December always comes and goes so quick.  This month has been entirely consumed with holiday parties, a little Christmas shopping and time with friends and family.  I feel so fortunate to have fun and healthy people in my life.  My wish for 2013 is more of the same.

I leave you with two photos, because I am incapable of posting without photos.

Mr. Spoiled in Casa de Aston:

(who has turned out to be a most excellent cat.)

And this goes to show just how early I am sitting in my office in downtown--a rainbow just after sunrise in a break from the storm:

November happenings

November happenings:
- a bbq for some of Hanna's friends
- some winter cleaning and home winterizing
- a weekend with my Aunt, whom was visiting from Seattle
- a trip to my Dad's
- I built a new side gate for the house

I am not good at woodworking, but enjoy the challenge.

Hanna and I left Wednesday after work for La Crescenta (L.A.) to spend the holidays with her family.  Aside from gorging ourselves with Thanksgiving dinner, we hiked in the park near the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, went to Korean BBQ with friends in downtown L.A., did a drive up to the top of the San Gabriel Mountains to the Mount Wilson Observatory, which had the world's largest telescope for some time.  It was at this observatory that Hubble made his observation that the universe is expanding.  We also rode the ferry to Avalon on Catalina Island and spent the day hiking the island.  We plan to return for a one or two night stay so we can go zip-lining, paddleboarding or kayaking and the hike to Two Harbors.

Ferry ride to Catalina

Bay @ Avalon

Not a bad place to spend time!

Inspiration for our sideyard succulent/cactus garden

Solar telescopes that combine light for piping to the main observatory

100-inch telescope at Mt. Wilson

October 2012

Camping at Calaveras Dome the first weekend of October, followed immediately by a mid-week trip to Bodie with Dad...what should we do this weekend?  Hmm...go camping?  With the 4Runner already packed from the previous two trips this week, Hanna and I headed up the hill for a weekend with her co-workers at the campground at Sly Park Reservoir.  We arrived late on Friday and stayed through Sunday.  We had perfect weather, had a surprise visit from Scott and Molly who stopped by for the day to say hi, and managed a couple of mountain bike rides on the trails around the lake. This is a perfect place to go with friends--it's close, the sites are relatively large and the lake offers all the boating, hiking and biking you could want in a weekend.

The following couple of weekends were pretty mellow, allowing us to catch up with friends and spend a day in Los Banos helping my sister and Joe on their new-to-them home.  Joe is in the process of gutting the kitchen for remodeled or new cabinets, new appliances and granite counter tops, and I arrived just in time to help demo the remainder of the tile backsplash.

Because their home was vacant, the yard is no longer alive, so Hanna and I brought down some of our favorite plants like mexican sage, lantana, crocosmia and a few others, and put them in the ground.  Just some simple planter bed cleanup and the new plantings made a big difference.

We have also been car shopping to replace Hanna's old Volvo.  There were a number of cars we ruled-out when our research revealed they were problematic.  The VW Jetta Wagon with the TDI diesel engine was one such car.  The more research we did, the more serious problems we became aware of.  Reliability and/or cost pretty much ruled out all of the european cars such as VW, Volvo (now owned by a chinese company), Audi and BMW.  Hanna drives 60 miles a day and has 230,000 miles on her current car, so whatever she ends up with needs to last.

We have been following with anticipation the release of the 2013 Ford Fusion, which is really the Ford Mondeo that has been sold in Europe for years.  I saw this car in Italy and wondered why they had considerably nicer Fords than we have here.  Ford restyled it, renamed it the Fusion for the American market and it finally arrived in dealerships in September.  The second we found one on a lot we took one for a spin.  In my opinion, the 2013 Fusion is probably the best looking sedan made, the ride and handling were great, the engine was nice with excellent mileage, but there was one thing we couldn't stand--touchscreen controls.  Many of the new cars have replaced individual buttons with one screen that does it all--navigation, phone, climate control and stereo.  So if the screen is showing stereo functions you have to click on "climate" to view climate  settings.  Then you stare at the screen, which is probably being washed-out by sunlight glare, and try and find the control to adjust fan speed.  There are no buttons to feel, you have to take your eyes off the road and click on things to adjust the radio and climate control and we hated that.  Although admitedly, it wasn't a total deal-killer.

Next to the Ford dealership we found Acura.  And at Acura we fell in love with a car that I never knew existed, the TSX Wagon.  Hanna's current car is a wagon and she wanted another one, but there are surprisingly few wagons (not crossovers) being made today.  We liked the way it looks and especially love the interior, and it has a european ride--on the firmer side with excellent handling.  The TSX is really a European "Honda Accord Tourer" brought to the U.S. and badged as an Acura TSX, while the Accord we have here  in the States has more American styling, is larger and the ride is softened (and handling compromised) for us Americans.  I much prefer European design and driving dynamics, and apparently so does Hanna.

Our research revealed that this is a well made car and it also lacks some new technology being used in the latest cars, namely direct injection, that is causing significant carbon deposits and engine tear-downs at very low mileages.  The lack of direct injection on the TSX does mean that this car does not get the fuel economy of the aforementioned cars, but at 22 city, 30 highway, it's not bad and worth the trade-off for not having to deal with the direct injection issues.  In essence, I think she made a fine choice and we're both glad to find a car that she loves to drive.

 

Bodie/Masonic ghost-towning

Having spent a portion of my childhood exploring the desert by motorcycle with my father, we decided it would be fun to revisit those areas now that twenty years has elapsed since our last visit.  (That statement makes me feel old, by the way.)  Neither of us currently owns motorcycles, so this time-around we would be using the 4Runner.  We also invited Mike and his father to join us in Mike's 4Runner.

Mike and I picked up our dads on a Wednesday afternoon and headed over Sonora Pass enroute to the Bridgeport area.  Sonora Pass tops out at just under 10,000 ft and it was the perfect time of year for seeing fall color.  We had lunch in Bridgeport, topped off with fuel at $5.79 per gallon(!!) and headed into the ghost town of Bodie via the paved State Parks access road.  My dad and I have been here many times but Mike's father had never seen Bodie.

Jolly Kone in Bridgeport.  Burgers, fries, shakes and a side of massage.

 Bodie:

After stumbling around for an hour or so we headed out a dirt road, through some fun canyons and into Nevada.

We found a nice desert meadow to spend the night and set up camp.  I was able to shoot my old Ruger 10/22, something I hadn't done in probably 15 years, as well as my dad's .357 and Mike's .45 and 9 mm handguns.  As night fell the temperatures dropped dramatically, so we stayed close to the fire until it was time to go to sleep.  The nighttime temperature forecasted for Bodie was 18 degrees and we were told it would be even colder where we were camping.  We chose to sleep in the 4Runner for the insulation factor.  I would guess the temps were no lower than mid-20s, and we slept fine through the night.  We woke up, had breakfast and watched a storm advance, bringing mist at first, then rain in increasing amounts,  We packed up and headed out for a day of exploring. 

The rain had little impact on our day, although it did make travel interesting.  The State Park's website indicates that high clearance 2WD or 4WD vehicles are fine in the area, "except during rain events," when the high clay content in the soil makes travel dangerous.  We discovered the truth in that statement.  When you step from the truck onto the ground, your shoe would instantly pack with 2" of clay.  Same thing happens to the tires.  Even in four wheel drive, any sort of incline resulted in wheel slippage and wheelwells packed in clay/mud.  We spent the day exploring old ghost towns such as Aurora, Masonic and the apparently haunted Chemung Mine, however the increasing rain, slippery conditions and being late afternoon resulted in our decision to head back to pavement.

We made our way to the main graded dirt road and discovered a truck and small camp trailer that had nearly slid off the road and a cement truck that had slid off the road.  Both parties indicated help was on its way, which we later passed further down the road.  We made it safely back to pavement and headed to Bridgeport for an early dinner.

 We had heard on Mike's 2-meter radio (something I subsequently purchased and installed in the 4Runner) that the storm was expected to continue and had discovered that our route home via Sonora Pass closed overnight due to snow.  We decided to split ways, my father and I headed south toward Tioga Pass in Yosemite to get my dad back home to Oakdale, and Mike and his dad heading north and back to Sacramento via Monitor Pass.  Later that evening Tioga Pass was also closed due to snow, so obviously we made the right decision.

First snow for the year on Tioga Pass/Yosemite:

We had a great time, it was fun spending time with my dad in the desert revisiting areas from my childhood, and also enjoyed hanging out with Mike and his dad exploring, shooting guns, taking photos and hanging out around the campfire.  The number of trails leaving the desert floor and heading into the mountains seemed numerous and there were many abandoned mines and old ghost towns appearing on the map that definitely warrant future exploring. 

Fall 2012

September passed at a blazing speed.  Our Sonora Pass camping trip came shortly after the Canada trip and I was overdue for catching up with family.  Over the weekend of the September 15-16 Hanna and I went to Los Banos to visit my sister Jen, Joe and Derek.  My mom came down to join us for the weekend and we celebrated Derek’s first birthday and also had a chance to see Jen and Joe’s new home that just closed escrow after a year of waiting.  The house is fairly new and basically just needs the typical sheetrock repair and painting.  The lot is 1/3 acre and has a nicely arranged yard with a pool.  All of the landscaping is...well, no longer alive, due to the length of time the home was vacant, but I saw nothing but fun opportunities to re-establish the lawn areas and put fun plants in the nice raised beds spread around the yard.  I really wish they would start a home ownership blog…there will be no project quite so immediate and rewarding as ripping out dead landscaping and putting in new stuff; and what better place to showcase your efforts than a blog (hint hint). 

I had set aside the weekend of the 22^nd and 23^rd to do some long over-due work on the 4Runner.  I installed the supercharger nearly a full year ago and still had not made the time to install the rest of the fuel system.  This involved dropping the kit's additional fuel injector into an unused port of the supercharger and tapping into the fuel supply line to provide the additional fuel that the stock system is incapable of handling.  Installation was straight-forward.  There is also a piggy-back computer that taps into the factory ECU computer to determine when to add fuel and how much.  Not only does this system keep the engine safe, a properly tuned setup can provide significantly improved fuel economy and power.  Others with the same setup have seen gains of 30 hp and a couple of miles per gallon by optimizing this system. 

By the last weekend in September it had cooled off enough outside to do some landscaping work.  Let me rephrase that…it *should* have been cool enough; however temps hit the mid-90s during the day, making for a sweaty day of yard work.  We moved a few things around in the yard—a few things we planted could have used more sun and two other plants were getting too big for where we had them planted.  Call me a landscaping novice.  The planting beds in front of the dining room (and where the willow tree was removed) had never been landscaped to my liking, so I dug up a bunch of volunteer bushes and I removed landscaping I never liked in the first place.  The area where the willow tree used to live was choked with roots I had to dig out and the soil was pretty hard from the clay content; I did my best to break up the soil, add gypsum to help dissolve the clay and add planting mix to the native soil.  We moved a Mexican sage and it seems pretty happy, the big lantana we dug up, surprisingly, does not look like it will make it.  The white lantana we moved is doing fine.  We also added a trailing yellow lantana, a really pretty orange and red crocosmia, two fun euphorbias, a dahlia, a black mondo grass and two other natives whose names completely escape me.

The first weekend in April I went with Dean and Connie, Geoff, Matt and Bill up to Calaveras Dome on a camping trip.  Calaveras Dome is something like 40 miles of dirt roads between Highway 88 and Highway 4 and we picked up the Mattley Ridge and Corral Hollow 4WD trails on our way back to the highway.  We stopped at Salt Springs Reservoir on the way in and I found out later that my dad had stayed at the PG&E camp there in 1971 to help with some modifications to the spillway.  From the top of Calaveras Dome where we camped,  you are looking straight down more than 2,000 feet to the reservoir and the Tiger Creek water diversion canal that meanders 18 miles along the hillside between the Salt Springs Dam and Tiger Creek Regulating Reservoir.  I am currently packing for another camping trip and will report back soon; it's going to be cold at 10,000 ft in elevation this late in the season.

Sonora Pass

With the fall season approaching we wanted to hit the 10,000 ft passes before snowfall blanketed the Sierras.  A friend recently picked up a low-mileage 1997 4Runner, so we decided to put it to the test.  He put 19 miles on the odometer before pulling it into the garage and starting the modifications.  He did all the tune-up items and changed all of the fluids, installed a transmission cooler, the Tundra/OME lift and built some rock sliders and skid plates.  This would be the maiden voyage so we stuck with the easier trails.

Here is the group, a 2000 4Runner, 1997 4Runner and a 2000 Jeep Cherokee.

Our area of interest was Sonora Pass on Highway 108.  We started on the Niagara Rim trail but got 1,000 ft into it and were stopped by a line of Jeeps being winched over a rock and another Jeep broken shortly beyond that.  We turned around and drove out before we got boxed-in by other vehicles.  I found another trail on the GPS that met up with Niagara Rim, so opted to bypass the mess and meet up with the trail further up the mountain.  I found the views to my liking.

 

After Niagara Rim we took a trail to a remote Sierra reservoir.

 

View from the cab:

 

Despite the nice cool mountain breeze we were experiencing, the Jeep wasn't happy.  It had been overheating, despite a full coolant reservoir.  Even though the temperature gauge showed a normal temperature range, it smelled hot and each time we shut it down to give it a break, it would start boiling over after a minute of sitting.  It finally blew the radiator in a spectacular fashion.  The radiator is plastic and split from top to bottom on one side.

 

We towed it to the highway to be picked up the next day by a tow truck.  Thankfully the Jeep owner had an uber-AAA towing package, so the 200 mile tow was still free.

 

A picture I took while waiting for the 4runner towing the Jeep.

 

Our camp, nestled near a neat rock outcropping.

The next morning we towed the Jeep to the highway and while we waited for the tow truck we looked over some impressive heavy machinery.

 

 

Hanna likes her Volvos

Now down to two vehicles, we headed over the top of Sonora Pass.  This is one of the steepest highways I have ever driven.  The road is so steep that cattle trucks could not climb the grade loaded, so they would stop, unload the cattle and walk them up the highway, then they would re-load the empty truck at the top.  Sonora Pass tops out at a little over 9600 ft. 

Looking up Kennedy Meadows:

We then hit the dirt again to make Leavitt Lake for lunch.

After lunch we took another dirt road over Sonora Pass rather than stay on paved Highway 108.

View looking at the Nevada side of Sonora Pass:

We took a different route back to the Sacramento area via Highway 395, then Monitor Pass and Mormon Immigrant Trail to Highway 50.  We got home at 9:00 p.m., having taken full advantage of our two day weekend and we were able to watch the sun set from the top of  Carson Pass on Highway 88.
 

Weekend of the 25th

 Friday August 24
After a trip through the Friday morning farmer's market in Nanaimo, we set south as vacation is coming to an end.  We covered 40 miles and ended our day at Cowichan Bay, still in British Columbia.  I enjoyed this little town as much as Ganges on Salt Springs Island, with plenty of fun waterfront shops to look at including a great maritime museum with old wooden boats and historic Mercury and Atlas engines.  We had an early dinner on the boat, then my Aunt and I went to the Rock Cod Cafe and followed up with a bowl of clam chowder and prawns, just for good measure.  Later today we will make it Friday Harbor (back in the U.S.), declare customs, then my Uncle and I have reservations on the Victoria Clipper that goes between the San Juan Islands and Seattle.  I fly home on Monday.
A photo of the Victoria Clipper I took earlier in the trip. This thing does 35+ knots on the water.