Clouds Over Canyon

Clouds Over Canyon, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

About 45 minutes after sunset the clouds parted a bit, allowing crepuscular sun rays to penetrate. It was a beautiful morning in San Luis Obispo, but a cold and windy one!

Blue Sage

Blue Sage sometimes called Russian Sage. It is really drought tollerent here in the desert but really, really hard to take photos of as blossoms are so tiny. It is blooming right now and starting to give me baby plants as it spreads well from seed.

Mount Rainier :: Narada Falls

Tuesday, September 14th - - For a few miles the road through Mt. Rainier National Park follows the Paradise River. A short distance before reaching the Paradise visitors center complex, there is a little sign alongside the road announcing Narada Falls.

It is here, at Narada Falls, that the sparkling clear waters of Paradise River plunge over the edge of a cliff and drop dramatically 168 feet. The Paradise River runs clear, not milky, because it originates from snowfields, not debris-laden glaciers.

The trail to Narada Falls is only two-tenths of a mile long, but it is a 200 foot descent/ascent! It can be (and was) wet and slippery.

For some early visitors, the power of the waterfall suggested spiritual connections. They named it Narada after a powerful sage of Hindu mythology who acted as a messenger between human and divine realms. [National Park Service Sign]

It wasn't the biggest, or tallest, or widest waterfall I've ever seen. But it was one of the most beautiful and graceful.

There is a hint of a rainbow across the center of the falls.
The “drapery” of water opens and closes as it falls. It was enchanting.
Constantly changing as you watch, it is dependent upon the flow of water from above as well as the cliff face itself and the plants thriving there.

On Winter Skies and the Solace of Open Spaces

In a high school English class, we were once made to read an essay, called "The Solace of Open Spaces" by Gretel Ehrlich. I remember the piece only vaguely and don't want to spoil my memory's version of it by re-reading it today. It was about the great plains of Wyoming - or rather, about the author's reaction to their overwhelming vastness. I have never been to that part of the US and have not seen the landscape she describes. But I recall vividly the flash of self-recognition I experienced when reading her words. Thesolaceof open spaces. Yes, that is how I feel.



Even as a child, I had the habit of wandering, of exploring - in a way that was driven not so much by curiosity or desire to conquer, but by what I can only describe as an emotional response to the act of moving through natural space. As a teenager I spent hours after school walking around the lakes near our house. And when I lived in England as a university student, there were these meadows that began just outside town and went on forever. I would walk through them, then turn around after an hour and lose myself in the views that surrounded me: The meadows stretched endlessly in all directions and the sky was close enough to touch. Just as the author of "The Solace of Open Spaces" describes, the vastness in itself felt sheltering - the outlines of the horizon creating the illusion of a domed structure.



In Boston, as in most cities, there is not much opportunity to experience vastness. I can cycle to the Harborto get my fix, but somehow that only reminds me of how far removed I normally am from such a landscape; it is not part of my everyday existence.



And then yesterday, I was crossing a bridge over the Charles River and looked up at the sky. The sky was everywhere. And it was a winter sky - such a surreal, piercing shade of blue can only manifest itself this time of year. The black branches of the bare trees almost looked like bits of lace trim against the satin-white ribbon of the icy river, and the expanse of the sky itself seemed otherworldly. I felt light-headed and comforted at the same time, and the speed of the bicycle, with the icy wind against my face, accentuated the experience. While I know that this is just my way of dramaticising daily existence, I am nonetheless thankful for it. Life in general happens mostly in our minds, and now my mind is filled with winter sky, the sensation of speed, and the solace of open spaces.

N.O.S.

Oh, that sweet acronym that makes collectors tremble with anticipation! NOS stands for "new old stock." Parts that survived generations unused and untarnished. Parts that look and function now as they did on the day they were new.




It is not often one sees the status NOS preceded by a date in the 1930s. But the things I have seen appear in the hands of collector Chris Sharp over the past week... new old stock chased rubber grips, rod brake handlebars, carbide lamps, original roadster bells, sculptural quadrant shifters... Stunned out of my wits I could only wonder where on earth such things come from 80 years past their hey day.




Up until a few years ago there were bicycle shops in Ireland and the UK that still had spare parts left from way, way back in the day. Usually these shops were run by generations of the same family, never changing owners or locations, which is what made such stockpiling possible. Bikes that went unsold and parts that went unused had been piling up in the cellars and back rooms of these shops for decades, undisturbed. Then one by one, these places closed. And when they did, they would liquidate. Local collectors would then buy out a shop's entire inventories of parts from specific periods or manufacturers. Some bike shops owners were themselves classic bicycle enthusiasts, in which case unsold inventories from decades past turned into personal collections.




It was sad to learn about the last of the old bicycle shops closing in Northern Ireland. But also good to know that there are locals who are dedicated to preserving the things salvaged from them.




I used to think that the purpose of the NOS market was to feed a collector's high, and did not really appreciate NOS bikes and parts myself. After all, I ride all my bicycles, so anything NOS would be wasted on me - its status immediately obliterated through use. But now I understand that new old stock has value: It affords a rare opportunity to appreciate vintage bicycles not just from our current perspective - as old, well-used things covered in mud and rust - butin their original splendor,as the highly coveted machines they once were.

Painting with Light in Lake Tahoe

Tahoe, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

I was standing in the water when I took this picture.

With my phone on maximum brightness, I painted the word "Tahoe" in air during a 30-second exposure with my camera. This is the end result...and the best one out of at least a dozen attempts!

Gentleman Farmer

1921. Thagrus Burns.
Relationship: My 1st cousin twice removed.
Thag was the son of Harlow and Hazlette Wise Burns. Hazlette was the sister of my great grandmother, Maude Wise Brubaker. Thag was named after his grandfather, William Pythagrus Wise.

Petunia detail

I had some fun today taking pictures of the flowers Jessica recently planted around the yard. This is my favorite shot of the bunch that I took today. I need to buy a macro lens again for my big camera, I haven't had one now for a few years and I miss it. This was taken with my small point-and-shoot camera, a Canon PowerShot G11. It does nice macro work!

In the Woods

In the Woods, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Walking on the Stream Trail in Redwood Regional Park.

Although located a mile from Oakland, this park seems a world away. Huge, 150-foot+ redwoods stand majestically along the trails.

You will be craning your neck most of the time...

where they met

Guess what is (nearly) finished!!!

Okay, this is a "brag" post. . .

Four months ago today I embarked upon my second major scanning project for ... The first project was to sort and scan my mother's photograph albums which took from April through August. There is still one group of photos left with that project and, in my goals for .., I stated that I hope to have those done by the end of March.

The second project, sorting and scanning my genealogy files and documents, was started on September 22nd and I'm *EXTREMELY* happy (relieved, thrilled, pleased as punch, etc.) to report that it is *ALMOST* done! The last group of documents to be sorted and scanned are those that pertain to my ancestors, shown on the table in the photo above. The two tallest piles belong to the Brubaker and Phend families. These will be scanned to both jpg and pdf format. After being scanned, these documents will be put into protective pages and placed in three-ring binders.

Other files that were scanned and kept were put in folders and are being stored in small "bankers" boxes in the garage. Only about a third of the files that I had were kept. Everything else has been recycled, most of it scanned first, but not all. The binders on the shelves and the folders and in the filing cabinets consumed nearly 40 linear feet, while what was kept amounts to about 13 feet (9 bankers boxes 15.5" deep and the papers on the table).

Two empty filing cabinets. Now there is the "problem" of what to do with the 3-ring binders and hanging file folders that are no longer needed. As you can see below, the three tall bookcases have been removed. They were sold, at a very reasonable price ;-) to a friend.

The "before" photo, above, was taken November 13, ... And below is what it looks like now (photo taken yesterday).

Another view.

The "before" photo is above (taken November 13, ..) and what it looks like now is below.

How did I accomplish this feat in four months? It is due to several things actually, among which are:

• Retirement. No way could I have gotten it done in four months if I was still working, maybe in four years, maybe!
• Being single with no kids. Though I do have errands to run for my Mother and I have to make sure she gets to the doctor and other appointments.
• A stubborn streak (perseverance) that was inherited from my Mother. I just made up my mind that it was going to get done, one way or another!
• And finally, the Fujitsu ScanSnap S300 document scanner, which I heartily recommend. In four months of use and after sending nearly 30,000 pages through it, I had only a couple of paper jams and none of them seriously damaged the paper being scanned. I've definitely gotten my money's worth from this little gem. Thanks, Denise!

Of course, I still have to add file data and captions to all of those image and pdf files, but at least they are scanned and accessible on the computer. I've already had a need to access some of those files and I must say, it is much quicker to click through several pages of a pdf file than it was to find the binder they were in and flip through the pages. And yes, they are all backed up to the laptop and an external drive, though I haven't yet overcome my fear of "losing" all of those electronic files...