San Diego Burning

Posted on by chappyshi

Just got off the phone with Dennis Clarke in San Diego. Dennis was my roommate in Monterey. Both of us like to drink beer so we hit it off. We have kept in touch over 22 years. I had the privilege of visiting him and his wife Dianna at their new home in the mountains east of San Diego in September, 2006.

Unfortunately, their home is now a risk due to the fires in SoCal. They are staying with his mother nearer downtown San Diego having had to evacuate their home on Sunday. As best they know from reports of friendly law enforcement in the area, their home is still intact. When they left, the fires were visible a mile or so away. Thankfully, the Santa Ana winds, which were blowing at about 90 MPH at times, have settled down. Even when the fires have abated, it may be a few days before the residents are allowed to return to their homes.

Dennis is totally on edge. He talked non-stop for about 20 minutes telling me what was going on and then apologized for talking non-stop for 5 minutes.

I feel for Dennis and Dianna and everyone in similar circumstances. Considering, they had nearly the same thing happen in 2003, I would have to question my commitment to staying in the area. As I said though, I have been there. It is survivalist country. Those who live there, live there for the wildness. The country is exciting, remote, beautiful, and dry. I guess that the wildfires are something you have to deal with if you want to live there.

Bottom line is the best of luck to Dennis and Dianna. I submit a wet willy to the fire gods.

All Awash….Excerpt from On the Road to Vermont, Fall 2007

Posted on by chappyshi

I just started kayaking this year and haven’t done much open water kayaking. I am mostly into rivers and small lakes where I can get about a four or five mile paddle in without whitewater or white caps. I have been on the Potomac River and tributaries of the Chesapeake bay at some pretty wide spots but stayed close to shore.

I could see when I put in that my trip was going to be challenging. All the waters I was heading out to where exposed to the northwest from where the wind was blowing. I don’t have a splash skirt but will definitely have one before I venture out on Lake Champlain again.

I headed out of the inlet I was in to increasingly rougher water. The chop started out at about .5 to 1 foot without whitecaps. I was out in fairly open water for about 45 minutes and really had to watch the wave action and be sure I didn’t get broadside to it.

I tried to work the journey so that I could keep myself heading into or getting pushed by the waves. I did not come close to foundering at anytime but definitely caught some serious bow or side splash. I was pretty well wet from the waist down by the time I pulled in. The last two stretches of the paddle were headed into or followed by 1.5 to 2 foot swells. I was happy to get in but probably would not want to try that again by myself.

Iraqi Identity Crisis, Traffic Cop or Brigadier General?

Posted on by chappyshi

The Washington Post article “U.S Repeatedly Rebuffed Iraq on Blackwater Complaints,” dated 23 September, 2007, by Sudarsan Raghavan and Steve Fainaru, describes a scene in which a traffic cop had a bottle of water thrown at him by a Blackwater USA security guard. According the article, “the officer was so furious that he submitted his resignation, but his superiors turned it down.”

The odd part to me is that this traffic policeman held the rank of brigadier general. I do blame the majority of Iraq’s woes on the U.S. invasion and occupation. Have we messed things up so badly that brigadier generals have to seek work as traffic cops or do Iraqi police forces just have a very odd rank structure?

How Many Pairs of Jeans Do You Have?

Posted on by chappyshi

According to the Washington Post article “Rising Demand in China and India May Make Cotton More Kingly,” American consumers own on the average nine pairs of jeans. What the hell is up with that? The most I have ever had was five and that was when I started working at a company where I could where jeans to work five days a week. Before that I might have had three pairs at the most at any given time. Nine pairs it just ludicrous.

Chapter Over…Chopper Gone…CYA Later

Posted on by chappyshi

Wish I had more to say about the police cars and chopper cruising around and flying over my apartment complex….but I don’t. Please help me find out WTFIGO. Thank you so much!

I began to wonder if I had done something wrong. It did not help that when I was sitting in traffic on the way to work this morning, two state police cars came roaring up on my left in what is nominally the breakdown lane. Scared the crap out of me.

“Brown eyes in the morning looking up at me?” It’s a line from a PurePrairie League song. Who was that manly, madly tapping man in the stool (I mean stall) next to me? Butt eye regress. I da ho. Whose to nose?

Hello … Copter

Posted on by chappyshi

Right near home before I stopped at the store to get some “sundries,” I noticed a helicopter in the sky. While in the store parking lot I saw the chopper again. It was still there when I got out of the store…I could see that it was doing a circular scan of the area.

After I got to my apartment, the helicopter zeroed in on my section of the apartment complex. I looked out and saw a bunch of cop cars sitting in the parking lot with policemen spreading out and looking around. One came up to my neighbor, who was standing out in front of his place, asked him a couple of questions and showed him a document that had a photo on it.

Not sure what the deal was. Thankfully they either found their “man” or called off the search.

Getting Paid Poorly to Ride My Motorcycle

Posted on by chappyshi

I rode the scooter up to Youngstown for work last Wednesday. It is nice to get paid to ride but I don’t think I am getting paid enough. I am out at our Ohio plant with the local tech and one of our guys from the Data Center doing a network and server migration. What a ball buster. We fine tuned our plan Thursday and Friday hoping to have the cut done on Saturday so we could go to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland today (now yesterday) but it wasn’t meant to be.

Thankfully it was a nasty raining day that would have made for not the nicest of days in Cleveland. As it is we have put in 30 hours in the last two days and tomorrow is not likely to be much better. To cap the day off, we got to the beer store at 11:50 PM thinking we were just under the wire only to find out you can’t even buy beer on Sunday.

There should be signs when you enter the state, or county…who knows, that announce this fact, “No booze sold on Sundays.” Youngstown is so close to Pennsyltucky, the beer stores there must have a field day on Sundays. Oh well…too tired to even get a good rant going.