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!

Stony Ridge

Up on Stony Ridge there is a spring called Cedar Spring. I finally found it today after several attempts earlier in the year. Nothing spectacular, it is a spring that has been developed. It has a trough for cattle or wildlife. Considering the well worn trails coming into the spring, it must get lots of use.

One cool thing about it is that it is totally inaccessable by vehicle. There is a road leading to it but it is washed out in many places and overgrown with brush and even trees that kind of tell how long it's been since it was drivable.

The view from the top of the ridge was pretty good, lots of burned areas from last summer.

Contemplation

Sounds like an exciting topic, doesn't it? Kramer yearns.... I contemplate. I was contemplating some existential topics just today, I might add. One of the advantages of being out by myself is that I have no one to talk to but me. Well, I do admit to talking with some of the animals I run into on my travels. So far none of them has talked back to me, so I guess that's a good thing, like Martha says. Neither one of these pictures was from today I was too busy contemplating to take any new ones.

This buck did not want to leave the apple tree where it was enjoying some of the best apples around. I like this particular tree and one next to it; it has some of the best tasting apples and they are larger than some of the others too. Anyway, the buck just stood there watching me approach so I kept the tree between him and me. He finally went away and my friend Chris climbed into the tree and knocked down enough apples for all of us, including the deer.

Yes, Michelle... same old, same old.

Planned obsolescence

Funny that when I'm out riding my bike in the woods, I think about stuff like planned obsolescence. That's an old catch phrase from years ago. Originally I heard it referring to automobiles. Now days it totally can be connected to computers and software. You buy the best money can buy, and a month later it's slower than molasses. Of course buying the best money can buy does not accurately describe my purchasing strategy when building a new computer, but you look for the sweet spot when it comes to price vs quality.

So I know this guy... let's call him Elaine... No, Randy. He builds a new computer thinking that now he can finally run some of the software he has, on a computer that can finally handle it. He get's it all done, installs the latest operating system from Microsoft and then begins to come to the realization that most of the software he already owns will not run in Windows Vista. So a new operating system means all new software. Big shocker for the guy who only wants to use something he has already purchased. Now I remember when Windows XP was released... similar issues, but not like this! Sure, there were some software incompatibilities with XP, but installing anything not written specifically for Vista is a crap shoot. Randy was fucked.

Oh well, I'm not really complaining, in fact I like Vista. What Vista forced me to do was try open source software, and I have to tell you, I was pleasantly surprised. I now use open source software for image editing, office applications, and anything else I can. So much for buying Microsoft's over priced office suite. Oh yeah, so far the open source software works fine with Vista. So much for planned obsolescence.

Oh, what does all this have to do with this picture... absolutely nothing!

Mining

Yep, I'm a miner on the side. I get out and mine as often as I can. Today I got a pretty large bag of ore. It was so nice that I had to get a picture of it.

I also thought getting a closer look at one of the nice nuggets would be cool too, so here it is.

Ya gotta love it!!

Script errors..

Silicon diodes, cpu cycles, bios settings, or a bike ride in the woods... mmmm, let me see. Actually I like both of those subjects, one complementing the other in many ways. Yesterday I tried to help my friend Tom figure out what was wrong with his laptop. First it didn't have any free space on the hard drive. Finally got that sorted out with a little button that has "delete" printed on it. It wasn't as easy as it sounds but it's a done deal now.

Then he was getting these script errors when you tried to open "Event Viewer" or open the "User Accounts" applet. In addition, the search feature opened with a blank page and web sites were not rendering correctly in the browser... IE7. After a little searching myself on the internet I found that for some reason, sometimes, Internet Explorer 7 causes several dll files to be corrupted. Apparently those dll's are ones that control the functions that weren't working. So, uninstalling IE7 was the first thing to do. After that some stuff worked, you could get into the "User Accounts" but you still couldn't open "Event Viewer" or "Computer Management." More script errors. Anyway, to make a long story just a little bit longer I had to restore, or re-register, the dll files. My assumption is that taking that action corrected those corrupted files. So bandaid as it is I just downloaded Firefox and they can use that browser without difficulty as long as they don't try to go to a site that requires Internet Explorer.

Yes, I tried uninstalling IE7 and reinstalling it. Still caused the problems after being re-installed. Kind of a weird problem if you ask me. I use IE7 on both my Windows computers and have had no problem so it's something specific to that laptop.

So it was nice today for me to get out and ride my bike... best of both worlds.