I saw the sun!

Of course, I had to drive three hours south to find it. Still, it was nice to remember what it's like to wear just a t-shirt and shorts and sandals and have your hands and feet still be warm.

As we hit Fortuna on the drive back I had to turn the windshield wipers on. Here's the week's forecast according to NOAA:

• Tonight A chance of drizzle after 11pm. Patchy fog after 11pm. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low around 54. North northwest wind 3 to 7 mph.
• Tuesday A chance of drizzle before 11am. Patchy fog before 11am. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 62. Northwest wind 3 to 6 mph.
• Tuesday Night Patchy fog after 11pm. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low around 54. Northwest wind 3 to 8 mph.
• Wednesday Patchy fog before 11am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 65. Northwest wind 3 to 7 mph.
• Wednesday Night Patchy fog after 11pm. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low around 55. North northwest wind 5 to 8 mph.
• Thursday Patchy fog before 11am. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 65.
• Thursday Night Mostly cloudy, with a low around 55.
• Friday Mostly sunny, with a high near 65.
• Friday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 54.
• Saturday Mostly sunny, with a high near 64.
• Saturday Night Patchy fog after 11pm. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low around 54.
• Sunday Patchy fog before 11am. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 66.
• Sunday Night Mostly cloudy, with a low around 53.
• Monday Partly sunny, with a high near 63.

Sigh.

But it was nice for a day.

I love myself!

Today's Funky Friday headline is once again courtesy of the Times-Standard. Way to go, guys!

Eclipse!

Big sky-watching day yesterday, what with the annular eclipse and all. Unlike most places in the U.S., those of us on the North Coast had to weigh our observational options.

Yes, it was clear Saturday, and Friday, too. Heck, we've had about a week of really nice, summery weather. But if something special is going on, well, expect the clouds.

So Humboldt was in fine form yesterday, and for most of Sunday it was again mostly clear skies and summery...until around 5pm.

Why, Humboldt County, why?

So we mulled over our options. Too late to drive over the mountains to Redding—and besides, who wants to go to Redding, anyway? Go to the Old Creamery Building and hope the skies clear? Drive up to Berry Summit?

Since it was clouds-clouds and not fog-clouds harshing our mellow, we figured it didn't matter how far up 299 we drove, the clouds would still be on the horizon. Short of Redding, anyway. So we went to Blue Lake and parked by the river. We were rewarded with mostly-clear skies.

My step-daughter made eclipse-viewing boxes and we hung out, playing with them and letting curious passers-by check 'em out. As the crescent sun in our little boxes got thinner and thinner, the skies started to darken. Then the eclipse-viewing boxes started to not work. WTF? Did we break them in our horsing around?

We looked up at the sky. So, was it getting darker because of the eclipse, or because of the big-ass cloud blocking out the sun? Humboldt, why do you do this to us? Look at what we're missing!

By the time the obscuring cloud rolled past and we again got an image in our little oatmeal boxes, the sun was back to the same crescent it had been when we first got to the river. We hung around a little while longer, until the fog started coming in, then we drove home.

Yes, that's right: when it's summery to us, a lightweight sweatshirt or jacket will do.

Why, what do you wear in the summer?

Shing

A collection of misspellings over at Cake Wrecks got the week started off...everything good this week was "shing." And folks, it was a shing good week. Even the "catch-21" of a forced jaunt to Eureka couldn't close the damper on the festivities, which topped out with this well-worn piece of Just Say No! propaganda:

"Have a god bless day" folks!

RAW!!

It's the start of a new tournament season for roller derby...Humboldt Roller Derby's first bout will be up in Eugene, Oregon, at a super-tournament—13 teams!—called The Big O. It'll be broadcast over the Internet on Derby News if you want to watch; HRD plays Friday at 5:30pm and Saturday at 11am.

(No, I'm not playing. I'm working! Besides, I'm not on a team yet.)

The preview on Derby News has bits on all the teams participating, and has stuff like the roster line-up, "Skaters to Watch," and "Quotable Quotes." Most of the quotes are along the lines of "We're excited to play Team X, we've trained really hard, it's going to be a great tournament." The best quote is courtesy of HRD, freak flag flying high:

Humboldt skaters Locked Up and Jule Injection: “To prepare for the Big O we’ve been eating the hearts of wild lions. RAW!!! We have been working on strategy and team cohesion; so expect a lot of aggressive tight pack work. Also expect to see an abundance of hair and some experimental dance moves! We are stoked to finally be WFTDA and are looking forward to a rad season playing against some amazing teams.

Late May Spring

What a fine week of typical Humboldt weather: fog, sun, fog again, bitterly cold north wind, gently cool west wind, sun again. So fine and summery that the garden is the first place I head once I kick off my work shoes. So fine and summery that I thought, Maybe it's time to try fun-running again.

So I was up and out of the house just after 8am to drive down to Loleta for the Jim Davy 2-mile fun walk/10K fun run. I sent in my registration for the 10K, then thought it might be more prudent to baby my plantar fasciiitis and do the 2-mile walk—I haven't done any running or even a decent stroll since the beginning of February—but the morning was so fine I thought, I'll do the 10K and just walk it really fast.

Small crowd, very pretty course: three miles up to Table Bluff, a bit of flat at the turnaround and water break station, then three miles back down into town. I think it was more than some of the fun-runners were expecting. I started almost four minutes late by grabbing an Earl Grey tea and a morning bun from the Loleta Bakery but still managed to pass seven stumbling runners as I chugged up the hill. But seriously, the scenery and views down to King Salmon and the beach along the mouth of the Eel River were killer, and worth the trip to the top of the bluff.

And you know, it didn't really matter whether I went for the 10K or the short course, because after about two miles my feet were pretty sore. And, the organizers had a great prize table. (I got a bottle of green tea cooking oil—score!) And, I got to my dressage lesson only a little late. (And it was a fantastic, eye-opening lesson—thanks, Paula!)

But after three hours of working it, I needed both lunch and a nap, so I didn't get into the yard as early as I had hoped, nor did I do anything I'd planned to do out there today...but I did take some pictures.

As we clear off the blackberries, periwinkle, ivy and assorted other undesired plants, we have a tough time keeping the cleared areas free of other weeds (grasses, thistles, etc). It often seems like a never-ending battle.

Only this year we got smart and are putting the chickens to work. My husband's been constructing a "chicken Habitrail" to give the chickens access to the weedy areas between the raised beds and the side fence, then along the back fence. They are so happy to have the fresh forage, the bugs, and the opportunity to scratch around and exercise their little minds. And in return they keep their Habitrail areas weed-free.

I know it's hard to see, but that's the work-in-progress we call the Chicken Habitrail. Or Chicken Hooverville. Both the hens and the mass of pullets we call the Cheeples love to shoot up through the narrow run along the fence to the bigger Habitrail area in the back corner. It's especially noisy and fun when both groups do it at the same time.

Oh, what's in the raised beds? A lot of potatoes, garlic, shallots, herbs, lettuces, strawberries, raspberries (probably not enough of those), a mystery bed of leftover seeds and odds-and-ends, and six tomato plants I put in despite the evidence of years past, in my eternal optimism. (Good thing I can shrug off disappointment!)

The husband himself, staking out the next area for Habitrail expansion. The expanded area for them to be in takes some of the pressure off in finding the surplus homes. So far I've only sold one pullet, one of the Leghorns ($20 and a shovel!). I also finally got fed up of not finding leg bands at any of our local feed stores (Seriously, are they kidding? with all the poultry in Humboldt County, no one sells leg bands?) and ordered some off the Internet. Now I'm assigning names and numbers to the keepers.

So, yay for those hard-working poultry gals: fresh eggs every day and landscaping, too.

Oh, and yay for hard-working husbands, too! The Mighty Small Farm looks great, G-man.

Frenchy Toast

I don't know what happened to the photo—or maybe it's the hard cider I'm drinking—but my hens made me breakfast this morning: french toast courtesy of Frenchy the Hen.

(Okay, Coco says she helped.)

Some Optimism

Add this to the list of things I've forgotten before I went all Humboldt: slides and washouts on Hwy 101, the main artery into and out of Humboldt County. Drive up and down it long enough and all the winter-time road signs warning of Rough Roads, Lane Closure Ahead, One-Way Traffic Control, and Caution: Men At Work blend into the background greenery.

[The other thing I forget: there's an ad on the radio right now advertising "free beef with the tires you buy!" Really.]

But every four or five years, a bigger storm comes through and closes something major. In this case, part of a hillside just north of Garberville threw up its hands in despair at March's incessant rains and slid onto the highway, completely closing it. Yeah, that's right: Hwy 101 is completely closed north of Garberville. So throw your chains in the trunk and drive over Hwy 299 to Redding, then down to Sacramento, then over to San Francisco if you're heading south. The North Coast Journal has a nice blog entry about it here. And the Times-Substandard has this to say. And the excellent Redheaded Blackbelt has this photo-laden blog post.

[Thank you, Press Democrat, for the image!]

I feel pretty lucky—I drove north from the Bay Area the afternoon before the slide. If I'd waited til Wednesday afternoon to drive home...ugh. I don't have snow chains, so it would have been a long drive north to Grants Pass in Oregon before I could catch an open highway west and get back onto The 101.

 [Thank you, North Coast Journal, for the photo!]

Best quote regarding the slide?

”There is some optimism that we could have a lane carved through there by Monday,” said California Highway Patrol Sgt. Martin Abshire. “We are not planning on that, but it is a possibility. That's not a probability, it's only a possibility, and it's very optimistic.” 

 The Times-Standard April 1 edition.

Yeah, I'm hooked

Waiting For the Other Shoe to Drop

Friday morning, as I was finishing up my morning animal chores and getting ready to sit down with the newspaper, my husband piped up, "Did you see this about the 8.9 in Japan?"

No, I did not. But hearing "8.9" I went to the USGS website, then immediately over to NOAA to look for the tsunami alert. Because, if you're noided out by earthquakes like I am, you'd know that a Richter reading that high means it was likely a thrust fault that ruptured, and those are the ones likely to produce tsunamis. And this time we got a tsunami warning which, unlike an advisory where they would like you to stay away from the coast and low-lying areas, means, A tsunami is coming and we expect damage.

So I put the collars back on the cats, pulled the earthquake kit out from under the bed, discussed The Plan with my husband just in case, emailed my nephews in Hawaii, then went off to work...What a creepy day! Waiting for the water to come. Random businesses closed, the city's earthmoving equipment and the garbage trucks all parked up on the hill, the roads going into the Arcata Bottoms closed off...even city schools in Eureka closed for the day. A tsunami day at school: who knew?

Humboldt County was fortunate, and we had no damage, though we do have an exciting array of YouTube videos. Harbors Brookings, Ore., and Crescent City, Calif., to the north were damaged, and harbors to the south, I hear, (Ft. Bragg, Santa Cruz) were damaged as well.

Such a watery county we live in, with our Six Rivers, our endless rain, our tsunamis...here're the videos:

Tsunami surge traveling up the Mad River which separates Arcata from McKinleyville:



A cop I talked to said the water reach Hwy 101 at Clam Beach, which is normally a pretty wide stretch, so here's this:



And a time-lapse video of the surge in the Crescent City harbor—play this one with the sound off:

The Day's Possibilities

...at least, from the perspective of Vivani Catpants.

After a super-rainy December, January and (so far) February have been dry, warm, and mostly sunny. The joke around town is to greet your neighbor or passersby on the street and comment on the lovely summer weather. And for the past few days we've even had the summertime fog. (Our winters are usually fog-free—it's when we finally get our dose of sunrises and sunsets.)

So yes, the lawns are green and lush, my neighbor's dogwood is flowering—they're flowering all over town, along with the plum and apple trees, the cherries, the myrtlewoods, and the roses; they all think it's Spring—and beyond the leafless tulip tree and walnut is a dark green wall of redwoods and hedge. Yesterday a score or more of robins gorged on the holly berries in the tree behind the house, and the waxwings I'm sure will not be far behind. The chickadees and goldfinches continue to dare the cats, and the sparrows that live outside the bakery doors at the co-op grocery are impossibly fat.

Maybe today the fog will clear. Maybe not; it didn't yesterday. But it sure is nice to live here.

Scotia Bluffs!

...for our Sunday/Monday drive. The lady who runs the rock and gem museum near the Alton interchange told Greg about it when he stopped in to have a look. Armed with a rudimentary map and plenty of tangerines we set off for the wilds of Lumberland!

I put my mind into Mexico Mode and after a few passes at where the hole in the fence should've been, found it and parked. We walked down the abandoned railroad tracks to the bluffs, past the boys throwing rocks and pampas grass spears in the river. The dirt was super-slick from the rains, so we didn't go far, just enough to find some fossilized clams and snails. But I think once it's dried out a bit we'll make a day of it.

Gotcha!

So, since everybody loves to hear when California gets socked by really bad weather, you may have heard that we've...been socked by really bad weather.

Not to be outdone by the deep snow blanketing the Tahoe area, or the crazy rainfall in the Los Angeles area, Humboldt Co. steps up with this report from my friend's house in Fieldbrook, where a perfectly good used Compost Tumbler was crushed by a falling tree:

Small Town Doin's

[Updated! Links to stories online, and a new photo!]

My neighbor roused me from my sick-person's nap to say, "Sorry to disturb you, but did you know there's a bear in the tree behind the Hauser's?"

No, I did not. I put on a sweatshirt and slippers and went around to the back yard where Greg was busy landscaping the fire-pit. "G-man, c'mon! There's a bear next door!"

So there we are, standing around the neighbor's back porch, passing around binoculars and watching people watch the bear. It's been there all day, a woman who works at Arcata House says. The redwood tree hosting the bear is in the Arcata House yard. A photographer is there, waiting for the bear to do something. I don't see the mayor, but Mark from the city council is across the street; he brought his family by earlier for a look. The bear is still sitting there.

Trust me, it's no clearer in this photo than it was to us standing in Donna's yard...see that light patch of bark on the redwood, about the center of the photo? Well, just above and to the left of that is a dark blob, the dark blob of unhappy bear.

UPDATE   Here's the link from the front-page story in the Times-Standard.  You can see the bear in their picture, too.

...and today's Times-Standard article.

...and a photo from the Co-op security camera!

 I love that he's looking in toward the deli...doesn't he know that the coffee bar closes at 6pm? Sheesh.

Racing Towards Winter

For Halloween/Day of the Dead this year, we decided to add a house-warming element. We invited friends, family, and all the neighbors over to see the place—which meant a furious few days of cleaning—and have snacks and mescal.

The Saturday before Halloween I managed to get home from work before dark (in contrast to the previous Saturday's 12-hour fun-fest) and I spent the time racing out to Paul Giuntoli's pumpkin patch near the Mad River. During the party I pulled out the knives and newspaper and enlisted everyone's help in turning 98 pounds of pumpkin into jack o'lanterns:

You see how green they still are? Hardly any were much bigger than a basketball. Our wet spring and cool summer may have been good for the mushrooms, potatoes, and onions, but they were lousy for pumpkins. So it goes. The display still got a lot of compliments from the steady stream of trick-or-treaters. We also did our standard "Take as much candy as you want" routine. Try it sometime, and watch the faces of the kids and their parents as greedy desire and politeness duke it out.

Our family altar. I think that, wherever the souls of cats go after death, they don't serve very good chow...if you look closely you can see that the dishes holding the cat food are the only ones the spirits ate overnight; the bird treats and human food was seemingly untouched.

Weird.

While I wait...

...for G-man to get back from Oaxaca with the digital camera, a quick post.

Here's a contestant for the Best Name Ever:  Akenaten Flores!

I'm not sure if it's better than Thor Christenson...

However,

Barcus Twombly is still the Best Name Ever.

Going Medieval

Yes, yes, lousy blogging lately. Blame the Post Office. But during the last week we 1) ended our Pendragon campaign set in Lindsay, and went to our local Medieval fair. Here's the evidence!

 Sven getting ready to game. Dice, paper, Becks, Newman Os...yep, we're ready! (Sven also brought his Viking encampment down to the Medieval Fair, along with extra costumes for the rest of us. Huzzah!)

 Setting up the Battle Board, aka our card table. All snacks off, please!

 "24 on 10d6?! What the...!"
Greg is also famous for being a lousy die-roller, much to the player's delight.

 When I travel I look for foreign dice. From left to right, that's a d6 from Japan showing a 2, a bone d6 from Iceland showing a 3, one of the crazy Polish d20s I got at Tentacles Omega in Germany showing a 19, and a Zocchi d6 showing a 6. And that's the character sheet for Sir Theudic le Garde, knight of Leicester, familiaris of Count Agwar, Candlebee. Oh yeah, and traitor to King Arthur. D'oh!

A man and his game having a good time...hey! who left a beer on the bookcase?

Tsk, gamers.

 All the Candlebees are down. King Arthur didn't even have to draw Excalibur (which would have been a better end for us!)

So that was the end of the game. It's always a strange campaign when the GM is also play-testing, though Greg might lay the strangeness back on us, the players...Let us raise a horn of spirits to the men of Leicester and their (few) allies! Sir Gwalchmai, dragon-slayer and Round Table knight; Sir Brandagoris of the Ham-bone, fearsome slayer of Saxons; Sir Bledri, the most reckless of all Candlebees; Sir Gwair, a ladies man to the end and the spark that brought about the rise of the County of Leicester; Sir Cynfyn, Devil to the Irish but loyal to a fault to his lord; Sir Padern, gruff and rough and a teacher of young knights; Sir Rhun with the most beautiful hair until the Queen came to court; Sir Amadis, the peasant-knight who finally killed the Black Annis; and finally, our lord Saint Edar Allington, Count of Leicester and Lambor, once King of Oriel and brother-in-law to both King Arthur and Prince Valiant, savior of Britain and known from Norway to Byzantium. Adieu.

 The kid in the red tunic is Tristan, getting ready to boff at our local medieval fair. His dad's Steve from our Saturday night group. Steve's character, Sir Extavius, successfully evacuated our player's surviving wifes and children from Britain to Trond, to live at the court of the good Price Valiant (uncle to Count Agwar).

Ooh, game geek!

I got my hair braided at the fair—people didn't recognize me at work the next day! I did take the flowers out, but even so...

Eat it!

 (No one threw marijuana on stage for Weird Al. I don't know; maybe they figured he didn't need it.)

Land-lubber

"The worst day fishing is better than the best day working." Or so says Anonymous. Who wouldn't like sliding out into Trinidad Bay at a quarter past six in the morning, all bundled up against the fog and spray? Dark trees on the hills, gulls and bat stars and murres and sea lions, A reusable shopping bag with sandwiches, grapes, hard-boiled eggs, and tea. It was so pretty.

Even though the salmon seem to have taken a pass on the fishing season this summer, the rockfish were biting, and Dale, Capt. Tom, and I were hauling them up with regularity. So exciting, to look down and see your blue plastic tubby filling with black rockfish.

And I didn't mind going to the back of the boat and puking every fifteen minutes or so. Get queasy, vomit, feel fine, repeat as necessary.

Only, when the "repeat as necessary" became all the time, I started to not have fun. Dale says I actually turned green. So it was a mercifully short trip.

But, I'll say it again—up til I was continually, debilitatingly nauseous, I was having a great time. So yeah, I'm putting in a plug for Capt. Tom and the Jumpin' Jack out of Trinidad Bay.

(That's the Jumpin' Jack and some lounging otters off the Trinidad Bay Charters website.)

Now, the next four hours curled in a fetal ball in bed wracked with chills because I'd taken too many seasickness pills in a last-ditch attempt to salvage the morning? Entirely my own fault!

What time is it?

Get on it, people!