Heading west to SF, then south to PV

Elmira, NY - the snow is coming down steady here and security tight as always.

The stitches in my shoulder still hurt from having to put my hands on my head in the body scanner.

But I feel soooo much safer.

More on the odyssey '10 Weeks in Mexico' when we hit the Philly airport and my wireless keyboard is at hand.







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Out of California and into the winter-world of upstate New York

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - And just like that, we hopped on a Jet Blue plane Thursday night and Friday arrived in Syracuse, NY where a Hyunda Sonata (no Nissan Cubes this trip) waited as our chariot to take us home.

For me it was slightly more than a 41-year absence. It was August 1970 when I left in a blue VW van, landing in Napa in mid-October after hitting more than 10 states in an odyssey, looking for who-knows-what, even now.

But the trip home was quicker. Our two California vehicles (my vintage Nissan pickup truck) and our Mexico-veteran Isuzu Trooper were loaded onto a car carrier Wednesday afternoon, a car carrier driven by two Russian guys with accents (and haircuts) right out of central casting. They arrived here in Watkins Glen at noon, with six more deliveries here on the East Coast.

The black car is our rental, the other three our NY fleet

Landing here also is the first time since the turn of the 21st Century that Admiral Fox and I have owned a home with virtually everything we own in one place. I say virtually, because the Pink Flamingo in Arroyo Seco still has some of our 'stuff' but not much.

When Dustin and Sylvia drove the Trooper (aka Troupey) out of Mexico last spring, they brought a carload of items, now resting either with Dustin in tony Connecticut or here at North Glen.

Duplicates - make that triplicates - of sooooo many things are popping up.

And at Brother Dan's shop in Big Flats, we have two palettes of boxes and assorted household stuff yet to bring here to look at.

Perhaps we'll bring it all to the house for Christmas to open the boxes then.

Sasha with friend

Last night - barely awake after very little sleep on the plane the night before - we went out for dinner to Maria's, a local joint where I go to talk politics sometimes. There we had a great fish dinner with amigos Gary and Sue and their son Jeff. Then we traveled over to visit amiga Amanda at her house. (Ok, we went there to visit Sasha the dog, too.)

It was a nice entree back to the community. And, not to let any snow accumulate under our boots, tonight we head up to the increasingly famous Hector Wine company (in Hector, of course) for a glass or seven of wine and to listen to the band 'Buford.'

No, that's not a typo... and I hear the group is quite good.

We awoke this morning to a light dusting of snow and all day have watched the flakes coming down. Very little is sticking, so at this point, it's picturesque and not pain-in-the-ass. We're set though - I found all my winter gear and my boots have been waterproofed!

Here's a winter view of the lake from our deck and our winter-covered hot tub which might get pressed into service.

And at the bottom is a short video of this morning's snow... Set to music, of course.

32,000 feet surrounded by snoring people

SOMEWHERE OVER LAKE MICHIGAN, USA, 5 a.m. -- Admiral Fox and I spent our last day in Sacramento running all those last-minute errands that drive you mad: mailing things, losing things, and trying to stuff 250 lbs. of our possessions into four suitcases for checking.

Yes, each suitcase can only weigh 50 pounds. We had to get creative.

But that was hours back and at this moment we are tearing up the miles crossing the U.S. in a Jet Blue plane with the snoring of sleeping passengers almost as loud as the jet engines.

When I say tearing up the miles I am not kidding. The computer shows us hitting 700 mph in airspeed.

Move over Chuck Yeager, we are coming through.

Our destination now is JFK Airport where we (and we hope our checked bags) will hop a second flight to Syracuse where a rental car awaits to take us to our new Tranquility Base in Watkins Glen. I have high hopes it will not be another Nissan Cube.

This air flight is a little quicker than when I made this trip west in August of 1970 in a VW bus that would only go 50 mph on downhill runs.

Both Adm. Fox and I are now official retirees from our university teaching positions - though I prefer the Spanish word, jubilado. That word comes closer to what we felt when we turned in keys and had our final separation papers stamped and approved.

It felt like a cross between a graduation and getting a presidential pardon.

(Asute readers will note that there isn't a lot of wistful remembrances here about decades of teaching. But come on, it's the middle of the night, I haven't slept and I am typing this on my iPad.)

By the way, for iPad addicts, note that your wireless keyboards won't work on airplanes. They aren't allowed. Instead, you have to use the screen keyboard on which touch typing is almost impossible.

Almost.

And as I type this we have started hitting some dirty air and the plane is bouncing like Dolly Parton in a Christmas special.

More later.



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Fracking is dangerous, and downright ugly

PENNSYLVANIA, USA - I received this photo this morning, a night shot of a hydrofracking drilling site in Pennsylvania.

These rigs are all over the place, just over the state line from New York.

They pollute night sky with bright lights - and all reports indicate they are noisy, too.

Click on the photo to enlarge to get the full effect.




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In La Manzanilla, ready to check out Arroyo Seco damages

LA MANZANILLA, Jalisco, Mexico - Admiral Fox and I took a quick overnight flight south to check out hurricane damage.

OK, it was not quick. And I think I am off red-eye airflights forever. We got on a flight at 12:30 a.m. and arrived in Puerto Vallarta at about 8 a.m.

In Guadalajara, we had to change planes, which was fun, mostly because we went from the main terminal to the commuter terminal, lugging suitcases filled with stuff for granddaughter Sasha and clothes and things for the people of Arroyo Seco.

Arroyo Seco got whacked hard by Hurricane Jova, roofs were lost, some people's home flooded.

More on all that later.

But below are two photos:

One from Cafe Risa, where we had breakfast today, the other of the Guadalajara Aeropuerto, while aboard out puddle jumper...




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Hurricanes in Mexico and fires in classroom buildings on campus

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - Adm. Fox and I are waiting semi-patiently tonight for word from Arroyo Seco about how the people in the village fared when Hurricane Jova came ashore Tuesday night, about 15 miles north right through the area known as Chamela.

No one has heard much from anyplace along that stretch of coast. In Arroyo Seco, Jim Monaco, who lives right on the beach, reported he was okay in a brief telephone conversation with an amiga. But the phone lines are down, power is out and the whole coastal area waiting for water to recede and/or digging out from mudslides. Full tinacos (water tanks) with 500 gallons of water blew off tops of buildings in the wind. My two RVS (Grey Goose Express and the Grey Goose II) might have taken off like Dorothy's house in the Wizard of Oz.

South of Arroyo Seco, La Manzanilla seems to have survived ok. But just south of that pueblo, the towns of Melaque and Barra de Navidad are a mess. Bridges are out, roads collapsed and shoreside restaurants partly washed out.

Highway near Manzanillo

But life continues, mudslides or not and so while waiting for the constant busy signal to stop today for calls into Mexico, I put together a video with some startling images of propane explosions. In New York, the Department of Environmental Conservation has extended the period of time for comments on the proposed environmental nightmare proposed to be built north of our Watkins Glen house.

It's a 576-acre propane and natural gas storage facilty (using salt caverns as holding tanks) right above Seneca Lake. While the entire project is about as well planned as a kindergarten opera, the potential for what gas experts call a bleve (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion) is enough to scare the crap out of anyone. (Except developers of such projects, I suppose.)

Just one incident like the ones shown in the video could put a serious dent in the tourist traffic.

And just after I finished that video, I headed to the university to find that two buildings on campus had fires going on - one of which was in the hallway outside of my office!

Here's videos relating to the propane project and the university fires:

Quick trip up the mountain to visit Four Headlamps amigos

SAN ANDREAS, Calif., USA - Adm. Fox and I took a mountain road trip Saturday to visit with amigos Pat and Sanders, the other two members of the music group, The Four Headlamps.

We ended up eating at Pizza Factory restaurant - a local favorite of Pat and Sanders' was closed.

San Andreas is very much a Monday through Friday kind of place.

Still, it was a great reunion time and we had fun doing a little walking tour.

No talk of a musical reunion just yet. And, given that Hurricane Jova is bearing down on La Manzanilla - the site of our group's debut some years back with the hit song, 'Dancin' With A Man' - we're not too sure what we will do in January.

Here's a couple of photos from the trip:













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Occupy Sacramento - a very laid-back, California event so far

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The Occupy Sacramento event in downtown Sacramento is within easy walking distance of the Sacramento jail (where a few protesters are likely to end up, eventually), was a laid back, quiet affair Friday afternoon.

There were plenty of signs, more than a few singers, but for the most part, the Farmer's Market on Sunday under the I-80 freeway is as raucous politically.


Still, there was genuine outrage popping out of a few mouths, but tempered by the many young children that were at the park, too. There was talk of marching to the Federal Building (a few blocks away).

All conversations took part while about 20 Sacramento police officers stood around the edges of the park, watching.

At one point, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson walked by across the street, setting off a media frenzy that included a female news producer trying to run in extremely high-heeled shoes.

Below is a short video:

Jon Stewart's tribute to Steve Jobs - a must-watch video

Whirlwind trip to upstate New York leaves many tales to tell

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The trip to upstate New York was planned to be fast and relatively fun-filled.

It was fast, there was some fun, and it was filled. Really filled.

After careening across the United States Monday night, I arrived at the Syracuse NY airport (after a plane change at JFK) Tuesday noon, tired, more than a little grumpy but ready to charge into the Department of Environmental Conservation's hearing on a proposal to build a huge propane and natural gas storage depot three miles from my house.

With Cousin Roger and The Cube

I felt like a foreign correspondent, parachuting in to cover a story, at least until the rental car agency told me the only car they had available for me to take was the one pictured to the right.

The Nissan Cube is not exactly what Robert Redford was driving in the 2001 film, Spy Game, in which he starred with Brad Pitt. But I've lost my claims to bearing any resemblance to either of those guys so I suppose I should be happy that I could bomb around Watkins without much fear of getting a ticket in that blue roller skate.

The propane and natural gas storage project is about as bad an idea as I have heard in years, right on a par with when some bright light got the idea in the 1970s that it would be a good idea to store spent nuclear reactor fuel rods in the same salt caverns.

Jaysus.

Sometimes, I do believe the world is run by greedy idiots.

Here's a link to a video with all the testimony: DEC public hearing in Watkins Glen, NY 

The hearing went well (for opponents, not so much for the company) and formed the basis for my Finger Lakes Times column Friday. Writing Wednesday morning, I fell asleep at the keyboard once, revived only by several cups of Earl Grey tea, each brewed with three tea bags.

I was up until about 2 a.m. Wednesday night, of course. Despite two glasses of wine with amiga Amanda at dinner and a hefty double slug of Grey Goose about midnight while writing some screed, I still had the energy of an adolescent.

Inergy's gas man

Perhaps the most interesting thing in the hearing was that it wasn't just that the people who spoke against the project were articulate (most were), prepared (ditto) and passionate (all were). They clearly are beginning to form ideas about what they want to see the area become, not just be in opposition to this disaster-in-waiting.

More than one person made it clear: we don't need or want more smokestack industries.

The balance of the trip - two days and some change - was taken up with domestic chores like running to the bank, dealing with an impressive stack of mail and lots of conversations with the folks who are opposing this project.

Oct. 10 is the last day to comment and there is a flurry of activity going on to ensure that the DEC hears from everyone about the flaws in the environmental impact report filed by the company, Inergy Midstream from Kansas City, Missouri.

Among the many flaws are issues related to earthquakes, lack of a plan for emergencies and the idea of building a 91-million gallon salt water pond with plastic liners (think industrial swimming pool liners). The pond will be perched on a hillside, just  2,500 feet above decidely freshwater Seneca Lake, and very close to the water intakes for the Watkins Glen Village water supply.

That pond, by the way, will contain water up to 12 times saltier than normal sea water, plus, it will likely have a few surprise chemicals lurking it in from being pumped in and out of the salt caverns as part of the propane storage method.

I suppose if the project is approved and the pond is built, when it has a catastrophic breach and the 91 million gallons goes cascading down the hillside to the lake, we could plant some marlin and other saltwater sports fish in the lake and see if they survived. And Watkins Glen homes? Well, perhaps the village can get a federal grant for a desalinization plant - run on propane, of course.

In the meantime, while the follicle-impaired president of Inergy Midstream (above) licks his wounds in Kansas City, Missouri, (after having his testimony contradicted by experts), he is likely remembering that when he testified, nearly 800 people in the audience suggested (some politely, some not so) that he could take his propane tanks, trucks, railroad cars and everything else he has planned for the 576-acre site and return it to, well, just about anyplace but the Town of Reading.

LINKS to stories about hearing:
Elmira Star-Gazette
The Observer newspaper

Coming into JFK, dodging cloud bumps

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Long lines, tight security at Syracuse airport

SYRACUSE, New York, USA - The security lines were long - and the machines tweaked really tight - at the airport here today.

But sitting at the gate, I just learned that this same flight was canceled yesterday...

Here's a shot of the security line taken with the iPad.




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Now that the photo function works, it's back to work

SYRACUSE, New York, USA - It only took a half hour or so to get the photo system sort of working, but now we'll see how much horsepower this little app I downloaded has.

In the last entry, I posted a pix of granddaughter Kami from late August.

The next hurdle is to be able to grab a photo from Flickr, where I store most of my important shots.

Hmm... this is going to take a lot more investigation. In the meantime, here is granddaughter Sami at bat last weekend.

Test of new photo software

I discovered a new (to me) app that should make it possible to post blogs and photos easily...

Ha!

We'll see.

Wow there she is... Fabulous!



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Test of the iPad to do some blogging

SACRAMENTO AIRPORT, Sacramento, Calif., USA - Sitting in the Sacramento Airport, I'm giving the IPad its first real test of mobile blogging. Actually, it is just the first test of blogging, period. So, I might as well throw in a photo of my granddaughter Kami... Ok, the system is pretty balky... Let's see if the text goes up...

Sometimes just a simple sign can say it all

SACRAMENTO, California, USA - This sign popped up on Facebook today and I thought it was worth passing along.

Kind of says it all, si?

A scary moment - university retirement almost delayed for a year

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - For a moment Monday, it appeared the Admiral and I were on a collision course with yet another fall semester of teaching - but next year.

The University published a list of retirees and people like us who were done with their five years of the faculty early retirement program (aka FERP). But our names were not on this list.

Jaysus... that mean we could teach another semester?
Had my math failed us?

Given my history with math in years past, it was possible, so I contacted the appropriate authorities on campus who assured me in the strongest terms that our teaching is over this December. Over, finished, done, terminated, nevermore quoth the vice president in charge of such things.

Though another semester of cashing full salary paychecks would have been nice, Adm. Fox and I both have way too many other things going on to take four months next year to thump on undergraduate heads.

And, our knuckles are too sore after 25+ years of teaching.

I suppose instead of writing this, I should be grading the student work on my desk which in only four weeks has grown from a stack to a hillock to a hill to a mountain to a fire hazard.

Naw, I'm retiring.

Semester's end is in sight, and so is New York and Mexico

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - Three weeks into the semester the end is already in sight in early December. About 100 students in my four classes are already counting the days until I stop thumping on their undergraduate heads.

So am I.

In the midst of all this, I have continued to pump out my weekly column for the Finger Lakes Times, the high point of my week, really. My column-writing students - whether they appreciate it or not - have been helping me brainstorm with column ideas. They have their own colums to write, so it only seems fair to have them help me, too.

In about a week, I will wing my way via Jet Blue to New York to attend a public hearing on a proposal to build a propane storage facility on the shores of Seneca Lake three miles from my new house in Watkins Glen. The idea is about as bright as the notion of building nuclear power plants on the shore of Japan. (Whoops! They did that, didn't they.)

I will be going as a journalist/observer but perhaps as a participant. This project is so dangerous, so out of whack with sanity with what Seneca Lake has become as a tourist destination, I might have to come out from behind my journalist's shield to speak against it. Greedy idiots don't care what damage it does, as long as their corporation makes profits for its shareholders and the officers of the corporation get their multi-million dollar bonus checks each year.

Brine pond

In addition to storing millions of gallons of propane in salt caverns (risky business at best, industry experts say) the Kansas City, Missouri company wants to build a 91-million gallon uncovered salt brine pond as part of the entire industrial project on the side of a hill, perched over the lake. Jaysus! If that salt water gets loose and lands in the lake, Watkins Glen can kiss its water supply goodbye for months - maybe more... And will it get loose? Well, in the last few weeks the area has had an earthquake and then brushed by a hurricane.

Need I say more?

After NY, it's back to the classroom until Adm. Fox and I got to Mexico for a short hiatus. She and a Seneca Lake amiga Barb Cook will be going down to help with a spay and neuter clinic. Barb and Sylvia will be doing the medical work, my job is to shoot film for a video about the experience with the working title: Salty Dogs in Mexico.

Or maybe we can just call it Woofing Below the Border.

Floods in New York, damn hot in Sacramento, cool in classrooms

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - In Sacramento, except for the damnably hot afternoons, the weather is barely a factor in life.

Quite a change from New York. There, you could walk outside in bright sunshine and get splattered with rain before you got your car door open. It happens.

Schenectady is under water

And right now, upstate New York is experiencing wild flooding, apparently from the tail end of yet another hurricane passing by.

Two hurricanes in, oh, a couple of weeks? And others forming out in the Atlantic. No climate change going on at all. Zip.

In the meantime, Adm. Fox and I plug along at our classes with one hand, the other working on getting staged to pull out of California (as legal residents) in December. It's weird making all these arrangements to change health care around, move cars, pack up offices we've had for 20+ years. Weird doesn't really cover it though, I think.

My students are getting an interesting ride this fall, as my patience is, well, maybe a little thinner than normal when it comes to putting up with the B.S. One student skipped the first night session of magazine writing and had the gall yesterday to be upset that I dropped him from the course. There were four people waiting for his seat that first night.

Ironically, I added all four  of those students and said, "What the hell, it's my last semester. Hang on tight, amigos."

Tonight it's off to Elk Grove for dinner at a Mexican restaurant with Chief Engineer Scott Noble and Counselor Jen Noble - part of a program to get in culinary shape for our return to Arroyo Seco.

Training can be soooooo hard.

Restaurant Las Brisas in Arroyo Seco

7 a.m. writing deadlines are for people who are awake at 7 a.m.

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - Adm. Fox and I rolled in about midnight last night after three hours of a Taylor Swift concert-extravaganza at Power Balance Pavilion, just north of our temporary digs with amigos Pam and Steve near CSU, Sacramento.

Our earplugs served us well - not because the music was too loud, but because the screaming of the teenage girls, their moms, and more than a scattering of younger sisters was constant and way above OSHA-approved levels for potential ear damage.

Taylor Swift

(You're thinking, what an old fart! Guilty as charged.)

We were on assignment for The Sacramento Bee newspaper to do a review of Swift's 'Speak Now Tour 2011'. But the kicker for this was that the editor needed it turned around and back to her by 7 a.m. (As I write this, it is 6:50 and Adm. Fox is taking her sharp-edged editing hula hoe to my draft before I send it in to the editor who will do likewise.)

The show was more Broadway production than concert, with dancing, acrobatics, Taylor Swift popping up from under the stage and booming fireworks that caught me by surprise twice. The first time the sparks coming down from the rafters and up from the stage, had me searching for the nearest exit instead of focusing on the almost-too-beautiful Taylor.

No, she is too beautiful.

Our seats were great - always a nice spiff when you are a member of the press - but we were also close to the two Jumbotron screens which showed her in excruciatingly close detail through the whole show.

Prior to the concert, I researched this young sensation, whose music hasn't resonated much with me (not surprising there), but I hadn't realized how quickly she had risen and how high. I have to keep up better with pop culture.

Oops, Adm. Fox has returned my review and it's time (past time actually) to dispatch it to the editor.

And another cup of double-strength Earl Grey tea is in order asap, too.

And here is a link to the review in The Bee: Taylor Swift on stage

Taylor Swift floats over the audience in her finale 'Love Song' (foto by Adm. Fox)