Screw you Concrete Canoe, we have DUCK TAPE (yes, "duck")

As an orientation/introduction to engineering, we took our freshmen (who responded to the letters that were sent out) in for a week of math, assessment, and ... building boats out of cardboard and duct tape. They had unlimited cardboard, but only 500 ft of duct tape, despite my efforts to not get "duck tape", we ended up having to cave on account of the expense of 500 ft of the stuff per team. The students were only allotted 2 2-hr sessions to build their craft amongst the other activities of the week. Today was the grand finale, the race across the pool.

Measure twice cut once. Or if you accidentally measure wrong and cut twice - we have duct tape.

The cardboard kayak that would become the duct tape Mako shark.

"We're going to float all four of us in this."

...and the races begin...

and hilarity ensued!!!

And the local news covered it... I managed to hide from the camera quite well.

Mt. Whitney - additional photos

Now that I have acquired the photos from my hiking companions I have a couple of additional shots from the killer day hike to share with everyone.

Everything had to be packed out. I think my expression translates to "der?" or something along those lines. That loosely translates to "I have to poo in what?".

Here I'm pretending that we don't still have 57 switchbacks to ascend. Great view behind us though!

At this point it seemed we had less than 1000 ft to climb. Unfortunately, immediately after this point we descended 700 or so ft and then started to climb again. It was the second encounter of 13 600 ft that brought on my rage with the mountain...

Made it! Whew!

Mt Whitney

Mt Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48 states, was calling out to be climbed this summer. I'm not sure why I answered that call, but despite a total lack of acclimatization and an ear infection (and antibiotic-induced digestive issues), I made it. There was a marmot on top to greet me. And six different survey markers.

oh, California

Well Chino Hills, in the LA area, just had a magnitude 5.4 quake, which is moderate by geology standards. It was also shallow by geology standards at 8.5 miles. My corner liquor shop/post office apparently now carries the following product:

Tour de Fat

Continuing an annual tradition (this is the second year), I picked up BEG from Stanford and we went through San Francisco on our way to another adventure. This year's adventure was to be mostly relaxing due to the broken leg BEG was sporting. This was fine with both of us. After a rendezvous with Queen's Geo friends over a late great dinner, we hit the road for Truckee and Donner Lake. Donner as in the family that is known for cannibalizing themselves and the Native American guides who were sent to help them. It seemed a good place to go.

Besides taking care of things at Beer O'Clock and Beer Thirty, our first adventure was to head out to the lake early and see how I'd fare on water skis after having only ever done it once, many many many years ago. The first part was getting me in the water - between nerves and giggle fits I seemed to have a really hard time with just getting in the damn lake. FINALLY I got in, and the water really wasn't bad at all.


Amazingly I got up on the first try, and managed to hang on, balance and ski for 2.5 miles before I finally had the nerve to try a wake jump - as I felt my arms were giving out anyway... I made it! I tried another... I nearly made it - and then I was done. I tried to get up again, but my body had somehow turned into jell-o, so I had to call it quits. I spent a large amount of time screaming while skiing, and consequently have had a bit of a sore throat...
We headed in for a great breakfast, showers, and then set off for the Tour de Fat (and here) in town. This is a big bike and beer fest, and was a total blast. I managed to entertain BEG by trying out several funny bikes - check out the video below for a taste! And we bought fun bike fest goodies, had a beer, and enjoyed a really fun band: Paper Bird.

Crazy bikes! The three wheeled unicycle had been making me dizzy to start... then the shoe bike was really uncomfortable (and had no brakes) - the giant orange one with all the wheels had quite a bit of resistance for pedaling... they were all hilarious!

BEG exhibiting the hilariousness of it all.

eagerly awaiting a hurricane or something

well not really - but here's a summary of what's been going on:

1950 something: a dam was built across the kern river in order to eliminate the seasonal flooding that the villagers (Bakersfieldians) were complaining about. This resulted in Lake Isabella. The dam, by the way, was built across a fault: the Kern Canyon Fault. One might think this is silly, but it's an unlucky geological phenomenon really. Faults make good pathways for water. Rivers are water. Dams block water for various reasons. Dams are useless if built in places where there is no water (unless they are decorative).

Last 2 years: concerns were building over a leak that had developed in the dam, and water levels were lowered significantly in the lake. There was sudden concern over the possibility that the Kern Canyon Fault might move in an earthquake and render the dam somewhat rubble-y.

This spring: string of earthquakes from M3.0 to M4.4 occur along Kern Canyon Fault, more concerns arise about the potential for dam failure and flooding.

Two weeks ago: among the many many blazes occurring in California, one was the Piute fire in the Lake Isabella area. Thanks to intense winds blowing in the worst possible direction, fire fighters struggled to keep it from spreading and evacuations were recommended.

Yesterday: it finally rained, and poor Lake Isabella suffered massive flash flooding. While crappy news for the inhabitants, whose roads had been replaced by silty tree-filled rivers (more evacuations were recommended), the storm did actually help the fire fighters out.

Directly quoting from the news today:
...The flooding left behind a muddy mess all over central and eastern Kern County. Road crews used tractors to push mud off of Highway 178. Firefighters say the rains helped them slow down some wildfires, but those fires also probably cleared out vegetation that could have stopped the flash flooding.

I, however, went to the coast to plan a field trip. It was easily 30 degrees cooler there than here, and I was blissfully unaware of the flooding going on up the canyon.

Check out these snails with legs! I thought they were crabs for sure, but a sign said they are button snails. I can't find any info on that, have limited snail biology (but thought they were pseudopods not crab-o-pods). There were loads and loads of these, which made the hermit crab hypothesis unlikely... suggestions?

Geological Time vs People Time

Very cool video.

Volcanic Week

I spent a week in Northern California to escape the heat and the smoke from all the forest fires. Unfortunately some of the forest fires were in Northern California, so I really only managed to escape the heat. I also managed to visit (hike) some really awesome geological areas and nerd out on volcanoes a little... I've picked my favourite photo from the top spots to give an overview:

Devil's Postpile: a great big pile of columnar basalts (60 feet tall!)

Mt Lassen: after hiking it and Bumpass Hell, we got a stellar view of the peak (a volcanic plug dome that last erupted in 1914) as we exited the park.

Also in Lassen Volcanic National Park was a trail to "Bumpass Hell" - yes - the hell was entirely because of the stinkyness. BOY did it reek! I took video of the hissing fumaroles, mudpots, etc. - one of them is here. You are lucky that there is no "smell-o-vision" available.

Clearly showing the haze of the smoke from the forest fires, this photo (taken from the top of Cinder Cone, a cinder cone volcano in Lassen Park) also shows the Painted Dunes and Fantastic Lava Beds - I can only imagine how glorious the scene is where there is no smoke...

Mono Lake - a place I'd actually been to before - here are tufa pillars poking out of the alkaline lake. They are formed from hot spring (volcanic) activity beneath the lake and the mixing of waters resulting in calcite (calcium carbonate) deposits.

In addition I also went to Subway Cave (a rather large lava tube - also volcano-related!!!), Panum Crater, Obsidian Dome, and found time to chill out in the north-eastern Sierra Nevada eying a 5 acre lot to build a log cabin on. Anyone interested in investing?

memememe

Technically I guess it's just "meme". I keep seeing these come around on blogs, and I thought that rather than do something productive, I'd do one to. Actually, a lot of these things are things I started to think about since B&I went to Italy after (brace yourselves) being friends for NINETEEN (19) years - and we wondered where all the time went...

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
In the summer of 1998 I was rowing every morning, competing in the CORAs, ORAs, and Henley, working at the Barrie Rowing Club (coaching? managing?), and working as a cashier at Shopper's Drug Mart.

2) What are 5 things on my to do list today?
1. Laundry (in progress)
2. Meet with J about cabin directions and key for next week
3. Fill out incomplete grade forms for lazy students and turn in to A&R
4. Buy figs
5. Get massage

3) Snacks I enjoy:
TJs peanut butter cups & cocoa almonds & chocolate covered pretzels, overly spicey nut mixes (why???), entire bags of potato chips (uggghhhhhhh), cookies (but only good ones - and often the entire bag), cold crispy apples (generally only on hikes or while camping)

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire (in no particular order):
Build sustainable log house somewhere awesome that runs on solar and is small and efficient both energy and space-wise. Donate solar panels to college with a giant "HA" and "see ya later suckers, find yourselves a new geologist" letter of resignation (having accomplished what I wanted). Hire professional organizer to go through all my crap and, well, organize it. Go to Iceland. Go to the Altiplano. Invest. Retire. Start-up a "geo-tourism" company for educational geological fabulousical (good word, right?) field trips that people pay me to run (not that I'd need the money...) Pretty selfish... well, there'd probably be more generous things too - but who can say when one is not a billionaire?

5) Places I have lived:
Southampton, England
Harare, Zimbabwe, Africa
Barrie, Ontario, Canada
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Bakersfield, California, USA

6) Jobs I have had:
tutor
babysitter
coach
rowing club assistant manager/manager
cashier
landscaper
teaching assistant
geologist
professor

Considering my claim towards disliking teaching, I seem to have an awful lot of teaching-like jobs on that short list... hmmm... surely I must have done something else???

bread slippers?

I stumbled upon this video...

It it odd.

It involves a hairless cat, a bundle of puppies and what appear to be slippers made out of loaves of bread apparently (among other things).

home sweet dead trees

I guess when you go away for a month, and during that time SoCal sets record high temps, there's a good chance that your fig-twig and avocado-in-a-pot might not survive.
Thanks to H, I now have a new reference for growing stuff on a patio. Perhaps there will be some improvement? Currently I'm just hoping that with some water my poor little trees will return to life, even if it is a sad and pathetic one.

Quick blast through Canada...

Had to make a trip to Kingston - Queen's University - to get some work done on a paper. While there, I wandered by a few places that I used to live (clockwise from left): The great house on University & Earl - we had the whole upper level and I had two rooms to myself, The "shoebox" on Johnson & Aberdeen - we had the upper back level, and our "balcony equivalent" was the sad and pathetic fire escape, and Miller Hall - where I spent most of my time in my office - home of the Geology Dept.

While in Kingston, I caught The Gertrudes live for the opening of the Skeleton Park Music Festival. Good times - bizarre number of wanna-be-genuine-hippies in attendance.


Back in Barrie, I traveled back in time at the Queen's (bar) and connected with friends who date back to elementary school and early days working at the rowing club.

Italy leg 1: Rome & Pompeii

Going in a spiral from top left, around circumference, finishing at bottom center.

1) At the Trevi fountain (jet lagged)
2) One of many Egyptian obelisks around Rome
3) Pantheon
4) Roman columns on Palatine Hill
5) Street roasted chestnuts (yum)
6) Mosaic at Pompeii
7) Pompeian Roman Forum with Vesuvius in the background
8) Chariot ruts in Pompeian road
9) Trevi fountain at night
10) Colosseum
11) Cats at ruins of Roman temples
12) Tiny bubblegum pink car

Italy leg 2: Florence, San Gimignano, Pisa & the Cinque Terre

More or less from left to right and top to bottom...

1st "row":
1) View of Florence from outside old city walls at sunset
2) David (replica near Uffizi)
3) Nice dinner out at Cibreo

2nd "row":
1) View of Florence from top of Duomo
2) View along Arno River from Ponte Vecchio at sunset
3) Ponte Vecchio (and a rowing shell)
4) Leaning Tower of Pisa
5) On the train

3rd "row":
1) Petting bronze boar at San Lorenzo (Il Porcelino) Market
2) Standing on the Ponte Vecchio
3) Posing strategically by a fountain
4) Liturgical clock (apparently still functioning) in the Duomo
5) Ridiculous close up of frescoes of the Duomo

4th "row":
1) Wooden Armillary sphere in the History of Science Museum
2) Spiral steps climbing down from the Duomo

5th "row":
1) View of Vernazza (one of the Cinque Terre) from the harbour
2) View of Vernazza from up on the hill behind town
3) Some of the many towers of San Gimignano
4) View of Tuscan hills and homes from San Gimignano

Italy leg 3: Venice & Verona

From left to right... (sick of this yet???)

1st row (Venice):
1) Typical view along the Grand Canal
2) Typical view of sinking uninhabitable lower levels of buildings
3) View over Basilica San Marco (and the city and the lagoon) from the top of the bell tower
4) Bells in the bell tower

2nd row (Venice):
1) Sketchy floaty train tracks on the way into Venice
2) On the Gondola
3) Ponte Rialto at night (on the Gondola)
4) Our Gondolier

3rd row (Verona):
1) Nice tiles trying to disguise pay toilet (trough) as not being "crappy" ha ha
2) Wine & Grappa shop where I finally found "Grappa di Miele"
3) Bronze sidewalk plaque showing Roman layout of Verona with Forum in the center, and utilization of a meandering river loop to protect the city on three sides (the other side had a wall)
4) Verona's Arena, 3rd largest, best preserved, made of pink marble, and hosts summer operas!

4th row (Verona):
1) "Juliet's balcony" (if you care to believe she really existed and don't require evidence)
2) "Romeo's house" (even more skeptical than Juliet's!)
3) Venician winged lion proudly showing Venice's hold on Verona in the Piazza Erbe
4) View across Adige River

For my fellow geologists

You should all read this:

If you haven't already! I would be there in a flash!

Pre-Italy Adventure #3

Yes, flying in a 6 seater Cessna to Death Valley for lunch. Also known as the "$100 hamburger" - although technically this should be considered the "$100 buffet lunch at the Furnace Creek Ranch where hamburgers were not on the menu".


Top row (L-R): Bakersfield actually looks pretty in this shot. Kern Gorge Fault - looks as close to a textbook diagram of a normal fault as I've ever seen! Kern River up the canyon - classic V-shaped valley and an incised meander.

2nd row (L-R): Rather large classic alluvial fan. More alluvial fanage = bajada. Flying at sea-level is waaaaay too cool!

3rd row (L-R): Colourful rocks under a darkening layer of cumulonimbus clouds. Coming in for a landing at 211 feet below sea level! Nobody was home at the "airport", so we were the only plane in the "parking lot".

Bottom row (L-R): A (most likely hot) spring on the valley floor leaving a green trail behind in the sand. Cinder cone volcanoes!!! (Possibly lava domes - but either way...) Volcano + lava flows = one of the best views of the day!



The plane, aka "4 sierra sierra". The wagon, as in "20 mule team". Both forms of transportation, both suitable backdrops for adventure team shots such as these.

Pre-Italy Adventure #2

Ahhh, the Calico "early man site" near Barstow, CA. I knew it had highly controversial (read: not widely accepted) conclusions about when human ancestors puttered around the middle of the California desert, but I still felt I had to see it for myself. I was not expecting the sad sad sad archaeological dig site that I came to.

That last little shot there is in Yermo, where three years ago we attempted to stop and fuel up but found a distinct lack of fuel. It needed to be photographed for posterity's sake.

Unfortunately we had started with Calico Ghost Town's parking lot to look at a spectacular syncline/anticline pair - and that made the "early man site" even more sad and pathetic... However, it also makes the long-postponed trip to peruse Calico move up higher on the roster - very cool.

And yes, it does appear that there are a lot of folded rocks in my most recent posts. And yes, I did eat a burger at Bun Boy in Barstow after the adventuring was done. It's tradition (even though Tammy doesn't work there anymore).

Pre-Italy Adventure #1

Thanks to my Rock Buddy for the adventure and being way more on top of photos taking and uploading than I. These are all his!

Mineral King National Park - Panorama across Hume Lake to the snow-capped Sierra Nevada. Oh wait. Sierra Nevada MEANS "snowy mountains" so I guess that was redundant...

Requisite jumping photo at Roaring River Falls, I've done one here before... but it never got blogged.

Chevron folds of the most fantastic foldiness. This is totally a "where's Waldo" photo!

And while one is romping in King's Canyon, a slight detour to see the big trees of Sequoia National Park is almost impossible to avoid. This is the "Nation's Christmas Tree". It's the widest one apparently.

Devil's Kitchen Syncline

Yup, that's what it's called! Ha ha ha, gotta love geology humour. And I had nothing to do with this one at all. Please done mind the horrendous nasty disgusting brown smear across the valley in this photo, that's just the "air" here... If the grossness of haze were not there, what you'd actually see is the great San Joaquin Valley (ironically also a syncline) and behind it, spectacular snowy-capped mountains. But no, you don't see that, instead you see brown. As such, it is preferred that you instead look at the spectacular syncline in the foreground, the one named "Devil's Kitchen Syncline".

In addition today I also collected some spectacularly bizarre blobs of magnetite (possibly of hydrothermal origin?), see the magnets sticking off the blobs? See the hydrothermal-looking-ness?.

Solar Galore!

Mirrors for Miles

Collecting tube at the focal point - vacuum seal like a thermos!

Renewable energy ad...

More mirrors for miles... I was sooooo excited to see these parabolas up close! Way too cool.

Big Sur Marathon Relay

The closest I'll come to doing a marathon is in this format - the relay. This happened today. This way we are in teams, and only do a small chunk of the relay each, handing off an imaginary baton between each leg. A description accompanies the photo below (yes, I carried my camera with me while I ran) - lots of eventfulness occurred at this relay!


Clockwise from bottom left:
1)Peace drummers- among many interesting "side show" amusements including, but not limited to, jazz bands, brass quartets, highschool orchestras, pianists, duets, rock bands...
and (inset) cowbells.
2) One of the jazz bands
3) View near the beginning of my leg, runners in front, runners behind, hill ahead, sea to the left.
4) Topo profile of the course - I ran from the 17 mile mark (see runner symbol) to the end.
5) Relay finisher medal
6) One of the best views of the leg - soooo pretty
7) View of runners going up one of the many hills - this was (surprisingly) my strongest, keep the same pace on up, down and flat - you beat everyone on the up. They beat you everywhere else, but you still feel good about the hills!
8) Ocean
9) Trees
10) Strawberries! Best road-side addition, free delicious strawberries for the runners. YUM!
11) The majority of our group, we had 7 teams participating who trekked up from Bakersfield. I mostly kept track of all the people I saw from Canada during the run by seeing a maple leaf on some item of clothing and yelling "hey, Canada! Good job!". It was fun.