Monday, April 30, 2012

Some Rocks and some Art

This weekend was a chance to get out and do something I haven't done in awhile and genuinely miss whenever I cannot be involved, as least as much as I would like. I assisted the Nevada Rock Art Foundation with the field recording of a site near Fallon.

It was a site that I had helped with last year locating the glyphs scattered along the old shoreline. Some beautiful anthropomorphs and zoomorphs that are so heavily repatinated that it was near impossible to see them. One boulder was assumed to be free of any design, until the photography crew was nearby. Looking through the camera with the polarized filter, our photographer clearly saw a glyph!

We spent two days out there drawing, GPS waypointing, photographing, and filling out the IMACS form. Had several new folks who were out there training and a handful of us veterans. I got to spend a half day assisting with the GPS work, and then the rest of the time drawing. I love doing this type of work and if I could find someone needing a grunt to do the dirty work, whether in field or in the office, I'd be one insanely happy wolf.

Beyond that, I popped into Carson on Saturday night to stargaze with my buddy. Saw the rings of Saturn even! Sunday was a quick run to Reno to see if I could find a board game. Unfortunately, almost all the games are 2+ players and cost over $50 (the big role playing games I was looking at, like Settlers of Catan or Dungeons and Dragons). So, just wandered around Barnes & Nobel before heading home again.

Desert weekend

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Oi, wee bit behind

Whoops, so I haven't posted anything lately! And now it's almost two months later!!

Okay, let's see if I can remember what's what...

February 29: So Puzzleman has this great idea, get 29 caches on the 29th! We, along with his daughter, head down and grab the Campbell Soup stakes to log enough caches for the day and topped the night off by having Chinese.

March 3-4: nope, don't recall..

March 8-12: my grandma's birthday was this weekend, so my mom, Jim, and I surprised her by heading up to Washington. Typical cloudy weather but it wasn't raining much so we went out and cruised along the highways, checking out islands, wildlife, and lots of greenery. Had a good time and loved seeing my family again.

March 17-18: I think I got cabin fever again so went driving. Headed north through Dixie Valley to go get Mississippi Falls cache (and FTF) then went over the lowest pass I could find due to the snow storm the night before. Got into the other side of the mountains and tried for two others but got bogged down in mud. Headed south again, grabbing a night cache in broad daylight (the sun is the ultimate flashlight) and dropped down along the Stillwaters, admiring a herd of horses as I made my way home.

March 23-25: had a three day weekend thanks to being considered "Not mission critical" so since dad got a new car, we took a road trip to find out if the cattle guard outside of Fallon was truly the only cattle guard along Highway 50. We got to 10 miles away from Utah before we found the second one, and two miles away before we hit the third. Damn! But oh well, had a nice adventure. My camera ended up breaking on Thursday and thankfully my dad loaned me his for the work-cation next week.

March 28: finally acted on the idea I had to help SAR find my sorry butt should I ever need to call them. The box on the top of my truck is now BRIGHT orange. Very very bright! :blink:

March 31-April 8: back down to Florida for the conference. Decided to make a mini vacation out of it, so went down to Fort Lauderdale to meet up with another outdoorsy Ace who took me cycling in the Everglades. And then pointed out a few state parks near Destin. So made it not only to Louisiana, but also Ponce de Leon, Falling Waters, and Florida Caverns. An AWESOME week down there. (and not snowing, unlike Tahoe and Carson, HAHAHAHA)

Florida and Everglades

April 8: hey, look, I have a new addiction - Big Bang Theory!! (Caught a few eps in the hotel, LOVED IT)

April 11: I am now alone in my office. :-(

April 14-15: really down so did nothing (cept watch all five seasons of the Guild) but then got a severe case of cabin fever. Drove out and around Bravo 17, then turned south to follow State Route 839 to Hawthorne and back up the east side of Walker Lake. Yay, Dirt cures all! Did come into Carson to get a new phone. Finally had enough of it locking up. Now I am sporting a 4G Samsung Stratosphere, with a front facing camera. Hello Skype!

April 21-22: spent Saturday night at Bully's watching the UFC fight and Sunday, (the morning when a minivan sized meteor punched through the atmosphere, causing a sonic boom heard for hundreds of miles!!) after helping my Dad install new mudflaps onto his car, went up with Puzzleman to Tahoe to find some caches. Had lunch at the Sno-Flake drive in, whe there was a sign "All my best friends are flakes." We both agreed on that one.

Okay, that should get me caught up. I haven't been uploading many pictures because I haven't really been taking any (beyond the Florida trip).

Um, let's see, yesterday deleted my Facebook account. Why, you may ask? (and I've been asked.) Here's the short answer: I don't like how they have made it so where the posts on my profile are separate from the posts made to other people's comments. Meaning, if I respond to someone, I have a copy of my response on my activity log, and there is a copy on their comment. Deleting one does not delete the other, but because the one in my activity log is deleted, I cannot find their comment to remove my post from their side also. It's a convoluted way of saying I don't like their service making it so hard to remove data. So, ditch the account. Truly delete it, not just deactivate it. Buh bye, adios, see ya! And since Moose Mob is back in the States, the whole purpose of having it is null and void anyway. Text, email, Twitter, blog, Skype, there is still a bunch of ways to get in touch with me.

Now to get back into the habit of writing this blog every week. It's starting to be very warm out and my camping gear is getting way to dusty for my liking!