States I’ve Visited

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday.

For a key to the colors, and to build your own map: http://www.defocus.net/visitedstates/us-canada.html

Just One Little Thing

SUMMARY: Another weekend with pretty much no colorful fabric items to hang on my wall.

Here’s a quick note about this weekend.

Ha ha! Just kidding, no it isn’t.

I really hate having the alarm go off 3 or 4 hours before my normal wakie-wakie time. Groaaan.

Worst thing this time was how much my lower back hurt. One muscle on one side had been bothering me, but probably loading the car Friday evening put the finishing touches on it. Walking very very gingerly as I got ready and headed out.

But, as always, once I’m on the road–and especially at that certain hour of the morning–it all faded away and the excitement of being on the road crept in. I love going places, and moving along the highways at this early hour when so few people are out makes it feel special and almost magical, wondering what’s just a little farther down the pike. I think i got that from all the years of traveling with my parents, who took us to so many interesting and entertaining places.

About 90 minutes later, arrived at the fairgrounds. This sat in the parking lot, blaring recorded loop messages over and over about being kind to the rest of the world. Don’t know what this was really about, but it’s pretty cool (love the “STOP” flag on the side) and it’s a good message.

And then, well, agility. Gah. Tika had 3 runs, Boost had 10. Out of those, i came home with one Qualifying round that I was happy with, one Q that I accepted but wasn’t what I wanted, wayyyy too many near misses, and a couple of disasters.

Like this:

Award for Best Run of the Weekend:

Tika’s Saturday’s Snooker course: She ran my 50-point plan perfectly, and so few dogs of any height or level managed to do it. First place, a Q, and proof that she’s as fast and as happy and as expert on the course as ever.

Nominations for Just One Little Thing:

Boost’s Sat Snooker: Some bobbles during the opening that wasted time, but no faults (same course I ran with Tika). Closing perfect, perfect, perfect, but near the end I got worried about running out of time because of the bobbles and started pushing hard… and she knocked the next to the last jump, augh! Maybe she would’ve anyway even if I’d stayed relaxed, and turns out that we did have time (not much, but enough). But I’ll take the blame for that one. (A Q, but not a Super-Q.)
Tika’s Sat. Jumpers: I forget that now, even in class and at home, when I send her to a tunnel, she often pulls away or veers past it. Not sure what that’s all about, confidence or hearing or vision, but whatever–I still forgot. First half of run: Fast and perfect. Last half of run: Perfect. But right in the wee little middle there, I sent her to a tunnel and turned and burned… and she went past it on the outside for a runout fault.
Boost’s Sat. Jumpers: She was PERFECT! But I forgot the course in one spot, hesitated, and she ran past a jump while I looked around to find my position. My fault again, and wasted a perfect Boost run!
Boost’s Sat. Pairs Relay: Only 9 obstacles; 1st 8 were spot-on perfect and fast, then she popped out of the weaves at #10.
Boost’s Sun. Grand Prix: Another almost perfect run on a very difficult course where very few dogs Qed. But. Knocked one bar (the 3rd one). One crappy bar.
Tika’s Sun. Jumpers: Crashed the first bar, the rest perfect and fast and delightful.
Boost’s Sun Jumpers: Fast and beautiful and kept all her bars up but I moved for a front cross just a little too soon and pulled her off a jump for a refusal. Crap crap crap! (Of course it WAS right in front of her and she WAS running straight towards it…)
Boost’s Sun Snooker: Another gorgeous completed opening, then knocked #4 in the closing, so not even a useless Q.

OK, Fates, I don’t mind a couple of near misses, but really, 8 of 13 in one weekend with only one thing?? Why couldn’t we convert *some* of them? Jeez–

On the other hand, on the spur of the moment I decided to get Boost tested for the [nonagility] Canine Good Citizen title (Remington, Jake, and Tika all took it and passed it years ago). And she passed! Woot! So I’ll probably send away for the official certificate and title.

Plus, as always, Boost is just fabulous at winning raffles. Here’s what she won for me on Saturday:

It was, indeed, hot on Saturday. Not Super Hot, but plenty hot enough. I wanted to try to give the dogs some grass to lie on instead of being zipped into their crates.

This spring I bought and started using a low x-pen (instead of the 42″ one I’ve had since I started agility)–so much easier to carry around and move and get things into and out of, and the dogs stay in it anyway although they could perfectly well hop right over it. (Boost is lying in the crate, you can just see her through the mesh.)

So, the other things of note that happened this weekend in agility:

Boost’s weaves were broken all day Saturday. We attempted 4 whole sets of weaves that day, and of those four:

As noted above, popped out at #10 in Relay.
Sat Standard: Popped out at #10.
Sat Steeplechase: Popped out at #10
Sat Gamblers opening: Ran past weave entry, then after she went in, yes, popped out at #10.
Gah! What’s with that???

Boost’s weaves were superb on Sunday. We attempted 2 whole sets of weaves:

In Standard, at a very sharp angle on her weak side, she worked hard to make the entry and, although she bounced slightly against pole #2, made it in with little help from me.
In Grand Prix, blasting out of a tunnel and needed to make a sharp turn to the left to the weaves, I was behind and just yelled “Left weave!” and, Lo!, she did. Perfectly.
Funny dog and her weave poles.

Some meltdowns:

Saturday standard: Pulled off a jump, popped out of weaves, left Aframe early, turned back at last jump instead of continuing.
Saturday Steeplechase. Instead of doing a 180, came through the middle and backjumped, popped out of the weaves, a bar. (But DID carry out over 5 jumps all the way to the end very nicely.)
Sunday Standard: Ran past the first jump and it went downhill from there, not sure HOW many jumps she ended up missing in various places. I think that’s where I stopped in the middle and said to her, “You know, you have to take SOME jumps, that’s what this is all about!” before continuing. (But her weaves and contacts were all good.)

Oh, but then she won something else that I dropped a ticket in in the raffle– a replacement for one I used to have that broke:

Wasn’t nearly as hot on Sunday, although it remained shirtsleeve weather all day. While I tore down my set-up, sllloooowwwwwwllllllyyyy, trying to save my poor back, they hung out in the shade but let me know what it was that they’d really wanted all along. That purple thing lying there. Yes, that.

Then, the drive home. I had high hopes as the first hour went by without a single slowdown, but then as we hit Berkeley–complete standstill, just little movements here and there.

Things to take photos of while at a standstill in traffic:

What is that a statue of? Angry villagers with rakes and hoes, and a dog with a frisbee? Couldn’t quite make it out. Maybe people with kites?

Other end of the same bridge. Obviously Berkeley protesters, with the UC Berkeley Campanile and someone in a wheelchair? Is that The Thinker with a protest sign, too?

Ohhhhhhh noooo, this can’t be good: 54 minutes to the Oakland Airport, which is only 14 miles ahead?!?!?

Hum de dum de dummmm… The Oakland Fire Dept. can set this tower aflame and practice their high-rise rescues alongside the Oakland marina.

Whew, it really took only 20 minutes to get to the airport exit, and I did hear on the traffic news that they had cleared away two big accidents in the meantime. Glad I decided to stay an extra hour at the end of the day to hang out and talk with various friends, or it surely would’ve taken me 54 minutes.

Still, took me over 2 hours to complete the trip that was only 90 minutes on Saturday morning. And my lower back is just a mess. It overshadowed even my sore foot (which felt better sunday than it had on saturday) and my knees (which were–well, not great, but not as bad as they’d been a couple of days before). Always something, dangit.

Fortunately, I found some chocolate chip mint ice cream in the freezer when I got home. Thanks for stocking that for me, Ellen.

—————–
For further reading:

That bus: onemillionactsofkindness.com

– A mission to save kids’ lives

SongsForPeace.net (mentioned on the side of the bus)

– A Rotary Club project

AKC Canine Good Citizen program
Statues on bridge
Oakland Fire Department Training Tower

Vacation Day 5: Road Trip

SUMMARY: [singsong] We’re on our way to Disneyland!

[already 2 days behind on posting. So something brief for Wednesday–]

Three of us drove down together today, Wednesday, from San Jose to Anaheim. Got on the road about 8:45 a.m., just 15 minutes later than planned, and headed south on 101. (Avoiding our usual I-5 route because of construction near the Grapevine.)

We had a great, riotous time in the car, so the 8-hour trip (including lunch and traffic) mostly flew by.

We stopped for lunch at Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. It’s a quirky hotel and quirky cafe. Everything in the public building is pretty much pink. Except for their trademark glassware, which comes in about 30 different colors.

Around Santa Barbara, we could see the Channel Islands in the distance–I don’t remember ever noticing them before, but then it’s been a long time since I’ve been down this route instead of down Interstate 5. Also had a clear view of all the oil rigs out in the Pacific along the coast (in this photo, you can just see an oil rig as a vague tiny hulk out the the left of the one island.

THENNNNNN we cleverly managed to hit Los Angeles smack dab in the center of rush hour–and no carpool lanes on the route we traveled, which was to join up with I-5 for the rest of the trip to Anaheim. So despite the highway signs that told us how long the current travel time was to various destinations ahead, the times were off by about 50%. Hum de dum de dum.

And then, not too late in the afternoon, we arrived! Of course I’m doing the short version of all this, but we’re staying in the Disneyland Hotel! Where everything is a little different–

Even the palm trees look a while lot different from just about anywhere else.

We then wandered out into Downtown Disney (a fantasy-filled shopping, dining, and entertainment area, where we had dinner, took a lot of photos, listened to some music, and browsed the shops.

And then, to bed. At the Disneyland Hotel. Where the headboards have twinkling fireworks!

If It’s Not 115F, Is It Vicon? Yes!

SUMMARY: Vicon moves to Point Arena.

Even the familiar can change, and yet remain familiar.

Since 1985 or 1986 (the records are murky), since my sister became serious about the guy who’s now my brother-in-law, I’ve been attending “Vicon” (for Visalia convention as a joke) in Visalia in August–a giant sleep-over party for family and friends for a 3-day weekend.

If you’re not familiar with Visalia (as many aren’t), it’s a “small” community of merely 124,000 people that takes about 3 hours of mostly smooth freeway driving from my place to put you smack dab in the middle of California’s Central Valley. The average high temperature for the month of August is 93.3F (34.1C) and overnight low average is 64.8F (18.2C). Believe me, it’s been plenty much warmer on many years. The big appeal to counter the heat is that we’ve slept on the in-laws’ huge back lawn in the shade of glorious old trees and plunged into the clear blue swimming pool as needed.

So, yep, for all those years we’ve learned the routine–how to get there, what to bring, where to set up in the yard, what to do, how to keep cool, which Hawaiian shirts to wear, where to buy more ice and drinks–everything to have a comfortable and familiar routine.

Oh, except one year it didn’t happen; one year my sister was in the hospital producing my niece so it was an afternoon-only party locally; and one year we tried it in another sister’s yard with a swimmming pool but it wasn’t quite the same without being out of town and REALLY hot.

However, last year was Visalia’s last year. The in-laws can’t host it any more. A sad thought indeed, especially for the bro-in-law, so we weren’t sure that it was going to continue in any form.

Luckily, we found another location: A 22-acre site with four cabins, a kitchen, a dining pavilion, and a living room, privacy, quiet–more expensive than the in-laws’ yard, but still reasonable–in Point Arena.

If you’re not familiar with Point Arena (as many aren’t), it’s a truly small community of 449 people (down 25 from the 2000 census) on the coast 3 hours north of San Francisco. Its temperatures–well, f’rinstance, the forecast high for August 11 (when we were there) for Visalia was 110; for Point Arena, 72.

From wondering whether we’d be too hot or have enough ice, we went to wondering whether we’d be too cold and have enough of anything we could possibly need–because this is the general store (groceries, hardware, and anything else you need) in Point Arena:

If you need to shop more, you can drive an hour north on the curvy Coast Highway to Fort Bragg. But if you really need to shop, or need anything substantial, it’s probably an hour south along the snaking Coast Highway and another hour inland to Santa Rosa.

But look at the color of that sky! Plus– zebra?!

We still had over 20 people (including assorted offspring); the weather proved coolish to warmish (Sunday was definitely shirt-sleeve weather at the site way up on the ridge, but fleece weather down on the beaches); the accommodations were almost perfect (this is the first time it’s been rented out and there were some, er, issues with the self-contained water, power, and sewer Sunday morning, but nothing that we couldn’t work around); and we still managed to have a great time.

The drive was a bear Friday afternoon; awful traffic, plus 2 hours of twisty windy roads on the cliffs of the coast. Beautiful if you’re feeling leisurely but not if you want to get to where you’re going and relax. 5 hours there; 4 hours back on Sunday evening. But–as I said, still managed to have a great time, but very tired!

I’ve attended 27 or 28 Vicons now, and this sign has come with me probably 20 of those times:

(Plus someone hung a Hawaiian shirt on the fence as well–with the familiar sign and familiar shirt, ya couldn’t hardly miss the entrance.)

The owner had a fire going before we got there and said, “keep it burning all weekend; the smoke keeps the mosquitoes down.” From the kitchen porch, looking up at the four cabins (and Mutt Mvr poised to unload.)

The huge difference for me was that, for the first time in those 27 years, the Merle Girls got to come along. What an experience for all concerned! Some of the small children couldn’t get enough of throwing the frisbee or the ball for Boost, who was sometimes a little discombobulated at the distinctive styles of throwing and kicking utilized by two-to-eight-year-olds, but somehow survived the trauma. (From the cabins looking down at the bar pavilion, the huge kitchen (it extends to the back), the dining pavilion, and a storage shed).

I got one of the cabins–apparently the Nautical Room–because I thought that would be easier for corralling the beasts while I slept than in a tent (because at Vicon, activities seem to go on almost around the clock).

Half the crew slept in tents. My sister and her spouse know how to do it in style.

The Merle Girls loved being off-leash all the time–Tika, in particular, identified the center of food activity right away and could be found there at any time of day, giving cooking tips (“add rice, drop one cup on floor…”). She checked in with me periodically, but mostly wanted to be where the food was…

Or, if no food, where the snugglies were–

Boost started out as the complete Mommy’s Dog, staying close to me at all times, but as the weekend went by, gradually daring to take her eyes off me from time to time and even to snuggle up to a couple of friendly looking strangers once or twice.

I knew that amazing progress in independence had been made by Sunday because, when I headed off to the restroom, she just looked at me, then continued playing frisbee with the child du jour.

She also was intrigued by the smells in the kitchen, and although it took her a while to get over the Evil Floor Syndrome–going over a period of less than 48 hours from not going in, to scrabbling frantically in, to racing hurriedly across it, to walking allll the way in in slowly and backing allll the way out quickly, to just wandering around and cleaning up spills–but although the bath/shower building had the identical floor, she never got over the scrabbling frantically stage there. She did, however, want to follow me into the bathroom and, after a couple of suggestions the first time, just automatically would hit the floor in a Down as soon as we got to the place where I sat down. Quick learner in some ways, not in others. Dogs. Weird.

But the Merle Girls were on their feet the entire time from when we arrived Friday night around 7 until bed around 10:30, then from when I got up at 8 the next morning until bedtime and on Sunday until we left around 1:30– oh, at least, Boost was. By Saturday afternoon, Tika was up for lying down to guard the food supplies rather than maintaining an active patrol.

And by Sunday morning, poor dog could barely stand up and spent a lot of time sleeping. In the kitchen doorway, of course.

Saturday evening, as we sat around the conflagration neé campfire, when I made them go into their x-pen next to me, they both protested that they were FINE and wanted to come OUT and didn’t NEED a nap, MOOOOooommm! Three minutes later–

Still, it was a very unusual situation for them–I don’t know whether they’ve ever been off leash in an unstructured outdoors situation (offleash on hikes, but that’s not unstructured), let alone with complete strangers around. They both did very well. I knew Tika would–she likes people and small children and exploring–but although Boost has been good around the very few small children and occasional stranger that she’s encountered briefly, I wasn’t sure how she’d act. Her confidence grew amazingly, I think, although sometimes the unfamiliarity of it all was a little too much: The dog who *hates* getting into my lap would just jump up there and need a hug for a minute.

There were little trails here and there, so we could go on mini-hikes around the 22 acres, by ourselves or with others. Dogs liked that.

Boost was tired enough to lie down sometimes on her own, but basically the energy reserves never drained. Bored Sunday morning, found a stick to chew up, which the smallest offspring-type found interesting:

Oh–right–and there were a bunch of other people there, too.

Hmm, didn’t realize until just now that red/hot pink was apparently the official Vicon-in-Mendocino-County color! Happy 31st anniversary, Vicon!

(I’ll post the rest of the photos, including those w/out dogs, later and add a link here.)

USDAA Trial Coming Up

SUMMARY: More stats for this weekend’s Woodland trial than you can shake a jump bar at.

Driving distance one way: 120 miles (193 km)
Driving time one way (est.): 2 hrs 5 mins
Gas cost yesterday: $4.09/gal ($1.08/lit … did I do that right? By what measure do non-USers buy gas?)
MUTT MVR’s average MPG for the last 3 months: 22.
Bridge tolls paid using Fastrak: $5 (northbound only)
Extra miles I could drive to avoid a bridge toll: 30
Amazing toll that people pulling a trailer will pay starting July 1: $15 for one axle, $20 for 2. (Guess that’s a good reason to buy a gas-guzzling motorhome instead. Stupid.)
Maximum freeway speed between here and there: 65 MPH (104 KPH) (or 70 the longer route).
Maximum if you’re pulling a trailer: 55. (Another reason to buy a motorhome instead.)
Average top speed by personal observation: 70 MPH.
Average top speed of people pulling trailers by personal observation: 70 MPH.
Event starting time: 7:45 briefings and walkthroughs; 8:00 first dog on the line.
Ending time (est): Sat, 5:00; Sun, 3:00
Set-up time required (canopy & crating, etc., walk the dogs…): 40 minutes.
Time to set on my alarm clock for Saturday morning: 4:20 a.m.
Forecast high temperatures: Saturday 99 (37.2 C), Sunday 99-106
Total runs for the weekend: 945 in 2 rings (this makes it a medium-ish USDAA trial for around here)
Dogs entered: 138. Includes 67 border collies, 17 australian shepherds, 14 mixed breeds (including one Craussie–yay, Tika!)
Older dogs competing: One 14-year-old JRT, one 12-year old Cocker, and three 11-year olds (including one Craussie).
Humans entered: 98.
Percentage of humans handling two dogs: 25%
Percentage handling 3 or 4 dogs: 7%
Most common dog names (2 each): Charlie, Lily, Neo, Pete
Runs I entered with my dogs: 20 (10 each)
Entry fees for one dog in all classes: $144 ($148 C).
Work I will do all weekend to reduce my entry fees: Score table chief.
Classes I might not run Tika in: Gamblers (because her Q rate is so low), Grand Prix (because 6 runs/day with her in the heat is now probably too much)
Qs needed for titles for Tika:
- Standard: 1 for Gold (35 performance Qs); chances this weekend: 2
- Snooker: 4 for Gold; chances this weekend: 2
- LAA-Platinum: 53 of any kind; chances this weekend: up to 10 (I sincerely doubt now that we’ll get there, or that she’ll still be competing at age 12. We’ll see how the year winds down…)
Qs needed for titles for Boost:
- For ADCH (stop me if you’ve heard this before): one Jumpers and two Snooker Super-Qs; chances this weekend: 2 each
- Gamblers: 1 for Bronze (15 Qs); chances this weekend: 1
Where I will sleep: In MUTT MVR at the fairgrounds.
What I usually have for breakfast: A banana and a high-protein breakfast bar.
What I will be hyper aware of this weekend after Elicia Calhoun’s disaster (will post more about that eventually):
This, from the “Live to run again” foundation, is on my driver’s-side window:

Dog Ladies’ Day Out

SUMMARY: Had a fun day off on Tuesday and took NO PHOTOS.

It was a day that was MADE for photos, and I even took my camera, but somehow didn’t take a single shot of anything at all. Maybe having spent the morning sorting, labeling, and editing 300-ish photos from the weekend had something to do with it. Still, it was a trip that cried out for photos and, in retrospect, I regret not having taken any, but every time I thought about it, I just wasn’t in the mood.

We had borrowed a teeter from club NAF out in Turlock for our trial this past weekend and it had to go back. KK had it in her van, and, as co-chair for the trial, I felt that it was my professional responsibility to make sure that it safely returned to its real home, no matter what hardship it entailed on my part.

Drove up to my seester’s house with the Merle Girls, where they got to explore and get petted and although Boost went into the evil floor method of walking, her tail didn’t stop wagging and she got some good exploring in anyway. I got a chance to chat with my sister a bit and check out the raised planters they’re building in their back yard after having hauled a couple hundred concrete pavers from somewhere else.

KK met me there with her three dogs, and off we went, all crammed into the vehicle: Two Dog Ladies, four border collies, a dismantled teeter, and a nondismantled Tika.

We chatted all the way to French Camp, where we met up with with more Dog Ladies, DS and CC, at DS’s beautiful house, all those lawns and that gorgeous agility field and the brand-new electricity-generating wind turbine that looks a bit like a propeller-driven rocket.

The four of us went off to a really delicious sushi lunch, leaving the dogs staring forlornly in through the sliding glass door from their cool, shaded, grassy yard. I said “no raw fish,” and we ordered up a variety of rolls (lobster roll, “the volcano”, I don’t remember the others) that were SO GOOD (and not raw), and beautiful, too.

We sat at the restaurant and chatted long after the food was gone so that we could have room for dessert–we piled back into CC’s dog-transport vehicle and ended up at the Ghirardelli chocolate factory, which is right down the street from DS’s house–she said, you don’t know how difficult it is to drive by there every day! I had my Ghirardelli standard, a hot fudge sundae with dark chocolate, and did not split it with anyone like CC & DS wisely did.

We went back to DS’s house, played with the dogs a bunch in the yard, then crowded around my computer and they helped me to identify people in my photos from the weekend whom I didn’t know.

Finished that just in time for the 45-minute drive the rest of the way to Turlock, where we dropped off the teeter and then stayed for a really helpful class with Rob Michalski. Got a couple of good suggestions for Boost and let Tika have one run, too. (DS & CC are regular students in that class–we crashed the party but everyone was really nice. Of course, we knew most of the people in the class anyway).

That’s when, in the heat of the Central Valley, I was REALLY regretting not having split the sundae with KK (and she, too, likewise with her mint fudge sundae, which is my other regular favorite). Still, we survived.

Watched and cheered as one of the classmates was ordered to remove her shoes & socks and presented with a brand new pair of Aussie socks because she apparently was always complaining about not having any matching socks. Fun was had by all.

When that was done, KK checked out NAF’s breakaway tire a bit, and we threw toys for the dogs–not too much, as it was still pretty warm, probably high 80s to low 90s even at 7:30-8:00ish. Boost got to do her favorite game, doing out-runs on a flock of border collies. Eventually we loaded up our bags of huge juicy peaches from CC’s orchard and headed home.

Got back to my house around 10:30, realized I hadn’t had dinner and wasn’t even hungry (duh! no surprise there!), had a light snack and retired for the night, secure in the knowledge that my great sacrifice in taking the day off to make sure the teeter got home paid off in a safe delivery to its rightful owners.

Trip From 2008 Now in Google Maps

SUMMARY: An experiment.

This took wayyyy longer than I thought it would, but you can now see my Havasu Falls/Grand Canyon trip in an interactive Google map; I’ve added place markers, and by clicking on the place markers, you can go to my online photo albums for that segment of the trip.

See it here.

(If you were reading my blog 2 years ago, you already had the chance to see all this stuff. Nothing new except putting it in google maps.)

Side Trip to San Francisco Presidio

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday–Sittin’ on the dock of the bay, browsing the Disney Family Museum, and other teaser photos from Saturday. More coming in a couple of days.

New Year’s Day in the Snow

SUMMARY: A few photos.

Home away from home when I arrived Friday evening.

Then snow fell overnight.

So this is what it looked like twenty-four hours after the 1st photo.

Another view of their cabin. I’d live here!

This is what you’d see looking out through those windows:

Out and about, late morning. We weren’t the first out in the beautiful new fresh 4 inches of snow, but pretty close.

Tika loves the snow.

(Not so much snow in her face–every time I threw the toy, it collected snow, so when she shook it, she got snow-face big time. Not popular with this pup.)

But she loves to run and play.

Although, after a couple of hours in the snow, she cleverly figured out that she could follow someone else who was breaking the trail.

Karey and Dan point the way. Dig watches their shadows.

Hey, look–it’s 1:11 1/1/11!

Tika in the fresh snow out on the deck.

Boost, too.

We didn’t really plan on coming up to the snow to sit in front of the computers (we each have our own here).

Really, we didn’t!

Even grumpy Dig got excited, and she and Boost played wildly for about 4 minutes in the snow in the yard.

Tika, Boost, and Dig ran a wild game of chase around the front yard.

Heading out to destroy fresh fields of snow!

Beauty everywhere.

After and before assorted humans and five excited dogs pass through.

Wayyyy below us, a train passes under I-80 on its slow winding way up the Sierras.

New Year’s Eve in the Sierras

SUMMARY: Hike drive drive drive and then arrive.

went for our usual Friday walkies; friend’s illness dragged her down a bit this week but we still covered 3 miles and it was a beautiful morning to be out.

Looking back under the bridge at reflections in the Guadalupe River:

Even for my dinky point-and-shoot, Mr. Mockingbird was willing to hold still briefly.

Boost played much leashie.

Despite our current cold snap, the Fremontodendron (flannel bush) shrubs each had one big flower on the west side; go figure.

The buds are beautiful, too.

The four-hour drive on a holiday Friday was just about perfect; only one or two spots where I briefly had to slow below the speed limit. What a pleasant start for the weekend.

Coming into Sacramento, looking across the wetlands:

At 2000-3000 feet, sprinklings of snow; at 4000 feet, actual snow; at 5000+, wow, snow snow snow!

It’s like driving into a Christmas postcard! I hardly ever see snow any more, maybe once a year if that, and its beauty lifts my spirits so high that my whole body can feel it.

Coming over the summit at Donner Pass (although every time I come through at this time of year, I think of those poor souls in the Donner Party who happened to try to pass in a year when the snow came earlier than ever and fell to a record depth–so this is nothin’!).

Although it wasn’t snowing during my drive, I began to wonder whether I’d know where to turn, since many of the signs past the summit were obscured by snow stuck to their fronts.

But I arrived, got here, and had to immediately pull over and take a shot of this fairytale house nestled among the snowy trees. Thomas Kincaide got nuthin’ on me!

And here’s our home away from home, with MUTT MVR alongside.

And looking in towards the front–they got a little drift, and always the most interesting icicles!

And here we are, just before midnight, snuggled in front of the fire.

Happy 2011, everyone! Today it’s snowing snowing snowing! Will be an interesting weekend.