Monday, July 27, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
The Beav
There's a couple of things going on in this post: a book report of Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, thoughts about sardines based on the recent NPR article I heard today, and a broader look at Monterey & Fort Ord.
Cannery Row is the street in (New) Monterey, California that in the 1940's was the processing locale for sardines, tuna, and other things like squid. Steinbeck's novel is set after those plants have basically ceased operation. The book isn't about the fish processors, their workers, but about the people that inhabit the area around it. I don't know if I will be able to go to my book club meeting about this book, if I can then I'll know a bit more about the book. Bottom line - read it!
I think I've only had sardines from a can once, but since then not so much. Sardines were over fished, but they've recovered now, the season is pretty tight so they may be tough to get. A short recipe in this NPR article sounds really good! Because they're small they don't have the high mercury concentration that tuna might because of their place on the food chain.
I love Monterey! I spent many weeks out at Fort Ord doing range recon and sampling groundwater. The most fun thing was hiking around the different ranges with Charles Luckie, Tom Ghigliotto, and another guy whose name I can't recall, to do what's called range recon - going around by foot through the scrub brush, previously burned areas, and poison oak to locate exploded ordinance. Because Fort Ord is being transferred over to the city or the state the lead contaminated areas need to be cleaned up, the lead being from bullets soldiers had shot at targets in those range areas way back when. But, working with those guys was great, I laughed so hard at the jokes they'd make, and have a great time hiking around. Their nickname for me was the "The Beav!"
Luckie with the GPS backpack and Tom stretching one morning.
Long run of conveyor belts to move soil out of a range for off haul.
The other thing that I did at Fort Ord is PDS or Passive Diffusion Sampling, in the picture below you'll see a coworked re-attaching a PDS bag to a rope that will be lowered down into a groundwater well. Those wells were scattered all over the base and were monitored on different schedules (ie quarterly, semi-yearly, etc). That was fun too!
Justin about to send the PDS bag back down the well.
One of the other things I would do is: bike around in the back area of Fort Ord on the paved roads that had been open to cyclists. That was a great spot to do hill work. I went one night out by myself, everyone (Luckie, Tom, and the other guy) had warned me not to because mountain lions would jump out of the trees and take me off my bike. I thought that's bull and went out anyways, I had charged up my bike light but it still conked out, I kept going a little ways, but was too freaked out so I spun hard back to the truck. Luckily there was a full moon out!
Cannery Row is now a tourist spot with different shops and a really awesome aquarium! Monterey also has a fun art scene:
Blown glass.
A lot of nights after doing range recon or sampling were spent at the English Ales Brewery in Marina, just north of the Base. Some good strong micros!
Cannery Row is the street in (New) Monterey, California that in the 1940's was the processing locale for sardines, tuna, and other things like squid. Steinbeck's novel is set after those plants have basically ceased operation. The book isn't about the fish processors, their workers, but about the people that inhabit the area around it. I don't know if I will be able to go to my book club meeting about this book, if I can then I'll know a bit more about the book. Bottom line - read it!
I think I've only had sardines from a can once, but since then not so much. Sardines were over fished, but they've recovered now, the season is pretty tight so they may be tough to get. A short recipe in this NPR article sounds really good! Because they're small they don't have the high mercury concentration that tuna might because of their place on the food chain.
I love Monterey! I spent many weeks out at Fort Ord doing range recon and sampling groundwater. The most fun thing was hiking around the different ranges with Charles Luckie, Tom Ghigliotto, and another guy whose name I can't recall, to do what's called range recon - going around by foot through the scrub brush, previously burned areas, and poison oak to locate exploded ordinance. Because Fort Ord is being transferred over to the city or the state the lead contaminated areas need to be cleaned up, the lead being from bullets soldiers had shot at targets in those range areas way back when. But, working with those guys was great, I laughed so hard at the jokes they'd make, and have a great time hiking around. Their nickname for me was the "The Beav!"
Luckie with the GPS backpack and Tom stretching one morning.
Long run of conveyor belts to move soil out of a range for off haul.
The other thing that I did at Fort Ord is PDS or Passive Diffusion Sampling, in the picture below you'll see a coworked re-attaching a PDS bag to a rope that will be lowered down into a groundwater well. Those wells were scattered all over the base and were monitored on different schedules (ie quarterly, semi-yearly, etc). That was fun too!
Justin about to send the PDS bag back down the well.
One of the other things I would do is: bike around in the back area of Fort Ord on the paved roads that had been open to cyclists. That was a great spot to do hill work. I went one night out by myself, everyone (Luckie, Tom, and the other guy) had warned me not to because mountain lions would jump out of the trees and take me off my bike. I thought that's bull and went out anyways, I had charged up my bike light but it still conked out, I kept going a little ways, but was too freaked out so I spun hard back to the truck. Luckily there was a full moon out!
Cannery Row is now a tourist spot with different shops and a really awesome aquarium! Monterey also has a fun art scene:
Blown glass.
A lot of nights after doing range recon or sampling were spent at the English Ales Brewery in Marina, just north of the Base. Some good strong micros!
Friday, July 17, 2009
Book Report - Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
I got the audio version of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and listened to it straight through in one day of working on one of the bedroom doors. This was a fascinating examination of a number of different people in history who happened to make it big by not necessarily being a genius, but by mostly hard work, using the system to their advantage, being in the right place at the right time, and taking advantage of how they were raised and socialized.
That is just a part of the book, there are so many other examples of other human controlled events that can be considered outliers that I can't write them all down.
When I've listened to other audio books it never really sticks with me unless I concentrate really hard. But, I think that because it was read by the author and the concepts were explained well, I remember a lot of it.
That is just a part of the book, there are so many other examples of other human controlled events that can be considered outliers that I can't write them all down.
When I've listened to other audio books it never really sticks with me unless I concentrate really hard. But, I think that because it was read by the author and the concepts were explained well, I remember a lot of it.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Dirty Half - Dude Thousand Nine!
I jacked up my foot running up Leif Erickson a while back and recently learned that I broke my foot, so I've been gimping around in an Aircast boot. I rested my foot after the incident, but it didn't get any better making running and training for the Dirty Half painful. The doctor, after looking at the x-ray fit the boot on my foot and the boot was so nice, it isolated the heal area and my mood immediately improved. I've been wearing the boot for about 3 weeks, I wore it up to Bend to hang-out and stuff during the Dirty Half weekend with Nate and Amy.
Great time, but really boring just sitting around during the race, oh well - I got these really cool pair of socks for helping set up tables and tents before the run.
This photo is attached to show the ugly car that Nate was forced to rent for the week and whose outlandish color was the driving force behind him getting a speeding ticket as we were driving over to Bend.
Relating to the injury: had a follow up with my doctor last week and he felt my foot and prodded in a few places, he told me that I could start wearing a really nice sport's brace and taper off the boot and taper in the brace - then eventually slowly resume light activity. Which is great!
Great time, but really boring just sitting around during the race, oh well - I got these really cool pair of socks for helping set up tables and tents before the run.
This photo is attached to show the ugly car that Nate was forced to rent for the week and whose outlandish color was the driving force behind him getting a speeding ticket as we were driving over to Bend.
Relating to the injury: had a follow up with my doctor last week and he felt my foot and prodded in a few places, he told me that I could start wearing a really nice sport's brace and taper off the boot and taper in the brace - then eventually slowly resume light activity. Which is great!
Morning Mini Proj
This is a an old steel box I found down in the basement, I don't know if was for coal or not, but I suspect it was. I brought it up and decided to cut up some of the cedar paneling I'd ripped out of the basement. Buzzed them up by just eyeballing them and they fit in nicely. (Bottom grate removed and I'll probably take that to a recycler.)
Now, I just need to put some soil/compost in the box and plant something. I probably need to figure out where I want it first, because it is HEAVY even without soil in it.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
French Doors
I've spent the past few days, invested about 6 hours into a couple of French doors that had a nice stain on one side and white latex paint on the other. I've been using a combination of a heat gun and scraper to get paint off and also some orange gel paint remover. The gel works well after I've got the top layer of paint or stain off.
French door with white paint removed.
French door with white paint.
French door with a stain, accidentally blistered some of the stain as I was trying to remove paint from the door edge.
French door with stain partially removed, will still sand it to remove the stain and scratches.
A movie of the heat gun blistering the latex paint:
I also took a break to see what I could do with the heat gun and an old vinyl record I have.
French door with white paint removed.
French door with white paint.
French door with a stain, accidentally blistered some of the stain as I was trying to remove paint from the door edge.
French door with stain partially removed, will still sand it to remove the stain and scratches.
A movie of the heat gun blistering the latex paint:
I also took a break to see what I could do with the heat gun and an old vinyl record I have.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
My new Whip!
I bought this bike yesterday at a yard sale a block from my place. Marked down from $100 to $35 with a note saying that it had just had a $100 tune up.
Sidebar: I broke a bone in my foot on April 24th, I thought it was just a sprain and I'd been living with it, running on it, biking on it all during that time. Finally went to my podiatrist and figured it out, got a bulky aircast to isolate the bone, which feels so good.
Anyways, I was able to ride it with my aircast and it rode very well and the gears even popped into place.
There is a registration sticker from the City of Davis from 1972! There's no rust on the bike, just needs a front basket, and I'll probably clean the chain/gears today.
Sidebar: I broke a bone in my foot on April 24th, I thought it was just a sprain and I'd been living with it, running on it, biking on it all during that time. Finally went to my podiatrist and figured it out, got a bulky aircast to isolate the bone, which feels so good.
Anyways, I was able to ride it with my aircast and it rode very well and the gears even popped into place.
There is a registration sticker from the City of Davis from 1972! There's no rust on the bike, just needs a front basket, and I'll probably clean the chain/gears today.
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