were constantly interesting as we watched homes, towns, water towers and smoke stacks glide by. When we arrived, the harbor of the Rochester Yacht Club was busy preparing for a Red Cross fund raising fishing tournament with over twenty additional boats and 125 fishermen. They hoped to find perch, salmon, lake and rainbow trout among their catch.

We received a warm welcome from the friendly, very busy Harbor Master. As we came along side the dock, I coiled the forward spring line carefully prepared to make an artful line toss to provide a glorious finale for Bob, showing that I had learned “to do it right!” But, some of the coil caught on my fingertips and the line landed in the water. Bob, busy handling the wheel and throttles, did not see my goof. With out his ever knowing I quickly recovered the line and Bob saw me make the second toss in good seamanship fashion. Whooie, I got by.

A phone call before supper let us know the new owner would come aboard 10:00 AM the next day. So, on Wednesday morning, we arose early and set to scrubbing the decks, vacuuming the carpets, dusting the interior and washing the many dirty cabin windows. As we finished a few minutes before ten, a smiling new owner arrived, proud of his new vessel but immediately awed by its mechanical and electronic complexities. Bob would have 5 days on the Erie Canal to “show him the ropes,” though I think the ropes on a sailing vessel would be easier to learn.

We had a great dinner that night at the Genesee Club in Rochester with a sailing buddy of Bob's. So we got a look at Rochester, which I had thought was close to Lake Ontario, but rather it is on the Genesee River with access to the Eire Canal and four or five miles from the lake.

Our last trip was a short one to a neighboring marina to get fuel and re-enter the USA. As we came along side the fuel dock, with Bob and the new owner watching, I proudly threw the “Forward Spring first!” Here we checked in with US Customs by a video camera-phone and Bob handed the dock woman his credit card. I watched the fuel pump clicking away, only another $1,300! I thought, am I ever glad we bought a family farm instead of a yacht, and there are no “Spring Lines” to toss!

By: Papa Jim
May 22, 2008

Related post HERE

HMBH Exhibition Opens at Coastal Art League

2008-05-18T15:29:00.000-07:00

Sarah after winning a prize for her painting 'Horses'

The Art Program at HMB High has opened a diverse exciting exhibition of the work of a very talented group of artists. The exhibition is at a local space, The Coastal Arts League Gallery and Museum on Main Street. (Behind The Zaballa House)

Sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, bookmaking multimedia and digital media were all on display. Interestingly, Kings Mountain Elementary School roots were represented far out of proportion to their numbers at HMBH. Ezra Arenson, Robert Lowman, Kristen Ivazes, Chrissy Kemling and Sarah all had multiple works chosen for the show. The creative spirit of the mountain shows through!

Chrissy won Best of Show for an amazing mask, Sarah won 1st place in the painting category and all the work was of a prize winning quality . Photos of the opening HERE

Take It In

2008-05-18T09:38:00.000-07:00

Take it in
Take it on in
Now is the time that will not come again.
Take it in
Take it on in
This is the day and its here for the living.
--- The Waifs

HMB Surf Club Season Finale

2008-05-16T12:28:00.001-07:00

The Crew!

What a team. Spirit, heart, hard work and more fun than should be allowed added up to a phenomenal first year. View an Album of the team's May 11 contest with Harbor High as well as pictures from other club events.

Half Moon Bay fell to Harbor High School 54 to 71 in their last meet of the season. It was still a very successful contest with more kids advancing to the semifinals and finals than any other contest. Despite the small waves, we all had a great time!

Don’t forget the end of season party at Marty’s Saturday night starting at 5:30 PM!

May 11 Contest Results.

Team vs. Team
Half Moon Bay 54 points
Harbor 71 Points.

Boys Short Board Quarter Finals
Michael – 2nd Place
Bryce – 3rd place

Boys Short Board Semi Finals #1
Bryce 4th place

Boys Short Board Semi Finals #2
Michael – 4th place

Boys Long Board Semi Finals
Michael – 3rd Place

Boys Long Board Finals
Michael – 6th place

Girls Short Board Semi Finals
Sam – 2nd Place

Girls Short Board Finals
Sam 4th Place

Girls Long Semi Finals
Rachel 2nd Place
Sam 3rd Place

Girls Long Board Finals
Rachel 3rd Place
Sam 5th Place

Coed Body Board
Rachel 5th place.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!
--MARTY

This Is Really Pretty Cool!

2008-05-13T22:56:00.000-07:00

This one caught my eye. An animation artist who uses buildings as his surface! This project is called MUTO. The combination of wall art, time lapse photography and movement through the landscape creates the feeling that his visions are actually crawling up and down the buildings and exist in the three dimensional space of a city. An unusual effect you might enjoy. Blu is an interesting Italian street artist with a number of projects and sketch books that you can view on his site HERE. Read a blog article on monumental street art (including Blu) at the Tate HERE.
Is it garbage? Art? Just fun? All three?

In The Canal Zone

2008-05-12T12:06:00.001-07:00

Last night I had a birthday call from Papa Jim, around midnight Eastern time. He had just completed a challenging passage in his voyage helping Uncle Bob to complete the sale of his yacht. Bob had already sailed upper lake Michigan from Charlevoix, through the Straits of Mackinac down Lake Huron, and along the St. Clair River to meet Papa Jim in Detroit at the West end the Lake Erie. Papa Jim came aboard to assist with the Lake Erie/ Lake Ontario leg of the trip. When he called, they had just found a berth for Bob's boat and were cooking dinner after a 12 hour plus passage through the Welland Canal, which bypasses Niagara Falls to connect Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The canal is a key portion of the St. Lawrence Seaway. They had been prepared to launch into the canal by 8:30 AM, but didn't get the a 'go' from the Canal Authority until about noon to begin navigating the series of 8 locks for the 327 foot drop between the lakes.

It took this intrepid crew of two old salts almost twelve hours of exacting maneuvering and fending off in tight places over a passage of almost 30 miles. What a long day it must have been! Supposedly the work requires a crew of three, but this crack team of two sailors managed with style, occasionally relying on the kind offices of nearby boats to lend a hand when needed. Papa Jim said everything was handled by the canal employees and assorted helpers in the most friendly fashion in the finest Canadian tradition. He sounded tired but excited by the challenges of the day and his male bonding 'aquacentric' time with Bob. They are planning a day of R&R at Niagara on the Lake before proceeding on to Rochester where Papa Jim will depart and Bob will be accompanied by the new owner for the remainder of the voyage

We hope for a more detailed account of the voyage by Papa Jim soon!

Whitewater in the Desert!

2008-05-08T10:30:00.000-07:00

A few more photos HERE

A Report from the family vacation front by Sarah J.---

"First time rafters, David, John and Thomas enjoyed riding the Blue Whale through the Class II rapids of the freezing Colorado. Our guide made sure that everyone was hit by a big wave. I was left wondering why I didn't pursue a career as a raft guide --- hee ha! My only disappointment was that I lost a bet with David that we would hear the "gnarly" before the day was over. What's happened to the lingo, dude???

The Red Rocks were amazing. The desert was a green as it gets, with lots of wildflowers. The kids loved the crust fungus, lizards, snake, birds and all the animal tracks. What a great place for a wedding. There was even a circle around the sun during the ceremony."
________
Wow pretty cool - I know I'm jealous...

HMB Surf Club Luau

2008-05-05T14:49:00.000-07:00

More Luau Pictures HERE

Last Saturday night was the occasion of an amazing event in Half Moon Bay. One year ago a Surf Club for Half Moon Bay High School was only an idea. A year later 200 supporters paid 50 each to attend a fundraiser/celebration luau with the team at the end of an amazing 1st year. The kids entered the league like a tsunami, winning 3 of their first 4 meets. Currently in 2nd place, they are meeting the 1st place team, Harbor High in Santa Cruz, on Sunday. When they knock off Harbor (at Harbor's home break 'The Hook' in S.C. ) they will have dominated the league in their very first year. What is especially cool is the spirit of the team and how hard the kids worked to succeed in the league and to make the fundraiser a success.

(Pictures from an early season Surf Club meet HERE )

After Marty and Doug Acton introduced the team, Jeff Clark took the stage to let everyone know how charged up he was to (at last) have his home town high school embrace the sport that he has helped make famous. Putting his money where is mouth is, Jeff contributed a beautiful Clark Boards original long board to crown the raffle excitement.

The real unsung heroes of the evening were Tracy Halbersleben who shouldered lead organizational responsibility as well as stalwarts Paula Bell and Betsy del Fierro. Hats off to these and all the volunteers for their tremendous effort that resulted in such a delightful and successful evening. The room was beautiful and the Hawaiian feast was delicious with some of HMB's finest eateries providing everything from sushi to poi and a whole slow roasted pig . Without doubt a tradition has been born!

After everyone was sated, 'Blame It On The Dog' revved up some tasty surf sounds, and the hula hoops came out. Great party, Marty!

Saturday Nostalgia Run

2008-04-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

Years ago one of the more challenging and interesting jogs I did on Kings Mountain were explorations of the El Corte Madera Preserve. I went back for a run down memory lane on Saturday. Very beautiful with deep creek ravines, redwoods, madrone,doug fir and sandstone outcrops. Most of the terrain is quite steep. Part of my jog was on the Resolution Trail, named for the BCPA Flight 304 DC-6 aircraft involved in the crash on this part of the mountain in October 1953. The flight was coming from Australia, trying to find SFO in heavy fog. The CAB accident report concludes that the crew, which had changed out in Honolulu, did not maintain the required 500 feet above the cloud line and mistakenly descended into heavy fog which obscured the terrain. Coincidentally one of the crew who died in the crash was a Knight, one W. Knight age 34 who was the Purser. William Kapell, who some critics considered the most promising American pianist since WWII was also on board. The Vista Point marked on the map was used as the base of operations for fire suppression and recovery of remains. Occasional debris can still be found around the trail and a wing section still lies down the hill. I didn't see anything this time. Suprisingly I didn't crash on my jog and made down the El Corte de Madera Creek trail and back up the Resolution Trail in fairly good order. (My route is marked in red. Check it out if you wish to be impressed.) It was quite chilly, fog blowing, and fog drip flying like rain. Nice. Had it all to myself except for one party of three mountain bikers. Mini adventure on a Saturday morn!

Kelley's Story

2008-04-02T07:14:00.000-07:00

Kelley Lowery

This is a sample of artwork by Kelly Lowery. Getting back to artistic expression is only one of the strands of life that she is re-weaving after two strokes put her into Camino Hospital. Kelley is an amazing, resilient, and fantastically determined person with a strong network of family and friends who continue to support her comeback. Beverly and the Lowerys have been great friends for years and I ran into Kelley late one afternoon as she worked at the City of Los Altos Recreation Dept. where Beverly has asked her to apply her computer skills on a variety of projects. Kelley was typing away at a great rate. She is able to work two days a week while keeping up a strenuous schedule of therapy. While we were visiting, Kelly showed me a web site she has started to share her progress and her story. Thought I'd pass it on. Check it out HERE. Read a great 'CarePage' write up on Kelley "HERE Go Kelley!

Lt. Commander Jakle

2008-03-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

The key to efficiency in the air is training, training, training. Here Commander Jakle straps into his FA/18 Hornet for a morning of close formation flight and carrier landing practice. Jakle has accumulated more than 1,500 flight hours and 200 carrier arrested landings. His decorations include a Flight Air Medal award, a Navy Commendation and the Coolest Guy on the Block Medal. In a 2007 interview he told a Navy Times editor that the wellspring of his motivation was a deep desire to 'fly really fast upside down'. Fly high Commander!
(Photo Credit: N.S.Knight Jr.)

Easter Morning

2008-03-24T22:34:00.000-07:00

Easter jogging route along the Ross's
Cove bluffs toward
Moss Beach.
A sparkling morning.

The reward after bike ride and jog! B. admiring her stunning arrangement of Easter flowers, the center piece for a serious breakfast of ham, eggs. chocolate bunnies and coffee.

The Doctor is IN !

2008-03-05T03:28:00.000-08:00

.

Yes he's back -at least for the afternoon. Joe C. PhD, feeling dandy before a little aqua candy, here explains to the photographer that in East Lansing chopping through ice is the first step in any surf outing. Once in the water Joe overcame his concern that the California sun might weaken his warrior spirit, declared "this breaker's a taker," dropped into the rocket pocket and self administered a much needed section injection. Book 'em!
Come back soon Doc. A few more pictures HERE

Prints Gone Wild

2008-02-28T22:35:00.000-08:00

Attention!
Printmaking
Atttention!
Printmaking
I Repeat
Attention!
Printmaking is art.
Art is printmaking.
Printmaking is stamping.
Printmaking is brain stamping.
Brain stamping is art.
Printmaking is brain stamping.
Art is printmaking.
Non Grata performers at the Prints Gone Wild microphone

(Note: some of the links in this post contain images not appropriate for viewing at work or by kids.)

Yes, I experienced it all, thanks to a tip-off by Angela. And the west coasters don't think anything interesting happens in St. Louis! On a snowy Sunday afternoon at the in Contemporary Art Museum ,outlaw printmakers from around the country displayed themeselves and their art. It was a major happening. I came home with several inexpensive trophys including a Tom Huck proof. In addition to the printwork, the Estonian performance art group Non Grata staged a printmaking exercise that featured branding raw steaks on near-nude subjects in the icy courtyard of the museum. Pics . Red hot irons, masked Estonians in red jocky shorts and girls on ice. Another lazy Sunday afternoon absorbing culture.

I didn't have a camera, but I ran across some pictures taken of the event on the web including the one of me below. You can see more prints gone wild photos at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/caitlinemmaperkins
http://flickr.com/photos/budskiphotography/sets/72157603983691376/

The Road to Mecca

2008-02-28T15:08:00.000-08:00

On my recent visit to St.Louis, Nana and Papa Jim took me for a night on the town. Nouvelle asian cuisine at the 609 Restaurant in the loop -order the shrimp - followed by a searing (thanks for the right adjective, Bill) theatrical experience at the hands of the Orange Girls.

The play was intense partly because I'm haven't seen much live theater of late, but more because of the acting, the writing, and the intimacy of the setting, the 'black box' theater in the basement of COCA. It must have room for about 80 and all the seats were sold. The three actors were practically in our laps. And the performances were strong. They did The Road to Mecca by Athol Fugard. About an older widow, who is a half cazy artist working in concrete, glass and glitter, near the end of her ability to live alone in a remote South African village, her visitor, a young women full of righteous convictions and big city single female perspectives and the Afrikaaner Dutch Reformed Pastor trying to get her into an old folks home. Every layer of life's onion is peeled as the conflcit plays out. Man. See it!

We emerged, semi-stunned, squeezed past the cookie stand and up the stairs for a quick tour of the COCA galleries and - what are the odds- a performance ofThe Vagina Monologues was just ending in the main floor auditorium. (Had the trustees of B'nai Amoona anticipated this when they sold the synogogue to COCA? Probably not.) It was some kind of fundraisers, and about a hundred of Papa Jim's closest friends were milling about. After a quick hello with Beth Lewis, Nana and I had to conduct a surgical extraction, but we made it home before midnight. A memorable evening!

Banff Mountain Film Festival

2008-02-27T14:57:00.000-08:00

Well, it is all arranged - B has tickets for Saturday night in Santa Cruz. Care to come along?

Flightline News

2008-02-05T14:09:00.000-08:00

Jakle Air Combat Patrol team members are shown here flying a peactime food drop mission to save snowbound Golden Retrievers from starvation after a heavy winter storm in the Pacific Northwest stranded hundreds of the good natured canines. Navigator Thomas 'Pork Pie" Jakle monitors airspeed while pilot John "Hammer Down' Jakle brings his heavily loaded C-130 Hercules in low over the drop zone, preparing to release pallets of self opening 'Mighty Dog' Beef canned food. (Earlier drops had supplied kibble.) As a result of the flier's humanitarian dedication, all dogs were saved from the snow drifts and returned to their grateful families. Thanks boys! SEE Detailed Mission Images HERE

Loblolly visit 1/28/08

2008-01-26T20:06:00.000-08:00

Janet and Sasha going to the farm.

The Day the Contest Was Called Because it was TOO BIG

2008-01-20T23:04:00.000-08:00

Michael Charging a Huge Wave (Middle Peak?) Jan 13 2008
Click for large view

The Cougars Surf team showed up at Santa Cruz, Steamer Lane for the contest (the day after Mavericks) and the contest was called off- just too darn big! So what does the team do? Surf all day of course, charging huge waves, and getting swept by an intense current almost to the pier after each ride, fighting to paddle to the steps and walking all the way back to try again and generally having a blast all day long. Check here for more pictures of the team on this and other days.

Mavericks Contest 08

2008-01-14T15:14:00.000-08:00

Roark Photo. Album Here

Gallery

SF Chronicle

Beverly Photo

Mavericks 2007/2008 is a memory! Marty instigated a paddle-out through roiled waters to observe the action close up. We somehow thrashed out to the contest area. Once there Mr. Phelps (a watcher) bobbed like a jellyfish alongside rescue jetskis and surf groupies while I, (a doer) surfed mushroom rock.

The fog burned off and the day was glorious, warm sun & blue water dazzling our brains into giddy optimism blurred nicely by adrenaline and endorphins from big-surf paddle exertions. Beverly and Michele biked out to the point and embraced the festivities from beach and cliff. Roark studied the scene from the comforts of a party boat, Tim from the cliff over Ross' Cove.

The contest winner decided to split the 57k pot with all 6 finalists - a surf commie aloha gesture capturing the spirit of the day. As we paddled home across the harbor, Mermen guitar riffs reverbing across the water - the party was really just beginning!

Home later; pasta, Michele's special sauce, salmon, Maverick's ale and Ollala berry pie with Bud's vanilla ice cream served by Beverly to a happy crew of Phelpses, Jordans and Bryan. As conversation subsided, muffled by sub- clinical food comatosity, we wondered idly: finale for 403 Garcia St ?

Grand Canyon!

2008-01-02T20:55:00.000-08:00

Sarah On The South Rim Grand Canyon

Hopi Country

Today took us west from Canyon de Chelly across the Hopi Reservation and to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. we had a long drive, but a good time. The reservation is very poor. We drove up on Second Mesa as well as stopped at the Cultural Center and Museum were we had a pleasant lunch.

The South Rim was cold and dreary as we arrived in the late afternoon. We stopped at several overlooks on our way to the the village, and climbed around while taking in the immensity. Just before sunset the the sun broke though the clouds and illuminated the northern and eastern walls. Nice! Album Here

We are holed up in Willaims AZ on old 66 which serves as Main Street. A fine dinner at the Pine Country Diner! Tomorrow we turn for home in earnest on I40 West.

Road Trip Report

2008-01-01T20:07:00.000-08:00

After leaving St.Louis early on New years Eve day Sarah and I were at the Acoma Pueblo in time for an early afternoon tour. The Pueblo is about 40 miles west of Albuquerque on a mesa at almost 8,000 ft. The day was bright clear. A bitter cold wind was sweeping the mesa. We had momentary shelter in the church, built by Indians over 12 years under the heavy hand of the Spanish priests in the early 1600s. Hard packed earth floor, heavy pine roof beams, nine foot thick walls, it served as a fortress for resisting warriors when the Spanish retook the Pueblo after the Indian rebellion of 1680. We froze walking the the dusty streets, but it was quite amazing. (The first time time I've seen a mica window.) Those living on the mesa have no electricity, water or plumbing. According to our guide, water is the major problem. After warming up from our descent from the mesa, we pigged at the all you can eat steam trays troughs at the Sky City Casino and headed east and north for Chinle and Canyon de Chelly.

New Years day was clear and cold (about 10 degrees) early in the day. We found a Navajo guide, Ben Teller to take us into the Canyon. Ben is an old timer who has guided since 1957 and lives in the Canyon near Antelope House. As we hiked down from the rim along a snowy trail he filled us in on the doings of his 10 grandchildren, and the stories of life in the canyon passed down to him by his grandfather. His family memories go back to the time of the captivity at Fort Sumner.

We spent about 4 hours hiking the the Canyon bottom, occasionally passing hogans and small flocks of sheep. About 150 people live within the canyon in cabins and hogans. Ben told us his cabin is typical. He hauls water from the river and stores it in a cave to keep it from freezing in the winter. He has a small generator and uses a Coleman stove to cook.

We exited the canyon near the White House ruins. A fine day. PHOTO ALBUM

Yale 1950 Philadelphia Reunion

2007-12-28T19:24:00.000-08:00

TOP PHOTO:The re-union group at the Philadelphia Art School
Jim and Janet Knight, 2nd row, third and fourth from left.
Yale Mini reunion in Philadelphia, October, 2007
BOTTOM PHOTO:Jim and Janet Knight at the Mummer's Museum for class dinner.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!

2007-12-28T07:10:00.000-08:00

Its all about FUN!

Fitzgerald Marine Preserve

2007-12-25T14:12:00.000-08:00

Taking a break from holiday shopping, Beverly and I took a quick walk at the marine reserve as the full moon rose and the sun set through the fog. The negative tide was ebbing near its low. We had an enjoyable time scrambling over the exposed rocks and peering into tide pools in the gathering dark. This anemone was in about 3 inches of water. Enlarge the photo and you can see a hermit crab peeking out from his snail shell just to the left of the anemone. 'Hermies' appeared to be everywhere!

Surfing Cougars Win!

2007-12-24T05:57:00.001-08:00

Half Moon Bay Surfing Cougars Wahines at "The Hook" in Santa Cruz at last weekend'surf contest. Rachel bottom, Camile left, Sam right. (Cindy Phelps Photo)

Rachel in the Curl (Cindy Phelps Photo)

Photo Album HERE
Santa Crux is surf city and the surf team to beat. Which is what the Surfing Cougars did in the team's second meet. WOW. Coaches and kids had a lot to be proud about in a day of inconsistent surf at The Hook. Everyone gave their all,showed the aloha spirit and most important had a blast. The team is really coming on strong!
A nice write up in the Review here.

Lora Groves Open Studio

2007-12-18T12:07:00.000-08:00

If you received a handmade invitation to an open studio that looked like this I suspect you'd be excited to go! Click the image for a much better view.

So was I. Lora Groves is a wonderful coastside artist who works in a secluded studio in the redwoods about 5 miles above Pescadero. She often works in large sheets of cloth as pictured here. I think they are linen, which she colors, paints and sews into evocative patterns of light, color and dark. Bran and I visited her open studio and had a chance not only to view her art, but also to meet family and other friends. I wish we could have stayed longer! I met Lora when she used to occasionally work part time at Moon News ( World's best bookstore!)

She is picture here with (left)"The Whole Cycle of Growth and Renewal is Love" and
(Right)"Some Come in, Some Go Out".

The People's Choice

2007-12-10T13:46:00.000-08:00

The Half Moon Bay Ritz Carleton hosts a gingerbread house contest and silent auction every year. The proceeds go to benefit the Coastside Children's Programs (CCP) in Half Moon Bay. CCP is the number one childcare agency on the coast and has been serving children and families from multicultural and diverse socio-economic backgrounds for over 30 years.

This year's 'People's Choice' Gingerbread House winner is one of our own! The multi talented Emily Phelps took time out of school, firefighting and charity responsibilities to create a winner. She is pictured here with with her prize winning house. Way to go Em! Baking and constructing a winning gingerbread house is tough enough, but Emily also had to somehow keep her entry out of LaVerne's mouth. Nice work Ms. Phelps.

December 4, 2007. Mavs Goes Off!

2007-12-08T07:42:00.000-08:00

This past week in Northern CA, a tremendous swell came through. The big day was on Tuesday with a 27-30 foot swell on 20 second intervals. Huge. Unusually, Maverick's broke out on the 3rd reef, where the big dogs were towing in. This shot by Doug Acton,the best surf photographer ever of the action at Mavericks over the years, shows that wave faces were in the 60 foot plus range. This shot is of Kealii Mamela. Doug took time out from his Half Moon Bay Surf team coaching duties to document the action as he has for every swell for decades.

Star Turns!

2007-12-06T22:36:00.000-08:00

John "Music Man" J. and Thomas "El Diablo" J. meet their panting public. I only wish we could hear the mellifluous vibrations that accompanied this scene, but the pictures and imagination will have to suffice (unless Aunt Sarah made a recording that we could post.)

Good going guys! We will expect a duet concert in St. Louis over Christmas

Secret SpotTrip Report

2007-12-03T19:39:00.000-08:00

Well, the reports are in from the Intrepid Thanksgiving Secret Spot Hike-Surf Trippers:

Roark: Epic!
Bob: Great
Eric: Pretty Good
Tim: Never Again

I've never done the trip, but it involves a 7-8 mile hike,including a stretch that must be navigated at low tide. Tough going through loose sand etc. Tim reportedly had to be cajoled with unspecified threats and blandishments in order to induce him to stand again after a trail side collapse. (Hard to believe, but perhaps he IS the sane one!) They had rain, big, (too big) surf that kept them out of the water part of the time, but they were able to score when conditions permitted. Four nights camping on the beach. The packs must have been seriously heavy for enough beer to last that long!
Way to go boys!

Se Roark's Photo Album HERE

Radical Rodents

2007-12-02T17:34:00.000-08:00

This one is for John & Thomas. Do you think it is hard to make itty bitty surf boards?

Light Parade

2007-11-30T23:00:00.000-08:00

Paradew Photo ALbum Link

Bobbie Simmons Drving - Look out!

Oscar Gift Wrapped

The Half Moon Bay parade of lights took place this evening with the largest crowd in memory looking on. Kings Mountain was strongly represented with a Bronco towed Christmas tree lit with thousands of colored bulbs powered by a 5 KV generator accompanied by 2000 watts of mobile Christmas carol stereo power. Oscar (Phelps) had on his usual flannel lined Christmas package costume, while Bobbie Simmons was lead driver in the posse of Kings Mountain Christmas race cars that set the pace for the parade. Let the shopping begin!

Character Revealed or "Beverly Enjoys the Beach Her Own Way"

2007-11-29T12:35:00.000-08:00

ALBUM LINK

Gee, Dan told me there are these things called 'Killer Logs.' Big heavy logs that look safe but get moved by the waves and crush people- or some such silly thing like that-hey! Is that one over there? Think I'll check it out. Hmmm.. easy to balance...let's see... never stand on beach logs, check....never turn your back on the ocean, check!......Whoaaa!!! Wheeee!! Awesome! Can I do it again? No?
OK then, I give killer logs a 'D' for DONE!

Kids: Be don't be Beverly- be safe! Here is the real scoop from the State of Oregon.

"They're called sneaker waves because they appear without warning, often surging high up on the beach with deadly force, and are impossible to predict.
How to play it safe: Never turn your back on the ocean.

Watch those logs The ocean is strong enough to pick up even the biggest log and plop it down on top of you. Some logs may look small, but even the tiny ones can be waterlogged and weigh tons.
How to play it safe: If you see a log in the surf or on wet sand, stay off it
.....Oregon Coastal Saftey excerpt.Read the whole site HERE

Punkin' Pickers

2007-11-28T12:12:00.000-08:00

I know it is late for Halloween pictures, but here is a classic pose that deserves to be shared. John and Thomas, taking a break from heavy pumpkin picking duties on a beautiful fall day with a prize winning squash between them. What's with the bolt cutters, guys? Did you have to go through a fence to get into Farmer Jones' field? Where is your Dad?

Cougars Surf Team's First Meet!

2007-11-27T15:39:00.001-08:00

The Cougars did very well in their first competetive outing at Santa Cruz on the weekend before Thanksgiving. Great write up in the the HMB Review

Way to go, Doug and Marty!

Practice Cowboy

2007-11-19T22:05:00.000-08:00

Lots of cowpokes play the fiddle. Most people don't realize that it takes practice, practice,practice to be able to entertain the boys around the campfire.
And it always pays to wear your sidearm! A cowboy never knows when crooks or rattlesnakes might need shootin'. Here is Thomas, hog leg strapped on his hip, ready for anything. Shin'ichi Suzuki would be right proud of this boy!

Theory of Everything

2007-11-15T12:22:00.000-08:00

It is about time. A surf bum has come up with a unified theory of everything, using the E8 as his inspiration.

The E8 root system consists of 240 vectors in an eight-dimensional space. Those vectors are the vertices (corners) of an eight-dimensional object called the Gosset polytope 421.In the 1960s, Peter McMullen drew (by hand) a 2-dimensional representation of the Gosset polytope 421. The image shown above was computer-generated by John Stembridge, based on McMullen's drawing.
Quote:
"Garrett Lisi, 39, has a doctorate but no university affiliation and spends most of the year surfing in Hawaii, where he has also been a hiking guide and bridge builder.

In winter, he heads to the mountains near Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where he snowboards. "Being poor sucks," Lisi says. "It's hard to figure out the secrets of the universe when you're trying to figure out where you and your girlfriend are going to sleep next month."

Despite this unusual career path, his proposal is remarkable because, by the arcane standards of particle physics, it does not require highly complex mathematics.

Even better, it does not require more than one dimension of time and three of space, when some rival theories need ten or even more spatial dimensions and other bizarre concepts. And it may even be possible to test his theory, which predicts a host of new particles, perhaps even using the new Large Hadron Collider atom smasher that will go into action near Geneva next year." Quoted from the Telegraph See full text here

Half Moon Bay High School Surf Club is Launched!

2007-11-05T11:54:00.000-08:00

Freshmen Mike and Skyler charging hard at a practice for the Half Moon Bay High School Surf Club Saturday at Kelly Street. These photos were shot by the team's coach, pro surf photographer and waterman Doug Acton

The team was recently formed, sparked by Exec Director Marty and is now sanctioned by the league. About 25 kids have turned out with lots of talent and enthusiasm on the part of both parents and kids. With Doug as the coach they will go far!

Andrew Pays But Comes Up Smiling

2007-10-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the ocean bites back. Andrew H.shown sporting a nice souvenir. Today's good times are tommorrow's good memories!

Surf Report: First Winter Swell

2007-10-21T13:52:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning. Calm, clear and warm, the roar of the ocean rising up and falling through my bedroom window as it had all night. Jupiter high and bright in the eastern sky, I loaded up.(It was Jupiter, right Dan & Elizabeth?) Sun broke over the ridge line at almost the exact moment my boat slid off the beach. Gliding glassy harbor water, loosening stiff shoulders, pulling long to stretch, the roar beyond the break water grew louder as a lone surfer, his yellow 'gun' underarm, paralleled my track across the water, walking the path along the harbor edge to the Point where we would converge. His presence and few early bird spectators with binoculars on the cliff confirmed that Maverick's was breaking. I didn't look, but Ross's Cove was probably going off big time.

Beautiful session, jockeying to paddle into clean 10-12 foot wave faces with occasional triple overheads, the line-up about 50 yards beyond Mushroom Rock. There long, long rides with time for multiple cutbacks and then the wave would reform and offer a second drop and bottom turn. A few times the price was paid with a swim in the impact zone, but adrenaline overcame lack of fitness and practice. Outside clean-up sets loping through occasionally forced all out attempts to claw up the wave before it broke or a frenzied paddle to get out in front to try and hang on as the wall crashed behind me. Quite engaging.

There were 15-20 guys (yes all guys)out at the Mavericks line up, a few towing in, although it wasn't big enough to be necessary. One paddle surfer was catching clean shoulder rides and looked as though he could have been charging the bowl with no problem. Impressive!

I had the inner break all to myself until a crew of rodeo boats showed, but only one of them ventured Mushroom Rock. There would have been plenty of room for you!

Note: The first map shows undersea topography at Pillar Point with my crude attempt to indicate the location of Mushroom and Maverick's added, second and third charts show ocean wave conditions by color from this Sunday morning. Pretty aren't they?

Radical Reel

2007-10-20T08:26:00.001-07:00

A few weekend ago, Beverly organized a great trip to UC Santa Cruz to view Radical Reels, a collection of short films on extreme sports from the Banff Mountain Film Festival. I thought you who couldn't come that night might enjoy the trailer which I've finally gotten around to posting!(SEE BELOW) My favorite was a spoof on "Touching The Void" called "Touching Myself." The agony of choice and a badly broken baguette high on the mountain.

The UC expedition included the Mohr family, Bryan, Beverley, Sarah, Joe F. and me. We survived a chaotic visit to Pleasure Pizza before the show. We will know to order by the slice next time!

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