cops and communication

link to Snop Dogg video below
Snoop Dogg talks to cops 

Black lives matter. Yes. This expression was meant to say more than what appears on the surface.

pushy wind

The wind was so strong this morning that I had a hard time pushing the front door open when I went to get the paper. Then there was no paper! I searched again later, when there was better light, but couldn't find it. I thought it had blown away. After a couple of hours. it emerged from a bush of hollyhock leaves where the wind had hidden it.

Need more info

This is interesting information, but nowhere near enough to lead me to a decision.

in reference to: What You Need to Know When Buying a Media Streamer | Product Reviews | Wired.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

new experiences

Reinee had a new experience today. At about 6:50 AM, following LaVerkin Creek through Confluence Park as we headed back toward the car during our morning run, she took the opportunity to get up close and personal with a skunk. This skunk crossed the trail ahead of us about a week ago, but Reinee was closer to me that time and I was able to call her to me and keep her a good distance away from the critter, as he "high tailed it" across the trail. This time, I think he was waiting for us to return, and, tail up again, he walked out just as Reinee reached his observation point. I yelled at her to go "back", and she finally obeyed, reluctantly. He followed her! She stopped, he sprayed and he walked into the bushes on the south side of the trail.

Reinee shook and snorted, then trotted to me when I called. Fresh skunk spray smells different than you'd expect, but I had been sprayed once myself and was with Sam when he was sprayed, so I recognized the odor. We walked a short ways, and Reinee started to veer toward the bushes on the right. I was about to call her back when I was relieved to see that she backed off on her own. I shifted to the berm on the north side of the trail. Sure enough, as I passed the spot where Reinee had stopped, I was entertained by the sight of the back end of a skunk, tail straight up and fluffed out. There's not much uglier than the business end of a skunk, even if you aren't aware of just what that business is. That villain had walked along through the bushes parallel to the trail and was waiting to ambush us again. He didn't squirt me, but I didn't get very close.

Because I didn't want Reinee to stink up the car, I sent Terry home to get the pickup. He had a hard time starting it, so I guess it needed a run anyway. It took some doing to coax Reinee into the back with me, but finally we rode the half-mile home in the open air. I think she enjoyed it. Then, after giving her a quick drink of water at the front step, I took her out back and went looking for some tomato juice. When I came back out, she was sliding around in the gravel and getting all covered with dust, especially her face. I doused her with tomato juice, rubbed it in with a rag, and hosed her off. Since she likes to "bite the water", hosing her off wasn't as tough as it might have been. I didn't want to hose off her ears, though, and they had really taken a good squirt from Pepe LePew. I rubbed them with the juice-soaked rag and wiped them off after rinsing the rag.

I toweled Reinee down and washed the towel along with my shoes, shirt and pants and Terry's jacket, scented when he lifted her into the pickup bed.  She didn't smell too bad, but there was an aura wherever she went. Then I made my big mistake. I sprayed some Febreze in her direction. I don't like Febreze; it makes me sneeze, but I figured a couple of small squirts wouldn't be a big deal. Ha! Where it hit Reinee's fur, I guess it cancelled out the tomato juice, because it brought the skunk smell back! So I hosed Reinee off once more. She's drying out, slowly.

wireless mouse

I now have the wireless mouse I need to make the old laptop usable for photo processing. No more excuses. Desert flowers would be a good place to start, because it's been a wonderful year for spring bloom here. I'll put together a scrapbook's worth, and go back and identify the flowers later.

photobucket

I'm still working on procedures to use photobucket pro for photo sharing. I was disappointed to find I couldn't edit my 2 MB originals directly on Photobucket, but I can see that other people wouldn't need to do this, and it does avoid some potential problems. That means I'll be PhotoShopping on the old computer with the dead wireless, and transferring to the wired machine Ihat won't install PhotoShop correctly so that I can upload edited photos to Photobucket. Not an insurmountably obstacle, but annoying.

Woohoo

I've been having so much trouble with this computer that working around it uses up most of my free time. I can't get PhotoShop to work on this computer, and learning new photo programs is mindboggling. I had an old computer repaired and upgraded, hoping to use the old PhotoShop, but when I plugged in my thumnb drive with the camera flash card, the USB ports weren't working (I thought). The wireless doesn't work either. Despair. But yesterday, I tried to use laptop speakers through the USB port. First try failed, but the second port is working. I must have tried the same port twice (ditz!) with the flash card. So I can go back to PhotoShop without the nightmare of copying to hard drive and CD and then to the old hard drive. WOW!
Maybe I'll get back to posting here. I've missed it.

Dogfest, roaring water, cracking rocks

The most interesting thing this week was a trip to Rockville for Dogfest at the Doggy Dude Ranch. Unfortunately, Reinee had an anxiety attack about being there with all those dogs and owners. She'd been there once before, as a test, to see if we could leave her for a few hours, and she did OK, but yesterday she went bonkers and had an attack of extreme dandruff and shedding, her way of expressing high anxiety.


In the yard, I just keep after the weeds. The stakes holding the honeysuckle away from the back fence (so that they don't get herbicided by the city) gave way, and I had to find a new way to tie the wire trellis back. The wind really works those over. It's still a temporary fix but will help for now. We found another apricot that had survived the April 6 freeze -- so now we have two apricots (that's individual fruit, not trees). Aphids are attacking the apricot and the plum. I've seen ladybugs, but they are not keeping up with the supply of aphids, so I hose the undersides of the leaves off every couple of days.

The birds must be feeding hordes of little ones. They've been eating a quart of thistle seed, a quart of sunflower seed, and two quarts of mixed wild bird food (mostly millet) every day.

Our run through the hills was interesting today. The road ahead didn't look like much, though after a while I could see we were approaching a chasm, no uncommon thing around here. Then I noticed a faint roaring sound, which I ultimately realized must be water. Surely, there's not that much water in the river, I thought; there must be a waterfall, or at least some rapids. And then we saw ...

We think this is the dam that provides power for the local irrigation water system. Our street is one of the older ones, so we don't have irrigation water. We have to use culinary water for our plants, so we are definitely in favor of xeriscaping.

Along the side of this chasm, there is an extensive web of clefts in the rock.

Many of the cracks would be easy to step over, and there are photogenic scenes beyond them, but I'm afraid to pursue them because Reinee is busy chasing lizards through the brush as I work. I'm afraid a lizard may go over the edge, and she might slip into a crack. She's a leaper, and would be OK if she saw what was there, but I don't want to take the chance.

She never catches the lizards, who slip by faster than a shadow, but she loves the chase. Here she is saying, "Just one more lizard, Mom?"

On the way back to the car, we see a couple of large vultures headed toward Virgin. I dream of spotting one of the condors someday.

flowers, lizards, rivers and hikers

Reinee had fun chasing lizards today. I actually saw one this time. They are very skinny and move faster than a shadow. She'll never catch one and wouldn't know what to do if she did. She just likes to leap and bound over the bushes in the chase.

Flowers are abundant in the desert this year. A great time for photography. This yucca will be a knockout when the blooms burst out.

Sego lily (to the right) is the Utah State Flower.

I've put together a slide show from today's run. It shows water in the Virgin River. At the end of the walk we spotted some hikers climbing the hill where we started out.

Here's a link to the slide show:

Reinee's Run, May 7, 2010

Thomas Dolby: "Love Is a Loaded Pistol" | Video on TED.com

Thomas Dolby: "Love Is a Loaded Pistol" Video on TED.com

CROSSROADS: Hurricane Valley Happenings

I'm setting up a Facebook page to cover the kind of information that the Hurricane Valley Journal used to provide. It will be mostly links to other web pages that describe events in the eastern part of Washington County, Utah. There are some great websites out there, some good news coverage I can link to, and some absolutely amazing blogs.

cold and windy

It's been cold and very windy the last few days, and Reinee has been missing her walks. There was a shower Wednesday night, but not enough rain to water deeply.

Mayor's hike, then Tangemans arrive, Sunday run

Saturday, LaVerkin Mayor Karl Wilson led a group of us up to the south end of the Laverkin Overlook from the south end of town, where the Virgin River approaches State Hwy 9.  Reinee received special permission to join us. It was a steep hike, and there were opportunities for climbing, but gentler grades were always availble via brief switchbacks. The views were spectacular. 

Here's a link to a slideshow.
Mayor's hike to LaVerkin Overlook
You may have to arrow your way through the slides.

Here's a sample photo:

Terry picked me up at the Overlook so that we would be sure to be home when Jim and Marian Tangeman arrived for their promised visit. It was good to see them again after such a long time. Jim and Terry talked about steam engines; Marian and I talked about eveything else. We enjoyed dinner at Britt's Cafe in Hrricane. Jim and Marian left on Sunday -- entriely too soon.

Reinee's Sunday run produced some nice photos. Many wildflowers are coming into bloom following a nurturing series of spring rains. Among todays new ones were sego lilies and evening primrose. Being unfamiliar with desert flora, I've been unable to identify many of the plants I see. Work to do! There's a joyous prospect.

Here's another slideshow:
Reinee's run 4/25/10

and a sample photo:

Reinee's Run - a slide show

We're having a cold, rainy spell, but yesterday we managed to fit in Reinee's run before the rain arrived. The skies were spectacular. 

We explored what looked like it would be a short trail, the last unexplored trail. It turned out to be the route to the bottom of the canyon, where the creek flows in rainy times. We tried to stay out of the wash as much as possible. The cold wind had chilled us at the beginning of our walk, and we welcomed the shelter of the canyon.

I'll add photos of the canyon after I've cropped, resized and sharpened them.

fascinating trails linked to LaVerkin Overlook

There are a surprising number of trails and viewpoints linked to the LaVerkin Overlook. With Terry driving us to our starting point, Reinee and I have been exploring this area south of Highway 9 between LaVerkin and Virgin. Most of the flowers we found were in the higher area to the west.

summer is here

We ate lunch alfresco today for the first time this year, and The Big Chill booth (shaved ice) at the Hurricane/LaVerkin town line opened for the season.

The apricot tree is providing just enough shade so that it's comfortable to eat out on our mini-patio.

Overlook Road

Tuesday and Thursday, Reinee's Run took us to the Laverkin Overlook road. I took a series photos of the developed lower Hurricane Valley side (east) and the Zion side (west) where the foreground is a deep, rocky gulch. I'll try to stitch the photos into panoramics and post them on a site that will do them justice.

some luck with iGoogle

Computer problems continue, but I have been having some luck with iGoogle.

The Search for Toquerville Falls

The closing of the roads past the gravel pit threw a few big boulders into my plans to find the back road to Toquerville Falls. Yesterday, Terry brought us out to his little overlook off Highway 9, and Reinee and I hiked across country toward the road I had seen from the gravel pit area. It was interesting to see Grotto Cove from above.

Several wildflowers attracted our attention - the reds of blooming paintbrush and mammilaria, and the gentle pinks of Mojave paintbrush. I slipped on some loose rock and my hand came down on a mammilaria. Pulling out the spines was no fun. It drew blood!

In the distance, I could see the gravel road which I thought might take us to Toquerville Falls. Unfortunately, there's no way to get to it without going down into the area near the gravel pit. Using any other route, the final descents are dangerously steep, almost vertical. We'd have to go back out Highway 9 and up past the guard rail section to find a way across. But I could see another way in, from Highway 17, and Terry was willing to explore it, so we went back out and gave it a try. After navigating a half-completed housing development (Those fireplugs looked so lonely!) we wound our way along a steep and narrow gravel road that our little 2-wheel drive pickup could just barely navigate. We were finally able to turn around near the Toquerville water tank. The ride down was scary. Loose gravel created poor traction and there were steep drop-offs on both sides. But we did see a side road that led off to the north, toward Toquerville Falls.

Today Terry took us out and dropped us off at the beginning of that road. It was quite windy, with rain threatening. When it was almost time to turn around, we took a steep road to the right, which led us around by the water tank and back to the car. Reinee insisted on sniffing around near the almost vertical drop-offs. I had to call her back several times. The wind was very strong. Luckily it was blowing away from the steep drops. When we rounded one curve, I could lean into the wind and feel it supporting me. It reminded me of walking over the Nuuanu Pali in Hawaii. Reinee wasn't crazy about the wind, but we pushed forward. The wind was getting into my ears, and I can imagine, with her huge ears, that it was much worse for her.