Random Ruminations: Nevada

Pink!

Posted Tue Nov 24, 2009 in Nevada

It’s clear and cold this morning, but the air is still and fresh and the morning sky is gorgeous. I stepped out the back door this morning with my iPhone and made the image. I think I just caught one of the neighbor’s stacks in the lower bit of the image. My old eyes just can’t see that clearly on the screen. But, I think I’m OK with the point merge.

I have a phone meeting in about ten minutes, but have coffee and a relatively-wakeful brain and am as ready as I can be. I hope to receive direction to move toward finishing the project.

It’s a short week and I’m glad for it. I’m ready for a break. However, it will be a long day because I have an evening meeting. I hope to be home by 1900. I’m thinking about taking off a little early tomorrow and spending some of my leave. I have to get my leave down to two weeks by the end of the year. We can carry over only two weeks of leave.

Now off to my call.

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Spooner Lake Hike

Posted Sun Aug 23, 2009 in Nevada

Yesterday was a heavy travel day. My day started early (0500 local time; 0300 body time). I rose, made coffee, showered, packed, and finished my coffee. Check-out from the hotel was easy (it was prepaid). I drove the rent-car to the fuel depot, refueled, and then looked at the Maps.app in my iPhone, figured out the best way back to the airport, and drove on.

At 0600 in the morning, there aren’t many people out and about — even in Austin, Texas. The roads were basically clear (until I approached the airport).

I delivered the rent-car to the agency. The young man who was working the morning shift looked like one would expect a young man working the early shift — tired. But, he did his job well and I took my receipt and headed for the terminal. I was plenty early, air traffic was light, and moving through the security check-point went quickly and easily… except for the young woman in front of me who had no idea what to do. Everyone was patient and we survived the process.

I was hungry, so I approached a couple of TSA agents who were visiting (on-break I guess). I asked where was the best place for some breakfast and got the Salt Lick as a referral. So, I walked over there, ordered the Country Breakfast, and enjoyed my eggs and ham. It was good enough and food I needed to make it through the day.

I waited for the boarding process to begin. It was a light flight to San Diego, so there was plenty of room and I slept a good part of the flight. I was pretty tired after all the travel.

San Diego was not so good. The airport was crowded. To get to my gate, I had to leave the secure area and go back through security to another location. It was just busy. Then the flight was delayed as well. Argh…

The flight was full, but I had an early number so I got a decent seat. I plugged back into my iPod and dozed the remainder of the way to Reno. Then it was a quick walk to get the car, get paid-out of the lot, and start the drive home. It was good to be home.

Older Son and I decided to drive up to Spooner Lake to walk the perimeter. I needed some outside time. So, late in the afternoon we drove up to spooner. The weather up there was almost perfect — breezy and about 80F. We were some of the few folks there. The others we met were pleasant enough. So, we walked and looked, and read the postings where the USFS put up information. We saw ducks, geese, a blue heron, and maybe a fish osprey. The chipmunks and squirrels were busy getting ready for winter.

I made a lot of images, which are posted on my Flickr Gallery. I should have post-processed some of them, but decided to upload them raw.

It was a good day.

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Desert Creek

Posted Tue Sep 2, 2008 in Nevada

A few weeks ago Wife and went for a drive southeast from home. We drove through Wellington, Nevada, on counsel from a friend and then took the county road south toward the national forest. We came upon Desert Creek, which is the only water around. It was good fun driving by the creek in the 4×4, pausing now and again to get out and explore.

The temperature was a little warm, but the water-sound was absolutely wonderful. I love the sound of moving water. Rivers, creeks, and oceans work for me.

I’d like to live near water. Maybe that will happen sometime — mountains and water would be heaven.

The weekend was good. I played too much Wow, of course. But, I got a few other things done too. The workroom is more open now and I have a place to bring the other folding table, should I be able to get to it soon. I’d like to have more room to work. I need to continue working through boxes, sorting stuff, and eliminating that I’m not going to keep.

The week is shaping up too. I have a lot to get done in the short term. After that, though, I’m not seeing too much work. That concerns me some because the workload was so heavy for so long. But, God has always been good to us and there’s never been a shortage of work to keep me busy. I just have to trust.

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Smoke Creek Desert

Posted Mon Sep 1, 2008 in Nevada

Last weekend (weekend before last, actually) Wife and I drove through Smoke Creek Desert on a lark. I guess I never wrote about the day trip. Hmm… Maybe I’ll have to go back and revisit my images and pull a few for the collection.

Regardless, we found ourselves eating lunch in Gerlach, Nevada, which is the nearest supply depot for Blackrock Desert, where Burning Man is convened. As it turns out, we found ourselves traveling north with the leading edge of Burners on their way to establish the infrastructure necessary to support some 40K souls for a week in the desert. To say there were “interesting” people there would be an understatement.

However, we left the Burners headed for Blackrock when we turned west toward Smoke Creek Desert. The road down the west side of the desert is a very good county road. I stopped along the way to make images and take in the solitude. We saw a few folks along the way — a couple of ranchers, some four-wheelers, and a couple of young men out exploring.

The image left is one of the mountains along the west side of the desert, just north from Pyramid Lake. It was a good day.

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Genoa Fault

Posted Mon Aug 25, 2008 in Nevada

One afternoon while Boss and I drove north along U.S. 395 toward Reno, he glanced to the left (west) and said “The Genoa fault is easy to see today.”

I looked and saw a gouge in the hillside a couple hundred feet above the valley floor. With the shadows forming in the afternoon sun, it was plain to see. It’s an interesting feature and something that fascinates. I still like geology and wish I knew more about it.

I did a little research over the weekend and found a couple of links. The first is Prominent Fault Scarps in Western Nevada and has a lot of interesting information. The second is Genoa fault a Valley disaster looking for a time to happen — an analysis of the potential outcome (damage) of a significant earthquake along the Genoa Fault that was published in the local newspaper.

On the way home this afternoon, I decided to drive through Genoa and see if I could make a few images of the fault. Tomorrow I’ll probably drive south from Genoa and see if I can get a decent image of the slickensides that are exposed where a portion of the fault is exposed in a road cut.

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