Saline bound

Well, tomorrow I'm heading for Saline. Valley, that is. With the recent cold spell we've had up north it should feel nice to get down in the desert and soak up some sunshine. I would've gone the week before Thanksgiving but I had to work that week. Since most of my life revolves around outdoor activities the weather plays an important part in my plans. The week before Thanksgiving the weather was wonderful for just about any outdoor activities. Next week, who knows what will happen. Just to be on the safe side I made an alternative plan with my friend Paul who lives in Vegas. I'm planning on being in Saline until next Saturday and if the weather turns bad on me while I'm down there and it looks like my travel will be affected, I'll just go down to Vegas and visit Paul for a couple of days.

Saline Valley is very remote and subject to access restrictions when there is inclement weather. The two main roads leading in there, the north pass and the south pass are both susceptible to snow events. Both of these roads are narrow and steep and snow on either one of them can cause problems. Fortunately there are a couple of other roads that aren't affected quite as much, specifically Steele pass and Lippencott road. Both of those options are open for me however my friend Cliff who is going with me is driving a 2 wheel-drive truck and both of those alternate roads are recommended only for four wheel drive. I've never been over Steele pass but that one is probably the easiest of the two alternatives. Hopefully I won't need to find out.

So by tomorrow evening I should be sitting in a tub of hot water somewhere in the desert south of here. I can't wait!

Cold!

OK, I guess I'm really not ready for winter. It's gotten a little bit too cold to ride my bike, even though yesterday I saw an old guy up on the Bizz riding his bike. In fact, I told him it was a little too cold for bike riding. He seemed to agree with me but I couldn't hear him very well through the music that was coming through my headphones so I just kept walking. Nice guy,huh!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving day. I'm going fishing in the morning up at Eagle Lake with Rene, an old friend of mine. I've been skunked four times already, which incidentally, is the total number of times I've been up there this year. I'm hoping tomorrow breaks that string of bad luck. Unfortunately, the weather is not looking too favorable for a good day at that lake. I usually like to see some clouds, some wind, and my bobber going down a lot. The forecast is for clear and cold so bundling up will be the order of the day.

My Vista computer has been experiencing some strange behavior since a Microsoft update was applied a couple of days ago. Previously, when I click start and then shut down it would go into sleep mode, completely powered down with just the power led flashing. Now, when I click the power button the monitor shuts off for a second and then comes right back on. After several tries I can keep the monitor off but nothing else is powered down. I'm almost positive that it's related to that update, which is the only change that has been made to my computer since the problem started. There are several work arounds that I have available to me but applying an update should not be causing these types of problems. Ahhh... The wonderful world of computing.

Well by looking at my thermometer I see that the temperature is finally gotten above freezing so I guess I'll head to the store. You Gotta love the cold!