Grass fire, weinies, wisdom and Woody

Woodpecker Starts Fire

Firebug bird
From the Redding Record Searchlight;

For the second time this month a tiny wild creature is taking the blame for sparking a grass fire in Redding.

Last time it was a squirrel. This time it was a woodpecker.

"It's a conspiracy," joked Redding Assistant Fire Marshal Ed Jestes just before firefighters contained a 2-acre grass fire near Lake Boulevard. "The animals are revolting."

The woodpecker's body was found beneath a power line and Jestes said it was clear that an electrical current had passed through the bird. A pile of acorns was stacked nearby at the base of a power pole.

I don't know what's going on with the animals on the south side of the hill, but the pile of acorns may be a clue.

The Weinermobile Comes to Town

Weinermobile 10/24/08
When I read that the weinermobile was in town, I just had to go see it. I needed a break from my regular happy life and here was my chance to do something totally frivolous.

Amanda the weinergirl 10/24/08
I sang the Oscar Meyer song with Amanda and a few spectators and we received free whistles.

A boy examines his Weiniewhistle 10/24/08

My Free, "Glows in the Dark", whistle. 10/24/08
When I got my free whistle home, I looked for a good place to photograph it. I chose one of my speaker cabinets as a backdrop.
I just love the way my furniture shows a deep luster and rich colors. I am so happy that Sandi is helping me keep my apartment clean and shiny.

Back to the Whistle

Testing my Glow in the Dark Weiniewhistle 10/24/08

Sometimes I forget to let go. The small stuff doesn't bother me like it used to, but I can still fall victim to my own selfishness. It's not going to help anything if I am in a hurry to get what I want. There are a few things that I think would make my life better that when I think about them too much, I get impatient. The weinermobile helped me to re-focus my energy.

I watched examples of impatience and selfishness during my Oscar Meyer experience. A lady pushing people out of her way so she could get into the weinermobile almost knocked me over on her way out. I was taking pictures of people singing the Oscar Meyer song, and...

Look out Amanda pushy lady gonna elbow you
I snapped this just as the pushy person was barreling out of the weinermobile. I have to give Amanda credit. She brushed it off and gave me the great smiling picture you saw earlier.

Another example of impatience and selfishness almost resulted in a wreck. A guy, I guess a really hungry guy, would have smashed into the Buick if I hadn't been paying attention. He was making a beeline for the drive-up to a fast food place. I noticed him weaving through the parked cars at high speed and I stopped to see what was chasing him, and, to stay out of his way. He raced across, inches in front of me, and came to a screeching halt behind the other cars in line for fast food. Had I been an average driver, or worse, had I been impatient and selfish as I was pulling out of the parking lot, it would not have been a happy situation. I wonder just how good a fast food sandwich can be to make it worth risking a bad situation?

Thinking too much in the future or the past leaves us witless in the present. I can't help everybody, but I don't have to harm anybody, especially me. I am thankful for my rich and abundant life. It is childish and unproductive to get upset about anything. Just because life isn't going the way I want it to, used to be reason enough for me to behave badly. I would still be crying over spilled milk, or acting on impulse if I hadn't reconnected with my spiritual self. God is here within me and all around me, always. Sometimes I forget and I too become impatient and selfish.

Putting how I feel about God into words is really good for me. It would be easy to copy and paste something from a great book or philosopher, but for me it would just be a coat of paint on my spirituality. I would rather arrange my electrons with direct help from God at this time. I am happy being me.

Today's Relatively Appropriate Song;
Woody Woodpecker

To thine own self be true

Happy Columbus Day

Columbus Day
It's a Holiday
-Boney M

Flaming Squirrel Sparks Brush Fire
(Redding)

Fireman uses rainbow technique on brush fire

A squirrel shorted out a high-voltage power line, caught fire and dropped into dry vegetation this morning — sparking a brush fire along North Market Street just north of Benton Drive.

Fire crews contained the blaze, which started behind the former Catanio’s Italian restaurant, within 20 minutes, Gray said. Eighteen firefighters and six fire engines responded to the blaze.

Lot's of jokes come to mind about Rocky and Bullwinkle, (For my older readers, Rocky was a flying squirrel.)

Bryan's Board is Back

Bryan, (left), and Bo with surviving surfboard
I got an e-mail from my nephew, Bryan Smith;

Last week I got a call from my buddy Wyman Wade. He and his buddy Henry Fry made surfboards here in Houston and Costa Rica for the last 30+ years. He got a call from a Bo Nelson who found my surfboard a few miles outside of Smith's Point. Gina and I went and picked it up on Saturday. My surfboard was one of the only items of value to me that was left at the beach house when Ike took it away. Smith's point is approximately 10 miles across the bay. Please see attached picture. Amazing. Have a nice week. Bryan

Google map of Bay

Smith Point (upper left), and Crystal Beach (A)
The Gulf of Mexico is in the lower right corner.

For more about the hurricane and my sisters Beach House, click on "Beach House", (under "Labels").

The Adventures of Bat Girl

Shell found near Devils Tower
The last I heard from Bat Girl, she was in Yellowstone National Park, but she did send me a picture of this shell she found on her travels. If you know what kind of shell it is, let me know.

"Stay tuned for my next exciting installment."

Bat Girl is thinking about getting a trailer and becoming a gypsy-vagabond, just roaming around these beautiful United States. It reminded me of the old, (1938), cartoon, "Mickey's Trailer".

Donald takes a bath in Mickey's trailer

Well, whatta you know, I found it. Here it is, for your enjoyment...
Mickey's Trailer

What a wonderful life

Fire, Planes, Helicopters, Pentagon Lies, Sci-Fi Beauties

Planes, Helicopters buzz Apt.
While Phil tries to Sleep In.

Firefighting Retardant Plane 8/26/08
I have been getting to sleep around 6AM for the last month or so, and getting up around 8AM to deal with things that people do in the mornings. This has put my sleep sessions on a diet, so this morning I made plans to sleep-in. My phone started ringing around 8:30, and between my land line and cell phone, the phone calls kept coming until around 10:30, then I rolled over and gave it another shot. I managed to ignore the leaf blowers, lawnmowers, backup beepers, fire engines, and people who carry on conversations across vast distances, until the third or fourth plane buzzed the place. I got up to see what was going on and noticed a plume of smoke that appeared to be quite close.

As seen from my balcony 8/26/08

Fire burns just behind Dollar Store. 8/26/08
I drove over behind the Dollar store and saw that the hillside below was burning. Several other people were in their cars or standing on the edge of the hill looking down at the fire and the men and equipment fighting it. I stayed for awhile, taking pictures until it seemed that the various men and machines were making headway, then realizing that I had forgotten to bring my cell phone, I headed home to call a friend who lives in the area of the fire. He and his neighbors were in the news just yesterday trying to save their homes from a new landlord/developer. The new owner has big plans for the property that doesn't include the pesky, disabled, and poor senior citizens who currently live there. I toyed with the idea that the new owner may have had something to do with this conflagration, but unless it started there, it was highly unlikely.

Helicopter drops water 8/26/08
I got home and called my friend on his cell phone. He said they had been evacuated to a place nearby and could see that the fire had not reached their homes yet.

Chopper with bucket. Shot from my balcony 8/26/08
Later, while driving back from town, I took this picture where the fire jumped North Market street.

Re-opened Market street after fire. 8/26/08
Sometimes we can forget the power of a wildfire. This one jumped this wide 4 lane road. In the end, no structures were burned and no one was hurt. It could have been much worse having planes and helicopters buzzing your house. You could be living in Afghanistan.

UN: US kills civilians in Afghanistan
Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:19:42 GMT

Afghan civilians usually fall prey to attacks on insurgents

The United Nations has accused the US-led forces in Afghanistan of killing civilians after a US airstrike killed some 90 people earlier.

The UN said in a statement on Tuesday that its investigators "found convincing evidence, based on the testimony of eyewitnesses, and others, that some 90 civilians were killed, including 60 children, 15 women and 15 men" in the western province of Herat on Friday.

However, the US military stood by its account, saying that 25 militants and five civilians were killed in the operation.

The UN said that "residents were able to confirm the number of casualties, including names, age and gender of the victims," AP reported.
I sure hope our next administration is a bit more honest with the rest of the world.

Hurricane gives markets excuse to raise oil prices

Hurricane Gustav heads toward oil rigs 8/26/08

It's A Tie, in my opinion.
One of the "Gamer" websites had a
"50 sexiest women in Sci-Fi" poll.

I found that, even though I rarely
watch the new Star Trek spin offs,
number 7 of 9, seemed to be played
by a very attractive actress.

Since, "Gamers", tend to be fixed in
eternal puberty, ( Gamers is a term
used to describe those who play video
games.), my criteria is somewhat
different when it comes to sexy.

Classic Star Trek communication officer Uhura
Believe it or not, you can buy "Bluetooth" ear pieces that look like this 1960's, "future", communication device.

Today's appropriate music selection;
"Fire", by the Ohio Players.

I Believe

It's So Nice To Be

Here and Happy

Sunset Clouds 8/5/08
It was so nice to see clouds at sunset. The last time we had clouds like this was in June, just before the giant thunder storm that started over 1,000 fires. Some of those fires are still burning. We are pretty much clear of the heavy smoke that obscured the clouds and stars for over a month. Once again, "It's So Nice To Be Outside".

The song is almost finished and you can hear the latest version on
My Space.

Papa Paul Thomas and I, are having fun with writing and recording, back and forth across the globe using MP3's and e-mail. I recorded the beginnings of a couple more songs yesterday and sent them to Paul in Scotland via, e-mail. That is so cool. He sent me a song he recorded the other night with his son, called, "Roderick The Imposter". He said he wrote it while visiting St. Kilda. I googled St. Kilda and watched a video about it's history. His story for the song is related to the history of that island.

Dawn clouds 8/6/08
It's 6:21 in the morning. The birds are waking, the residents are stirring, and its 70 degrees on the balcony. Last night there were occasional flashes of distant lightning and thunderstorms are possible because of the monsoonal moisture pushing northward through California and Nevada. Details on the 6 o'clock news. Ha Ha.

120,000 Gorillas found living in an African swamp.

It seems that these gorillas have avoided detection by hiding in a remote swampland. Good for them.

Morning clouds 8/6/08
This is turning out to be a lovely day. It's a good thing I didn't get the Buick washed yesterday. We have had just enough sprinkles to mess up a clean car.

I was talking to a friend down at the club today. He is a computer technician, set-up, repair guy. Windows, of course. Not a lot goes wrong with a Mac. Anyway, he was telling me I should get a page with, "Tagged". He thinks it's a lot safer than My Space, when it comes to viruses and such. Viruses aren't really an issue with a Mac, but I thought I would check it out.

The sign up process is just too invasive, and insists on submitting way too much of my security data. It included a redirect to another site that wanted even more information that could be used to easily steal my identity. It even sent an invitation to me, at an e-mail address that I didn't give it.

The only reason I was even filling out the forms was to see if it had a place where I could post my music, like I have on My Space. The pages were DOS clunky, and I got out of there as fast as I could. My advice is to avoid, "Tagged".

In the end I will continue to have my music playing on My Space for your listening enjoyment. Feel free to go there without fear of viruses, just don't open anything that looks odd or has the words DOS or Windows or Microsoft and you will be just fine.

Green hills and clouds 8/6/08
Although you can see some burned patches, most of the mountains are green with forests after the wildfires.
It's a beautiful day.

Life in the Milky Way

A Broader Perspective

Pinwheel Galaxy

Today there was an article in the on line version of the local paper, about the condition of the forests after the wildfires that have been burning for a month. The article stated that for the most part, these fires were good for the forest. This set off a series of comments from on line readers that left me wondering about the perspectives of the writers. One poster in particular got my attention when he referred to the forest as, "OUR", forest. There were a lot of suggestions about how we should manage, our, forests.

First of all, they are not our forests, and secondly, they have been doing just fine with or without our management. How presumptuous to claim Gods creations as our own. This attitude that somehow we are separate from the rest of life, is delusional. We are no more important in the order of life on this planet than a bug or a blade of grass. We don't own anything. We just made up that concept. In the big picture, our conceit is laughable. The universe goes on with or without us.

We hear a lot of talk about Global Warming, Nuclear Disaster, Destruction of Rain Forests, and other earth threatening calamities caused by human activity, but those things are not going to end the earth. They will probably be the end of us, but not the planet. If earth were to run into a giant space rock, that just might put an end to the planet.

Illustration of Asteroid Tracker Satellite
Canada, plans to orbit a satellite in 2010 that will locate and track space rocks, to warn us of doomsday collisions.

Our flagrant disregard of history, and the customs of those who have gone before us, only causes us problems. The Vikings started a colony on Greenland. Did they adopt the ways of the people who had been living there for hundreds of years? Of course not. They built houses, planted crops and wore the clothes they wore in Europe. They were freezing their asses off, so they ended up chopping down all the trees to stay warm. Without the protection of the trees, the crops failed, the animals died and they went back home cursing that, "God forsaken place."

People lived in northern California for thousands of years before we came here and took over. I don't recall any of the original inhabitants building permanent structures in the forest. No, it took great thinkers like us to build on flood plains, beaches, and on the sides of volcanoes. How many of our attempts to alter nature, to suit our purposes, have ultimately failed?

Our way of life is artificial and extremely vulnerable to collapse. I am happy to have the comforts of our civilization, but I also know that all this stuff is no more than a fly speck on the great scheme of things.
We, are all part of all creation.
We are made of the same stuff that comprises the known universe. When I feel that I am part of all things, I am comforted, empowered, and spiritually aware.
I feel that connection and I am happy.
I am cosmic dust with comprehension.
I am blessed.

Biscuits, Monsanto, and Blue Skies

Biscuits for Dinner

I have been having some annoying after effects from standing and preparing the kind of meals I truly enjoy. In addition to my deteriorating disks and the damage to my sciatic nerve, my hernia is telling me to get surgery soon. It's getting more difficult to keep my intestine stuffed inside like it's supposed to be. I have to find a surgeon who does these operations with a good success rate that will take my case before my case ends up in the emergency room. At any rate, preparing a nutritious gourmet meal isn't happening until I get the hernia fixed, so I have been making parts of meals, like salad or grilled vegetables.

Tonight I didn't have fresh veggies in the fridge, but I found a cylinder of biscuits. Alright, easy...

Cylinder of biscuits and pizza pan/cookie sheet.

Preheat the oven for 400° and bake for 15 minutes. This is the 2nd time I have used the oven since I moved here last December. Now that I think about it, I made biscuits then as well. Back in December, I went out to get a baking pan to cook biscuits and figured one day I might make pizza, so why not get a pizza pan for cookies and biscuits too? I have yet to make a pizza.

" Mmm, feels like beef tallow."

If you are squeamish, don't read the ingredients on the cylinder. In addition to highly processed, genetically modified corn, wheat, and soy products, it contains 15% of things like beef tallow and potassium chloride, but no buttermilk.

"Buttermilk", biscuits.

Still alive after eating easy to prepare, fake food.

I could spend years reading all the reports, legislation, articles and dangers of Monsanto's GM, roundup ready seeds and the damage these crops are doing to life on earth, but I would be dead of the diseases caused by eating this stuff before I could read half of the scientific data that suggests that it's bad for us. Here is a brief synopsis of what I have found so far;

Monsanto has been using our government to promote the use of GMO's, ( They hold over 1,000,000 patents for genetic modification.). The U.N and the World Trade Organization are coercing countries around the world to buy and use these products. There is no seed saving, these are one crop seeds. Farmers must buy more GM seeds and Roundup each year. It is illegal for farmers in Iraq to plant any crop other than Monsanto GM roundup ready seeds. To plant real crops would result in a loss of property, fines and imprisonment. Operation Iraqi freedom?

More than 70% of the food in our grocery stores has Genetically Modified food products in it!
Bee keepers in the U.S. are refusing to let their bees pollinate GM crops because the pollen is toxic to the bees.
Studies are showing an increase in allergies, intestinal lesions, reproductive disorders, and liver disease in rats that are fed GM foods.
Roundup is a form of Agent Orange.
New forms of roundup resistant weeds are beginning to appear.
Some of the GM crops are beginning to fail as organisms adapt to the pesticides genetically introduced to the plants DNA.
The pollen from these crops is polluting natural crops that grow nearby.
GM plants kill the larvae of the Monarch Butterfly.

Happier News...

"Campfire smoke" moon. 12:00 am 7/20/08

Morning moon 6:00 am 7/20/08

Most of the wildfires are pretty much out, or under control. The smoke has been dissipating daily and soon the air will be ok to breathe again.

Blue skies and tiny cumulus clouds 4:00 pm

There were tiny, white clouds, like floating polka dots, in the blue sky.

On my balcony 7/20/08 4:00 pm

WILDFIRES AND GUITAR NUTS

Looking west from Shasta dam road 7/14/08
There was not much burning near Shasta Dam on Monday because there wasn't much left to burn. The hazy smoke lay upon the hills in all directions. It was 104° and somewhat calm when this picture was taken.

Looking towards Shasta Dam 7/14/08
The burned area to the left of the dam is from backfires that were set to protect the dam and power plant. There are boats on the lake, but they are too small to see in this picture. To remedy that, I drove to a spot closer to the lake where a couple of houseboats were pulled up to the shore.

Party on the lake 7/14/08
It's clear to see that life goes on at Lake Shasta where people are relaxing after 2 weeks of wildfires.
With the temperature still hovering close to 105°, I took a break and went inside the Shasta Dam visitor center.

From visitor center theater

Tuesday July 15, 2008
I went out to Keswick Dam Road around 1 O'clock today and noticed there were still some stubborn spots in what is called the "Motion" fire. It is named for it's point of origin near the Motion mine.

Looking west from Keswick Dam Road 7/15/08
It didn't seem like there would be much fuel left for the fire, but there it was still burning.

7/15/08

Helicopter flies past fire 7/15/08
During the time I spent taking pictures, there were 3 helicopters that flew by with buckets of water. They were getting water at Lake Shasta and taking it to a fire I couldn't see from where I was. My guess is that there was nothing around these fires that wasn't already burned, so the attention was being directed to one of the other fires that still rage on.

Yours truly 7/15/08
When I first arrived, the temperature was a comfortable 98°, but when it reached 100, I was glad I had my hat for shade.

Guitar nuts are a piece of bone, metal or plastic, from which the strings are suspended over the fretboard, across the sound hole and finally touchdown on the bridge.

The nut is the white thing.

It all started when a friend called and asked if I would string and tune his guitar for him. I said sure, and stopped at the music store to pick up some strings. On my way to the store I got to thinking about new strings for my guitar, too. Over the last few years I have been disappointed in the sound and feel of the strings I had been using, so I figured I would try a higher quality string and hope for good results. I got there and looked at what was available and decided to try D'Addario EXP coated phosphor strings. The best brand of strings I generally use are made by D'Addario, so I figured their premium string might be satisfactory. $27.00 + tax and I was out the door with 2 set's for the price of one.

When I was removing the old strings from his black Fender acoustic, I noticed how dirty it was and asked for some polish and a rag. We talked about quantum physics and modern medicine while I polished and re-strung his guitar with the EXP strings. They seated, tuned with remarkable precision, and sounded great on his guitar. With the polishing and new strings it was like a brand new instrument.

Oh how I was looking forward to hearing a set of these strings on my Takamine, as I drove home. If they only sound half as good on my guitar, they will have been worth the price, I thought.

I kept finding other things to do at home, so it took me three days to finally get the old strings off. Once they were off, I looked at my guitar and saw how dirty it was. I got a rag and some Martin guitar polish and began to make my white maple guitar look good. Then I turned to the neck. With the body and the head so clean, the neck looked filthy! It was a difficult decision I had to make. Does 30 years of blood, sweat and tears add to the character of my sound or will it sound and play better if it were clean? It took awhile, but with Pledge and Polish I managed to remove the caked on remnants of years gone by. It was then that I noticed the nut.

The front edge of the nut looks like chipped teeth.

Would you look at the time! Well I'm pretty sure I'll do something about that nut and put the new strings on tomorrow.

Life is good and I am truly blessed.

Busy Skies and Boogie Men

The Redding skies are busy. Water Bombers, helicopters, spotter planes and birds swoop and drop their loads on the wildfires today.

Looking up from Keswick Dam Road 7/11/08

From Keswick Dam Road 7/11/08

Helicopter. Keswick Dam Road 7/11/08

Bird. Keswick Dam Road 7/11/08

Droppings. Keswick Dam Road 7/11/08

All the above happened in less than 10 minutes. Including the bird. Even with my little 3X optical zoom, the planes were so close at times that I could get a picture like the following.

Keswick Dam Road 7/11/08

" Bogy at 12 O'clock, captain." Screen writers always seemed to put that line in the script for war movies I couldn't resist finding the origin of Bogy. It seems there were some 14th century pirates who lived in Ujung Pandang, on the Kalimantan Kumai River, who were called the Bugis. The were so frightening and savage when they would attack British ships, the sailors that survived would come back to England with scary stories of the Bogy's, or Bogy Men. What we now call, "Boogie Men."

These same sailors would be served their meals on square wooden planks while on board the ships, and that's where we get,
"Square Meal!"
Not to be confused with, "Square Deal", which came from the Egyptians. If you look closely at a hieroglyph of a Pharaoh sitting in judgment, you will notice he is sitting on a, "square", like carpenters and masons use. He will also be holding a blue feather, from which we get. "True Blue." This is not to be confused with, "Blue Blood", that refers to the rich who would eat with silver utensils and plates. The silver absorbed into their bodies would give a blue tint to their blood. The rich were far less likely to fall victim to the prevalent diseases that plagued the peasants who ate and cooked with leaded pots and plates. A common practice among the wealthy was to place a silver spoon in their baby's mouth to kill off germs. That's right, you guessed it, "Born with a silver spoon". When I was a baby, it was still customary to have a "Baby Spoon" made of silver. This would help prevent childhood illnesses. Today, people use plastic and wonder why their baby has ear infections, allergies and other maladies.

Meanwhile, back to the fires.

Keswick Dam Road 7/11/08

Planes over the fire. 7/11/08

If you go to the following site, your cursor will be on fire!
http://www.flamingcursor.com/

Today I started several projects and though I haven't completed all of them, I am happy with those that are done.

Finally, a picture of one of my favorite places in Redding...

Redding Library 7/11/08