• Members 336 posts
    May 3, 2023, 9:15 a.m.

    This is what the sky has looked like for too many days, now.
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    I imagine this sky looks like home to Dave. All the trailers mean it's fog-fishing time. That's much better than ice-fishing because it ain't cold. Even the Toyota Matrix at right is hooked up to a trailer. It's rubber band CV transmission won't like that.
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    I decided to fight the fog by driving up on the 3,000 feet elevation mountain ridge just behind Humboldt Bay. The road leaves Eureka at sea level and climbs up to 3,000 feet elevation in about 17 miles. It's very steep and curvaceous and fun to drive, second gear in the turns and third gear on the straights. The Kia handles and brakes very nicely and I have stickier new Michelins than before. The blood drains from my brain down into my right foot and my now shrunken brain sloshes around inside my skull through the turns. This about half way up at a break in the forest where you can look west and see parts of Humboldt Bay and the surrounding pastures as the fog recedes. I'm already well above the fog.
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    Up on top of the ridge, looking WxSW. This point is about 2,700 feet elevation and it is hot up here, around 90° F., it is less than 60° down at the beach.
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    I had my Kia converted to run on cosmotronic waves and this is the filling station. I might as well get a charge whilst up here. The cosmotronic waves take up time, but no space, so I can buy a charge to last me a certain amount of time. Six months worth is good for me. That much costs a buck three eighty and it takes 420 seconds exactly to absorb six months worth of waves from The Van Allen Radiation Belt and squirt them into the new tank, which is made from a beer keg. You can see them damn waves being directed towards my car. Some of them shot through the knothole in my wooden leg and it played something I'd like to hear Gracie Slick sing, and Andrew likely already has heard and played on his guitar in the basement. Now that I know Andrew is a vocalist who claims to be even better than Gordon Lightfoot, and claims ability to outstrum Les Paul, I want to hear him sing "White Rabbit" whilst accompanying himself on guitar....."....One pill makes you bigger, and one pill makes you small. And the one that mother gives you doesn't do anything at all. Go as Alice...." I'd pay good money to hear that if Andrew is willing to record it.

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    Up on the highest part of the ridge, looking north. It is very high up here, one way or the other, and you can see a long way. I believe the white part way beyond the first ridge is Canada. It is the right colour, isn't it? Yup, it's The Great White North, eh?
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    On the way down, another stop to look West. The fog has relented back to the beach and is waiting for the cool night to return to the land on little cat feet.
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    Back down at the beach where I started, on The Samoa Peninsula, Humboldt Bay side looking north. The fog is waiting patiently over The Pacific on the left. This is a popular spot for tourists with large recreational vehicles. Just the smart off season tourists now. In a few weeks it will be jammed with motor homes and trailers in those marked spaces, packed in like kippers in a tin.
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    Last one and it makes me remember an article a few years back in some scientific publication talking about how they are trying to duplicate the glue the barnacles secrete to fasten themselves to anything, as it is better than any glue currently made.
    And that's all. Rich
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  • Members 567 posts
    May 3, 2023, 12:23 p.m.

    At fullscreen they look good Rich.

    I took the guitar out of the case a year or so ago. Picked it up, tried to play some chords and discovered I had forgotten how to make them! Playing anything now would be like starting over. That might be a good thing as I may have forgotten all the bad habits. Singing is another thing altogether though. When singing while driving the car alone I have to crank up the tunes to drown out all the 'noise'!

    Maybe those tourists are listening to Radio Paradise from Eureka!

    Andrew

  • Members 510 posts
    May 3, 2023, 2:30 p.m.

    Weather sucks all over the globe on our latitudes, it seems. We at least have sun now, but to compensate it blows hard from the north and it's still colder than it should, so no fun to be outdoors.

    I like the picture from above the fog and the barnacles the best.

  • Members 676 posts
    May 3, 2023, 3:31 p.m.

    I like the scenes and the pictures you have of them, Rich ... must be nice to have such landscape in driving distance ... I remember the fog from my summer in Monterey .. Every morning until it burned off about noon .. except one morning when I woke to no fog and thought I had overslept and so I dressed quickly and ran out to work (I lived within walking distance) only to find the facility mostly deserted as it was about 6am!!!.. went back home and ate breakfast ...

    WhyNot

  • Members 336 posts
    May 3, 2023, 6:56 p.m.

    I don't sing while driving, Andrew. I want to know if my engine is getting ready to throw a timing chain, and my singing sort of sounds like that.

    Most local radio here sucks. The only radio I listen to in the car is from two NPR stations, KJPR from Southern Oregon University at Ashland and KHSU from California Polytechnic University here. My Kia came with satellite radio activated. I was astonished to find that reception is bad to none when driving a narrow road in the redwoods, even where you can see the sky. I did not renew it.

  • Members 336 posts
    May 3, 2023, 7:05 p.m.

    Thanks, Charlotte. The summer pattern is happening early, here. That is no rain and lots of fog but with sunny times, too. We have already had more than enough rain and snow so I don't mind if that stops now.

    The barnacles got too much sun. Rich

  • Members 336 posts
    May 3, 2023, 7:47 p.m.

    Thanks, WhyNot. I spent twenty years preparing for my opportunity to escape L.A. I did a lot of research.. The three main prerequisites were; it had to be pretty, it had to have cool weather all year but not freeze, and it had to be insulated from overpopulation. I am damn satisfied with the result of that research. What a nice place to live it is. Rich
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  • Members 80 posts
    May 4, 2023, 6:31 a.m.

    Your imagination has soared to new heights Rich. Have you been nibbling on this magic mushrooms again? The thought of Andrew singing ' White Rabbit ' is a stretch too far for my imagination.

    I like the third image best as it reminds of the film and Ms Barbeau. Now if she was broadcasting on my local radio I would definitely listen more often.🥴

    Dave

  • Members 567 posts
    May 4, 2023, 7 a.m.

    Dave, Rich knows that as youngster I laid on the floor in the dark in the basement listening to The Airplane and Grace Slick. Also classical music but that does not stir up as many mind altering possibilities. I never tried to learn any ‘rock’ songs on the guitar though.

    Andrew

  • Members 222 posts
    May 4, 2023, 11:56 a.m.

    Love your fog, Rich. Happy I don't have to put up with it but it polishes up well in photos

  • Members 318 posts
    May 4, 2023, 2:13 p.m.

    Thanks for the Tour Rich and photos ,although some of the time I hadn’t a clue what u were talking about but as long as you new then everything is aright ,hope ur weather picks up soon and u can get some of ur famous Eagles 😀👍

  • Members 3 posts
    May 4, 2023, 5:30 p.m.

    how come such small apertures, most folks limit to f9 max and usually f 5.6 to avoid diffraction. just wondering.

  • Members 336 posts
    May 4, 2023, 8:08 p.m.

    I would not feed magic mushrooms to my imagination, Dave. Hell no! As far as Andrew is concerned, anybody who likes Gracie Slick can't be all bad. 🤣

    "The Fog:" was partly filmed down the coast from here, in some locations Hitchcock used in "The Birds." I did not know at the time. Drat! Rich

  • Members 336 posts
    May 4, 2023, 8:19 p.m.

    I imagine, Andrew, that when you listened to classical in the basement you got off your back and sat in a proper chair.

    You mustn't lay on your back for this. Rich

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLihJprZScM

  • Removed user
    May 4, 2023, 8:29 p.m.

    Pardon me butting in but long ago I owned three DAF cars one after - 33,44,55. Loved listening to the engine slow down when coming up to cruising speed.

  • Members 336 posts
    May 4, 2023, 8:31 p.m.

    Thanks, Rich. Sunny yesterday, for a while. I love the fog. The only time I don't is when it is on the ground and I must drive in it. Usually it is up high. 25 miles inland from the beach it is often over 40°C and then I'm really happy with the fog. Rich

  • Members 336 posts
    May 4, 2023, 9:05 p.m.

    Thanks, Paul. How can you know what I'm talking about when I don't either. 🤪

    The hawks I shoot are gone until Fall. They go somewhere else to nest and rear their chicks. I sure miss them.

    I got this hawk in early February, and the last one I shot was at the end of February. It will be 7 or 8 months until I see them again. The flowers aren't going yet here, so I've only got fog. It looked like a good sunset was coming last night, but the fog came in first. 😭 Rich

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  • Members 336 posts
    May 4, 2023, 9:26 p.m.

    I don't think you're butting in, Ted. The more the merrier.

    You must be in Holland, with DAF's. I just don't like the Japanese CVTs on a small engine. I find those CVTs not robust and they drone until the car gets up to speed. The old, great Buick Dynaflow automatic transmission from 1947 to 1963 stayed in high gear all the time and used an advanced torque converter to accelerate. Buick used large 8 cylinder engines which made their torque and lots of it down around 2,000 rpm so they did not need to speed up in the first place. I had several and they were nice drivers....when gasoline was 25 cents a gallon. Now I have a Kia with a high winding little engine, but I have a 6 speed stick shift because that's more fun to drive. Rich

  • Members 336 posts
    May 4, 2023, 9:43 p.m.

    I wasn't concerned with the wavelength of the waves in these pictures. Maybe I will try to get some sharp pictures of fog, but likely not.

  • Members 318 posts
    May 4, 2023, 11:58 p.m.

    That’s a nice Hawk Rich he seems to have spotted something to eat about to pounce 🙂

    Strong text

  • Members 567 posts
    May 5, 2023, 4:13 a.m.

    Rich that tune sounded disturbingly familiar!

    Andrew

  • Members 336 posts
    May 5, 2023, 4:59 p.m.

    It is likely disturbing to you because you watched too much Benny Hill. Until now I thought you more highbrow than that. 😁 Rich