Thursday, July 14, 2011

To the lady in my life

I'd like to wish a happy birthday to Sandy, my wife.





Monday, July 11, 2011

"Good times, bad times, you know I've seen my share" -Led Zeppelin

Good times and bad ones this weekend.

My wife and I spent some time Saturday up in the Uinta Mountains, about an hour and a half from Salt Lake.
It was still early spring/late winter in the higher elevations, and quite a bit of snow there. The Bear River and the Provo were both raging fairly well due to the high runoff at this time. It was a pretty good day, all in all.

Picture 1: alpine flowers starting to bloom.
Picture 2: Mirror Lake
Picture 3: the trail around the lake (some of the drifts were 3 feet deep)
Picture 4: upper falls of the Provo River






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Now for the bad times.
We were driving out to my mom's place to visit her, and never made it out there.
As we were heading out of the valley, along the Great Salt Lake, we ran into a downpour of rain. I slowed down considerably, since the road can be slippery (the speed limit is 75mph, I was doing 50mph). Up ahead I could see people slowing down and stopping (there were a couple of accidents up there), so I let off the gas, and tapped my brakes to slow down as I was approaching them. Nothing happened; I had hit a sheet of water and lost all traction. My my brakes had no effect, and I was unable to steer, so I just sailed into the back of a small car.
The other driver was unhurt, I was uninjured, but my wife (being much smaller than me) was bruised across the sternum and waist when the seat belt kept her from going into the dash and windshield.
Some days you wish you had stayed in bed.

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A mixed bag in this bunch of music

"It's Only Make Believe" by Conway Twitty
"Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon
"If I Were a Carpenter" by Bobby Darin
"Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine" by Country Joe and the Fish
"My Back Pages" by The Byrds
"You Ain't Going Nowhere" by Bob Dylan
"The Warrior" by Patty Smyth
"Hit Me With Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar
"Waltzing Matilda" by Slim Dusty
"Wanted Man" by George Thorogood






Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Small talk and pictures

Summer has finally hit. We went from cool temperatures to 99°F (or just over 37°for you of the metric persuasion) in a matter of days. Some of the flora is confused however; the yucca plants in the neighborhood are just barely opening their flowers, which is something they usually do in early June.

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Remember the photo of the dove I had at last post? They have a new member of the family now. I caught this picture while mom was away from the nest.



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We went for a drive in the mountains Saturday; American Fork Canyon and over to Provo Canyon. We wanted to go there on Memorial Day, but the road was still closed due to snow and washed out roads. What we noticed was that all the streams were roaring white water, and many were trying to overflow the banks.

Picture 1: this is normally a tiny seep next to the road.  It had washed out a section of road and had to be diverted into a culvert under the road.  Instead of a few inches across, it is now about four foot across, and flowing fast.

Picture 2: a lake up at Granite Flats; the people were having good luck pulling out some fair-sized rainbow trout.

Picture 3: typical looking area; there are humongous boulders scattered about in some of the forest areas left over from the Ice Age. 

Picture 4: patch of wild columbine

Picture 5: closeup of columbine



















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For those who liked the Moab photos, here are a few more.   .

Picture 1: a lone butte from Island in the Sky
Picture 2: a jeep road, looking down from the Sixshooter Viewpoint
Picture 3: looking down from Island in the Sky; if you look close you can see roads all around down there





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Still listening to the oldies.

"Dead Man's Curve" by Jan and Dean
"Your Cheatin' Heart" by Hank Williams
"Light My Fire" (long version) by The Doors
"Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream
"Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys
"The House of the Rising Son" by Eric Burdon and the Animals
"Brown Sugar" by The Rolling Stones
"Summer Nights" by The Marianne Faithful
"She's Not There" by The Zombies
"Beg, Borrow and Steal" by The Ohio Express